It might not get the same kind of attention as Google and Apple, but Microsoft is still one of the biggest and most powerful tech companies operating today. It runs Azure, one of the biggest cloud computing services, and maintains Windows 11 and the whole Office suite of software. It also makes plenty of Surface hardware and has a whole slew of gaming products, including the Xbox Series X. But the company is ever expanding — building new hardware, acquiring new game studios, and making sure that even if Microsoft doesn’t run your phone, it can touch plenty of the apps on it.
Microsoft just launched a new Surface Dev Box, and the company is already using the machine live on stage at Build. The top looks like the vent on an Xbox Series X, and inside there’s an Nvidia RTX Spark chip and 128GB of unified memory. Overall, I’d say it looks like a flattened Xbox Series X.
It’s nearly time for Microsoft’s annual developer event. The Build keynote kicks off at 9:30AM PT / 12:30PM ET / 5:30PM UK. I’m expecting we’ll hear a lot about new Microsoft AI models, Windows dev improvements, and a little surprise or two.
The ‘90s are in right now, and with a new Microsoft antitrust case on the horizon, even the Federal Trade Commission is getting into the spirit.
Drinkboxgamer:
The Knicks are in the NBA finals and Microsoft are under antitrust investigation, it really is the 90s all over again.
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Asus is launching various Vivobooks and ExperBooks at Computex, but I’m most interested in the Zenbook 14 with a base-level Snapdragon X1-26-100. It’ll come in AMD and Intel configs too, but the Qualcomm version will start with a lowly 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.
Sounds like another Neo wannabe, but we don’t know for certain since pricing is TBD.
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Nvidia’s RTX Spark ‘superchip’ shows promise for Windows laptops. But it also comes at the worst time.
Nvidia says it’s working with everyone to get software ready for RTX Spark laptops this fall, but as for Adobe, Premiere is getting a whole new video pipeline to take advantage of Spark’s up-to-128GB of unified memory, and Nvidia says Photoshop is “transitioning from 5 percent to 100 percent GPU accelerated processing.” Just ask AI agents to transform your images, too.
Nvidia tells us over 30 laptops and 10 desktops are currently in the works with its “most efficient PC chip ever built,” but today it’s only confirming these eight. Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, and of course Microsoft are the primary partners for this fall’s launch. No prices or spec sheets for most of these yet.
Nvidia’s not just GPUs and networking anymore: it just announced its second major server CPU, Vera, and Jensen says “this is going to be our new major growth driver.” Says Vera has “the highest instructions per clock in the world” — 10 every cycle — and dramatically speeds up data processing. A few of his slides:
MSI is making limited edition versions of the Prestige 14 Flip AI Plus with two different van Gogh paintings on the lid: Starry Night and Starry Night Over the Rhône. I think I prefer last year’s Great Wave edition, but these are also lovely.
I called the Prestige one of the sleekest MSI laptops I’ve seen, but it didn’t look like this.
MSI has made ridiculous dragon-themed laptops before, but this one takes the cake. Announced at Computex, the Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Draco Epic takes the standard 18-inch Titan gaming laptop but adds the new flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus CPU, a 240Hz 4K screen, and a massive dragon design that’s etched and anodized right into the lid.
Never change, MSI.
MSI is announcing new versions of its Venture business laptops and Katana gaming laptops for Computex. Both have new designs, but MSI shared few details — not even availability or pricing. The key facts we know so far is that the Venture will get Intel Panther Lake chips and the Katana will have older Intel Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs and up to an RTX 5070 GPU.
I still love OLEDs, but the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18’s ELMB Mini LED display is amazing.
After launching on Mac, Codex’s computer use feature is headed to Windows, which means the app can “see” your screen and perform tasks on your device. OpenAI says you can also manage and review Codex’s jobs while away from the computer using the ChatGPT app.
[X (formerly Twitter)]
The app will combine GitHub Copilot, the Copilot chatbot, Copilot Cowork, and a “new agentic workflow capability internally named Autopilot” into one place, Fortune reports. Sounds like a Microsoft version of something like OpenAI’s “super app” ambitions.
Perhaps it will be shown off at Microsoft Build next week?
Copilot Health, first announced in March, is now open to Microsoft 365 subscribers. Microsoft says they can use it to find doctors and get insights on data from connected medical records, wearables, and other apps like Apple Health, similar to health AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
[Microsoft Copilot Blog]
It’s available for users in the Experimental Windows Insider channel. Microsoft says you can pick from six preset options or a custom color.
The new ChatGPT integration for Microsoft PowerPoint, like an earlier add-on for Excel and Google Sheets, adds a sidebar where users can create or edit presentations using chatbot prompts along with documents, images, and other source material.
The feature is available now in beta for ChatGPT users with Business, Enterprise, Edu, Teacher, K-12, Free, Go, Pro, and Plus plans.
Apparently, that SpaceX $15 billion per year megadeal isn’t even enough capacity for Claude, as The Information reports Anthropic is in early talks to rent Azure servers with Microsoft’s chips, and that “Anthropic has been steadily increasing its Azure usage.”
Like OpenAI, Microsoft’s arrangement with Anthropic runs hot and cold, but its Maia 200 chips are designed to help run existing models like Claude, even if they aren’t as fast at helping to train new ones.
[The Information]
