Microsoft Debuts New Copilot+ Windows PCs Designed Around AI

[chmania]

Intel and AMD are joining in the effort. That's 3 major chip producing companies. Apple sort of dropped Intel and AMD, and those 2 companies are making a point here. And, there was a straightforward challenge at the Keynote. Apple has to come up with something worthwhile in June.

Like running 3 external monitors plus own screen with the "entry-level"...and default 16GB RAM too.

 

[smulji]

Go ahead and buy a slower and less secure machine loaded with badly designed software and corporate malware. Nobody is stopping you. Just don't run around complaining about it after you spent your money when people advised you better.

Fortunately, for Windows users, none of what you mentioned is true.

 

[Abazigal]

Hmm.

Having worked in various corporations youd be VERY surprised how many people work on documents on their work laptops (the behaviour of working and saving files is no different in habitual behaviour) that many people, almost daily, loose a file and don't recall the file name. Also they don't recall where it was saved or if it had been deleted, moreover they can only estimate the day or time which makes it "fun" to comb to find especially if their MS office suite app has auto save disabled.

This isn't specific to Windows or macos platform either nor if it is on a file share with correct permissions either.

Time Machine offers a much better option for restoring a specific file or folder - version ingredient is built I ot the mach kernel (Unix based). System Restore does NOT in any way do this even on Win11 ~ not sure how someone early thought them to be similar claiming they own a Mac and not knowing this key difference. You can view a specific folder in time machine to do this as well (primary or subfolders) or focus on a specific application for files within.

If even that was the case, this sounds like a very over-engineered and invasive solution to the problem. As it stands, rewind will blank out DRM content (meaning Microsoft is aware that not every bit of information needs to be captured), but other sensitive bits of information like your passwords and credit card information isn't. Meaning that someone else who is able to access your computer gets all this data.

Overall, I am willing to give Microsoft the benefit of a doubt here. They likely have benign intentions, but as it stands, the whole execution around rewind just stinks. My guess is that Microsoft will end up heavily modifying or even pulling said feature in the future. There is literally no need for a device to be taking and storing thousands of screenshots on your device. A better solution seems to be a more reliable version of finder / spotlight (something that Microsoft has not be able to make significant inroads in).

 

[pdoherty]

Incorrect assumption. Having everything integrated not only improves quality and performance but makes recycling easier. The majority of PC derived ewaste that litters the world and pollutes the rivers and landfills is from removable components, not from integrated systems.

What "assumption" were you supposedly refuting? You didn't even address what I said, which is that the Macs/iPads *become* recycle material when any component fails, since it renders the entire system unusable.

 

[pdoherty]

My guess is you won't be able to do this for enterprise computers at least.

Heck, a lot of employers already have recording-type software that keeps tabs on what employees are doing (or aren't doing) on company computers.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Actually, most people don't know how to name their files and catalogue them accordingly. One of the reasons why some secretaries get very high salaries.

Executive assistants, not secretaries

I've worked with some of THE best in several industries. As I said most users don't know where their files are and you've recognized that

It's right there in Recent Documents. No AI or recording needed.

Recent documents has a limits in its list.
Word excel and PowerPoint will NOT show a recent file under 15 I'm that limited list ALL the time and there is definitely a failure.

Again this is in a corporate environment, not your personal computer. The sheer magnitude of files you work with and open ALSO get added to recent files! Looking for a file you cannot recall the name of from 4hrs ago, earlier in the week, last month ... guess what it's NOT going to be in recent files .

 

[DeepIn2U]

If even that was the case, this sounds like a very over-engineered and invasive solution to the problem. As it stands, rewind will blank out DRM content (meaning Microsoft is aware that not every bit of information needs to be captured), but other sensitive bits of information like your passwords and credit card information isn't. Meaning that someone else who is able to access your computer gets all this data.

Overall, I am willing to give Microsoft the benefit of a doubt here. They likely have benign intentions, but as it stands, the whole execution around rewind just stinks. My guess is that Microsoft will end up heavily modifying or even pulling said feature in the future. There is literally no need for a device to be taking and storing thousands of screenshots on your device. A better solution seems to be a more reliable version of finder / spotlight (something that Microsoft has not be able to make significant inroads in).

Dude the LAST sentence of your first paragraph has nothing unique to this new sw tech.

If you have cc info and any other personal data on your comouter and someone smart enough and the right tools has physical or remote access to your comouter - they ARE getting that info .... CoPilot is NOT needed lol.

Like are people actually clueless to the tech world and what's capable or been happening BEFORE this software or tech launch announcement? Did we all just loose our marbles and forget what was possible before or just hated over-use of the word hacking that we ALL forgot it ever even meant anything or existed?

Not trying to be rude or arrogant nor insulting but seriously you can't think there was NO possible threat to personal data prior to CoPilot and that you're completely safe cause you'll NOT implement nor use this, right???

 

[Abazigal]

Heck, a lot of employers already have recording-type software that keeps tabs on what employees are doing (or aren't doing) on company computers.

This just further reinforces my belief that these features are not design with the individual user in mind, and the whole issue here is that the people buying these laptops are likely not the end user.

It’s one thing to be forced to accept it on a work computer handed to you by your company. It’s another to genuinely find it useful and be grateful for it.

I really want to know - for the people actually championing these features, is it because you genuinely find it useful? Or because it feeds into the narrative that Microsoft is ahead in AI while Apple isn’t? Are there really so many people forgetting where they saved a particular file on a regular basis?

I suspect that a lot of these AI features being championed here will eventually run into backlash by users. Microsoft seems to think that creativity is having AI create things for you. I am not sure if the people at Microsoft truly understand what creativity really entails. All signs point to them pushing out new AI features for the sake of pacifying investors, not because they believe these will actually be useful or meaningful.

As we saw with video streaming, perhaps the best play is simply not to play.

 

[chmania]

You'd be surprised how many companies, institutions, whole governments etc and private users would start changing their computers to the new Copilot+ PCs, whether they are desktop based or laptops/tablets. Those laptops/tablets would mostly touch enabled, MS devices are anyway. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung are experts on touch devices. Huawei, Xiaomi and hundreds of Chinese laptop makers would be joining in. The German, Danish, French, Spanish, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Turkish computer manufacturers would also be joining in the near future. No self-respecting device manufacturer could allow themselves to miss the trend.

Apple has to come out with something spectacularly worthwhile in June. No hi-res screens, haptic touchpads, "magic" keyboards, mice, pens, trackpads won't cut the cake anymore.

 

[NEPOBABY]

You'd be surprised how many companies, institutions, whole governments etc and private users would start changing their computers to the new Copilot+ PCs, whether they are desktop based or laptops/tablets. Those laptops/tablets would mostly touch enabled, MS devices are anyway. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung are experts on touch devices. Huawei, Xiaomi and hundreds of Chinese laptop makers would be joining in. The German, Danish, French, Spanish, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Turkish computer manufacturers would also be joining in the near future. No self-respecting device manufacturer could allow themselves to miss the trend.

Apple has to come out with something spectacularly worthwhile in June. No hi-res screens, haptic touchpads, "magic" keyboards, mice, pens, trackpads won't cut the cake anymore.

Basically nobody uses a touch screen on a laptop unless it can be folded back. Users forget it is there because they have a trackpad and proding at a screen that bounces back and forth is a miserable experience on top of trying really hard to navigate a desktop UI with fingers.

Companies who upgrade their PCs are stuck on the PC upgrade pathway no matter what happens in the Windows PC world. PCs could start shipping only with that Transmeta Crusoe crap and those companies would still have to use PCs.

This Snapdragon isn’t looking great. Performance below the M3 and the power consumption problem of the Elite model is really bad.

 

[NEPOBABY]

Executive assistants, not secretaries

I've worked with some of THE best in several industries. As I said most users don't know where their files are and you've recognized that

Recent documents has a limits in its list.
Word excel and PowerPoint will NOT show a recent file under 15 I'm that limited list ALL the time and there is definitely a failure.

Again this is in a corporate environment, not your personal computer. The sheer magnitude of files you work with and open ALSO get added to recent files! Looking for a file you cannot recall the name of from 4hrs ago, earlier in the week, last month ... guess what it's NOT going to be in recent files .

Please think and try harder on your challenge next time lol

This is a really bad response to someone who gave you a rational answer to how bad Recall is.

 

[chmania]

Basically nobody uses a touch screen on a laptop unless it can be folded back.

Of course, MacBook users don't. 😏
Except, of course... for example. There are very much cheaper ones nowadays.

This Snapdragon isn’t looking great. Performance below the M3 and the power consumption problem of the Elite model is really bad.

There won't be Macs with Snapdragon, so you'd not know.
Only, if some Hakintosher would put macOS in it. Most probably an enthusiast would do that in time.

Like I said before,
Apple has to come out with something spectacularly worthwhile in June. No hi-res screens, haptic touchpads, "magic" keyboards, mice, pens, trackpads won't cut the cake anymore.

 

[ric22]

Microsoft today announced the launch of new Windows PCs that have integrated AI hardware, called Copilot+ PCs. According to Microsoft, the Copilot+ PCs are the fastest PCs "ever built" with all-day battery life, chips capable of 40 trillion operations per second, and "access to the most advanced AI models."

The new machines are designed with "AI at the center," introducing experiences that can be run directly on device to cut down on latency and improve privacy.

• Recall - Recall gives the PC a "photographic memory" so users can access anything they've seen or done on their PC. Content can be located using timelines across any website, application, or document, with support for snapshots.
• Cocreator - Text prompts can be used to generate new images using the neural processing units of the computer. Art can be created based on the text input, and there is a creativity slider to choose from a range between more literal to more expressive.
• Restyle Image - Combines image generation and photo editing. Pre-set styles can be used to change the background, foreground, or full image.
• Live Captions - Live Captions support live translations and can turn any audio that passes through the PC into a single, English-language caption experience in real time across all apps. Any live or pre-recorded audio in any app or video platform can be translated from 40 languages into English.
• Quick Settings - In Windows Studio Effects, the Quick Settings option cleans up video with automatic image adjustments for videos calls to mitigate low-light or add filters.

All Copilot+ PCs include a "powerful AI agent" that can be accessed with a single tap on the Copilot key. There is an AI interface that will support the latest models such as OpenAI's GPT-4o.

Microsoft claims that the Copilot+ PCs outperform the 15-inch MacBook Air by up to 58 percent in sustained multithreaded performance, while also offering longer battery life. Microsoft says the battery is able to last for up to 15 hours of web browsing or 22 hours of local video playback, beating the MacBook Air.

The new Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are some of the first Copilot+ PCs, and ASUS, Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung have also introduced Copilot+ PCs. The new PCs are available today and are priced starting at $999.

Article Link: Microsoft Debuts New Copilot+ Windows PCs Designed Around AI

I wonder how many of these features we'll be hearing about from Apple at WWDC, using flowery words like 'magical'?

 

[chmania]

I wonder how many of these features we'll be hearing about from Apple at WWDC, using flowery words like 'magical'?

Maybe, MS just made it harder for Apple to come out with those flowery words...

An interesting take on Snapdragon

 

[NEPOBABY]

Of course, MacBook users don't. 😏
Except, of course... for example. There are very much cheaper ones nowadays.

Nobody uses that crap.

There won't be Macs with Snapdragon, so you'd not know.

There are comprehensive cross platform and real world benchmarks. If you’re going to post online don’t treat us like we are clueless clowns. The M3 beats the Snapdragon and the M4 has left it in the dust. Hand waving and typing random text on this forum isn’t going to change that and neither are your anti Apple posts.

 

[chmania]

There are comprehensive cross platform and real world benchmarks.

Really? 😏

 

[chmania]

-------------------------------------------------------

This is my work and leisure computer 😊👌

 

[turbineseaplane]

Privacy implications aside (which are not minor, mind you), the whole "recall" feature is the one I think Apple needs to be worried about.

The modern internet and life have shown us that a larger than critical mass of folks only "kind of" cares about their privacy to the extent they'll accept a lesser solution to get it.

The MS Recall feature is the kind of thing literally any level of customer (all the way up and down the skill bar) could find to be a massive game changer and helpful feature to "find stuff" and "fix issues" and rediscover "that thing I was working on last year when we did the house renovation"...etc

tldr

Privacy aside, if a feature is THAT useful -- People will flock to it and no amount of "we protect your privacy!" marketing BS (which is what it partially is) will help save their sales.

Apple needs a feature like Recall ... done however they think it can be done while keeping their privacy ideals in place.

 

[NEPOBABY]

.

Apple needs a feature like Recall ... done however they think it can be done while keeping their privacy ideals in place.

Time Machine and browser/finder history is enough for 99.9% of users. Windows still has nothing like Time Machine’s ease of use.

Maybe just a new interface for quickly finding meta data. Spotlight’s search isn’t well arranged and it kinda looked better organised when it was in the top corner.

Whatever the change, recording users at all times is just awful. Whoever had that idea at Microsoft is a demented person who probably loves the idea of autocracies. We should not forget that just because someone works at a tech company doesn’t mean they are aligned with the idea of democracy and privacy.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Time Machine and browser/finder history is enough for 99.9% of users.

That's a different type of solution and not even close to as granular

I suspect something like Recall will be a table stakes sort of feature before you know it

I'm just telling you -- I have many "normal users" in my life and they would love something that can so helpfully find things they were working on or discussing in comms, etc, in the past.

The potential to solve user problems and be helpful there is immense
That's what normal people usually want from their tech ... it to help them do things more easily and quickly.

We here on tech forums are more obsessive about privacy than normal folks...the ones using Google and Amazon devices all over and happily signing up for whatever helps them save money or get something done more easily, etc

 

[smulji]

You'd be surprised how many companies, institutions, whole governments etc and private users would start changing their computers to the new Copilot+ PCs, whether they are desktop based or laptops/tablets. Those laptops/tablets would mostly touch enabled, MS devices are anyway. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung are experts on touch devices. Huawei, Xiaomi and hundreds of Chinese laptop makers would be joining in. The German, Danish, French, Spanish, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Turkish computer manufacturers would also be joining in the near future. No self-respecting device manufacturer could allow themselves to miss the trend.

Apple has to come out with something spectacularly worthwhile in June. No hi-res screens, haptic touchpads, "magic" keyboards, mice, pens, trackpads won't cut the cake anymore.

No one really knows that yet. Windows 10 is still supported until October 2025 and two-thirds of the Windows user base are still on Win10. Enterprises have been reluctant to move to Win11 so there's no guarantee they will transition to these new machines.

 

[chmania]

No one really knows that yet.

You are right, we don't know yet. We've heard of only one player yet with a chip, Snapdragon. We don't know what AMD and Intel would come with yet. It appears that the official inauguration date is June 18th.

I'm, actually, more interested in what might be announced between June 10th and 14th at WWDC, especially on macOS.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Of course, MacBook users don't. 😏
Except, of course... for example. There are very much cheaper ones nowadays.

There won't be Macs with Snapdragon, so you'd not know.
Only, if some Hakintosher would put macOS in it. Most probably an enthusiast would do that in time.

Like I said before,
Apple has to come out with something spectacularly worthwhile in June. No hi-res screens, haptic touchpads, "magic" keyboards, mice, pens, trackpads won't cut the cake anymore.

They really don't. There are a subset of users on the Macrumors Forum that will OS hop based off specs. But the vast, and I mean vast, majority of users go OS first and could literally not care less about how fast the machine is.

They just want it to work--whether that is Windows or Mac.

 

[chmania]

They really don't. There are a subset of users on the Macrumors Forum that will OS hop based off specs. But the vast, and I mean vast, majority of users go OS first and could literally not care less about how fast the machine is.

They just want it to work--whether that is Windows or Mac.

True. I agree with that. I've been using this machine from ~9-22 almost everyday, and I really don't want to change it. It is doing very well, the battery is quite good, even after 5 years. The OS is excellent too.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

Many people forget what they did just 10 minutes prior. Especially as they get older.

You're speaking for a minority and if you rely on computers to 'recall' for you then your brain will shrink even further.

****ing hell tech fanatics never fail to surprise or understand basic human biology.

The brain is like a muscle. If you don't use your brain you lose your brain.