Suppose you were following the announcement of the newest Windows 11 features like Recall and Copilot. In that case, you questioned Microsoft's approach to these new features regarding security, real-world usage, and, least likely, naming scheme. If the latter is the case, you are in for a treat. According to the latest round of reports, Microsoft is reportedly preparing to converge its AI features under a new brand name—Windows Intelligence. This move comes as the tech giant expands its AI integration across the Windows platform to give customers more reassurance in its AI features. However, the company has yet to confirm the official rebranding initiative. Recent discoveries by tech enthusiasts have fueled speculation about this upcoming change. In October, researcher Tero Alhonen uncovered options for AI-enabled applications, while X user Albacore recently spotted a placeholder settings page for Windows Intelligence in a Windows 24H2 build.

"Windows Intelligence" isn't entirely new to Microsoft's ecosystem, as it was previously used in security-related updates. However, this broader application signals a shift from its earlier security-focused context and appears to replace the "Windows AI" designation spotted in Group Policy earlier this year. The rebranding seems to follow a trend set by Apple, which has branded its AI features as "Apple Intelligence." However, Microsoft's approach with "Windows Intelligence" suggests a focus on creating a unified hub for AI features within its operating system rather than just a clever play on the "AI" acronym. While controversial features like Recall and the recently redesigned Copilot are expected to retain their current branding, Windows Intelligence could serve as an overarching framework for managing AI permissions and data usage across the platform.

Microsoft has taken another significant step in its AI integration strategy by introducing "Terminal Chat," an AI assistant now available in Windows Terminal. This latest feature brings conversational AI capabilities directly to the command-line interface, marking a notable advancement in making terminal operations more accessible to users of all skill levels. The new feature, currently available in Windows Terminal (Canary), leverages various AI services, including ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Azure OpenAI, to provide interactive assistance for command-line operations. What sets Terminal Chat apart is its context-aware functionality, which automatically recognizes the specific shell environment being used—whether it's PowerShell, Command Prompt, WSL Ubuntu, or Azure Cloud Shell—and tailors its responses accordingly.

Users can interact with Terminal Chat through a dedicated interface within Windows Terminal, where they can ask questions, troubleshoot errors, and request guidance on specific commands. The system provides shell-specific suggestions, automatically adjusting its recommendations based on whether a user is working in Windows PowerShell, Linux, or other environments. For example, when asked about creating a directory, Terminal Chat will suggest "New-Item -ItemType Directory" for PowerShell users while providing "mkdir" as the appropriate command for Linux environments. This intelligent adaptation helps bridge the knowledge gap between different command-line interfaces. Below are some examples courtesy of Windows Latest and their testing:

The battles of operating systems continue, and one fight is internal to the Microsoft Windows user base. Recent data from StatCounter shows that Windows 11 now accounts for 35.58% of Windows installations as of October 2024, recording a modest 3% increase. Meanwhile, Windows 10 continues to power most Windows computers, with a 61% market share. The gradual shift toward Windows 11 comes as Microsoft pushes software updates and hardware partnerships. Large organizations have begun adopting the newer OS, drawn to its updated security features. These include mandatory secure boot protocols and improved protection against credential theft, addressing growing cybersecurity concerns. For individual users, Windows 11 offers updated gaming capabilities through DirectStorage and a redesigned interface. However, many still prefer Windows 10's established stability and broader compatibility with existing hardware and software. Microsoft's recent announcement of a $30 yearly Extended Security Updates subscription acknowledges this divide.

Starting in October 2025, when Windows 10's standard support ends, users can purchase these updates to maintain security protections. Unlike previous programs restricted to business customers, this subscription will be available to all users. The move to Windows 11 faces a significant hurdle: strict system requirements that exclude many older computers. While these standards aim to ensure better performance and security, they effectively prevent many current Windows 10 users from upgrading. Microsoft's plan to add new AI features like Recall and Copilot to Windows 11 could attract more users. Still, the transition largely depends on hardware replacement cycles and users' willingness to adapt to a new system. As Microsoft manages both operating systems, its strategy reflects the challenge of maintaining existing Windows 10 installations while encouraging gradual migration to Windows 11.

ASUS today announced that the all-new Vivobook S 14 (Q423) is now available for purchase in the United States in store and online at Best Buy. Vivobook S 14 elevates your laptop experience, harmoniously blending advanced technology with a clean, minimalist design - making it the perfect companion for on-the-go productivity and entertainment.

Simplicity meets sophistication.
Featuring a 0.55 inch-thin, all-metal chassis, the ASUS Vivobook S 14 (Q423) weighs only 2.87 lbs, making it easy to carry around. It features ASUS IceCool thermal technology with two 97-blade IceBlade fans and two air vents, allowing for optimal performance even under demanding workloads. This Copilot+ PC is powered by up to Intel Core Ultra 5 processor 226V with an AI engine of up to 47 NPU TOPS, making it ideal for running AI applications efficiently. The laptop's ergonomic design includes a customizable single-zone RGB backlit keyboard and an ultra-large touchpad for enhanced comfort and control. It also offers ultrafast WiFi 7 connectivity, a wide array of I/O ports, a 16:10 OLED display, and a Harman Kardon-certified Dolby Atmos audio system, making it the perfect device for dynamic users seeking a powerful and reliable device.

Lenovo Group announced today the Lenovo ThinkSmart Core Gen 2, one of the first AI-optimized compute device purpose built to run video conferencing room systems. Powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor with an integrated NPU, the ThinkSmart Core Gen 2 is ready for AI-heavy meeting room workloads to deliver unparalleled performance for intuitive collaboration and enhanced productivity, all in a protected and user-friendly solution.

Smarter AI for All Means Smarter Collaboration
Under Lenovo's vision of Smarter AI for All, the company is dedicated to empowering organizations and individuals to put AI to work for them. While the role of collaboration technology has never been more critical, many customers are continuing to redefine meeting spaces and how work is done. The integration of AI into collaboration tools presents a transformative opportunity to connect people and improve productivity. Lenovo, the global leader in PCs, is bringing more compute power to collaboration.

Even though the global economy shows signs of recovery, worldwide shipments of traditional PCs dipped 2.4% year-over-year (YoY) to 68.8 million units, during the third quarter of 2024 (3Q24), according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Factors including rising costs and inventory replenishment led to a surge in shipments in the previous quarter, resulting in a slightly slower sales cycle.

"Demand, without a doubt, has returned for PCs amongst consumers and commercial buyers," said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "However, much of the demand was still concentrated at the entry-level thanks to a recovering economy and the back-to-school season in North America. That said, newer AI PCs such as Copilot+ PCs from Qualcomm along with Intel and AMD's equivalent chips as well as Apple's expected M4-based Macs are expected to drive the premium segment in coming months."

Today Microsoft published an extensive blog post about the controversial Recall feature that was intended to launch with Copilot+ enabled Windows 11 PCs. To recap on Recall: Recall was announced as a service that creates and stores 'snapshots' of the user's activity on their PC, and uses the neural processing hardware within a Copilot+ certified machine to filter search requests by the user in order to find what they had previously seen. In effect, it took constant screenshots and would index the contents of those screenshots to assist with vague search queries. Saw a very funny picture in Discord a week ago and can't find it but can describe what it looked like? Search Recall and with the power of neural processing it would sift through its index of stored screenshots and attempt to provide you the exact image you described. Or, you could scroll back through the gallery of snapshots yourself to find what you wanted.

The idea of a program or service running in the background taking screenshots of your activity every few seconds yielded some pretty unsavory reactions from just about everyone. To assuage privacy concerns Microsoft did release an update in June committing to a broad set of security improvements to Recall before the preview would be available to test. This latest blog post titled, "Update on Recall security and privacy architecture", outlines more improvements on top of those announced back in June.

ASUS today announced ExpertBook BM1, a durable, reliable and versatile laptop designed to meet the demands of the dynamic world of modern business and work. ExpertBook BM1 boasts a robust feature set, including an AMD Ryzen 7 processor with AMD Radeon graphics, up to 64 GB of memory and generous storage options - all encased in a lightweight 1.4 kg design. Its vibrant display with a tall 16:9 aspect ratio enhances the visual experience. Designed for seamless connectivity, it supports up to Wi-Fi 6E and offers a comprehensive range of I/O ports. Additionally, ExpertBook BM1 is built to military-grade durability standards and incorporates an eco-conscious design, reflecting the ASUS commitment to sustainability and accountability.

ExpertBook BM1 is designed to elevate business performance, offering the speed and responsiveness required to meet today's challenges, enabling effortless multitasking, advanced data management, and optimized workflows. Equipped with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 processor with AMD Radeon graphics, it provides the powerful performance necessary to accomplish any task. With up to 64 GB of memory and generous storage capacity, this business laptop is prepared for even the most demanding workloads, ensuring quick access to critical information. ExpertBook BM1 also prioritizes connectivity with support for Wi-Fi 6E and a wide range of I/O ports. Additionally, its military-grade durability ensures it can handle various tasks seamlessly, making ExpertBook BM1 an ideal choice for modern professionals.

Durabook, the global rugged mobile solutions brand owned by Twinhead International Corporation, today announced significant updates to its S14I semi-rugged laptop, expanding its product line supporting modern-day data-intensive tasks. With the performance of Intel Core Ultra processor, this AI-powered 14" semi-rugged laptop exceeds expectations by delivering a powerful, premium performance and exceptional user experience.

Durabook also produces the Z14I fully rugged laptop, the world's most durable and reliable fully rugged PC designed specifically to support demanding AI applications in the field. Twinhead's CEO, Fred Kao, said: "AI technology has emerged as an important tool to handle and maximise data and create new, more capable and powerful systems. Durabook aims to equip our mobile computing devices with optimum capability for professional users in the field. Our customers can exploit these advancements to their advantage and greatest benefit with laptop solutions delivering up to 100 TOPS with AI accelerator."

ASUS today announced ExpertBook B1, a durable, reliable and versatile laptop that's ready for the rigors of the modern business world. ExpertBook B1's lineup of powerful features includes up to an Intel Core 7 processor with Intel Iris Xe Graphics, up to 64 GB of memory and ample storage, plus a vibrant screen with a tall 16:9 aspect ratio - all encased in a sleek 1.4 kg chassis. ExpertBook B1 is designed for seamless connectivity, featuring up to WiFi 6E and a comprehensive array of I/O ports. In addition, it offers military-grade durability and incorporates an eco-friendly design that reflects a commitment to sustainability and accountability.

Robust performance
ExpertBook B1 is engineered to enhance business capabilities, providing the fast and responsive performance essential for today's demands—enabling seamless multitasking, advanced data handling, and streamlined operations. Powered by up to an Intel Core 7 processor with Intel Iris Xe Graphics, ExpertBook B1 delivers the robust performance needed to get the job done.

Acer today introduced several new Windows 11 gaming PCs, including the powerful Predator Orion 7000 desktop, which boasts high-performance features to elevate gameplay, the all-new Nitro V 14 gaming laptop rocking a unique pearl white chassis, and an upgraded Nitro V 16 gaming laptop.

The Predator Orion 7000 is a gaming monster delivering next-gen performance that will excite the most competitive gamers, including the latest processing technology powered by Intel next gen processors and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU (1321 AI TOPS). It also features the patented Predator CycloneX 360 system fan and a CPU liquid cooler to keep the device cool and battle-ready.

Ahead of IFA 2024, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the expansion of its Snapdragon X Series portfolio with the introduction of Snapdragon X Plus 8-core, a breakthrough platform that unleashes multiday battery life, unprecedented performance and AI-powered Copilot+ experiences to even more people.

The 8-core Qualcomm Oryon CPU powering this Snapdragon X Plus platform enables lightning-fast responsiveness and efficiency, delivering 61% faster CPU performance while competitor peak performance requires 179% more power. An integrated GPU and support for up to three external monitors ensures exceptional graphics and immersive visual experiences. At the heart of the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core is a powerful 45 TOPS NPU of AI processing power and leading performance per watt which, paired with the platform's significant advancements in connectivity, will push productivity to new heights in ultra-portable designs with incredible battery life. Whether creating presentations on-the-go or videoconferencing, the versatile functionality of this platform will enable transformative experiences.

According to a recent report from Globes, Arm, the chip design giant and maker of the Arm ISA, is reportedly developing a new discrete GPU at its Ra'anana development center in Israel. This development signals Arm's intention to compete directly with industry leaders like Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA in the massive discrete GPU market. Sources close to the matter reveal that Arm has assembled a team of approximately 100 skilled chip and software development engineers at its Israeli facility. The team is focused on creating GPUs primarily aimed at the video game market. However, industry insiders speculate that this technology could potentially be adapted for AI processing in the future, mirroring the trajectory of NVIDIA, which slowly integrated AI hardware accelerators into its lineup.

The Israeli development center is playing a crucial role in this initiative. The hardware teams are overseeing the development of key components for these GPUs, including the flagship Immortalis and Mali GPU. Meanwhile, the software teams are creating interfaces for external graphics engine developers, working with both established game developers and startups. Arm is already entering the PC market through its partners like Qualcomm with Snapdragon X chips. However, these chips run an integrated GPU, and Arm wants to provide discrete GPUs and compete there. While details are still scarce, Arm could make GPUs to accompany Arm-based Copilot+ PCs and some desktop builds. The final execution plan still needs to be discovered, and we are still waiting to see which stage Arm's discrete GPU project is in.

Dynabook Americas, Inc., the gold standard for long-lasting, professional-grade laptops, today unveiled its latest addition to the premium Portégé family - the all-new 14-inch Portégé X40-M. Engineered with Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 1) and advanced AI capabilities, this new Windows 11 Pro laptop impeccably blends the most powerful modern hardware with sophisticated AI to maximize workplace productivity.

"The Portégé X40 has been one of Dynabook's best-selling laptops for years, and I believe that this latest iteration of an already-winning formula will further solidify the Portégé line as an indispensable booster of business efficiency and productivity," said James Robbins, General Manager, Dynabook Americas Inc. "With the integration of Intel's latest Core Ultra processors and Copilot AI enhancements, this laptop continues our tradition of delivering premium, cutting-edge capabilities that empower professionals."

Dynabook Americas, Inc., the gold standard for long-lasting, professional-grade laptops, today unveiled its latest Copilot-enhanced professional laptops - the all-new 14-inch Tecra A40-M and 16-inch Tecra A60-M. Engineered with Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 1) these new Windows 11 Pro laptops fuse cutting-edge hardware with advanced AI to redefine productivity and performance for modern professionals and educators.

"These new Tecra laptops exemplify Dynabook's commitment to delivering premium, cutting-edge solutions that empower professionals and educators," said James Robbins, General Manager, Dynabook Americas Inc. "With the integration of Intel's latest Core Ultra processors and Copilot AI capabilities, these laptops set new standards for efficiency, security, and user experience in the business and education sectors."

The much-anticipated revolution in AI-powered personal computing seems to be off to a slower start than expected. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X CPUs, touted as game-changers in the AI PC market, have struggled to gain significant traction since their launch. Recent data from PassMark, a popular benchmarking software, reveals that Snapdragon X CPUs account for a mere 0.3% of submissions in the past 30 days. This is a massive contrast to the 99.7% share held by traditional x86 processors from Intel and AMD, which raises questions about the immediate future of ARM-based PCs. The underwhelming adoption comes despite bold predictions from industry leaders. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon had projected that ARM-based CPUs could capture up to 50% of the Windows PC market by 2029. Similarly, ARM's CEO anticipated a shift away from x86's long-standing dominance.

However, it turns out that these PCs are primarily bought for the battery life, not their AI capabilities. Of course, it's premature to declare Arm's Windows venture a failure. The AI PC market is still in its infancy, and upcoming mid-tier laptops featuring Snapdragon X Elite CPUs could boost adoption rates. A lot of time still needs to pass before the volume of these PCs reaches millions of units shipped by x86 makers. The true test will come with the launch of AMD's Ryzen AI 300 and Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs, providing a clearer picture of how ARM-based options compare in AI performance. As the AI PC landscape evolves, Qualcomm faces mounting pressure. NVIDIA's anticipated entry into the market and significant performance improvements in next-generation x86 processors from Intel and AMD pose a massive challenge. The coming months will be crucial in determining whether Snapdragon X CPUs can live up to their initial hype and carve out a significant place in the AI PC ecosystem.

The PC market gathered momentum in Q2 2024, with worldwide shipments of desktops and notebooks up 3.4% year-on-year, reaching 62.8 million units. Shipments of notebooks (including mobile workstations) hit 50 million units, growing 4%. Desktops (including desktop workstations), which constitute 20% of the total PC market, experienced a slight 1% growth, totaling 12.8 million units. The stage is now set for accelerated growth as the refresh cycle driven by the Windows 11 transition and AI PC adoption ramps up over the next four quarters.

"The PC industry is going from strength to strength with a third consecutive quarter of growth," said Ishan Dutt, Principal Analyst at Canalys. "The market turnaround is coinciding with exciting announcements from vendors and chipset manufacturers as their AI PC roadmaps transition from promise to reality. The quarter culminated with the launch of the first Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon processors and more clarity around Apple's AI strategy with the announcement of the Apple Intelligence suite of features for Mac, iPad and iPhone. Beyond these innovations, the market will start to benefit even more from its biggest tailwind - a ramp-up in PC demand driven by the Windows 11 refresh cycle. The vast majority of channel partners surveyed by Canalys in June indicated that Windows 10 end-of-life is likely to impact customer refresh plans most in either the second half of 2024 or the first half of 2025, suggesting that shipment growth will only gather steam in upcoming quarters."

The recent launch of Copilot+ PCs, a collaboration between Microsoft and Qualcomm, has taken an unexpected turn in the market. While these devices were promoted for their artificial intelligence capabilities, a Bloomberg report reveals that consumers are primarily drawn to them for their impressive battery life. The Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PCs have made a significant impact, securing 20% of global PC sales during their launch week. However, industry analyst Avi Greengart points out that the extended battery life, not the AI features, is driving these sales. Microsoft introduced three AI-powered features exclusive to these PCs: Cocreator, Windows Studio Effects, and Live Captions with Translation. Despite these innovations, many users find these features non-essential for daily use. The delay of the anticipated Recall feature due to privacy concerns has further dampened enthusiasm for the AI aspects of these devices.

The slow reception of on-device AI capabilities extends beyond consumer preferences to the software industry. Major companies like Adobe, Salesforce, and SentinelOne declined Microsoft's request to optimize their apps for the new hardware, citing resource constraints and the limited market share of AI-capable PCs. Gregor Steward, SentinelOne's VP for AI, suggests it could take years before AI PCs are widespread enough to justify app optimization. Analysts project that by 2028, only 40% of new computers will be AI-capable. Despite these challenges, Qualcomm remains optimistic about the future of AI PCs. While the concept may currently be more on the marketing side, the introduction of Arm-based Windows laptops offers a welcome alternative to the Intel-AMD duopoly. As the technology evolves and adoption increases, on-device AI features may become more prevalent and useful. The imminent arrival of AMD Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel Lunar Lake chips promises to expand the Copilot+ PC space further. For now, however, it appears that superior battery life remains the primary selling point for consumers.

Just a few weeks ago, AMD invited us to Barcelona as part of a roundtable, to share their vision for the future of the company, and to get our feedback. On site, were prominent AMD leadership, including Phil Guido, Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer and Jack Huynh, Senior VP & GM, Computing and Graphics Business Group. AMD is making changes in a big way to how they are approaching technology, shifting their focus from hardware development to emphasizing software, APIs, and AI experiences. Software is no longer just a complement to hardware; it's the core of modern technological ecosystems, and AMD is finally aligning its strategy accordingly.

The major difference between AMD and NVIDIA is that AMD is a hardware company that makes software on the side to support its hardware; while NVIDIA is a software company that designs hardware on the side to accelerate its software. This is about to change, as AMD is making a pivot toward software. They believe that they now have the full stack of computing hardware—all the way from CPUs, to AI accelerators, to GPUs, to FPGAs, to data-processing and even server architecture. The only frontier left for AMD is software.

Samsung Electronics today announced the immediate availability of the new Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge in select markets. With next-level AI processing performance and intelligent hybrid AI integrations, the Galaxy Book4 Edge advances the era of AI and introduces users to new levels of seamless work, play and creation on their PC.

"The Galaxy Book4 Edge marks the beginning of a whole new category of PCs, and for Samsung, a continued commitment to expand the power of Galaxy AI and offer the most hyperconnected mobile AI ecosystem yet," said TM Roh, President and Head of the Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Developed in close collaboration with our industry partners, we believe this next-generation AI PC will redefine the market and more importantly, give people cutting-edge ways to be more productive and creative in their everyday lives."

At Computex 2024, ASUS unveiled major updates to its popular laptop lineups, designed for the "Copilot+" era of AI computing. The first is the Zenbook S16 is a premium 16-inch laptop series powered by AMD's latest Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processors with dedicated AI acceleration. Remarkably, ASUS has managed to pack this high-performance silicon into an ultra-portable 1.1 cm thin chassis weighing just 1.5 kg. The Zenbook S16 integrates AMD's new NPU capable of a 50 TOPS of AI compute for accelerating AI/ML workloads. The centerpiece is the laptop's stunning 16-inch 3K OLED display made with ASUS Lumina technology. It offers 100% vibrant DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, a blazing-fast 120 Hz refresh rate with 0.2 ms response time, and up to 600 nits brightness. ASUS paired this premium visual experience with a six-speaker audio system for an immersive multimedia experience.

ASUS presented updated versions of its Vivobook S super slim laptops, the highest specs for each of them featuring the latest AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, Intel Core Ultra 9, and Snapdragon X Elite processors making sure it covers all possible user preferences. Of course, as now the trend is AI, all Vivobook S 14, S 15, and S16 models have a Copilot key while keeping the same sleek, light, and thin design. Vivobook S 14 is up to 1.3 kg light and 13.9 mm thin, the S 15 starts at 1.42 kg and 14.7 mm thin, while the bigger Vivobook S 16 starts with 1.5 kg weight and 13.9 mm height.

The display is a 3K (3.2K for S 16) 120 Hz 16:10 OLED offering vivid and accurate colors. The battery is rated at 75 Wh with a side note on the Vivobook S 15 model powered by Snapdragon that offers over 18 hours of battery life. Worth mentioning the use of ASUS IceCool Thermal Technology with dual fans (S 16 sporting also dual vents). These newly launched Vivobook S models come with Windows 11 Home, feature RGB ErgoSense keyboard and touchpad with ASUS Smart Gesture control, up to 32 GB RAM (up to 16 GB RAM for S 14 with Intel Core Ultra 9), up to 1 TB PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD internal storage, full I/O ports, an audio jack, and MicroSD card reader.

NVIDIA is eying a comeback to the client processor business, reveals a Bloomberg interview with the CEOs of NVIDIA and Dell. For NVIDIA, all it takes is a simple driver update that exposes every GeForce GPU with tensor cores as an NPU to Windows 11, with translation layers to get popular client AI apps to work with TensorRT. But that would need you to have a discrete NVIDIA GPU. What about the vast market of Windows AI PCs powered by the likes of Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD, who each sell 15 W-class processors with integrated NPUs capable of 50 AI TOPS, which is all that Copilot+ needs? NVIDIA held an Arm license for decades now, and makes Arm-based CPUs to this day, with the NVIDIA Grace, however, that is a large server processor meant for its AI GPU servers.

NVIDIA already made client processors under the Tegra brand targeting smartphones, which it winded down last decade. It's since been making Drive PX processors for its automotive self-driving hardware division; and of course there's Grace. NVIDIA hinted that it might have a client CPU for the AI PC market in 2025. In the interview Bloomberg asked NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang a pointed question on whether NVIDIA has a place in the AI PC market. Dell CEO Michael Dell, who was also in the interview, interjected "come back next year," to which Jensen affirmed "exactly." Dell would be in a front-and-center position to know if NVIDIA is working on a new PC processor for launch in 2025, and Jensen's nod almost confirms this

NVIDIA today announced at Microsoft Build new AI performance optimizations and integrations for Windows that help deliver maximum performance on NVIDIA GeForce RTX AI PCs and NVIDIA RTX workstations. Large language models (LLMs) power some of the most exciting new use cases in generative AI and now run up to 3x faster with ONNX Runtime (ORT) and DirectML using the new NVIDIA R555 Game Ready Driver. ORT and DirectML are high-performance tools used to run AI models locally on Windows PCs.

WebNN, an application programming interface for web developers to deploy AI models, is now accelerated with RTX via DirectML, enabling web apps to incorporate fast, AI-powered capabilities. And PyTorch will support DirectML execution backends, enabling Windows developers to train and infer complex AI models on Windows natively. NVIDIA and Microsoft are collaborating to scale performance on RTX GPUs. These advancements build on NVIDIA's world-leading AI platform, which accelerates more than 500 applications and games on over 100 million RTX AI PCs and workstations worldwide.

During yesterday's Microsoft Event, in addition to the new AI features and Surface devices, the company also announced its new Surface Pro Flex wireless keyboard, compatible with the Surface Pro 8, 9, 10, and 11 models. Officially called "Surface Pro Flex Keyboard with Slim Pen," the wireless keyboard is a $449.98 add-on keyboard that doesn't include Microsoft's Surface Slim Pen 2, only an indentation at the top of the keyboard to charge it. So, without a pen, what does the keyboard offer? According to Microsoft, up to 41 hours of continuous typing while detached, a dedicated Copilot key, and a touchpad with a vibration function for haptic feedback. The touchpad can have varying pressure levels, and applications can use it to build different functionalities.

Its thin and light design measures 289x221x5.25 mm with a weight of 340 g. The dedicated Copilot key summons the AI assistant and all the functionality Microsoft plans for its Windows 11 integration, which has been completely revamped for AI. The material choice is a Alcantara polyester-blend, which can be difficult for maintenance, and the keyboard is sold in either black or bright sapphire colors, becoming available on June 18th. Interestingly, given the name "Surface Pro Flex Keyboard with Slim Pen" and a price tag of $449.98, it is intriguing as to why Microsoft doesn't bundle the Surface Slim Pen 2 with the keyboard, as it is designed with a dedicated wireless charging indentation for the pen.