Microsoft's Direct3D and HLSL teams have unveiled plans to integrate SPIR-V support into DirectX 12 with the upcoming release of Shader Model 7. This significant transition marks a new era in GPU programmability, as it aims to unify the intermediate representation for graphical-shader stages and compute kernels. SPIR-V, an open standard intermediate representation for graphics and compute shaders, will replace the proprietary DirectX Intermediate Language (DXIL) as the shader interchange format for DirectX 12. The adoption of SPIR-V is expected to ease development processes across multiple GPU runtime environments. By embracing this open standard, Microsoft aims to enhance HLSL's position as the premier language for compiling graphics and compute shaders across various devices and APIs. This transition is part of a multi-year development process, during which Microsoft will work closely with The Khronos Group and the LLVM Project. The company has joined Khronos' SPIR and Vulkan working groups to ensure smooth collaboration and rapid feature adoption.

While the transition will take several years, Microsoft is providing early notice to allow developers and partners to plan accordingly. The company will offer translation tools between SPIR-V and DXIL to facilitate a gradual transition for both application and driver developers. For those not familiar with graphics development, graphics APIs ship with virtual instruction set architectures (ISA) that abstracts standard hardware features at a higher level. As GPUs don't follow the same ISA as CPUs (x86, Arm, RISC-V), this virtual ISA is needed to define some generics in the GPU architecture and allow various APIs like DirectX and Vulkan to run. Instead of focusing support on several formats like DXIL, Microsoft is embracing the open SPIR-V standard, which will become de facto for API developers in the future, allowing focus on more features instead of constantly replicating each other's functions. While DXIL is used mainly for gaming environments, SPIR-V has adoption in high-performance computing as well, with OpenCL and SYCL. Gaming presence is also there with Vulkan API, and we expect to see SPIR-V join DirectX 12 games.

Xockets, inventor of Data Processing Unit (DPU) technology has launched a legal battle against NVIDIA and Microsoft. The lawsuit, filed in Texas, accuses the companies of forming an illegal cartel to avoid fair compensation for its patented DPU technology. Xockets claims that the Data Processing Unit technology its co-founder Parin Dalal invented in 2012 is fundamental to NVIDIA's GPU-enabled AI systems and Microsoft's AI platforms. The lawsuit alleges that NVIDIA has infringed on Xockets' patents since its 2020 acquisition of Mellanox, a deal NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang once called a "homerun." Xockets is seeking injunctions to halt the release of NVIDIA's new Blackwell GPU-enabled AI systems and Microsoft's use of these systems in their generative AI platforms.

The case touches on the bigger issues of intellectual property rights and the monopoly in the tech sector. Robert Cote, a Xockets board member, describes the suit as a fight against "Big Tech's predatory infringement playbook," accusing NVIDIA and Microsoft of making moves to devalue smaller companies' innovations. The AI revolution continues to transform the tech world, and this legal dispute may have a profound effect on the way intellectual property is valued and protected in the industry, possibly introducing new precedents for the relationship between tech giants and smaller innovators.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that the delay of Black Myth Wukong on Xbox is not due to the platform's technological limitations but something else entirely. Black Myth: Wukong is a widely known game, reaching a large amount of sales within few months after launch. This well known Black Myth: Wukong, is available for PC and PlayStation 5 players, however one direct competitor is missing. Microsoft's representatives reiterate that Black Myth: Wukong would launch on Xbox soon, but the delay is not due to technological limitations but a case of timed exclusivity by a direct rival, Sony PlayStation.

This claim by the Microsoft representative may be true, after all, before the current generations, Microsoft boasted that their Xbox Series X would be the most powerful household console till date, that surpasses the performance of direct rivals. So that alone may clear the doubts about delay of the game due to platform limitations. Another reason to believe it is because, this isn't the first time we've heard that Sony signed a timed exclusivity contract with devs of a highly potential game title. To avoid competition with direct competitors and just watch the show from the front seat, it's possible that Sony may have done the same again. But then again, it could also be that the developers found out about the technological gaps between the two platforms and decided to hold back the game for a few optimizations before launch. And what the representatives are saying, is just a way to divert the attention from the platform's limitations.

Samsung Electronics today announced the Galaxy Book5 Pro 360, a Copilot+ PC and the first in the all-new Galaxy Book5 series. Performance upgrades made possible by the Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) bring next-level computing power, with up to 47 total TOPs NPU - and more than 300 AI-accelerated features across 100+ creativity, productivity, gaming and entertainment apps. Microsoft Phone Link provides access to your Galaxy phone screen on a larger, more immersive PC display, enabling use of fan-favorite Galaxy AI features like Circle to Search with Google, Chat Assist, Live Translate and more. And with the Intel ARC GPU, graphics performance is improved by 17%. When paired with stunning features like the Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with Vision Booster and 10-point multi-touchscreen, Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 allows creation anytime, anywhere.

"The Galaxy Book5 series brings even more cutting-edge AI experiences to Galaxy users around the world who want to enhance and simplify their everyday tasks - a vision made possible by our continued collaboration with longtime industry partners," said Dr. Hark-Sang Kim, EVP & Head of New Computing R&D Team, Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "As one of our most powerful PCs, Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 brings together top-tier performance with Galaxy's expansive mobile AI ecosystem for the ultimate AI PC experience."

The latest Steam hardware and software survey reveals a significant shift in the gamer's operating system landscape, with Windows 11 gaining 3.36% among Windows OSes and finally surpassing the 50% mark in August 2024, now standing at 50.81%. This milestone is a notable achievement, considering the OS had been experiencing a decline in popularity just a month prior. The sudden surge in Windows 11 adoption can be attributed to users transitioning from Windows 10, which lost 3.29% of its user base in the same period. Additionally, a few users on older Windows versions, such as 8.1 and 7, have also switched to Windows 11.

Despite Windows 11's growing popularity, Windows 10 remains a formidable presence, with 48.66% of Steam users still preferring the older OS. Its success can be attributed to its stability and compatibility with a wide range of games and hardware. Many users have expressed concerns over Windows 11's performance and its stringent hardware requirements, which have made it less accessible for some gamers, especially those without the TPM 2.0-enhanced system. However, with Microsoft set to discontinue security updates and technical support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, users will need to consider upgrading to Windows 11 or another supported OS in the near future. The periodical resurgence of Windows 10 suggests that some users are hesitant to give up the older OS, but the writing is on the wall. As the deadline for Windows 10 support approaches, more users will likely make the transition to Windows 11.

Microsoft provided a detailed view of Maia 100 at Hot Chips 2024, their initial specialized AI chip. This new system is designed to work seamlessly from start to finish, with the goal of improving performance and reducing expenses. It includes specially made server boards, unique racks, and a software system focused on increasing the effectiveness and strength of sophisticated AI services, such as Azure OpenAI. Microsoft introduced Maia at Ignite 2023, sharing that they had created their own AI accelerator chip. More information was provided earlier this year at the Build developer event. The Maia 100 is one of the biggest processors made using TSMC's 5 nm technology, designed for handling extensive AI tasks on Azure platform.

Maia 100 SoC architecture features:

• A high-speed tensor unit (16xRx16) offers rapid processing for training and inferencing while supporting a wide range of data types, including low precision data types such as the MX data format, first introduced by Microsoft through the MX Consortium in 2023.
• The vector processor is a loosely coupled superscalar engine built with custom instruction set architecture (ISA) to support a wide range of data types, including FP32 and BF16.
• A Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine supports different tensor sharding schemes.
• Hardware semaphores enable asynchronous programming on the Maia system.

Microsoft has officially confirmed plans to phase out the Windows Control Panel, a feature that has been a key to the operating system since its inception in 1985. The tech giant recently stated on its support website, "The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience." The Control Panel has undergone numerous transformations over its 39-year lifespan and has been a familiar tool for Windows users across generations. Its impending retirement signifies a major shift in Microsoft's approach to user interface design and system management. The Settings app, introduced with Windows 8 in 2012, has gradually absorbed the functionalities of the Control Panel. Despite rumors of its demise circulating for a while, this is the first time Microsoft has officially acknowledged the Control Panel's deprecation.

The company still needs to specify an exact timeline for the complete removal of this legacy feature. Microsoft is encouraging users to utilize the Settings app whenever possible, stating, "While the Control Panel still exists for compatibility reasons and to provide access to some settings that have not yet migrated, you are encouraged to use the Settings app, whenever possible." The Control Panel's longevity can be attributed primarily to two factors: ongoing compatibility concerns and the presence of certain functions not yet available in the Settings app. Microsoft's need to maintain backward compatibility with older software and hardware configurations has been a critical driver behind the Control Panel's continued inclusion in Windows. This legacy support ensures that users can still access essential system settings and utilities that still need to be successfully migrated to the more modern Settings interface. However, the complete transition is now seemingly ready.

Multiple users have recently reported that the August 13 Windows 11 update causes issues with dual-boot Linux/Windows configurations. However, the issues are actually related to changes in UEFI Secure Boot Advanced Targeting (SBAT) policies. The issue stems from Microsoft enforcing SBAT and revoking old, exploitable certificates. Many Linux distributions use self-signed UEFI shims, which are no longer allowed due to known exploits. The new update revokes the SBAT certificates on affected, known exploitable versions of GRUB shipped with some Linux distributions. This can result in error messages like "Verifying shim SBAT data failed: Security Policy Violation" or "Something has gone seriously wrong: SBAT self-check failed: Security Policy Violation." To resolve this issue, Linux users need to update GRUB or disable the SBAT policy on the Linux side.

It's important to note that this is not primarily a Microsoft problem, but rather a necessary security update that affects some Linux distributions using outdated or vulnerable bootloaders. For more information on SBAT revocations and the boot process, users can refer to the Ubuntu Discourse here. This problem particularly impacts software developers and gaming enthusiasts who rely on dual-boot setups. As always, it's good practice for users to back up their data before performing any system updates. Considering alternatives like using virtual machines is also a good choice for users relying on older Linux distributions.

AMD Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" desktop processors have been out for a couple of weeks now, and the "Zen 5" based processors have fallen short of gaming performance expectations, set mainly by some of the numbers AMD put out in its Computex 2024 reveal for the processors. The consensus among the tech press is that these processors are roughly 3-5% faster than Ryzen 7000 series "Raphael," but with noteworthy improvements in energy efficiency. AMD set out to study why there are such vast deltas in performance between its numbers and those of reviews, and arrived a few possible explanations. The company also stated that it is working with Microsoft to fix this in the next major update to Windows 11.

One of them is that AMD's testing was done on Windows 11 23H2 with Admin mode (i.e. a local system administrator account was used), while some reviewers tested with a regular user account that has some admin privileges. Apparently this affects the way the branch prediction units of "Zen 5" processors work. "Our automated test methodology was run in "Admin" mode which produced results that reflect branch prediction code optimizations not present in the version of Windows reviewers used to test Ryzen 9000 Series," AMD said in a statement.

With the latest Insider update to Windows 11, Microsoft refreshed its 30-year-old FAT32 file-system with support for a maximum volume size of 2 TB. The file-system was limited to 32 GB until now. This update, however, does not change the maximum file-size limit of 4 GB. The move is probably aimed at making life easy for enterprises using the file-system for whatever reason, or for high capacity removable media to have better cross-platform support (eg: to video equipment). If you mainly move files within a Windows ecosystem, it's highly recommended that you stick to NTFS as it offers security features and support for larger files, which FAT32 doesn't.

According to The Verge, Valve confirmed its intention to extend support for its Linux-based SteamOS to rival gaming handhelds, including the ASUS ROG Ally. This move marks a significant step towards realizing Valve's decade-old vision of a widespread "Steam Machine" ecosystem. Lawrence Yang, a designer at Valve, confirmed to The Verge that the company is actively working on adding support for additional handhelds to SteamOS. This revelation came after eagle-eyed observers spotted a curious line in Valve's latest SteamOS 3.6.9 Beta release notes mentioning the addition of "support for extra ROG Ally keys." While the development is still in progress, Yang emphasized that SteamOS isn't quite ready for out-of-the-box use on rival devices. However, he assured that the team is making "steady progress" towards this goal.

This initiative doesn't necessarily mean that manufacturers like ASUS will officially endorse Valve's installer or ship their devices with SteamOS preinstalled. Many companies, including ASUS, have cited various reasons for sticking with Windows, including Microsoft's dedicated validation teams that ensure compatibility across diverse hardware configurations. Other devices, such as Lenovo Legion Go, AYANEO, and GPD Pocket 4, ship with Windows, but it could be interesting to see with SteamOS. Alongside support for third-party handhelds, Valve is also working on a general release of SteamOS 3 for non-handheld PCs. Finally, Valve hasn't forgotten about its promise to enable dual-booting on Steam Deck devices. While there's no specific timeline, Mr. Yang confirmed that it remains a priority for the company. We remain to see how this will materialize, and with added bells and whistles to SteamOS, the adoption of Linux-based gaming could be pushed even further.

Interesting things are happening in the gaming community, as Windows 10 operating system has seen an increase in its user base on the Steam platform, while Windows 11 has dipped below the 46% mark for the first time since its launch. According to the latest July data from Steam's hardware and software survey, Windows 10's share rose to 47.69%, marking a significant uptick that contrasts with Windows 11's decline to 45.73%. This trend highlights a growing preference among gamers for the older operating system, which is often praised for its stability and compatibility with a wide range of games and hardware. Many users have expressed concerns over Windows 11's performance and its stringent hardware requirements, which have made it less accessible for some gamers, especially those without the TPM 2.0-enhanced system.

The shift in user demographics is particularly interesting given that Windows 11 was designed with gaming enhancements in mind, including features like DirectStorage and Auto HDR. However, the adoption rate appears to be hampered by issues related to compatibility and performance, leading many gamers to stick with the more familiar and reliable Windows 10. This trend could prompt Microsoft to reevaluate its approach to Windows 11, particularly in terms of addressing user concerns and enhancing compatibility with existing hardware. Other OSes are seeing stagnation, especially with Linux-based distributions recording zero change. Apple's OSX stands at 1.37%, a +0.06% increase from last month.

Transparent tech is making a major comeback! We're introducing an exciting, brand-new controller to the Xbox lineup, the Xbox Wireless Controller - Sky Cipher Special Edition. Inspired by revealing the mysteries inside of the Xbox Wireless Controller, this transparent controller offers a look into the intricate technology that powers your gaming experience. Sky Cipher features a transparent blue design, complemented by metallic features and silver interior parts that shine through from inside, exuding an aura of sophistication and futuristic appeal.

Elevate your experience and style with the Sky Cipher controller. Stay elegantly on target with Sky Blue metallic triggers and a matching D-pad surrounded by a dark blue accent. Refine your game with two-tone thumbsticks featuring Sky Blue bases and dark blue tops. Hold on to the action with rubberized, Sky Blue grips on the back case. Looking closely at the hand grips, you can see the rumble pack vibrate and react to your gameplay.

The market for artificial intelligence (AI) platforms software grew at a rapid pace in 2023 and is projected to maintain its remarkable momentum, driven by the increasing adoption of AI across many industries. A new International Data Corporation (IDC) forecast shows that worldwide revenue for AI platforms software will grow to $153.0 billion in 2028 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.6% over the 2023-2028 forecast period.

"The AI platforms market shows no signs of slowing down. Rapid innovations in generative AI is changing how companies think about their products, how they develop and deploy AI applications, and how they leverage technology themselves for reinventing their business models and competitive positioning," said Ritu Jyoti, group vice president and general manager of IDC's Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Data and Analytics research. "IDC expects this upward trajectory will continue to accelerate with the emergence of unified platforms for predictive and generative AI that supports interoperating APIs, ecosystem extensibility, and responsible AI adoption at scale."

The Windows 11 "patch Tuesday" update for July 2024 breaks Bitlocker drive encryption, Microsoft notes in its issue discovery. The company releases monthly major update packages for Windows, timing them on every second Tuesday of the month. The July 2024 update carries the knowledge-base identifier KB5040442, and applies to Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2. Bitlocker is a first-party disk encryption feature by Microsoft that's included with Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro, and Windows 11 Enterprise editions. You are prompted a disk decryption password at every system startup, the disk remains encrypted until either password is input, or a Bitlocker Recovery process is followed.

The KB5040442 causes Bitlocker to forget its own password, forcing you to clear the Bitlocker Recovery process. When you encrypt a volume with Bitlocker, you are given a recovery key that you're supposed to safekeep. Those with online Microsoft accounts have the option to get Microsoft to store their recovery keys, so they could log into their Microsoft account on another device (like a phone), and access the stored recovery key, which they then manually input on the borked machine to create a new Bitlocker password. Microsoft acknowledges that Bitlocker recovery is only a workaround, KB5040442 will cause machines to forget their Bitlocker passwords, and force a recovery. The company is working on an update that fixes this, so if you have an always-on machine with Bitlocker that just got patched to KB5040442, you might want to keep the recovery key handy.

A faulty software update to enterprise computers by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has taken millions of computers offline, most of which are in a commercial or enterprise environment, or are Azure deployments. CrowdStrike provides periodic software and security updates to commercial PCs, enterprise PCs, and cloud instances, with a high degree of automation. The latest update reportedly breaks the Windows bootloader, causing bluescreens of death (BSODs), and if configured, invokes Windows Recovery. Enterprises tend to bulletproof the bootloaders of their client machines, and disable generic Windows Recovery tools from Microsoft, which means businesses around the world are left with large numbers of machines that will each take manual fixing. The so-called "Windows CrowdStrike BSOD deluge" has hit critical businesses such as banks, airlines, supermarket chains, and TV broadcasters. Meanwhile, sysadmins on Reddit are wishing each other a happy weekend.

Cyclic Materials, an advanced metals recycling company building a circular supply chain for rare earth elements and other critical metals, today announced it has received an equity investment from Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, an initiative dedicated to accelerating technology development and deployment of new climate innovations. This investment is representative of Microsoft's commitment to a circular economy and interest in hard drive rare earth element recycling.

Over the past two years, Cyclic has developed a patent-pending technology, CC360, to specifically address the challenge of recovering rare earths contained in end-of-life hard drives. While hard drives are typically sent to an IT asset disposal (ITAD) company at the end of life, this disposal process is designed for data destruction, followed by shredding of drives for the recovery of other metals such as gold and silver. The rare earths contained are currently not recovered. With the CC360, ITAD companies can separate a portion of hard drives for rare earth recovery, while retaining the rest of the hard drives for their traditional process. These separated magnets can then be processed by Cyclic Materials' processing technologies, unlocking an additional value stream from hard drive disposal.

Microsoft has agreed to pay €20 million to settle an antitrust complaint filed by Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), a European cloud providers association. The deal aims to address concerns about Microsoft's cloud product licensing practices, also, Microsoft will develop Azure Stack HCI for European cloud providers and compensate CISPE members for recent licensing costs. On the other side, CISPE will withdraw its EU complaint, cease supporting similar global complaints, and establish an independent European Cloud Observatory to monitor the product's development.

The settlement excludes major providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and AliCloud. While CISPE hails this as a victory, critics argue it's insufficient. AWS spokesperson Alia Ilyas said that Microsoft was only making "limited concessions for some CISPE members that demonstrate there are no technical barriers preventing it from doing what's right for every cloud customer". Google Cloud suggests more action is needed against anti-competitive behavior, and UK-based cloud company Civo's CEO Mark Boost questions the deal's long-term impact on the industry. Boost stated, "However they position it, we cannot shy away from what this deal appears to be: a global powerful company paying for the silence of a trade body, and avoiding having to make fundamental changes to their software licensing practices on a global basis". Despite resolving the CISPE complaint, Microsoft faces ongoing regulatory scrutiny worldwide. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched a cloud computing market investigation in October 2023 while the US Federal Trade Commission is conducting two separate probes involving Microsoft. The first FTC investigation, initiated in January 2024, examines AI services and partnerships of major tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Anthropic, and OpenAI. The second focuses specifically on Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia, assessing their impact and behavior in the AI sector.

By the time you're reading this, it's already too late to sign up for the old price, if you were planning on getting or extending your Game Pass, since as of today, Microsoft has increased the cost for both PC and Xbox owners. On top of that, Microsoft has added a new tier for Xbox owners and made its lower tiers a lot less interesting. However, as TPU is a PC centric site, let's start with the bad news for PC owners. Depending on where you live, the price increase varies, but on average, Microsoft has increased the price by US$/€2/£2. However, some lower income countries are only seeing an increase of US$1, although we're not sure why Switzerland ended up in this group. However, the exchange rate is clearly affecting some other countries either negatively or positively where some countries end up paying a little bit more and others a little bit less.

Now for the really bad news for Xbox console owners. Xbox Game Pass for Console is no longer available to new subscribers, but those already on this tier that have automatic renewal enabled will be able to continue to have access to the same tier and perks that it's been offered with to date. In its place, Microsoft is introducing the Xbox Game Pass Standard tier and the fundamental difference between it and the Xbox Game Pass for Console package is that subscribers no longer have access to day one releases, but they gain access to online multiplayer games and the full back catalogue of games. There's no word on how long those subscribed to the Xbox Game Pass Standard tier will have to wait to gain access to new releases yet, but the new tier isn't available immediately either, so we'll most likely find out in due time.

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.

Everyone's favorite plaintext editor, the Windows Notepad, now has Spellcheck. The latest update to Notepad in Windows 11 adds spellchecks, along with spelling suggestions. The company had released Spellcheck and Autocorrect to Insiders in March 2024, and has now rolled the feature out to the regular userbase. The feature is enabled by default. The app now also has an autocorrect feature that, well, automatically corrects common typos the way a fully fledged word processor would. Both Spellcheck and Autocorrect are now enabled by default, and can be turned off in the gearwheel screen. Starting with Windows 11, Microsoft turned many of the popular Windows Accessories to UWP apps. These used to be Win32 apps in previous Windows versions. The company continuously updates these apps through the Windows Store platform, and we've noticed that Notepad got several new features it never had over the past three decades, including tabs, session restore, and now Spellcheck.

ASUS announced a press event on July 17 to launch at least nine notebook designs powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" mobile processors. All these notebooks are AI PCs that meet Microsoft Copilot+ requirements. Each of the 9 designs will have several variants based on the processor model, discrete graphics, and other hardware differentiators, making up dozens of individual SKUs. The AMD "Strix Point" mobile processor is based on a 4 nm monolithic die. It combines a 12-core/24-thread CPU based on a combination of "Zen 5" and "Zen 5c" cores, a 50 TOPS-class NPU, and a powerful iGPU based on the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, with 16 compute units.

Among the notebook designs ASUS plans to announce on July 17 are the ROG Zephyrus G16 (GA605), the TUF Gaming A14 (FA401), the TUF Gaming A16 (FA608), the Zenbook S16 (UM5606), Vivobook S14 (M5406), Vivobook S16 (M5506 and M5606), ProArt P16 (HN7606) and ProArt PX13 (HN7306). With these, ASUS is covering pretty much all its notebook market segments, including enthusiast gaming, performance gaming, boutique ultraportability, mainstream, and creative professional.

Microsoft really wants you to use Windows 11 with an online Microsoft Account. This lets the operating system integrate the single login for Microsoft Store, all the apps on it, Office or 365, Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, and more importantly, put a face to your name (making you and your machine identifiable to it). Some users, particularly power-users, tend to avoid this, by preferring local accounts—an account that's authenticated and maintained locally by the machine. Microsoft is viewed as making it increasingly difficult for users to create local accounts, particularly on the client versions of Windows, such as Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Pro.

The Windows Setup by default flows you into creating a Microsoft Account, or logging in from one. Over the past several versions of Windows, Microsoft has made it harder, if not impossible, to create a local account during Setup. In what could be a step closer by the company to wean the market off local accounts, Microsoft removed the online Help page that guides users on how to switch from a Microsoft Account to a local one, as Tweaktown found out. The publication dug the page out using the Wayback Machine. Will Microsoft completely remove the ability to create local accounts? We don't know. All versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10 sit on the Windows NT architecture, which requires some form of local accounts. The Microsoft Account itself is layered on top of a local account. So, the ability to create a local account shouldn't go away for those who really want one, but it will be close to impossible for the vast majority of users trained by Google and Apple to have online accounts on their phones.

Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, has today announced the availability of its APC Back-UPS Pro Gaming uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) in Europe. Celebrating 40 years of Legendary Reliability and leadership in critical power protection during 2024, the new, stylish, and state-of-the-art UPS has been designed to protect gaming equipment from power outages and deliver a robust power connection, despite energy spikes and failures.

Back-UPS Pro Gaming has been specifically designed with gamers, streamers, and influencers in mind, delivering uninterruptible power protection, even in regions where the grid is unstable, keeping GPU-powered PCs, leading consoles, streamers, and gamers connected to both their online gaming experiences and audiences, regardless of power disruptions. To deliver robust protection, APC Back-UPS Pro Gaming UPS features sine wave battery backup power - delivering the smooth electrical current required by sensitive electronics and AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation), and helping to protect against power irregularities that can result in glitches and buffering during an outage to extend the lifespan of gaming equipment.

During Computex 2024, Intel announced the next-generation compute platform for the notebook segment in the form of the Core Ultra 200V series, codenamed Lunar Lake. Set for release in September 2024, these processors are generating excitement among tech enthusiasts and industry professionals alike. According to the latest leak by VideoCardz, Intel plans to unveil nine variants of Lunar Lake, including Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 5 models, with a single high-end Core Ultra 9 variant. While exact specifications remain under wraps, Intel's focus on artificial intelligence capabilities is clear. The company aims to secure a spot in Microsoft's Copilot+ lineup by integrating its fourth-generation Neural Processing Unit (NPU), boasting up to 48 TOPS of performance. All Lunar Lake variants are expected to feature a hybrid architecture with four Lion Cove performance cores and four Skymont efficiency cores.

This design targets low-power mobile devices, striking a balance between performance and energy efficiency. For graphics, Intel is incorporating its next-generation Arc technology, dubbed Battlemage GPU, which utilizes the Xe2-LPG architecture. The leaked information suggests that Lunar Lake processors will come with either 16 GB or 32 GB of non-upgradable LPDDR5-8533 memory. Graphics configurations are expected to include seven or eight Xe2 GPU cores, depending on the model. At the entry level, the Core Ultra 5 226V is rumored to offer a 17 W base power and 30 W maximum turbo power, with performance cores clocking up to 4.5 GHz. The top-tier Core Ultra 9 288V is expected to push the envelope with a 30 W base power, performance cores boosting to 5.1 GHz, and an NPU capable of 48 TOPS. You can check out the rest of the SKUs in the table below.