Microsoft

CrowdStrike has nearly run its full course of damage, and Microsoft is looking ahead to prevent the next such catastrophe. Step one in the company’s playbook? Follow Apple’s lead and make Windows security more Mac-like by limiting kernel access.

The CrowdStrike aftermath is seeing IT teams around the world struggle to restore the 8.5 million Windows PCs taken out by the bug. The mess included thousands of flights cancelled, health centers unable to make appointments, retailer payment terminals down, and even some 911 services unavailable.

Macs weren’t affected thanks to protections put in place by Apple, but Microsoft has reportedly claimed that antitrust law means it’s unable to take the same approach …

Just eight days after it was revealed that Apple Fellow Phil Schiller would join the OpenAI board as an observer, it’s now being reported that this won’t happen.

Instead, OpenAI will simply commit to regular meetings with Schiller and other partners and investors …

Microsoft staff in China have been told that they must use an iPhone for authentication when logging in to company systems. From September, the use of Android smartphones as multi-factor authentication devices will be banned.

This will create a situation where an Apple device will be required despite the fact that staff are using Windows PCs …

Microsoft Surface ARM laptops powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 chip claim to match or beat Apple Silicon machines. Tests show that they (mostly) beat the MacBook Air, but not last year’s MacBook Pro models.

Comparative benchmark tests do reveal that the chip offers extremely impressive performance, leaving both Intel and AMD behind …

Microsoft has had quite the few weeks of ups and downs. Following a strong launch event for its AI-centric Copilot Plus PC devices, the hallmark AI feature was deemed by an expert as a ‘security disaster.’ It took a while, but the company responded—not with an apology, but at least with a commitment to make some key changes. For example, while Recall was once opt-out, now it will be opt-in for its public launch.

About that public launch though: it’s no longer happening, at least not any time soon. While Recall was originally planned to ship with the first Copilot Plus PCs, those devices will now ship next week without the controversial feature.

Microsoft Recall sounded like a very cool idea, but was very quickly revealed to be a security disaster. Instead of helping you recall everything you’ve done on your Windows PC, it was found that it could easily help a hacker do the same.

However, as much as the company messed-up the implementation, I do think there’s mileage in the concept, and if there’s one company I’d trust to do it with proper privacy protections, it’s Apple …

It’s only a few days until Apple unveils its own AI features at WWDC with an emphasize on privacy. The time is right for one of the company’s chief competitors, Microsoft, to address the ‘security disaster’ that its hallmark AI feature, Recall, is said to be.

Today Microsoft has done just that. They aren’t apologizing for Recall’s security holes, but they are making changes that are meant to alleviate users’ concerns.

Nvidia has overtaken AAPL in the market cap stakes, as its valuation exceeded $3T. The company’s rise in value has been truly spectacular, increasing from $2T back in February to more than $3T just four months later.

The company is now challenging Microsoft for the title of most valuable company in the world, and for the same reason …

Microsoft has a target on Apple’s back with its AI-centric Copilot Plus PC models. When the computers were announced, the company repeatedly claimed that they outperformed the latest M3 MacBook Airs. Today a new ad campaign sought to further entice switchers away from the Mac.

It turns out, not every aspect of the Copilot Plus PCs is ready for prime time. The hallmark AI feature Microsoft formerly demoed, Recall, has been exposed by an expert as being a security disaster.

Copilot is a chatbot based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 developed by Microsoft. It has been integrated into many Microsoft products, including Office and Bing. And now, even Telegram users can take advantage of Copilot through a bot that works right from the messaging app.

Two new laptops announced yesterday are being touted as “Microsoft’s MacBook Air,” with the company claiming that they offer similar performance to the M3 MacBook Air, with even greater battery life.

But commentators have been quick to point out that this isn’t a like-for-like comparison. A key feature of the MacBook Air is it achieves its impressive performance without the need for cooling fans, so a fairer comparison would be with the MacBook Pro …

Today Microsoft unveiled a new lineup of PCs centered around AI, complete with advanced AI-driven features like Recall, a tool that keeps track of everything you’ve ever done on your screen so you can easily revisit it later.

Microsoft was especially eager to show how its new ARM-based PCs could outperform Apple’s M3 MacBook Airs, both in sheer performance as well as battery life. The Mac vs. PC fires were very much being stoked in this presentation.

Coordinating teams and in-office days in our new normal of hybrid work is a difficult task, and one that carries a lot of untapped potential for productivity tools. Today Microsoft announced the public preview launch of Places, a new app a couple years in the making that aims to use AI to assist teams in syncing their in-office time.

We learned late last year that a Microsoft iOS app store was in the works, and the company has now announced that this will launch in July.

Initially, it will be limited to Microsoft’s own games, but will later open up to other iPhone game developers, giving them an alternative outlet to Apple’s official App Store …

Microsoft on Tuesday launched a native OneNote app for visionOS, showing the company’s commitment to its customers who use Apple Vision Pro. This comes after the company released Microsoft Office apps for Apple’s mixed reality headset.

While Microsoft pushes Office 365 subscriptions hard, it has so far retained the option of one-off purchases of new editions – and it has confirmed that this will also be available for Office 2024 for Mac.

The other good news is that we’re expecting the price to be unchanged from Office 2021 for Mac …

Redmond, start your photocopiers! After recently innovating Windows with center-aligned, bottom-docked apps, Microsoft is catching up with macOS in a more useful way. Tom Warren at The Verge reports that Windows 11 is gaining the ability to use a phone as a webcam. 

In September, Bloomberg reported that Apple had held exploratory talks with Microsoft about acquiring Bing as recently as 2020. In newly unsealed court filings this week, more details about the acquisition talks between Apple and Microsoft have surfaced.

Apple’s new app store terms have come under fire for what many are describing as ‘malicious compliance’ with the EU’s Digital Markets Act – that is, technically complying with the antitrust law while completely negating its intent.

A new report says that both Meta and Microsoft have now lobbied the EU, asking it to reject Apple’s new terms as “onerous” and “prohibitive” …