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Microsoft has unveiled a flurry of important new features for Windows 11 – but you’ll only enjoy these upgrades if you own one of a new range of devices known as Copilot+ PCs.
The US company announced the new initiative last night at an event at its headquarters ahead of the annual developer conference called Microsoft Build, which starts tonight and is likely to offer a first look at the new features The free Windows 11 update is scheduled to be released this fall.
Copilot+ PCs will have several additional tricks not found on other Windows 11 devices, including the ability to scroll backwards in time and retrieve a document or web browser session from any point within the last month. Laptops and tablets with the Copilot+ logo also provide real-time translation of video calls, YouTube videos, and any conversations near your PC.
If you want to take advantage of all the features built into Windows 11, you’ll need to make sure your next purchase is labeled as Copilot+ PC. This means it meets Microsoft’s latest criteria (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and NPU) to enable the latest AI tricks
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These new devices are among the first to feature a dedicated key on the keyboard to invoke the Microsoft Copilot AI assistant – the first change to the standard Windows keyboard layout since the launch of the Start button in 1994.
To achieve Copilot+ status, PCs require at least 256GB SSD, an integrated neural processor, more commonly referred to as NPU, and at least 16GB RAM. The first Copilot+ PCs will all be powered by Qualcomm’s latest laptop chipset, although Intel is working on a suitable processor to launch later this year.
The event saw the announcement of new devices from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors.
Microsoft also announced a new Surface Laptop 6 and a Surface Pro tablet that meet the Copilot+ criteria. The Redmond-based company says these new Surface gadgets are the “fastest, smartest Windows PCs ever built.”
Pre-orders are now possibleNew Copilot+ PCs will begin shipping on June 18, 2024.
Surface Laptop 6 is available with a 13.8- or 15-inch screen, up to 1TB of SSD storage, and 16GB of RAM. All models come with the Snapdragon X system-on-a-chip, equipped with a neural processing unit, which enables the PC functions of Copilot Plus
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Microsoft is one of the biggest investors in OpenAI – it has already written a check for $10 billion. During the event, the company confirmed the next iteration of ChatGPT Revealed in a live stream earlier this monthwill be available on Copilot+ PCs in the coming weeks.
“This first wave of Copilot+ PCs is just the beginning,” said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer. “Over the past year, we have seen an incredible pace of innovation in AI in the cloud, with Copilot enabling us to do things we never thought possible.”
“Now we begin a new chapter with on-device AI innovations. We’ve completely reimagined the entire PC, from silicon to operating system, from application layer to cloud, with AI at its heart, representing the most significant change to the Windows platform in decades.
One of the biggest new features of Windows 11 on Copilot+ PCs is Recall, which allows users to scroll back through their device to find what they’re looking for if they can’t remember the exact location of the file.
Recall is the main feature of this range of Copilot+ PCs, allowing you to scroll back through everything that happened on your Windows 11 computer and jump back in time with one click. Everything is searchable because the AI has searched the images and text on the device
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As you travel back in time, you’ll see screenshots of moments showing exactly what you were doing on your PC. The on-device AI analyzes everything on the screen, allowing you to search for words that appear in a document, objects that appear in images on a webpage, and more. Once you find what you were looking for, Windows 11 will display the file(s) again with a single click.
Users can also quickly create AI-generated images using Cocreator in the Paint app, allowing users to create images from text prompts or initial drawings, while Live Captions can translate audio from more than 40 languages into English in real time.
The company also demonstrated its Copilot voice assistant, which acts as a real-time virtual coach for a user playing the game Minecraft Video game.
Microsoft demonstrated its new devices in use against an Apple device and showed that Adobe photo editing software ran faster on the Microsoft device. Apple showed it off earlier this month a new AI-focused M4 chip in its latest iPad Prowhich analysts expect to be used in future MacBook models.
Cocreator in Microsoft Paint can improve your skills. First, you describe the style of artwork you want to create, then start drawing in Paint as usual, while the artificial intelligence (AI) improves everything in a small preview window. At the end you can export your own AI version
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After Intel’s processors dominated the PC market for decades, Qualcomm and other makers of lower-performance Arm components tried to compete in the Windows PC market.
Microsoft’s announcement comes nearly a week after Google outlined its plans to further integrate AI into its products in the coming months Rebuilding the search engine using AI-generated answersand brings its own generative AI assistant, Gemini, to more of its most popular apps.
Industry peer Apple is expected to unveil its own AI plans next month when the company holds its annual developer conference WWDC at its headquarters in Cupertino.