On Thursday 21st September 2023, Microsoft held their annual event where they get to showcase their new products; Surface and Windows updates. In these several announcements, it was not just about the Surface devices, but focus on new AI features as well.
This year, the event in my opinion felt, a bit different. For
one, days before the event, Panos Panay, the chief product officer at
Microsoft, leading Windows development and the company’s Surface line, left
Microsoft on 18th September. He is reportedly going to, Amazon for
another role.
Windows 11’s next update 23H2
The next Windows 11 update 23H2 is coming, and it’s getting
several tweaks, fixes and refreshed apps. But most notable of all – is Windows
Copilot. The AI-powered feature has been in testing for months and will
finally arrive in this new update. Aside from the AI update comes a redesigned
File Explorer and native support for RAR and 7-zip.
Copilot across all Microsoft services and apps
Microsoft is merging Copilot for a unified experience across
all apps and services. This includes Windows 11, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office)
and Microsoft Edge. Microsoft 365 will get Copilot on November 1st
and will give users the ability to summarize documents, quickly generate
emails, rewrite documents, and a lot more. The feature isn’t that cheap though,
it will be available to subscribers on specific business and enterprise plans
for an extra $30(KES 4,356.30) per month.
Bing Chat is also getting a big update. Microsoft announced
that it will be adding DALL-E 3, the latest version of OpenAI, for free. Each
image generated in DALL-E 3 on Bing Chat will have content credentials
indicating that it is AI-generated. Windows Ink also gets some updates as well
as Windows Ink Anywhere, where you can jot down a math equation on Copilot
and get real-time math solutions or take a snippet of your math graph and get
the solution done for you.
Personalized Answers is a combined collaboration with Copilot,
Bing Chat and Edge where your chat history can inform your results based on
your similar interests and previous chats with Bing Chat. With Copilot Lab,
your productivity gets simplified for a better and more productive work habit by
building better prompts for your day-to-day work life.
Microsoft Surface Device Lineup
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3
The first device on the lineup announced was the new Microsoft
Surface Laptop Go 3, the successor of the Surface Laptop Go 2. Microsoft says it is “88 per cent faster, and it comes with a 12.4-inch touchscreen, weighs just
under 2.5 pounds (1.13kg), and features a fingerprint power button. It also
offers up to 15 hours of battery life, along with one USB-A port, one USB-C
port, and a headphone jack.
Price: $799 (KES 116,022.87)
Microsoft Surface Studio 2
The second device on the lineup to be announced was the new Surface
Laptop Studio 2. It is said
to be the “most powerful” Surface built to date. It has Intel’s 13th Gen i7 H class processor,
Nvidia’s RTX 4050 or 4060 GPU, and 64GB of RAM. It also features a more
adaptive touchpad.
Price: $1,999 (KES 290,274.99)
All these Surface devices will be available on October 3rd
2023.