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SummaryWhile Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite laptops have been a success by most metrics, Microsoft's Copilot+ initiative really hasn't. Indeed, these Arm-based laptops have great battery life coupled with powerful performance, but Microsoft has been pushing the idea that they're AI PCs, something that's essentially fallen flat. But today, the Redmond firm is announcing the second wave of features for these on-device AI PCs, along with the fact that x86 laptops will get these features in November.
RelatedThe first round sounded pretty good. The hero feature was Recall, and of course, it never shipped because of the PR nightmare around it. There are also new Windows Studio Effects, Cocreator in Paint, Live Captions, and more. But without that hero feature, Copilot+ seemed pretty lame.
What's really interesting is that the second wave of features is coming so soon. Microsoft is not sitting still here, waiting around for annual Windows 11 updates. These new features are arriving for Snapdragon laptops in November, with availability to Windows Insiders in October. Insiders with x86 laptops will get it in November. As usual, the requirements for Copilot+ include a 40 TOPS NPU, 16GB RAM, and 256GB storage.
There are five features as part of wave two:
5 RecallYes, Recall was announced as part of the first wave, but we're finally close to availability. The feature is meant to be your PC's photographic memory, as Microsoft calls it. It's taking screenshots every few seconds to remember everything that you do, and then those screenshots are searchable.
For example, if you're shoe shopping online and you realize that that tab you closed yesterday actually was the thing you want, you just just type "green shoes" or something.
From day one, Microsoft said you'd be able to set file size limits, pause it, turn it off, and set it to not record certain apps. Since then, it's added better encryption, and made it so that you'll have to opt into it rather than opt out. It will use Windows Hello for authentication too, to make sure that you're actually the one viewing your data.
4 Generative Fill and Erase in Paint Image source: MicrosoftMicrosoft is really investing in turning Paint into a proper creativity app, after the introduction of Cocreator and image generator. Coming next is Generative Fill and Erase. You'll be able to remove objects from your photos, and Paint will use AI to fill in the background.
3 Super Resolution in Photos Image source: MicrosoftMuch like the object remover in Paint, Super Resolution in Photos takes some inspiration from things that Google Photos is doing. It'll take a blurry photo and sharpen it; Microsoft says it can increase the resolution by 8x.
2 Better Windows Search Image source: MicrosoftSome folks at Microsoft have spoken to me several times about how crazy it is that it's easy to search the internet, but it's somewhat hard to search your PC. While Recall is a component of the solution for that, an improved Windows Search is another.
You'll be able to search for things in photos, documents, and so on, by using natural language. That way, you don't have to remember where a file is or what it's called. You can ask it to bring up the blog post PDF from the Copilot phase two announcement, or photos from your kid's high school graduation.
1 Click to Do Image source: MicrosoftClick to Do is a full-screen overlay that's going to make suggestions based on what it sees on your screen. Examples Microsoft used are searching with Bing, blurring the background of an image in Photos, or removing the background in Paint. It can also do things like summarize text.
You'll be able to access it by hitting the Windows key and clicking your mouse, hence the name Click to Do.
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