Microsoft held a media occasion in New York City this morning. The firm used the event to indicate off two new laptops from its house-made Surface line in addition to a slew of AI-powered enhancements coming to Windows 11 later this month. The hour-long presentation was not livestreamed, however we had been there to listen to the bulletins, watch the demos, and go hands-on with the brand new gadgets. Highlights are beneath.
The Surface {hardware} introduced as we speak is presently obtainable for preorder at Microsoft.com and can formally go on sale beginning October 3.
Copilot Gets Injected Everywhere
Courtesy of Microsoft
Copilot, Microsoft’s new AI-powered assistant that was introduced earlier this yr, is getting totally baked into Windows. Think of it as a aspect panel you may deliver up in virtually any a part of Windows 11, even in the Edge browser. Its function is to assist with mundane on a regular basis duties. For instance, you may copy and paste textual content into an extended e mail and Copilot will neatly manage all the data in a method that’s extra simply digestible. You can snip a picture and Copilot will robotically acknowledge the motion, after which ask if you need it to investigate the photograph. Once it has, it offers you choices for what you are able to do with the picture subsequent.
You can use Copilot to seek out flight info in your cellphone for an upcoming journey, compose texts based mostly on context, and plenty of different search- and productivity-related duties. It’ll be accessible by way of the Windows desktop as a stand-alone app, but additionally inside Microsoft 365 and in Microsoft Edge. The new characteristic will start to roll out as a part of the subsequent Windows 11 replace, which shall be launched on September 26.
Want to make use of Bing to buy stuff? Microsoft says the Shopping tab can even get the Copilot remedy, and you’ll speak to the assistant to get assist discovering what you wish to purchase. Copilot will information you thru a collection of questions so it will probably higher perceive what you might be searching for and present related procuring suggestions, together with critiques on merchandise and execs and cons. It shall be obtainable this fall.
Copilot has some businessy capabilities too. The AI assistant can comb via your most up-to-date emails, chats, information, and previous conferences to collate any essential info contained inside these issues. It may also summarize unread messages, draft replies to chats and emails, and create occasions based mostly on the guardrails you set. However, it can solely be obtainable for enterprise clients beginning November 1.
Surface Laptop Studio 2
Photograph: Microsoft
It’s been two years because the launch of the first-gen Surface Laptop Studio and there’s now a second-generation mannequin of essentially the most performance-minded Surface pocket book. Like its predecessor, it comes with a 14.4-inch touchscreen show with a refresh price of as much as a 120 Hz, and a dual-hinge mounting system (embedded into the middle behind the show and base) that means that you can modify the display screen in totally different angles. There’s a Laptop mode for full entry to the keyboard and touchpad; Stage mode, the place you may transfer the show towards you and deprioritize the keyboard for enjoying video games and watching films; and Studio mode for drawing and writing as you’ll on a pill.