Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs to Rival MacBook Air

On MacBreak Weekly, Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Mikah Sargent talk about Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs that were announced at Microsoft Build 2024 as the company seeks to take on Apple and its MacBook Air lineup.
For more, check out MacBreak Weekly: twit.tv/mbw/922
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, and Jason Snell
Guest: Mikah Sargent
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#apple #microsoft #macbookair

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

The point isn't to steal away Mac users (even today, Mac marketshare is a rounding error to Microsoft - they're really mostly worried about Mobile and Cloud), it's to push the Windows platform ahead the same way that ARM pushed the Macintosh platform ahead. The difference is Microsoft is doing it with collaboration - Apple is building ever higher fences around their technology every year.

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

Exactly. I used 2-in-1 since 12 years and Apple has still nothing coming close. But I cannot say that I was not envious of M chip autonomy, power and silence. So for me, this is very VERY tempting!!!

[@andyH_England]

As of Q1 2024, Macs had an 8% market share, so that is a small market to grab customers, especially as most, probably more than 90%, are Mac devotees. They are flexing on Macs, but the real target is Intel; of course, the incestuous relationship between Windows and Intel means daggers are drawn for Apple.

[@Arvyhernandez]

I remember that Leo Laporte talked about the idea of a 1st party Microsoft PC back in the 2000s in one of his shows and now it is a reality with the Surface.

[@mikapeltokorpi7671]

X Elite is not making anyone switch from Mac to Windows. But it will definitely stop the churn in scientific/AI tasks. Pricing is good. $1 000 pricing with this performance will get a lot of student/academic sales. Many will run their task on WSL, though.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

Science and AI isn't running macOS, they're all on Linux.

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

​@@RoastBeefSandwich85% of PC are Windows PC. This is a huge plus for those.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

@@jeanbaptistelabelle 85% of PCs aren't doing AI or scientific computing either...

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

@@RoastBeefSandwich sure. What do you mean exactly n'y computing science and AI tasks by the way?

[@softwaremaniacpsm7075]

The test will be Prism Intel 86 emulation/translation (compared to Rosetta2 on the Mac) for apps AND drivers. It will take years for app developers to invest in conversion. But overall, competition is a good thing and we'll see.

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

With the browser, Office, Davinci Resolve or Adobe Suite on Arm, you have 90% already done.

[@bradavon]

Rosetta 2 doesn't translate drivers. That's not the purpose of Rosetta or Prism. I'm using a Sony MiniDisc Recorder on my Surface Pro X and that's from 2002 intended to be used with Windows XP. The driver isn't intended with ARM in mind but works great. It's a little bit more complicated on ARM but you need to follow fan instructions on both ARM and Intel to get it to work. You wouldn't expect it to work. My Epson Printer/Scanner the Epson scanner drivers installed. Only the printer drivers I needed to use the Windows 11 drivers. Works fine.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

A few reasons Rosetta 2 works so well is 1) Apple pre-built some of the work in the instruction set for Apple Silicon, and 2) Apple killed off a lot of older technologies and libraries in the years before Apple Silicon came out (how many Mac gamers, all 12 of them out there, are keeping an old OS X Mac running so they can play all their old 32-bit games?). Microsoft isn't doing either of those, at least not to the extent that Apple did, so if in fact Prism works anywhere near as well as Rosetta 2 it will really be a computer science marvel.

[@totao007]

Sooo mac already has something like recall, but the fact that microsoft has has it now is a problem…. Thats funny, my iphone hears me all day and no one cares.

[@bradavon]

Not built-in to MacOS it doesn't and your iPhone isn't A: Recording everything you do or B: Taking screenshots. It's waiting for a wake which is common place

[@bradavon]

The MacOS user interface definitely isn't more elegant. It's so noisy with stuff happening from every corner. They keep adding multitasking features to overcomplicate it.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

Right, window management on macOS is an absolute disaster compared to Windows.

[@samclark3879]

How does Leo not know that Windows has a Linux command line?

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

He doesn't run Windows.

[@PeterHGiftos]

Leo, Windows is a good operating system. It is more widely used than MAC OS.

[@AndrewRoberts11]

Dell and HP has been shipping Linux servers, for decades, with cheap keyboards that have a WINDOWS key, you can repurpose them to do something useful 😀

[@coolerking7427]

A little Privacy issue? LOL.

[@jeffmpvd7689]

There is NO WAY I would use recall. Privacy and system resource issues!

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

It is all stored and processed on-device encrypted, according to Microsoft.

[@coolerking7427]

@@RoastBeefSandwich And you really believe Microsoft. LOL.

[@RoastBeefSandwich]

@@coolerking7427 if they're lying it'll be figured out very quickly

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

​@@coolerking7427do you believe Apple? With what they do in China?

[@andyH_England]

But if you are hacked, then you have the risk of exposing sensitive data to the hackers. The hackers must love this feature, save them the hard work, and get access to your device by scamming or phishing and processing your screenshots.

[@coolerking7427]

I only use AMD.

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

No, those Windows laptop are CHEAPER than Mac. A Surface Laptop is 300 CHF in Europe cheaper than a MBA but more comparable to a MBP (IO, 120Hz screen, fan for better sustained performance..) M3 is...1000 CHF more expensive. And Mac has nothing remotely close to an OLED Surface Pro of course.

[@andyH_England]

In the US, Apple has reduced all prices (in the UK as well), with $200-300 discounts. This makes them cheaper than the Surface Pro by some margin once you factor in the $350 cost for the SP keyboard.

[@jeanbaptistelabelle]

@@andyH_England no clue where you got your prices in UK (I will not comment on US and special discount) but a MBP M3 16Go / 512 is 1900£ versus 1450 for the Laptop Elite 16 / 512. That is 450£ MORE. The Surface Pro has nothing comparable on Apple's land or you need to take a MBP (to have fan, 120Hz display and more contrasty) and an OLED iPad Pro with keyboard and stylus and then you are at 3 times the price.

[@robertelizondo7702]

When using the cloud on pc's and phone's, all the devices have always been listening and collecting data for years, nothing really knew and in my opinion, I wouldn't trust AI at all.

[@coolerking7427]

But with Microsoft you could tweak it for privacy and security. It seems Windows is pushing that away.