It's happening! Microsoft will absolutely acquire Activision Blizzard
- An amazing (ahem) blizzard of activity on the acquisition front leaves Microsoft on the verge of consummating this deal. It's amazing how much has happened since last week.
- FTC appealed its court loss and was immediately defeated again
- UK CMA extends deadline for its review of Microsoft's new concessions
- Microsoft and Sony agree to a Call of Duty deal (!) - not clear if it's for 10 years
- UK court formally pauses CMA block of AB acquisition so the two sides can negotiate
- Microsoft and Activision agreed to extend the acquisition deadline to October 18 to accommodate the CMA
Windows
- Windows 11 23H2 will be deployed as an enablement package, virtually providing our theories that 23H2 = Moment 4.
- Tied to this, Microsoft finally explains how it updates Windows now, literally 8 years after the release of Windows 10. It's easy to be cynical, but a Microsoft whitepaper offers a lot of overdue transparency about updating
- Insider Program: New Dev build today. Passwordless for Windows Hello Business, local file sharing improvements, Outlook now an inbox app
- Insider Program: New Beta and Release Preview builds out last week.
- Beta is 23H2. Galley view in Explorer, new Paint app
- Release Preview is 22H2, just fixes
- The NUC lives!
- Microsoft has a new font
An AI told you so
- Microsoft announces Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing (for commercial) and it is exactly as expensive as we warned
- Bing Chat adds visual search support
- Bill Gates dismisses the dangers of AI. "We've done this before."
- FTC is investigating OpenAI
Xbox
- Xbox Game Pass Core to replace Xbox Live Gold in September
- The next Game Pass titles for July
- Game Pass Friends and Family Preview is ending in August
- More fun retro gaming as Anstream Arcade is coming to Xbox on July 21
Tips and Picks
- Tip of the week: Enable passkeys in GitHub
- Book of the week: John Romero wrote a book
- RunAs this week: Securing Sprawling Services with Karinne Bessette
- Brown liquor pick of the week: Glenfarclas 12
Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell
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