There were three announcements at the hardware event: Surface Laptop Studio 2, Surface Laptop Go 3 and Copilot in Windows
Copilot: A Controlled AI Assistant for Desktop Computers and Apps (with Video Collected by Robust Message-driven Reactions)
Copilot has some businessy functions too. The AI assistant can comb through your most recent emails, chats, files, and past meetings to collate any important information contained within those things. It can also summarize unread messages, draft replies to chats and emails, and create events based on the guardrails you set. It will only be available for enterprise customers in November.
During the event, Yusuf Mehdi, consumer chief marketing officer, called Copilot “a handshake between you and technology — available when you need it and out of the way when you don’t.”
In the above video, you can see how Copilot can allow you to control parts of the desktop experience with voice or text commands. That’s a big step up from the current Start menu text box, which in my experience generally either fails to find relevant files and settings on the computer, or outsources to Bing and fails to find them on the web. We will see!
Highlights from Microsoft at the Surface Laptop Launch Event: A Second-Generation Model of the Surface XPs Laptop Studio and Enhancements to Windows 11
Microsoft held a media event in New York City this morning. The new laptops from the Surface line and a bunch of enhancements coming to Windows 11 were displayed by the company at the event. The hour-long presentation was not livestreamed, but we were there to hear the announcements, watch the demos, and go hands-on with the new devices. Highlights are below.
Want to use Bing to shop for stuff? Microsoft says the Shopping tab will also get the Copilot treatment, and you can talk to the assistant to get help finding what you want to buy. It will guide you through a series of questions so that it can understand what you’re looking for and recommend good products and bad. It will be available this fall.
It’s been two years since the launch of the first-gen Surface Laptop Studio and there’s now a second-generation model of the most performance-minded Surface notebook. Like its predecessor, it comes with a 14.4-inch touchscreen display with a refresh rate of up to a 120 Hz, and a dual-hinge mounting system (embedded into the center behind the display and base) that allows you to adjust the screen in different angles. There’s a Laptop mode for full access to the keyboard and touchpad; Stage mode, where you can move the display toward you and deprioritize the keyboard for playing games and watching movies; and Studio mode for drawing and writing as you would on a tablet.
