Eleanor the Great features that 96-year-old force of nature, June Squibb, but all the heavy lifting is being done by Scarlett Johansson in her directorial debut. Read...

TNT’s long run as an NBA broadcaster has ended, ushering in a new era of media rights that will reshape how fans watch the league. Starting with the 2025–26 season, the NBA’s national package is split among three partners: Disney (ABC/ESPN), NBC/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video. That means cord-cutters still have plenty of options to watch marquee games, but keeping track of which platform carries which contest will take more effort than in the past. NBC/Peacock will present up to 100 regular-season games, highlighted by Tuesday night regional doubleheaders and a new Sunday-night showcase launching in January. Every game NBC airs will also stream live on Peacock, which will add its own exclusive Monday night games to the schedule. Amazon Prime Video has carved out a complementary package that includes 66 regular-season games, every Play-In Tournament matchup, select first- and second-round playoff games, and in certain years a share of the Conference Finals. Prime Video also holds exclusive rights to the Emirates NBA Cup knockout rounds, adding extra weight to its midseason coverage. Regional sports networks (RSNs) remain the toughest piece of the puzzle. These local channels still carry the majority of NBA games, yet many—such as Fox Sports, NBC Sports RSNs, YES Network, and Marquee Sports Network—are absent from the most popular streaming services due to unresolved carriage disputes. RSNs are even more important now with the Emirates NBA Cup, the league’s midseason tournament. Group play begins October 31 and the knockout rounds wrap up on December 16, with most games still shown on each team’s local network alongside selected national broadcasts. Whether you want to chase the Cup or simply follow your home team, the best approach is to find a service that carries your RSN and pair it with one of the national platforms. A handful of teams still have over-the-air arrangements, but those are increasingly rare. Here’s a guide to all your 2025–26 options when the season tips off on October 21. Over the air The Televes Bexia is a high-performance indoor TV antenna suited for homes in areas with strong- to medium-powered broadcast TV signals. In our tests, it was comparable to the best indoor antennas we’ve tested, including the Winegard Flatwave Amped.Martyn Williams/Foundry The good news is you can access ABC for free if you have an over-the-air TV antenna (you’ll find our top antenna picks here) and are within the radius of your local ABC affiliate’s broadcast tower. The bad news is the network is scheduled to air only about two dozen of this year’s nationally televised games. These, however, include some of the league’s marquee matchups, including five Christmas Day games. You can watch the remaining games with some combination of the following services. Streaming service options Sling TV Sling TV remains a flexible option for catching nationally televised NBA games. The Orange plan costs $45.99/month and includes ESPN and ESPN2, with NBA TV available through the Sports Extra add-on for $11. New subscribers often get the first month at a discounted rate (around ~$23). Sling has also rolled out a $4.99 Day Pass, which provides 24-hour access to its Orange channels, and you can add Sports Extra to that pass as well. DirectTV Stream You can get ESPN, ESPN2, and and NBA TV via DirectTV Stream‘s Choice plan for $89.99 per month. RSN availability varies by location, so you’ll need to enter your ZIP code during signup to see exactly which regional networks (if any) your package will carry. DirecTV Stream also includes your local NBC affiliate in most markets, so you’ll be able to catch NBC’s share of national NBA broadcasts, such as Tuesday doubleheaders and the Sunday-night showcase. But, as with other live TV services, you’ll still need a separate Peacock subscription to stream Peacock-exclusive Monday night games. Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV Both Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV give you access to ABC and ESPN/ESPN2 for a flat fee, but only YouTube TV offers NBA TV, giving it the edge for hoop heads. Hulu + Live TV costs $82.99 a month with ads or $95.99 a month with the No Ads plan (live broadcasts still carry commercials either way) and includes Hulu’s on-demand library, Disney+, and ESPN Select. YouTube TV charges $82.99 a month, discounted to $49.99 a month for the first two months. Both services carry your local NBC affiliate in most markets, which means you’ll be able to watch NBC’s slate of national NBA broadcasts, including Tuesday doubleheaders and the new Sunday-night showcase. However, you’ll need a separate subscription to catch Peacock-exclusive Monday night games. With just the one base channel package for each of these services, you don’t get the customizability of Sling TV or DirecTV Stream, so keep that in mind if you plan to use your subscription beyond basketball season. YouTube TV uses a small number of menu sections to make navigation easier.Martyn Williams/Foundry FuboTV FuboTV offers ABC and ESPN in its $79.99-per-month Pro package, and you get $20 off the first month. This package also includes the regional sports networks NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California, which is great news if you’re a fan of the Kings, Warriors, Lakers, or Clippers. You can add NBA TV by purchasing the Sports Lite add-on for an additional $9.99 a month. FuboTV also carries local NBC affiliates in most markets, so you’ll be able to see NBC’s Tuesday night doubleheaders and Sunday-night showcase games. But as with other services, Peacock-exclusive Monday night games aren’t included. Fubo appeals to sports fans, and it includes NBA TV.Martyn Williams/Foundry Peacock Peacock is now a must-have for NBA fans under the league’s new media rights deal. A subscription costs $10.99 a month for the Premium plan or $16.99 a month for Premium Plus (with lighter ads and extra features). Peacock streams every NBA game that airs on NBC; plus, a package of exclusive Monday-night games. It will also carry NBC’s Tuesday night doubleheaders and the new Sunday-night showcase beginning in January, making it the only standalone service that delivers such a large share of the national schedule. ESPN ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service launched this past summer, giving fans their first chance to watch the network’s full slate of games without a cable or live TV bundle. The service offers two tiers: Select, at $11.99 a month (or $119.99 a year) folds in the former ESPN+ library; Unlimited, at $29.99 a month (or $299.99 a year), adds live access to ESPN’s full lineup of channels along with ESPN on ABC broadcasts. Existing ESPN+ subscribers were migrated to the Select tier automatically. A launch bundle also offers Unlimited with Disney+ and Hulu for $29.99 a month for the first year. For NBA fans, that means every ESPN-televised game is now available as a standalone streaming option. Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video has also become a central player in the NBA’s new media landscape. A subscription to Amazon Prime, which includes Prime Video, costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year (Prime Video by itself is available for $8.99 a month). Under its 11-year agreement with the NBA, Prime Video will stream 66 regular-season games, including marquee Friday-night matchups and, beginning in January, Thursday-night doubleheaders once the NFL season wraps. It also holds exclusive rights to all Play-In Tournament games, the knockout rounds of the NBA Cup, and selected first- and second-round playoff contests, as well as a rotating share of the Conference Finals. NBA League Pass If you’re truly hardcore for the hardwood, you should consider a subscription to NBA League Pass, the league’s official streaming service. For $109.99 a year or $16.99 per month, you can watch every live out-of-market game that isn’t being broadcast nationally on one of the four networks we’ve mentioned. A League Pass subscription allows you to watch every game feed (home, away, mobile view, plus additional languages and camera angles) on your TV, computer, tablet, and smartphone. Games are available three hours after completion in the video archives. You also get anytime access to a curated selection of “classic” games. For $159.99 a year or $24.99 per month, you can upgrade to NBA League Pass Premium, which enables you to stream a game on three devices at once and watch all games commercial free. With an NBA League Pass subscription, you can stream live out-of-market games to your TV, computer, or mobile device.Martyn Williams/Foundry NBA Team Pass That’s a big investment if you only want to follow your favorite team. NBA Team Pass is a less-expensive alternative. For $89.99 a year, you get access to all your squad’s local broadcasts for both home and away games. The rub is that NBA blackout rules still apply. If you live in your team’s “home” market—a Warriors fan residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, for example—you still won’t be able to watch their games even with a Team Pass subscription (this goes for League Pass as well). Your team’s home market, however, isn’t necessarily defined by your town’s city limits. In the NBA’s own words, the league determines blackout zones “using zip code (if watching via a satellite television provider), a combination of zip code and cable system distribution territory (if watching via a cable television provider), or by the IP address associated with your internet connection or your mobile device’s GPS coordinates.” That means this isn’t a cord-cutting option for everyone. You can see which teams are not available in your area in the blackout section on this page when you choose your subscription. NBA streaming is still 50-50 ball Streaming live NBA games continues to be a mixed bag for cord-cutters. The availability of national broadcasts through streaming services gives you a courtside seat for some of the biggest matchups of the season. But local fanbases who want to follow their team continue to be left on the bench, for the most part. Until streaming options for regional sports networks become more widely available, you might want to dust off your radio. Read...

Who said gaming laptops need to be expensive? If you know what to look for, and if you’re patient for a good deal, you can score a reasonably powerful beast at a great price! This Lenovo LOQ gaming laptop is a good example now that it’s on sale for just $839.99 at Best Buy with a $260 discount, slashed down from its original $1,099.99. This Lenovo LOQ 15IRX10 has a solid configuration that’s more than capable of current-gen PC gaming, let alone your day-to-day needs between Windows 11, work apps, media streaming, and more. The 15.6-inch IPS display is beautiful, the 1920×1080 resolution crisp, the 144Hz refresh rate speedy, and the RTX 5050 card powerful enough to bedazzle you with smooth, lush visuals. This is a great price to pay for access to Nvidia’s latest DLSS 4 features like multi-frame generation. Under the hood, it chugs along thanks to its 13th-gen Intel Core i5-13450HX processor, 16GB of fast DDR5 RAM, and decent 512GB SSD for storage. (You’ll want an external drive or two if you have lots of games and/or videos to store, but you’ll fortunately be able to afford them thanks to the excellent price drop on this machine.) I also appreciate the HDMI port, USB-C video port, triple USB-A 3.2 ports, and 3.5mm audio. It’s a bit chunky at 0.94 inches thick and 5.06 pounds heavy, and it has unimpressive battery life up to about 7 hours per the manufacturer, so it ain’t the most portable thing. But for gaming at home with the option to occasionally take it on the go, it’s not bad. All in all, the Lenovo LOQ 15IRX10 is an affordable gaming laptop option if you want to experience the newness of an RTX 50-series card, and now’s a good time to snag it with it being on sale for just $839.99 at Best Buy! Grab it before this deal vanishes into thin air. This affordable RTX 5050 gaming laptop just got even cheaperBuy the Lenovo LOQ 15IRX10 via Best Buy Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive and luxurious design Built-in kickstand and magnetic display cover Extremely slim and light Very wide color gamut and great color accuracy Excellent sharpness from 14-inch 2560×1600 display Cons IPS Black display panel can’t match OLED’s contrast Only offers USB-C input; no HDMI No Adaptive Sync Our Verdict The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn is a portable monitor that places its focus on attractive yet functional design. That gives it an edge over most competitors, though the image quality of its IPS-LCD display can’t match OLED alternatives. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: HP Series 5 Pro 514pn Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The most inexpensive portable monitors can be had for less than $100, and while they have limitations, they more or less do the job. That can make more expensive portable monitors, like the HP Series 5 Pro 514pn, feel hard to justify. But HP makes a convincing argument for the higher price tag with the monitor’s attractive, lightweight design and superior image quality. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best portable monitors for comparison. HP Series 5 Pro 514pn specs and features The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s technical specifications are a bit unusual for a portable monitor. It has a 14-inch display (technically 14.3 inches), but the resolution is 2560×1600 rather than 1080p. And the display panel is IPS Black with Neo:LED rather than standard IPS or (more rarely) VA, a pair of older technologies. This will become important when I test the portable monitor’s image quality. Display size: 14.3-inch 16:10 aspect ratio Native resolution: 2560×1600 Panel type: IPS Black with Neo:LED Refresh rate: 75Hz Adaptive Sync: None HDR: None Ports: 2x USB Type-C with Power Delivery and power pass-through Audio: None Additional features: Built-in kickstand Dimensions: 12.62 x 8.21 x 0.35 inches Weight: 1.4 pounds Price: $299.99 MSRP The monitor is priced at $299.99 MSRP. It’s not yet available at time of this writing, with the retail launch coming in the holiday shopping season. So you should expect you’ll end up paying around $300, unless you’re reading this from the summer of 2026—in which case, hey, how’s the weather? HP Series 5 Pro 514pn design The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s IPS Black with Neo:LED panel is unusual for a portable monitor, but it’s arguably the design that really helps the 514pn stand apart from the hundreds of alternatives on the market. It has a solid aluminum chassis that allows very little flex. Aluminum is common even among budget portable monitors, but the HP 514pn ups the ante with a unibody design. Matthew Smith / Foundry Many portable monitors, particularly those that are less expensive, have a two-piece design where a flat aluminum panel is attached to a separate bezel. Here, those two elements are one piece of aluminum, which makes the monitor rigid. Most portable monitors feel like I could snap them over my knee if I really put some effort in, but there’s no way I could do the same to the 514pn. The monitor also has a built-in kickstand with 90 degrees of movement, which translates to 45 degrees of tilt. This isn’t a rare feature: the MSI Pro MP165 E6 also has a kickstand, and it’s much less expensive. However, the HP 514pn’s kickstand is wider and made from aluminum, which makes the monitor feel planted. It’s seemingly impossible to knock the monitor over unless you yeet it straight off your desk. In horizontal orientation, at least. The kickstand also supports vertical use, but it’s less stable and doesn’t offer tilt adjustment, instead sitting at a fixed angle of about 21 degrees. This is a common downside for a portable monitor, however. Matthew Smith / Foundry HP also ships the monitor with a clever magnetic screen cover instead of a sleeve or case. The magnetic cover completely covers the display, but it’s extremely light, which keeps the monitor’s all-in weight down to just 1.4 pounds. It’s also just 0.35 inches thick. The downside? It’s possible for the screen cover to slip off if other items rub against it. I do like HP’s approach, but that’s something to keep in mind if you travel with your portable monitor stored in a suitcase alongside other items. The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s design and build quality is certainly a highlight. I’ve complained in the past that mid-range portable monitors, like the Dell Pro 14 Plus, don’t always do enough to stand out from budget peers. The HP 514pn is a different story. It’s attractive and light, yet functional. Most portable monitors feel like I could snap them over my knee if I really put some effort in, but there’s no way I could do the same to the 514pn. HP Series 5 Pro 514pn connectivity The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s connectivity is easy to explain. It has two USB-C ports, one on each side, and both provide Power Delivery. Power pass-through up to 65 watts is supported, which means you can connect a USB-C charger to the 514pn and then pass power to a connected laptop, which will also charge. Of course, that also means the monitor lacks HDMI, which is a notable omission. HDMI remains an incredibly common video standard, of course, and one you might need to use if connecting an older device. You’ll need an adapter or HDMI to USB-C cable to do it here, and neither is provided with the 514pn. HP does provide an L-shape USB-C cable, though, which is handy. This style of cable puts the cable at a 90-degree angle to the USB-C connector, which reduces the profile of the cable when it’s connected to the monitor. That keeps the cable out of your way and reduces clutter on your desk. HP Series 5 Pro 514pn menus, audio The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn has three buttons on the right flank; two for brightness and one for power. Holding down the brightness up button for two seconds opens a color mode menu, which has a few basic options like Warm, Cool, Neutral, and Night (a low blue light mode). Monitor options can also be controlled with HP Display Manager, but image quality adjustments remain limited. HP Display Manager is only available on Windows 10 and 11, so Mac users will have to make do with the on-screen menus. In a break from competitors, the HP 514pn doesn’t have built-in speakers. The speakers built in to portable monitors are often bad, so this isn’t a huge downside. Still, it’s something to keep in mind. HP Series 5 Pro 514pn SDR image quality The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn has an IPS Black Neo:LED panel produced by LG. If you’ve not heard of it before, IPS Black is a newer type of IPS panel that provides deeper, more lifelike black levels, which can improve the panel’s contrast. Neo:LED, meanwhile, appears to be a name used by LG to describe an LCD panel with quantum dots (though LG has not directly confirmed this; this is speculation based on the panel’s characteristics). The 514pn is the first portable monitor with an IPS Black Neo:LED panel, and that gives it a unique image quality edge. Matthew Smith / Foundry HP gets off to a good start in brightness with a maximum measured SDR brightness of 394 nits. As the graph shows, that’s a high level of brightness for a portable monitor, defeated only by the Dell Pro 14 Plus and Viewsonic VX-1655-4K-OLED. High brightness is important if you travel, because you’ll often lack control over the lighting in your environment. The HP 514pn can still look dim in a very bright, sunlit room with many windows, but it’s otherwise easy to view. The HP 514pn also has an anti-glare finish with a semi-gloss look. It doesn’t entirely mitigate glare, and is actually a bit more reflective than the very matte finish found on many budget portable monitors. However, the HP 514pn’s display is a lot less reflective than the glossy finish that OLED portable monitors typically use. Matthew Smith / Foundry Next up is contrast, a traditional weakness of IPS-LCD displays. The IPS Black panel helps to mitigate that with a maximum measured contrast ratio of 1710:1. Your view on that result depends on the comparisons you draw. A contrast ratio of 1710:1 is great for an IPS-LCD portable monitor, and the image looks more immersive than on many such alternatives. When placed next to OLED, though, the HP 514pn’s contrast ratio isn’t going to stand out. The image will look flat in a direct comparison to OLED. Matthew Smith / Foundry IPS-LCD displays also typically lag OLED in color gamut, but here the HP 514pn is an exception to the rule. The Neo:LED panel serves up an incredible color gamut that spans 100 percent of sRGB, 100 percent of AdobeRGB, and 99 percent of DCI-P3. As the graph shows, this is an exceptional result that really stands out in the portable monitor category. It even stands up to or defeats OLED alternatives, which typically display a similar breadth of the DCI-P3 color gamut but a bit less of AdobeRGB. The wide color gamut gives the HP 514pn a vibrant and inviting look that pops when viewing bright and colorful content. It also makes the HP 514pn a decent choice for video and photo editors, as well as digital artists (though the lack of built-in image quality adjustments could prove frustrating). Matthew Smith / Foundry Color accuracy is also a win for the HP 514pn, as it posts one of the best color accuracy scores I’ve seen from a portable monitor. In truth, a lot of mid-range portable monitors are good enough—but the HP 514pn’s accuracy is of the caliber I’d recommend for people who are serious about image accuracy including (once again) artists, photographers, and videographers. Better still, the great color accuracy result is reached with good color accuracy scores across all colors. No single color posted an error value above 2.0, which is fantastic performance for a portable monitor. The color temperature and gamma results are great too. I measured a color temperature of 6500K, which is spot on the target. Gamma came in at 2.3, a bit above the target value of 2.2. The image can appear a bit darker than it should and may lack details in very dark portions of an image, but the difference is subtle. Sharpness is a perk thanks to the HP 514pn’s 2560×1600 resolution. Though it’s not the headliner 4K resolution would be, it still packs roughly 211 pixels per inch. That’s actually a much higher pixel density than a 27-inch 4K monitor, which has 163 pixels per inch. Note, too, that the monitor has a display aspect ratio of 16:10 rather than 16:9. While 16:10 is fairly common in 2025, many portable monitors still have a 16:9 display. The added vertical display space that a 16:10 display provides makes the HP 514pn feel larger than the 14.3-inch panel size would suggest. HP Series 5 Pro 514pn HDR image quality and motion HDR is not supported by the HP Series 5 Pro 514pn. While that might seem like a downside, it’s to be expected from a portable monitor with an IPS-LCD display. Portable monitors currently struggle with HDR, with only high-end OLED models like the Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED providing a passable experience. Motion clarity is modest, too. The monitor has a 75Hz refresh rate, which is a minor bump over the more typical 60Hz, but an increase that small is difficult to notice. The monitor doesn’t have Adaptive Sync support, either, so PC games won’t feel as smooth as they could. Should you buy the HP Series 5 Pro 514pn? The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn is a fantastic pick if you want an attractive, lightweight portable monitor with solid sharpness and decent color performance. Though the HP 514pn’s IPS Black display can’t match the quality of OLED in contrast, the 514pn is able to meet or beat OLED alternatives in color performance. It’s also bright, which is useful when traveling. These perks more than justify the monitor’s $299.99 MSRP. Read...

This week, there’s a lot of attention being shined on Windows 10, Windows 11, and the differences between them. But one thing you should be using on both operating systems is PowerToys, Microsoft’s free goodie bag of expanded features for advanced users. The latest version of the app includes something the OS really should do on its own already: automatic light/dark mode switching. The new Light Switch (nice name) module is the headline feature of PowerToys 0.95, available as a direct download right now, no beta required—and it’s a pretty great implementation of this idea. Not only can you set a schedule for dark/light modes based on a specific time (or sunset to sunrise), you can even offset it or tie it to a specific location for sunset time. And just like Windows itself, you can choose if lighting modes apply to the full interface, specific apps, or both. Michael Crider/Foundry Here’s my favorite part as a shortcut junkie: You can apply a “theme toggle shortcut” to manually switch between light and dark modes at any time. Nice! By default, this is Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + D. To use the new Light Switch feature—and a bunch of other smaller improvements to the other functions in PowerToys—launch the app and check for an update, or download it from the Microsoft Store or GitHub if you don’t have it already. Read...

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s what’s happening with CNN, which is taking another swing at a standalone streaming subscription service.  CNN’s new “All Access” subscription plan comes three years after the colossal failure of CNN+, an attempt at a supplemental streaming service for CNN “superfans” that lasted for less than a month.  The new CNN streaming plan will be a “centralized destination for CNN’s journalism,” but the official CNN press release stops short of promising a simulcast of the CNN basic cable channel.  Priced at $6.99 a month and slated to go live on October 28, the CNN “All Access” plan will offer a “selection of CNN’s live US and International programming,” as well as access to a thousand hours of on-demand CNN Original Series and CNN Films content.  Also on tap is “exclusive new” on-demand CNN shows and special features, “exclusive” live events, and everything in CNN’s basic subscription tier, including all CNN.com articles and subscriber-only content.  Current pay-TV subscribers will get CNN’s new streaming content for free, although they’ll have to subscribe to CNN’s basic tier for full CNN.com access.  CNN has a checkered history when it comes to streaming subscriptions, to put it mildly.  CNN+ was an instant flop, debuting in March 2022 with its own slate of “original, live, on-demand and interactive programming” and shuttering barely a month later. The service cost $5.99 a month and—notoriously—lacked a live feed of basic-cable CNN.  A year later, CNN launched a live 24/7 stream on HBO Max, but that feed will go away on November 17 to make way for the new CNN streaming subscription tier.  So, will the new CNN subscription service deliver a live CNN simulcast? That’s not entirely clear yet, with CNN saying that the “full schedule and content offering will be available at launch.”  It’s worrisome, however, that CNN is promising only a “selection” of live CNN programming, rather than a full-on simulcast of the CNN cable channel. If that’s in fact the case, CNN may face an uphill battle—again—in terms of convincing news junkies to pay up for the new service.  At least early subscribers will get a discount, with CNN offering a year of its All Access tier for $41.99 if you sign up by January 5, 2026. The usual annual rate will be $69.99. Read...

Microsoft seems like it might be pulling back from a strategy limiting its latest AI functionality to just Copilot+ PCs armed with a dedicated NPU. If so, that could be a profound reversal of policy from the last two years. On Thursday, Microsoft announced a slew of new AI improvements that will apply to all Windows 11 PCs, including Copilot Actions, which allow AI agents to perform tasks on your behalf. Microsoft also made tweaks to Copilot, adding a “Hey Copilot” wake word and connected apps, as well as placing Copilot on the Windows 11 taskbar. Yusuf Mehdi, the chief consumer officer for Microsoft and an executive vice president, confirmed that none of the new Copilot functions require a Copilot+ PC, which includes an NPU with 40 TOPS or more. (The exception is an integration with Zoom on Click to Do, in which a user can right-click an email address or group of email addresses and create a Zoom meeting invitation.) The blog post in which the new features were announced was titled “Making every Windows 11 PC an AI PC.” Microsoft’s goal, Mehdi said, was to rebuild the AI PC. “We really feel that the vision that we have is, let’s rewrite the entire operating system around AI and build essentially what becomes truly the AI PC,” he told reporters. Copilot Actions in action.Microsoft “We’ve been now on this AI PC journey for probably three, four years,” Mehdi said. “Prior to that, we had multiple years of innovation that began publicly with our Copilot+ PC push that happened about a year and a half ago, where we essentially rewrote the operating system from the ground up, from the chip all the way to the cloud, to optimize battery, to optimize performance, to introduce new on device NPUs, so that you can run AI locally.” The AI PC was Microsoft’s first foray into AI, oriented around Intel’s Core Ultra Series 1 (Meteor Lake), the AMD Ryzen 8040 series, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. Only Qualcomm’s chip delivered 45 TOPS, over the threshold for the Copilot+ PCs that Microsoft and others started delivering in 2024. At the time, Copilot+ PCs sounded like the next big thing. Over time, it seemed like the Copilot+ tent would expand to include more and more PCs as chipmakers simply made newer chips with dedicated NPUs and more TOPS. But Mehdi didn’t sound as committed when talking to reporters. “We did all of this years of work that let us get to the point of understanding what’s the right way to bring AI in,” Mehdi said. “We’ve learned a lot from that — you know, what features resonate. And one of the big things that I think really came to us is, while Copilot+ PCs really are the tip of the spear and are gaining, you know, fast traction, the big thing was, let’s bring that AI capability to all Windows 11 PCs, and make it really simple for anyone to try it. So that has been the big thing.” It’s not quite the ringing endorsement of Copilot+ PCs that you woud expect to hear from one of the Microsoft executives who launched the Copilot+ initiative in the first place. But it makes sense, too. Was Copilot+ too niche for Microsoft’s ambitions? A dedicated Copilot key on a laptop keyboard.IDG / Mark Hachman Put simply, Copilot+ PCs bombed in their first year, and there’s no reason to believe that sales shot up while Microsoft was trying to solve the problems around Recall. Mehdi told reporters that the “top feature” on Copilot+ PCs is semantic search, not Recall, but that’s still limited to Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors. But as we pointed out in 2024, the most powerful NPU is a GPU. An NPU’s strength is performing AI-optimized tasks effectively to maximize battery life, but the best LLMs and the most powerful generative AI art still runs best on a GPU if power isn’t an issue. It would make sense, then, if Microsoft were to de-emphasize local AI in order to favor a more all-encompassing message. But to do so would mean somewhat ditching Copilot+ and intrinsically discarding the accomplishments of its chip partners. Intel and Qualcomm just spent several days talking about the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) as well as the Snapdragon X2 Elite, respectively, after all. That would be a shocking reversal of the marketing message used by virtually all of the PC industry for most of the past few years. Microsoft didn’t address a PCWorld question whether Microsoft’s more inclusive stance toward AI also meant that it was moving away from Copilot+ and local AI. To be fair, Microsoft’s blog post ended with recommendations for new PCs to replace older Windows 10 hardware that officially ended support this week. All were Copilot+ PCs. Still, of the two blog posts Microsoft issued in support of its new Copilot features, the term “Copilot+” was used just a single time, to describe the Zoom integration into Click to Do. The term “NPU”? It didn’t appear. Not once. Read...

Microsoft’s Copilot Actions is what happens when Microsoft begins rethinking the future of Windows and how AI is integrated into the operating system. Imagine agentic AI being turned loose inside your PC and performing tasks without your supervision. It’s a big swing that’s conceptually almost as unsettling as Windows Recall. What happens when you ask AI to start mining and collating and adjusting your files, giving AI agents essentially the same user accounts you might give to members of your family? Microsoft is giving you tools to monitor this voluntary service, but… whew. It’s a monumental shift. The vision of Copilot Actions In a briefing with reporters, Microsoft executives gave the impression that with Windows 10 relegated to the back burner, it’s time for Windows 11—and whatever comes after it—to go full speed ahead. Copilot Actions is Microsoft’s current answer, and it’s one of Microsoft’s biggest AI features of 2025. The demo consisted of “uploading” multiple files to Copilot Actions, then telling it (via a Copilot prompt) to adjust their orientations and eliminate any duplicates. “We really feel that the vision that we have is, let’s rewrite the entire operating system around AI and build essentially what becomes truly the AI PC,” Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president and Microsoft’s chief consumer officer, told reporters in a briefing. “Now people have talked about an AI PC, but it hasn’t really come to life yet. There’s been many reasons that hasn’t happened.” Microsoft’s Copilot Vision has a prompt box, a list of tasks, and the option to stop.Microsoft One reason? Performance. Just two years ago, Microsoft began talking about the AI PC in terms of a new addition to chip architecture (called the NPU). Today, AI is largely split between the cloud (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) and local PCs, where chipmakers like AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm have struggled to find a killer app use case. The NPUs, Copilot+ PCs, and 40+ TOPS requirement has split the PC market, even though Copilot+ PC sales have been a tiny fraction of the overall market. Microsoft’s Mehdi sounds like he’s willing to toss all of that aside. “One of the big things that I think really came to us is, while Copilot+ PCs really are the tip of the spear and are gaining fast traction, the big thing was, let’s bring that AI capability to all Windows 11 PCs and make it really simple for anyone to try it.” What does Copilot Actions do? In 2023, Microsoft promised that Copilot would be able to actually adjust your PC. In reality, that turned out to be nothing more than lukewarm capabilities to adjust dark mode and other options. In May 2025, Microsoft showed off AI agents that would be able to make deeper changes. This month, Windows Insiders have been able to try out Direct Settings Access, where Microsoft will guide you to the right Settings menu in response to a query (but won’t make changes itself). In contrast, Copilot Actions are being pitched (at least in the example Microsoft showed reporters) as “Take Action” or the ability to “hand off unnecessary tasks.” If you open the Copilot app today, you’ll see a drop-down menu (initially on “Quick response”) with a list of options like “Think Deeper.” Copilot Actions appears at the bottom. For Copilot Actions, you’ll need to select the “Take Action” drop-down.Microsoft Copilot Actions will have access to certain parts of your PC—a limited set of your local known folders, such as Documents, Downloads, Desktop, or Pictures—and other resources that are accessible to all accounts. Microsoft envisions you “uploading” or at least marking files that you want Copilot to act upon. As stated above, Microsoft’s example showed off a number of photos that were uploaded, reoriented, and deduplicated. It’s really hard to say what “actions” you’ll be able to take without actually testing it personally, however. Microsoft is taking a cautious approach to Copilot Actions, placing them inside an experimental option for now.Microsoft Microsoft says Copilot Actions will be off by default and describes the feature as a voluntary process where you can supervise every step of the way. Microsoft isn’t just restricting Copilot Actions to Windows Insiders, but also walling it off further by requiring Insiders to participate in Copilot Labs, too. It certainly won’t hit the average PC for months. As it is, Microsoft says it will need to be toggled on via Settings > System > AI components > Agent tools > Experimental agentic features. How safe is Copilot Actions? Microsoft’s Copilot Actions builds on what Microsoft now calls Copilot Actions on the Web, part of its anniversary celebration this past spring. There, Microsoft showed off AI agents that could browse and shop the web on your behalf, pausing before they made any final purchases. Copilot Actions is more aggressive… sort of. In somewhat the same way that a “Deep Research” query using AI formulates a plan and then asks you for approval, Copilot Actions breaks down the task: opening the app, entering text, clicking on elements. But it doesn’t wait, either. It just kicks off the request and it’s up to you to press the black square icon to stop the process (as needed) as it steps through the various tasks. Importantly, you can “take control” and essentially pause Copilot Actions to then take over. If something goes wrong and your files are corrupted or deleted? Well, who knows. Microsoft’s approach to securing this process will likely be picked apart by security experts as well. The left-hand navigation box is the workspace that Copilot Actions sees. This is the completed task.Microsoft In a blog post, Microsoft goes into some of the details. First, Microsoft will be creating agent accounts within Windows, distinct from user accounts on your PC. “This facilitates agent-specific policy application that can be different from the rules applied to other accounts like those for human users,” Microsoft said. Second, these agents will start with limited permissions with access granted to resources you explicitly allow permission to, and a “well-defined boundary” for the agent’s actions. The access can be revoked. Each agent will also have to be digitally signed, Microsoft said, to prevent them from becoming malware. Third, all of the agents will work within a dedicated “workspace,” with runtime isolation and granular permissions that appear to request user intervention if they haven’t already been granted. “This provides the agent with capabilities like its own desktop while limiting the visibility and access the agent has to the user’s desktop activity,” Microsoft says. “The agent workspace is built on recognized security boundaries that Microsoft will defend in accordance with our longstanding security servicing criteria.” It’s not clear how this agentic workspace differs from the “sandbox” that Microsoft provides as part of Windows Sandbox, a virtualized OS that’s a key feature of Windows 11 Pro. Navjot Virk, the corporate vice president of Windows Experiences, acknowledged that Copilot Actions may make mistakes. “We’re absolutely committed to learning from how people use it, and we want to continue to improve the experience, to make it more capable and streamlined over time, and that is why real-world testing of this experience is so critical,” she said. Microsoft hasn’t said when Copilot Actions will be released to the public, but we’d expect it to be relatively soon. It’s certain to be controversial. Read...

It was inevitable: Microsoft plans to carve out space on the Windows 11 taskbar for Copilot, while adding “Hey Copilot” as a wake word to trigger interactions with its AI. While the company isn’t making any overt changes to the branding of Windows 11, its executives this week spoke about reinventing the “AI PC,” the first generation of PCs it launched with early NPUs. Microsoft plans to make PCs smarter, including agents that can take actions and granting Copilot Vision more powers. Adding Copilot to the taskbar will actually be the most visible change to the Windows 11 user interface. However, it’s not the one Microsoft is focusing on. Now, it’s time to talk to your PC again. Yusuf Mehdi, the consumer chief marketing officer and executive vice president for Microsoft, said that the first priority of these new AI PCs was voice. “You should be able to interact with it naturally in text and primarily with voice,” he said in a briefing with reporters. “So you should be able to talk to your PC, have it understand you, and then be able to have magic happen from that, as easy as just talking to it.” “Voice will now become the third input mechanism to use in your PC,” Mehdi added. “It doesn’t replace the keyboard, but it will be an additive thing.” In the Windows 11 2023 Update, Cortana was a separate icon on the Windows 11 taskbar, next to the search box.Mark Hachman / IDG With Windows 10 transitioning into an unsupported state (well, kind of), Windows 11 is really the only focus for Microsoft right now. If the company is readying Windows 12, it will certainly be AI first. But for now, the company plans to test out these new features with Windows 11 Insiders in its beta program in the coming weeks. A key point: none of these new features require an NPU or a Copilot+ PC. They’ll be open to all supported Windows 11 PCs. Copilot: Front and center on the Windows taskbar Microsoft took pains to reiterate that these choices are optional. But if you so choose, you will be able to add Copilot to your taskbar. “Our vision is simple yet bold: to make the taskbar a dynamic hub that helps you accomplish more with less effort, transforming everyday interactions into moments of productivity and delight,” Microsoft said in a blog post. This is what the Windows 11 taskbar will look like now: Copilot essentially replaces the Search box. The Copilot box apparently will serve as a replacement for the existing Search box within Windows 11, though it will handle search queries as well. Importantly, the Copilot box will also include icons for Copilot Vision and Voice, tacitly encouraging you to let Copilot see your screen and hear you. It’s unclear if Copilot is the default. Microsoft says it relies on existing Windows APIs to return apps, files, and settings, without accessing your content. Still, its presence on the screen and taskbar serves as a reminder to use Copilot. Microsoft gives your hands a break with “Hey Copilot” It’s ironic that Microsoft is letting go of Windows 10 this week, since Cortana was one of its flagship features — and “Hey Cortana” was the way to wake it. Cortana, of course, suffered an ignominious deprecation at the hands of the company. In May, Microsoft signaled that “Hey Copilot” would be the trigger to wake Copilot in Windows 11. This feature — now called Voice Mode — is present in the Copilot options. According to Mehdi, it will reach general availability on millions of PCs this week. Saying “Goodbye” will close Copilot, the company said. There’s an ongoing tension with the way people were “trained” to type in search terms, Mehdi said, especially short searches that produced broad results. Now, prompts reward longer inputs, but people are reluctant to type those in because they don’t know what to write. Cortana did appear for a brief time in Windows 11.Mark Hachman / IDG “What we find with Copilot is people don’t know exactly what they want to say,” Mehdi said. “They don’t know exactly what they want to ask or how to ask it. And so with voice, it becomes much simpler, less precise than when you have to have it with a bunch of prompted text.” “I think that’s really kind of the key tipping point, is that you’re able to now easily talk to it and get what you want,” Mehdi said. Will office workers want to talk to their PCs? It’s optional The challenge is also cultural. Can you imagine yourself talking to a PC inside a shared office, even with cubicles, with dozens of coworkers listening in? According to Microsoft, you will: “Hundreds of millions of people today talk for billions of minutes in offices with headphones,” Mehdi said. “They found a way to make it work.” Mehdi also used a specific word to describe how users orally interact with their PCs: not talking “to” the computer, and not talking “with” it, either — but talking “through” it. “And I think that this change to talk with and talk to will come to reality, and we’ll see this thing really take off,” he said. If you’re dead set against talking to — er, through — your PC, there’s another option: Microsoft is adding the ability to interact with Copilot Vision via text. Even dictation on iPhones has helped Microsoft’s user base become more comfortable talking to/through their devices, Microsoft says.Apple Copilot Vision basically sees what you see on your PC’s screen. It doesn’t require an NPU, though my tests found that using it with a Copilot+ equipped PC certainly helped. (Some laptops I used wouldn’t work with Copilot PC, though that was early in the process.) In my test of Copilot Vision, I found it was lousy in helping with older games, but offered real potential in walking you through apps and procedures that you were unfamiliar with. It’s worth noting, though, that Microsoft is testing a Gaming Copilot specifically to help in certain tasks and is launching it with the ROG Xbox Ally. The problem? Copilot Vision was, at the time, all voice driven. Not everybody wants to broadcast to an office or other workspace that they don’t know how to interact with Photoshop. Now Microsoft is granting Copilot Vision an option for text interaction, just like Copilot. “So in the appropriate circumstances, if you want to type in, you can do that,” Mehdi said. It’s not quite clear whether people will want to talk to, with, or through their PCs. I’ve been in a lot of very quiet offices where no one says a word. But Microsoft seems set on making it as comfortable as it can to talk or chat with Copilot. The important thing for the company is that you’re using it. Read...

Razer has debuted the second generation of its Kiyo cameras — the V2 as well as the V2 X — powered by Camo’s AI tools to make you look even better. Razer’s $149.99 Kiyo V2 captures images at 4K, 30 fps. The less expensive $99.99 Kiyo X captures images at a lower 1440p resolution, but increases the capture rate to 60Hz for a more lifelike feel. The V2 includes some features that have been carried over from the first-generation Pro Ultra, which really only lost its position as PCWorld’s best premium webcam because of its high $300 price tag. Both webcams include an 8.3Mpixel Starvis sensor from Sony, autofocus, and a configurable wide-angle field of view which extends to 93 degrees in the V2. The X steps down significantly with a 3.7Mpixel sensor and a narrower, 80-degree field of view, though it includes autofocus as well. The selling point of the V2 appears to be some work Razer did with Camo, a free Windows app that touches up your image using the power of a Copilot+ NPU. The app doesn’t need Razer’s cameras; it can use a basic webcam and apply filters, blur your background, or attach an overlay to identify who you are for streaming purposes. The V2 boasts a “one-click image enhancement” that presumably uses the Camo software, auto-adjusting white balance, exposure, and noise reduction to help you look even better. Naturally, it’s all controlled by Razer’s Synapse software, which has added capabilities like spotlight focus to help make your image pop from the background, custom or not. The V2 also includes HDR capabilities. Razer is marketing both cameras at content creators and streamers, to take advantage of the features both cameras offer. While some of the best webcams don’t cost more than $100, the $150 price tag of the V2 doesn’t seem overly extravagant. Read...