Iâve always been fascinated by Microsoft, and itâs led me on a somewhat surreal path to covering the company for most of my life. It all started in my teenage years, when my curiosity over the inner workings of Windows led to brief moments of fame and lots of moments of trouble with Microsoftâs lawyers.
As a nerdy teenager in the early â00s I would spend hours building PCs to run prerelease versions of Windows, and I would regularly lug my custom machines and CRT monitors to house parties. I would DJ the latest MP3s I had downloaded from Napster and try to impress my friends with a secret new Windows feature they had never seen before.
While Windows rarely impressed my friends, my passion for unreleased Microsoft software really kicked up a gear with Windows XP. Codenamed Whistler, it was a big departure, visually, from Windows 2000 and Windows ME, and there was a lot to play around with during early beta builds.
Microsoft issued public builds of Windows XP in late 2000, but the really interesting parts were hidden away in the daily builds that Microsoftâs Windows engineers were working on. I wanted to get access to as many of these as possible, so I started to downlo …
Paul Allen (left) and Bill Gates (right) developed Altair Basic nine years before posing for this photograph together in 1984. | Image: Corbis via Getty Images
Bill Gates celebrated Microsoft’s 50th Anniversary by sharing the source code that created the company’s foundation. The 157-page PDF available to download on Gates’ blog contains the origins of Altair Basic — a programming language interpreter for the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer — and “remains the coolest code I’ve ever written to this day,” according to the Microsoft co-founder.
Altair Basic was developed by Gates, fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and programmer Monte Davidoff. The trio reportedly coded “day and night for two months” in 1975. Personal computers were extremely rare, but after seeing the Altair 8800 on the cover of a magazine, Gates and Allen believed that enabling its chip to run a version of the Basic programming language would revolutionize the industry.
“We considered creating a similar tool called a compiler that translates the entire program and then runs it all at once,” Gates said on his blog. “But we figured the line-by-line approach of an interpreter would be helpful to novice programmers since it would give instant feedback on their code, allowing them to fix any mistakes that crop up.”
MITS decided to license the software from Gates and Allen, and Altair Basic became the first product under their new company Micro-soft. You can check out the full code document below or on Gates’ blog. Not only does it have some other details about the early history of Microsoft, but the web page UI has been designed with some funky animations and graphics that pay homage to the retro coding project.
General Timothy Haugh was nominated as head of the NSA and Cyber Command in 2023.
General Timothy Haugh, the director of the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command, was fired on Thursday, according to a report from The Washington Post. His removal reportedly occurred just one day after right-wing activist Laura Loomer pushed for his firing during a meeting with President Donald Trump.
Wendy Noble, the Deputy Director and senior civilian leader of the U.S. National Security Agency, has also been fired and may have been moved to another role at the Pentagon, according to The New York Times.
“NSA Director Tim Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump,” Loomer wrote in a post on X. “That is why they have been fired.” Loomer said Haugh was “hand picked” by General Mark Milley, who butted heads with Trump during his first term. “Why would we want an NSA Director who was referred to Biden after being hand selected by Milley,” Loomer wrote.
Former President Joe Biden nominated Haugh in 2023. He spent more than 30 years in the military and led the Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force.
It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on Signal – even as he apparently takes staffing direction from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office.
Democrats on the Intelligence Committee criticized Haugh’s ousting. “It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on Signal – even as he apparently takes staffing direction from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office,” Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said in a post on Bluesky. Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) said in a statement to The Post he was “deeply disturbed” by Haugh’s removal.
Lieutenant General William J. Hartman, who served as the Cyber Command Deputy, has been named the acting director of the NSA, while NSA executive director Sheila Thomas was appointed acting deputy, according to The Post.
In 2005, Microsoftâs leaders were starting to get worried. Windows and Office were doing well, but the companyâs lead software architect, Ray Ozzie, warned them that an emerging trend threatened Microsoft’s very existence.
“A new business model has emerged in the form of advertising-supported services and software,” warned Ozzie in his famous memo. “This model has the potential to fundamentally impact how we and other developers build, deliver, and monetize innovations.”
Ozzie wanted Microsoft to get ready for the web-based world and cloud computing, fearing the company would otherwise be left behind. In the years after Ozzie’s memo, Google started to build an online competitor to Office with its Google Docs web service that it was selling to businesses and offering free to consumers. But the idea of moving Office to the cloud remained controversial internally. Doing so would upend Microsoftâs traditional method of selling software â and potentially eat into short-term profits in a big way.
âIt was a gutsy call, it wasnât a popular call at Microsoft at that time,â says Rajesh Jha, executive vice president of Microsoftâs experiences and devices group. Steve Ballm …
Microsoft cofounders Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. | Image: Microsoft
Fifty years ago today, Micro-Soft was founded by friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen. As the name implies, Microsoft was originally focused on microprocessors and software, and Gates and Allen created the company to develop software for the Altair 8800, an early personal computer.
Founded on April 4th, 1975, Microsoft went on to strike a deal with IBM to provide software for its first PC in 1980. This became the foundation of MS-DOS, which dominated IBM-compatible PCs during the ’80s. Microsoft’s early success in developing software for PCs eventually led to the first version of Windows in 1985 and a dream of a PC on every desk and in every home.
That early Windows GUI on top of MS-DOS quickly progressed into an even more capable operating system with the launch of Windows 95. The highly-anticipated version of Windows launched at midnight, with fans lining up at stores to get boxed copies of Windows 95 to install on their PCs. Windows 95 introduced many parts of Windows that we still use today, including the familiar desktop, File Explorer, My Documents area, and Recycle Bin.
While Microsoft was improving Windows with every release, it was also developing a variety of productivity apps throughout the 1980s that would soon become the company’s Office suite. Launched originally in 1989 for the Mac, Office quickly became an important productivity suite on Windows that even runs inside a web browser these days. Office and Windows are now used by billions of people every day, making Microsoft one of the most valuable tech companies in the world.
Microsoft’s success with Windows and Office has allowed the company to expand in many directions over the past 50 years, including the launch of the Xbox game console in 2001, the Azure cloud push in 2008, and even the Bing search engine launch in 2009.
Microsoft has also experimented with a variety of hardware over the years, but its most successful device lineup has come in the form of Surface, which originally launched in 2012 alongside Windows 8. Surface has served as a vehicle to demonstrate the best of Windows and Office, and it’s quickly becoming a test bed for Microsoft’s AI ambitions on the PC.
Microsoft’s next 50 years look increasingly focused on an AI transformation it’s in the middle of building toward. It has the potential to overhaul Windows, Office, Azure, and practically every business that Microsoft has built over the decades.
Microsoft is celebrating its 50-year anniversary today during a special event at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The software maker will unveil new Copilot features, and we’re expecting to see familiar faces from the past and present of Microsoft to reflect on the company’s 50 years and the future of this tech giant.
Microsoft was originally founded on April 4th, 1975, and the tech giant is now celebrating its 50-year anniversary. Microsoft started with a focus on personal computers, building the very software that helped it achieve an early goal of a PC on every desk and in every home.
The success of Windows and Office has allowed Microsoft to launch devices like the Xbox and Surface line and transform its business into software and services in the cloud. Now, Microsoft looks ahead to its next 50 years in a period of AI that could transform everything it does.
Follow along for our coverage of Microsoft’s 50 years, the company’s celebrations, and what’s next for one of the world’s most valuable tech companies.
First things first, some exciting news: The Vergecast has been nominated for a Webby Award! This one means a lot to us, especially because itâs an award you get to vote on. Weâd be so grateful if youâd go vote for us once, or 40 times, or however many times the site will allow. (Also, honestly, you should listen to some of the other nominees; all four are great shows. Just donât vote for them.)
Now, as for this episode. This is a seriously Vergecast-y week, actually, in the sense that two of the yearâs biggest news stories â the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Trump administrationâs disastrous economic policy â are both unfolding simultaneously, and stand to affect one another in unusually direct ways. So in this episode, thatâs what we talk about: the gadget weâre all eagerly awaiting, and the policy chaos that could change the way it works.
First, we talk Switch. Nintendoâs Direct announcement this week brought a lot of new information about the companyâs new console, and a peek at some of its most anticipated games. Nilay, David, and The Vergeâs Richard Lawler dig into wha …
Honda is looking to the stars for its next hydrogen breakthrough.
The automaker is teaming up with space tech companies Sierra Space and Tec-Masters to test its high-differential pressure water electrolysis system on the International Space Station. The test is part of Honda’s vision to support life on the Moon and elsewhere in space using regenerative fuel cell technology that continuously produces hydrogen, oxygen, and electricity.
It’s another risky move from Honda, which is more bullish on hydrogen than most other automakers. Hydrogen-powered cars have historically faced a lot of hurdles, including fueling challenges and pricing pressures. But Honda is counting on hydrogen to help it decarbonize its vehicle fleet by 2040. And now it wants to tap into the most abundant element in the universe to power its push into space.
Honda says it envisions its hydrogen-powered regenerative system as part of a human settlement on the lunar surface. But it also hopes that by stress testing the technology on the Moon, it can prove its utility on Earth.
It’s another risky move from Honda, which is more bullish on hydrogen than most other automakers
Here’s how Honda’s system works: during the lunar day, the system will use electricity generated by solar panels capturing sunlight. The company’s high-differential pressure water electrolysis system will then produce hydrogen and oxygen from water. When the Moon rotates away from the Sun, some of the oxygen will be used for astronauts, with the rest put toward generating electricity. The only byproduct of the electrolysis process is water, which is recycled back into the regenerative system, creating a closed-loop energy cycle.
Honda plans on testing the process in the microgravity environment on the ISS. The company says it will work with NASA to transport the equipment on Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane, with Tec-Masters as the ISS technology expert.
Creating a reliable source of oxygen and electricity in space would help humans establish livable habitats off-Earth in an era when space travel seems more achievable than ever. While the science community has explored the use of electrolysis as a means to sustain life in the vacuum of space, it has found that low gravity environments will have some effect on the gas-evolving process. A study published in 2022 concluded that around 11 percent less oxygen was created through electrolysis in a lunar environment as compared to the gravity of Earth.
When you set up a new camera, or even go to take a picture on some smartphones, youâre presented with a key choice: JPG or RAW?
JPGs are ready to post just about anywhere, while RAWs yield an unfinished file filled with extra data that allows for much richer post-processing. That option for a RAW file (and even the generic name, RAW) has been standardized across the camera industry â but despite that, the camera world has never actually settled on one standardized RAW format.
Most cameras capture RAW files in proprietary formats, like Canonâs CR3, Nikonâs NEF, and Sonyâs ARW. The result is a world of compatibility issues. Photo editing software needs to specifically support not just each manufacturerâs file type but also make changes for each new camera that shoots it. That creates pain for app developers and early camera adopters who want to know that their preferred software will just work.
Adobe tried to solve this problem years ago with a universal RAW format, DNG (Digital Negative), which it open-sourced for anyone to use. A handful of camera manufacturers have since adopted DNG as their RAW format. But the largest names in the space still use their own proprie …
China has responded to Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs with its own charges on US goods. After Trump announced the imposition of an additional 34 percent charge on Chinese imports into the US, China has announced a levy at the same rate for US goods shipped to China.
It has also barred 11 US companies from trading in the country, added 16 more to an export controls list, applied new restrictions to rare earth mineral exports, filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), and started investigations into imports of American medical equipment.
In a statement announcing the new tariff, China’s finance ministry declared that the US tariff on Chinese goods “seriously undermines China’s legitimate rights and interests,” and called it a “typical unilateral bullying practice.”
Trump announced his latest levy on Chinese imports as part of new tariff rates that affect every country the US trades with, including a few uninhabited islands. It followed twoseparate 10 percent tariffs on China from earlier in the year, bringing the US’s total tariff on Chinese goods to 54 percent. He also signed an executive order ending the “de minimis” exemption for packages valued below $800, which could be a death blow for Chinese retailers like Shein and Temu.
“China urges the United States to immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and resolve trade differences through consultation in an equal, respectful and mutually beneficial manner,” the statement concludes. The Chinese levy will go into effect on April 10th, one day after the US’s new tariff starts to apply.
China has also imposed strict limits on the exports of some rare earth elements that are mined almost exclusively in China and used in electric vehicles, weapons, and other tech.
It’s also launching investigations into exports of X-ray tubes from America and India, amid allegations of “dumping” — when exported goods are sold for less than their domestic price, damaging the local industry. If that sounds oddly specific, bear in mind that the US dominates the international medical device trade.
The country has also barred 11 American businesses accused of “military and technological cooperation with Taiwan” from importing to, exporting from, or investing in China, adding them to its “Unreliable Entity List.” The new additions, mostly made up of drone and defense companies, include drone manufacturer Skydio, which started out making consumer drones but pivoted entirely to enterprise in 2023.
A further 16 US companies have been placed under export controls, banning the export of dual-use items – anything that can be used for both civilian and military purposes – to those companies. The BBC reports that a further six companies have been prohibited from shipping their goods to China because of “food safety concerns.”
China’s Commerce Ministry also says that it has filed a new charge within the WTO’s dispute settlement system, claiming that Trump’s reciprocal tariffs violate WTO rules. China initially lodged a complaint with the WTO in early February after Trump’s first 10 percent tariff, and updated it following the second round in March, but the WTO only describes the complaint as “In consultations.”
Though Superman is clearly going to get the living daylights beat out of him at some point in James Gunn’s upcoming DC Studios feature, the movie’s latest trailer puts a spotlight on how the Man of Steel gets put back together again.
During its presentation at this year’s CinemaCon, Warner Bros. shared an extended sneak peek from the new Superman, and the studio has just posted the footage online. For the most part, the video focuses on a very badly-wounded Superman (David Corenswet) begging for his dog, Krypto, to drag him home because he’s unable to walk or fly.
While it’s played for comedy, it’s a little morbid to see Superman’s body flopping around like most of his bones are broken. But the scene becomes much weirder (in a good way) as Krypto drags Superman to a very inspired take on the Fortress of Solitude, where a team of cape-wearing medical robots are ready to run triage. Along with a very wild shot of the robots concentrating the sun’s light to heal Superman, the trailer also features longer shots of Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), and Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion).
Gunn is obviously banking on audiences digging a wilder, more whimsical world of superheroes, and it might pay off when Superman hits theaters on July 11th.
The CEO of Steve Jackson Games, which makes board games and card games, says that the 54 percent tariff on goods imported from China that will go into effect on April 5th is a “seismic shift” for the board game industry and that “prices are going up.”
“At Steve Jackson Games, we are actively assessing what this means for our products, our pricing, and our future plans,” CEO Meredith Placko says in a post. “We do know that we can’t absorb this kind of cost increase without raising prices. We’ve done our best over the past few years to shield players and retailers from the full brunt of rising freight costs and other increases, but this new tax changes the equation entirely.”
In the post, Placko spells out an example of how the tariff could affect costs. “A product we might have manufactured in China for $3.00 last year could now cost $4.62 before we even ship it across the ocean,” she says. “Add freight, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution margins, and that once-$25 game quickly becomes a $40 product. That’s not a luxury upcharge; it’s survival math.”
Placko adds that the company doesn’t manufacture in the US because the infrastructure “doesn’t meaningfully exist here yet.” She acknowledges that tariffs can be “an effective tool” when they are “part of a long-term strategy to bolster domestic manufacturing.” But she says that “there is no national plan in place to support manufacturing for the types of products we make.”
If you’re frustrated with the tariffs, Placko suggests writing to your elected officials. “Ask them how these new policies help American creators and small businesses,” she says. “Because right now, it feels like they don’t.”
The Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) has also issued a grim warning. “The latest imposition of a 54% tariff on products from China by the administration is dire news for the tabletop industry and the broader US economy,” GAMA said, according to Polygon. Card-grading company PSA has released a statement about the new tariffs, too, saying that the company has paused direct card grading submissions from outside the US.
In March, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks told Yahoo Finance that “when you’re talking about tariffs in the neighborhood of 20 percent plus, that’s a cost that we can’t fully accommodate. It will have to be passed on.”
Yes, prices will likely go up though not right away.
If you were wondering how President Trumpâs tariffs may impact gadgets like smartphones, laptops, and smartwatches, thereâs some bad, and perhaps slightly less-bad news. Unless something changes, Trumpâs sweeping tariffs will lead to increased prices for consumers. But it will likely take some time before that actually happens.
Modern gadgets generally arenât made or assembled solely in the U.S. anymore. Device makers big and small source components from all over the world, and often have them assembled overseas before importing the final product into the country. Given that Trump has levied tariffs on every single country, it means that the cost to make all our devices will inevitably go up.
âThe biggest thing right now is going to be the inflationary impact,â says Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. âIf they stay in place for several months, weâll start to see those effects by mid-summer and certainly back-to-school season.â
Miller notes goods shipped from China to the U.S. will face a whopping 54 percent tariffs, including most gadgets.Vietnam, where Apple has shifted some of its manufacturing, also has a high …
The Pixel 9A’s main camera might go to the base Pixel 10.
Google’s upcoming base Pixel 10 might come with primary and ultrawide cameras that match the hardware recently introduced in the budget Pixel 9A, which aren’t as good as the cameras on the Pixel 9, Android Authority reports. However, the new phone may get a telephoto camera, which the Pixel 9 and other base Pixels haven’t had.
As for the Pixel 10 Pro devices, Android Authority reports that they will have the same camera hardware as the 9 Pro, which could indicate that Google may lean more on the abilities of its expected next-generation Tensor G5 chip to improve photos.
Meanwhile, the upcoming Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which is rumored to have an almost identical design to the previous model, might also get the Pixel 9A’s primary shooter.
Last year, Google announced its Pixel 9 lineup in August, and it’s possible that the company could pick that timeframe again to launch the Pixel 10 series. The company will release the Pixel 9A on April 10th.
The card grading service PSA will no longer take direct submissions from outside the US in response to the Trump administration’s new far-reaching tariffs. In an update on Wednesday, PSA says it’s “reluctantly taking these measures to protect our international customers from significant tariff expenses.”
As noted by PSA, the tariffs are “against the value of the items in the order rather than on the PSA service fee.” That means sending high-value Pokémon or sports cards to PSA would result in hefty fees. Under a 10 percent tariff, for example, a card valued at $5,000 would incur a $500 fee.
Though PSA is pausing international submissions now, that doesn’t mean cards currently at — or in transit — to its facilities will escape additional charges. PSA notes that orders entering the US after 12:01AM on April 5th may be affected by tariffs, and may also face “not-yet-announced” retaliatory tariffs upon return. “PSA will leverage available means to limit tariff exposure for customers outside of the US,” the company says.
PSA has already stopped accepting direct submissions from Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Mexico due to the first round of tariffs imposed earlier this year. However, PSA notes that customers in Canada and Japan can still get their cards graded by sending or bringing them to its physical locations in both countries.
Maybe the iPhone 16E’s higher price had tariffs in mind.
The US smartphone market is weird. Most of us buy our phones through some combination of installment plans, trade-in offers, and carrier deals, so answering the question âHow much does this phone cost?â can sometimes require a little galaxy-brain math. President Trumpâs 34 percent tariff increaseon Chinese goods is set to take effect on April 9th, making things even more complicated. Will Apple, for instance, pass the extra cost of an iPhone right along to buyers? The market seems to think so. Itâs likely why Appleâs shares are down almost 10 percent, the worst drop in about five years.
But Gerrit Schneemann, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, doesnât necessarily believe weâll see an immediate price increase.
âI donât foresee them⦠on a short-term basis just raising prices unnecessarily,âSchneemann told The Verge.
He points out that Appleâs margins (historically about 38 percent)give it more wiggle room to absorb the costs of the tariffs, at least in the short term. âBut I think if this sticks, then probably with the 17 we could see a price hike,â he said, referring to the iPhone 17 expected in the fall.
TikTok is shutting down Notes, its photos-sharing app that rivaled Instagram. In a notification to users, the TikTok Notes team says the app will stop working starting May 8th, and “all related features will no longer be available.”
TikTok first rolled out Notes in April of last year, which lets users share photos alongside a caption, as well as scroll through a “For You” feed with recommended content. The app was initially rolled out in limited testing to Australia and Canada.
The decision to close the app “was not made lightly,” according to TikTok’s message. It also suggests that users try out Lemon8, another social platform owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance.
Lemon8 lets users share both photos and videos, and has a focus on lifestyle topics, like beauty, food, fashion, travel, and pets. Though TikTok started nudging users toward the app in the days leading up to its brief shutdown in the US, Lemon8 was also taken offline by the ban.
“We’re excited to bring the feedback from TikTok Notes to Lemon8 as we continue building a dedicated space for our community to share and experience photo content, designed to complement and enhance the TikTok experience,” a TikTok spokesperson said to TechCrunch.
Microsoft is testing out resizable taskbar icons in Windows 11 that can shrink as you open more apps or stay at a smaller size for good. The new options are included in the latest Insider Preview Beta.
If you’re on the beta, under Taskbar settings > Taskbar behaviors, you can now select options under Show smaller taskbar buttons: Always, Never, or When taskbar is full. The third option will scale down icons so that they all can fit and not get hidden away in a second menu.
The behavior appears to be similar to macOS where icons on the dock get smaller as more applications or minimized windows are added.
X user phantomofearth, who frequently digs through Insider builds, posted that there’s an update to the Start menu as well. Now, it has a larger layout that includes the ability to hide the recommended recent apps and can show all of your apps on the page.
Microsoft notes that people who update to this Insider Build might lose those cool new battery charge status icons it introduced in January, but the company plans to bring it back to Insiders soon.
The biggest threat to the Steam Deck in 2025 wonât be the arrival of other Windows-based handheld gaming PCs. Instead, itâll likely be the Nintendo Switch 2, which arrives on June 5 for $449.99 â smack dab between the cost of the $399 Steam Deck LCD and the $549 Steam Deck OLED.Â
Ironically, the Steam Deck is also the Switch 2âs biggest threat. While Nintendoâs new console may have Valveâs beat on screen resolution, refresh rate, and a custom Nvidia processor capable of DLSS and ray tracing, Steam trumps it in value, particularly with game prices.
I get it, I get it. Theyâre totally different devices. So even though comparing Nintendo and Valveâs hardware and software philosophies is an apples versus oranges exercise, the two devices â and companies â are more aligned than you might think. And thatâs especially true when consumers, whether because of tariffs or other economic reasons, need to choose between one or the other.
Youâve come to the right place, as weâll break down all of the specs worth caring about to show how they stack up.
Pricing and availability
As mentioned, the Switch 2 and the Steam Deck have somewhat similar prices. The Switch 2 …
Amazon has introduced a new Recaps feature on several Kindle models. | Image: Amazon
Amazon is comparing a new feature for the Kindle to the “Previously on…” segments that TV shows frequently use. But the Kindle’s Recaps feature is instead focused on book series and provides a “quick refresher on storylines and character arcs” before readers start the next book, Amazon says.
The short Recaps, which do include spoilers, are available to readers in the US for “thousands of bestselling English language Kindle books in series you have purchased or borrowed,” according to Amazon.
You can determine if a series you’re reading has Recaps available by looking for a View Recaps button “in the series page in your Kindle Library.” It will also be available in a three-dot menu where you see a series of books grouped together in the Kindle UI.
Amazon says it’s being rolled out as an over-the-air update over the next several weeks, but it can also be downloaded from Amazon’s website and manually installed on Kindles immediately. Amazon also plans to soon make it available on its Kindle app for iOS.
