Microsoft is starting to integrate AI shortcuts, or what it calls AI actions, into the File Explorer in Windows 11. These shortcuts let you right-click on a file and quickly get to Windows AI features like blurring the background of a photo, erasing objects, or even summarizing content from Office files.
Four image actions are currently being tested in the latest Dev Channel builds of Windows 11, including Bing visual search to find similar images on the web, the blur background and erase objects features found in the Photos app, and the remove background option in Paint.
Microsoft is also planning to test similar AI actions for Office files soon, enabling you to summarize documents stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, or quickly create AI-generated lists from files. These Office AI actions will be limited to Microsoft 365 commercial subscribers with a Copilot license, and consumer support is “coming later.”
It’s not clear if these AI actions can be disabled in the context menu, but they also join an “Ask Copilot” option that Microsoft added to the right-click menu of the File Explorer recently.
Alongside the AI-powered shortcuts in File Explorer, Microsoft is also testing some visual changes to the widgets feature in Windows 11, “with a more organized, personalized, and engaging feed,” according to the Windows Insider team. “In addition, we are introducing Copilot-curated stories into the feed.”
This latest Dev Channel build also includes a new “User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management” feature, which Microsoft describes as an OS-level change to reduce power consumption on laptops and tablets. “After a period of inactivity on your PC, Windows now conserves power by automatically applying efficient power management policies,” says the Windows Insider team. “This happens seamlessly to save energy while you’re inactive, with full performance instantly restored the moment you get back to it.”
A cheaper plan is also available, but only to existing All Apps subscribers.
Some of Adobe’s most expensive Creative Cloud subscriptions are about to get even pricier for users in North America. Starting from June 17th, the Creative Cloud All Apps plan will be renamed Creative Cloud Pro for users in the US, Canada, and Mexico, adding a bunch of generative AI perks in exchange for bumping up subscription costs.
The pre-tax monthly price for individual Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers on an annual contract will increase from $59.99 to $69.99, or from $659.88 to $779.99 annually. The monthly price for rolling, non-contracted subscribers will jump from $89.99 to $104.99. Contracted prices for teams start at $99.99 per month, up from $89.99, while student and teacher plans will jump from $34.99 to $39.99 monthly on renewal.
The new Creative Cloud Pro plan provides access to the same Adobe apps and features as the previous All Apps plan, alongside some new additions. Users will have unlimited credits for powering generative AI image tools like Photoshop’s Generate Fill, and 4,000 monthly credits for “premium” AI video and audio features like Generative Extend in Premiere Pro. The plan also includes the ability to select third-party generative AI models like OpenAI’s GPT and Google Imagen, and access to Adobe’s in-beta collaborative whiteboard app, Firefly Boards.
“We want to empower you with more time to explore ideas and create, so we’re focused on continually upgrading your apps’ performance, delivering innovations to your core workflows, and integrating generative AI-powered capabilities across Creative Cloud and through our new Firefly app that make you more productive,” Adobe said in its announcement. “Today, we’re sharing updates to our Creative Cloud offerings to reflect our continued innovation and commitment to providing you the best tools for bringing your visions to life.”
The previous All Apps plan will no longer be available following the switch, and existing subscribers will be charged the increased price on their next renewal date. These changes only apply in North America, and Adobe says it isn’t planning to make name or pricing changes in other regions “at this time.”
Adobe is also offering a stripped-back “Creative Cloud Standard” plan for users who don’t need its generative AI offerings. Starting at $54.99 per month for contracted subscribers or $82.49 for rolling users, the Creative Cloud Standard plan is nearly identical to the current All Apps plan, but reduces the previous 1,000 monthly generative credit allowance down to 25. Users also won’t have access to premium web and mobile app features that are unlocked for Creative Cloud Pro subscribers.
Not only is Adobe defaulting current All Apps subscribers to the more expensive AI-laden plan, compared to the Standard offering that’s closer in price and features, but this new Creative Cloud Standard offering is only available to existing subscribers, forcing new customers to take the more expensive AI-focused plan.
Adobe’s All Apps plan was a poor investment for most individual users anyway, as it’s rare for one person to need more than 20 apps that target such a wide variety of creative industries. Still, some existing All Apps subscribers aren’t too pleased with the changes, if the reactions on Adobe subreddits are any indication. Canva attempted to make similar AI-driven price increases last year, which were later softened due to backlash from its users, so we will have to see if Adobe sticks to its guns.
Renewable energy has driven a manufacturing boom in the US, but that’s all at stake as Congress weighs cuts to Biden-era tax incentives.
Solar, wind, and battery companies have announced plans to either create or expand 250 manufacturing facilities since August 2022. That’s when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), considered the biggest federal investment to date in climate and clean energy. If those projects are up and running by 2030, they would collectively create more than 575,000 jobs and contribute $86 billion annually to gross domestic product, according to a report published today by the American Clean Power Association (ACP).
Republican districts benefit the most from the IRA’s clean energy tax credits. But now, GOP lawmakers could take away those tax incentives if they follow through with President Donald Trump’s plan to pass a “big, beautiful” spending bill that would rollback what he calls a “green new scam.”
“Republican districts benefit the most from the IRA’s clean energy tax credits”
Despite that growth, supply chains for solar energy have been concentrated in China and beset with concerns about forced labor and human rights violations, particularly in the Xinjiang region. The Inflation Reduction Act was meant to supercharge domestic manufacturing, largely through tax credits. And it was starting topay off. Manufacturing capacity for solar modules grew 190 percent in the US last year, according to a separate report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and research firm Wood Mackenzie.
If those proposals are ultimately signed into law, the US clean energy industry will see job losses as factories shut down, MJ Shiao, ACP Vice President of Supply Chain and Manufacturing said during a press briefing last week.
“What we have seen from these texts from House Ways and Means, it basically goes too far, too fast,” Shiao said. “The manufacturers that were being supported by these incentives, and frankly, were trusting that the government was going to honor these incentives, you know, they’re getting the rug pulled out from under them.”
MSI has revealed its latest iteration of its Claw PC gaming handheld — and this time, it’s powered by AMD. The company showed off the Claw A8 BZ2EM at Computex 2025, which comes with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip along with up to 24GB of DDR5 memory.
That’s a bit less than the 32GB of memory that came with the Intel-equipped Claw 8 AI Plus released late last year, but it still has an 8-inch full HD display, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 1TB M.2 SSD. The AMD-powered Claw A8 will also come in two colors: white and lime green.
There’s a new MSI Claw 8 AI Plus “Polar Tempest” edition, too, which features an up to Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and a 2TB NVMe SSD. It also has what MSI calls a “glittering” white coating. MSI didn’t reveal a release date or price for either model, but it will likely be in the same ballpark as the standard Intel-powered MSI Claw 8 Plus, which Best Buy lists as costing $999.99.
The Streeam Deck Modules can be easily added to customized mounts and other projects.
Elgato announced a new “Stream Deck Everywhere” strategy at Computex, which includes a software-based virtual Stream Deck for PCs, an ethernet dock accessory, unbranded Stream Deck modules that can bring its keys into other products, and even new scissor-switch keys for a more precise, keyboard-like feel. “With these launches, we’re opening up Stream Deck to a world of new users, from developers and DIY builders to manufacturers seeking a field-proven interface for their products,” said Elgato general manager Julian Fest. “Because Stream Deck isn’t just a device—it’s a platform.
Stream Deck Modules are designed for hobbyists and manufacturers to easily integrate into hardware projects instead of ripping apart the consumer version or developing their own custom macropad solutions. The modules are available in 6-, 15-, and 32-key variants and are housed in an aluminum chassis that can be built into custom bases, machines, and furniture, making it possible to actually create Elgato’s ridiculous 1,262-key April Fools’ desk.
The Stream Deck Modules are available now starting at $49.99 for the six-key version, $129.99 for the 15-key, and $199.99 for the 32-key. Elgato technical marketing manager Philipp Eggebrecht told The Verge that discounts will be offered for bulk purchases.
A new variant of the MK.2 Stream Deck has been introduced that replaces the membrane keys with scissor-style switches that provide “enhanced speed and precision,” according to Elgato. Eggebrecht says the scissor keys variant costs $149.99 and will be available in “around two weeks.”
Stream Deck buttons that feel more like keyboard keys would make it easier for users to tell they’ve clicked something without having to look at the device. Elgato describes the scissor switch variant as something that “lends itself to typing-style interactions, paving the way for new use cases that benefit from rapid, multi-layered input and control,” which could be testing the waters for a Stream Deck keyboard or any other application requiring precise controls.
“The idea of a full LCD-key based keyboard is interesting. We’ve explored it in the past and so far, what we’ve found is that the experience hasn’t been great, and there’s the cost question,” Eggebrecht told The Verge. “We’re getting closer to a keyboard feeling with Stream Deck Scissor Keys, and always looking at the technology and what is becoming possible. Stream Deck and keyboards are a natural fit.”
Elgato is also rolling out a software-only Stream Deck for desktop devices, akin to the existing Stream Deck mobile app. The Virtual Stream Deck (VSD) can provide a permanent macro menu on computer screens or be summoned at will when users hit allocated hotkeys and mouse buttons. The VSD software will initially be available for people who own a Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE mouse, Xenon Edge touchscreen, or any Stream Deck model, before later rolling out to “more devices.”
Custom layouts, virtual faceplates, and support for beyond six buttons require iPhone and Android Stream Deck users to pay for Pro access, which starts at $2.99 monthly or $49.99 as a one-time purchase. Eggebrecht says Elgato’s desktop VSD isn’t locked behind a subscription, but does require users to install the Stream Deck 7.0 beta.
A new $79.99 Stream Deck network dock accessory was also announced that includes support for power over Ethernet (PoE), which lets you place its buttons anywhere there’s a network jack, and with more flexibility than USB-C affords by itself. Eggebrecht says the Stream Deck network dock will start shipping in August.
It’s finally possible to purchase an audiobook from Spotify’s iPhone app with just a few taps. On Monday, Spotify announced that Apple approved an update that allows users in the US to see audiobook pricing within the app and buy individual audiobooks outside the App Store.
The update also lets Spotify Premium subscribers purchase additional audiobook listening hours. This change follows last month’s Epic Games vs. Apple ruling, which upended the iPhone maker’s control over the App Store. Under the ruling, Apple can’t collect fees on purchases made outside the app store, nor can it govern how developers point to external purchases.
Spotify submitted the update last week, but now it’s official. The music streaming service pulled audiobook purchases from its iOS app in 2022 after accusing Apple of “choking competition” with App Store rules that made it more difficult to purchase audiobooks. Spotify also started letting iPhone users purchase subscriptions outside the App Store earlier this month.
The iOS apps for Kindle, Patreon, and Delta’s emulator have also taken advantage of the court ruling, but Epic Games is still fighting to bring Fortnite back to the App Store. “This change lowers the barriers for more users to embrace their first — or tenth — audiobook, while allowing publishers and authors to reach fans and access new audiences seamlessly,” Spotify said in its announcement.
WizKids did Baldur’s Gate 3 dirty with its new D&D Icons of the Realms collection of miniature figures. The anticipated collection based on the beloved RPG (my personal 2023 GOTY) launched in April, and some buyers noticed that the characters look nothing — and I mean nothing — like how they were advertised. These cursed recreations of Shadowheart, Astarion, Karlach, Gale, Wyll, and Lae’zel look like unlicensed knockoffs when they are, in fact, officially licensed by Wizards of the Coast. And, it costs $50 for the set!
Anyone who has played the game, or at least seen its cover art numerous times, knows what these characters should look like. They don’t look like 3D-printed discards predestined for the garbage bin, with little to no effort made to look authentic, unless perhaps you’re squinting from 10 feet away.
In response to buyers posting pictures of the botched figures on social media and retail sites, and likely from GamesRadar and other sites posting about it last week, WizKids posted an apology to buyers — and to Wizards of the Coast. In it, it details how to get a refund or a replacement to anyone who bought them online or at a local games store. Keep them, replace them, destroy them, pray to them. It’s up to you.
SAG-AFTRA wrote in a statement that it understands its members and members’ estates wish to use AI technology in any way they choose. “However,” SAG-AFTRA’s statement continued, “we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games.”
While the AI “revolution” slowly replaces human workers with oftentimes inferior products, and despite some members’ distaste for the practice, SAG-AFTRA has embraced the idea of using AI trained to replicate an actor’s performance. It has established contracts and partnerships with several AI companies with the idea being members can use this technology with specific contract-guaranteed protections. So the act of using an AI to replace Darth Vader’s voice performers (both the late James Earl Jones and those brought in after his death to match his performance) isn’t what SAG-AFTRA is objecting to. Rather, it’s the fact that this was done without Epic Games sitting down with SAG-AFTRA at the bargaining table to hash out the specifics.
“Fortnite‘s signatory company, Llama Productions, chose to replace the work of human performers with AI technology,” SAG-AFTRA wrote. “Unfortunately, they did so without providing any notice of their intent to do this and without bargaining with us over appropriate terms.” The Verge has reached out to Epic Games for comment.
AI and its use in video game voice and motion performance is the main stumbling block in the ongoing video game voice actor strike. Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the signatory companies of its interactive media agreement broke down last year, and performers have been on strike since July — a length of time that eclipses both the actors and writers strikes of 2023.
President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law, enacting a bill that will criminalize the distribution of nonconsensual intimate images (NCII) — including AI deepfakes — and require social media platforms to promptly remove them when notified.
The bill sailed through both chambers of Congress with several tech companies, parent and youth advocates, and first lady Melania Trump championing the issue. But critics — including a group that’s made it its mission to combat the distribution of such images — warn that its approach could backfire and harm the very survivors it seeks to protect.
The law makes publishing NCII, whether real or AI-generated, criminally punishable by up to three years in prison, plus fines. It also requires social media platforms to have processes to remove NCII within 48 hours of being notified and “make reasonable efforts” to remove any copies. The Federal Trade Commission is tasked with enforcing the law, and companies have a year to comply.
“I’m going to use that bill for myself, too”
Under any other administration, the Take It Down Act would likely see much of the pushback it does today by groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), which warn the takedown provision could be used to remove or chill a wider array of content than intended, as well as threaten privacy-protecting technologies like encryption, since services that use it would have no way of seeing (or removing) the messages between users. But actions by the Trump administration in his first 100 days in office — including breaching Supreme Court precedent by firing the two Democratic minority commissioners at the FTC — have added another layer of fear for some of the law’s critics, who worry it could be used to threaten or stifle political opponents. Trump, after all, said during an address to Congress this year that once he signed the bill, “I’m going to use that bill for myself, too, if you don’t mind, because nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody.”
The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), which advocates for legislation combating image-based abuse, has long pushed for the criminalization of nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (NDII). But the CCRI said it could not support the Take It Down Act because it may ultimately provide survivors with “false hope.” On Bluesky, CCRI President Mary Anne Franks called the takedown provision a “poison pill … that will likely end up hurting victims more than it helps.”
“Platforms that feel confident that they are unlikely to be targeted by the FTC (for example, platforms that are closely aligned with the current administration) may feel emboldened to simply ignore reports of NDII,” they wrote. “Platforms attempting to identify authentic complaints may encounter a sea of false reports that could overwhelm their efforts and jeopardize their ability to operate at all.”
In an interview with The Verge, Franks expressed concern that it could be “hard for people to parse” the takedown provision. “This is going to be a year-long process,” she said. “I think that as soon as that process has happened, you’ll then be seeing the FTC being very selective in how they treat supposed non-compliance with the statute. It’s not going to be about putting the power in the hands of depicted individuals to actually get their content removed.”
Trump, during his signing ceremony, dismissively referenced criticism of the bill. “People talked about all sorts of First Amendment, Second Amendment… they talked about any amendment they could make up, and we got it through,” he said.
Legal challenges to the most problematic parts may not come immediately, however, according to Becca Branum, deputy director of CDT’s Free Expression Project. “It’s so ambiguously drafted that I think it’ll be hard for a court to parse when it will be enforced unconstitutionally” before platforms have to implement it, Branum said. Eventually, users could sue if they have lawful content removed from platforms, and companies could ask a court to overturn the law if the FTC investigates or penalizes them for breaking it — it just depends on how quickly enforcement ramps up.
There's a lot to look at, watch, and listen to on the web. Fully utilizing the bookmarks feature in Google Chrome can be a real help in staying on top of everything.
Chrome is the browser I use most often, and I've got a huge number of bookmarked sites inside it: long reads I want to get back to once work is done, news updates to write up for work, gift ideas, apps I'd like to check out, important Slack channels, and content systems for my job… the list goes on. All synced between devices and available everywhere.
If you haven't done a deep dive into Chrome's bookmarks feature then you might not be aware of everything you can do with it, how it can save you time, and how you can bring some kind of order to your web browsing.
Saving bookmarks
The star icon to the right of the address bar in Chrome on the desktop is for saving new bookmarks. Click it and the current page gets saved to the most recently used bookmarks folder. You can also press Ctrl+D (Windows) or Cmd+D (macOS), which is even easier. On mobile, tap the three dots at the top then the star icon (Android), or the three dots at the bottom then Add to bookmarks (iOS) to save the current page as a new bookmark.
The app appears to offer similar functionality to the desktop version of NotebookLM, including the ability to upload sources of information that the app can summarize. It can also make AI-generated, podcast-like Audio Overviews. With the app, you can listen to those Audio Overviews in the background while you’re doing other things on your phone or while offline, Google says. Might be a handy way to get caught up on your performance review.
The company teased the launch of the mobile app for the AI-powered tool last month. Its official arrival is happening just ahead of Google I/O, which kicks off with the opening keynote at 1PM ET on Tuesday. It’s probably going to be an AI show.
Update, May 19th: The iOS app is now available, too.
Huawei just launched a super sleek folding laptop that might be as thin as your phone. The MateBook Fold, which consists of a single OLED display, is just 7.3mm (~0.3 inches) thick when unfolded and 14.9mm (~0.6 inches) when closed, as spotted earlier by Android Headlines.
To compare, Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold measures 8.6mm (0.34 inches) thick unfolded and 17.4mm (0.68 inches) when folded. But unlike Lenovo’s device, the MateBook Fold is only available in China for now, with a price of around $3,300.
The MateBook Fold’s 18-inch display folds at a 90-degree angle to form a 13-inch upper screen, mimicking a traditional laptop with a digital keyboard instead of a physical one. The device weighs just 1.16kg (~2.6lbs), with its tandem OLED offering a 3.3K (3296 x 2472) resolution and a peak brightness of up to 1600 nits. The laptop also comes with up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage.
This also marks the debut of Huawei’s in-house operating system, called HarmonyOS 5, on PC. Huawei first launched HarmonyOS on Android, but it has since brought its operating system to PCs after losing access to Microsoft Windows in March due to US sanctions. In addition to coming with the MateBook Fold, the system is available on the new MateBook Pro as well.
Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer, but it’s also one of the best times of the year to snag a seriously good deal on a top-tier TV. Right now, for instance, you can buy LG’s C4 OLED at Amazon, Best Buy, and LG’s online storefront in the 42-inch configuration starting at an all-time low of around $796.99 ($703 off). Larger configurations are also on sale, including the 65-inch model, which is available for $1,296.99 ($1,403 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and LG.
Although it’s no longer LG’s latest OLED, the C4 remains an excellent investment. It shares many of the same strengths as its successor, the C5, including deep blacks, rich contrast, and vibrant, lifelike colors, with only a slight drop in brightness and processing speed. Plus, thanks to support for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, the C4 delivers an immersive, cinematic experience right from your living room.
In addition to streaming, the C4 is also a fantastic gaming TV. It boasts a fast 144Hz refresh rate, four HDMI 2.1 ports, low input lag, and support for both AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync. Rounding out the package, the last-gen TV also works with the wand-like Magic Remote and integrates with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for easy, nearly hands-free navigation, making it a highly capable pick for all your home theater and gaming needs.
Microsoft is unveiling its own command-line text editor at its Build conference today. Edit on Windows will be accessible by using “edit” in a command prompt, allowing developers to edit files within the command line. It’s part of several improvements aimed at bettering the Windows experience for developers.
Edit on Windows is an open-source project by Microsoft, and it enables developers to edit files directly in the command line, just like vim, without having to switch to another app or window. Edit is small and lightweight, at less than 250KB in size. All the menu options on Edit have key bindings, and you can open multiple files and switch between them using the ctrl + P shortcut. Microsoft has also added find and replace to Edit, as well as match case and regular expression support, as well. Edit also supports word wrapping.
“What motivated us to build Edit was the need for a default CLI text editor in 64-bit versions of Windows,” explains Christopher Nguyen, product manager of Windows Terminal. “32-bit versions of Windows ship with the MS-DOS Edit or, but 64-bit versions do not have a CLI editor installed inbox.”
Microsoft also wanted to avoid the “how do I exit vim?” meme, so it built its own text editor instead of relying on other available options. “Because we wanted to avoid this for a built-in default editor, we decided that we wanted a modeless editor for Windows (versus a modal editor where new users would have to remember different modes of operation and how to switch between them),” Nguyen says.
Edit on Windows will be available in the Windows Insider program in the coming months. Microsoft has more information about Edit over at its GitHub repo.
Microsoft is also rebranding its Windows Dev Home to Advanced Windows Settings. “Advanced Windows Settings allow developers to easily control and personalize their Windows experience,” says Windows chief Pavan Davuluri. Instead of being a separate app, it simply exposes additional toggles in the main Windows 11 settings interface, including the ability to enable File Explorer with GitHub control details.
A Microsoft employee disrupted the company’s Build developer conference in Seattle, Washington, this morning, protesting against the company’s cloud and AI contracts with the Israeli government. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had only been onstage for a matter of minutes before protesters started interrupting his speech, with one shouting, “Free Palestine!” Nadella continued his keynote, ignoring the protesters as they were escorted out of a hall inside the Seattle conference center.
Microsoft employee Joe Lopez, who has spent the past four years working as a firmware engineer on the company’s Azure hardware systems team, was one of the protesters who interrupted Nadella. He was also joined by a fired Google employee who was part last year’s sit-in protests against Google’s cloud contract with Israel.
We asked Microsoft to comment on today’s protest at Build, but the company did not respond in time for publication.
Shortly after Lopez’s interruption, he sent an email to thousands of Microsoft employees, telling them he was “shocked by the silence of our leadership,” just days after Microsoft responded to employee protests by claiming it hadn’t found any evidence that its Azure and AI tech has harmed people in Gaza.
“Leadership rejects our claims that Azure technology is being used to target or harm civilians in Gaza,” says Lopez in his email. “Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is a bold-faced lie. Every byte of data that is stored on the cloud (much of it likely containing data obtained by illegal mass surveillance) can and will be used as justification to level cities and exterminate Palestinians.”
Microsoft announced last week that it had recently conducted an internal review and used an unnamed external firm to assess how its technology is used in the conflict in Gaza. Microsoft says that its relationship with the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD) is “structured as a standard commercial relationship,” and that it has “found no evidence that Microsoft’s Azure and AI technologies, or any of our other software, have been used to harm people or that IMOD has failed to comply with our terms of service or our AI Code of Conduct.”
This latest employee protest comes just weeks after after two former Microsoft employees disrupted the company’s 50th-anniversary event, with one calling Microsoft’s AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, a “war profiteer” and demanding that Microsoft “stop using AI for genocide in our region.” A second protester interrupted Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former CEO Steve Ballmer, and Nadella later on in the event.
The protests have been organized by No Azure for Apartheid, a group of current and former Microsoft employees rallying against Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli government. The group accuses Microsoft of “supporting and enabling an apartheid state” by not suspending sales of cloud and AI services to Israel. It has also highlighted media reports that detail the Israeli military’s increased use of Azure and OpenAI technology to gather information through mass surveillance and use AI tools to transcribe and translate phone calls, texts, and audio messages.
Hossam Nasr — an organizer of No Azure for Apartheid and a former Microsoft employee who was fired for holding a vigil outside Microsoft’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza — called the company’s latest statement contradictory last week. “In one breath, they claim that their technology is not being used to harm people in Gaza, while also admitting they don’t have insight into how their technologies are being used,” said Nasr. “It’s very clear that their intention with this statement is not to actually address their worker concerns, but rather to make a PR stunt to whitewash their image that has been tarnished by their relationship with the Israeli military.”
Here is Joe Lopez’s email in full:
Fellow Microsoft workers and Microsoft leadership, By now you may have seen or heard of my disruption at the Microsoft Build keynote this morning. I have been working as a firmware engineer under Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure (AHSI) for the past 4 years. As a Microsoft worker – while I’ve had positive experiences here, working and learning with many incredible people – I can no longer stand by in silence as Microsoft continues to facilitate Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
Like many of you, I have been watching the ongoing genocide in Gaza in horror. I have been shocked by the silence, inaction, and callousness of world leaders as Palestinian people are suffering, losing their lives and their homes while they plead for the rest of the world to pay attention and act.
Like many of you, I have tried to do my part in small ways. Staying informed, sharing information with friends, signing petitions, making donations. All the while continuing my work at Microsoft.
My disillusionment with Microsoft
Then I came across the No Azure for Apartheid movement, whose members have been organizing, taking action, and speaking out no matter the cost. I saw Ibtihal and Vaniya’s disruption of Microsoft’s 50th anniversary on April 4 and was shocked to hear the words coming from their mouths. Microsoft is killing kids? Is my work killing kids?
I was also shocked by the silence of our leadership. By the silence of Mustafa Suleyman, Brad Smith, Kevin Scott, Scott Guthrie, and Satya Nadella. “Why aren’t they responding”? I asked myself. “If we are truly not guilty, shouldn’t they deny these horrible accusations?”
I started to look deeper. I read the articles, saw the evidence, heard the testimonies of employees who were horrified to find out that the technology that we are building is being used by Israel in their mission to erase the Palestinian people.
A switch had been flipped. Presented with this information, I went into work everyday plagued by thoughts of the suffering that is being inflicted by a United States-Israeli war machine that runs on Azure. I joined Microsoft because I truly believed that it was the “more ethical big tech”. I thought that the work that I was doing was empowering people, not causing harm.
Microsoft’s admission of complicity
Microsoft recently uploaded a blog post, marking its first official response to the concerns that many have been shouting into their ears for years. Their statement falls far short of what we are demanding. Nontransparent audits into our cloud operations in Israel (conducted by no other than Microsoft itself and an unnamed external entity) that declare no wrongdoing by the company do not give me any sense of relief. In fact, this response has further compelled me to speak out. Microsoft openly admitted to allowing the Israel Ministry of Defense “special access to our technologies beyond the terms of our commercial agreements”. Do you really believe that this “special access” was allowed only once? What sort “special access” do they really need? And what are they doing with it?
Leadership rejects our claims that Azure technology is being used to target or harm civilians in Gaza. Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is a bold-faced lie. Every byte of data that is stored on the cloud (much of it likely containing data obtained by illegal mass surveillance) can and will be used as justification to level cities and exterminate Palestinians. We don’t need an internal audit to know that a top Azure customer is committing crimes against humanity. We see it live on the internet every day.
As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel. If leadership continues to ignore this demand, I promise that it won’t go unnoticed. The world has already woken up to our complicity and is turning against us. The boycotts will increase and our image will continue to spiral into disrepair.
Call to action
My future children will one day ask me what I did for the Palestinian people as they were suffering and pleading for our help. I hope they will forgive me for my previous inaction. Many of you have children who may be asking you that question today. What will you tell them?
As Israel continues its deadly blockade of Gaza, and Netanyahu continues to assert that he will not rest until Gaza is fully occupied, we know that this situation is beyond dire. I wouldn’t have risked my career and my livelihood if I didn’t believe that to the core of my being. It’s terrifying to speak up, especially right now. Imagine your home being demolished as soldiers stand by cheering.
Your friends and family members dismembered by bombs that drop daily in your neighborhood.
Every member of your community on the brink of death due to starvation
Strangers staking claims to your home, awaiting your death.
Wouldn’t you hope that someone would speak up for you?
I recognize my privilege as a young person with little financial responsibility to anyone but myself and little risk of deportation as a US citizen. Not everyone can afford to do what I did without great risk to themselves and their family. But no act is too small when human lives are at stake. Sign the petition, join the movement, start the conversation with colleagues, please contribute whatever you can to the cause.
I know many of you out there are also considering leaving Microsoft for the same reasons I am. You are not alone. If you find it is too debilitating to work at this company and you wish to leave, please lean on our campaign to support. If we continue to remain silent, we will pay for that silence with our humanity.
Looking back, I’m ashamed of my past silence. But as the saying goes: “The best time to act was yesterday, the second best time is today.”
Bluesky is making it easier to know when an NBA game is happening with a new test that adds a red border to the NBA’s profile picture, along with a “live” callout below it. When you click the profile picture, you’ll be taken out of Bluesky and to whatever live event the organization is promoting, Bluesky COO Rose Wang announced yesterday.
“We aren’t trapping you in Bluesky,” Wang writes in her post. “We want you to use Bluesky to discover what’s happening.”
In the announcement, Wang quote-posted an NBA promotional post about two games that were set to take place last night, indicating that the badge would have shown up during them. Bluesky didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s email asking for a screenshot of the new indicator and whether it plans to extend the test to other sports or non-sports organizations. As TechCrunch points out, Wang confirmed that the feature will appear for WNBA games as well.
Though Wang doesn’t say it, her post feels like a dig at the various deals Twitter made with sports organizations like the NFL, MLB and NHL, and the NBA to stream their content on its platform, rather than linking out to their streams elsewhere. In an interview with SportsPro last month, Wang said Bluesky doesn’t have the means or desire to take on partnerships like those, but the new live badge testing shows it’s certainly not above doing what it can to nurture its burgeoning “Sports Bluesky.”
There are four different models of budget-minded Asus TUFs equipped with the RTX 5060, and configuration options beyond that.
Asus is updating three of its gaming laptop lines with configurations featuring the new GeForce RTX 5060 GPU, offering features like Multi Frame Generation for higher framerates at slightly lower prices. Nvidia’s mid-range graphics are coming to the beefy ROG Strix G16 and G18, ROG Zephyrus G14 hybrid gaming / creativity laptop, and the entry-level TUF Gaming A14, A16, A18, and F16.
That’s seven new laptops from Asus. And with the 5060 becoming the new entry-level card for each line, the new configs can be around $300 to $400 cheaper than their 5070 versions. Prices on the new 5060 models are as low as $1,499.99 to slightly higher configurations (with faster CPUs, more RAM, and more storage) as pricey as $2,099.99.
That low $1,499.99 and high $2,099.99 both lie in the ROG Strix G16. The Strix G16 and G18 look much like stripped-down versions of their pricier Strix Scar counterparts, with 16- and 18-inch 2560 x 1600 240Hz displays and the same wraparound RGB light bars built into their chassis. Though, the more simplified Strix G models have IPS panels instead of Mini LED, and no fancy lid with animated LEDs. The new RTX 5060-equipped G16 and G18 are offered with Intel (Raptor Lake Refresh / Arrow Lake) and AMD (Dragon Range / Fire Range) chip options, 16GB or 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage.
As Strix laptops are bulky machines (weighing as much as seven pounds in the 18-inch model), they’re loaded with ports, including HDMI 2.1, ethernet, 3.5mm audio jack, five total USB ports for Intel models (three USB-A, one USB-C, and one Thunderbolt 4), and four total USB ports for AMD configs (two USB-A and two USB4).
The new Asus TUF Gaming laptops also come in a variety of sizes and flavors, all now equipped with less costly RTX 5060 configurations than just their current RTX 5070 configurations. Like the Strix G models, the TUFs are fairly chunky gaming-focused laptops but they make some sacrifices for the sake of reaching certain price points, like lower 144Hz and 165Hz refresh rates and the TUF A18 having an ancient USB 2.0 plug among its five total USB ports. (Heresy, I know.)
At $1,599.99 there’s the 18-inch TUF A18 and 16-inch TUF F16. The A18 comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 260 (Hawk Point) CPU and the F16 has an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (Arrow Lake). The TUF A14 and TUF A16 are next up at $1,699.99, with the 14-inch packing an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (the same Krackan Point chip I recently tested on the Framework Laptop 13) and the 16-inch getting the same Ryzen 7 260 as its bigger 18-inch sibling.
The simplest update is for Asus’s ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop, which is getting a $1,799.99 configuration with RTX 5060 graphics. The Zephyrus is Asus’s thinner gaming laptop that leans a little more towards the conventional, lending itself to traveling and not looking totally out of place in a cafe or library.
The laptop still looks as it did when the G14 was redesigned back in early 2024, with a 14-inch 2880 x 1800 120Hz OLED display, AMD Ryzen AI 9 270 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, one USB4, one USB-C, two USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Just as the recently refreshed models from CES using higher-end RTX 50-series GPUs, its USB-C ports got a tiny upgrade that allows you to use Power Delivery charging on either side. But, of course, if you want to get the most graphics power out of this compact gaming laptop you’ll have to plug in its hefty charger with reversible proprietary connector.
Since all of these laptops are equipped with the RTX 5060, they’re compatible with Nvidia’s DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation. While some models are available now through Asus’s online store and select retailers, the full availability of all configs is expected through June.
Web developers will be able to start leveraging on-device AI in Microsoft’s Edge browser soon, using new APIs that can give their web apps access to Microsoft’s Phi-4-mini model, the company announced at its Build conference today. And Microsoft says the API will be cross-platform, so it sounds like these APIs will work with the Edge browser in macOS, as well.
The 3.8-billion-parameter Phi-4-mini is Microsoft’s latest small, on-device model, rolled out in February alongside the company’s larger Phi-4. With the new APIs, web developers will be able to add prompt boxes and offer writing assistance tools for text generation, summarizing, and editing. And within the next couple of months, Microsoft says it will also release a text translation API.
Microsoft is putting these “experimental” APIs forth as potential web standards, and in addition to being cross-platform, it says they’ll also work with other AI models. Developers can start trialing them in the Edge Canary and Dev channels now, the company says.
Google offers similar APIs for its Chrome browser. With them, developers can use Chrome’s built-in models to offer things like text translation, prompt boxes for text and image generation, and calendar event creation based on webpage content.
I reported in my Notepad newsletter earlier this month that Microsoft was getting ready to host Elon Musk’s Grok AI models, and now it’s official. At Microsoft’s Build developer conference today, the company confirmed it’s expanding its Azure AI Foundry models list to include Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini from xAI.
“These models will have all the service level agreements (SLAs) Azure customers expect from any Microsoft product,” says Microsoft. The Grok AI models will be hosted and billed directly by Microsoft, and offered to its own product teams and customers through its Azure AI Foundry service.
It’s a surprise addition that could prove controversial internally and further inflame tensions with Microsoft’s partner OpenAI. Microsoft has been steadily growing its Azure AI Foundry business over the past year, and has been quick to embrace models from a variety of AI labs that compete with its OpenAI partner.
In January I reported in Notepad that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had moved with haste to get engineers to test and deploy DeepSeek R1 as it made headlines around the world. Engineers didn’t sleep much over those days while they worked overtime to get R1 ready for Azure AI Foundry.
Sources tell me Nadella has been pushing for Microsoft to host Grok, as he’s eager for Microsoft to be seen as the hosting provider for any popular or emerging AI models. Grok is the latest model to join the Azure AI Foundry, which is quickly becoming an important AI service for Microsoft as it seeks to be seen as the platform to host AI models for businesses and app developers.
The announcement of Grok on Azure AI Foundry comes just days after the chatbot spent hours telling every X user that the claim of white genocide in South Africa is highly contentious. xAI blamed the behavior on an “unauthorized modification” to Grok’s code. xAI has had a similar problem earlier this year, when the company blamed an unnamed ex-OpenAI employee for pushing a change to Grok that saw it disregard any sources that accused Elon Musk or Donald Trump of spreading misinformation.
Naturally, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was quick to poke fun at Grok in an X post last week. OpenAI countersued Musk earlier this month over claims that the Tesla boss is using “bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI.” Elon Musk and OpenAI have been in a legal spat for months now, after Musk’s messy breakup with the AI lab he helped to cofound nearly 10 years ago.
Microsoft is making its Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) open-source today, opening up the code for community members to contribute to. After launching WSL for Windows 10 nearly nine years ago, it has been a multiyear effort at Microsoft to open-source the feature that enables a Linux environment within Windows.
“It has been a consistent request from the developer community for some time now,” says Windows chief Pavan Davuluri in an interview with The Verge. “It took us a little bit of time, because we needed to refactor the operating system to allow WSL to live in a standalone capacity that then allowed us to open-source the project and be able to have developers go and make contributions and for us to ingest those into the Windows pipeline and ship it at scale.”
The WSL code is now available on GitHub, allowing developers to download it and build it from source, participate in fixes, or even add new features. The WSL community hasn’t had access to Microsoft’s source code in the past, but that hasn’t stopped them from making contributions that have helped improve WSL over the years. Davuluri says he’s now expecting that developers will use the open-source project to help improve WSL performance, or for more integration into Linux services.
It’s a major milestone for WSL, which started off life in 2016 as part of the Windows 10 Anniversary update. “At that time WSL was based on a pico process provider, lxcore.sys, which enabled Windows to natively run ELF executables, and implement Linux syscalls inside the Windows kernel,” explains Pierre Boulay, senior software engineer at Microsoft. “Over time it became clear that the best way to provide optimal compatibility with native Linux was to rely on the Linux kernel itself.”
Microsoft announced its second major version of WSL in 2019, eventually adding GPU support and then moving to ship the project separate to Windows. “It eventually became clear that to keep up the growing community and feature requests, WSL had to move faster, and ship separately from Windows,” says Boulay. “That’s why in 2021 we separated WSL from the Windows codebase, and moved it to its own codebase.” In the latest 24H2 update for Windows 11, Microsoft has fully transitioned WSL users to a package that’s separate from Windows, instead of the WSL component that was baked into the OS.
All of these changes to WSL in recent years have led Microsoft to close off the first ever issue raised on its WSL repo on GitHub, asking “Will this be open-source?” That answer is very much yes now, and it’s a part of making Windows more developer-friendly. “Our goal is quite simple: we want Windows to be a great dev box for developers,” says Davuluri. “That’s really the ambition.”
