It turns out that designing for usability, efficiency, accessibility, elegance and delight pays off. Apple’s market capitalization is now over US$2.8 trillion, and its brand is every bit associated with the term “design” as the best New York or Milan fashion houses are. Apple turned technology into fashion, and it did it through user experience.

It began with the Macintosh.

When Apple announced the Macintosh personal computer with a Super Bowl XVIII television ad on Jan. 22, 1984, it more resembled a movie premiere than a technology release. The commercial was, in fact, directed by filmmaker Ridley Scott. That’s because founder Steve Jobs knew he was not selling just computing power, storage or a desktop publishing solution. Rather, Jobs was selling a product for human beings to use, one to be taken into their homes and integrated into their lives.

This was not about computing anymore. IBM, Commodore and Tandy did computers. As a human-computer interaction scholar, I believe that the first Macintosh was about humans feeling comfortable with a new extension of themselves, not as computer hobbyists but as everyday people. All that “computer stuff” – circuits and wires and separate motherboards and monitors – were neatly packaged and hidden away within one sleek integrated box.

You weren’t supposed to dig into that box, and you didn’t need to dig into that box – not with the Macintosh. The everyday user wouldn’t think about the contents of that box any more than they thought about the stitching in their clothes. Instead, they would focus on how that box made them feel.

Beyond the mouse and desktop metaphor

As computers go, was the Macintosh innovative? Sure. But not for any particular computing breakthrough. The Macintosh was not the first computer to have a graphical user interface or employ the desktop metaphor: icons, files, folders, windows and so on. The Macintosh was not the first personal computer meant for home, office or educational use. It was not the first computer to use a mouse. It was not even the first computer from Apple to be or have any of these things. The Apple Lisa, released a year before, had them all.

It was not any one technical thing that the Macintosh did first. But the Macintosh brought together numerous advances that were about giving people an accessory – not for geeks or techno-hobbyists, but for home office moms and soccer dads and eighth grade students who used it to write documents, edit spreadsheets, make drawings and play games. The Macintosh revolutionized the personal computing industry and everything that was to follow because of its emphasis on providing a satisfying, simplified user experience.

Where computers typically had complex input sequences in the form of typed commands (Unix, MS-DOS) or multibutton mice (Xerox STAR, Commodore 64), the Macintosh used a desktop metaphor in which the computer screen presented a representation of a physical desk surface. Users could click directly on files and folders on the desktop to open them. It also had a one-button mouse that allowed users to click, double-click and drag-and-drop icons without typing commands.

The Xerox Alto had first exhibited the concept of icons, invented in David Canfield Smith’s 1975 Ph.D. dissertation. The 1981 Xerox Star and 1983 Apple Lisa had used desktop metaphors. But these systems had been slow to operate and still cumbersome in many aspects of their interaction design.

The Macintosh simplified the interaction techniques required to operate a computer and improved functioning to reasonable speeds. Complex keyboard commands and dedicated keys were replaced with point-and-click operations, pull-down menus, draggable windows and icons, and systemwide undo, cut, copy and paste. Unlike with the Lisa, the Macintosh could run only one program at a time, but this simplified the user experience.

The Macintosh also provided a user interface toolbox for application developers, enabling applications to have a standard look and feel by using common interface widgets such as buttons, menus, fonts, dialog boxes and windows. With the Macintosh, the learning curve for users was flattened, allowing people to feel proficient in short order. Computing, like clothing, was now for everyone.

A good experience

Although I hesitate to use the cliches “natural” or “intuitive” when it comes to fabricated worlds on a screen – nobody is born knowing what a desktop window, pull-down menu or double-click is – the Macintosh was the first personal computer to make user experience the driver of technical achievement. It indeed was simple to operate, especially compared with command-line computers at the time.

Whereas prior systems prioritized technical capability, the Macintosh was intended for nonspecialist users – at work, school or in the home – to experience a kind of out-of-the-box usability that today is the hallmark of not only most Apple products but an entire industry’s worth of consumer electronics, smart devices and computers of every kind.

Read More: 15 Apple products that changed the way we look at tech

According to Market Growth Reports, companies devoted to providing user experience tools and services were worth $548.91 million in 2023 and are expected to reach $1.36 billion by 2029. User experience companies provide software and services to support usability testing, user research, voice-of-the-customer initiatives and user interface design, among many other user experience activities.

Rarely today do consumer products succeed in the market based on functionality alone. Consumers expect a good user experience and will pay a premium for it. The Macintosh started that obsession and demonstrated its centrality.

It is ironic that the Macintosh technology being commemorated in January 2024 was never really about technology at all. It was always about people. This is inspiration for those looking to make the next technology breakthrough, and a warning to those who would dismiss the user experience as only of secondary concern in technological innovation.

• Jacob O. Wobbrock is a Professor of Information, University of Washington
• This article first appeared in The Conversation

Anybody even vaguely interested in audio has heard of Dolby Atmos before. Or, at the very least, you’ve seen the Atmos tag pop up before hitting play on Netflix. More specifically, Atmos is Dolby’s proprietary surround sound tech that’s been left unfettered to become the undisputed champ of the scene. Back in November, however, Samsung, in partnership with Google, announced its intent to dethrone Atmos with something it calls Immersive Audio Model and Formats (IAMF).

Details surrounding the Atmos competitor were scarce until recently when Samsung spoke up about its plans for IAMF at CES with Insight Media — confirming that it would be ready to roll out before the year was over. It also noted that it’d be using Google’s powers to get IAMF enrolled into YouTube’s content that will support the tech before crossing over into 2025.

The real question is whether Samsung and Google can stand up to an industry veteran like Dolby when it comes to audio. We reckon it can. The biggest factor that IAMF has going for it is that it doesn’t require any new hardware to reap the benefits. Instead, all it’ll need is a simple software update on a TV or surround system to get it going, though Samsung hasn’t yet mentioned which of its older TVs will get the update.

It helps that IAMF is open-source and royalty-free, which Samsung believes is the only way forward if it wants to overthrow Atmos’ stranglehold and become the new standard across the industry. It… has a point. Listen up, Dolby.

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VR treadmills just got a whole lot more interesting, thanks Disney

There’s a whole lot of sitting on the couch where VR is concerned for technology that’s meant to convince the user they’re somewhere else. That’s fine by us — we don’t all have the tethered treadmills or massive rooms necessary to take advantage of virtual reality properly. It’s a major issue that needs fixing before VR can really spread its wings and enter the mainstream. And… Disney might have just done exactly that. Enter the HoloTile Floor — crafted by Lanny Smoot, one of Disney’s ‘Imagineers’.

Almost out of the blue, Disney dropped a demo of one of the most advanced omnidirectional treadmills ever built. That’s the HoloTile, which appears to make use of minute rolling balls underneath the flooring that can detect and match your feet’s movements and adjust accordingly — all without the need for a tether. That’s inventive enough on its own, but the fact the HoloTile can support multiple people at once, all moving independently, makes it that much cooler.

As for where Disney sees this tech heading, VR is at the forefront of their minds, and rightfully so. But it’s got visions of HoloTile Floors being adopted into the theatrical world of stage plays to help dancers pull off new moves without much effort. Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before any of that becomes a reality. Disney only mentions that the tech is a work-in-progress for the time being, meaning it won’t be turning up on any shelves (or floors) soon.

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MrBeast on YouTube Prime Video

MrBeast — the YouTuber who pulled off a real-life Squid Games competition better than Netflix and arguably one of the most famous faces on planet Earth — is reportedly looking to step out of the YouTube bubble to pursue a deal that would see him enter the realm of streaming with Amazon’s Prime Video, according to Puck News, with Variety later confirming the story.

The deal hasn’t yet been inked and sits at around the $100-million mark according to Puck’s Matthew Belloni. It would reportedly see MrBeast’s team make use of Prime Video’s expansive budgets to concoct a higher-budget reality competition show of some form, though exact details of what that premise will be are still being kept in the dark.

Belloni also mentions that the deal might see the first episode premiere on YouTube in a bid to convince MrBeast’s 233-million subscribers to sign up for Prime Video to continue watching the series. At the time of writing, neither Prime Video nor MrBeats have commented on the situation, so it’s all worth taking with a grain of salt.

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Nvidia wants to give your old games a makeover with, surprise surprise, AI

Still trying to get over the fact that your favourite childhood games don’t have ray-tracing? You can stop now. Nvidia’s gone and released a beta for Nvidia RTX Remix — a tool designed specifically for modders that’ll help give older games a makeover by adding ray-tracing and newer textures to the mix. And because it’s 2024, you’ve probably already got an idea of how it’ll manage to do it.

Despite this being in beta form, Nivida reckons it’s quite capable of remastering a game from start to finish. It’ll only work on DirectX 8 or 9 games, however, and is made up of two key ingredients. On one end, you’ve got the application handling the creation of new lighting scenarios for the game being ‘remastered’, while the other specialises in adding upscaled textures and assets into the mix.

The tool, surprisingly, is free. As in, you can go and download it right now and get to remastering those classics sitting in your Steam library. If you can’t be bothered to see which games can be run through RTX Remix, Nvidia’s done the dirty work for you.

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The new telescope is based on Celestron’s Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (RASA), an F/2.2 widefield system aimed at more advanced users like researchers and government programs. But the Celestron Origin, while based on the design, is looking to be more user-friendly. Yes, AI is involved. Because of course it is.

Origin story

The ‘scope is billed as the “world’s first intelligent home observatory” and given that there’s AI inside this computerised astrograph, the company probably isn’t wrong. A RASA system is very similar to a Schmidt Cassegrain (and Celestron makes some good ones) but there’s one serious difference — instead of an eyepiece, the images focuses onto a camera sensor.

Long story short, this “6.4 MP Sony IMX178 color CMOS sensor with STARVIS back-illuminated ultra-high sensitivity-low noise technology” replaces the human eye, collates the data, and transmits this information to a paired smartphone, tablet, or even a TV screen. It’s entirely possible to remotely operate the Origin and see the results on your TV but a certain sort of astronomer might feel that it’s taking all the fun out of it.

But the human eye is a wretched thing in the dark and many prospective astronomers have been turned off by the fact that what’s visible is nowhere near as impressive as astrophotography images. The Celestron Origin is for them. The other sort of visual observer will still be able to chase faint fuzzies while astrophotographers (and complete novices) capture stunning images and views while they sleep. But seeing something with your own eyeball or viewing a stacked image on a screen just isn’t the same thing.

The Celestron Origin is being exhibited at CES in Las Vegas this week. Pricing and availability should be along soon.

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Artemis II, NASA’s upcoming crewed flight that will carry four astronauts up to the Moon, has officially been pushed back. The National Space Agency confirmed that the mission won’t be lifting off before September 2025 at the very least. That’s still a relatively short while away. Honestly, there’s a good chance there will be four new people on the lunar surface before Rockstar gets around to releasing Grand Theft Auto 6. 

The Artemis II mission’s delay caused a sort of domino effect, with NASA’s chief — Bill Nelson — confirming that the subsequent Artemis III mission, initially planned for late 2025, won’t be kicking off until at least September 2026.

Nelson cited safety concerns for Artemis’ hold-ups in a teleconference on Tuesday, 9 January. “As we remind everybody at every turn, safety is our top priority. To give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges with first-time developments and integration, we’re going to give [the teams] more time on Artemis II and III.”

Artemis IV, on the other hand, is still powering through without any delays, hanging onto the September 2028 launch date that’s currently pencilled in. Whether that’ll remain the case… remains to be seen. Considering the multiple delays that befell the agency’s Artemis I mission in late 2022, NASA has set the course to further delay its missions closer to their launch dates.

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Sega Mega Drive 95

The post-Nintendo Switch world might be inundated with Steam Deck knock-offs, but it’s about to get another one. We ask that you save that eye-roll until the end, please. It’s coming from Hyperkin — the company that specialises in retro gaming consoles and controllers — and it’ll be giving you a new place to stick those Sega Genesis and Mega Drive cartridges that are sitting at the bottom of some box somewhere. Say hello to the Mega 95.

If it looks a little familiar, that’s by design. It’s modelled after the original Genesis controller — stretched to incorporate the Mega 95’s 5in display that’ll flip between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios at the click of a button. It’s furthering its connection to the Switch with its own dock that’ll play those Genesis and Mega Drive games at 720p on a TV with two ports for controllers.

Having just announced the Mega 95 alongside a new Xbox controller that’ll transport you back to 2001, Hyperkin hasn’t yet set a price tag or release date. Considering the $120 (R2,200) price for the company’s SupaBoy Portable — which doesn’t have a dock included — we’re guessing Hyperkin won’t go any lower than $150 when the time comes.

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Meta’s taking teen’s mental health seriously

Anyone who’s ever visited one of Meta’s apps — Instagram or Facebook — knows that it’s not exactly the safest space for the world’s young’uns. Meta wants to change that. After looking at all the data and getting expert advice, it’s decided to automatically place teenagers using those apps under their most confining settings imaginable.

That means restricting terms such as “suicide”, “self-harm” and “eating disorders” for underage users. Attempting to search those phrases will automatically hide the results and direct the user to resources that could potentially help resolve any potential issues there.

The example Meta provides in its blog post involves a teenager who’s posting about self-harm — which it understands is an important and complex topic that could “help destigmatize these issues” — it believes that it isn’t content that’s necessarily suitable for a younger audience. It’ll be removing this sort of content from Facebook and Instagram for teenage users, “as well as other types of age-inappropriate content.”

“We already aim not to recommend this type of content to teens in places like Reels and Explore, and with these changes, we’ll no longer show it to teens in Feed and Stories, even if it’s shared by someone they follow.”

Meta hasn’t fixed an exact timeline for when these changes will begin rolling out, referring to a more vague “in the coming months.”

How deep the Rabbit r1 hole goes

When 2023 brought us the rise of AI as we now know it, the last place our minds jumped to was “How can we use this to simplify our smartphones?” Granted, we’re not 60 years old, but still. Smartphones are arguably the last thing that needs simplification. Rabbit, an AI startup, just announced the Rabbit r1 — a mobile device that was designed with that very sentiment in mind. Specifically, it wants to use your phone’s apps for you.

Don’t let the R1’s short stature fool you. That 2.88in touchscreen, rotating camera, and scroll wheel are far more capable than you might think. It’s powered by a Large Action Model (LAM) and runs rabbit OS, with the LAM’s main purpose being to learn how its user uses computers and apps. It’s doing so with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 2.3GHz MediaTek Helio P35 processor. Don’t expect any solid info about its battery life, other than Rabbit’s promises that it’ll last all day.

In Rabbit’s words, the r1 “was developed to take a leap towards an app-free online experience, by introducing an operating system that navigates all of your apps quickly and efficiently so you don’t have to.” That sounds rather similar to all the AI assistants currently in the works from the big players — but in physical form. Just ask the r1 to do something (it’s got a push-to-talk button on its side) like searching for information or asking it to fill out a Checkers Sixty-Sixty order. 

The r1 will come trained out of the $200 box on the more popular apps out there. Users will have to teach it to perform other tasks when necessary, which the device will then be able to do independently (when asked) from that point on. We’d recommend checking out the developer’s keynote if you’re still a little lost. If you’re already on board, Rabbit is taking pre-orders on its website, with orders expected to ship sometime in March or April.

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While the Delta 2 and its brethren are solid enough to run large appliances for long periods, the Pro Ultra is capable of sorting out an entire home. Think of it as a Tesla Powerwall except you’ll probably actually be able to find one. If you can afford the R110,000 ($5,800) starting price, of course.

Delta Pro Ultra on mission

Otherwise, the design and features should be similar to what you’ll find from Ecoflow’s smaller batteries. There’s a passthrough system that’ll automatically switch over when the power drops. It’ll top up via mains, solar, and even generators, making it an ideal option for South Africa’s load-shedding situation.

The amount that the Delta Pro Ultra can assist you depends on the depth of your wallet. Storage capacities range from 6kWh to 90kWh but the price will alter heavily based on how many batteries you want in your home. Similarly, the Pro Ultra outputs between 7.2kW and 21.6kW, so your mansion can keep all of its lights on. Heck, you can afford to.

It’s not just the battery, however. You’ll also need the Smart Home Panel 2 which’ll optimise your power usage to make things a little cheaper while also acting as a controller for your new “smart hybrid whole house battery generator and backup”.

Local availability? Not yet but we’ve reached out to Ecoflow. Since this reveal took place at CES, we reckon it’ll be a few months before it makes South African landfall.

If the latest edition of Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman Power On newsletter is correct — and it usually is — then Apple could be lining up for something big; namely the release of the big fruit company’s heavily anticipated take on augmented reality, the Vision Pro. If things go according to plan, we could see folks double-tapping their way around the place before February closes out.

Unfortunately, we’re referring to the most royal ‘we’ imaginable. Gurman reckons that the Vision Pro is already making the trek across the US to various distribution warehouses, with the potential for enough stock to meet that February deadline.

At the time of writing, Apple has yet to confirm Gurman’s thoughts, though he expects that could be changing as early as this week or next — to “take some of the spotlight away from CES,” which kicks off tomorrow, 9 January, before closing out later this week on 12 January. There’s no word on whether Apple will offer pre-orders for the headset, though considering the need for a face scan to get the band and seal just right, Gurman is guessing pre-orders should go live soon after Apple’s announcement.

As for a broader international release, the Apple analyst isn’t quite as sure. He believes a wider rollout won’t be particularly far behind the US’ February release, however, and that the UK, Canada, and China will be among the next for a chance to play. South Africa on the other hand… We’ll just be glad for an opportunity to see the bloody thing before 2024 is over.

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Netflix Games

Two years on, and Netflix’s pursuit into the world of gaming has only gotten better. It’s kept up a steady torrent of games, the quality of which has only risen in that time. The most recent drop included the likes of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, “free” to anyone willing to foot the streamer’s rather extensive bill every month. Value add-ons like an entire suite of mobile games don’t make money, though. We think. That must be why Netflix is looking to stick a whole bunch of ads and microtransactions in there. You know, to make ends meet.

That’s according to a report from The Wall Street Journal (via IGN), which heard the news that Netflix is considering several methods to capitalize on the gaming side of its platform sooner rather than later, from “people familiar with discussions.” Those methods involve the addition of in-game purchases (screw you, Bethesda!), charging more for specific games, or including games with ads into the streamers’ ad-supported tier.

The latter of which sounds… reasonable. The majority of consumers already put up with mobile ads nearly everywhere else, and likely won’t knock Netflix’s decision to start turning a profit. Unfortunately, South Africa isn’t privy to Netflix’s ad-supported tier yet and could be forced to put up with the scummier of the streamer’s ideas; premium-priced games and what sounds an awful lot like microtransactions.

While we don’t doubt that the report’s claims are at least somewhat accurate (this is Netflix we’re talking about), there’s no use in getting your undies in a bunch until Netflix proves the claims correct. When that’ll be, we couldn’t say.

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Samsung’s Frame is expanding into Music

Those who consider themselves to be part of the Bourgeoisie have probably got one of Samsung’s Frame TVs hanging around their house somewhere. We’ll save the Proletariat of the world from needing to Google what those are — they’re TVs that’ll transform themselves into works of art when not in use, saving that particular stretch of wall from being duller than the rest. The idea might be new to you, but Samsung’s sold enough of these to expand the line-up to include something new.

Enter the Music Frame, a speaker, not a TV, that’s setting out to solve the same issue: turn a piece of wall into a (small) work of art. We won’t pretend it doesn’t look at least a little bit cool, even if your money could be spent better elsewhere.

Called eSoil, the Swedish researchers reckon that their innovation speeds up the growth in barley seedlings (barley is a key ingredient of beer, in case you need a reason to be interested) by 50%. But if all they were doing was sloshing some liquid that smells like decaying shellfish (that’s the nitrogen) onto their crops, we wouldn’t be here.

At least it’s not iSoil

This is an altogether more advanced form of farming innovation.  Much like Doctor Victor Frankenstein, the researchers are seeing interesting results by sending jolts of electricity through their experimental subjects. A few touches of electroshock therapy, transmitted through the bioengineered dirt provided to hydroponically grown plants, speed up their growth rate by about 50%.

The soil is specially constructed, so there is some old-school farming know-how in there, but one of the ingredients is PEDOT. The actual name of this polymer is far too long to write out but it’s a key component of many of the electronics that we all use daily. Its inclusion allows for low-voltage electrical stimulation of the roots of plants used for the experiment. This stimulation improves nitrogen uptake, a big deal if you’re the sort with a green thumb.

But before you get excited by the possibilities involved in enhanced hydroponic yields, you can slow down. The experiment has only been conducted with the early stages of plant growth. It still has to be assessed over a plant’s entire life cycle before it can be scaled up to industrial levels. So there’s still the potential for sentient mutant plants that want to eat humans, is what we’re hearing.

Bottom line, though, is you’ll probably struggle to afford one. It’s not just that the launch is likely to be confined to China, at least at first, and that EVs are inherently expensive. Xiaomi hasn’t gone small with the SU7, serving up a vehicle around the same size as a BMW 5-series but with a sportier look than the conservative Germans would dream of offering.

SU7 is pronounced ‘soo-chee’

You can expect similar prices to those demanded by the German brands, too. There were veterans from BMW and Mercedes on the design team, so the vehicles should look the part. The revealed specs — all claims for right now — suggest that performance will attain luxury EV standards as well.

There are two SU7 models — a stock version which uses Xiaomi’s HyperEngine motors on the rear wheels only and then a Max version that offers all-wheel drive. The 668km range and 210km/h top speed for the standard EV is plenty attractive on its own but Xiaomi’s Max version should go further and faster, accelerating to 100km/h in under three seconds. At least, that’s what the marketing material says.

The SU7 Max should support 800V charging for its 101kWh battery. The standard version tops out at 400V charging with a 73.6kWh battery. Some of that power will be directed toward the in-car systems. Being Xiaomi, with its focus on smart home tech, that experience promises to be substantial.

In-vehicle tech for the SU7 uses Xiaomi’s HyperOS system for control and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8295 processor, an automotive-specific chipset, for power. There’s a main 16.1in display that’ll control everything from media playback to your home appliances and optional magnetically-mounted screens behind the driver and passenger’s seats. Other smart functions include autonomous driving (again, unsurprising) thanks to Xiaomi Pilot, LiDAR, and Nvidia chips. The company will conduct autonomous driving tests across China sometime this year.

Xiaomi, in addition to announcing the SU7 and its Max counterpart, also teased a new HyperEngine V8s electric motor that’ll supposedly give Tesla’s own tech headaches. First, though, we’ll wait for pricing and availability for this lot. It’s probably going to sting.

What we hope is the strangest product to issue from the South Korean company in 2024 has already been revealed, along with a preview of everything else folks can expect from LG’s CES 2024 presentation. There are TVs and monitors, some rather interesting audio kit, and then there’s this — LG’s smart home AI Agent.

Invading CES 2024

LG’s weirdest gadget for a while is just begging for a cutesy name to distract you from the fact that it’s a bipedal, AI-powered robot designed to follow you around your home. It’s positioned as a smart home gadget along the lines of Amazon’s Alexa devices but with the power of motion. It’s also packed with sensors, allowing it to perform tasks that account for environmental factors like humidity, air quality, and temperature.

Users will be able to control their smart home gear — LG has an impressive amount of it — via the robot’s voice interface but it can also monitor and offer assistance like “…providing transportation details, weather updates, personal schedules, or reminders to take medications.” It does this while meeting owners at the door, analysing emotions via a combination of voice and facial recognition, and generally being a little creepy. Oh, and it’ll also watch out for your pets, provided you can get Ginger and Rover accustomed to the little trundling critter’s presence in their space.

You’ll notice we used the word ‘bipedal’ up there but this thing, obviously, features a pair of wheels and some sort of gyroscopic balancing system. Those legs also offer articulation, allowing LG’s AI agent to communicate non-verbally by adjusting its legs. That seems to fulfil the requirement for ‘bipedal’, apparently. It’s built on chip-maker Qualcomm’s Robotics RB5 Platform, which is the thing that allows for its AI capabilities in addition to its dog-like nature.

LG will unveil more of its functions and (hopefully) its not-planning-the-downfall-of-humanity official name at CES 2024, set to take place from 9 to 12 January. That’s next week. Stick around, we’ll have the info you need from the event as it happens.

While it seems Windows 11 only just arrived on the scene, Microsoft seems very keen to make the most of its recent investments in AI, which may be the reason behind the push to get this next version into consumers’ hands in the next year. Windows releases are always of interest, regardless of their reasons, so here is a look at the changes and innovations expected in this next-gen Windows platform. Will it be Windows 12? We will just have to wait and see.

Shift in strategy

The introduction of the Hudson Valley update marks a departure from the previous leadership’s approach under Panos Panay (who recently announced his move to Amazon). Under Panay, Windows had adopted a rhythm of releasing smaller, more frequent feature updates, known internally at Microsoft as “Moment” updates, alongside a traditional three-year cycle for major platform releases.

However, the new leadership team, which oversees the Windows & Web Experiences division, is reverting to an annual release cycle for major platform updates. This shift is a return to a more traditional update schedule, taking a more sparing approach of using Moment updates for minor feature enhancements.

Key features, timeline

The Hudson Valley update, set to be rolled out in 2024, is based on the Germanium platform release, which is expected to achieve a Release To Manufacturing (RTM) milestone in April of the same year. Despite this, the complete rollout of the Hudson Valley update is not anticipated until September or October 2024, allowing for additional development and refinement over the northern summer months.

Advanced AI

One of the most notable aspects of Hudson Valley is its emphasis on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. These capabilities will likely make their way into various aspects of the operating system, offering supposedly ground-breaking enhancements and functionalities.

A key feature includes the integration of an AI-powered Windows Shell with an advanced Copilot system. This system is designed to operate continuously in the background, helping people find things, initiating projects or workflows, and understanding user context.

If the update can help Word open the folder of the most recent file we worked on instead of just showing us the Onedrive folder when we click Save As, we can totally get behind this.

Other AI innovations

The update is expected to introduce a new history/timeline feature (not to be confused with that other Timeline feature that Microsoft cancelled back in 2021), which will let people revisit past activities on the system, filtered by specific search criteria. Enhanced search is also on the horizon, with the ability to understand natural language queries, allowing users to locate documents or information by simply typing out what they want in everyday language.

Content creation

Beyond the AI-focused advancements, the Hudson Valley update also plans to introduce a dedicated area within the Start menu and File Explorer, tailored for content creators. This area will serve as a hub for Microsoft’s suite of creative tools and services, providing streamlined access to applications like Microsoft 365, Designer projects, Word, and PowerPoint.

In terms of energy efficiency, Microsoft is reportedly working on significant improvements to the Windows energy-saving function, potentially extending battery life by up to 50% on compatible hardware. A new “green power” feature, aimed at optimising charging cycles based on the availability of renewable energy sources, is also in development, although for South Africans this will be moot considering our uncertainty at electricity availability regardless of source.

Branding dilemma

In the middle of all this, it seems nobody knows for sure what Microsoft will call this version of Windows. Will it just become part of Windows 11 via updates, or will Microsoft take maximum advantage of the fuss that an entirely new version of Windows will doubtless cause?

The final decision, which we must stress has not been made, will likely be influenced by whatever marketing potential Microsoft thinks they can squeeze out of this. The smart money is on it being called Windows 12 since the core of the operating system certainly sounds like it’s going to be so different from anything that came before, but only time will tell.

Should businesses care?

It would be naïve of anyone to think AI and a version of Windows that uses it at every turn don’t have major implications for businesses. Yesteryear’s considerations of licensing costs and having the right hardware to run it aside, businesses will now need to ask themselves if they can afford not to upgrade to the next version of Windows, considering the potentially game-changing AI functions it will likely ship with. Since AI is touching everything from OS security to search to data analysis and the overall end-user experience, the potential for increased productivity is certainly there.

It’s still early days, though, and much energy will be put into analysing these considerations in the coming months, but for now, we’re just shining a light on what’s headed our way from Microsoft so that our business readers are at least aware of it for now.

In other words, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not sure if it’s an escape from the darkness or an oncoming train just yet. Best to just keep an eye on it, in case.

Windows to the future

The Hudson Valley update certainly seems to be a significant evolution of Windows, and it’s being driven by Microsoft’s feverish focus on AI integration, enhancing the user experience, and the long-term sustainability of the Windows brand.

As Microsoft makes its way through these changes under new leadership, there’s no doubt a lot of people, myself included, are eagerly anticipating this next-gen Windows. And if all goes well, the year ahead could well be a watershed moment in the operating system’s ongoing development.

Exciting times.