Microsoft

Acer is announcing a new Nitro V 16 AI entry-level gaming laptop with AMD’s new Gorgon Point chips. Announced at CES with a handful of other Acer laptops, the Nitro is meant to offer a budget-friendly-ish price for AMD’s new chip and Nvidia GPUs — from the RTX 5050 to RTX 5070. It’s expected in Q2, but pricing isn’t finalized.

Dell reversed course on its confusing naming scheme from 2025, but some of it’s intact — with new tweaks. The returning XPS laptops are still joined by entry-level vanilla “Dell” models. Enterprise-focused Dell Pro laptops are now topped by Dell Pro Precision models instead of the Apple-y sounding Pro Max.

Microsoft’s first Xbox announcement of 2026 is the launch of Xbox Cloud Gaming on select Hisense and V homeOS-powered smart TVs. The Xbox app first launched on Samsung TVs, followed Amazon Fire TV devices, then select LG TVs, and now Hisense TVs. We don’t have an exact date for when the Xbox app will be available on Hisense and V homeOS-powered TVs, but Microsoft says it’s coming at some point in 2026.

Qualcomm sells Arm chips that play PC games on Windows... and occasionally on Android... and newly on SteamOS too. So: when do we get a Qualcomm Steam Deck? Qualcomm tells me PC handhelds aren’t happening at CES, but it’s “keeping an eye” on GDC in March for possible Windows ones! Full context here.

Neowin has the screenshots to prove how much worse Windows 11 is compared to Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista when you’re just trying to get a PC running. We’re not just excited for Linux because Linux is great; it’s because MS keeps shooting itself in the foot.

When Microsoft was first developing the Surface Duo, it was originally intended to run a Windows 10-based OS code-named Andromeda that looked a lot like Windows Phone. Of course, the company ended up canning those plans, opting to make the Duo Android-based instead.

Beyond part one’s exposure of affiliate revenue hijacking, MegaLag digs into Honey’s “extortion” by adding limited-use “friends and family” type discounts and lying to the store owners about never removing codes for unaffiliated businesses while trying to sign them up as partners.

id Software, which created Doom and Quake, announced on Friday that they’ve voted to join the Communication Workers of America.

Following a Fallout-themed Xbox controller released last year featuring Vault Boy, Microsoft has announced a new version inspired by Pip-Boy. The standard controller is available now for $82.97, but both it and the Elite controller can be further customized through the Xbox Design Lab. Season two of Amazon’s Fallout series debuts on December 17th.

The study (pdf) analyzed 37.5 million de-identified Copilot conversations to show patterns in how people interacted with AI, but are we that surprised there’s a spike in existential questions around 2AM?

Microsoft seems to have gotten the message that Linux is becoming real competition and that the Xbox Ally needs more work! “[W]e will continue refining system behaviors that matter most to gaming: background workload management, power and scheduling improvements, graphics stack optimizations, and updated drivers,” the company writes.

The “production release” of  Windows MIDI Services just hit the Dev and Beta Windows Insider channels, and Microsoft says it will land on retail installs in “the next few months.” This means higher-resolution expression, two-way communication between devices, and less need for third-party drivers. MIDI 2.0 was announced in 2019, but adoption has been slow, with macOS and Android adding support in 2021 and 2022, respectively. There are still only a handful of compatible devices available, too.

We’ve had year-end recaps from Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, and more so far, but real heads are waiting for the big one.

Multiple sales teams lowered how much salespeople are expected to grow annual sales of Foundry and other AI products, reports The Information, citing sources who called the move “rare.”

The tech industry “needs to earn the social permission to consume energy” for AI data centers he says in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner. Nadella also called for faster permitting for new power infrastructure and “innovation” in energy efficiency and generation.