Windows Weekly 801: Whisky and Egg Rice

New Dev & Beta builds, Phone Link update, Joe Belfiore, Modern Warfare II

Windows 11

New Dev build today: Build 25236 feature a minor change to the Windows 11 search experience and a Store UX update
Dev Build 25231 adds the tablet-optimized taskbar for all Insiders, and the ability to rearrange icons in the (new) System tray
Beta Build 22623.875 also adds the tablet-optimized taskbar for all Insiders (who are getting new features), plus Taskbar-based access to Task Manager
Big Phone Link app update for owners of select Samsung Galaxy devices lets them instantly access their phone's hotspot from Quick settings on their PC. (Requires a Samsung device with One UI 4.1.1+ and a PC with Windows 11 build 22621 or higher)

Microsoft 365 

Here's what Microsoft added to Teams in October. Some of the biggest updates: Assign seats in Together mode, shared content in a separate window, Live Translated Captions (Teams Premium), some new certified hardware, and suggested replies in group chats
Edge hits 107 but doesn't look a day over 95 - Let's talk about Edge
The new unified OneNote app is in the Microsoft Store...sort of

Microsoft

Joe B is retiring - it's not clear what he was doing for the past three years, but we go way back and he's been around since Windows 95

More Earnings

Intel continues to struggle
Apple comes on strong, but Mac & iPad were low points
Samsung's smartphone business grew
Amazon kills it, but may be lucky to break even in holiday quarter

Xbox

 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is here. Some thoughts.
Xbox loses money on each console
Spencer: Seriously, we are not taking COD off of PlayStation. Think Minecraft
Spencer takes on Meta's metaverse and once again reveals himself to be the single greatest leader in Big Tech
Xbox price increases? Probably, but not in 2022
Microsoft reveals the first Xbox Game Pass titles for November, with a nice surprise
Games with Gold, meanwhile, is looking a bit sad
Twitch partners with Xbox for free PC Game Pass subscriptions when you buy Twitch subscriptions
Sony reports decent earnings, but PlayStation is stumbling
PS VR2 coming Feb 22 for $550
Google's Play Games on PC comes to US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore

Tips & Picks

Tip of the week: It's finally here! The Windows 11 Field Guide eBook
Tip of the week #2: Using Edge? You need to configure it correctly
Tip of the week #3: The big asterisk on the Windows Dev Kit 202

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott

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