Thoughts Unboxed

In the post Panos Panay world, Microsoft held its first major event centered around Surface products and AI updates on September 21st, 2023. While Panos's departure came as a surprise , the missing of many surface products from the rooster raised many eyebrows.  Does Microsoft's Surface Division fall prey to the company's recent cost-saving strategies? Is there a link between missing products and Panos's exit? Clarity is expected to emerge over time, however, it would be extremely short-sighted on Microsoft's end to kill-off Surface Division after all these years of building premium products. Surface devices, despite some imperfections, have earned recognition for their top-tier construction and have pushed industries forwards by introducing many creative innovations that were lacking in the past. Here is the list of all the Surface Products that were missing from the event and we don't know if they would ever be getting their successors or not

Artifical Intelligence surely has been the hot selling point for tech giants since the rise of conversational AI. Microsoft held its September Surface and AI even on Thursday, September 21st. The event focused on hardware refresh to the surface product line alongside further integration of Microsoft's AI assistance named CoPilot into more products and features. Here are the major announcements happened during the event: HARDWARE ANNOUNCEMENTS Surface Studio Laptop 2 The star of the hardware was Surface Studio Laptop 2. This is the successor to the Surface Studio Laptop that was launched exactly 2 years ago. The original was a great idea but its 11th Generation Intel processors were already outdated. It also lacked port variety.  Surface Studio Laptop 2 builds on the positives of the predecessor and added 13th Generation Intel processors and up to NVIDIA GeForce 4060 dedicated graphics card. The laptop also added a USB-A port and a MicroSDXC card slot. Pricin

In a move that echoes Microsoft's strategic shifts, the tech giant has officially discontinued the Cortana App for Windows. Launching the App would greet you with the following message: Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated. The support page further details the discontinuation: We're making some changes to Windows and Microsoft 365 that will impact Cortana users. Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated. Support for Cortana in Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams Rooms will end in the fall of 2023. Cortana in Outlook mobile will continue to be available.     Analysis Cortana's journey commenced during the Windows Phone 8 era and seamlessly transitioned into Windows 10 in 2015. Expanding its reach, Microsoft also introduced the Cortana App for iPhone and Android platforms. This endeavor drew inspiration from the AI hologram of the same name in Microsoft's HALO series. However, Microsoft's attempts to posi