The November 2025 Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 11 mark the rollout of a redesigned Start Menu with a responsive layout and a scrollable apps list. The post Microsoft Starts Rolling Out Redesigned Start Menu to All Windows 11 Users appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Google announced a major update to Google Photos, with nice improvements across Android, iPhone, and the web versions of the service. The post Google Photos Gets Nano Banana, More appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Don’t call it a netbook: Apple’s rumored A-series MacBook isn’t just a great idea, it could revitalize the Mac by being truly competitive with the sweet spot of the PC market. 🍎 Apple, netbooks, and what-ifs Apple almost made a netbook. This low-cost line of Linux- based PCs revitalized the PC market at a time when Windows Vista was dragging it down, setting off a cascading series of events that would forever change the industry. It forced Microsoft to keep Windows XP around in Starter Edition form as a low-cost, comparatively low-resource alternative to Vista. It triggered a rush to the bottom—in pricing and quality—that undermined PC maker profits and reset customer expectations. And it made Apple, which had just released the first iPhone, blink. As described in the official Steve Jobs biography, Apple’s former CEO gathered his executive team together in 2007 to brainstorm a response to the netbook. The obvious choice was to simply ape what PC makers were doing and throw together a low-end Mac laptop. Such a thing would cost more than PC-based netbooks, but less than its entry-level MacBook, which started at $1099. But Jony Ive asked why this machine needed a keyboard hinged to the screen, reviving Jobs’s pre-iPhone dream of a tablet. And so Apple set out to design and build what would become the iPad. When Jobs introduced the iPad in early 2010, Microsoft had just shipped Windows 7, which had been stripped down enough to support netbooks. And so he did what Steve Jobs did and crapped all over Microsoft’s aspirations despite having almost gone down that road himself. “If there’s going to be a third category of devices [in addition to phones and laptop], it’s going to have to be better at these kinds of tasks than a laptop or smartphone,” Jobs said at the iPad launch, having just listed several common computing activities. “Some people have thought that’s a netbook. The problem is, netbooks aren’t better at anything! They’re slow, they have low-quality displays, and they run clunky old PC software. So they’re no better than a laptop at anything, they’re just cheaper. They’re just cheap laptops.” The iPad wasn’t the only major Apple product introduction in 2010, of course. Apple also shipped its second-generation MacBook Air that year, and this is the model with the iconic design everyone remembers. This MacBook Air came in both 13.3- and 11-inch models, and the latter was as close as Apple would ever get to a netbook, with its tiny form factor and $999 starting price. It was discontinued in 2015, and Apple then offered a more premium 12-inch MacBook that started at $1299. Of course, by this point, Jobs was long gone. And Apple had also bulked out its tablet lineup with Mini, Air, and Pro models in addition to the standard iPad. 🖥️ Apple Silicon saved the Mac One of the oddities of history is that Apple was never able to make the Mac a bigger hit. Under Steve Jobs, the co... The post In Defense of an A-Series MacBook appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Google wants Android apps to stop wasting battery with excessive wake locks, and those that don’t meet a certain threshold will soon be penalized on the Play Store. The post Google Play Store to Start Penalizing Apps That Drain Too Much Battery appeared first on Thurrott.com.

As promised, Microsoft today released .NET 10 after a 9 month development cycle that started with a first preview in February. The post Microsoft Delivers .NET 10 appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Meta is about to retire two of its Facebook social plugins for websites, the Facebook Like button and the Comments plugin that enables Facebook comments on external content. The post Facebook is Killing its Like and Comment Buttons for Websites appeared first on Thurrott.com.

The Sony PlayStation 5 has now outsold every Xbox console generation that Microsoft has ever made. The post Sony Has Sold Over 84 Million PlayStation 5 Consoles appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Apple has reportedly delayed the release of its next-gen iPhone Air after sales of the original model were weaker than expected. The post Apple Has Reportedly Delayed iPhone Air 2 Following Weak Demand appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Microsoft says it’s made meaningful progress meeting the goals of its Secure Future Initiative (SFI) in Windows 11 and Surface. The post Microsoft Touts Recent Windows 11 and Surface Security Wins appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Fallout 4 is adding support for Xbox Play Anywhere and fan-made creations today alongside the release of the game’s Anniversary Edition. The post Fallout 4 Adds Xbox Play Anywhere and Creations Support appeared first on Thurrott.com.

The new Gemini for Google TV experience is now rolling out to users of the Google TV Streamer in the US and Canada. The post Gemini for TV is Now Rolling Out to the Google TV Streamer appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Microsoft still isn’t meeting its financial disclosure requirements regarding its investments and costs associated with OpenAI. The post WSJ: Microsoft is Still Not Meeting Its Financial Disclosure Requirements appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Amazon will kick off its Black Friday Week next week on Thursday, November 20, and the event will run through December 1. The post Amazon’s Black Friday Week Deals to Kick Off on November 20 appeared first on Thurrott.com.

On this episode of First Ring Daily, NAS gets used, Paul sits in the overcast, and we talk about what's ahead for this week. The post First Ring Daily 1869: Ship Week appeared first on Thurrott.com.

On this episode of First Ring Daily, NAS gets used, Paul sits in the overcast, and we talk about what's ahead for this week.

Google is offering YouTube TV subscribers a $20 credit to compensate for the recent removal of Disney-owned content on the platform. The post YouTube TV Gives Subscribers $20 Credit To Compensate for the Removal of Disney Content appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Last week, I discussed my new rewrite of .NETpad as WinUIpad, using the Windows App SDK and WinUI 3. Since then, I’ve made two major additions to the code, which you can now find in the WinUIpad 2026 repository on GitHub: Font configuration now works properly, and I somehow managed to solve a months-long issue with a custom converter, so now the document filename displays properly too. Fonts The original version of the app I posted didn’t include working font code, so the font name (family), size, italicization, and weight (bold) features were stuck at the default values (Consolas, 18 point, no italics or bold). Explaining how I fixed this is a bit difficult, but there’s enough font-related code that needs to run when the app starts that I create a Font_Configuration() method to segregate that from the rest of the code in LoadAppSettings(). Most of that was working fine already, but the correct font name (family) wasn’t displaying at all, so I fixed that. And then I finally just created Selection_Changed event handlers for the Font family, Font style, and Font size combo-boxes in the settings interface and added code so that any changes the user made to each would impact the font used by the main app’s Textbox and then save the change to app settings. So that all seems to work properly now and font changes of whatever kind persist between app runs. Dynamic document name display This one I’m really excited about, as it had been a months-long source of frustration. As I wrote in .NETpad 2025: Running Up That Hill (Premium) back in August, I have been struggling to use data binding wherever possible in this project and finally discovered that one of the issues I’ve experienced is tied to an (at least) four-year-old bug in the Windows App SDK/WinUI 3 that Microsoft knows about and has never fixed. Without getting into the weeds on this one, there are two ways you can implement data-binding in XAML with the Windows App SDK/WinUI 3: The x:Bind markup extension, which is the newer and more efficient way, and the Binding markup extension, which is the old-fashioned and less efficient way. Obviously, I assumed I’d be using x:Bind everywhere possible, and it usually does work fine. Except in this one case. This app has a custom title bar, and the TextBlock control I’m using to display the document title at the top of the app window can be data-bound to the FileName property in my Document class so that it displays dynamically as the user opens new documents, saves an existing document, or creates a new, empty document. The problem is that it will display the entire file name, including its path and file extension by default. Like so: To fix this, I create a custom converter that strips away the path and file extension. This is found in FileNameConverter.cs (in a new Converters folder, as I will be using a few other custom converters soon, too). There’s a lot that goes into this, but basically you just a... The post WinUIpad: Fonts, Dynamic Document Title Display, More appeared first on Thurrott.com.

This week, IKEA announced it will save the smart home with over 20 new affordable Matter-compatible smart home devices. The post IKEA Announces Over 20 Affordable New Smart Home Devices appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Halo Infinite has never lived up to expectations and now Microsoft is confirming that it’s game over for the title. The post With Halo: Campaign Evolved on the Way, Halo Infinite Limps Offstage appeared first on Thurrott.com.

The first 26H1 build of Windows 11 is now available for Canary testers, but Microsoft said that this update will only add support for new silicon. The post Microsoft Releases First Windows 11 26H1 Build for Canary Testers appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Happy Friday! We’re flying to Oaxaca today for a long weekend, but first we have this great collection of reader questions to consider. 🎁 Cause and effect lvthunder asks: Where is the joy? As we go into the holiday season, I would like to see some articles about the tech you either enjoy or are looking forward to. It seems most of the articles are about how bad insert product or company has been or a device review. This is a great idea. In my defense, I’m in many ways driven by what’s happening in the world, and I can’t really invent good news per se. And this has been a rough year for enshittification, though antitrust is finally starting to make some inroads there. Semi-randomly, and this is by nature incomplete, a few of tech—related things I’m happy about. IKEA just announced over 20 Matter-compatible smart home devices—smart light bulbs, water leak sensors, motion sensors, remote controls, a lot more—and they are incredibly cheap. These will be available worldwide, so I will be stocking on some of these things, most notably water leak sensors for PA and Mexico for when we’re away from either place. I was getting nervous about Affinity when they went dark for about a month and didn’t have an obvious way to download any of their apps. But the new Affinity app is free, like really free, and that’s incredible. I prefer separate apps, personally, but this is Photoshop-level quality for free, for real. I don’t use VPNs all that often, but I had to do so twice on this trip to Mexico, once for downloading and using the new Google app for Windows, which is US only (will be writing about this soon), and the other for a bank-related need that was particularly problematic because our daughter totaled her car and there was a lot to do there, difficult when away. I like when things work, and Proton VPN couldn’t be easier to use. I’m excited that Google and Epic Games settled, not because the outcome was better or resolved all the issues there, but because it was the right thing to do and that compromise is the common-sense endgame that is lacking everywhere else in the world these days. I was sort of routinely going through some Windows 11 “decrapify”-type things for the book and to see what had changed, and I have been extremely pleased and surprised by how well Tiny11 Builder works now. This thing exists to get Windows 11 installed and working on lower-end PCs, but its use in de-enshittifying the system is much better than expected. I will likely have a follow-up right before we go home in a few weeks. I’m working on a “What I Use” article for this trip, and I ended up buying more tech-related items than ever before. So I will save that for that post, but it’s mostly been quite positive. Most of the AI news we see now is in a spectrum between FUD and nonsense, but Mustafa Suleyman, who was an unknown to me before he joined Microsoft, has been pleasantly surprising. Unlik... The post Ask Paul: November 7 ⭐ appeared first on Thurrott.com.

OneDrive isn’t just for cloud storage anymore. Paul Thurrott breaks down how Microsoft is quietly building it into an intelligent, all-in-one hub for your photos, docs, and

Meta is bringing Vibes, the new feed of AI-generated videos within its Meta AI app to EU users. The post Meta AI App Brings its ‘Vibes’ Feed of AI-Generated Videos to EU Users appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Condesa is lovely enough to wander around on your own. But follow this walk through its parks and past sculptures and monuments, and you'll hit all the high points.

Spotify is adding a new listening stats tab on its mobile app that lets users see and share their weekly top artists, tracks, and other insights. The post Spotify Now Lets Users Check and Share Their Weekly Listening Stats appeared first on Thurrott.com.