WW 968: Uncharted Territory - Big Changes in the Insider Program

23 snips

Jan 29, 2026

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday meltdown and the emergency fixes that followed. Big tech shakeups including massive Amazon layoffs and rocky Intel results. Fast-moving AI news: new chips, cheaper plans, chatbot apps, and talk of AI replacing native apps. New Windows dev tools, Xbox Cloud Gaming changes, and a practical reminder to pick a single password manager.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Patch Tuesday Fragility Exposed

January Patch Tuesday caused significant regressions requiring two emergency fixes, showing that even routine updates can break power management and cloud save flows.
The incident highlights the rising operational fragility in complex OS updates.

ADVICE

Watch For AI Content Labels

Check AI-generated content labels when reading news; Apple now flags local summaries as AI-generated.
Treat such articles as useful but verify details when accuracy matters.

INSIGHT

Cloud Providers Build Custom AI Chips

Major cloud providers (Microsoft, Google, Amazon) are designing custom AI datacenter chips to optimize performance and cost.
These chips are deployed privately in clouds, making high-performance AI largely rentable rather than purchasable hardware.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday blunder triggers emergency fixes, surprise layoffs ripple through Amazon, and the crew debates whether rapid AI advances spell the end of traditional apps. Also, password managers do a lot more than manage passwords, so there's one thing everyone needs to get right.

Windows 11

Dev splits from Beta, tests what will surely be 26H1 - After last week's show, Microsoft did issue that same Beta build in the Dev channel for some reason
Dev and Beta get same fixes in different builds, but no new features
24H2 and 25H2 Release Preview update(s) are a peek at the next Patch Tuesday, lots of changes
January Patch Tuesday update was so terrible it required two emergency fixes, the second of which went out late Sunday

Earnings/industry

Intel falls flat in Q4, full year 2025 despite U.S. "investment"
Amazon lays off 16,000 employees
Microsoft, Apple, earnings this week, Alphabet, Amazon are next week

Microsoft announces Maia 200 AI datacenter processor
Like Baldric in Black Adder, Apple has a cunning plan for an AI Siri
With AI costs soaring, cheaper new AI plans appear somehow
OpenAI was last week with big expansion of ChatGPT Go
Google does the same this week with AI Plus plan
OpenAI, Anthropic (this week), others are adding "apps" to their chatbots
Microsoft is exposing app features as AI Actions in Windows 11
Paul opined that this semantic/programmatic capability was the end of apps
But we can now essentially vibe-code our own custom apps - this is vaguely reminiscent of the home computer/DIY era, but without the technical knowledge requirements
The age of native apps is over, at least on desktop. Will mobile fall next?

Dev

Microsoft introduces the Windows App Development (winapp) CLI. For some reason

Xbox and gaming

Microsoft refreshes the Xbox Cloud Gaming web experience — bigger changes coming?
Fable is coming to Xbox, PC, PS5 in late 2026

Tips and picks

Tip of the week: Choose a single password manager, make your life easier
App pick of the week: Proton Pass
RunAs Radio this week: Business Process Automation in 2026 with Ian Cooper
Brown liquor pick of the week: Tullibardine 18

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

Download or subscribe to Windows Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly

Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com

The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Sponsors: