It's happening! Microsoft will absolutely acquire Activision Blizzard

• An amazing (ahem) blizzard of activity on the acquisition front leaves Microsoft on the verge of consummating this deal. It's amazing how much has happened since last week.
• FTC appealed its court loss and was immediately defeated again
• UK CMA extends deadline for its review of Microsoft's new concessions
• Microsoft and Sony agree to a Call of Duty deal (!) - not clear if it's for 10 years
• UK court formally pauses CMA block of AB acquisition so the two sides can negotiate
• Microsoft and Activision agreed to extend the acquisition deadline to October 18 to accommodate the CMA

Windows

• Windows 11 23H2 will be deployed as an enablement package, virtually providing our theories that 23H2 = Moment 4.
• Tied to this, Microsoft finally explains how it updates Windows now, literally 8 years after the release of Windows 10. It's easy to be cynical, but a Microsoft whitepaper offers a lot of overdue transparency about updating
• Insider Program: New Dev build today. Passwordless for Windows Hello Business, local file sharing improvements, Outlook now an inbox app
• Insider Program: New Beta and Release Preview builds out last week.
• Beta is 23H2. Galley view in Explorer, new Paint app
• Release Preview is 22H2, just fixes
• The NUC lives!
• Microsoft has a new font

An AI told you so

• Microsoft announces Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing (for commercial) and it is exactly as expensive as we warned
• Bing Chat adds visual search support
• Bill Gates dismisses the dangers of AI. "We've done this before."
• FTC is investigating OpenAI

Xbox

• Xbox Game Pass Core to replace Xbox Live Gold in September
• The next Game Pass titles for July
• Game Pass Friends and Family Preview is ending in August
• More fun retro gaming as Anstream Arcade is coming to Xbox on July 21

Tips and Picks

• Tip of the week: Enable passkeys in GitHub
• Book of the week: John Romero wrote a book
• RunAs this week: Securing Sprawling Services with Karinne Bessette
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Glenfarclas 12

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell

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