Microsoft’s iconic Clippy assistant for Office is making a big comeback on Windows 11, but in another form. Rather than bringing back Clippy as another digital assistant, the iconic character will instead replace the standard paperclip emoji in Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system. Clippy’s return is part of Microsoft’s latest November 2021 Windows 11 Insider preview build. Along with Clippy, there are also a number of new emojis that Microsoft is showing off.
The new emoji style that Microsoft is bringing to Windows 11 through this latest optional software update sports a 2D appearance compared to the 3D styles that were previously previewed. The company claims that the new emoji were created using its new Fluent design style, and its team of designers worked to make emoji scalable.
“These new Fluent-style emoji being released in Windows 11 today feel personal and familiar, two of our Windows 11 design principles,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post highlighting Clippy’s return and the importance of the use of emoji in communication. “A team of emoji designers, program managers, font experts, and developers focused on creating this new emoji system. From color palettes to modular features, designers built out a system that would scale to the expansive set of Unicode emoji. Windows 11 now offers a more modern and expressive emoji to use in your hybrid communications, allowing you to add fun, expression, and personality to your communications.”
The company had previously stated that it would be switching from 3D emoji to 2D emoji earlier this summer ahead of the launch of Windows 11, noting that it will animate many of the emoji on its platforms. With the new Windows 11 2D emoji, Microsoft is opting for a more modernized style, with bold colors and a simple, minimalist look to the emoji.
In a previous blog post, the company stated that these emoji will be exclusive to Windows 11, so Windows 10 users who won’t be upgrading to the latest OS will be out of luck.
According to technology publication The Verge, Microsoft may have had to resort to 2D styling because of technical limitations in what it is trying to achieve with its emoji and the color font format. Instead of using bitmaps like rival Apple, Microsoft is using vector formats to render its emoji, which provide benefits such as easy scalability and reduced file sizes when flatter, 2D images are used. And while 3D emoji may not make a systemwide appearance now that Microsoft has shown off its 2D emoji, The Verge still expects 3D and animated emoji to appear in some specific products, like Microsoft’s Teams app.
Microsoft is also working on fixing some widely publicized bugs that affect the operating system’s performance.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.