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Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

arstechnica.com

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Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#91

Post by jay_kyburz »

ziddoap wrote: post #59
hyperhopper wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shame on Ars for this. Would have thought they would be better. ESPECIALLY since the "since 1994" is not important for the headline at all, but they just wanted to pull something out of their ass to embellish the headline, but actually ended up making it wrong by doing so. I miss terse but descriptive headlines. Everything now has to be 11/10 wild or clickbait that doesn't actually give a full piece of information.

I see the word "clickbait" on HN so often it's lost all meaning. The headline is fine, not 11/10, and not wild. "Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards" - true, descriptive. "for the first time since 1994" - provides context to the weight of the decision of adding a new key, absolutely fine. The headline is not wrong, this is the first key added that will be required as part of the standard keyboard layout sin…

> "the company told us that the key isn't mandatory now, but that it expects Copilot keys to be required on Windows 11 keyboards "over time."

It's not mandatory, and there is a chance it never will be. Just like the office key.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#92

Post by user_7832 »

myself248 wrote: post #70
bunderbunder wrote: post #39

Translation: Someone at Microsoft is already getting very, very worried about the return on all this investment they've put into generative AI.

And they have no useful levers to pull, so they invent a useless one and yank it as hard as they can. We all know exactly what's causing this, and we all know exactly how it'll turn out. How do we collectively tell them to knock it off? The industry needs some mechanism to stage an intervention, perhaps once they've cooled down a little from their present mania.

> How do we collectively tell them to knock it off

The “easiest” might be an antitrust suit. Forcing or bundling (or apparently advertising) one product with another runs afoul of anti-bundling laws, and there’s an argument to be made for windows and openAI/copilot to both be monopolies.

Now, who has a dozens of millions lying around to fund such a suit?

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#93

Post by takeda »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #11

What happens when you plug this keyboard into a Linux box? Is it just another Meta/Super key, except one that doesn't support combinations? Is it using one of the reserved USB HID keyboard scan codes? Or is it a separate device driver just for that one key?

I have feeling it will be the menu key with a different keycap.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#94

Post by user_7832 »

Zandikar wrote: post #80
myself248 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use the menu key where it's available, and ctrl-shift-F10 where it isn't. (Most new laptops seem to omit it.) When I'm in Windows, that is, which is an ever-dwindling share of my time.

Interesting, may I ask why/how/in what scenarios? Is it a trackpad thing? I was assuming it was an accessibility thing. That key's always been strange to me, never could figure out who used it and for what.

It’s very handy for me when say I only have one finger available to operate the laptop (eg holding something/having dinner).

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#95

Post by bunderbunder »

tester756 wrote: post #68
bunderbunder wrote: post #39

Translation: Someone at Microsoft is already getting very, very worried about the return on all this investment they've put into generative AI.

I disagree, as I see there's huge momentum to push AI onto edge like "AI PC" initiative between SW & HW companies

Even if generative AI does see huge uptake, that does not guarantee that Microsoft's implementation is the one that everyone uses. And, even if Microsoft's is the one that everyone uses, that does not guarantee that they make money of of it.

For further examples of money-losing products that changed the world, see the entire history of our crazy industry.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#96

Post by HWR_14 »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #71
jjordan wrote: post #6

The way Microsoft is pushing AI literally everywhere now feels reminiscent of circa 2001 when literally everything was branded '.NET'. Eventually they scaled it back, but it was complete overkill and diluted what the brand was supposed to represent.

It's the only thing MS^H^H Bing has that offers a prayer of beating Google at something. Expect saturation.

Other than ads, search or mobile OS, I'm not sure where else Google is beating MS. I don't mean to diminish those things, they are important. But ChromeOS is clearly nowhere near displacing Windows (for instance).

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#97

Post by baq »

arp242 wrote: post #62
dijit wrote: post #18

I get so tilted at the idea of a specific OS vendor having a dedicated keyboard button on all non-apple computers. And now they are doing it again, wild.

I'm not a huge fan it has a Windows logo printed on it, but there are good usability reasons for the key, even on non-Windows systems, and there was just a big hunk of empty space between Ctrl and Alt before. So nothing is really lost for non-Windows users. It seems to me there are more pressing matters to get angry about than the logo on a keyboard. And whether we like or not not, Windows is the dominant desktop OS,…

I use my windows keyboard on a mac, if that key wasn’t there then I’d have to get a dedicated Mac keyboard.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#98

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

gtirloni wrote: post #45

> Microsoft is adding a new key to PC keyboards Not to mine. > A quick Microsoft demo video shows the Copilot key in between the cluster of arrow keys and the right Alt button, a place where many keyboards usually put a menu button, a right Ctrl key, another Windows key, or something similar I barely use any of those keys, especially the menu key. Just Microsoft's marketing department doing what they have alwasy done…

> I barely use any of those keys, especially the menu key.

I need it in situations where I don't have a working mouse. eg: new virtual machine without extensions or where where I'm debugging mouse issues.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#99

Post by LordDragonfang »

HWR_14 wrote: post #96
CamperBob2 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the only thing MS^H^H Bing has that offers a prayer of beating Google at something. Expect saturation.

Other than ads, search or mobile OS, I'm not sure where else Google is beating MS. I don't mean to diminish those things, they are important. But ChromeOS is clearly nowhere near displacing Windows (for instance).

New outlook keeps getting worse, while gmail keeps getting better; virtually no one under the age of 40 buys Office for personal use, they all use the google suite, Chrome has an absurd market share. Really the only place they're winning is in the ChromeOS vs Windows fight.

Re: Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards

#100

Post by avtar »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #71
jjordan wrote: post #6

The way Microsoft is pushing AI literally everywhere now feels reminiscent of circa 2001 when literally everything was branded '.NET'. Eventually they scaled it back, but it was complete overkill and diluted what the brand was supposed to represent.

It's the only thing MS^H^H Bing has that offers a prayer of beating Google at something. Expect saturation.

> It's the only thing they have that offers a prayer of beating Google at something

I'm guessing their office suite offerings (hosted and desktop) dwarf anything that Google has.

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