Sources say more cuts could follow as the company looks to improve its finances.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: We haven't heard many details about Microsoft's upcoming "Project Helix" gaming hardware since the company announced it in March as a device that will "play your Xbox and PC games." In a new wide-ranging profile of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, though, Fortune alludes to a dual release strategy for upcoming Microsoft gaming hardware, with "a next-generation handheld device" planned by the end of next year and a 2028 holiday season console release that could cost between $1,200 and $1,800. That future console price range is based on what has "internally been projected" at the company, according to Fortune. But the price for consumers could come down if "Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost," the outlet says, as many console makers have done in the past. While a $1,200 starting price would be historically high for the game console market, even accounting for inflation, it also reflects a new normal: The slowdown in Moore's Law and AI-driven component shortages mean cutting-edge gaming hardware just isn't as cheap as it used to be. This year, the Steam Machine broke the $1,000 starting price, while the 2-year-old technology in the PlayStation 5 Pro is now going for $900, and the 6-year-old Xbox Series X now starts at $750.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"PHP disclosed two critical vulnerabilities in their programming language and urged web site operators to immediately apply the fix," writes longtime Slashdot reader smooth wombat. "As a result, government web sites in Europe and elsewhere temporarily went dark on Wednesday as operators worked to protect their systems." The Independent reports: Dane Knecht, the chief technology officer of Web and cloud security firm Cloudflare, said that attacks were emerging and Cloudflare was updating its firewall rules as a stopgap measure. "We are seeing early attacks emerging and are updating mitigations as new vectors show up. This is a STOPGAP only. Patch as soon as PHP releases the update," he said on X. Officials have said that all PHP versions from PHP 5 onward could be affected, although PHP has not yet disclosed which versions are vulnerable. Special thanks to Slashdot readers Alain Williams and mrspoonsi for sharing this critical PHP security release. For more details, read the official PHP announcement and guidance on what to do next.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft Dev Box will retire on September 18, 2028. Beginning on September 14, 2026, Microsoft Dev Box will begin the closing-down process. After retirement, Microsoft Dev Box will no longer be available.

Microsoft Dev Box is currently in maintenance mode, and Microsoft’s investments for developer cloud environments are focused on Windows 365. Existing Microsoft Dev Box usage remains supported during the transition period, and we recommend that you begin planning your migration now to avoid disruption to developer workflows.

What this means for you

• If you currently use Microsoft Dev Box, you can continue using your existing deployments during the transition period.
• No new feature development is planned for the service.
• You should evaluate and begin planning your move to Windows 365, which is the recommended path forward for virtualized developer environments.

Recommended action

• Review your current Dev Box usage, including dev centers, projects, pools, images, and developer workflows.
• Identify which scenarios can transition directly to Windows 365 and which require additional planning.
• Validate identity, device management, networking, image, and licensing requirements for your future-state environment.
• Begin testing replacement workflows as early as possible to reduce risk before retirement.

If you have questions or need support, please contact your Microsoft representative.

Reference:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates?WT.mc_id=AZ-MVP-4039694&id=567933

Sowjanya Pandruju, Cloud Application Architect with Amazon Web Services, Vice Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Madison Section, and Chair of the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Madison Section (Region 4), speaks with SE Radio host Gavin Henry about managing agent state. Sowjanya discusses what agents are and are not, what agent state is, the role an LLM actually plays, why agents need state, the different types of state, where to store agent state, how multi-agents change things, and the solutions to the various challenges created by managing agent state.

Brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software magazine.

Download audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/seradio/743-sowjanya-pandruju-agent-state.mp3?dest-id=23379

Paul Thurrott gets hands-on with NVIDIA's new RTX Spark AI PCs and reveals why all that power isn't translating into practical results for certain users. Expect strong opinions and a few surprises about the state of local AI on computers. Plus, Tolaria is a free, open source, vibe-coded replacement for Notion that's based on Markdown files. And now it's on mobile too! Llama Windows is also free/open source and natively supports Windows 11 on Arm and RTX Spark. It may be the easiest way to interact with local AI on Windows.

Windows

• Microsoft discusses second round of pain points updates for Windows 11, starting with a new Photos app plus the ability to work well with just 8 GB of RAM
• Six (!) new builds, including two to the Release Preview Channel
• Microsoft Edge is working towards no-reboot updates
• Opera Air gets a nice refresh
• The Proton roadmap is spectacular
• RTX Spark: HP OmniBook Ultra 16
• RTX Spark: Lenovo Pro 9n 15
• RTX Spark: ASUS ProArt P16 arrives with 128 GB of RAM

Microsoft 365

• OneDrive is getting a Copilot-infused upgrade for files and photos in the AI era

AI/dev

• RTX Spark hands-on: Local AI is more frustrating than useful
• Microsoft is working on a comprehensive strategy to secure AI agents
• OpenAI releases an AI coding model for Visual Basic, other older programming languages

XBOX and gaming

• Report: Project Helix starts with a gaming handheld in 2027, not a console, with a new console in 2028
• Microsoft reveals standalone Cloud Gaming costs - 10 hours for $3.99, 25 for $7.99, 50 for $11.99
• ASUS ROG XBOX Ally X20 is here for $1300 and up
• ASUS ROG XBOX Ally X20 is here for $1300 and up
• AMD is bringing FSR Upscaling 4.1 to XBOX consoles, ROG XBOX Ally
• Final Fantasy VII Remake is the star of the late October Game Pass releases
• NVIDIA touts games already optimized for RTX Spark
• XBOX highlights new indie titles coming to PC, console, and Game Pass over the next year
• EA is shutting down BioWare

Tips and picks

• App pick of the week: Tolaria
• App pick of the week #2: Llama Windows
• RunAs Radio this week: OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications with Will Velida
• Brown liquor pick of the week: Ardnahoe Inaugural Release 5 Year Old

Hosts: Paul Thurrott, Richard Campbell, and Mikah Sargent

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.

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Download audio: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/294/cdn.twit.tv/cap/ww_1006/55d5764c-a399-4b5f-8ee0-35812d5a7d8d.mp3