Latest news with #Arm64
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Business Standard
26-06-2025
- Business Standard
Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs may soon get native Discord app
Discord is reportedly developing a native version of its communications platform for Windows on Arm. According to a report by The Verge, an early Arm64 build is already available for testing and promises better performance on Qualcomm Snapdragon -powered Copilot Plus PCs compared to the emulated version currently in use. In a statement to The Verge, Discord spokesperson Claudia Fellerman confirmed that development is underway, although still in its early stages. There's no official timeline for a public rollout. At present, Windows on Arm users can run the standard Discord app via emulation, but this approach often results in slow channel loading, occasional freezing, and an overall degraded user experience. Initial feedback from testers of the Arm64 build suggests a significantly improved experience, with faster load times and smoother navigation without the lag seen in the emulated version. Once officially released, Discord will join a growing line-up of apps optimised for Windows on Arm, including Google Chrome, Zoom, Photoshop, Dropbox, and Spotify. According to The Verge, there are currently over 730 apps tailored for Windows on Arm—about 42 per cent of which are fully native, while roughly 31 per cent use Microsoft's Prism emulator. Microsoft has significantly improved the Windows on Arm ecosystem in recent years, enhancing support for both translated legacy applications and native Arm64 apps. Native builds like Discord's are particularly valuable for new Copilot Plus PCs, as they can better leverage the efficiency and performance advantages of Qualcomm's Arm-based chipsets—especially in demanding applications like video calling and real-time collaboration.
The Verge
25-06-2025
- The Verge
Discord is working on a Windows on Arm app
Discord is working on a native Windows on Arm version of its communications app. An early development preview build is available for testers, ahead of a full Arm64 release for compatible Arm-powered devices. Discord spokesperson Claudia Fellerman confirmed to The Verge that the company is working on a build for Windows on Arm, but it's in the early stages of development so it's not clear exactly when it will release publicly. While you can install Discord on Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus devices right now, the emulated experience often freezes and is slow to load chat history or channels. You can also use unofficial Discord clients that are native to Windows on Arm. In recent weeks I've been testing an early version of Discord that's compiled for Windows on Arm and it's just like using the app on an Intel-powered device. There is no lag navigating around and the performance is a lot better. Once Discord is available officially for Windows on Arm, this will join the hundreds of apps that are native for the latest Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PCs. Emulation is generally a good experience for lightweight apps on Windows, but for apps like Discord and Premiere Pro you very much need a native version for the best performance. The Windows on Arm app tracking site currently has 731 apps listed, with nearly 42 percent native Arm64. Less than 10 percent of apps tracked are not supported on Windows on Arm, and around 31 percent are supported by Microsoft's Prism emulator. Microsoft has managed to convince a large portion of app developers to build native Arm64 apps, including Chrome, Dropbox, Zoom, Photoshop, Spotify, and more.
Engadget
17-06-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Xbox's AMD partnership sheds light on the future of the division's ecosystem
Your Yahoo privacy setting is blocking social media and third-party content You can Allow your personal information to be shared and sold. Something went wrong. Try again. You can update your choice anytime by going to your privacy controls, which are linked to throughout our sites and apps. This page will now refresh. Microsoft has no plans to get out of the console business anytime soon. The company has been reiterating for a while that it's going to make at least one more generation of Xbox consoles. It's now been confirmed that AMD will power the upcoming hardware, as it did with the Xbox Series X/S . Xbox president Sarah Bond made the announcement in a short video . Under the multi-year partnership, Xbox and AMD are "advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation; to unlock a deeper level of visual quality; and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games," Bond said. A leaked presentation from May 2022 (which was part of the massive Xbox leak the following year) indicated that Microsoft had yet to make a decision about the processor and GPU for the next Xbox console(s), suggesting in one slide that it planned to strike an agreement with AMD to supply those and in another that it yet had to make an "Arm64 decision." As we now know, the company is doubling down with AMD. On the surface, the AMD agreement is the main news coming out of Bond's announcement. But, if you read between the lines, there are lots of other interesting details to tease out from what she said in the short video. For one thing, the AI aspect of Bond's carefully crafted statement lines up with details in the leak (and other developments ) about Microsoft embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning in future Xbox games, including for things like AI agents. So the company is likely to keep going down that path. Bond said that Microsoft and AMD will "co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next-generation Xbox consoles, in your living room and in your hands," implying that the company is planning more handhelds beyond the Xbox-branded ROG devices that are coming later this year. Those are also powered by AMD. In addition, Bond said the next-gen of Xbox devices will maintain "compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games." Xbox has made a commitment to backward compatibility, but that's still welcome to hear. Those are fairly interesting nuggets, no doubt, but there were two other things Bond said that I think are starting to shed more light on the future of the Xbox ecosystem. First, she said that her team is "building you a gaming platform that's always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device." That "single store" phrasing is a chin stroker, especially in light of the new user interface Xbox is making for the ROG handhelds. The Windows-powered devices won't only allow users to play games from the Xbox PC app, Xbox consoles via remote play and the cloud. They'll integrate games from other PC storefronts, such as (which is run by Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard), Steam, GOG and more. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass users have long had access to EA Play games as part of their subscriptions. Ubisoft+ is on Xbox consoles too . Perhaps this concept of not being "locked to a single store" will start to work in other ways. Valve said a few years ago that it would be happy to integrate Game Pass into Steam , for instance. Likewise, Microsoft has said it would welcome Steam and the Epic Games Store app onto its PC app store (though Valve and Epic probably wouldn't want to give Microsoft a cut of game sales). Maybe we might finally see those come to fruition in the next few years. But how might those integrations work on an Xbox console? Bond hinted at that too. She said Xbox is "working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming." Sure, that could be a reference to PC gaming. But Bond didn't explicitly state that, which has me wondering if the next Xbox console might be more of a Windows PC that sits under your TV. That would align with comments made a few months back by Jez Corden of Windows Central , who said the next Xbox is "a PC, in essence, but with a TV-friendly shell." As with the likes of the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs, this would potentially give game developers a specific set of specifications to work with (though ensuring their games are optimized for as many desktop and laptop configurations as possible will still be a complex task). Perhaps the user interface Xbox is debuting on the Ally X devices is a sign of things to come on larger displays. Moreover, the Xbox and Windows teams are stripping out unnecessary aspects of the operating system in the Xbox Ally handhelds to make them run more efficiently. What's to stop them from doing the same in the next Xbox console? That could enable Xbox to offer a more unified ecosystem across all platforms, while streamlining things for developers who want to make games for both PC and Xbox. Don't forget that Microsoft has been making a real effort to make Windows run more smoothly on ARM-based processors as part of its Copilot+ PC push. We might have to wait two or three more years to get a fuller sense of Microsoft's vision for the future of Xbox consoles. But it certainly has the opportunity to knit its platforms more closely together and make playing Xbox (and PC) games across devices a more seamless experience.
