Opening thoughts. Microsoft Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is overhauling the company’s gaming unit. She needs to wield the wrecking ball too, because Microsoft had let things drift for far too long. Four out of the six previous quarters have seen gaming revenue decline. There has been regular talk, including from Satya Nadella about trying to win back Xbox fans and gamers, but precious little except for an overwhelming obsession with AI. Sharma has put an end to the Copilot journey on Xbox, and a serious price restructuring for the Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.
EDITOR’S CORNER
ANDROID’S NEW DIRECTION
The way millions of Android phones work will undergo a significant overhaul in the coming months, starting with flagship phones. Ahead of their annual I/O developer conference, Google has detailed a vision for Gemini’s deeper integration into Android. Core to this is a new Gemini Intelligence layer, which will add context and personalisation with an intent to automate tasks where possible—a significant change in how you use your Android phone, is incoming. Gemini Intelligence brings context to auto-fill when filling forms across websites and apps, a Rambler feature to the keyboard app which can now convert typically spoken sentences will fillers into cogent messages or lists, and automating certain tasks such as booking tickets for an event you’ve discovered.
