Microsoft News Roundup: 1,000 days since Surface Neo, Windows 98, Xbox Game Pass on Samsung TVs, and more

Plenty of news broke this week, including an update to Samsung smart TVs that added Xbox Game Pass support.

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Each week, several stories roll out in the worlds of Windows, PCs, and Xbox. While we cover the news as it comes out, it’s easy to lose a story or two in the shuffle. To kick off every weekend, we gather the biggest stories in one convenient roundup.

This week we shared exclusive information about the now-dead Surface Neo, covered Apple’s M2 MacBooks falling short of competing Windows laptops, and the European Space Agency upgrading the Mars Express spacecraft away from software made with an OS based on Windows 98.

While we cover some gaming news here, you can check out more stories in ourXbox and PC recap.

1,000 days since Surface Neo

1,000 days have passed since Microsoft unveiled theSurface Neo, the foldable device initially planned to runWindows 10X. Officially, the Surface Neo is postponed, but our senior editor Zac Bowden’s sources say the device is dead.

“Microsoft’s official word on the status of Surface Neo is that the product has been postponed, but my sources tell me that the Surface Neo that was announced is dead and will never ship,” said Bowden. “That vision, with an Intel Lakefield chip and two 9-inch displays in that exact chassis is dead, which honestly shouldn’t come as much of a surprise at this point.”

The Surface Neo could come back in some form, such as a single screen foldable, but that’s merely speculation. Wehave a poll running at the momenton if you’d like to see Microsoft bring back the Surface Neo with a single folding display.

Bowdenbreaks down all of the latest informationin his piece on the Surface Neo.

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M2 MacBook has a slow SSD

Apple recently launched its new 13-inch MacBook that’s powered by an M2 processor. While the laptop has some impressive qualities, its SSD has been the target of criticism. Apple’s decision to use just a single NAND chip on the base model M2 MacBook limited the top read and write speeds of the device.

Many outlets focused on the new MacBook Pro being a downgrade from the M1 MacBook on the SSD side of things, and rightly so. But the slower read and write speeds of the new computer alsocompare poorly to some Windows laptops.

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro’s SSD speeds are much lower than thebest Windows laptopswith PCIe 4 SSDs, but also lack when compared to some devices with PCIe3 SSDs, such as theSurface Laptop Go 2.

Mars Express spacecraft updating from ancient software

The Mars Express began its journey to the red planet in 2003. The spacecraft houses the MARSIS instrument, which has been used to discover signs of liquid water on Mars. Now, the European Space Agency plans to push the instruments on the Mars Express to their limitswith a software update.

“After decades of fruitful science and having gained a good understanding of Mars, we wanted to push the instrument’s performance beyond some of the limitations required back when the mission began,” said MARSIS Deputy PI and Operation Manager at INAF Andrea Cicchetti.

“We faced a number of challenges to improve the performance of MARSIS,” said Carlo Nenna. “Not least because the MARSIS software was originally designed over 20 years ago, using a development environment based on Microsoft Windows 98!”

While MARSIS does notrunWindows 98, its software was built in a development environment based on the old operating system. Moving away from such old software should improve the capabilities of the tool by quite a bit.

Samsung smart TVs get Xbox Game Pass update

Microsoft is on a mission to have its Xbox Cloud Gaming available on just about anything with a screen. The company took a step forward to that goal this week with the rollout of the Xbox Game Pass update to Samsung 2022 smart TVs.

Samsung’s new Gaming Hub application supports a variety of streaming services, including  NVIDIA GeForce Now, Google Stadia, andXbox Game Pass.Our piece on the newscovers which models will receive the update and work with game streaming.

“We’re on a quest to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet, and bringing the Xbox app to smart TVs is another step in making our vision a reality,” said Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.

“That’s why we’re excited to partner with Samsung, a global leader in TVs, on bringing Xbox to more players. Working with Samsung has helped us provide more access to gaming and enabled us to welcome new players into our thriving community.”

Reviews

Each week our experts review a wide range of hardware, games, and accessories. Here’s what we looked at this week:

Sean Endicott is a tech journalist at Windows Central, specializing in Windows, Microsoft software, AI, and PCs. He’s covered major launches, from Windows 10 and 11 to the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT. Sean’s journey began with the Lumia 740, leading to strong ties with app developers. Outside writing, he coaches American football, utilizing Microsoft services to manage his team. He studied broadcast journalism at Nottingham Trent University and is active on X @SeanEndicott_ and Threads @sean_endicott_.