The Hardware of 2022 – From Intel GPUs to iPhone 14 – Operating Systems: Windows 11 Gets an Update

Finally, we make a small detour to the software. Virtually all major smartphone and PC operating systems have received major updates in recent months. Therefore, it is early for many operating systems to look to the future; there is simply very little known. One exception is Windows, about which we already know a lot more about the next big update thanks to the public Insider program.

Windows 11 22H2

From Windows 11 Microsoft has gone from semi-annual to annual updates. We can get the next ‘feature update’ as the software maker put it calls, so wait about a year after the release of Windows 11. That would be in October 2022.

Development work on that update has already started a long time ago. Microsoft’s development cadence is divided into two semesters, so basically the Windows 11 22H2 update should already will be completed in the summer of this year. However, it could well be that the launch will still take a few months, because Microsoft has been used to taking a lot of time for testing. For example, the first preview of Windows 11, which was available to Insiders on June 28, 2021, was already build 22000, which was rolled out to everyone in November. Meanwhile, only subversion continued to increase.

The following innovations are already being tested in the Insider program and therefore we will probably see them in update 22H2:

• customizable start menu layout;
• Minor adjustments on the taskbar, such as displaying the clock on more than one monitor, scrolling the volume icon to instantly adjust the volume and the option of share window in Teams in floating preview;
• snapshot groups, which are already visible in the floating preview on the taskbar, are also displayed in the task view (alt + tab));
• the button for the widget panel is moved to the left of the taskbar, where the current weather is immediately visible, as was also the case in Windows 10;
• Microsoft continues to transfer specific options from the old Control Panel to the Settings application, including uninstalling updates and advanced options for network sharing;
• a new shortcut ctrl + shift + c to copy the path of a selected file;
• remember to turn on bluetooth or wifi in airplane mode;
• to new media player;
• couple of new features for notepad, including a dark mode;
• Voice Access, which allows you to control the operating system control with your voice;
• a new emoji design based on a fluid layout;
• the spinning point loading animation is replaced by a circle.

MacOS Mammoth?

The development process for the next version of macOS is happening behind closed doors for now, but there are already rumors that macOS 13 will be called Mammoth. Apple has trademarked that trademark along with Monterey, the name of the latest macOS update. In addition, the name seems to indicate a major update, which fits within the release schedule of recent years, in which major updates alternate, such as the redesign in Big Sur, and minor releases. The kind of major innovations we should think about remains a mystery for now.