More Apple services coming to Microsoft Xbox, Windows 11: Details here

Apple Music is now available on Xbox, whereas, Apple Music and the Apple TV app will be available on Windows from next year

Microsoft announced the integration of Apple's iCloud and Microsoft Photos app in Windows 11 at its annual Surface event on Wednesday. The American software giant says the integration will help iPhone users with a Windows device to access all their photos and videos via Microsoft Photos app. To enable the integration, Windows 11 users need to install the iCloud from the Microsoft Store and sync it with the Photos app. This integration is currently available to Windows Insiders, with availability for all Windows 11 users beginning in November.

Alongside, Microsoft also announced the availability of Apple Music on Xbox. It is the second Apple streaming service coming to Microsoft Xbox – first was Apple TV. Both the Apple Music and Apple TV apps are also coming to Windows next year. "We’re making it easier than ever for customers to access their iPhone photos and the entertainment they love from Apple on their Xbox and Windows devices,” said Carmen Zlateff, VP, Windows User Experience.

Besides the above services-related updates, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop 5, Surface 9 Pro, Surface Studio 2+, and more.

Surface Laptop 5

Powered by 12th Gen Intel Core processors based on the Intel Evo platform, the laptop comes in 13.5-inch and 15-inch screen size variants. It boots Windows 11 operating system and supports a 10-point multi-touch screen with Dolby Vision IQ. It offers 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB LPDDR5x RAM variants with an option of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB SSD storages. It features Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 for wireless connectivity. Other features include Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, 3.5mm headphone jack, Dual studio microphones, and HD front facing camera.

Surface 9 Pro

Surface 9 Pro comes in two variants, one powered by 12th Gen Intel Core processor and another by Microsoft SQ 3 5G processor built in partnership with Qualcomm. It sports a 13.3-inch PixelSense Flow screen of 120Hz refresh rate, and supports Dolby Vision IQ and 10-point multi-touch. The Intel processor powered variant comes with 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB RAM options, and up to 1TB storage. The variant powered by Microsoft SQ3 processor offers 5G connectivity. It comes with 8GB and 16GB LPDDR4x RAM options, and up to 512GB storage.

Surface Studio 2+

Powered by 11th Gen Intel Core H-35 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 discrete GPU, it sports 28-inch PixelSense touchscreen. It comes in 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD configuration. Other features include USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, 3.5 mm headphone jack, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Microsoft Designer

It is a new graphic designing app in Microsoft 365, launched at the event. It uses artificial intelligence to help users automatically get a variety of unique images and designs based on their idea or content.