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Gus Malzahn is resigning as Central Florida's head coach to become Florida State 's offensive coordinator, a person familiar with the hire told The Associated Press on Saturday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Seminoles have not confirmed Malzahn's move, which is pending a state background check. ESPN first reported the decision. The Knights made official that Malzahn is leaving in a statement released a day after UCF (4-8) concluded its season with a 28-14 loss to Utah. “We would like to thank Coach Malzahn for his contributions to our football program over the past four seasons, including our transition into the Big 12 Conference," the school said. "We appreciate his professionalism and dedication to our student-athletes throughout his tenure at UCF and wish he and his wife, Kristi, the very best in their future endeavors.” Malzahn finished with a 28-24 mark in four years at UCF, the last two ending with losing records after joining the Big 12. He coached at Auburn for eight seasons before being fired in 2020. Malzahn replaces offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Atkins, who was fired Nov. 10 following a 52-3 loss at Notre Dame. The Seminoles rank 131st out of 134 in total offense and scoring offense, averaging 15.8 points a game heading into Saturday night's rivalry game against Florida. The Seminoles (2-9) have dropped significantly since going 13-1 last season and winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The Knights, meanwhile, struggled mightily in Malzahn's fourth season — most of it because of quarterback issues. Four players took snaps from center as the Knights finished 2-7 in conference play. It was the program's worst record since going 0-12 in former coach George O’Leary’s final season in 2015. Florida State coach Mike Norvell fired Atkins, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and receivers coach Ron Dugans amid the Seminoles' season-long skid. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballWASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her agency will need to start taking “extraordinary measures,” or special accounting maneuvers intended to prevent the nation from hitting the debt ceiling , as early as January 14, in a letter sent to congressional leaders Friday afternoon. "Treasury expects to hit the statutory debt ceiling between January 14 and January 23," she wrote in a letter addressed to House and Senate leadership, at which point extraordinary measures would be used to prevent the government from breaching the nation's debt ceiling — which was suspended until Jan. 1, 2025. The department in the past deployed what are known as “extraordinary measures” or accounting maneuvers to keep the government operating. Once those measures run out, the government risks defaulting on its debt unless lawmakers and the president agree to lift the limit on the U.S. government’s ability to borrow. "I respectfully urge Congress to act to protect the full faith and credit of the United States," Yellen said. FILE - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a visit to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in Vienna, Va., on Jan. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) The news came after Democratic President Joe Biden signed a bill into law last week that averted a government shutdown but did not include Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demand to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit. Congress approved the bill only after a fierce internal debate among Republicans over how to handle Trump's demand. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” Trump said in a statement. After a protracted debate in the summer of 2023 over how to fund the government, policymakers crafted the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which included suspending the nation's $31.4 trillion borrowing authority until Jan. 1, 2025. Notably however, Yellen said, on Jan. 2 the debt is projected to temporarily decrease due to a scheduled redemption of nonmarketable securities held by a federal trust fund associated with Medicare payments. As a result, “Treasury does not expect that it will be necessary to start taking extraordinary measures on January 2 to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations," she said. The federal debt stands at about $36 trillion — after ballooning across both Republican and Democratic administrations. The spike in inflation after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed up government borrowing costs such that debt service next year will exceed spending on national security. Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate in the new year, have big plans to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts and other priorities but are debating over how to pay for them. Many consumers may remember receiving their first credit card, either years ago in a plain envelope, or months ago from a smartphone app. Still other consumers may remember their newest card, maybe because it's the credit card they're now using exclusively to maximize cash back rewards or airline miles. But for most consumers, there's also a murky in-between where they add, drop and generally accumulate credit cards over time. Over the years, consumers may close some credit card accounts or leave some of their credit cards dormant as a backup form of payment, or perhaps left forgotten in a desk drawer. In the data below, Experian reveals the changes in consumers wallets in recent years. U.S. consumers, on average, carry fewer cards today than they did in 2017, when the typical wallet held 4.2 active credit cards. As of the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, consumers carried 3.9 cards on average. This average is up slightly since the early days of the pandemic, when consumers reduced their average credit card debt and number of accounts as the economy slowed. As Experian revealed earlier this year, credit card balances are still climbing, despite (and partially because of) higher interest rates. And while average balances are increasing, they are spread across fewer accounts than in recent years. Alternative financing—including buy now, pay later plans for purchases—may account for at least some of this discrepancy, as consumers gravitate toward these newer financing methods. In general, residents of higher-population states tend to carry more credit cards than those who live in states with fewer and smaller population centers. Nonetheless, the difference between the states is relatively small. Considering that the national average is around four credit cards per consumer, the four states with the fewest cards per consumer (Alaska, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming) aren't appreciably different, with "only" about 3.3 credit cards per consumer. Similarly, the four states on the higher end of the scale where consumers have 4.2 or more credit cards are Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The disparity in average credit card counts is more apparent when the population is segmented by age, thanks in part to Generation Z, many of whom have yet to receive their first credit card. The average number of credit cards for these consumers was two, less than half of what older generations keep on hand. The average number of credit cards held by each generation follows the familiar pattern seen in credit card balances, which tend to increase in a consumer's middle age. It's not surprising that the number of credit card accounts follows a similar climb throughout young adulthood and middle age, then drops off in the retirement years. No matter how many credit cards you may have at the moment, keep in mind that the number of accounts has little if any bearing on one's FICO Score. Far more important is how consumers manage those accounts. This is easily demonstrable by quickly stepping through some of the factors that affect your credit scores . Longer credit histories do tend to have a positive effect on a consumer's credit score, but it's not something you can rush. Adhering to on-time payments and managing amounts owed will go far in improving credit scores, even absent a lengthy credit history. While accounts closed in good standing remain on your credit report for 10 years, canceling your oldest credit card account still has the potential to shorten your credit history when it is eventually removed. The impact of its removal depends on any other active credit cards in your credit file. Ultimately, the number of cards a particular individual carries is a personal decision. Justifications can be found for carrying a travel rewards card, a cash back card, a balance transfer card, a card for business transactions and other types of credit cards that other consumers may not have either the need or qualifications for. However, keeping track of numerous credit cards, whether or not a consumer is actively using all of them, can be a mentally taxing exercise. Not only that, credit card fees can add up and dull the benefit of carrying several credit cards. Organized consumers can benefit greatly from a wallet full of specialized cards, but for those seeking a more zen-like financial future, some judicial pruning may be in order. Methodology: The analysis results provided are based on an Experian-created statistically relevant aggregate sampling of our consumer credit database that may include use of the FICO Score 8 version. Different sampling parameters may generate different findings compared with other similar analysis. Analyzed credit data did not contain personal identification information. Metro areas group counties and cities into specific geographic areas for population censuses and compilations of related statistical data. This story was produced by Experian and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.GOLDSTEIN: Chrystia Freeland ignores the bad vibes in our economy

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Tech Titans Triumph: The Top 10 Billionaires Who Made Big Gains In 2024Giles had five rebounds for the Spartans (5-4). Donovan Atwell scored 15 points and added five rebounds. Jalen Breath shot 1 of 6 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line to finish with 10 points, while adding 10 rebounds. The Aggies (3-6) were led by Ryan Forrest, who posted 18 points and eight rebounds. Camian Shell added 15 points for N.C. A&T. Jahnathan Lamothe finished with 13 points and two steals. Atwell scored 11 points in the first half and UNC Greensboro went into the break trailing 36-35. Giles scored 15 points in the second half to help lead UNC Greensboro to a 12-point victory. NEXT UP UNC Greensboro's next game is Saturday against North Florida on the road, and N.C. A&T visits Virginia Tech on Thursday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .

Welcome to Streaming Rewind, a weekly breakdown of the new and noteworthy as we work to help readers wade through the absolute deluge of television series and movies in the streaming space. Welcome to Christmas and New Years limbo, where the time is made up and the date doesn’t matter. There’s a limited number of releases this week, because Hollywood typically just shuts down for the last month of the year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few surprises. If you’re not a football fan, you may not have known that Beyoncé did a halftime special for the Ravens vs. Texans game on Christmas (that’s right, Netflix does football now too). In said special, she performed some of the songs from her Cowboy Carter album live for the very first time. If you’re a member of the Beyhive who wasn’t willing to sit through a football game to watch Queen Bey perform, Netflix released a stand-alone special of the performance today. And, for those wondering, Netflix did, indeed, manage to host two whole live events on Christmas day without its typical buffering issues. It’s been a Netflix week! The highly anticipated second season of Squid Game finally dropped, ironically resulting in many across the industry working during Christmas and continuing the trend of Netflix completely missing the point of the series . Reviews have been mixed due to it being painfully obvious that Seasons 2 and 3 were meant to be one complete story rather than split in half, but our critic Shannon Miller liked the season . If you’ve already finished your binge, check out how Squid Game’s Season 2 ending sets up Season 3 . Nicholas Hoult has yet another film out on demand, this time alongside Jude Law and Jurnee Smollett. The film’s been met with early acclaim, and is based on a true story (and adapted from Kevin Flynn’s novel The Silent Brotherhood) centered on a string of bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest. You may have seen it during its brief theatrical run when it released on December 6 but, if you missed it, it’s available for purchase now. Gladiator II — December 24 (On Demand) Y2K — December 24 (On Demand) Doctor Who Christmas Special — December 25 (Disney+)

Egypt Daily News – Engineer Ayman Al-Qusi, Managing Director and CEO of “Midar Investment and Urban Development” Company, said that the company owns lands with a total area of ​​up to 46 million square meters distributed between the cities of “Mustaqbal City” and “Mada,” which are two integrated cities, stressing that his company seeks to achieving a qualitative shift in the concept of urban development through huge projects based on sustainable smart city standards. He added, during a television interview on the CNBC Economic Channel, that “Future City” has attracted more than 20 developers and investors, and currently accommodates about 500,000 people, and the value of total investments in the city has exceeded about $7 billion, making it one of the most prominent integrated smart cities in Egypt. Medar also announced the launch of the “Mada” project in 2024, which extends over an area of ​​25 million square meters and aims to accommodate 500,000 people, with investments expected to reach $14 billion. “Mada” will be one of the first fifth generation cities in Egypt, as it relies on artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, which strengthens “Mada”’s position as a leading developer in the field of smart cities. During his speech, Al-Qusi confirmed that Midar was the first Egyptian company to obtain an “Internet of Things” license from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, which enhances the use of advanced technology in its projects to improve the quality of life in its communities. He added that the company relies on smart infrastructure that supports integrated systems for managing transportation, energy and facilities, with the aim of providing sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions. He pointed out that “Midar” has established a group of specialized service companies to support its projects, such as “CIRCUIT,” which is responsible for managing electricity distribution and maintaining power stations, and “WAYZ,” which is working on developing a sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation system, in addition to “CTRL.” To manage city facilities. Engineer Al-Qusi explained that the geographical location of the Midar lands represents a great competitive advantage, as it is located in a strategic area in eastern Cairo, making it a major focal point between New Cairo and the New Administrative Capital. The location is distinguished by its proximity to an integrated network of modern means of transportation, such as monorails, The light rail train (LRT) and high-speed rail, along with new roads and axles. This distinguished connection enhances the value of “Midar” projects as investment hubs, and provides the ideal balance between residential and commercial areas, which supports the company’s vision of creating integrated and sustainable cities. Engineer Al-Qusi added that MIDAR enjoys strong financial support from major banking institutions such as the Bank of Egypt, the National Bank of Egypt, and the National Investment Bank. These partnerships contribute to providing financial flexibility and discipline that ensure the company’s projects are implemented with high quality and efficiency, and also enhance the confidence of local and regional investors in the ability of “MIDAR” to achieve its ambitious vision.Some of Blake Lively's co-stars from It Ends With Us are standing with the actress amid her sexual harassment lawsuit against Justin Baldoni . On Friday, Dec. 20, the actress filed a lawsuit against Justin and accused him of misconduct on set such as sexual harassment . She also accused the actor of a smear campaign against her on social media after the film's release to tarnish her reputation. She claimed that Justin's behavior caused her and her family "severe emotional harm." Justin Baldoni denied the allegations with his lawyer calling the lawsuit "shameful" and full of "categorically false accusations." Two of her co-stars —Brandon Sklenar and Jenny Slate — have spoken out recently following her lawsuit, adding to the string of support The Gossip Girl alum has garnered . Justin Baldoni loses award from women’s organization after Blake Lively sexual harassment lawsuit Blake Lively's past co-stars praise her for 'fighting back' at Justin Baldoni's 'vindictive efforts' Brandon on his Instagram Story on Monday, December 23, posted a screenshot of the New York Times article that was Blake's legal complaint with the words, "For the love of god read this." In those words, he also linked the article and tagged Blake with a red heart emoji by her name. Jenny shared her support for Blake in an statement to TODAY on December 23. She said: "As Blake Lively’s castmate and friend, I voice my support as she takes action against those reported to have planned and carried out an attack on her reputation. Blake is a leader, loyal friend and a trusted source of emotional support for me and so many who know and love her." She added: "What has been revealed about the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing, and wholly threatening. I commend my friend, I admire her bravery, and I stand by her side." Brandon played Atlas Corrigan, the childhood love of Blake's character, in It Ends With Us. While Jenny portrayed Allysa Kincaid who is the sister of Ryle Kincaid and the sister-in-law of Blake's Lily Bloom. Justin played the Ryle Kincaid, Lily's abusive husband, and directed the film as well. The film is based on Colleen Hoover's book of the same name. The author also recently threw her support at Blake in an Instagram Story on Saturday, December 21. She posted a photo of the two hugging, along with the words: "@blakelively you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt." She additionally added a link to a New York Times article titled We Can Bury Anyone: Inside A Hollywood Smear Machine. The article takes a detailed look inside alleged smear campaign against Blake by Justin and his team. DAILY NEWSLETTER: Sign up here to get the latest news and updates from the Mirror US straight to your inbox with our FREE newsletter.

Gus Malzahn is resigning as Central Florida's head coach to become Florida State 's offensive coordinator, a person familiar with the hire told The Associated Press on Saturday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Seminoles have not confirmed Malzahn's move, which is pending a state background check. ESPN first reported the decision. The Knights made official that Malzahn is leaving in a statement released a day after UCF (4-8) concluded its season with a 28-14 loss to Utah. “We would like to thank Coach Malzahn for his contributions to our football program over the past four seasons, including our transition into the Big 12 Conference," the school said. "We appreciate his professionalism and dedication to our student-athletes throughout his tenure at UCF and wish he and his wife, Kristi, the very best in their future endeavors.” Malzahn finished with a 28-24 mark in four years at UCF, the last two ending with losing records after joining the Big 12. He coached at Auburn for eight seasons before being fired in 2020. Malzahn replaces offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Atkins, who was fired Nov. 10 following a 52-3 loss at Notre Dame. The Seminoles rank 131st out of 134 in total offense and scoring offense, averaging 15.8 points a game heading into Saturday night's rivalry game against Florida. The Seminoles (2-9) have dropped significantly since going 13-1 last season and winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The Knights, meanwhile, struggled mightily in Malzahn's fourth season — most of it because of quarterback issues. Four players took snaps from center as the Knights finished 2-7 in conference play. It was the program's worst record since going 0-12 in former coach George O’Leary’s final season in 2015. Florida State coach Mike Norvell fired Atkins, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and receivers coach Ron Dugans amid the Seminoles' season-long skid. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football Copyright 2024 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman Accuses Russian Forces Of Executing 5 POWs

Thanks to its strange, short history, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows (2024) is a curiosity and a one-off, never to be repeated. I wrote previously about , and I think what I experienced hints at why Qualcomm pulled the plug. This thing is ... quirky and, in some critical ways, non-standard. As I write this, I still haven’t successfully booted the Dev Kit with a USB flash drive, and the lack of documentation is disconcerting. Reviewing the Dev Kit doesn’t make a lot of sense for all the reasons, including the most obvious, that you can’t even buy the damn thing now. But I am of course fascinated by it, and if it makes sense to do so—ideally, I could reliably recover the thing from outside of Windows, for starters—I’d like to use it daily. But first thing first. Here’s a high-level overview of this interesting PC. I think it hints at what a coming generation of Snapdragon X-based desktop PCs will offer. Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift! If you ignore that it’s a small form factor (SFF) desktop PC, the Dev Kit is quite similar to the Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PC laptops I’ve fallen in love with this past year. Which raises a question. Is it a Copilot+ PC? Yes. Yes, it is. At first, I wasn’t sure. But the basic specs—a processor with a compatible NPU, RAM, and storage—are all there. Windows 11 reports that Windows Hello ESS is enabled, even though there’s no compatible fingerprint reader or webcam. (Leaving PIN, of course.) And it includes all the unique Copilot+ PC features, like Cocreator in Paint, Restyle image and Background blur, remove, and replace in Photos, and so on. So yes, it is a Copilot+ PC. What’s missing, however, is a Copilot key or button. has one (in button form), but as I wrote at the time, it’s not clear if that’s a real requirement for desktop Copilot+ PCs or if ASUS was just trying their hardest. It doesn’t matter, I guess. The Dev Box is unique, and I’m sure including those AI experiences was on the list of things Microsoft and Qualcomm wanted the developers this thing targeted to experience. Ignoring the product design yet again, the Dev Kit specifications—internally, and including its expansion capabilities—are likewise quite familiar. With one obvious exception: The processor. Which is perhaps the most curious thing about this curiosity. At the time of the announcement, Qualcomm described the Dev Kit’s processor as “a special, accelerated Developer Edition of the Snapdragon X Elite processor.” Since then, we’ve come to understand this to be a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-00-1DE, the rare highest-end version of this processor family. It’s nearly identical to the X Elite X1E-84-100, with the same 12 cores, 42 MB of cache, 3.8 GHz multi-core frequency, 4.6 TFLOPS Adreno GPU, and 45 TOPS NPU. The only thing that differentiates the two, and then just barely, is the X1E-00-1DE’s 4.3 GHz dual-core boost frequency, vs. 4.2 GHz for the X1E-84-100. My guess is that this is just a coincidence of the manufacturing process, and that the X Elite X1E-00-1DE is really just a X1E-84-100 that randomly exceeded a certain quality level. Indeed, the entire Snapdragon X processor family, including the lower-end X Plus models, feels like an experiment testing the limits of processor binning. Many of the chips are only subtly different from the others. But this may be the most subtle. Getting past that, the Dev Box was offered in just a single configuration with 32 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and 512 GB of NVMe SSD storage. This is just a slice in time, but this is what I consider to be the current sweet spot for a laptop, though I understand others might need more storage. (And others would be OK with 16 GB of RAM, which I consider the minimum heading into 2025.) But whatever. This is a reasonable configuration for app development and testing. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, currently as modern as there is. I’ve had no issues with either. Expansion is modern and it mirrors what we’ve seen on most Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs, with a few differences tied to the form factor. On the front of the unit, there is a single Thunderbolt 4/USB Type-C port and, hidden behind a ridiculous hard plastic door, a microSD card slot. On the rear, there’s a full-sized Ethernet port, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports (which I assume are 5 Gbps and designed mostly for legacy peripherals like keyboards), two Thunderbolt 4/USB Type-C ports, and a combo mic/headphone jack. Plus the power port (on the far left). The right side of the PC isn’t used, but the left side has a large vent for heat dissipation. And it’s frequently needed: Where I have rarely noticed the fans found in Copilot+ PC laptops—never, really, aside from running video encoding tests and other tasks specifically designed to hammer the system—the fan in this PC is a near-constant companion. It comes on seemingly randomly, reminding me of the disk indexing drama of two decades ago that freaked out people who didn’t understand what was happening—and it comes on and stays on in certain circumstances. (See below.) It’s loud and then it’s not loud, and then it’s loud again and then it’s off for a while. It’s ... OK. Not great. But not a killer. There’s not much going on here. The Dev Kit arrived in a basic box with two tiny pamphlet-like papers that are mostly irrelevant now since the QR codes they contain no longer resolve to anything, let alone anything useful. The box includes the PC, of course, plus its large power supply (with proprietary barrel connector) and the USB-C to HDMI dongle that many believe is tied to the reasons behind this PC’s delays and then cancelation. (Qualcomm originally advertised the Dev Kit as having an HDMI-out port, and there is an empty space on the daughter card that also includes the Ethernet port for that part.) I would prefer a built-in HDMI-out port: It’s possible I’d have an easier time figuring out which keys do what when you boot the PC—documentation here is so key—with a “normal” display over HDMI. USB-C displays sleep/wake on a hair trigger, I assume for power reasons, and it’s not clear that I’m seeing everything this PC outputs when it boots with a USB-C display. Anyway, despite the suspected weirdness, almost everything works as expected for the most part. The one obvious exception is tied to the boot process that I would really like to fully understand. When you turn on or reboot the PC, it often goes through some silent machinations that take many, many seconds, and it seems to do one or two soft reboots during this, though not every time. There’s no rhyme or reason to this. The power button on the front of the PC can flash white, green, red, or blue, and occasionally, it does all three. Fun! I did figure out how to get into the firmware’s BDS menu—it doesn’t appear to have a traditional PC-style firmware interface, and I assume this thing is phone-based— . But this is so unfamiliar, and so different from what we see on normal PCs, and I know I’m missing things. I’ll keep working on it, but at some point, it’s just a waste of time. Snapdragon X-based laptops like my Surface Laptop 7 work normally in this regard. So this may just be a one-off. Here, too, there are no surprises. The Dev Box displays the familiar —it comes with Windows 11 Home, not Pro—and it included the lengthier feature update installation phase I first started seeing this past summer that’s new to 24H2. And then it boots into the desktop normally. Nothing odd there. There were a few curious configurations, however. The Power Mode was set to Best Performance for some reason, and not Balanced as is typical. As noted below, it’s not clear what these modes even mean now on Arm—there’s no discernible performance difference in day-to-day use or under load—but I switched it to Balanced. Even more oddly, the screen and sleep timeouts were both set to Never. I usually extend the defaults, but in this case, I was sort of going in the opposite direction. I also changed what happens when you press the power button: It was set to Do Nothing, and I changed that to Sleep. . If I can ever boot from USB, I will clean install the OS and fix that. Not sure what’s going on there. Most configurations are as expected. It auto-enabled OneDrive Folder Backup, for example, in keeping with the default behavior for Windows 11 Home. I’m no fan of benchmarks, but I felt like the unique processor in the Dev Box required something semi-formal. Yes, the X Elite X1E-00-1DE in the Dev Box is only subtly different from the X1E-84-100. But most Copilot+ PCs don’t include either of those processors. Instead, most come with an X Elite X1E-80-100 processor (or, now, an X Plus processor of whatever variant). The solution was obvious enough. This past summer, to see how the first few Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs compared to the MacBook Air M3 and a high-end laptop with discrete graphics. I also wanted to test a Qualcomm claim that the Snapdragon X chips didn’t throttle performance as badly as do x86 chips when on battery power. My tests were unscientific enough to not prove much of anything, but I guess my key takeaway was that the Snapdragon X held its own. And the Dev Box doesn’t have a battery, of course. But I was curious. So I performed the same video encoding test—in which I take and use (the native Arm version of) to encode it to Full HD using its Fast 1080p 30 preset. The results surprised me enough that I re-ran this test multiple times. Put simply, it encoded the video in just under 2 minutes and 40 seconds, no matter which power management setting I chose. Balanced, Best performance, and Best efficiency all worked identically, and the fans roared to life and stayed on for the duration of this encoding. I suspect this is as loud as this kind/size fan can be. As surprising, that time frame was so dramatically lower than the results I saw over the summer that they’re not comparable. Clearly, something was off. So there was only one thing to do: Re-run the tests. Not on multiple PCs, I have a life to live. But I downloaded the video and Handbrake to my Surface Laptop 7, left it on battery (and with the default Recommended power management mode), and encoded the video. It took an average of 5:49 over two runs. On power, it encoded the video in just over 4 minutes. There could be other factors that impact the score here. But I’m surprised the Dev Box is that much faster. Over the holiday break, I’ll see whether it makes sense to use the Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows as my main podcasting PC. I’m going to crack open the box and poke around inside. And I will continue working on recovery and boot from USB, I got some good leads from readers and feel like both are surmountable issues. But let me know if you have any questions. Paul Thurrott is an award-winning technology journalist and blogger with 30 years of industry experience and the author of 30 books. He is the owner of and the host of three tech podcasts: with Leo Laporte and Richard Campbell, , and with Brad Sams. He was formerly the senior technology analyst at Windows IT Pro and the creator of the SuperSite for Windows from 1999 to 2014 and the Major Domo of Thurrott.com while at BWW Media Group from 2015 to 2023. You can reach Paul via , or . Join the crowd where the love of tech is real - become a Thurrott Premium Member today! Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each FridayLewis scores 18 as Toledo knocks off Defiance 111-49Regime Inaugurates a Biotechnology Company in China that Is One-Hundred Percent Cuban