November 29 Tech news roundup: Over 500 Million users have not upgraded to Windows 11, Steam Machine will cost as much as a PC,

More than 500 Million PC users have not upgraded to Windows 11

It has been over a month and a half since Microsoft ended support for Windows 10. But it seems that a lot of users are hesitating to upgrade to Windows 11. Dell posted its earnings call for Q3, FY 2026, and it brought up some interesting information about the Windows 11 adoption rate.

The OEM says that over 500 million PCs have not upgraded to Windows 11. A further 500 million users cannot upgrade to the latest operating system because their old computers do not meet the system requirements to run the OS. Dell believes that the overall transition from Windows 10 to 11 is much slower than the previous generation, and as a result, that this could lead to slower PC sales in the year.

ChatGPT says it did not suffer a data breach, only a third-party analytics provider did

OpenAI has confirmed that one of its third-party data analytics providers has suffered a data breach. The victim was Mixpanel, which was hacked due to a Smishing campaign. OpenAI says that it does not affect ChatGPT, and that no chat, API requests, API usage data, passwords, credentials, API keys, payment details, or government IDs were leaked.

However, it confirmed that users who had visited https://platform.openai.com/ may have had their data leaked, including their name, email address, approximate location, OS, browser, referring websites, and organization or User IDS that were associated with the API account. OpenAI has terminated its contract with Mixpanel after the security incident.

Valve’s Steam Machine won’t be cheap

Ever since Valve unveiled the new Steam Machine, fans have been asking one question. What’s the price? While there is no official word about it, a couple of engineers from the company have confirmed that it will be priced like a PC. More precisely, it will cost as much as putting up a mid-level PC with the same parts.

Valve cannot undercut the competition, such as gaming laptops or PCs, which could then lead to non-gamers making a beeline for the Steam Machine, since it can be used like a regular computer. It would be ideal for the company for gamers to buy the device, and purchase games on the Steam store, which would bring in more revenue for Valve.

And with RAM prices rapidly increasing, it could be a challenge for Valve to offer the Steam Machine at a lower-than average price that gamers are expecting.

Notepad is adding support for Tables

Microsoft is adding a couple of new features to Notepad on Windows 11. The text editor is gaining support for Tables. Notepad’s toolbar has been steadily getting new options such as Basic text formatting, Markdown formatting, and now it is testing an Add Table button. This option will also be available in the app’s context menu, and users will also be able to add tables using Markdown format.

In addition to Tables, Microsoft says that Notepad is also getting streaming AI features. When users access generative AI features, i.e., Write, Rewrite and Summarize, the text editor will start displaying the results as it is generated. The Redmond company believes this new experience will offer more time for users to interact with the generated content and edit it.

The features are currently being tested in the Windows Insider Program, and could soon be available for users in the stable channel. Windows users have criticized Microsoft for adding unwanted features to Notepad, and bloating it.

A Spotify price hike is incoming in early 2026

Spotify users in the U.S. will need to brace for a price hike early next year. The current price of the music streaming service is $11.99 per month, which is already about a Dollar more than most rival services, is about to increase. Record labels are said to be displeased that the company’s subscription prices have not increased to reflect inflation. The labels are also unhappy Spotify is offering its service lower than what Netflix charges.

Spotify had increased the price of its service in several countries recently in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Google Assistant will be shut down in March 2026

Google has quietly revealed that it will be shutting down Google Assistant in March 2026. The voice assistant, which debuted in 2016, had been integrated in Android devices, cars, and many of Google apps from Maps, Music, etc. But, since AI took the front seat, Google Assistant was put on the back burner. Google began to integrate Gemini in many of its apps, and is replacing Assistant with the AI app.

While the Mountain View company had announced Google Assistant would be discontinued in late 2025, several users have complained about the reliability of Gemini. This could likely be the reason why the app’s end of support date has been pushed back further.

KDE to go Wayland-only in 2027

KDE Plasma is set to go with Wayland as the only display server in 2027. The developers of the popular desktop environment have announced their plans to introduce support for a Wayland-only version, that is set to arrive with KDE Plasma 6.8. Despite removing support X11/Xorg session, Plasma will still allow users to run X11 apps thanks to Xwayland.

The decision to go Wayland only is becoming common among the Linux development community. Fedora 43, Ubuntu 25.10, Kubuntu 25.10 removed X11 support from their distros leaving Wayland the only option for users. KDE says that many of its users are already using Wayland, and that the display server protocol offers a superior experience in gaming.

YouTube to let users customize their home feed

YouTube is testing a feature called “Your Custom Feed“, which will allow users to personalize the videos that appear on their home feed. The video streaming platform has long been plagued with a poor algorithm, that tends to push popular videos instead of those relevant to the user. So, the upcoming change is likely to be welcomed by users.

It is an AI-powered feature, and YouTube says that users will need to type in a prompt to customize their feed, and the website will tailor the experience according to their preferences.