This week's Snapdragon Summit has already given us the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Qualcomm's retort to Intel. But there's a lot more going on. Fans of Windows 11 on Arm, like myself, will want to really pay attention throughout the week, and not just for the expected second generation Snapdragon X chips for PCs, which should offer significant performance improvements while using much less power.

But Microsoft and Qualcomm-and a growing legion of third parties-are working to close the few Windows 11 on Arm compatibility gaps that critics still gripe about.

I don't get it. Windows 11 on Arm scores incredibly well across all the software I use, as it will for most people. Of course, the further you are from the mainstream, the better the chance that some esoteric app you rely on won't run efficiently or at all under emulation. My only major issue is Google Drive, though Google has said it will make the port, and it does seem like this week is the obvious time to launch the product, if only in beta. Fingers crossed.

On the hardware end, Microsoft is fixing some compatibility issues itself and in partnership with Qualcomm. It has rewritten its MIDI stack from the ground up for Snapdragon and the MIDI 2.0 standard, with multi-client and virtual device support, and a new USB class driver. And a new USB Audio Interface with native ASIO driver will solve the only hardware issue I experienced of note, with my Focurite Scarlett; Focusrite will issue the new drivers soon. Looks like I'm about to be completely free of software and hardware issues. Nice.

Qualcomm has also called out some updated creator apps-Affinity Photo 2, Blender, and Capture One-during its day one keynote at the Snapdragon Summit, and I expect there will be more. But these are interesting specifically because of the market they target, and because creator apps can see unique performance gains when they target the powerful NPUs found in Snapdragon X-based (and now newer Intel and AMD-based) PCs.

Also, I use Affinity Photo 2-it went native on Arm back in May-so I was curious to see what's going on there in particular. According to Qualcomm, Affinity Photo 2 will soon pick up new AI-based features that will run off the NPU in Snapdragon X-based PCs.

"App features like Object Selection and Subject Selection are now powered by AI neural networks running on the Snapdragon NPU, allowing you to quickly select objects and adjust their color or tint faster than ever," Qualcomm notes of the update. "Affinity's new NPU-powered Object Selection and Subject Selection features are currently in beta in the Affinity Photo 2 app, with the final release expected in November."

I've signed up for the beta and installed the update on my Snapdragon X-based Surface Laptop 7. But I've only just done so, and haven't yet tested these features. I will do that today.

Beyond that, Blend is a free 3D modeling tool that's now available natively for Snapdragon X PCs. And there's a free plug-in that uses the NPU to speed up 3D rendering and export to 2D using text-to-image AI. Capture One, meanwhile, is a professional tool for professional photographers-and with a price tag to match. It's been updated to use the NPU for consistent AI-based cropping in batch photos and AI-assisted photo grading, also in batch photos.

Qualcomm is also highlighting Moises, a powerful music utility that uses AI to isolate vocals and instruments in music files; it's being ported to Snapdragon X, where it will do its work locally on the NPU and with much faster speeds. There are also some new digital audio workstation (DAW) apps that will make Windows 11 on Snapdragon PCs "ideal for podcasters, streamers and especially musicians."