Much of the buzz in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) arena lately has been the budding battle between Google and Microsoft, with Google’s lightweight Web-based applications offering an alternative to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office productivity suite—a challenge Microsoft is not taking lightly, with the company now offering online collaboration features via Office Live Workspaces.
Now, it looks like software giant Adobe, mainly known for Acrobat and its applications aimed at high-end creative users (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc.), may be eyeing the SaaS sector: the company has just announced it has acquired Boston-based Virtual Ubiquity, makers of the Flash-based online word processor Buzzword.
Buzzword bills itself as the “first real word processor for the Web,” and aims to provide a high-quality, design-oriented what-you-see-is-what-you-print word processing environment within a Web browser, with both document management and online collaboration features built right in. Whereas both Google Docs and Microsoft’s online editing features have (so far) relied on a bare-bones approach or the support of desktop applications, Buzzword aims to provide control of document layout and presentation akin to what users might find in a mainstream document layout application. Buzzword is designed to work both online and offline, and supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems.
Terms of Adobe’s acquisition of Virtual Ubiquity were not disclosed. Adobe says it plans to invest in the Buzzword application by leveraging its AIR runtime environment, integrate its own document collaboration technologies and PDF-generation capabilities. Adobe says it also plans to implement support for bring PDF documents into Buzzword, along with supporting ODF and other formats over time. Buzzword currently supports RTF, Microsoft Word, and Word 2003 XML files.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.