Perhaps hoping to fund some good press, Google announced on its blog that it will invest $5 million to “encourage innovation in digital journalism.” The search company plans to help media companies with tools like YouTube Direct and Google Maps to make news websites more engaging. It will also try to develop new platforms to help publishers generate more revenue. More interesting, Google plans to invest a good portion of the money in grassroots non-profit initiatives.
$2 million will go to the Knight Foundation, which will split the money between grant-making initiatives and the Knight News Challenge, which will accept Journalistic proposals from anyone through Dec. 1. A video by Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibarguen, explaining the importance of the donation, is below.
“We’re eager to do even more internationally,” said Nikesh Arora of Google, “so we will be investing the remaining $3 million in journalism projects in other countries through a similar partnership. Stay tuned for more details early next year. We hope these grants will help new ideas blossom and encourage experimentation. As Thomas Edison once said, “When there’s no experimenting, there’s no progress. Stop experimenting and you go backward.” We look forward to working with the journalism community to help digital news move forward.”
While Journalism definitely needs help, it is reassuring that Google is funding grassroots and non-profit organizations instead of helping overweight old media companies.
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.