Tech companies who ignore the needs of women, and leave them out of the design process, are leaving money on the table. That’s one of the messages to come out of Microsoft’s first annual “Hack For Her” summit, which took place on January 12. Diversity might be the goal, but the pitch is almost entirely economic.
“Globally, women’s combined income is rising at twice the growth rate of India and China combined,” says the summit’s home page. “How do you create experiences that work well for women and men? It starts with understanding their different preferences and motivations, and the choices they make.”
The Microsoft-hosted conference included panels from academics and people from other companies. The consensus: tech needs to understand women if it wants to make the best possible design choices.
“Constantly retrofitting for women isn’t the best way forward,” said Londa Schiebinger, Professor of History of Science at Stanford. “When you do integrate sex and gender into research you get something better.”
All-male design teams might miss subtle differences between the way men and women experience technology, and as such not make the best product possible. This could cost companies money.
“At Design People, we think that women’s needs are different from men’s, and we can use this difference to make a better user experience,” said Klaus Shcroder for Scandivian design firm Design People. He added that this can help companies pull ahead of the competition.
It's about applying the female lens to people's passions and projects. Not just making something pink or sparkly. #hackforher
— Jennifer C Moynihan (@jcmoynihan) January 13, 2016
Of course, if part of finding that understanding is hiring women in technology roles, Microsoft itself has a long way to go: only 16.9 percent of their tech workforce are women, according to their own diversity reports. That’s a problem if Microsoft takes the thesis of its own conferences seriously.
“Ignorance is not bliss,” said Margarette Burnette. “You have to pay attention to gender if you’re going to be able to be inclusive.”
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.