While technology has yet to live up to the promises of Tomorrow’s World and The Jetsons — such as android servants and flying cars — the ability to speak face-to-face via videoconferencing from almost anywhere on the planet has gone from science fiction to an everyday occurrence. Whether you’re connecting a distributed business team for a weekly update meeting or just saying hello to distant friends and family, Zoom is an excellent means of scheduling meetings for personal and professional occasions.
If only you could get everyone together at the same time! The best way to do so is to schedule a Zoom meeting.
When scheduling a meeting for your business, be aware that your account administrator can block specific features or require further information from participants to use them. If this is the case, you might see an asterisk (“*”) next to the setting, but you can click on the embedded links in each option for further information. Note that meetings for basic account users will automatically end after 40 minutes if there are three or more participants.
After signing into Zoom via the client or a browser, select the Schedule icon that resembles a calendar page. This will either open a new window or take you to the Schedule Meeting page where you can confirm the details of your videoconference.
From the Schedule Meeting window, you can peruse the following settings. Basic options include choosing a name, duration, date, and time for your meeting — the time and duration can be adjusted by 15-minute increments. Note that you and other participants’ meeting can begin at any time before the scheduled time. Zoom will automatically use your computer’s time zone, but you can select a different time zone using the drop-down menu.
You may not see options disabled and locked by the account administrator, but typically the options include:
Advanced options include enabling the Waiting Room, allowing participants to join before the host, determining whether participants are automatically muted on entry, and choosing whether the local computer is recording the meeting.
Select Schedule to create your meeting, and a window with your preferred service will open (Google, in this example). You can add guests and set their permissions, send out pre-meeting notifications, determine your default visibility, and send invitations with a URL, Meeting ID, and password (if needed).
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.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.