On October 30, Microsoft announced that it would be bringing some of the benefits of an Outlook.com Premium subscription to the Office 365 package. Later the same day, the company confirmed that it’s closing the paid Outlook.com service to new subscribers altogether.
Outlook.com Premium removed all ads from the experience, and offered up some enhanced security measures like spam detection functionality that scanned email attachments, and a malware checker for links shared in emails. Now, users will have to take on an Office 365 subscription to gain access to these features.
However, existing Outlook.com Premium subscribers will be able to maintain their current membership, according to a report from Thurrott. If they choose to renew their subscription the next time it’s up, it will continue to offer the same functionality at the same price.
“The Outlook.com Premium standalone offering is now closed to new subscribers,” reads a support document quietly published to the web by Microsoft. The company’s materials state that the more unique features of the service, like support for a custom domain name, will continue to be supported – but it seems like the end goal is to retire the service entirely. At that point, users will be given a method of transferring their domain to another provider.
In terms of pricing, this might turn out to be a pretty good deal for anyone who was previously subscribing to Outlook.com Premium. The service was priced at $50 per year, whereas Office 365 – which offers plenty more functionality, and most importantly access to software like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – is only slightly more expensive at $70 for a Personal membership.
Still, it remains to be seen how much of Outlook.com Premium’s functionality will be transferred, and how long it will take for that to happen. Microsoft says that some features have already been added to Office 365, but there’s no timeline on when the rest will make the transition.
Microsoft is clearly trying to bolster the appeal of an Office 365 subscription, while trimming the fat in terms of the paid memberships that it offers to users. That said, it is a bit surprising that Outlook.com Premium didn’t survive a little while longer – the service was only launched in February 2017.
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.