Today at Build 2017, Microsoft announced the general availability release of its popular Visual Studio development environment for MacOS. It’s particularly appropriate, given Microsoft’s theme for this year’s Build is a commitment to open platforms, and providing developers the tools they need to succeed.
“Visual Studio for Mac brings the integrated development environment (IDE) loved by millions to the Mac. Developers get a great IDE and a single environment to not only work on end-to-end solutions – from mobile and web apps to games – but also to integrate with and deploy to Azure,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group.
Previously, a preview version of Visual Studio for Mac was available from Microsoft, allowing users to get a feel for the development environment and how it would work on Mac OS. Today, however, users can download and utilize a full version of the Microsoft Visual Studio customized for use on MacOS.
This comes as part of Microsoft’s commitment to openness, and providing developers with tools that allow them to move easily from one operating system environment to another.
“I talked about a core design principle for Azure – helping guide your success. Providing powerful tech and lots of new features is necessary, but not sufficient – it is how you achieve success with the cloud that matters most,” Guthrie continued. “For you to be successful, the cloud and the development tools also must work seamlessly together, which is why we ensure great experiences across Azure and the Visual Studio family.”
By rolling out Visual Studio for Mac, Microsoft hopes to create a seamless development environment for the creation of everything from mobile apps to games. Visual Studio for Mac isn’t a pared down version either, despite running on MacOS, it includes full support for Visual Studio standbys like C#, F#, .Net Core, Asp.Net Core, Xamarin, and Unity. Plus, all licensed Visual Studio users will have access to both the Windows and Mac version.
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.