Microsoft Teams is a communication platform for organizations, allowing employees to chat one-on-one, join company-wide video conference calls, share documents, and more. At this year’s Microsoft Ignite developer conference, the company chose to add a few new features to the platform, most notably the ability to add background blur during a live video call. Don’t want someone to see where you are? Simply blur the background to go incognito.
According to the team at Microsoft, the new background blur feature has been added to allow users to remove distractions and have individuals focus on what matters most — you. The feature has already been rolled out and customers of Microsoft Teams will find that the capability is already available within its video calls.
Of course, Microsoft couldn’t help but tout the software’s new ability by bringing up everyone’s favorite BBC Dad. A year ago, Professor Robert Kelly was speaking live on the BBC when his broadcast was interrupted by his children, and then his wife, running into the room. The incident itself caused quite a laugh, as Kelly gained comedic fame for the incident. Microsoft shows how the use of its Teams software with background blur could have prevented the incident.
Additional features to hit Microsoft Teams for meetings also include a new recording ability and cloud video interloop. The recording feature allows users to record meetings so that they may be pulled up again later for review. New cloud video interloop functionality from companies such as Polycom, BlueJeans, and Pexipmeans, means that companies can integrate Microsoft Teams meetings with its existing boardroom hardware.
With over 239,000 organizations utilizing the Microsoft Teams platform, the folks in Redmond, Washington are hoping that the platform’s new features will enhance the productivity of companies around the globe — over 44 supported languages means that Microsoft Teams plays a part in many organizations outside of Microsoft’s home country.
Just remember that thanks to Microsoft’s new background blur feature for video calls, you might be able to salvage a moment with only a few clicks of your mouse. Then again, maybe you just don’t want your boss to know that you’re relaxing in Hawaii instead of reporting from your home office.
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.