On May 2, Microsoft hosted an education-focused event showcasing how Windows 10 can be used to great effect in the classroom. During the presentation, the company announced that Office 365 for Education will be offered to students and teachers at schools all over the world for free.
The Office suite has a number of different applications in an educational environment. Word has long been the standard for writing up and submitting essays, the creation of PowerPoint presentations has become a common homework assignment in recent years, and note-taking tool OneNote offers all kinds of advantages to learners.
The full Office suite will be coming to the Windows Store, making it available to systems running Windows 10 S, which was officially unveiled at today’s event.
Microsoft Teams is being outfitted with some useful features aimed at schools. The service will act as a link between teachers and students, allowing educators to interact with their classes either one-on-one or as a group, and empowering learners to collaborate with one another on projects.
As well as text chat, Teams offers support for video calling. With a view to maintaining a scholarly sense of decorum, Microsoft has implemented a system that allows administrators to mute or delete messages that don’t adhere to proper etiquette.
Students can access documents like assignments and quizzes from Teams, and their teachers can check up on the progress they’re making on their homework and other ongoing projects.
Teachers can also use Teams in conjunction with other programs in the Office suite to give their students freedom to review learning materials on their own time. The principal of Bear Creek Middle School in Fairburn, Georgia appeared on stage to demonstrate how his institution has integrated Office 365 for Education into its teaching practices.
A map appeared on screen, and notes made over the course of a lesson appeared on it in the order that they were added. This functionality allows students to review the lesson as it plays out, rather than simply working from notes as they appeared at the end of the session.
Microsoft is making a serious play for the education sector, and offering up the Office suite for free will be a very tempting proposition for many schools. The company will make these tools available to educators over the summer, so that they’re ready to be used when the new school year gets underway.
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.