Brace yourself, Windows 7 and 8/8.1 users: a full-screen upgrade nag is coming. It seems that Microsoft is ending its year of offering Windows 10 for free with an impossible-to-ignore prompt, one that takes up the entire screen and doesn’t have an obvious close button.
Even on Windows 7, the full-screen notification resembles the “modern” apps seen in Windows 8 and 10, meaning it will immediately stand out. And with no obvious “close” button to be seen, users will have no choice but to do a little reading, TechReport is reporting.
At this point, there are likely three kinds of users who haven’t yet upgraded: those who want the upgrade but keep putting it off, those who aren’t sure what Windows 10 is, and those who actively don’t want to upgrade. If we had to guess, Microsoft is targeting the first group: those who keep putting the upgrade off.
“Sorry to interrupt,” the full-screen notification tells users, “but this is important. Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends July 29.”
It’s clear enough language, if you’ve been delaying. The upgrade won’t be free anymore, so get on this.
It’s also relatively clear language if you’re not sure what Windows 10 is, though we suspect some readers will still get calls from uncles and grandmothers about a Windows 10 virus taking over the entire screen.
But if you don’t want the upgrade, this is the latest in a long series of annoyances. Such users might note that, after nearly an entire year of related notifications, the ending of the free-upgrade period hardly constitutes news. And this particular prompt is even harder to ignore than previous ones.
At the very least, the end of these notes is coming. Microsoft has said that such prompts will stop after the July 29 deadline, giving relief to long-suffering users who have no intention to upgrade.
If you go ahead and install Windows 10, it’s possible to roll everything back. The upgrade process makes a complete backup of your original operating system, and keeps it there for thirty days, giving you an easy way to get back to where you started.
And even if you roll back the upgrade, you’ve reserved your free upgrade for later. So if you’re even a little bit curious about Windows 10, it might be a good idea to finally install. Come August doing so will cost you $110, so get it done before then.
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.