Regardless of the spat, Apple's newest laptop is now one of the laptops that Consumer Reports can recommend to its readers. The bug that Consumer Reports discovered was fixed in a recent beta version of MacOS, and will be rolled out to users in the coming weeks. On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 S, a streamlined version of the operating system designed to take on Google's low-cost Chromebooks in the classroom. It's going to ship on a bunch of laptops intended for the student. So what's the difference between the original-flavor Windows 10 and this new Windows 10 S? The basic answer is: Not much. The actual experience looks to be very much the same between the two, from the Start menu, to the Cortana virtual assistant, to the focus on touchscreen and stylus features. When Windows 10-powered virtual reality headsets start hitting the market later this year, they'll support both versions, too.
Windows 10 S is focused on speed, better battery life, and higher performance — Microsoft says that it boots up in seconds.
Windows 10 S is designed to run well even on lower-end laptops: Microsoft recommends a relatively modest 4GB of RAM and 64GB of hard drive space for classroom machines.
Laptops running Windows 10 S will start at around $229, from companies like HP, Samsung, and Acer.
The tradeoff is that Windows 10 S can only run apps from the Windows Store. The positives are that it makes it basically impossible to download malware or viruses, but it also means you're limited to Microsoft-approved apps. That includes Spotify, Facebook, Netflix, and soon, Microsoft Office.
Along those same lines, you're limited to the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows 10 S, at least until other companies like Google choose to list their browsers in the Windows Store.
If you decide you need your standard Windows apps, which might include Google Chrome or the Steam online gaming platform, you can upgrade to the full Windows 10 Pro for $49. Microsoft Windows exec Joe Belfiore tells CNET that "S" to "Pro" is a one-way switch, so be advised.
The flagship Windows 10 S machine is the Surface Laptop, a new $999 gadget from Microsoft itself, shipping on June 15th. That's going to be our first real taste of Windows 10 S, so stay tuned.After a standout earnings report, the company's market capitalization this week topped $900 billion for the first time ever. It's hard to find anyone who doesn't think Apple will soon become the world's first trillion-dollar company; already this year, it's stock is up more than 50%.There's a reason why the company is doing so well financially and its stock is booming — its product lineup is the strongest it's had in years, with a breakthrough new iPhone, a refreshed Mac computer line, and a soon-to-launch smart speaker. Apple CEO Tim Cook can't stop talking about augmented reality (AR) and its future potential. AR is the technology that layers digital images on top of views of the real world.Apple took a big step toward promoting and popularizing AR with the latest version of its iOS mobile operating system, which for the first time includes software tools that help developers build augmented-reality apps. The move made Apple's iPads and iPhones collectively the world's largest AR platform. It also set Apple up for the future.
It's still early days for the technology, but many tech experts believe AR-powered smart glasses or other eyewear will eventually replace smartphones. Apple itself has some AR smart glasses in the works and recently ramped up their development, Bloomberg reported this week.By building AR technology into the software underlying the iPhone and iPad, Apple is getting its developers working on AR apps long before those smart glasses debut — and putting itself in a great position to be a leader in the AR market when they do. If you're a video editor, graphic artist, designer, or other creative professional, it's been tough to be an Apple fan in recent years. Apple hasn't released a significant update to the Mac Pro, its high-end workstation computer targeted at such users, in nearly four years, and many pro users were beginning to wonder if the company had abandoned them.But Apple went a long way toward reassuring such customers, long the core of its business and fan base, in June when it announced that it had two new pro-quality computers for them in the works. The first of those, the $5,000 iMac Pro, is set to debut next month.
The new machines are Apple's way of signaling that it isn't going to concede the creative professional computing market, even amid falling overall computer sales and growing competition from the likes of Microsoft.When Apple debuted Siri on the iPhone 4S, it famously took an early lead in bringing artificial intelligence technology to the masses. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to pay a lot of attention to Siri after that. And Apple arguably lost its lead when Amazon launched its Echo smart speaker, which has Siri rival Alexa at its core.As Amazon has broadened its Echo line and licensed Alexa out to other companies, and as Google jumped into the market with its own intelligent assistant-powered smart speakers, Apple has risked falling far behind. But the company showed this year that it's going to fight for this market too. It's been steadily improving Siri, and next month it will launch the HomePod, its own version of a smart speaker, which will be built around its intelligent assistant.
HomePod looks like it will be a credible contender. It will do much of what Echo and Google Assistant do — give you news and weather updates, sports scores, and, of course play music, all in response to voice commands. But Apple's is promising HomePod will sound better than its rivals and do a better job of protecting users' privacy. Regardless, Apple's entry into the market is a sign that the company is finally taking the intelligent assistant and fast-growing smart speaker markets seriously. When it comes to figuring out where to go with the iPad, Apple has seemed lost in recent years. While the company introduced some new, more power models of its tablet computers, it had left the software on them languishing.Until recently, using an iPad felt much the same as it had back in 2010, when Apple launched its tablet line. Despite the company's vision that the iPad represented the future of computing, the product wasn't living up to that promise.But the company seems to have turned things around with its tablet line. The latest version of iOS gave the iPad lots of new capabilities, including a new file browser and an improved multitasking interface, and turned it into a more credible replacement for a traditional laptop computer. Additionally, Apple released the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which is the best iPad the company has ever made.
The moves appear to be paying off. The company's iPad sales were up the last two quarters compared to the same period a year ago, marking the first time Apple's tablet line has posted consecutive sales gains since 2013.Before the iPhone X hit store shelves earlier this month, there were lots of concerns about how well the device would work, how many Apple would be able to make in time for its release, and whether consumers would pay its $1,000 price.Despite those concerns, Apple's new flagship phone has turned out to be a resounding success. The reviews were stellar. On launch day, the lines of people waiting to buy the new phone were out of control. And it turns out that the price wasn't too high to turn people away. Even more importantly, the new device has laid the groundwork for Apple's future iPhones. Like the iPhone X, those gadgets will likely have facial recognition systems, processors that approach the power of laptop computers, wireless charging capabilities, and gorgeous screens that almost completely cover their fronts.
For all its triumphs, Apple didn't have an unblemished 2017. Instead, the company made a few notable stumbles. Its effort to break into the streaming video market got off to a bad start. The company launched this year its first original TV shows. Those shows, including "Planet of the Apps," debuted to disappointing reviews and seeming disinterest from consumers. The company also fumbled the launch of the latest Apple Watch. The Series 3 Apple Watch is the first designed to be able to access the internet over cellular networks. But some early reviewers discovered that key feature didn't work, forcing Apple to rush out a software update. But that wasn't the only embarrassing bug Apple battled this year. The company's iOS 11 software, which Apple initially released in September, has been riddled with glitches affecting the phone's battery life and other things.
A later update to the software caused the keyboard on certain iPhones to replace the letter "I" with a couple of jumbled characters. Meanwhile, some owners of the new iPhone X have reported their devices stop working in cold weather.Apple has corrected or promised to fix many of these software problems. But overall its stumbles this year were often obvious and preventable.Apple is continuing its push towards positioning its tablet as a laptop replacement with the launch of the new iPad Pro models.There has been a long-running debate over whether tablets can replace laptops, but consumers haven't responded particularly positively.People are used to the clamshell shape, but most think of laptops as devices with "full" operating systems (OS); machines they can get "real work" done on, and that feature a keyboard and mouse/trackpad.Apple's mobile OS hasn't been particularly well-positioned to replace a traditional laptop so far. But iOS 11, the new version of iOS, includes a number of iPad-specific features that may switch things up.
Business Insider's Ben Gilbert recently weighed in with his opinion of the iPad Pro, which he called "a lackluster MacBook." He pointed out that many of the features iOS 11 brings to the iPad are just catch-up moves that the mobile-first OS is making to feel more like a traditional system.Things like using multiple apps at once, having a dock, browsing files, and drag-and-drop have been core elements of desktop operating systems for ages, but iOS 11's implementation is still not up there even with Apple's own macOS.But making the iPad a primary machine for the masses goes beyond simply matching laptops in terms of features. That's because there are some inherent advantages that the iPad and iOS enjoy which will not make their way to macOS and the Macs.Think price, portability, and even the fact that iPads have a touchscreen. Take drag-and-drop, for instance: It has so much potential on the iPad that it might actually end up being better than it is on macOS.On macOS (or even Windows), when you select one or multiple items, you can drag them around as you want, but you can't do anything else until you drop all of your files to a target point.
Livre d'Or
Contact