2019年10月4日
Microsoft announced at its big hardware event, including an Android phone and a super-fast, super-slim Surface Pro
Microsoft held its big Surface event on Wednesday, where the company announced its brand new lineup of laptops and other hardware for the coming year and beyond.We got a look at the new Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 – devices that are more-or-less simple refreshes over their predecessors, save for a few interesting new tidbits. The new Surface Pro 7, for instance, finally adds a USB-C port.
Microsoft also introduced brand new, never-seen-before devices that blur the lines between tablets and laptops, including the Surface Pro X and the Surface Neo. The company even announced an Android-powered phone called the Surface Duo, as well as the wireless Surface Earbuds.
The Surface Duo is a dual-screen smartphone that runs Android, and folds down the middle with a hinge.The Surface Neo has the general appearance of two tablets connected with a hinge, and the design gives it the option to fold into a laptop shape or to be held open like a book. It combines the portable design of a tablet with the versatility and productivity of the Windows 10 operating system. The Neo can be used as a tablet, or it can take on the form of a laptop. It’s all screen and no keyboard on its own, but a magnetically attachable keyboard can fit on top of the bottom portion of the Neo.
The Surface Pro X is essentially a lighter version of the company’s Surface Pro laptop/tablet hybrids. It has a similar overall tablet design with a detachable keyboard. What makes it special is that it runs on an ARM-based processor from Qualcomm. ARM chips offer great power efficiency, which means long battery lives. For the Surface Pro X, the ARM chip affords 13 hours of battery life.
Microsoft is getting into the wireless earbud game with its Surface Buds. They have eight hours of battery life and the charging case holds a 24-hour charge.Microsoft boasts that it has integrations with the Office 365 suite – including the ability to swipe on the earbuds to advance to the next slide on PowerPoint, and even transcribe what you’re saying during a presentation and add your speech as a caption in over 60 languages.
If you want to create a more positive workplace, consider becoming an 'emotional tank filler'
Atlassian Global Head of Strategy & Operations, R&D, Molly Hellerman discussed theories around positivity and ways you can add more positivity in the workplace. “It is the record of all the events that happen to us in a day. If we have positive things that are happening to us, our tank is necessarily more full. And if there’s negative things … our tank is drained. And at base, our tank goes up and down every day, and that predicts our attitude and our approach, many times, to other people.”Hellerman said that while you can’t do anything about how someone approaches you, you can try and find ways to have them leave your presence with a fuller tank.
Some examples: showing praise and appreciation that is both truthful and specific, showing recognition and simply listening. Hellerman mentioned Atlassian’s pilot program called the Happiness Project which is geared toward positivity in the workplace. “It can be anything that you’re thinking, like, ‘I’m happy that I got a coffee today’.” Hellerman said it was more about getting to know others in your team and “meeting people wherever they’re at”.
The ACCC wants to interrogate the big banks in another tough inquiry – but it's Afterpay and Xinja that it's coming for first
On Friday it emerged that the first entities up for interrogation in the so-called ‘banking inquiry’ aren’t big banks at all – but their newest competitors.Board minutes for the September meeting and agenda items for Friday’s meeting reveal the ACCC’s vision for the inquiry would include meetings with new financial digital upstarts such as Afterpay and neobank Xinja.
The competition watchdog’s “highest priority”, according to its October meeting agenda, is to speak with Xinja – one of Australia’s newly arrived neobanks – and ING, a second-tier traditional bank as well as the Customer Owned Banking Association. It’s understood that these interviews would be used to consult on their views on competition in the banking sector.
ING will no doubt have plenty to say. It notably did a roaring trade in the aftermath of the last royal commission, signing up 234,000 new customers in Australia – an increase of 57%. Xinja is looking to emulate its success with a wholly digital offering.
Meanwhile, Xinja competitors Volt and 86 400 are listed as other “potential targets” as are buy now, pay later Afterpay and ZipCo. They’re joined on the list by ME Bank — owned by Australia’s industry super funds — and Citgroup, the US financial company that owns CitiBank.
The question for the enquiry, however, remains whether it will even get off the ground. The new documents shine a light on the ACCC’s reluctance to continue without formal government support, something the current federal government has signalled it’s unlikely to give.
