I use the highlighter function in my e-books all the time. The platform supports highlighting things in yellow, green, blue, and pink (and maybe others), and when I read on my iPad or Galaxy Tab I see those colors. Back on my Kindle, they are all (obviously) gray and not as useful (I color code my highlights.)

So, not totally useless for everyone. But WORTH it? That's a toughie, given that I have an iPad and Galaxy Tab...

What I posted a year and a half ago AND three years ago still stands today... (copy-pasta follows)

Potentially Unpopular Opinion: the Microsoft 365 Family Annual Subscription plan is a fantastic deal if you have a lot of family members, and devices, and could use a huge amount of online storage/backup/file syncing.

For $100 a year, here's what your Office 365 license gets you:

- Full use of the installable versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and Access, plus OneNote (although OneNote is now free for anyone to use, it integrates with the rest of Office 365).
- These installations work on ALL your devices: Windows PCs, Macintoshes, Android devices (phone/tablets/ChromeOS), iPhones, iPads. So in my case, I have Office installed on my Windows desktop, my laptop, my *other* desktop, my MacBook, my Android phone, my Android tablet, and my Chromebook. All for one license.
- One TB (!) of online storage (or backup) on Microsoft OneDrive for your documents, music, photos, or whatever, using a Dropbox-like syncing tool that works across devices if you like, so I can access all my files and photos across all my devices all the time from anywhere, or just use it as an off-site backup. Acronis charges about this much for 1TB of online storage just by itself. Carbonite is like $80 a year. iDrive is like $70 a year. If you were going to use an online backup tool for lots of stuff, then you might as well do Office 365 - it's like paying for the online storage you were looking for, and getting all the Office applications for free.
- Full access to the online versions of MS Office. So if I'm at someone else's PC or at a business center in a hotel, or using the PWA version on my Chromebook, or need to do some office work on my Linux box, I can open up (a semi-reduced feature version of) Word or Excel in a web browser, and if I'm using OneDrive (and I am), I can access all my files from that browser too.
- And then I can have 5 family members do all this too, all on the same license, because that $100 a year is for the whole family! So my wife each gets all these apps on all her devices, and she gets 1TB of device-syncing OneDrive storage too. So does my kid. So does my Mom. So does my Father in Law. So each person is getting all this stuff, including 1TB of online storage EACH, for about $20 a year.

Now don't get me wrong, I've used and recommended LibreOffice for years too, and I fully respect its capabilities, but Microsoft's pricing model for Office reminds me of Netflix vs. Torrents for movies: yes, Torrents are free, but Netflix is so much quality content for so little money, if you can swing a few bucks a month, it's worth it. So is Office 365.

Yes, yes, Hail Corporate.

(Ninja 2024 edit: now you also get a lot of extra online content and apps for your license too. Other than product names, everything I wrote 3 years ago still applies. If you have 6 friends who need Office and a TB of online storage, each of you chip in $18 a year and stop worrying about licenses.)

OK, I'll bite. How was your message sent from an Apple IIGS? Now's your time to shine!

Apple II Forever!!

https://youtu.be/48Y-pCffh10

How the Wired article and this summary don't have any links to one of these videos is beyond me - I wanted to SEE one. I promise, I'm not rickrolling you.

This sort of technology -- AI-generated avatars who "emote" written text by "presenting" it "in front of a camera" -- is becoming more common in my industry, that of corporate training, where I think audiences are willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because it might be an improvement over reading typically dry compliance or policy training with their own eyeballs.

But for a retail audience instead of a captive one? I think you'll agree after watching it it's still not ready for prime time, so to speak. But it might not be long until it is...

In 1999, wanting to share my 1.5 Mbit DSL line among 10 friends coming over for a LAN party, I cobbled together a router from a cast-off Pentium 100 with 32 MB of RAM, two $20 16-bit NIC cards and a 10-Mbit 16-port Netgear hub bought at Fry's, and Debian LINUX. And I followed instructions found with this new Google search engine. It worked for 2 years before replacing it with a "real" router.

Isn't this a Jr High School computer project now?

When COVID demonstrated we can be just as or more productive at home than at the office, corporations suddenly were on the hunt for "good reasons" to bring everyone back to the office other than "productivity."

Lately, I've been hearing folks should come back for those "unexpected opportunities of in-person collaboration" which can "only happen" when everyone is back in the office most days of the week. Ok, fine. I'll buy that, I guess. But if a company cannot provide enough desks for EVERYONE in the company to come back in AT THE SAME TIME, then exactly how is unexpected in-person collaboration supposed to happen if half the people I'm supposed to be collaborating with aren't in the office on the same day as me???

The first step in successfully lying is getting one's story straight everywhere. Sorry, Google. You failed to do so here.

What I posted a year and a half ago still stands today... (copy-pasta follows)

Potentially Unpopular Opinion: the Office 365 Annual Subscription is a fantastic deal if you have a lot of family members, and devices, and could use a huge amount of online storage/backup/file syncing.

For $100 a year, here's what your Office 365 license gets you:

- Full use of the installable versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and Access, plus OneNote 2016 (although OneNote 2016 is now free for anyone to use, it integrates with the rest of Office 365).
- These installations work on ALL your devices: Windows PCs, Macintoshes, Android devices (phone/tablets/ChromeOS), iPhones, iPads. So in my case, I have Office installed on my Windows desktop, my laptop, my *other* desktop, my MacBook, my Android phone, my Android tablet, and my Chromebook. All for one license.
- One TB (!) of online storage (or backup) on Microsoft OneDrive for your documents, music, photos, or whatever, using a Dropbox-like syncing tool that works across devices if you like, so I can access all my files and photos across all my devices all the time from anywhere, or just use it as an off-site backup. Acronis charges about this much for 1TB of online storage just by itself. Carbonite is like $80 a year. iDrive is like $70 a year. If you were going to use an online backup tool for lots of stuff, then you might as well do Office 365 - it's like paying for the online storage you were looking for, and getting all the Office applications for free.
- Full access to the online versions of MS Office. So if I'm at someone else's PC or at a business center in a hotel, or using the PWA version on my Chromebook, or need to do some office work on my Linux box, I can open up (a semi-reduced feature version of) Word or Excel in a web browser, and if I'm using OneDrive (and I am), I can access all my files from that browser too.
- And then I can have 5 family members do all this too, all on the same license, because that $100 a year is for the whole family! So my wife each gets all these apps on all her devices, and she gets 1TB of device-syncing OneDrive storage too. So does my kid. So does my Mom. So does my Father in Law. So each person is getting all this stuff, including 1TB of online storage EACH, for about $20 a year.

Now don't get me wrong, I've used and recommended LibreOffice for years too, and I fully respect its capabilities, but Microsoft's pricing model for Office reminds me of Netflix vs. Torrents for movies: yes, Torrents are free, but Netflix is so much quality content for so little money, if you can swing a few bucks a month, it's worth it. So is Office 365.

Yes, yes, Hail Corporate.

Remember Textra? The most widely used and highly regarded SMS app for Android in 2018? Well, they've never stopped developing, and due to inertia, I never stopped using it, dutifully installing it on new phone after new phone because it was reliable and had more options than stock.

First they added the conversion of the incoming "Julie Loves your message" turds into the actual emojis, and they displayed the right emoji on the right message. Then later, they allowed us to SEND the same reactions.

Up until iOS 16, all iOS users saw the same "reaction turds" we used to. But now iOS 16 converts the turds just like Textra did and does.

In other words, Textra and iOS 16 seem to have full "reaction emoji" compatibility. Google can't do the same?

Well, I dunno - how often are your Macs, Chromebooks, Android devices, and iOS devices getting forced Windows updates now? Office 365 is a multi-platform software suite.

And as for ransomware wiping out your business - if you're backing up your files offsite like you should, if you're using a tool like OneDrive (which, oh yeah, comes with Office 365) then when the ransomware locks up your local files, your OneDrive account will still have all your files, since it not only recognized mass encryption and stops it propagating to your online backups, but it can roll any encrypted files back to their original state.

Potentially Unpopular Opinion: the Office 365 Annual Subscription is a fantastic deal if you have a lot of family members, and devices, and could use a huge amount of online storage/backup/file syncing.

For $100 a year, here's what your Office 365 license gets you:

- Full use of the installable versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and Access, plus OneNote 2016 (although OneNote 2016 is now free for anyone to use, it integrates with the rest of Office 365).
- These installations work on ALL your devices: Windows PCs, Macintoshes, Android devices (phone/tablets/ChromeOS), iPhones, iPads. So in my case, I have Office installed on my Windows desktop, my laptop, my *other* desktop, my MacBook, my Android phone, my Android tablet, and my Chromebook. All for one license.
- One TB (!) of online storage (or backup) on Microsoft OneDrive for your documents, music, photos, or whatever, using a Dropbox-like syncing tool that works across devices if you like, so I can access all my files and photos across all my devices all the time from anywhere, or just use it as an off-site backup. Acronis charges about this much for 1TB of online storage just by itself. Carbonite is like $80 a year. iDrive is like $70 a year. If you were going to use an online backup tool for lots of stuff, then you might as well do Office 365 - it's like paying for the online storage you were looking for, and getting all the Office applications for free.
- Full access to the online versions of MS Office. So if I'm at someone else's PC or at a business center in a hotel, or using the PWA version on my Chromebook, or need to do some office work on my Linux box, I can open up (a semi-reduced feature version of) Word or Excel in a web browser, and if I'm using OneDrive (and I am), I can access all my files from that browser too.
- And then I can have 5 family members do all this too, all on the same license, because that $100 a year is for the whole family! So my wife each gets all these apps on all her devices, and she gets 1TB of device-syncing OneDrive storage too. So does my kid. So does my Mom. So does my Father in Law. So each person is getting all this stuff, including 1TB of online storage EACH, for about $20 a year.

Now don't get me wrong, I've used and recommended LibreOffice for years too, and I fully respect its capabilities, but Microsoft's pricing model for Office reminds me of Netflix vs. Torrents for movies: yes, Torrents are free, but Netflix is so much quality content for so little money, if you can swing a few bucks a month, it's worth it. So is Office 365.

Yes, yes, Hail Corporate.

...and I'm sure there will be a bump in sales. Don't cry too hard for Dell.

UWP and Windows 7 doesn't mix. One hopes that the current OneNote will still be available too...

Isn't Tim Cook the CEO of the same company that intentionally throttled down the performance of nearly every older version of their phone, without being transparent and telling their users or giving them a way to opt out, with the obvious result that customers would get rid of their perfectly good existing phones and replace them unnecessarily with new $850 replacements? I think so.

That is known since the early 80's as the "Open Apple" key. n00b5, anyway....

.
There were Apples before Macs; show some respect for your elders. And get off my lawn.

...which was to have the probe do its work close to The Sun at night.