JUNE 2022 PCWorld 19currently part of the Windows Insider
Program, expands on the live captioning
found within Microsoft Teams, YouTube,
and elsewhere on the web, and applies it
within Windows to videos that users have
stored on a hard drive.
The Microsoft Edge browser, for its
part, was designed with Immersive Reader
to eliminate distractions, as well as a
read-aloud feature; in February, Microsoft
added the capability for Edge to auto-
suggest alt-text captions describing
images found on a webpage.
Still, it’s the new Adaptive Mouse, Hub,
and Buttons that are most intriguing. If a
one-touch peripheral that can be used as a
shortcut to various macros appeals to you,
then Microsoft’s new Adaptive hardware is
worth keeping tabs on.or even more so. While it looks like nothing
more than a giant button, it’s actually a control
that can rock into any of eight directions.
Those digital inputs can be used for multiple
functions, as eight discrete inputs. Naturally,
each input can be programmed for
something as simple as a keyboard shortcut
or as complex as a long macro.
The Button controller can also be
“replaced” with a custom “topper,” too.
Toppers can include, say, a traditional or
custom joystick or a two-button input,
executives said.
The Adaptive Button hearkens back to the
Surface Dial, another PC peripheral that could
be used as an adjunct control for adjusting
the zoom on a tablet like the Surface Pro 8 or
Surface Studio. Microsoft now calls the
Surface Dial the Surface Dial for Business
(fave.co/3LbjWdX),
priced at $100.
Microsoft’s Ability
Summit will also show
some of the
improvements that
Microsoft has made to
its software and
operating system,
including Narrator,
Focus Sessions (fave.
co/3n4ZuBp), and the
newly introduced Live
Captions feature. The
latter capability, Microsoft Adaptive Hub (background) and the Microsoft Adaptive Button.