With the NBA resuming from 31st July, players will finally hit the court after a three-month hiatus. Because of this long gap and concerns of the virus, GMs have been asking for roster flexibility.

Two weeks ago, ESPN had reported about a GM survey. When asked if the playoffs should have expanded rosters or teams should have more of an ability to replace players sidelined by injury or illness, only two teams voted for neither option. Twelve voted for expanded rosters, and 16 voted for an increased ability to replace players who are injured or sick.

GMs also wanted to include the two-way players into these plans of a season resumption. Finally, 16 teams had voted for two extra sports on the rosters, while nine voted for one and the remaining five voted for three.

On 8th June, Adrian WojnarowskiandBobby Marks of ESPN reported that the NBA has taken some of these suggestions and started a Transaction Window.

The Transaction Window will involve all 30 teams, not just the Orlando-bound ones. Theyll have one week to sign free agents (who have had a contract at some point in this season), and convert two-way and 10-day contracts into standard contracts. But only the teams with roster spots available already can make these moves.

The Spurs, who just lost LaMarcus Aldridge to an injury, can pick up a replacement as well as another player since they have a roster spot open. Similarly, the Nets will also be looking at replacements for the injured duo of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

The biggest rumor so far is the potential return of DeMarcus Cousins. His injury status is uncertain, but even a 60-70% fit Boogie is a valuable asset to any team. He could be exactly what the Spurs need now, with Alridge out.

But his connection with the Los Angeles Lakers, despite his waiver, cannot be ignored. He is still on their group chat and was likely to join them next season. However, the Lakers do not have a spot currently to sign him, so others can swoop in. Miami Heat, reportedly, are also interested in signing him but like the Lakers, they do not have a roster spot free as of now.

Other players who are available include Trey Burke, Troy McDaniels, Iman Shumpert, and Isaiah Thomas,

One flaw of this transaction window is that free agents who havent had a contract at all this year are not eligible. So veterans like Jamal Crawford and JR Smith cannot be signed according to the current rules.

Crawford became the oldest player to drop 50 last season and has shown he still has the quality at 39. Meanwhile, Smith can still provide a solid 3&D option off the bench. So, a change in rules could help teams add these veterans to their roster. The Nets could use a scorer like Crawford in the absence of KD and Kyrie. Whereas, Smith can be useful for the Thunder, who are lacking a quality backup wing player, or the Jazz, who have lost sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic to injury.

One last tweak that GMs are seeking is an extended roster. They want the spots to go beyond 15 spots in case someone gets injured or gets affected by the virus. This would let the Heat and the Lakers sign Boogie without releasing anyone. With less than two months left for the season to start, one cannot rule out a fairytale return for DeMarcus Cousins or Jamal Crawford.

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NBA Announces Surprise Transaction Window: Will Any Team or Player Benefit from it? - Essentially Sports

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. A local company is hard at work replacing the smashed out windows downtown following the vandalism that occurred overnight Saturday.

Violence broke out this past weekend after a peaceful protest at Rosa Parks Circle wrapped up. Destruction and vandalism happened throughout the city into Sunday morning.

Now, the folks at Vos Glass are putting in overtime to get many of the smashed out windows replaced.

Easily we've looked at and measured over 500 broken units, said Dave Turner, Co-owner and President of Vos Glass. Probably several hundred thousand dollars worth of glass.

The whole process will take several weeks time. While the company expects to finish most by June, some of the projects will trail into July.

They're all custom. They all have their own sizing and have special orders. So it's quite a deal," Turner said.

Meaning that the manufacturing process can take some time.

Lead times are varying right now, from typically two weeks," Turner said. "Some of the units like the art museum, Fifth third, are probably four to five week lead time items. They're just real special pieces of glass and take a long time.

He says some of the jobs downtown have been quoted over $100,000.

And while Vos Glass did have to slow some operations in the past few months because of COVID-19, Turner says they have maintained steady business.

We were fortunate to have a full year already. We really weren't looking for more," he told FOX 17 Thursday. "And that's why, you know, some people ask the question, do we really want to do this, but the leadership team said we have to do this.

Turner says he has been very proud of the ways his crews have stepped up to take on these extra jobs.

I think that, you know, what happened Sunday with so many people coming out to help clean up. I think that kind of put the hope back into it. So, it did for me, I was encouraged by that, Turner said.

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Company working to replace smashed out windows in downtown GR - Fox17

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Affordable Starter Homes in the St. Louis Area - Elko Daily Free Press

ITHACA, N.Y. As Cornell's new North Campus dormitories take shape, the next phases of its North Campus Residential Initiative are becoming more clear; next on the to-do list, an extensive renovation of Balch Hall.

The 167,000 square-foot Collegiate Gothic dorm at 600 Thurston Avenue is the last all-female freshmen residence maintained by the university. Completed in 1929, Balch Hall serves as a visual focal point for those passing over the Thurston Avenue bridge. Its ivy-covered stone walls and mullioned windows have provided a proper thematic backdrop for countless Cornell photos, and its famed central archway has served as the makeshift stage for hundreds of decent if slightly off-key acapella performances.

However, as with many of Cornell's older dormitories, deferred maintenance has been a concern. Some features, like the ancient wrought-iron closet racks to store fancy hats, have a quaint old-fashioned charm. Leaks, outdated utilities and physical impediments for handicapped students and visitors are not so charming.

Cornell is aware of this. While most of the attention to their North Campus redevelopment has been on the new structures and 2,000 new beds, the plan also calls for renovations to several existing buildings. As soon as the first phase of the brand new dormitories are ready for occupancy, Cornell plans to begin renovating its older residences, with Balch Hall being first on the list.

According to Site Plan Review documents filed with the city, the "full-gut renovation" includes replacing all the windows, replacing and rebuilding some gutters and non-structural exterior walls, general masonry repair new accessible walkways, landscaping and lighting improvements. On the inside would be four new elevators and modernized mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems. The interior reconfiguration would increase Balch's student capacity from 436 to 470 beds, and the university hopes to obtain LEED Gold certification with the improvements in energy efficiency.

For those concerned about Balch's collegiate charm, visually the exterior changes will be fairly minor. Since Balch Hall is visible from the Arts Quad Historic District, the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission will weigh in, though only in an advisory role. The new elevators will result in four new dormers designed to match the rest of the building. The new handicap-accessible path will result in the removal of four mature trees. The Balch arch stairs and other exterior stairways will be rebuilt with similar materials as before.

Assuming all goes to plan, the renovated Balch, which will remain an all-female dorm, would be ready to welcome freshmen again in August 2022, as the renovation work shifts to other existing North Campus dorms (Clara Dickson Hall).

Goody Clancy Architects of Boston is in charge of design work, with local firm T.G. Miller providing the civil engineering work, and Cornell favorite Thornton Tomasetti of New York on tap as sustainable design consultant. IBI Placemarking of Boston will be the landscape architect.

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Cornell plans "full-gut renovation" of Balch Hall - The Ithaca Voice

A new report from Bloomberg this week claimed that Apple is planning to announce the transition from Intel processors to ARM chips in the Mac lineup this month at WWDC 2020. While theres still more than a week before the Apple event, tech analysts are speculating on how Apple will make this transition and what are the potential benefits and downsides.

John Gruber (Daring Fireball) points out the fact that Apple may reveal its plans to bring ARM chips to the Mac at this WWDC doesnt necessarily mean that the company will release any new hardware this year.

Apple needs app developers to get ready for ARM Macs with a new version of Xcode, otherwise this new Mac wouldnt have any compatible apps at launch. He compares this to the end of 32-bit support on macOS, which was first announced by Apple back in 2018 and discontinued last year with macOS Catalina.

Some developersthe smart onesare effectively ready to go, and will be able to recompile their apps for ARM as soon as Apple makes a new version of Xcode available. But others will need time. I mean just look at all the consternation this past year over MacOS 10.15 Catalina dropping support for 32-bit softwarea transition Apple announced several years in advance.

An architecture transition will certainly have an impact on which apps will continue to work with new Mac models. When Apple migrated from PowerPC to Intel processors, the company offered a way to emulate legacy software on newer Macs with Rosetta. But now, Gruber thinks Apple will focus only on ARM-ready software.

If I had to bet right now, Id say no, there will be no x86 emulation on ARM Macsand that factors into why Apple is pre-announcing this transition months ahead of releasing hardware. But thats just my guess. In the 90s in particular, and the 2000s to a lesser degree, there was a lot of important third-party software that wasnt easily ported. I dont think thats as much the case today.

Developers and users may think there are a lot of things that will change with ARM-based apps. For Gus Mueller (The Shape of Everything) not much will change, actually. There are still several apps, including Apples own, that still use the Cocoa framework and are written in Objective-C rather than Swift, so its very unlikely that Apple will require ARM apps to be rebuilt with Swift or SwiftUI at first.

Cocoa is the framework that drives pretty much every app on MacOS. Without NSWindow, without NSView, youve got no apps on the Mac [] SwiftUI is barely one year old. Look at how long its taken Swift to get to a point where its not incredibly painfully to use. [] Objective-C isnt going anywhere anytime soon. Too much of MacOS and too many important applications rely on it.

The idea of a Mac that can only run Catalyst apps, which are basically apps ported from iPadOS, is also unlikely. While there are great apps available for iPad, not all of them are as advanced as the native Mac versions, so forcing users to use them would be a drawback.

This would be a serious downgrade for users of these apps on MacOS, and would be a major departure from the way the apps currently behave on MacOS. And even with Catalyst, its still a lot of work for an iPad app to look and feel like a Mac app.

Mueller believes that Apple will probably let almost every app to be updated to run under the ARM architecture, except for legacy apps like the ones based on OpenGL.

OpenGL and OpenCL have been deprecated for a while now in favor of Metal. Apple will use this opportunity to drop them.

As Dieter Bohn wrote on The Verge, there are already some Windows computers running on ARM processors that can give us an idea of what Apple should and shouldnt do with the Mac lineup. On the Windows side, the experience of using a computer with an ARM processor is still not good. There are performance issues and although some 32-bit apps can be emulated in ARM, 64-bit apps cannot.

Speaking of things Apple wouldnt want: ARM-based Windows computers are slower. [] Weve all been assuming that Apples much-vaunted prowess at making fast ARM chips for iPads will translate well to Macs, but theres no guarantee thats true until we get to test them ourselves.

He mentions that Microsoft still has plans to keep both ARM and x86 versions of Windows for a long time, as the vast majority of computers still runs with Intel or AMD processors and companies are unlikely to change that any time soon.

The problem is that since Windows ARM is not going to replace Windows x86, developers are not committed to updating their apps to take advantage of ARM hardware. Apple, on the other hand, has plans to update all the Mac line-up with ARM processors in the coming years.

When ARM-based laptops and tablets started getting released, the message was Heres a cool new thing you can get if you want, but the reliable old thing isnt going anywhere. Thats the Windows way. [] Windows on ARM simply isnt getting the developer attention and support that standard Windows gets, both within Microsoft and outside it.

There are still many questions about Apples transition from Intel to ARM, but hopefully they will all be answered at WWDC 2020 on June 22nd.What are your thoughts on Apples plans to replace Intel with ARM processors on Mac? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Ahead of WWDC, speculation over Apples ARM Mac transition grows - 9to5Mac

Before the Surface Pro X though, that battery life came at a heavy price. Older Windows PCs on ARM chips felt slower than laptops I used to use when I was back in college. In tech years, thats prehistoric.

Its not enough even for someone like me, whose usage mostly revolves around a million tabs on Chrome, word processing software and now, thanks to the pandemic, about a thousand video calls a week.

But though the Surface Pro X is a huge leap forward, its just not enough to be the solution just yet.

The big accomplishment here is that the Surface Pro X doesnt make you want to throw it against the wall. Neither does it feel like a cheap laptop with very little RAM and an older processor. If anything, the Surface Pro X isnt just modern in its looks, but also in how it performs.

To spare you a lot of jargon, running Windows on ARM is sort of like switching chassis for a car with a different cars chassis. You can make it run almost as well as the original, but it will be wobbly at times. ARM chips assume software will be built for a certain processor architecture, but legacy Windows software hasn't been made for that. Microsoft tried to fix this by adding an emulation layer to Windows, which is akin to hammering the new chassis to fit the other car. It just doesnt work for all software.

The bottomline is this, the Surface Pro X and devices that follow its example in future, will be almost ready to replace laptops, but wont quite get there. Who will this really matter to? Well, power users come to mind. Companies like Adobe arent fully ready to embrace these processors, and the work theyve already done is better suited to Apples iPads than Windows on ARM.

The result is these little lags when Im selecting all the typed text on a long Google Docs document, or updating my notes on Evernote. It doesnt hamper how fast I work enough to really complain about them, but I can see why it will matter to a heavier user than myself.

The real qualm here is that while Microsoft does have a solution to Windows 10s problems with ARM, its not a foolproof solution yet. Theyre getting there though, and thats heartening.

Having said that, the problems with the Surface Pro X dont end there. $1000 price tags are more acceptable in the US than they are in India. At this point, the Surface Pro X is a device that works. But Indians dont pay Rs. 98,999 for devices that just work, nor should we be expected to.

The value proposition is worse if you consider the fact that the Pro X is only a laptop replacement with Microsofts TypeCover keyboard case. Thats an additional Rs. 13,699 and the new Slim Pen" stylus will add Rs. 14,299 more.

The complete Surface Pro X is too expensive for a journalist like me, who is the ideal user for it right now. Assuming you have that kind of money and are bent on an always connected device with SIM support, the new iPad Pro with its Magic Keyboard costs about the same. In fact, if you pair the Magic Keyboard with last years iPad Pro, you will actually save some money.

Theres another problem here. While Windows 10 on ARM promises over 20 hour battery lives, Microsofts claimed battery life for the Pro X is much lesser. And in my experience, I could never get past the 10-hour mark. Thats good for an ultrabook, not good for an always connected mobile device.

If you can give up the always connected part, the Dell XPS 13 is a viable alternative. In fact, even Microsofts own Surface Pro 7 is in the lakh rupees range. If I cant leave my charger home, Im not settling for the wobbles.

On the other hand, the Surface Pro X covers the thin and light part easily. It weighs under a kilogram without the charger and is extremely loud. The display is great too, though not quite as bright as the new iPad Pros Liquid Retina display, and the Slim Pen is as good as any other stylus Microsoft has made so far. It also has two USB Type-C ports, which I really hope Apple adopts too.

In sum, the Surface Pro X is a big leap for Windows 10 on ARM. It would have been a viable solution for many who want a PC-like mobile device, if it wasnt for the price. Perhaps enterprises would want to hand it to their CEOs as a productivity tool. It also benefits from Microsofts enterprise features.

But most importantly, we know Windows 10 can work on ARM now. Microsoft better refine things as fast as possible.

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Microsoft Surface Pro X review: Windows is almost ready for ARM - Livemint

Wellington Regional Hospital has the worst electrical infrastructure in the country, and ranks in the bottom three of the country's hospitals for its mechanical infrastructure.

Most of its high-voltage cables need replacing, as well as the main switchboard, and its site generators are in poor condition with replacement being investigated.

READ MORE:* The state of our hospitals: Major stocktake paints dire picture* Disruption for patients as Wellington Regional Hospital replaces 28km of faulty pipes * Hospital building with earthquake rating as low as 9 per cent passes another deadline

The dire picture comes as part of a major stocktake of the country's hospitals, released on Wednesday.

It comes just a day after Wellington Hospital was forced to run its back-up generators after a Newtown power outage and years of issues with leaky pipes.

On top of the hospital's electrical problems, the report found its steam pipes and hot water storage were also in poor condition.

Rosa Woods/Stuff

General manager of corporate services Thomas Davis says the facilities and infrastructure are safe and will remain so while improvements take place. (File photo)

Stormwater drains, medical gases, heating pipes, fire water and cooling pipes, as well as windows and doors were described as in average to poor condition.

General manager of corporate services Thomas Davis said the DHB had not had time to fully consider the new report and wasn't able to comment in detail.

But he gave assurances the facilities and infrastructure were safe and would remain so while improvements took place.

CCDHB has a programme for the prioritisation and completion of planned and deferred maintenance," he said.

"This ensures our facilities and infrastructure undergo continued maintenance and management as our campus is upgraded through a staged programme of work."

Robert Kitchin/Stuff

Wellington Hospital was the only facility whose electrical infrastructure was rated as 'poor' in a new report.

Many of the issues won't be a surprise for users of the hospital, which has long been beleaguered by leaky pipes.

Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) is suing contractors after the hospital's pipes sprung 300 leaks in a debacle reported to have cost $19 million.

And every part of the hospital is due to shut down over the next six years as more than 28.7 kilometres of faulty copper pipes are replaced.

The DHB reported issues with Wellington Hospital's electrical infrastructure in 2017.

An independent report released to Stuff at the time painted a picture of tired infrastructure with a high potential for a complete outage to the hospital in a major emergency.

It found a "high risk of catastrophic failure" where patient and staff safety was at risk.

Kevin Stent/Stuff

A major stocktake of infrastructure at the country's hospitals says a fix-it bill of $14 billion is needed.

In the latest stocktake of hospital infrastructure, the Hutt Valley District Health Board and CCDHB were two of 10 DHBs found to have poor financial management systems.

Hawke's Bay DHB had electrical infrastructure which was near or beyond end of life, according to the report. Its high voltage supply had regular failures and its major switchgear was vulnerable to failure, affecting theatres.

Executive director of financial services Carriann Hall said the DHB aware of the issues.

It was working to upgrade the electrical systems and high voltage supply and was in the final stages of replacing its main electrical switchboard for the boiler house.

The report said many of the country's intensive care units, operating theatres and emergency departments were in "poor or very poor" shape - with a fix-it bill set at $14 billion over the next decade.

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Wellington Hospital has the worst electrical infrastructure in the country - report - Stuff.co.nz

'); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(""+val.title+""); // if (window.location.hostname == "www.kmov.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.kctv5.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.azfamily.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.kptv.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.fox5vegas.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.wfsb.com") { if (val.poly != "" && val.polyimg != "") { $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append('"+val.ihtml+""); $("#expandable-weather-block .weather-index-alerts").show(); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body h2").css({"font-family":"'Fira Sans', sans-serif", "font-weight":"500", "padding-bottom":"10px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body p").css({"font-size":"14px", "line-height":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body span.wxalertnum").css({"float":"left", "width":"40px", "height":"40px", "color":"#ffffff", "line-height":"40px", "background-color":"#888888", "border-radius":"40px", "text-align":"center", "margin-right":"12px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body b").css("font-size", "18px"); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body li").css({"font-size":"14px", "line-height":"18px", "margin-bottom":"10px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body ul").css({"margin-bottom":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body pre").css({"margin-bottom":"24px"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body img").css({"width":"100%", "margin-bottom":"20px", "borderWidth":"1px", "border-style":"solid", "border-color":"#aaaaaa"}); $("#expandable-weather-block .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).css({"borderWidth":"0", "border-bottom-width":"1px", "border-style":"dashed", "border-color":"#aaaaaa", "padding-bottom":"10px", "margin-bottom":"40px"}); }); } function parseAlertJSON(json) { console.log(json); alertCount = 0; if (Object.keys(json.alerts).length > 0) { $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body ").empty(); } $.each(json.alerts, function(key, val) { alertCount++; $("#mrd-wx-alerts .alert_count").text(alertCount); $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body ").append(''); $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(""+val.title+""); // if (window.location.hostname == "www.kmov.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.kctv5.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.azfamily.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.kptv.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.fox5vegas.com" || window.location.hostname == "www.wfsb.com") { if (val.poly != "" && val.polyimg != "") { $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(''); } else if (val.fips != "" && val.fipsimg != "") { // $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(''); } // } //val.instr = val.instr.replace(/[W_]+/g," "); $("#mrd-wx-alerts .modal-body #mrd-alert"+ alertCount).append(val.dhtml+"

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Save hundreds on new replacement windows and patio doors - KCTV Kansas City

Apples latest souped-up iPads, along with accessories like the Magic Keyboard and software enhancements in iPadOS, have turned the companys tablets into bona-fide desktop and laptop replacements.

But if you really want to use your iPad as your primary computing device, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Here are five tips for replacing your PC or Mac with one of Apples tablets, whether for work, school, or just day-to-day usage.

Lack of mouse support was long the main hurdle preventing the iPad from operating as a PC replacement. But Apples latest iPadOS update gives the iPad external mouse and trackpad support, giving you a desktop- or laptop-like cursor for the first time.

But before you get a mouse to go clicking away, you should probably get a keyboard, too. You can pair your own Bluetooth keyboard to your iPad and get your typing done that way, but you can also get yourself a keyboard cover that doubles as a case, and makes your iPad look more laptop-like than usual. Apple makes its own keyboard covers with different features depending on the iPad youre using: iPad Pro users can grab the trackpad-free Smart Keyboard Folio, or the trackpad-equipped Magic Keyboard Cover. iPads lacking the Pro moniker have an Apple-provided option when it comes to keyboards: the Smart Keyboard uses the tablets embedded Smart Connector, and doubles as a cover when not in use, but doesnt feature any flexibility in terms of viewing angles.

You can also look to third-party keyboards for added functionality. Keyboards like Logitechs backlit Combo Touch turn your iPad into the closest thing to an iPad Pro without the added cost. It adds a detachable keyboard and trackpad cover to the iPad, along with an adjustable kickstand akin to the Microsoft Surface arguably more useful than Apples own Magic Keyboard and its inflexible posture. Theres also the series of wireless keyboards from Brydge, which affix to your iPad to turn it into a facsimile of a laptop. The new Brydge Pro+ works with the iPad Pro and includes an integrated trackpad, while the Brydge Pro fits on the lower-end iPad, but lacks a trackpad.

Some things are just easier to do on a PCbut that doesnt mean theyre impossible to do on an iPad.

Need to send specific files or open certain links in particular apps and web browsers? Check out Opener, an app that lets you take advantage of the iOS share sheet (indicated by the box with an arrow sticking out of it). Use an app like 1Password to access your protected online accounts on any device, on iOS, Mac, or PC. TextExpander can save you time typing repeated email responses, names, addresses, or forms by creating shortcuts corresponding to their longer stored sentences and paragraphs.

Need a more powerful to-do list? Apples integrated Reminders app is free and suitable for day-to-day tasks, but apps like Todoist or Omnifocus offer multiple ways to restructure your priorities and projects you want to accomplish whether on the job or around the house. What about a word processor? Google Docs, the minimalist iA Writer, and the organization-friendly Scrivener all offer different takes when it comes to writing, drafting, and organizing text. For a more powerful text editor, check out Drafts, which can send the text you write to other apps, boosting your productivity and saving you time in the process.

Understanding how to manage your app windows is perhaps the most frustrating part of using an iPad as a replacement for your PC.

Whereas window management is a snap on a PC, on an iPad, youll be dragging apps, holding them in place, and swiping them to certain parts of the screen to keep your multitasking habits alive. The iPads Split View feature puts two apps side-by-side, while its Slide Over feature will overlay an iPhone-shaped version of your app on a section of either your home screen or atop the app youre already using. You can operate up to three apps at a time, and drag and drop items like photos and email attachments between them.

To start using the iPads multitasking feature, open an app or place it in your iPad dock. From there, you can select another app in the dock, long press it, and drag it up either on top of the current app, or next to it, enabling its Split View mode. You can adjust the real estate each app takes up by sliding the central divider left or right. By repeating the process with a third app, you can layer it on top of either of the two apps, letting you have a word processor on one side, a calendar on the other, and your messaging app of choice on top of that.

While slick, its still not perfect. Using the keyboard in Split View gets a bit frustrating if you keep switching between apps, and not every app supports every multitasking mode.

If youre using your iPad as your primary machine these days, youre probably suffering from some pretty poor postureyoure more hunched over with your neck tilted downward, perhaps. Working that way for a few days might be well and good, but for longer periods of time, youre just asking for a strained neck, uncomfortable back, and generally unpleasant feeling.

But an iPad on a stand? Thats a game-changer. Not only will a stand help correct your bad posture, but with the right modeleither one attached to an articulated arm or with a swiveling headyou can use your iPad in either portrait or landscape mode, and pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (or trackpad) to gain even more control.

If you need to connect lots of devices to your iPad, youve probably already encountered a problem: it only has one port. The solution? A USB-C hub, which allows you not only to connect devices like flash drives or digital cameras to your iPad, it also supercharges your tablet when paired with the right external accessories.

Streaming video for a conference call? Connecting your iPad to a hub with an Ethernet port gives you a wired connection for lag-free calls. Need to offload some photos from your digital camera? A hub with an SD card slot, combined with Apples Files app, makes short work of getting your pictures off the card and into your app of choice (or the cloud). You can even connect your favorite wired keyboard rather than spend money on a wireless model.

A hub can also give you some much-needed screen space by connecting your iPad to a second display. Depending on the app youre using, your iPad will either mirror your screen or offer you a secondary monitor to display images, keynote presentations and more unencumbered by your user interface or editing tools. Apps like Photos, Keynote, and Procreate can use a second display to show off larger versions of whatever youre viewing on your iPad, tooits great for displaying presentations or photo slideshows.

Still, iPad second screens arent perfect. When viewing a photo in an app like Photos, the image itself will be showcased in an awkward 4:3 aspect ratio, with the image taking up the entirety of the monitor only after you do a little zooming in with your fingers.

Even better is the ability to send video to your second, larger display when connected. The iPad retains its 4:3 aspect ratio when plugged into an external display, even if its a widescreen monitor. But when watching video from, for example, your favorite streaming app, the iPad will take advantage of the entire monitor, providing you with a proper 16:9 aspect ratio and viewing experience.

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Write to Patrick Lucas Austin at patrick.austin@time.com.

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Yes, Your iPad Can Replace Your Desktop or Laptop. Here Are 5 Things to Know First - TIME

Googles enterprise communication tools have seen a flurry of changes in recent weeks. The latest is a Progressive Web App for Google Chat that replaces the existing Electron client.

First detailed last April, the PWA lets you use Google Chat in its own separate window that does away with your browsers address bar and hides other unnecessary controls. It can be launched from a desktop/dock app icon, with the messaging experience otherwise unchanged.

For admins, Google touts the secure and always up-to-date nature, as well as simplified deployment. Theres also better loading performance. Version 73 of Chrome (from March 2019) or higher is required with Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS supported.

Google recommends that admins and users uninstall the existing Electron-based app. There are three ways to install the PWA once on chat.google.com:

Available to all G Suite customers, the Google Chat PWA is rolling out now. As of this evening, we are not seeing the automatic prompt to install yet. It joins other apps like Google Drive, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV.

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Google Chat rolling out Progressive Web App to replace Electron client - 9to5Google