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It’s one thing to have to relearn behaviours when you switch machines, it’s another to have to re-learn them every time you plug in a peripheral.

the necessity, or not, of drivers for accessories was a big part of that competitive push by Apple, which made a point of ensuring out-of-the-box support for many of the most commonly used peripherals like printers, cameras and mice. When Steve Jobs said “it just works”, this is the sort of thing he was referring to: the ability to plug in a mouse and have it Just Work. Installing drivers for a mouse to enable a niche behaviour is no great hardship, but it still left me moderately concerned. Microsoft made both the mouse and the laptop, yet the two weren’t able to play nicely together without my intervention. This digging in the nuts and bolts of the machine was not something I had missed.

It’s a fantastic machine. Small and powerful, with a long battery life, it impresses as a laptop, but its real strengths are revealed when you undock the screen from its base. Being able to carry my laptop around the kitchen when doing the weekly shop, before docking it back and typing up some recipes, was genuinely cool.

The AAP's long-standing recommendation has been that kids' entertainment screen time be limited to less than one or two hours per day, and for kids under 2, none at all. But in a world where screens surround us -- in restaurants, gas stations, grocery store lines, as background ambiance at home (heck, even in pediatricians' waiting rooms) -- this recommendation is becoming nearly impossible to follow.

there is no easy answer to the question of "how much." So maybe parents need to start asking two new questions: "what" and "when."

"Quality content matters" says Dr. Chip Donohue, Director of the TEC Center at Erikson Institute, "What they watch is more important than how much"

parents spend an average of nine hours and 22 minutes every day in front of various screens—including smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions. Of those, nearly eight hours are for personal use, not work

we do not even realize how much time we spend when we heed the siren call of our devices

if parents use screen time for shared activities with a child—watching a movie or playing an educational game together, for example—it can enhance the child's learning

Our new research into digital reading has found that young people who are the most engaged with reading are more likely to read both on paper and on screen than their peers who have low engagement with reading

Pupils eligible for free school meals and boys with the lowest levels of reading engagement are two of the groups most likely to benefit from using digital formats

young people who read above the level expected for their age read fiction both in print and on screen

engaging in digital media activities together such as watching films, playing video games and keeping in touch via calls and messaging apps brings families together rather than dividing them

rather than displacing established ways of interacting, playing and communicating – digital media sit alongside them

the report’s authors highlighted parents’ concerns about “screen time”, which is a source of conflict in homes, though sleep and behaviour cause more disagreement. They also flag up a lack of support for parents who may face particular challenges regarding their child or family’s digital media use. Whereas on other issues they might turn to their own parents for advice, the digital generation gap means they are unlikely to be able to help