Gadgetory

again three two welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Alfred dang Apple held this big event yesterday and well it's a bit of a letdown everyone was expecting a cheaper iPad yet the price remained the same at $329 now the education discount did get a little bit cheaper it's now $2.99 309 but that's only a $10 difference yeah you're gonna have a big event for something like $10 difference right so everyone expecting that I mean the big announcement was that this new cheaper sorry this new iPad that's not cheaper now supports the pencil stylus which is which had been a feature really for the iPad pro line you know they talked a lot about all the education apps different services and programs that teachers will be able to use but what do you guys think well the general market do you care so like the big update for this one is that one it has a much more powerful chip right and that it's now compatible with the Apple pencil that was like their whole reason why they did it within the school and all this stuff but the thing is is that pencil cost an extra hundred dollars yeah so it really does not help in their case of you know we're trying to get back in at schools because the big reason why they've turned away from them is because it's so expensive right I crumble is you can get one for like 200 250 bucks so the fact that this is still $300 for schools plus the $100 pencil and there is no keyboard attachment for this so that those are real stumbling blocks for Apple who wants to get back into schools I also got an email from one Apple customer that bought the 2017 model of this 329 iPad and he asked me hey does this now is this now gonna have pencil support because it sounded like he was more than willing to pay you know the hundreds to get a pencil and I had to tell him no it's not gonna you know reverse or they're not gonna say it's not so unfortunately for folks and this does happen with Apple sometimes is that you're just gonna have to buy it an all-new device if you want these additional services or these additional capabilities rights ok next up we've got Facebook revamping its privacy settings timing obviously this is the wake of the Cambridge analytical scandal the new settings were found in the mobile app allow you to better manage your data and who you're sharing to but Alfred UN you check this out right yeah I used it this morning it are you private are you more private now email well to be fair I was already really private on Facebook but I liked the settings on there aren't really like that extreme on it I mean you're you're much more able to like manage who sees your post and like manage the apps that you use but you can only do it through the mobile app like if like that's where they made it easier that's where they fixed all these like feet should be keep it clear you can manage these settings on the desktop versus browser version but it's the same old interface yeah yeah they didn't really change it there but like it had been there for a while too but like this is like they just made it easier to access these aren't exactly new settings right I tried it out too and I noticed in the settings menu you had to scroll through a long list of items before you even got to this privacy shortcut like if it was really a priority it probably should have put it right at the top your settings menu it's they've they've made these types of announcements before and it's still completely Byzantine and confusing privacy settings situations so I don't think that that fixes it that well alright lastly we already know the Chromebook is a hit in schools it's why Apple made such a big deal iPad yesterday but did you know it was also a hit is a hit with security experts too yes so I had been noticing a lot of Chromebooks any time I went to a security conference granted I've only been to three of them but not any more than me I had always expected this kind of like tricked-out laptop with like these crazy like VPN settings and things like that or like two-factor authentication keys for their USB but no it's just like a simple Chromebook and the big reason why is because they're so cheap and like they're pretty much like burner laptops at this point and that it's built-in with all these like really useful when easy security settings that like you don't have to set anything up like it's extremely secure by default that's there you go it's all about simplicity really when you want security to be effective for more on these stories check us on CNET I'm Roger Cheng I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm alfred Aang thanks for listening all right thanks everybody that's a wrap on the recording of the audio podcast I'm gonna go ahead and start fishing through the old chat see if we got any good comments and questions to keep the conversation going Alfred I'd loved your comment I'll burn in your lap no that's really a thing makes sense it actually is yeah there's a quote in my story where he talks about a security researcher ken white who mentions you know yeah I always carry this when I travel for a conference or something like that because if I get malware I'm like my personal $2,000 laptop or something I'm based I'm gonna be like freaking out but if it's on like $150 like Chromebook I don't really care about it that much you don't have any of your sensitive data or informational there I mean you could basically you're willing to lose that laptop yeah I actually bring a Chromebook every time I go to these conferences and you wipe it before and after yeah so it has this feature called power washing which so if you want to check change like your windows like laptop backs like default settings like you usually have to have like the copy of like the wind yeah rather difficult it's like a real pain in the ass so with Chromebook you can just go under like your settings and it's like right there like power watch and it sets like everything back to like yeah so I always do that before I go to a conference and like when I like after I leave one yeah just to make sure like there's nothing like on it when I return it right I know we were kind of making light of Apple or at least basically saying that it was a bit of a letdown yesterday with apples event but just as just as like a side note or two be sure to to that I think that it was definitely important and for a long-run situation it was good that they did do an education event maybe it wasn't nearly as much as it could have been but at the same time I I think that they're targeting the right eye area I mean I look I think it's gonna be a big challenge for Apple to get back in schools this is an area they dominated a couple of years ago but you know they had a big pilot program with the LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District in which they they wanted to buy iPads for every single student that turned out to be a failure you know kids would have broken the security features to kind of use the iPads the way they wanted load up their own games iPads were stolen the that curriculums didn't it was also a really expensive is really right plus was really expensive in fact LAUSD ended up getting a settlement from Apple back because the program was such a failure I just don't know if you know adding more apps and adding more features and tools for teachers which are all grade is gonna solve the problem that things are crazy expensive and it was just disappointing even even if they didn't lower the price for consumers if they had increased the education discount you know made it cheaper for schools to buy them or students buy them or threw in the pencil for free cuz they made such a big deal of how useful the pencil was for their homework right so why not have like a bigger incentive so getting schools and students actually using directed specifically to that logitech did come out with the crayon which is forty nine dollars instead of ninety nine dollars and I think it's only education specific so consumers aren't actually allowed to buy that so yeah I realized that fifty dollars is not zero but at the same time I'm looking at it from the perspective that Apple had a lot of failures and screw-ups in the education market but I think they clearly identified the fact I think Alfred had this in his story that businesses and the education market are an area where they could actually increase iPad sales so they're they're targeting that and maybe it's not gonna be perfect this year maybe it's not all going to work maybe it's still expensive but they're not giving up on it and I think that is something to pay attention to know for sure I think again beyond the the challenges of price and it's $350 versus a two hundred two hundred there was a research note I forget from who that was issued last night I basically looked at how younger students you know like grade school or below iPads are really effective cuz it's more visual it's all touchscreen but when you get to older kids you need to have a keyboard right that's where the lacks where you're you can't do like a book or report exactly you can report on your iPad because well one there's no there's no keyboard accessory for the I pad i minister you can do a Bluetooth connection but there isn't one like the iPad pro right and so I think with a Chromebook you get that that full package with a keyboard that makes such a big difference for older students you know what they should do is come out with a cheaper like dirt cheap MacBook Air 200 bucks there are persistent rumors that Apple is a cheaper MacBook Air oh my god Davida breath yeah I mean that would make a lot of sense I mean if they're really serious about the education market problem is cheaper for Apple for a macbook air would be one like 700 not only that but like let's caveat that that that rumor about an upgraded MacBook Air has existed for a long towards their ear pods a hundred and fifty dollars you think they're gonna miss hell a whole laptop no of course not no just I was throwing it out there as you know point of complete ridiculousness let's go ahead and jump into the chat we'll start right off with one from Matthew dacher - for someone who purchased a 20-17 low price iPad is there any reason I'm gonna want this one no the pencil no the pencil but like that's what stinks about being an Apple customers here you're not gonna you really really like using a stylus which my favorite part during while covering this was um so earlier they had mentioned this is our most affordable iPad yes ok so cool there's gonna be a discount and starting at three hundred and twenty nine dollars like that's the exact same price well you know what at least Amazon when they say that this is the cheapest the echo dot has ever been they at least have a reasonable enough to drop the price by a penny or two because that's what they do usually during the holidays Apple didn't even bother doing that I would just want to take a minute to shout out and appreciate Michael Brown who is extremely passionate about this project I'm with you Michael he's talking about things like underpaid teachers under-equipped students and how Apple is only taking advantage of this to lock further generations into their ecosystem and I 100 percent of with that that is another issues if you're if you're going all in on iPad you're going all in on Apple ecosystem the Chromebook or with Windows I mean they are a little bit more open maybe not Chromebooks but you know Windows definitely more open you have your choice between different vendors in terms of programs or whatever you with that boy you kind of have to like work with Apple and whoever works with Apple who ever person right no beats music class brought to you by being yeah we've you know we handle this stuff like the teacher from Arizona like who who disclosed her like meager paycheck was like I can't I can't make a living on this there's all these issues about teacher pay there's their teachers who are striking because of that and then and on the other side of the equation you've got apples charging right which which means that it might work better for private schools potentially but at the same time after all those problems that you would previously mentioned it's pretty clear that Apple has a pretty high mountain to climb if they are hoping to beat out Chromebooks yeah I'm looking forward to these stories that are going to crop up around suddenly iPads go missing teacher buys new car maybe that happened at LAUSD they're worth FL what they're by a new car was 322 holders I'm saying rooms worth of iPads could probably get you a car well the good news too is if chara had this in her story and it's this is this is interesting is that Chromebooks have hardly any resale value whereas the iPads do yes so that is at least one benefit that if you do spend 329 dollars on an iPad someone can just steal it somebody you're at least gonna get some of that money back even if it's three or four years old whereas with a Chromebook as you said before you buy it for $150 that's it yeah yeah I just don't think that Apple really has a competitive leg to stand on in this one going on more from Michael Brown packages for 500 bucks why didn't Apple just start bundling it all together with the keyboard and pencil and put that all in the same box probably the firewalls I mean I know that yet though but they but this was at a school and that was a perfect place it was a perfect I still the sites like get the separate pencil it's 99 bucks but it seems like such a no-brainer of all the things that come out of this like that should be the doy right I feel like there would be much less criticism about like this iPad on unveil if it were not done like in a school related thing like they had just done like a normal like Apple event where it's a normal myth we've got a new iPad I disagree I think that frankly this should have been a press release like I don't know if they if they held a separate just right under the bed for like here's a new iPad it's essentially the same thing except for pencil support we'd be like why are we all here why did we all fly out here and so the school thing at least gives us some extra I think the screven I think the school thing gave it a lot more hype with the idea of like oh it's gonna be cheaper Bryant schools and that's like their biggest like issue of like getting like into schools like they're too expensive right and then like for them to not like really talk about that I mean from their perspective they be held in school because they wanted to make a bigger deal yeah they want to remind people about the value of this thing in the classroom setting look I don't dispute the fact that those tools and all that stuff that'll look awesome and that that would for a student that's great it's just I don't know if schools can afford that I'm Nasri iPad for every night I love that there's this one point where they were saying like oh we can help you save money on field trips you don't need to go on field trips anymore check out this a our gallery they're like what so I can't ever leave school they're there finds me Ackerman was saying on the live broadcast yesterday that kids could telecommute into class of their sick at home as a parent that's no that's not gonna happen work stay home and watch prices right and that's the Cheerios like that yes yes price is right absolutely not just talking for CBS I love prices right but wait a minute was that did I accidentally just do synergy books you did let's be honest price is right supersedes any kind of network that could be a network in itself that could be yeah that is kind of it's really yeah it's just like it's the morning show you watch I remember when they were gonna unveil the new iPad I like wanted to quickly make a meme about like what the price is like coming guessing what the price is for that thing turns out it's the exact same price everybody one dollar one dollar undercut that and the cherry on top that all of this is not only are we going to lose all the best parts of school from field trips to sick days they're going to say no more recess you got apps to play now they are playground I feel like kids would be fine with that though yeah and I think you an extent yeah they'd be like oh wait so I can play for recess hell yeah they already do yeah well they played in class alright so shoehorn agrees to Michael Brown they should at least include the pen for students here's one from six Lewis who I think is a first-time commenter welcome to the show prop 6 iPad pro 9.7 is obsolete because this one supports the Apple pencil so what is the point of the pro naming market that's a really good question I think you're probably gonna get more answers to this layer this year I don't know but the 9.7 Pro that I feel like that is to your point that's like kind of relevant now I mean for the larger one I think we're gonna see things like the face ID feature that was on the iPhone 10 last year it carried over to the the higher end pro the pro line this year I think there's still the keyboard attachment the keyboard cover that is still a accessory that is you know that's still part of Pro so there are some things and imagine they'll introduce you know new bells and whistles for the Pro Line to keep it elevated of this is right but to that point the iPad Mini 4 I think is more expensive and as less features now so that is probably going to die off I was surprisingly neither surprised it's still there I think it's just they're probably burning off inventory at this point yeah it's then probably it's cheap to make like the margins oh that must be great though it's more expensive and people are buying it I guess then that's like it that's a huge windfall for yeah oh by the way it's a $99 pencil but it's $89 for schools I don't think the discount that's a whole day's lunch right there come on mm-hmm let's take one from Romy Panda wants us to expand on the augmented reality oh you saw some actually decent demonstrations that was like a very realistic or somewhat bright they showed some of the crafting options and talks about how that can be used a different diorama layouts and in a similar vein to AR yeah everybody hated making diary like sided cardboard but it's just three iPads now I did I do want to point out one comment from Mike Shaw he says dissecting a frog without the smell of formaldehyde is just wrong and you know I'm gonna give him that one yeah I still remember that a lot of things there was a crayfish frog worm yeah the worm as we started off how the worst because it was just mush so I really other worms I never dissected like a live let not lives are just like any animal we did owl pellets instead oh yeah it's okay yeah I don't think anybody's gonna report us also it's the Internet let's talk to Matthew dancer one more time do the school's get iCloud services for free I believe they include a certain percentage of storage yes so the storage is higher it's now it's 200 gigs instead of five gigs that correct yes yeah yeah they bumped it up from big buckets so that's actually that's pretty good that'll hold a decent amount of papers like you're not gonna be storing presentations and and much well no the thing you can store photos I guess you can but not so much like the videos if you small 500 gigs of homework assignments you I'm sorry you're probably the most over works but now way is that our student is that per student less per student per classroom remember the whole deal with this iPad with these teacher programs or you can you could have like eggs for the teacher then no I assumed it was five gigs perk that makes a lot more sense because it's my cloud leg enough yeah was it five hundred or two hundred do we know Oh two hundred five sorry but I believe it's I think it's per profile I hope its profile because that would that would be kids we all have these hard drive now yeah alright let's move on to Facebook Michael Brown says does this make trusting Facebook easier does anyone even care about the scandal are people even leaving Facebook no I'm those are good questions I think they're very different answers why I wonder if this was a different platform if this was a less and ubiquitous I utopian social network if people are like oh you screwed up like a like a snapchat like screw it I'm not invested Facebook's got a track record yeah I think the trust question is a bit subjective I feel like it depends on how much information you're comfortable with giving up to it like in the sense of oh who cares the Facebook knows like my birthday I want people to know my birthday but like that's why I mean like it's different for like every person I don't think the settings really do because I I still have a major complaint that like you this literally only affects people that have the app on it in the first place and it's not like a major shift so much as it is we made it easier for you to find your privacy settings which like and they weren't that much easier yeah which really really shouldn't have been that hard to find in the first place they have a ways to go I think the privacy settings is probably only a very early first step the problem is is that it's been proven that Facebook is too easily games yeah by you know Russian trolls Cambridge analytic all the like ads all that stuff it is kind of they have a lot of work to do to just clean up all that garbage it is kind of the perfect storm for Facebook right now between the security problems and the fact that it's completely overridden by trolls it's just like poisonous cesspool right but we knew that get out of but we knew that to be the case with Twitter from the get-go and now I guess people are just waking up to the fact that Facebook is probably just as bad well I think to Brian it's not the social networks it's us surprise original point though I think with Twitter I think it's a lot more too easy to give it's easier to give that up right Twitter is it's like a certain segment of people of humans really use Twitter in relevant way right so it's I feel like it's a lot easier Facebook it as you said so much more ubiquitous everyone's on it it's for a lot of people their primary way of keeping in touch with family and friends and they have power if you're in yeah and they have more it's harder so as much as like this delete hash a delete Facebook movement is going on and there are a number of high profile companies and celebrities that have dropped off of Facebook I think for most people they're not gonna care as much now these are celebrities who have like their own fan pages and like screw it I'm not gonna engage with what about private accounts and there are plenty of them that account I don't know if yeah I don't know are they still utilizing the drop why not that is Facebook is a more of a communication tool not a social network right well if you look at Elon Musk is a great example because you know he dropped he deleted SpaceX and Tesla Facebook pages but I believe Elon Musk his own page is still up no he doesn't know if that's his though like it is I looked it up and there's like a lot of there's a lot of like no he said the spate the Tesla one was confirmed but on the right the one on the right looks like a phony that's that's because I looked it up there's a lot of like fake Elon Musk page accounts though okay maybe not and yeah so on this whole like idea like that you're talking right you don't think that like normal people are going to delete facebook because it's so like ingrained and like their everyday lives The Washington Post that's a really great column about it essentially talking about yeah you should you don't have to delete facebook because there's so many aspects of it but you should change how you use it and how you gotta write that string like the number one step is like deleting the app I still use Facebook and like if I want to go on it from my phone I'll go like the Washington Post suggest you delete the yeah yeah the idea being that you know you're much less inclined to check in on you don't get all the notifications and stuff so if I want to go on Facebook now it's like a three-step thing now we're like I have to go to face like open up like Safari then go to facebook.com and then log in and it just like makes me much less inclined to check on it like all the time yeah let's come back full circle one more time before we do wrap it up for because we are just about out of time one question that kind of came in here at the eleventh hour from Lully that I thought was interesting now we saw Facebook or not Facebook excuse me Apple presenting these iPads for use in an elementary classroom type situation right and that is a unique situation as compared to higher education Lalit says even for students 299 plus 50 plus 50 equals $400 for a textbook in US in essence plus tools you know oh yeah school supplies aren't cheap and that's one of the things that a lot of teachers are suffering with these days what about iPads in higher education as a regulated thing because buying textbooks in college sucks yeah no that was a low point of their education of that back in 2012 was they were trying to make it easier for I think textbooks to be converted into digital format to be used I would have loved to not have to carry around textbooks in college that I did that when I was in college where I like downloaded PDFs of my textbook but you had to do the initiative and on your own prior that wasn't yeah I wasn't like a program that everyone acted like you that was extra hoops that's the thing though like they did offer II like textbooks and stuff but they were still just as expensive as like the physical textbooks like why well that's asinine yeah well not only that but you can't sell them back got to it so it was just like why would anybody like want to do this and I think it's more of a call on the college textbook industry yeah for Windham there's a price is cheaper than it is on like Apple or like Google like these like tech companies that are trying to make it easier for you to access textbooks it's like it's still just as expensive and yes why would you even do it yeah I'm saying that program needs to be refined is selling back textbooks is hardly lucrative you buy it for three hundred ten bucks back no no but the point of that was at least with the physical textbook you could sell if you had it if you just bought digital one there's no way to sell that yeah I know but I much rather spend like 30 to 50 bucks on a rented textbook that I could keep around maybe later on that's a good idea much space if you just rented as weight as a physical there are book there are digital book rental opportunities now a lot of libraries do that when yeah but I don't know if textbooks fall under that they should they should I don't just don't know technically rentals were also a massive ripoff the one again because you couldn't like sell it and by the time you were done with it by the semester you could have paid for the actual textbook itself that's very true that is very true so really there's something wrong yes yeah there's the next broken black market we should be writing textbooks we gotta get in on this it's the whole lucrative market is about how to I never bought them I really like I would borrow them from my friends or I would go to the library and borrow it I new friends it would photocopy em yeah really just photocopy the patterns allow ins you had for school printers it'd be like if you're if you're if you're a professor we're saying like you need to read like this page through this page like this we go to the book store find those specific pages or like have a friend who has a textbook and like ask them to send it to you yeah colossal real pain for your friend who's guys scam like it's not a pain for your wallet true true just putting that out there yeah I remember I bought the textbook sold the back yeah you'd always you know is lose money obviously but yeah it wasn't as big of a financial hit it's like just buying a book out right oh I had this jackass of a teacher the toss taught Business Administration I hate the guy I'm not gonna name him here cuz I think he's dead but wow we got dark so quick this jerk wrote his own textbook every year and by rote I mean he would photocopy copy written materials into an assembled book that you would then have to purchase no outdated because he refreshed it every single semester I mean I would put like crappy handwritten notes in it so he's still called his own but you still got this like complete crap I wish I could - was it like a nut binder like with like though no he actually got it and stuff no he got he he got it legit printed Oh getting that way so he took other people's material put it in the book yeah he's like these are essential reads and this is my Cliff Notes version of it oh my god and then you'd have to buy that that he win he Hawk it updated every you had to become a professor geez this is I give her three tenure and pushy your books understand it that's evil genius at its bow that's rough yeah so anyway that's my story about textbooks and why I think digital textbooks are a good way to go because he's gonna pull that no they're good they're cheaper that's the problem yeah a bunch of jerks any last questions before we cast got punchy I think we're just about out of time but thanks everybody that was really fun today good discussion and very good discussion about a mediocre product okay well I don't know if it's mediocre it's just yeah it's not mediocre it's just could have easily been talking about which mediocre product you prefer a to you anyways all right if you liked anything you saw or heard here check us out on CNET our podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher Feedburner google play music and the amazon echo that's it no excited for the week it's the wednesday yeah I thought it was Thursday already Wednesday we'll see you tomorrow Wow