Gadgetory

ehn good Thursday morning on June 24th it's episode 245 of the 359 podcast and another packed house today Alfred and Ben Fox Ruben and Josh freakin Goldman Josh Goldman is in the hold man for his debut debut on the 359 it took us nobody lets me talk to it so yes two hundred and forty-four episodes but we finally got it right and decided to invite Josh Goldman they can talk about the iPad pro and surface pro which you spent white like four days delving into the differences between these two devices yeah not really just a writer's block that's legislation so we're gonna spend most of our time talking about that story which Josh published today and then we'll wrap it up with fireball which is a malware it's actually not new it's from 2015 but there's some new news about it I'm basically a security firm found out about it in like June first and now Microsoft saying that it didn't infect as many computers as it did before so when they found out about is like 250 million computers were infected by this Microsoft came out with a report today with some data that they've been tracking it since 2015 saying now it's probably more like 5 million which is a lot so let's let's get to the podcast as always sending your questions and comments BVG we'll get to as many as you can at the end of the show without further ado let's make podcast history for the uninitiated we are going to record four minutes worth of valuable questionable information and then after that we open it up to Q&A so you were free to hang out with us or you are free to move on leader lives after four minutes but until then you're stuck so I don't go anywhere we'll be back in three minutes and 59 seconds from 3:00 to welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Alfred aang and with us today is special guest ace reviewer and generally awesome dude Josh Goldman thanks for coming thank you so Josh you spent a couple days delving into the differences between Apple's iPad pro and Microsoft Surface pro I wanted to start by asking you about operating systems I got the impression from your story that if you wanted to do a lot of like heavy if ting and multitasking the surface pro was the clear winner here right absolutely that's basically because it's a full OS it's the desktop OS on a tablet whereas the mobile iOS on the iPad is still working in an app world where everything's locked down can't really get to what you want to get to okay so if that's the case like why would I want an iPad like what are what are like the clear advantages of the iPad like for instance you mentioned security was one of them right so because it's all walled garden and everything you don't have to worry about getting you don't have to worry about installing that executable that comes in through your email or installing some sort of application that maybe you shouldn't have installed it's now stealing your information and giving it to I don't know who lose the information goes I don't know some hacker in Russia yes so I mean that that's part of it um well what if I have battery life my pad is much better on battery life yeah like considerably more so yeah like nearly twice that's pretty awesome but I'm wondering like why is this even a debate as far as like the surface pro and the iPad pro if one is clearly a full-functioning like laptop that you can do work on like ones like a real competitor we had to write a story because it was like Thursday we said something um yeah I mean there is really that that's it if you need a full computer you're gonna go with surface pro if you can live in an app ecosystem where everything you do can be done on an iPad then you can go with an iPad frankly so they both started at $800 for the 12 point 9 inch iPad pro and the surface pro which has a 12 point 3 inch screen they both started that $800 price point and you can actually if you can live in that app ecosystem of of Apple you can that's a better deal because in order to get more power you're gonna have to spend a lot more money on the surface pro and that's not even including the fact that they're neither of them include the keyboard or pen yeah I suppose interesting the surface pro can go up as high as like over $2,000 yes means that like people are probably going to be using it for like some pretty intense stuff if they're going to be spending that much on a laptop right and that's it I'm sorry tablet exactly so that's where you're you're basically getting into the point which is if you're spending that much money you're either using that as a laptop and you're spending more money on the on the keyboard and the pencil yeah or the pen for the surface or you're going to be able to do everything on an iPad so so also we wanted to get to some more news there's some news about a big malware attack called fireball which can take over your computer's browser a security company claimed 250 million devices were infected but Alfred you say the Microsoft claims it was actually a lot less than that right yeah Microsoft said it was more so about 5 million so the way that this malware is called fireball the way that it worked was that it infected your browser and it basically changed your homepage and your default search engine to a fake website where then they rate in the revenue like from advertisements on that website so they made a ton of money off that at about 250 million visits but Microsoft is basically saying look like visits doesn't mean that it's infected you know I can go to the same website multiple times it doesn't mean what my computer has been infected that so it's it's a problem but not as big a problem as a security company was claiming so anyway if we want to read more about these stories check them out on CNET I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm alfred Aang and Josh thanks for coming yeah thanks for having me there's an entire show going on in the chat right now that we read nothing to do it what nice we're talking like we just an off set wish I could just dial in everybody right now in just the comment section it's just way better than our actual podcast oh okay I have a shitty in their own show they should everyone in here should start their own podcast called the 953 which don't be dramatic readings of these comments like just print it out as a script do if we ever get a good celebrity voice to do something like that though right like the captain we did notice you it's a reading recumbent so the the this long and short of what I'm pulling out of this beautiful mess is uh some people like one some people like the other yeah no kidding something like both some people like so even like none oh my god nice absolutely or shattering we need to make like a pie chart for this well that was partly - admittedly I don't use a lot of tablets that's why I wanted to have Josh on if we wanted to talk about Amazon fire tablets those are the ones that I actually have a lot of them worked yeah well was do you buy your tablet on this limits and I was thinking about this after you told me to come on here was um do you think Amazon would ever make a competitor to this maybe I don't know like after they decided to buy Whole Foods I'm not gonna like put anything against them and say no there's no way I'm a song to ever do this but you know their position in the market that they're very well known for particularly with devices is the lower tier like the cheaper stuff that's where I better than you would expect it to be for $50.00 but they could do that for the ball wouldn't be $50 but they could write that with this they could make one that's in you know well on fire or less what what apps would you be able to download on them all those all the office apps right all those and there's the things I would be a my I hadn't named and you could shop you could yeah yeah that's what I think sure that's what I do I do that at work all the time I had a quick question about your security point though with you know you're saying the iPad pro has the advantage because it has a walled garden kind of approach to it I mean isn't that advantage really you're just gonna be cut off once you know Windows 10s comes out yes but you're talking about millions of apps in the Apple App Store compared to all 10 that you'd want to use yeah Microsoft one so yeah eventually if they can I mean they got Apple onboard so cuz iTunes is going to be in that store so maybe with that they'll be able to get other people in and then yeah once once that's running you know Windows 10s you would have a walled garden but right now this is Windows 10 Pro because they're aiming at people who were going to install their own software I want like full of dope stuff when I wrote my fireball story there was a like part of the blog post for Microsoft like obviously they had to like plug themselves and where's you know this Bret like Microsoft edge is not affected by this browser hack and also you can't get this virus if you have Windows 10s so that those like they're a little like pat on the back for themselves on this whole fireball thing right but nobody wants to use those things so one of the things that I also thought was pretty interesting that I learned from your story was that with the iPad pro you can even though it doesn't have like the you know like the file manager stuff and in it you can you know multitask multiple apps different things like that that you could do with the surface pro right it's still powerful enough to do as you mentioned huge spreadsheets and presentations 3d modeling 4k video editing yeah which you know like so it's not just a toy like it no and it does earn its pro name is what I'm getting at and I say you see a lot of the comments like I said that that that are all oh that is just totally the the surface pro is a real computer it has a real computer it's a real cut they're both real computers it's just the one well more capable than the other type of them fit means do you consider the iPad pro a computer though I saw a tech that's I mean it's having are you yeah the thing that thing's pretty powerful I also liked Josh going on is really powerful on the collar window that was my out though ISM that was your Alec Baldwin doing Donald Trump on SNL being a tech reviewer pay money to see that yeah he just hi alright so something that sparked a little controversy and the chat was the somebody brought up the Chromebook and though what's that really polarized a handful of people say good point that's a good point the Chromebook could have definitely been thrown into this but that's more of like a laptop I mean like it doesn't have a you know not a two-in-one it doesn't have a removable look there are two there's a lot of them that are like that there are two in one there are two in one Grum books thank you but nobody I'm not nobody but it's not what they're known for but yeah right yet it's gonna all change as soon as gets the apps all we know they're like waiver apps mm-hmm aren't there like way more Chromebooks and schools and there are you know children yes all the chairs are actually Chrome but like are there like more Chromebooks in schools and like there are Microsoft or Apple like devices not like I don't Peter's I've never I've never done the count myself I mean I think definitely polite I thought I was a mole mark I came like Windows 10s anecdotally for my kids schools is that they are currently switching over from iPads to Chromebooks yeah and oh I feel like I think where they've got everyone else beat is like on the price point yep there and if we're talking about like if you're okay with you know living in like an app centric world I like if I'm if I'm gonna do that I don't want to spend like 800 something dollars for that I'd rather like pay like like an average Chromebook price which I believe is like 250 or something right is it that low it's 130 you get like the super low-end version yeah but if you're going if you're buying in bulk for a school dance yes even rice and get lower they pay you yeah well I don't know that that's true pace but yeah they get cheap so yeah that's a very good point from the chat I run well Chromebooks speaking of the chat we should probably try to get to a few questions before the day gets out of course I just have to the chat is getting kind of meta right now just like I had the address yet has become sentient yes I have to address this comment from Raja manikkam who says just curious how this live chat is not flooded with junk is it moderated room for the record it used to be full flooded with John and it can still be unnecessary but for by and large we attract only the highest calibre of fan base on this greatest fans of all time uh Danny Green says our boys are energy I saw a surface pro tear down over the weekend you pretty much have to destroy it to try and get an upgrade how we not done what do you mean get an upgrade like if you have a hardware yes yeah I I saw that it was basically like it got rated like a zero unlike the fix ability scale of it after like a breakdown like come on that makes sense though because like to make those tablets you have to like they're super thin and they're mostly glued together I think so I hate that like all devices that like started moving toward that like I remember being replace my keyboard my speakers like literally everything on my laptop just by taking it apart and now it's gone to a point where it's like well which buys what you get like I absolutely hate that that's like that let's move to the easiest way to get you to buy a new device I'm aware which and I hate that yeah all right let's get back into some more chat uh no Matthew - who says Josh has a great voice does he do narrations he can I don't but thank you and and what's up Matthew - thank you the question was actually my voicemail message this is an Alfred that could happen don't joke I could do it uh David Morgan says guys calm down the Amazon fire phone is the best phone hands-down oh the best pho hands down as and you put it down I never I've never used whatever is anybody in this room has anyone seen one seen it it's like a unicorn I think you can still probably get it off of Amazon or Ebay for about three cents so yeah I'll probably buy one and try it out yeah that's one of the ones you turn away from your friends to use I mean wait didn't we didn't Samsung have like a fire phone last year though hahaha good night everybody speaking of it's coming right then yeah only way to change yes change topics but yeah we will talk about it it could simply excited about I don't think we have much to talk about as of right now right as of yo anything at the moment yeah I'm sure we will do many rumour roundups over what that note will look like the best part of this job one last little meta comment between Diego and imma do I apologize if I mispronounced your name they're coming back and forth about how much they want the red chair behind Josh oh yeah it's a very nice writing say it's completely stolen the show so I'm at the ready let's take a second I would join as a chair 59 he readily readily admit that the anatomy carbon rod that is that chair give that chair or compasses we should absolutely okay at stake for the day we're writing it either five hundred thirty one thousand episode we will give away the red chair shipping is gonna be a pain the chair that's the red chair my father empty alright so let's have a serious one uh hsj said I'm sorry but I didn't see the exact name let's remind them the security is she was called fireball fireball yes like the drink or the Hadouken like just a fireball why do I invite you on let's get a quick refresher company about what we're what the fireball was for those who maybe came in late alright ones actually this is actually valuable information as opposed to a string around so on June first a security company called checkpoint released a report saying they tark they found a Chinese like operating like hacking operating company yes it's a marketing company that's who they're accusing it of being behind this where it's a malware called fireball where it comes to your device if you download it through like software bundling so if you try downloading like a movie illegally or like music or video game it like there's chances are it comes in through that like just you know bad downloads and then it basically infects your browser so nothing really on your you know hardware itself but on your browser and then it changes your browsers like home page and your search engine and then it takes you to like a bunch of different fake websites and they're all mostly search engines but the way that it works is that this marketing company they get the views based off of that and then they get money based off of those views off the ads that are on those websites and they're basically fake Google cuz like you'll go on the fake search engine and you'll type in like whatever you're looking for and then it'll give you Google results anyway like it'll redirect you to that so you kind of get what you want anyway they get the money you just end up using this terrible website um so just to be clear to this is not as insidious as like a ransomware no like wanna cry but we say but if you've got malware on your computer that's not a good thing it could but the issue is is that it could have downloaded ransomware because once it has control of you browser it can do a lot more than just you know redirecting you to a website if anything it could have downloaded other malware so it you know theoretically could have like installed ransomware if it wanted to and that was the issue that a lot of people had with it where it was like basically this is this could have been really bad and I got on all these devices um but all I did was really just go on like this like because they were trying to be low-key about it they wanted to just keep making money as opposed to if it installed ransomware then it would have been you know you wouldn't be going to that website still you'd be trying to get rid of it so they were trying to be hidden about it good I'd like to get in on that deal that sounds like a pretty sweet bit had about 250 million page views just off of their like fake websites but they kind of misconstrued it as that's 250 million devices that have been infected so Microsoft came out with a report today saying that they had been tracking this for a while now actually since like 2015 or so and it's only been on about 5 million devices which is still pretty bad but it's been like logged into like their Windows Defender program so if you have it it it should be able to like blacklist it nice thank thank you thank you for that info and we got serious for a second ya know arey it seems like a more polite way to steal yeah yeah they're not taking your healing format right I'm not paying you those guys suck they should they should have called it the Robin Hood I would have been way better name than the fireball well I don't know I'm giving yeah we don't more they're a marketing agency let me get to ourselves halfway down the line right alright so before we do wrap it up we have a slightly off-topic question from Youssef but he's been very adamant about getting this answered so it's obvious if we should address this what do you guys think about Bigsby voice I've been using it a lot since it came out and I'm a big fan hit or miss in your opinion okay good question I haven't used big Bigsby voice that makes a baby 6b picks big speed pick six they needed me accidentally alright they purposely put the X in there in the name because it like most voice recognition like software like if you have an X sound in it that's why Alexa like also has that it's easier for the table so either way I haven't tested Cortana that's Microsoft that was from Halo it was it yeah the voice assistant in Halo his name Cortana okay get up being a gamer so to answer the question I haven't tested it that much but in general from what I know about it it does not have nearly as many capabilities as Cortana Siri or Alexa it may be because they're really young it's still young and I think that the real potential for it is smart home integration with a lot of other Samsung products but we're not really quite there yeah I don't think that that's going to happen quite yet I don't know about the smart home integration I know that when they were like advertising it was more so basically instead of being like a smart assistant like Google assistant or Syria or Cortana or Alexa or anyway it wasn't supposed to be like a search assist and it wasn't supposed to be like hey how's the weather or you know right where's this restaurant I was supposed to help you navigate your phone itself so if it was something like turn the volume down or if I wanted to you know change the language on the phone or like go to this photo that I took on July whatever that that was the idea of it was supposed to be an assistant for the device itself not right yeah it sounds from the commenter that seems to be doing that job pretty well I would argue that strategically they did that and I've said this before on the podcast because it can't go toe-to-toe with Google assistant which I would argue is probably the best one right now right the problem is that it got confused early on as an assistant and people like oath doesn't do anything yeah and I can't even ex renounce the name right yeah truth bixby you know out there I'm really insulted by that name only because so they had two other names that tested better with their target if they're like little test audience or whatever and they picked Bixby because it tested the best among Millennials you're Antonio and I'm like how in what universe like what test audiences is we're like yeah Bixby I'm like I really want to know what the other two names were that they liked audiences that thought the Incredible Hulk was hip and ironic I don't know that Bill Bixby the actor the obscure actor he's real big in Brooklyn right now he is very big in Brooklyn that's I have no anyone that's the only reference point I've gotta keep going to it cuz I know comics why is it never mind alright so probably about time to wrap it up we were gone way over time today but it's been really fun yeah and then this is a nice all right another week of podcasts yeah yes time for us to wrap up the whole week okay bend Rings home alright enjoy the weekend everybody and in the meantime the 359 podcast is available on iTunes tune and stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner Google Play Music and Cena calm thank you very much Alfred just finish it yourself man thank you to Josh for coming on the show this week thanks for having me thanks everybody see you next week you