Gadgetory

hey good morning on Monday March 26th I'm already off to a racing good start I'm BBG and it's time for the 359 podcast episode 375 and your host today are Alfred and Roger and we're talking about some new company that is made us start up weird big phones a young startup I play I think it's like French or something a play yeah yeah so uh yes no surprise room we're talking about Apple they're slated to hold its education event tomorrow to talk about what we expect to be iPads will will break that all down for you is and we'll talk a little bit about the FTC opening an investigation into Facebook more Facebook drama as always if you have any questions leave them in the comments section Brian will pick up the best and we'll get to them three minutes and 59 seconds from 3:00 to welcome to the 359 I'm dr. Chang I'm Alfred hang apples big education event is tomorrow and we're expecting to see a new cheaper iPad now Chromebooks have grown incredibly popular in the classroom and Apple wants to reestablish itself in schools what do you think you think I just a cheaper iPads gonna do it no not at all they like even if there it was all right what the rumored price is why like $259 right yes so we don't know yet but we don't know any confirmation yet but yeah there's that stuff even all right let's assume assume that that is a purse that's still like $100 more than like a standard Chromebook right the fact that it doesn't have like a keyboard or anything like that is is also gonna help is not you know gonna help like make up Apple's case for the iPads it's more expensive and it as like less features and I don't I really don't understand why they would go for something like that maybe this new iPad that they're doing is like a cheaper version of the iPad pro which would have a keyboard with pencil has keyboard although those things are separate accessories you still have to pay for yeah I don't know I'm not I'm not really buying it but I will say that they do have a bigger advantage in terms of like what apps are available for it and like education programs and things like that that might be where they make their bigger selling point you say that but obviously applet partnered with Pearson to create this special curriculum for the LAUSD five years ago Los Angeles if I School District made a big investment trying to get an iPad for every one of its students turned out to be a colossal failure they ended up Apple ended up having to pay 4.2 million back to the district as part of a settlement because it was such a complete failure because the iPad just didn't work like the kids weren't using these weren't using them or they weren't using them for education purposes they were kind of locked down for for specific curriculum kids forgot how to get around that it's basically use the iPad for their own reasons so yeah there there's I think a lot of reasons why I passed if it cost is a big deal a big factor in why they've really kind of struggled to get in more classrooms whereas a Chromebook when use how much is a Chromebook I actually recently bought one for like $150 150 bucks that's pretty pretty interesting so it's good self yeah and that's like an average one like if you you can buy ones for like $100 that only have like two gigs of RAM on it right that said sharra Tippecanoe who wrote our preview on this Apple event did note that some school districts actually found it a better deal to buy an iPad because the resale value these things are a lot higher than the Chromebook Chromebooks are basically worthless if you try to resell them yeah so next up the FTC is confirmed that it's open an investigation into Facebook for the Cambridge and like a scandal which isn't going away anytime soon Alfred what are the details yes so they announced this this morning but it had been rumored in reports last week from Bloomberg and the Washington Post this is essentially over a agreement that Facebook made with the FTC in 2011 that was basically mandating that you know you know Facebook users would have to receive notifications if like Facebook was sharing its data with outside firms like Cambridge shadow America right clearly with the news that broke over the last two weeks that did not happen and the FTC is now launching an open investigation into this so how bad is this for Facebook I mean you know we had Zuckerberg on last week to apologize and only I think that didn't come off that great it came out kind of awkwardly so that unlike their stock like after so after this announcement there stock plunge by like 5% or so let's not use the word plunge I'm sorry I don't know I don't know 5% dip is not plunge but you're right in the fact that it took such a big took a hit right after this news really shows that that I mean this isn't anywhere near close to being over no yeah and then there's still been more calls for Zuckerberg to testify before Congress right and you know so yeah I don't think this is ending anytime soon for Facebook we've been talking about her a lot on his show now absolutely for more on Facebook Apple and everything else check us out seen it I'm Roger Chang I'm alfred hang thanks for listening alright thanks for joining us for the recording of the regular audio podcast and now i'm gonna go ahead and have the pleasure of delving through all of your well-thought-out and interesting questions and comments in the chat so we can keep the conversation going until then Alfred keep enlightening us I want to hear more about what's going on behind the scenes with the FTC and where Zuck is gonna be in a couple weeks well Zuckerberg has talked about saying that he's willing to testify to Congress if he feels like he's the most important like he's the right voice for it yeah it was very hedged and it just kind of it feels a little disingenuous cuz you're the CEO of the company like the buck stops yeah you should know everything you need like there is no this argument is like because he's like the CEO of the company he's not handling all the legal like procedures that's why they would send their lawyers for something like yeah that's also a little bit of a smokescreen yeah with the FTC investigation I'm not 100% sure on what's going on there I mean they just announced it like what an hour ago but yeah I mean it could be a while before anything comes out of that yeah I guess I don't know what other questions did yeah oh well I guess well we'll take one from Mike Shaw right now it's more of a comments there's the one thing I do like about Apple is that they are much better about not selling all my data yeah interesting thing to think about nowadays is more culpable who is more to blame these days and who is safer than the rest I wouldn't say it's it's necessarily blame but do you have to look at how companies use your personal and an Apple has made this point to obviously to its favor and in fact Tim Cook had talked about this over the weekend about sort of doing a better job protecting your data Apple makes money when you buy its products right yeah if you buy its services it doesn't market to you and so it's argument has always been the data is valuable it's it's the data is not valued valuable to us like it is for Google which uses that that information to cater yes in advertising to use so you know the the you know the common refrains always you know if you're not paying for the service like you're the peer of the service you're the product basically your information is how they make money and you know that's and that's why you see things like what's going on Facebook right now so what you're saying is it's entirely likely the company like Apple is more interested in keeping your data safe so that they can further abuse it internally they don't even do that because if they were actually if they were abusing your data internally then Siri would be much smarter that's a good double burn let's take another question from Danny Green our old buddy Danny Green are the iPads more secure than the Chromebooks and Android tablets or are they about the same so they're much more secure than Android tablets because I like as your iPads are about as secure as your iPhones are and they're because they're both using iOS and iOS is usually like the hallmark of security among like researchers and experts yeah versus Chrome OS there I would make the argument that there are about the same I'm actually doing a story on that yeah so yeah I would make the argument there about the same level of security but the difference is you're paying like three hundred and twenty dollars for an iPad as opposed to paying like a hundred and fifty dollars for a Chromebook yeah so let's go ahead and ask this question is that investment worth the alleged security is that what you're paying for no on the surface you're paying for a flashy yeah you say pay for security but to you as a consumer where you inherently spend more on an Apple product and now knowing that there there is an a modicum of increased security to that is it worth it yeah but I would think about it more so in the sense of not buying it for yourself but buying it for somebody else that you don't want to have to worry about I think that's why they're so popular among students especially because their Chromebooks and they're cheap and they're kids yeah it sounds like this kid all right if I if if my kid is going to break something like do I want them to break this $300 iPad or do I want them to break this 150 yeah I mean I think that's plus I think Chromebooks are generally yes but I think that I think cost is the reason why chrome Bose end up pointing out yeah exactly it's like it's not disposable but you're not gonna be heartbroken if you break that version yeah I usually anytime I go to like a security conference I usually ask for a Chromebook from the office and like I just like have it like completely wiped before I go and I completely wipe it when I come back like that's like a pretty like useful security feature on that that is nice yeah let's pose this question if you're out and about no I'm gonna rephrase that as a consumer or as a manufacturer let's say what are some of the lessons and this is we're gonna get cold Apple fanboys in the chat so go ahead and bring it on what are some of the lessons that some of the other manufacturers can learn from Apple what are the features that could be taken away to increase security I want to point out that Siddarth points out that iPads more secure because they contain 256 bit AES encryption what are other elements that could be better for devices out there - I mean I think it's tough for anyone else to kind of replicate that Chrome OS being come exception because Google owns it it's the fact that Apple owns the entire ecosystem they lock down the software the operating system they own the hardware they basically control every aspect of the product that helps make it more secure if you're working off of an Android computer or a Windows laptop or even frankly a Mac like a Mac it's there they're more open you can do more things with it and whatever you can do whenever there's more flexibility and freedom with your device downloading whatever programs or apps you want from where that's where there's a much higher element of risk yeah with iOS I would say like you know one of its bigger security features which Chrome OS does the same thing is like it's a walled garden kind of approach which Windows is trying to do also of Windows 10s mm-hmm which is their education edition of it where you can only download like approved apps from their stores yeah but yeah with with iOS stuff like you that's why like it has a like a really high hallmark of security and also what our commenter was talking about if it's encryption as well yeah all of that is like stored on it's like secure Enclave processor which is like borderline impossible to crack through which you can't say the same for like a lot of like Windows and Android like I would say the only exception probably is Samsung maybe or mmm just because Samsung has a lot of money there Knox platform yes security platform which it's supposed to be hardened against hacks is supposed to be suitable for government and enterprise employees but most Android phone makers aren't going to spend the time of resources in the building that much security yeah well you kind of rely on Google for those security updates true but maybe they should if there's anything we want to take away from this obviously all of these platforms have their merits and their cons otherwise the ecosystems wouldn't coexist they wouldn't compete so effectively and that's something to be said everyone should be able to find the thing that fits right but do we think we're gonna see any other grander sweeping security measures start to get implemented from a manufacturing standpoint from a regulation standpoint because the last year has just been this terrifying unveiling of do the trolls under the bridge yeah I think the walled garden approach is getting much more like you like like I said Microsoft trying to adopt it also for for Windows 10s or like the education version because that's like a very simple way to make sure that you know your uncle is not downloading like five toolbars that you might not need and then it turns out to be adware surprise surprise waiting so there's a there's there's devices out there now that will stop somebody from doing that because it usually involved me taking as 500-mile ride back to my parents house and slapping them well yeah that's yeah that's what Windows 10 yeah version you could only download apps from the Microsoft yeah and that's like the big advantage on Chrome OS to like I you can't do that on a Chromebook well again natively Apple restricted you from at least in the last couple of operating systems they've restricted you from downloading yeah any apps that were there yeah by the App Store unless you technically went around and deactivated feature well I'm talking and I don't know no in the App Store for Macs you still have to like it's pretty easy to just download whatever from the internet yeah you try hard enough but as far as making it available on Front Street Apple did shine in that regard and restricting you from they police the App Store and when it comes to installing software on like a MacBook yeah you had to actively go out of your way to allow unverified yes I have an iPhone you can't allow one yeah you can just click or you could put in your password yeah we have I think an extra step at least right but with now for say like with an iPhone or iPad or Windows 10 s you you can't there's no option got it yeah I just I think it's very interesting to see how how many of these companies are becoming a little more amalgam Asst is that the word I want I mean the the argument against like closed ecosystem though is that you know oh you don't have as many options like I can't get like Photoshop on this thing or something like that but yeah I think what Apple and Google are trying to do here is essentially like we're giving you all the options that you like need like that you would use them yeah that that is I mean I get that counter-argument there are a lot of apps that yeah especially for a Windows 10s we use a little bit less mature yeah the iPad or the iOS store wasn't like around the beginning like when they first announced they're like you couldn't get Chrome on it like you had to use Microsoft edge yeah because it wasn't an approved app for like a decent amount of time yep yeh that's like that's the biggest argument against closed ecosystem so like it's good for security but it's also like you know so what is the point again here if I can't do what I want and the company can be heavy-handed about what yeah yes here's a fun question from Coogan I couldn't ignore this how would you see security solutions and smartphones compared to blackberry days uh well I mean it's such a different it's I don't know if that was a joke if he wants a serious answer what's a serious answer like though the old BlackBerry Network it ran on its own network which is why it was more secure but of course you couldn't really do that much I mean you could download some apps out there but it wasn't really you couldn't do all the things back to the argument about being able to do all the things you want to do I think that's even more important nowadays with with your smartphone and Blackberry just couldn't compete like it's super secure but like you're gonna be playing brick breaker all day yeah no users are gonna that wouldn't survive in this current climate right oh it did that's all there you go yeah also BlackBerry's still likes to go around today and say they have the most secure Android phone which I would say Samsung would quibble with that I would also say yeah it's a very untested clan like there's not there it's not like they have like an award show for something like that it's not like I don't the Android security awards yeah well yeah I would say that app security for for like current like mobile phones are pretty decent today if you're careful of what apps you're getting because like it's not like like I said like on iOS so if you can't download specific software on it so like it's really hard to get a virus on a phone in that sense but the way that like they're like infecting phones now is like using apps that like you don't really think are are you know doing anything bad and it you don't ask you for all these permissions like hey if you want to use this flashlight app you also have to give us your phone number your address what happened like there was this random yeah he just there was this issue a few months ago where there was like a like it was like a normal app like a flashlight kind of thing like you you know you just use it to turn your your light on or whatever got it and mine went to a bad place the thing is is that it had all these permissions that you have to give to it was like oh it's tracking you by GPS also knows what calls and text messages even make it was basically a somebody was using to spy on people yeah but if they marketed themselves as like a flashlight app it's a you know kind of like Facebook's permissions on their app our missions are you serious well if you look at so our colleague char did oh she did publish a story on Saturday looking at some of the legacy apps that Apple and Samsung had on Facebook and for Apple it was I photos iMovie aperture for Samsung it was like the galaxy s4 app which I found out was still on my facebook profile and still had all these permissions it could theoretically look into what I was doing my friends preferences what they were doing GPS all this stuff you know we talked to Apple Samsung they said they'd never actually collected in that data they just they just had that but the fact that I was still sitting in there yeah I was weird like this kind of zombie app sitting on my facebook profile was a little because you you have to give that permission to use Facebook on your like phone right I think that's what happened when I logged into a GS 4 mm-hmm I had to basically give them yeah yeah I don't have the Facebook app on my personal phone but it doesn't matter they shut it down years ago but the fact that it's still there yeah it's still worrisome right yeah oh yeah I was looking through my apps on there's a lot of I still have which that 70 show character are you I can't believe I actually did that Wow there you go we're almost out of time cheers - Ricki burrito says my Nokia 3310 was super secure there you go man I want to go I want to go ultra secure feature phones get off the data grid that's right no data oh you know from Scott Maya this is a probably a good way to kind of close things down if there was if that was a real award what would you say was the most secure device like all phones together didn't you say something about an Android award a few minutes ago the Android which I don't know who I'd give that to to be oh yeah it's hard to tell I mean Samsung makes a big argument the case for blackberry are there any other Oh what's what role what if they're pixels on water is there uh there's a couple of other security security first phones yeah but those are those are like specifically modded for like yeah there was a there's just something like that yeah I was like there was a Justice Department announcement last week where somebody got arrested like for dealing in that stuff because he was like selling specifically to drug dealers oh yeah they like moderate specifically say that like you can't be tracked no no no but there are actually phones that security firms of like mod it you know into being more secure than those aren't phones you're gonna be buying yeah yeah all right just to bringing around full full circle before we do shut it down for the day what kind of security features you think are going to be on the table for this alleged new iPad that's going to be unveiled tomorrow what essentially parts of this for kids do we can we speculate on I know I mean I think it's gonna have all the same security that iOS does I don't think they're gonna make a special OS no okay I mean it's really gonna be talking about how it's gonna be using classroom education type programs so they do they all come maybe they should add like physical security to it where they all kind of it was like a rubber bumper on it yeah and they drop stuff it's like paint proof or something like that so kids will see why was the event work so we're gonna be yes we're not gonna be here tomorrow because the Apple is roughly around the same time and we're all be heads down covering it but we will be back on Wednesday to break it all down for you for the regular 3:59 show until then make sure you tune in tomorrow at C net on livestream and youtube and periscope and so on and we'll have Jeff and we'll have Bridget and we'll have Dan Ackerman and Scott Stein and Lexi at out in the field and we're all gonna talk about iPads and it'll be lovely time that'll be tomorrow starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time yep the event starts at about at 11:00 but will be the previous show will start 10:30 right correct so please join us and we look forward to seeing you there I'll be pushing the buttons at there as well there you go all right if you'd like anything you saw her here check us out on CNET our podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher feedburner google play music and the amazon echo tomorrow or Wednesday sorry B everybody take care