Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Alfred hang Dan Ackerman apple just released its or Apple's MacBook Air is going on sale today and we've got Dan Ackerman on to talk about his review hello break it down for us is the new MacBook Air worth it it's very different from the old MacBook Air which both of you guys have that's a design that has not changed a lot in the last basically eight to ten years it was just really getting old I mean they're just not I still remember when it was cool but that was god oh yeah there's a almost a techadon saying I went to look up the original 2008 was when this was announced that's when Steve Jobs I think famously took it out of a manila which by the way he liked fake that it was it couldn't actually fit in a manila extra large they'd like gotten extra large there's no way that original MacBook Air could fit in anyways so I went back and said oh let's look at the original review from ten years ago I was like I wonder I looked at the review it said oh who wrote this turns out it was me I had no memory of this whatsoever but if you want to see me with giant sideburns you can see the video for that that weari published back in January for the actual 10th anniversary so this is the first really really really substantial redesigned in many years on this and you know what it looks and feels like the 12-inch MacBook and the 13-inch MacBook Pro it's right in that family now it is it's got the same butterfly keyboard which is a very shallow keyboard that giant touchpad the Retina display with the much smaller bezels they're still Windows laptops with less bezel than this which is the little border between where the display ends and the lid ends but MacBook pretty good can we talk about the ports supports common Oy me there's only the two that's always it isn't it that's that's number one question if it's a new MacBook it's gonna have USB sea ports they call them Thunderbolt three ports but they're really USB so just for its kind of using two people in it technically the shape right then you can do power through this video data really anything just like on the current MacBook Pros and frankly a lot of high-end Windows laptops are USB see only now also so it's not that crazy the USB see I'm not I don't have a huge issue with because I know a lot of companies are kind moving to that and that's sort of where the features going it's the fact that there's only two on one side well they couldn't do one on one they couldn't even figure out and a regular USA we should answer the question that that's the title of his podcast though is it worth it is it worth the higher price test there we go everything about this air is new and improved for the most part much faster processor better trackpad keyboard you could equivocate on screen much much better lighter so everything pretty much changed unfortunately also changed is the price the air was famously $9.99 for many many many years you could say oh I'm gonna save up for a couple months I get a MacBook Air good for college students it's a bit of a reach but you could do it now the starting price is 1199 which is frankly a 20% jump that's a big jump and and it's no it's no longer the automatic recommendation for let's say a college student or a writer or design or something because it's that much more expensive and for $100 more you could get either the 12-inch MacBook which is less powerful but more portable and I actually like it a lot or the base model 13-inch Pro which is less portable but so power also what do you think is this worth it I think if you want a MacBook Air but you didn't want this old one yes overall it's a fantastic laptop if it was $9.99 I'd go out and buy one myself right this second 1099 still pretty good 1/8 1199 then it's then it's less of a of a blow out alright so let's talk about privacy alfred you've got a fascinating story on how restaurants are collecting our data through these wait lists atoms what's going on here so if you've ever been to a restaurant and it's kind of packed and they say you know give us your phone number and we'll send you a text when a table is ready you can go go walk around the mall or something like that while you're waiting for your table if they're using an app to automatically send you a text there's a good chance that there are some privacy implications that come with that so certain apps will keep your phone number for a certain amount of days that restaurants can take a look at other apps they're able to share it with third-party marketers one for example opentable is owned by kayak which means that they're able to share it with all their different web sites so that's one example Yelp owns one called no way and they say that they don't really do any marketing with your number but they do keep it if you're using their app oh what restaurants and malls are you going to um all the nicest ones all the fanciest ones in New York you know I live a very we do have malls here they're rare but there are malls in Brooklyn in Manhattan Kings Plaza I guess you can call it a mall yeah there's a mall in Herald Square okay yeah yeah the famous famous leave almost always empty Manhattan mall exactly but yeah so I mean is this something that people should be worried about um it depends I mean if you really don't care about you know your privacy and you really just want the convenience of it there's they're doing this so it's much more convenient for you so that the next time you go to this restaurant they'll know oh this guy likes a seat by the window or something a lot of it is you know done for the restaurants sake as well so they know you know when they're peak hours are how long people are waiting how long they should keep people waiting for without them wanting to leave or anything like so it is beneficial for restaurants but you do also have to be mindful of your privacy right do you want to be a part of that experience right it's just another example of how we're slowly giving away all of our information you need a restaurant app burner number could do that I get a companion app that'll give you a 60 minute phone number and you can give them that all right so we're way over time for more on this chicken sound scene and Roger Chang I'm Alfred Inge dad Ackerman thanks listening oh yeah that's always just pausing there's something cathartic to coming back to the old theme song isn't it it's there's a nostalgia factor to it you know like two years old oh yeah right three somehow crammed in almost 500 episodes I know thanks everybody for joining us for the recording of the audio podcast you can subscribe to that in the links in the description below now it's time to jump into the chat take your questions and comments about the topics at hand I'm gonna fish those out but in the meantime Alfred it the way you put this and how they're they're gathering the data I mean once upon a time I remember going to a restaurant regularly and you just learn the waitstaff they learn you and then you can you'd say something like oh give me the usual have we destroyed that magic bond yeah because now it's just done through an app they'll still know the usual but now that you don't have to go there like 80 times but instead of doris the waitress is restaurant at ron 9 yeah how many restaurants to go to where they like know you by your first name and know your preferences when you grow up in a tiny little town state like have a mall where you have a mall and the fancy sing in the mall is the Chili's TGI Fridays because I went to college in Buffalo which is near where Brian grew up now there was some there was some chain Applebee's no was not a wild we went to maybe had a bee in it Buffalo Wild Wings yeah gosh I can't remember Burger King yes alright let's let's stop mocking up stating we're not when I have a restaurant issue I I just go in and say I I'm with Roger Chang and they give me a table now yeah they would kick you out immediately but on the mall question I'd have enough time to answer this during the process but that actually did happen to me in Las Vegas like it was I was there for Def Con yeah and I don't know if you'd call it a mall but it's like one of those like massive like promenades by right okay I'll tell ya there was a restaurant there and they asked for my phone number and I just walked around the casino until it was right they use an app there or was it just written down it's it's so hard to tell is the thing like there's texture yeah they did have an iPad though that they put the number in so that makes me think that it probably is yeah was it usually yeah usually if it's a restaurant that just takes like that I see them physically I write it down and like that's when you kind of know they're just yeah I mean looking through all this though I would still say that that I like knowing all this a part of me is still struggling to deal with the fact like I would probably still give up my phone number anyway right the convenience yes I used to give things at the buzzer yeah so that was part of the marketing language for one of these apps where they basically said like these mothers get lost they're expensive to maintain and like you okay the restaurant yeah yeah why would you want to buy these buzzers and you can use all right people people but yeah I hate waiting for restaurants when like I hate waiting for a table so I really appreciated that ability to just like walk around and yeah yeah hang out and like grab a beer or something and then go back when they send out to your cell sir this is great I feel like in the casinos they make sure you can get a signal so that you don't feel like you have to leave the casino like no that's true yeah so what restaurant was offered waiting for with a Joel Robuchon oh you mean this story or the one in Vegas this one in Vegas it was like a some Irish place at Matalan oh I forgot the name of it something so snobbish I go to fancy places is that like I think it is indicative of how pervasive this is because it's not just a really fancy restaurants do yes the place that I mentioned in my story is like in my local neighborhood which is not very good yeah yeah and they had it and it was just like really weird to me he's not just a change yeah basically I mean yeah Chili's was probably the first one to use no wait this is before Yelp bought them okay and Chili's had a contract of no wait where they integrated it into their app and that way so this is the thing like no wait says they don't like allow for promotion or like more or anything like that but because it's within Chile's app they can do that they like are allowed to like hey like we noticed you've been here four times this month who the hell goes to a chili four times a month would you like ten percent off for your fifth time kind of thing let's see if we can make it an even half-dozen yeah when I was researching this before you guys got in here looking for some b-roll to display and like demoing some of the apps one thing that got me excited is oh shoot which one was I using first it was uh no way I was looking in no way and I saw in there that Martha's country bakery is listed on there and that's near me I'm out in Queens and they got a couple around like there's one flushing and one in Brooklyn now I think but yeah Martha's country bakery outstanding amazing place cute little mom-and-pop shop always a line around the corner so this is great I am going to abuse the crap out of this I will say this I don't blame anybody that wants to just use these apps or use this future it is extremely convenient and you know for the privacy parts that like you to be losing it's not like somebody's gonna show up at your door and say hey how come you haven't been in my restaurant in two days but that's version 2.0 yeah it really just depends on like how much like you value your privacy like - yeah I mean I think it's good that people are at least aware yeah this is happening right that this is data you are a permission you are giving them yeah I have not even thought of that yeah good points all around let's go ahead and jump into the chat and take some real questions Mary Ann says the companion app idea is gold sign me up from our friend Timothy do why don't you use Google Voice it gives out a phone number to reach your real phone number that's a smart point I actually do use Google Voice for something like that specifically as a burner number that is my signal number which is on my Twitter bio yeah and I only use it for that but the thing is I don't get calls on that because I have it registered with a unused Android device that I have like just in a drawer somewhere okay so I don't get any calls on that but it is great as a number to get signal with the encrypted messaging app not like signal signal right that is a good idea though like that you can get burner numbers specifically for something like that there you go which is early before the evening rush starts yeah go figure questions about MacBook Air all right let's start off in Mike Shaw he says I feel like the specs for the MacBook 13 are way more than good enough to get that instead of the new air work the extra hundred bucks lee loy asks Dan Ackerman recommend one the 12-inch MacBook or 13-inch MacBook Air is the extra point 75 pounds worth it for what you get Oh or is he next reportability that a really great question I love that 12-inch because it is so light and so portable and frankly you know that's enough that one only has the one port it only has one pool it really very very very rarely bothers me it's it's not super powerful but it's fine for everyday use I think people get way too worked up about it that said this air is a much more mainstream if you do if you're not physically lugging around all day every day you know I would I would consider trading up or trading down by a hundred bucks and and and getting the and getting the air it's definitely more universally useful because of the bigger screen the keyboard is frankly better and you get the two ports the MacBook is more expensive the 12-inch MacBook is $100 more but it's got a slower processor but it's ass much smaller more compact paint endless design and it's already oh it's a pre-existing product right right it was not priced in relation to this sure this was not a price in relation to that gotcha all right moving on from Timothy do is someone as indecisive buying the MacBook Air or the new iPad pro 12.9 what is the deciding factor to buy one or the other you want a computer or do you want to yeah do you do work on your Mac or whatever device you're gonna buy cuz if you're gonna do work you probably want a Mac even with the keyboard the the the iPad pro is not a is not a laptop especially cuz you don't have that pointer on the screen you can move around with the touchpad well there's no touchpad on the right like keyboard yeah that's right yeah so that's always the deciding factor for years ever since the iPad first came out I've been trying to use it as a laptop I've never really had a lot of luck with Scott you know Scott's gun Scott Stein I almost reviewer I mean he has he definitely he brings it to events where everyone else busts out a laptop he's got his iPad so it's doable minutes you kinda have to make a lot of adjust it doesn't do everything you wanted to do for sure I mean we've definitely well established in the reviews of the past couple of days that is more than comparable for email and communication and social networking love to spend $1200 on that the keyboard to sort products but as far as anything with a little more heavy lifting such as as we brought up time and time again video editing etc not so much up that caliber but that's neither here nor there one more from Timothy does the higher price correlate with inflation everything correlates with inflation I mean a little bit okay coffee instead of inflation no they call it the Apple tax well there's that I mean I imagine I sound like Apple would ever say but imagine that the tariffs have the the prospect of terror interesting might play a role in it we don't really know that's I mean but traditionally what the company has done is kept the price on product lines the same yeah while improving the parts inside his new parts become available right so you always felt like you were getting a little bit more even though you're paying the same year for year for the same product but over the last couple of years models change definitely seeing prices across you know up moving to higher prices and that's their whole model now to sell you were more expensive we saw that in last week's earnings report where they said that they stopped telling us how many units of devices they're selling and really just focus on revenue because if the prices are higher they can still generate revenue growth even if they're selling less devices and this went from $9.99 to 1199 a Mac Mini went from $4.99 to $7.99 for its entry-level model so even if there's a dip in sales there they could still technically make more money because it's just a more expensive device so yeat Apple for being able to make more money sucks for us make more money well alright switching gears expected to stay here and work at Apple at the same time without telling anybody yes no stop just stop go on can I can I go this time yes switching gears back into the the restaurant reservation apps mark dybul asks is there an incognito mode for cellular calls does anybody remember once upon a time what was it like star-69 or some like that I mean that was just private number I started sixth I like a callback number no you did that and then you put your number in and then and then you drank your friend ID no right right then you prank well there is no there's no incognito mode yeah you can't hide from the NSA on that yeah sorry you can't hide from your cellular networks as they manage the traffic oh well sounds like something spammers would abuse oh yeah oh yeah that sucks it could have been fun Mike Shaw says will the MacBook 12-inch new Air and MacBook 13-inch all survive or will one disappear that's a good question now they've got a 12 and 13 a coupler yeah they have a 12 they have two 13s and one 15 they used to have an 11 they used to have a 17 that 12-inch seems like the most niche product out of them so if anything went away I guess would be that but I also think it's a really good product that has a smaller but very cultish following all right it serves a it serves a need because this frankly even this at 2.7 pounds and thinner than it was I think it's like 15 millimeters were just frankly not that thin for a 13-inch laptop this is still too heavy for me to carry around every day if I was like a frequent traveler a lap Tom Walker around her I would find this too heavy III go nuts for the just the lightest thing possible which I would not be an iPad pro it would be the Acer Swift 7 gets down to 10 like 9.8 millimeters a few of them get down weight-wise to close to 2 pounds okay so now the iPad 4 I was wrong I know the iPad pro reads when you throw in the keyboard and everything but it doesn't work for like if you want to if you're like let's say a novelist or something and you're going to the coffee shop or the library every day he's just I don't know silly I don't know if it really works for that although some people I'm sure write books on iPads it doesn't work for me doesn't work for a lot of people so on that note before we close out let's just kind of highlight some of the things that we really felt that Apple maybe missed out on opportunity wise in the development of the the latest products since we're inherent pessimists here right alfrid what are the things that like it's about to take a night job sweeping up an Apple store not so much not so much wishlist but like this should have been common sense this should have happened on this product why didn't a more ports more port more ports I you know what I I get that I get that instinctually but having using different laptops every day for the last 13 years I find I don't need a lot of ports yeah but that you're not the normal user ah you know what I try to put myself in a lot of different units I'm not really an hour user I don't do anything weird I guess when does a normal user need a port hard drives normal users have external hard drives most tower take the stickers off the front of the laptop that tell you how big the hard drive external modems or motives or monitors external monitors I would say it's not regular more fortunate would have been nicer like charge let multiple devices on open I mean I still take photos I would love an SD card slot yeah when I travel you take photos on that uses an SD card my SLR okay but that's not that's not well instead of a modem everyone just tethers to their phone hmm I'm just saying I find very flattering to your phone like you would need more ports for that unless you're doing like Wireless Heather well that would work well if you had an iPhone and an Android phone it's less convenient or is it I think the tethering is varias up isn't there far less regulations to charge my phone the other thing is a normal use case either everyone I know when they go to some place because free Wi-Fi is really on the decline and like coffee shops and stuff or they normal people don't do that cuz the data plans are just yeah I don't know if writing I think hot spotting is definitely reserved for their power users it's my 10 gigs I've never were five speaking I've never gone over I mean I've hotspot at all through CES as I've never gone over you know whatever my small mo was back then now I have a higher one I found a thing I wrote in September 5 ways Apple can make the next MacBooks better than ever this was my wish list which I forgotten out let's see bring the latest keyboard fixed to everyone so this has the keyboard that has the rubber membranes under it so they don't get us a keyboard everyone hates is the key word everyone hates but it's a version that doesn't get stuck as much and you know what so everyone hates it doesn't break so there's that get flexible on ports they didn't do that banished low res screens and giant bezels they did do that getting embrace the $9.99 consumer didn't do that now take the plunge on touch didn't do that so there you go I mean the Taichi thing was never gonna happen yes I disagree that it's totally out of the realm of possibility because the MacBook Pros have secondary touch screens on them that touch bar is an oled touch display that's all it is yeah but it is a secondary computer display that is touch on a MacBook which I forgot to have during the show how's this oh yeah I've even used one fingerprint it's great that's the best thing about the touch bar and they shoved it in here so if you spend $100 more and gets the 13-inch very basic MacBook Pro you don't get this fingerprint reader and you don't get it on the 12 either it's great everyone use anti logging into your Gmail or wipes I'm gonna lock it right camera yeah point your screen of the camera let's see where do we have a camera here you gotta you got a front face or right down the barrel there add an up higher higher facing camera I don't know yeah they're way there you go my finger will work now I got angle my finger around hey where's look at that right that touch ID crazy concept they should put that in phones hmm all right we're almost out of time coming down the pipeline more ports starting storage on the 10s should be 128 gigabytes and no expandable storage on the iPad even with USB see non-illuminated Apple logo that never even occurred to me but yeah what am I supposed to do now if all these stickers that I have of Iron Man or whatever like it was the light in the middle hey you know you don't have your thing covered with Cena occurs well now it doesn't write up well this one doesn't no wait that does light up that's just extremely I think is just broken yeah it's like I've worked here 13 years no one has ever given me a sticker I feel very left out yeah sorry about that I don't know where the sticker box is it's actually in Brian's office oh all you ever got to do was ask yeah branding so yeah let's point out hot spot is not tethering tethering is only the USB or Bluetooth ports more ports more ports Mary Anne is asking if there is such thing as a USB to USB C adapter for the external hard drive that we all have and you can get tons a little every use on basics you can get a little hub that has any kind of port you need that goes into the USB you can embrace the dongle life I just would like to have one on each side I know you know that and if you buy the whatever 1899 13 inch MacBook Pro you get two on this side and two on this side you got a common sense basically like why would they release it for the MacBook Pro but not for is it's not just yeah pay a lot more money yeah isn't that apples like slogan you got to pay up for common sense it's it's the line from Goodfellas that I can't mention but you know what I mean you guys are using MacBook Airs I see the MacBook Air everywhere at every coffee shop I go to every place where people are hanging out with laptops it's a universal laptop finally redone I know I some doubt it's $200 more but I'm sure everyone will get it - would you say this is still a universal laptop or it is less universally useful for two reasons number one a lot of the PT a lot of the PC competition has caught up in terms of usable thin 13 inch laptops and number two there's a big psychological difference between $9.99 at 11:19 there is so that that's the only two reasons why it's not but it's still it's great and of all the versions of the butterfly keyboard I've tried this one feels the best because with that rubber membrane underneath you get a really nice responsive thunk okay well said and on that note we are out of time so we'll see you folks back here tomorrow same bat-time same bat-channel Roger yeah see you net pot 359 podcast is available in iTunes tune in stitcher Bieber Google Play Music Google podcast and of course Amazon alec's up we'll see y'all tomorrow vile take care