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good Tuesday morning on April fourth it's time for episode 204 of the 359 podcast after a brief hiatus we are back my name is bvg and in the house today we've got Ben Fox Rubin and Roger Cheng guys I'm renew a great we're not talking on samsung for once but we are talking about apple for life a thousand and twelve but there's that but it's been a week of samsung coverage so i'm happy that we're breaking things up even if we are switching over to apple she's jumping back and forth between i know it's just an inevitable pendulum of tech redundancy i know i know i will try to throw will try to mix things up a bit more yeah borrow yeah come on talk about e-commerce sometimes forgot yeah come on yes come on ebay let's talk about it wait so they just don't like I just I saw our viewers fleet right there they just left so when we talk about the mac pro apple finally confirmed that they are gonna be rebooting their high-end desktop system would really yeah and then we'll be talking about oath oat is the combination of AOL yahoo will be the basically the media arm of verizon and it drew a bit of criticism therefore uh come on it's a dumb name it's a terrible name you know how much they probably paid for that name 20 million Soulja meaningless gives all the money give me the money I'll come up with one giant bad HR seminar yeah uh their lastly just a little plug for our our sister podcast our newest vodka status update right ensure ensure sure I will be focusing on Tech and juggle juggling your your family life with that yes so lots of good stuff as always if you have any questions on a these topics except for the last one because we don't really do those two have some day just kidding I listened to it was a great podcast you should definitely get out if you have any questions leave in the comment section Brian will pick out the best and we will get to them in three minutes and 59 seconds coming down to the headlines in three two welcome to the 359 when we talk about the top tech news of the day I crap want throw in screwed it up damn it don't you go and baby I'll just do it again welcome to the 359 when we talk about the top tech news of the day and all other crap want to throw in I'm Rhonda J I'm betting Fox ribbon remember the mac pro it's a cylindrical high-end desktop machine from Apple basically gear for graphic artists and professionals and hasn't got an update in more than three years well Apple is out saying a refresh is coming next year Ben are you excited but I mean no not really i've never owned a mac pro but nor should you I'm more concerned about why why disclose it this way they basically invited a handful of reporters you say hey we've got a new mac pro coming in 2018 right I don't get it I mean I think they've this or seen that you know it's a definitely a niche product but there is a very very loyal fan base for Mac Pro users and I think a lot of the there was a lot of discontent in terms of fact that Apple just hasn't really catered to the professional so I think Apple kind of realized that they were potentially turning away some of their core most loyal customers and they really need to get out there with the message and you know they did update the existing Mac Pro line with a spec bump in more cores records more memory but really they're saying you should you should go after this this new one next year you should wait till next year it's supposed to be modular you'll be able to upgrade it and it will come with a new come work but there will be paired with a new monitor accessory yeah I I mean it's sounds very interesting I also think that they've been focusing so much on the iphone for the past couple of years and that's become a mature and saturated market at this point so we're gonna go and start focusing on our macbook pro let's get people to start buying those more maybe we'll upgrade will finally get to upgrading the mac pro as well so to a certain extent that makes sense to me that there no kind of going a little bit further into their portfolio I mean it's it's clear why they focused on the iphone right the heavy money maker makes roughly two-thirds of the revenue but yet like you said it's kind of mature now the competition and smartphones have come settled out right it's all I gross their trench warfare at this right right so macbook pro and the mac pro is even more niche i mean as as few macbook pros as they sell as a percentage of their sales mac pros are almost like nothing really oh yeah because it's very niche remember this is the one product that they actually sell actually make in the US i'm not sure if she do with the next version but that's that was a claim to fame for the last yeah and they only make about 50 of them all right next up are you ready to take the oath that's the name of the business form from the combination of yahoo and AOL a unit under verizon but telecom giant hopes oath will be a media giant similar to lights of google or facebook then what do you think of a name it's it's not a great name it's reminiscent of trunk which is like the new tribune name yeah i don't know where they keep coming up with these just be these bad names but they must have paid millions for that name too at the same time both is at least a word as opposed to trunk I think trunk is actually worse so we maybe people will start getting into oath later on I mean my concern is 0 does have almost like a big brother-like feel to it yeah I'd take the oath yeah the other thing that's interesting about what's been reported on this is marissa mayer won't be joining both which I don't think anybody finds too surprising yeah we've been right we've been talking about this on the podcast for a long time after all those cyber security breaches you know what's the possibility that Marissa is actually going to join this company now it's reported that no this is not going to happen yeah no definitely it's I just want to point out some of the the social commentary on Twitter both know you didn't that's bad yeah yes you read that right if all goes according to plan your grandparents may soon be logging onto oath mail can you imagine ghettos meal oh sounds like oatmeal was it oats sports both finance this is this is assuming that the Yahoo brand name would go away what yeah I don't actually think is gonna happen uh yeah I don't know either but if they're spending money on oath I don't I don't know what happens to yahoo AOL all right lastly I want to give out a plug if you're a parent who loves tech check out status update CNET's latest podcast from ian's shirt unlike our daily short hit this is a monthly series goes a bit deeper into big issues like today's episode on whether or not it's appropriate to snap photos of your kid I think yes it's always appropriate but that's just me man anyways for more on these stories chikis haven't seen it I'm right to change I'm Ben Fox Rubin thanks for listening back and forth in the chat max sucks windows sucks max max sucks big surprise yeah big surprise uh all i have to say is people are still lamenting the apparent sunset of what was the mac pro yeah and now they're kind of excited to see you come back because it from a media editing standpoint yeah it's objectively a good machine has been a go-to machine people say like I can build 3 gaming setups without you sure can you sure can but it's still a good I mean the promising machine it hadn't been up digital had been updated more than three years and those specs were getting kind of old and the problem was you couldn't upgrade the add memory so like it was pretty much stuck in the past and they even admitted in their interviews that you know they kind of paint themselves in a corner with that machine so it's good to see that they're getting a reboot I am really curious to see if they are going to continue to make these things in the US I mean obviously that's been a big issue with Trump trying to get more companies to build a product made in America and that was big you know that was there they're sort of big claim to fame and it works because it's such a niche product because there are them there aren't that many and you can sell them for a lot of money yeah exactly at sochi a three-thousand-dollar machine minimally I was just gonna ask what was the price again it was really more right yeah yeah yeahs which which means that you could actually like fit from something like that because it's not an iphone you know I did the math on the iphone if the iphone was actually gonna be built in the US they would have to price it the baseline would be priced something close to a thousand dollars oh yeah more probably more than thousand dollars because if you're thinking a conservative estimate was like twice the value so if it retails for 650 you're looking at like 13 hundred dollar phone just like the basic model right um and that's conservative estimate and I was actually talking to another phone maker yesterday was bring up this issue if you actually have the manufacturing here most of the components are still in ages you gotta ship everything to America build it here and in some cases shipped back to Asia for checks and it's just it's a lotta supply chicken yeah that is how the supply chain works so let's talk about peripherals that could allegedly come with the new Mac Pro do you think they're going to resurrect the displays yeah that's what that's what the confirm is that they're working a pro lover display to go alongside the mac pro obviously not bundled together probably like another thousand twelve forty a thunderbolt etc my dreams are you live k really not more I mean if their imac is already 5k like i would owe it is yeah i would imagine that if it's not 5k it's even you know a que ya ventrally we've been hearing rumblings of a que already so 15k yeah why not just throwing numbers out there let's talk about about design elite brian gaining points out Mac Pro the trash can with USB seaports that he's not wrong not wrong but i do like doing like the latest Prettyish can i do like the trash I hate was trash look it I had an HP tower back in college and that thing was just kind of like it was just this big plastic hideous thing yeah this at least makes an attempt at making it look like it's designed but you have a greater if they're blue lights on the topic it just be an echo but the cheese grater ranked the cheese grater looked boss perfectly yeah he's greater oh oh yeah yeah regus funny look like that I'll wrap a home intruder with that thing that's true that's not what I really would want to do the three thousand or machine like that's not the first thing I would pick up to defend myself I think it would be effective it would a big deal about this design when it did come out three years ago so I'd be a little surprised if they moved away from it they were like it looks a little like a weird space station I sometimes I would imagine they go with something radically different they're like a full reboot I think they'd want to try to if nothing else dinner you know I'd say the only slimline it to an exchange like I've done to everything like they've done to the imax sniper pro I'm a pro yeah I wanted to ask this by the way we didn't get to this in the podcast is is Apple doing this and they're doing it now because the surface studio from Microsoft is actually gaining more attention oh did I think yeah granted I know that it's an all-in-one we talked about this I head of the podcast so it's not a direct comparison unlike with the imac the imac is an all-in-one versus the surface studio but that being said like these both target the same types of markets totally that was a big shake-up like going back on what I said about objectively good machine for video audio editing like that surface is that is stunning it's really pretty vicious I don't I don't necessarily agree i mean i don't i don't know how much trash in the studio is gone it's a fantastic looking machine i'm not sure what whether or not people actually buying this thing and the mac pro has a fairly large not large it has a consistent and loyal base of users who've been waiting for an upgrade if you look at a lot of the mac blogs mac podcast they spend a lot of their times talking about why there isn't a mac pro update so there's i think there's just sort of a an existing user base that's they're not going anywhere they're just sort of sit around waiting for that next Mac Mac Pro sorry and so I don't necessarily know if it's if they're feeling the pressure from studio yeah I I think the very good point i don't think the Microsoft provides unit sales right for those specific things they mention like how much money they make on the surface line which is a growing business for them but they don't break it down ok so maybe business apart from it it may I think it excuse me at least there's a reaction of you know let's stay relevant in this yes that's about yeah yeah yeahs make something that's beautifully designed because that's what a lot of Windows diehards we're talking about and this was like the surface studio was just this gorgeous machine absolutely and it really presented Microsoft is this like I don't know how many people buy that thing it's look it's also really expensive yeah I mean c3500 yeah is the base though does come with a monitor I mean all in one that's true you probably spending more spending more on a mac project that pro plus you're not that pro little monitor is gonna cost who knows yeah right up let's move on to oaths we're gonna run out of time real quick really they have earth questions yeah wonderful love it our Danny our friend Danny Green so bios we were supposed to think they'll just not be trying to screw us all over all the time yeah I imagine yeah I just have to park in back to a couple weeks ago when I was in the subway on my way to work and it was an ad for spectrum yeah and I'm gonna replace a word here with another word but i'm pretty sure you configure it's an analogous same or new shadi name same shadi company spectrum is now time war time winners now spectrum like yep sounds about right yeah accurate accurate statement the metaphor i was trying to come up with when we were talking before the show 40 that putting yahoo and AOL all on the same roof is just like it's just like instead of having multiple tumors all over your butt oh that's just one massive disgusting growth that they can everybody together once right oh yeah it is a weird mix of businesses with especially AOL when you really think it through it's like they're still like technically a dial-up business there are like there's publications like TechCrunch at engadget I mean it's such a weird Frankenstein company it's true by to give a 0 l and Tim Armstrong a little bit of credit here he resurrected when everybody thought was gonna be a dead business and managed to get it sold to verizon right and I think AOL is definitely in a much better position than it had been before time I'll give them credit for selling to verizon I don't know if he's really like resurrected that business he's he got it in good enough shape that someone can't buy it yeah he basically built it into an ad platform that's the other part of the Frankenstein monster is an ad platform their media companies that time the toilet that's ultimately what verizon wants to do right date with Yahoo they get eyeballs we get a billion eyeballs for a relatively low price and then with AOL they've got the the ad platform that they can serve ads to that billion users yeah yeah and we'll see if they actually turn this into like making themselves you know a computer a competitor against basically Google and Facebook those are the guys think of all the digital mine absolutely um but yeah can you imagine signing on to earth spores for your fantasy football of course of course I I got checked my stock quotes on oath financed with finance just love the recurring comments we have in the chat right now our people still using yahoo are people still using AOL that well yeah oh yeah there are there are still significant number of youth hundreds of millions yeah she said this year with us so people still know there are silly yahoo still boast like a billion eyeballed it has i think it's the second highest traffic media uh their property their homepage you know people don't go to a lot anymore still gets a lot rally you're on yahoo's homepage you get a lot of traffic mm-hmm it's a good point going back onto the mac vs surface discussion imagine soggy says if a mass amount of people move to adobe products and Apple loses its advantage and some people will inevitably go to windows since that is across platforms software and as of right now which be kind of come the inherited new industry standard now that Final Cut scrap right in terms of video editing absolutely yeah that's a huge deal that seems to me finally be smart if Microsoft bought some exclusive out on that Oh with Adobe yeah and I don't know him but I don't you think I don't see it happening I don't see it happening either but that would be a real shot in the arm it would be it definitely would be a statement that Microsoft is a lot more serious about the professionals then then apples right now which to be fair I think they've kind of like let the pro market go a bit right in terms of mac pro mac pro it would macbook pro refresh it wasn't really everything that old hearts like hard core macbook pro fans wanted yeah um bright with that touch bar right well that was the big seller know that the lack of like the low battery life there were a lot of issues that i think old school fans were not really happy with well we all mutually discuss i was one big lackluster like oh right right and so I i I'm missing the name right now because the chat moved on beyond it but I remember reading somebody in the chat today saying like why is Apple so resistant to touch screen technology totally yeah it's astonishing it well is it's it's become you know almost philosophical for them at this point yeah that it's like there's not really a very good explanation for it beyond the fact that they just said that they're not going to do it and if you're really interested in a touchscreen all-in-one I guess you could buy an ipad pro in your networks and that's what they're trying to push right but like they're not putting it into their laptops and I guess it's somewhat confusing to your social rank eventually they will they're really waiting for that convergence I think I mean they say that's not happening but like mac OS and iOS eventually have to merge yeah but it's just I think there are complications with that like when Microsoft dinner with Windows it was a complicated and messy thing right like terms of getting windows are getting phone tablet desktop class operating systems all into one was it took like a couple years right woman in a way that actually yeah and a couple of really you know crummy operating system yeah people didn't like ya knows eight yeah well I remember the Vista days which I survived somehow swinging back one more time an interesting facet I did not know boat points out that yahoo mail is still the most popular email in japan really that i did not know thank you for that well that's yahoo japan also is like a separate assets akka separately run business and would it still occur under oath ultimately knows maybe from a business standpoint maybe you're gonna have ready to find out get out it was nice knowing you get the trip out of that it's really good question i remember for a while it was like yahoo japan like japan yahoo was one of like the the kind of the shining jewels of that like bank is it because it was a separate asset I think yahoo japan is gonna continue to exist under the non both right bah-bah-bah right these are all bad yes did i say that right alta ba think so yeah oh I don't know that's that's the what's gonna be left of Yahoo take the Yahoo they own a stake in alibaba and yahoo japan which is why the time we have a great unbiased opinion in the chat right now Richard says graphic designer here i bought a surface book over the new macbook pro after 10 years of apple only my imac is ready for upgrade waiting to see what Apple does make it the surface studio oh yes ashley is interesting good day brings that up cuz Apple did confirm it kind of got lost and uses that there will be a new imac refresh coming this year so Wow not sure when is he here for them um well not really they Mac Mac Pro's come in next year's they like that and making up some lost time maybe of course yeah well I mean they didn't do it last year right and exactly clear these things are supposed to get annual upgrade so they're not something that busy just it is busy they're they're spending all their time on like the 10th anniversary iphone that's supposed to wow the hell out of us right so yeah maybe they're they're a big company they've got multiple people they've only got like tim cook and like you know a couple other people yes she'll other than either almost like the four guys i go up on stage they're actually building these things by hand i'm running back in a lot of guys we could do this everybody at the end of i don't know if you guys remember movie gung-ho where were they like the Japanese and American workers get together like start hand building the the cars at the end to like make the quota I'd oh yeah like there was this quota they're supposed to make it like the Machine stopped running so they're like literally play these machines of these cars together by hand I've never heard of that movie its greatness okay Mike okay man Michael Keaton oh then I'll watch it if it's michael keaton i'm on board yes alright i'm not sure about that one but to go out let's go out on a high note yeah darkside nation hey change the stupid podcast name if it doesn't even get published at 359 and thank you rate oh wow no i write you for listening absolutely if you'll always great having you liked anything you saw or heard here check us out on cnet ross available on itunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud feedburner and google play music see you guys tomorrow by at 59