Gadgetory

welcome in good morning it's Thursday August 2nd this is episode 436 of the 359 podcast and today's episode is being sponsored by USB technology the USB implementers forum reminds consumers that USB if' logos are displayed on certified USB products so the next time you're shopping for a reliable USB charger cable or device look for the logos get the whole story at USB excuse me and enabling USB org and now here your host we got the entire dream team Ben Fox Ruben Roger Chang and Alfred what are you doing I'm trying to start the podcast with a positive message for our viewers all right I don't know why you guys are always so cynical all the time but I'm trying to come from a place of jaded journalists right we're supposed to be you were saying right before we were getting started that Apple is on the cusp Apple's on the verge of hitting 1 trillion dollars in market valuation it's a little bit less than a dollar wait stock prices it needs to hit two hundred and seven dollars and five cents the magic number will keep you updated as this goes on but in the meantime we're gonna be talking about the Microsoft Surface go dan Ackerman's got a review of that we'll break it down for you we'll talk a little bit about t-mobile and why it doesn't think it needs to raise prices for its unlimited data plans and lastly a surprises - which had the most hottest selling console in June a little alfred doesn't think it's much of a surprise but as always if you have any questions leave in the comments section but I will pay out the best and we'll get to them in 3 minutes and 59 seconds hang on everybody we'll see you back in the chat shortly and here we go for the recording and 3 - welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox ribbon I'm Alfred Aang CNET is out with its review of the surface go and while it's a decent casual computing device our own Dan Ackerman says that this supposedly affordable - and one isn't actually that cheap it actually was started 399 which nuanced on the surface haha is a decent price but then if you tack on the a keyboard cover which cost $129 stylus which is $100 and more ram which is another $150 then all of a sudden you've got pricey device yeah yeah the mouse nice you try Microsoft but you're not tricking me on this one when I think when they first announced house like oh that's a pretty good price I'll probably get it and then I saw a review of it where it was like oh if you actually want it to be the thing it you know says it is that's an extra like $300 so yeah it's actually more than $300 it's like 300 which which means that like maybe at that point you're in the market for a surface pro which is you know obviously more expensive the thing that Dan mentions though is that the surface go is not particularly new concept from Microsoft there was a surfaced three from 2015 yeah and that was also 10-inch so maybe it's better different I don't know yeah look I don't know problems I don't know what this competes against is it had Pro competitors an iPad competitor yeah I think it's more so an iPad competitor but the case I could rather just get the iPad okay that's you you do you Roger let's talk about t-mobile I posted blow out numbers yesterday particularly with phone subscriber growth once again leading the industry in that metric but more importantly I got a chance to talk with the CFO Braxton Carter who told me that they weren't expecting to raise prices for the limited and plans anytime soon now that's important because we've seen over the last few weeks 18 t Verizon and Sprint all either introduce new plans or new tiers of plans that have been more expensive so for for awhile now this has been like sort of a golden age for bargain seekers in the wireless world but it seemed like this was gonna change but at least t-mobile's kind of holding steady and saying they're not raising prices right and they're kind of the they're the ones that changed everything up they want to keep getting in new customers but are they making a lot of money to like they've they've done well with getting customers but is it showing on their bottom line yeah they're so their profits were up year over year certain in particular service revenue which is a pretty key metric there that was also up there they're basically growing by adding new customers and that's basically what the CFO said was the big want to sacrifice any kind of long-term gains for sort of the short-term bump of like getting more money out of customers in the near term can you tell us a bit about why they would want to merge with Sprint uh ultimately it's about spectrum and sort of the the assets that Sprint has that they can use to expand their 5g network they talked a lot about 5g yesterday and the combination of Sprint's assets with t-mobile's assets would give them a deeper broader network so wait what's the catch though why aren't they increasing their prices I don't think it's because they're very nice no it's not about nice it's about customer growth they think that if they keep their prices lower they can keep customer growth going which has been true they've led the industry in customer growth for 18 consecutive quarters so it's been working there's still number three though right they are still number three they're in terms of the base they're still pretty far off from Verizon AT&T so they think there's a lot of runway to grow nice alright lastly pop quiz you tell me which was the best selling console in June I mean I'll just I don't I love it do it Nintendo switch wrong you're totally wrong shocking surprise I don't believe it it's the NES classic which was brought back at the end of the month and that's what I think is most impressive to me is it was the top selling console despite coming out on June 29th basically three days left in the month outsold all the other ones obviously from a sales perspective a revenue perspective Sony's ps4 actually was the top-selling yeah I mean it makes the most sense that they sold a ton of units considering there was only $40 in the last time it was available for sale it was like everybody was scrambling to get it because they thought they wouldn't be able to get it again although I have to say my buddy bought one we turn it on also I realized I didn't really like any of the games yeah yeah anyways they're more these stories check us out CNET I'm Roger Cheng I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Alfred Aang thanks for sitting and thank you for joining us for the recording of the audio podcast and to drive fast I know my camera sucks it's the only one that will fit in here go ahead and submit your questions and comments now so we can keep this conversation going from the NES classic - why the hell yeah what I will say like I was souvenirs classic and furthermore the NES classic we're excited to like turn it on and like play the contra game I realize it wasn't the contrary membered did you play super contra and said I think it was super contra yes super contra would not run on NES well yeah I think that's why he was like this isn't a contra played this isn't the contrary played it's not the it's not the Nintendo version that's part of that game because it's how they judge you remember how they jump they did that three flips in the air while they're jumping I always do did you actually count the flips it was a lot of flips no ridiculous it was like it was like just joy have you seen those guys they're pretty they're pretty Jack that's how real Contras jump dude yeah yeah having the machine gun doesn't slow you down an infinite amount of bullets yeah that's right that's right anyways that's when we loaded that game up and started playing we're like wait there's something like one of my friends was swore that this was the game and the abreast of us were like no this seems all wrong this sucks it's not great so yeah yeah I was disappointed after that we just switched between that and like the three-foot-long table these are like I'm done with this know my SNES classic yeah then did you play super contra on that yeah just plain metal it's that super chondral so I don't know what the name of the game is on the NES classic is it like contra NES or SNES cloud with that contract just contra no that's the thing it's not like it's not the Nintendo contract oh hey growing up it was like the Japanese for Mario and Mario country you say it Ben I'm not walking into that one so I did all right refused let's play metal wait how do you say it's like much better I I know but like it's a much better game Thank You contribute to this conversation because I have an NES classic but I refuse to open it it's gonna be I'm gonna keep it in my attic for like 2500 because they're gonna come out the NES classic classic right and completely like destroy the value of my NES ethic you can't contribute to this conversation because you have a speech impediment you're poaching people with speech impediments can still contribute a contribution yes yes it's Thursday folks there we go we're already off the rails is Thursday the 359 s Friday and by the way in terms of the Apple update we're about 20 30 cents away it's 200 6.66 why do again Joker's 207 tell people why this matters why is that interesting I don't I don't care about that but I mean you I don't care if you don't care yeah I know but why why do people care about it it's it's a big number one trillion dollars it's a huge number it's a big milestone there's only been one company that's ever briefly touched and that's was a Chinese company this is the first tech company to do it obviously there's been a lot of talk about whether or not Google Apple or Amazon we're gonna be the first to hit this milestone it's a big milestone but like I guess I just don't celebrate when other people get really rich it's like how does that affect me affect our viewers and our listeners I love our viewers who are fans of Apple or interested what happens when Apple has we invested in them that we invested yes right so also just some extent it's really like pretty incredible and telling to see them hit a trillion dollars in market valuation considering that the company was at death's doorstep you know a couple decades ago wasn't alive at that point yeah to continue to consider the fact that this is a company that was getting absolutely clobbered in the market could not get a foothold against Microsoft and is now like very very close to reaching a trillion well what this new Asia I guess weeks to how powerful like the enormous strength of Apple at this point would this be like the equivalent of like in in like 30 years from now like snapchat is all of us is like about to hit like a trillion dollars is that like put it another way it's like it's one a like an athlete sets a record and yes you're not benefiting from that record but it's still interesting to see right like when Michael Phelps hits 12 I guess yes I also did not care about that but you're just a pathetic in general this is true yeah yeah I mean I guess it's a it's a thing that people will talk about years from now Apple was the first tech company to reach a trillion dollar company yes I just don't see how it affects me no it's always about me that's a good point though I mean like it's not like we're a business podcast it's I I appreciate you being a wet blanket all the time all the time I want my own podcast where it's just called everything sucks and I just bring up it wasn't that it wasn't enough like it is an episode is the Netflix show is the show where I just go on and I'm not enthusiastic like this all sucks yeah that's that's your the top test of the day none of it matters just go out and do something fun why are you wanting yeah yeah where I got any sadder let's get to questions yes bro hey question time let's talk a bunch about the tablets let's talk about that surface go with that over the hellenistic oh it's called alright got it see I'm not the tech expert here I'm just the button pusher siddhart says how does it compare with the Samsung Tab 4 ooh for one the tap for is Android so it's a little bit more limited this is obviously Windows it's a bit more full-fledged it's it is a PC they call it two-in-one you can't really confuse the Samsung with this one because the tab is still an Android based one right at the same time as Dan mentions in a story because it's got a Pentium chip it's not as powerful as you would get with like a regular Windows laptop or even the surface pro so that's definitely something that you should consider if you are actually on the market for something like this next up from Timothy dude does it have a SIM card slot oh man very specific question Oh we needed to get Dan in today about unfortunately the issue we were trying to get Dan in he was working from home so that's why we're a little flat-footed when it comes to the specific answers to to like the tech specs but expects yeah I don't think it does have a sim card slot though because it doesn't have the qualcomm trip to do that kind of like no sim card slot I'm not seeing anywhere in our review let's take one from marius lund well actually let's combine a bunch of them together from Marius lon - drew Nielson if they had sold this with a keyboard it would have been a good product the fact that they are starting to partition off all the essential core things to make a computer a computer is a little disheartening but drew Nielsen files it up saying but will casual tablet users need a keyboard and a stylus key word being casual but if you're a casual tablet user you would just got a tablet but you wouldn't get a surface at all I guess that price maybe the argument there like if you were Microsoft the counter-argument was like yeah you can get this it's a tablet but also it can do more productivity stuff if you want to put money into it but it's just an affordable alternative to an iPad I'm not buying it they should have just kept the stylus on the pen with it I mean the keyboard with it I think it's useless without those but I mean I also like if it were just that I would just get like an Android tablet right or like the Galaxy Tab s were yeah I just an Android tap or Chromebook I mean yeah yes you really want to save money Chromebook is probably actually your best bet yeah it's like they went after the market that's like oh we were trying to reduce the prices here but then it's like oh nope we're just gonna like if you actually wanted to use it as like a computer with a keyboard and the stylus then your that's like an extra like a couple hundred well no the the Galaxy Tab as for all the names sort of confuse me after a while it's 650 bucks so it's significantly more expensive but it does come with the tablet built in alright sorry a stylist There s pro stylist S Pen Stylus included no keyboard no keyboard well that's a good segue into a question from Josh Boyd uh would you recommend the surface go over a higher tier Chromebook or Samsung Chromebook plus uh uh depends on the price your Chromebook yeah I would just recommend the Chromebook just get the Chromebook if you're worried about productivity I think the Chromebooks I mean I think the idea is that you know you don't get a Chromebook when you want to do something that like Chrome OS or Android doesn't support in the sense oh I need to edit photos I need a video I need to like code or something like that but I use my I like I have my like work computer where I like edit photos and videos on right and make bad also argue that if you've got a surface go and you're running something extensive like Photoshop it probably isn't the best success that's great for that do it but it's not it might be frustrating yeah so if you just need like web browsing stuff I would recommend just getting a Chromebook if you need like actual stuff outside of that then just get don't get the surface go the surface pro or something a little bit more sophisticated would probably be better suited for you the real Phantom zero asks can you install desktop software on it on the surface go yes go yeah yes right just like I said it's probably not gonna run super fast and chips a little slow you would have to have it on Windows 10 and not Windows 10s which is kind of like the locked version of it but it's it should still have like desktop apps that are approved for Windows 10 on it but like you have to get it through the Windows Store so you might not be able to get Chrome Oh true yeah good point a follow-up for Michael Brown says I think the new Samsung tab should have run Chrome OS what do you guys think I agree I think most tablets should be running on Chrome OS I think like obviously Google has this whole like identity crisis going on with like alright so this is Chrome OS and this is Android and this is whatever but they are making this push toward nakumo as like everything on mobile is Chrome OS they're trying to I feel like there's there's definitely a concerted effort to get them to merge but there's - yeah two different places because it's really frustrating cuz on my on my Chromebook it's like I have Chrome OS on it but it's the version that like you can download android apps on but if you open up the Android app it only opens up in the small window as if it's like on a phone I would argue uh sort of like the Chromebook Chromebooks in general or more considered like cheaper devices there a lot of high-end high-end chrome bowties them like the most popular ones are like the cheaper ones yeah where is I think in there in Samsung's mind like having an Android tablet would still be considered technically a high-end device yeah but like Chrome OS is like much better as a browsing experience I would argue then like on Android and you know for me I can just speak from a level of like security wise it's like much more secure than Android is right well I think it's the the counter-argument there are those the breadth of apps yeah the usefulness of Android versus Chrome so anything they should just do what Chromebooks do where like they give you Chrome OS but you can put Android apps on it right so Chrome OS and Android are more likely to merge than Mac OS and iOS correct well according to the folks at Apple yes because they had that big banner that said no no that's right yeah I mean they've done things to kind of get native work together Josh Boyd a points out that technically removing the keyboard is in fact cutting costs good point there Michael Brown wants to know why can't you do photo editing on the pixel book I mean you can but it's like you can't get like Photoshop honor there are apps like that you can use for it but I'm most used to photoshop and there are just some features on it that like I really use a lot that aren't available on the photo editing apps that I used on my Chromebook gotcha from the real phantom zero they'd like us to try to compare the performance of the surface go to another device what is their closest facsimile for comparison sake candy ass classic ouch oh my god jeez that's tough one they do a lot of I mean like Dan tends to do a lot of benchmarking in the PC lab so I feel like he'd probably be a better word handful of like Qualcomm Snapdragon powered laptops that were announced at the beginning at the end of last year that we're not sure every year true I mean like it's still a Pentium chip so that means these were these were armed ships armed ship powered ones this is this is still x86 right right so it's so it's a Pentium chip it's not like they put in an Intel mobile chip writing like that so you're probably gonna get like better power than like whatever the core em lineup was a couple years ago but I think like this might actually be a stepped-up version of that we're not a hundred percent sure but you're probably gonna get more power than a mobile chip but less than you would for like like a higher level like it's not it doesn't have guys no JIT PC with like top-of-the-line or even like a mainstream yeah and and to the extent that you would probably notice the difference like with a lot of these things like we talked about the difference between iPhone one year versus the next year they say like this is so much faster it's like generally speaking I don't really notice yeah with this type of a situation if you're like stepping down from surface pro to a surface go you probably will notice like a difference in performance yeah there you go I mean I guess the comparison over though it's not really a KERS probably to an iPad right like an iPad like yeah an iPad not an iPad pro yeah I would go there it's about in terms of how you use it right because this is really meant more for a casual browsing I mean it you're not doing anything too intensive and that's kind of what you're doing on your iPad - hmm before we switch gears into another topic from DS Eng do previous versions of the keyboard cover work with the new surface go or surface pro I don't I I don't believe so it needs to be the right size yeah so I don't know if you're talking about like first surface 3 but sorry you can't answer it so if it didn't work though I mean I like fit fit you know outside of the argument here like it is it's pretty much just a Bluetooth keyboard right yeah we're just saying like if it would actually like it needs to feel like and we click in it so if it doesn't even if it does click in like if it's the right size like if the if it would look weird being larger like surface area I I don't I don't know we're gonna take all your text back questions well we'll mail them to Diggs we will get Dan to to answer all your questions and get really mad at him for working from home one day horrible one day that we need him from Congo Lux is the new tab s for ip68 and does they have gorilla glass brain you're killing don't blame me blame the chat they got there's stumping you this they got good question yes i I don't know if it's ip68 I would suspect girl glasses yes that seems to be I don't know which version of gorilla glass but I don't know did have they put they done water resistance on their tablets I don't know I don't know that much of a terrible some tablets sorry especially yeah that the tablet particular I know that just like it just launched but we I know but I'm not gonna say it you know nice because you guys ignored me earlier today are from Mike Shaw is Apple now big enough to be its own country oh it has been for a long time and yeah I think there are only like 15 countries with the same GDP is its market cap so it's pretty staggering yeah yeah it can be its own country you could break out of California nice I mean California tried to break itself up at their own island that's why the headquarters is shaped like a spaceship can you reach a trillion it go and they like make their own islands I would actually care about that because there's a new place that I could possibly visit and you would be welcome to cheap he would not be welcome we got time for a couple more what is the maximum recommended TV size for the SNES classic I would say not that big right since the things like about 720 you know what we my buddies we played it on a like a projector that one gets the wall it's fine so you're already kind of like forgiving some of the fidelity because exactly vector so the graphics yeah they are what they are like it's it's yeah it's I'm gonna get any kind of input lag because it's you're doing it on like through like HDMI as opposed to like VGA cables I don't I like when you played it was it ratio to be a square or was it like yeah so you don't really need that large of a TV for it no you don't but I think like for folks who I mean who have big TVs now it's yeah it's not like it's not a concern like I wouldn't be worried you're not gonna specifically buy a small TV for it but if you want to play without the ratio without like those black bars on the sides and like try to find a square TV which I don't even know if they make those anymore TVs no not that CTR is but I'm saying like the TV that's like it could be a flat-screen but just like in the shape of a square you can't even do it on a CTR because it's an HDMI cable oh that's true yeah yeah so which is why you're not really getting at input lag boy yeah I don't like something with a square ratio probably makes the most sense Alfred you had a little input lag there for a second good because the TV size here is wrong for the record you have inspired Drive fast who says their goal is to become apathetic but they don't want to put any effort into reaching that goal a better writer than any of us okay so on the way out the door right now what do we think is the next classic console coming up Timothy do thinks maybe the PlayStation classic that's a good thought I would put my money on the n64 I think oh yeah they would do the n64 you know at this point of the year they would have already announced it I'm wondering if it's happening this year maybe the wait till next year I mean they're bringing back the NES classic and they brought back the SNES classic for a little while maybe they'll wait a year these are finding anchors for these guys because obviously I would like many versions of all of these and they're just there like to be are a lot of p1 money make and I believe they're they're probably extremely profitable like how expensive can that be you know what they're gonna do they're gonna make the Wii they're gonna jump ahead of everything and just do the the Wii U classic Maisel at all and I think we have all these left over it's just very $5 classic everybody yeah Nancy I would say the n64 is next I just I don't know what it's gonna come i I'm surprised it hasn't been announced already but who else is gonna jump on this train we've seen there are big so sick right um so I guys got that third party one and it's not that great at games I have one who it's called at games they function fine the emulator can get a little wonky in the sound chip yeah I think that's the issue Atari and Sega have done that and I don't know if the experience isn't as slick yeah seeing like PlayStation Classic I don't really I don't expect it to happen I think Nintendo is gonna keep the train running but I don't know maybe an xbox classic original sighs what would the what would the PlayStation classic yeah yeah the Xbox would include like a giant brake controller the problems like classics for like these other like consoles is that like they're not more that and like they're not the ones that are making these games like Nintendo like that's truly the right song yeah and even though like contra they don't have the rights to it but like they're able to negotiate that the Konami game right boy like for a Playstation like think of all the classic PlayStation games are out there it's none of them are like really made by Sony that's a good point that's exactly what it Caixin is saying in the chat that there there would be major licensing problems yeah a lot of these well Xbox is got well really just got halo which is why money to be made they'll make it work and even with Halo that's Bungie like if it came out in an instant oh well I think but they split off from microphone now but they own the rights yeah but my point is like like think about like the n64 classic like a lot of the good games were there like are from rare which like they don't own anymore so I don't know if they still have the rights to banjo kazooie and I can put it back out there have to be associated on in charge of putting out their own classics which they have been doing and yes software bundles well as far as like a heart I'd imagine they'd play ball though yeah like but you're right in that Nintendo is in a unique position where the majority of their titles are first party yes opposed a third party so I don't know I don't think I'd buy an xbox classic for what it's worth I think it would be like Forza and Halo or the first part of games that are any of them a bowl of fable that's right I don't know what that's it yeah that's not great line up did they have NBA Jam those are all you're talking you're talking about only first party yeah yeah and also ma jam isn't on the Super NES or it is super it's on Super NES classic because so I didn't have Chrono Trigger which is the best game for the SNES classica I'll fight anyone in the comments only in the comments so not physically careful everybody he's heating up Ricky B and Josh Boyd pointing out we're overlooking game boys I think with the success of which and its portability option that's a very viable option although I think we might see something more likely to a virtual console version of these for the switch before we see a console version release kind of maybe I don't know maybe I'm off base on them the other thing that Nintendo is trying to do with the new like subscription service that they're doing come like September October or so is that every month you're getting like a free like classic game I could imagine them post box live does yeah does the same thing to where I can imagine them doing the exact same thing with but like for Game Boy games there but I still think they're gonna continue selling these like classic consoles like even with like they're they're the classic games on like the Nintendo market right if they brought back the Gameboy would it be in color classic gameboy color was just literally ya know but no the one that I play the one that I played was basically like like a calculator screen yeah yeah I only played Tetris on that I only played Tetris on it like me you really play only Tetris [Laughter] it's Pokemon considered a first party I believe it is you know it's yeah I antic but Niantic belongs pokemon its a pokemon company antic yeah Niantic his Pokemon God that my bed there is a Pokemon company that Nintendo owns part of a super complicated yeah they don't actually own the full rights to it there's like a there's a shareholder in the company that deals with the cards and the games every Pokemon should have reached a trillion dollars first no I care about that it might have after Pokemon go but that was a whole deal with Nintendo stop I remember a Nintendo stock surged on Pokemon go until I get one point like one of the executives reminded people like actually we don't know that we don't hold that company they were okay one thing to think about on the way out the door drive fastest we should get 359 episode classics read reviewing old tech could you just see us doing like an mst3k type thing we're watching our old episodes and reviewing oh my god they were so miserable we could do it back in the old studio too so we could do it in the podcast studio we could do that or we would well it would be us like in a studio with a screening room and we'd watch the old episode and we'd like to have it on I'm not rewiring that whole damn studio again that'll be the fourth time oh wow why don't we just have the commercial market here's the part where benzos Mario again let me make fun of it we just have a super code that or yeah I'm kind of me fumbling the introduction I've been trying to avoid saying Mario this whole episode but no you said it twice yeah earlier no I didn't yeah you said Mario nice I only say it the right way which is my way get it out of your system New Jersey Philly Philly Philly Jersey now it's truly South Jersey yeah yeah but anyways that's it for us we're out of time out of time for the week thank you to USB for sponsoring the show again and who's gonna take us out today yes I will podcast is available on iTunes tuna and stitcher feedburner google play music and the amazon alexa of course all this video podcast everything is available on cnn.com see y'all next week later folksy monday later you you