Gadgetory

and good afternoon from the scene at New York studio sorry we're starting late today but it's still episode 220 of the 359 podcast I'm BVG and in the house of me today I've got Alfred Inge and Roger Chang as we recover from an event that made us push our podcast back how dare they I know Microsoft nothing is more important than briefly 9 podcast 220 blaze it uh yeah I mean that was a long I mean look it was it was an arduous work but it's long press conference those two hours long you know that was long surprisingly long but we have a lot of good information to bring you in the follow-up yes definitely we've got views about the thousand dollar surface laptop we've got we've got t-mobile pushing a 5g and yes we are talking about cardboard boxes this is you please really and this is a legit thing way cooler than juice and it does affect your life so death would pay attention as always if you have any questions on any of these topics leave us a comment Brian will pick out the best we will get to them in three minutes in 59 seconds from three to welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Alfred hang say hello to the surface laptop the newest edition of Microsoft Surface family is a thousand dollar laptop that's a new flagship product for its you Windows 10s a stripped-down version of its software intended for students like yourself spent a lot of time talking about that the finish on the surface laptop but we're most impressed with the 14 and a half hour battery life rated so Alfred what do you think I'm gonna have to see if that's actually accurate I mean that's what they're advertising but you know as we've seen with other laptops that come out they always say oh you know this will last you 10 12 hours and then when it gets actually used that's just ends up not being the case and also I'd like to see how it deteriorates along the line like you might be 14 hours out of the box but they claim that you know basically from day one to like 10 years into or whatever like the battery life is supposed to be to say but that's kinda hard to believe in the way battery life degree on time I'm very skeptical of it but at the same time because of the OS that they're operating it on where it's like all windows like and it is kind of a stripped-down version right can't download outside apps it really it's all kind of controlled either downloaded from the Windows app store is kind of like we kind of made the comparisons like iOS yeah right so they might actually be able to back up that claim because there's no like outside factors affecting it right as much but that being said you know that that's kind of like a con for me where I can't you know download all these apps that I want unless I pay like 50 bucks for the pro update now Windows 10s is it tended for students right yeah so you can't understand why that exists for a thousand dollars and isn't necessarily a laptop for for kids right so who exactly do you think they're selling the surface laptop to I mean this seems a lot more likely for college students than it is for you know people in grade school in high school right I mean like any college campus all these kids have these like MacBook Pros that cost more than a thousand dollars and it's just you know I know for a fact they don't need all that process do you think that they'll give up their back books for this thing I think they will I think they're moving more towards like a touchscreen like laptop solution I am a little annoyed that it doesn't have you know the the detachable tablet or like being back on it seems weird to move away from that for as especially as a surface laptop yeah I was a little bit limited that way all right next up team awaits a big waves over its intent to build the first nationwide 5g network I will Laura largely use a 600 megahertz spectrum which is it's a little wonky but basically it's low band spectra that's great at covering great distances not so good at high speed so it's going to be like 5g but kind of slow that's way how could it be 5g if it's slow so one of the other characteristics of 5g is not just speed but it's sort of responsive responsiveness basically it's almost there's almost zero lag between what you you know hit something and when we get the response so they say it's that they say it's the fact that it can match you know way more devices on the other network rather than just phones we're talking about sensors we're talking about dog collars anything that's connected can be on this network but that said people are expecting speed with 5g this isn't really it will it at least be faster than 4G or will it just be the same and have more I think I'll just have more reach that that's I don't know I think that's like really skewing the definition of 5g there alright so lastly you probably have a sip spend a lot of time thinking about boxes that hold your Amazon orders but UPS has been fox Ruben went down to Louisville to check out its packing Innovation Center packaging Innovation Center well the company's exploring how to make packages smaller to use less cardboard which actually I care about because I've got tons of boxes how about you well yeah I have like way too many boxes in my home I just moved and had to get rid of so many of them they were very useful for moving sure than that yeah it's too many I don't know check it out that's got a great description of what the centers like the kinds of ways that UPS is trying to slip down those boxes for more are those stories check us out on CNET roger Chang I'm out for dang thanks for listening alright let's get real about Microsoft for a little bit let's do it let's get real uh for one I had a little trouble with the stream I don't know if anyone else did actually watching it here at the office yeah bet it was right and I basically our strip died like two seconds into the actual presentation I don't know if anyone else out there and chat was watching the live presentation as an unfolded as Adam voted on Sina comm but yeah we had a little trouble from picking up their their signal but that's not to deter away from what essentially is a noble effort I actually appreciated all the angles after we got them talking just yesterday about laptops and schools and the initiative and like the way they really unfolded it was very ambitious I thought yeah I think the more interesting thing was you know news that was kind of beared toward the beginning of the event was that other partners will be making these these dados tennis laptop they'll be as cheap as 187 bucks that's interesting yeah yeah getting that that price point down to a point where I wish they named what that laptop was because I'd love to see this guessing it's often a serrated I imagine would be a couple of that kind of hit that really locally cuz there's gonna be a lot of demand for those things yeah that's probably what you're going to end up seeing in classrooms they the you know surface laptop yeah yeah that seems like more aimed towards college kids yeah that's definitely more of a flagship product it's I don't think it's one that schools are gonna they're not gonna be buying that in mass for children destroy those like horror but anyways it's always nice to see a company really rally behind the educational side of things rather than just the profit side of things you know what they spell out I'm talking about the accessibility aspect of Windows 10 - you know trying to make this usable for people with you know different different use cases different uh deeds when it comes to learning absolutely that's that's always great to see what you think of the Minecraft uh update that they had I think that's brilliant the coder thing yeah yeah that I think it's great I think it's a great way to get kids to think about everything that sounds gateway it is absolutely already a gateway for kids to kind of learn coding in a basic way I think this kind of solidifies it it's like an intermediate level almost yeah I think Scott Steiner actually made the point that this is sort of a gateway to like a are Bicks reality yeah I notice or the the next the kind of bridge there I know that's how I first like got into coding like I don't know anything about coding now but I first got interested in it because of like modifications were like counter-strike and half-life yeah like you could go in and like change certain things I like I mean this that the game like Minecraft is designed for you to tweak it grab eyes so it is totally like just built for the foundation for basically getting kids a code which is kind of great yeah yeah anything to help kids get it's not quite translating but it's a almost a transparency yeah it's done it for I can't come with a better term in gateway I think they give example of the one teacher kind of had his kids create this the colony in Mars yeah a Martian scenario barcia scenario where that kids actually debated about resources and how to like how what would actually go into a colony that would sustain life on Mars the only nice the only things that I've been skeptical about as part of their whole press conference today were the Microsoft teams for kids they wouldn't wear it like I hated group projects in school you know but like there was always like such a person that like no because that was the person was I'm too busy I can't that was the point was to charge you how to deal with terrible people what now just imagine that you like play along with everyone magic that but now there's like a chat portion of it where you're like oh he's not responding on like video call well no now you could chant perscription how about see if he's in slack not on slash right now I better text them the only thing that I'm happy about with that is now there's actual evidence of you trying to contact like this group member that you can present to the teacher you go and like I try yet try look at all these like pings that I sent and they just never responded you real bitter kid I was very bitter because I have doing all the work and it was projects and then the other thing was the the mixed reality headset where they were saying they gave this example was like you know sometimes not everybody can go on field trips and now we're going on like these field trips through VR and I'm just like please don't replace field trips of this this looks very bad that defeat is the point is to get out of CS yeah and it you can understand where the school would be enticed by the lower price point yes yes please don't ruin field trips already chose your Microsoft just shut down all right let's jump into the chat and get some responses regarding the $999 surface laptop attic six six two says only gonna buy it if it comes with a Mewtwo four fab you two would like the techie like no people in the Pokemon look ah did I think about luck like I like Pokemon so I don't know I don't know I just couldn't resist that one uh mark X says why would you waste your time with a surface laptop when the surface pro is already so cheap well as in it cheaper then uh the surface pro is cheaper yeah actually the laptop the laptop it's the surface pro is like 800 bucks I think $8.99 yeah yeah yeah solid hundred bucks off I mean this is like I can't do rudimentary math this is a full keyboard right it's a full laptop experience it's kind of weird because it with the previous surface devices they kind of try to go away from like the traditional laptop right and like you know they all failed they call fold back you could write you scribble of them this was definitely a lot more traditional it's a bit more like a pure play laptop which is uh which is kind of interesting I mean I could understand them not wanting to have the detachable one like the surface book is but I don't get why don't just make it like able to roll to fold back like I don't know I released the real tape about a great question I mean it's got a decent specs under the hood we were checking those out earlier on on the show I mean certainly it's decent under the hood but they're all fairly decent under the hood it's really about what your use case will be sure yeah that the battery life happy for me that is sort of the headline over there anyway oh yeah ours is ridiculous but we'll wait and see and get our tests on that before we make any claims yeah at the very least like the one thing that they were selling on the stage was how sharp it looked and it does look sharp I'm giving that much what do you think of a fabric I was so weird it's like I'm intrigued I have a trade by two cuz like I'm kind of higher like the aluminum surface the metal surface of having fabric I don't know what happens if you spill stuff on your keyboard I mean you shouldn't anyway I will shampoo it yeah yeah uh all right real quick we'll get back into some older comments but Matthew doctor isn't jumping back into the chat we've seen him more than a few times but thank you for joining us man sorry for coming in late we're sorry for being late no no it's just a laptop or a two-in-one that's a lot to distil it has a touchscreen though yes and is that it's a powder but it doesn't split now exactly does it turn into a tablet anyway yeah I think that's fine like my my laptop at home is one of those like foldable ones yeah like you can roll it back you know and I know but I still use the touchscreen on him Shran Chanda says 999 is not a good way to compete with Chromebooks ain't wrong that's the thing I don't think the surface laptop competes with a Chromebook I think I think it's OS is gonna compete with the exactly reword placed though it's not a netbook it's not a full-on lap with more for full on that is where they try to market it's definitely not gonna compete with a robo I think it's gonna compete against what Alfred said the college touch using that books MacBook Airs you're looking at a MacBook Air now that hasn't been really refreshed it's the specs are a little bit behind now this thing looks a pretty competitive I mean sauce thin as a thing that's it's a bit thicker than that yeah I I let it definitely is competitive with it I know for a fact that like college kids demanded like MacBook Pros to run like word and it made no sense to me I'm like you're not editing anything on your look you're an English major dude what are you doing yeah but I mean that's the thing like they have money to spend right and they want like high-end stuff my Cleo T is asking is it compatible with the surface pen yes while we're at it he's asking us to walk into dangerous territory would you recommend this over the MacBook I mean we haven't got our handles yeah it's too early to say just seen it so it's really hard to recommend Dan Ackerman our are the head of our PC reviews side I mean so far he likes what he sees but it's so if there's any indication from what I've seen from prior Microsoft events from the surface studio to the the Pro we've been impressed so far certainly definitely whether or not it's better the back book your buddy board of that book is still it's still early DVD yeah and of course there's a lot of subjectivity yeah uh going back over to the surface laptop Barozzi Jude says the build quality dreamy it is pretty nice it is nice it just I thought that was a good comment I mean it's okay I'm sure you saw like panel says yeah I was gonna say is that I know long long create I don't look very long preamble about the past should the soul is law that's his MO it's always that buttery it's Emily every time he's so it's not desktop yeah he just he's so tense uh boy uh fourteen and a half more like eight already got doubts about that battery life yeah see yeah yeah I mean I don't claim we will do some testing I'd like to see its battery life I like on Windows 10 as versus Windows 10 Pro just certainly yeah yeah a boy also says a better come with a stylus they better fix the resolution problems and it should also come with an Xbox or at least cut price and loss and I want to million dollars put stock options three better dates I would love all that to furnisher Microsoft like giving up a uh CSF 106 lol no outside apps no buy for me yeah I mean that is the big sticking point right it's a very limited controlled version of Windows and really depend upon the App Store and we'll see how many apps actually show up on the App Store right yeah uh boy follows up with if you want to lure college kids to buy them sounds really creepy that's also kind of yeah that is kind of the point though yeah from what I understand the Microsoft App Store is actually pretty robust right now like I mean they have Netflix and Chrome and like all these other I think it's more so it's kind of like the iOS or like the droid apps are worth more so it just need to be vetted by Microsoft before they put it out there yeah whereas thing about like in terms of games and stuff though that's it's gonna take a little bit longer for those games to pop up in that store yeah but I mean they they already have an extensive catalog of games that like most games that you would find on like xbox Luther yeah we've got a lot of questions filtering through that we really just don't have the answers to yet people asking about how it's going to compete with mac OS and iOS regarding functionality an iCloud documents and things like that like we wish we had an answer for you but it mean we just saw the thing for the first time today tonight I mean I have you know looking into all of this is well created office yeah right which is cloud-based so okay that's that's comparable to Google Docs uh but yeah there's a lot of those details it's it's still fairly early days a couple more comments from the chat before we call today Hamilton Bukka our ap MacBook Air Wow did Apple cancel it today that seems like pretty bad fish I think somebody who's hardcore sold on that presentation and for the water part they put on a nice show they did oh that's what that means a little bit long yeah a little bit a little bit yeah a little bit yeah yeah uh and then let's how I love this Michael Brown her friend Michael Brown longtime listener sometime please help me figure this out what year I'm in Windows is out Appling Apple glossing over very hard on their own product here yes yes oh yeah yeah oh here we go receive I read somewhere that you could change Windows s to normal Windows is that true yeah so yes you can upgrade if you have a Windows 10 s computer you could pay $50 to upgrade to the pro edition unless you buy the surface laptop which the upgrade is free okay yeah okay so you can't move over to pro so you have the option all right haven't I I'm pretty sure like most people that buy the well--there's laptop are gonna upgrade yeah yeah real quick and one last thing before we do wrap it up Alfred let's expand on Amazon I'm interested being the hardcore prime user about this packaging initiative so basically you pass like showed off with like the inventor of bubble wrap at like a factory in Kentucky in Louisville that Ben was at what was it yesterday that yeah that's so instead of like you just getting like hordes of you know cardboard boxes in the mail like every week or so I get box in box then it drives me nuts yeah oh my god that's awful but basically like some kind of like advanced version of bubble wrap where they're trying to find out solutions to get rid of the cardboard box around it so that they can send people more things because they're there like right now the way it is like they're expecting way more people to be buying things online in the next few years yeah no surprise yeah so it's basically okay it's manageable now but in like by 2020 like if we keep using cardboard boxes this is it's gonna get bottleneck so we need to find like a solution to make like packaging like much easier yeah yeah so they showed us we called stealth wrap which is basically just layers of ultra durable film 29 super thin layers so there's no box just really just like ebony fur do we have any footage of that I do not yet okay still developing wash a if you scroll the way to borrow midway through the story right there that apparently is a stambha spell/trap so let's take a look at this it doesn't really show you much unfortunately from a visual standpoint but that's what shows a box but I mean this is great news like this is great news environmentally yeah from your own home just now just painted all these friggin boxes yeah that's kind of great don't make robot forts out of them but wait what if you notice my son yeah what if you need to send something private what if somebody's order that's its look you can't it's not like this guy's selling like a like just whatever that is I think the stealth wrap is that like okay no no I think a hard time seeing it from here myself I think the idea is like if you have something you could actually just cover it with sell the wrap as opposed to a cardboard box yeah yeah we'll see hmm still try stuff but know that mommy's well wrap Bubby's yeah that's still not doing anything as a protective layer when it comes to things no I think it's for stuff that doesn't necessarily eat it though yes like the one time I ordered a thimble off of Amazon and they sent me like a box eight times its size did you irregular bull yes whisper song yeah as you just buy a thimble like it Renee Road store because you know one for monopoly because they're all gone see how I brought that over there we go all right well that was fun sorry again we were so late but we're glad that you joined us and we'll be back at our normal time tomorrow that's right maybe maybe maybe no we'll be here will be here I don't know what you're planning but I'm gonna be here you guys are here all right let's call it a day all right if you like anything you saw or heard here check us out on CNET our podcast is also available on iTunes to knit stitch ur soundcloud Feedburner and google play music we will see you all tomorrow take care