The Best Tech for Back to School

Transcript

WEBVTT

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I hate it.

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It sucks.

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All right, welcome in.

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It is another episode of Basic AF.

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I am Tom Anderson and I am joined, as always, by Jeff Battersby.

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Jeff, how are you, sir?

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I've got a mouth full of packs loaded.

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Tom, I have been gifted with another round of COVID.

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Hey, winner, winner, winner, winner.

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Chicken dinner is exactly right, that's lovid dinner.

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Lucky you, jesus.

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My favorite mouth taste.

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This is gross, but tastes like earwax.

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Don't ask me how I know that.

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Yeah, we're just going to move on past that, and so this is what Round two.

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Is it round two of COVID?

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This is my second time right.

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Once I went to the south of our great United States and got it, and this time someone that lives in my house brought it home.

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Well, that happens.

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Yeah, that is a thing All right.

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Well, glad you're upright anyway.

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I am upright, I seem to be feeling pretty good.

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I'm yeah, I'm in good shape.

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I am at the end of this.

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Well, I tell you you sound better than I did that back in May when we did the show and I was hitting the cough button like every 13 seconds or so.

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That was rough.

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So you sound pretty good, tom, I just want to point out I sound better than you every week.

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Well, this is true.

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It's radio, baby, but anyway, you and me both.

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That's why we don't do a video show, my friend.

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So yeah, two old dudes just we'll just stick to behind the mic, we don't need the video.

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Right, right, maybe some people do it, maybe we'll do a live show eventually for iPhone release or something, who knows?

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Why not?

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Yeah, well, we both unbox them together or something I got mine.

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Did you get yours?

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Yep, and before we get started on the show today, I just want to thank everyone that has joined us on Apple podcast, either by following the show, leaving a rating and or review.

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We do appreciate that that helps us out.

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So, if you're returning as a listener, thanks again for being here with us.

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If you're new, as we say, we do appreciate you checking us out and we hope to earn a spot on your playlist.

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Absolutely true, and we always appreciate input.

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People yelling at us is usually the best thing and you can get to us at go ahead.

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Tom, let's see Feedback at basicafshowcom.

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Yeah, so do you know, or text messages If you know us, Google chat text messages Tom Instagram messages Hell, it doesn't matter, we're accessible, baby, we are.

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We are, and there's a reminder our brilliant artwork done by Randall Martin Design who, by the way, is helping my sister on a book of poetry right now, laying out that book for her.

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So so thank you, Mr Randall Martin.

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And that show music, that stuff at the top that makes you want to bounce a little bit before you get stuck listening to our disgusting voices is by PsychoKinetics.

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So check out PsychoKinetics on wherever it is that you get your music Spotify, iTunes music you know the remainder band at the non-existent music store, Tower Records.

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Exactly the Wiz.

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Remember all those places, the Wiz that took you back, didn't it?

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I could see it, yeah, right, suddenly, suddenly my mind is like should I pick up the Elton John or the Billy Joel?

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I can't remember.

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Do you have that on a single?

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No.

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No, you gotta get the whole thing, of course.

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Stuff, where I'm looking at Elvis Costello sitting up there and wanting so badly to get it, but not having the guts at the time to spend my precious pennies on somebody I didn't know anything about.

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More of the fool me, man.

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Yeah, discovery of music is way easier these days oh my gosh, too easy.

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Sometimes I forget what I have.

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It can be, yeah, that's so.

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As we record today's show, we are in the first week of August, which means, at least here in the US, it is the good old BTS, and we're not talking K-pop, we're talking back to school, back to school is exactly right, and for some that's going to be gosh in a week or two.

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For others, I know, it doesn't start until September.

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No, my niece in California, I think, actually starts in another week, should be kicking it off, so, which would be like the 15th of the month.

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As New Yorkers, we're not going until September.

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Yeah, so sometime in the next month all that will ramp up and the buses will be back in service and the kids will bring the illnesses home and it'll be a good time.

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We usually say about the second week, you know somebody has something.

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So, yeah, guaranteed.

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So you just got a head start at your household.

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You guys started early.

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Right.

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I started it here I am.

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Yep, good Thanks, jeff.

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We appreciate that.

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Yeah, good.

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Well, let me see if I can breathe it on you here, tom Breathe, we've got that now right, that's a new feature.

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Well, yeah, maybe Smell a vision that's for subscribers only.

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Yeah, if you want to get that.

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Come on back later.

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So anyway, with the back school season ramping up, we thought it'd be an interesting show to kind of, because I know I see a lot of people asking questions on different socials and I've had a relative or two and you see it on Reddit and places like that where it's like, hey, I'm about to start university, for example, you know which iPad should I get?

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Or I'm thinking about this combination of MacBook Plus iPad.

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Can I do it with just an iPad, those questions popping up.

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So we thought it'd be a timely episode if we talked about those things a bit.

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Absolutely Kit for going back to school.

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And yeah, I typically this time of year start to get a lot of questions about kids going back to college.

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You know, what is it that they get?

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Now, what's interesting, tom, is where you work.

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You dish those things out to every new student, correct?

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We do?

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Yeah, we've got tech program.

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That's been in place.

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This will be the 15th year of this I know it was nuts- and so we do a MacBook and iPad and pencil and this year will be the MacBook Air, the 13 inch model Of that.

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We've done the pro historically, but with the kind of hardware changes that Apple's done, where the pros kind of moved up to the 14 and 16 inch models, which are great, don't get me wrong.

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But they're just outside of the budget that we have for what we do and the 13 inch pro that they still sell just feels really long in the tooth.

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So we got a couple of test units, I guess, back in the spring and passed those around and had a few of our folks try those out and they've been working out really well.

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So that's what we decided to go with this year Awesome.

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So the way that we thought we'd talk about this is we just want to look at, basically, the different levels of student from elementary school, grade school, middle school, high school, college and kind of what we think with regard to those situations.

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I think the big point I wanted to make about saying that your school, tom, the university that you work at gives computers to people.

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In many cases, particularly middle schools, elementary schools, those things the schools themselves are providing some kind of tools.

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So don't hop out and get something straight away, or what you want to do is you want to check in with your school first to see what it is that they're offering.

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I would say in most grade school, middle school situations, you're going to see Chromebooks.

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That's more commonly what it is, sad to say, but you want to pay attention to what your school is doing first.

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So don't, don't zoom off and buy something that you don't need to buy until it's time to buy it.

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But what we, you know, until you determine it's actually something that you need to fork out the money for Right, and that's the thing that that we would recommend right out of the box is that you want to do that in the event that you need something.

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That's what we're gonna talk about now, where you need to, you know, have some type of computer available for Homework or anything else that's gonna be taking place.

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We want to be able to, to guide you down that path, and I think we should start at the bottom of the pile.

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Shouldn't we, tom, be the beginners in education?

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Let's do it All right.

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So, as noted, probably likely that your school is gonna be providing something.

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But if you want to have a computer, either for research, for your student, at home, it I do not personally recommend to anybody that has little kids that they have a little laptop for themselves, you know.

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So anything pretty much up through like six or seventh grade my recommendation would always be Something that's available centrally for everybody in the house, which for me would be one of the IMAX.

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I think that's a great, a great choice for a centrally located computer that you as a parent the adults in the house, hopefully not always Very turn the ability to To, you know, oversee, make sure that everybody's doing what they're supposed to be doing on it, have some kind of control over, and that's going to give your child the ability to do whatever research they need to do you to be able to Look over the shoulders as they're doing that and and be able to take care of it.

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I and for my money.

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That baseline I'm at, I think is perfectly fine for that kind of situation.

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I don't know, tom, you have younger children than I do.

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Have you usually worked it out when you have, when you have a home computer, or what have you done with with your kids when they're younger?

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you know and need some guidance and some help and so the, the son I have that's in high school, he does his.

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Everything he does he does on his PC that he Saved up for and built us this gaming PC.

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I mean he does it on that.

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My youngest at this point is 12 and typically for what he's doing, he bangs it out on an iPad.

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Okay, because it's mostly just, you know, fairly straightforward, writing assignments and things like that, and he's got a Google account that he uses with that.

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That he can can do it and it works well enough.

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If there's anything more strenuous, he, you know, jumps on a laptop or something that we have MacBook, whatever, that he needs to do some work on yeah, yeah, and it's surprisingly like a lot of the research and stuff.

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He, you know he'll have his phone up and he'll be watching a YouTube video that's topical, related to what he's doing, and kind of looking at that and then use the iPad to do his notes or whatever.

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It is Okay, yeah makes sense and I think in those, in those particular situations you know when, I guess it depends on how many kids in the house I always had when my kids were younger, had three kids that were essentially school aged that Very often they did not need to do computer work, and that's maybe because, you know, my kids are a little older than yours.

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There there was very little that they were doing, except for maybe one or two papers a year.

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That's changed quite a bit.

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There is a lot of work now that's being done, particularly through, you know, covet.

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When we had coven the past, where you know that was the way that that kids were having to do do work you needed something pretty robust at home in order to be able to do that.

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I I don't Know that there's any current Mac model that wouldn't work if you had one in place, though, right, you know we both love the Mac minis and I'm talking to you one on one right now and I have currently for running in the house, for doing a variety of things, but the likelihood that you're gonna overpower anything at home unless, you know, your kids become a YouTube star Some of that nature, you know, starting to do a lot of editing.

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I don't think you need anything more than the most basic computer.

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No, I agree.

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I think that Mac mini is a sleeper for a lot of people.

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That, yeah, I don't know what, the how many they sell, but for the price and the performance you get from that and you figure you get the baseline.

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Even even if that's all you got and you put a you know $200 monitor on it, you're out what 750, 800 bucks, yeah, that's it.

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And especially if you've got, like an education email address you can use to buy through the, the education store.

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I think the Mac mini starts at what?

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499 with the education price, something like that.

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It does, and actually you don't even have to have an email address if you're in elementary school.

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There you go.

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You just need to, you know, say that you got a kid right in in school, and so that's a tremendous bargain.

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I mean for you know, and it's.

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The thing is, like you know, apple doesn't really do bargain bin stuff that's cheap, like cheap, and I mean cheap by quality, that's jump.

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And this that low-end Mac mini for the 499, is not junk, it's.

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It's super good, that's so, again, that's what I'm coming to you from right now.

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I this is my, my studio Mac is a is a Mac mini.

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I've got a decent Dell display on it.

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Didn't didn't Put the money up on the one I use every day Good call.

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But that that Mac mini is is more than solid for down here it's.

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It really is.

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A lot of people don't look at it.

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It's kind of funny because it's Don't know my display and I don't know about you know, there there are several things that people Need to think about.

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But if you're moving from a PC to a Mac or you want to get into a Mac At at home, that Mac mini is perfect and you can use your existing display with it Use your existing keyboard, for that matter, and mouse.

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So that's the beauty of it.

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It's a yeah, like you said, it's bargain basement, but it's not bargain basement right.

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So that's a that's definitely good choice.

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If you need something that's souped in, that's there for you, my recommendation Always be the I Mac.

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I think that's a good, a good home choice, yep.

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Yeah.

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So if you need, if you want to go that kind of central Stationary computer rod, you've got a couple of good options there between the two and it just really depends.

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Like Jeff said there, if you want it, just the all-in-one, everything's there.

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You don't need to worry about a display or anything like that.

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You could do the eye, yeah, do the.

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I Mac.

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Mac mini is there too.

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If you want something that's portable, I Think MacBook Air is fantastic, really great system.

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I've been using mine that they gave me at work and.

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I love the thing it's, it's been superb and it's the 13 inch model.

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If you wanted to to pay a little bit more and maybe get the the 15 you know, just to give the your, the kids, maybe yourself, if it's a shared thing a little more real estate to work with, you know you could do that and the pricing is reasonable.

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On that too, I think again, as you mentioned, as we kick things off here, be sure to check the school's Recommendations, especially once you get up into like higher ed, university level stuff.

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If they're not providing something, they will have a Recommendations, hardware recommendations list that you can check out and that may vary.

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It may be just a broad thing that they put out for across the whole university but depending on how big it is, what programs they have, each program may have its own unique requirements to, if it's an engineering program or it's just a general arts and sciences type thing and kind of take a look at that and they'll give you some, some minimum guidelines.

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Sometimes they don't do a really good job and we've been guilty of this a little bit too of Maintaining those recommendations so that they're current, like because it's kind of out of sight, out of mind type thing.

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And so Jeff said there a couple of minutes ago Pretty much any modern Apple system that they sell today running the Apple chips will be fine.

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The real thing is just going to be how demanding will the applications be that you'll be running, in terms of how much RAM you'll want and then also how much storage, like if you're working with.

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You know, if you're doing video Stuff you'll need more storage probably.

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But just take those things into consideration.

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Yeah, and I would say, you know, if you're specifically on the liberal arts side which I was, you know, I was an English major the the only thing that you'd really need is a MacBook Air, unless, again, you're doing music production or video production on the side, but my daughter, who's now starting just now, starting her second year of graduate school, getting in, you know masters in education degree.

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She last year picked up the MacBook Air and that she had.

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Actually, when she was an undergrad she had one of the original MacBook Air's and loved that and she's now on the new MacBook Air with the M2 chip and Over the moon about it.

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It's a great computer.

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For her was a great transition From from the old MacBook Air to the new one.

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I personally use MacBook Air's for years.

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I just Decided to get one of the MacBook Pros.

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What?

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When I got the one before the one I got stolen.

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I got that and was upgrading from a MacBook Air when I got that, so that your old computer was a jump from a MacBook Air.

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Macbook Air's, for my money, for Anybody high school and beyond it.

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Pretty solid choice.

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If you're gonna be, as Tom said, in an engineering class or you're doing heavy programming, those would be the times.

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Or video editing or music editing, those would be the times.

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I'd recommend Jumping up to a Mac, a MacBook Pro, which is you know?

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Those are the questions that I ask when.

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When some parent comes to me and says, hey, my kids going off to school, what's the best computer for them to get, my first question is what is it that they're going off to school, for what is it that they're doing?

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What is it that they're studying and what is it that they need?

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At nine times out of ten, I'm gonna say a MacBook Air.

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Occasionally, I'm gonna tell them you know that you might want the MacBook Pro.

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I rarely tell them that they need to upgrade the RAM on these, that the standards now across the board are are eight gigs and that integrated RAM is is solid.

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There's nothing that you need to concern yourself with in terms of yeah, it's so fast because it's all.

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You know it's all on the chip, right.

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Yeah, it's super fast, but if it needs to swap out it, it can be hard to tell.

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Yeah, it's it, and I will tell you that.

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You know, I Don't know.

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I have not ever, at any point in time, even with dozens of programs up and during a work day, I've never run into a situation where I'm like, oh my gosh, I wish.

00:20:39.234 --> 00:20:40.318
I had more RAM right.

00:20:40.378 --> 00:20:44.894
Well, remember, I think it was in the last week or two that I sent you the picture of the.

00:20:44.894 --> 00:20:48.650
I was running the MacBook Air and I had the app switcher up and they were like 15 or 16.

00:20:48.650 --> 00:20:51.016
Yeah, app icons on there right now showed that to you.

00:20:51.016 --> 00:20:53.761
Now that unit has 16 gigs of RAM.

00:20:53.761 --> 00:21:02.721
But the the great thing with that is, like you know, I don't notice any Swapping, like if you check in activity monitor it's not even in the red.

00:21:02.721 --> 00:21:07.670
So the, the operating system does a really good job of managing it as well.

00:21:07.670 --> 00:21:19.420
But the thing I really like because one of the the things with the MacBook Air is there's no fans, right, and so something that I've kind of been just keeping an eye on here and there.

00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:30.493
It's not a super concern for us but Just out of curiosity from being a dork is how, how warm does the unit get Running all of those applications like?

00:21:30.493 --> 00:21:31.816
How warm does it get?

00:21:31.816 --> 00:21:35.384
And it you can't even tell like it's it's room temp a little cooler than that.

00:21:35.384 --> 00:21:55.509
Now I am running the Sonoma beta for the last couple of weeks and you know I told you I couldn't get those new screensavers to work initially and I did get them to work this week, did some Preferences, cleanups and stuff and I don't know, but deleted some stuff, restarted it didn't work and then magically it worked.

00:21:55.509 --> 00:22:00.982
I don't know beta life, but anyhow there was an associated process with that.

00:22:01.874 --> 00:22:14.339
That guy kind of janky there for a bit and the laptop did get a little bit warm like it wasn't hot, but it was the warmest that I've noticed it, but a restart cleared that up and it hasn't come back, so I think it was just something big, you know, related to the beta.

00:22:14.339 --> 00:22:17.913
But when was I going with?

00:22:17.913 --> 00:22:18.714
That beyond that?

00:22:18.714 --> 00:22:19.596
No idea, I don't know.

00:22:19.596 --> 00:22:21.441
We're talking about the RAM, right?

00:22:21.441 --> 00:22:37.136
Yeah, so I mean in heat 16, If you're crunching hardcore stuff and you need to run a bunch of them and you're doing big data sets maybe, but it's, you know, there's the thing is it's easy to get wrapped up in.

00:22:37.790 --> 00:22:44.594
Okay well, do I want the 16 gigs of RAM, 256 storage or the 16 512?

00:22:44.594 --> 00:22:49.943
And I think the part of the reason it stresses some people out these days is because there's no going back.

00:22:49.943 --> 00:22:52.769
It's not what you buy, it, that's what you get.

00:22:52.769 --> 00:23:02.413
So if you want a future proof and you've got you know the money to do and it doesn't bother you too much, take a step up if it, if it makes you feel better about the decision.

00:23:02.413 --> 00:23:09.359
But, like Jeff said, I think the You'll be surprised with some of the how well some of the base configs perform.

00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:10.542
I think the storage, though.

00:23:10.542 --> 00:23:13.638
There I think Apple's still a little stingy on that.

00:23:13.638 --> 00:23:20.184
I Don't think it's as bad as they hung on to those 16 gig iPhones as long as they did.

00:23:20.204 --> 00:23:31.980
That was a nightmare, but so yeah, yeah, and when it comes to, when it comes to hard disk space, I I would not do less than 512.

00:23:31.980 --> 00:23:36.349
I mean that that's that would be the baseline, baseline for me.

00:23:36.349 --> 00:23:50.029
But one of the things about modern Macs in terms of storage, if you have which, at the very least you have, five gigs is stupid low amount.

00:23:50.029 --> 00:24:02.710
But if you have an icloud account and you're using icloud drive and You're using standard, standard storage locations in icloud drive, so your desktop and documents are an icloud drive.

00:24:02.710 --> 00:24:05.258
You can have downloads for an icloud drive too.

00:24:05.258 --> 00:24:15.117
If you want to, you can turn on features that offload those files To the server if you haven't used them recently.

00:24:15.117 --> 00:24:27.740
So the space efficiency on On your Mac is really good if you're using the integrated features of the macOS, like like icloud drive.

00:24:29.010 --> 00:24:31.998
So we're gonna dig into that too a little bit more a little later on.

00:24:31.998 --> 00:24:33.982
So we're gonna talk about Google Drive and stuff too.

00:24:33.990 --> 00:24:40.185
Yeah, yeah, absolutely so, but those things you know, you don't have to go super crazy on it.

00:24:40.185 --> 00:24:53.814
I, I like you, have 16 gigs of Of RAM pretty much on all my computers and have been doing a one terabyte drive and I confess it's way more dry than I need, but I feel safe.

00:24:56.011 --> 00:24:56.855
Yeah, room to grow.

00:24:59.852 --> 00:25:00.654
Might be at the end of that.

00:25:00.654 --> 00:25:03.814
My growth may be.

00:25:03.814 --> 00:25:06.440
You know, I think I'm come to the age of shrinking.

00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:07.844
That was what I'm doing.

00:25:08.271 --> 00:25:14.602
Yes, so the part two question of the question that usually comes up is thinking about an iPad.

00:25:14.602 --> 00:25:15.703
Do you think I should do that?

00:25:15.703 --> 00:25:17.481
What's your take on that?

00:25:18.148 --> 00:25:21.838
Oh man so and.

00:25:22.300 --> 00:25:23.045
I have an iPad.

00:25:23.045 --> 00:25:23.849
I love the iPad.

00:25:23.849 --> 00:25:33.272
I haven't, I, you know, one of the again one of the new ones, because of the thieves it in and out, burger and man.

00:25:33.272 --> 00:25:39.807
I I'm trying to think of truly how often I do real work.

00:25:39.807 --> 00:25:49.317
This is a fault of mine, it's not because it's not possible to do that on the iPad, but I do very little writing on the iPad.

00:25:49.317 --> 00:25:55.920
I do a lot of Movie watching or soccer watching or television watching on the iPad.

00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:57.723
I use it to the stream music.

00:25:57.891 --> 00:26:02.874
I don't know that it is a necessary Purchase.

00:26:02.874 --> 00:26:04.378
Is it a nice purchase?

00:26:04.378 --> 00:26:10.281
Yes, can I use the writing application that I use, highland Pro, on the iPad?

00:26:10.281 --> 00:26:24.059
No, but important to note that pages numbers, keynote, microsoft Office, which is now Microsoft 365, all the Google apps, all of those are available for iPad.

00:26:24.059 --> 00:26:35.859
And honestly, if you're not me, which is, I guess to say, a lame consumer-oriented video watching Dum-dum, I think an iPad.

00:26:35.859 --> 00:26:42.994
Ipad can be a, you know it's.

00:26:42.994 --> 00:26:49.938
It's actually quite, quite a good tool for being able to do that.

00:26:49.938 --> 00:27:24.157
And I would say, particularly if you're or you're toward some more artistic endeavors and like it a lot for editing Photos, been using Pixelmator, was pixelmator photo for a while and now it's A photomator on the on the iPad for editing, editing images, drawing, which I don't do a lot of, but I do do that phenomenal drawing applications.

00:27:24.157 --> 00:27:28.537
So, and I believe you can even do Swift programming.

00:27:28.537 --> 00:27:30.673
I have done some Swift programming.

00:27:31.246 --> 00:27:32.651
Right, the Swift playgrounds.

00:27:32.851 --> 00:27:35.009
Yeah, yeah, so it's.

00:27:35.009 --> 00:27:41.710
It's my personal experience probably doesn't speak to what somebody could actually be doing with an iPad.

00:27:41.710 --> 00:27:44.027
Yeah, so that's.

00:27:44.027 --> 00:27:55.785
I'm personally not a good gauge, but because you know, let's watch I don't know Moonlight Kingdom for the 50th time, or something.

00:27:55.845 --> 00:27:56.527
Yeah, I think.

00:27:56.527 --> 00:28:01.246
I think it is a fantastic device too, right?

00:28:01.246 --> 00:28:06.971
So device one's your Mac of some sort, and it's a great device too.

00:28:06.971 --> 00:28:15.914
What we have seen at work is so we've done iPad and MacBook for quite a while.

00:28:15.914 --> 00:28:26.269
The iPad wasn't doing much and you'd see it, some students used it, but it was more.

00:28:26.269 --> 00:28:34.912
We were seeing more use you know, just casually walking around, like you were talking about there for content consumption and things like that.

00:28:35.845 --> 00:29:04.433
Apple Pencil changed all of that dramatically, and so what we see now is that the iPad again it's device two right so it's not their primary device, but we see so much of it now, like it's just been night and day, like they're marking up PDFs, they're marking up PowerPoints, they're doing other types of random notes.

00:29:04.433 --> 00:29:10.769
They use it to record videos, like if they're in the athletic training and they're doing an assessment.

00:29:10.769 --> 00:29:18.713
They'll use the iPad to do the video and then ship it over to the MacBook to do some editing and then submit that as their project or whatever.

00:29:18.713 --> 00:29:23.907
So I think, if you're looking at it from that standpoint, great device too.

00:29:23.907 --> 00:29:27.212
I feel like it'll be tough if that's your primary device.

00:29:27.212 --> 00:29:38.474
You know, I read people and they say they do that and I think you could do that, particularly once you get up to the models that work with the Magic Trackpad or Magic Keyboard.

00:29:38.474 --> 00:29:48.146
Not the Magic Trackpad Well, it would work with that too technically, but the keyboard's what I was referring to there, and especially the big one, right, the 12.9,.

00:29:48.788 --> 00:29:55.047
But still there's some pain there that I think most people don't want to deal with, especially.

00:29:55.047 --> 00:29:57.034
You know I'm in class, I'm already stressed out.

00:29:57.034 --> 00:30:01.471
I don't wanna be fidgeting with my iPad window management or something goofy like that.

00:30:01.471 --> 00:30:12.972
So in terms of buying recommendations for that, I think take a close look at exactly how, if you're the student, how you want to use it.

00:30:12.972 --> 00:30:25.310
If you're the parent, how you think your student might use it and I would probably if it's just for notes and you know some Netflix here and there or whatever get the cheapest one you can find.

00:30:25.310 --> 00:30:43.432
And then whether that's the ninth generation, which looks really old at this point because it still has the home button and that's the one we get at work, still uses the first-gen Apple Pencil, which has that ridiculous method of charging, but you don't have to charge it very long.

00:30:43.432 --> 00:30:46.493
So I mean, no one complains about it, it just looks goofy.

00:30:46.493 --> 00:30:57.553
They're still great and they're $3.29, I think something like that a little over 300 bucks for the base and again you get into your storage tiers and everything.

00:30:57.625 --> 00:30:58.951
You don't have to worry about RAM on those.

00:30:58.951 --> 00:31:00.530
But it's how much storage do you want?

00:31:00.530 --> 00:31:04.625
I think you get a couple options and then you can go up from there if you want to Like.

00:31:04.625 --> 00:31:20.892
The iPad 10th generation has the more current rounded corners, designed without the home button, Oddly still uses the first-gen Apple Pencil, which I've complained to Apple about and I don't understand why, because you have to use a stupid adapter even to do it.

00:31:20.892 --> 00:31:23.130
But that's what they chose to do.

00:31:23.130 --> 00:31:28.057
I'm sure they've got reasons for monetary reasons that they've done that 100%.

00:31:28.057 --> 00:31:31.792
Yeah, what do you take thoughts there?

00:31:32.365 --> 00:31:38.453
Yeah, so let's go back to what you said about the pencil and how that made a change for iPads.

00:31:38.453 --> 00:31:57.173
I will say and I think this is clinically proven there's something about the interaction between taking notes manually with your hand and how that connects with what it is that you're doing.

00:31:57.173 --> 00:31:59.231
That's different than if you type those notes.

00:31:59.231 --> 00:32:08.215
I've personally found that to be true and it's a you know, it's much better thing.

00:32:08.215 --> 00:32:18.453
I have had professors and this is important to know I have had professors who absolutely refuse to allow you to use any electronic devices in class.

00:32:18.565 --> 00:32:19.268
Thanks you.

00:32:19.769 --> 00:32:21.709
Yeah, you know what, I'm kind of down for it.

00:32:22.029 --> 00:32:23.728
I'm not 100% against it.

00:32:24.450 --> 00:32:25.554
Are you really Yep Interesting?

00:32:25.554 --> 00:32:31.111
You know I have had professors that say, listen, you want to take notes, that's fine.

00:32:31.111 --> 00:32:34.392
Use notebook, use piece of paper, don't use a computer.

00:32:35.454 --> 00:32:35.976
And they're not wrong.

00:32:35.976 --> 00:32:37.367
It sucks because you can't.

00:32:37.367 --> 00:32:41.645
It's so again my opinion, but it's.

00:32:41.645 --> 00:32:50.751
I can't search it, I can't rearrange the text, I can't do all of these things because they've got some preconceived notion of how they want me to work.

00:32:51.505 --> 00:32:54.094
Yeah, I think it's more and I'm not.

00:32:54.094 --> 00:32:58.548
You know, I've sat at the back of the class and I see what happens.

00:32:58.548 --> 00:33:00.433
You know and not gonna change.

00:33:00.433 --> 00:33:00.634
You know?

00:33:00.634 --> 00:33:03.051
Yeah, but there are adults in the class.

00:33:03.051 --> 00:33:03.694
You're gonna be dumb students.

00:33:03.904 --> 00:33:12.289
You're gonna be past the class or you don't Correct, and if I've got a paper notebook there I can doodle on that, I can pull up my fingernails, all kinds of stuff I could do.

00:33:12.289 --> 00:33:16.535
I got yelled at in high school for that once Wait, wait, wait.

00:33:16.535 --> 00:33:20.409
But we didn't have iPads then and I still wasn't paying attention and got my balls busted.

00:33:20.409 --> 00:33:24.075
So, yeah, 100% against that.

00:33:24.075 --> 00:33:27.366
I think they're doing a tremendous disservice to their students.

00:33:27.366 --> 00:33:29.827
Yeah, it's a perceived.

00:33:29.827 --> 00:33:31.592
It's like safety by.

00:33:31.592 --> 00:33:35.972
Oh shoot, what's the old obscurity right?

00:33:36.224 --> 00:33:40.711
Oh geez you're talking over my head, pal so it's yeah, it's ridiculous.

00:33:40.845 --> 00:33:42.183
I hate it, can't stand it.

00:33:42.224 --> 00:33:46.211
Yeah, so anyway, you will find that there are some professors that do that.

00:33:46.211 --> 00:33:50.306
So if that is the case, then you need to be prepared with a.

00:33:50.306 --> 00:33:52.133
You know, find a different professor.

00:33:52.133 --> 00:33:57.491
No, don't, because sometimes those professors kick ass yeah maybe, maybe not.

00:33:57.491 --> 00:34:00.353
Yeah, it depends, depends on the professor.

00:34:00.353 --> 00:34:10.273
It depends on whether or not they're being doing it just to be a pin in the neck or they're doing it because they want you to you know be engaged in a different way they get it.

00:34:11.065 --> 00:34:13.311
I guess, I will agree to disagree on that.

00:34:13.311 --> 00:34:13.672
We can.

00:34:13.672 --> 00:34:15.344
Ain't the first time we've done that.

00:34:15.344 --> 00:34:17.612
No, won't be the last time either.

00:34:17.612 --> 00:34:20.072
No, no, but that's probably getting along.

00:34:20.072 --> 00:34:22.813
So well, we're adults, we can do that without getting mad at each other.

00:34:22.813 --> 00:34:24.250
Barely barely.

00:34:24.605 --> 00:34:26.811
I do, you know, fume my way out of the studio.

00:34:26.811 --> 00:34:27.313
Some shows.

00:34:27.313 --> 00:34:34.293
Well you don't have far to walk and I can't reach through the screen and throw you.

00:34:35.565 --> 00:34:37.010
Save that for those in-person shows.

00:34:37.010 --> 00:34:37.612
We might do this.

00:34:38.385 --> 00:34:45.572
That's one of the recordings we may do together yeah, so anyway, all that to say that you know you need to be aware of that as well.

00:34:45.572 --> 00:35:10.434
But for, as a note-taking tool, you know Apple's Notes app, the built-in Notes app and I'm kind of jumping ahead the built-in Notes app does offer great capabilities and your iPad is a great tool, with that Apple Pencil, for being able just to scribble down notes and have them, you know, be right there for you on the page and highly recommend that.

00:35:10.565 --> 00:35:12.271
I'd prefer that to typing notes.

00:35:12.271 --> 00:35:18.130
I think that writing notes down far better, even though I have hideous handwriting.

00:35:18.431 --> 00:35:18.733
Me too.

00:35:19.385 --> 00:35:22.735
No matter whether it's on an iPad or in a notebook.

00:35:22.735 --> 00:35:35.114
I have to be very careful to make sure that I take the time to write well, which is part of probably why I remember the crap, because you know I'm having to take my time to do it rather than you know dancing my fingers across the keyboard.

00:35:35.644 --> 00:35:40.335
Yeah, and I think part of that is it's when I really want to unpack something that I need to think through.

00:35:40.335 --> 00:35:49.153
I like to put the iPad down on the table and get the pencil and write or sketch it out or you know whatever right, just to kind of work through it.

00:35:49.153 --> 00:35:52.353
Other times I feel it's too slow for me.

00:35:52.353 --> 00:35:57.449
When I want to get stuff out Like if it's more of just a brain dump, then I just want to type it out.

00:35:57.449 --> 00:36:06.373
Benefit of some of the applications on the iPad for, like the note-taking stuff good notes notability.

00:36:07.244 --> 00:36:19.108
They have a recording function built in so that you could with the professor's permission, record the lecture and take your notes as you're doing that.

00:36:19.108 --> 00:36:30.110
What's really nice about that is the next night, two nights later, you go back reviewing your notes or something, and you've completely lost the context around the note that you took.

00:36:30.110 --> 00:36:42.556
You can tap into the recording and it will take you right back in the recording timeline where you were when you wrote that note, so you'll hear the session to kind of help you reframe it again, which is really nice.

00:36:42.556 --> 00:36:43.690
I know our students like that.

00:36:43.690 --> 00:36:50.472
But again, whether or not you should do that, you should definitely let the professor know as a courtesy to say, hey, is it okay if we do this?

00:36:50.472 --> 00:36:53.063
And then it's up to them what they want to do.

00:36:53.375 --> 00:36:53.576
Right.

00:36:53.576 --> 00:36:58.878
You will find that some professors do not want you recording their classes, correct, right.

00:36:58.878 --> 00:37:01.144
But yeah, that's, and Notability has that feature.

00:37:01.164 --> 00:37:02.880
I think Is that their other apps.

00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:05.123
Yeah, notability has that Good notes as added it as well.

00:37:05.123 --> 00:37:08.981
Okay, and there might be more to do, that I wouldn't be surprised.

00:37:08.981 --> 00:37:11.025
But those are the top two that come to mind.

00:37:11.655 --> 00:37:14.340
Yep, no, and remember Notability, did that?

00:37:14.340 --> 00:37:19.978
There's also man I can't remember where it is off the top of my head, but we can maybe find it and put it in the show notes.

00:37:19.978 --> 00:37:27.155
There's actually a physical notepad tool that has a recorder in the pen that does the exact same thing.

00:37:27.155 --> 00:37:27.556
Oh yeah.

00:37:27.677 --> 00:37:28.581
Yeah, I remembered that.

00:37:28.581 --> 00:37:30.349
I can't remember the name.

00:37:30.349 --> 00:37:31.795
But yeah, if we can find it, we'll throw it in the notes.

00:37:31.855 --> 00:37:33.237
Yeah, well, definitely I'll pick it up.

00:37:33.237 --> 00:37:41.641
I did a review, I believe, for Macworld on that a couple years ago and yeah, it great feature does the same thing.

00:37:41.641 --> 00:37:54.498
Again, it's using paper, believe it or not, and it knows where it is on the paper that you've written something and it's letting you do the same thing Magic technology.

00:37:54.498 --> 00:37:55.000
It's pretty cool.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:07.996
So, yeah, that's another option as well, down a little side road, but again, I think that connection between handwriting and your brain good choice.

00:38:07.996 --> 00:38:14.927
So that's definitely a great use for the iPad in a classroom environment if you're taking notes in that way.

00:38:14.927 --> 00:38:16.577
Right, I highly recommend.

00:38:17.934 --> 00:38:30.342
Okay, and then in terms of keyboards, if you wanted to, maybe it's a little lighter class or something, and you wanted to just take the iPad, maybe, and leave the MacBook behind, or you forgot to charge the MacBook.

00:38:30.342 --> 00:38:36.885
Whatever the case may be, you have options for the keyboards, depending on which iPad model that you pick up.

00:38:36.885 --> 00:38:41.264
All of them will work with the Bluetooth keyboard, so that really opens up the choices.

00:38:41.264 --> 00:38:49.927
From $20, you know, a little cheap keyboard that's good enough to bang out a few notes or not to the Apple stuff that they have.

00:38:49.927 --> 00:38:53.614
Which keyboards have you used today?

00:38:53.614 --> 00:38:53.956
I?

00:38:54.255 --> 00:38:59.867
have only used the Apple keyboards in, you know, in all the versions that they've had.

00:38:59.867 --> 00:39:02.960
Then I mentioned this before we went on air.

00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:12.465
One of the things that drives me nuts about those keyboards is maybe because I'm a lazy typist Is that when you have trackpad on the Magic Keyboard whatever the heck it's called, what is it?

00:39:12.465 --> 00:39:20.867
Magic Magic keyboard, yeah, yeah, it doesn't have the same kind of palm detection that the Mac does.

00:39:20.867 --> 00:39:30.947
So a Mac, if you're using a MacBook Pro, macbook Air, it can sense when your palm is on the palm pad.

00:39:30.947 --> 00:39:36.920
You know the palm rest while you're typing and it deactivates the trackpad.

00:39:36.920 --> 00:39:42.228

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