Current MacBook Pros

There has been much consternation over the direction that Apple has taken their laptops. While there have been those that have questioned the inclusion of the TouchBar, many have questioned whether or not the TouchBar is a useful tool in place of standard function keys. While the TouchBar has been controversial, there is a topi that has been even more problematic, and for good reason. That feature is the new keyboards. The issues that have been expressed are:

• How little it takes for a key to stop responding.
• The cost of an out-of-warranty keyboard repair, which is approximately $540 dollars out of warranty.
• The suggested fix by Apple.
• And most problematic, the rapidity of the issues.

All of these have added to the hesitation of many pundits to recommend the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pros.

Early 2015 MacBook Pro

A couple weeks ago the Apple Care on my Early 2015 MacBook Pro ended. When I realized it had been three years, it got me to thinking about how I never wrote a review of the MacBook Pro. I did post about the issue that I had when I first got the machine.

As a brief recap of the issue, it would stop randomly and sometimes rebooting fixed the issue, sometimes it did not. At the time Apple offered to just return the computer and order another one. This was just about the time that the brand new 12-inch MacBook was released. I seriously considered ordering one, but since the laptop was just still so new, I opted to have them fix it. Ultimately, this was a better choice for me. The ultimate problem was a bad cable to the SSD. Once they replaced that, it fixed all of the issues.

Selecting the MacBook Pro

When I start looking at any computer, I end up creating a Numbers spreadsheet to allow me to compare many different factors, with just a quick glance. These include:

• Storag
• Memory
• Price
• Video Memory

Storage, Memory and Price are the biggest factors that I look at. Screen size typically dictates the prices. I look at video memory, mostly for long term viability.

Specs

The MacBook Pro that I got is a mid-tier model. It is a 13-inch with a 2.7GHz Core i5 CPU and 16GB of memory with a 256GB SSD.

The 2015 MacBook Pro was my first purely solid-state storage computer. Prior to getting the 2015 MacBook Pro I had a 2011 iMac with a 1TB hard drive traditional hard drive, a 2007 Black polycarbonate MacBook with a 500GB hard drive, and a 2007 20-inch iMac with the same specs as the Black MacBook.

For just over two years after getting the MacBook Pro, it was effectively my primary computer. It is not that my 2011 iMac did not work, it did and still does. There were a couple of factors that lead me to use it as my primary. The first is that it seems like a faster computer. The second, and more importantly, the MacBook Pro has a Retina Screen.

The Screen

The MacBook Pro has a 2x Retina display which allows for resolutions that go between 1024 by 640 to 1680 by 1050. For my usage, I tend to go with the highest resolution of 1680 by 1050. When I first got the MacBook Pro I went with the default because it was new. As time progressed, and especially when the MacBook Pro became my primary computer,

This has to do with needing as much space as possible when doing coding, particularly with Xcode. As mentioned above, the MacBook Pro was my primary computer for a while, so it is the one where I updated my app <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wwrite/id366196225?mt=8&at=1000l5Yb'>wwrite and wwriteFree. While working on the code, and in particular in the Xcode Simulator, given the size and space needed for being able to develop and test the app. Over the years, the extra screen resolution has been quite handy. It has been nice having the extra screen size. There have been occasions when I need to adjust the screen resolution, but I have typically kept it at the maximum.

Storage

Keyboard

Ports

• Two Thunderbolt 2 ports
• One HDMI port
• Two USB 3.0 Type A ports
• One SDHC slot
• One headphone jack
• One MagSafe 2 connector

General Usage

Closing Thoughts

One of the realities of today's companies, regardless of industry and age, is that no company can focus on everything all the time. There are times throughout a company's life when they feel as though it is worth the effort to create and maintain a product. As time progresses, I may become less worthwhile to maintain the product. Apple has decided to stop making and selling all of their Airport products. This includes the AirPort Extreme, Airport Express, and the Time Capsule.

Apple has indicated that it will be supporting the product with security updates for five years. The products themselves will still be sold through Apple.com and Apple Authorized resellers while supplies last.

It is not really any surprise to those who have been following Apple for a while. The AirPort line was introduced in 1999 by Steve Jobs at the same time the iBook was introduced.

t=796

At the time Wireless networking was basically non-existent. The introduction of the AirPort base station helped propel the industry forward. Today there are a large number of companies that are doing more with wireless. One of the technologies is Mesh Networking.

While it is sad to see the AirPort line going away, I cannot say that I am surprised at all. I likely will not be replacing my AirPort base stations anytime soon. Unless one of them dies. If it does, I am not sure what type of wireless router I would go with. I own my own cable modem, and it does not wireless built-in. At that point I may just see what the best recommendation for wireless routers. I know that one of the things that I will look at is whether the company does regular security updates.

If the discontinuation of the AirPort line means that Apple can focus on other new products, then it will ultimately be a good decision.

This is a 13 minute video by CGP Grey. It is not like his typical videos, but this is such a great one. The animations, music, illustrations, and narration are all spot on.

No company can focus on everything. It is not feasible, nor is it practical. Instead, all companies must decide what is the most important to them. One area where Apple chooses to put some focus is on the environment. They do this in a couple of different ways. The first is by using using renewable energy for all of its operations. These operations include corporate offices, retail spaces, datacenter and co-location facilities across the world.

Renewable Energy

One way that Apple demonstrate using renewable energy is by having installed solar panels all over the roof of their Apple Park campus. Along with their properties being renewable, Apple also tends to work with suppliers who also utilize renewable energy. An additional nine suppliers have agreed to use 100% renewable energy for their operations. With Apple being the most valued company they have shown that being eco-friendly is not only good for nature but can also help with its bottom-line.

Daisy

There is another way that Apple is helping the environment, that is by recycling. Apple uses sustainably harvested materials for packaging, and other various aspects of their operations. Something that goes hand-in-hand with this is that Apple offers recycling of products. In March of 2016, Apple unveiled their iPhone recycling robot, Liam. Now Apple has unveiled its second-generation iPhone recycling robot, Daisy.

Daisy can recycle up to 200 devices per hour. When Daisy does recycle a phone, it can retrieve some materials that can be recycled. Amongst these are:

• 1900 kilograms of Aluminum
• 710 Kilograms of Copper
• 0.97 kilograms of of Gold
• 0.10 kilograms of Palladium
• 7.5 kilograms of Silver
• 42 kilograms of Tin
• 11 kilograms of Rare Earth metals
• 770 kilograms of Cobalt
• 93 kilograms of Tungsten
• 1.8 kilograms of Tantalum

The statistics above are for every 100,000 devices, or approximately every 3 weeks if Daisy is running at full capacity. Every kilogram of materials that Apple is able to recover means that the same amount does not need to be mined out of the earth. Apple is looking out for the environment, but you can as well.

Give Back

If you have an older device that is no longer needed you can recycle it and Apple might even give you some money for it.. This could a laptop, iPhone, or iPod. You can see how much your device is worth by going to Apple's Give Back page.

Apple Watch

Many companies are always on the lookout for ways to have multiple products converge to provide some incentive for users. One are where Apple uses Earth Day is with Apple Watch users. Apple does not incentivize Apple Watch users to recycle, instead they provide Apple Watch users with a badge if they complete a 30-minute workout on Earth Day. Apple did the same thing for Earth Day 2017 with the same reward. If you complete the challenge you will get not only a badge, but some iMessage stickers that can be used to adorn your conversations.

Anything you can do to help conserve the limited resources on the planet is beneficial for everyone, whether they appreciate or realize that it is beneficial for them.

Sources: Apple Newsroom (Renewable), Apple Newsroom (Recycling).

It is not often that someone is in a position for many years, but there are some that manage to do so. What is even more rare is when they become an iconic part of that place. One person has managed to do just that, Carl Kassell.

Today, the voice of NPR's Morning Edition's, Carl Kassell, has died at the age of 84, due to complications of Alzheimer's. Carl was also the voice, and Score Keeper of the NPR gameshow, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. When Wait Wait started they could not afford actual prizes so Carl would record messages on answering machines. For anyone who has received a message from Carl, it is something to be cherished, and saved, if possible.

You can listen to Carl's farewell episode on NPR's website. I re-listened to the last episode and the last segment in particular is quite touching. I was never able to get to a show, but I have been listening for years now.

A couple of posts from the host of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Peter Sagal and contestants on the show.

https://twitter.com/petersagal/status/986333154591068166

https://twitter.com/petersagal/status/986334023965396995

https://twitter.com/TomBodett/status/986349112839868417

https://twitter.com/AskingAmy/status/986335461550551040

https://twitter.com/paulapoundstone/status/986396784187469824

Rest in Peace Carl. You will be missed by not only NPR but also by the many fans.

Image Source: Jen Orr.

Story Source: NPR.

Apple is a company that tries to do some good along with selling their products. One of the most prominent causes that Apple likes to donate to is (PRODUCT)RED. There have been a number of products throughout the years that Apple has made to sponsor PRODUCT(RED). Some of these have included iPods, iPhone cases, headphones, even a 2013 Mac Pro, and even more.

Today Apple announced a new item that is available in PRODUCT(RED), the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. When Apple has done PRODUCT(RED) iPod Touches and iPhones in the past, they have been Red backs with White faces. The PRODUCT(RED) iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have changed this. The backs are still Red, but the front is now black.

The change o the front actually does two things. The first is it responds to the request from users to have a black front with the red back. The second is that it will help differentiate between an iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 that are in PRODUCT(RED).

Personally, I like the look of the PRODUCT(RED) iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Even though It would be great to see a Product Red iPhone X.

Even though there is not a PRODUCT(RED) iPhone X, there is a PRODUCT(RED) iPhone X Leather Folio.

The PRODUCT(RED) iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X Leather Folio will be available for order starting tomorrow, April 10th, 2018, with products available in stores on April 13th, 2018.

If you do not want an iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X Leather Folio, there are more options available PRODUCT(RED) on Apple's PRODUCT(RED) page.

Source: apple.com

I listen to a lot of podcasts and many of them are technology-focused, which likely would come as o surprise to nobody. One of the announcement that Apple made at their Let's Take a Field Trip event was that their iOS app named Classroom was coming to the Mac.

The Classroom app allows teachers to perform a variety of tasks. Some of these include:

• Launch any app, website, or book on student devices with a tap
• Lock devices into a single app to help students focus
• Lock screens to pause work or refocus your class
• Mute audio on student devices

• See an overview of all student screens at once
• Focus on a single student screen
• Students are informed when their screens are being viewed

What I heard many times was that the Classroom app was being ported to the Mac because the teachers are more accustom to the Mac. I understand the idea behind it. Meaning that teachers are not used to iPads. I think that for a percentage of teachers this is true, however I do not think this is the primary driving factor. Let us start with a scenario.

Imagine that you are a teacher with 25 kids. You are doing a lesson that involves showing the students the planets and what you are showing them is a video that is within the app. Along with this you would like to make sure that the students are paying attention. Since the iPad that you, as the teacher, are using is showing the app, so you cannot monitor what the students are doing.

Now, with the Classroom app on the nearby Mac, you can now keep an eye on what the students are doing while the video is playing, and if necessary put them back on task.

We are definitely in a transition time, but the immediate thought that teachers are "olds" and need to use a Mac to get stuff done. While that may be the case for a number of teachers, the ability to use the Classroom app on the Mac, in addition to an iPad, will allow teachers to monitor the students even if the iPad is currently in use.

There is a set of products that Apple has made available for purchase that have not been previously available. When the iMac Pro was unveiled people noticed that the peripherals that come with the iMac Pro match the iMac Pro, meaning that they will be Space Gray. At the time it was indicated that the Space Gray accessories would be exclusively available with the purchase of an iMac Pro. This is no longer the case.

The exact accessories that are available are the Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse, and Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. These accessories are the same as their aluminum counterparts, however they do cost a bit more; $20 more to be exact. This means that the Space Gray Magic Trackpad costs $149, the Space Gray Magic Mouse is $99, and the Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad costs $149.

The Space Gray accessories are available for ordering today and ship this week. It would be nice to have a regular Magic Keyboard in Space Gray, but Apple does not make one available for the iMac Pro, so it does not seem like Apple would make a Space Gray accessory available that is not also available for the iMac Pro. Maybe Apple will make a wireless Space Gray Magic Keyboard without the Numeric Keypad at some point in the future, but it may also not come at all.

Apple has a part of the education market from the early days of Apple. All the way back to 1978 to be exact. Today Apple has reinforced their education commitment. Apple held their education event at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago, Illinois. The event is focused on education and they have delivered in a big way.

Being in Chicago, Apple provided a couple of tidbits about Chicago Public Schools. The Chicago Public Schools is working with Apple to teach more than 370,000 students how to code. Alongside this, the venue for the event, Lane Tech College Prep, has had more PhD graduate from there than any other school in the country.

Many questions why Apple would hold an education event at the end of the school year, but this is the perfect time because now is when schools start buying for next year. So this is the perfect time to hold an event.

Tools for Educators

Apple has released some new tools specifically for the K-12 market. These include Shared iPad Support, Classroom app, and Schoolwork.

Shared iPads

Shared iPads is not a new feature, it has actually been around for a couple of years, but it is worth reiterating because it can be an invaluable feature for classrooms so that every student does not necessarily need their own dedicated iPad but can indeed share amongst many students. Students can login to any iPad and get all of their data within minutes.

Classroom

The "Classroom" app was introduced in 2017 with iOS 11. Classroom allows teachers to keep an eye on what their students are doing. If a student is not following along, they can get the student back on track by bringing up the necessary application or website. Similarly, if a student needs some assistance, the teacher can help the student and guide them to where they need to be. There is a new feature for Classroom, Classroom is coming to the Mac.

All of the same features that are available on iPad will be available on the Classroom app for Mac. This will be available as a beta in June.

Schoolwork

Schoolwork is a free web-based app, that allows you to give handouts, provide progress, These handouts can include web links, PDFS, and other documents. Additionally, educators can not only send students a link to an application, but they can now send a link to a specific activity within an application. The ability to send a specific activity will help teachers be able to direct students to exactly what the teacher hopes to be able to assign.

Assigning is not enough though, Schoolwork will also allow teachers to check on the progress of students. At a single glance a teacher can get a quick overview of how all of the students are doing. If they tap on any student, they can then get a detailed view of how the student performed on that activity.

With students using technology for an ever increasing percentage of their work, an area for concern is how to keep that information safe. As one can guess, Apple takes privacy very seriously, and the privacy of student data even more seriously than most. Teachers are the only ones that can see how a student is performing. Apple cannot, nor can anyone else.

These activities are not just going to magically appear, they will require developer support and developers have a new framework to help create these activities, it is

Schoolwork will be available in June.

Apple Teacher

Apple has also introduced a new resource specifically aimed at teachers themselves, it is called Apple Teacher. Apple Teacher is a free web-based tool to help teachers build their skills as a teacher.

Apple Teacher Learning Center is where you can get learn to get the most out of Apple's technologies as well as providing new ideas to bring creative ideas to the classroom. Apple Teacher is available at https://appleteacher.apple.com/

Everyone Can

One of Apple's core beliefs is that having everyone learn to code is an important part of today's education. This is not only to provide a path for future developers, but also because it can teach other skills like critical thinking and problem solving. This is a great idea for those interested in coding.

Everyone can code has guides for teachers, including rubrics, keynote presentations and more. Everyone can code is not new, but it is a resource that is available on apple.com. Apple is also working with ConnectEd and 40 STEM organizations, including App Camp for Girls.

Create

Apple has ideas that go beyond coding. Apple is building a new curriculum to augment the coding, this one is based around any subject. This is focused on four skills areas. These areas are: music, video, photography, and drawing. There will be student guide as well as teacher guides available. It is available for <a href="https://www.apple.com/education/everyone-can-create/'>preview now. With more coming in the summer to be prepared for the fall semester.

While many of these resources are not new, they are resources that many, including myself, may not have known about. It is imperative to allow teachers help students learn and develop new skills that will benefit them beyond the classroom.

iCloud Storage

Every Apple ID gets 5GB of storage for free, this includes education accounts. This 5GB limit is quite restrictive for everyone, but is particularly hard on schools particularly if students want to be able to store a video. Apple has increased the storage limit on all accounts that managed through the Apple School Manager software. Instead of only having 5GB of storage, each account gets 200GB of storage.

iPad

Besides the new tools that Apple has provided for educators they have released the sixth generation 9.7-inch iPad. The 9.7-inch iPad has some new internals, specifically the A10 processor, and Apple Pencil support. The support for Apple Pencil is the same as the iPad Pro.

The A10 Processor allows users to use Augmented reality applications, just like the other iOS devices. The price remains the same at $329 and is available to order now and arrives later this week.

iWork

Apple has updated their iWork suite to support the Apple Pencil.

There is an additional set of features for Pages. A new feature called "Smart Annotations". Instead of needing to manually print out and mark up a student's homework, a teacher can now add note for the student to adjust. These notes are not just standard annotations, but will remain with the text.

This is not just for the device versions of iWork, but these features also work on the iCloud.com version of the iWork applications as well.

Digital Book Creation

One of the strategies for Apple is the creation of digital books. Apple has built-in some new features to Pages that will help with the creation. These features include:

• Image Galleries
• The ability to have video with sound, and can even record directly on an iPad
• Drawing support built-in

Books created with Pages meet ePub standards for books. While some of these features are similar to Apple's iBooks Author application, it does not negate the interactivity and features of an iBooks Author.

Even though they are not the same, the ability to create ebooks directly on the iPad is a huge benefit, not just for writers, but also for educators and students to be able to create books that they want.

Final Thoughts

I think Apple's focus on education is an important one, not only because education is a huge part of the overall market, but because it is the foundation that will help students of all ages. This is valuable because they will be the ones who help move society forward, they are the ones who will be the next astronauts, teachers, and scientists. Without education, and in particular teachers, we would not be able to move forward.

Providing the resources for teachers is what Apple is all about when it comes to education. Whether it is using the Classroom app, the Schoolwork app, and even the iPad with Pencil support will all allow the next generation to keep everything going and moving the world forward.

I do not post about everything Apple does, mostly just the big stories. However, this story is one that embodies many things that Apple is passionate about. According to the proposal:

“Apple is requesting the addition of emoji to better represent individuals with disabilities. Currently, emoji provide a wide range of options, but may not represent the experiences of those with disabilities. Diversifying the options available helps fill a significant gap and provides a more inclusive experience for all.”

Apple has proposed some new emoji that depicts disabled users. One of the focal points for everything that Apple does is accessibility. For a long time now, Apple has made sure that everything they do is accessible for all users. These are proposed for Unicode 12.0, which will likely be approved in the Fall of 2018 and could be seen in the Spring of 2019, or even the fall of 2019. It is great to see Apple proposing emoji for those with disabilities.

: Emojipedia via SixColors.