Microsoft leaves Apple in the dust with tablet and laptop innovation in 2015
[MUSIC]
What's going on?
Brian Tong here, and welcome to theapplebyte for everything good and bad inside the world of Apple.
Now if you were paying attention to the tech world this week, Microsoft had the best tech [UNKNOWN] we've seen this entire year.
What?
That's right, I said it.
The best [UNKNOWN] of the year.
Their stand out products were a direct shot at Apple with the Surface Pro and Surface Book.
Now, the Surface Pro Four is bringing sky lake processors alongside their true desktop OS.
Their surface pen can magnetically attach to their tablet, and the opposite side of the pen can be used like an eraser.
How clever is that?
See?
That's one of those charming things that you would never thought of that Apple used to do when SJ was around.
The iPad Pro just brings a bigger screen size and their pencil.
Still sounds like a stylus to me, Brian.
Yes, Charlie, I know.
Thank you for that.
And even Microsoft's head of Windows and devices, Tyler Myerson, sent a shot out to Apple and Tim Cook with his tweet of a toaster and a refrigerator.
See?
That's a callback to April 2012, when Tim Cook offered his opinion on the tablet/laptop hybrid.
And said, you can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user.
I would honestly, like an actual refriger-toaster, Tim.
And the Surface Pro4 is amazing.
But let me be real, even though I want one.
All my music, and movies, and TV shows are in the Apple ecosystem.
I'm still getting an iPad Pro.
And I love it, but I just know that the Surface Pro 4 is a superior product.
And then, you can't deny that the Surface Book, Microsoft's first ever laptop that they designed and built in-house, is one of the most innovative products of 2015.
They built a laptop.
With a screen that pops off and becomes its own clipboard, and then you can also flip it and reverse it, just like Missy Elliott said.
[MUSIC]
To use as a canvas with twice the power of the MacBook Pro 13 inch.
Now, if you love tech and you wanna see innovation, look at what Microsoft just did.
Apple will probably sell more iPads and MacBooks combined, but Microsoft Just kicked Apple in their you-know-what, and that's real talk.
So, what does Apple have up its sleeve, or you know, maybe on its fingers?
Well the U. S. Patent and Trademark office published a patented application from Apple for their next potential wearable.
Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the one Apple Ring to rule them all.
This is for real.
And the Apple Ring is described as a wearable computer that would incorporate touch sensitive surfaces, gesture sensors, voice input recognition, a camera A microphone and more.
The application says the Apple ring could be used with a smart TV and acts like a pointer on an external display.
It could also be wirelessly charged in your car by a smart steering wheel.
Buy an Apple car, and in 2020 you can wirelessly charge your Apple ring.
See this thing is already more useful than the Apple watch.
[LAUGH] I'm kidding.
Kind of.
Now this doesn't mean they're actually gonna do this.
But look at those drawings.
Do you realize how huge that ring would have to be?
It's like wearing an Apple watch on a single finger.
And yes, it would still look big if you have fat sausage fingers.
And who's going to be the first person that does a marriage proposal with this Apple ring?
Probably one of you watching.
All right.
In products that you can actually buy, Apple announced a new Beats Pill Plus wireless Bluetooth speaker.
Will be available in November for 229 bucks.
Their new Pill Plus is equipped with both Lightning and USB ports for charging.
And most importantly, brings improved sound that's louder, has more clarity and brings tighter bass from the original based on.
On CNet's own first impressions.
Now using the app, you can wirelessly pair to Pill Plus speakers for stereo sound, and two users can also connect their smartphones and alternate play music in a DJ mode that you've seen from other companies as well.
[SOUND] And this week marks the fourth anniversary of Steve Jobs' passing, and it's also the week that the Aaron Sorkin written movie Steve Jobs releases nationwide.
The movie has received praise from critics, but that hasn't necessarily been the case from the people closest to SJ.
Now Tim Cook received the number of recent Steve Jobs biopics on the Stephen Colbert Show, and called them opportunistic.
Sorkin fired back with if you've got a factory full of children in China assembling phones for 17 cents an hour, you've got a lot of nerve calling someone else opportunistic.
[MUSIC]
Sorkin later apologized to Tim Cook, saying both of them probably went a little too far.
[MUSIC]
People close to Jobs like Steve Wozniak, Andy Hertzfeld, and John Sculley agree that the film does take a lot of liberties with the fact But Wozniak liked the film, Hertzfeld said it exposes some deeper truths, and Sculley says it's extraordinary entertainment that depicts only one aspect of the man.
The Wall Street Journal reports Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, repeatedly tried to block production of the movie because it portrayed Jobs as cruel and inhumane.
She was offered to be involved with development, but she declined.
Now, I'm exciting to see this movie and I will after I sneak in a couple of spam musubis after a good day on the beach in Hawaii next week.
So just in case there's no show, you'll know why and don't complain to me on Twitter.
Alright that's going to do it, email me at theapplebyte@cnet.com or tweet me at @briantong and I'll respond if I get a signal on the top of Ko Ko Head.
Thanks so much for watching, we'll catch you all next time for a byte.
Of the Apple.
Aloha!
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[MUSIC]
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