Page 23 - Aruba Today

TECHNOLOGY A23
Tech Review: Ditch your PC, if you’re willing to suffer a little
ANICK JESDANUN
AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Plenty of
people do all their Face-
booking, YouTubing, Web
surfing and whatnot on
mobile devices. But not ev-
eryone. Lots of us still rely
on personal computers for
plenty of tasks. Take writers, now let you run apps side
for instance, for whom a
physical keyboard is often
a must.
But the tech industry keeps
trying to come up with
lighter and cheaper alter-
natives to the traditional
laptop. New gadgets
from Apple, Microsoft and
Google all harbor such
ambitions, to varying de-
grees. Google’s Pixel C
tablet came out Tuesday.
All have their shortcomings,
though they offer some sur-
prises as well.
Microsoft’s Surface tablets
aren’t part of this review,
basically because includ-
ing them would be cheat-
ing.
Surfaces are full-fledged
PCs already; they just
feature magnetically at-
tached keyboard covers
in place of a built-in key-
board. Here, I was more
interested in devices that
weren’t originally designed
as PCs.
In fact, I avoided PCs
for a full week to test out
these alternatives.
IPAD PRO
I started with a bus ride
from New York to Philadel-
phia. The seat had little leg- limited to storing them in
Apple CEO: More computer science and coding education needed
BREE FOWLER
AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Teaching
kids to code is just as impor- today is huge, but it’s going
tant as teaching them any
other language. And the
younger they start learning
it, the better, Apple CEO
Tim Cook said Wednesday.
Cook spoke to a group of
New York third graders who
visited a Manhattan Apple
store for an “Hour of Code”
class. In an interview after-
ward, he said that schools
aren’t putting enough
emphasis on computer-
science education, but he
has “great hope” that will
change and coding will
ultimately become a re-
room, yet Apple’s iPad Pro
($799 and up) felt comfort-
able on my lap, perched
on a physical-keyboard
cover ($169) that folds into
a kickstand.
The tablet ran Microsoft
Word for writing and Excel
for spreadsheets. All iPads
by side, something you can
really only appreciate with
the Pro’s 12.9-inch screen.
But it’s still not possible to
open multiple Word or Ex-
cel documents at once.
To copy text from one to
another, you still have to
close the first document
and open the second.
Adobe’s Lightroom worked
fine for basic photo editing,
and the resulting images
seemed more vivid on the
iPad than on my years-old
Mac laptop. But I needed
the Mac to get the photos
off my camera’s memory
card in the first place, as
the iPad doesn’t have an
SD card slot.
The iPad easily handled
much more prosaic tasks.
Paying bills and organiz-
ing my photos online were
also straightforward, al-
though drag-and-drop
features are tougher to use
without a trackpad. I even
scanned some documents
via an app for my wireless
Canon scanner.
Then came the reality
check. On the Mac, I orga-
nize documents by folder
to keep them straight. On
the iPad, my options were
quired class for all kids.
“From an economic stand-
point the job segment itself
to become even larger,”
Cook said. And if the con-
cepts are introduced at a
young age, in a fun way,
it’s more likely that kids will
find them cool and stay
interested as they grow
older, hopefully resulting in
a larger and more diverse
tech workforce down the
road, he said. Cook added
that even if kids don’t grow
up to get a lucrative job
in the tech industry, they’ll
discover a new way to be
creative and pick up im-
portant problem-solving
Friday 11 December 2015
The new Google Pixel C tablet is on display during a Google apps tougher.
event, in San Francisco. The tech industry keeps trying to come The Pixel is easier to carry
up with lighter and cheaper alternatives to the traditional laptop, around, with its smaller,
and new gadgets from Apple, Microsoft, Google and Asus all 10.2-inch screen. The key-
harbor such ambitions, to varying degrees. Google’s Pixel C board is smaller to match.
came out Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. Rather than squeeze keys
closer together, the Pixel
(AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File) moves less-used charac-
ters, such as brackets, to
the iPad’s photo gallery or cluding a high-resolution an on-screen display.
emailing copies to myself. screen and a keyboard The Pixel can run many
The iPad is meant to keep ($149) that attaches se- of the apps that the iPad
things simple. There’s no curely to the screen. You can, and it faces similar
messy folder system, and can hold the unit by either challenges with file man-
iPad apps are often limited the tablet or the keyboard agement and trackpad-
to a subset of the features half — even upside down. less drag and drop.
you can find on PCs. The magnet is very strong,
But work and life can be unlike that of Microsoft’s LUMIA 950
complex, and you some- Surface. The screen angle Microsoft’s Lumia 950
times need a device that is also adjustable, unlike ($599) is a phone that can
can mirror that complexity. the iPad Pro. turn into a desktop PC of
The Pro is a good supple- Multiple people can share sorts when attached to the
ment, but it’s no laptop re- the Android-based Pixel; company’s Display Dock
placement. it’s possible to set up indi- ($99) — a 2.5-inch square
vidual profiles and save box that hooks up to a TV
PIXEL C settings, unlike the iPad. But or external monitor. You
Google’s Pixel C tablet the Pixel can’t display apps can connect a keyboard
($499 and up) has many side-by-side, which makes and mouse as well.
laptop characteristics, in- copying text between The setup is novel, but
you have to buy and
carry around the dock,
along with extra cords
and your own keyboard-
mouse combo. Using a
TV as a monitor presents
a distance problem: Ei-
ther you’re too close to
the screen if you’re work-
ing from a nearby desk, or
you’re too far away on a
couch or hotel bed.
A laptop is easier to stow.
Using this is like setting up
an actual desktop, even if
it’s running off your phone.
The software is clunky, too.
Many Windows apps won’t
work on the phone. q
Apple CEO Tim Cook, standing right, and Apple software en- skills along the way. The
gineer and Vice President Cheryl Thomas, center, pose for a kids at Wednesday’s event
group photo with third grade students at an Apple Store after played with a Star Wars-
participating in a coding class, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015 in New themed game created by
York. the non-profit group Code.
org in partnership with Dis-
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) ney. On iPad Minis, they
used basic drag-and-drop
commands to program
their droid to do things like
pick up scrap metal and
evade Stormtroopers.
Their teacher, Joann Khan,
said Wednesday’s intro-
duction to coding was
probably a first for most of
her students, noting that
her school, located in
Manhattan’s East Harlem
neighborhood, no longer
has a computer lab.q