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What to Expect at Apple's 'Let's Take a Field Trip' Educational Event on March 27

Dorje Sylas said:
From a classroom use standpoint the iPad and iOS major drawback continues to be the lack of Multi-User. You can't have students "log in" to any device. There has also been no good remote monitoring solution. In the "Mac" space just being able to have all the kids screens up on the a main projector (even at super tiny resolution) is an amazing deterrent to students trying to sneak off to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or SnapChat.

Even as an ex-Apple-user I'll be interested to see how Classroom 2.2 has improved monitoring and control capabilities.

Google almost has the right of it with Chromebooks, but they're also missing a middle step that Apple is in a far better position to do (if they get back into Apple Servers). Mobile Tablets work best when they can be the lightweight front ends to a bigger beefier computer/data-system. They have just enough brains to be more reliable than a dumb terminal, but not enough to be truly flexible work environments (unless go out of your way to make them do so). Google's solution is to "Cloud" based, and outside the School or Classroom's local network. Apple should have been in a position with the iPad 2 years ago to tie them into an Apple (MacMini) Server that handles the majority of the student data. With only "just in time" local copies on the iPads themselves.

Never understood why Apple didn't sell iPads + MacMinis as college student solutions. In the dorm room the iPad becomes the "screen/head" of the MacMini. Walking about the iPad has just enough smarts for taking notes and basic word processing tasks. Most people don't need a full MacBook or Macbook Pro's worth of processing power on the go, but when they sit down at "home".
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It is not quite as robust as using a Chromebook (where a user can sign in to any device), but Apple School Manager/Classroom allow a teacher to assign students to iPads and they can log in to the devices themselves. A typical example is a classroom that has a cart of iPads. A teacher will assign a student in each class period to a specific iPad in the cart. When a new period starts, the student just grabs their assigned iPad, selects their personal account, and types their personal PIN code to log in.

There are secondary benefits to ASM. Each student has their own Managed AppleID, owned by the school, not the student. It is a very limited account, for example, they have iCloud space, but can not buy anything from the App Store.

Also, using a Classroom assigned iPad, the teacher can remotely monitor the student activity, force a specific App or Webpage to open, or even remotely lock all iPads.

Here is a good overview:
https://www.apple.com/education/it/
 
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My prediction:
If any new hardware at all is revealed, it'll be a cheapo iPad & a pencil. That's it. This event is about their education software. - snooze fest (for us non-teachers & non students)
 
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Relentless Power said:
It won’t happen during this educational Keynote. Maybe the Fall, if at all. I predict Apple keeps the SE in their line up for another year and it seems likely they may not have an SE 2.
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Perhaps it indicates they don’t Need to be placed perfectly on the Airpower in order to charge properly.
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Yeah I know it eats into their "X" sales!
 
dan9700 said:
As usall everyone over hyping something it will just be a minor thing for teachers and students nothing great
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Exactly this... If they were going to drop a mess of new hardware they would live stream the keynote. Not much coming.
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shareef777 said:
I’m willing to bet the new iPad will just be a lower spec current iPad for $279.
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I think you're correct on your assumption
 
Expect nothing, why is there even a countdown for this? It's not a consumer event.
 
Hi Apple! What about giving us iMac Pro owners proper Bootcamp support? Right now, the graphics driver is a joke, the speakers and headphone output don't work properly, and the Apple bluetooth peripherals don't work. These are issues that seriously need to be fixed.
 
shareef777 said:
I’m willing to bet the new iPad will just be a lower spec current iPad for $279.
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I don’t see them going backwards in specs. What would they give it, an A8 processor? And then drop support when iOS 13 comes out in 18 months? It would make more sense just to lower the price of the current entry model than to release a new product that would be out of date as soon as it launches.

Keep in mind that they’re targeting it at schools, and although/because schools have limited budgets they (I should say ‘we’, as I’m a teacher) invest in hardware that will be supported and usable for at least 5 years!
 
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Mac32 said:
Hi Apple! What about giving us iMac Pro owners proper Bootcamp support? Right now, the graphics driver is a joke, the speakers and headphone output don't work properly, and the Apple bluetooth peripherals don't work. These are issues that seriously need to be fixed.
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Sounds to me like you want Winblows!
 
If they really want to compete with Chromebooks, Apple needs to offer a cheap clamshell device. Detachable typecovers are no substitute for keyboards in shared devices. There is a reason Logitech offers this monstrosity for education:

logitech-rugged-800x493.jpg
 
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enc0re said:
If they really want to compete with Chromebooks, Apple needs to offer a cheap clamshell device. Detachable typecovers are no substitute for keyboards in shared devices. There is a reason Logitech offers this monstrosity for education:

logitech-rugged-800x493.jpg
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Why do kids in school even need computers? When I was in school we learned the hard way. I had at least to huge backpacks of textbooks!
 
I expect the lack of a live video event is due to privacy concerns.
We should see an edited video later.
 
Wouldn’t an update like an iPhone SE2 or MacBook be something that is live-streamed?

I think it would, so it’s probably l not going to be those two
 
I will say that the name “Air” will be eliminated for the macbooks.

Currently Apple doesn’t sell an iPad Air so it makes sence to cut the Macbook Air since there is no iphone Air as well. Also the current Macbooks air slimmer and more slick than the older Macbook Air.

So the new Macbook will just be called Macbook and price will be cheaper than the current cheapest Macbook since Apple is targeting schools.

Update:
It seems Apple will nit announce a Macbook in the school since there is the ipad with pencil and keyboard so that is already a two in one so it makes no sense for them to introduce a new maxbook their.
 
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joeblow7777 said:
I don’t see them going backwards in specs. What would they give it, an A8 processor? And then drop support when iOS 13 comes out in 18 months? It would make more sense just to lower the price of the current entry model than to release a new product that would be out of date as soon as it launches.

Keep in mind that they’re targeting it at schools, and although/because schools have limited budgets they (I should say ‘we’, as I’m a teacher) invest in hardware that will be supported and usable for at least 5 years!
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But they did exactly that with the current $329 iPad. We went from the Air2 to the current iPad. Lost laminated display and went from a 3core proc to dual core.
 
For the Apple pencil my prediction is:

The current pencil will be used with the “new” cheaper ipad. And a “newer” pencil with more features will be for the upcoming ipad pros. The price of the current pencil will be cheaper since they are targeting schools.

Also a keyboard will also be introduced. But this might canabolize the ipad pros so the pro updates need to be strong or else cannibalization will occur!
 
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joeblow7777 said:
I don’t see them going backwards in specs. What would they give it, an A8 processor? And then drop support when iOS 13 comes out in 18 months? It would make more sense just to lower the price of the current entry model than to release a new product that would be out of date as soon as it launches.

Keep in mind that they’re targeting it at schools, and although/because schools have limited budgets they (I should say ‘we’, as I’m a teacher) invest in hardware that will be supported and usable for at least 5 years!
Click to expand...

What if apple re brand’s the 9.7 IPad Pro from two years ago?
 
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shareef777 said:
But they did exactly that with the current $329 iPad. We went from the Air2 to the current iPad. Lost laminated display and went from a 3core proc to dual core.
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If I’m not mistaken the A9 in the current iPad actually out performs the A8X in the Air 2, even with only 2 cores. That’s the advantage of being a year more advanced.

But the fact that the current iPad is only a slight internal upgrade over the Air 2 is another reason why they can’t take a step back in specs. What do you expect the next iPad to have, specs comparable to the iPad Air of 2013?
 
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