03-07-2026 War Tech Unveiled: Iran's Shahed Drones, GPS Jamming, Satellite Power & Apple's New $599 MacBook Neo

In this week's Tech Talk on WDBO 107.3 FM and AM 580 in Orlando, David Leavitt and Adam Littlefield from Refresh Computer Superstore dive into cutting-edge war technology amid the ongoing Iran conflict, exploring Shahed drones, GPS-guided munitions, electronic warfare, and satellite imagery. 

They also break down Apple's latest affordable MacBook Neo, powered by an iPhone A18 chip and running full macOS at just $599. 

Tune in for Central Florida tech insights on military innovations and consumer gadgets.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. And you can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have any other comments during the show, go ahead and use the open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at RefreshComputers.net or stop it at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. And if you're listening to our show here on Saturday, means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now, David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to yet another edition of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. We have a really cool show today because we're going to talk a lot about war technology and some other things too. But, you know, with the war going on or conflict going on in Iran, you know, I thought it would be pertinent to talk about the technology behind a lot of this stuff going on today because, you know, we've really come a long way. We went from, you know, I love the smell of napalm in the morning to GPS guided missile systems.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

It's a crazy thing to say that, by the way, from our conventional weaponry we used to have to now weapons that we can guide over technology with satellite imagery, like you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Like you mentioned, it happened so quickly.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

It did. It didn't just shows you how fast technology advances. And having a technology show like this, I'd love to be able to showcase the technology behind a lot of that, those weapon systems. So we're going to break that down and a little later we're going to get into some other normal kind of stuff. Consumer tech. You know, the normal stuff we talk about.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

You mean I don't have a tactical drone in my backyard?

SPEAKER_01 1:58

I sure hope you don't, Greg. Well, and then, you know, so the later on topics are going to be uh concerning Apple's decision to put iPhone brain inside a MacBook.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, that's that's an interesting one to me.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

I'm I'm excited to talk about that one. Yeah, it might be a little crazy, but maybe not. Maybe not. It's gonna drive the price of a MacBook down quite a bit. So stay tuned for that. But let's get into this. You know, uh, you know, we've been hearing a lot in the news about the conflict involving Iran, right? Um again, uh no politics here. We're just gonna go into technology. So we've ex uh what we're just explaining the technology behind the modern war warfare because of a lot of it involves the same electronics and communication systems we use today. Yeah. And everyday use in our in our everyday lives. It's and so let's talk about uh drone technology first, Adam. I want to talk about Iran's drone technology and the name of their drones, they're called a Shah Head drone. It's S-H-A-H-E-D, if you want to look it up. And and it's a drone developed by the Iranian government and the Iranian military. And they're uh this is what you know they're launching hundreds, if not thousands, of all over, you know, all over the Middle East. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

Yeah, some 15 countries right now dealing with impacts from Iranian drones right now.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So uh Shahad drones you know are called you know more loitering munitions, if you will. Meaning they are one way, they attack, they attack, and they crash into the target and explode. Pretty simple, right? Single use, single use, single use uh uh payload, I guess. Payload that's probably in the thirty to fifty thousand dollars for each one cost, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Which you know, looking to the military's budget for just the world, fifty or thirty to fifty thousand dollars, that's not that much money compared to building a conventional missile.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Exactly. So and they have a range, you know. The range when I look this up, it kind of surprises me. You know, they can get some estimates are maybe up to two thousand miles, these things can go. Wow. And they're only eleven feet long. So they're eleven feet long, they have about an eight-foot wingspan, so it it flies with wings, not like just a missile. And uh, you know, it's a triangular aircraft design. They have a rear propeller engine, we know that. Um, and of course, they have an explosive warhead, but what gets them where they need to go is the GPS navigation system. So, you know, all those GPS satellites up there that give us Google directions, uh, give us, you know, all kinds of information that's useful for our our everyday lives. The same GPS technology is guiding the Iranian Shawhead drones to their target. So they're pre-programmed to where they need to go. It's just okay, you're gonna go to these GPS coordinates, and boom, it goes there. You know, pretty simple, basic stuff by today's technology.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah. I I like your comparison of Google Maps because that's exactly what I'm imagining in my head. That's the only way I can imagine it is like a graphic of Google Maps. You just plot a pin down and and your drone will can will it will fly there.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Turn it in five hours.

unknown 5:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

So yeah, so and they like excuse me, they like to launch them in waves also, right? Because they're harder to to knock down in waves. So um it's like a flying robot bomb.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yeah, it it's it's like a flying robot bomb, but it's a lot cheaper than launching a jet, right? True. Yeah, true. You know, with with a lot of this technology now, especially with GPS, you know, we see it in our everyday lives, right? And we're like you and I are you said in the beginning of the show, we are seeing changes in warfare now with this technology, but this has been there, you know. This isn't something that was groundbreaking and released last night.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

It it no, it you're right. It was developed but over the last decade or so, right? I mean, probably not may maybe even you know, it keeps advancing, right, and technology. And but uh this is uh a kind of war that you know we're not really we're not used to seeing, you know. And so and defending, but uh is is another thing that we have to talk about because you know what what do we have that defends against these kinds of attacks from these Shah Head drones?

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Because at the same time, we also have to look at Iran's I mean, huge ballistic missile arsenal. Right. Yeah. So they have the drones and they have the but their ballistic missiles. So the the big difference, I guess, is right, drones use the GPS coordinates and then you know, low altitude, they just fly to where they're supposed to impact, and then you know, it's a one-way ticket to wherever they're going and it explodes. And the same thing with ballistic missiles, but uh in effect, I mean the ballistic missiles they launch, of course, high into the atmosphere, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

They're high they they launch high, so you know, outside that thousand, two thousand mile range that we we mentioned for the drones, but they're also faster.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

They are much faster, yes, and they also carry much larger payloads. We talk about an eleven-foot drone that is propelled by a uh propeller. There's not so much weight that you can put on that to make sure it remains airborne, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Right. But you know, if you're looking at the comparisons between a ballistic missile and a drone here, you look at a drone, they're kind of pinpoint with their size, you know? And and along with the cost too, you're saving on a lot more than just the drone itself.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Well, and yeah, and so uh you know, going back to the drones and talking about how they use GPS technology, you so why can't we just shut down the GPS satellites that are that they're using but because uh we're not the only ones that have GPS satellites, we call them GPS satellites. There's Russian satellites also, uh GLONUS uh satellites, and then Baidu, I can't pronounce that name, from China. So they all have their own you know GPS satellites because you know obviously China's well they do use our GPS satellites because they're pretty open. Um but you know the they're not gonna they're not gonna use our GPS system to guide these missiles, is what I'm what I'm saying. They're using China's and they're using Russia's GPS satellite systems. So that's how that's how that works, and and that's how we can't just shut them down that way. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

So you also have to kind of think about too with uh with all of these satellite-based, you know, global positioning systems, we're looking at the risk of, you know, like Dave's saying, we can't just shut them down. There's no chance of shooting them out of the sky because we risk space debris, which is something that nobody wants to deal with. But we also have to think about just repercussions like satellites for phones, for example. All of our phones are using some sort of satellite, whether it may be um for connectivity. I know T-Mobile pushed that a while ago. But there's a lot of other things like positioning, like with your your maps, for example. Right. So you disrupt a little bit of the net and millions and millions of people are just suddenly impacted beyond what you're focusing on.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

So you're right, and you know, and we can't uh defend against well, we can. I'm gonna get into how we can defend against some of these uh GPS satellites supplied by Russia and China, because the that gets into the another area of modern warfare technology. Right. And that's called electronic warfare, and it's actually a that's an actual term used in the military, EW, electronic warfare. And that consists of jamming those GPS satellites when possible, uh, you know, and signal interference, radar disruption. So instead of destroying the weapon, they attempt to confuse a navigation system and let it you know go off course. Yeah, destroy itself in the lack of a better term. And hopefully not some civilian place down below, you know. So it's a lot like you know, making the drone lose its sense of direction. Like bearings.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Punch a shark in the nose.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

That's right. You punch it in the nose.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

You really just just stir up its head a little bit and just shake it, and who knows where it's going after that.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

And that that is, again, like you mentioned, the bit of the concern. There were there were uh some incidents so far that they're still under investigation as to far as how these certain things happen. And we'll see uh what comes out of those investigations. But as this technology continues to develop, I guess the concern is how do you defend against it and is it worth it to defend against it, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

It's right, it's very uh expensive to defend against it. You're talking about uh you know throwing a rock at a thousand dollar windshield. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. So I mean i i it it it's hard to to defend against you know something like that. It's not hard to defend against, it's just expensive.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

It's hard to make it worth it because if we're looking at it like this, the attack drones they cost, like you said, around thirty thousand, fifty thousand dollars to make one of them. The interceptor missiles on most modern defense weapon systems now over the world cost you know hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars to make one of those interceptors.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

And when you're talking about that, you're talking about like kind of the iron dome that's Israel, you're talking about the different NATO munitions that are used in that area as well in places like Turkey and the potential future of a golden dome that's been talked about over North America. Right. And yeah, like you mentioned, those missiles are extremely expensive. I guess the idea would be to kind of combat drones with drones. Would that be an is that something I know we talk a lot about of the swarms and the cost effectiveness here? Yeah, but uh it's it's you've got to find that balance. Again, you don't want to get attacked by these fifty thousand dollar drones that are causing millions of dollars in damage plus civilian casualties.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Right. Hundreds and thousands of them. It and you know, and if we have to launch a a million dollar missile to kill a thirty thousand dollar drone, I mean, uh pretty soon, you know, and I think this might be one of Iran's uh tactics is to, you know, you you might have heard this, you know, the kind of waiting things out.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

You know, they don't you know let's let's just make them use up all their expensive weaponry because we don't you know we don't have uh unlimited supply on an unlimited supply, and especially after recent actions between Ukraine and Russia, and then the previous year over the previous years the the uh issues in Israel themselves, as well as last year's 12-day war with Iran. So there's a there's a lot there that's they're still kind of rebuilding some of those stockpiles of the haven caught up with.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

And I read it take took takes five years to rebuild that stockpile. So it's not something that you know it's gonna happen overnight. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

And you know, you were talking, Greg, about what are we gonna be able to do if we fight drones with drones? And and that, to me, sounds like the only way to really economically do it right now. These interceptors are just they it is it is a a bleeding cut when you have those missiles going out for a little tiny drone.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Right. It's like uh combating a paper cut with a full stitch. Exactly. You know, is it necessary? Probably not, but it gets the job done and it's what we have available, right? Yes. It'll be interesting to see kind of how they develop that as again. This is uh this is gonna be a top of the story, top of the headlines kind of story for the foreseeable future when it comes to the mission there in Iran. And I think we're gonna continue to see some of this amazing war technology, for lack of a better term, this amazing war technology that's developed even from the last time that we had a major conflict in the Middle East that the US was involved in. And we haven't even talked about satellite imagery yet.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

I mean, that's another that's a whole nother angle.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

It's a whole other layer, but you know, it's it's fascinating that all the technology behind this, you know, GPS signals, our wireless communications, sensors, software, everything, that's in our everyday lives right now. That's right. And we're just seeing it applied in a different area and seeing what that can be done with now.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

That's a good segue, Adam, because you can see that like you said, the technology that you have in your hand today is being used in in in in warfare. And it's uh you know, it it's cheap to to to make these missiles, like we said, but it's very expensive to defend against them. So hopefully we'll be able to keep up with them.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

And we'll have more on that war tech as we continue this episode of Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073 FM and AM580. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling the free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have any other comments during the show, we'd love to hear them use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

All right, thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to this war technology edition of uh Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I'm glad you're listening in. And, you know, we were talking about, you know, a lot of the new technology that has uh surfaced that's being used in the current war or conflict with Iran right now. And you know, we left off when we talked about drones and how you know it relatively inexpensive they are to make. Uh specifically, we talked about the technology behind uh uh the Iranian drones called the Shah Head drones. And if you missed any of that, you can uh go to our website, click on refreshcomputers.net, and go up there and click on the podcast link, and you can hear the show in its entirety. And if you want to know when the show is ready for listening on the podcast, uh at the bottom of any page at refreshcomputers.net, there is a place where all you have to do is just enter your email address. We make it real simple. You enter your email address and you'll be added to our email list, and you'll be able to get details of the show and uh a link to listen to the show uh in an email as soon as it's available to listen to. And uh not only that, you'll be able to uh sign up for our refresh newsletter. Refresh newsletter comes out every Monday morning at around 7 a.m. with uh talking about a lot of the deals going on at Refresh Computers. So we were talking about war technology and we left off with satellites because uh that was like the last technology we wanted to talk about today and how they are also used, you know, with uh fighting this war in Iran. Of course, then you know we we have superior technology in this regard, right? So with uh the surveillance imagery that we're able to see kind of you know pinpoint you know, you you see some of these fuzzy photos in the news and videos in the news of a bomb hitting something or something that's from a satellite image satellite in most cases. And I think I think that you know they're showing a little blurrier version of what they could actually see. Probably it's probably really compressed. I think they can see better than that right now using these satellites up there.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

It's interesting to see a lot of the satellite imagery as well because it's real time and it's accurate. You're able to see you know movements actually on these satellite images, and you know, comparing that to older style surveillance where it was, you know, older spy planes that had to fly over, take pictures. Yeah. Pictures did not have clear quality, they weren't live, so you couldn't see what was rolled there five minutes after surveillance left. You don't know. But with with satellites, it's real time.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

It it it is real time, and you know, I I I think back to you know, something that's kind of old technology, but still really cool. It's Google Earth. Yes. So that's been around, I want to guess 10, 12 years now at least. It's been around a long time. Pretty cool. You know, you can zoom in on a house, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:22

See the roof, see all the way down to the street level of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Street level and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

I know I know roofing companies use that technology to evaluate your roof. Solar companies do it too. If it needs to be repaired, they will tell you from a satellite image. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

I just don't know and have to look this up. I don't know how recent the Google Earth images are, right? They're not live, they're not real time, of course. But my point being that that type of technology with excuse me, with Google Earth is coming to be is going to be live. It's it's going to be something that you know would have to figure out, you know, how the governments are going to you know squash people being able to spy on somebody in their backyard.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

And that was that was the exact point I'd make is you know, Google Earth, it's good in the sense that it's you can go anywhere in the world and view it, right? But it's not live. It can't be used for, like you were saying, just spying on somebody. But even still, to the government's level, to the military level for weaponry, Google Earth to them basically just became modern warfare. It really did, because they have their own live imagery and it's accurate. That's the scary part with the satellite imagery, it's it's accurate.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

If they want to see you live, they'll just hack into your doorbell camera, anyways. If you're listening to tech talk right here on WDBO, we'll continue this conversation on some new tech that Apple just unveiled here over the last week, some consumer level tech, as you will. Continue listening here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling the free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. And if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, that means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now back to David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Before the news break, we talked all about war technology. You know, it's especially concerning the conflict going on right now with uh with Iran. And so if you missed any of that, please go to the website at refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link, and you can hear the show in its entirety. Or more important, go down to the bottom of any page at refreshcomputers.net, put your email address in, and we'll email you a link to the podcast after as soon as the podcast goes out live. So you'll be able to pick it up from there. And you know, you'll also be able to get uh deals. Uh you know, we do an email every Monday morning that talks about deals at Refresh Computers, so you'll get that too. And typically, Adam, we only do just the two emails, right? Everyone's a good time. That's that's it. Just two a week. So we're not gonna be bombarding you every day, I promise, with oh, check this out, check that out. You know, we don't do that. I don't like that myself, so I'm not gonna put that on you. So uh you know, we this segment we want to talk about Apple. And what they're doing with their their new laptops. Can you buy these Neo laptops now? Are they out?

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Yeah, these uh so Apple they launched the uh the MacBook Neo is the name of it. They launched it on March 4th, um, so it is available for purchase. And it's it's an interesting one. I'm I'm very split on this. It's kind of Apple's version of a Chromebook. That that's a that's a perfect comparison of it because you know, Apple, I believe their entry-level MacBook so far has been about eleven hundred dollars, twelve hundred dollars. Yeah. They're releasing this MacBook Neo right now for six hundred dollars, I believe, five ninety-nine ninety nine.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

And it goes back to what I've always complained about Apple is they just you know, they are basically just a you know that looks nice and shiny and stuff, but they it's cheap.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

They're a premium company, but they they don't have the longevity it always feels like.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Right instead of screws and things, and they're very difficult, if not impossible, to work on. And it'll be interesting to see if these uh MacBook Neos are even able to be worked on. Probably not, is my guess.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

That's my my concern as well. You know, I can imagine they'll probably offer a replaceable battery, like I believe most MacBooks have had, but I think it's gonna be a lot, it's very akin to the MacBook Air. We're gonna probably see soldered memory, we're gonna see soldered RAM. Oh, yeah. But the main thing on this is it doesn't have a conventional MacBook processor. It doesn't have one of the M series that Apple's been making, doesn't have and doesn't have an Intel core. Apple is not going back to that. They put an iPhone chip in this MacBook.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

The A chip. The A18. The A18 chip they took out of uh the uh i the same one that they use in the iPhone, exact same chip.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Exactly. I believe it was used in the iPhone 16 Pro line um when they uh were releasing that. I believe it was last year. But this processor, it's it's still a good processor. I believe it's um a six-core CPU, has a five-core GPU on it. So, you know, this is this is the laptop that I would really say most people for web browsing, office work, like light office work, school use, maybe some light photo editing. It's a great entry-level MacBook to get into the ecosystem.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Well, and I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I think it's a probably a good idea for Apple to do something like that because you know, for years they they never really had a you know a really affordable right laptop.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

$600, sure, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

And six hundred dollars is still not cheap, but it is kind of an expensive Chromebook-like gadget. It's not a Chromebook, but it's kind of like a Chromebook, in my opinion. Because using that that same processor in a iPhone, you know, I mean, can you make calls with it?

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Uh as far as I'm aware, yeah. Most MacBooks they can they can do calls, texting, that's all part of Apple's ecosystem. But this laptop, if I remember correctly, it's it's launching with eight gigabytes of RAM, which for a modern system, this day and age running Mac OS, eight gigabytes is that's enough for the light work I think this will be doing.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

That was gonna be my next question. Is it running macOS or is it gonna be running some kind of streamlined version of it?

SPEAKER_00 25:05

It's it's gonna be running Mac OS Tahoe. Wow. So they're running full version on it. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

So you know you're a good question.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah, this is a good comparison of saying this is Apple's Chromebook, but without the Chrome OS.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

So they're using the iPhone CPU and a MacBook, right? But they're not using the Apple operating system or the iPhone operating system. Right. Using the MacBook operating system.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

So that's a that's a that's a testament to how good that processor is, too, going from a mobile phone to a laptop. But I know they're also offering expandable storage up to uh 500 gigabytes of storage. Um keyboard, it's not a backlit keyboard, so they're kind of cutting the price out there. It doesn't come with touch ID by default, so most MacBooks, you have a spot that you can just touch your finger to, unlocks it. That's a hundred dollar add-on. But it has a camera, so it has a built-in camera, 1080p camera. But the biggest thing for me, and this goes back to the old Mac older MacBook Airs that Apple released a while ago, there is no cooling system in this in this laptop. There is no active cooling system like a blowing fan. There's just a little bit of a copper heat sink and that's it. So the battery must have lasted a long time. Apple's boasting they're they're saying 16 hours of battery life on it. It's not that's not as like tip-top what you get out of the M-Series chip, but that's still really good for a mobile processor and a laptop.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Running a desktop.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

The full Mac operating system. But because it's using the iPhone, you know I mean, because the iPhone doesn't have a cooling system either.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

No, it's just got it's it's just got the body, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

So so it's using that iPhone CPU, it doesn't need the cooling system. And because it doesn't need a cooling system running a fan, the battery's gonna last longer. Right. I kind of I doubt 18 hours. You know, you you always take these, you know, every manufacturer, I don't care. Grain of salt. Dell, HP, Apple, you know, 18 hours. They say 18 hours, you know, cut that in half for it, you know, if you're actually going to be using the thing the whole time. Right. Maybe 18 hours left on, possibly, without using it. You know what I mean? It just still you just spotted it with the lid shut and no screen activity going on.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Even still, I mean, 16, 18 hours at after estimating, that's pretty good, and that beats most Chromebooks on the market right now, anyways. Chromebooks, I think they're anywhere between eight to ten hours of life on them. And I've actually been seeing more and more Chromebooks now that are being released with um Snapdragon processors. Right, just bring that up. Which is an another mobile processor. If you have a Samsung phone, it most likely has a Snapdragon in it. So that's another mobile processor, but look at how little you can do on a Chromebook compared to what you you're able to do on a MacBook. The MacBook Neo is not really being held back as far as software. It's all the hardware.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Well, if it's on the Tahoe operating system, which is the MacBook's latest current, most current operating system, right? Then I would imagine you'd be able to use the whole suite of apps from you know that you would use on a Tahoe desktop or or or laptop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

I'm interested to see how much of that they're going to drive towards you using more of like a cloud-based performance from some of those apps. I know that's kind of been where Chrome has kind of pushed a lot of people to use more cloud-based performance to be able to access these things. This is just your access point, and then you can continue working on through a cloud-based performance. But it kind of reminds me of what Samsung's done in the past with that DEX programming that they have where you're able to use your Samsung device as a computer connected to a screen and keyboard and things like that. It'll be interesting to see the performance values that they're going to be getting out of these.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

That's that's what I'm interested to see because again, all we really have right now are Apple's metrics, what they're boasting, you know, out as far as trying to sell this device, right? Um But it starts with eight gig of RAM, but you can probably order with a lot of. I don't think this one's upgradable. I think it's only eight gigs of RAM.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

I mean, so well, none of them are like user upgrades.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

No, no, they are factory upgrade or nothing. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

When you order one, when you buy one, it has to have already in it what you want. So if you get one with only eight gig of RAM, and then you know, a week later or the next day, even, you know, you want, oh darn, I need a 16 gig of RAM. Let me go out and get another 8 gig of RAM. No, it ain't gonna work because you know you have to get a whole new MacBook at that point.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

And that's very fitting, unfortunately, with Apple. Is you know, when you buy your device, that's how it is. You don't get the chance to upgrade it afterwards yourself as far as memory, you don't get expandable storage. You know, Apple, they they there is that lifetime that they kind of lock their device into a software-wise as well. So once you hit, I think it's like six or seven years with them, that's that's kind of where software is kind of in the gray.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

It is because they sort of uh making a hard disconnect at that point where they don't want you using it anymore. Right. So they make it more difficult for you to use once it gets past that six or seven year threshold, unlike uh any kind of Windows-based computer, right? Yeah, 10, 11, 12, 13 years, people are still using their Windows-based computer and it's still doing, hey, just a fine job. Yeah. Just what they want it to do.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

I had a gentleman come in just the other day. He uh he works on a newspaper and he's still using a system running Windows XP. That that's the system he has to use, though. His program does not work on Windows 7 or 8, 10, 11, none of it. Only XP.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

I always yeah, and that's you know, we we get these customers from time to time, folks, so where you know they'll come in the store and they'll have yeah, it's not like they don't want to go to Windows 11. Of course, there's some people that don't want to go there, but it's because they can't with what they're trying to do with their computer, and then their computer breaks. Right. And then they got now they and then so like you can't take today's computer and put Windows XP on it. You can't put Windows 7 on it, it won't work. It just won't. And because you're not gonna get updates for drivers, you're not gonna get all these things that you need to make that operating system work correctly. And so a lot of times people are shocked when they, you know, they'll come in with an old computer that has a software program on it that will only work with Windows XP or only will work with Windows 7. And they'll say, you know, my computer died, I can't get it fixed. You know, can you sell me a new computer or a new refurbished computer and reload all my stuff on it? And the answer is no, no, it won't work.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Yeah. I mean, and so those operating systems they were made with the technology of that time in mind. Right. You know, now we're looking at solid states, NVMe's. Windows 7 doesn't know what an NVMe is, it does it barely even knows what a solid state drive is. Right, right. You know, as far as its own dollars go.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

It definitely doesn't know what a solid state drive is.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

But you know, that's that's kind of where it it comes in. It's just there there is that kind of confusion there of why can't it do this? Well, the computer doesn't know how to work half of what it's given. But getting back into Apple, the the biggest thing that I'm seeing is they're offering a really good student discount with this. You're getting$100 off on the MacBook Neo. So it's only$500.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Aaron Powell And so what do you have to do to prove you're a student? Have a student email address?

SPEAKER_00 32:16

That used to be the That's what I that's what it used to be. I don't know if they require further authentication now, besides just providing an email address. But I know back when I was in the Apple environment, probably ten years ago now, it it was just a dot edu email was all you needed.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah, because you know the typically the university is not gonna have you'll let you keep using your.edu, right? After you you leave the university, you have to give up your university email.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

And you can't just make them either like you can a Gmail or a Hotmail. No, no, no. So you know, Apple, I think they're trying to shake it up, and I think Apple's starting to see what was coming on the horizon now. We always talked about the hardware shortages these past couple months. This MacBook, I think, is a I think it's a first testament from Apple, even if it's a silent one, to saying, hey, you know, we're seeing what's going on. We we ourselves are reevaluating what we're releasing now.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Yeah, and you know, and I've you know we we sell MacBooks and uh refresh computers, refurbished MacBooks, and uh, you know, we sell a lot more refurbished Windows-based machines, Dell, HP, Lenovo, we have all those out there. And I've never made it you know a secret that my preference has always been the Windows-based uh computers, and I think you know, things like MacBook, a MacBook will, you know, it has its place for a particular purpose, but for most of us, you know, business owners, you know, working from home, doing you know, just to having a laptop at home, the Windows-based laptop for me is is the clear winner. Right.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

In in large part?

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Uh in large part it is, and that's probably because it doesn't change that view at all. It doesn't change the view for me uh at all because I I do think that this new version of the MacBook, the MacBook Neo, is a glorified Chromebook, really. It's kind of watered down. Um and it's uh although it is on the latest operating system, so you know you you do have that. No. But I'm not so sure that you can do as much with it as you can a regular MacBook. I'm pretty sure you can't.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Plus, who knows what the the future could be for software. Apple could say after two years of the MacBook Neo, all right, that's it. No more, no more updates.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Yeah, especially if it's on again, like we mentioned, a limited processor like that is built for the iPhone. Right. That'll kind of do it for us talking about that uh the i the Apple products there for you, and a little bit of that consumer side items. We're gonna go back in a little bit into some War Tech, talk about a story that you might have heard about, the Sonic Weapon Story. We'll have more for you coming up next here on Tech Talk on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore and technician at a little field. And you can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. And don't forget to check out the website at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Uh this is uh the War Technology Show, uh, War Technology Edition, I guess. And then also the MacBook Neo.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Well, Apple Apple.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Apple had to get a little bit of a dripper in the quite a contrast in topics. But um, and folks, listen, if you have an idea for us to talk about technology-wise, uh please send us an email. Send it to me directly. My email is Dave, just D-A-V-E at refreshcomputers.net. Send me an email with you with your idea, and uh maybe we can talk about it because I actually this whole war technology topic show what uh came about because I actually did get somebody from uh one of our customers said, Hey, you why don't you talk about the technology going on in the warfare uh that's going on here in Iran? So we did some research and I hope we did a a good job. And if you want to catch it, go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link, and you can hear the show in its entirety. So uh we're gonna close the show with uh the sonic weapon story, right? You heard these stories about you know when we went in and got Maduro in Venezuela, that people were saying, hey, they use some kind of new sonic technology and you know it popped eardrums, it did all kinds of stuff and made people render rendered people uh immobile, right?

SPEAKER_03 37:02

And I remember hearing about these kinds of things even back into the uh the second Gulf War.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

So these are this is something that's kind of been brewing, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Something that it is, but um, you know, and I looked and looked and I cannot confirm at all, whatsoever, that there is some kind of tech sonic technology.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Oh, and they don't want you to confirm it, Dave.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Probably not. Do I think it's out there? Yeah, I think it probably is, um, especially based on you know the reports of what happened in Venezuela. I mean, there are so many people, not just a handful of people, came up and said, Hey, you know, I was knocked to the ground and there was nothing around. And that, you know, and it just and it I got disoriented and and I didn't know where I was, like didn't know which way was up or down or left or right. And so that yeah, something something went on over there, and and maybe we used that as a as a real testing ground, you know, for when we went in and Maduro.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

The only thing I can find on it is that somebody referred to it as the discombobulator. That's the only the only reference I can find about it was calling it a discombobulator. Well, that's the only name that it will have from here on out, then it's it sounds like uh uh a Dr. Dufenschmurt's evil incorporated weapon. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Well, and you know, and because because you know witnesses and and people that said they were they were actually affected by it that didn't die said, you know, there's like you know, there's a loud directional sound, so it wasn't like it was just all around them, it came from a direction, right? Um and they experienced the disorientation and pressure sensations, like like their head was going to explode, like their head, somebody was like pushing in on their brain or something like that, was was was what I read that one witness said. And um, so yeah, I I guess that would be disorienting, but you know, but still can't find one shred of anything out there that would prove that there is something going on and in that regard. And you know, you know what, and that's probably what the government would want us to exactly.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

But you know, thinking about it now, the the major things I'm thinking of with drones is they have that rear propeller. We were talking earlier, drones have a rear propeller, those things are loud. I know my little tiny drone I have, you can hear that thing 500 feet in the air. Yeah, they are loud. I I wonder if there's some way to take a system like this and deafen a drone to make it silent. But don't give them ideas. Hey, maybe they're already doing that. That that's a good point. Maybe they already are.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

That wouldn't surprise me at all. But hey, folks, listen, if you missed any of this, again, I want to point to the website, refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link. Don't forget, we have a free tech support hotline. We didn't even talk about that today. Right. It's 407-478-8200. We are there for you. We have been servicing Central Florida for the past 26 years, they're right there in Longwood. So give us a call or come on by. We'd love to talk to you, and you know, we love doing the show today. So that's all we have time for. This is David Levitt, the owner and founder of Refresh Computers. We'll be talking to you again next week about another interesting topic.