Throbbing Hive with John Moe: Apple makes news; White House compares colleges
September 15, 2015
Every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m., John Moe stops into the Morning Show to share the latest news in Technology.
This week, John Moe stopped by The Current's Morning Show to talk to Jill Riley and Sean McPherson about Apple's ability to make news of its product rollouts and about the White House's new tool for comparing colleges.
1. Apple roundup: new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV.
Apple recently hosted another big event announcing its new products, including new iterations of Apple TV, of iPhones and iPads.
John notes these innovations, but he also observes Apple's ability to make headlines out of product announcements. "It's the darndest thing," John says. "I've always followed technology closely. … It never fails to amaze me how apple can turn an infomercial into a news event."
One possible reason Apple's product announcements continue to be news events is the legacy left by Steve Jobs, whose announcements of such products as the iPod and the iPad did change the world. John isn't sure that's the case now. "Is it really an event?" he asks. "We keep falling for it."
2. A new college scorecard from the White House
A new website from the White House, collegescorecard.ed.gov, uses publicly shared data to create a scorecard for comparing colleges. The site includes information about which programs a college offers, the average cost of tuition fees, the salary information of alumni and other useful data for prospective students and their families. John says "It's going to allow you to make a more scientific guess" about which college is right for you.
John did a test of the scorecard based on his high school-age son's interests and was pleased at the data it returned. "Obviously people are going to make their decisions on a lot of different factors, but it's useful to see these side-by-side comparisons," John says. "The information here isn't what's really so revolutionary, it's the harvesting it and organizing it that's really useful."
John Moe co-hosts the podcast Conversation Parade (with Open Mike Eagle) from Infinite Guest.