Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Tuesday, March 27th, 2018. Today, Apple's new iPads, Arizona bans Uber test cars, Zuckerberg won't talk to

Parliament but might talk to Congress, FoxCon buys Belkin, Apple goes to Hollywood, and will the streaming explosion revive digital

piracy?

Here's what happened today in the world of tech.

Today in Chicago Apple held an event where it refreshed its 9.7 inch iPad lineup. The headline news is that these lower end models now support Apple's pencil stylists which previously only worked with

the high-end iPad pro models. The new tablet also has touch

ID and HD FaceTime camera, an 8 megapixel rear camera, Apple's A10 fusion

chip, and the expected 10 hours of battery life.

The updated iPads are available in Apple stores right now in silver, space gray, and a new gold finish. The $329 base level price point is the same as it was

last year but Apple is offering it to schools for the reduced price of $299.

These new iPads are not exactly

the shot across the bow of Google's Chromebooks

that some people expected, because it turns out if you trick out even the base

model iPad with an iPad pencil and a keyboard you're going to be looking at close to

four hundred and fifty dollars all in. But this was very much an education focused event. Apple invited teachers to

sit in the audience and invited several on stage to discuss using iPads in a school

setting. So a lot of the other announcements were very much geared towards iPads as education tools.

Apple unveiled a schoolwork app to let teachers assign work and track student progress.

It's likely coming in June, so teachers can spend the summer

figuring out how to integrate it into their classrooms.

Apple also announced a new tool set for developers called Class Kit, which will allow them to create apps to integrate with the Schoolwork app.

And Apple also announced a free curriculum called Everyone Can Create, which is designed to make it easier for teachers

...