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Cortex

75: Home Again

 

00:00:00   We had a real marathon of a show last time, Myke.

00:00:03   I was tired, very tired. I think I'm still tired.

00:00:05   I don't remember what it was. I just know I had some plans after last episode

00:00:10   that as soon as I was done recording, I was like, "You know what I'm gonna do?

00:00:13   I'm just gonna sit on the couch and I'm gonna watch Netflix until I fall asleep on the couch.

00:00:17   And that's gonna be the rest of my day." And it was.

00:00:19   It was a real day.

00:00:22   I'm very happy for you because we recorded the episode a little bit late,

00:00:26   So my task that evening was to start editing it.

00:00:29   I think that's why I'm still tired.

00:00:32   - I'm sorry.

00:00:35   So you had to go through that conversation twice in one day.

00:00:38   - Yeah.

00:00:38   - I have occasionally done the record and edit

00:00:45   on the same day and it's, in some ways it's easier

00:00:48   because it's fresh in your head,

00:00:49   but in some ways it's 10 times more exhausting

00:00:53   and particularly for an episode like that.

00:00:56   But you did get me the edit, and I just have this little point of feedback, which

00:01:02   it's a point of feedback for me on that episode, because I was listening during

00:01:08   this edit and it will never cease to amaze me how, listener, if you ever, if

00:01:14   you ever start a podcast, you think, oh, I can just talk and ideas come out of my

00:01:19   head and they, and they make sense.

00:01:21   And I say them into the air and they go out there and it's like,

00:01:24   cause that's how we all work.

00:01:25   Right?

00:01:25   Like, and that's just every day you say things because that's a good idea.

00:01:28   Or like that's interesting is you're just talking.

00:01:30   It's how people communicate.

00:01:32   Yeah.

00:01:32   You think you're just talking and it is only when, when you have to listen to

00:01:37   yourself that you are faced with the reality of how poorly you communicate

00:01:41   ideas sometimes.

00:01:42   And I was listening to myself in that episode and I kept thinking, when is this

00:01:48   idiot going to make this fundamental point clear and spoiler, he never did.

00:01:53   And it's always like, it's always just such an amazing disassociative experience to hear yourself on a podcast in important conversations.

00:02:02   It's like, this isn't clear at all.

00:02:04   So we were having a discussion about podcasts versus YouTube and all of the algorithms and like this whole thing.

00:02:13   And you were the heroic defender of podcasters in this conversation, I believe is that I think that's what it was.

00:02:21   And like, I kept trying to agree with you,

00:02:24   but I was doing it in just the worst way.

00:02:26   So let me try to just say the thing now

00:02:29   that I wish I had said in the last episode,

00:02:32   which is part of the reason I mentioned podcasts

00:02:37   as an example is precisely because they don't have

00:02:42   these algorithmic properties that we were discussing

00:02:48   last time that like YouTube does,

00:02:49   where YouTube learns what keeps you there.

00:02:52   And the reason it was such a red flag for me,

00:02:58   my podcasting behavior, is precisely because I felt like,

00:03:02   oh, my brain has been put into like a weakened,

00:03:07   less attentive, less focused state

00:03:15   by all of the algorithmic content that it is exposed to.

00:03:20   So that even in a scenario, like with podcasts,

00:03:24   where those algorithms don't exist,

00:03:27   I'm still acting almost as though they do,

00:03:30   because my brain has been trained this way.

00:03:34   So that's why it struck me as like a real red flag behavior

00:03:36   because like the algorithms aren't even here,

00:03:40   but I'm still, I've been trained in this pattern

00:03:44   of information consumption that is being spread out into other places where information consumption

00:03:53   can be easier or simpler than something like reading a book. So that's all it was. I

00:04:00   feel like this is a relatively straightforward sentence that I just somehow never said in

00:04:05   the show. So that's all. That's my point of follow-up for past me and his inability

00:04:11   to say this particular point.

00:04:14   So I think I'm understanding you.

00:04:17   Like what you're saying is you just can't stop binging them because your brain continues

00:04:24   to tell you to do that even though the medium isn't necessarily made for that.

00:04:30   I've built this little loop of going in a circle between a bunch of websites where I'm

00:04:34   just like "oh I'm checking this place and then I'm going over here and I'm reading this

00:04:37   comment thread and then I'm going back and I'm reading this other comment thread and

00:04:40   and then I returned back to the place that I just came from even though nothing has changed.

00:04:43   I will tell you, since we recorded that episode, I've been much more aware of me doing that

00:04:48   stuff.

00:04:49   Oh really?

00:04:50   Yeah, I've just noticed that like, and it's something that comes up every now and then,

00:04:54   that like you open an app, close the app, and open it again.

00:04:57   But I've just been much more aware of my personal loops and patterns than I think I have been

00:05:03   before.

00:05:04   That's interesting to hear.

00:05:05   It is such a funny thing and I think it's easy to blow off that behavior, but I really

00:05:13   think that that behavior is induced in a person intentionally.

00:05:16   That's the intended outcome.

00:05:19   But there are certain tools that are trying to induce that behavior.

00:05:24   And you are right, that is my feeling of it, that it's like I've been trained in these

00:05:29   little loops and the training results in like shorter attention spans or less ability to focus.

00:05:37   And then this is manifesting itself in all sorts of other areas that don't actually have anything

00:05:45   to do with the source of the problem. So it's it's it was much more like my podcast listening habits

00:05:53   and particularly the thing with the shower for me is like a real symptom, but it's a symptom of

00:06:00   something else. And so that's really what I was just trying to say.

00:06:04   It makes more sense to me.

00:06:07   If I had only said it at the time.

00:06:09   I know, because my main complaint was like, the algorithm and the podcast didn't go together,

00:06:16   but you were missing that middle part of explaining the bridge, which wasn't in your video,

00:06:21   which you were saying, like, "I didn't explain my point, but then you never explained it."

00:06:26   - Right, but I never explained it again.

00:06:28   But that's why, like, when I was listening back to me, I thought,

00:06:30   "That guy who was recording the podcast with you,

00:06:34   he knew this connection that the guy who made the video didn't.

00:06:40   He had articulated this thought by that time in his own head,

00:06:43   but then he neglected to actually communicate that part to you."

00:06:47   But this is why, you know, in that conversation,

00:06:52   it was very clear, like I've been thinking this topic

00:06:55   through and it's like, it really feels like it's

00:06:57   a developing thing and again, it is interesting,

00:07:02   it's super interesting to me that like after the last show,

00:07:06   tons of people that I know in my personal

00:07:10   and professional life, you know, reached out and were like,

00:07:13   sort of like you just said there,

00:07:16   that they noticed habits in themselves

00:07:18   that they just didn't really,

00:07:19   they weren't mindful of before

00:07:21   or expressed a similar idea.

00:07:25   But there's something in this topic

00:07:27   which seems to touch a lot of people in different ways.

00:07:30   Like it doesn't express itself in everybody in the same way,

00:07:33   which is part of what makes it so difficult to talk about.

00:07:37   But I really find that if this topic resonates with someone,

00:07:41   it resonates with them pretty strongly.

00:07:45   but it can be very hard to define the boundaries of what is and is not exactly what we're

00:07:52   talking about here.

00:07:53   I 100% agree. Like I think this ties into what I was talking about last time with like

00:08:01   just thinking through some different stuff and like making some small changes. You know,

00:08:07   the more I think about what you're doing, whilst I have no desire to follow the path

00:08:12   that you've chosen because it's just not for me, right? Like the complete removal,

00:08:17   it's just not something... I feel like I would be punishing myself as opposed to getting a relief,

00:08:22   which yeah, I think that's the difference between the two of us.

00:08:25   Yeah, and then that would be dumb and pointless.

00:08:27   Yeah, it's like there's no good in that, right? Like I'm punishing myself and also

00:08:31   making myself worse at my job, right? Like I just don't understand the benefit for me.

00:08:35   But it has kind of just brought forward into my mind to think a little bit more consciously

00:08:42   about what I'm doing in a day. And I don't know what that means yet. And I think that this is the

00:08:50   start of me working out my theme for next year. I think that I'm building towards something here.

00:08:56   I don't know what it is yet. I've seen some interesting characterizations in the Reddit of

00:09:00   what I was talking about last time, right? Like people like throwing out some names and that's

00:09:04   like, "Oh, okay, like if that becomes a thing, I don't want to spoil it. No spoilers. You

00:09:08   can't do yearly themes until we all know this, right? Yearly themes come in January."

00:09:12   Even though it seems like it's a great time to talk about it, but okay.

00:09:14   But we don't need to do that. I did actually notice a lot of feedback in the Reddit of

00:09:18   people, and this was like happening in between the time that we recorded and published. There

00:09:24   were multiple threads in the Cortex subreddit about people thinking of their new themes.

00:09:27   And I was like, "Huh, this must be the time that like..."

00:09:31   It is the time.

00:09:32   No, it's the time you start thinking, it's not the time you set it.

00:09:34   We haven't set it yet.

00:09:35   You think, it's like, "Oh, I'm thinking about it."

00:09:38   The leaves are starting to change.

00:09:40   It's like it is the perfect time to start reflecting on your previous year and starting

00:09:47   to think about what you want the next one to be.

00:09:49   In all seriousness, it's the perfect time for that.

00:09:51   I think it's too soon to just be like, "All right, I'm thinking about it.

00:09:55   I've set it and I'm going to go."

00:09:56   That doesn't work for me.

00:09:58   I want some time to let it embed.

00:10:01   And so like, you know, I'm just in that phase right now. And I think that considering my

00:10:05   usage of everything in my life a little bit more, not just the internet, like how much

00:10:11   time I spend on video games, and they're just like, just trying to take stock of it all

00:10:15   a little bit. I think that's kind of where I am right now.

00:10:17   Yeah, I'll mention another phrasing that I have used since I started the time tracking.

00:10:26   And I should say, since I started the time tracking full time, you know, when I wasn't

00:10:30   just tracking the work hours.

00:10:32   And what is an extremely important tag for me

00:10:36   across some activities is intentional versus unintentional.

00:10:41   And so watching Netflix is,

00:10:49   it's a totally different experience,

00:10:51   whether it is intentional or unintentional.

00:10:55   Like, oh, I'm sitting down to watch a thing

00:10:59   is very different from I'm sitting on the couch

00:11:02   and I'm just bored and I want something to occupy me, right?

00:11:06   Like the second one is like this unintentionally,

00:11:08   like I'm just looking for whatever.

00:11:11   And there are a lot of activities that are like that

00:11:14   where I have a marker for these two different things.

00:11:17   Like am I playing video games intentionally?

00:11:21   That's great.

00:11:22   That's actually high quality time

00:11:23   if I have sat down and decided

00:11:25   that this is the thing that I want to do now.

00:11:27   Or am I just unintentionally doing this thing?

00:11:32   Like, oh, I just kind of blew the evening on the internet

00:11:36   and I didn't mean to.

00:11:38   Whereas like when shows went up and I would go on the Reddit,

00:11:42   like that is tracked as intentional internet.

00:11:44   Like I'm here, I'm looking at feedback,

00:11:46   I'm replying to people and then I'm out of here, right?

00:11:49   And it's like, that's intentional internet versus like,

00:11:51   oh, I just sat down on the couch

00:11:53   and the iPad was next to me.

00:11:54   And then I put it on me and I just read the Reddit

00:11:59   and oh, Netflix is also just on in the background

00:12:01   and I'm not paying attention to Netflix

00:12:03   and I'm not paying attention to Reddit either.

00:12:06   It's like, oh, that's terrible.

00:12:08   Like it's a terrible way to spend a life.

00:12:10   Anyway, I just mentioned that because I find

00:12:12   that phrasing really useful because even though I am

00:12:16   taking this rather dramatic break from the internet,

00:12:19   in normal life, there are lots of activities

00:12:22   where the intentionality matters.

00:12:25   And I think it's really important to have

00:12:29   like a war on unintentionally in your life.

00:12:31   Like don't do things unintentionally,

00:12:33   do them intentionally.

00:12:34   Hello, cortexins.

00:12:44   Well, I'm back in the acoustically subpar glass cube.

00:12:51   It's been a while since I've been here.

00:12:54   It's quite different than those woods.

00:12:56   Looking around there's a couple things I think maybe could improve this office.

00:13:01   I mean I'm standing up in it right now and I can see all of my little cubicle farm neighbors

00:13:08   in every direction.

00:13:10   I'd rather not see them.

00:13:11   And you know I took some gorgeous photos while I was out hiking around.

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00:15:36   Great, I get feedback for shows, right? Like all the shows that I do people send

00:15:42   in suggestions and they send in comments and stuff like that. It's great. I have

00:15:45   never ever, for any show I've ever done in the last eight years, received as much

00:15:51   feedback as I did for suggestions on music. And I know now this is going to be

00:15:59   something that continues probably for the next five years.

00:16:02   Yeah, yeah. But I am not complaining because I have found some brilliant

00:16:10   stuff from Cortex listeners. But there are hundreds of comments, hundreds of

00:16:16   threads with more comments in them. But by that pure amount, some names bubbled up a

00:16:26   a lot. So like that just getting the pure amount has allowed me to surface a few specific artists

00:16:34   that I really like. Okay so do you have some lyric-less suggestions for me? I do. I'm looking

00:16:39   for music like this and I always find it very hard so what have you distilled down for me here?

00:16:44   Okay so one is Tycho. Oh I on heavy rotation so when I try to find this music there's like

00:16:53   in Apple Radio there's something that's like some radio station called Electronic Chill.

00:16:57   - Yeah, a bunch of people recommended those types of things to me too.

00:17:01   - Yeah, it's not very good but occasionally it hits just right. And there's some Tycho song

00:17:07   that I found which has just been on really heavy background loop. But I never really thought to

00:17:14   investigate farther. So okay, this sounds like a winner.

00:17:16   - So I've been listening to Tycho's album Awake a lot and I've added

00:17:22   all of their previous albums to my Apple music. I haven't started listening to those yet.

00:17:27   Timecop 1983, an album called Night Drive. There is an instrumental version and a version with

00:17:35   lyrics. It is so good. It's just 80s electronic music. It's so good. So good. I love this album.

00:17:44   There's an entire genre of music called synthwave. And I've been finding some compilations of this.

00:17:52   and I'm trying to find what I like and don't like about it, so I'm still kind of like digging into that.

00:17:56   I don't have any artists specifically.

00:17:58   Um, deadmau5, you know, D-E-A-D-M-A-U-5, the mouse guy, you know, deadmau5, right?

00:18:06   Sure, you would know him if you saw him.

00:18:08   No, yeah, I remember-

00:18:09   The DJ who wears the big mouse head, the big fun mouse head.

00:18:11   I remember a YouTube clip where he threw a concert on a Minecraft server,

00:18:16   where at the end he dumped everyone into lava.

00:18:18   That is how I know deadmau5.

00:18:20   Deadmau5.

00:18:21   Alright, well, whatever it is, you've got some kind of cultural touchpoint.

00:18:26   The most important cultural touchpoint, I'm sure.

00:18:28   And I've been listening to an album called Where's the Drop quite a lot, and also Explosions

00:18:34   in the Sky is another band.

00:18:37   And I've slightly listened to that today, I'm not 100% sure how I feel about that

00:18:41   yet.

00:18:42   What I have come to understand about myself is primarily the stuff that I seem to be drawn

00:18:47   to is electronic music.

00:18:49   I didn't really know that I liked electronic music as much as I do, but it turns out I really really like it

00:18:54   There is an album that I've been listening to a bunch right now, which it isn't is full of lyrics, but it's so friggin good

00:19:01   I can't stop listening to it and it's and I actually think you should try this one as well

00:19:05   So back with jungle who I really like and they just released a new album called forever

00:19:09   Which is just excellent, but like their music the way they the way they present it like the the lyrics

00:19:17   They're very melodic, so it's easy to tune out.

00:19:20   It's not very lyric focused.

00:19:23   So yeah, these are the ones that I've added so far

00:19:26   and have been listening to a bunch.

00:19:28   There's also an entire genre of music called lo-fi hip hop,

00:19:32   which has been recommended to me about 70 billion times.

00:19:36   I have yet to find a definitive thing for this.

00:19:41   I don't know where to look,

00:19:44   because I keep finding stuff that sounds very different.

00:19:48   So, and also people keep sending me Spotify playlists,

00:19:51   which is no good for me.

00:19:52   I appreciate that a lot, but I use Apple Music.

00:19:55   - Yeah.

00:19:56   - And there's kind of nothing I can really do about it, but.

00:19:57   - Yeah, well, are you gonna be able to put

00:20:00   a bunch of Apple Music links in the show notes

00:20:02   so that I can just load up this stuff as well?

00:20:03   - 100%, yes.

00:20:04   Well, you bet, it's gonna be in there.

00:20:06   Loads of Apple Music links is what you're gonna find in there.

00:20:09   - That's what I want.

00:20:10   - But also all the stuff that I've recommended,

00:20:12   they're not like playlists so you can get them on any service.

00:20:15   But people have been recommending like compilation playlists to me for lo-fi

00:20:20   hip hop, which I can't do anything with. And again,

00:20:22   very helpful because there's been some stuff where like I've picked out some

00:20:25   artists and I've tried them out,

00:20:27   but they just haven't been for me for whatever reason.

00:20:29   Because really I think we were all going together on a journey to understand what

00:20:33   type of music does Myke want to listen to? Because I didn't know.

00:20:35   And lo-fi hip hop and electronic are very different in style.

00:20:39   Now they perform the same task for lots of people, like good background music.

00:20:44   Like again, like a lot of people have suggested, try music that is not in your

00:20:48   language, and I've been thinking about like K-pop and J-pop, so I would love some

00:20:55   recommendations there as well, because that's a good thought, right?

00:20:59   It's like, there can be lyrics, but if I can't understand them,

00:21:01   then it doesn't matter, you know?

00:21:04   So...

00:21:04   The only thing I've ever listened to that sort of works like that is Sigur Ros.

00:21:09   I've seen Sigur Ros mention a lot a lot too.

00:21:12   I have a bunch of stuff from them that I quite like, but it never occurred to me, because

00:21:20   everybody knows, I sure do like the worst of the worst top 40 pop songs, like boy, as

00:21:27   right in the core of my musical preferences.

00:21:32   As Britney Spears released a new song, that's gonna be on loop for a while.

00:21:37   But it never occurred to me to try to find that stuff in another language.

00:21:41   Maybe that would work even better.

00:21:43   Because I can have such a feeling in my head that there's a particular sound from some

00:21:49   pop music that's like, "Yes, that is exactly what I just want on loop that works for work."

00:21:54   And I'd be curious to see if I could find that in another language.

00:21:57   So I'll be curious to let you filter through all the recommendations.

00:22:02   You would find that sort of stuff in K-pop for sure.

00:22:05   language stuff I would like to try but my brain latches on even I found in the

00:22:12   past like some songs in Japanese and stuff that I've listened to my brain

00:22:17   just tries to latch on and I try to sing them right you know what I mean like so

00:22:21   like I don't know if it what what would happen with that but anytime I've ever

00:22:26   heard any type of like kpop or jpop it does excite me like the music is really

00:22:31   fun. So again, I would love more recommendations. I feel like I'm just setting myself up to

00:22:36   get this forever. But I will also say this is the most useful feedback I've ever received

00:22:43   from a show because I it is it's like helping me change something. I'm listening to music

00:22:50   all the time now all the time. There is music on when I'm at home and I'm enjoying that

00:22:56   a lot. I'm very excited about it. So I appreciate the feedback.

00:23:01   I'm interested to go through this stuff because I always want background noise on. I've always

00:23:07   tended to favor like thunder sounds or rain or just nature sounds but I do have this problem

00:23:14   that they make my wife very sleepy. So I always have to turn them off when she comes back.

00:23:21   I guess so. I guess that makes sense. You know, but like if I leave my thunder sounds

00:23:28   on she'll be asleep within 20 minutes like she just can't stay awake so I have to you

00:23:32   know I was like oh well I can't leave this on but I have been trying the reason I've

00:23:37   been using that Apple radio thing is I've been trying to build together a list of songs

00:23:43   that's like this one taiko song that I found where I can just have it on in the background

00:23:47   and it won't put her to sleep but it also means I'm not in a totally silent room.

00:23:51   I don't under- this is like one of those things where I feel like I can't understand your

00:23:55   brain. If you wanted songs like that one, why didn't you just check out an album or

00:24:01   two of his?

00:24:02   I can tell you why, because I've had a bunch of experiences where I find a song that I

00:24:06   like and then I go to look at the artist and it's a weird one-off for some reason.

00:24:11   Like a one-hit-wonder type deal. I know what you mean.

00:24:14   So I think that's just why. It hadn't occurred to me to go look because I've been on a

00:24:19   a long string of "oh I like this one song and I like nothing else that you've done".

00:24:25   One of the key ones for me, you've ever seen the movie Drive?

00:24:28   No.

00:24:29   It's an incredible movie, Drive, Ryan Gosling. You should watch the movie, it's a very good

00:24:33   movie. There's a song in that movie called Night Call by a band called Kipinski, I think

00:24:38   it's Kipinski, and I love that song so much and it's like electronica and stuff and it's

00:24:44   got a really nice vocal in it. And that like Kipinski's album is kind of like it, but it's

00:24:52   not this it's not as good. Right. Or it's like, it's Kavinsky sorry, not Kipinsky Kipinsky.

00:24:59   Like it's from their album Outrun, which is all like focused on like, it's electronica

00:25:03   with an 80s flare. But it's just not as good as Night Call. Right. Like Night Call stands

00:25:08   out so strongly that it's just like, "Oh man, I thought I'd found like the perfect band."

00:25:14   Well, good luck filtering through all those suggestions, Myke. They're going to be coming

00:25:21   from now until you die. But this is useful though. It's not like, you know, I said something wrong

00:25:26   one time and I hear about it forever. Like this is like people adding value to me. I did want to say

00:25:30   like why I don't use Spotify because I used to use Spotify. The reason I use Apple Music is because

00:25:35   The best device in my house for music is my HomePod.

00:25:38   And so for the HomePod, you should use Apple Music because it's the only thing that's supported.

00:25:42   Like, we used to use Spotify, I used to listen to it on the Echo,

00:25:46   but the Echo kind of sucks, right? Like the Echo we have, it just doesn't sound very good.

00:25:50   But the HomePod sounds incredible, so I'm using Apple Music primarily now because

00:25:55   that's where I listen to the music, so I love the HomePod.

00:25:59   The audio on that thing is incredible. Do you have one?

00:26:02   Oh man, when you play a stereo, a recorded stereo thunderstorm on a pair of HomePods...

00:26:09   You got a pair? I've been thinking about getting a second one.

00:26:12   You need an umbrella to listen to that.

00:26:14   I've heard in a stereo pair at Jason Snell's house and it sounded incredible.

00:26:22   And at the time I was like, "Oh, I don't listen to music that much."

00:26:25   But now I do, so maybe I need a second one.

00:26:27   Yeah, well, the HomePod is vital once you start using a lot of shortcuts.

00:26:32   Siri and I, we're much more friendly now that shortcuts is around,

00:26:38   which means HomePods, they're sprouting up everywhere.

00:26:41   cortexmerch.com

00:26:43   cortexmerch.com

00:26:46   Thank you to everybody who's bought some of our merch from our most recent merch drop.

00:26:50   We do still have some limited edition items that are only available for a week more,

00:26:56   So don't miss out on these. You want to go to cortexmerch.com

00:27:00   Find out. There have been a bunch of people, Gray, who are getting their pins arriving already

00:27:03   and they've been sending me pictures. Mine are like days away from getting here and I'm so

00:27:07   freaking excited because those pins look so good. So good.

00:27:12   I've got pins on the way. I don't know when they're coming, but I do have pins coming.

00:27:17   Everybody loves the pins. I figure I gotta get in on this pin action.

00:27:20   Yeah, they look excellent. I can't wait. And yeah, there's a bunch of stuff going on so you

00:27:25   So you gotta go check it out because it's not gonna be around forever.

00:27:28   Cortexmerch.com.

00:27:29   Go check out some of the limited edition stuff.

00:27:31   They have a whole cornucopia of items for you.

00:27:34   Cortexmerch.com.

00:27:35   >> Cortexmerch.com.

00:27:36   >> Oh, my.

00:27:37   There's a lot of explosions when it comes to merch.

00:27:42   >> I was trying to think about, like, it's a drop.

00:27:45   Like a bomb is dropping, but the sound came out all wrong.

00:27:47   I gotta work on that.

00:27:48   We gotta workshop that.

00:27:52   Did you get a new iPhone?

00:27:57   Did I get a new iPhone?

00:27:58   Yeah.

00:27:59   I did get a new iPhone, Myke.

00:28:00   Okay.

00:28:01   Did you get a new iPhone?

00:28:02   I got a new iPhone.

00:28:03   So we both have new iPhones.

00:28:05   Did you get a XS Max?

00:28:06   I've got a XS Max.

00:28:07   It's right in front of me.

00:28:09   It's huge.

00:28:10   Alright, let me ask you about that, right?

00:28:11   Like you say it's huge.

00:28:13   Do you feel like it's too big?

00:28:19   How do you feel?

00:28:20   I feel that like this is a big phone.

00:28:23   I know it's a bigger phone like in screen than I've ever used before,

00:28:28   but it's not, I don't find it unwieldy.

00:28:31   It's interesting.

00:28:33   It's interesting using this phone.

00:28:35   I'll tell you what my mind keeps going to.

00:28:40   It's the TV show Westworld.

00:28:45   Okay.

00:28:46   I don't know if you've watched Westworld or not.

00:28:47   I haven't seen it.

00:28:48   If you just do a quick Google for Westworld phones,

00:28:52   they do, they have a very, like whoever is the guy

00:28:56   who has like the design for that show,

00:28:59   like the tech design, that team, they're great.

00:29:03   They use these super duper big phones in Westworld.

00:29:08   - Oh right, okay.

00:29:09   - They're all screen.

00:29:12   - Yeah.

00:29:12   - They expand out, but in their default version,

00:29:15   they're all screen.

00:29:15   - They look nice.

00:29:17   I keep thinking about those phones because

00:29:20   my initial impression is that what I hoped

00:29:26   would be the case is the case.

00:29:28   That because the entire front of the phone is display,

00:29:33   it really does change the feeling of it.

00:29:37   It just feels like the whole thing is so much more useful.

00:29:41   I don't feel like they're these big, dumb dead zones

00:29:45   at the top and the bottom that you can't do anything with.

00:29:49   So it does feel very big to me,

00:29:54   but it feels appropriately and usefully big.

00:29:59   So my initial reaction is this is a big phone,

00:30:04   but I love it.

00:30:06   I really love it so far. - Yeah, you do.

00:30:09   Nice club.

00:30:10   (laughing)

00:30:12   - I mean, I still have a week before I have to make

00:30:15   the final decision about am I returning it or not?

00:30:17   It is very big in the pocket,

00:30:19   which we can come to in a little bit.

00:30:20   But I really like it.

00:30:23   I like it a lot.

00:30:23   I think this, the all screen on the front

00:30:28   is super duper nice.

00:30:30   I mean, I presume as the founding member

00:30:33   of the giant phone club, no longer the plus club.

00:30:37   - Max Club. - The Club Max?

00:30:39   You gotta call it Club Max, I think.

00:30:40   Club Max.

00:30:42   I assume you love it as well.

00:30:44   Oh, I love it. Like there was a phrase that I that came to mind kind of after about 10 minutes.

00:30:50   I'm not using this phone. It's like, oh, I'm home again.

00:30:53   Like, oh, it felt just so right.

00:30:57   Like, right.

00:30:59   Because there was always this thing about the 10 of like, I knew it was a smaller phone, like it was always smaller.

00:31:05   And like I liked it because I loved the design, but it was always.

00:31:08   Smaller and it wasn't too small, but it was smaller.

00:31:13   And there were just a lot of things that I would notice where it was like, oh, this

00:31:17   feels different. And it's like I can hold it in one hand.

00:31:21   It's like, OK, I can do that, but like comfortably and like easily, which is nice.

00:31:25   But like it feels weird because it's not what I've been used to.

00:31:28   And it took 10 minutes for the 10 to feel like a baby's phone.

00:31:33   Like I picked it up like I'm doing the transfer process.

00:31:36   I'm like, what is this tiny phone?

00:31:39   So, yeah, I love it.

00:31:42   I really love it. It definitely doesn't have as many kind of improvements that the 6+ did to the 6,

00:31:54   right? Where you'd look at it and be like, okay, so you get all these extra cameras and extra

00:31:59   battery and there's way more space on screen and that sort of stuff. The 10 and the 10s are way

00:32:04   closer together, but even the small gains that it gives me in battery life, in being able to see

00:32:12   a couple more emails on a screen or whatever. It's what I want. I always want the big one.

00:32:18   I always want that because I just any more space I can get on my pocket computer. I want it.

00:32:24   Yeah, I will just say for the listeners every once in a while when I see Myke's phone in person,

00:32:30   I'm always shocked at how how small you crank down the font.

00:32:36   Very small.

00:32:37   your phone. Like, you showed me last time we were in person, I think I saw you using Twitter

00:32:42   on your phone. It was something like that. And I think you had two dozen tweets visible on the

00:32:49   screen at once because you had you had done like the reverse accessibility option to make the font

00:32:54   just micro. Like you are a man who wants content on his phone. And lots of it.

00:32:59   - If I'm gonna get it, I want as much as I can get, right? Like it just it that was always just

00:33:04   just made sense to me and I don't know why.

00:33:07   - It just makes me laugh because I'm the exact reverse here

00:33:10   where I want big screens because I want the text

00:33:14   to be enormous, right?

00:33:15   Whereas like, I've always like, oh great,

00:33:17   it's a bigger screen, I can crank it up.

00:33:18   - It makes so much sense, you have more space,

00:33:21   you can more comfortably have a bigger text size

00:33:25   and not lose a lot.

00:33:26   But I think this is a holdover from when I ran a business

00:33:29   from my phone, right?

00:33:31   And that it was just like, if you can get information

00:33:34   on these things, I want all of the information.

00:33:37   - Yeah, I mean, I remember listening to you talk about that,

00:33:39   I think back in the pre-Cortex days, maybe?

00:33:42   I don't know, I can't quite think of the timeline,

00:33:44   but I remember that was a big deal for you,

00:33:46   like you were running the business off of the Plus phone

00:33:49   when it came out, and yeah, so that does make sense

00:33:53   that if you are doing that, you want all the content

00:33:56   you can possibly get on the phone.

00:33:58   - But it is big, I did pay a horrific amount for AppleCare.

00:34:03   Apple care is so expensive now.

00:34:05   Look, you got to increase that average selling price somehow.

00:34:07   I know, I know.

00:34:08   And the way you increase it is by making Apple care $2 more expensive every year.

00:34:12   But, and I put it in a case, oh, what color did you get by the way?

00:34:16   Oh, space gray, of course.

00:34:17   No, the chocolate, the color of chocolate color. Don't like it.

00:34:20   It's not chocolate.

00:34:21   Don't like it, it's not gray enough. It's like this weird brownie color. It's very strange.

00:34:25   I got gold.

00:34:26   You must have, I swear to God, you have a different phone than I do.

00:34:29   Because mine is like, Batman black.

00:34:31   I do have a different phone. I have beautiful gold.

00:34:35   The gold does look good. I won't disparage you for the gold. I think it looks good. Some

00:34:40   years I like their golds better. They're more or less gold, but the gold on the phone looks

00:34:45   pretty good.

00:34:46   So I've just done that thing where I've taken it out of the case. I love the way these phones

00:34:49   feel without cases on them. But I just can't trust myself. I have to have a case. So I

00:34:55   went with the blue, like a dark blue case because I think it looks good with the little

00:34:58   gold pieces that you can see, but I just, as much as I don't want to, I can't trust myself.

00:35:03   Okay, so let's talk about cases and pockets and many other things.

00:35:10   We know you love pockets.

00:35:11   Any excuse to talk about a pocket.

00:35:13   God damn it, Myke.

00:35:14   No, I'm not, it's not about the pockets.

00:35:17   It's about the holding of things.

00:35:19   I don't understand why I seem to be the odd man out here and everybody else has some kind of

00:35:25   war on pockets and convenience.

00:35:28   I'm just trying to make things easy.

00:35:30   And pockets is one way to make things easy.

00:35:33   But this phone, it is pretty big in the pocket.

00:35:38   Like it's a little bit uncomfortably big.

00:35:41   And that for me is the trade-off.

00:35:43   It's like, boy, I like the screen.

00:35:44   Boy, I don't like feeling a bunch of things in my pockets.

00:35:49   I don't want that.

00:35:52   And when you put the case on it,

00:35:58   I just have the default Apple case.

00:35:59   Boy, does it make a significant difference.

00:36:02   And I swear, just the larger physical size

00:36:07   changes the whole interaction

00:36:08   between the friction in your pocket and the phone.

00:36:11   Like, I find it much harder with the exact same case

00:36:14   to get the Plus phone in and out of my pocket

00:36:16   than I do with the X.

00:36:18   It's like, oh, just a little bit bigger,

00:36:21   the friction increases with the square

00:36:23   of the size of the Surface.

00:36:24   Like, that's the way it feels.

00:36:26   So I'm like, I don't really want a case on this thing.

00:36:28   I don't know, like I'm going back and forth.

00:36:30   I have to say, you a while back recommended

00:36:35   that I try popsockets on phones.

00:36:38   - Ah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:41   - So do you want to explain to the people

00:36:42   what a popsocket is?

00:36:43   - You have seen these in the world.

00:36:46   They are these little disks that sit

00:36:49   on the back of people's phones,

00:36:51   typically people that have larger phones.

00:36:53   and you can pull the disc away from the phone.

00:36:58   It's like stuck on the back of this adhesive.

00:37:00   And there's this like rubber that's left behind

00:37:03   in an almost like a funnel shape, like a cone shape.

00:37:06   And what that does is it means you can put the pop socket

00:37:09   in between your fingers when it is extended,

00:37:12   and it allows you to be able to hold onto the phone

00:37:15   without the requirement of gripping the entire thing

00:37:17   all the way around.

00:37:19   So it helps for either A, people have smaller hands,

00:37:22   B, people have phones that are too big for their hands,

00:37:25   which is pretty much everyone at this point.

00:37:28   And so I have used one of these things for a while

00:37:32   and I continue to use it.

00:37:35   I really, really like it.

00:37:36   It just means that I'm able to adjust my grip.

00:37:39   Sometimes I will hold my phone regularly,

00:37:41   but sometimes I don't want to.

00:37:42   Sometimes I want to either just like hold it

00:37:45   and put the pop socket in between my fingers

00:37:47   or I like grip the whole pop socket in my fist

00:37:51   and kind of hold it like that and just look at my phone.

00:37:53   Or I can rest my phone in between like my pointer finger

00:37:56   and my thumb, can just rest it there.

00:37:59   It allows for me to be able to adjust my grip,

00:38:01   which anyone that's listened to this show for long enough

00:38:04   knows that me and you really like to adjust the way

00:38:06   that we do things with our hands.

00:38:08   - Yep, yep.

00:38:09   - And I've found that since I started using the Popsocket,

00:38:12   it's just become way easier for me

00:38:14   to be able to handle my phone all the time.

00:38:16   - When we meet up in person,

00:38:17   I would always see you playing around with the Popsocket.

00:38:19   - Oh, so it's a great fidget toy.

00:38:20   - Yeah, exactly. - Great fidget toy.

00:38:21   - I get fun to fidget with.

00:38:22   It makes a very satisfying pop sound

00:38:24   as you extend it or compress it.

00:38:27   It's a really interesting thing.

00:38:31   And I was always curious when I saw you using it,

00:38:33   and at some point, I don't know, in the last six months,

00:38:36   I caved and I decided to get one for my iPhone X.

00:38:40   I was like, "I put it on the phone."

00:38:41   And I was like, "I try it, and oh, it's kind of interesting.

00:38:44   "Hmm, I don't know."

00:38:45   And I would say to you, "Oh, how do you use it?"

00:38:47   I was going just back and forth with this thing,

00:38:50   and I was like, eh, I couldn't really quite decide,

00:38:53   and so I put it in a drawer.

00:38:55   And then when the tennis max came,

00:38:58   I stuck it on the back, and I thought, oh.

00:39:02   Oh, this makes a pretty big difference

00:39:05   to have this pop socket on here.

00:39:07   - I have noticed it make a much, much bigger difference

00:39:09   to me on the max than on the regular 10.

00:39:12   - Yeah. - I'm using it even more.

00:39:14   - So let me tell you this arc that happened.

00:39:17   So I put the PopSocket on the back of the phone.

00:39:19   Now, no case on the phone, just the PopSocket.

00:39:23   And I'm like, "Oh wow, this is great."

00:39:24   So I'm using it for a week.

00:39:26   And as the course of the week goes on, I think,

00:39:28   "Oh yeah, it's pretty good,

00:39:29   but I think I like it maybe less than I did at the start.

00:39:32   I don't know, I'm not really paying attention."

00:39:34   But just so happens in this past week

00:39:36   that I had family visiting.

00:39:38   And just like with you, when I saw you using the PopSocket,

00:39:41   everybody wanted to know,

00:39:42   "Hey, what's that thing on your phone?"

00:39:44   And so, of course, people wanted to try it on their phone.

00:39:47   I was taking it on and off

00:39:48   and sticking it on other people's phones,

00:39:50   and they were trying it out,

00:39:51   and it's like, "Ooh, this is interesting."

00:39:52   So, of course, what happened is the glue on my Popsocket

00:39:55   became not as strong.

00:40:00   - Yeah, you can't just keep doing that.

00:40:02   - Well, now I know.

00:40:04   I didn't know then.

00:40:06   And so I eventually went to re-affix it onto my tennis max,

00:40:12   and it sadly would not stick.

00:40:15   And that is the moment I realized,

00:40:18   oh, this accessory became a 100% vital accessory

00:40:23   for this phone.

00:40:26   When I thought, oh, I'm not sure how much I like it,

00:40:29   what actually had occurred is

00:40:31   this has just been completely incorporated

00:40:33   into the way you use the device,

00:40:34   so you're not thinking about it as much.

00:40:36   But right now, I don't have a pop socket on my phone

00:40:40   because the glue became too weak.

00:40:42   So I have express ordered three, right?

00:40:45   So I have replacements available and it's like on the way,

00:40:48   it's like, I need this thing immediately.

00:40:51   Because I was really surprised, but with the big phone,

00:40:55   it's so much more comfortable to hold it on the back

00:40:59   with one, 'cause you're gonna need two hands anyway.

00:41:02   So to hold it on the back with the pop socket

00:41:04   and then use the front, like you don't have to have

00:41:07   this death grip around the edges of your phone

00:41:09   when you're holding it.

00:41:10   So it's like, I like the bigger phone,

00:41:15   but I think the PopSocket is totally a necessary part of it.

00:41:19   Like I couldn't believe how much of a difference

00:41:21   it made on the big phone.

00:41:22   But this is where I, but now, now Myke,

00:41:27   we start to descend into this world.

00:41:28   This like, this frustrating, this frustrating world.

00:41:33   - You're right over there.

00:41:34   - No, I'm genuinely not.

00:41:36   - Okay.

00:41:37   - Because it's this frustrating world.

00:41:38   - Oh.

00:41:39   can never get everything that you want in life. Yeah. And all I want is everything to

00:41:45   go my way. But you can't get everything to go your way. So what is not going my way,

00:41:51   Myke, you can't charge it. Okay, now, we have wireless charging. If, if when you take the

00:42:01   phone out of your pocket. If you have the very forgiving Mophie charger and if the ambient

00:42:10   temperature in your room is low enough so that the popsocket hasn't slightly expanded

00:42:17   due to the heat.

00:42:18   Wow, you've really gone through all this.

00:42:20   And you, look, I've got an office, I keep it very cold in here. And you place the phone

00:42:26   exactly in the center of the wireless charger,

00:42:30   it will wirelessly charge at, I think, about half a watt.

00:42:35   That's like, it will charge.

00:42:38   The battery chart is hilarious

00:42:40   because it goes up extremely slowly.

00:42:43   You can, in theory, get it to work,

00:42:45   but now you have given up all of the advantages

00:42:50   of wireless charging, which is,

00:42:52   you don't have to think about it.

00:42:53   You just place it on the thing and it just charges.

00:42:56   And it's like, boy, I really love the wireless charging.

00:42:59   To me, the wireless charging is like the go-to example

00:43:02   of how removing what seems like a trivial amount of friction

00:43:07   from a process actually makes a huge difference.

00:43:10   So it's like, oh, I've got to choose between the popsocket

00:43:13   and the wireless charging, and I don't like this at all.

00:43:17   It's very frustrating.

00:43:19   But then, okay, this starts a little bit of a cascade,

00:43:24   because then I think, well,

00:43:26   if I can't have the wireless charging anyway,

00:43:29   I can put a case back on the phone.

00:43:32   Now, I don't want a case on the phone,

00:43:36   except having a case has a huge advantage,

00:43:40   which is my glass cube office

00:43:45   has one of those little security credit card things

00:43:49   that you need to tap on a bunch of doors.

00:43:51   - Oh, okay.

00:43:52   It's the dumbest office setup in the world.

00:43:55   Because if I'm in my glass cube,

00:43:57   and I wanna go to the cafeteria and get a coffee,

00:43:59   I think I need to tap like four or five security doors

00:44:02   to get there.

00:44:04   It's so dumb.

00:44:05   It provides, it's like, the building said,

00:44:07   "Hey, how can we have all of the hassle of security

00:44:11   with none of the actual security?"

00:44:14   But nonetheless, I need to carry this little card with me.

00:44:16   And it doesn't work very well in my wallet

00:44:19   because all of the other RFID cards block it.

00:44:22   So I put a little RFID blocker behind just that one.

00:44:25   Like I've done all these crazy things,

00:44:27   but if I can put it in the case of the phone,

00:44:30   ooh, this is suddenly a very big advantage.

00:44:33   But then it's like, do I want a PopSocket

00:44:35   and the case and a card behind the phone as well?

00:44:40   I don't know, I don't know.

00:44:42   I feel extraordinarily uncertain

00:44:45   about what's gonna happen with like the case setup.

00:44:47   I also have like a little bumper case that's on the way to try out.

00:44:51   I feel like I'm about to descend into a madness of what is the combination of pop

00:44:57   sockets and cases.

00:45:01   Bumper case and pop socket would be interesting.

00:45:03   So I found one that looks pretty good, which is from Rhino Shield or Rhino Case, something

00:45:09   like that.

00:45:10   Okay.

00:45:11   No, you don't like it?

00:45:12   I've hated their stuff in the past.

00:45:13   I haven't looked at the most recent one.

00:45:15   They are the only one that I could find that seemed to make what was like the classic bumper

00:45:19   case that Apple had for the 4.

00:45:22   It looks like it's the closest for that for the Max.

00:45:25   But I don't know.

00:45:26   I'm like, I don't.

00:45:28   I like having extra grip around the side of the phone.

00:45:30   But then this brings us to the final complication where I'm trying to weigh these trade offs.

00:45:35   The trade off is it's big in the pocket.

00:45:38   Fortunately, before I left the internet, last time we had a discussion about pockets, our very helpful audience introduced me to a whole world of tactical jeans.

00:45:53   So jeans that are designed for discrete carry of stuff.

00:45:58   And I'd saved all of those links in a little document.

00:46:03   And then I sent out emails to a bunch of companies asking

00:46:05   exactly what their pocket size was,

00:46:07   trying to narrow down like side pockets

00:46:09   and if they would fit the phone.

00:46:10   So I've ordered a few other pair of jeans

00:46:12   that are on their way to me right now

00:46:14   to try to be side pockets to hold the phone.

00:46:18   - Oh, I remember what I didn't like about RhinoShield.

00:46:20   - What?

00:46:21   - The bumper cases go all the way around,

00:46:25   So you couldn't easily activate the home gestures wiping?

00:46:28   Hmm.

00:46:30   Because the Apple cases stop at the bottom, right?

00:46:32   Right. Right.

00:46:34   The bumper cases don't.

00:46:35   And I had I bought the Rhino Shield for the 10.

00:46:39   And I couldn't properly activate the the home buttons wiping stuff.

00:46:47   So that will be worth checking out.

00:46:49   I'd be intrigued to know if they've made any kind of difference on that.

00:46:53   looking at the design doesn't look like they have.

00:46:56   So I'm keen to see what your experience ends up being.

00:46:59   - I might be able to cut it down.

00:47:01   You can always try to modify these things.

00:47:02   - Sure that won't affect the structural integrity

00:47:05   of the case if you just start cutting chunks out of it.

00:47:07   - I don't think it will.

00:47:09   - Okay.

00:47:10   - But yeah, so it's like, there's this whole,

00:47:11   I feel like I'm in this uncertain matrix

00:47:15   of what are all of the options going to be.

00:47:18   Like the pop socket and the case and the pants,

00:47:21   they all depend on each other.

00:47:23   And I just, I don't know, I don't know what's going to happen.

00:47:26   And I do feel like you said at the beginning

00:47:29   of this conversation, which is just the normal iPhone

00:47:33   with nothing else on it is also just so nice.

00:47:36   Like it's such a pleasing design.

00:47:38   So I don't know.

00:47:39   I feel great uncertainty and I don't know

00:47:44   what's gonna happen with all these cases and designs.

00:47:46   I just look, all I want is everything.

00:47:48   I want a pop socket and I want no case.

00:47:50   And I also want to be able to put a card on the back of the phone or a hotel card on the

00:47:55   back of the phone.

00:47:56   And I also want to use wireless charging.

00:47:58   Would that card not then interfere with your ability to use Apple Pay?

00:48:03   It doesn't.

00:48:04   The card doesn't interfere with the ability to use Apple Pay.

00:48:08   But the wireless charging will totally fry the card.

00:48:14   Just FYI for anybody else who wants to put the card at the back of the phone in between

00:48:18   the case.

00:48:19   going to fry that card.

00:48:21   I probably shouldn't say this because this is going to sound crazy, but I went so far

00:48:27   as to...

00:48:28   So I found some x-rays of the phone to see where the Qi charger is, and then I took the

00:48:35   card and I melted it down with acetone to take out just the chip and the little antenna.

00:48:41   And I threaded the antenna as tightly as I could around where the camera casing is with

00:48:48   the little chip on the side.

00:48:49   And I thought, this is with the 10

00:48:51   when I was trying to get,

00:48:52   'cause I hate cards in my wallet, Myke.

00:48:54   Like I don't want them.

00:48:56   I want to get rid of this stupid wallet.

00:48:58   I threaded it around.

00:48:59   It was like, it worked, but only for a few days.

00:49:03   And I think it was the same problem

00:49:04   that it was still too close to the wireless charger

00:49:06   that it was getting fried.

00:49:07   - How far away are you from like embedding this

00:49:10   into your fingertip?

00:49:11   - I mean, if I could do it, I would.

00:49:15   Like if I just, like I will do anything

00:49:17   not have to carry these things. So anyway, this is all to say it's like there are these

00:49:23   different options and I just I don't know where I'm going to settle with this, but I

00:49:32   really want to make this bigger phone work because I really do like it.

00:49:36   Could you find a way to try and embed that coil into a watch band?

00:49:40   That's an interesting idea. That's an interesting idea. I might have to report back later on

00:49:46   that.

00:49:47   that then someone might make an Apple watch band that you could put something

00:49:50   inside anyway but like you might be able to try and find a way to get it in a

00:49:53   watch band hmm I'm gonna I'm gonna mull on that I'm gonna mull on that this

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00:52:02   Relay FM.

00:52:03   Did you get a new Apple Watch too?

00:52:06   Because you seemed way more excited about the watch than the phone last episode.

00:52:09   Oh yeah, for sure.

00:52:10   The watch was the much more interesting product from the announcement.

00:52:14   I'm really pleased with the phone, but I was super interested in the watch.

00:52:18   That camera though.

00:52:20   My god, it's so good.

00:52:24   They undersold that camera a lot.

00:52:26   So bad.

00:52:27   It's like they didn't even bother.

00:52:28   Like it's so good.

00:52:31   Between us recording that episode and then the episode actually going up, a bunch of

00:52:35   reviews came out which talked about how like, oh, this camera is super amazing.

00:52:38   And I just kept thinking about how I said nothing burger in the show and I was like

00:52:41   oh no.

00:52:42   Well but that was they really did not position they just didn't position it well enough I

00:52:47   don't think and I'm not 100% sure why.

00:52:50   I'm always happy for camera improvements so that makes me feel a lot better like doubly

00:52:54   better about upgrading like bigger size better camera.

00:52:57   But yeah the watch.

00:52:59   I have had the new watch for less than 24 hours.

00:53:04   Oh but you guys got one that's great.

00:53:06   Yeah, so I was able to get one yesterday.

00:53:09   I'm wearing it on my wrist at this very moment.

00:53:11   Which one did you get?

00:53:13   I got the big one, 44 millimeters, black, stainless steel, that's my watch.

00:53:19   Okay, okay.

00:53:23   And I like the big iPhone screen.

00:53:30   I totally love, love, love the bigger watch screen.

00:53:36   This made sense because this was what you said as much on the last episode,

00:53:39   "I'm gonna love this because I like big watches."

00:53:41   It just seemed like inevitable.

00:53:42   Like there was no way I wasn't going to like it, right?

00:53:45   And unlike the phone, I don't have to shove the watch in my pocket, right?

00:53:48   There's no pocket conundrum here, so this is no problem.

00:53:53   I have to say, just like getting text messages and alerts and timers and things on the watch in the last 24 hours,

00:54:00   the big screen, it's so nice.

00:54:02   Like, it's the, I even feel like with timers,

00:54:07   I don't have to think about hitting the button,

00:54:09   like I don't have to care about positioning my finger.

00:54:11   It's like, boom, I can just hit the button.

00:54:14   - Yeah, 'cause it was always this like,

00:54:16   I feel like I need a chiseled point of a finger

00:54:19   to hit some of this stuff reliably.

00:54:21   - The one to me that's the clearest example of it

00:54:25   is a timer where you had the two buttons,

00:54:27   which is like stop and restart

00:54:28   and they're next to each other.

00:54:30   and is like, oh, this is just a much more comfortable

00:54:33   gesture, plus they've pushed the buttons down

00:54:36   and into the corners, they've kind of used

00:54:37   the rounded edges of the phone, so the buttons are big

00:54:41   and there's enough space on either side of them.

00:54:43   Like when I get a Slack message alert through this watch,

00:54:48   it's like, oh, look at all this text I can see,

00:54:50   it's amazing, so of course, because I'm me and not you,

00:54:53   I've already felt like, oh, I gotta go in those settings

00:54:55   and increase the text size, right, to make it bigger.

00:54:58   - Removing all of the benefit.

00:54:59   (laughing)

00:55:01   - No, no, you go halfway, right?

00:55:03   I'll take like half the size back

00:55:05   and lose half of these extra words.

00:55:08   I'm not Myke going in like cranking the text

00:55:09   all the way down.

00:55:10   - How small can I make this now?

00:55:12   - Yeah, exactly.

00:55:13   But man, the bigger screen, it's just great.

00:55:18   I could do even bigger still, but this to me is like,

00:55:23   ah, I don't feel like it's a little small.

00:55:26   Like I always love the Apple Watch,

00:55:28   but I always felt like, man, I could use a bigger screen.

00:55:31   I could do bigger.

00:55:32   And now they did bigger.

00:55:33   I'm super duper happy with it.

00:55:37   Now, if I remember correctly,

00:55:41   Adina was going to get a watch

00:55:42   and you were going to play with it.

00:55:44   Was that the plan?

00:55:45   Have you gotten your hands on a watch?

00:55:47   - Yeah, there's like an arc to this.

00:55:50   - Okay.

00:55:51   - So it began with me picking up my iPhone,

00:55:53   like morning of, right?

00:55:55   So I ordered the iPhone and Adina's 40 millimeter watch

00:55:58   and I went to pick them up,

00:55:59   but on that day they have everything out.

00:56:03   So I went and tried on the 44 gold stainless steel

00:56:08   and immediately fell in love with it.

00:56:11   - With the band, with the Milanese band

00:56:12   or with something else?

00:56:14   - Actually, they didn't have the Milanese,

00:56:15   they just had like a selection of sport bands.

00:56:17   They didn't have the gold Milanese

00:56:19   as a thing that you could try on,

00:56:20   but I looked at it, I could see it, right?

00:56:22   They had it in the case, but I couldn't try it on.

00:56:24   So I just tried on the gold watch with like another band,

00:56:28   like a couple of different bands, I changed them out.

00:56:31   That thing is beautiful.

00:56:32   I think it is absolutely stunning.

00:56:35   It is the first time I have genuinely liked the look

00:56:39   of an Apple watch.

00:56:40   Like prior to this, it's kind of just been like,

00:56:43   let me pick the one I like the look of the most,

00:56:46   but it's always been a bit of an ugly duckling.

00:56:48   - Right.

00:56:49   - But this one, it's like everything about it,

00:56:51   like it being thinner, the gold steel,

00:56:54   really love is the first time I've ever liked a stainless steel watch as well I

00:56:58   don't I don't like the original kind of this the silvery stainless steel one and

00:57:02   it just never really spoke to me I always preferred the aluminium ones but

00:57:05   it being in like gold as a color was really nice and just the finish of it

00:57:08   was nice to screen going all the way to the edges just looks so much better

00:57:12   everything about it I loved everything about it and was like well they had none

00:57:16   in stock on that day so I didn't get one but I was like I'm gonna get one of

00:57:20   these things like I'm gonna get one I love it oh you mean you're gonna get one

00:57:24   for yourself? This was my feeling at that moment. Okay, wait, you say was though? This

00:57:29   was my feeling at that moment. Alright, this is a real roller coaster. Yeah, I bought Adina's

00:57:34   watch, took it home, and I wore it for 12 hours, right, like set it all up, wore it,

00:57:41   and found myself hating it. I hated it. Okay, why? This was something that was not the case

00:57:47   before but I hated getting notifications on my wrist.

00:57:52   Right because you have now gone, I mean how long has it been since you wore the Apple

00:57:57   Watch?

00:57:58   Since May.

00:57:59   I haven't, since May.

00:58:00   I mean I've put them on, I put it on like a day here or there, you know, but like it's

00:58:03   been, it's been since May.

00:58:06   And I never stopped wearing it because I disliked it.

00:58:09   Like that was never the thing.

00:58:11   It was that I found this Apple Watch I liked more.

00:58:13   Like it wasn't that I had a problem with the Apple Watch.

00:58:16   I always loved the Apple Watch.

00:58:17   I love the notifications, right?

00:58:18   But I noticed it most where

00:58:22   I was streaming a video game, right?

00:58:25   So I was playing video game, streaming a game.

00:58:27   And I'm playing and while I'm playing, my wrist is just going buzz, buzz, buzz.

00:58:33   And I'm like, I can't do anything with this right now.

00:58:35   Right. Like I'm doing something.

00:58:37   And now the watch is like vying for my attention.

00:58:41   Where my iPhone, I just put it down and it can be buzzing and going crazy.

00:58:46   but like it doesn't interrupt me unless I see it.

00:58:50   Where like the watch, I don't have to be looking

00:58:53   at this thing and it's trying to get my attention

00:58:56   when I'm busy.

00:58:57   - Right.

00:58:58   - And I think it's just in the time that I've not used it,

00:59:01   I've developed new habits and my new habits are

00:59:05   that I don't want to be interrupted

00:59:08   when I don't want to be interrupted.

00:59:11   And--

00:59:12   - I can understand that very well, Myke.

00:59:14   Exactly. And the Apple Watch inherently will do that.

00:59:18   Like I can put it in do not disturb.

00:59:20   Right. But then like, what's the point?

00:59:21   So basically the kind of conclusion that I've come to is I don't want an Apple

00:59:25   Watch anymore for the foreseeable future.

00:59:28   I have no interest in one because since I've stopped wearing it, nothing bad has

00:59:33   happened. Right.

00:59:35   All of my fears, nothing happened.

00:59:37   Everything's fine because when I need to be available, I have my phone on me and

00:59:44   What I also like is I can put my phone down

00:59:47   and just walk away and I'm away from it all.

00:59:49   And it's unintentionally away, but I've noticed just,

00:59:54   I think that a lot of this stuff,

00:59:56   so a lot of my yoga and the music,

01:00:01   it's all coming from this, I think,

01:00:04   this new place of me being a little bit more chill.

01:00:08   And I think part of that is I'm not so connected

01:00:12   to everything anymore. Right? Like a message coming in that is not important for now, it's

01:00:20   just dealt with later. Or any message really. But like messages that are not important,

01:00:24   they're just getting dealt with and they're getting dealt with. On the Apple Watch, I

01:00:27   was immediately aware of them all the time. So I think that there's just like a change

01:00:32   in my mood which has come from me not wearing this thing every day. So if I was going to

01:00:36   wear an Apple Watch now, I would significantly pare down the notifications for it, right?

01:00:42   now just like why am I even bothering I'm just gonna buy the watch I want

01:00:45   which is not an Apple watch it's a beautiful something else right which is

01:00:50   super thin and you know what else drove me crazy couldn't see the time when I

01:00:54   wanted to see it I noticed it like the first time I raised my wrist to look at

01:00:58   the time and it took like however many milliseconds it took but it was too slow

01:01:02   like for the screen to come on it's like my instinct now is to just see it I see

01:01:07   I just looked right like I can give it a quick glance like I can get the time

01:01:11   from my watch quicker and put my wrist down again, then the Apple Watch can show me the time in the first place.

01:01:18   That is a big behavior change that if you go to the Apple Watch, you have to learn.

01:01:23   You're on your computer and you're just typing away and you can look down at your real watch and

01:01:30   just see the time without having to trigger it, without having to do a little gesture. And that

01:01:36   that does take a lot of getting used to.

01:01:38   And if you've gone back to a nice, real mechanical watch,

01:01:43   that is a frustration if you are wearing the Apple Watch

01:01:47   and like, I can't just look at it,

01:01:50   I have to do this little gesture to trigger it

01:01:52   to show me what the time is.

01:01:53   - And that drove me crazy.

01:01:55   But like, so there are those things,

01:01:56   like they're the reasons I don't wanna wear one anymore,

01:01:58   but I did find two new things,

01:02:01   which is why I might wanna wear one.

01:02:02   One was I'm now doing a form of exercise

01:02:06   every single day and it's not being tracked properly.

01:02:10   'Cause I'm not going and putting my Apple Watch on,

01:02:12   turn my Apple Watch on, I'm not gonna do all that

01:02:15   'cause I'm not gonna-- - Yeah, no, that's crazy.

01:02:16   - It's like whatever, I'm not gonna do that

01:02:17   just for 25 or 30 minutes every day, it's too much hassle.

01:02:20   But if I was wearing one all the time,

01:02:22   'cause I did a yoga workout with the watch on

01:02:24   and it was great 'cause I got an accurate reading

01:02:27   of how the workout went, right?

01:02:29   Like I got all of that information

01:02:30   from the senses that it has because the yoga app

01:02:33   that I use logs things to Apple Health,

01:02:36   well actually, so here's the thing,

01:02:37   it can log things to Apple Health,

01:02:39   but not on the iPad, because health isn't on the iPad,

01:02:42   and I watch the videos on the iPad, so it can't log them.

01:02:45   So I've set up a shortcut that logs a 30-minute activity

01:02:49   to the Health app every day, but it's almost pointless

01:02:51   because there's no usable information in it

01:02:54   because it's just like you were exercising.

01:02:56   - Yeah, it's just a binary track, like you did this thing.

01:02:59   You might as well be keeping track of it

01:03:00   in like a habit tracking or streaks kind of app.

01:03:04   - Yeah, there's nothing to it, right?

01:03:06   But like that shortcut also puts Do Not Disturb on,

01:03:09   like it does a couple of things,

01:03:11   like for 30 minutes, right?

01:03:12   So like my phone won't buzz,

01:03:13   and it's like a little shortcut that I built for that.

01:03:16   And also like the yoga app,

01:03:18   it tells you how many calories you burned, right?

01:03:21   But that's just how many it assumes.

01:03:23   It's wildly different to what the Apple Watch was telling me

01:03:25   'cause the app knows nothing about me, right?

01:03:28   but the watch knows how I'm breathing and it knows how my heart rate is so it's able to

01:03:33   more accurately guess the calories that I'm burning so it was great for that and

01:03:37   also I'm using Siri way more now for music and for shortcuts and all that

01:03:42   kind of stuff and I really like the raised speak in the new watches so all

01:03:48   you do is I think this is on the series 3 as well you just raise it right to your mouth and

01:03:52   just start speaking without saying the trigger word you know they "hey" something

01:03:56   trigger word. He's hearing. Exactly. I didn't want to say it purely because my phone will go off. I

01:04:02   wasn't doing it for anyone else's help but my own. It's like I don't want my phone to go off right

01:04:06   now. But that so that was really good because the HomePod will take every request, right? If it's

01:04:12   in your home, it is scary. I like whispered into my phone in the bedroom yesterday and the HomePod

01:04:18   went off. I was like, Oh God. And sometimes I don't want that. Can I just say what's crazy about the

01:04:25   HomePod is how, so again, like with family visiting,

01:04:30   I'm doing a bunch of tutorials about like,

01:04:31   here's how to use thing.

01:04:32   And I was trying to do a Siri tutorial on the shortcuts.

01:04:36   And so I'm showing this person how to do Siri triggers

01:04:40   with the shortcuts.

01:04:41   Now they're not in, like they're not registered in my house.

01:04:44   It's a totally different iCloud account, right?

01:04:46   They have nothing to do with this.

01:04:48   But what I thought was kind of crazy is when they,

01:04:50   when you say the trigger word, I could see, oh,

01:04:52   this iPad that I'm trying to demo on,

01:04:55   that doesn't belong to this household at all,

01:04:57   starts, Siri starts to wake up,

01:05:01   but then the HomePods get it,

01:05:04   like they take over and then Siri shuts down on the iPad.

01:05:07   It's like, this is crazy.

01:05:08   Siri must have some kind of ad hoc network in the house

01:05:12   where every device is seeing who's,

01:05:15   but it like, it's, I don't know if it's great

01:05:18   or if it's not great that even across everybody's device,

01:05:22   it's still doing this, but so the funny thing was is,

01:05:25   We had to go into another room in the house and like close the door and sort of whisper

01:05:31   so that Siri couldn't hear us.

01:05:33   It's like, we're hiding from Siri in this room.

01:05:36   HomePod by far hears you better than any other of these digital assistant products.

01:05:40   Like it is incredible.

01:05:42   But the problem is it doesn't always understand you.

01:05:44   Hears you, doesn't always understand you.

01:05:46   So that still frustrates me.

01:05:47   It's like, Apple's ability to create this hardware is almost unparalleled,

01:05:52   but Siri the software is still not good enough.

01:05:54   Like, you know, that I can give it the same command twice.

01:05:57   One time it doesn't understand.

01:05:58   Second time it understands. It's like, well, I don't.

01:06:01   Also, I'm trying to use Siri more and it drives me crazy.

01:06:03   Like I've got to set up some home actions right to like turn lights off

01:06:08   at night.

01:06:10   So like before we go to bed, it turns the lights off everywhere.

01:06:12   But the bedroom and actually turns the bedroom lights on to 10 percent. Right.

01:06:15   So it's like a nice just way to go.

01:06:17   So I say like, hey, set bedtime.

01:06:21   And then it's like.

01:06:23   "Okay, I've set your bedtime in your humble abode."

01:06:26   It's like, "Shut up. Shut up."

01:06:29   Like, it gives me this, like, phrase, this long phrase,

01:06:32   where the echo just goes, "Okay."

01:06:35   Right? And that's it. It's all I ever want.

01:06:36   But the home part, like, it said to me two days ago, it's like,

01:06:39   "I have set bedtime in your humble abode."

01:06:42   It's like, "Shut up, you stupid thing! I don't care!

01:06:45   Like, I just want you to do it!"

01:06:47   Like, don't give me all that nonsense.

01:06:50   - Yeah, Siri for sure needs what Carrot has,

01:06:53   the ability to set the verbose-ness.

01:06:56   And it's like, I wanna turn it all the way down.

01:06:59   My frustration with that is in doing the lights,

01:07:03   just because of the way our house is set up,

01:07:05   there's always somewhere in the house

01:07:07   where one of the sockets has been physically turned off.

01:07:10   And so if we say something like,

01:07:11   "Hey, Siri, turn on all the lights,"

01:07:13   Siri will always be like,

01:07:15   "Oh, I've turned on all the lights for you,

01:07:16   "but just so you know,

01:07:18   "a couple of the lights aren't responding in.

01:07:19   You might want to check on that. It's like, yeah, I get it.

01:07:22   Every, like, don't ever say this to me again.

01:07:25   It's always going to be like this every time.

01:07:28   Like, I don't need to hear this whole story about how a couple of light bulbs aren't checking in.

01:07:33   I know they're not checking in. I don't care. Just turn on all the things you can turn on.

01:07:38   It's good for music, though.

01:07:40   It is good for music. And thunder sounds.

01:07:42   I mean, also some of the shortcut stuff, it works pretty well, right?

01:07:45   Like, I'm still trying to work out, like, how I want to run all of my shortcuts,

01:07:51   like how I want to trigger them off and what ones I want and what ones I don't want.

01:07:55   And I'm finding myself, I'm using the shortcuts way more on the devices than I am just like with

01:08:01   HomePod. But I'm kind of, I'm still building through that stuff, but I am building more

01:08:07   shortcuts at rate faster than I ever built workflows.

01:08:10   Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. And this is just to go back to what started this, this is where I find the watch without needing the trigger word is really nice.

01:08:19   Yeah.

01:08:20   Because particularly in the house, because the HomePods are not on my account for personalized stuff, but they always want to pick up whatever I'm saying.

01:08:30   but I find that doing the watch to raise

01:08:33   and then talking to the watch tells it like,

01:08:35   "Hey, I'm talking to the watch.

01:08:36   I'm not talking to you, HomePods."

01:08:38   And that's great for doing all the timers.

01:08:40   And this is one place where I do have to give Apple

01:08:43   total credit because I think we talked about it

01:08:46   on the Cortex after WWDC,

01:08:49   but I thought there is no way that feature

01:08:52   where you can just raise to talk to Siri

01:08:55   without using the trigger word was gonna work.

01:08:57   Like, I was like, there is no way.

01:09:00   - Yeah, here we go, we're gonna have a million stories,

01:09:02   and I have to give Apple total credit,

01:09:04   it has not falsely triggered once.

01:09:08   Like they genuinely nailed that,

01:09:11   and I thought there was like a 0% chance

01:09:14   that was gonna work, but it turns out, joke's on me,

01:09:17   I've had a 0% failure rate on it.

01:09:20   - I didn't get it to trigger every time though.

01:09:22   - I know, that's not what I'm saying.

01:09:24   - Yeah, no, I know you're not, I'm saying like--

01:09:25   - It doesn't always trigger.

01:09:26   - It doesn't always trigger, but it never misfires.

01:09:29   Yeah, it never misfires, which is the much more important thing.

01:09:33   You may have missed this actually, because yes, you definitely have missed this. And

01:09:38   I hope I can give you some information now that you're happy about.

01:09:41   Do you know that there is a way to get shortcuts to talk to IFTTT?

01:09:47   I do. Oh, you found it?

01:09:49   I saw this on... MaxLauris?

01:09:51   Yes, I saw this on Federico's site. Did you see my little Roomba? Did you see

01:09:57   him? I haven't seen your Roomba, I don't know about

01:09:59   - This is in the article, there is an embedded video.

01:10:01   - Oh, is that your Roomba?

01:10:02   Oh, okay. - That's little Robbie.

01:10:04   - Oh, I didn't realize.

01:10:04   - So like now I can, and I do, I get my Roomba to go

01:10:07   and to stop by talking to my home pod.

01:10:10   - I saw that, I actually, I have a little project

01:10:12   in OmniFocus called Automate Roomba,

01:10:14   because I wanna do the two things which I'm now,

01:10:17   oh, now I know I can obviously do,

01:10:19   is like you can control Roomba via your voice with shortcuts,

01:10:23   which is crazy, like that ability to plug into webhooks,

01:10:27   It's like the horizon is open in every direction.

01:10:30   And I know that I can do, like with Google Sheets

01:10:34   and IFTTT, I've figured out, oh, I can do the thing

01:10:38   where when the last person leaves the house,

01:10:40   the Roomba goes automatically.

01:10:42   It's like, oh, this is great, I can't wait to do this.

01:10:45   - Ooh, I wanna see how that ends up when you set that up.

01:10:49   - I'll let you know.

01:10:49   - I'm still at the point, I don't know if you felt like this,

01:10:51   but I'm still at the point where I'm not confident

01:10:54   send in my Roomba out when I'm not at home.

01:10:57   - Oh, no.

01:10:58   - I just get scared that he's gonna break everything

01:11:00   and get lost again.

01:11:01   - No, no, no, in our house Roomba's great.

01:11:03   We trigger him if we're out at dinner

01:11:07   and we suddenly think, oh, we'd like to come home

01:11:09   to a cleaner household.

01:11:10   Let's send Roomba out to do his job.

01:11:13   - We just need to get, it's like sending him off to school.

01:11:17   - That's exactly what it is.

01:11:19   - We're just a little scared he's gonna hurt himself.

01:11:21   - Yeah, you're thinking, oh, he's there,

01:11:23   He's got his little backpack, he's dressed all up for the first day of school,

01:11:26   and you have to let him go on his own.

01:11:29   This is part of growing up.

01:11:31   Have you ever gotten the "Help, I'm stuck" notification?

01:11:35   Yeah.

01:11:35   It's so funny.

01:11:37   He's just chewed up the rug in the bathroom,

01:11:40   and closed the door on himself.

01:11:42   The phrasing of some of them,

01:11:45   the one that gets me is "Help, I'm stuck" on a cliff?

01:11:47   Yeah, that's what I got.

01:11:49   "Hold on, Roomba, I'll be right there!"

01:11:50   "Where did you go?"

01:11:52   (laughing)

01:11:54   It makes me feel like, it makes me feel so bad for him.

01:11:57   Like, oh, I'm coming home.

01:11:59   I'm coming home right now.

01:12:00   - Why did you use the word cliff?

01:12:02   - Okay, now Myke, you may remember

01:12:08   when we first started talking about downtime.

01:12:11   I kept saying this thing about how,

01:12:15   oh, I'm really interested in this,

01:12:17   but it really depends on the implementation details.

01:12:21   I might find this super useful, but a very slight,

01:12:26   ooh, going this way or going that way

01:12:28   in exactly how Apple implements it

01:12:31   will make or break this feature for me.

01:12:33   And just as a while ago,

01:12:38   we were trying to get Apple to do things

01:12:43   in a certain way with the Apple Pencil.

01:12:44   I was like, "Oh, do it this way, please.

01:12:46   Don't do it that way."

01:12:48   I was, during the beta process,

01:12:50   repeatedly sending feedback about one of the implementation details for downtime.

01:12:57   And this has not gone my way.

01:13:02   So now that iOS 12 is out and we have the final version of the way it works, there is

01:13:09   an implementation detail that is absolutely killing me.

01:13:14   So let me explain.

01:13:17   I, unlike you, want all of my notifications to come through the Apple Watch.

01:13:24   Okay.

01:13:25   That's how I want to manage things.

01:13:26   Well, you know, I was like, again, I understand that, but you probably have less notifications

01:13:31   than I do anyway, right?

01:13:34   Yeah.

01:13:35   As we saw last time we checked our stats, literally an order of magnitude less.

01:13:39   So yeah, it's a very different situation.

01:13:42   Now here's the thing that kills me.

01:13:47   The Apple Watch has no understanding of the concept of downtime.

01:13:56   So what this means in practice is, in the morning, when I wish not to be disturbed by

01:14:03   the outside world, I have been putting iMessage in downtime.

01:14:10   Texting is not available to me in the morning on the phone.

01:14:14   And it's fantastic.

01:14:16   No iMessages come in, and what I really love, I don't even see the little bubble, the alert

01:14:22   bubble.

01:14:23   That's not there, and nothing is in Notification Center, and it will all just reappear after

01:14:28   lunch when I'm ready to be exposed to the outside world.

01:14:33   Except that all of those iMessages joyously come straight to my watch, and it's killing

01:14:41   me!

01:14:42   Oh!

01:14:43   killing me that if somebody messages me in the morning,

01:14:47   it just pops right up on the watch,

01:14:49   pops up on the watch like nothing has gone on.

01:14:52   And sometimes there are these situations with Apple

01:14:57   where you feel like you get a little punished

01:15:00   for buying completely into the ecosystem.

01:15:02   - Do you know, I'd never even thought of this as a thing.

01:15:05   - So I had been using the feedback system

01:15:09   and messaging with some of the engineers

01:15:11   and I got the impression that this was not a behavior

01:15:15   that they wanted, and then they went dark

01:15:18   for a very long period of time, and I thought, oh no.

01:15:21   And of course, when the gold master came out

01:15:24   and it appeared in the final version,

01:15:26   this was not the case.

01:15:28   So the watch has no concept of downtime.

01:15:33   So apps that you put into downtime still just are able

01:15:36   to be used on the watch, and it's infuriating.

01:15:40   And I also think it's behavior that an adult, say,

01:15:43   trying to cut down on the amount of time

01:15:45   that their child texts, would not expect.

01:15:49   And I hope this gets changed,

01:15:52   but I get the impression that like,

01:15:54   somebody lost a battle inside of Apple,

01:15:57   and this didn't happen.

01:16:00   But so I'm just like, I love the Apple Watch so much,

01:16:05   but this is one of these cases

01:16:06   where I'm super duper frustrated,

01:16:08   because I was using downtime in this very particular way

01:16:12   where it's like, oh, fantastic.

01:16:14   I can just get notifications from the apps

01:16:16   that I want in the morning

01:16:17   and I can close off everything else

01:16:19   and it works automatically every day.

01:16:21   And now that doesn't work

01:16:24   because all the apps that I don't wanna hear from,

01:16:26   they're just like, hey, I'm on the Apple Watch.

01:16:28   You can hear straight from me.

01:16:29   And it's like, there's no sensible way to fix this.

01:16:33   - And I guess, you just don't ever want them

01:16:36   to come through, right?

01:16:37   because it's not going to work for you.

01:16:39   Here's the problem.

01:16:39   Do not disturb is too much of a blanket.

01:16:42   It's nothing can talk to you.

01:16:44   So for me, when I'm using my exercise app in the morning,

01:16:46   it's like, exercise app can't send me notifications

01:16:49   that this interval is done because we're

01:16:50   in do not disturb mode.

01:16:52   That really sucks.

01:16:53   Calendar reminders that I set in the morning

01:16:55   because there's something different in the day

01:16:57   that I need to know about, they can't come through

01:16:59   because the watch-- it would be in do not disturb mode.

01:17:02   So here is the workaround that I have made so far.

01:17:07   So if anybody else wants to live like me,

01:17:09   here's the best I have found, but it's super frustrating.

01:17:13   I've set a reminder for myself to manually turn on

01:17:20   Do Not Disturb on the watch at night,

01:17:23   and then to remember to turn it off

01:17:27   with another alert in the afternoon.

01:17:30   So since I have to make a decision about all or nothing

01:17:35   with alerts on the watch, it's really important for me

01:17:39   not to receive distracting interruptions in the morning.

01:17:42   So it's like, well, I just have to put this

01:17:44   in do not disturb mode.

01:17:46   Like this is the equivalent of why I used to run two watches,

01:17:48   but I really don't want to do that anymore.

01:17:50   So I've just got to put the watch in do not disturb mode

01:17:54   during the morning.

01:17:56   And then everything else that I don't want to get bothered by

01:17:59   on the phone is in downtime,

01:18:02   so none of those notifications come through,

01:18:06   but OmniFocus and Calendars and the exercise app

01:18:10   can send messages to the phone

01:18:13   because now I'm not running Do Not Disturb

01:18:16   on the phone during the morning.

01:18:18   But it's a frustrating and annoying situation

01:18:23   because I'm mentally split now

01:18:27   between where am I getting notifications from.

01:18:30   And I love just like,

01:18:31   oh, the watch is just where all notifications come from.

01:18:33   And now it's like this split attention.

01:18:36   But so anyway, this is a really, really frustrating

01:18:40   result for me.

01:18:42   And I'll again put it in this bin

01:18:45   that I find it kind of infuriating

01:18:48   how the ability to genuinely control notifications

01:18:51   on the phone is so limited.

01:18:53   And especially now with Apple having screen time,

01:18:58   it's like, oh great, people can know

01:19:00   here's where you're getting all of these notifications from.

01:19:03   But if you wanna do anything more than just say no or yes,

01:19:07   you still don't have a lot of options.

01:19:10   So anyway, that's the sad end

01:19:15   to my concern about implementation details.

01:19:19   - It really does feel like something that will be changed.

01:19:21   - I really hope so.

01:19:23   I really do.

01:19:24   It feels like this was just something that was completely missed because it goes against

01:19:27   everything they're attempting to do here.

01:19:29   I hope you're right.

01:19:31   I really do hope you're right.

01:19:32   But as can sometimes happen with these things, if they do want to change it, I hope I don't

01:19:39   have to wait a year.

01:19:41   And I hope that Apple doesn't think, oh, they're cool with notifications now and no more ability

01:19:49   to fiddle with notifications is introduced for the next several years. So that's always

01:19:55   the concern. But my workaround sort of works, but it's just frustrating because I felt

01:20:01   like, oh, I was so close. I was so close to making everything work. But it doesn't work.

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01:21:48   next website.

01:21:50   Last episode we left our listeners of what had been described by some as the worst cliffhanger

01:21:55   in history.

01:21:56   Wow.

01:21:57   Some people-

01:21:58   That's quite the feedback.

01:22:00   They really want to know what is going on with your home screen.

01:22:05   I don't understand what there is to know about.

01:22:09   Well, there's nothing weird about it. Of course, we just want to know more about it. So can

01:22:12   Can you share with me an updated version of your home screen and we can take a little

01:22:17   look at this?

01:22:18   Okay, all right.

01:22:19   Let me give you the current version.

01:22:22   Slightly different from the old one.

01:22:24   But here, here is my screen right now.

01:22:27   All right, I will share mine with you too.

01:22:30   I think mine is mostly standard, but you know,

01:22:32   yeah, because there's there's no extra spaces for icons on the tennis max.

01:22:38   So you don't you don't have like the catastrophe of everything needs to be rearranged because

01:22:41   Is it like an extra row or something like that?

01:22:44   So, yeah, I imagine there's not as much iPhone icon

01:22:48   shuffling this year as there would be last year.

01:22:50   -No, but my home screen will definitely have changed

01:22:53   since the last time I shared it.

01:22:56   I know there's new stuff on there.

01:22:57   -What a nice wallpaper, Myke. What is that wallpaper?

01:23:00   -That is the, like, OG Cortex wallpaper.

01:23:04   -That looks nice. -Right?

01:23:05   It's created by the wonderful Simon Buckmaster,

01:23:08   and it's the OLED version.

01:23:10   looks so good on OLED.

01:23:11   - I love it.

01:23:13   I love it on the OLED phone.

01:23:16   So yeah, that will be in the show.

01:23:18   So again, if people wanna check it out.

01:23:19   It's really good as for the big phone too.

01:23:21   It's just something about it.

01:23:22   It makes everything pop.

01:23:23   The icon colors pop a lot more.

01:23:25   Like it's really excellent on the black phone,

01:23:28   which is why you went, like the OLED phone,

01:23:31   which is why you went for an all black, I'm sure, right?

01:23:34   'Cause it just looks really good.

01:23:35   - Yeah, it's like you gotta go with black on OLED,

01:23:38   you know, at least for a while.

01:23:39   'cause it's just, it's so good.

01:23:41   It's so super good.

01:23:43   - We can talk about my home screen real quick

01:23:44   if you want to.

01:23:45   Like, I don't know if there's anything

01:23:46   specifically new on there,

01:23:48   but I'm intrigued to know if you have any thoughts on it.

01:23:50   - I don't.

01:23:51   I have no thoughts on your home screen.

01:23:52   It's just overwhelming.

01:23:53   It's too much, Myke.

01:23:54   - Well, I'll ask you,

01:23:55   is there any icons that you're intrigued about?

01:23:57   There is one on there

01:23:58   that I think you might be intrigued about,

01:24:00   but you just might not know it yet.

01:24:02   - Oh, I wasn't sure if we're allowed to talk about this.

01:24:04   - Well, we can at least mention it.

01:24:08   It's the timer, right?

01:24:09   It's the timer app, you know?

01:24:11   Yeah, so isn't this some, like, toggle beta thing?

01:24:14   - Yes. - Isn't that what this is?

01:24:15   It is, and it's amazing.

01:24:17   Like, so this isn't an app that is released yet.

01:24:21   I, the developer did say that I could mention it.

01:24:24   Okay.

01:24:25   It is effectively the toggle app that you want

01:24:27   if you use toggle, because they've built, basically,

01:24:29   a new front end for toggle, and it's incredible.

01:24:32   Like, there's a widget, which is fantastic.

01:24:35   It shows the currently used one,

01:24:36   and you can save specific timers

01:24:38   you want to activate a bunch.

01:24:40   You can then create timers that are saved

01:24:44   with Siri shortcuts.

01:24:46   So you can ask the HomePod to start and stop them,

01:24:48   but then you can also integrate them into other shortcuts.

01:24:52   It's an amazing app.

01:24:53   - Okay, that is fantastic.

01:24:55   - I don't know how soon it is before it comes out.

01:24:58   It's moving along, but it's awesome.

01:25:02   Like it's really good.

01:25:03   - I'll be looking forward to that

01:25:04   because there are Siri shortcuts

01:25:07   that work for the default timer app,

01:25:11   but they remember none of the fiddly information

01:25:15   that I care about. - They suck.

01:25:16   - They're terrible.

01:25:17   - This is like, you can set the projects,

01:25:19   all the related tags, and name the project,

01:25:22   and then you can create that as a standalone item,

01:25:25   which you can trigger from the app.

01:25:28   You can also log just rudimentary times in there.

01:25:31   Like, they don't have to be saved.

01:25:32   just like saved times that you can trigger,

01:25:35   but then all of the saved times can be turned

01:25:37   into Siri shortcuts, we can then be turned,

01:25:39   put into the shortcuts app as well.

01:25:41   It's really good, it's very, very good.

01:25:43   - That's very cool.

01:25:44   - Like even, I don't even think the name is finalized yet,

01:25:47   but like when this app is out, you can rest assured

01:25:50   I'm gonna be talking about it again.

01:25:53   - Yeah, you gotta let me know when that one comes out.

01:25:54   - But I couldn't put this, so this is the thing,

01:25:56   it's like I wanted to put my home screen in the show notes,

01:25:59   but I emailed the developer and said, can I mention it?

01:26:02   and they said yes, you can mention it.

01:26:04   - I love that you've even chosen

01:26:05   the clown vomit icon for carrot.

01:26:07   - Yeah. - Boy.

01:26:08   - It's good though. - Some things never change.

01:26:10   - I feel like they added that for me.

01:26:11   So the timer app has a bunch of colorful ones,

01:26:13   but I won't move red

01:26:14   'cause it just made the most sense to me.

01:26:16   - Yeah, it makes the most sense.

01:26:17   - The carrot one, it's like, it could just be anything.

01:26:19   You know, like, I like it like that.

01:26:21   It's good.

01:26:22   It's good to have a bit of color on the home screen,

01:26:23   especially with the black wallpaper.

01:26:25   - Colorful p-calc. - Yep.

01:26:27   - I feel like if any one of these things,

01:26:28   if they gave you more color, that's what you choose.

01:26:30   The timer has a six color rainbow option but I didn't choose it. I'm not out of control.

01:26:35   Oh okay. I'm glad to know that you're restraining your crazy color choices.

01:26:39   You're still using every slot on your phone, huh Myke?

01:26:41   Well of course I am.

01:26:43   All the content! Myke wants all the content of course. I guess this is all on theme.

01:26:48   Such a misunderstanding. Like I like to fill everything up. If it can be filled up I'll fill it up.

01:26:53   - You know what, no, I think I finally understand.

01:26:56   Okay, if I can reframe this in the context

01:26:59   of the way your Twitter looks,

01:27:01   I think maybe I can understand the mind of Myke

01:27:03   a little better.

01:27:04   - Okay. - That's why you want

01:27:05   everything filled up on your phone

01:27:07   so there's not an inch of breathing space.

01:27:09   - Yeah, if you've got the space, you know, fill it.

01:27:11   You've actually gone in the inverse

01:27:13   where you've gotta make a phone.

01:27:14   - Well, yes, of course. - Now you have less icons

01:27:16   than you did last time.

01:27:17   - I worked very hard to have fewer icons than last time.

01:27:21   Yes, Myke. (laughs)

01:27:22   You're doing that hidden thing again. How do you do that? Do you use some kind of guide?

01:27:27   Oh, how do I get the blank row on the top? I'm actually just doing it in shortcuts.

01:27:32   I just made a blank shortcut that does nothing, and then you can set a custom picture, and

01:27:37   since it's just black, I just put a black thing there.

01:27:40   You should put some secret stuff in there!

01:27:42   Oh, like secret launchers? Actually, that's not a bad idea! That's an interesting idea.

01:27:46   It's a way to get a bit more real estate on the screen.

01:27:48   Like you press a blank screen and all your hue lights go red or something, you know,

01:27:52   like you can just do some secret stuff up there?

01:27:55   Actually that's a great idea, I didn't think about that, but it is a way to have

01:27:58   some more buttons on the phone without the visual distraction of the buttons.

01:28:02   I'm going to give that a thought.

01:28:04   That's quite fun actually.

01:28:05   I like that.

01:28:06   Yeah, I like that a lot.

01:28:07   So you're still running, I'm looking at this, this is 100% shortcuts that you can

01:28:14   see and I'm sure that the four folders on the top they contain applications right?

01:28:17   Okay so yes although essentially every app is in just shoved into that first folder.

01:28:28   Okay okay but like there has to still be apps on the phone because the shortcuts have to go.

01:28:33   Yes Myke there are apps on the phone right I haven't let's let's not be crazy Myke there

01:28:38   are apps on the phone. I'm intrigued now having a look at this I want to play a little game.

01:28:43   Okay, I want to see if I can guess what the buttons do. Okay, do you want to try to like,

01:28:49   I'll explain high level what's going on. But if you want to play a guessing game first,

01:28:52   you go right? No, no, no, no, explain high level what's going on. So people can understand what

01:28:56   we're talking about. And then I'm going to try and guess what the buttons do. Okay, there's two

01:29:00   high level things here. One is aesthetic, and one is practical. The aesthetic one is, I think this

01:29:08   phone, the way I have set it up using icons that all match that have a color scheme that

01:29:17   is coordinated between them and that also importantly have no dumb words below them

01:29:23   looks beautiful. Every time I look at this screen, I think it looks really beautiful

01:29:31   because it's consistent. It does look nice and it's simple. It does. It is almost it's

01:29:35   It's like the perfect home screen for you, right?

01:29:38   Because you are able to force design consistency.

01:29:40   Yeah, I can force design consistency across it.

01:29:43   And there are badges right now because it's the afternoon and I'm open to the world.

01:29:49   And you know, like when we're done recording this podcast, I'll work through trying to

01:29:53   clear all of those badges.

01:29:54   But particularly in the mornings, the phone is just so pleasing to use, because all of

01:30:01   those badges disappear because everything with a badge is put into downtime.

01:30:05   So it's like, ah, what a beautiful phone.

01:30:07   So that's the aesthetic target here.

01:30:10   Now, the second thing that's going on is

01:30:14   the whole time I was using the beta

01:30:18   and thinking about shortcuts,

01:30:21   and what eventually led me to think,

01:30:23   oh, I think I can actually do this is

01:30:27   because shortcuts are so integrated with the system,

01:30:33   They have access on this level to all of the apps

01:30:37   that Workflow was never able to have.

01:30:40   So they can launch all of the apps at a bare minimum

01:30:42   and they can do all of these different things.

01:30:45   It totally changed the way I thought about the home screen

01:30:49   from a collection of the most used apps

01:30:54   to instead being a collection of the most performed actions.

01:31:00   - Sure.

01:31:02   So that's like, but once you start to really think

01:31:05   about that, it changes the idea of what do you want there?

01:31:10   And so that's why I've gone for this 100%

01:31:14   shortcut home screen, because I've tried to rethink

01:31:19   what are the actions that I want to do,

01:31:23   and then creating shortcuts that perform that action.

01:31:28   Now, maybe that's opening an app,

01:31:31   but maybe it's doing something else.

01:31:33   Those are the high-level goals of this home screen.

01:31:36   And I do have to say, it was experimental last time,

01:31:40   but since that show and this show,

01:31:42   especially since iOS is now out

01:31:45   and more apps are integrating with shortcuts,

01:31:48   it's like, this is the way I'm going.

01:31:50   This is no longer an experiment.

01:31:52   This is my life.

01:31:53   - I have a question. - Yes.

01:31:55   - You said about opening apps.

01:31:56   How are you, I mean, 'cause not every app

01:32:00   has a shortcut to open the app.

01:32:02   So what are you doing there?

01:32:04   - Now that Shortcuts is part of the system,

01:32:07   I have yet to find an app it won't open.

01:32:10   Whereas back when it was Workflow,

01:32:13   there were a bunch of apps it wouldn't open.

01:32:15   So I have not run into that.

01:32:17   - What action are you running though?

01:32:19   - So Shortcuts has a command that's just open app.

01:32:22   And as far as I can tell,

01:32:23   that command contains every app on the phone.

01:32:27   - Interesting, okay.

01:32:28   So when you tap on those,

01:32:30   does it immediately open the application

01:32:33   or does it open shortcuts first?

01:32:35   - Here's the one thing that is a little strange,

01:32:40   but I'm absolutely sure there is some glitchy behavior

01:32:45   in the current implementation of iOS

01:32:49   because I have a bunch of like weird content restrictions

01:32:52   set for myself around the browser as well.

01:32:55   But the way these icons are working

01:32:59   is that all of them are actually a little URL.

01:33:03   So what happens is you press it,

01:33:05   it quickly bounces to Safari,

01:33:07   but all Safari has is this URL,

01:33:10   which bounces back to Shortcuts, and then Shortcuts runs.

01:33:15   I'm messing with the settings a little bit,

01:33:16   but sometimes I've run into this thing

01:33:18   where it tries to bounce into Safari,

01:33:19   and it's like, "You've run out of time on Safari today."

01:33:21   It's like, "No, no, no, that's not remotely what I want,

01:33:23   'cause I'm just using this to open an app."

01:33:24   But that is just like, there is clearly a glitchy thing

01:33:29   because I used to be able to whitelist these things.

01:33:32   So I think that will be fixed for anyone who's trying it now

01:33:35   and is also weird like me and has content restrictions.

01:33:37   But it works, like it just bounces to Safari

01:33:39   and then it runs the shortcut

01:33:41   and the shortcut does whatever.

01:33:43   Now, one of the things that is helpful here

01:33:47   is I have turned on the accessibility feature

01:33:53   to reduce motion in iOS.

01:33:56   And that makes the process of bouncing to Safari

01:34:00   and then bouncing to shortcuts almost instant.

01:34:03   Because there's no animation,

01:34:05   like the screen is just white for a split second

01:34:07   while it goes to Safari,

01:34:08   and then it's immediately in shortcuts.

01:34:11   And quite frankly, I don't really notice anywhere

01:34:14   in the system where the reduced motion bothers me.

01:34:16   The only thing is the app multitasker,

01:34:19   the physics of it seem a little weird,

01:34:21   but I've totally gotten used to it now,

01:34:23   and now I don't even think about it.

01:34:25   So turning on reduced motion, it's great.

01:34:28   As far as I'm concerned, there's no trade-off,

01:34:30   and there's only benefit

01:34:31   that the shortcuts load way, way faster.

01:34:33   - Okay, so I'm looking at this now,

01:34:36   looking at this screen,

01:34:37   and I can imagine that there's a mix

01:34:40   of performing some kind of action,

01:34:43   logging some kind of timer,

01:34:45   opening some kind of application, right?

01:34:48   So I'm gonna start with the doc,

01:34:50   and previous history of this show has told me that the green plus mark that is launching

01:34:57   a toggle timer, right?

01:34:59   Yeah, that one has been on the dock for a long time.

01:35:02   Yeah, I remember that.

01:35:04   That brings up a list of all of the possible workflows that I have that are related to

01:35:09   timers. So that may eventually disappear, but I'm still using that as I'm slowly

01:35:16   going through the long tail of converting a bunch of timers over to Siri actions. But

01:35:21   yes, that is the default. I want to start a timer. Here it goes.

01:35:26   All right, spaceship, using my knowledge of the apps that you use, is going to open Launch

01:35:32   Center Pro. Okay, I'm going to give you that. It does

01:35:36   not open Launch Center Pro. But I'm using it as a replacement for a bunch of the stuff

01:35:42   that Launch Center Pro used to do for me. Like little actions. So now I have just built,

01:35:47   when I press that, it opens up a menu and it's like, here's a bunch of junk I used to

01:35:51   have in Launch Center Pro.

01:35:53   That's now shortcuts.

01:35:54   Yeah, I've rebuilt Launch Center Pro with a shortcut.

01:35:57   So I'm assuming from this, you must have lots of shortcuts because you're building shortcuts

01:36:03   for shortcuts, right? Which is a thing you can do where like, you can build a bunch of

01:36:07   many actions and then build one action that calls all those many actions.

01:36:12   Yeah, so yeah, so this is this is like, if you have any experience programming at all,

01:36:18   it really pays off here. Because I'm trying to think about modularity of like, don't build

01:36:24   a big shortcut to do everything, build shortcuts that can call other functions. And there's

01:36:32   great tricks about you can use the the pace board on iOS as a place to temporarily store a value.

01:36:39   So you can have one shortcut, write a value to the clipboard, and then it launches another shortcut,

01:36:45   which then reads the clipboard and pulls that value in. So there's like, you have a variable

01:36:52   that can be passed back and forth between different shortcuts, which is great. But yes,

01:36:58   I'm having lots of shortcuts launch other shortcuts.

01:37:01   I built this one that needed that. Like it needed, I need something I was doing. I needed

01:37:05   to use the clipboard and I was really proud of myself that I built like a non-destructive

01:37:10   clipboard version by taking the clipboard, pasting it into a note, like that's in shortcuts,

01:37:17   pasting it into a text field, then using the clipboard and then the final action of the

01:37:22   shortcut is to take the original pasted element. Oh, that's clever.

01:37:26   So if I have something on my clipboard, I don't want it to be destroyed by running the shortcut?

01:37:31   That's very clever.

01:37:32   Thank you. I was proud of myself on that one, because I was like, hmm,

01:37:34   I'm frequently copying things and then going somewhere else and pasting them in,

01:37:39   and if I'm using shortcuts to move between documents, like in Google Docs,

01:37:44   I don't want it to destroy it, so I kind of built this really weird version of clipboard history.

01:37:49   It's just writing it once and then taking it again.

01:37:53   Alright, so the clipboard I'm assuming is some kind of notes or like, oh no, it's a

01:37:59   checklist. It's a checklist of some kind, right? It's gotta be.

01:38:03   Excellent guess. You're wrong. Ah. Okay. Let me explain. We don't really have to go through

01:38:09   all of these, but let me explain. Well, you won't go. I know you won't go through all

01:38:12   of them, right? Like some of you, I'm not telling you what that is and we'll have to

01:38:15   move on. I know that's how it's going to go. The chess piece in the top left, the blue horse,

01:38:20   night and the clipboard at the bottom. Both of those are omni-focus related.

01:38:26   Okay. And the night is acting as my top level

01:38:33   perspective. So I have a perspective in omni-focus, like a way of filtering the particular tasks.

01:38:38   And it's like my number one perspective that I'm using is like high level and super important stuff

01:38:47   for the day, but stuff that is not necessarily urgent,

01:38:51   but things that like, man, I feel like I've had a great day

01:38:54   if I do these things.

01:38:56   And so I always wanna make sure to try to clear that list

01:39:00   before I get sucked in by like more urgent things

01:39:05   as the day goes on.

01:39:07   So the night is there because I always just wanna be able

01:39:09   to like bam, hit that and go straight into this perspective.

01:39:13   This again is where like, man, shortcuts in Siri integration

01:39:17   with all the apps is just amazing

01:39:19   because you can just go exactly

01:39:22   to where you want in the app.

01:39:24   And the little clipboard on the dock

01:39:27   just brings up a list of all of the other perspectives

01:39:31   I might want to access in OmniFocus.

01:39:34   And then I can just select from there

01:39:35   and it opens OmniFocus right where I want to be.

01:39:39   And it sounds dumb,

01:39:41   like you're not really saving any steps,

01:39:43   but it totally, like it, again,

01:39:45   And this is just like reducing a little bit of friction makes things way easier.

01:39:49   Well, it shifts your mindset.

01:39:51   Like you said, like it takes you away from the silo of apps to broadening it out to think

01:39:58   of actions or projects.

01:39:59   Yeah.

01:40:00   And so I'm, yeah, I'm finding that I'm using the perspectives much more than I did before.

01:40:06   Just because it's very simple that the step isn't like, go to OmniFocus.

01:40:10   "Oh, what state was it left in back up to the main page

01:40:14   and then go to the place that I want to go?"

01:40:16   It's like, "No, no, I pressed the button,

01:40:18   take me to Aaron's right now."

01:40:20   Or like, "Take me to this other place right now."

01:40:23   And it just goes, it's so nice.

01:40:25   It's so super nice.

01:40:27   So those two are for OmniFocus.

01:40:31   And let me do a little bit of a diversion here

01:40:34   to tell you about the top row of folders

01:40:36   and what's going on since we're talking about OmniFocus.

01:40:38   So the four folders at the top, I am using

01:40:42   as the four kinds of notifications that I wish to receive.

01:40:47   Like what do I want badges for?

01:40:49   And so because these things are shortcuts,

01:40:53   shortcuts cannot display a badge

01:40:56   for whatever should be on them.

01:40:57   Only apps can do that.

01:40:59   So I want OmniFocus to be able to have badges

01:41:02   because I want to be aware of this number

01:41:05   that I'm always trying to get down to zero

01:41:06   over the course of the day.

01:41:08   So that first folder at the top left

01:41:11   with the little purple check mark in it,

01:41:13   that is the number that is being displayed in OmniFocus.

01:41:18   And I have a couple of other little to-do apps in there,

01:41:22   like I have Do in there,

01:41:24   which has different kinds of notifications for it.

01:41:26   So that first folder is acting for me

01:41:29   as here are all of the action items

01:41:34   that you have to perform in the day.

01:41:36   And it's really important for me to be able

01:41:38   to see those badges.

01:41:40   I totally love it.

01:41:41   And what I really love is that if you force press

01:41:46   on any of those folders, the system will show you

01:41:50   the breakdown of which app is displaying

01:41:53   how many number of badges,

01:41:54   and you can jump straight to that app.

01:41:57   - It's a very nice feature.

01:41:58   - It's a really nice feature.

01:42:00   I never used it before now, but suddenly it's vital.

01:42:03   Like it's super great.

01:42:05   And then continuing across the top row,

01:42:07   the next one over is iMessage badges.

01:42:10   Now the third one over then is my company Slack.

01:42:15   And then the last one is like miscellaneous

01:42:19   other kinds of communication that may come into me.

01:42:22   So VIP emails, secondary Slack,

01:42:25   a couple of other like communication things.

01:42:28   So across the top row,

01:42:31   It's also roughly ordered in priority.

01:42:35   - How can you have slacks in two different folders?

01:42:37   - Oh, Myke, you can have slacks in two different folders.

01:42:41   Did you not know this?

01:42:43   - No.

01:42:44   - Okay, okay, let me tell you something.

01:42:47   Don't tell anybody about this

01:42:49   because I'm afraid they're gonna pull it.

01:42:50   But if you search for Slack in the store

01:42:53   and then you go to the spot

01:42:56   where it says more by this developer,

01:43:00   there is an Enterprise Edition of Slack that you can download.

01:43:05   And so you can have two Slack apps running on your phone.

01:43:11   -Holy sh--.

01:43:12   -Which means you can have all of your lower-priority Slacks

01:43:18   in the Enterprise Edition

01:43:20   and your higher-priority Slack in the main Slack.

01:43:23   -Holy sh--. That's incredible.

01:43:26   But, like, what's the difference?

01:43:29   The difference is, the Enterprise version seems to get the exact same updates maybe a week or two later.

01:43:35   But other than that, it's the same.

01:43:37   Oh my god.

01:43:39   We've potentially ruined this by talking about it.

01:43:43   But I feel like Slack cares so much about the Enterprise that that app exists for a reason.

01:43:48   But you've just like, changed everything for me.

01:43:52   Because I'm, you know, like everyone, I'm a member of too many Slacks,

01:43:56   and I don't need the notification badges for most of them.

01:44:00   Or at least I would like notifications,

01:44:02   but I don't need them as urgently.

01:44:05   - Here's what you want to do, because this is what I do,

01:44:07   that for my company Slack, I wanna know right away

01:44:12   when someone messages me, right?

01:44:14   'Cause it's like, here's the thing,

01:44:16   I don't wanna be the bottleneck,

01:44:17   I wanna turn it around, great.

01:44:19   But for all of the other Slacks,

01:44:22   the iOS implementation of deliver quietly is fine, right?

01:44:27   Like when I pull down notification center,

01:44:29   I can just see what all of that stuff is.

01:44:32   Or when I'm working across clearing these badges

01:44:34   from left to right, like I'll get to it.

01:44:36   I'll see that there's something there,

01:44:38   but it's not the top priority item.

01:44:41   So by having two instances of Slack,

01:44:44   it means that you can have two different iOS levels

01:44:48   of notification.

01:44:50   So it's great.

01:44:51   someone at Slack next week saying, "Wow, what happened to the downloads on the Enterprise

01:44:55   Edition?"

01:44:56   Myke, you're not really going to leave this in the show and ruin it for us, are you?

01:45:01   I'm going to leave it in. There's no way they can get rid of it. Like, Enterprise is too

01:45:05   important for them. They clearly need this application.

01:45:08   I'm going to blame you if you ruin it for us, Myke.

01:45:10   We've got to share this with the people. They need to know.

01:45:14   All right, well, I'm sure all the people will be very discreet about it.

01:45:17   Yeah, don't tell anyone.

01:45:19   You will have to download it on different days.

01:45:22   Alright, you work together, download it at different times.

01:45:25   Alright, let me see if I can knock some of these ones out here, right?

01:45:28   So, the globe is probably Safari.

01:45:30   The globe is not Safari, no.

01:45:32   I try never to use Safari on my phone. Do you even know me, Myke?

01:45:36   That's why I have the content restrictions on me.

01:45:38   Alright, alright, alright, alright.

01:45:39   I figured you'd still want to use the web browser sometimes, though.

01:45:43   I never want to use the web browser on my phone.

01:45:45   - Okay.

01:45:46   - It's glitchy right now in iOS 12,

01:45:48   but I am trying to set it so that the web browser works

01:45:51   for nothing but the URLs that Shortcuts is launching it.

01:45:54   - Well, let me take a second shot

01:45:56   and say it's something to do with maps.

01:45:58   - It is maps.

01:45:59   - Okay, great.

01:45:59   - So this is one of these pleasing little things

01:46:01   where I like to have maps on the home screen.

01:46:04   I don't use it a ton, but I do like to have it there

01:46:06   instead of searching for it.

01:46:08   And I do switch between Apple Maps and Google Maps,

01:46:11   and I was never gonna put two not super frequently used apps

01:46:16   on the home screen.

01:46:17   But so now the globe, I have one button.

01:46:20   It asks me, do you want Apple maps or Google maps?

01:46:22   And I just pick which one and then it opens it.

01:46:24   - Ooh, you know, just for stuff like that,

01:46:27   that's really clever.

01:46:31   'Cause you could even like have one for Slack,

01:46:33   like which Slack app do you want?

01:46:35   - Exactly. - Do you want the good one

01:46:37   or the secret one?

01:46:38   (both laughing)

01:46:40   - Yeah, so there's like the red icon at the top,

01:46:44   which is the database icon.

01:46:46   - Yeah.

01:46:46   - That's a similar thing.

01:46:47   Like there's just a bunch of sort of related,

01:46:50   but not super frequently used apps under there.

01:46:53   And it's like, great, I can just pull up this menu.

01:46:56   It's easier than swiping down

01:46:59   and starting to type the names.

01:47:00   It's just like, boom, I hit that one.

01:47:02   It's like, oh yeah, I want Anki right now,

01:47:04   the flashcard program, oh, launch that thing, go.

01:47:07   So it's a really useful thing to think about

01:47:11   if you're going to try to run a shortcuts-only home screen

01:47:15   is you can clump together similar things

01:47:19   that you would never want to take up

01:47:21   four slots on the home screen.

01:47:23   - I feel like I can knock out the rest of that third row.

01:47:26   - Okay. - Books.

01:47:27   So that's probably Kindle or iBooks, right?

01:47:30   You're open either.

01:47:31   - The thing that's nice about the books one

01:47:33   is I launch it, it asks me, what are you reading,

01:47:37   non-fiction or fiction, I select, it starts the appropriate toggle timer, and then opens

01:47:41   up Kindle.

01:47:42   But it's just nice that I don't have to do the timer as a separate thing.

01:47:46   So here's one that I built which is kind of similar.

01:47:48   It's called Show Prep.

01:47:49   So I leave it in my widget.

01:47:51   So I use the widget for this, the shortcuts widget.

01:47:55   So I press that button, it asks me which show you're prepping for right now.

01:48:00   I'll tap the appropriate show.

01:48:02   opens the Google Doc and then sets the show prep timer for that show.

01:48:05   Right? Yeah. Yeah, it's great. So it's like little stuff like that. This is what shortcuts

01:48:10   is so good for. Alright, the next one is going to be photos the orange flower. Yep, yep,

01:48:15   just photos. And then you got music is the pink music note. Alright, so that's that row

01:48:20   taken care of the one below it the microphone. It's something podcast related. Okay, so this

01:48:25   is this is one of the first ones that I made. I'm super pleased about it. And it helped

01:48:31   cascade this whole thing into existence.

01:48:34   It's not really complicated, but it's nice.

01:48:38   So if you're me, if you're Myke,

01:48:41   you're walking along in the world,

01:48:43   you know, you're just thinking thoughts,

01:48:44   and you'll think, oh, I have an idea

01:48:48   for something that I wanna talk about on a podcast.

01:48:51   Now, what you don't wanna do is

01:48:56   then open up your Notes app

01:48:58   and search for where the note for that podcast is,

01:49:02   then tap on it and then insert your cursor

01:49:05   into the right spot and then start typing.

01:49:07   Because ideas, they're ephemeral.

01:49:11   They can fly away at a moment's notice.

01:49:13   So when I tap the podcast microphone,

01:49:17   it opens up a shortcut and it immediately gives me

01:49:20   a text box to type whatever the thought is.

01:49:24   And then when I'm done typing the thought,

01:49:26   I hit OK, and it brings up a menu.

01:49:28   It says, which podcast is this for?

01:49:30   I select it, and it automatically dumps it

01:49:33   into the bare note that I'm using it.

01:49:35   And very nicely, it pre-pends as opposed to app pending.

01:49:40   So it's at the top of the note, it's not at the bottom.

01:49:44   Now, I have very few podcasts compared to a mic,

01:49:49   but I think you in particular may find

01:49:52   that a super useful shortcut to have on your home screen.

01:49:55   I do but I use Apple notes for this stuff and I don't think I can do that.

01:50:00   So you cannot do the app and prepend thing with Apple notes.

01:50:05   And this is where I've actually shifted a ton of my storage stuff to Apple notes, but

01:50:13   I'm leaving the podcast in bear precisely because of that ability to say like, I can

01:50:17   pick it goes here or I can pick it goes there.

01:50:20   So I've tried with bear a couple of times to move my podcast notes stuff to it for the

01:50:24   the App and Prepand.

01:50:26   But I've had two problems with it.

01:50:27   One, it doesn't do as good a job with adding URLs to Notes

01:50:31   as Notes does.

01:50:33   And the other, the conflicts, they drive me mad.

01:50:37   I've found it to duplicate Notes to deal with conflicts.

01:50:41   They may have gotten better at this.

01:50:42   I hope they've gotten better at that.

01:50:44   But like, so when I use so many devices, right,

01:50:46   I would add something on my iPhone,

01:50:48   then I would add something on my iPad or from the extension,

01:50:52   And then when I open up one device, it's like,

01:50:55   ah, we created three versions for you

01:50:57   'cause we don't know what to do with it.

01:50:58   - See, this is much less of a problem

01:51:00   when really the only iOS device you're using is your phone.

01:51:05   So I don't run into the duplication problem so much, Myke.

01:51:10   But nonetheless, you may be able to find another solution.

01:51:14   I know that Evernote has shortcuts

01:51:16   to Append, Prepend, to Notes.

01:51:18   Maybe you wanna give Evernote a try for your show notes.

01:51:20   - Don't even.

01:51:22   I can't.

01:51:23   Like, you know, the Apple Notes one works pretty well.

01:51:25   Like I could actually just, I could create,

01:51:27   as I was thinking about as we were talking,

01:51:29   create something that just opens the specific note, right?

01:51:32   And then that would probably be enough.

01:51:34   'Cause I do have that thing where I have to search

01:51:35   through all the notes, right?

01:51:37   Like where is the note that I want right now?

01:51:39   - Just opening to the note you want

01:51:41   is already saving you a bunch.

01:51:43   So yeah, you should totally build something like this.

01:51:45   - Or like, you know, I could do something where

01:51:47   I could create some text and then,

01:51:50   like so the first thing I'm doing is either recording

01:51:52   or writing the text down,

01:51:54   and then it copies it to the clipboard,

01:51:56   then opens the note, and then I paste it in.

01:51:59   - Yeah. - Those are the types

01:52:00   of things you could do.

01:52:01   Okay, so that makes sense.

01:52:02   - This is an example, though,

01:52:03   of where I think it's really important

01:52:05   to think about it from action center

01:52:08   rather than app centered.

01:52:09   And when you're thinking about it action centered,

01:52:12   it then becomes obvious.

01:52:13   What I wanna do right now is write down an idea.

01:52:18   So hit me with a text box

01:52:21   So I can type things in now,

01:52:23   and I can do the fiddly stuff about sorting later.

01:52:27   I don't wanna do what an app-based world requires,

01:52:30   which is the total reverse.

01:52:32   You've gotta do the fiddly stuff of finding the right spot,

01:52:35   and then you can write down the idea

01:52:38   that you're barely able to hold onto with your fingers

01:52:41   as it tries to flutter away.

01:52:43   You wanna do it in the opposite direction.

01:52:45   - The blue credit card-looking thing,

01:52:48   I assume it's something money-related.

01:52:50   - It's a good guess.

01:52:51   It's an index card is what it is.

01:52:54   And that is my version of the podcast thing,

01:52:58   but for OmniFocus.

01:53:00   So it's the same idea.

01:53:02   I hit that little button.

01:53:04   It's like, here's a little index card

01:53:05   or something that I want to keep track of.

01:53:07   I type in whatever it is.

01:53:09   It can be an errand.

01:53:10   It can be, oh, I need to reply to this person.

01:53:12   It can be, here's a thing I need flagged in this,

01:53:14   whatever it is.

01:53:16   And then the shortcut then brings up like the,

01:53:20   I think I have like five or six.

01:53:22   Here are places you might want to put this in OmniFocus,

01:53:26   and I just select the one,

01:53:27   and then it boom goes right into the system.

01:53:30   So beautiful now with OmniFocus 3,

01:53:32   like with all of the correct tags

01:53:34   and in the correct folder, in the correct project,

01:53:37   and it just goes into the system,

01:53:39   and it's so nice. - Sounds good.

01:53:41   - Yeah, it's really nice.

01:53:43   - I got that wonder in my...

01:53:44   (laughing)

01:53:46   - I know, Myke, Myke, let me tell you,

01:53:47   my OmniFocus 3 is really good.

01:53:49   I mean, I'm still waiting, OmniFocus,

01:53:51   I'm still waiting for that floating time zone fix.

01:53:55   You told me it's coming.

01:53:56   I know it's coming.

01:53:57   I'm still waiting for it.

01:53:58   - I'm not even gonna look at it until they add that,

01:53:59   but if they add that, I will look at it again.

01:54:01   - But let me tell you, OmniFocus 3, it's so good.

01:54:04   Can I tell you my favorite OmniFocus trick, Myke,

01:54:06   or should I save it for later?

01:54:08   - No, you can tell me.

01:54:09   - Okay.

01:54:11   I have, one of the things that's hiding

01:54:14   under my launch center replacement

01:54:17   is the action that then brings up the shortcut,

01:54:20   which brings up all of my templates for OmniFocus.

01:54:23   One of those templates is of course travel,

01:54:26   like, oh God, I'm gonna travel somewhere.

01:54:29   Now, when you travel,

01:54:31   there's things you can't bring across security, right?

01:54:34   Like they won't let you bring water.

01:54:36   It's like the little hassle thing.

01:54:37   So there's always a bunch of stuff you wanna buy

01:54:39   when you're at the airport.

01:54:41   You wanna get some water for the flight.

01:54:44   You wanna get some almonds or some food or what,

01:54:46   Like you want to have just like a couple little things that you can only bypass security.

01:54:50   So I've always had a whole list of these things, but I sort of forget at the airport to actually

01:54:54   buy them.

01:54:56   So I wanted alerts for when I arrive at the airport.

01:54:59   Hey, buy these things, you're gonna need them.

01:55:02   But of course, there's many airports that I go to.

01:55:06   How will I get an alert at that airport?

01:55:09   The answer is, I just tag every one of those items with every airport in the world that

01:55:16   I might be at. All of those tags will trigger on the location of showing up at that airport.

01:55:22   Oh f*** that. Get out of here, I hate you.

01:55:26   It's so good!

01:55:27   That's insane.

01:55:29   You could do this for example with grocery shopping. You could have a tag for all of

01:55:34   the grocery stores you might go to and it will location trigger at any of them.

01:55:38   How reliable is it?

01:55:40   It is worked 100% of the time for me.

01:55:42   So as soon as you get there, it pops up and it's like, "Hey, you gonna do this?"

01:55:46   Yeah, it actually almost always works as the car is pulling up to the airport, which is perfect.

01:55:52   Like, there's just enough time where it's like, "Ah, it's popped up, there's five things you wanna buy."

01:55:56   I hate you so much.

01:55:57   And I can get through security fast enough and I'm on the other side and I'm buying it.

01:56:01   But it is like, my default tagging list for that is hilarious.

01:56:06   It's like, "Here we go! London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol, JFK Airport, San Jose, LAX, LAS!"

01:56:13   Right? Like, I've got 10 of them in there for all the airports I've been to.

01:56:18   Let me confirm how this happens. You have to, like, start the workflow so they're in your inbox or whatever, right?

01:56:25   And then when you arrive at the place, those active tasks will trigger. Is that how it works?

01:56:30   you in OmniFocus three, you can associate a tag with a location. And then you can say that this

01:56:36   tag with this location should trigger either upon your arrival or departure from that location.

01:56:44   But what is it triggering though? Like is it triggering a task which is already active?

01:56:50   I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Right. So when you get to the airport,

01:56:54   like what is only focus doing? OmniFocus will show on the screen,

01:56:58   you have five tasks at this location.

01:57:01   Right, but you have already put those tasks into the system beforehand.

01:57:04   So like when you've left in the morning, you're like, "I'm going to the airport."

01:57:08   And then it adds like 10 tasks into your airport project

01:57:12   that won't fire until they hit a location.

01:57:14   And when you arrive at the airport,

01:57:16   those tasks that are already in OmniFocus have been surfaced.

01:57:19   Okay, cool.

01:57:20   Yes, that's right. That's what's happening.

01:57:22   Yeah, it's part of this whole template.

01:57:23   Because I was wondering, like, the ultimate thing would be that,

01:57:27   like you arrive and it creates a project, right? Now that would be like next level.

01:57:34   So you don't even need to think about starting it, right? Like you get there and it's like,

01:57:39   oh, you're at the airport. That means you must need these things as opposed to you saying

01:57:43   like, and again, like, it's too much. It might be too much to ask, but like, that would be

01:57:47   the dream.

01:57:48   No, no, no, no, no, no, like, Myke, Myke, no, but just just so you know, like what you're

01:57:51   asking for is totally possible. Because you could just have a project with tasks that

01:57:56   recur after a day at a particular location, so that you just say like, "Here's all the

01:58:02   things I want at an airport. All of these are recurring tasks that appear after one

01:58:07   day." And then every time you arrive at the airport, those things will trigger. And they

01:58:11   just they're tagged with all the airports. Like what you're asking for is totally possible.

01:58:14   Myke: Right, but they have no dates, so they don't show my forecast or anything.

01:58:17   Alok; Right, again, this is where you can filter it out.

01:58:20   Myke; Oh, God. I hate you.

01:58:21   Alok; Look, look, Myke, what's going to happen here is, you know you're going to be using

01:58:25   OmniFocus 3 and you also know you're going to end up with a home screen that has nothing

01:58:29   but shortcuts on it without words. We all know this is where it's going. Listen, we

01:58:35   all know that the Cortex subreddit is going to be filled with nothing but hundreds of

01:58:41   screenshots of people's beautiful shortcut home screens.

01:58:45   I already know what Future Myke's path is because I know I'm going to listen to this

01:58:51   tomorrow. And when I'm listening to this part when I'm editing, I am downloading OmniFocus

01:58:59   and starting to set up at least that trip thing so I can play with it and kind of get

01:59:03   my sense around how that works. I already can see my future. I know when it's going

01:59:08   to happen. Alright, let's try and finish this thing. I know that that football isn't a football.

01:59:15   I know that's not launching BBC Sport or something.

01:59:19   (laughter)

01:59:20   Right?

01:59:21   - You don't know me.

01:59:24   - Is it like Iron Man or something?

01:59:25   Like what are you doing with that one?

01:59:27   What is that?

01:59:28   I have no idea what that could be.

01:59:29   'Cause I know the icon that I know it to be,

01:59:31   it's not representing that.

01:59:33   - Okay, it's the closest I could find to the concept

01:59:38   that I was trying to express, which is physical health.

01:59:41   - Right, okay.

01:59:42   So that one is another collection of apps

01:59:45   that I don't want any particular one

01:59:47   to take up the home screen,

01:59:49   but all of them together are worth a spot

01:59:51   on the home screen.

01:59:52   - What you have done here is create the ultimate folder.

01:59:56   - Yeah, it's a better folder than folders.

01:59:57   - Because you can have a list of apps that open or actions.

02:00:02   - And I feel like this whole home screen

02:00:05   is just one of the examples why you and I

02:00:10   were so excited about Shortcuts integration

02:00:13   into the system at WWDC is because like back then,

02:00:18   the vision of this beautiful home screen

02:00:20   was not even the tiniest of sparks in my mind,

02:00:23   but we both knew like, man, this is going to make

02:00:25   some really interesting stuff possible.

02:00:28   And this to me, I feel like, oh,

02:00:31   this is such a good example of,

02:00:34   this is not remotely the intended use case of Shortcuts,

02:00:39   But because it's so flexible and because it's so powerful,

02:00:44   here's something that I've been able to do

02:00:47   that would just never have been possible on iOS's gone by.

02:00:52   So I'm like, I'm so happy with it.

02:00:55   And what Shortcuts can do is just amazing.

02:00:58   And every day more and more of the apps are updating

02:01:02   to be able to do even more with Shortcuts.

02:01:05   So this home screen,

02:01:07   It feels like this is even just the baby steps

02:01:09   of what is ultimately possible.

02:01:11   So I'm super happy.