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ATP

309: Do Not Expect Five Nines From My Plex

 

00:00:00 ◼   ► How do you pronounce that?

00:00:01 ◼   ► - Let's work on affluent first.

00:00:02 ◼   ► - Is it affluent, not affluent?

00:00:04 ◼   ► Is that right?

00:00:04 ◼   ► Is that what I did wrong? - Yeah, yep.

00:00:05 ◼   ► - I always get that one wrong.

00:00:07 ◼   ► That's my bezel, Jon.

00:00:08 ◼   ► - You've got like nine of those, though.

00:00:10 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:00:12 ◼   ► And I only said it wrong once.

00:00:13 ◼   ► - Well, yeah, but it was a pretty amazing one.

00:00:15 ◼   ► It was gloriously saying it wrong.

00:00:17 ◼   ► - It was pretty amazing.

00:00:19 ◼   ► - But I'm learning, see how I don't make the same mistake.

00:00:22 ◼   ► - I still remember exactly where I was

00:00:24 ◼   ► when I heard that for the first time.

00:00:25 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:00:26 ◼   ► - It's such a significant moment in your life.

00:00:28 ◼   ► - I was walking over the Brooklyn Bridge,

00:00:30 ◼   ► 'cause I was doing a weird thing.

00:00:32 ◼   ► So I was walking over the Brooklyn Bridge,

00:00:33 ◼   ► listening to your TV segment, and I heard you say bezel,

00:00:36 ◼   ► and I just cracked up laughing

00:00:38 ◼   ► in the middle of this very crowded area.

00:00:40 ◼   ► And I like rewound it like three times

00:00:42 ◼   ► to just keep hearing it.

00:00:44 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:00:45 ◼   ► It was amazing.

00:00:46 ◼   ► I was walking over the bridge to go visit Jason Santa Maria

00:00:48 ◼   ► to have him read us on Instapaper.

00:00:49 ◼   ► (electronic beeping)

00:00:51 ◼   ► - All right, let's get started.

00:00:52 ◼   ► Let's do some follow-up,

00:00:52 ◼   ► and I have some quick Waffle Iron follow-up.

00:00:55 ◼   ► I know that the ATP universe was just riveted

00:00:59 ◼   ► by my Waffle Iron quest from a few weeks ago now,

00:01:03 ◼   ► maybe a couple months ago.

00:01:05 ◼   ► If you recall, we had a Waring Pro waffle maker

00:01:09 ◼   ► that is no longer being produced that I loved,

00:01:11 ◼   ► and that was our Sunday breakfast for years.

00:01:14 ◼   ► And then the thing kind of exploded out of nowhere.

00:01:16 ◼   ► And we bought a cheap and truly terrible

00:01:20 ◼   ► Hamilton Beach waffle maker

00:01:22 ◼   ► based on a wire cutter pick, I believe.

00:01:25 ◼   ► And it's really bad, and I feel bad saying that

00:01:27 ◼   ► 'cause Hamilton Beach is local, actually.

00:01:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, but see, no one ever says,

00:01:31 ◼   ► well, I guess except for this one wire cutter review,

00:01:32 ◼   ► but no one has ever said,

00:01:34 ◼   ► "The best X is the Hamilton Beach one."

00:01:38 ◼   ► - But anyways, we were gifted a Cuisinart WAF F20,

00:01:42 ◼   ► a WAF 20.

00:01:43 ◼   ► - It almost says Waffle.

00:01:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's true, actually, good point.

00:01:46 ◼   ► And I just would like to report in

00:01:47 ◼   ► that this is a very, very, very close version

00:01:51 ◼   ► to my beloved Waring Pro.

00:01:52 ◼   ► In fact, I would argue it's probably made

00:01:54 ◼   ► by the same people when it's all said and done.

00:01:56 ◼   ► And now we can make two waffles at once

00:01:58 ◼   ► instead of just one, which is kind of cool.

00:01:59 ◼   ► So if you're looking for a waffle iron,

00:02:00 ◼   ► I strongly recommend the WAF F20

00:02:03 ◼   ► double Belgian waffle maker,

00:02:05 ◼   ► comma, stainless steel by Cuisinart.

00:02:06 ◼   ► - This looks nearly identical to the one I actually have.

00:02:10 ◼   ► 'Cause I have the, mine is still branded Waring,

00:02:13 ◼   ► but I think what happened is Waring sold

00:02:14 ◼   ► the consumer business to Cuisinart,

00:02:15 ◼   ► and they're just doing the pro end now.

00:02:17 ◼   ► But this looks identical to mine,

00:02:20 ◼   ► with the sole exception that the power switch on mine

00:02:23 ◼   ► is one of those that has the red LED that glows through it.

00:02:27 ◼   ► But otherwise, it looks identical.

00:02:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's really good, and I really recommend it.

00:02:31 ◼   ► And if you have the luxury of living near me,

00:02:35 ◼   ► you should ask to come over for Sunday waffles.

00:02:36 ◼   ► Don't be creepy, I'm just saying.

00:02:38 ◼   ► - You gotta stop putting these emoji in the show notes

00:02:39 ◼   ► that my computer can't display.

00:02:41 ◼   ► It's just punitive now.

00:02:42 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:02:43 ◼   ► - Oh my gosh.

00:02:44 ◼   ► - Waring Pro, period, space, white box.

00:02:48 ◼   ► - It's the drooling emoji in case you were curious.

00:02:52 ◼   ► How old is your, well, we'll get to that later.

00:02:53 ◼   ► Let's not even go there.

00:02:54 ◼   ► - The question is, in what year

00:02:56 ◼   ► was that emoji added to Mac OS?

00:02:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, seriously.

00:03:00 ◼   ► I think that was in the last year or two.

00:03:01 ◼   ► Where's Jeremy Burge when we need him?

00:03:03 ◼   ► All right, that is all for follow-up.

00:03:05 ◼   ► That was world record fast.

00:03:06 ◼   ► John, tell me, is a robot coming back from the future

00:03:10 ◼   ► to terminate you?

00:03:11 ◼   ► What's going on here?

00:03:12 ◼   ► - I shouldn't have put a capital letter T in there

00:03:14 ◼   ► and made you think it was about SCSI terminators,

00:03:16 ◼   ► or I'm not sure what else you would have thought

00:03:17 ◼   ► it was about.

00:03:18 ◼   ► - I would have thought SCSI terminators, actually,

00:03:19 ◼   ► because I don't know what else it would be.

00:03:20 ◼   ► - Is it because, do you know this because I already

00:03:22 ◼   ► complained about it elsewhere, and that's why you know

00:03:24 ◼   ► what I'm talking about?

00:03:25 ◼   ► - No, I don't know what you're gonna talk about.

00:03:26 ◼   ► - Oh, well, what's your guesses?

00:03:28 ◼   ► - I mean, I would have said SCSI terminator,

00:03:31 ◼   ► but I know that's even older than your computer,

00:03:33 ◼   ► which is saying something.

00:03:34 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:03:37 ◼   ► Some, a terminator issue.

00:03:38 ◼   ► - Because it's capitalized, it's gotta be a movie reference,

00:03:42 ◼   ► like to the Terminator movies, I'm guessing it's either

00:03:45 ◼   ► something about Arnold Schwarzenegger, therefore California,

00:03:47 ◼   ► or some kind of issues he's having with California, or--

00:03:50 ◼   ► - What?

00:03:51 ◼   ► That doesn't make any sense.

00:03:52 ◼   ► - Something that promised to be back and now is back.

00:03:54 ◼   ► So maybe the keyboard problem, I don't know.

00:03:57 ◼   ► - I'm proud of you for making pop culture references

00:03:59 ◼   ► to a movie you haven't seen, Marco.

00:04:00 ◼   ► - Correct.

00:04:02 ◼   ► - Now, for the listeners, just to be clear,

00:04:04 ◼   ► the show notes read as follows, John's Terminator woes.

00:04:08 ◼   ► John is, of course, capitalized.

00:04:10 ◼   ► Terminator is capitalized.

00:04:12 ◼   ► Woes is not capitalized.

00:04:13 ◼   ► So John, tell us, what is this about?

00:04:16 ◼   ► - I feel like this is a segment of the show now

00:04:18 ◼   ► where I have, I feel guilty about bringing it up

00:04:21 ◼   ► 'cause I'm just here to complain about a thing, but--

00:04:23 ◼   ► - John, this is literally why people love listening

00:04:26 ◼   ► to you on podcasts.

00:04:27 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:04:28 ◼   ► - There's such minor thing.

00:04:29 ◼   ► Anyway, this one, it's minor, but--

00:04:31 ◼   ► - Yes, they're all minor things, that's what we love.

00:04:33 ◼   ► - It's minor, but it's subverted, like, it is rearranged

00:04:37 ◼   ► the, my mental model of like the media world

00:04:41 ◼   ► in an interesting way.

00:04:43 ◼   ► So, as I've talked about in my past shows,

00:04:46 ◼   ► I have all sorts of ways to watch television

00:04:49 ◼   ► and movie things.

00:04:50 ◼   ► I subscribe to all the services under the sun,

00:04:51 ◼   ► although I did actually remember this month

00:04:52 ◼   ► to cancel one of the ones that I haven't watched in a while.

00:04:54 ◼   ► So I am trying to manage my subscriptions better.

00:04:57 ◼   ► But every time, speaking of subscriptions,

00:04:59 ◼   ► every time I have to cancel a subscription,

00:05:03 ◼   ► Gruber keeps talking about how he loves

00:05:05 ◼   ► that Apple subscriptions shows him all the stuff

00:05:07 ◼   ► he subscribes to in one place.

00:05:09 ◼   ► That's true, and it makes it easy to unsubscribe.

00:05:11 ◼   ► You know, you just go to that screen and get rid of it.

00:05:13 ◼   ► Every time I wanna go to that screen,

00:05:14 ◼   ► I have to Google for iTunes subscriptions manage.

00:05:17 ◼   ► Or like, I have to Google where to find it.

00:05:19 ◼   ► And then like the top Google hit is that thing

00:05:20 ◼   ► where they break out the instructions.

00:05:22 ◼   ► I can never remember where the hell it is.

00:05:23 ◼   ► Do you guys know offhand where it is?

00:05:25 ◼   ► - There's actually a new URL.

00:05:27 ◼   ► If you happen to be an Overcast premium member,

00:05:29 ◼   ► and you go to overcast.fm/account,

00:05:32 ◼   ► you can do it there.

00:05:33 ◼   ► Here, I'll just paste it in the show notes.

00:05:34 ◼   ► So it's apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions.

00:05:38 ◼   ► - So you can get to it on your phone too,

00:05:39 ◼   ► not going to a web browser.

00:05:41 ◼   ► And that's the one I usually go to,

00:05:42 ◼   ► and that's the one that eventually kicks you

00:05:43 ◼   ► to what I think is a web interface anyway.

00:05:45 ◼   ► - Yes, well and if you click that URL

00:05:46 ◼   ► from any Apple device, it works on desktop iTunes,

00:05:50 ◼   ► it works on iOS, like it works on any Mac or iOS device,

00:05:53 ◼   ► that will take you to the screen.

00:05:55 ◼   ► - Anyways, like settings, your Apple ID,

00:05:57 ◼   ► view Apple ID from the pop-up,

00:05:59 ◼   ► and then once you're in view Apple ID,

00:06:00 ◼   ► you scroll to manage subscriptions.

00:06:01 ◼   ► Anyway, all this is saying I have lots of different ways

00:06:03 ◼   ► to watch stuff.

00:06:05 ◼   ► There's sort of a hierarchy of

00:06:07 ◼   ► how much time do you wanna spend looking for it?

00:06:10 ◼   ► Like a lot of the times I'll wanna watch a movie,

00:06:12 ◼   ► and sometimes I'll be feeling bold

00:06:15 ◼   ► and I'll speak into my terrible Apple TV remote

00:06:19 ◼   ► and ask to watch a movie and see like what service

00:06:21 ◼   ► it pops up, because it in theory knows

00:06:23 ◼   ► that I subscribe to Hulu and Netflix and Amazon Prime

00:06:25 ◼   ► and all these other things.

00:06:27 ◼   ► And I wanna see what it'll bring up.

00:06:28 ◼   ► If it's on Netflix, I'm like, oh great,

00:06:30 ◼   ► I'll just watch it, right?

00:06:32 ◼   ► But if we're in a hurry, like oh,

00:06:33 ◼   ► the kids wanna watch a movie,

00:06:34 ◼   ► or we're all sitting down as a family to watch a movie,

00:06:37 ◼   ► and I don't wanna deal with figuring out

00:06:39 ◼   ► where which of the umpteen services that I have

00:06:41 ◼   ► has that movie, like is it on HBO,

00:06:43 ◼   ► is it in the Showtime app, is it like,

00:06:44 ◼   ► I don't wanna deal with that at all,

00:06:46 ◼   ► I just go to iTunes and just buy the movie,

00:06:48 ◼   ► because it's like, it is the, it used to be in my mind,

00:06:51 ◼   ► the most reliable, the fastest,

00:06:53 ◼   ► and also the most expensive obviously way to get it,

00:06:55 ◼   ► because I have all these services I subscribe to,

00:06:57 ◼   ► if they have the movie for free,

00:06:58 ◼   ► why would I pay $12.99 to buy the movie,

00:07:00 ◼   ► or rent it depending on whether I think

00:07:02 ◼   ► I'm ever gonna wanna watch it again, right?

00:07:04 ◼   ► So in that situation, I was bringing my family,

00:07:09 ◼   ► my children up to pop culture snuff

00:07:11 ◼   ► so they don't end up like Margo,

00:07:13 ◼   ► and they hadn't seen the Terminator movies,

00:07:16 ◼   ► 'cause Terminator 1, the first Terminator movie,

00:07:18 ◼   ► not titled Terminator 1, is rated R,

00:07:21 ◼   ► so I couldn't really show this to my kids

00:07:23 ◼   ► until they're older, right,

00:07:24 ◼   ► so my son is older than I am to see it now,

00:07:26 ◼   ► so I said we're gonna watch Terminator,

00:07:28 ◼   ► then we're gonna, I really just wanted him

00:07:29 ◼   ► to watch Terminator 2, which is not rated R,

00:07:31 ◼   ► but you can't watch Terminator 2

00:07:32 ◼   ► without watching the Terminator,

00:07:34 ◼   ► so I'm like, all right, I don't wanna deal with

00:07:35 ◼   ► finding where this movie is available,

00:07:37 ◼   ► it might be on one of my streaming services,

00:07:39 ◼   ► I don't know, let me just go to iTunes and buy it,

00:07:41 ◼   ► because I know, I instantly know how to do that,

00:07:45 ◼   ► I don't bother with any voice things,

00:07:46 ◼   ► just go to iTunes, type the term in,

00:07:48 ◼   ► you know, I can find it, and I'll just pay the money,

00:07:50 ◼   ► and we'll play immediately, and I won't have any problems,

00:07:52 ◼   ► and this is particularly true of last time,

00:07:53 ◼   ► so I'm looking for like, anime, or foreign movies,

00:07:56 ◼   ► or things with subtitles where I don't wanna deal with like,

00:07:59 ◼   ► is it gonna be the dub, are the subtitles

00:08:02 ◼   ► gonna be burned in in a weird font if I see it in streaming,

00:08:05 ◼   ► or even just regular movies, is it gonna be reformatted

00:08:08 ◼   ► on Amazon Prime, or it's like the weird unrated version,

00:08:11 ◼   ► like iTunes I feel like is the canonical,

00:08:13 ◼   ► there's a movie, you know it exists,

00:08:14 ◼   ► you just wanna see the movie the way you expect to see it,

00:08:16 ◼   ► so go to iTunes, and in the case of the Terminator,

00:08:19 ◼   ► we're watching it, and as we're watching the movie,

00:08:22 ◼   ► immediately I notice, but it just gets worse and worse

00:08:24 ◼   ► as we watch the movie, the audio sync is off,

00:08:26 ◼   ► the words, people's mouths, lips moving,

00:08:28 ◼   ► don't match the audio, at first I'm like,

00:08:30 ◼   ► boy, back in the 80s, they were pretty sloppy with the ADR,

00:08:33 ◼   ► but then I remember, no, it's not the ADR,

00:08:35 ◼   ► it's actually out of sync, and it's getting worse,

00:08:37 ◼   ► so I do all the things, you don't wanna like,

00:08:39 ◼   ► ruin the movie experience, like wait, I gotta pause,

00:08:41 ◼   ► I gotta fix anything, one time I tried,

00:08:44 ◼   ► during the movie I tried like pausing and reloading,

00:08:46 ◼   ► like when someone got up to go to the bathroom,

00:08:48 ◼   ► I tried pausing and then playing, it didn't work,

00:08:50 ◼   ► I killed the application, that didn't work,

00:08:52 ◼   ► and then they were back, so we just watched it

00:08:54 ◼   ► with out of sync audio, and I'm like, this is BS,

00:08:57 ◼   ► it was one of the few times I was thinking

00:08:59 ◼   ► I should ask for a refund.

00:09:00 ◼   ► - Wait, you watched an entire film,

00:09:03 ◼   ► even one you've seen before with out of sync audio?

00:09:05 ◼   ► - I've seen it many, many times before,

00:09:06 ◼   ► I mean, it wasn't that, I don't know if anyone else

00:09:09 ◼   ► in the room noticed it was out of sync, but I noticed.

00:09:12 ◼   ► - I cannot fathom John Siracusa watching

00:09:15 ◼   ► an entire two-ish hour movie.

00:09:18 ◼   ► - It's not a talky movie, first of all,

00:09:19 ◼   ► and second of all, it's worse to interrupt the movie,

00:09:22 ◼   ► like I'd gotten everyone together,

00:09:23 ◼   ► we're all gonna watch the movie,

00:09:24 ◼   ► the lights are off in the room,

00:09:25 ◼   ► like you can't kill that experience by saying,

00:09:27 ◼   ► I'm not gonna futz with my Apple TV for 20 minutes,

00:09:29 ◼   ► again, that's the reason I'm doing it on iTunes.

00:09:31 ◼   ► - If anyone can do that, it's John Siracusa

00:09:33 ◼   ► can kill that experience by futzing with the Apple TV.

00:09:36 ◼   ► - I would absolutely not do that,

00:09:37 ◼   ► I'm the one who doesn't want you to stop

00:09:38 ◼   ► in the middle of the movie, I want you to watch it

00:09:40 ◼   ► on an uninterrupted and have your full concentration, anyway.

00:09:43 ◼   ► And this is just blowing my mind, because it was like,

00:09:47 ◼   ► like I said, the most expensive way you can get this movie,

00:09:50 ◼   ► and I'm like, what could the problem possibly be?

00:09:51 ◼   ► I'm like, is it my AV setup?

00:09:53 ◼   ► I'm like, no, because I use this Apple TV

00:09:55 ◼   ► to watch a video all the time through the same receiver

00:09:57 ◼   ► and there's no problem with the audio sync.

00:10:00 ◼   ► I was starting to think that it had to be the file,

00:10:02 ◼   ► like that actually this is somehow got uploaded

00:10:05 ◼   ► to Apple servers with a file where the audio's not in sync.

00:10:07 ◼   ► So to test that, I downloaded the audio on my Mac

00:10:10 ◼   ► and tried playing it there, two things there.

00:10:12 ◼   ► One, I'm doing this on a 5K iMac,

00:10:14 ◼   ► which is not that old of a machine, right?

00:10:16 ◼   ► It's, I think it was, is it the current 5K iMac still?

00:10:19 ◼   ► Maybe it is, it's a 1080p movie,

00:10:22 ◼   ► and my 5K iMac could not play without dropping frames,

00:10:25 ◼   ► which I don't understand at all.

00:10:27 ◼   ► I tried it in iTunes itself, and then I tried it

00:10:29 ◼   ► in like the new crappy QuickTime player,

00:10:31 ◼   ► and both of them, they'd play it,

00:10:34 ◼   ► but occasionally it would drop frames.

00:10:35 ◼   ► But anyway, despite them dropping frames,

00:10:38 ◼   ► the audio was still in sync with the frames that were there.

00:10:40 ◼   ► So it's not the file, the audio is in sync in the file.

00:10:43 ◼   ► I tried rebooting the Apple TV.

00:10:45 ◼   ► I tried checking the audio and video settings

00:10:47 ◼   ► in the Apple TV.

00:10:47 ◼   ► I tried doing software updates in the Apple TV,

00:10:49 ◼   ► where it didn't need any, it was already up to date.

00:10:51 ◼   ► This is an Apple TV 4K, all on the latest version

00:10:54 ◼   ► of everything, playing an iTunes movie.

00:10:57 ◼   ► I tried it on multiple different dates.

00:10:58 ◼   ► Maybe it's just weird today,

00:10:59 ◼   ► maybe there's something else going on.

00:11:03 ◼   ► It played this movie with all the others out of sync,

00:11:04 ◼   ► and it got worse like farther into the movie it went.

00:11:07 ◼   ► So this is, A, it's making me think about

00:11:09 ◼   ► how I might try to get a refund,

00:11:10 ◼   ► although every time I think about it,

00:11:11 ◼   ► I'm like, I have no idea how to do that,

00:11:13 ◼   ► and it'll probably involve calling someone on the phone,

00:11:14 ◼   ► and it'll be a hassle.

00:11:16 ◼   ► Who the hell knows?

00:11:17 ◼   ► So now I have this cruddy copy of the Terminator

00:11:19 ◼   ► with the audio out of sync,

00:11:21 ◼   ► and now, next time I need to get a movie,

00:11:23 ◼   ► and think like what's the least problematic way to get it,

00:11:26 ◼   ► I don't know, maybe I'll just try to buy it

00:11:27 ◼   ► from Amazon or something.

00:11:28 ◼   ► I don't even know what my next in line is.

00:11:30 ◼   ► Terminator 2, by the way, didn't have this problem

00:11:32 ◼   ► on the Apple TV, because we watched Terminator 2

00:11:34 ◼   ► the next day, and I had already purchased both of them

00:11:37 ◼   ► ahead of time, so it wasn't like I had to reach,

00:11:39 ◼   ► I watched Terminator 2, the audio was in sync.

00:11:41 ◼   ► For the most part, there was a few seconds where I'm like,

00:11:43 ◼   ► wait a second, is it out of sync again?

00:11:45 ◼   ► I'm like, no, that was probably actually just bad ADR.

00:11:47 ◼   ► Anyway, this is really bothering me,

00:11:51 ◼   ► mostly because I don't know how to explain it,

00:11:52 ◼   ► but secondarily because now I don't really have a go-to

00:11:56 ◼   ► for you're in a hurry, you want the movie now.

00:11:59 ◼   ► I mean, do you think, does one bad occurrence here

00:12:03 ◼   ► ruin this whole service?

00:12:04 ◼   ► 'Cause I too have had occasional problems

00:12:07 ◼   ► with iTunes-bought content, usually it's TV shows,

00:12:11 ◼   ► but they're very occasional.

00:12:12 ◼   ► The hit rate is very high as a percentage.

00:12:16 ◼   ► And so if you look at what else is out there,

00:12:19 ◼   ► I don't think any of us have more experience

00:12:22 ◼   ► with Amazon purchases for digital downloads

00:12:25 ◼   ► or anything like that, so we don't really know

00:12:27 ◼   ► if they're actually better.

00:12:28 ◼   ► I mean, in this case, this isn't a problem

00:12:30 ◼   ► where Apple, lol, web services, this is a problem

00:12:33 ◼   ► where the file itself was probably at fault,

00:12:36 ◼   ► so the file itself was probably messed up,

00:12:38 ◼   ► and what can you really do about that?

00:12:40 ◼   ► No service is gonna be impervious to content providers

00:12:45 ◼   ► uploading bad files.

00:12:47 ◼   ► - But the file wasn't messed up.

00:12:48 ◼   ► Like I said, the audio was in sync when I played it

00:12:50 ◼   ► on the Mac.

00:12:51 ◼   ► It dropped frames, but the audio was in sync.

00:12:52 ◼   ► Right, so I mean, there was some kind,

00:12:55 ◼   ► it's like a problem with playback,

00:12:56 ◼   ► and it's not 4K, I don't think.

00:13:00 ◼   ► My TV's not 4K anyway, but I don't understand

00:13:02 ◼   ► what its problem could have possibly been.

00:13:04 ◼   ► - Well, it could have been maybe it's like a bit rate thing.

00:13:06 ◼   ► Maybe it was encoded with, like it didn't cap the bit rate

00:13:09 ◼   ► in a way that your Mac, well, I was gonna say

00:13:12 ◼   ► that your Mac is powerful enough to keep up,

00:13:14 ◼   ► but not your Mac, per se.

00:13:16 ◼   ► One's Mac could be powerful enough to keep up

00:13:18 ◼   ► compared to an Apple TV.

00:13:20 ◼   ► In your case, your Apple TV is probably faster

00:13:22 ◼   ► than your Mac.

00:13:23 ◼   ► - I watched it on my iPad, too,

00:13:25 ◼   ► and also had audio sync problems then.

00:13:27 ◼   ► Not as bad as the Apple TV, but definitely noticeable.

00:13:29 ◼   ► So it is baffling.

00:13:30 ◼   ► So yeah, maybe I'll just, I don't know,

00:13:32 ◼   ► maybe I'll find a way to get a refund

00:13:33 ◼   ► and just continue to go back to it as my only choice,

00:13:38 ◼   ► but it's definitely weird, and there's no way

00:13:41 ◼   ► in the interface to complain about this.

00:13:43 ◼   ► I guess it's something they don't expect to happen.

00:13:44 ◼   ► Like "The Terminator" is a popular movie,

00:13:46 ◼   ► so I don't quite understand how this could happen

00:13:48 ◼   ► and them not know about it, but maybe because everyone

00:13:52 ◼   ► like me just gives up before they even start trying

00:13:54 ◼   ► to figure out how to tell them.

00:13:56 ◼   ► Hey, Apple, your copy of "Terminator" is messed up.

00:13:58 ◼   ► There, I told them.

00:13:59 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:14:00 ◼   ► File a bug.

00:14:01 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:14:02 ◼   ► - Why did you not try Plex?

00:14:04 ◼   ► Like, you know, one of the advantages of Plex

00:14:07 ◼   ► is that when you're Plex friends with other people,

00:14:09 ◼   ► as I know you are, other people might have the movie

00:14:12 ◼   ► you're looking for.

00:14:13 ◼   ► - That's like the least reliable way.

00:14:14 ◼   ► I gotta rely on someone else's server being up

00:14:16 ◼   ► and my bandwidth, their upload bandwidth being adequate

00:14:18 ◼   ► to keep the movie streaming and them not turning off

00:14:20 ◼   ► whatever computer they're running Plex on.

00:14:21 ◼   ► That's, I would never choose that for it's time

00:14:23 ◼   ► to see a movie right now and be guaranteed that it works.

00:14:26 ◼   ► - Really?

00:14:27 ◼   ► That's bananas to me because in my eyes,

00:14:30 ◼   ► that is the most reliable way because, you know,

00:14:32 ◼   ► I've never had an instance where one of my friends

00:14:35 ◼   ► was randomly turned off the computer I was using.

00:14:37 ◼   ► - I, the MyPlex server that you have access to

00:14:41 ◼   ► is on my wife's computer that she restarts all the time

00:14:44 ◼   ► for any reason she feels like it, so you can be

00:14:45 ◼   ► in the middle of a movie and it can restart.

00:14:47 ◼   ► So let me tell you, do not expect five nines

00:14:49 ◼   ► from MyPlex server.

00:14:50 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:14:51 ◼   ► - Well also, I mean, in my experience, you know,

00:14:54 ◼   ► Plex server files are often either files that fall

00:14:58 ◼   ► off of trucks or files that people have encoded themselves

00:15:01 ◼   ► with rips and everything and those, in my experience,

00:15:04 ◼   ► tend to be the least reliable in terms of audio sync

00:15:07 ◼   ► to video, like that actually is a very common problem.

00:15:11 ◼   ► - If people are bad at it, yeah, but my main thing is

00:15:13 ◼   ► it would be lower quality because it would probably

00:15:15 ◼   ► be re-encoded from something that was already

00:15:16 ◼   ► lost and encoded.

00:15:17 ◼   ► - Well even if that's true, at least, like,

00:15:19 ◼   ► maybe it's just my values, but I would much rather

00:15:22 ◼   ► have an SD video that is matched to the audio

00:15:25 ◼   ► than a 1080 video where the audio is, you know,

00:15:27 ◼   ► 10, 15 seconds, well, they're milliseconds off.

00:15:29 ◼   ► - You know, you're overestimating the audio sync,

00:15:32 ◼   ► I'm talking, the audio drift I'm talking about here.

00:15:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, I shouldn't have said seconds, but yeah.

00:15:36 ◼   ► But you get my point, is that personally, for me,

00:15:38 ◼   ► and maybe you don't have to agree, but for me,

00:15:40 ◼   ► I would much rather have synced crummy video

00:15:43 ◼   ► than unsynced pretty video.

00:15:46 ◼   ► - I need to have it all.

00:15:47 ◼   ► Anyway, someone mentions the Movies Anywhere thing,

00:15:50 ◼   ► do you guys know about that?

00:15:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, if anybody out there doesn't know about this,

00:15:54 ◼   ► you need to know about this.

00:15:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, so it's some service that I think Disney ran

00:15:58 ◼   ► that somehow they got deals with all the other

00:15:59 ◼   ► streaming people where if you buy anything anywhere,

00:16:01 ◼   ► it can appear in Movies Anywhere and you can play

00:16:04 ◼   ► it back there, and I think it might be DRM-free

00:16:05 ◼   ► when you play it in that context.

00:16:07 ◼   ► - No, I doubt it's DRM-free, but so yeah, the point

00:16:09 ◼   ► is basically, they have deals with Amazon, iTunes,

00:16:13 ◼   ► whoever else, and including when you redeem those codes

00:16:16 ◼   ► that come with Blu-rays, and so you can buy a movie

00:16:19 ◼   ► on a Blu-ray, redeem the code at Movies Anywhere,

00:16:22 ◼   ► and then it shows up as a purchased movie on Apple's side

00:16:26 ◼   ► in your iTunes movie account if they have it.

00:16:29 ◼   ► It's crazy, I don't know how they rigged this deal up

00:16:31 ◼   ► with Apple, I don't know how they got Apple to agree to this

00:16:35 ◼   ► or anybody else for that matter, but yeah, basically,

00:16:37 ◼   ► almost every studio participates in this now,

00:16:39 ◼   ► and so you can buy, for me, I bought a bunch of Blu-rays

00:16:43 ◼   ► on Black Friday because they were all discounted

00:16:45 ◼   ► on various Black Friday sales, they were cheaper

00:16:46 ◼   ► than buying movies on iTunes and Amazon and stuff.

00:16:49 ◼   ► I bought a bunch of Blu-rays, I typed in the codes,

00:16:51 ◼   ► and I put the Blu-rays in the closet, and I'm probably,

00:16:55 ◼   ► I'm not sure if I'll ever watch them, but I have the codes,

00:16:57 ◼   ► and so now all those movies just showed up

00:16:58 ◼   ► in my iTunes account, it's great.

00:17:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, I always forget about that, I do have that app

00:17:03 ◼   ► installed and I do look at it, it's kind of cool

00:17:05 ◼   ► to see all your movies aggregated into a single place

00:17:08 ◼   ► and everything, and I do use it occasionally

00:17:09 ◼   ► to get file downloads for services that I traditionally

00:17:13 ◼   ► think of, although I think Amazon gives you

00:17:15 ◼   ► file downloads now, anyway, I always forget that it exists

00:17:18 ◼   ► when it comes time to watch a movie like this,

00:17:20 ◼   ► so I could've just bought it on iTunes, quit the Movies app,

00:17:23 ◼   ► and then gone to the Movies Anywhere thing

00:17:24 ◼   ► and see if I could play it there, although,

00:17:25 ◼   ► do they have an Apple TV app?

00:17:26 ◼   ► I have the app on my iPad where I watch a lot of

00:17:29 ◼   ► cruddy movies, but I assume they have

00:17:30 ◼   ► an Apple TV app somewhere.

00:17:31 ◼   ► - The actual movies anywhere, I'm not sure,

00:17:33 ◼   ► I've never looked 'cause I don't need to,

00:17:34 ◼   ► 'cause everything that I put in there shows up

00:17:36 ◼   ► in my iTunes thing.

00:17:37 ◼   ► - Oh well, anyway, watching movies is hard.

00:17:40 ◼   ► - We are sponsored this week by IGG Software,

00:17:43 ◼   ► makers of Banktivity, which is an easy to use,

00:17:45 ◼   ► full featured personal finance management app

00:17:46 ◼   ► exclusively for Apple platforms.

00:17:49 ◼   ► Maybe you wanna keep track of what you spend your money on

00:17:50 ◼   ► and where your money comes from.

00:17:52 ◼   ► Yeah, you can use Numbers or Excel to do that,

00:17:54 ◼   ► but there's a better way.

00:17:55 ◼   ► Banktivity does those things, but oh so much more.

00:17:57 ◼   ► For starters, Banktivity connects to over 10,000 banks

00:18:01 ◼   ► to make data entry easier.

00:18:02 ◼   ► Banktivity can also track other kinds of accounts,

00:18:04 ◼   ► like your loans, investments, retirement accounts, and more.

00:18:06 ◼   ► Oh, you said you like budgets, Banktivity can do that too,

00:18:09 ◼   ► including customizable reports, planning,

00:18:11 ◼   ► bill tracking, and more.

00:18:12 ◼   ► But Casey, you say, I like to enter my expenditures

00:18:14 ◼   ► when they happen, I'm tired of having a pocket or wallet

00:18:16 ◼   ► full of crumpled receipts, no problem.

00:18:18 ◼   ► Banktivity's iOS apps will let you do precisely that

00:18:21 ◼   ► and more, but what if I want an at-a-glance picture

00:18:23 ◼   ► of my financial world while I'm out for a run?

00:18:25 ◼   ► Well, first of all, weird.

00:18:27 ◼   ► Second of all, there's even a watch app that you can use

00:18:29 ◼   ► to get a quick look at your budget

00:18:30 ◼   ► or see your account balances all on your wrist.

00:18:33 ◼   ► Casey, I'm interested, you say,

00:18:35 ◼   ► but I don't want some sort of abandoned software.

00:18:37 ◼   ► IGG and Banktivity are here for dark mode,

00:18:39 ◼   ► they were here for the 64-bit transition,

00:18:41 ◼   ► they were ready for the transition to Intel,

00:18:43 ◼   ► and that should tell you something.

00:18:45 ◼   ► To quote IGG, we are committed to macOS and iOS

00:18:48 ◼   ► and we will be there for whatever comes next.

00:18:49 ◼   ► Arm-based laptops, anybody?

00:18:51 ◼   ► Wink.

00:18:52 ◼   ► Here's the thing, late last year,

00:18:53 ◼   ► I was using some abandoned software

00:18:55 ◼   ► and resisted switching for the longest time.

00:18:58 ◼   ► Banktivity sucked in over a decade

00:19:00 ◼   ► of my personal transaction history, no problem,

00:19:02 ◼   ► and I was up and running in no time.

00:19:04 ◼   ► IGG pays us to talk about their software,

00:19:06 ◼   ► but they can't pay me to say this,

00:19:07 ◼   ► I use Banktivity and I really like it.

00:19:09 ◼   ► Don't be a procrastinator like I was,

00:19:11 ◼   ► get a jump on your personal finances for 2019 in January.

00:19:14 ◼   ► Check out Banktivity, they have a free 30-day trial

00:19:16 ◼   ► for macOS and are offering a special discount

00:19:18 ◼   ► for ATP listeners.

00:19:19 ◼   ► Go to iggsoftware.com/atp for 10% off Banktivity.

00:19:22 ◼   ► Use coupon code ATP10, all caps, no spaces at checkout.

00:19:26 ◼   ► They also have a 90-day money-back guarantee

00:19:28 ◼   ► when you purchase through them.

00:19:29 ◼   ► You have no reason not to give Banktivity a shot.

00:19:31 ◼   ► You have the best computer on the planet,

00:19:33 ◼   ► why not have the best financial software?

00:19:34 ◼   ► Our thanks to Banktivity and IGG Software for sponsoring ATP.

00:19:38 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:19:41 ◼   ► All right, over the last, what is it?

00:19:43 ◼   ► 48 hours or so, maybe a week or so,

00:19:45 ◼   ► Apple has brought something back from the dead.

00:19:47 ◼   ► We have iPhone XS and XR Smart Battery cases,

00:19:52 ◼   ► and even the XS Max gets a Smart Battery case now.

00:19:55 ◼   ► Smart Battery cases for everyone.

00:19:57 ◼   ► I never had one originally.

00:19:59 ◼   ► I was on the camp that it looked kind of silly

00:20:01 ◼   ► with the humpback on it.

00:20:03 ◼   ► These appear to be a little bit less silly looking to my eye

00:20:06 ◼   ► because the humpback is going all the way

00:20:09 ◼   ► to the bottom of the case rather than kind of being

00:20:11 ◼   ► a bump in the middle.

00:20:14 ◼   ► But they're $130 for the XS one.

00:20:18 ◼   ► Is the Max one more expensive?

00:20:20 ◼   ► I'm sure it is.

00:20:20 ◼   ► - I think they're all the same.

00:20:21 ◼   ► - Oh, they are all the same, you're right.

00:20:23 ◼   ► These, I guess, are pretty cool.

00:20:25 ◼   ► This is not something that I personally feel like

00:20:26 ◼   ► I need in my life, but they charge via Qi now,

00:20:29 ◼   ► which is really cool.

00:20:30 ◼   ► So the case will charge via Qi,

00:20:32 ◼   ► and then the case will charge your phone.

00:20:34 ◼   ► And from what I understand, they're really great.

00:20:35 ◼   ► Marco, you got one, didn't you?

00:20:38 ◼   ► - Not the new one, no, but we did have the old one,

00:20:40 ◼   ► Tiff used it on her iPhone 7, I think,

00:20:42 ◼   ► for almost the entire time that she had it.

00:20:44 ◼   ► I think you nailed it.

00:20:45 ◼   ► We're like, we all made fun of it when it came out

00:20:47 ◼   ► because it looked just ridiculous.

00:20:48 ◼   ► It was by far one of the ugliest looking Apple products

00:20:51 ◼   ► that they've ever released.

00:20:53 ◼   ► And over the coming weeks after it was released,

00:20:56 ◼   ► we came to learn, well, they did it that way

00:20:58 ◼   ► 'cause it wouldn't block the antenna bands,

00:21:00 ◼   ► and every other case blocks the antenna bands

00:21:01 ◼   ► and everything.

00:21:02 ◼   ► And so there were some reasons why they made it so ugly.

00:21:06 ◼   ► And the shape of it had some practical upsides to it.

00:21:09 ◼   ► And then in use, it was actually kind of nice

00:21:11 ◼   ► because you could rest your pinky along the bottom edge

00:21:14 ◼   ► of that backpack that it was wearing.

00:21:15 ◼   ► And so it was a way to, you know,

00:21:18 ◼   ► if you look at pretty much any way

00:21:19 ◼   ► that people hold large phones in more easy ways

00:21:22 ◼   ► by sticking things to the back,

00:21:23 ◼   ► they all kind of rest in this principle

00:21:24 ◼   ► of it's easier to hold stuff near the middle

00:21:26 ◼   ► of the back of the phone than it is

00:21:27 ◼   ► to reach top and bottom edges.

00:21:29 ◼   ► And so you could kind of rest your pinky

00:21:30 ◼   ► on that little ledge and support the phone that way,

00:21:33 ◼   ► and it was easier to hold a bigger phone that way.

00:21:35 ◼   ► The new ones don't have that,

00:21:37 ◼   ► and honestly I consider that a slight progression

00:21:40 ◼   ► in that way 'cause it actually was really nice to hold that.

00:21:41 ◼   ► But otherwise, the new ones appear to have

00:21:45 ◼   ► similar general appeal in that they, you know,

00:21:49 ◼   ► they're kind of frumpy looking,

00:21:50 ◼   ► but they're providing excellent utility

00:21:53 ◼   ► if you need a battery case.

00:21:54 ◼   ► We currently don't have a need for battery cases,

00:21:59 ◼   ► but if we were to need one, I'd go right to that one

00:22:03 ◼   ► because when you compare it to other battery cases,

00:22:05 ◼   ► like it has the same advantages that the first one did.

00:22:08 ◼   ► First of all, it charges via lightning in.

00:22:10 ◼   ► This is very rare for peripherals,

00:22:13 ◼   ► and especially for battery cases.

00:22:14 ◼   ► Almost all of them require micro USB in to charge,

00:22:17 ◼   ► which now means you're carrying multiple types of cables

00:22:19 ◼   ► with you necessarily, whereas if it has lightning in,

00:22:22 ◼   ► you can just plug in however you normally charge your phone.

00:22:25 ◼   ► As you mentioned, Casey, this one also supports

00:22:26 ◼   ► wireless charging, which very few battery cases do.

00:22:29 ◼   ► So again, that's even better.

00:22:30 ◼   ► It's like however you charge your iPhone now,

00:22:32 ◼   ► you need to change nothing about that to charge this case.

00:22:35 ◼   ► And then my favorite thing about the smart battery cases

00:22:37 ◼   ► compared to other ones is other ones,

00:22:40 ◼   ► they kind of act like USB battery packs

00:22:43 ◼   ► in the sense that you have to turn them on,

00:22:46 ◼   ► and then when you turn them on, they activate

00:22:48 ◼   ► and become a power source for your phone.

00:22:50 ◼   ► Your phone thinks it's pulled into the wall

00:22:52 ◼   ► and pulls power until either it's full

00:22:54 ◼   ► or the case battery is depleted.

00:22:56 ◼   ► And there's a number of things about this

00:22:57 ◼   ► that Apple improves upon with theirs.

00:22:59 ◼   ► So first of all, there's no on/off switch.

00:23:01 ◼   ► You don't have to think about whether it's on or off.

00:23:03 ◼   ► You just charge through it when you have a chance,

00:23:05 ◼   ► and it charges your phone until it's empty.

00:23:09 ◼   ► So the phone stays at 100% until the battery case is empty,

00:23:12 ◼   ► and then the phone starts reading itself from there.

00:23:14 ◼   ► You can view the charge level in the batteries widget

00:23:17 ◼   ► on iOS, which again, other cases,

00:23:20 ◼   ► you're at best with cases you have a four LED

00:23:23 ◼   ► kind of dot situation, but that's usually

00:23:25 ◼   ► the most detail you'll get.

00:23:27 ◼   ► The other cases also have, because you have to

00:23:30 ◼   ► manually turn them on or off, it's kind of wasteful

00:23:33 ◼   ► if you turn them on and the phone fills up

00:23:36 ◼   ► and you don't turn them off.

00:23:37 ◼   ► Like it can slowly drain power in a weird, inefficient way.

00:23:40 ◼   ► You can accidentally leave it on when you don't

00:23:42 ◼   ► really need it to be there, like when you're not

00:23:44 ◼   ► even using it and that can slowly drain the power.

00:23:46 ◼   ► Or you can think you're charging up

00:23:48 ◼   ► and then it's actually off.

00:23:49 ◼   ► Like having to manage the power switch

00:23:51 ◼   ► on your battery case is annoying.

00:23:53 ◼   ► And so for Apple to remove that and add all these

00:23:56 ◼   ► smarts about how it charges it and where you can show

00:23:59 ◼   ► the battery info and everything and not having

00:24:01 ◼   ► to have your own separate type of cable,

00:24:03 ◼   ► it's a really convenient package.

00:24:04 ◼   ► Like I gotta say, it's very well done

00:24:06 ◼   ► and it's a decent capacity.

00:24:09 ◼   ► It's not like super, super high capacity.

00:24:11 ◼   ► If you need like maximum capacity, you wanna look

00:24:14 ◼   ► at other things besides this, but otherwise,

00:24:16 ◼   ► it's a really nice package.

00:24:17 ◼   ► Unfortunately, as usual, it's more expensive

00:24:19 ◼   ► than what it replaced by a good deal.

00:24:20 ◼   ► I think the old one was 100 bucks, I think.

00:24:23 ◼   ► So if this is 130, that's a big increase.

00:24:26 ◼   ► But it's typical of many modern Apple things,

00:24:29 ◼   ► which is it kinda hurts to eat the price,

00:24:32 ◼   ► but if you can get past that, it's a pretty good option.

00:24:35 ◼   ► - I think I find it so weird about this battery case

00:24:38 ◼   ► and has been weird about a couple things is the timing.

00:24:40 ◼   ► Like it seems to me that it would have been much better

00:24:43 ◼   ► to release the battery case at the same time

00:24:45 ◼   ► that you release the phone because that's when

00:24:47 ◼   ► there's gonna be a big rush of people

00:24:48 ◼   ► who are buying the phone because they want

00:24:51 ◼   ► the latest and greatest and they're the least

00:24:52 ◼   ► price sensitive people and when they buy it,

00:24:54 ◼   ► they're gonna buy accessories and they're gonna buy a case

00:24:56 ◼   ► and if the type of person who used a battery case before,

00:24:58 ◼   ► they might want a battery case again

00:25:00 ◼   ► and it's not available for months,

00:25:02 ◼   ► like that's just bad.

00:25:03 ◼   ► I mean, probably this is not their most important peripheral

00:25:05 ◼   ► so whatever.

00:25:06 ◼   ► Same thing with the XR with the clear case and everything.

00:25:09 ◼   ► It's better to have the peripherals available

00:25:12 ◼   ► when you launch the phones.

00:25:14 ◼   ► And of all the things that you can't get done,

00:25:16 ◼   ► I'm obviously getting the phones ready for sale

00:25:18 ◼   ► is much more important than getting these peripherals

00:25:20 ◼   ► ready for sale, but it's the type of thing

00:25:24 ◼   ► that seems odd that Apple has these weird misses

00:25:28 ◼   ► in timing on stuff like this.

00:25:30 ◼   ► Not that I'm saying they should delay the phone

00:25:31 ◼   ► or whatever, but cases.

00:25:33 ◼   ► It's not that, what is it that made this thing be delayed?

00:25:38 ◼   ► Is there something about this case?

00:25:39 ◼   ► Did they not have batteries because they had to use them all

00:25:41 ◼   ► on the phones?

00:25:42 ◼   ► I'm sure there's some action somewhere,

00:25:43 ◼   ► but it just seems weird to me that it would be better

00:25:48 ◼   ► if they could get their acts together and have launches

00:25:51 ◼   ► where something isn't delayed.

00:25:53 ◼   ► And the same thing with the 10 hour delay itself,

00:25:54 ◼   ► which obviously is more explicable because they,

00:25:56 ◼   ► maybe there's some conservation of parts

00:25:59 ◼   ► or manufacturing capacities for the big phone launches.

00:26:01 ◼   ► But here's hoping that someday soon we can actually have

00:26:04 ◼   ► a flagship product launch from Apple

00:26:07 ◼   ► where everything launches at the same time,

00:26:08 ◼   ► including all the peripherals,

00:26:09 ◼   ► and there's no weird manufacturing problems,

00:26:12 ◼   ► and there's no slow trickle.

00:26:15 ◼   ► I mean, this is after the holidays for crying out loud.

00:26:17 ◼   ► I don't understand it.

00:26:19 ◼   ► Oh, and as for the specific battery case,

00:26:21 ◼   ► the only thing looking at it,

00:26:23 ◼   ► and you can tell me, well, maybe it's not the same.

00:26:25 ◼   ► You can't tell me, Mark, because you had the one,

00:26:27 ◼   ► the one you had was for the seven?

00:26:30 ◼   ► Yeah, that's the only one that's ever existed before this.

00:26:32 ◼   ► Yeah, right.

00:26:33 ◼   ► I'm just trying to remember which phone it was on.

00:26:34 ◼   ► So the battery case, unlike the Apple leather case

00:26:38 ◼   ► and the Apple silicone case,

00:26:40 ◼   ► goes all the way around top and bottom.

00:26:42 ◼   ► And for a 10 style phone where you constantly swipe up

00:26:45 ◼   ► from the bottom, I don't like the idea of hitting the lip

00:26:48 ◼   ► on the case.

00:26:49 ◼   ► Now I can't tell from pictures whether the lip is big

00:26:51 ◼   ► or small or whether you notice it or whatever,

00:26:52 ◼   ► but I do, one of the things I like about Apple's cases,

00:26:56 ◼   ► the leather one and the silicone one,

00:26:57 ◼   ► is they don't even have anything down there.

00:26:58 ◼   ► So you have no chance of hitting a lip

00:27:00 ◼   ► when you do that very, very frequent gesture,

00:27:02 ◼   ► which is swipe out from bottom.

00:27:04 ◼   ► So if I go to an Apple store and this is on display,

00:27:07 ◼   ► I'll have to try it out.

00:27:08 ◼   ► But I think it looks better than the old one.

00:27:09 ◼   ► It's more elegant.

00:27:10 ◼   ► I think I remember defending the old one's looks

00:27:12 ◼   ► because it's like that Johnny Ive,

00:27:14 ◼   ► let's not hide the fact that there's something slapped

00:27:16 ◼   ► to the back of this phone.

00:27:17 ◼   ► Let's just, you know, let's embrace that and say,

00:27:19 ◼   ► guess what, it's a phone with the thing stuck on the back.

00:27:21 ◼   ► This one actually does less of that.

00:27:22 ◼   ► It's like, well, it is a phone with things stuck on the back,

00:27:24 ◼   ► but let's try to blend it in, you know,

00:27:27 ◼   ► to make it not quite as obvious,

00:27:29 ◼   ► like putting, you know, strategic makeup

00:27:31 ◼   ► on a very large nose.

00:27:32 ◼   ► But it looks nice.

00:27:34 ◼   ► And if I had to get a battery case,

00:27:36 ◼   ► I think I would also get this one.

00:27:37 ◼   ► But the things you said about capacity and price,

00:27:39 ◼   ► like the dollar per watt hour or whatever

00:27:43 ◼   ► is not good on this case, but that's Apple for you.

00:27:46 ◼   ► - No, and you know, like the reality is like,

00:27:48 ◼   ► if you need a battery case at all,

00:27:50 ◼   ► you're already like, you know, a subset of the population.

00:27:53 ◼   ► And then like, if you need a big, big, big battery case,

00:27:58 ◼   ► you know, those people exist.

00:27:59 ◼   ► There's plenty of them in absolute numbers,

00:28:01 ◼   ► but like that's such a smaller percentage of the population.

00:28:03 ◼   ► And like Apple's not gonna make a case

00:28:05 ◼   ► that is that big and heavy to have like a three times

00:28:09 ◼   ► your iPhone battery size battery in it.

00:28:11 ◼   ► Realistically, this is the most they're going to do,

00:28:12 ◼   ► and that's plenty for them, I think.

00:28:15 ◼   ► - So one interesting caveat about this case

00:28:17 ◼   ► that Renee Ritchie pointed out

00:28:19 ◼   ► and a couple other people did as well.

00:28:20 ◼   ► You see, look at this case, you're like,

00:28:21 ◼   ► oh, it's the iPhone XS smart battery case,

00:28:24 ◼   ► and they have the one for the Max,

00:28:25 ◼   ► and they have one for the XR, yada, yada.

00:28:27 ◼   ► What about the X?

00:28:27 ◼   ► They never had a smart battery case for the X,

00:28:29 ◼   ► but the XS is the same as the X.

00:28:31 ◼   ► Can I just take the XS smart battery case

00:28:34 ◼   ► and use it on the X?

00:28:34 ◼   ► Well, the XS is kind of sort of the same as the X,

00:28:38 ◼   ► like the same dimensions,

00:28:39 ◼   ► and the camera's in the same place and so on and so forth,

00:28:40 ◼   ► but there are things that are different about it.

00:28:42 ◼   ► And initially, I think people were like,

00:28:45 ◼   ► that you can't use it with the X

00:28:47 ◼   ► because of those differences,

00:28:48 ◼   ► because the speaker holes won't align or whatever.

00:28:50 ◼   ► But Renee Ritchie said,

00:28:51 ◼   ► yes, you can use the XS battery case with the iPhone X.

00:28:54 ◼   ► When you attach it to the iPhone X,

00:28:56 ◼   ► apparently you may get an incompatibility pop-up

00:28:58 ◼   ► that says you can't use this device

00:28:59 ◼   ► with this peripheral or whatever.

00:29:01 ◼   ► But if you just dismiss that dialogue,

00:29:03 ◼   ► apparently it charges.

00:29:04 ◼   ► - It's okay. - It charges fine.

00:29:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, and if it doesn't work,

00:29:08 ◼   ► they say if you just update iOS or reboot or whatever,

00:29:10 ◼   ► it'll work, you still have the problem

00:29:12 ◼   ► that it'll be covering up some of your speaker holes

00:29:14 ◼   ► and they won't be aligned,

00:29:15 ◼   ► so you might not get a good sound performance out of it.

00:29:17 ◼   ► But the speaker holes,

00:29:20 ◼   ► the XS reduced the amount of holes in the bottom

00:29:22 ◼   ► 'cause it had to make room for that antenna band,

00:29:24 ◼   ► but the speaker holes that it replaced

00:29:26 ◼   ► were the ones that weren't there for any purpose anyway

00:29:29 ◼   ► other than visual symmetry.

00:29:30 ◼   ► The speakers on the bottom of all modern iPhones,

00:29:33 ◼   ► they look like there's two speakers at the bottom,

00:29:36 ◼   ► but only one of them is actually the speaker.

00:29:38 ◼   ► You can tell by playing something

00:29:39 ◼   ► and covering up each one with your thumb,

00:29:40 ◼   ► you can figure out which one is the actual speaker.

00:29:42 ◼   ► And so I think that the one that's the real speaker

00:29:47 ◼   ► hasn't changed between these two models.

00:29:49 ◼   ► All they did was reduce the number of holes

00:29:52 ◼   ► that were around what on the other side

00:29:53 ◼   ► is actually the microphone hole.

00:29:55 ◼   ► - Oh, so are you blocking the microphone?

00:29:57 ◼   ► Like I don't know which ones are blocked and which ones--

00:29:59 ◼   ► - Well, I'm guessing the location

00:30:01 ◼   ► of the microphone didn't change.

00:30:02 ◼   ► Like all they did, I think,

00:30:03 ◼   ► when they added the antenna band down there

00:30:05 ◼   ► and reduced the number of holes,

00:30:06 ◼   ► I think the holes they got rid of

00:30:07 ◼   ► were holes that weren't necessary anyway.

00:30:10 ◼   ► So I think that's why,

00:30:12 ◼   ► like Rene even said, he tried it on his X

00:30:14 ◼   ► and he couldn't tell a difference with the sound.

00:30:16 ◼   ► I think it's because

00:30:17 ◼   ► there really isn't actually a difference.

00:30:20 ◼   ► - It's kind of weird that Apple didn't just make a X case.

00:30:23 ◼   ► Like, I mean, I was speaking about timing,

00:30:25 ◼   ► how this didn't launch with the XS.

00:30:27 ◼   ► If they were gonna make a battery case

00:30:29 ◼   ► for the X-style phone,

00:30:30 ◼   ► why did they not do it for the entire year

00:30:32 ◼   ► that the X was the flagship phone?

00:30:34 ◼   ► I don't know, it's weird.

00:30:35 ◼   ► Don't they want people's money?

00:30:36 ◼   ► Don't they want this,

00:30:37 ◼   ► I mean, the margins must be great on these things.

00:30:40 ◼   ► Anyway, they look really cool.

00:30:41 ◼   ► Do they come in colors?

00:30:42 ◼   ► I just see it in black here.

00:30:43 ◼   ► - Just black and white.

00:30:44 ◼   ► - Black and white, yeah.

00:30:45 ◼   ► - And I will warn you,

00:30:46 ◼   ► if you've never had the white silicone case,

00:30:49 ◼   ► ours was white, that Tiff used,

00:30:50 ◼   ► and they do pick up lint and dirt

00:30:53 ◼   ► and discoloration like crazy.

00:30:55 ◼   ► Honestly, I still think the white

00:30:58 ◼   ► is the better looking one of the two,

00:31:00 ◼   ► but just don't put it in jeans pockets

00:31:02 ◼   ► and expect it to come out not covered in blue lint.

00:31:04 ◼   ► - If you're making a science fiction movie,

00:31:07 ◼   ► definitely get the white one,

00:31:08 ◼   ► but just make sure you get it in the first two takes

00:31:10 ◼   ► 'cause it won't look that color for very long.

00:31:12 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:31:13 ◼   ► Doesn't it look like somebody from a sci-fi movie?

00:31:14 ◼   ► It looks totally like something from a '70s sci-fi movie

00:31:17 ◼   ► is a real device.

00:31:18 ◼   ► The white looks super, super futury.

00:31:21 ◼   ► - I can see that.

00:31:22 ◼   ► I will say too, so as I mentioned,

00:31:24 ◼   ► I don't usually use these kind of things.

00:31:27 ◼   ► I have in the past, I have owned them in the past

00:31:29 ◼   ► and have tried various things for various phones,

00:31:32 ◼   ► but I really have tried over time,

00:31:34 ◼   ► I've kind of learned my lesson a few times,

00:31:37 ◼   ► to stop buying things that depend on the exact size

00:31:40 ◼   ► and shape of a particular phone

00:31:42 ◼   ► because we've seen this business long enough by now

00:31:46 ◼   ► that we know that pretty much every new phone that we buy

00:31:51 ◼   ► is very likely to require all new accessories of that type,

00:31:55 ◼   ► which means that you can spend 130 bucks on this,

00:31:58 ◼   ► but in however many years it is between now

00:32:00 ◼   ► and when you buy your next phone,

00:32:01 ◼   ► which is probably not that big of a number,

00:32:04 ◼   ► that's all the use you're gonna have out of this.

00:32:06 ◼   ► At that point, this becomes useless

00:32:07 ◼   ► and you throw it away or whatever.

00:32:09 ◼   ► You're at that money and that's it.

00:32:12 ◼   ► If you're lucky, you give it away

00:32:13 ◼   ► to somebody who needs it, but whatever accessories you buy

00:32:15 ◼   ► that are cases or that are very tightly fitting things

00:32:19 ◼   ► or integrated things that depend on a phone's shape,

00:32:21 ◼   ► those have a very limited lifespan.

00:32:24 ◼   ► And so I have found over time

00:32:25 ◼   ► that I try to minimize that as much as possible.

00:32:27 ◼   ► I still usually will get whatever Apple's leather case is

00:32:30 ◼   ► for my phone at the time, but I try to keep it at about that

00:32:34 ◼   ► and hopefully nothing else.

00:32:35 ◼   ► Anything like docks or anything,

00:32:37 ◼   ► I try to get the ones that are size adjustable,

00:32:39 ◼   ► where they have little rails you can move back and forth

00:32:41 ◼   ► or whatever to accommodate different phone sizes

00:32:44 ◼   ► and that will usually last many years.

00:32:47 ◼   ► Or rely on things like wireless charging pads

00:32:49 ◼   ► instead of docks in certain cases.

00:32:52 ◼   ► Because it's so wasteful to get accessories like this

00:32:56 ◼   ► and then one to three years later,

00:32:59 ◼   ► that battery is still good and could still be useful,

00:33:02 ◼   ► but well, I got a new phone, it doesn't fit.

00:33:04 ◼   ► Oh well, give it away, throw it away, whatever.

00:33:07 ◼   ► So generally I find, for my external battery needs,

00:33:12 ◼   ► which are relatively infrequent,

00:33:16 ◼   ► I greatly prefer just standalone USB batteries

00:33:19 ◼   ► that I can plug into my phone with a cable

00:33:21 ◼   ► if I actually need that.

00:33:22 ◼   ► Because it's infrequent enough

00:33:24 ◼   ► that the inconvenience of that is greatly,

00:33:29 ◼   ► is much less significant than the wastefulness

00:33:31 ◼   ► of having to buy one of these things every year or two.

00:33:34 ◼   ► Now if you're somebody who actually needs

00:33:37 ◼   ► that extra battery life every day,

00:33:41 ◼   ► then this makes more sense.

00:33:42 ◼   ► Because then that calculus changes.

00:33:44 ◼   ► But if you only need it when you're on vacations

00:33:47 ◼   ► or at conferences or whatever,

00:33:48 ◼   ► I strongly suggest considering

00:33:50 ◼   ► just a regular USB battery pack,

00:33:51 ◼   ► which are so plentiful these days,

00:33:52 ◼   ► you probably already have one,

00:33:54 ◼   ► and just using a cable.

00:33:55 ◼   ► Because it isn't as convenient or integrated as this,

00:33:58 ◼   ► but it goes in and out of your pocket a lot easier

00:34:00 ◼   ► and it's so much less wasteful over time.

00:34:03 ◼   ► - I used to always get battery cases for my phones

00:34:05 ◼   ► the same way that you did.

00:34:07 ◼   ► And my math also changed,

00:34:09 ◼   ► and I've come to the same conclusion that you have Marco,

00:34:11 ◼   ► that I would use the batteries at conferences

00:34:14 ◼   ► and maybe a couple other times,

00:34:16 ◼   ► maybe if I were to go to a concert or something like that.

00:34:18 ◼   ► But generally speaking,

00:34:19 ◼   ► I never really need a battery for my phone.

00:34:22 ◼   ► And when I need one,

00:34:23 ◼   ► I can use past and probably future sponsor away.

00:34:27 ◼   ► My suitcase has a battery.

00:34:28 ◼   ► And I can just, and granted it's physically quite large

00:34:31 ◼   ► because it's designed to mostly live in the suitcase,

00:34:33 ◼   ► but it'll pop right out

00:34:34 ◼   ► and I can take that with me.

00:34:35 ◼   ► And I would much rather have one battery

00:34:38 ◼   ► that will last me across multiple generations of iPhone

00:34:42 ◼   ► than have to pay $130 or what have you

00:34:44 ◼   ► every single time the phone changes.

00:34:46 ◼   ► Even the speaker grills change, you know what I mean?

00:34:48 ◼   ► And so I completely agree with you Marco

00:34:51 ◼   ► that I personally think that a external battery pack

00:34:56 ◼   ► that is not strapped to your phone is much better.

00:35:00 ◼   ► - Also, we live in a multi-device world.

00:35:03 ◼   ► If you get a standalone USB battery thing,

00:35:07 ◼   ► you can charge your phone, yes.

00:35:08 ◼   ► Or if you're out somewhere and you need to charge

00:35:10 ◼   ► on your iPad or your Kindle or your Apple Watch

00:35:14 ◼   ► or whatever else, you can charge those also.

00:35:17 ◼   ► In fact, if you get a USB-C one, you can charge a MacBook.

00:35:20 ◼   ► It's better rather than having like 15 different batteries

00:35:23 ◼   ► for all these different devices or battery cases

00:35:26 ◼   ► or whatever else, just get one USB battery pack

00:35:30 ◼   ► that you will keep charged

00:35:31 ◼   ► and that you can keep in whatever bag you carry most often

00:35:34 ◼   ► and have it be as versatile as possible.

00:35:36 ◼   ► It's just nicer and easier in general to consolidate

00:35:40 ◼   ► and have fewer phone-specific accessories

00:35:44 ◼   ► and to have your, kind of like an Alton Brown kind of way,

00:35:47 ◼   ► to have more generalists

00:35:48 ◼   ► and fewer single-purpose batteries,

00:35:52 ◼   ► just get one or two general-purpose USB batteries

00:35:55 ◼   ► and be done with it.

00:35:56 ◼   ► - Unitasquer is the word you're looking for.

00:35:57 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:36:00 ◼   ► So talking about this, first, I think that most people

00:36:03 ◼   ► who are not tech enthusiasts keep their phones

00:36:05 ◼   ► for way longer than we think.

00:36:07 ◼   ► So maybe it's less of an issue for them.

00:36:08 ◼   ► Like I just think about the phones I see people using

00:36:10 ◼   ► and how old they are and how destroyed they all are

00:36:13 ◼   ► and just how, like they're not, like you see something

00:36:15 ◼   ► like that and you're like, it's kind of like me with my car.

00:36:17 ◼   ► It's like, they're not gonna get a new one

00:36:19 ◼   ► until that one like breaks or they can tell

00:36:22 ◼   ► it's about to break or like stops being functional

00:36:24 ◼   ► for the purpose, right?

00:36:25 ◼   ► That's kind of, you know, so maybe it makes more sense there.

00:36:27 ◼   ► But the other thing I made me think of is

00:36:29 ◼   ► the reason I've never bought a dock for any of my phones

00:36:32 ◼   ► or iPod touches or whatever, I always wonder like

00:36:34 ◼   ► if the dock or charging station or whatever market

00:36:39 ◼   ► is kind of like, people get excited about one particular one

00:36:42 ◼   ► that there's some Kickstarter for or something

00:36:44 ◼   ► or they see a cool one for sale and they buy it

00:36:46 ◼   ► and they love it and it's next to their bedside

00:36:48 ◼   ► or wherever it is and then it comes time

00:36:50 ◼   ► to get their new phone and what they want is to be like,

00:36:54 ◼   ► I wanna use it, you keep using my old dock

00:36:56 ◼   ► or just find whatever the updated version of this dock

00:36:59 ◼   ► is for the new phone and they find it,

00:37:00 ◼   ► oh, the company that made this dock is out of business

00:37:03 ◼   ► or this was just a random Kickstarter

00:37:04 ◼   ► or the company that makes this dock is still in business

00:37:07 ◼   ► and makes a dock for my new phone but it's totally different

00:37:09 ◼   ► because of the whims of fashion and they're like,

00:37:10 ◼   ► but I just want my old dock or like that dock

00:37:12 ◼   ► that you got involved in at Kickstarter, Marco,

00:37:14 ◼   ► where like the dock didn't ship

00:37:16 ◼   ► until they had changed to Lightning

00:37:17 ◼   ► so they had to give it this weird adapter.

00:37:19 ◼   ► Like docks are, not that they're expensive or anything

00:37:21 ◼   ► but especially if you like fall in love with one

00:37:23 ◼   ► and build your habits on it and it's like,

00:37:25 ◼   ► this is just what I want because it's beautiful

00:37:27 ◼   ► and it has my phone in the right position

00:37:28 ◼   ► and make some of them have a little place for your watch.

00:37:31 ◼   ► I think both of you have some weird thing

00:37:32 ◼   ► that like puts your phone in your watch and don't they?

00:37:34 ◼   ► - Studio Neat.

00:37:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, like you can make those better or worse,

00:37:39 ◼   ► like more flexible.

00:37:40 ◼   ► I think the ones you have are basically just like

00:37:42 ◼   ► a big expanse with a lightning port poking out for you

00:37:44 ◼   ► and you're like, well, as long as it's a lightning port,

00:37:47 ◼   ► this isn't trained to a particular width or thickness

00:37:50 ◼   ► but you know.

00:37:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's adjustable to different thicknesses.

00:37:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's why I've never been into those things

00:37:54 ◼   ► is I just feel like if I ever found one that I really liked,

00:37:58 ◼   ► I would just be disappointed.

00:38:00 ◼   ► Speaking of which, speaking of finding something

00:38:01 ◼   ► I really like and being disappointed,

00:38:03 ◼   ► my stupid phone pouch, same thing.

00:38:05 ◼   ► My phone pouch was looking a little rough.

00:38:07 ◼   ► Like you know, I'm using the one from my seven

00:38:10 ◼   ► which I thought, you know, even though the butt sticks

00:38:12 ◼   ► out of it, I'm like, well, and I like it, it's fine.

00:38:14 ◼   ► The butt sticks out but it's fine.

00:38:15 ◼   ► I'm like, well, this is looking kind of beat up.

00:38:17 ◼   ► I should order another one.

00:38:18 ◼   ► Guess what, they don't make it anymore.

00:38:20 ◼   ► Very sad.

00:38:21 ◼   ► - You could just go without a pouch.

00:38:23 ◼   ► - No, it's crazy talk.

00:38:24 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

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00:40:06 ◼   ► - It is the middle of January,

00:40:11 ◼   ► which means it's time for us to start thinking about 2019.

00:40:14 ◼   ► And this has been in the show notes

00:40:17 ◼   ► for a couple of weeks now,

00:40:18 ◼   ► but I was thinking a while back

00:40:21 ◼   ► that I feel like there are two interesting questions

00:40:25 ◼   ► that I'd like to hear your opinions on it.

00:40:27 ◼   ► I'd like to weigh in with my own opinion about Apple's 2019.

00:40:31 ◼   ► And it seems like more than I can remember

00:40:35 ◼   ► in the last several years,

00:40:37 ◼   ► everyone, myself included,

00:40:39 ◼   ► is kind of anticipating a very turbulent year for Apple.

00:40:44 ◼   ► And not in a bad way necessarily,

00:40:46 ◼   ► but just that there's probably gonna be

00:40:48 ◼   ► a lot going on this year.

00:40:49 ◼   ► And I got to thinking about,

00:40:52 ◼   ► what are some of the things that all of us feel

00:40:54 ◼   ► like we're seeing some smoke about?

00:40:57 ◼   ► Things like Marzipan,

00:40:58 ◼   ► which we've heard about already at WWDC last year.

00:41:01 ◼   ► And I don't recall what the formal statement from Apple was.

00:41:04 ◼   ► I don't think they ever committed to this year,

00:41:06 ◼   ► but it certainly stands to reason

00:41:08 ◼   ► that we should hear more about it this year,

00:41:09 ◼   ► even if it's not formally released.

00:41:12 ◼   ► There's been plenty of smoke around the idea

00:41:14 ◼   ► of ARM-based Macs.

00:41:17 ◼   ► And then as we discussed last episode,

00:41:19 ◼   ► supposedly there's a Mac Pro this year, maybe, possibly.

00:41:23 ◼   ► And additionally, this new Apple streaming service,

00:41:27 ◼   ► which I have unequivocally decided

00:41:28 ◼   ► will be called Apple Video,

00:41:30 ◼   ► you heard it here first.

00:41:31 ◼   ► - I actually agree.

00:41:33 ◼   ► - Yes, thank you.

00:41:34 ◼   ► That will be this year, I think.

00:41:37 ◼   ► And additionally, in the last week or two,

00:41:40 ◼   ► I think it was in the last few days actually,

00:41:41 ◼   ► we've heard rumblings of maybe a new iPad Mini

00:41:45 ◼   ► and maybe a new iPad Touch.

00:41:48 ◼   ► What?

00:41:49 ◼   ► That might be happening in 2019?

00:41:51 ◼   ► So given this list of potential events,

00:41:54 ◼   ► and maybe there's others that I didn't think of,

00:41:56 ◼   ► I have two questions to ask each of you.

00:41:58 ◼   ► And I can either start or finish, it doesn't matter.

00:42:01 ◼   ► But the two questions are,

00:42:02 ◼   ► what generally accepted story or event,

00:42:04 ◼   ► like the ones I just went through,

00:42:05 ◼   ► are you personally most interested in?

00:42:09 ◼   ► And then secondarily, what generally accepted story

00:42:12 ◼   ► or event do you think will affect Apple the most?

00:42:16 ◼   ► So you may not be into it at all.

00:42:18 ◼   ► So let's take an example,

00:42:19 ◼   ► like I don't care about the Mac Pro.

00:42:21 ◼   ► I actually don't think it'll affect Apple the most.

00:42:23 ◼   ► But you could make an argument that a new Mac Pro

00:42:25 ◼   ► could make a big difference to Apple.

00:42:26 ◼   ► So maybe I would choose that the Mac Pro

00:42:28 ◼   ► is the thing that will affect Apple the most,

00:42:29 ◼   ► even though I don't care.

00:42:31 ◼   ► So let's start with Marco.

00:42:33 ◼   ► What do you think you are most interested in?

00:42:36 ◼   ► And let's go through those for the three of us,

00:42:38 ◼   ► and then we'll come back around

00:42:39 ◼   ► and we'll talk about what'll affect Apple the most.

00:42:42 ◼   ► - So I have a hardware answer and a software answer here.

00:42:45 ◼   ► My hardware answer, so my theme here,

00:42:48 ◼   ► I kinda touched on it last week.

00:42:50 ◼   ► I think this is gonna be a big year for Macs

00:42:54 ◼   ► and for Pro Mac hardware, and maybe software too.

00:42:58 ◼   ► But I think this is a big year for the Mac

00:43:01 ◼   ► in a number of fronts.

00:43:03 ◼   ► We've heard either Apple promising or rumors rumbling

00:43:07 ◼   ► to the effect of big things happening,

00:43:10 ◼   ► at least the Mac Pro hardware,

00:43:13 ◼   ► the display that should be coming out,

00:43:15 ◼   ► the possible rumblings of MacBook Pro update maybe,

00:43:20 ◼   ► and even the remote possibility of ARM Macs,

00:43:23 ◼   ► which I think are possible this year.

00:43:25 ◼   ► I wouldn't say likely, but I think possible.

00:43:28 ◼   ► This could be a really interesting year

00:43:30 ◼   ► for the Mac in particular.

00:43:32 ◼   ► And they've kinda been leading up to this.

00:43:35 ◼   ► I think this is the year where a lot of questions

00:43:38 ◼   ► get resolved.

00:43:39 ◼   ► That's ultimately what I'm excited about,

00:43:41 ◼   ► is we have the giant question of the Mac Pro.

00:43:44 ◼   ► We have the giant question of what the heck

00:43:46 ◼   ► are they gonna do in the next MacBook Pro?

00:43:47 ◼   ► Are they gonna change the keyboard?

00:43:49 ◼   ► Are they gonna do anything else to address Pro needs

00:43:52 ◼   ► a little bit better or whatever else?

00:43:53 ◼   ► The Mac Pro, I think, is interesting

00:43:56 ◼   ► in John's Halo car sense, but it's not super important,

00:44:01 ◼   ► actually, in most ways.

00:44:04 ◼   ► So for the hardware pick, I actually am more interested,

00:44:08 ◼   ► even though this is sacrilege in the show,

00:44:10 ◼   ► I'm actually more interested to see how and if

00:44:13 ◼   ► they answer questions about the MacBook Pro.

00:44:15 ◼   ► That is the more interesting hardware thing to me.

00:44:18 ◼   ► And so I look forward to, I don't know that we're going

00:44:23 ◼   ► to get an answer to that this year,

00:44:25 ◼   ► but I think it's about time for that.

00:44:27 ◼   ► I think it's likely, I think we probably will.

00:44:29 ◼   ► And I just really wanna see what is the next MacBook Pro?

00:44:33 ◼   ► How do they take these three years of feedback

00:44:37 ◼   ► and make the next product out of that?

00:44:39 ◼   ► I really hope that that gets answered this year.

00:44:42 ◼   ► And I hope it's a satisfactory answer,

00:44:44 ◼   ► 'cause it has seemed recently like they're in the weirdest

00:44:48 ◼   ► spot right now where, in something that I don't think

00:44:52 ◼   ► we expected, their desktops are actually

00:44:54 ◼   ► in pretty good shape right now.

00:44:56 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:44:57 ◼   ► This is a great time to be a Mac desktop user.

00:45:00 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:45:01 ◼   ► Like the iMac Pro is fantastic.

00:45:04 ◼   ► The new Mac Mini is fantastic.

00:45:06 ◼   ► Who would have thought that I would be saying

00:45:08 ◼   ► these things, right?

00:45:09 ◼   ► And the iMac is a little outdated.

00:45:11 ◼   ► So the iMac is not a great buy right now,

00:45:14 ◼   ► but it's still a great computer.

00:45:15 ◼   ► Like there's nothing wrong with it, it's just outdated.

00:45:18 ◼   ► So like the high end and like the specialized desktop lines

00:45:22 ◼   ► are great.

00:45:23 ◼   ► And the Mac Pro is probably gonna make that even better.

00:45:27 ◼   ► But because the iMac Pro is so great already,

00:45:30 ◼   ► and the Mac Mini is also so great and also solves

00:45:33 ◼   ► a lot of potential Mac Pro use cases,

00:45:36 ◼   ► there's actually, I think, less need than ever

00:45:38 ◼   ► for the official Mac Pro.

00:45:40 ◼   ► So the Mac Pro, I think, is,

00:45:42 ◼   ► I'm looking forward just to it finally,

00:45:44 ◼   ► and I might even buy one, but it's actually less burning

00:45:48 ◼   ► of a question for me because the laptop line is,

00:45:52 ◼   ► I think the MacBook Pro is still like partially on fire.

00:45:55 ◼   ► It's not quite as bad as before the keyboard membrane

00:45:57 ◼   ► version, but it's not great.

00:46:00 ◼   ► And so I really wanna see how that's resolved,

00:46:02 ◼   ► and I think we will actually have that answered this year.

00:46:05 ◼   ► And then on the software side, again,

00:46:08 ◼   ► this is some Mac excitement here.

00:46:11 ◼   ► I wanna see what the heck Marzipan ends up being like.

00:46:12 ◼   ► That's the big question to me.

00:46:14 ◼   ► Our Macs might also be a big thing,

00:46:16 ◼   ► and that would be potentially cool, new, interesting hardware

00:46:19 ◼   ► and some kind of software ramifications.

00:46:21 ◼   ► But like that's honestly not as interesting to me

00:46:24 ◼   ► as what the heck is going on with Marzipan.

00:46:27 ◼   ► Because I am a Mac user, I love the Mac,

00:46:31 ◼   ► I'm an iOS developer, I don't love developing for the Mac,

00:46:35 ◼   ► and I've done very little of it as a result,

00:46:38 ◼   ► I love developing for iOS.

00:46:40 ◼   ► I'm also, as a Mac user, I've been scared about

00:46:45 ◼   ► the clear slowdown in the development of new,

00:46:48 ◼   ► good Mac software over the last decade or so.

00:46:52 ◼   ► So like the Mac has all these unanswered questions

00:46:55 ◼   ► going on around it, and I really do think 2019

00:46:59 ◼   ► will be the year that a lot of these questions get answered.

00:47:02 ◼   ► And I'm just super excited about that.

00:47:05 ◼   ► - Jon.

00:47:06 ◼   ► - We're doing it one question at a time?

00:47:08 ◼   ► Oh, this is too easy for me.

00:47:09 ◼   ► I'm obviously most interested in the Mac Pro,

00:47:11 ◼   ► like for many reasons, you've all heard all my reasons

00:47:15 ◼   ► over many years, yeah.

00:47:16 ◼   ► I need a new computer, I want it to be a Mac Pro

00:47:18 ◼   ► style computer, so they're gonna make one

00:47:20 ◼   ► that is all where all my interest is.

00:47:22 ◼   ► And I actually am secondarily, even though I hate laptops,

00:47:25 ◼   ► very interested in laptops just because I'm so angry

00:47:27 ◼   ► about this three or four year run of bad laptops.

00:47:31 ◼   ► And I really, because I know they will make a new laptop

00:47:35 ◼   ► and because there is less flexibility,

00:47:38 ◼   ► like the Mac Pro could be anything,

00:47:39 ◼   ► and it could be a weird pyramid-shaped floating thing,

00:47:42 ◼   ► who knows how, but a laptop is gonna be a laptop

00:47:44 ◼   ► and I just wanna see it have a decent keyboard

00:47:46 ◼   ► and maybe have some more ports on it, and I'm just,

00:47:49 ◼   ► but I hate laptops, so I'm not interested in that,

00:47:51 ◼   ► I just, in an academic sense.

00:47:53 ◼   ► And in kind of a Apple, get your stuff together kind of,

00:47:58 ◼   ► it's the part of the Mac business where they have screwed up

00:48:03 ◼   ► the worst and so they need to,

00:48:05 ◼   ► where they've screwed up the worst

00:48:06 ◼   ► and haven't announced the fix.

00:48:08 ◼   ► They screwed up the worst and probably in the Mac Pro,

00:48:11 ◼   ► but they've announced, they've said all the right things

00:48:13 ◼   ► about that, whereas they're not saying anything

00:48:15 ◼   ► about the MacBooks other than like, maybe at best,

00:48:18 ◼   ► like stay tuned or whatever, like they haven't said--

00:48:22 ◼   ► - They haven't even said that.

00:48:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, they don't have to, like we know that,

00:48:25 ◼   ► like we're gonna come up with a new laptop, yeah, we know.

00:48:27 ◼   ► We know, you're gonna come up with a new laptop eventually.

00:48:30 ◼   ► They don't have to announce that, it's not like the Mac Pro

00:48:32 ◼   ► where we question whether they're gonna make another one,

00:48:34 ◼   ► but about it, they have said nothing,

00:48:35 ◼   ► and they haven't had any sort of like, you know, round table,

00:48:38 ◼   ► you know, where they talk about the laptops and say,

00:48:42 ◼   ► we hear you about the keyboard, the next one will have

00:48:44 ◼   ► a better keyboard and more ports.

00:48:46 ◼   ► They have not said that, so that's my second place,

00:48:49 ◼   ► that's my honorable mention.

00:48:50 ◼   ► - Well, also like, as far as the Mac goes,

00:48:53 ◼   ► like the Mac Pro doesn't affect that many people.

00:48:56 ◼   ► Anything that happens to the laptops,

00:48:58 ◼   ► like the laptops are the Mac, like they are by far

00:49:01 ◼   ► the biggest sellers, like, you know,

00:49:03 ◼   ► relatively nobody buys desktops.

00:49:05 ◼   ► Like, the laptops are the line, and so when the laptops

00:49:09 ◼   ► have a problem, that's a way bigger impact on the Mac

00:49:12 ◼   ► in general than if the desktops have a problem.

00:49:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, they screwed up the Mac Pro the worst,

00:49:17 ◼   ► but even a much smaller screw up on the Macs

00:49:21 ◼   ► that they actually sell is a bigger deal, yeah.

00:49:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, for me, I don't know if it's going to happen

00:49:26 ◼   ► in 2019, but the thought of ARM Macs, I think,

00:49:30 ◼   ► is the most interesting.

00:49:32 ◼   ► I am hard, it is hard for me to argue against

00:49:36 ◼   ► the MacBook Pros, and if there's something different

00:49:38 ◼   ► happening there, because I think, Marco,

00:49:40 ◼   ► you make a very compelling case,

00:49:42 ◼   ► but in terms of just interest, and what just peaks

00:49:45 ◼   ► my interest the most, I think it's ARM Macs,

00:49:47 ◼   ► and I'm not necessarily predicting it's going to happen

00:49:50 ◼   ► this year, but there's enough smoke around this fire

00:49:52 ◼   ► that it's a possibility, and I just think an ARM Mac

00:49:55 ◼   ► would be fascinating, both in terms of how do they manage

00:49:57 ◼   ► the hardware transition, but also how do they manage

00:49:59 ◼   ► the software transition, and does it look like, you know,

00:50:02 ◼   ► the transition from PowerPC to Intel,

00:50:04 ◼   ► or is it something totally different?

00:50:05 ◼   ► Is Marzipan really kind of a Trojan horse to get ARM Macs

00:50:09 ◼   ► to be a thing, I don't know, but I think for the one

00:50:13 ◼   ► that I'm most interested in, it's gotta be ARM Macs,

00:50:16 ◼   ► because that's kind of all-encompassing,

00:50:18 ◼   ► and would mark a pretty dramatic change in direction

00:50:21 ◼   ► for the Mac, so that's what I'm most interested in.

00:50:23 ◼   ► Now, Marco, tell me, of all the things you've gone over,

00:50:27 ◼   ► what do you think will affect Apple the most?

00:50:30 ◼   ► - I don't have as good of an answer for this one.

00:50:33 ◼   ► I mean, if you go, like, you know, strictly speaking,

00:50:35 ◼   ► what will affect them the most, I think, you know,

00:50:38 ◼   ► whatever the iPhone is this fall, like, that's,

00:50:40 ◼   ► but that's kind of a boring answer.

00:50:43 ◼   ► In a larger way, they're pushing into services,

00:50:47 ◼   ► and that does weird things to their incentives.

00:50:50 ◼   ► If you look at iCloud storage, you know,

00:50:52 ◼   ► the user experience of using a phone without photo backup,

00:50:56 ◼   ► without enough space for all your photos to do full-blown,

00:51:00 ◼   ► like, you know, iCloud photo library and iPhone backup,

00:51:03 ◼   ► it's a miserable experience without that,

00:51:05 ◼   ► and people get these pop-ups saying you're out

00:51:06 ◼   ► of storage space, and you know what those people don't do?

00:51:10 ◼   ► They don't go sign up for plans.

00:51:11 ◼   ► That's not how they do it.

00:51:13 ◼   ► Instead, they just dismiss those boxes,

00:51:15 ◼   ► and they think their phone is annoying,

00:51:17 ◼   ► and eventually their phone breaks or gets lost,

00:51:19 ◼   ► and they lose all the pictures of their kid

00:51:20 ◼   ► for the last three years.

00:51:22 ◼   ► Like, that's not a great way to do these things,

00:51:25 ◼   ► and it does leave open competitive holes.

00:51:28 ◼   ► Like, that's why you see, like, the Google ads

00:51:29 ◼   ► that poke fun at it and say, you know,

00:51:31 ◼   ► buy our phone, you won't have this problem.

00:51:33 ◼   ► That's a pretty compelling sales pitch.

00:51:34 ◼   ► So I think what has a non-trivial chance of happening

00:51:40 ◼   ► is what a couple of our podcast friends

00:51:42 ◼   ► have also been speculating about is,

00:51:44 ◼   ► I think there might actually end up being

00:51:46 ◼   ► some kind of expansion of one of the Apple services,

00:51:50 ◼   ► probably, what's the iPhone Care thing

00:51:53 ◼   ► where you get a new phone every year?

00:51:54 ◼   ► Upgrade program.

00:51:55 ◼   ► I'm guessing they expand one of their subscription offerings,

00:51:58 ◼   ► probably the upgrade program, into including, you know,

00:52:02 ◼   ► an iPhone every two years, whatever it is,

00:52:05 ◼   ► and so an iPhone every X years, and also iCloud storage,

00:52:10 ◼   ► and also Apple Music and Apple Video.

00:52:13 ◼   ► To have one subscription that they can kind of,

00:52:16 ◼   ► if they have this, this solves a number of problems.

00:52:19 ◼   ► So first of all, you know, and you can look at Amazon Prime

00:52:22 ◼   ► as one of the reasons of why, like,

00:52:25 ◼   ► why this is so compelling for the business, too.

00:52:29 ◼   ► If you have a service that you want a bunch of people

00:52:31 ◼   ► to sign up for, but they aren't,

00:52:34 ◼   ► you bundle it with something that they are gonna pay for.

00:52:37 ◼   ► Right?

00:52:38 ◼   ► So here's what Apple knows.

00:52:40 ◼   ► Everyone wants to buy iPhones.

00:52:41 ◼   ► Yes, even now after this disappointing quarter,

00:52:43 ◼   ► everyone still wants to buy iPhones, right?

00:52:46 ◼   ► And everyone doesn't wanna pay for Apple Music

00:52:48 ◼   ► or Apple Video separately, and everyone sure as hell

00:52:50 ◼   ► does not wanna pay for their photo storage.

00:52:53 ◼   ► So what Apple can, oh, and they already did this

00:52:55 ◼   ► to some degree with Apple Care.

00:52:58 ◼   ► The iPhone upgrade program includes Apple Care.

00:53:01 ◼   ► And you still pay for it, like, it's just the cost

00:53:03 ◼   ► of the phone plus Apple Care amortized over,

00:53:05 ◼   ► you know, 24 months or whatever it is.

00:53:06 ◼   ► Like, you're not saving money,

00:53:08 ◼   ► or you're saving some small, trivial amount of money.

00:53:11 ◼   ► But if you sign up for that, you get Apple Care, too.

00:53:14 ◼   ► Apple gets the money for Apple Care, too.

00:53:16 ◼   ► So they automatically tie Apple Care to the phone sales.

00:53:19 ◼   ► So if they can make an even more compelling package there

00:53:23 ◼   ► that includes all these other services,

00:53:25 ◼   ► even at some basic levels, then they can prevent people

00:53:30 ◼   ► from not getting them when they get their phone

00:53:32 ◼   ► through this program.

00:53:33 ◼   ► So they can bundle in, and think about everything this does.

00:53:37 ◼   ► This, first of all, gets more sales to Apple stores

00:53:39 ◼   ► instead of carrier stores, because the Apple Store version

00:53:42 ◼   ► of the description is more valuable.

00:53:45 ◼   ► It gets more people to have a better experience

00:53:47 ◼   ► and better data safety, 'cause they actually have

00:53:48 ◼   ► their phone fully backed up and all their photos backed up.

00:53:51 ◼   ► And Apple still gets the money for all these services.

00:53:53 ◼   ► And, you know, if they started out with Apple Music,

00:53:55 ◼   ► and then later on they add Apple Video,

00:53:57 ◼   ► or even if they do it up front,

00:53:59 ◼   ► that gets more people into those services.

00:54:01 ◼   ► And then that makes those services more valuable

00:54:04 ◼   ► and makes people more likely to stick with them,

00:54:06 ◼   ► because if you are buying the iPhone upgrade program package

00:54:10 ◼   ► anyway, and it comes with a music service,

00:54:14 ◼   ► how likely are you to use Spotify after that?

00:54:17 ◼   ► If it comes with a video service that you're already

00:54:20 ◼   ► paying for and have anyway, are you really gonna also

00:54:23 ◼   ► get HBO Now or Netflix?

00:54:24 ◼   ► Maybe, you know, some people won't,

00:54:26 ◼   ► because they'll already be paying for this.

00:54:28 ◼   ► This is what happens with Amazon Prime.

00:54:29 ◼   ► This is why Prime is so big for Amazon.

00:54:31 ◼   ► It's like people all bought it for the fast shipping,

00:54:34 ◼   ► and Amazon's been shoving all this other stuff into it.

00:54:36 ◼   ► And people now, like now they have this huge install base

00:54:40 ◼   ► for their crappy video service,

00:54:42 ◼   ► because everyone kind of had it, quote, for free anyway

00:54:45 ◼   ► with the shipping program.

00:54:47 ◼   ► And now they have this massive video service as a result.

00:54:49 ◼   ► So like, there's a lot of reasons, I think,

00:54:51 ◼   ► for Apple to do a large bundle subscription.

00:54:55 ◼   ► By the way, it also fixes iPhone sales,

00:54:58 ◼   ► because it makes people more predictably upgrade

00:55:02 ◼   ► no matter what phone they release.

00:55:04 ◼   ► So it solves a lot of problems, it really does,

00:55:07 ◼   ► if they do something like this.

00:55:09 ◼   ► I don't think we've heard anything that suggests

00:55:11 ◼   ► that they are doing something like this,

00:55:13 ◼   ► but I think they should, and if they did this,

00:55:16 ◼   ► I think that would have the biggest effect on Apple.

00:55:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think it's hard not to imagine Apple

00:55:23 ◼   ► wanting to do a kind of get all the Apple things service.

00:55:27 ◼   ► You know, it seems like such an obvious answer.

00:55:31 ◼   ► - Well, not all the things, 'cause like,

00:55:33 ◼   ► what they don't wanna do is lose like add-on sales,

00:55:38 ◼   ► attachment sales, upgrade sales,

00:55:39 ◼   ► like they're not gonna give you everything,

00:55:42 ◼   ► but they should give you like a baseline level

00:55:44 ◼   ► of all these things.

00:55:45 ◼   ► So like, services that only really have a fixed price,

00:55:48 ◼   ► where you get everything for that fixed price,

00:55:50 ◼   ► like Apple Music, that makes sense.

00:55:52 ◼   ► The iPhone plan, I wouldn't expect that to be like

00:55:55 ◼   ► the two terabyte plan, I would expect that, you know,

00:55:58 ◼   ► whatever like the base one is, like is it 100 gigs

00:56:00 ◼   ► or something like that, whatever the base one is,

00:56:02 ◼   ► that would be the one that's probably included,

00:56:03 ◼   ► and then if you want a bigger one,

00:56:04 ◼   ► you pay a little bit more per month.

00:56:06 ◼   ► And I wouldn't, and I think too, like the hardware,

00:56:08 ◼   ► like, you know, you can, same thing with upgrade program,

00:56:12 ◼   ► like you don't get the best iPhone for the base price,

00:56:15 ◼   ► your price varies depending on the iPhone you choose, right,

00:56:18 ◼   ► and how expensive that is.

00:56:20 ◼   ► So I think it would be like that, you know,

00:56:21 ◼   ► but it's still, you're still getting a lot for one price

00:56:25 ◼   ► that you just build into your budget, and it just,

00:56:28 ◼   ► oh yeah, I pay, you know, 60 bucks a month for my iPhone

00:56:32 ◼   ► and the things around it, or you know, whatever the cost is.

00:56:35 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:56:36 ◼   ► John, what'll affect Apple the most?

00:56:39 ◼   ► - I'm gonna actually take the boring answer,

00:56:40 ◼   ► because that's probably the actual answer,

00:56:43 ◼   ► which is the, what the new iPhone is,

00:56:44 ◼   ► and the main reason it's a big deal in the upcoming year

00:56:48 ◼   ► is 'cause we just, we're just coming off this, you know,

00:56:50 ◼   ► this change in guidance about earnings,

00:56:52 ◼   ► and then we're gonna see the,

00:56:53 ◼   ► we're gonna get the second impact of that story

00:56:55 ◼   ► when the actual earnings come out,

00:56:57 ◼   ► the ones they warned us about, right,

00:56:58 ◼   ► even though it's the same story, right,

00:57:00 ◼   ► unless there's some dramatic difference,

00:57:01 ◼   ► like oh, we warned you, but it turns out

00:57:03 ◼   ► everything was great after all.

00:57:04 ◼   ► It's probably not gonna be, you know,

00:57:05 ◼   ► they warned us, I mean, it's gonna be bad, right.

00:57:07 ◼   ► So this next phone is super important,

00:57:10 ◼   ► and the main reason I've been thinking about this phone

00:57:12 ◼   ► is, well, two reasons.

00:57:14 ◼   ► One, like, we talked many reasons about

00:57:17 ◼   ► why phone sales might be down

00:57:19 ◼   ► and all sorts of the China issues or whatever,

00:57:20 ◼   ► but there are other ancillary things

00:57:22 ◼   ► in addition to like the battery replacement program,

00:57:23 ◼   ► and one of the things in that giant bucket

00:57:25 ◼   ► of things that probably didn't help phone sales

00:57:27 ◼   ► is the fact that the whole phone line changed over

00:57:30 ◼   ► to the 10 style, and some people may be wary about that

00:57:33 ◼   ► because it's not what they're used to.

00:57:34 ◼   ► Like, we all did that transition already,

00:57:36 ◼   ► and we're fine with it, but we're early adopters.

00:57:38 ◼   ► Everyone else may be less so.

00:57:39 ◼   ► The next one of those that's coming along,

00:57:41 ◼   ► well, first of all, presumably that's gonna continue,

00:57:42 ◼   ► and you know, I don't think the home button's coming back,

00:57:46 ◼   ► so the new ones are all gonna be like that,

00:57:48 ◼   ► and now there's the rumor of USBC floating around again.

00:57:52 ◼   ► We talked about this a couple years ago.

00:57:54 ◼   ► We'll continue to talk about it until they do it

00:57:56 ◼   ► or until they lose the connectors entirely.

00:57:59 ◼   ► If they did that this year, like this is kind of,

00:58:01 ◼   ► it's not a make or break phone,

00:58:02 ◼   ► but it's a more important phone than normal

00:58:04 ◼   ► because it may be a new and performed factor,

00:58:06 ◼   ► so there's a lot of question marks around that.

00:58:08 ◼   ► It may have a new connector,

00:58:09 ◼   ► and it's kind of important for this phone to do better.

00:58:14 ◼   ► To be like, they need, the story for 2019 needs to be better

00:58:19 ◼   ► than the story we're about to have for their earnings

00:58:21 ◼   ► on the XS and the XR and everything.

00:58:24 ◼   ► However things worked out and whoever's fault it is

00:58:26 ◼   ► or whatever, the pressure is on,

00:58:29 ◼   ► and so I think because the phone is most of their money

00:58:32 ◼   ► and it's their flagship product,

00:58:33 ◼   ► and this is a very important year,

00:58:35 ◼   ► and it's a year when potentially many things

00:58:37 ◼   ► could be changing, that's going to affect them the most,

00:58:42 ◼   ► but that is the boring answer, but I think it's the answer,

00:58:44 ◼   ► but I do wanna talk about the sort of prime type service

00:58:49 ◼   ► that Marco was talking about that has been discussed

00:58:51 ◼   ► in the Apple nerd community for a while now.

00:58:54 ◼   ► I keep thinking of it as Apple One

00:58:55 ◼   ► because Google of course calls their storage thing Google One

00:58:58 ◼   ► which is a terrible name for a storage service,

00:59:00 ◼   ► but Apple One is not what they'll call it

00:59:02 ◼   ► because that's too highfalutin of a name.

00:59:05 ◼   ► I don't know what they'll come up with,

00:59:06 ◼   ► but the thing that I have my head scratching

00:59:10 ◼   ► about this Apple plan,

00:59:12 ◼   ► and it has nothing to do with what Apple will do

00:59:15 ◼   ► 'cause they may do something very much

00:59:18 ◼   ► like what Marco described,

00:59:18 ◼   ► but what I would suggest to Apple that they do

00:59:22 ◼   ► in this type of strategy,

00:59:23 ◼   ► that you're gonna have one subscription thing,

00:59:25 ◼   ► to tell them I need to figure out what the tractor is,

00:59:29 ◼   ► so Marco mentioned like the fast shipping

00:59:31 ◼   ► in Amazon Prime, right?

00:59:32 ◼   ► That's why everyone got Prime.

00:59:34 ◼   ► I don't even know if it had any benefits beyond that

00:59:35 ◼   ► in the beginning, but--

00:59:36 ◼   ► - It didn't.

00:59:37 ◼   ► - Lots of people order stuff from Amazon,

00:59:38 ◼   ► and even today, the generation of people

00:59:43 ◼   ► when Prime was introduced who were ordering things online

00:59:45 ◼   ► were still the generation where it's like the

00:59:49 ◼   ► who buys batteries, old people, Seinfeld sketch,

00:59:51 ◼   ► where shipping seemed like an affront.

00:59:53 ◼   ► Like I want stuff, and I don't wanna leave my house.

00:59:56 ◼   ► I don't wanna have to pay extra money for it to come to me,

00:59:59 ◼   ► and so just, it's not even the amount of money.

01:00:02 ◼   ► It's just that it seems like,

01:00:03 ◼   ► especially for small purchases

01:00:05 ◼   ► where the shipping becomes a large portion of the thing,

01:00:07 ◼   ► you're like, I could go to the store,

01:00:10 ◼   ► but I don't wanna get out of my pajamas,

01:00:12 ◼   ► but I don't wanna pay shipping.

01:00:14 ◼   ► There's a huge psychological draw of

01:00:16 ◼   ► I would love to buy everything I can on Amazon,

01:00:18 ◼   ► but I just hate the idea of shipping.

01:00:20 ◼   ► Maybe I can afford shipping.

01:00:21 ◼   ► Maybe it's not even the money.

01:00:22 ◼   ► It's just the idea of shipping.

01:00:24 ◼   ► That was a tremendous tractor

01:00:26 ◼   ► onto which they could attach all this crap, right?

01:00:28 ◼   ► And I actually think Amazon's video services is not that bad

01:00:31 ◼   ► and they have some good original content.

01:00:32 ◼   ► Music service is less appealing, but anyway,

01:00:35 ◼   ► that was an incredibly powerful tractor.

01:00:38 ◼   ► It still is probably the reason most people buy Prime,

01:00:41 ◼   ► because it just feels good not to have to pay shipping.

01:00:44 ◼   ► I don't think people even end up doing the math, right?

01:00:46 ◼   ► And I don't even think it sells mostly

01:00:48 ◼   ► to people who can't afford it.

01:00:49 ◼   ► In fact, I think that Prime probably sells the most

01:00:51 ◼   ► for the people who can most afford the shipping, right?

01:00:53 ◼   ► It's people who are just like,

01:00:54 ◼   ► I just wanna make shipping go away,

01:00:55 ◼   ► 'cause I don't like that feeling, right?

01:00:57 ◼   ► I don't know what the tractor is for Apple One type service,

01:01:02 ◼   ► unless they do what they have heretofore not done,

01:01:04 ◼   ► which is, you know, I'm gonna suggest a tractor,

01:01:07 ◼   ► but before I suggest one, can you guys think of,

01:01:09 ◼   ► what's the tractor in an Apple One all-encompassing?

01:01:13 ◼   ► - It's the iPhone.

01:01:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, absolutely.

01:01:15 ◼   ► But what about the iPhone?

01:01:17 ◼   ► - It's getting an iPhone.

01:01:18 ◼   ► - You can get an iPhone now without an Apple One.

01:01:21 ◼   ► - Yeah, or you can spend,

01:01:22 ◼   ► or you can get this wonderful monthly upgrade program

01:01:25 ◼   ► where you don't have to spend $1,100 up front.

01:01:27 ◼   ► You can spend the whatever, 40, 50, 60 bucks a month

01:01:30 ◼   ► on it instead, and then you don't have to think about it.

01:01:33 ◼   ► And it comes with Apple Care.

01:01:34 ◼   ► - But you can do that now.

01:01:35 ◼   ► - Right, and so that's why I think,

01:01:37 ◼   ► what I'm suggesting is they basically do an expansion

01:01:40 ◼   ► of that where they just throw more stuff into that plan.

01:01:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, but they don't have to charge more money

01:01:45 ◼   ► if they throw more stuff into that plan.

01:01:47 ◼   ► - Sure they would, but I think that is the draw,

01:01:50 ◼   ► is like for 40 bucks a month, you can get this phone,

01:01:54 ◼   ► or for 50 or 60 bucks a month, you can get everything.

01:01:59 ◼   ► And the Amazon Prime trick to this

01:02:02 ◼   ► is they don't even make it an option.

01:02:03 ◼   ► I mean, they don't even give you a choice.

01:02:04 ◼   ► There is no shipping only Amazon Prime service,

01:02:07 ◼   ► because if they offered one, a lot fewer people

01:02:09 ◼   ► would get all the other crap that comes with it.

01:02:11 ◼   ► I know I wouldn't.

01:02:13 ◼   ► And so, if Apple really wants to push people into this,

01:02:17 ◼   ► what they would do is only offer this plan

01:02:20 ◼   ► that includes everything.

01:02:21 ◼   ► I don't know if they would go that far,

01:02:23 ◼   ► at least maybe not at first, but they could really

01:02:27 ◼   ► just do the upgrade program, add 10 or 20 bucks a month

01:02:30 ◼   ► to it, and have that include Apple Music and Video

01:02:34 ◼   ► and iCloud Storage, and that would be pretty awesome.

01:02:37 ◼   ► - So here's what I think they have to use as their tractor.

01:02:40 ◼   ► Like, you're right that the iPhone is the thing

01:02:42 ◼   ► that has the most draw, but I think for any service

01:02:45 ◼   ► like this to work, they need to do something

01:02:47 ◼   ► like what I just described with Amazon,

01:02:50 ◼   ► where just the idea of shipping,

01:02:53 ◼   ► is making that go away is the thing.

01:02:55 ◼   ► Now, there's nothing really like that in the Apple world,

01:02:59 ◼   ► except for maybe storage, which I'll get to in a second,

01:03:01 ◼   ► but I think the best tractor for this is for Apple

01:03:04 ◼   ► to give up on what they have traditionally done,

01:03:08 ◼   ► which is all their sort of financing,

01:03:10 ◼   ► pay over time, layaway, loan type things,

01:03:14 ◼   ► all of them have either been the same cost

01:03:17 ◼   ► as buying it up front or more expensive.

01:03:19 ◼   ► I think for Apple One to work, the draw has to be

01:03:22 ◼   ► get an iPhone for less money than you could get one

01:03:25 ◼   ► for otherwise, not a lot less money.

01:03:27 ◼   ► In fact, so little less money

01:03:28 ◼   ► that it practically doesn't matter,

01:03:30 ◼   ► but the draw is not that you can get an iPhone

01:03:33 ◼   ► and not that you can get an iPhone by paying monthly

01:03:35 ◼   ► instead of paying all at once,

01:03:35 ◼   ► but that you can get an iPhone for less.

01:03:38 ◼   ► And it doesn't even matter how much less it is,

01:03:39 ◼   ► it could be like $1 less,

01:03:40 ◼   ► as long as you get people talking about the idea like,

01:03:42 ◼   ► oh, if you wanted to get an iPhone,

01:03:43 ◼   ► you got to do the Apple One plan

01:03:45 ◼   ► 'cause you can get it for less money.

01:03:46 ◼   ► How does Apple make money on that type of thing?

01:03:48 ◼   ► Well, the Apple One plan altogether,

01:03:52 ◼   ► you're not just paying for the phone,

01:03:54 ◼   ► you're paying for other benefits as well.

01:03:56 ◼   ► So they say you should get that plan

01:03:57 ◼   ► because it gives you the Apple Video service,

01:04:00 ◼   ► Apple Music, more iCloud storage, so on and so forth,

01:04:03 ◼   ► all of which you pay for it,

01:04:04 ◼   ► again, at some potentially reduced rate

01:04:06 ◼   ► than if you bought them separately.

01:04:07 ◼   ► But the main point is, but if you buy all that stuff,

01:04:10 ◼   ► you get the iPhone for less money.

01:04:13 ◼   ► That's all it has to be,

01:04:14 ◼   ► is it has to be the program that you get the reputation for,

01:04:17 ◼   ► the cheapest way to get an iPhone is like this.

01:04:19 ◼   ► And they're like, well, it's not actually cheaper

01:04:21 ◼   ► because you're paying for a bunch of other stuff

01:04:22 ◼   ► and what if I don't want Apple Music?

01:04:24 ◼   ► It's like, yeah, but that's like an extra five or $10

01:04:27 ◼   ► and you might've bought that anyway.

01:04:28 ◼   ► In fact, that stuff is cheaper too,

01:04:29 ◼   ► but the point is you get the iPhone for less money.

01:04:33 ◼   ► And that's the only tractor I can think of.

01:04:34 ◼   ► And the thing that bothers me about their services thing is

01:04:37 ◼   ► the tractor for Netflix is original programming.

01:04:41 ◼   ► They're getting into this realm with the Apple Video service

01:04:45 ◼   ► where they have to, it's like I said, I think last show,

01:04:49 ◼   ► it's like Pixar.

01:04:50 ◼   ► It becomes like a hit-based business

01:04:52 ◼   ► where you're making content that has to be good,

01:04:54 ◼   ► kind of like the products.

01:04:55 ◼   ► They have to make phones that are good too, right?

01:04:57 ◼   ► But the phone is their strongest pull,

01:05:01 ◼   ► but in Netflix, they don't have a phone.

01:05:03 ◼   ► They have to make good shows that you wanna watch

01:05:06 ◼   ► and that's all they can do.

01:05:07 ◼   ► So I do wonder about the Apple Video service.

01:05:09 ◼   ► Like as a weird attachment thing

01:05:12 ◼   ► that you put onto the tractor of getting an iPhone

01:05:15 ◼   ► for a dollar less that tricks people

01:05:16 ◼   ► into buying more stuff from you

01:05:18 ◼   ► because they're in their mind,

01:05:19 ◼   ► it feels good to get a quote unquote,

01:05:21 ◼   ► get a deal on an iPhone.

01:05:23 ◼   ► The Video service is like,

01:05:25 ◼   ► oh, and they give you this Video service.

01:05:26 ◼   ► Like it has to have some appealing value.

01:05:28 ◼   ► So they do need also to have like a hit show or something.

01:05:32 ◼   ► Music doesn't help

01:05:33 ◼   ► because everyone's got all the same music at this point.

01:05:34 ◼   ► So I don't think they can differentiate that on that.

01:05:37 ◼   ► But to tell someone, yeah,

01:05:39 ◼   ► and you also have to pay this extra money,

01:05:41 ◼   ► the two little mini tractors they have alongside

01:05:44 ◼   ► are never get that stupid dialogue

01:05:45 ◼   ► that your phone is full,

01:05:47 ◼   ► which means they would have to give people

01:05:49 ◼   ► what we've always talked about.

01:05:50 ◼   ► Like just, you should give people as much storage

01:05:52 ◼   ► as the phones they buy can hold, right?

01:05:55 ◼   ► I think that's what they have to do

01:05:56 ◼   ► because the value of getting more storage

01:05:58 ◼   ► is not getting more storage.

01:06:00 ◼   ► It's not having to worry about storage anymore.

01:06:02 ◼   ► So if you give them 100 gigs instead of five gigs

01:06:04 ◼   ► and they still run out of space,

01:06:05 ◼   ► they still hate you for it.

01:06:06 ◼   ► You have to say, get this

01:06:08 ◼   ► and you won't get the dialogue ever again.

01:06:10 ◼   ► So that's a hurdle they have to overcome.

01:06:11 ◼   ► And the second thing is the Video service has zero value

01:06:13 ◼   ► unless there's one show that people talk about

01:06:15 ◼   ► that you're interested in on their service.

01:06:18 ◼   ► So that's a big ask.

01:06:20 ◼   ► Cell phones for slightly less,

01:06:22 ◼   ► may give them storage,

01:06:24 ◼   ► they don't have to worry about storage anymore

01:06:25 ◼   ► and have at least one or two good shows

01:06:27 ◼   ► on Apple Video to get people talking about it.

01:06:29 ◼   ► That is a plan that you could get more people into.

01:06:31 ◼   ► I wouldn't include AppleCare

01:06:32 ◼   ► and I wouldn't include like get the upgrade

01:06:34 ◼   ► to whole type thing

01:06:35 ◼   ► because I think that's asking for too much.

01:06:37 ◼   ► Like you have to keep this bill down to a reasonable rate.

01:06:39 ◼   ► Prime is like what, $90 a year?

01:06:41 ◼   ► And you're talking about 60, 70, $80 a month?

01:06:44 ◼   ► That's not a mass market program.

01:06:45 ◼   ► So that's my advice to Apple

01:06:48 ◼   ► on any sort of one purchase program is,

01:06:51 ◼   ► eliminate things,

01:06:52 ◼   ► eliminate concerns entirely when it comes to the storage

01:06:55 ◼   ► and when it comes to like the phone and everything.

01:06:57 ◼   ► Have the tractor be getting an iPhone for cheaper

01:06:59 ◼   ► and you've got to make one or two good shows.

01:07:03 ◼   ► And that's a hell of a bill to fill in.

01:07:06 ◼   ► I don't think actually that's all coming in 2019

01:07:08 ◼   ► which is why I still listed the iPhone.

01:07:10 ◼   ► And even if they did all that in 2019,

01:07:11 ◼   ► the iPhone would still affect them the most

01:07:12 ◼   ► because in the first year you'd launch a thing,

01:07:15 ◼   ► who knows who even is gonna sign up for it.

01:07:17 ◼   ► So long-term, that may affect Apple's trajectory the most

01:07:20 ◼   ► but in 2019 itself, it's still the boring old iPhone.

01:07:24 ◼   ► - I understand what you're saying

01:07:25 ◼   ► about this whole tractor thing.

01:07:27 ◼   ► And yeah, the obvious answer is the iPhone,

01:07:30 ◼   ► but I don't know.

01:07:31 ◼   ► I feel like there's a really clear marketing angle

01:07:35 ◼   ► where Apple says, look,

01:07:36 ◼   ► you wanna have an iPhone every year.

01:07:39 ◼   ► You don't wanna have to worry about storage.

01:07:42 ◼   ► You don't wanna have to worry

01:07:43 ◼   ► about your photos being backed up.

01:07:44 ◼   ► You don't wanna have to worry

01:07:45 ◼   ► about where you're getting your music.

01:07:46 ◼   ► And you don't have to worry

01:07:47 ◼   ► about where you're getting your video either.

01:07:49 ◼   ► And so with this one monthly fee,

01:07:52 ◼   ► you will get a phone once a year.

01:07:55 ◼   ► You will get all the music in the world.

01:07:57 ◼   ► You will get all of our original content,

01:07:59 ◼   ► which I agree with you, Jon,

01:08:00 ◼   ► that we don't know if that original content is useful or not

01:08:02 ◼   ► but who knows, but we will give you the storage

01:08:05 ◼   ► so that you never get nagged, which is what you just said.

01:08:07 ◼   ► I think the storage, in addition to all the other things,

01:08:11 ◼   ► may be enough pull to get people to do it.

01:08:14 ◼   ► And certainly if Apple has a couple of really hit shows,

01:08:18 ◼   ► then that would put it right over the edge.

01:08:20 ◼   ► But I think it's even more than the storage.

01:08:24 ◼   ► I think it's just the one bill to solve all your problems,

01:08:29 ◼   ► which of course isn't literally the case,

01:08:30 ◼   ► but one bill to get all of your photo issues resolved,

01:08:34 ◼   ► one bill to get all of your backup issues resolved,

01:08:36 ◼   ► one bill to get all of your music desires resolved,

01:08:39 ◼   ► one bill to hopefully get all of your TV

01:08:43 ◼   ► or movie stuff resolved.

01:08:45 ◼   ► And who knows, maybe they would throw in

01:08:46 ◼   ► like you can get a couple of iTunes rentals

01:08:48 ◼   ► for free every month or something like that.

01:08:50 ◼   ► Like I don't suspect that to happen, but you never know.

01:08:52 ◼   ► But the thought of them discounting the iPhone

01:08:56 ◼   ► is a tough pill for me to swallow.

01:08:58 ◼   ► - But for this whole plan,

01:09:00 ◼   ► there has to be some discount somewhere in there

01:09:02 ◼   ► and no one cares about discounts on Apple Music

01:09:04 ◼   ► or Apple Video or discounts on Apple Care.

01:09:07 ◼   ► All they care about is discount on the iPhone.

01:09:08 ◼   ► And again, you can make the discount 10 bucks.

01:09:10 ◼   ► Like it doesn't have to be a lot,

01:09:11 ◼   ► but the whole point is you have to,

01:09:13 ◼   ► there has to be a value proposition.

01:09:14 ◼   ► I don't even question the whole thing of like,

01:09:16 ◼   ► I want an iPhone every year.

01:09:17 ◼   ► I don't know if people do want an iPhone every year.

01:09:19 ◼   ► I know some people who get used to their phone

01:09:20 ◼   ► and want, even if you gave them a free upgrade,

01:09:22 ◼   ► they'd be like, I just wanna keep this phone

01:09:24 ◼   ► 'cause I like it 'cause I'm not sure about the new ones.

01:09:25 ◼   ► Like some people want a phone every year

01:09:27 ◼   ► and those people would probably be the most likely

01:09:29 ◼   ► to pay for this thing,

01:09:30 ◼   ► but it can't be one of those Apple style plans

01:09:32 ◼   ► where you just add up the prices of everything

01:09:33 ◼   ► and add a little bit on top.

01:09:35 ◼   ► 'Cause you're like, why would I do this?

01:09:36 ◼   ► Like yes, one bill is convenient,

01:09:38 ◼   ► but I liked it when they consolidated

01:09:41 ◼   ► the family plan or whatever,

01:09:41 ◼   ► but the mass consumer is like any sort of bundle,

01:09:45 ◼   ► there has to be a savings.

01:09:46 ◼   ► And the only thing people care about savings for

01:09:48 ◼   ► is the phone.

01:09:49 ◼   ► It's like Prime.

01:09:50 ◼   ► Prime, people bought it when it was just shipping.

01:09:52 ◼   ► Like that's all they cared about.

01:09:53 ◼   ► Everything else they didn't care about, it was on top of it.

01:09:55 ◼   ► So there's nothing you can do for like,

01:09:57 ◼   ► oh, I'm buying this because I get these add-ons.

01:10:00 ◼   ► They have to buy it and say yada, yada, yada, add-ons.

01:10:03 ◼   ► The whole point is that I pay less money for the iPhone.

01:10:07 ◼   ► And so I, you know,

01:10:08 ◼   ► and that is totally not an Apple thing to do.

01:10:10 ◼   ► I know they're raising all their prices

01:10:11 ◼   ► and so on and so forth,

01:10:12 ◼   ► but like that's, you need to appeal to people's sense

01:10:16 ◼   ► of getting a bargain somewhere.

01:10:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, I hear you,

01:10:19 ◼   ► but I really think the one fee to fix everything,

01:10:22 ◼   ► 'cause I forgot about AppleCare,

01:10:23 ◼   ► you don't have to worry about breaking your screen

01:10:25 ◼   ► within reason.

01:10:26 ◼   ► And so I really think one fee to get it all done

01:10:28 ◼   ► is maybe enough.

01:10:30 ◼   ► - And I think AppleCare is a deal breaker price wise

01:10:32 ◼   ► 'cause it's so damn expensive,

01:10:33 ◼   ► but maybe they could just spread that out

01:10:34 ◼   ► over three years or something.

01:10:36 ◼   ► 'Cause I know so many people are like, I want AppleCare.

01:10:38 ◼   ► Then you show them how much it is

01:10:38 ◼   ► and you're like, oh, nevermind.

01:10:40 ◼   ► - Yep, hi.

01:10:41 ◼   ► But just as a final thought,

01:10:42 ◼   ► my answer to my own question,

01:10:44 ◼   ► what will affect Apple the most?

01:10:45 ◼   ► I think Apple Video or whatever it ends up being called,

01:10:48 ◼   ► which I do think it will be Apple Video.

01:10:50 ◼   ► I think that is really going to change Apple

01:10:52 ◼   ► because if it flops,

01:10:53 ◼   ► I think that will have a ripple effect,

01:10:56 ◼   ► possibly even more than the Project Titan

01:10:57 ◼   ► that may or may not have ever existed.

01:10:59 ◼   ► And if it's a success,

01:11:00 ◼   ► then that changes the way Apple feels about things.

01:11:05 ◼   ► And so, and suddenly they become a content company.

01:11:09 ◼   ► And we actually recorded today for Relay FM members,

01:11:13 ◼   ► myself, Alex Cox, and Steven Hackett

01:11:15 ◼   ► did an episode of Fusion, which is just for Relay members,

01:11:18 ◼   ► where we kinda dive into this a little bit

01:11:20 ◼   ► and it's worth listening to if you are a Relay member

01:11:22 ◼   ► and if you're not, you should be one.

01:11:24 ◼   ► But anyway, I just think that having one Apple bill

01:11:29 ◼   ► that solves almost all your problems might be enough.

01:11:31 ◼   ► I think we should move on to Ask ATP,

01:11:32 ◼   ► but before we do, Marco, any closing thoughts on all this?

01:11:35 ◼   ► - I don't think so.

01:11:36 ◼   ► I think you pretty much covered it.

01:11:37 ◼   ► I mean, I do agree with Jon,

01:11:38 ◼   ► there should be some kind of

01:11:40 ◼   ► significantly motivating factor,

01:11:41 ◼   ► but I don't think it needs to be as much

01:11:45 ◼   ► of an exclusive discount, as he says.

01:11:48 ◼   ► I really do think that just offering all this stuff together

01:11:52 ◼   ► as part of the iPhone upgrade program

01:11:54 ◼   ► for some smaller additional fee every month,

01:11:58 ◼   ► like on the order of 20 bucks a month more

01:12:00 ◼   ► or 15 bucks a month more, whatever it is,

01:12:03 ◼   ► I think that's very powerful.

01:12:05 ◼   ► Because ultimately, people are gonna come in

01:12:06 ◼   ► and buy iPhones anyway.

01:12:07 ◼   ► The iPhone upgrade program, by most accounts we've heard,

01:12:10 ◼   ► has been a success.

01:12:12 ◼   ► People do seem to be doing it in good numbers.

01:12:14 ◼   ► Making a single price thing that includes all this stuff,

01:12:21 ◼   ► it just makes so much sense

01:12:23 ◼   ► from both a consumer point of view

01:12:24 ◼   ► and from a point of view of helping Apple

01:12:27 ◼   ► get more services off the ground.

01:12:29 ◼   ► - And to be clear, they can do what you're describing,

01:12:32 ◼   ► like that plan, that will be a success in and of itself,

01:12:35 ◼   ► but it's just people who have lots of money

01:12:36 ◼   ► will do it for the convenience.

01:12:38 ◼   ► There is that convenience of it,

01:12:39 ◼   ► but I'm trying to think like Amazon Prime bigger,

01:12:41 ◼   ► as in how can you get it to appeal

01:12:43 ◼   ► to the widest variety of people,

01:12:44 ◼   ► not just like how can you make it more convenient

01:12:46 ◼   ► for people who are gonna give you that, like us.

01:12:48 ◼   ► We give them that money anyway.

01:12:49 ◼   ► I buy the biggest storage plan,

01:12:51 ◼   ► I buy the family thing, I buy AppleCare,

01:12:54 ◼   ► I buy all the expensive phones.

01:12:56 ◼   ► I would love to have that consolidated into a single bill.

01:12:57 ◼   ► So that is a valuable product

01:12:59 ◼   ► that will work for customers exactly like me.

01:13:00 ◼   ► But what I'm trying to think of are all the customers

01:13:03 ◼   ► who don't buy the backup plan

01:13:05 ◼   ► and don't cheap out on the storage

01:13:08 ◼   ► and don't replace their phones every year

01:13:11 ◼   ► and don't care about Apple Music or Apple Video

01:13:13 ◼   ► and how are you gonna get them on board

01:13:15 ◼   ► the Amazon Prime train?

01:13:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I think that's me that you're describing

01:13:19 ◼   ► because I do get an iPhone almost every year.

01:13:21 ◼   ► I am a devout Spotify user,

01:13:23 ◼   ► but I could be convinced if I felt like I was saving

01:13:28 ◼   ► even a few bucks somewhere,

01:13:30 ◼   ► that, and not necessarily on hardware, just somewhere,

01:13:33 ◼   ► if I get the video stuff, the music stuff,

01:13:37 ◼   ► if I get iCloud storage, which I still am not paying for,

01:13:40 ◼   ► even though yes, I know I should,

01:13:41 ◼   ► please email somebody else.

01:13:43 ◼   ► - What?

01:13:44 ◼   ► Did we do this already?

01:13:45 ◼   ► You're not paying for it? - We did, we did.

01:13:46 ◼   ► Yes, we already did.

01:13:47 ◼   ► I've been beaten up about it.

01:13:49 ◼   ► - I was just gonna ask you

01:13:49 ◼   ► if you were buying the family plan,

01:13:51 ◼   ► but you don't need buying the storage at all here.

01:13:52 ◼   ► That's terrible.

01:13:53 ◼   ► You need to put that in the follow-up and until you buy it,

01:13:56 ◼   ► we just ask you about it every week.

01:13:57 ◼   ► - We'll make a web.

01:13:58 ◼   ► Somebody will make a single serving site for you.

01:13:59 ◼   ► - You're gonna be like my parents.

01:14:00 ◼   ► I'll just have to buy it for you without your knowledge

01:14:03 ◼   ► and not tell you about it.

01:14:04 ◼   ► - Perfect, sold.

01:14:05 ◼   ► I'm gonna delegate that to Marco actually.

01:14:07 ◼   ► Marco good at it.

01:14:08 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:14:09 ◼   ► - I could see myself being convinced

01:14:11 ◼   ► because the idea of just getting one bill

01:14:14 ◼   ► that just covers everything is appealing

01:14:17 ◼   ► and maybe that makes Spotify go away.

01:14:19 ◼   ► I don't watch that much Netflix.

01:14:22 ◼   ► Maybe Netflix would go away, probably not,

01:14:23 ◼   ► but you never know.

01:14:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, the video service is the hardest

01:14:25 ◼   ► because no one who's into "Orange is the New Black"

01:14:28 ◼   ► is gonna say, well, now that I've got Apple Video,

01:14:30 ◼   ► like people will subscribe to the services

01:14:32 ◼   ► because there are specific shows they want,

01:14:34 ◼   ► increasingly exclusive shows.

01:14:35 ◼   ► No one is going to ditch CBS All Access

01:14:37 ◼   ► because they got Apple Video

01:14:38 ◼   ► because CBS All Access has Star Trek.

01:14:39 ◼   ► So the video is tough.

01:14:41 ◼   ► They need to make good shows.

01:14:42 ◼   ► - That's why, the reason why Netflix took off so well

01:14:46 ◼   ► is because you can have just Netflix

01:14:50 ◼   ► and always have something to watch.

01:14:52 ◼   ► You don't have that with services

01:14:55 ◼   ► that are exclusively original content like HBO.

01:14:58 ◼   ► Like you can't, if you're a big HBO fan,

01:15:01 ◼   ► you can go there and you can watch "Game of Thrones"

01:15:03 ◼   ► and whatever else you watch on there when it's in season,

01:15:06 ◼   ► but then when it's out of season,

01:15:07 ◼   ► you don't have much you can go there for.

01:15:09 ◼   ► And so if Apple's doing exclusively original content,

01:15:14 ◼   ► which, I mean, I don't think we necessarily know that

01:15:16 ◼   ► from the reports so far, but it's most likely

01:15:19 ◼   ► that it's gonna be exclusively original content

01:15:21 ◼   ► based on how they appear to be doing things so far.

01:15:24 ◼   ► So if that's mostly it,

01:15:25 ◼   ► if there's not gonna be some giant catalog of '90s sitcoms

01:15:28 ◼   ► that you can watch reruns of instead

01:15:30 ◼   ► when you feel like doing that,

01:15:32 ◼   ► it's not gonna be a service where people are like,

01:15:34 ◼   ► "I'm gonna cancel Netflix and go to that."

01:15:36 ◼   ► They're gonna watch stuff on there when there's a reason to,

01:15:39 ◼   ► and when there's not, they're gonna go elsewhere.

01:15:42 ◼   ► And that's why I think it's gonna be a really tough sell.

01:15:45 ◼   ► Like to get a video service off the ground

01:15:47 ◼   ► in this day and age,

01:15:48 ◼   ► like when all the competitors are very mature

01:15:50 ◼   ► and that have huge catalogs,

01:15:53 ◼   ► to get something off the ground today

01:15:54 ◼   ► that's probably gonna have a fairly small catalog to start

01:15:58 ◼   ► is not gonna be easy,

01:16:00 ◼   ► especially since Apple is not incredibly good

01:16:04 ◼   ► at launching these kinds of things.

01:16:05 ◼   ► See the Apple Music launch.

01:16:07 ◼   ► - The way everyone talks about this launch,

01:16:09 ◼   ► and which I think would make sense

01:16:10 ◼   ► to downscope this slightly is like,

01:16:11 ◼   ► "Oh, how does Apple deal with an Apple Video service?"

01:16:14 ◼   ► You just make a part of Apple Music

01:16:15 ◼   ► with no increase in price, done.

01:16:17 ◼   ► Like that's exactly the prime model.

01:16:18 ◼   ► Say you already buy Apple Music

01:16:20 ◼   ► because for whatever reason you like Apple Music,

01:16:22 ◼   ► works with your HomePod, guess what?

01:16:23 ◼   ► You got video for free.

01:16:24 ◼   ► Oh, I don't even care about video.

01:16:25 ◼   ► I was like, "Well, what are you getting it?"

01:16:26 ◼   ► So deal with it.

01:16:27 ◼   ► And suddenly Apple Video has exactly the same user base

01:16:30 ◼   ► as Apple Music, which is actually doing better

01:16:31 ◼   ► than probably the last time we talked about it.

01:16:34 ◼   ► That is not Apple One where you get everything

01:16:36 ◼   ► and a phone upgrade and the storage or whatever,

01:16:38 ◼   ► but it is the obvious way to launch Apple Video

01:16:41 ◼   ► in an Amazon style.

01:16:42 ◼   ► That is not an Apple style.

01:16:43 ◼   ► We come up with a new service and you get it for free

01:16:45 ◼   ► at the same price with Apple Music,

01:16:47 ◼   ► not the old Apple style,

01:16:49 ◼   ► but the new services oriented Apple style,

01:16:50 ◼   ► if they care about getting adoption and they have any,

01:16:54 ◼   ► like that's the way to do it.

01:16:55 ◼   ► That is exactly the prime plan.

01:16:56 ◼   ► It's just less exciting for us

01:16:58 ◼   ► hoping for an Apple One service.

01:17:00 ◼   ► - Well, and maybe that's like the baby version of it.

01:17:03 ◼   ► I agree that is probably the more,

01:17:05 ◼   ► it's like kind of the safer, smaller step.

01:17:08 ◼   ► I don't necessarily know if it would come

01:17:09 ◼   ► with no price increase.

01:17:10 ◼   ► I think maybe Apple Music would suddenly become 20 bucks

01:17:13 ◼   ► a month instead of 15 for the family or whatever.

01:17:15 ◼   ► - Just the usual snake,

01:17:16 ◼   ► like the price wouldn't increase when the video was added,

01:17:19 ◼   ► but Apple Music would just creep up in price

01:17:21 ◼   ► like everything else in a way that you don't notice.

01:17:23 ◼   ► - Well, that's why Amazon did it.

01:17:25 ◼   ► Amazon charged a fixed price for Prime for years

01:17:28 ◼   ► and then they started adding a bunch of stuff to it

01:17:30 ◼   ► and then like a couple years after they added a bunch

01:17:33 ◼   ► of stuff they're like, we're gonna raise the price

01:17:34 ◼   ► 'cause now you're getting so much more for this.

01:17:37 ◼   ► - And it's a proven, and the good thing is

01:17:39 ◼   ► they raised the price after I think Amazon Video

01:17:42 ◼   ► has proven its worth.

01:17:43 ◼   ► They had some good shows that people liked.

01:17:44 ◼   ► They're like, I wouldn't wanna get rid of Prime now

01:17:46 ◼   ► partially because of the video

01:17:48 ◼   ► because Patriot was on there

01:17:49 ◼   ► and The Man in the High Castle was on it.

01:17:50 ◼   ► They actually have shows that I care about.

01:17:52 ◼   ► In the beginning they didn't, but now they do.

01:17:54 ◼   ► So when they increased the price there was no question

01:17:56 ◼   ► that I was gonna keep paying that price.

01:17:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, but anyway, so I think some kind of bundle

01:18:02 ◼   ► subscription I think will happen.

01:18:04 ◼   ► Whether it's part of the iPhone upgrade program

01:18:06 ◼   ► or whether it's a separate thing that could be expanded

01:18:08 ◼   ► Apple Music or a whole new plan that includes Apple Music,

01:18:11 ◼   ► whatever it is, I think a bundle subscription

01:18:14 ◼   ► that includes multiple services, at the very least,

01:18:17 ◼   ► music, video, and God I hope iCloud storage.

01:18:21 ◼   ► Because look, everyone should get iCloud storage

01:18:24 ◼   ► and it's time that Apple makes a plan

01:18:26 ◼   ► that forces people like Casey to get it

01:18:28 ◼   ► even though they don't think they need it.

01:18:29 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

01:18:30 ◼   ► We are sponsored this week by Aftershokz

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01:18:37 ◼   ► It's different from most other headphones

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01:19:01 ◼   ► And those transducers send little microvibrations,

01:19:04 ◼   ► you don't even feel them, through your cheekbones

01:19:06 ◼   ► and it makes your eardrum pick up the vibration.

01:19:08 ◼   ► So you hear sound from the bone conduction headphones

01:19:11 ◼   ► but no one else does.

01:19:13 ◼   ► And best of all, you also hear sound

01:19:16 ◼   ► from the rest of the world because your ears

01:19:18 ◼   ► aren't being plugged up or covered.

01:19:19 ◼   ► And so this is actually really useful

01:19:21 ◼   ► when you think about it in lots of situations.

01:19:23 ◼   ► So for instance, my favorite way to use these

01:19:25 ◼   ► is walking around outside, especially in the summertime

01:19:29 ◼   ► 'cause I get really hot and sweaty.

01:19:30 ◼   ► I don't want big sweaty pads on my ears.

01:19:33 ◼   ► And if I do happen to sweat all over these things,

01:19:35 ◼   ► they're water resistant and everything

01:19:36 ◼   ► so it's not a problem, but they don't make you hot

01:19:39 ◼   ► and when you're walking around,

01:19:41 ◼   ► you can hear things going on around you.

01:19:43 ◼   ► So you can hear, for instance, if you're outside walking

01:19:46 ◼   ► or jogging or whatever, you can hear cars as they move.

01:19:49 ◼   ► So you're not surprised.

01:19:50 ◼   ► All of a sudden there's a car behind you

01:19:52 ◼   ► you didn't even realize.

01:19:53 ◼   ► That never happens with bone conduction headphones

01:19:54 ◼   ► 'cause you always are aware of your surroundings.

01:19:57 ◼   ► So they're great for environments like that.

01:19:59 ◼   ► Even, I use them all year round

01:20:00 ◼   ► 'cause even in the wintertime

01:20:01 ◼   ► when I'm spending a lot of time inside,

01:20:03 ◼   ► I still wanna be able to listen to podcasts

01:20:05 ◼   ► or take a phone call and say no

01:20:07 ◼   ► if somebody's knocking on my door

01:20:09 ◼   ► or if I'm the only person in the house

01:20:10 ◼   ► to know if somebody's calling my name.

01:20:12 ◼   ► They're so useful.

01:20:13 ◼   ► And after socks are just great headphones in general.

01:20:16 ◼   ► They have great Bluetooth reception.

01:20:18 ◼   ► They have a great warranty.

01:20:20 ◼   ► They have great battery life.

01:20:21 ◼   ► So they're just really practical and useful headphones.

01:20:23 ◼   ► I just love these things.

01:20:24 ◼   ► I wear after socks most of the year at least once a day.

01:20:28 ◼   ► And if not more than that, they're just that good.

01:20:30 ◼   ► So see for yourself at ATP.aftershocks.com.

01:20:34 ◼   ► Use code ATPBUNDLE.

01:20:37 ◼   ► That'll get you $50 off a Trek's Air bundle.

01:20:39 ◼   ► That's ATP.aftershocks.com code ATPBUNDLE

01:20:43 ◼   ► for $50 off a Trek's Air bundle.

01:20:46 ◼   ► Thank you so much to aftershocks

01:20:47 ◼   ► for making such great headphones

01:20:48 ◼   ► and for sponsoring our show.

01:20:50 ◼   ► - Okay, let's do some Ask ATP.

01:20:55 ◼   ► Wojtek P. Trusavich writes,

01:20:58 ◼   ► "Hey, Jon, please explain again

01:21:00 ◼   ► "in as much detail as possible."

01:21:02 ◼   ► Oh God.

01:21:02 ◼   ► "Exactly why you didn't buy the 2013 Mac Pro.

01:21:05 ◼   ► "This is a serious question/request."

01:21:07 ◼   ► - You're not gonna get as much detail as possible

01:21:09 ◼   ► in Ask ATP, sorry.

01:21:10 ◼   ► I thought I did it like last show.

01:21:14 ◼   ► The Trashcan Mac Pro had two big sort of workstation style

01:21:18 ◼   ► GPUs with tons of VRAM and one CPU.

01:21:23 ◼   ► And that's not like the shape of the machine that I want.

01:21:26 ◼   ► I want one fast GPU for gaming

01:21:28 ◼   ► that doesn't need to have 12 gigs of RAM.

01:21:31 ◼   ► I certainly don't need two of those.

01:21:32 ◼   ► And the other big factor is like the Trashcan came out

01:21:37 ◼   ► around about the time we were talking about

01:21:40 ◼   ► having a quad 5K,

01:21:42 ◼   ► what we now know as the retina display on the,

01:21:44 ◼   ► not quad 5K, quad 27 inch, I think I kept referring to it.

01:21:49 ◼   ► But anyway, a 5K display.

01:21:50 ◼   ► But that Mac Pro seemed like it couldn't drive one

01:21:54 ◼   ► even if one existed.

01:21:55 ◼   ► So it's like, well, I'll wait for the next one of those

01:21:57 ◼   ► because maybe the next one will be able

01:21:58 ◼   ► to drive a 5K display.

01:22:00 ◼   ► Ha ha ha, the next one.

01:22:01 ◼   ► There never was a next one.

01:22:02 ◼   ► So that's why.

01:22:03 ◼   ► If I was gonna buy a new Mac Pro,

01:22:04 ◼   ► I wanted it to be,

01:22:06 ◼   ► like we were so close to retina on the desktop

01:22:08 ◼   ► in a 27 inch form factor

01:22:10 ◼   ► that it seemed wasteful to buy a machine that didn't do that.

01:22:13 ◼   ► And this particular machine didn't,

01:22:16 ◼   ► like it didn't have the internals that I wanted.

01:22:17 ◼   ► It was very expensive.

01:22:18 ◼   ► I was paying for workstation class GPUs

01:22:20 ◼   ► with tons of VRM that not only did I not want,

01:22:23 ◼   ► but weren't actually as good

01:22:24 ◼   ► as what a single gaming GPU could be.

01:22:26 ◼   ► Doesn't mean the new Mac Pro's gonna satisfy me anymore,

01:22:28 ◼   ► but those are the reasons I didn't buy that old one.

01:22:30 ◼   ► And obviously, because I thought they would revise it

01:22:33 ◼   ► and maybe the one the next year or the year after

01:22:35 ◼   ► would support 5K.

01:22:36 ◼   ► But there just never was a next one.

01:22:38 ◼   ► Sorry.

01:22:39 ◼   ► - Marco Silva writes,

01:22:40 ◼   ► "Hey John, do you smash?"

01:22:42 ◼   ► And if you've ever watched Jersey Shore, that's very funny,

01:22:45 ◼   ► but I believe Marco's referring to Smash Brothers.

01:22:49 ◼   ► And also, have you ever wandered

01:22:51 ◼   ► into the world of fighting games, John?

01:22:53 ◼   ► - I don't know why that I'm asking this for everybody.

01:22:55 ◼   ► We all have a way to play Smash Brothers now, right?

01:22:57 ◼   ► All got Switches.

01:22:58 ◼   ► I played Smash Brothers on the N64,

01:23:03 ◼   ► on the GameCube.

01:23:05 ◼   ► Did I get the Wii version?

01:23:06 ◼   ► I don't think I did get the Wii version.

01:23:08 ◼   ► I don't even remember if there was a Wii U version.

01:23:10 ◼   ► I didn't get it for Switch.

01:23:12 ◼   ► Not that into it.

01:23:14 ◼   ► Like I got it 'cause it's a cool, fun game,

01:23:16 ◼   ► but I'm just not that into fighting games, period.

01:23:18 ◼   ► I have not wandered into the world of fighting games.

01:23:20 ◼   ► I know a lot about it and have read a lot about it

01:23:22 ◼   ► because it is the subject of many articles,

01:23:25 ◼   ► both interesting and horrifying,

01:23:27 ◼   ► in the recent years in the gaming press

01:23:29 ◼   ► and in the past as well.

01:23:30 ◼   ► Like the GameCube, I feel like was the,

01:23:34 ◼   ► where I started really reading about

01:23:36 ◼   ► the Smash fighting game community

01:23:40 ◼   ► and the tournaments and everything.

01:23:41 ◼   ► And yeah, I've never been into that at all.

01:23:44 ◼   ► It's just not my cup of tea.

01:23:46 ◼   ► - Yeah, I had Super Smash Brothers for the Wii.

01:23:51 ◼   ► Yeah, I think it was the Wii.

01:23:52 ◼   ► And I actually really liked it.

01:23:54 ◼   ► I didn't play it that terribly often,

01:23:56 ◼   ► but it was a really fun party game because it,

01:23:59 ◼   ► well, the way in which myself and my friends played it,

01:24:01 ◼   ► none of us had any particular skills.

01:24:03 ◼   ► We were just mashing on buttons randomly.

01:24:05 ◼   ► And it was a lot of fun to play in a group setting.

01:24:08 ◼   ► I haven't yet picked up the one for the Switch.

01:24:10 ◼   ► I probably will at some point for the exact same reason.

01:24:14 ◼   ► But generally speaking,

01:24:16 ◼   ► I'm not that into fighting games either.

01:24:18 ◼   ► I never really played Mortal Kombat that much.

01:24:19 ◼   ► I did love and play the snot out of Street Fighter II

01:24:23 ◼   ► back in the day.

01:24:24 ◼   ► But that was about it.

01:24:26 ◼   ► Marco, where do you come down on this?

01:24:28 ◼   ► - I don't play fighting games really.

01:24:30 ◼   ► I mean, I barely play any games at all.

01:24:32 ◼   ► (laughs)

01:24:33 ◼   ► But if I'm gonna be playing games,

01:24:34 ◼   ► it's generally, it hasn't been fighting games

01:24:36 ◼   ► for a long time.

01:24:36 ◼   ► Like back when Street Fighter II came out

01:24:39 ◼   ► for the Super Nintendo,

01:24:40 ◼   ► which was the first modern fighting game,

01:24:43 ◼   ► I played that with my friends at my friends' houses,

01:24:48 ◼   ► but I never really went past that.

01:24:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, fair enough.

01:24:51 ◼   ► The thing about fighting games is like,

01:24:52 ◼   ► there's, what we all just described,

01:24:53 ◼   ► which is like, oh, let's just go have fun with a game.

01:24:55 ◼   ► But there's another game

01:24:57 ◼   ► that the fighting game people are playing.

01:24:59 ◼   ► Like, there's a big gap.

01:25:01 ◼   ► It's not, you know, it's probably not as comparable

01:25:03 ◼   ► in any other sort of genre.

01:25:05 ◼   ► I was thinking like Destiny.

01:25:06 ◼   ► Like, there's a pretty smooth spectrum

01:25:08 ◼   ► from people who are just playing Destiny casually

01:25:11 ◼   ► all the way up to the crazy people like me.

01:25:14 ◼   ► Or, you know, obviously the streamers

01:25:15 ◼   ► people play all day long.

01:25:17 ◼   ► But in fighting games, it's like,

01:25:18 ◼   ► you're either just like goofing around and having fun,

01:25:21 ◼   ► or you are playing an entirely different game, right?

01:25:23 ◼   ► Where you, where like, it looks different to you.

01:25:26 ◼   ► It looks and feels different to you

01:25:27 ◼   ► because you know all the different things

01:25:29 ◼   ► about the moves and the, you know,

01:25:31 ◼   ► the timing and the frames of animation

01:25:34 ◼   ► and the cancellations and like,

01:25:36 ◼   ► people who just play fighting games like casually

01:25:38 ◼   ► don't even know that stuff even exists.

01:25:40 ◼   ► Like, they're just, it's not all button mashing,

01:25:42 ◼   ► but it's close.

01:25:43 ◼   ► Like, they start, they're conceptualizing

01:25:45 ◼   ► as a little person on the screen

01:25:46 ◼   ► that you can make do stuff.

01:25:48 ◼   ► They're not seeing the matrix.

01:25:49 ◼   ► And there's this huge gap,

01:25:50 ◼   ► and then there's actual fighting game people.

01:25:52 ◼   ► And to be any good at fighting games,

01:25:53 ◼   ► you have to see the matrix in that way,

01:25:55 ◼   ► and it becomes a different thing.

01:25:56 ◼   ► And I think it's actually very interesting.

01:25:57 ◼   ► It's just not what I'm into.

01:26:00 ◼   ► - Thanks to our sponsors this week,

01:26:02 ◼   ► Aftershocks, Care/Of, and Banktivity by IGG Software.

01:26:06 ◼   ► And we will talk to you next week.

01:26:08 ◼   ► ♪ Now the show is over ♪

01:26:13 ◼   ► ♪ They didn't even mean to begin ♪

01:26:16 ◼   ► ♪ 'Cause it was accidental ♪

01:26:18 ◼   ► ♪ Oh, it was accidental ♪

01:26:21 ◼   ► ♪ John didn't do any research ♪

01:26:23 ◼   ► ♪ Marco and Casey wouldn't let him ♪

01:26:26 ◼   ► ♪ 'Cause it was accidental ♪

01:26:29 ◼   ► ♪ It was accidental ♪

01:26:32 ◼   ► ♪ And you can find the show notes at ATP.FM ♪

01:26:37 ◼   ► ♪ And if you're into Twitter ♪

01:26:40 ◼   ► ♪ You can follow them at C-A-S-E-Y-L-I-S-S ♪

01:26:45 ◼   ► ♪ So that's Casey List M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M ♪

01:26:51 ◼   ► ♪ Auntie Marco Arment S-I-R-A-C ♪

01:26:56 ◼   ► ♪ USA, Syracuse ♪

01:26:58 ◼   ► ♪ It's accidental ♪

01:26:59 ◼   ► ♪ Accidental ♪

01:27:01 ◼   ► ♪ They didn't mean to ♪

01:27:03 ◼   ► ♪ Accidental ♪

01:27:05 ◼   ► ♪ Accidental ♪

01:27:06 ◼   ► ♪ Tech podcast ♪

01:27:08 ◼   ► ♪ So long ♪

01:27:10 ◼   ► - What exciting things happening in people's lives?

01:27:14 ◼   ► - Michaela turned one.

01:27:16 ◼   ► - Good pictures of Michaela up on your Instagram.

01:27:18 ◼   ► - Hey, thanks, yeah, those are good ones.

01:27:19 ◼   ► - Those were for one new thing.

01:27:20 ◼   ► You've had a lot of nice pictures on your Instagram lately.

01:27:22 ◼   ► - Oh, thanks, man.

01:27:23 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm trying.

01:27:24 ◼   ► Actually, well--

01:27:25 ◼   ► - I'm just digging for compliments

01:27:27 ◼   ► 'cause they're all my pictures.

01:27:28 ◼   ► - I was, I realized, I realized as soon as you said that

01:27:32 ◼   ► that the pictures I put up of Aaron and me yesterday,

01:27:36 ◼   ► I think both of those are John Siracusa originals,

01:27:38 ◼   ► and at least one or two of the Michaela ones.

01:27:41 ◼   ► - It was all them except for the last one of Michaela.

01:27:43 ◼   ► - Was it?

01:27:43 ◼   ► Okay.

01:27:44 ◼   ► Last two, maybe?

01:27:46 ◼   ► But yeah, you're right.

01:27:46 ◼   ► Okay, here it was.

01:27:47 ◼   ► I thought you were complimenting me,

01:27:48 ◼   ► but no, it was really--

01:27:50 ◼   ► - Do you ever get the, I get this,

01:27:51 ◼   ► I think I've talked about this before

01:27:52 ◼   ► when I first started doing Instagram,

01:27:53 ◼   ► people giving me crap about the fact

01:27:55 ◼   ► that I take my pictures from my big camera

01:27:58 ◼   ► and put them on Instagram?

01:27:59 ◼   ► Like, that's cheating.

01:28:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't think that's the thing

01:28:01 ◼   ► people actually care about anymore.

01:28:02 ◼   ► Like, there were people who would give you crap on it,

01:28:04 ◼   ► crap about it like, you know, years ago,

01:28:05 ◼   ► but yeah, that's not a thing anymore.

01:28:07 ◼   ► - Now people just care about ads in their timeline.

01:28:09 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:28:10 ◼   ► - And non-chronological timeline.

01:28:11 ◼   ► - No, 'cause the reality is, like, now,

01:28:13 ◼   ► a lot of what you see in your timeline

01:28:15 ◼   ► is shot on professional cameras

01:28:16 ◼   ► and processed in professional apps

01:28:18 ◼   ► and then stuck in Instagram.

01:28:19 ◼   ► Like, there's so much of it now that, like,

01:28:21 ◼   ► and the cameras in your phone have gotten so good

01:28:24 ◼   ► that many of the phone shots--

01:28:25 ◼   ► - They have everything in portrait mode, yeah.

01:28:26 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, many of the phone shots

01:28:28 ◼   ► look like pro camera shots.

01:28:30 ◼   ► So yeah, I don't think anybody cares

01:28:31 ◼   ► about the distinction anymore.

01:28:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, I have such a complicated relationship

01:28:36 ◼   ► with Instagram because the more time I spend on it,

01:28:38 ◼   ► the more I like it, then the more I hate myself

01:28:39 ◼   ► because I know it's Facebook.

01:28:41 ◼   ► Like, well then, there's so many damn ads, but--

01:28:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, the ads are out of control there.

01:28:45 ◼   ► Speaking of speaking of something

01:28:46 ◼   ► I would pay for a service for, like,

01:28:47 ◼   ► oh, God, not that Facebook would ever let us pay

01:28:49 ◼   ► to get rid of ads, but I would pay that in a second.

01:28:52 ◼   ► Like, it used to be like, you know,

01:28:55 ◼   ► every couple of pictures there was an ad

01:28:57 ◼   ► and now I think it's like literally every other picture

01:28:59 ◼   ► is an ad, I can't handle it.

01:29:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, they've really cranked them up like,

01:29:02 ◼   ► and it's in the stories too, like it's--

01:29:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, in the story, like, in this game,

01:29:06 ◼   ► the story is like nowhere is safe from this.

01:29:08 ◼   ► - Like, I don't, and the thing is, like,

01:29:10 ◼   ► I actually like Instagram ads more than most online ads

01:29:15 ◼   ► that get in my way because they actually are

01:29:18 ◼   ► creepily relevant a lot of the time.

01:29:21 ◼   ► And I've actually discovered some really nice products

01:29:23 ◼   ► that I've bought from Instagram ads,

01:29:26 ◼   ► so I know I'm like not helping the system at all by actually--

01:29:28 ◼   ► - So you're the problem.

01:29:29 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:29:30 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's like I'm not the guy who responds to spam,

01:29:31 ◼   ► right, it's like, I have actually bought

01:29:34 ◼   ► really good things from Instagram ads,

01:29:36 ◼   ► and so has my wife, so is Tiff, so,

01:29:38 ◼   ► like, and I refer to other people too,

01:29:39 ◼   ► like, the products that get advertised to you

01:29:41 ◼   ► on Instagram ads often are pretty good

01:29:44 ◼   ► and often are pretty well targeted.

01:29:46 ◼   ► - Maybe I need to give them more information about me

01:29:48 ◼   ► 'cause they do not have my number.

01:29:49 ◼   ► Like, they're, I mean, they're advertising me clothes,

01:29:52 ◼   ► for example, like, it's not,

01:29:53 ◼   ► I don't know what they're doing.

01:29:55 ◼   ► There was an ad, like, I don't even know

01:29:56 ◼   ► what the ads are for.

01:29:57 ◼   ► The reason they bother me is they're so big

01:29:58 ◼   ► and you have to scroll past them.

01:29:59 ◼   ► - Yeah. - What the hell was,

01:30:00 ◼   ► I got to launch Instagram, like, it was an ad

01:30:01 ◼   ► that I saw just before the show,

01:30:04 ◼   ► and I, like, I scrolled past it,

01:30:05 ◼   ► and I didn't even realize what it was.

01:30:08 ◼   ► - I think they think I'm a woman.

01:30:11 ◼   ► There's a number of reasons why the ads suggest that,

01:30:13 ◼   ► but overall, like, they think I'm a man often enough

01:30:17 ◼   ► to sometimes suggest, like, you know, men's walking shoes

01:30:20 ◼   ► and stuff, so I don't know, but I have,

01:30:22 ◼   ► there's a couple of, like, mistargeted things

01:30:24 ◼   ► where, like, maybe it's confusing me and Tiff

01:30:26 ◼   ► 'cause we are from the same IP address, I don't know, but--

01:30:30 ◼   ► - All right, so I've got Star Trek ad,

01:30:32 ◼   ► which, I mean, I guess that's close,

01:30:33 ◼   ► but, like, that's not a great ad

01:30:34 ◼   ► 'cause I already know about that show.

01:30:35 ◼   ► Like, I'm very aware of it, and anyway.

01:30:37 ◼   ► A leaf gutter blocker thing?

01:30:41 ◼   ► - Oh, yeah, I've seen that one a lot too.

01:30:42 ◼   ► - That's the one, what is that?

01:30:43 ◼   ► - Well, that's actually pretty well targeted.

01:30:45 ◼   ► - You're a homeowner, you care about such things, probably.

01:30:49 ◼   ► - I'm not gonna, I'm not in the market, Greek yogurt, no.

01:30:52 ◼   ► I don't know, like, the one, here, let me see,

01:30:57 ◼   ► the one Instagram ad I ever saw that I had any interest in

01:31:00 ◼   ► that I actually looked at long enough to know what it is

01:31:03 ◼   ► was that service that I'm sure everyone

01:31:05 ◼   ► gets this Instagram ad.

01:31:05 ◼   ► Like, it knows that I play video games,

01:31:07 ◼   ► so there's this thing where they do, like,

01:31:08 ◼   ► these metal posters of, like, video game characters

01:31:10 ◼   ► and people from movies and stuff, have you seen that one?

01:31:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

01:31:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, I looked at that because it had a cool picture

01:31:16 ◼   ► of some, like, Destiny or Halo thing or whatever,

01:31:18 ◼   ► and I'm like, all right, they know I play video games,

01:31:20 ◼   ► and I like those video games,

01:31:21 ◼   ► and I would like a cool looking thing,

01:31:23 ◼   ► but then I didn't, you know, do anything about that.

01:31:25 ◼   ► It's not like I actually bought anything.

01:31:27 ◼   ► Yeah, Instagram, and the stories with the green circles now,

01:31:30 ◼   ► I'm really confused by that.

01:31:32 ◼   ► Have you seen some of those, Casey?

01:31:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, that's close friends.

01:31:35 ◼   ► - Explain to me how that works.

01:31:36 ◼   ► I mean, obviously, I know how it's supposed to be, like,

01:31:38 ◼   ► only your close friends see this,

01:31:39 ◼   ► but I didn't know there was a way to say someone

01:31:41 ◼   ► is a close friend at Instagram.

01:31:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, so this is only in the last maybe month or so,

01:31:44 ◼   ► but you can set up a list,

01:31:46 ◼   ► and I don't think there's a numeric limit,

01:31:49 ◼   ► or if there is, it's fairly,

01:31:51 ◼   ► what's the word I'm looking for?

01:31:54 ◼   ► You can put a lot of it. - Generous.

01:31:55 ◼   ► - But generous, thank you, God,

01:31:56 ◼   ► I couldn't think of the word, thank you.

01:31:58 ◼   ► Yeah, so there's this new thing from last month or so,

01:32:01 ◼   ► and it's where you can specify that some number of people,

01:32:04 ◼   ► and the number is fairly generous, are your close friends,

01:32:08 ◼   ► and when you put up an Instagram story,

01:32:10 ◼   ► you can elect to make it public,

01:32:12 ◼   ► or you can elect for only close friends to see it,

01:32:14 ◼   ► and naturally, there is no hint

01:32:17 ◼   ► that you have put up a close friend story

01:32:19 ◼   ► to people who are not your close friends.

01:32:22 ◼   ► So, you know, if you did not mark me as a close friend, John,

01:32:25 ◼   ► but you did put up an Instagram story

01:32:27 ◼   ► for your close friends, then I would be none the wiser,

01:32:29 ◼   ► unless I was, like, looking over, say, Marco's shoulder,

01:32:32 ◼   ► and I saw you with a green circle around you,

01:32:34 ◼   ► but the green indicates that some of that content,

01:32:36 ◼   ► some, if not all, of that content is just for close friends,

01:32:38 ◼   ► and I really like that a lot,

01:32:40 ◼   ► because I think to some degree there's an implied,

01:32:44 ◼   ► I don't know, seriousness isn't the word I'm looking for,

01:32:47 ◼   ► but, like, Instagram carries a little bit

01:32:50 ◼   ► of implied weight in my mind,

01:32:52 ◼   ► that the things you put on there are pretty,

01:32:54 ◼   ► or special, or interesting,

01:32:56 ◼   ► and, like, especially with Instagram stories,

01:33:00 ◼   ► my day-to-day life is really, to anyone else in the world,

01:33:03 ◼   ► would be quite boring and very uninteresting,

01:33:05 ◼   ► and so I don't really put up a lot on Insta Stories,

01:33:09 ◼   ► unless I'm at a football game, or a concert,

01:33:11 ◼   ► or traveling, or something like that,

01:33:14 ◼   ► but my close friends, of which I think the list is,

01:33:17 ◼   ► my list is, like, 30-ish,

01:33:19 ◼   ► my close friends might give a crap

01:33:22 ◼   ► about the boring administrvia that I do day-to-day,

01:33:25 ◼   ► and so I might be way more forthcoming

01:33:27 ◼   ► with my close friends and putting up Insta Stories

01:33:30 ◼   ► that only they get to see,

01:33:32 ◼   ► and there's a handful of people

01:33:35 ◼   ► that have made me close friends of theirs,

01:33:37 ◼   ► which is really nice,

01:33:38 ◼   ► and I've really enjoyed being able to interact

01:33:40 ◼   ► with their stories, 'cause I know, going into it,

01:33:43 ◼   ► that this is less polished, I guess,

01:33:46 ◼   ► than the sort of thing I would normally see on Instagram,

01:33:50 ◼   ► or especially an Instagram story,

01:33:52 ◼   ► and there's more, even more casualness,

01:33:57 ◼   ► casuality, I don't, that's not a word,

01:33:59 ◼   ► but it's more casual when it's with close friends

01:34:02 ◼   ► than it is even with Stories,

01:34:03 ◼   ► and I feel like Stories is a more casual version

01:34:05 ◼   ► of Instagram, and a more ephemeral, of course,

01:34:07 ◼   ► version of Instagram to begin with.

01:34:10 ◼   ► - I find this feature terrifying,

01:34:11 ◼   ► because it's yet another opportunity for you

01:34:13 ◼   ► to not be aware that you aren't sending it

01:34:15 ◼   ► to your close friends when you thought you were.

01:34:16 ◼   ► Like, some of the rules are like never put anything up

01:34:18 ◼   ► on the internet that you wouldn't want the world to see.

01:34:20 ◼   ► This feature enables you to do that.

01:34:21 ◼   ► You are the feature made to put things,

01:34:23 ◼   ► and it's just, like, can you imagine,

01:34:26 ◼   ► like, if you put something in there that's supposed to,

01:34:27 ◼   ► especially if you actually treat it

01:34:28 ◼   ► as just your close, close friends,

01:34:29 ◼   ► and you wanna say something important or heartfelt

01:34:32 ◼   ► or show some, you know, thing where, like,

01:34:35 ◼   ► your wife walks by in her underwear in the background

01:34:37 ◼   ► or something, like, and you didn't do,

01:34:40 ◼   ► you thought you were on close friends, but you weren't.

01:34:42 ◼   ► Like, it's just, you know, I'd, ugh.

01:34:45 ◼   ► I can't even imagine. - Yeah, I take your point.

01:34:48 ◼   ► - I mean, then again, I'm someone

01:34:49 ◼   ► who never does Instagram Stories at all,

01:34:50 ◼   ► so obviously I'm not the target marketer.

01:34:51 ◼   ► Maybe it's an awesome feature, and obviously you like it,

01:34:53 ◼   ► so I would just give, every time I see that green circle,

01:34:56 ◼   ► like, it just makes me think about

01:34:58 ◼   ► all the non-green circles that people thought,

01:35:00 ◼   ► might have thought were green circles when they were.

01:35:02 ◼   ► - I take your point, but they are,

01:35:04 ◼   ► I forget exactly how the UI works.

01:35:06 ◼   ► I haven't done it in a few days at least,

01:35:07 ◼   ► but I believe there's, like, two different buttons

01:35:09 ◼   ► on the bottom of the screen when you take a picture

01:35:11 ◼   ► or a movie or what have you,

01:35:12 ◼   ► and it's pretty clear which one does what,

01:35:15 ◼   ► and there's no, like, there's no hoodwinking

01:35:17 ◼   ► or any of the other creepy stuff

01:35:18 ◼   ► that Facebook typically does yet. (laughs)

01:35:22 ◼   ► There's, you know, there's none of that to make you,

01:35:25 ◼   ► to make it easy for you to make a mistake.

01:35:27 ◼   ► Again, I take your point.

01:35:28 ◼   ► It doesn't mean you're wrong by any means,

01:35:29 ◼   ► but I don't know, I really, really like it.

01:35:33 ◼   ► I'm getting some real-time follow-up

01:35:35 ◼   ► from an anonymous person whose name might sound like Schmike

01:35:38 ◼   ► who has said that he has occasionally put up a,

01:35:41 ◼   ► he or she, I should say, has occasionally put up a story

01:35:46 ◼   ► that was intended for close friends

01:35:48 ◼   ► but ended up going to the whole world.

01:35:49 ◼   ► So, such things do happen from time to time.

01:35:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, the one thing that gets me on Instagram

01:35:53 ◼   ► is, like, I post Instagram so rarely, right?

01:35:55 ◼   ► But the, I think, if you count the number of times

01:35:58 ◼   ► I've intentionally posted an Instagram

01:35:59 ◼   ► and compare it to the number of times

01:36:00 ◼   ► I have somehow hit something that I accidentally turned on,

01:36:03 ◼   ► like the, it's either the camera

01:36:05 ◼   ► or maybe it's like the starting a story type thing.

01:36:08 ◼   ► - A spice to the left. - I accidentally activate that

01:36:10 ◼   ► all the time, and I'm like, oh, stop, whatever you're doing,

01:36:13 ◼   ► stop, turn off camera, I'm not, you know.

01:36:15 ◼   ► It must just be 'cause I brushed the bottom

01:36:17 ◼   ► at the bottom of the thing,

01:36:18 ◼   ► or maybe I'm going for another icon

01:36:19 ◼   ► but they don't have labels on them, they're not good.

01:36:22 ◼   ► Yeah, I think I do that more often

01:36:23 ◼   ► than I intentionally post.

01:36:25 ◼   ► - Just to show the relevance of the ads,

01:36:27 ◼   ► I just scroll, I've been scrolling through

01:36:28 ◼   ► as you guys have been talking

01:36:29 ◼   ► and documenting all the ads I'm seeing.

01:36:31 ◼   ► - Watches, watches.

01:36:32 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:36:33 ◼   ► No, surprisingly not, but New York Times subscription

01:36:35 ◼   ► was the first one, that's actually pretty good,

01:36:38 ◼   ► like that's pretty well targeted.

01:36:39 ◼   ► I read the New York Times sometimes,

01:36:41 ◼   ► I don't subscribe to it, I've thought about subscribing

01:36:43 ◼   ► to it, I'm in their demographic.

01:36:44 ◼   ► - I've never seen that ad, and I go to the New York Times

01:36:46 ◼   ► all the time, bad job.

01:36:48 ◼   ► - So I got that, I have something called PopChart

01:36:50 ◼   ► which like makes posters of things,

01:36:52 ◼   ► that was kind of a miss.

01:36:53 ◼   ► Fancy upstate New York architectural homes

01:36:57 ◼   ► in the mountains, that's actually

01:36:59 ◼   ► a pretty well targeted ad.

01:37:00 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:37:02 ◼   ► Marine Layer, former sponsor of this show,

01:37:04 ◼   ► they make good soft t-shirts, that's a great ad.

01:37:07 ◼   ► I have some other shirts, that's perfect.

01:37:09 ◼   ► Waterproof sneakers, eh, it's an okay ad,

01:37:11 ◼   ► I've bought athletic sneakers from there before,

01:37:13 ◼   ► so that makes sense.

01:37:14 ◼   ► Fancy leather dress shoes, actually pretty good,

01:37:18 ◼   ► I've tapped on some of those ads before.

01:37:21 ◼   ► - Maybe you just buy more stuff than me,

01:37:22 ◼   ► that has more data.

01:37:23 ◼   ► - An iPhone cloth case, I don't know where that one

01:37:26 ◼   ► came from, but not too bad.

01:37:28 ◼   ► Some kind of fancy mattress for athletes, eh.

01:37:32 ◼   ► T-shirts for people who love the big Lebowski, okay.

01:37:36 ◼   ► A hands-free dog leash, I do like a lot of dog posts.

01:37:40 ◼   ► And finally a men's like subscription clothing box service.

01:37:45 ◼   ► Which I am like, you know, pretty much

01:37:47 ◼   ► in the demographic for, so these are actually

01:37:49 ◼   ► pretty well targeted ads to me.

01:37:52 ◼   ► - Meanwhile, I'm looking at an ad about,

01:37:54 ◼   ► as far as I can tell, this is a hate one,

01:37:56 ◼   ► I can't tell what the ad's for.

01:37:57 ◼   ► - Wait, people are going crazy over these Macbook skins,

01:38:00 ◼   ► John?

01:38:01 ◼   ► - No, the ad that I'm looking at is, I think,

01:38:04 ◼   ► trying to get me to travel to Iceland.

01:38:07 ◼   ► Not a well targeted ad.

01:38:09 ◼   ► But the thing is, I can't even tell.

01:38:12 ◼   ► With the audio off, I can't tell.

01:38:13 ◼   ► The account that it's from is L-A-N-D-B-L-A-D-E-X-P.

01:38:18 ◼   ► Lindblad Exp, I don't know.

01:38:20 ◼   ► - I'm not sure that's how it's pronounced.

01:38:21 ◼   ► - Anyway, so I'm not going to Iceland.

01:38:23 ◼   ► I am not a big traveler, like I don't know

01:38:25 ◼   ► where the hell that's coming from, what else do we have?

01:38:28 ◼   ► - A smart home blinds closing thing?

01:38:31 ◼   ► I own zero smart home things.

01:38:32 ◼   ► - I've seen that, the thing that loops around the cord.

01:38:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea.

01:38:37 ◼   ► - Okay, well this one's closer.

01:38:39 ◼   ► It's a dongle.

01:38:42 ◼   ► A USBC dongle.

01:38:44 ◼   ► All right, that's, I mean, I guess.

01:38:47 ◼   ► Yeah, I just, I mean, the thing I used to like

01:38:51 ◼   ► about Instagram ads is they would have nice photos in them.

01:38:54 ◼   ► I would be like, well, even if it's not a thing I care about,

01:38:55 ◼   ► it has a pretty photo, but I think Instagram ad makers

01:38:58 ◼   ► have figured out they don't need to make

01:38:59 ◼   ► a nice photo anymore, they just need to have

01:39:01 ◼   ► like a crass comment.

01:39:02 ◼   ► - Well, if they're like high end products,

01:39:04 ◼   ► like the upstate New York mountain house architecture ones,

01:39:07 ◼   ► those photos are beautiful.

01:39:08 ◼   ► Like I almost like, I kind of make a habit

01:39:10 ◼   ► of not liking ads, 'cause like I don't want to feed them that

01:39:14 ◼   ► but I almost liked that one 'cause it was just

01:39:16 ◼   ► really nice pictures.

01:39:17 ◼   ► - Don't like ads.

01:39:18 ◼   ► OPP France?

01:39:20 ◼   ► It's a sneaker company called OPP?

01:39:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, you know me.

01:39:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, I know.

01:39:26 ◼   ► - Now I'm getting, my first ad that I've seen

01:39:30 ◼   ► is Goosebumps the movie, which, okay.

01:39:33 ◼   ► - I will say, my favorite sneakers came,

01:39:36 ◼   ► it's the On Running brand, and I discovered that

01:39:41 ◼   ► through Instagram ads.

01:39:42 ◼   ► I discovered it, I bought the shoes, they're fantastic.

01:39:45 ◼   ► - You're the problem, you're propping up

01:39:46 ◼   ► the entire Instagram economy.

01:39:48 ◼   ► - Quaker, Chia Peach overnight oats.

01:39:51 ◼   ► - Oh, finally, finally found a relevant ad.

01:39:53 ◼   ► My dog's GPS, which I already own,

01:39:55 ◼   ► is being advertised to me, good job.

01:39:58 ◼   ► - Weston Hotels.

01:39:59 ◼   ► Some of my ads are really, really, really

01:40:02 ◼   ► annoyingly and uncomfortably good,

01:40:04 ◼   ► but most of them I feel like are just shotgun approach.

01:40:08 ◼   ► Let's just put this in front of as many eyeballs

01:40:10 ◼   ► as we can and see what happens.

01:40:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean a lot of these are clearly like,

01:40:12 ◼   ► give me men, 25 for 34, whatever.

01:40:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

01:40:16 ◼   ► - A lot of it is like stuff like that, you can tell.

01:40:18 ◼   ► But a lot of it is more focused and sometimes very focused

01:40:23 ◼   ► and some of them are like cheap, garbagey stuff

01:40:26 ◼   ► like back this Kickstarter for this thing you don't need.

01:40:29 ◼   ► Those are kind of crappy.

01:40:30 ◼   ► But there's enough good ones that I don't mind

01:40:34 ◼   ► the quality of the ads anymore.

01:40:36 ◼   ► When they first joined my timeline,

01:40:38 ◼   ► I was very offended by their presence

01:40:41 ◼   ► just 'cause I had never had ads before.

01:40:42 ◼   ► But now that I've had them for a long time

01:40:44 ◼   ► and I'm accustomed to them and I've gotten

01:40:46 ◼   ► some actually pretty good products out of them,

01:40:47 ◼   ► I don't mind them as much.

01:40:48 ◼   ► I do think that they are a little bit too frequent.

01:40:52 ◼   ► Like they need to turn that dial down a little bit

01:40:55 ◼   ► and of course they never will.

01:40:56 ◼   ► But if I had my ideal case, I know they're never

01:40:59 ◼   ► gonna get rid of the ads completely.

01:41:01 ◼   ► But I do wish there would be fewer of them

01:41:03 ◼   ► and have them be more spaced out.

01:41:05 ◼   ► - You know, this is tangentially related.

01:41:07 ◼   ► Do you ever look at the explore tab

01:41:09 ◼   ► which is the little magnifying glass?

01:41:11 ◼   ► - Occasionally, if I run out of stuff

01:41:13 ◼   ► and I'm not tired yet or whatever.

01:41:15 ◼   ► - That is exactly when I use it for the record.

01:41:17 ◼   ► But I have found that that tab is eerily good.

01:41:23 ◼   ► At predicting what I would wanna see.

01:41:24 ◼   ► Like lots of cars, fair bit of nerd stuff,

01:41:27 ◼   ► and then a smattering of other things.

01:41:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, mine is entirely watches and dogs.

01:41:32 ◼   ► Like that's all it is.

01:41:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

01:41:34 ◼   ► John at the bottom on the tab bar,

01:41:36 ◼   ► not the home but the magnifying glass.

01:41:38 ◼   ► - Magnifying glass.

01:41:39 ◼   ► I have never tapped on this before in my life.

01:41:40 ◼   ► Here we go.

01:41:41 ◼   ► - So this is to me exactly what Instagram thinks you are.

01:41:45 ◼   ► And for my case, it's stunningly accurate.

01:41:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, this is not good.

01:41:51 ◼   ► It's showing me a Trevor Noah.

01:41:54 ◼   ► I did watch a Trevor Noah video on Twitter today.

01:41:56 ◼   ► So that's a good guess that I might wanna see it.

01:41:59 ◼   ► Kind of.

01:42:00 ◼   ► Then there's a bunch of pictures of people

01:42:01 ◼   ► that I don't recognize.

01:42:03 ◼   ► I don't know why I would think

01:42:04 ◼   ► I would wanna see these people.

01:42:05 ◼   ► I have no idea who they are.

01:42:05 ◼   ► There's one picture of food

01:42:06 ◼   ► because I follow Nevin's food account.

01:42:08 ◼   ► - Do you follow Nevin's dogs?

01:42:09 ◼   ► Is he really cute?

01:42:10 ◼   ► - No, I know about Max, but I don't follow dog accounts.

01:42:13 ◼   ► No, it's just a bunch of people I don't know.

01:42:14 ◼   ► Why would I ever?

01:42:16 ◼   ► So that's so much for that.

01:42:17 ◼   ► - So maybe I just don't,

01:42:19 ◼   ► maybe you don't put in enough Instagram.

01:42:20 ◼   ► - I don't follow car accounts, dog accounts.

01:42:23 ◼   ► I follow people that I know.

01:42:24 ◼   ► So as far as it's concerned,

01:42:25 ◼   ► it looks like this person likes pictures of people.

01:42:27 ◼   ► I mean, I guess that's true.

01:42:29 ◼   ► The only time I ever hit the like button

01:42:30 ◼   ► is on a picture of somebody that I know.

01:42:33 ◼   ► The only thing I'll do in the Marco vein

01:42:34 ◼   ► is cute kids I will always give.

01:42:36 ◼   ► But that's cute kids of people I know.

01:42:37 ◼   ► It's not just random cute kids, right?

01:42:39 ◼   ► - First of all, you are missing out

01:42:41 ◼   ► by not being a part of dog Instagram.

01:42:43 ◼   ► Dog Instagram is very powerful.

01:42:44 ◼   ► - I'm on dog Twitter.

01:42:46 ◼   ► I get my dogs on Twitter.

01:42:47 ◼   ► - Dog Instagram's better, I'm telling you.

01:42:49 ◼   ► - I mean, maybe, but I feel like I'm cheating on my dog.

01:42:52 ◼   ► Plus my dog is really cute anyway.

01:42:53 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:42:55 ◼   ► - That sweet, precious angel.

01:42:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, I get all the dog lovin' I need in person.

01:43:01 ◼   ► Yeah, no, I'm just looking at Instagram

01:43:04 ◼   ► just to see pictures from people I know and that's it.

01:43:07 ◼   ► So maybe I'm using it wrong, but whatever, that's what I do.

01:43:09 ◼   ► - The only thing for me that kind of like poisons

01:43:11 ◼   ► my explore tab sometimes is,

01:43:14 ◼   ► like there's a large part of Instagram

01:43:18 ◼   ► that I normally don't see any of

01:43:20 ◼   ► and don't want to see any of,

01:43:22 ◼   ► which is basically people just screenshotting viral tweets

01:43:26 ◼   ► and trying to make viral memes spread

01:43:29 ◼   ► on their Instagram accounts that they just stole

01:43:31 ◼   ► from Twitter and other social networks.

01:43:33 ◼   ► So it's just like, I'm coming here to not be on Twitter,

01:43:37 ◼   ► and then when they bring Twitter to me,

01:43:40 ◼   ► it kind of ruins that.

01:43:42 ◼   ► - Have you seen the stories of stories?

01:43:44 ◼   ► - No, is that a thing now?

01:43:45 ◼   ► - Yeah, you can do a story of someone else's story.

01:43:47 ◼   ► - Oh, good.

01:43:48 ◼   ► - Like as if these things aren't blurry

01:43:50 ◼   ► and low resolution enough,

01:43:52 ◼   ► now you're gonna do someone else's story within your story?

01:43:55 ◼   ► Ugh, don't like it.

01:43:56 ◼   ► I think maybe that's a feature that only certain

01:43:59 ◼   ► high-end influence people have, but I see it,

01:44:00 ◼   ► and I'm like, it is like you said,

01:44:02 ◼   ► it's like pictures of tweets.

01:44:03 ◼   ► - Well, there is a thing where if somebody tags you

01:44:06 ◼   ► in their story, it gives you the quick ability

01:44:08 ◼   ► to re-story it in one of those little inset things.

01:44:13 ◼   ► But yeah, I'm talking more about it's just people

01:44:16 ◼   ► screenshotting memes and GIFs and Twitter posts

01:44:19 ◼   ► and making Instagram posts out of them.

01:44:21 ◼   ► - Or taking a picture of their computer screen

01:44:23 ◼   ► as a story of them holding their phone

01:44:24 ◼   ► up to their computer screen.

01:44:25 ◼   ► It's like great, cool story, bro.

01:44:27 ◼   ► (beeping)