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239: Set This Money on Fire

 

00:00:00 ◼   ► All right, we shouldn't be on this tangent. We got a lot of things to talk about.

00:00:04 ◼   ► We can say that about almost every topic almost every week.

00:00:07 ◼   ► Yeah, we can mean it this time.

00:00:08 ◼   ► All right, so this week was our first real introduction to Apple Park and the Steve Jobs

00:00:15 ◼   ► Theater at Apple Park, which we've all seen many, many, many pictures, most of which are beautiful

00:00:21 ◼   ► of the Steve Jobs Theater and of Apple Park. I don't have the link handy, but Dan, is it from

00:00:28 ◼   ► or Frommer? I always get it wrong.

00:00:29 ◼   ► - I think it's Frommer.

00:00:31 ◼   ► - There you go. Well, Dan, we apologize.

00:00:32 ◼   ► But anyway, we will try to find wherever the link was

00:00:36 ◼   ► that flew by earlier today, wherein he had like

00:00:39 ◼   ► a little photo essay of his day at the Steve Jobs Theater,

00:00:42 ◼   ► and the pictures are beautiful and really well done,

00:00:45 ◼   ► and so you can check that out.

00:00:47 ◼   ► But it was a neat event.

00:00:49 ◼   ► It was interesting that we knew a lot.

00:00:53 ◼   ► We didn't know some things, and that's cool too.

00:00:56 ◼   ► And I guess, do we want to start with just a kind of opening remark or do we want to

00:01:02 ◼   ► just dive right in?

00:01:03 ◼   ► - We're going chronological like we always do.

00:01:05 ◼   ► What's the first thing that it did to Steve Jobs tribute?

00:01:07 ◼   ► - To Steve Jobs tribute, yeah.

00:01:08 ◼   ► - Oh my word.

00:01:09 ◼   ► - I thought, honestly, I thought it was excellent.

00:01:11 ◼   ► You know, they had to say something.

00:01:15 ◼   ► If they're dedicating the theater to him and naming it after him, they had to say something

00:01:19 ◼   ► and I think they did a remarkably good job of it.

00:01:23 ◼   ► Tim delivered it really well.

00:01:24 ◼   ► It was very well designed and written.

00:01:26 ◼   ► It was really great to hear a recording of Steve

00:01:29 ◼   ► saying some stuff.

00:01:31 ◼   ► And honestly, I did not recognize that quote.

00:01:33 ◼   ► And I've heard it from other podcasters,

00:01:35 ◼   ► didn't seem to know where it came from either.

00:01:37 ◼   ► That was new to me.

00:01:38 ◼   ► - I remember it.

00:01:38 ◼   ► I would have picked a different quote.

00:01:40 ◼   ► He said so many things.

00:01:41 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:01:42 ◼   ► That's the one I picked.

00:01:43 ◼   ► Anyway, no, I remember him.

00:01:45 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, I remember him.

00:01:46 ◼   ► - I know we're supposed to be talking about

00:01:48 ◼   ► how much we love Steve Jobs and miss him,

00:01:49 ◼   ► but that particular quote reminds me

00:01:53 ◼   ► of some of the worst aspects of Steve Jobs,

00:01:58 ◼   ► because it was about like how some people express their,

00:02:02 ◼   ► you know, their love for humanity

00:02:04 ◼   ► by making great things for people.

00:02:06 ◼   ► Tinged with a little bit like,

00:02:08 ◼   ► I may not do nice things, but I make really cool hardware.

00:02:13 ◼   ► Like as a, he said that before of like, you know,

00:02:16 ◼   ► when people complained to him about, you know,

00:02:18 ◼   ► doing things that are not nice or not giving to charity

00:02:21 ◼   ► or whatever, he's like, my time is,

00:02:22 ◼   ► I would do more good for the world by making an awesome phone, which is possibly true,

00:02:27 ◼   ► right?

00:02:28 ◼   ► But also a nice way for him to excuse himself from doing nice things.

00:02:33 ◼   ► And I was reminded of that aspect by that quote.

00:02:35 ◼   ► So I was like, please pick a different one.

00:02:36 ◼   ► He's got so many good quotes.

00:02:37 ◼   ► Don't pick the one that has a tiny touch of sort of rationalization baked right into it.

00:02:46 ◼   ► But it's clear that most important thing was not the quote or the pictures or anything

00:02:50 ◼   ► like that.

00:02:51 ◼   ► It's clear that Tim still does miss him and had real emotion.

00:02:55 ◼   ► You know, the reason that segment took longer than you would think is he paused a lot

00:02:58 ◼   ► between talking and I don't think that's an act. I think everybody really does miss Steve Jobs,

00:03:03 ◼   ► including Tim, probably every time he gets up on that stage and thinks,

00:03:07 ◼   ► "Boy, Steve would do this better than me," which is true.

00:03:09 ◼   ► Oh, poor Tim.

00:03:11 ◼   ► He does fine, but I'm just saying, just like he said, Steve loved days like today,

00:03:15 ◼   ► and he would have loved to announce this new phone and everything, right? And just,

00:03:19 ◼   ► that's the worst time to think about it, you know, like that's what he lived for.

00:03:22 ◼   ► All the hard work and all the yelling at people and driving everyone to be their best and everything

00:03:27 ◼   ► to get to go up there and to announce it, he loved that. And so them having to talk about like,

00:03:33 ◼   ► here we are in this theater, you know, that he would have loved the theater, he would have

00:03:36 ◼   ► loved to announce these things, but instead it's us and we'll do the best we can.

00:03:39 ◼   ► - I think if you were not holding back tears during that segment, you're not wired up right.

00:03:45 ◼   ► it was incredibly moving and very very well done and very fitting to what they were doing

00:03:50 ◼   ► and you know to the time and everything. I do agree with what Jason Snell said on Upgrade

00:03:55 ◼   ► this week which he was saying this is probably the last we're going to hear about Steve

00:03:58 ◼   ► from Ample for a long time and I think that's probably right. It has, he's been gone for

00:04:02 ◼   ► a very long time. This was a very fitting time to pay him tribute in this way but I

00:04:09 ◼   ► wouldn't expect them to make a regular habit of it even when doing events in this theater.

00:04:14 ◼   ► But it was a really, really nice thing.

00:04:16 ◼   ► And I'm glad they did it,

00:04:17 ◼   ► and I'm glad they did it the way they did it.

00:04:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I think the important point,

00:04:21 ◼   ► well, first of all,

00:04:22 ◼   ► there never is an occasion to talk about Steve Jobs.

00:04:24 ◼   ► Like, they can make one every single time they do anything.

00:04:26 ◼   ► They could, but they don't, right, to their credit.

00:04:28 ◼   ► And this, the intro part that I thought was fitting

00:04:33 ◼   ► was the explanation of, you know,

00:04:36 ◼   ► not explaining why they're talking about him now,

00:04:38 ◼   ► 'cause obviously the theater is dedicated to him,

00:04:39 ◼   ► he's got his name on it, like that's the time to do it,

00:04:41 ◼   ► right, but also that enough time has passed

00:04:44 ◼   ► that Apple and we all in the audience

00:04:48 ◼   ► can have some more perspective on it.

00:04:50 ◼   ► So it's not as fresh as it was.

00:04:51 ◼   ► I don't remember, you had a good tweet, Marco.

00:04:53 ◼   ► I think what Tim said on stage was that we can,

00:04:56 ◼   ► what was it, look back, not with sadness,

00:04:59 ◼   ► but with whatever, what did he say?

00:05:01 ◼   ► Do you remember the quote?

00:05:02 ◼   ► - Like celebration or something like that?

00:05:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, right, and you tweeted, I'm still sad.

00:05:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, I am still sad.

00:05:08 ◼   ► - We are still sad, but the idea is that

00:05:11 ◼   ► a lot of time has passed and now hopefully

00:05:12 ◼   ► we all have some more perspective

00:05:14 ◼   ► This is a good time to be able to at least try to shift a little bit from just like it being completely raw and just

00:05:19 ◼   ► Being just you know forgetting and then remembering. Oh, that's right. He's gone

00:05:23 ◼   ► He's never gonna do that thing that he does again to shifting towards hopefully

00:05:27 ◼   ► Fonder memories of just like it happened long enough ago that it is not

00:05:31 ◼   ► You know that it's scabbed over a little bit and then we can look back

00:05:35 ◼   ► You know and think that you know that uh, I don't know like I think that was a it's not like putting a cap on it

00:05:43 ◼   ► to say we're never going to talk or think about him again,

00:05:45 ◼   ► but to say this is a milestone, right?

00:05:48 ◼   ► Especially since the whole Apple Park thing

00:05:49 ◼   ► was one of the last big,

00:05:51 ◼   ► as they noted, one of the last big projects

00:05:52 ◼   ► that he undertook that he didn't get to ever see completed,

00:05:56 ◼   ► but he definitely knew, you know,

00:05:58 ◼   ► had a vision for how it was supposed to go, right?

00:06:00 ◼   ► So it was, you know, it was,

00:06:02 ◼   ► as with most things, Apple, it was very taste,

00:06:03 ◼   ► well, I'm not going to say as of most things, Apple,

00:06:05 ◼   ► as we expect from Apple,

00:06:07 ◼   ► but as occasionally they don't live up to,

00:06:10 ◼   ► it was very tasteful.

00:06:10 ◼   ► Like if you think of the intro videos

00:06:12 ◼   ► they've had it other times. Sometimes they're a little bit goofy. Sometimes they miss the

00:06:15 ◼   ► mark. Sometimes they hit. The bad ones I think we just tend to forget. But if we search our

00:06:20 ◼   ► memories you can remember a lot of opening videos that are like, "Mmm, I roll, whatever,

00:06:25 ◼   ► get us the announcements." This was tastefully done and it was nice.

00:06:29 ◼   ► But it was the right amount of time. It was the right timing and the right amount of time.

00:06:34 ◼   ► It was long enough that it was taken seriously. I don't remember hearing it, but I saw widely

00:06:40 ◼   ► reported that they told the people in the audience like, "Hey, shut off your laptops

00:06:44 ◼   ► and pay attention for a minute, would you please?" I don't know how they phrased it,

00:06:47 ◼   ► but that was basically the message. And I watched bits and pieces of the keynote again

00:06:53 ◼   ► over the last 24 hours. And if you look, there were a couple of people with phones or laptops

00:06:58 ◼   ► open, but generally speaking, that theater was completely dark for that entire segment.

00:07:03 ◼   ► And I thought that that was tastefully done. And I'm glad that the press actually listened

00:07:08 ◼   ► because, you know, if we remember the "turn off your Wi-Fi" moment from years ago...

00:07:13 ◼   ► Jobs would have yelled at them and said, "He said close your laptops! It's gonna ruin the effect of the

00:07:17 ◼   ► 'Just welcome to the Steve Jobs Theater' on a black background! Don't you understand?

00:07:20 ◼   ► Look at the black levels on this projector! It's a completely dark room and white text and the background totally blends in,

00:07:27 ◼   ► but we can't see it because you have your stupid laptops open!"

00:07:29 ◼   ► Anyway, so after that, so they moved on to the Apple Park intro video a little bit.

00:07:34 ◼   ► Apple Park looks like an amazing building

00:07:37 ◼   ► and an amazing campus and an amazing place to be.

00:07:41 ◼   ► However, there's kind of this reality of it,

00:07:44 ◼   ► which is like them showing off,

00:07:45 ◼   ► like here's this amazing building we've made

00:07:49 ◼   ► for ourselves that you're never going to see.

00:07:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, look at us, look at how smart we are.

00:07:53 ◼   ► That's a visitor center for you.

00:07:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, there's a visitor center

00:07:56 ◼   ► that's not really the main building

00:07:58 ◼   ► or that's not really what you wanna see.

00:07:59 ◼   ► You're not gonna be allowed near like the cool thing.

00:08:02 ◼   ► You're not gonna be in the big ring.

00:08:04 ◼   ► You're not gonna be in the courtyard

00:08:05 ◼   ► or the middle of the big ring.

00:08:07 ◼   ► Only the press will ever see

00:08:09 ◼   ► the Steve Jobs theater probably.

00:08:11 ◼   ► So it's just like, I don't know,

00:08:13 ◼   ► it has this kind of, it's like,

00:08:16 ◼   ► look at this cool thing we made, you can't have it.

00:08:18 ◼   ► Like I would love to see Apple Park.

00:08:22 ◼   ► - You could go there and walk around.

00:08:23 ◼   ► I mean you can't go into people's office pass

00:08:25 ◼   ► where you have to badge through stuff,

00:08:26 ◼   ► but I'm sure you could walk into the middle of the thing

00:08:28 ◼   ► and go through the Cafe Max

00:08:30 ◼   ► or whatever they're gonna call it in this place.

00:08:31 ◼   ► - I bet I can't.

00:08:33 ◼   ► You want to bet?

00:08:34 ◼   ► Well, I think you can.

00:08:35 ◼   ► Yeah, okay.

00:08:36 ◼   ► I don't think that's the case, because—

00:08:38 ◼   ► You've got to get some Apple employee to escort you.

00:08:40 ◼   ► Well, that's the thing.

00:08:41 ◼   ► It's less on Earth than Google, where you have to print out yourself a little badge.

00:08:44 ◼   ► You don't even have to do that at Apple.

00:08:46 ◼   ► Oh my god.

00:08:47 ◼   ► Uh, I'm pretty sure we needed badges.

00:08:49 ◼   ► I'm trying to remember when we went back—or when we went there, but—

00:08:51 ◼   ► I think you need stickers.

00:08:52 ◼   ► I mean, that's what I meant.

00:08:54 ◼   ► But, um, yeah, I think without an escort, you don't see squat.

00:08:57 ◼   ► Like, you certainly didn't see squat at Infinite Loo.

00:08:59 ◼   ► But if you just want to go through the food place into the middle of the ring where the

00:09:02 ◼   ► the trees are. I think you can pull that off.

00:09:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, I would love that, but even that is nearly impossible for anybody to actually

00:09:08 ◼   ► do.

00:09:09 ◼   ► - Do you just get a friend at Apple, dude? Anyway, um, I--

00:09:12 ◼   ► - Oh, yes, because everyone has friends at Apple.

00:09:15 ◼   ► - All of us have friends at Apple on this show.

00:09:17 ◼   ► - The three of us do, but--

00:09:18 ◼   ► - I visited--so I visited Infinite Loop I think about four or five times now. I've been

00:09:23 ◼   ► actually brought through and gone to Cafe Max one time. That's like, once I've actually

00:09:28 ◼   ► gone like, into the building, and not even really into the--I just walked through the

00:09:32 ◼   ► building to get to the food court like one time. So I'm an Apple Park thing like I remain

00:09:40 ◼   ► unconvinced by the utility of Apple Park. It is unquestionably a beautiful place. The

00:09:50 ◼   ► buildings are beautiful as sort of works of art. The views from and of the buildings are

00:09:55 ◼   ► beautiful but I don't know if the buildings are good places to do the

00:10:05 ◼   ► things they're designed for you to do is it a good place to work is it a good

00:10:07 ◼   ► place to commute to is it a good place to I mean you can ask the press was it a

00:10:11 ◼   ► good place to have a press event it seems like mostly pulled that off yeah

00:10:15 ◼   ► although you know because it's purpose-built for that I would hope so

00:10:19 ◼   ► like but this the bar is low there because if you try to do it in like an

00:10:24 ◼   ► an actual old theater that's not designed to have a huge amount of press in it. You know,

00:10:28 ◼   ► you fill theaters with an audience and a small amount of press. You don't fill an actual theater

00:10:33 ◼   ► like the Billy Graham Theater with, you know, giant amounts of press that every single person

00:10:40 ◼   ► in the audience is there because they're reporting on something. So hopefully this fulfills that

00:10:43 ◼   ► purpose. But even there, like the top part of this building, as amazing as it is to see a giant glass

00:10:50 ◼   ► cylinder with a big hat on it, you know, like how is that big thing holding up there? Is it gonna

00:10:53 ◼   ► to collapse and kill us?

00:10:55 ◼   ► How do they get the wires up to the lights?

00:10:57 ◼   ► Oh, it must be these little skinny--

00:10:58 ◼   ► it's like a magic trick, right?

00:11:00 ◼   ► Little spinning elevator and the cool stairs

00:11:02 ◼   ► that are like the ones from the Regent Street store in London

00:11:05 ◼   ► and all other things that you recognize from Apple retail.

00:11:08 ◼   ► It's so empty of things.

00:11:10 ◼   ► Like, where are the garbage cans and the bathrooms

00:11:13 ◼   ► and someplace to get a drink of water and something

00:11:16 ◼   ► to sit down on?

00:11:17 ◼   ► It's like, well, those are outside,

00:11:19 ◼   ► and we bring them in and have rentals.

00:11:21 ◼   ► And there are bathrooms there, and you can get to them.

00:11:23 ◼   ► But it's just I don't know I look at it

00:11:26 ◼   ► and I think of it more as a beautiful sculpture and less as a functional place for people to do a thing but

00:11:32 ◼   ► the theater I think can't afford to be weird kind of like the Sydney Opera House like it is itself a

00:11:38 ◼   ► Theatrical thing the rest of Apple Park is still you know

00:11:42 ◼   ► Nobody knows we'll have to wait until everyone moves in and then we can all talk to our Apple friends

00:11:45 ◼   ► We were just talking about and say how what's it like what's like to work there?

00:11:47 ◼   ► Is it better or worse than the weird 80s infinite loop canvas?

00:11:50 ◼   ► You know, is it better or worse than Google or whatever other place that you might have worked?

00:11:54 ◼   ► So I remain

00:11:57 ◼   ► slightly

00:11:59 ◼   ► Dubious about the utility of Apple Park as a place to work but certainly looks cool in pictures and none of us have to work

00:12:04 ◼   ► There so we can just enjoy it in that way

00:12:05 ◼   ► I mean probably as as the answer is so often with modern Johnny

00:12:10 ◼   ► I've creations probably the answer to all your practical needs is either wireless or dongles

00:12:16 ◼   ► Yeah, get a dongle to put your garbage in. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the AR installation looked pretty neat though

00:12:22 ◼   ► I mean, it's totally like I can't think the word I'm looking for but it's like oh, of course

00:12:26 ◼   ► You have to have an AR installation, but it did look cool

00:12:28 ◼   ► like, you know if you didn't see the video it it looks like they they did almost like a

00:12:35 ◼   ► monochrome

00:12:36 ◼   ► 3d display monochrome also isn't the best word for it, but like a very very blank looking 3d display that's somewhere

00:12:42 ◼   ► I guess at the visitor center and then you can take your like iPad or iPhone or whatever and hold it up to this 3d

00:12:49 ◼   ► miniature of the park of

00:12:51 ◼   ► Apple Park and it will show you like the full res, you know

00:12:56 ◼   ► All the trees all the happy trees everywhere and everything and here's here's where here's where all the airflow is because people care about that

00:13:03 ◼   ► But it does look clever and use of a neat use of AR and speaking of airflow and things like that

00:13:09 ◼   ► Apparently the whole building is 100% renewable energy

00:13:11 ◼   ► Which is pretty cool because I'd like my kid soon-to-be kids to be able to I don't know have a planet to live on after

00:13:17 ◼   ► I'm dead. So that's kind of neat

00:13:19 ◼   ► Especially since it is huge. But yeah, I don't know I did there was a lot of

00:13:23 ◼   ► Especially around Apple Park. There was a fair dose of self-congratulation

00:13:28 ◼   ► Which I think some of that is to be expected

00:13:32 ◼   ► I think it ran a little bit long for my taste, but you know, it's their event not mine so they can do what they want

00:13:38 ◼   ► Yeah, I think the Apple Park and the Steve Jobs thing fine, right

00:13:42 ◼   ► But then when they went into the retail thing, which is the next segment I started to think all right

00:13:46 ◼   ► Yeah, get on with it. You're allowed a certain amount of introductory material, right but

00:13:52 ◼   ► You know

00:13:53 ◼   ► I I mean maybe it's just because I'm not that interested in retail or maybe because it didn't seem like it fit in the event

00:13:59 ◼   ► because this is supposed to be an event about products and

00:14:01 ◼   ► The reason you get to talk about jobs and Apple Park is because that's the venue and it's the introduction of it

00:14:06 ◼   ► But retail you could talk about any time and I I confess I mostly zoned out and when I rewatched it

00:14:12 ◼   ► I didn't bother watching that segment again

00:14:15 ◼   ► Did they announce anything new or say anything that made it worth the amount of time that it took in this presentation?

00:14:21 ◼   ► Of course, they did if they're not Apple Store. Yes, they're not Apple Stores anymore. They're the town centers town centers indeed

00:14:29 ◼   ► Which speaking like I don't know I'd block this out

00:14:33 ◼   ► I'd block out the segment where they try

00:14:35 ◼   ► to redefine vocabulary.

00:14:37 ◼   ► - The problem with this whole segment is that

00:14:40 ◼   ► it was full of retail jargon and the way

00:14:44 ◼   ► that their internal initiatives are probably

00:14:47 ◼   ► talking about these things, but there's a fundamental

00:14:50 ◼   ► mismatch between how they talk about this to themselves

00:14:54 ◼   ► and what we care about as the customers.

00:14:56 ◼   ► And I don't think they respected that difference

00:14:59 ◼   ► or understood that difference for this segment.

00:15:01 ◼   ► This is not the first time they've made that mistake.

00:15:04 ◼   ► This is actually one of the major criticisms I have

00:15:08 ◼   ► of generally Tim Cook's presentations about things

00:15:12 ◼   ► is that it seems like they often blur the line

00:15:16 ◼   ► or don't find the right balance between

00:15:19 ◼   ► internal language and external language

00:15:22 ◼   ► and external concerns.

00:15:24 ◼   ► - Would you say that your customer stat

00:15:25 ◼   ► is not exactly where you wish it was?

00:15:27 ◼   ► - Oh, it's blow away.

00:15:29 ◼   ► So the whole thing with the stores,

00:15:32 ◼   ► Angela Ahrens is going through telling how

00:15:34 ◼   ► they're gonna have all these great events

00:15:35 ◼   ► and they're making all these atriums and forums

00:15:37 ◼   ► and theaters and that's all, that's interesting.

00:15:40 ◼   ► But what people want out of the Apple store experience

00:15:45 ◼   ► that we have today--

00:15:46 ◼   ► - In and out of the Genius Bar appointment

00:15:48 ◼   ► in a reasonable amount of time.

00:15:49 ◼   ► And nowhere to line up.

00:15:50 ◼   ► - Yes, what people want is literally shorter Genius Bar

00:15:55 ◼   ► waits and make it easier to get appointments.

00:15:59 ◼   ► In general, Apple stores are overcrowded

00:16:02 ◼   ► and there's a huge burden on the staff that's there,

00:16:06 ◼   ► so we need more of them probably

00:16:08 ◼   ► and they need to have more staff.

00:16:10 ◼   ► And I don't think people care if they're waiting for an hour

00:16:14 ◼   ► and standing next to a table somewhere

00:16:16 ◼   ► or in something called a forum

00:16:17 ◼   ► with a couple plants in it.

00:16:19 ◼   ► That's nice and I'm glad they're doing things like that

00:16:22 ◼   ► for their own sake, but we the customers,

00:16:25 ◼   ► that doesn't really solve a problem we have

00:16:27 ◼   ► and the stores have real problems.

00:16:29 ◼   ► that seem to not be getting solved.

00:16:31 ◼   ► So it's hard to enjoy a segment like this

00:16:34 ◼   ► when it's not solving the problems we really have

00:16:37 ◼   ► and also full of this crazy jargon that we don't care about

00:16:40 ◼   ► and that's really hard to pay attention to.

00:16:43 ◼   ► - I think the whole Apple retail thing

00:16:44 ◼   ► is another great example of success hides problems.

00:16:48 ◼   ► It is important that the stores are nice.

00:16:51 ◼   ► That is important.

00:16:52 ◼   ► It's part of the mystique of Apple.

00:16:54 ◼   ► It's part of the reason people are excited to go there

00:16:56 ◼   ► and see the products that are on the tables.

00:16:57 ◼   ► And all of that is important.

00:16:59 ◼   ► Not to say that it should just be like a giant supermarket with a million checkout lines

00:17:03 ◼   ► to be for efficiency, right?

00:17:04 ◼   ► It has to be a nice place.

00:17:06 ◼   ► But the success that's hiding the problems is the reason Apple retail is worth more money

00:17:12 ◼   ► per square foot than any other retail place is because they sell expensive high margin

00:17:16 ◼   ► products and they sell a lot of them because they're really good and people want them,

00:17:20 ◼   ► right?

00:17:21 ◼   ► That's it.

00:17:22 ◼   ► You have a store with products that people want presented nicely in good locations and

00:17:27 ◼   ► and your margins on those products are good.

00:17:29 ◼   ► And that'll gives you this store

00:17:34 ◼   ► that people just wanna go to

00:17:36 ◼   ► and throw huge wads of money at you constantly,

00:17:39 ◼   ► like over and over again.

00:17:41 ◼   ► People are crowding in the stores

00:17:42 ◼   ► and you take all that success.

00:17:44 ◼   ► You're like, we should make nicer atriums

00:17:46 ◼   ► and have a living wall

00:17:47 ◼   ► and carve this thing out of stone and call things like,

00:17:51 ◼   ► you're losing sight of the purpose of this.

00:17:55 ◼   ► I mean, maybe they're not,

00:17:55 ◼   ► maybe this is for the external thing,

00:17:56 ◼   ► Like the purpose of the store is exchanging goods for money, right?

00:17:59 ◼   ► People come in with money and they want stuff to come out.

00:18:01 ◼   ► And again, it has to be nice, but you know, none of this stuff you're doing is

00:18:07 ◼   ► making it more likely that people are going to come in and buy your things or

00:18:13 ◼   ► making it so that you sell more of them per second, right?

00:18:16 ◼   ► You know, it seems like it's mostly a wash and you're just kind of like polishing

00:18:20 ◼   ► the tables and rearranging the decor and trying not to interrupt the flow of money.

00:18:25 ◼   ► But certainly if your goal was to, you know, either increase the satisfaction, then you'll be like less wait times, more staff, so on and so forth.

00:18:33 ◼   ► Or if you want to increase profits, then get people in and out faster.

00:18:36 ◼   ► And that might also increase satisfaction.

00:18:38 ◼   ► Nobody is clamoring for even nicer materials than an Apple store.

00:18:42 ◼   ► And yet they're constantly redoing things.

00:18:44 ◼   ► I'm not saying they shouldn't make them nice.

00:18:46 ◼   ► They totally should.

00:18:47 ◼   ► But, you know, that's, I don't know, maybe we're unique.

00:18:50 ◼   ► Maybe we don't spend enough time in Apple stores.

00:18:52 ◼   ► I think they're plenty nice.

00:18:54 ◼   ► I think that I think they are really nice and I think they do they should remodel them refresh them periodically

00:18:59 ◼   ► But all that money flowing in lets them sort of stick their head in the stands that yeah

00:19:04 ◼   ► Sometimes it's frustrating but the money keeps coming in. So let's you know, try to get a new material for the floor

00:19:10 ◼   ► yeah, you know, uh, this is a somewhat silly example, but um

00:19:14 ◼   ► I went for a run and I was putting my phone into my little fanny pack. Hi Brits. Hello

00:19:21 ◼   ► I was putting my phone into my fanny pack or whatever it's called and not that and yeah, well, it's called that here

00:19:28 ◼   ► It's not called that there. But anyway, bum bag. Thank you slate 401. That's what I was looking for

00:19:33 ◼   ► I think that's the British version. Anyway, is that real bum bag? Yeah, I've heard that several times

00:19:38 ◼   ► Not just a parody of fanny pack. I don't think so. I mean they're all kind of parodies of themselves, but but yes

00:19:44 ◼   ► Anyway, I'm gonna get through this darn it

00:19:48 ◼   ► So I dropped my phone on the pavement,

00:19:51 ◼   ► shattered my first iPhone.

00:19:52 ◼   ► It's the first time I've done that

00:19:53 ◼   ► since getting my 3GS way back when.

00:19:56 ◼   ► I made it almost 3,000 days without shattering a phone.

00:19:59 ◼   ► I've had some like nicks or scratches or what have you.

00:20:01 ◼   ► - No, is that before or after the last Mac mini update?

00:20:04 ◼   ► - That's a good question, I'm not sure.

00:20:06 ◼   ► But anyway, I went to schedule an appointment

00:20:11 ◼   ► on Friday mornings.

00:20:13 ◼   ► This was at like 6.45, seven o'clock in the morning

00:20:16 ◼   ► when I was done with my run.

00:20:17 ◼   ► And there was some availability. There was like a hair of availability Friday and some availability

00:20:23 ◼   ► Saturday and I ended up having to wait until Sunday and just a couple days out.

00:20:28 ◼   ► The times that I had were not available to me were not terribly convenient, which yes,

00:20:35 ◼   ► I understand that like, "Oh, I live very close to an Apple store. Don't be creepy."

00:20:39 ◼   ► You know, if you live an hour or two away from an Apple store, it's much, much worse.

00:20:42 ◼   ► So this could have been a whole lot worse. But if I had been able to schedule like a same day

00:20:47 ◼   ► appointment for a convenient time for me, that would have been amazing. Instead, I was like,

00:20:52 ◼   ► "Oh, I guess that's when I'll go in." And then when I got there, it was like, "Okay, wait 10,

00:20:57 ◼   ► 15 minutes for somebody to come talk to you to just verify the fact that you have the phone you

00:21:02 ◼   ► say you have. And then wait 10 or 15 minutes for somebody else to come and grab the phone. And then

00:21:07 ◼   ► wait the two hours to have the phone repaired." And yes, I understand that this is a first world

00:21:12 ◼   ► problem to end all first-world problems, but the point I'm bringing, the reason I

00:21:17 ◼   ► bring all this up is because if I had had like a next-day appointment, would

00:21:19 ◼   ► have been in and out in an hour, which I think if the store was empty or perhaps

00:21:23 ◼   ► more appropriately staffed, then I could have been, that would have been amazing!

00:21:27 ◼   ► And I wouldn't have stopped talking about that forever! But instead it's like,

00:21:31 ◼   ► "Oh, well, I guess I got to go to the Apple Store." You mean you have to go to Apple

00:21:35 ◼   ► today? You will be today at Apple today, going into their forum,

00:21:41 ◼   ► atrium to be in their Genius Grove. I'm actually glad you brought that up. I

00:21:45 ◼   ► actually think I like Today at Apple. I think I like the name and I think I like

00:21:48 ◼   ► the premise. Will I ever do it? Probably not. I like the idea. Even though I don't

00:21:54 ◼   ► think it's for me, I think it's a good idea and I actually really really like

00:21:57 ◼   ► the name Today at Apple and in the little video they showed, you know, they

00:22:00 ◼   ► showed Today at Apple we're gonna, I don't know, do a photo walk. Today at

00:22:03 ◼   ► Apple we're gonna do sketching. Today at Apple we're gonna do Teacher Tuesday,

00:22:06 ◼   ► which I also think is really awesome.

00:22:09 ◼   ► So as much as I want to poke fun,

00:22:12 ◼   ► and I know you were joking,

00:22:13 ◼   ► but I want to poke fun at today at Apple,

00:22:15 ◼   ► I actually do enjoy that.

00:22:17 ◼   ► Apple Town Center, however,

00:22:18 ◼   ► get out of here with that nonsense, it's terrible.

00:22:21 ◼   ► - All right, now we've spent too much time on retail,

00:22:23 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:22:24 ◼   ► accurately reflecting the presentation.

00:22:27 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:22:28 ◼   ► - We are sponsored this week by Aftershokz

00:22:30 ◼   ► bone conduction headphones.

00:22:31 ◼   ► Go to ATP.Aftershokz.com to learn more.

00:22:35 ◼   ► Aftershocks headphones work by bone conduction.

00:22:38 ◼   ► Small transducers rest in front of your ears,

00:22:40 ◼   ► not inside or around them like most headphones,

00:22:43 ◼   ► and they send vibrations through your cheekbones

00:22:45 ◼   ► that are too small for you to feel

00:22:47 ◼   ► directly to your inner ear.

00:22:49 ◼   ► So unlike every other kind of headphone,

00:22:51 ◼   ► bone conduction leaves your ears completely open

00:22:54 ◼   ► with nothing sitting on top of them or resting in them

00:22:57 ◼   ► or squishing inside your ear canal.

00:22:59 ◼   ► And this brings some major benefits.

00:23:01 ◼   ► So first of all, there's a major comfort benefit.

00:23:03 ◼   ► If you, like me, can't wear earbuds

00:23:06 ◼   ► 'cause they just hurt after a while,

00:23:07 ◼   ► this doesn't have that problem.

00:23:08 ◼   ► There's nothing in your ear.

00:23:10 ◼   ► They're also awesome for exercise and for hot weather

00:23:14 ◼   ► because you don't sweat as much without this thing

00:23:16 ◼   ► covering up or sticking inside your ear.

00:23:18 ◼   ► They also stay in place really well

00:23:19 ◼   ► as you move around during exercise

00:23:20 ◼   ► and they are IP55 certified for water resistance.

00:23:24 ◼   ► So if they get too sweaty or if it starts raining,

00:23:26 ◼   ► you don't have to worry about it.

00:23:28 ◼   ► And the biggest difference for me with Aftershock

00:23:30 ◼   ► compared to any other headphones

00:23:31 ◼   ► is that nothing is blocking your ears,

00:23:33 ◼   ► so you hear all of the sound of the world around you.

00:23:37 ◼   ► So this is not so good if you're in a very loud place,

00:23:39 ◼   ► like a subway station, but it's awesome

00:23:42 ◼   ► if you're doing something like running outside,

00:23:45 ◼   ► or doing stuff around your house

00:23:46 ◼   ► where you wanna be able to still hear

00:23:48 ◼   ► what's going on in the house,

00:23:49 ◼   ► or taking a call in an office.

00:23:51 ◼   ► It is incredible, it is like nothing,

00:23:53 ◼   ► it's like no other kind of headphone I've ever used,

00:23:55 ◼   ► and I use it for walking especially.

00:23:57 ◼   ► It is amazing for walking,

00:24:00 ◼   ► or any kind of other outdoor exercise

00:24:02 ◼   ► where you want to hear the world

00:24:04 ◼   ► and you don't want to be blocked out

00:24:06 ◼   ► for safety or practicality reasons.

00:24:08 ◼   ► The flagship model was the Trex Titanium,

00:24:10 ◼   ► which they still sell and it's great.

00:24:12 ◼   ► And it is, I think, my favorite overall one.

00:24:14 ◼   ► They also just announced and are taking pre-orders

00:24:17 ◼   ► for the Trex Air.

00:24:19 ◼   ► This is 20% lighter, it now has a new lightweight

00:24:22 ◼   ► all titanium headband, it has reduced sound leakage,

00:24:25 ◼   ► improved microphones, and better bass response if you want.

00:24:29 ◼   ► Personally, I prefer the pocketability of the original one

00:24:32 ◼   ► 'cause the shape is a little bit different,

00:24:33 ◼   ► but they're both amazing.

00:24:34 ◼   ► You can't go wrong with either one.

00:24:35 ◼   ► They're both incredibly light, incredibly comfortable,

00:24:38 ◼   ► and I highly recommend them.

00:24:39 ◼   ► So go to ATP.aftershocks.com to learn more

00:24:43 ◼   ► about the Trek's air and the Trek's titanium.

00:24:46 ◼   ► Thank you very much to Aftershocks for sponsoring our show.

00:24:49 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:24:52 ◼   ► Next up was Apple Watch.

00:24:54 ◼   ► This was, it started out with some new medical initiatives

00:24:58 ◼   ► around continuous heart rate, not full-blown monitoring,

00:25:03 ◼   ► but kind of like passive checks throughout the day

00:25:05 ◼   ► for heart rate monitoring that can do new things

00:25:08 ◼   ► like attempt to detect if your heart rate is elevated

00:25:11 ◼   ► when it shouldn't be, like if you're not exercising.

00:25:14 ◼   ► And they also announced a new heart study

00:25:15 ◼   ► that they're starting that will,

00:25:18 ◼   ► that the goal of which is to detect things

00:25:21 ◼   ► like arrhythmias and AFib.

00:25:25 ◼   ► And this is a really big deal.

00:25:28 ◼   ► This is exactly the kind of awesome thing

00:25:31 ◼   ► that I think the Jeff Williams-led health initiatives

00:25:34 ◼   ► really get right.

00:25:36 ◼   ► I really hope that this works out for them.

00:25:38 ◼   ► I'm very glad they're doing this.

00:25:40 ◼   ► They should be commended for doing this

00:25:42 ◼   ► because this is potentially life-changing

00:25:45 ◼   ► for a lot of people, a lot of people.

00:25:48 ◼   ► So that's awesome.

00:25:50 ◼   ► - Well, you have to opt into this, the study, though.

00:25:52 ◼   ► It's not, I mean, it'll be better when,

00:25:54 ◼   ► if everything works out.

00:25:55 ◼   ► I don't know what the regulatory situation is,

00:25:57 ◼   ► but can they just like build this in so you don't have to know anything you just put your

00:25:59 ◼   ► Apple watch on and then one day you get some kind of notification says hey we noticed something

00:26:05 ◼   ► weird maybe you should contact somebody and you know whatever versus now where you have

00:26:10 ◼   ► to download this app sign up to be part of the study probably sign a bunch of disclaimer

00:26:14 ◼   ► things or whatever so it's good for people who already know that they might be at risk

00:26:19 ◼   ► for this type of thing to have monitoring but no one as far as I understand this program

00:26:23 ◼   ► is going to passively get the benefit of this program because it's still in the sort of

00:26:26 ◼   ► experimental stage.

00:26:28 ◼   ► So it's a start, it's a start.

00:26:30 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you'd have to opt in

00:26:32 ◼   ► to being in the study and things like that.

00:26:35 ◼   ► But they had like their--

00:26:36 ◼   ► - You have to download an app and everything.

00:26:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, but like Apple has been building a framework

00:26:40 ◼   ► to do these things for some time now.

00:26:42 ◼   ► So like that's, and to do it at quite immense scale too.

00:26:46 ◼   ► So that's why these are so important

00:26:48 ◼   ► and why they're so impressive.

00:26:50 ◼   ► That Apple's doing this at scale

00:26:52 ◼   ► with pretty advanced resources at their fingertips here

00:26:55 ◼   ► or at their wrist tips.

00:26:57 ◼   ► And so it's, there actually is potential

00:27:00 ◼   ► to do pretty significant things here.

00:27:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, they were saying that, you know,

00:27:03 ◼   ► I thought it was during this keynote that they said that,

00:27:05 ◼   ► you know, a lot of medical studies

00:27:06 ◼   ► are something like a thousand people,

00:27:07 ◼   ► and this is potentially going to be like tens of thousands,

00:27:10 ◼   ► if not more than that, which is really awesome.

00:27:12 ◼   ► We also skipped a brief moment.

00:27:14 ◼   ► What did you think of the introductory video

00:27:16 ◼   ► for Apple Watch?

00:27:17 ◼   ► This is not the cellular video which comes later.

00:27:20 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, where they have like the guy

00:27:22 ◼   ► like reading his letter from his car crash and stuff.

00:27:24 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:27:26 ◼   ► - My main complaint about that thing

00:27:27 ◼   ► is that it was not clear to me

00:27:30 ◼   ► whether the people in the video were actors

00:27:32 ◼   ► or the actual people.

00:27:34 ◼   ► - Well, it's funny you bring that up.

00:27:35 ◼   ► I wish I could, it's like we planned this.

00:27:38 ◼   ► Friend of the show, Kyle Seth Gray, or Kyle's the Gray,

00:27:41 ◼   ► he was a relay listener,

00:27:43 ◼   ► and I think he listens to the show, I'm not sure,

00:27:45 ◼   ► so if so, hi Kyle.

00:27:46 ◼   ► But anyway, he's definitely a relay listener,

00:27:49 ◼   ► and he was one of the people in the video.

00:27:51 ◼   ► He was the one on the bike, the stationary bike.

00:27:54 ◼   ► And so that is a real person that I have met, and I have shaken his hand with my hand, and

00:27:59 ◼   ► he is real.

00:28:00 ◼   ► So yeah, I don't—maybe others were actors, but I'm pretty sure not.

00:28:04 ◼   ► And I feel like we saw something fly by that the guy in the elevator was also a relay listener.

00:28:12 ◼   ► It's always kind of weird to me when—I mean, they do this all the time, but they

00:28:16 ◼   ► enter a segment about a product.

00:28:18 ◼   ► And especially with the Apple Watch, where the new one looks just like the old one, it

00:28:23 ◼   ► It takes a couple seconds to ramp up to say, they're just telling us how great their product,

00:28:28 ◼   ► existing product is, which they tend not to do.

00:28:30 ◼   ► Like there wasn't a big segment about how great the iPhone 7 is before the iPhone 8

00:28:34 ◼   ► part, right?

00:28:35 ◼   ► But it's like, let me just tell you about, and it was also about watchOS 4 and people

00:28:39 ◼   ► love their Apple watch and sales are great, even though we're not going to tell you how

00:28:42 ◼   ► many there are, but trust us, they're great.

00:28:45 ◼   ► And then the video.

00:28:47 ◼   ► And then of course the new, the new Apple watch on top of that.

00:28:50 ◼   ► But it was like, it was almost like, again, a lot of time spent on something that is not

00:28:55 ◼   ► the announcement of the new product.

00:28:57 ◼   ► But you know, I don't, I guess they feel like it's important to them to emphasize

00:29:04 ◼   ► the fact that the watch is a success, like, in a way that they don't feel like they

00:29:09 ◼   ► have to do for the phone.

00:29:10 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:29:11 ◼   ► It beats me.

00:29:13 ◼   ► But I thought the video was good.

00:29:14 ◼   ► And I think, to come back to where we were before I interrupted, I really think this

00:29:18 ◼   ► Apple Heart Study could be something extremely powerful and I'm pleased to see them doing

00:29:23 ◼   ► it. This is another example of Tim or whomever deciding that this is something that's important

00:29:28 ◼   ► to Apple or to them personally and then eventually Apple. And so they're making it happen and

00:29:35 ◼   ► really making some stark positive change or hopefully, we don't know yet, but I would

00:29:39 ◼   ► assume that will be the case and that's really awesome. So then after that, unless there's

00:29:43 ◼   ► something else we had here.

00:29:44 ◼   ► - Series three.

00:29:45 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly. So series 3, which is with LTE.

00:29:50 ◼   ► Well, optionally with LTE.

00:29:52 ◼   ► That's a fair point, fair point. It's optionally with LTE. This is pretty exciting. It sounds

00:29:57 ◼   ► like it will be a completely separate, of course, connection to your particular cell

00:30:03 ◼   ► phone carrier. You will share, however, the same phone number with your iPhone. And there's

00:30:09 ◼   ► been a little bit of chatter about how that's working technically behind the scenes. But

00:30:13 ◼   ► The net effect is, if you run out of the house and your phone is at home and you go driving

00:30:18 ◼   ► somewhere else or running or what have you, then if you get a phone call, your watch and

00:30:24 ◼   ► your phone will both simultaneously ring and you can answer on either one.

00:30:28 ◼   ► You can send text messages from either one, etc., etc., in a way that you can only do

00:30:32 ◼   ► now if you're either connected to Wi-Fi in certain circumstances or connected via Bluetooth

00:30:36 ◼   ► to your phone.

00:30:37 ◼   ► And that's extremely cool.

00:30:39 ◼   ► What's not cool is that at least in America, it seems that all the cell phone carriers,

00:30:44 ◼   ► or at least anyone who's talked about it yet, is saying it's going to be $10 a month for

00:30:48 ◼   ► a watch, which I think is preposterous.

00:30:50 ◼   ► I don't know what it is.

00:30:51 ◼   ► I don't know why I came to this conclusion.

00:30:53 ◼   ► Because the watch is small and you pay more money for big things.

00:30:56 ◼   ► No.

00:30:57 ◼   ► No, I think you're right.

00:30:58 ◼   ► K-man size comparison.

00:31:00 ◼   ► Okay.

00:31:01 ◼   ► I know that we are spoiled by modern cellular plans being amazing, but it's an entirely

00:31:06 ◼   ► separate cellular data device that is only $10 a month to have on your plan, that's a

00:31:12 ◼   ► good deal.

00:31:13 ◼   ► No, it's not more data.

00:31:16 ◼   ► They're selling you air like Woody Allen's father in that movie that I can't remember.

00:31:20 ◼   ► They're not giving you more data.

00:31:22 ◼   ► It doesn't cost them that much more money to have another device on their network.

00:31:28 ◼   ► So trust me, they're making a huge amount of profit at an additional $10.

00:31:32 ◼   ► - No, I know, but that is a very,

00:31:35 ◼   ► compared to the industry and what they do

00:31:38 ◼   ► and what we've always paid for,

00:31:39 ◼   ► to have an entirely separately activated device

00:31:42 ◼   ► for $10 a month is pretty good.

00:31:44 ◼   ► - I disagree.

00:31:46 ◼   ► - It's the same phone number.

00:31:48 ◼   ► I mean, here's the problem.

00:31:49 ◼   ► The problem with all this stuff is that it's not,

00:31:50 ◼   ► we don't know what we should actually be paying

00:31:52 ◼   ► for these things because so many telecom companies

00:31:55 ◼   ► have not a monopoly, but you have one or two

00:31:58 ◼   ► reasonable choices.

00:31:59 ◼   ► The competition is not strong in this industry.

00:32:02 ◼   ► Sure. Regulation is not, you know, so we don't know what this stuff would actually be worth with

00:32:07 ◼   ► competition. And we do know that in other parts of the world, you get more data and faster speeds

00:32:11 ◼   ► for less money. So the general frustration with carriers and telecom in the US underlies

00:32:16 ◼   ► everything. And so it's hard to say, you know, what you're saying, your argument, you have Marco

00:32:21 ◼   ► is the relative thing like thing thing x costs this amount and thing y is cost cost way less

00:32:28 ◼   ► less proportionally. I'm getting another device and it's only $10. But it just feels like

00:32:34 ◼   ► the bad, the doomsday scenarios of the net neutrality things where it's like every new

00:32:38 ◼   ► thing you want to have they can charge you money for. The carriers have always been there

00:32:42 ◼   ► and remain there. And now it's like, well, great, everything's going to have a cell connection

00:32:46 ◼   ► and I have to get not nickel and dimed, but five and 10 for every single one of these

00:32:52 ◼   ► new items that I add. It's untenable after a certain point, especially if it doesn't

00:32:56 ◼   ► come with more data, right? Especially if it doesn't. So I, you know, we all hate carriages

00:33:00 ◼   ► and wish they did a better job. At this point, when the number of devices starts going up

00:33:03 ◼   ► like this, like we fast forward 10, 15 years and everybody in the family who is an adolescent

00:33:09 ◼   ► or adult has a watch, a phone, a tablet, and not a laptop because Apple will never add

00:33:17 ◼   ► cellular to it because they're evil. That's a lot of damn devices. And you start saying,

00:33:22 ◼   ► "Can I just pay a huge amount of money for my whole family and just be like a flat rate

00:33:25 ◼   ► for a huge amount of data and not have to get additional money every time someone adds

00:33:30 ◼   ► a new device, but we're far from that.

00:33:33 ◼   ► Anyway, it's not that bad.

00:33:35 ◼   ► $10 seems reasonable for the kind of people who are going to buy an Apple Watch with cellular,

00:33:41 ◼   ► which is already a pretty expensive product, as a companion to their already expensive

00:33:46 ◼   ► phone.

00:33:47 ◼   ► So Apple's right on the money in terms of who this product is for and what they're willing

00:33:50 ◼   ► to pay.

00:33:51 ◼   ► of that later when we start getting into the phones.

00:33:53 ◼   ► But, you know, it looks good.

00:33:56 ◼   ► - I agree with you, Marco, that getting this for free,

00:34:00 ◼   ► and Jon as well, but Marco, I think you were,

00:34:02 ◼   ► I think you thought I wanted this for free.

00:34:04 ◼   ► I don't.

00:34:05 ◼   ► I don't think that a free additional connection

00:34:09 ◼   ► to, in my case, AT&T's network is reasonable.

00:34:11 ◼   ► I don't think that at all.

00:34:13 ◼   ► This is different, for example, than tethering,

00:34:15 ◼   ► where tethering is still only one connection to AT&T.

00:34:19 ◼   ► And how I choose to blow through my data

00:34:21 ◼   ► to me should be my choice. And I found it completely egregious when tethering was an

00:34:26 ◼   ► additional fee years ago, because it's still only one connection and it's still just my

00:34:31 ◼   ► data. And in fact, in some ways, they should encourage tethering because then I'm going

00:34:34 ◼   ► to blow through my data even quicker and then hypothetically pay them even more money. This

00:34:38 ◼   ► is different in that I do think it should cost a non-zero amount of money to have an

00:34:45 ◼   ► Apple Watch connected to your cell phone plan. The thing that bothers me though, is that

00:34:50 ◼   ► I don't think $10 a month is a reasonable cost.

00:34:53 ◼   ► I think it should be half that.

00:34:55 ◼   ► Now, how did I come to that conclusion?

00:34:56 ◼   ► No freaking clue.

00:34:57 ◼   ► I think it's what John alluded to earlier.

00:34:59 ◼   ► The watch is physically small.

00:35:00 ◼   ► The iPad is physically big.

00:35:02 ◼   ► It should be less than the iPad.

00:35:03 ◼   ► And I can see that, really, if you put that on paper,

00:35:06 ◼   ► it doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense.

00:35:08 ◼   ► Nope.

00:35:09 ◼   ► But it just seems--

00:35:10 ◼   ► it just seems bonkers to me that something that really shouldn't

00:35:14 ◼   ► necessarily be drawing that much data-- and even if it was,

00:35:17 ◼   ► it's still the same bucket of data.

00:35:19 ◼   ► It's not like I'm getting more data for it.

00:35:21 ◼   ► I just don't think that $10 a month is reasonable.

00:35:24 ◼   ► I think five would have been the right answer

00:35:26 ◼   ► and I wouldn't have blinked an eye if it was $5 a month.

00:35:29 ◼   ► But for $10 a month, that's making me go,

00:35:32 ◼   ► "Ugh, I think I want cellular, but I'm not so sure."

00:35:37 ◼   ► And I don't know.

00:35:39 ◼   ► - You want cellular, forget it.

00:35:41 ◼   ► - Okay, before I set you on fire,

00:35:43 ◼   ► this kind of like micro price anger

00:35:47 ◼   ► is why app developers can't charge money for apps.

00:35:49 ◼   ► But anyway, let's not do that now.

00:35:52 ◼   ► - Well, you're right, and actually--

00:35:53 ◼   ► - $10 a month, $5 a month even is great for apps.

00:35:57 ◼   ► Anyway, here's the thing.

00:35:59 ◼   ► The cost of this device to the carriers

00:36:01 ◼   ► is network capacity, right?

00:36:03 ◼   ► Because every device that is communicating

00:36:05 ◼   ► one of those towers adds, right?

00:36:06 ◼   ► But in the grand scheme of things, even with Apple's,

00:36:09 ◼   ► we have no idea how many they're selling things.

00:36:11 ◼   ► We know roughly how many they're selling

00:36:14 ◼   ► in proportion to the number of cell phones

00:36:15 ◼   ► that are on a cell network at any given time, and it is minuscule.

00:36:18 ◼   ► So there is a capacity increase for connecting these watches, but it is small, and all pricing

00:36:24 ◼   ► of cell data plans is in the realm of whatever carriers make up and/or collude with each

00:36:30 ◼   ► other for.

00:36:31 ◼   ► There is no market pressure to lower prices because there are so few people, and the only

00:36:36 ◼   ► one who's hungry is always like the one with the terrible network, or I think it was that

00:36:39 ◼   ► Sprint these days or whatever, or T-Mobile, right?

00:36:43 ◼   ► And even they pull prices essentially out of thin air.

00:36:46 ◼   ► So it's hard for us to know how much this stuff is worth, other than, like I said, looking

00:36:50 ◼   ► at the rest of the world and realizing we don't have it that great here.

00:36:53 ◼   ► So I don't know.

00:36:54 ◼   ► But anyway, if you're remotely on the fence, get the cellular one.

00:36:59 ◼   ► Why would you even bother getting one of these phones and not get the cellular?

00:37:03 ◼   ► If you were already looking at a Series 2 and you'd never had any interest in cellular,

00:37:08 ◼   ► then get the Series 3 without cellular.

00:37:10 ◼   ► if you thought I really love to have a cellular thing but that $10 month is you know I mean you know just

00:37:16 ◼   ► Drop one of your streaming subscriptions like this is an expensive product for your expensive phone

00:37:21 ◼   ► Well, but I might add a screen a streaming subscription because stupid Apple music which will get to you in a minute

00:37:25 ◼   ► It's cellular on your wrist. That's awesome pay the ten bucks. Oh, it is awesome

00:37:32 ◼   ► That's incredible what like even for this year even for this day and age even for the wonderful technology that we have

00:37:39 ◼   ► that is still amazing.

00:37:41 ◼   ► Like how is, how, you know, this is like the Louis C.K.

00:37:44 ◼   ► like you know, sitting in a chair in the sky thing.

00:37:46 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:37:47 ◼   ► - How is this not amazing?

00:37:49 ◼   ► And like, you know, people are like,

00:37:51 ◼   ► I've seen some of the comments are like,

00:37:52 ◼   ► it's just a watch.

00:37:53 ◼   ► No, it's not just a watch.

00:37:55 ◼   ► It's a tiny little computer that lives on your wrist

00:37:57 ◼   ► and can talk to anywhere in the world

00:37:58 ◼   ► without any phone attacks to it now.

00:37:59 ◼   ► Like, that's incredible.

00:38:01 ◼   ► That is awesome.

00:38:02 ◼   ► - But can I run overcast on it?

00:38:04 ◼   ► 'Cause that's really what I care about.

00:38:05 ◼   ► - No, I'm like-- - Amen, brother.

00:38:06 ◼   ► - But that's a software limitation.

00:38:08 ◼   ► - That is not a hard, and we'll get to that.

00:38:11 ◼   ► I mean, so okay, let's talk about that now.

00:38:14 ◼   ► So, you know, cellular on the watch,

00:38:16 ◼   ► what is it actually good for?

00:38:19 ◼   ► And the answer so far is, you know,

00:38:21 ◼   ► the basics of lots of times we have talked about,

00:38:25 ◼   ► and other people have talked about, you know,

00:38:27 ◼   ► do you bring your phone with you with the watch?

00:38:29 ◼   ► And when the Apple would add features

00:38:31 ◼   ► like standalone music playback from the watch,

00:38:34 ◼   ► like to a Bluetooth headset,

00:38:36 ◼   ► or when they talked about adding SOS,

00:38:38 ◼   ► earlier this summer, we would, a lot of us would ask

00:38:41 ◼   ► ourselves, like, why would I not have my phone with me?

00:38:45 ◼   ► 'Cause a lot of people, like, even when they go out

00:38:46 ◼   ► for exercising, they still bring their phone with them

00:38:49 ◼   ► just in case there's an emergency or somebody has to reach

00:38:52 ◼   ► them or they need help or whatever else.

00:38:55 ◼   ► So there's a clear reason for lots of people who would

00:39:00 ◼   ► otherwise take just the watch with them somewhere.

00:39:03 ◼   ► I would love to do that, but haven't been doing that,

00:39:05 ◼   ► Not because of anything about the watch's hardware

00:39:08 ◼   ► or software, but because it just didn't have cellular itself

00:39:11 ◼   ► which I guess is hardware, but ignore that for a second.

00:39:14 ◼   ► So that was holding back a lot of people.

00:39:16 ◼   ► And so I mentioned last week, in our predictions episode,

00:39:20 ◼   ► and we had already heard the rumors last week

00:39:22 ◼   ► about the cellular watch because that was

00:39:23 ◼   ► from the HomePod leak, but we had,

00:39:27 ◼   ► I discussed the things I want in the watch

00:39:30 ◼   ► are for it to be a smarter and nicer looking timepiece.

00:39:34 ◼   ► But what most people use the watch for

00:39:36 ◼   ► is exercise notifications,

00:39:38 ◼   ► and that seems to be driving the sale.

00:39:39 ◼   ► So what Apple's doing here is very smart in that way.

00:39:42 ◼   ► It looks like they've done zero

00:39:45 ◼   ► to make it a nicer looking, better, smarter timepiece.

00:39:49 ◼   ► But this is a massive jump forward

00:39:52 ◼   ► for making it an exercise and notifications device,

00:39:55 ◼   ► because now there are significant times

00:39:58 ◼   ► when people would want to bring just the watch with them.

00:40:03 ◼   ► And those are times for which people are buying

00:40:06 ◼   ► or want to buy the Apple Watch.

00:40:08 ◼   ► So that's exercise, that's like going on the beach,

00:40:11 ◼   ► that is certain types of travel,

00:40:14 ◼   ► and let's be honest, it's mostly exercise.

00:40:16 ◼   ► But that's a big thing.

00:40:17 ◼   ► Like a lot of runners wanna run without having a phone

00:40:20 ◼   ► strapped in some weird spot on their body

00:40:22 ◼   ► or anything like that.

00:40:23 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:40:24 ◼   ► - It's a huge market.

00:40:25 ◼   ► So this is awesome for that.

00:40:27 ◼   ► Now going beyond the phone call in an emergency scenario,

00:40:32 ◼   ► I think one of the other things,

00:40:34 ◼   ► and they mentioned the Apple Music streaming,

00:40:36 ◼   ► that's cool, that should be fine.

00:40:38 ◼   ► I'm a little concerned about how that will affect

00:40:40 ◼   ► battery life, but it's probably--

00:40:42 ◼   ► - Wait, wait, you're underplaying that?

00:40:44 ◼   ► I think that's the most important thing

00:40:45 ◼   ► because when you take it when you're running,

00:40:47 ◼   ► I think a lot of people bring their phones with them,

00:40:48 ◼   ► they say, "Oh, it's in case I fall down,

00:40:50 ◼   ► "I need to call somebody,"

00:40:50 ◼   ► but really, they wanna play their music from it.

00:40:52 ◼   ► And yeah, you can play music from your watch now,

00:40:54 ◼   ► but it's a pain in the butt.

00:40:55 ◼   ► I think streaming music plus AirPods

00:40:57 ◼   ► is like the killer app that's gonna sell you there for me.

00:41:00 ◼   ► You're gonna tell them, "Oh, I can make phone calls,

00:41:01 ◼   ► that will make me feel better, but I think it is all about 40 million songs on your wrist

00:41:06 ◼   ► and AirPods.

00:41:07 ◼   ► Like that is the ultimate I want to run and listen to something.

00:41:10 ◼   ► That's why I think it should work with Spotify and all the other services.

00:41:13 ◼   ► I have no idea if it does.

00:41:14 ◼   ► I hope it's not constrained to Apple Music and I agree with your concerns about the battery

00:41:18 ◼   ► life and the streaming, but that is the killer and they show that in the ad.

00:41:22 ◼   ► Like look at me, I got AirPods and I got wrist.

00:41:24 ◼   ► It's the lightest way to listen to all the music in the world while you do some activity,

00:41:30 ◼   ► while it also tracks your workout and your pulse and everything.

00:41:32 ◼   ► That I think is the total package on this.

00:41:34 ◼   ► Yeah, that's exactly right.

00:41:35 ◼   ► And that's why a minute ago I alluded to, you know, I might need to get an Apple music

00:41:39 ◼   ► subscription.

00:41:40 ◼   ► I am a die-hard Spotify kind of guy.

00:41:43 ◼   ► I love Spotify for reasons that are not interesting for right now.

00:41:46 ◼   ► But the thought of being able to go for a run, like everything Marco just said, to be

00:41:50 ◼   ► able to go for a run with just my AirPods and my watch and not have to worry about dropping

00:41:54 ◼   ► my phone, but more importantly, just carrying my darn phone, that sounds amazing.

00:41:58 ◼   ► And if I, you know, twist my ankle or something like that, that I can call for help and get

00:42:03 ◼   ► help from Aaron or whomever, that's amazing.

00:42:06 ◼   ► And that is what I want.

00:42:08 ◼   ► But Casey, all this amazingness, including having all the music in the world accessible

00:42:14 ◼   ► via voice control on your little wrist computer that you can wear anywhere and have cellular

00:42:18 ◼   ► coverage is not worth 20 bucks a month, is it?

00:42:21 ◼   ► It's not worth 20 bucks a month.

00:42:22 ◼   ► He's not complaining about the price of the phone, no.

00:42:24 ◼   ► He's complaining about the price of the carrier plant.

00:42:26 ◼   ► I know.

00:42:27 ◼   ► like he's already paying for. Especially if he doesn't bring his phone, he's not having

00:42:30 ◼   ► extra network capacity. All right. No, but anyway, but the problem though, but leaving all,

00:42:34 ◼   ► even all my whining convention aside about the price of the cellular part, you know, it could be

00:42:40 ◼   ► that I'm actually in $10 to your point, Marco, $10 for the cellular, $10 for Apple Music, but,

00:42:45 ◼   ► and that's monthly, which adds up real fast. But all of this really comes down to, however,

00:42:50 ◼   ► the thing that I most enjoy listening to when I go for a run is actually podcasts. And the

00:42:57 ◼   ► And the particular podcast client catcher, whatever, of choice that I enjoy, happens

00:43:02 ◼   ► to be Overcast.

00:43:04 ◼   ► And all I want in the world now is to be able to leave my phone in my house, take my watch

00:43:10 ◼   ► and my AirPods, and listen to Overcast from anywhere.

00:43:15 ◼   ► That would be nice.

00:43:16 ◼   ► Tell me, Marco, that you're going to make this happen.

00:43:18 ◼   ► I'm trying, but I don't think I'm getting anywhere anytime soon.

00:43:22 ◼   ► I know.

00:43:23 ◼   ► it at that because I'm literally not getting anywhere yet, but I am trying. I told you,

00:43:29 ◼   ► you know, I said when I removed that feature, I'm going to try to bring it back. I am trying

00:43:33 ◼   ► to bring it back, but so far I haven't. But I'm not going to stop trying. In fact, this

00:43:38 ◼   ► has now lit a new fire under my butt because I really, really want this to be a thing that

00:43:44 ◼   ► people can do, that I can do also.

00:43:46 ◼   ► You know why that is, by the way, because I know why that is, and it has nothing to

00:43:50 ◼   ► do with me or any of your customers. It has to do with your newfound obsession. And you

00:43:53 ◼   ► don't want to bring your phone with you while you're riding your bike either, do you?

00:43:56 ◼   ► Nope, sure don't. Shouldn't be listening to podcasts while you ride your bike.

00:44:00 ◼   ► No, I actually don't. I more have been wanting this on dog walks, honestly. Biking, I'm still

00:44:05 ◼   ► -- and even though I -- Well, fair enough. Fair enough.

00:44:07 ◼   ► Even though I'm not biking on the street, I'm biking on a trail. But even on the trail,

00:44:11 ◼   ► I don't want to listen to things. I'm listening to the world around me because I'm scared

00:44:16 ◼   ► out of my mind.

00:44:17 ◼   ► But anyway, so also there are other reasons

00:44:20 ◼   ► to want a cellular watch.

00:44:22 ◼   ► So I thought of a couple.

00:44:23 ◼   ► So obviously there's a lot of app potential here.

00:44:25 ◼   ► The watch so far has been a pretty mediocre app platform,

00:44:28 ◼   ► but this changes things quite a bit

00:44:30 ◼   ► for a lot of different types of apps.

00:44:32 ◼   ► So this could be a big thing.

00:44:35 ◼   ► Right now, a lot of the watch has been held back

00:44:38 ◼   ► by the fact that the apps on the watch are pretty slow

00:44:44 ◼   ► compared to doing the same thing on your phone.

00:44:46 ◼   ► But if now more people have more reason

00:44:48 ◼   ► to not have their phone with them at all,

00:44:50 ◼   ► and all of a sudden the watch is all they have with them,

00:44:53 ◼   ► that opens up new potential for apps,

00:44:54 ◼   ► a new demand for apps.

00:44:56 ◼   ► I also thought about things like,

00:44:58 ◼   ► so they mentioned in the keynote

00:44:59 ◼   ► that if you leave your phone at home

00:45:01 ◼   ► and if you bring just your watch with you,

00:45:03 ◼   ► just your new Series 3 with LTE,

00:45:05 ◼   ► that updates your location for find friends tracking.

00:45:09 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, that's right, that was really cool.

00:45:11 ◼   ► which is not only awesome for like exercisers and things,

00:45:14 ◼   ► but also I thought like,

00:45:16 ◼   ► what if you wanted to track locations of your children

00:45:19 ◼   ► and you didn't want to give them a phone,

00:45:21 ◼   ► but you maybe could give them an Apple Watch with LTE?

00:45:24 ◼   ► Like, I know this is an awfully over-engineered solution

00:45:28 ◼   ► to this problem, but I think that's actually,

00:45:31 ◼   ► that's a potential use I thought of here.

00:45:33 ◼   ► - Give your children $300 watches.

00:45:35 ◼   ► You know, I just bought a GPS tracker for my dog

00:45:37 ◼   ► and it was much cheaper,

00:45:37 ◼   ► so consider that if you wanna track your children.

00:45:39 ◼   ► - It won't always be $300.

00:45:41 ◼   ► And that's less than a phone, by the way.

00:45:43 ◼   ► - The Apple One will always be three, well,

00:45:46 ◼   ► 199, the Apple One will get.

00:45:48 ◼   ► - And $10 a month, so that kills it for Casey.

00:45:49 ◼   ► All right, anyway, so I do think this is pretty remarkable.

00:45:54 ◼   ► And they did BS the size increase a little bit, but--

00:45:58 ◼   ► - Oh, I noticed that today. - Yeah, that was awesome.

00:46:00 ◼   ► That was great judo there where--

00:46:02 ◼   ► - The case is the thickness. - The case is exactly

00:46:04 ◼   ► the same size.

00:46:05 ◼   ► I felt like they should have stopped there.

00:46:07 ◼   ► They shouldn't, but they felt like they needed to be honest.

00:46:09 ◼   ► And they said, technically speaking,

00:46:11 ◼   ► the little thing that bumps out of the case

00:46:12 ◼   ► is tiny bit bigger, but the case,

00:46:14 ◼   ► they could have just set the case the same size

00:46:16 ◼   ► and left it, because honestly,

00:46:17 ◼   ► it is bigger by a small amount,

00:46:19 ◼   ► and I bet nobody would notice,

00:46:20 ◼   ► but because they're Apple,

00:46:21 ◼   ► they have to cover their butts.

00:46:23 ◼   ► - Wasn't it like a quarter millimeter?

00:46:24 ◼   ► Like that's a pretty small difference.

00:46:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, two sheets of paper, they said.

00:46:27 ◼   ► - It was almost nothing, but to be fair,

00:46:29 ◼   ► if like Samsung had pulled something like this,

00:46:31 ◼   ► we would be all, well, nobody would pay attention

00:46:33 ◼   ► because nobody-- - No one pay attention,

00:46:34 ◼   ► but because Apple, someone would say,

00:46:36 ◼   ► "I put them next to each other

00:46:37 ◼   ► and you could see two pieces of paper with extra thickness.

00:46:40 ◼   ► No, but it is, I mean it is kind of BS though.

00:46:43 ◼   ► Just call it like you see it and say, "Oh, we made it infinitesimally smaller."

00:46:46 ◼   ► Or bigger.

00:46:47 ◼   ► The most amazing thing, I think, and I always have to remind myself of this when I look

00:46:50 ◼   ► at the Apple Watch, is that every time they talk about this, like, "Oh, you know, we've

00:46:54 ◼   ► essentially kept the watch the same size for many generations.

00:46:57 ◼   ► It's gotten a little bit thicker over time because the Series 2 was thicker than the

00:47:00 ◼   ► original Series 0, and this is thicker still, so fine."

00:47:04 ◼   ► But in general, it's the little Airstream trailer with the bulge on the bottom.

00:47:07 ◼   ► Then I remember it comes in two sizes and I think, how the hell does the smaller one work?

00:47:12 ◼   ► They have to fit all the same stuff in there.

00:47:13 ◼   ► The only thing that is smaller is the screen.

00:47:16 ◼   ► So you can get a slightly smaller battery because you have a slightly smaller screen, but everything else can't be, doesn't shrink in power usage.

00:47:21 ◼   ► It's not like, oh, the small one has a cell radio that uses less power.

00:47:24 ◼   ► If they had a cell radio that uses less power, they would use it in both of them.

00:47:27 ◼   ► So the small one is the miracle.

00:47:28 ◼   ► And maybe that also means the small one doesn't get as good battery life, which is a bummer.

00:47:32 ◼   ► - Well, that's always been the case.

00:47:34 ◼   ► The small one has always gotten noticeably worse

00:47:36 ◼   ► battery life.

00:47:37 ◼   ► - I know, but I mean, like, does it scale linearly?

00:47:39 ◼   ► 'Cause now they add LTE.

00:47:40 ◼   ► Oh, it's still the same all day battery life, blah, blah,

00:47:42 ◼   ► blah.

00:47:43 ◼   ► Is the small one even worse now?

00:47:45 ◼   ► 'Cause there's no, how, the battery must be so tiny in there

00:47:48 ◼   ► and I don't know what the minimum battery size is

00:47:50 ◼   ► to run any kind of cell radio to transmit to a radio tower

00:47:55 ◼   ► that is potentially far away from you.

00:47:57 ◼   ► Anyway, yeah, I'm reminded of that looking at the models.

00:48:02 ◼   ► Oh yeah, they make one that's like way smaller.

00:48:05 ◼   ► Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

00:48:06 ◼   ► - What size does Tina have?

00:48:08 ◼   ► - I think she has a small one.

00:48:09 ◼   ► - So yeah, it's a thing.

00:48:11 ◼   ► - She's gonna get one of these.

00:48:12 ◼   ► - With LTE?

00:48:13 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:48:14 ◼   ► - Are you gonna grumble about paying $10?

00:48:17 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:48:18 ◼   ► - No, I'm not gonna grumble.

00:48:21 ◼   ► I'm encouraging her to get it.

00:48:22 ◼   ► She uses it, she uses it for the intended purpose

00:48:25 ◼   ► as shown in all of Apple's ads.

00:48:27 ◼   ► So as long as they don't make a Pokemon Go app for it,

00:48:29 ◼   ► then everything will be fine.

00:48:31 ◼   ► You know, I wonder, I've heard through various reporting that the thing, the Series 3 just

00:48:38 ◼   ► feels a heck of a lot quicker, like opening apps and things like that.

00:48:42 ◼   ► I kind of wonder, and something Marco said earlier made me think of this, if it doesn't

00:48:47 ◼   ► have to like, so let's say for example I'm using Lyft for the first time in forever and

00:48:51 ◼   ► I try to do it on my watch for whatever silly reason.

00:48:54 ◼   ► It has to, if I understand things correctly anyway, it has to wake up the Lyft app on

00:48:59 ◼   ► my phone, or at the very least wake up the phone and say, "Hey, I'd like to use your

00:49:02 ◼   ► internet connection," but something has to get woken up on the phone and it needs to

00:49:06 ◼   ► communicate with the phone, blah, blah, blah.

00:49:08 ◼   ► I wonder if not only obviously the processor is so much faster on the Series 3, but I wonder

00:49:14 ◼   ► if just having its own connection to the rest of the world on these LTE models will also

00:49:20 ◼   ► dramatically increase and improve performance and just make it feel a lot snappier, even

00:49:27 ◼   ► leaving aside the tremendous gains in the processor.

00:49:30 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, 'cause with the watch,

00:49:32 ◼   ► like one of the reasons why the original watch

00:49:34 ◼   ► was so unbearably slow is that the whole UI of apps

00:49:37 ◼   ► was being driven effectively by the phone,

00:49:39 ◼   ► like remotely over the Bluetooth connection,

00:49:40 ◼   ► so like every tap was basically going back and forth

00:49:43 ◼   ► with the Bluetooth to the phone.

00:49:45 ◼   ► And so everything they've done to make the watch

00:49:47 ◼   ► more independent in both hardware and software

00:49:51 ◼   ► has had a noticeable increase of performance

00:49:54 ◼   ► and responsiveness because anything you're doing

00:49:56 ◼   ► to reduce those round trips is good.

00:49:58 ◼   ► Now the current watch, the Series 1 and 2,

00:50:02 ◼   ► they were pretty fast relative to the first one,

00:50:04 ◼   ► the Series 0, and I'll have a rant here in a second

00:50:07 ◼   ► about these names, but they could go over WiFi

00:50:11 ◼   ► if they wanted to, but they would frequently default

00:50:16 ◼   ► to Bluetooth to the parent phone instead of making

00:50:19 ◼   ► their own WiFi connection for, I think,

00:50:22 ◼   ► just power efficiency reasons, that WiFi used a lot

00:50:24 ◼   ► of power, so it was kind of like a last resort.

00:50:25 ◼   ► the phone or the watch would attempt to use Bluetooth

00:50:28 ◼   ► for as much as it could.

00:50:29 ◼   ► And they made a few comments about the W2,

00:50:32 ◼   ► indicating that it is not only much faster,

00:50:36 ◼   ► but much more power efficient for WiFi and Bluetooth

00:50:39 ◼   ► than the W1.

00:50:40 ◼   ► So I'm hoping that the watch will be more aggressive

00:50:45 ◼   ► at using its WiFi and then when you're out using it cellular

00:50:49 ◼   ► instead of just like trying Bluetooth first

00:50:51 ◼   ► for everything to save power,

00:50:52 ◼   ► because that will make lots of things better.

00:50:55 ◼   ► If for instance, I wanted to bring Overcast

00:50:58 ◼   ► back to the watch, one of the big problems there

00:51:00 ◼   ► was file transfer speeds.

00:51:02 ◼   ► And that's because most of the time

00:51:03 ◼   ► it was going over Bluetooth.

00:51:04 ◼   ► Even when the devices would be plugged in,

00:51:06 ◼   ► they would still often use Bluetooth to transfer the files.

00:51:08 ◼   ► That makes no sense to me, but they would.

00:51:11 ◼   ► And there was no way for me as a developer to say,

00:51:13 ◼   ► "Look, this is a big file.

00:51:15 ◼   ► "Please, for the love of God, transfer it over WiFi."

00:51:17 ◼   ► The user is literally waiting for it right now,

00:51:19 ◼   ► and it's not being transferred over WiFi.

00:51:21 ◼   ► Like, there's no way for me to do that in the API.

00:51:23 ◼   ► So I'm hoping this will help push them in that direction

00:51:26 ◼   ► of having these new chips.

00:51:27 ◼   ► Now, before I forget about the naming here,

00:51:30 ◼   ► the first watch was called Apple Watch.

00:51:33 ◼   ► The second watch was called Series 1 and 2.

00:51:35 ◼   ► - A zero index, that's great for programmers.

00:51:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, right.

00:51:40 ◼   ► - And so is the fourth watch.

00:51:41 ◼   ► - As they're introducing 3 now,

00:51:44 ◼   ► 'cause Series 1 and 2 had the same guts,

00:51:46 ◼   ► but Series 2 was waterproofed, basically.

00:51:49 ◼   ► And it was like the same chip inside,

00:51:52 ◼   ► like most of the same internals.

00:51:53 ◼   ► So it was really like series one and series one waterproof.

00:51:57 ◼   ► Like that's what they probably should have called that.

00:52:00 ◼   ► Actually they should have called them both,

00:52:02 ◼   ► series two and just retcon the first one, series one.

00:52:05 ◼   ► But instead we have series zero unofficially called,

00:52:09 ◼   ► we have the first one.

00:52:09 ◼   ► Then we have series one and two and three now.

00:52:12 ◼   ► But series two was discontinued

00:52:15 ◼   ► because the new premium model is series three.

00:52:18 ◼   ► So now we have series one and series three.

00:52:21 ◼   ► Now the casual buyer will look at that

00:52:23 ◼   ► and think Series 1 is two years old,

00:52:25 ◼   ► but in fact is only one year old.

00:52:27 ◼   ► And it's not two generations back, it's one generation back.

00:52:30 ◼   ► And if you have an original Apple Watch

00:52:33 ◼   ► and you're thinking about upgrading,

00:52:34 ◼   ► you're gonna think the Series 1 is the one you have.

00:52:37 ◼   ► So it's a very, very confusing name now.

00:52:40 ◼   ► Not the first confusing name in this event,

00:52:42 ◼   ► but a very confusing name. - Apple's not the best

00:52:43 ◼   ► at naming. (laughing)

00:52:45 ◼   ► The best thing is that the Series 3

00:52:46 ◼   ► also comes without an LTE.

00:52:48 ◼   ► So it's like, oh, Series 3 is the one with cellular.

00:52:50 ◼   ► Like, well, sort of. (laughing)

00:52:52 ◼   ► Right, exactly.

00:52:53 ◼   ► Like, these are just terrible names.

00:52:55 ◼   ► Yeah, well the good thing is they all look the same.

00:52:58 ◼   ► Like from people, they're all lined up on the table, they all look the same, so I think

00:53:01 ◼   ► the stigma of getting the lesser thing is like, well they all look the same to me.

00:53:05 ◼   ► Like they have a, like on Apple's website or something, it has a big comparison thing,

00:53:09 ◼   ► like what do you want out of your watch?

00:53:11 ◼   ► Do you care about cellular or do you not?

00:53:13 ◼   ► Do you care about waterproofing or not?

00:53:14 ◼   ► Do you care about GPS or do you not?

00:53:15 ◼   ► Do you care about a red dot on the crown or do you not?

00:53:18 ◼   ► By the way, can we talk about the red dot for a second?

00:53:21 ◼   ► Now, I love watches.

00:53:22 ◼   ► I love red.

00:53:26 ◼   ► I even love red watches, or red on watches rather.

00:53:29 ◼   ► I have a watch with red accents, it's wonderful.

00:53:32 ◼   ► I do not think this red dot looks good on any color watch

00:53:37 ◼   ► except maybe the white edition.

00:53:39 ◼   ► On every single, and I haven't seen them in person yet,

00:53:42 ◼   ► but in all the press photos and all the shop photos,

00:53:45 ◼   ► I do not think this looks good.

00:53:48 ◼   ► And again, I love red.

00:53:50 ◼   ► Everything I own is red.

00:53:51 ◼   ► I love watches.

00:53:53 ◼   ► I love red on watches.

00:53:54 ◼   ► This does not work for me.

00:53:56 ◼   ► - I think it works as long as all the rest

00:53:58 ◼   ► of the colors are neutral.

00:53:59 ◼   ► Like if it's based, that's why you like the white one.

00:54:01 ◼   ► Like you just have, everything is neutral

00:54:02 ◼   ► and the only accent of color is the red.

00:54:04 ◼   ► I mean, it doesn't clash.

00:54:05 ◼   ► I think it looks fine.

00:54:06 ◼   ► It looks okay.

00:54:07 ◼   ► I don't mind it.

00:54:09 ◼   ► But it really does limit your aesthetic choices

00:54:11 ◼   ► when you've got the stupid red dot

00:54:13 ◼   ► that you can't get rid of.

00:54:14 ◼   ► I mean, maybe it is changeable, I don't know.

00:54:15 ◼   ► Didn't I do this before with the addition

00:54:17 ◼   ► where you have different crown colors

00:54:19 ◼   ► when you bought the Hermes thing, stuff like that.

00:54:22 ◼   ► - Well, the Hermes was always, I think that was always black

00:54:24 ◼   ► but with the original gold edition line,

00:54:27 ◼   ► that would have, there was like,

00:54:28 ◼   ► if you bought the fancy little red one,

00:54:30 ◼   ► that would have the red dot.

00:54:32 ◼   ► Also, Tim Cook was spotted wearing a watch with a red,

00:54:35 ◼   ► wearing a regular steel watch with a red dot on his crown

00:54:38 ◼   ► at one of the early events for the Apple Watch.

00:54:41 ◼   ► So it was kind of like, ooh,

00:54:42 ◼   ► he gets the special one with the red dot.

00:54:43 ◼   ► And even at the time, I was like, ooh, I want that.

00:54:45 ◼   ► But now that that's offered, I'm like, ew.

00:54:47 ◼   ► I think I, I don't know.

00:54:49 ◼   ► I don't think it looks good.

00:54:50 ◼   ► Maybe it'll look better in person,

00:54:51 ◼   ► but in the pictures on the Apple website,

00:54:54 ◼   ► it does not look good.

00:54:55 ◼   ► - But it limits your choices,

00:54:56 ◼   ► because if you say you have a color scheme

00:54:58 ◼   ► that clashes with red,

00:54:59 ◼   ► like you have a particular band that you want

00:55:01 ◼   ► or like a body color,

00:55:03 ◼   ► like I want the gold aluminum with this color band,

00:55:05 ◼   ► but the red clashes with it, so it's not great.

00:55:09 ◼   ► Also, during the presentation,

00:55:10 ◼   ► I was like, did they get rid of the stainless?

00:55:11 ◼   ► 'Cause that's the one that I like the best.

00:55:13 ◼   ► That's the one that I have.

00:55:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, me too.

00:55:14 ◼   ► - I like that look the best.

00:55:15 ◼   ► I don't like the aluminum at all, but it's still there.

00:55:17 ◼   ► They have limited choices.

00:55:19 ◼   ► I saw you can only get it with the Milanese,

00:55:22 ◼   ► with the white sport, but like whatever.

00:55:24 ◼   ► They didn't change the size of,

00:55:25 ◼   ► they didn't change the band compatibility.

00:55:27 ◼   ► So if I was to get one of these, which I'm not,

00:55:29 ◼   ► I would just get the stainless at tremendous expense

00:55:31 ◼   ► and then not use the white things

00:55:32 ◼   ► and use one of my other straps with it.

00:55:34 ◼   ► - I do not take the red dot at all.

00:55:39 ◼   ► I think it's really terrible.

00:55:40 ◼   ► And I don't know, there's a store online,

00:55:45 ◼   ► watchdots.com, and they are not a sponsor.

00:55:48 ◼   ► I have no idea if their product is any good or not.

00:55:50 ◼   ► However, I will seriously consider, I'm not kidding.

00:55:55 ◼   ► I will consider putting a sticker over it.

00:55:57 ◼   ► Something like completely muted.

00:55:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's that simple.

00:56:00 ◼   ► It's like, so you can tell you have the fancy one.

00:56:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't know, whatever.

00:56:04 ◼   ► But yeah, so now, see Marco, now I'm in $10 a month

00:56:09 ◼   ► for the stupid cellular, and then $10 a month

00:56:12 ◼   ► potentially for Apple Music,

00:56:13 ◼   ► because it won't work with Spotify the way I want.

00:56:15 ◼   ► And then $10 once for the stupid watch.

00:56:18 ◼   ► I can't even get this out.

00:56:19 ◼   ► It's a straight face.

00:56:20 ◼   ► Yeah, you're not selling this.

00:56:23 ◼   ► So before we leave the topic of the watch, which we should,

00:56:26 ◼   ► I was trying to remember,

00:56:27 ◼   ► like way back when we first talked about the watch,

00:56:31 ◼   ► I don't remember it was like, after it was announced,

00:56:34 ◼   ► it must have been after it was announced,

00:56:34 ◼   ► 'cause before we had just had all sorts of what that is.

00:56:36 ◼   ► But after the watch was announced,

00:56:38 ◼   ► talking about it on one of the shows,

00:56:41 ◼   ► and I remember being pretty vehement about the fact that

00:56:45 ◼   ► even though what you see here is a watch that does the things that Apple says it

00:56:49 ◼   ► does, this thing is gonna have cellular. It's only a matter of time. And I thought

00:56:52 ◼   ► I said by the fourth watch maybe it will have cellular but maybe I'm

00:56:55 ◼   ► misremembering but either way like when the watch was introduced it was so clear

00:57:00 ◼   ► that this thing is going to have cellular and live on its own and the only

00:57:03 ◼   ► reason it doesn't is because they literally could not do that and I think

00:57:07 ◼   ► they did it on a pretty pretty good schedule like it it hasn't been that

00:57:12 ◼   ► long since the watch was reduced and they already got cellular into it. And they did

00:57:15 ◼   ► that by doing something that we had previously described as very "unapple-like," which is

00:57:22 ◼   ► don't actually make it thinner year after year. Don't actually change the case. Keep

00:57:25 ◼   ► everything gigantic, you know, Airstream Trail on your wrist and reap the benefits of that

00:57:32 ◼   ► by saying if we keep it the same size, we can get to where we know we're going, which

00:57:38 ◼   ► is cell access on our wrist, right? We can get there faster. They could have shrunk it

00:57:42 ◼   ► and kept similar functionality, but instead of shrinking it, what they did is add battery

00:57:46 ◼   ► life, let's add GPS, let's add LTE. Now, finally, in a couple years, in the next major revision,

00:57:52 ◼   ► now they can shrink because there's probably not that much more stuff they're going to

00:57:56 ◼   ► stick in there, like in terms of tech-wise, maybe some cameras, right? And maybe better

00:58:01 ◼   ► microphones and speakers. But now advancements in technologies don't have to be spent entirely

00:58:06 ◼   ► on adding important features because they finally got the feature set that the watch

00:58:09 ◼   ► always wanted to have.

00:58:10 ◼   ► It is, you know, it's kind of like when the iPod left the Nest and no longer needed to

00:58:14 ◼   ► be connected to your Mac to like initialize it or whatever.

00:58:17 ◼   ► I think the phone, same thing, didn't you have to hook up the phone to your Mac in the

00:58:20 ◼   ► beginning too?

00:58:21 ◼   ► Like all these devices want to be free of the tethers of their larger devices and the

00:58:25 ◼   ► watch is finally free.

00:58:26 ◼   ► It is no longer, you know, I guess it's still tied to your phone's cell plan, but it is

00:58:31 ◼   ► as free as it can be in the world.

00:58:33 ◼   ► You can leave your phone at home, go out with your watch, and it does all the magic things

00:58:36 ◼   ► that we always wanted it to do.

00:58:38 ◼   ► So really quick before we move off, Marco, are you going to buy one?

00:58:43 ◼   ► And if so, is it going to be pretty much exclusively for testing or do you expect to use it from

00:58:47 ◼   ► time to time?

00:58:48 ◼   ► Both.

00:58:49 ◼   ► I use the watch now fairly regularly, but I'm not wearing it all day every day.

00:58:55 ◼   ► I prefer to take it when I'm, as I said earlier, when I'm going on dog walks or when I'm biking.

00:59:00 ◼   ► I like to at least track my distance,

00:59:03 ◼   ► and at least use it as a remote control

00:59:06 ◼   ► for the overcast app on my phone,

00:59:08 ◼   ► even though I can't do local playback very well yet.

00:59:10 ◼   ► Yeah, so I am gonna buy this because I think

00:59:14 ◼   ► I wanna see what I can do as a developer

00:59:17 ◼   ► with 3G on the watch, or LTE, excuse me,

00:59:20 ◼   ► with LTE on the watch.

00:59:21 ◼   ► - Okay, so which one do you think you'll get?

00:59:23 ◼   ► - I'm probably gonna get steel,

00:59:26 ◼   ► and since I've been getting the polished steel

00:59:28 ◼   ► for the last two watches,

00:59:30 ◼   ► but I think maybe this time I'll go black DLC steel.

00:59:34 ◼   ► - Oh, you fancy.

00:59:35 ◼   ► That's one we all wanted way back

00:59:36 ◼   ► when the first one came out, isn't it?

00:59:37 ◼   ► - Mm-hmm.

00:59:38 ◼   ► - And then--

00:59:39 ◼   ► - 'Cause I already have the black bracelet.

00:59:40 ◼   ► I bought the bracelet separately.

00:59:42 ◼   ► - Right, right.

00:59:43 ◼   ► - And I liked the way the black bracelet looked

00:59:44 ◼   ► with the contrast of the steel before,

00:59:47 ◼   ► but now that I've become more of a watch nerd,

00:59:48 ◼   ► the metal mismatch bothers me.

00:59:51 ◼   ► And I've been wearing it more

00:59:52 ◼   ► on the Rainbow Sportband anyway,

00:59:54 ◼   ► so it's less of a problem.

00:59:55 ◼   ► But I wanna try the black this time,

00:59:59 ◼   ► 'cause I do like, like the link bracelet that Apple makes

01:00:03 ◼   ► is one of the best link bracelets in the world ever.

01:00:07 ◼   ► Like it doesn't have micro-adjustment,

01:00:10 ◼   ► which is unfortunate, but besides that one shortcoming,

01:00:13 ◼   ► it's amazing, like it's a really, really good bracelet.

01:00:17 ◼   ► So I wouldn't mind getting more usage out of it.

01:00:20 ◼   ► - Fair enough.

01:00:21 ◼   ► Jon, what's your plan?

01:00:23 ◼   ► - I'm not getting one because I never wear my watch,

01:00:25 ◼   ► which is a shame, I would really like to have one,

01:00:27 ◼   ► it seems cool, but no.

01:00:29 ◼   ► Well, then you can I wouldn't wear it because I would love to be able to have a thing that's on my wrist that you

01:00:33 ◼   ► know, I wear I wear my watch like three times a year like when I'm traveling when I'm walking around city streets at WWC when

01:00:39 ◼   ► I'm on vacation in London and for those times it's fun to do it, but

01:00:43 ◼   ► that the rest of the year I don't wear it just sits on top of my dresser and if I got this new one I

01:00:47 ◼   ► would wear it the same amount of time and

01:00:49 ◼   ► and it would be cool to have cell access on my wrist, but

01:00:52 ◼   ► Maybe maybe I could be convinced if overcast works on it

01:00:56 ◼   ► But I don't know what the context is.

01:00:59 ◼   ► I would still bring my phone with me to work.

01:01:02 ◼   ► Anyway, it's expensive, I'm not gonna get it.

01:01:04 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:01:05 ◼   ► 'Cause the only one I want is the $600 steel one,

01:01:09 ◼   ► and it's like, yeesh.

01:01:11 ◼   ► - And I would say too, for anybody who,

01:01:13 ◼   ► like you might be waiting for Overcast

01:01:15 ◼   ► before they get one, or might be buying one

01:01:17 ◼   ► hoping for Overcast to work well on it.

01:01:19 ◼   ► - Don't hold your breath.

01:01:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, I would say, because I have not made

01:01:23 ◼   ► any progress on that front yet,

01:01:25 ◼   ► I can't tell you when I'll be able to re-add that feature

01:01:28 ◼   ► or even if I'll ever be able to re-add that feature.

01:01:30 ◼   ► So don't make this decision for Overcast.

01:01:33 ◼   ► Make this decision for other reasons now

01:01:35 ◼   ► and if down the road Overcast does end up

01:01:37 ◼   ► getting the support again, by all means reconsider it then.

01:01:40 ◼   ► But that might be the next watch, I don't even know.

01:01:43 ◼   ► I don't know when it's gonna happen.

01:01:44 ◼   ► - I would absolutely love to get the gray ceramic case

01:01:49 ◼   ► with the gray black sports band,

01:01:50 ◼   ► but at $1,300 there's no freaking way that's happening.

01:01:53 ◼   ► So instead I will be getting the... I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave behind the space gray, even though I love it,

01:01:59 ◼   ► but I want to have the ability to use basically any other color band.

01:02:05 ◼   ► So instead I believe I'm going to get the aluminum, which does not bother me at all,

01:02:10 ◼   ► the aluminum one with... what is it? Like the fog white or something along those lines.

01:02:15 ◼   ► Basically the default cellular

01:02:19 ◼   ► sports, whatever, aluminum watch. And I will be getting one of those. Erin will likely

01:02:25 ◼   ► be getting the same thing, but I don't think she's going to want anything to do with cellular,

01:02:30 ◼   ► particularly once I explain to her it is a non-zero cost per month. Even a dollar, she'd

01:02:34 ◼   ► probably be like, "Ah, I don't need that." But yeah, that is my plan. So I will be waking

01:02:38 ◼   ► up at three in the morning because the world has to revolve around California. And I'll

01:02:43 ◼   ► be waking up at three in the morning to place my order for my two new Apple watches. And

01:02:48 ◼   ► That is just the beginning of me going broke this year.

01:02:51 ◼   ► - I will say also though, if it was my primary watch

01:02:54 ◼   ► that I wore most of or all of every day,

01:02:57 ◼   ► that white ceramic I still think

01:02:58 ◼   ► is one of the best looking options in the whole lineup,

01:03:01 ◼   ► if not the best looking option.

01:03:02 ◼   ► And especially if you're gonna get the red dot,

01:03:05 ◼   ► I would totally splurge for the white ceramic

01:03:07 ◼   ► if it was my primary watch.

01:03:09 ◼   ► - That's a lot of money.

01:03:10 ◼   ► Gosh, is that a lot of money.

01:03:11 ◼   ► - It is, it's stupid, but that's how watches work.

01:03:14 ◼   ► When you like the way something looks,

01:03:15 ◼   ► you're like, "Yes, set this money on fire.

01:03:17 ◼   ► I need to have that on my wrist.

01:03:19 ◼   ► Like, so if you don't miss the extra money,

01:03:21 ◼   ► the white ceramic is a pretty awesome option.

01:03:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't know, $400 for the,

01:03:26 ◼   ► or I guess it would be $430 with the LTE?

01:03:29 ◼   ► I don't have it in front of me, something like that though.

01:03:32 ◼   ► Yeah, $430, so yeah, the silver aluminum case

01:03:35 ◼   ► with fog sport band is what I intend to get.

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01:05:42 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

01:05:44 ◼   ► - Now, we should move on to Apple TV.

01:05:47 ◼   ► There's new Apple TV, 4K with HDR.

01:05:50 ◼   ► There's still two storage tiers.

01:05:52 ◼   ► The remote, which I won't mention out loud

01:05:55 ◼   ► so I don't get flamed, really isn't that bad,

01:05:58 ◼   ► is not changed with the exception of a raised loop

01:06:01 ◼   ► around the menu button.

01:06:02 ◼   ► Other than that, it's all basically the same old stuff.

01:06:05 ◼   ► No USB-C ports.

01:06:07 ◼   ► I don't think any of us really care that much,

01:06:10 ◼   ► so let's move on.

01:06:10 ◼   ► - I cannot believe. - I care.

01:06:12 ◼   ► I care.

01:06:13 ◼   ► - Of all, okay, so similar to like,

01:06:15 ◼   ► when I said earlier how like,

01:06:17 ◼   ► the one thing people want in an Apple retail store

01:06:19 ◼   ► is like faster genius appointments and stuff.

01:06:21 ◼   ► Like the one thing we want with the new Apple TV--

01:06:25 ◼   ► - That's not true. - Is a better remote.

01:06:28 ◼   ► - Not all of us. - A redesign remote,

01:06:29 ◼   ► because this remote is terrible.

01:06:31 ◼   ► And I would also say, I think high on the list

01:06:34 ◼   ► of what people would want with the Apple TV,

01:06:35 ◼   ► it would be a lower entry price.

01:06:38 ◼   ► And we got neither of those.

01:06:40 ◼   ► We got, the most insulting part is that

01:06:42 ◼   ► they did change the remote.

01:06:44 ◼   ► So like, they made a change at all,

01:06:47 ◼   ► but it appears that it's only different

01:06:51 ◼   ► in that they added a white circle around the menu button.

01:06:54 ◼   ► That maybe there's other internal changes,

01:06:56 ◼   ► I don't think anybody knows yet.

01:06:59 ◼   ► I hope there's more to it than that,

01:07:01 ◼   ► but it is still a small, skinny rectangle

01:07:05 ◼   ► that is symmetrical in most ways

01:07:07 ◼   ► that you will still fall off your couch cushion

01:07:11 ◼   ► 'cause it has a smooth back.

01:07:12 ◼   ► It will still slip between your couch cushion

01:07:14 ◼   ► and get lost because it's tiny and thin.

01:07:16 ◼   ► It is still too small for good ergonomics.

01:07:18 ◼   ► It still relies on an imprecise,

01:07:19 ◼   ► annoyingly accidentally inputted touchpad.

01:07:22 ◼   ► It is still hard to tell which way is up in the dark.

01:07:24 ◼   ► I don't understand how the people in charge at Apple

01:07:32 ◼   ► could go through the trouble of changing the Apple TV at all

01:07:36 ◼   ► look at that remote and decide, this is fine,

01:07:39 ◼   ► we don't have to change this.

01:07:39 ◼   ► Like, are they listening to anybody, to any customers?

01:07:44 ◼   ► Like, does what we think matter at all?

01:07:46 ◼   ► Have they lost their sense of taste

01:07:48 ◼   ► for shipping that in the first place?

01:07:50 ◼   ► And then two years later, or however long it's been,

01:07:52 ◼   ► shipping it almost identically again?

01:07:55 ◼   ► - I was reminded of when you mentioned,

01:07:57 ◼   ► as talking about the remote,

01:08:00 ◼   ► you started talking about the new remote

01:08:01 ◼   ► where you were going to get, as if it was a done deal,

01:08:05 ◼   ► And it was just a question of what the new remote would be like.

01:08:08 ◼   ► And I was feeling particularly snarky and I laughed and I said, "Wait a second, you

01:08:11 ◼   ► think there's going to be a new remote?"

01:08:12 ◼   ► I am so upset to have been right.

01:08:14 ◼   ► Because honestly, I thought there was going to be one too.

01:08:16 ◼   ► But I was in a snarky mood of being like, "Oh, you think they're going to change the

01:08:20 ◼   ► remote?"

01:08:21 ◼   ► We were all so confident.

01:08:22 ◼   ► It's like, how could they not change it?

01:08:23 ◼   ► Like you said, how could they not?

01:08:24 ◼   ► It doesn't need that much.

01:08:26 ◼   ► We need 4K, right?

01:08:28 ◼   ► You know, update the hardware.

01:08:30 ◼   ► They did gig Ethernet.

01:08:31 ◼   ► Like, that was another big one in terms of hardware.

01:08:33 ◼   ► Like you got to do that.

01:08:35 ◼   ► - It's about time, it's 2017, I mean come on.

01:08:38 ◼   ► - Right, and then--

01:08:39 ◼   ► - We're celebrating that they finally upgraded

01:08:40 ◼   ► the 10100 port on the old one.

01:08:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, and then the new remote--

01:08:46 ◼   ► - Was that the only device in history

01:08:48 ◼   ► that had a USB-C port and a 10100 ethernet port?

01:08:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, probably.

01:08:52 ◼   ► Yeah, but like, yeah, it just,

01:08:56 ◼   ► they didn't have time to redo the remote,

01:09:00 ◼   ► so all they could do was,

01:09:01 ◼   ► this is basically the equivalent of the little bump

01:09:03 ◼   ► the iMac Puck mouse where it's like, "Well, we're going to design a new mouse eventually."

01:09:08 ◼   ► In 2001, everyone will get an Apology mouse at the Macworld Expo.

01:09:13 ◼   ► But in the meantime, is there something we can do for the existing mouse to make it so

01:09:16 ◼   ► that people can tell which end is up?

01:09:17 ◼   ► How about we put a little divot in the button?

01:09:21 ◼   ► And so this is like, I don't even know, having not seen one of these in person, is the white

01:09:25 ◼   ► ring even something that you can feel?

01:09:27 ◼   ► Never mind that feeling around the remote.

01:09:28 ◼   ► I'm pretty sure it is.

01:09:29 ◼   ► Feeling around the remote is death because if you accidentally swipe the touchpad, then

01:09:32 ◼   ► and you have to remember the correct incantation

01:09:34 ◼   ► to not cause the play head to start playing in that position

01:09:38 ◼   ► or you can just like not touch it and put it down

01:09:40 ◼   ► and say don't touch it, it'll go away eventually

01:09:41 ◼   ► and it won't accept my input.

01:09:43 ◼   ► I hate that remote so much and they need to fix it

01:09:45 ◼   ► and it's terrible.

01:09:46 ◼   ► - Honestly, I want to see Apple

01:09:49 ◼   ► with new industrial design leadership.

01:09:52 ◼   ► - Oh God, here we go.

01:09:54 ◼   ► - I wanna see someone else designing these things.

01:09:56 ◼   ► The current team is out of ideas

01:09:58 ◼   ► and is prioritizing things that I don't think

01:10:01 ◼   ► are fully in line with what customers actually want.

01:10:05 ◼   ► Put someone else on these kinds of decisions

01:10:07 ◼   ► because this needs editing, this needs new leadership.

01:10:12 ◼   ► Nobody should look at that remote and say,

01:10:13 ◼   ► "That's so good, we should ship another one."

01:10:18 ◼   ► - I don't agree at all.

01:10:19 ◼   ► So I've blown all credibility by

01:10:22 ◼   ► somewhat seriously whining about a $10 a month fee.

01:10:26 ◼   ► But I don't, the things that the three of us care about

01:10:31 ◼   ► are not the things that most people care about.

01:10:33 ◼   ► And I personally don't really have a problem

01:10:38 ◼   ► with the remote.

01:10:40 ◼   ► Do I think it's stellar?

01:10:40 ◼   ► No, I don't.

01:10:41 ◼   ► Do I think it's amazing?

01:10:42 ◼   ► No, I don't.

01:10:43 ◼   ► Have I somehow stumbled into asking

01:10:45 ◼   ► and answering my own questions?

01:10:46 ◼   ► Yes, I have.

01:10:47 ◼   ► So I gotta get off this treadmill.

01:10:48 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:10:50 ◼   ► I mean, I'm not trying to say you're wrong by any means.

01:10:52 ◼   ► I'm not saying that this is a shining example

01:10:54 ◼   ► of good design, but it's functional

01:10:57 ◼   ► and it works just fine for me.

01:10:59 ◼   ► And sometimes I think it's upside, it's sufficient.

01:11:02 ◼   ► - It's a low bar, it's a low bar.

01:11:03 ◼   ► It should be better than it is, that's what we're saying.

01:11:05 ◼   ► - It should be, yes, yes, it should.

01:11:06 ◼   ► - It looks really good, right?

01:11:08 ◼   ► But that's the only real thing it's got going for it.

01:11:10 ◼   ► It's a bad remote, right?

01:11:11 ◼   ► And we all have bad remotes in our life.

01:11:13 ◼   ► And more importantly than it being a bad remote,

01:11:15 ◼   ► I think the most important thing about this remote

01:11:18 ◼   ► is that it's difficult for people to use.

01:11:21 ◼   ► Forget about tech nerds, people listening to tech podcasts,

01:11:24 ◼   ► people who are Apple enthusiasts who've been following

01:11:29 ◼   ► company forever who care about the industrial design and everything, you give this remote

01:11:32 ◼   ► to anybody, any plain old person off the street, anybody, and it is difficult for them to use

01:11:38 ◼   ► successfully. They have accidental inputs, it's hard for them to swipe upward and right

01:11:43 ◼   ► and left with their thumbs, it's hard to tell what's activated on the screen, it's not an

01:11:49 ◼   ► easy remote to use. In many ways, the five-way was easier, even though it had a stupid circle

01:11:55 ◼   ► that made it harder to tell when you were hitting up and down and left and right.

01:11:57 ◼   ► And all these things, all remotes are difficult to use. You're seeing anybody

01:12:01 ◼   ► using any kind of remote they're difficult to use. But this remote in particular, I feel like,

01:12:06 ◼   ► does not have good usability in the old-fashioned sense of the world in terms of how successful are

01:12:10 ◼   ► people, how confident are they when using it, or do they feel like it's a thing that they have to

01:12:15 ◼   ► be careful touching because something could go wrong. I think people like us use this remote

01:12:20 ◼   ► better than most people because we know all the nuances of how it works.

01:12:24 ◼   ► We know how we have to approach it and how to work it.

01:12:26 ◼   ► We have lots of experience swiping our fingers on things.

01:12:29 ◼   ► We do it all day on our magic mice and iOS devices using our sophisticated

01:12:33 ◼   ► gestures instead of just, you know, multitasking gestures and swiping from

01:12:36 ◼   ► edge and all sorts of things that regular people don't know how to do because they

01:12:40 ◼   ► don't care about this stuff that much.

01:12:41 ◼   ► So I think the, this remote is more usable to us.

01:12:46 ◼   ► We're just complaining about it more because we're picky and we want more of

01:12:48 ◼   ► Apple. I just think this is this is a this remote it falls down in in all ways

01:12:56 ◼   ► as a for what it's actually supposed to do and because we you know we in this

01:13:03 ◼   ► podcast and we want Apple to be you know the best at everything feel like you get

01:13:07 ◼   ► it wrong a couple times fine learn from your stakes revised do better this was

01:13:11 ◼   ► their chance to do better after a very long break and they put a ringer on the

01:13:13 ◼   ► menu button and so everyone is everyone is angry and I think justifiably so but

01:13:18 ◼   ► But, you know, there's always,

01:13:22 ◼   ► I was gonna say there's always next year,

01:13:23 ◼   ► but there's always three years from now.

01:13:27 ◼   ► - What annoys me so much about the Apple TV

01:13:29 ◼   ► is not that it's worse than the competition.

01:13:32 ◼   ► The sad thing is that it's better than the competition.

01:13:34 ◼   ► But it really, it could be so much better than it is.

01:13:39 ◼   ► It has always been an afterthought.

01:13:41 ◼   ► It has always been the lowest of low priorities

01:13:44 ◼   ► over things like the Mac Mini, I guess.

01:13:46 ◼   ► but it could be so much better,

01:13:50 ◼   ► and it's just so mediocre,

01:13:51 ◼   ► and it seems like every time they do something new to it,

01:13:54 ◼   ► either hardware or software,

01:13:56 ◼   ► it's just two steps forward, one step back.

01:13:58 ◼   ► It's just, things about it are so frustrating,

01:14:01 ◼   ► and I think all three of us are heavy users of the Apple TV.

01:14:06 ◼   ► For us, it is our only TV video source.

01:14:09 ◼   ► The only things we ever do on our TV

01:14:11 ◼   ► are Apple TV or the Switch.

01:14:13 ◼   ► That's it.

01:14:14 ◼   ► I just want this product to be so much better than it is,

01:14:17 ◼   ► and I don't think my demands are that high

01:14:20 ◼   ► for what I expect from a good product in this area.

01:14:23 ◼   ► And it just, it fails to meet them so often,

01:14:26 ◼   ► and it's very frustrating.

01:14:27 ◼   ► - So a couple more quickies before I move on with this,

01:14:30 ◼   ► 'cause we do need to move off.

01:14:32 ◼   ► One good thing about the Apple TV,

01:14:33 ◼   ► aside from it being 4K and supporting HDR

01:14:35 ◼   ► and all the HDR standards,

01:14:36 ◼   ► is their announcement of their 4K media pricing,

01:14:40 ◼   ► which is the same as HD and your HDs all get upgraded.

01:14:42 ◼   ► So we always complain about any cues deal making or whatever,

01:14:45 ◼   ► but this is a pretty damn good deal.

01:14:47 ◼   ► Same price as HD is good.

01:14:49 ◼   ► And free upgrades of all your HD content is crazy good.

01:14:52 ◼   ► So--

01:14:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, I was really surprised by that.

01:14:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, as chat room just panned out,

01:14:57 ◼   ► except for Disney asterisk yada yada yada.

01:14:59 ◼   ► But if that deal is even remotely as real

01:15:02 ◼   ► as it was announced on stage,

01:15:04 ◼   ► that is a great deal for people.

01:15:06 ◼   ► And it almost makes up for being locked into their ecosystem

01:15:09 ◼   ► being forced to use this remote to,

01:15:11 ◼   ► or like I said, you don't have to use your remote.

01:15:12 ◼   ► you can get another remote, train it, and blah blah blah.

01:15:13 ◼   ► Anyway, so that's good.

01:15:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's awesome.

01:15:16 ◼   ► That, like, to give them full credit on the Apple TV,

01:15:19 ◼   ► like, the 4K content deals with the exception of Disney

01:15:23 ◼   ► are awesome.

01:15:24 ◼   ► That is unexpected.

01:15:25 ◼   ► I am very, very happy with that.

01:15:27 ◼   ► I'm even more happy about the 4K screensaver remaster.

01:15:30 ◼   ► I think that's a big deal. - It's your favorite feature,

01:15:32 ◼   ► and that comes for free.

01:15:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

01:15:34 ◼   ► - You don't have to pay for it.

01:15:35 ◼   ► $10 a month for the screensaver, you'd pay it.

01:15:36 ◼   ► - I still don't know if I'm supposed to get

01:15:38 ◼   ► the 32 or 64 gigabyte model,

01:15:40 ◼   ► which for some reason still exist.

01:15:43 ◼   ► - I know people question that,

01:15:44 ◼   ► but it's for games and for video caching.

01:15:48 ◼   ► Will your movie be cached on that?

01:15:49 ◼   ► There's some automatic storage management,

01:15:51 ◼   ► and the automatic storage management has an awareness

01:15:53 ◼   ► of how much storage there is in the device,

01:15:55 ◼   ► and so if you wanna have a higher chance

01:15:56 ◼   ► of playing that movie or still being downloaded

01:15:58 ◼   ► from the last time you played it three weeks,

01:15:59 ◼   ► you go get the 64.

01:16:01 ◼   ► I'm getting the 64, that's what I'm getting.

01:16:02 ◼   ► - It's $20 difference.

01:16:04 ◼   ► Why are these two separate models?

01:16:07 ◼   ► - That's two months of your watch.

01:16:08 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:16:10 ◼   ► - I'm a 4.1 with Apple Music.

01:16:12 ◼   ► I don't understand, okay, it seems like

01:16:14 ◼   ► when the Apple TV 4 came out,

01:16:16 ◼   ► whenever it was two, three years ago,

01:16:17 ◼   ► the two big puzzling things about it were like,

01:16:21 ◼   ► oh, why are there two different storage tiers?

01:16:23 ◼   ► They never really explained why you'd need more storage.

01:16:27 ◼   ► It's not really exposed to the user at all in the interface,

01:16:30 ◼   ► and it just kind of seemed like, why are there two?

01:16:32 ◼   ► Why does that exist?

01:16:33 ◼   ► And then the other thing was why this remote sucks.

01:16:35 ◼   ► And with this one, they fixed neither of those problems.

01:16:37 ◼   ► They have not fixed their remote,

01:16:39 ◼   ► and we still have two differently priced models,

01:16:42 ◼   ► although they're closer in price.

01:16:44 ◼   ► I believe it was a $50 difference before.

01:16:46 ◼   ► Now it's a $20 difference.

01:16:48 ◼   ► The old one didn't get any cheaper.

01:16:50 ◼   ► The new ones are more expensive.

01:16:52 ◼   ► This is a theme of the Apple event.

01:16:54 ◼   ► The new ones are more expensive.

01:16:56 ◼   ► This is fine for people like me

01:16:57 ◼   ► who are gonna buy every Apple TV anyway

01:16:59 ◼   ► because we use it so heavily.

01:17:01 ◼   ► I don't see this really expanding their market much though

01:17:04 ◼   ► because everyone else in the set-top box business like this

01:17:09 ◼   ► is just killing them on price and features.

01:17:12 ◼   ► You know, other, like Amazon or Roku have 4K boxes

01:17:16 ◼   ► for $100 or less, and Apple's is now 180

01:17:20 ◼   ► for the small tier, or 200 for the big one.

01:17:23 ◼   ► The old one is still 150, where it launched two years ago.

01:17:26 ◼   ► I don't understand why.

01:17:28 ◼   ► I think that's a mistake, and whatever is causing them

01:17:31 ◼   ► to keep the price high, even on the old low-end one,

01:17:35 ◼   ► I gotta imagine there's cost in the market share.

01:17:38 ◼   ► And I don't know if that calculus is right.

01:17:41 ◼   ► - They're the premium brand.

01:17:42 ◼   ► I don't mind the pricing,

01:17:43 ◼   ► especially in the grand scheme of things.

01:17:44 ◼   ► The streaming services that you're gonna pay for

01:17:46 ◼   ► to watch on the thing are gonna swamp the price

01:17:49 ◼   ► of this device pretty quickly.

01:17:50 ◼   ► But this is a catch-up device.

01:17:52 ◼   ► Like, there was a bunch of stories in the show notes

01:17:55 ◼   ► for many weeks about people complaining

01:17:58 ◼   ► how behind the Apple TV is.

01:17:59 ◼   ► This is a catch-up device.

01:18:00 ◼   ► It's catch up on 4K, it's catch up on all the other things they're adding, and maybe

01:18:03 ◼   ► it's a little bit ahead in some areas in terms of the content deals or the 4K pricing or

01:18:08 ◼   ► the live sports and live news.

01:18:11 ◼   ► I'm not aware of what all the offerings are.

01:18:13 ◼   ► I guess you got YouTube TV and a bunch of other stuff like that.

01:18:15 ◼   ► It's behind on Amazon Video and YouTube TV, which apparently aren't still on this thing.

01:18:22 ◼   ► But this is basically a catch-up product, but it's a good catch-up product.

01:18:24 ◼   ► So I think they maintain their position.

01:18:26 ◼   ► They are the premium brand because they have fancy expensive hardware and their interface

01:18:31 ◼   ► looks pretty nice and their remote looks nice as long as you don't touch it.

01:18:36 ◼   ► People had a lot of content in iTunes and so this was the Keep the Lights On product

01:18:43 ◼   ► and they did it.

01:18:44 ◼   ► I like the fact that they offered the big one because this is what I always ask for,

01:18:49 ◼   ► make one that has more stuff that's really expensive.

01:18:53 ◼   ► Most people shouldn't buy it, but the people who care about it will buy it if there is

01:18:57 ◼   ► some benefit.

01:18:58 ◼   ► And I think there is, because every once in a while I will play a movie that the kids

01:19:01 ◼   ► watched three weeks ago and it's gone and it has to re-download and if the network is

01:19:04 ◼   ► wonky or if iTunes is wonky, it'll spin for a while and I would rather just have it play.

01:19:09 ◼   ► It would be great if I could actually pin movies to the thing and say just keep it on

01:19:12 ◼   ► here, but anyway.

01:19:13 ◼   ► So I'm getting this, we do have to move on, but two quick questions for the people out

01:19:17 ◼   ► there listening.

01:19:18 ◼   ► Does this have a fan?

01:19:19 ◼   ► I asked people, no one told me.

01:19:20 ◼   ► It has holes in the bottom of it that the other one didn't have, but those could just

01:19:23 ◼   ► be for passive cooling, I have no idea.

01:19:25 ◼   ► I would love to know if this thing has a fan in it.

01:19:27 ◼   ► If it does, I suspect it'll be as quiet as the one in the Tower airport base station,

01:19:33 ◼   ► which is so quiet I literally cannot hear it unless I put my ear up to it.

01:19:36 ◼   ► I'm just curious if it has a fan.

01:19:37 ◼   ► Probably not, because it's the same chip as an iPad, and this is bigger than an iPad,

01:19:41 ◼   ► but who knows?

01:19:42 ◼   ► And then the other question is, does this do 24 frames per second cadence?

01:19:47 ◼   ► it show 24 frames per second video where it shows each of the 24 frames for the same amount

01:19:51 ◼   ► of time, which is what you need to do to show a movie shot in 24 frames per second without

01:19:56 ◼   ► screwing it up.

01:19:58 ◼   ► And no Apple TV that has existed before could do this, except for maybe the one that ran

01:20:03 ◼   ► Mac OS X Tiger.

01:20:05 ◼   ► That could probably do it.

01:20:06 ◼   ► I forget.

01:20:07 ◼   ► I don't know what the video output was like on that.

01:20:08 ◼   ► But anyway, none of the little black pucks can show 24 frames per second video showing

01:20:11 ◼   ► each of the frames for an equal amount of time.

01:20:13 ◼   ► I don't know if this one can either.

01:20:15 ◼   ► I asked a bunch of people.

01:20:16 ◼   ► no answer. So next week, Apple people who work on Apple TV, tell me, 24 frames per second

01:20:20 ◼   ► cadence and is there a fan?

01:20:23 ◼   ► So you said both of you guys are going to be getting one?

01:20:26 ◼   ► Yep.

01:20:27 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:20:28 ◼   ► Even though, do you, both of you have 4K TVs or neither of you?

01:20:32 ◼   ► I don't.

01:20:33 ◼   ► I do and I'm getting it for that reason, but I'm also really interested to see how fast

01:20:37 ◼   ► that new CPU is. The current Apple TV is kind of inexplicably slow during some common interactions

01:20:43 ◼   ► that I have. So any CPU speed improvement would be welcome if that isn't the bottleneck,

01:20:50 ◼   ► if it's not some kind of weird software thing. And going from the A8 in the current one,

01:20:56 ◼   ► going from that, whatever it is, to the A10X, that's a pretty big jump. They have really

01:21:02 ◼   ► spec'd this new one well. I still don't know why it comes in two storage capacities that

01:21:07 ◼   ► are $20 different and why the old one is not cheaper, but they have spec'd this one well.

01:21:12 ◼   ► So I hope it's a lot faster.

01:21:15 ◼   ► So I would say even if you don't have a 4K TV,

01:21:17 ◼   ► it might be worth it for some people just for that.

01:21:20 ◼   ► Also because the old one didn't get cheaper,

01:21:23 ◼   ► it's still 150, and this one's 180,

01:21:27 ◼   ► just get this one for future proofing.

01:21:28 ◼   ► If you're buying new today,

01:21:31 ◼   ► if you already have a fourth gen,

01:21:33 ◼   ► maybe the upgrade is a bit of an iffy question

01:21:36 ◼   ► if you don't have a 4K TV.

01:21:37 ◼   ► But if you're buying a new one, get the 4K one,

01:21:40 ◼   ► because it'll be probably useful for longer.

01:21:43 ◼   ► - And so John, why are you getting it then?

01:21:45 ◼   ► Just because it's better?

01:21:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's better.

01:21:48 ◼   ► It's faster.

01:21:50 ◼   ► It's faster, it's gonna slot right in.

01:21:52 ◼   ► The best thing with the Apple TV,

01:21:53 ◼   ► with the internal power supply, is when I get new ones,

01:21:55 ◼   ► I don't even have to go back on the TV

01:21:57 ◼   ► and unplug a bunch of crap.

01:21:58 ◼   ► You just pull it out and plug it right back

01:21:59 ◼   ► into all the same cables.

01:22:01 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, mine's still plugged into a PS3 power cable.

01:22:03 ◼   ► - I don't even know what power cables are.

01:22:04 ◼   ► It's just the ones that are attached to the thing.

01:22:06 ◼   ► I mean, I don't recommend people get one.

01:22:07 ◼   ► If you have the old one and it works fine for your thing

01:22:09 ◼   ► - And you don't have a 4K TV, there's no reason to get it.

01:22:13 ◼   ► But I'm totally gonna get it.

01:22:14 ◼   ► And one of the other reasons I buy the big one is

01:22:17 ◼   ► 'cause I want Apple to keep improving this product

01:22:19 ◼   ► and by buying the most expensive one,

01:22:21 ◼   ► I'm trying to encourage them with my money.

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01:24:00 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

01:24:04 ◼   ► - All right, so iPhone 8, big changes are glass back

01:24:08 ◼   ► with better glass supposedly,

01:24:10 ◼   ► although I feel like we've heard that almost every year.

01:24:12 ◼   ► - And that should be great for gripability too.

01:24:14 ◼   ► Like if, like the reason that I like the jet black so much

01:24:17 ◼   ► is that the back kind of feels like glass,

01:24:19 ◼   ► so it's very tacky and grippy on my fingers

01:24:21 ◼   ► without using a case.

01:24:22 ◼   ► So having glass backs on that, that's a pretty big deal.

01:24:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, like I tweeted, it's jet black,

01:24:27 ◼   ► but without the scratches,

01:24:28 ◼   ► because glass is very resistant to scratch

01:24:30 ◼   ► compared to whatever the hell

01:24:31 ◼   ► the jet black thing is made out of, I don't know.

01:24:34 ◼   ► some kind of chalkboard material.

01:24:35 ◼   ► So yeah, it's all the benefits of jet black

01:24:39 ◼   ► without the downsides.

01:24:41 ◼   ► Speaking of, I wish I could look these things up in my past.

01:24:43 ◼   ► I had to use the podcast search,

01:24:45 ◼   ► but back when the iPhone 4 came out

01:24:48 ◼   ► and still my favorite physical iPhone design,

01:24:51 ◼   ► glass front and back looked awesome,

01:24:53 ◼   ► but now you had a back that could shatter too.

01:24:55 ◼   ► And then the back shattered is not as big deal

01:24:58 ◼   ► as the front shattering, but people didn't like it.

01:25:00 ◼   ► It was cheap to replace the back, cheap-ish,

01:25:03 ◼   ► it's just a piece of glass but anyway after two generations of that the 4 and the 4s uh i remember

01:25:08 ◼   ► talking on some podcast maybe it was this one had to be this one or maybe someone was like

01:25:12 ◼   ► apple's gonna come up with a new phone and you can bet it will not have a glass back

01:25:16 ◼   ► and of course the 5 didn't have a glass back and neither did the 5s and neither the 6 and neither

01:25:21 ◼   ► the 6s and neither the 7 but they found their way back to it because i think they like i like that

01:25:27 ◼   ► design i love the 4 design with the glass front and back it just had a couple of downsides it

01:25:31 ◼   ► It took them this long, took them like five phones,

01:25:34 ◼   ► five whole years to say,

01:25:36 ◼   ► can we get the glass back on this phone?

01:25:39 ◼   ► And they went through all like the laser welded mesh

01:25:41 ◼   ► of copper and steel and blah, blah, blah.

01:25:44 ◼   ► Like they clearly like they wanted to go somewhere.

01:25:48 ◼   ► They went there and they backed off and regrouped

01:25:52 ◼   ► and they eventually got where they wanted to go again,

01:25:55 ◼   ► which is a glass back because there are so many vendors.

01:25:57 ◼   ► Scratch proof is good for grip.

01:25:59 ◼   ► You can make it look really pretty.

01:26:00 ◼   ► It's a radio transparent-ish more so than metal, right?

01:26:05 ◼   ► You don't have to have that glass window

01:26:07 ◼   ► like the 5s had on the back for the radios

01:26:09 ◼   ► and stuff like that.

01:26:10 ◼   ► So this iPhone 8, I was more impressed

01:26:13 ◼   ► by the industrial design than I thought it would be

01:26:14 ◼   ► because I had, honestly, I hadn't been keeping up

01:26:15 ◼   ► with the iPhone 8 rumors that had all been about the,

01:26:17 ◼   ► you know, the edge to edge screen one and everything.

01:26:19 ◼   ► I thought, yeah, these will just be like the 7s,

01:26:21 ◼   ► it'll be fine.

01:26:22 ◼   ► They'll have faster internals.

01:26:23 ◼   ► I'm actually kind of excited about these

01:26:25 ◼   ► because I think the physical design,

01:26:26 ◼   ► despite being almost the same dimensions, it's cool.

01:26:30 ◼   ► It looks cool in pictures,

01:26:31 ◼   ► and I think physical properties-wise,

01:26:34 ◼   ► it will be a better phone for people

01:26:37 ◼   ► than the other phones that were also shaped like this.

01:26:39 ◼   ► So I give the D8 a pretty big thumbs up.

01:26:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate

01:26:45 ◼   ► that it's gonna be kind of buried

01:26:46 ◼   ► in the news cycle for the most part,

01:26:49 ◼   ► and in the year, in the attention cycle by the iPhone X,

01:26:52 ◼   ► because it does look like a pretty good release.

01:26:56 ◼   ► - I was impressed by it,

01:26:57 ◼   ► But of course, I was only paying half attention to it

01:27:01 ◼   ► because I was just like, okay, whatever, whatever, whatever.

01:27:03 ◼   ► Get to the iPhone X, get to the iPhone X,

01:27:05 ◼   ► get to the iPhone X, except not.

01:27:07 ◼   ► - I think you mean 10.

01:27:08 ◼   ► - Oh, no, no, no, I said that deliberately.

01:27:10 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:27:11 ◼   ► - No, no, we'll get there.

01:27:12 ◼   ► We'll get there.

01:27:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, we're getting there, we're getting there.

01:27:14 ◼   ► - All right, anyway, more good things about this one.

01:27:16 ◼   ► So, I mean, we assume this would be the case,

01:27:18 ◼   ► but it's worth reemphasizing.

01:27:20 ◼   ► It's got the same chip as the fancy phone, right?

01:27:22 ◼   ► It's not like it's got a lesser chip.

01:27:23 ◼   ► This is not like, oh, this is last year's model

01:27:25 ◼   ► and it has the A with one lower A.

01:27:28 ◼   ► It's got an A10, no, it's got an A11 in,

01:27:30 ◼   ► and the A11 is nuts, as usual.

01:27:32 ◼   ► Like people posted the benchmark showing it,

01:27:35 ◼   ► beating a 13-inch MacBook Pro in Geekbench benchmarks

01:27:39 ◼   ► in both single and multi-core.

01:27:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, if those are real, by the way,

01:27:42 ◼   ► that means that they have now beaten Casey's computer,

01:27:44 ◼   ► which is awesome.

01:27:45 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:27:46 ◼   ► - I mean, it's pretty amazing.

01:27:47 ◼   ► And you get that in the 8,

01:27:48 ◼   ► like you don't have to buy the fancy phone for that.

01:27:50 ◼   ► It has wireless charging,

01:27:52 ◼   ► which I didn't think it would have

01:27:53 ◼   ► for differentiation purposes,

01:27:54 ◼   ► but it does have it.

01:27:56 ◼   ► And even though Apple's not ready with its charger thing,

01:27:59 ◼   ► I love the fact that they use that Qi charging standard.

01:28:02 ◼   ► A friend of mine has that charging thing.

01:28:04 ◼   ► He bought wireless,

01:28:05 ◼   ► he bought like a wireless charging case for his iPhone.

01:28:07 ◼   ► Like you put, like I forget which phone it was,

01:28:09 ◼   ► it was like a six or something.

01:28:10 ◼   ► You put this case in it

01:28:12 ◼   ► and it wirelessly charged your iPhone with this standard

01:28:14 ◼   ► by like essentially having a case

01:28:16 ◼   ► that makes it do the thing.

01:28:17 ◼   ► And it was like, oh, that's great,

01:28:18 ◼   ► but you just bought yourself into a dead end

01:28:21 ◼   ► because when Apple comes out with wireless charging,

01:28:22 ◼   ► it sure as hell is not gonna be this Qi stuff.

01:28:24 ◼   ► when they came up with that slide, I'm like, "They did it! They used someone else's standard

01:28:29 ◼   ► because they recognized that they didn't want to have to fight that same battle they did

01:28:32 ◼   ► with carplay because they're putting these chargers in cars and stuff now." And it's

01:28:36 ◼   ► so hard to, in the same way the stupid 30-pin iPod port went to every hotel room, and if

01:28:42 ◼   ► you were another manufacturer and wanted to get in there, it's like, "Sorry, we already

01:28:45 ◼   ► picked the thing that we're going to put on our nightstands, and it's this stupid thing."

01:28:49 ◼   ► The Qi charger—am I pronouncing it right? Qi?

01:28:51 ◼   ► I believe that's right.

01:28:52 ◼   ► chargers are, I don't know if they won the market, but I've seen them around in a couple

01:28:57 ◼   ► of places. I've read reports of them coming in cars or whatever, and so Apple getting

01:29:00 ◼   ► on board with that, but also finding a way to like add its own twist and influence the

01:29:04 ◼   ► standard to charge multiple devices with that air power thing. All that being on the "lesser"

01:29:10 ◼   ► iPhone 8 makes this a pretty darn good phone. Like the only reason people should, you know,

01:29:16 ◼   ► the only reason we're all going to start ignoring it is because we're tech nerds and we care

01:29:20 ◼   ► about all the stuff we're gonna talk about for the iPhone 10.

01:29:23 ◼   ► But this is an eight, it's one bigger than seven.

01:29:27 ◼   ► It looks really cool, it has great features.

01:29:30 ◼   ► If I had a friend or relative who was looking for a phone,

01:29:34 ◼   ► I would not say, oh, just ignore the eight.

01:29:36 ◼   ► I would ask them what they're looking for in a phone

01:29:37 ◼   ► and I think a lot of people should get the eight

01:29:41 ◼   ► instead of the 10 and I think it will be great for them.

01:29:44 ◼   ► What's the other thing, Mark, are you gonna tell me

01:29:46 ◼   ► the camera, did they add optical image stabilization

01:29:49 ◼   ► for the zoomed in one on this or only on the 10?

01:29:51 ◼   ► - No, only on the 10.

01:29:53 ◼   ► But I mean, these are, the camera,

01:29:57 ◼   ► we'll see how it is in practice.

01:29:59 ◼   ► The specs sounded pretty good.

01:30:00 ◼   ► It's still 12 megapixel, but they said

01:30:02 ◼   ► it's an all new sensor, more light, better color, et cetera,

01:30:06 ◼   ► kind of the usual suspects there, which is awesome.

01:30:08 ◼   ► There's a whole bunch of custom silicon sounding things

01:30:11 ◼   ► or custom processing steps kind of things

01:30:13 ◼   ► that they gave fun marketing names to

01:30:16 ◼   ► or that they glossed over.

01:30:17 ◼   ► They mentioned that, first of all,

01:30:20 ◼   ► I think it's interesting noting that the A11 Bionic,

01:30:23 ◼   ► like they gave it a name, the Bionic afterwards,

01:30:25 ◼   ► like to kinda-- - It was like the Fusion

01:30:28 ◼   ► made even less sense, but whatever.

01:30:30 ◼   ► They won't have names, they can have their names.

01:30:31 ◼   ► - Yeah, but anyway, so they have a lot of names

01:30:34 ◼   ► for these things now, but they also have pointed out

01:30:37 ◼   ► in the presentation of a lot of these things

01:30:40 ◼   ► that they have custom things.

01:30:42 ◼   ► So they mentioned, first of all, this is a six-core chip.

01:30:46 ◼   ► That's awesome, like that's, and I have no idea, you know,

01:30:51 ◼   ► what the performance characteristics of this will be,

01:30:53 ◼   ► but it seems like the answer's going to be fast.

01:30:58 ◼   ► It does seem like there is a more than usual

01:31:02 ◼   ► of a focus on power efficiency gains

01:31:04 ◼   ► over straight performance gains,

01:31:07 ◼   ► but it seems like they also got straight performance gains,

01:31:09 ◼   ► so that's pretty cool.

01:31:10 ◼   ► Again, we'll see how this does in practice,

01:31:12 ◼   ► but I have a feeling it's gonna be kind of awesome.

01:31:15 ◼   ► One of the things that caught my attention

01:31:17 ◼   ► is that they now say they have an Apple designed GPU.

01:31:20 ◼   ► The specs don't sound amazing at first.

01:31:24 ◼   ► They said in the presentation that it is 30% faster

01:31:28 ◼   ► than the A10's GPU.

01:31:30 ◼   ► And for a GPU performance for an iPhone year over year,

01:31:32 ◼   ► that actually isn't that amazing.

01:31:35 ◼   ► They've had bigger gains before.

01:31:38 ◼   ► They also said it can offer the same level of performance

01:31:40 ◼   ► as the A10 at half the power as an alternative, I guess.

01:31:43 ◼   ► So that's interesting.

01:31:45 ◼   ► So again, focus on power efficiency.

01:31:48 ◼   ► This is the first Apple designed GPU core in there

01:31:51 ◼   ► that I would expect based on how they did

01:31:54 ◼   ► when they took CPU core design in house with the iPhone 5,

01:31:59 ◼   ► where they had their first core,

01:32:00 ◼   ► which is code named Swift,

01:32:01 ◼   ► inconveniently now, it's very hard to search for that.

01:32:04 ◼   ► But if you look at those performance graphs

01:32:07 ◼   ► that they used to show,

01:32:08 ◼   ► but curiously didn't show this time,

01:32:10 ◼   ► where it had performance of the original iPhone

01:32:12 ◼   ► and then this big ramp up to performance of today's iPhone,

01:32:15 ◼   ► there's a pretty noticeable acceleration

01:32:17 ◼   ► right after the iPhone 5.

01:32:20 ◼   ► That's when they took it in-house.

01:32:22 ◼   ► So taking GPUs in-house as well,

01:32:26 ◼   ► probably is significant long-term

01:32:28 ◼   ► and will probably result in pretty impressive gains.

01:32:31 ◼   ► Like they mentioned during the presentation

01:32:33 ◼   ► that this is a custom design optimized

01:32:35 ◼   ► for Metal 2 and Core ML, their APIs.

01:32:39 ◼   ► And that's the kind of thing they can do

01:32:41 ◼   ► when they take designs in-house,

01:32:43 ◼   ► and when they can specialize the hardware

01:32:45 ◼   ► to their software needs,

01:32:47 ◼   ► and they can do things like analyze every app

01:32:49 ◼   ► in the App Store and its performance characteristics,

01:32:51 ◼   ► and what kind of instructions it needs,

01:32:53 ◼   ► and what kind of optimization they need and practice.

01:32:56 ◼   ► They can do some really cool stuff

01:32:57 ◼   ► with some really impressive performance gains

01:33:00 ◼   ► when they take silicon design in-house.

01:33:02 ◼   ► They have in the past,

01:33:03 ◼   ► and they're doing more and more of that,

01:33:04 ◼   ► so we're gonna see benefits of that

01:33:07 ◼   ► continuing down the road.

01:33:08 ◼   ► That's pretty great.

01:33:09 ◼   ► - For the GPU thing, we knew this was coming

01:33:11 ◼   ► because of the whole imagination lawsuit or whatever thing,

01:33:14 ◼   ► like in that Apple had preannounced,

01:33:16 ◼   ► we're not gonna be using your tech anymore.

01:33:17 ◼   ► So they kind of telegraph that themselves.

01:33:20 ◼   ► But for the speed gain,

01:33:23 ◼   ► it seems to me not having seen a floor plan view

01:33:26 ◼   ► of this chip that they spent their die space

01:33:28 ◼   ► and transistors more on the six cores and the neural,

01:33:33 ◼   ► whatever thing and everything else and less on GPU

01:33:37 ◼   ► because GPUs, honestly, aside from what they said,

01:33:41 ◼   ► custom tailoring it to the APIs that know they're going to get called and making sure it's sufficient for those things and figuring out the

01:33:46 ◼   ► right balance of execution units and stuff

01:33:48 ◼   ► As they as they say GPUs are embarrassingly parallel and essentially you can make them as fast as you want

01:33:54 ◼   ► with you know

01:33:57 ◼   ► Just die space and power budget, right?

01:33:59 ◼   ► And so the iPads obviously they have more pixels to push and they have more die space and more power

01:34:05 ◼   ► And so it's the iPad GPUs that are the big monsters most of the time on the phone

01:34:10 ◼   ► You don't have as many pixels to push around and you just don't have the die space and

01:34:15 ◼   ► the power to, you know, it's not like, oh, we couldn't make it.

01:34:18 ◼   ► They could have made it 300% faster by just, you know, adding 10 times as many transistors

01:34:24 ◼   ► and sucking up 10 times as much power.

01:34:26 ◼   ► But like the trade off they're picking is four tiny CPU cores, two big ones, the neural

01:34:31 ◼   ► thing, the image processor, right?

01:34:34 ◼   ► And then GPU, I think is like a distant third because as much as people are going to game

01:34:39 ◼   ► on their phone, it's more important for the Apple TV to have a good powerful GPU for gaming

01:34:46 ◼   ► than it is for the phone.

01:34:47 ◼   ► The phone GPU is, like I said, it's like tertiary.

01:34:51 ◼   ► It's like primary and secondary is the camera and image processing and the CPU, and I'm

01:34:55 ◼   ► not even sure what order those should be in.

01:34:57 ◼   ► And then third is the GPU.

01:34:59 ◼   ► So I wouldn't worry about it.

01:35:00 ◼   ► I think this GPU is not like Swift where they're like, the CPU, not the language, where it

01:35:07 ◼   ► was just their first try and they weren't that good at it.

01:35:09 ◼   ► I think they're already awesome at it and this is just a trade-off they made and the correct trade-off

01:35:13 ◼   ► For the phone and we haven't gotten to the battery life yet

01:35:15 ◼   ► of the the 10 but you know this that's the weird thing about this being

01:35:20 ◼   ► The same system on a chip in both of them as far as we're aware like there's no differences

01:35:25 ◼   ► But the whole neural processing thing for face ID

01:35:28 ◼   ► iPhone 8 doesn't have face ID doesn't have the depth camera doesn't have any of that stuff

01:35:31 ◼   ► But I think it's still got the neural processing thingy in there

01:35:35 ◼   ► Otherwise they're making a custom version of it just for the iPhone 8 that doesn't have that or it's like well

01:35:40 ◼   ► It probably has animoji support. Yeah, I

01:35:42 ◼   ► Don't know anyway

01:35:45 ◼   ► There's a little bit of weirdness there

01:35:46 ◼   ► But I think they're choosing to spend their transistors where they want and I think when you see the a11x

01:35:51 ◼   ► You will see

01:35:54 ◼   ► the graph

01:35:56 ◼   ► continue

01:35:57 ◼   ► Just as before because they'll just have more room and more power

01:36:00 ◼   ► the

01:36:02 ◼   ► 32 gigs is gone. It's 64 and 128 is gone, right? So it's now and now they all cost more to hit 64

01:36:09 ◼   ► 256 continuing that continuing the theme of

01:36:12 ◼   ► price price hikes throughout the line

01:36:15 ◼   ► Explanation for that is that flash storage

01:36:19 ◼   ► cost more money

01:36:21 ◼   ► Across all their products and it does well

01:36:23 ◼   ► But I mean that's the estimate they gave it in their earnings call before where they're not gonna be making up BS because they're held

01:36:28 ◼   ► To that their statements there by the SEC and everything. So they're basically saying hey

01:36:32 ◼   ► our component costs have gone up and and the rest across the rest of the industry component costs are gone up and

01:36:36 ◼   ► Because of the magical capitalism they pass on that lack of savings to you the customer

01:36:41 ◼   ► They could have eaten it, but they didn't and it explains why everything is more expensive why you know there

01:36:48 ◼   ► The price hikes across the board because all these things include lots of flash storage and especially because they got rid of the 128

01:36:55 ◼   ► so it's like

01:36:57 ◼   ► 64 is entry-level. I think is acceptable now finally we can forget the days of like 16

01:37:01 ◼   ► top tier devices of entry level and the fact that it's jumps all the way to 256

01:37:07 ◼   ► that's not as granular as you would want but I like the fact that that you know

01:37:11 ◼   ► that it doesn't top out at 128 which hasn't for a few years now so anyway

01:37:15 ◼   ► that's typical Apple move the big big one cost you tons and tons of money and

01:37:20 ◼   ► even more money because of their component prices what can you do I think

01:37:24 ◼   ► I'm pretty happy with it with the the storage choices here because I honestly

01:37:28 ◼   ► I think 64 is good for almost everybody and if you feel like you want more you should

01:37:34 ◼   ► have the mostest and that is 256.

01:37:37 ◼   ► Yeah I mean I don't love that they had to randomly increase prices across all their

01:37:41 ◼   ► products including the iPad Pro weirdly.

01:37:43 ◼   ► Yeah well that's what convinces you that it's component cost because that's not a strategic

01:37:46 ◼   ► move like they don't want to have to do that but they have to to maintain their margins.

01:37:50 ◼   ► They're the only company that going into the holiday season increases their prices.

01:37:53 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:37:55 ◼   ► - I mean, we should look.

01:37:56 ◼   ► I mean, if component cost is really arguing out

01:37:57 ◼   ► for everybody, I think this will hit everybody.

01:37:59 ◼   ► Maybe other companies are not in a position

01:38:02 ◼   ► where they can pass that right onto the customers

01:38:06 ◼   ► and say that they'll take it, but Apple is,

01:38:08 ◼   ► and so they're doing it.

01:38:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm guessing Apple's hand was not forced here.

01:38:12 ◼   ► I'm guessing they're doing it because they know they can.

01:38:14 ◼   ► - Also, that's an important part of,

01:38:15 ◼   ► we're gonna go to the iPhone X in a second,

01:38:17 ◼   ► but all of these price increases,

01:38:19 ◼   ► like, I don't know what the correct term for this is.

01:38:22 ◼   ► Someone who's an economics major who has read anything about it would know, like,

01:38:27 ◼   ► pricey elasticity or whatever.

01:38:28 ◼   ► Like, bottom line is, like, if you charge your customers more, if you increase the price

01:38:33 ◼   ► of your product, how much does the demand go down?

01:38:36 ◼   ► Right?

01:38:37 ◼   ► And Apple has always been in this weird position, especially with its top-end most popular products,

01:38:42 ◼   ► where it's like a game of chicken against itself.

01:38:44 ◼   ► It's like, if we add $100, how much fewer of these will we sell?

01:38:49 ◼   ► and they add $100 and they sell more than like, hmm.

01:38:53 ◼   ► Did we just sell more but we would have sold even more

01:38:56 ◼   ► if we hadn't increased the price?

01:38:57 ◼   ► And so they keep running this experiment.

01:38:59 ◼   ► If we had $50, will anybody mind?

01:39:02 ◼   ► Right, and they're learning for the most part,

01:39:04 ◼   ► especially on the high end,

01:39:06 ◼   ► they can keep creeping that price up

01:39:09 ◼   ► and people, I mean the Mac Pro is the perfect thing.

01:39:11 ◼   ► They don't even ask the question of the Mac Pro,

01:39:12 ◼   ► like how much can we charge this?

01:39:14 ◼   ► I don't know, just like make up a number, $10,000?

01:39:16 ◼   ► Sure, ship it, like whatever.

01:39:18 ◼   ► because they can, they absolutely can.

01:39:20 ◼   ► And towards the top end of the iPhone,

01:39:22 ◼   ► especially now that they have this Ferrari of iPhones,

01:39:24 ◼   ► they can just add a couple hundred bucks for that.

01:39:27 ◼   ► I mean, they're already doing it with like,

01:39:28 ◼   ► oh, you go up in storage and it's extra hundred bucks.

01:39:31 ◼   ► Like they discovered they can do that.

01:39:32 ◼   ► We're gonna add $5 in component prices,

01:39:35 ◼   ► but the price the customers increase by $100.

01:39:37 ◼   ► And we'll keep, we'll pocket the 95,

01:39:39 ◼   ► like it is a great deal.

01:39:41 ◼   ► And so this, you know, the component price,

01:39:43 ◼   ► which I totally believe is a real thing,

01:39:46 ◼   ► they should have been pretty confident to say,

01:39:49 ◼   ► "Our component prices are going up.

01:39:50 ◼   ► We can either take a hit in our margins

01:39:52 ◼   ► or we can just increase our prices."

01:39:53 ◼   ► And in fact, maybe we can increase our prices

01:39:56 ◼   ► more than our component costs increase.

01:39:58 ◼   ► So maybe our margins can actually increase.

01:40:00 ◼   ► And so they're going to try it.

01:40:01 ◼   ► And I think they're right.

01:40:02 ◼   ► I think, especially, this will not deter customers.

01:40:05 ◼   ► I don't, and it scares me because I'm like,

01:40:07 ◼   ► if they doubled the price of the iPhone,

01:40:09 ◼   ► how much would they sell?

01:40:10 ◼   ► Half as many?

01:40:11 ◼   ► Or would they sell like 20% fewer?

01:40:14 ◼   ► Right?

01:40:15 ◼   ► how they toy with their demand, right?

01:40:18 ◼   ► I mean, it's another way to keep people out of Apple stores.

01:40:20 ◼   ► You know, just keep increasing the price of your products.

01:40:21 ◼   ► - Wow.

01:40:22 ◼   ► - Become even more and more premium, right?

01:40:25 ◼   ► And, you know, I don't think this is

01:40:28 ◼   ► a good long-term strategy.

01:40:29 ◼   ► I think they should be cautious

01:40:30 ◼   ► because you don't want to leave a price umbrella,

01:40:33 ◼   ► as Tim likes to say,

01:40:34 ◼   ► like leave the loan available to everybody else.

01:40:37 ◼   ► And it makes people angry,

01:40:39 ◼   ► even the people who can afford it,

01:40:40 ◼   ► as evidenced by all of us, or Casey and I,

01:40:42 ◼   ► anyway complaining about $10 a month,

01:40:44 ◼   ► we can go forward. So it is a dangerous game, but I think Apple is actually right that,

01:40:51 ◼   ► you know, as the high end of their phones starts to get higher end, as I think it should,

01:40:58 ◼   ► because they should be expanding their line, like, and, you know, having more diversity in their line

01:41:02 ◼   ► and going for all different things, they can add lots of money to the price because they have a

01:41:07 ◼   ► product that people want, and it's really cool, and it's fancy. And, you know, just crank up the

01:41:13 ◼   ► price and sell people a $100 case and a $130 charging pad. That's why they make all the

01:41:23 ◼   ► money. They're not dumb, and we are willing to pay for it. So unlike the $10 thing, which

01:41:32 ◼   ► happens I'm mad at the carriers, I can't even be mad about this because unlike the carriers,

01:41:35 ◼   ► Apple has products that people want, and I want them, and we're willing to pay for them.

01:41:40 ◼   ► And if we can't pay for them, we will buy the lesser ones because they're still pretty

01:41:43 ◼   ► cool.

01:41:44 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:41:45 ◼   ► But we have one more thing, gentlemen.

01:41:48 ◼   ► Pretty appropriate use, I feel like.

01:41:50 ◼   ► They save it.

01:41:51 ◼   ► I don't think they should have retired it.

01:41:54 ◼   ► I think it's fine for them to use it.

01:41:55 ◼   ► I think it is an homage, an honor, and they do save it for the important ones.

01:41:59 ◼   ► And this was an important one.

01:42:01 ◼   ► Mm-hmm.

01:42:02 ◼   ► I agree.

01:42:03 ◼   ► I agree.

01:42:04 ◼   ► I think it is worth—like, they're allowed to use it if they use it sparingly and appropriately.

01:42:10 ◼   ► And so far they have.

01:42:11 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I agree.

01:42:13 ◼   ► The iPhone X, which I did call X earlier deliberately because I still think it should be called

01:42:20 ◼   ► X.

01:42:21 ◼   ► I will not call it the iPhone X anymore, but my point earlier was that I was just waiting

01:42:24 ◼   ► for this iPhone X to show up, and then sure enough, we are immediately told, "No, no,

01:42:30 ◼   ► no.

01:42:31 ◼   ► It is not the iPhone X.

01:42:32 ◼   ► It is the iPhone X."

01:42:33 ◼   ► Wait, were you reading it?

01:42:35 ◼   ► Were you in the Gruber camp where you thought they were actually going to pronounce that

01:42:38 ◼   ► X is a 10?

01:42:39 ◼   ► or that X is an X rather.

01:42:41 ◼   ► - I thought it was gonna be X.

01:42:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, so we saw the strings from the firmware

01:42:45 ◼   ► and that's the problem with all of us having read it

01:42:49 ◼   ► before anyone ever said it,

01:42:50 ◼   ► 'cause we all read it in the leak, right?

01:42:51 ◼   ► And there's no pronunciation guide in the leak, right?

01:42:54 ◼   ► If the first time we had ever experienced this was on stage,

01:42:56 ◼   ► I think there would have been a fighting chance,

01:42:58 ◼   ► like not a big chance honestly,

01:42:59 ◼   ► but a better chance that we would all be saying it internally

01:43:04 ◼   ► in our minds as 10.

01:43:06 ◼   ► But now we had like a week or two of saying it in our head

01:43:10 ◼   ► as X, and then they come out and say 10.

01:43:12 ◼   ► And if I had to bet, I would have bet against Gruber.

01:43:16 ◼   ► I spent several years opening all my Mac OS X reviews

01:43:19 ◼   ► by saying, and by the way, this is another reminder,

01:43:21 ◼   ► the X is pronounced 10.

01:43:23 ◼   ► Because no one knew what the hell Mac OS X was, right?

01:43:26 ◼   ► So I had to say, hey, you're reading your review

01:43:28 ◼   ► right up there, there's an X,

01:43:28 ◼   ► I know you're probably reading this,

01:43:29 ◼   ► but just so you know, it's 10.

01:43:30 ◼   ► Didn't work, people still call it X,

01:43:32 ◼   ► that's all you can do.

01:43:33 ◼   ► Couldn't stop them from calling it an iTouch,

01:43:35 ◼   ► You're not gonna stop people calling this iPhone X.

01:43:37 ◼   ► - Or iWatch, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:43:39 ◼   ► - I will continue, I will try to do 10.

01:43:42 ◼   ► I will never do 10.

01:43:43 ◼   ► - No, no, no, and all kidding aside, I will too.

01:43:46 ◼   ► When I was saying it earlier, it was in the mindset

01:43:48 ◼   ► of 20 minutes earlier in the keynote,

01:43:50 ◼   ► I expected to see the iPhone X.

01:43:51 ◼   ► But now we know it's the iPhone 10,

01:43:53 ◼   ► and if I slip up from now on, don't let me tell you

01:43:57 ◼   ► it was deliberate, because it isn't.

01:43:58 ◼   ► But earlier that was deliberate.

01:44:00 ◼   ► - When they released one of the S models,

01:44:03 ◼   ► I believe it was the 5S, and they gave it a lowercase S,

01:44:07 ◼   ► and it just looked like the iPhone 5s,

01:44:09 ◼   ► and nobody, like immediately,

01:44:11 ◼   ► even like in the initial reviews of it,

01:44:14 ◼   ► everyone just capitalized the S,

01:44:16 ◼   ► because it was really weird without it.

01:44:18 ◼   ► So like everyone just went against Apple's wishes,

01:44:20 ◼   ► and eventually I think Apple just kind of gave up,

01:44:21 ◼   ► and you know, it got normalized everywhere as capital S.

01:44:25 ◼   ► I think this is the kind of thing where like,

01:44:27 ◼   ► I have a feeling a lot of people

01:44:29 ◼   ► are going to call this the iPhone X,

01:44:31 ◼   ► no matter what, no matter how Apple says it,

01:44:34 ◼   ► this is gonna be the iPhone X to most people,

01:44:37 ◼   ► and we're just gonna have to deal with that.

01:44:38 ◼   ► We're gonna have to be okay with that,

01:44:39 ◼   ► because that's how it's gonna be.

01:44:42 ◼   ► Calling it 10, yes, there is that history with Mac OS X,

01:44:46 ◼   ► which everybody screwed up,

01:44:47 ◼   ► but that was such a smaller scale than this.

01:44:51 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:44:52 ◼   ► - The iPhone is so much bigger than the Mac ever was

01:44:55 ◼   ► or will be that most people who are gonna be calling it

01:44:59 ◼   ► the iPhone X are probably not Mac owners.

01:45:02 ◼   ► - I think, see, if the first time you hear the name of it

01:45:05 ◼   ► is in an Apple store, the Apple people are all gonna say 10,

01:45:07 ◼   ► and you won't even know that it's an X.

01:45:08 ◼   ► If the first time you see it as an ad on TV,

01:45:10 ◼   ► maybe you'll start saying X,

01:45:12 ◼   ► but most people aren't reading about this,

01:45:13 ◼   ► you know, in reviews like that.

01:45:14 ◼   ► So percentage-wise, I think the breakdown

01:45:16 ◼   ► will be about the same.

01:45:17 ◼   ► It's just that the numbers are bigger.

01:45:18 ◼   ► - I mean, most people are gonna be calling it the new iPhone.

01:45:21 ◼   ► - Yeah, we had to be reminded by a listener, MT Walker,

01:45:24 ◼   ► I had to be reminded anyway,

01:45:25 ◼   ► that we had to show episode 172,

01:45:28 ◼   ► the title of which was iPhone space capital X.

01:45:31 ◼   ► Do you remember that show?

01:45:32 ◼   ► - No. - You remember that discussion?

01:45:33 ◼   ► - I didn't until I'd heard it because of that link.

01:45:35 ◼   ► - So perhaps Margo should click the link in the show notes

01:45:37 ◼   ► and here are very-- - We have show notes.

01:45:40 ◼   ► - Impression discussion, yes.

01:45:42 ◼   ► At 58 minutes and six seconds into episode 172,

01:45:46 ◼   ► we will put the link to this in the show notes,

01:45:47 ◼   ► we have a discussion where we jokingly say

01:45:49 ◼   ► that the next iPhone should be 10

01:45:51 ◼   ► but it should be an X like a Roman numeral.

01:45:54 ◼   ► - Well, and so here's the problem with this.

01:45:56 ◼   ► Like, if this was the only iPhone released this year,

01:46:01 ◼   ► they could plausibly just call next year's 11

01:46:04 ◼   ► and be fine with it or move on.

01:46:06 ◼   ► - This one does not go to 11.

01:46:07 ◼   ► - So here's the problem.

01:46:09 ◼   ► They have two iPhones that they released

01:46:11 ◼   ► that are very similar in many of the specs.

01:46:13 ◼   ► One of which is called 8 and one of which is called 10.

01:46:16 ◼   ► So similar to the watch series one versus series three,

01:46:20 ◼   ► this makes the 8 seem older than it really is.

01:46:23 ◼   ► It really makes it hard to talk about these phones

01:46:25 ◼   ► We can't just say like, oh, it's the eight family

01:46:27 ◼   ► or whatever else or, you know, like.

01:46:28 ◼   ► So it makes there appear to be much more of a difference

01:46:32 ◼   ► than there really is.

01:46:33 ◼   ► That also is going to age badly.

01:46:35 ◼   ► If you start thinking about what might they do

01:46:37 ◼   ► in the next couple years for the product naming.

01:46:40 ◼   ► Like, what are gonna be the phones next year?

01:46:42 ◼   ► Nine and 11? - No, no, no.

01:46:45 ◼   ► - Like, this naming scheme, like this,

01:46:47 ◼   ► they're gonna have to like mess up the names again next year

01:46:50 ◼   ► and it hurts their message this year

01:46:52 ◼   ► of trying to make a lot of people

01:46:54 ◼   ► still want to buy the 8s, because it makes them sound even older than they are.

01:46:59 ◼   ► That's why people thought they were all going to be called 8, but I think Apple's willing

01:47:03 ◼   ► to eat that because most people will shop based on the product, not the name.

01:47:08 ◼   ► I think they have a plan in kind of the same way that when they went Mac OS 7.6, and then

01:47:15 ◼   ► eventually Mac OS 8, which wasn't Copeland, even though it stole the name, and then they

01:47:20 ◼   ► They did Mac OS 9 and they did Mac OS 10 with a Roman numeral and that Roman numeral did

01:47:27 ◼   ► not ever change.

01:47:29 ◼   ► Eventually it just went away and now we're just back to plain old Mac OS.

01:47:31 ◼   ► But we had a Mac OS 10 with names and version numbers and year after year after year of

01:47:37 ◼   ► Mac OS 10.

01:47:38 ◼   ► Someone being reminded again, but someone sent me a link to my five years of OS 10 review

01:47:43 ◼   ► at Ars Technica and I mentioned starting the reviews with a section saying what is Mac OS 10,

01:47:51 ◼   ► so because people didn't know what it was and the pronunciation tips. And I noted that even

01:47:57 ◼   ► Steve Jobs had said X instead of 10 on stage, like because you know he's a human being and I also

01:48:04 ◼   ► know that he said PowerBook instead of MacBook because MacBook is a gross name and he knows it

01:48:07 ◼   ► too. But it is a difficult name, but it is a system that has been proven to work. You just

01:48:15 ◼   ► don't increase the number. You never go to 11. You just do the iPhone 10. And this iPhone 10,

01:48:23 ◼   ► they didn't lean on this as much as I thought they would, but it is like two better than the eight,

01:48:30 ◼   ► right? They didn't say, "Oh, and we skipped the nine and it's like living in the future," and so

01:48:34 ◼   ► and so on and so forth, but that's the message,

01:48:35 ◼   ► that this is not just one better than the eight,

01:48:38 ◼   ► it's two better than the eight.

01:48:40 ◼   ► It is the next generation of product,

01:48:42 ◼   ► they did say this is the,

01:48:43 ◼   ► in the same way the MacBook Air was the future of laptop,

01:48:46 ◼   ► this is the future of phones.

01:48:47 ◼   ► And it seems clear to me,

01:48:49 ◼   ► fast forward a couple of years,

01:48:52 ◼   ► they'll all be iPhone 10s.

01:48:54 ◼   ► Like they'll all be like this phone, right?

01:48:56 ◼   ► The notch, the edge, the edge screen, the physical design.

01:48:59 ◼   ► And I don't think they're going to change the 10

01:49:03 ◼   ► or they'll just drop it entirely and the whole,

01:49:05 ◼   ► this is what all future phones will look like eventually.

01:49:08 ◼   ► Not this year, because the eights look like the sevens,

01:49:11 ◼   ► look like the sixes. - On an infinite time scale.

01:49:13 ◼   ► - No, but this is, no, but it's pretty, not infinite,

01:49:15 ◼   ► like within a couple of years.

01:49:17 ◼   ► As these things go down market,

01:49:19 ◼   ► they're gonna move this design down market,

01:49:22 ◼   ► 'cause they said it themselves,

01:49:23 ◼   ► this is the future of the phone,

01:49:24 ◼   ► and they have a name because it uses a letter

01:49:27 ◼   ► and not a number, and because people don't know

01:49:29 ◼   ► how Roman numerals work after a certain point,

01:49:31 ◼   ► I don't think there's a temptation to go Super Bowl LMVXIZ.

01:49:35 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:49:36 ◼   ► There's no temptation to do that.

01:49:38 ◼   ► So they either just keep the capital letter X

01:49:41 ◼   ► or they just drop it entirely like they did in Mac OS.

01:49:43 ◼   ► But it's an extensible naming scheme just about the time

01:49:47 ◼   ► when the numbers are about to get unwieldy on iPhones.

01:49:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, that makes sense.

01:49:52 ◼   ► But the other thing to consider though is that,

01:49:54 ◼   ► and this is one of the weirdnesses about

01:49:57 ◼   ► that the line is now bifurcated,

01:49:59 ◼   ► that as you think about how the names scale,

01:50:02 ◼   ► don't assume that the bifurcation of the line

01:50:05 ◼   ► into the regular phone at the regular prices,

01:50:09 ◼   ► plus 50 bucks, and the new phone that's $300 more

01:50:14 ◼   ► or whatever, that's gonna keep beating there.

01:50:17 ◼   ► They're not gonna sell a phone for $1200 massively this year

01:50:22 ◼   ► and have a huge hit rate with that,

01:50:24 ◼   ► and then next year say, "Let's make it cheaper."

01:50:27 ◼   ► there's no way that's going to happen.

01:50:30 ◼   ► Once they get used to selling phones

01:50:32 ◼   ► at these two different price points

01:50:34 ◼   ► and selling a ton of the higher one,

01:50:36 ◼   ► they're not gonna give up that profit in the future,

01:50:38 ◼   ► but they're also not gonna wanna give up the market share

01:50:40 ◼   ► of having the slightly less expensive ones

01:50:43 ◼   ► also in the lineup at the base level.

01:50:45 ◼   ► So they're going to keep having two lines for a long time.

01:50:49 ◼   ► - No, it's not gonna be two lines.

01:50:50 ◼   ► They're all gonna look like that.

01:50:51 ◼   ► They're just gonna be three phones, three sizes.

01:50:53 ◼   ► We, not so we, and freaking huge.

01:50:55 ◼   ► That's SNL references everywhere.

01:50:59 ◼   ► - Was that Austin Powers?

01:51:00 ◼   ► - That was SNL, right?

01:51:02 ◼   ► Maybe it was Austin Powers.

01:51:03 ◼   ► It's Mike Myers.

01:51:04 ◼   ► Mike Myers doing his impression of an Irish gentleman.

01:51:09 ◼   ► Oh, no, Scottish, Scottish.

01:51:11 ◼   ► - Did you know, John, that if it's not Scottish, it's crap?

01:51:15 ◼   ► - Yes, I think it's the same thing.

01:51:17 ◼   ► I hope it's Mike Myers.

01:51:18 ◼   ► Might not be any story.

01:51:19 ◼   ► Anyway, whole point is, yeah, like,

01:51:22 ◼   ► The diversification of the iPhone line has not recontracted.

01:51:27 ◼   ► They've only gone more.

01:51:28 ◼   ► We've got the SE hanging out down there,

01:51:30 ◼   ► which is kind of hanging out where the 5C was.

01:51:32 ◼   ► And we got the little phone and the big phone,

01:51:35 ◼   ► the 6 and the 6 Plus,

01:51:36 ◼   ► and now we have this kind of in-betweeny size.

01:51:39 ◼   ► And price range going down market with the SE,

01:51:42 ◼   ► which is now like 350 or something,

01:51:43 ◼   ► like the cheapest iPhone there's ever been

01:51:45 ◼   ► in terms of just what the price is, right?

01:51:47 ◼   ► And the most expensive one.

01:51:48 ◼   ► They're not gonna give up that range.

01:51:50 ◼   ► I'm just saying tech-wise, right?

01:51:52 ◼   ► What distinguishes the X now is that it's got the edge to edge screen, it's got the notch,

01:51:56 ◼   ► you know, it doesn't have a home button, like it is a new phone design, an Apple set explicitly,

01:52:01 ◼   ► this is the future of the smartphone.

01:52:02 ◼   ► So within I think a couple years, two, three years, the whole --

01:52:08 ◼   ► they're going to come a September event and all three or four, depending on how they deal

01:52:13 ◼   ► with the SE, all three or four new phones are going to be notch-bearing,

01:52:17 ◼   ► edge to edge, non-home button having things.

01:52:20 ◼   ► One of them is going to be 1,300 bucks, right?

01:52:22 ◼   ► and one of them is going to be whatever the cheapest one here is, 400 to 500 or whatever.

01:52:25 ◼   ► But that's what I mean. And once they all start being eduteted on a home button,

01:52:32 ◼   ► notch bearing, watchamoosies, you can name them as a family, you can market them as a family,

01:52:37 ◼   ► it is a family that spans the range. And it will be more cohesive than it is now where they show

01:52:42 ◼   ► the family, you've got the SE design, and then the 6S and 7 and 8, and then you've got the 10.

01:52:48 ◼   ► It's a little bit of a motley crew, but we're in transition.

01:52:51 ◼   ► We're in transition the same way we were when we were transitioning to Retina, when we were

01:52:53 ◼   ► transitioning to Touch ID.

01:52:56 ◼   ► But things will flow downwards.

01:52:59 ◼   ► And I have some confidence that their product line will be much more coherent in a few more

01:53:04 ◼   ► years, even if their names aren't necessarily.

01:53:06 ◼   ► Because let's be honest, Apple is a little bit weird with the names.

01:53:09 ◼   ► There's a possibility for a brighter future for naming, but Apple's really good at screwing

01:53:14 ◼   ► it up.

01:53:15 ◼   ► So I don't put anything past them.

01:53:16 ◼   ► Like as many people said, this is the new iPhone.

01:53:19 ◼   ► One year they're going to drop the 10 and just they're all going to be the new iPhone

01:53:22 ◼   ► and we're not going to have any way to talk about them.

01:53:23 ◼   ► Who knows, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

01:53:26 ◼   ► So we knew a lot about this phone.

01:53:27 ◼   ► We didn't really acknowledge tonight that there was a tremendous leak of the iOS 11

01:53:34 ◼   ► GM specifically for this phone, among other things.

01:53:36 ◼   ► And Steve— In between the last show and now, the leaks

01:53:39 ◼   ► came so fast that we, on our regular weekly schedule, we missed an entire gigantic leak.

01:53:45 ◼   ► So we knew a lot of this.

01:53:48 ◼   ► We certainly didn't know everything.

01:53:50 ◼   ► We didn't know that they were going to call this OLED display "super retina."

01:53:53 ◼   ► It's super retina.

01:53:54 ◼   ► Such important things we didn't know.

01:53:55 ◼   ► On that point of us not knowing everything, I think we knew the most about this Apple

01:53:59 ◼   ► event than I've ever known about any Apple event.

01:54:03 ◼   ► We had mock-ups of this phone that are indistinguishable on video from the actual real thing, probably

01:54:08 ◼   ► down to the millimeter perfect, right?

01:54:10 ◼   ► We knew so much about the software from the software leak, which has never happened before.

01:54:14 ◼   ► Now that I'm, you know, like, I think a little bit about what would have been like in the

01:54:18 ◼   ► era when people didn't pay attention to Apple and Apple didn't accidentally leak things.

01:54:23 ◼   ► And we saw the iPhone intro and the 8 came out and we're like, "Oh, the 8s are okay.

01:54:26 ◼   ► They're pretty good."

01:54:27 ◼   ► And then out of nowhere came this one more thing and it was this phone.

01:54:30 ◼   ► We would have, this show would have been 900 hours long, just about the 10.

01:54:33 ◼   ► But luckily we had like months talking about this.

01:54:37 ◼   ► We were talking about the phone and every single thing was, even the late-breaking German

01:54:42 ◼   ► leak about the swipe up for home button and all that stuff, even though it was phrased

01:54:45 ◼   ► in kind of a wishy-washy way, it's pretty much on the money. That's what was there,

01:54:49 ◼   ► right?

01:54:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:54:51 ◼   ► So we knew so much. This is the new high watermark for how much can you know about an Apple event

01:54:54 ◼   ► before it happens.

01:54:55 ◼   ► Oh, yeah. We knew the Apple TV 4K deals.

01:54:58 ◼   ► We knew -- we had a picture of the watch over the weekend from the software.

01:55:02 ◼   ► Yeah, yep. That was tough.

01:55:03 ◼   ► We had the picture of the red dot with the LTE watch.

01:55:05 ◼   ► Like we -- oh, man.

01:55:06 ◼   ► The new AirPods, right?

01:55:08 ◼   ► We had the cute Face ID face.

01:55:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, oh God, it was, you know, so this,

01:55:13 ◼   ► I mean, it's a shame and Apple will work on it,

01:55:18 ◼   ► but honestly, it's really fighting against the tide here.

01:55:21 ◼   ► Like, for products this popular, for a company,

01:55:26 ◼   ► for so many people who are so motivated

01:55:28 ◼   ► to find out this information,

01:55:29 ◼   ► it is a really Herculean task to keep anything secret.

01:55:34 ◼   ► So that's why we should all concentrate entirely

01:55:36 ◼   ► on the Mac Pro, which no one will care enough about to leak

01:55:38 ◼   ► and we will all be totally surprised by it.

01:55:40 ◼   ► Once again, the Mac Pro wins.

01:55:42 ◼   ► Anyway, I'm sorry, I interrupted you.

01:55:44 ◼   ► You're gone, Casey, back to the phone.

01:55:46 ◼   ► I just wanna contest the narrative

01:55:48 ◼   ► that we didn't know much about this.

01:55:50 ◼   ► We knew the most we have ever known.

01:55:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, it was somewhat disappointing in that regard

01:55:57 ◼   ► because we did know so much,

01:55:59 ◼   ► but there were certainly some things that we didn't know.

01:56:03 ◼   ► And so they pitched the super-ended displays

01:56:06 ◼   ► being brighter with wide color and better color accuracy

01:56:09 ◼   ► and so on and so forth.

01:56:11 ◼   ► Still is 3D Touch.

01:56:12 ◼   ► A lot of people I saw on Twitter anyway asking,

01:56:14 ◼   ► "Wait, what happened to 3D Touch?"

01:56:16 ◼   ► They never really talked about it.

01:56:17 ◼   ► I'm actually looking at the keynote right now

01:56:19 ◼   ► and there's a slide that says 3D Touch right on it.

01:56:21 ◼   ► - And they said it's now built into the display.

01:56:24 ◼   ► I guess that's just like a construction detail

01:56:27 ◼   ► about where it is mechanically.

01:56:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, I didn't quite understand that part,

01:56:30 ◼   ► but anyway, it's still there.

01:56:32 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Yep.

01:56:32 ◼   ► So now before we get into Face ID,

01:56:36 ◼   ► which we'll talk about momentarily,

01:56:38 ◼   ► The home button is indeed gone.

01:56:39 ◼   ► There's been a lot of back and forth as to whether or not

01:56:42 ◼   ► the home button would be gone.

01:56:42 ◼   ► It is gone.

01:56:43 ◼   ► Well, I guess not after the leak.

01:56:45 ◼   ► But until the leak, there was a lot of back and forth

01:56:47 ◼   ► about the home button.

01:56:48 ◼   ► To get back to the home screen, to get back to screen board,

01:56:52 ◼   ► you just swipe up from the bottom.

01:56:54 ◼   ► There's a little-- not notch-- a little grabber handle,

01:56:58 ◼   ► if you will.

01:56:59 ◼   ► Not a physical one, mind you, a software one.

01:57:02 ◼   ► At the bottom of the screen, generally speaking,

01:57:04 ◼   ► that you grab and slide up.

01:57:06 ◼   ► I noticed that when, I think it was an iOS 11 beta,

01:57:10 ◼   ► they got rid of the force press on the left edge

01:57:14 ◼   ► of the screen to multitask.

01:57:15 ◼   ► And I saw a few people who really worked up about that.

01:57:19 ◼   ► And now, as it turns out, you just swipe,

01:57:21 ◼   ► not even force press, I don't believe,

01:57:22 ◼   ► but just swipe the little knuckle at the bottom

01:57:27 ◼   ► that represents the like home grabby thing.

01:57:30 ◼   ► What is the right term for this?

01:57:31 ◼   ► I'm failing all over the place.

01:57:32 ◼   ► - Like a drag handle.

01:57:33 ◼   ► It's called a gripper.

01:57:34 ◼   ► It's not a question of where he grips it.

01:57:36 ◼   ► drag indicator?

01:57:37 ◼   ► Yeah, a drag indicator, whatever, a gripper, let's go with gripper.

01:57:40 ◼   ► So if you swipe laterally on the gripper, you can just swipe between apps.

01:57:45 ◼   ► If you go halfway up, you can get into multitasking.

01:57:49 ◼   ► If you go the whole way up, like I said, you're going back home.

01:57:52 ◼   ► To get to notification center versus control center, it depends on where you're swiping

01:57:56 ◼   ► from the top, which I'm not a tremendous fan of.

01:58:00 ◼   ► I don't think that's going to be...

01:58:01 ◼   ► Oh, that's the best.

01:58:02 ◼   ► Honestly, this sounds awful.

01:58:03 ◼   ► No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

01:58:04 ◼   ► - The swiping from the top, I think that is--

01:58:07 ◼   ► - This sounds like they're, so yeah,

01:58:09 ◼   ► so you basically, so now the top has those two ears

01:58:13 ◼   ► on each side of the notch.

01:58:14 ◼   ► You basically pull down on the left ear

01:58:16 ◼   ► from notification center.

01:58:17 ◼   ► - No, not the left. - And you pull down

01:58:19 ◼   ► the right ear for control center.

01:58:21 ◼   ► - The right ear is control center,

01:58:23 ◼   ► everything else is notifications, including the middle.

01:58:26 ◼   ► So if you pull down from the middle like you normally do.

01:58:28 ◼   ► - But like, so basically this now puts control center

01:58:32 ◼   ► in the hardest to reach corner of the phone

01:58:33 ◼   ► if you hold your phone in your left hand.

01:58:35 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, this is bad.

01:58:36 ◼   ► This is totally bad for people, for lefties.

01:58:38 ◼   ► I totally admit that.

01:58:39 ◼   ► - This is, I mean, it's bad for everybody,

01:58:41 ◼   ► 'cause reaching the top corners is already hard

01:58:43 ◼   ► for almost anybody.

01:58:43 ◼   ► - The way I hold my phone, I think, I don't know,

01:58:48 ◼   ► I'll have to see.

01:58:48 ◼   ► This is the thing about the phone.

01:58:49 ◼   ► We can all speculate on what it's gonna be like,

01:58:51 ◼   ► but as everyone who's designing software for it has said,

01:58:54 ◼   ► it's really difficult to do anything

01:58:55 ◼   ► until you physically get one of these in your hand.

01:58:57 ◼   ► I have to say that I was super doubtful, cautious, worried

01:59:02 ◼   ► about based on the rumor,

01:59:04 ◼   ► but seeing them use the home swipey thing,

01:59:07 ◼   ► I started to believe, I started to believe two things.

01:59:11 ◼   ► One, that the home swipey thing

01:59:14 ◼   ► could be a thing I can get used to.

01:59:15 ◼   ► I'm not sure about control center.

01:59:17 ◼   ► I will have to like, I'm holding my phone now trying to see,

01:59:19 ◼   ► can I get to that corner?

01:59:20 ◼   ► Is it gonna be, I don't know.

01:59:21 ◼   ► I'm not quite sure what the deal is there,

01:59:23 ◼   ► but Apple has some options, but the home swipey thing,

01:59:24 ◼   ► certainly that is something that we're gonna use all the time

01:59:26 ◼   ► and I feel like that's gonna be pulled off.

01:59:28 ◼   ► And the second thing is,

01:59:30 ◼   ► I think this phone, the iPhone X and the presentation of it, worked its magic on me at least to

01:59:35 ◼   ► the point where I even just started thinking about my phone, which has a section of the

01:59:41 ◼   ► bottom which is not a screen, and the only thing in that is a giant circle that I press

01:59:47 ◼   ► to do something and it seems barbaric.

01:59:49 ◼   ► There's a section of like, that is just like this blank area of my phone with a button

01:59:55 ◼   ► on it.

01:59:56 ◼   ► And even it's not like a button that moves anymore, it is still like a button.

01:59:58 ◼   ► It's like, what is that?

02:00:00 ◼   ► It's like when you had to connect the trackballs to PC laptops on the side with those little

02:00:04 ◼   ► hooks, right?

02:00:05 ◼   ► Like Max had trackballs built in where the trackpad is now, like underneath the keyboard,

02:00:10 ◼   ► and PC's laptops were then made where the entire bottom part was keyboard from front

02:00:15 ◼   ► to back, so they had no place to put a trackpad, so you could clip it on the side.

02:00:18 ◼   ► And now I look at my phone, I'm like, "This has this weird dead area appended to it where

02:00:23 ◼   ► we have to put a physical button that's like steam powered or something."

02:00:28 ◼   ► just barbaric when the whole thing should be screened. I don't know, maybe the screen will

02:00:33 ◼   ► be terrible, maybe I'll hate the gestures, maybe I'll long for the button, setting aside Face ID

02:00:37 ◼   ► just in terms of like what it's like to go back home or to activate multi-asking or whatever.

02:00:41 ◼   ► But I came away from that keynote a pretty big believer in the correctness of the whole front

02:00:50 ◼   ► of the phone being a screen and believing that pull up from the bottom or some kind of thing

02:00:57 ◼   ► that is like I dedicated an entire edge of the screen to important common actions is better and

02:01:03 ◼   ► requires less precision than finding that little button. Again, setting aside Touch ID, setting

02:01:09 ◼   ► aside Face ID, just the part of like I'm using the home button to go home and do all the other stuff,

02:01:12 ◼   ► I was pretty convinced. I went into this being skeptical that if I was going to buy a phone,

02:01:18 ◼   ► which I'm not this year, whether or not I would get the fancy edge to edge one, and I came out of

02:01:21 ◼   ► it saying if I was buying a phone this year, 100% I would get that one because I just, I need to try

02:01:25 ◼   ► that and I am now optimistic that they're right about this future, that they're right

02:01:32 ◼   ► about the fact that all screen is the way to go and we will look back on these phones

02:01:36 ◼   ► that had these dead sections above and below that weren't screen and they will seem messed

02:01:40 ◼   ► up.

02:01:41 ◼   ► Now for the record, I am all in on the swipe up home gesture thing.

02:01:46 ◼   ► I think that's going to be great.

02:01:48 ◼   ► I really honestly do.

02:01:49 ◼   ► I think that's going to be way more convenient and it's going to be very natural, very fast.

02:01:54 ◼   ► What I just don't entirely love is having to be more precise to get to notification

02:02:00 ◼   ► center versus command or control center.

02:02:02 ◼   ► And it may end up that it's no big deal at all.

02:02:04 ◼   ► But I use control center constantly and I use notification center frequently.

02:02:10 ◼   ► And so I'm a little worried, again, not having tried it, that that's going to be a little

02:02:15 ◼   ► bit frustrating.

02:02:16 ◼   ► But I am totally with you that I am all in on the all screen front.

02:02:20 ◼   ► I am all in on the no home button.

02:02:22 ◼   ► I am right there with you on that.

02:02:24 ◼   ► Marco, what do you think?

02:02:26 ◼   ► - I'm basically with you, Casey.

02:02:27 ◼   ► The swipe home button thing sounds totally fine.

02:02:31 ◼   ► That seems sensible to me.

02:02:32 ◼   ► Like, you know, if you're gonna get rid of the home button,

02:02:34 ◼   ► that seems like a pretty okay way to handle it.

02:02:36 ◼   ► Having to pull down on the right ear

02:02:39 ◼   ► to get to control center,

02:02:40 ◼   ► I think that's a very hard place to reach

02:02:42 ◼   ► no matter which hand you're holding your phone in,

02:02:44 ◼   ► especially 'cause this phone is now taller than the 7.

02:02:46 ◼   ► So I think that's gonna be a problem for a lot of people.

02:02:50 ◼   ► Also, keep in mind,

02:02:51 ◼   ► when you're making size comparisons,

02:02:53 ◼   ► which I'll get to in a minute,

02:02:54 ◼   ► I have a lot to say about this, about the screen,

02:02:55 ◼   ► but keep in mind that now because you aren't having

02:02:58 ◼   ► that top and bottom chin,

02:03:00 ◼   ► if you're thinking about whether certain parts

02:03:02 ◼   ► of the screen are gonna be reachable for you,

02:03:04 ◼   ► keep in mind that you're actually gonna have

02:03:05 ◼   ► to reach higher on this one,

02:03:07 ◼   ► because you're reaching into the area that used to be,

02:03:10 ◼   ► the earpiece bar, you know, the forehead area.

02:03:13 ◼   ► So that's gonna be a hard place to reach.

02:03:16 ◼   ► Maybe one way to solve this,

02:03:17 ◼   ► I haven't played with the software like in the simulator yet

02:03:20 ◼   ► so maybe they can do this,

02:03:22 ◼   ► maybe there's some reason why they can't,

02:03:23 ◼   ► but maybe a shortcut to control center could be

02:03:26 ◼   ► if you do the home gesture swipe up

02:03:28 ◼   ► when you're already at the home screen,

02:03:31 ◼   ► maybe you can open up control center.

02:03:32 ◼   ► I know that's not perfect, but I don't know,

02:03:35 ◼   ► having to pull down from that right ear area,

02:03:37 ◼   ► that seems like it's gonna be really hard to reach

02:03:39 ◼   ► for something that people not only frequently use,

02:03:42 ◼   ► but frequently use when they're one-handed.

02:03:44 ◼   ► So that seems like something that needs to be fixed.

02:03:47 ◼   ► - On the iPad, remember, on iOS 11,

02:03:49 ◼   ► do the thing where you pull up from the bottom and the dock appears but if you keep pulling

02:03:53 ◼   ► control center appears they kind of did the same thing on the phone but now it's like

02:03:57 ◼   ► if you pull up part way you get multitasking and if you keep pulling it's home.

02:04:00 ◼   ► I feel like they have some options if reachability turns out to be a concern but the main thing

02:04:03 ◼   ► I thought was really clever about control center is it is one instance where they made

02:04:10 ◼   ► you know got some lemons which is the notch which I'll talk about a bit later and they

02:04:13 ◼   ► made lemonade but it's like well we do have this notch here and it conveniently physically

02:04:18 ◼   ► and prominently divides that bar into sections that are clearly understandable. Like, if,

02:04:23 ◼   ► imagine the status bar was just straight across and the top of the screen was flat. This kind

02:04:26 ◼   ► of thing where it's like, well, you have to know that if you swipe down on like the rightish third

02:04:30 ◼   ► of the single continuous thing, that it does a different thing than if you swipe down on the

02:04:35 ◼   ► other two thirds. But because the notch is there, it gives them like, essentially a button, like a

02:04:40 ◼   ► physically outlined thing that says this place is different than the other place. And people can be

02:04:46 ◼   ► forgiven for thinking that it's right ear versus left ear, but it's really right ear

02:04:50 ◼   ► versus anything else in the entire bar is notifications, which lets people continue

02:04:54 ◼   ► their muscle memory of swipe from the top and your right Marco that the top is toppier

02:04:57 ◼   ► than it used to be. So we'll see how that goes. But that still works because I don't

02:05:01 ◼   ► know how many, I mean, I pull notification down from the center middle of my phone and

02:05:05 ◼   ► if you continue to do that, it will keep working. And since I can reach the center middle of

02:05:08 ◼   ► my phone to get notifications, I feel I can probably get to the ear. I guess we'll all

02:05:13 ◼   ► find out. But they do have, like they have options because it is all screen, they've

02:05:17 ◼   ► got a bunch of multiple edges, they could even somehow work it into the bottom, give

02:05:22 ◼   ► them some time to work it out, but I'm mostly optimistic about how this is going to work.

02:05:28 ◼   ► Especially for poor people with the giant plus. Like I hope this phone brings people

02:05:31 ◼   ► down from the ledge that is the plus. It says, "Look, you can get not as many pixels, but

02:05:36 ◼   ► more. How do you feel about this? Is it better?" I don't know. Maybe it won't work. People

02:05:40 ◼   ► like their giant phones.

02:05:41 ◼   ► - Well, and so, on that part though, like--

02:05:46 ◼   ► - Wait, hold on, really, really quickly.

02:05:47 ◼   ► Do you feel like this is going to be difficult

02:05:50 ◼   ► for more novice users?

02:05:53 ◼   ► And maybe the answer is no, novice users

02:05:55 ◼   ► don't even really know what control center is,

02:05:56 ◼   ► or notification center for that matter.

02:05:58 ◼   ► But I don't know, it's just, one of the things

02:06:00 ◼   ► that I think was so great about the iPhone

02:06:03 ◼   ► was that you always had a physical button to press

02:06:08 ◼   ► when you needed to get out of jail.

02:06:09 ◼   ► Like you needed a parachute, maybe is a better analogy.

02:06:12 ◼   ► And I've noticed on Aaron's car, just bear with me,

02:06:16 ◼   ► on Aaron's car, which has a touchscreen,

02:06:18 ◼   ► there are occasions, or certainly when we first got it,

02:06:22 ◼   ► especially, there were occasions when we got in some screen

02:06:25 ◼   ► somewhere in the navigation, and I was like,

02:06:26 ◼   ► I have no idea where I am.

02:06:29 ◼   ► And it was nice to be able to find,

02:06:31 ◼   ► I could see this physical button

02:06:32 ◼   ► that I could just mash down on, and I went back home.

02:06:36 ◼   ► I'm probably overblowing the issue here. Well, I don't even know that it's an issue,

02:06:43 ◼   ► but I wonder—I can't help but wonder—if this is going to be difficult. So say you're like

02:06:47 ◼   ► 70- or 80-year-old, you know, grandparent who maybe is just now getting an iPhone for the very

02:06:53 ◼   ► first time. Like, you need to explain to them, "Well, if you want to go home, you need to swipe

02:06:58 ◼   ► up." But don't swipe up only an inch or so, because then you're going to multitask, and you need to

02:07:02 ◼   ► swipe all the way up and where do you swipe from? Well just from the bottom.

02:07:05 ◼   ► Well where on the bottom? Just from the bottom. You know what I mean? Like I feel

02:07:08 ◼   ► like this is... it's a... it's... the home button was already so overloaded where

02:07:13 ◼   ► single tap does this except when it doesn't. Double tap does that except when

02:07:16 ◼   ► it doesn't. Double... double touch but not tap is something else entirely, which by

02:07:22 ◼   ► the way is going away. It... it just seems like there's a lot here and I'm a little

02:07:26 ◼   ► worried that for... for not us it's going to be a little more challenging. But

02:07:31 ◼   ► But am I just being a big baby?

02:07:34 ◼   ► - Well, Apple's doing the thing.

02:07:35 ◼   ► Apple's doing something that I think is smart,

02:07:37 ◼   ► where they have been shedding the previous conventions

02:07:41 ◼   ► as the bulk of their user base has become more sophisticated

02:07:46 ◼   ► because they grow up with phones or have used a lot of them.

02:07:49 ◼   ► So in the same way, they got rid of slide to unlock,

02:07:52 ◼   ► and like, oh, now there's not an obvious thing

02:07:54 ◼   ► with the giant animated arrow saying,

02:07:56 ◼   ► slide here, dummy, to unlock your phone.

02:07:58 ◼   ► Now the whole screen's thing, but how will people tell?

02:07:59 ◼   ► Can they see that subtle symbol?

02:08:01 ◼   ► people figured it out.

02:08:02 ◼   ► Like I'm mostly convinced of the fact

02:08:05 ◼   ► that this will be successful by seeing people in the wider

02:08:09 ◼   ► world use Android phones, which very often have basically

02:08:13 ◼   ► soft buttons, like buttons that don't press in,

02:08:15 ◼   ► but they're just symbols that you can press,

02:08:16 ◼   ► which are pretty awful, I think, because there's not

02:08:19 ◼   ► even any sort of good haptic feedback in a lot of cases.

02:08:21 ◼   ► And lots of swipey gestures.

02:08:23 ◼   ► And I see people navigating these things with no problem.

02:08:25 ◼   ► They're just basically a minefield

02:08:27 ◼   ► of touch-sensitive icons and back buttons and home things

02:08:30 ◼   ► and swipe gestures that are all different from phone to phone,

02:08:33 ◼   ► depending on what carrier crapware is on there

02:08:35 ◼   ► and what version of Android you're using.

02:08:37 ◼   ► A huge variety of fairly complicated swipes.

02:08:39 ◼   ► And you're right about it being more difficult action

02:08:41 ◼   ► than pressing a button, and that is a problem.

02:08:43 ◼   ► But for the bulk of the market, I

02:08:44 ◼   ► think the market has become more sophisticated

02:08:48 ◼   ► because they're spending more times with phones.

02:08:50 ◼   ► And appropriately, phone vendors are shedding the affordances

02:08:55 ◼   ► that were required in the past to let people understand

02:08:58 ◼   ► how the hell you use a phone that

02:08:59 ◼   ► doesn't have a physical keyboard

02:09:00 ◼   ► and doesn't have physical buttons,

02:09:01 ◼   ► it doesn't have number keys,

02:09:03 ◼   ► that becomes less and less necessary.

02:09:05 ◼   ► And so, you know, Apple is,

02:09:08 ◼   ► I feel they're mostly catching up with the Android world

02:09:10 ◼   ► in terms of how featureless and swipey

02:09:13 ◼   ► the front of the phone is.

02:09:15 ◼   ► And net-net, I think it's the right thing to do.

02:09:19 ◼   ► It would be good if they could come up

02:09:20 ◼   ► with some kind of better, more comfortable,

02:09:24 ◼   ► safer system for people who have difficulty

02:09:26 ◼   ► with swipe gestures, which includes me a lot of the time.

02:09:29 ◼   ► But I think it's going in the right direction.

02:09:33 ◼   ► I think this step-by-step progression is the right thing to do.

02:09:37 ◼   ► Did they overstep this time by a little bit?

02:09:38 ◼   ► I think it may just be in the details, like Marco was saying.

02:09:40 ◼   ► Like, okay, well, maybe the idea is right, all screen is right, but you have to rejigger

02:09:45 ◼   ► things to figure out what's reachable and what's commonly used and stuff like that.

02:09:49 ◼   ► So, Marco, tell us about the screens.

02:09:52 ◼   ► All right.

02:09:53 ◼   ► We have kind of jumped through a million hoops with the iPhone 10 in order to get

02:09:59 ◼   ► this edge-to-edge screen and the reason we wanted an edge-to-edge screen with

02:10:04 ◼   ► asterisks on some of that but the reason we wanted that is because we wanted to

02:10:08 ◼   ► fit a bigger screen into a smaller phone but if you look at how big the screen is

02:10:14 ◼   ► versus how big the phone is and if you consider the amount of space you're now

02:10:21 ◼   ► losing in that big screen to things like the new status ears and the home indicator and

02:10:27 ◼   ► the margins around these things. The gain I think is less compelling than I would have

02:10:33 ◼   ► wanted it to be. The important thing to realize, and I think this is going to bite a lot of

02:10:38 ◼   ► plus fans, I think a lot of plus fans are going to upgrade this phone thinking that

02:10:42 ◼   ► it's going to give them the plus size screen in a smaller phone. But it isn't that much

02:10:47 ◼   ► smaller and the screen is not plus sized at least not the way you might think so

02:10:54 ◼   ► the iPhone 6 7 & 8 screens are 375 points wide so is the X sorry 10 the

02:11:06 ◼   ► plus is 414 so it's 375 versus 414 and width the iPhone 10 is the same width we

02:11:13 ◼   ► did not gain any width, which means things like

02:11:16 ◼   ► if you're scrolling, for example, in Instagram,

02:11:19 ◼   ► or any kind of photo stream thing,

02:11:21 ◼   ► your photos aren't going to be any bigger.

02:11:23 ◼   ► You'll be able to fit more than one on screen maybe,

02:11:25 ◼   ► but it's gonna be the same width

02:11:27 ◼   ► as the small phones have been.

02:11:30 ◼   ► That also means the keyboard is presumably

02:11:32 ◼   ► going to be the same width.

02:11:34 ◼   ► So if you're one of the people like me

02:11:35 ◼   ► who found it more comfortable to type on the Plus,

02:11:38 ◼   ► you won't get that here with the iPhone 10.

02:11:40 ◼   ► It is the same width as the 6, 7, and 8.

02:11:43 ◼   ► The height is substantially bigger than the plus.

02:11:47 ◼   ► So the height of the 678 is 667,

02:11:51 ◼   ► and these are all points, not pixels.

02:11:53 ◼   ► The plus is 736, and the 10 is 812.

02:11:57 ◼   ► That is awesome.

02:11:57 ◼   ► So you're gonna have much taller lists.

02:12:00 ◼   ► However, you're also losing some height

02:12:03 ◼   ► due to the home indicator, the drag indicator thing,

02:12:06 ◼   ► due to the margin around it,

02:12:08 ◼   ► and due to the now taller status ears/status bar.

02:12:11 ◼   ► So if you actually consider, if you run the numbers,

02:12:13 ◼   ► and if you see the size of what I would call

02:12:17 ◼   ► the application content area,

02:12:19 ◼   ► if you assume an application that includes

02:12:21 ◼   ► displaying the status bar on all phones,

02:12:24 ◼   ► then how big is the area between the status bar

02:12:28 ◼   ► and either the bottom of the screen

02:12:30 ◼   ► or in the case of the iPhone 10,

02:12:32 ◼   ► where you can go before you hit the home indicator?

02:12:36 ◼   ► And so basically how much area

02:12:37 ◼   ► does an app have for its content?

02:12:40 ◼   ► And the difference there is pretty small.

02:12:43 ◼   ► So again, we're the same width between the old 6, 7, and 8

02:12:46 ◼   ► and the iPhone X.

02:12:48 ◼   ► The height though is 647 for the smaller screens,

02:12:53 ◼   ► 716 for a plus, and 734 for the X.

02:12:58 ◼   ► So it is the tallest, it's taller than the plus

02:13:01 ◼   ► in usable area, but not by that much.

02:13:05 ◼   ► So what you're basically getting is the same width for sure

02:13:09 ◼   ► as the smaller screen phones,

02:13:12 ◼   ► a little bit taller usable area than the Plus phones

02:13:16 ◼   ► in a phone that is bigger than the small phones,

02:13:21 ◼   ► but smaller than a Plus.

02:13:22 ◼   ► In order to get that, we had to change and give up a lot.

02:13:28 ◼   ► We had to lose touch ID,

02:13:30 ◼   ► we had to engineer this entire Face ID system,

02:13:33 ◼   ► we had to change the way apps use the screen.

02:13:36 ◼   ► Developers have tons of design changes to do.

02:13:39 ◼   ► Also now those corners are now very rounded,

02:13:42 ◼   ► so we have to stay away from the corners

02:13:44 ◼   ► or design around that.

02:13:45 ◼   ► We have to design around the notch

02:13:47 ◼   ► and we have to use the ears

02:13:49 ◼   ► and scroll content weirdly around it.

02:13:51 ◼   ► Full screen things have a lot of work to do

02:13:53 ◼   ► to either avoid the notch or go around it

02:13:56 ◼   ► in a way that doesn't look weird or suck.

02:13:59 ◼   ► This has been a lot of work and a lot of effort.

02:14:02 ◼   ► And the phone, and for the people

02:14:04 ◼   ► who use the small phones like me,

02:14:06 ◼   ► the phone is getting larger for a screen

02:14:09 ◼   ► that is not wider at all and is pretty tall,

02:14:12 ◼   ► which is nice, but I don't know.

02:14:18 ◼   ► Is that good enough for all,

02:14:19 ◼   ► like all the sacrifices that had to be made,

02:14:22 ◼   ► all the workarounds, all the hacks,

02:14:24 ◼   ► all the UI changes and all the developer effort

02:14:27 ◼   ► that's going to be required, both in Apple and outside,

02:14:30 ◼   ► to accommodate all this craziness in this new phone.

02:14:33 ◼   ► Is that worth a screen that isn't any wider

02:14:36 ◼   ► and is just taller?

02:14:38 ◼   ► I don't know if this size is the right set of compromises, but this design, all screen

02:14:44 ◼   ► gesture blah blah blah, like I said, I am optimistic that this design will actually

02:14:49 ◼   ► in the end be a better overall design.

02:14:52 ◼   ► And when there's an entire family of phones, including the big one and the smaller one

02:14:56 ◼   ► that are all like this with the ears, then there's less pressure on this one phone to

02:15:01 ◼   ► be the right trade-off, which you know, change UI paradigm and all these sacrifices for not

02:15:07 ◼   ► that much more screen. Well, you make something the size of a plus with edge to edge screen,

02:15:11 ◼   ► there's way more screen there, right? Because you're getting rid of a very large chin and

02:15:17 ◼   ► forehead on that phone because they're just so darn big, you know, comparatively. And the

02:15:21 ◼   ► yet diminishing returns is you go smaller because the chin and forehead are smaller on the smaller

02:15:25 ◼   ► phones. This may be not a great compromise, especially if the width is the same but the

02:15:30 ◼   ► phone is actually wider, which I believe is the case. The phone is physically wider, but the

02:15:33 ◼   ► the screen has the same number of points on it.

02:15:35 ◼   ► Then again, it could be that just,

02:15:37 ◼   ► what's the, is this a 3x?

02:15:39 ◼   ► This is the thing that wasn't clear to me.

02:15:41 ◼   ► - Yes, and to give them full credit,

02:15:44 ◼   ► it is a true 3x.

02:15:45 ◼   ► The Plus never has been true 3x.

02:15:47 ◼   ► The Plus has been 3x pixels rendered down to a 1080p panel.

02:15:52 ◼   ► And this actually is real 3x,

02:15:54 ◼   ► so it is 458 dots per inch instead of 401.

02:15:58 ◼   ► So it's going to look incredible.

02:16:01 ◼   ► And OLED has benefits too.

02:16:03 ◼   ► like OLED's gonna have a better contrast and everything.

02:16:05 ◼   ► So it is going to look incredible,

02:16:07 ◼   ► but I just can't believe we didn't gain any width

02:16:11 ◼   ► by making the phone bigger and going edge to edge.

02:16:13 ◼   ► - If you made something 100 points wide

02:16:17 ◼   ► and you measured it with a ruler,

02:16:18 ◼   ► is it wider on this phone than it is on the 67?

02:16:23 ◼   ► - I don't know the answer to that.

02:16:24 ◼   ► I don't think so, but I don't know.

02:16:27 ◼   ► - The other important aspect of making a phone

02:16:30 ◼   ► that is physically larger while the number of points

02:16:33 ◼   ► is the same is that things are bigger for people with poor vision.

02:16:36 ◼   ► So slightly anyway.

02:16:38 ◼   ► And I know you have the zooming in all the text sizing and stuff like that.

02:16:41 ◼   ► Anyway, I am less concerned with whether this exact size is the right compromise because

02:16:48 ◼   ► I truly believe that this design will spread across all of them.

02:16:51 ◼   ► And once it does, this problem goes away because then you don't have to worry about like, like

02:16:54 ◼   ► first of all, I think the changes in the sacrifices plus or minus the notch, which I will still

02:16:59 ◼   ► get to are worth it if this is a better way to interact with phones than having dedicated

02:17:04 ◼   ► buttons on it.

02:17:05 ◼   ► If face ID is actually better than touch ID, and overall, despite the edge cases where

02:17:11 ◼   ► one might be the other, if arbitrarily swiping from the bottom is better than having to find

02:17:16 ◼   ► home button in the middle, like if all this turns out to be true, then I think it'll all

02:17:22 ◼   ► come out in the wash because they're not going to just make one size of this or whatever.

02:17:25 ◼   ► And I would assume that they have some experience with sizes now.

02:17:31 ◼   ► They could have made this phone any size, right?

02:17:34 ◼   ► They could have chosen to make it wider or shorter or taller, and this is what they came

02:17:37 ◼   ► up with.

02:17:38 ◼   ► And I'm hoping that the size is a reasonable compromise.

02:17:42 ◼   ► I think they did a good job with the 7, the 6 size, right?

02:17:45 ◼   ► That it is a pretty good compromise when you have more screen, but it's not as big as the

02:17:49 ◼   ► Plus.

02:17:50 ◼   ► The Plus, of course, is ridiculous, but that's what people want.

02:17:52 ◼   ► so they want a ridiculous phone and they got one.

02:17:55 ◼   ► So I think I'm less worried than you, Marco,

02:17:59 ◼   ► but even if this one is the wrong size for people,

02:18:02 ◼   ► give 'em a couple years, I hope they'll work it out.

02:18:07 ◼   ► - And honestly, I would be,

02:18:08 ◼   ► I would caution people who really love the Plus,

02:18:13 ◼   ► this might not be the phone for you.

02:18:15 ◼   ► - Oh no, this is not,

02:18:16 ◼   ► for Plus lovers who absolutely need the Plus,

02:18:18 ◼   ► like that's why I'm telling my wife to get it,

02:18:20 ◼   ► even though she is a Plus lover,

02:18:22 ◼   ► to have to talk to her about the fact like you realize there's going to be less stuff on the

02:18:26 ◼   ► screen like it's a smaller phone and it's not going to look like your plus does it's not going to have

02:18:31 ◼   ► all that stuff on it so but yeah if you love the plus this is probably not the phone for you because

02:18:37 ◼   ► it's just it's going to feel like using a big seven a tall seven right because that's what it is

02:18:41 ◼   ► you're not going to get all that all that extra room which like i said i think is fine because

02:18:45 ◼   ► I know that there's a giant monster aircraft carrier version of this phone coming in a

02:18:52 ◼   ► year or two, or three, and so the Plus people will have their day and they'll have so much

02:18:57 ◼   ► damn screen they won't know what to do with it.

02:18:59 ◼   ► Yeah, it can be called the 10L.

02:19:00 ◼   ► It'll come with a stylus, it'll be great.

02:19:04 ◼   ► I agree with Marco, though.

02:19:05 ◼   ► I think it's going to be very interesting and very funny to watch many of our mutual

02:19:10 ◼   ► friends who swore up and down, "Oh, it's Plus Club or nothing, Plus Club or nothing."

02:19:15 ◼   ► And I think they're going to have some really conflicting thoughts and some really uncomfortable

02:19:19 ◼   ► thoughts about this.

02:19:20 ◼   ► Yeah, but they'll have to get it so they can talk about it on their tech podcast, right?

02:19:23 ◼   ► But I think there will be grumbly.

02:19:24 ◼   ► I think there will be lots of – I bet a lot of them will say, "I wouldn't buy

02:19:31 ◼   ► this phone if it wasn't for the fact that I need to be informed about it and talk about

02:19:36 ◼   ► it," and like, you know what I mean?

02:19:37 ◼   ► Like that they're taking one for the team because they have to, right?

02:19:42 ◼   ► And some of them will just buy three phones and just use that one to play with or whatever.

02:19:47 ◼   ► Yeah, we're going long.

02:19:48 ◼   ► So on the notch, I have a little bit, there's probably way more that we can say about the

02:19:54 ◼   ► notch and maybe we'll save something for a future episode.

02:19:57 ◼   ► But the one thing I want to say about the notch is this is my time to say exactly the

02:20:01 ◼   ► same thing that I alluded to earlier about the LTE on the watch.

02:20:06 ◼   ► The notch, Apple doesn't want the notch.

02:20:10 ◼   ► The notch is there because it has to be to get the job done.

02:20:14 ◼   ► Apple wants nothing more than to make this exact foam with no notch on it.

02:20:17 ◼   ► Apple is going to do everything that it possibly can over the next five years or so to get

02:20:21 ◼   ► rid of that damn notch so the screen can go edge to edge.

02:20:25 ◼   ► They are doing the sort of hang a lantern on it thing where we had to do this notch

02:20:29 ◼   ► thing, we couldn't figure out a way not to have it, so we have to embrace it.

02:20:33 ◼   ► We have to say we're not trying to hide the notch, we acknowledge that it's there, we're

02:20:36 ◼   ► going to do all sorts of things and incorporate it into the UI and make it an aesthetic and

02:20:40 ◼   ► super totally embrace the notch in the ways we all discuss here, but Apple make no mistake

02:20:45 ◼   ► Apple wants to get rid of that notch

02:20:46 ◼   ► They want it to be top to bottom left to right edge

02:20:50 ◼   ► Johnny I've wants to not retire or die before he can do that. He might not make it but they don't want that notch there

02:20:56 ◼   ► So the clock begins now and Apple's teams working two or three phones out are

02:21:00 ◼   ► already trying to figure out how the hell they can get rid of that notch so

02:21:04 ◼   ► Where people may hate them on the notch and hate all the stupid compromises that it requires for software and it's gonna be painful

02:21:10 ◼   ► And it's gonna be annoying and it'll have varying degrees of ridiculousness

02:21:14 ◼   ► But I am very very confident. This is not a thing that Apple did not set out to make a phone with a notch

02:21:20 ◼   ► This is just what they had to do and I think it's the right trade

02:21:24 ◼   ► I don't think they should have waited until they could have done this phone without a notch

02:21:27 ◼   ► To to do it. I think they should do it now

02:21:31 ◼   ► Whether they should have embraced the notch as much as they did is arguable, but I

02:21:35 ◼   ► remain confident that we will have

02:21:38 ◼   ► Top to bottom edge edge screens probably from Android makers first, but eventually also from Apple

02:21:42 ◼   ► I'm still bummed about embrace the notch like I

02:21:45 ◼   ► Haven't seen it. I haven't held it. I haven't played with it, but it just I don't know I from everything

02:21:52 ◼   ► I've seen when people have mocked up the you know kind of hide the notch approach where the where the top bar

02:21:58 ◼   ► adjacent to the notch is just black.

02:22:01 ◼   ► It still to me looks better, but ask me again in,

02:22:06 ◼   ► well, I was gonna say in a month,

02:22:07 ◼   ► but I won't have one in a month, but ask me again.

02:22:09 ◼   ► - The nice thing is the humor interface guidelines,

02:22:11 ◼   ► which many people are quoting from,

02:22:13 ◼   ► the section that says,

02:22:14 ◼   ► "Do not attempt to hide the devices around a corner,

02:22:16 ◼   ► sensor housing," sensor housing, it's not a notch,

02:22:18 ◼   ► "or indicate if you're accessing the home button."

02:22:20 ◼   ► They're telling you, "Don't try it, you must embrace notch."

02:22:22 ◼   ► But guess what?

02:22:23 ◼   ► App developers can do whatever the hell they want.

02:22:25 ◼   ► So I think it'll be interesting to see

02:22:27 ◼   ► how people decide to do that.

02:22:28 ◼   ► Do they follow the Apple advice and say totally embrace the notch or do they decide to make the status bar black and not embrace

02:22:34 ◼   ► The notch it's a thing like I have a pretty big problem by now playing screen

02:22:37 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, but it's all it's all

02:22:41 ◼   ► Programmer addressable. There's no trickery to make it seem like the screen is smaller than it is like

02:22:46 ◼   ► applications it seems have the ability to draw

02:22:49 ◼   ► Pretty much anywhere on the screen

02:22:51 ◼   ► I'm not sure if they can draw over the little home indicator under the home indicator thingy

02:22:55 ◼   ► But lots of the by the way, I've already said tons of sort of like

02:22:59 ◼   ► W2C videos not a W2C of how to do this

02:23:01 ◼   ► They're all about like here's your margins and your safe area and stay away from the rounded corners all with insets

02:23:07 ◼   ► With the idea that you know, I haven't watched these videos yet, but looking at the diagrams I'm thinking

02:23:12 ◼   ► Oh, that means developers have to program all these insets in which is work for them

02:23:17 ◼   ► But it also means that if they don't do that like on the watch

02:23:19 ◼   ► They could draw right to the edge and look stupid, right?

02:23:22 ◼   ► And have it be all you know the watch is the opposite we supposed to draw the edge anyway

02:23:26 ◼   ► They could draw right up against these rounded corners and look bad in fact

02:23:30 ◼   ► I believe during the keynote or one of the commercials

02:23:33 ◼   ► I think it was during the keynote video they showed that AR game

02:23:35 ◼   ► That they were doing the demo from it was like I think it was like in a commercial with the AR thing

02:23:39 ◼   ► And one of the status indicators on the screen in the AR game was clipped by the notch

02:23:43 ◼   ► Because it was too far to the left. It was outside the safe area. It was a circle

02:23:48 ◼   ► It was like the flat tire Android phone speaking of things with screens cut off

02:23:51 ◼   ► It was clipped by the notch because they just hadn't updated it to move everything over and in fact if they had moved it over

02:23:56 ◼   ► I think I just got to shrink those circles, right?

02:23:58 ◼   ► So

02:24:01 ◼   ► in a way

02:24:03 ◼   ► Software developers are going to decide this as much as Apple Apple can tell you what they want everybody to do

02:24:08 ◼   ► But if the sort of consensus of software developers is yeah, we're not gonna brace the notch

02:24:13 ◼   ► Then they won't and it will be fine. I've only heard sporadic reports from people who use these phones in real life

02:24:21 ◼   ► The impression I get is that the notch is less onerous when using the phone then when watching it on video

02:24:27 ◼   ► I guess where eyes are just drawn to it when you're using the phone

02:24:29 ◼   ► You're not looking at that part kind of like Marco's not looking at the back of his phone. That's all scratched up

02:24:33 ◼   ► Right, you kind of looking where the content is and you kind of get over it

02:24:36 ◼   ► but it is a lot of work for developers and there are

02:24:39 ◼   ► lots of awkward slash funny things related to this

02:24:43 ◼   ► one of the two best ones I'll put these links in the show notes Ben Packard had

02:24:49 ◼   ► interesting bit where like the scroll bar, you know when you scroll in iOS that little line appears to kind of the proportional scroll bar

02:24:55 ◼   ► That you can actually grab and scroll like shows you where you are

02:24:57 ◼   ► With that hiding underneath the notch when you're a landscape lots of fun stuff happens when you're a landscape like you'd scroll

02:25:02 ◼   ► It's like where's the scroll thumb?

02:25:03 ◼   ► Oh, it's under the notch and you scroll and you don't see anything up it popped up on the top

02:25:06 ◼   ► it popped up on the bottom and the other one was uh

02:25:08 ◼   ► both just a vic did a

02:25:11 ◼   ► A joke posted look I fixed the notch where he had scrolling going by the notch amazing

02:25:18 ◼   ► It's like a bunch of names and they're up against it's the Beatles names and they're up against the edge of the screen

02:25:22 ◼   ► But then when they hit the notch they look like a bump around it. No it landscape the notch is a disaster

02:25:27 ◼   ► It's not a disaster

02:25:28 ◼   ► If you don't if you don't embrace it if you just black it off now

02:25:31 ◼   ► You just have a screen that is slightly offset and people are worried about like they kept showing in the presentation

02:25:36 ◼   ► Here's video with the notch cut out of it

02:25:38 ◼   ► Which as many people?

02:25:39 ◼   ► Guessed based on my last complaints about like the slightly rounded corners of a quicktime player years ago pissed me off now

02:25:46 ◼   ► Now this phone has super rounded corners that you have no choice because literally the screen

02:25:49 ◼   ► is rounded like there is, they're not just not lighting up those pixels like there's

02:25:53 ◼   ► nothing there, forget it.

02:25:54 ◼   ► And now you're going to show video with a notch intruding into it?

02:25:57 ◼   ► No, never.

02:25:58 ◼   ► But the thing is, that's not, not only do you not have to do that, that's not even the

02:26:01 ◼   ► default.

02:26:02 ◼   ► When you play video, it will play as a rectangle and you will see every part of it.

02:26:06 ◼   ► It will be inset because it's got to stay away from the rounded corners and it's got

02:26:10 ◼   ► to stay away from the notch.

02:26:12 ◼   ► But it's fine.

02:26:13 ◼   ► as far as I'm aware is the default on the built-in video players like in

02:26:17 ◼   ► Safari and Apple videos. If you double tap it, it will zoom to full screen and

02:26:22 ◼   ► then you'll be playing video behind a notch and you'll be losing all the

02:26:24 ◼   ► corners. But if you zoom to full screen on an iPhone today, unless your video is

02:26:29 ◼   ► exactly the same aspect ratio as your phone, which it probably isn't, if it's

02:26:33 ◼   ► like a movie or something, if you zoom to full screen you're already cutting off

02:26:37 ◼   ► sides too. So I'm not that annoyed about the notch in the rounded corners in

02:26:41 ◼   ► in terms of video playing, I think it will probably be okay.

02:26:46 ◼   ► But Apple's big push to embrace the notch is kind of,

02:26:51 ◼   ► I mean, I mentioned hanging a lantern on it before,

02:26:55 ◼   ► which is a narrative device where there's something

02:26:57 ◼   ► that doesn't make sense.

02:26:58 ◼   ► I hope I'm getting this right, God,

02:26:59 ◼   ► or I was waiting a million corrections,

02:27:00 ◼   ► where something doesn't make sense in a movie

02:27:02 ◼   ► and you know it doesn't make sense

02:27:05 ◼   ► and you don't want people to saying,

02:27:06 ◼   ► "Oh, that scene was messed up

02:27:08 ◼   ► "because that wasn't plausible to me."

02:27:10 ◼   ► So all you do is you have a character in the movie say out loud what the audience is thinking.

02:27:15 ◼   ► So like, you know, "We shouldn't be getting readings like this.

02:27:18 ◼   ► They're impossible, but we are."

02:27:19 ◼   ► And as soon as you have them say that by hanging a lantern on the thing

02:27:21 ◼   ► that the audience knows is impossible, suddenly it seems okay because then the people

02:27:26 ◼   ► in the movie are acknowledging the thing that you're all thinking.

02:27:28 ◼   ► So by Apple hanging a lantern on the notch, like, "We should be able to light up all the pixels

02:27:33 ◼   ► on the screen, but there's this giant thing there."

02:27:34 ◼   ► And Apple says that, "Yeah, there's a giant thing there, and we're going to emphasize it."

02:27:38 ◼   ► They're kind of, you know, they're making the best of a bad situation because nobody wants the notch

02:27:43 ◼   ► but if there's gonna be a notch they are embracing it and they want you to embrace it too and

02:27:48 ◼   ► It is an interesting aesthetic

02:27:51 ◼   ► It kind of reminds me of those little cards from Rolodexes which are actually before my town

02:27:58 ◼   ► I'm not actually that old but like, you know the little like cards with little notches

02:28:02 ◼   ► Right. It kind of reminds me of that. It's kind of an interesting aesthetic

02:28:06 ◼   ► It does look a little bit like rabbit ears.

02:28:09 ◼   ► It does look a little bit weird in landscape, and I feel bad for all the software developers

02:28:13 ◼   ► who have to deal with it.

02:28:14 ◼   ► But you know, you dealt with size classes and going from fixed layouts to auto layout,

02:28:20 ◼   ► and this is why you get the big bucks, right?

02:28:22 ◼   ► Or don't get them, unless you know how to exploit people with free-to-play gambling

02:28:26 ◼   ► mechanics.

02:28:27 ◼   ► But anyway, I think it will work out, but I am already awaiting the day when the notch

02:28:33 ◼   ► goes away.

02:28:34 ◼   ► - How long do you think that that is away from now?

02:28:37 ◼   ► 'Cause if I had to guess, I honestly don't know.

02:28:40 ◼   ► They might just stick with us because if you look

02:28:43 ◼   ► at the problem they're trying to solve here,

02:28:45 ◼   ► they have a whole bunch of sensors and cameras

02:28:49 ◼   ► and speakers and stuff that for the phone,

02:28:51 ◼   ► for these things to work at all,

02:28:54 ◼   ► they pretty much need to be facing forward.

02:28:56 ◼   ► And they clearly want the screen to go to the top edge

02:29:00 ◼   ► and the bottom edge.

02:29:02 ◼   ► So how would they get rid of the notch exactly?

02:29:04 ◼   ► Would they somehow just make those things so small

02:29:09 ◼   ► they would fit within the current bezel?

02:29:11 ◼   ► Like that's above the screen?

02:29:13 ◼   ► - You got it.

02:29:14 ◼   ► - Like they're not very good at making cameras small.

02:29:17 ◼   ► Like if you look, they have this giant camera bump

02:29:19 ◼   ► in the back because to make a decent camera

02:29:21 ◼   ► you need a little bit of size.

02:29:23 ◼   ► I don't see how they get,

02:29:26 ◼   ► how they retain the super thin bezel

02:29:29 ◼   ► around most of the screen area

02:29:31 ◼   ► while also fitting those front sensors,

02:29:34 ◼   ► and by the way, now there's more of them with Face ID,

02:29:36 ◼   ► so while also fitting those front sensors into that.

02:29:39 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't see them getting rid of the notch

02:29:43 ◼   ► as long as they have this general borderless design.

02:29:46 ◼   ► I think the only way they can get rid of it

02:29:48 ◼   ► is to basically backtrack on part of this design

02:29:51 ◼   ► and make something that looks more like the S8,

02:29:54 ◼   ► where it's like just thin top and bottom bezels.

02:29:58 ◼   ► - So as people have pointed out,

02:30:00 ◼   ► - This screen's not really edge to edge.

02:30:02 ◼   ► I can see where it doesn't go to the edge.

02:30:03 ◼   ► There's a big black pen.

02:30:05 ◼   ► Like, there are margins on this thing.

02:30:07 ◼   ► And like you said, they could go notchless next year

02:30:09 ◼   ► by just putting a very thin forehead on it.

02:30:11 ◼   ► They don't want to because then they'd feel the need

02:30:13 ◼   ► to do a very thin chin as well,

02:30:15 ◼   ► and then it'd be giving up on the edge.

02:30:16 ◼   ► - You know where they could put a home button

02:30:18 ◼   ► in a very thin chin because if it doesn't need

02:30:21 ◼   ► touch ID anymore, then it can be a little skinny button.

02:30:24 ◼   ► - No, I don't think they're going back on that.

02:30:26 ◼   ► I think they're rolling on the gestures.

02:30:27 ◼   ► - You're right, they're not.

02:30:28 ◼   ► But if you look at the Galaxy S8,

02:30:31 ◼   ► I have never said anything nice about an Android phone

02:30:33 ◼   ► for good reason.

02:30:34 ◼   ► However, that's a very attractive design

02:30:37 ◼   ► for a edge-to-edge screen phone,

02:30:39 ◼   ► and that's a different set of trade-offs.

02:30:41 ◼   ► And yeah, the stuff on the back,

02:30:43 ◼   ► the fingerprint on the back is dumb,

02:30:44 ◼   ► but if you look at just the front of the Galaxy S8

02:30:48 ◼   ► compared to the iPhone X,

02:30:49 ◼   ► I have a hard time picking the iPhone X in that comparison.

02:30:54 ◼   ► - I think the iPhone X looks better,

02:30:55 ◼   ► But the way you get to the notchless without even

02:30:59 ◼   ► the thin forehead is, yeah, like the march of progress

02:31:03 ◼   ► can make some components smaller,

02:31:05 ◼   ► and other components can be under the screen.

02:31:07 ◼   ► That's how you get there.

02:31:09 ◼   ► No one would have thought that cameras could

02:31:11 ◼   ► be as small as they are now.

02:31:12 ◼   ► You can make lesser quality cameras even smaller.

02:31:15 ◼   ► Say the one front-facing camera is replaced by seven pinhole

02:31:19 ◼   ► sized cameras dotted along the top,

02:31:21 ◼   ► and the images are combined from that company

02:31:24 ◼   ► you have the friend who works for that light camera thing.

02:31:27 ◼   ► Like we're not saying this is, you know, technology is available now.

02:31:30 ◼   ► You couldn't make a watch with LTE on it when the Apple Watch came out, and you can't make

02:31:34 ◼   ► a notchless phone like this.

02:31:36 ◼   ► But I think you will be able to eventually.

02:31:38 ◼   ► I think there's nothing about the array of sensors that makes me think they can't hide

02:31:42 ◼   ► them in an edge.

02:31:44 ◼   ► You know, it's somewhere around the edge of this phone in the space that's already provided

02:31:49 ◼   ► because they don't go all...

02:31:53 ◼   ► Galaxy S8 goes way farther to the edge right and left than this phone does. There is actually room around it and

02:31:58 ◼   ► you know if they're willing to compromise a little bit add two more pieces of paper with to the top right to to wedge things

02:32:05 ◼   ► in and get a couple like at the IR sensor underneath the screen somehow or the the you know the dot spreader underneath or like I

02:32:12 ◼   ► Feel like it will eventually happen and this design will become viable. I you said you asked me how long I thought

02:32:19 ◼   ► five years is my best guess. I think it could come sooner. It depends on what appetite Apple

02:32:28 ◼   ► has for it. If they don't feel pressured to do it because everyone loves the notch and their whole

02:32:33 ◼   ► line is notch bearing and it's just like they're sailing and it's like, "Why do we... We didn't

02:32:37 ◼   ► want the notch, but now that we've got it, everybody loves it and everyone's software

02:32:40 ◼   ► is written for it and why would we even change it?" That could delay it just because they don't

02:32:44 ◼   ► want to go for it, but I think technically plausible in five years.

02:32:47 ◼   ► I couldn't even wager a guess. I mean, five seems reasonable, but oi.

02:32:53 ◼   ► All right, so we are running long. Face ID seems to be mostly what we expected. I think

02:33:00 ◼   ► we certainly got a lot more information about the mechanics behind it. I thought it was

02:33:06 ◼   ► really fascinating that Schiller had talked about how they went and got Hollywood, like,

02:33:13 ◼   ► makeup artists or prosthetics artists in order to make these eerily realistic masks that

02:33:19 ◼   ► apparently employees would put on to try to fool Face ID.

02:33:23 ◼   ► It's apparently considerably more secure than Touch ID, which seems weird to me because

02:33:29 ◼   ► any face identification I've ever heard or seen anything about seemed very easy to defeat,

02:33:34 ◼   ► whereas fingerprints seemed much harder.

02:33:37 ◼   ► But I'm sure that's just because of crummy technology, and if Apple says it's better,

02:33:41 ◼   ► I'm inclined to believe it's better.

02:33:43 ◼   ► The reason it's better is because faces are so much bigger.

02:33:45 ◼   ► So the problem with fingers is that the feature size down there,

02:33:48 ◼   ► like the number of points they could sort of match up on your fingerprint,

02:33:52 ◼   ► like the features are so small

02:33:53 ◼   ► and there's not that many things to sort of hang on to.

02:33:55 ◼   ► Whereas if you look at the number of dots that they're a little dot sprayer,

02:33:58 ◼   ► assuming those diagrams are even remotely accurate,

02:34:00 ◼   ► there's just more data points.

02:34:01 ◼   ► So there's more places where things can vary than on fingerprints.

02:34:05 ◼   ► Plus, people's fingers don't even fit entirely.

02:34:06 ◼   ► Like the sensor doesn't even cover your whole finger.

02:34:08 ◼   ► So you're just getting like a window snapshot of a finger.

02:34:11 ◼   ► So it's not as if, oh, my fingerprint is the same

02:34:13 ◼   ► as someone else's that I can unlock my phone.

02:34:15 ◼   ► No, it's one tiny little square shaped region of your finger

02:34:18 ◼   ► maybe close enough in the few areas

02:34:21 ◼   ► that the Touch ID sensor can identify as distinguishing

02:34:25 ◼   ► to a potentially totally different point

02:34:27 ◼   ► on someone else's finger.

02:34:28 ◼   ► So I totally believe that because I mean,

02:34:30 ◼   ► Touch ID makes us, you know,

02:34:32 ◼   ► oh, it unlocks my finger and it's great

02:34:33 ◼   ► and no one else in my family can do it.

02:34:34 ◼   ► And so it must be perfect

02:34:35 ◼   ► 'cause we have this mystique around fingerprints.

02:34:37 ◼   ► But when it comes down to it,

02:34:38 ◼   ► It's a bunch of little ridges and skin and it's not even that many of them because the sensor is small

02:34:42 ◼   ► Whereas this thing is spraying our entire face with tons and tons of data points of you know

02:34:46 ◼   ► Not just what it looks like but you know all the depth things and everything like that

02:34:49 ◼   ► I still don't understand exactly how the masks aren't able to defeat it, but I'll take their word for it

02:34:55 ◼   ► I mean, there's obviously, you know some secret sauce in there that can distinguish I guess living things from non living maybe with heat signatures

02:35:02 ◼   ► I mean, I feel like they didn't reveal all their secrets here because maybe competitive advantage or whatever

02:35:06 ◼   ► But we'll find out I mean I guarantee people are gonna start trying to fake this thing out with masks

02:35:11 ◼   ► So I'm sure someone will

02:35:13 ◼   ► Came out people faked it out by lifting people's fingerprints from cups and and you know using like superglue or rubber cement and stuff and defeating

02:35:20 ◼   ► It it'll it'll be defeatable and they did mention like oh by the way your twin is a problem and

02:35:26 ◼   ► They didn't mention this explicitly, but like maybe relatives that look a lot like you might be more of a problem, too

02:35:32 ◼   ► but

02:35:35 ◼   ► You know I believe less in this than when I can't you know

02:35:38 ◼   ► As I came out believing in the idea of the all-screen phone with the gestures like believing that it could be good still having never

02:35:43 ◼   ► touched one of these face ID they basically said all the things I thought they were gonna say I

02:35:48 ◼   ► Have the same attitude about it now, which is you know?

02:35:52 ◼   ► Show me the unlock I have to I have seeing is believing I have to try this myself because I love fast touch ID so

02:35:57 ◼   ► much on my phone

02:35:59 ◼   ► I believe like I said last show I believe facial recognition can be better

02:36:04 ◼   ► than Touch ID for situations where the phone

02:36:07 ◼   ► is able to see your face, I'm not entirely convinced

02:36:09 ◼   ► that first gen is gonna be better than second gen

02:36:11 ◼   ► Touch ID in terms of efficiency, but we'll see.

02:36:14 ◼   ► - The speed of it is my one big concern.

02:36:17 ◼   ► I mean, it's hard, you know, when Touch ID first came out,

02:36:19 ◼   ► we all were wary of it as well, so it's hard to know

02:36:22 ◼   ► before we've actually had a chance to use it

02:36:24 ◼   ► how good it is or what the problem areas actually are,

02:36:27 ◼   ► but I noticed they focused a lot on how it worked,

02:36:32 ◼   ► which I thought honestly was a little bit creepy

02:36:34 ◼   ► the way it was presented.

02:36:36 ◼   ► They're like spraying dots all over people's faces

02:36:38 ◼   ► and I didn't think it was explained well.

02:36:41 ◼   ► - Did you see the tweet that said,

02:36:43 ◼   ► the new iPhone will mace you if you do a bad tweet?

02:36:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, right.

02:36:45 ◼   ► - Should I start holding the phone in this big cone?

02:36:47 ◼   ► Like I think that did them a disservice

02:36:49 ◼   ► 'cause it made it look like

02:36:50 ◼   ► that you were having an actual spotlight

02:36:52 ◼   ► shined in your face but my understanding is that it doesn't,

02:36:54 ◼   ► I mean you can't see IR unless you're a bat, right?

02:36:57 ◼   ► So it's not, or did bats see IR?

02:36:59 ◼   ► I don't know, oh God, I'm gonna get corrections

02:37:00 ◼   ► from the people.

02:37:02 ◼   ► Anyway, some people had video where they could see

02:37:05 ◼   ► a flashing sensor, but video cameras often pick up IR.

02:37:08 ◼   ► - Yes, they do. - That our eyes don't.

02:37:10 ◼   ► So I don't know what to think of it,

02:37:11 ◼   ► but I think their demos made it look more onerous

02:37:14 ◼   ► than it actually is.

02:37:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I think it was presented poorly,

02:37:19 ◼   ► or explained poorly, but I noticed that they focused

02:37:23 ◼   ► on security and how it worked, but they never made

02:37:25 ◼   ► any speed comparisons to Touch ID.

02:37:28 ◼   ► And I suspect that we're gonna have a problem there.

02:37:31 ◼   ► I bet it's gonna be a little slower.

02:37:33 ◼   ► The other thing is, they mentioned,

02:37:35 ◼   ► actually some of my favorite analysis of this event

02:37:38 ◼   ► was on Back to Work this week,

02:37:39 ◼   ► and they mentioned there something that I do too,

02:37:42 ◼   ► which is, like Merlin was saying,

02:37:44 ◼   ► that as he pulls his phone out of his pocket,

02:37:47 ◼   ► he has already hit the home button with his thumb,

02:37:50 ◼   ► and so the time the phone is out of his pocket

02:37:52 ◼   ► and he's looking at it, it's unlocked.

02:37:54 ◼   ► I do the same thing.

02:37:55 ◼   ► Like, I just kinda automatically unlock my phone

02:37:58 ◼   ► as I'm taking it out of my pocket,

02:37:59 ◼   ► So I never have to wait for it to unlock,

02:38:02 ◼   ► especially with the new fast touch ID since the success.

02:38:04 ◼   ► And I wonder, is face ID going to have these little

02:38:09 ◼   ► like slowed down microscopic interactions

02:38:12 ◼   ► that are going to irritate me every single day?

02:38:15 ◼   ► Like, I don't know.

02:38:16 ◼   ► I hope it's fast.

02:38:18 ◼   ► If it's really super fast when it looks at you,

02:38:20 ◼   ► when it does finally have a view of your face,

02:38:22 ◼   ► maybe this won't be a problem.

02:38:24 ◼   ► But it just seems unlikely.

02:38:26 ◼   ► - I heard from a couple people,

02:38:28 ◼   ► You know the lock animation, it's got like a padlock type thing that basically when the

02:38:33 ◼   ► top of the padlock twists to show you that it has successfully recognized your face that

02:38:38 ◼   ► it's unlocked, that that animation, like so many animations, actually lags behind it actually

02:38:42 ◼   ► recognizing your face.

02:38:43 ◼   ► So I'm hoping they did the good game development thing where, alright, so it does have to have

02:38:49 ◼   ► line of sight on me, so forget about the touch ID in the pocket.

02:38:53 ◼   ► But you get it out, and what I want to be able to do is get it out, and as it comes

02:38:58 ◼   ► in front of my face, I want to do the swipe up gesture, even though it hasn't been unlocked

02:39:01 ◼   ► yet. I've started the swipe up gesture because if you swipe up and it doesn't unlock, like

02:39:06 ◼   ► it brings you to the like, please type in your password screen, right? I want to be

02:39:10 ◼   ► able to begin the swipe up. And if it recognizes me when it's in the middle of the swipe up

02:39:15 ◼   ► or in the middle of doing the animation triggered by the swipe up, abort showing me the screen

02:39:20 ◼   ► where I have to enter my passcode and unlock the phone. Like if they can overlap it in

02:39:24 ◼   ► that way it will it will help to hide the latency right if instead you have to

02:39:31 ◼   ► look at it notice with your eyeballs that the animation of the padlock going

02:39:36 ◼   ► and then begin your swipe no matter how fast it is that will be annoying because

02:39:40 ◼   ► the unlock animation has non-zero time you having to look for and recognize it

02:39:45 ◼   ► has non-zero time I want to be able to take out swipe recognize open and that's

02:39:51 ◼   ► probably the best they can do with this because you're right they didn't say it

02:39:54 ◼   ► was faster it probably isn't faster it's probably amazing that it works at all

02:39:58 ◼   ► and it's an amazing technological feat but it is also the first generation of

02:40:01 ◼   ► this product and we'll have to you know try it and see. I do I do love me some

02:40:06 ◼   ► Touch ID but I'm like I said before the idea of this dead area at the bottom of

02:40:11 ◼   ► my phone where there's nothing ever a circular button it's not really a button

02:40:14 ◼   ► anymore does seem like the past in the way that these Apple events always tend

02:40:19 ◼   ► to do to you. It does seem old and steampunky, and I'm willing to believe that it will go

02:40:25 ◼   ► away. But we brave pioneers will find out how long it's going to take.

02:40:29 ◼   ► >> One thing that bummed me out is it only allows for one face, which I totally understand.

02:40:36 ◼   ► But one of the things that I really liked about Touch ID was that I asked Erin if she

02:40:43 ◼   ► could register one of her thumbs on my phone so that this way, if, for example, I wanted

02:40:49 ◼   ► her to respond to a text for me because maybe I'm like playing with Declan or something

02:40:52 ◼   ► like that and my phone is not in my pocket.

02:40:55 ◼   ► I could just say to her, "Hey, can you grab my phone and tell Marco and John I'll be there

02:40:58 ◼   ► in five minutes?" or whatever.

02:41:00 ◼   ► And I have a very, very long passcode on my phone because I almost never need to type

02:41:05 ◼   ► it.

02:41:06 ◼   ► It's exceptionally rare that I need to type my passcode and it's something like 10 or

02:41:10 ◼   ► 15 or 20 characters.

02:41:11 ◼   ► And so having Touch ID available to her is really, really nice for both of us because

02:41:18 ◼   ► Sometimes she needs to look at something that maybe only I have, like an email that only I have, or sometimes I want her to

02:41:23 ◼   ► respond to a text from me or something like that.

02:41:25 ◼   ► And so she does know my password,

02:41:29 ◼   ► but it's very inconvenient to type. And I'd really love to be able to register her face on my phone as well,

02:41:36 ◼   ► which is, you know, a choice that I would make. And not everyone would make that choice,

02:41:39 ◼   ► but that's something I would like to do. And as of right now, it is only allowable to use

02:41:45 ◼   ► Face ID with one face and again, I understand why I only have one face. The phone is a personal device

02:41:51 ◼   ► Like that like that's what the explanation other than just say this is a personal device

02:41:56 ◼   ► I'm assuming it has to be storage related

02:41:58 ◼   ► But the the thing reports I heard from the people it's like at launch only one face

02:42:02 ◼   ► Which makes me think there's enough storage for more than one

02:42:04 ◼   ► It's obviously they have more data points, right and the the whole evolving of the thing

02:42:08 ◼   ► I can imagine it takes up more storage and touch ID in the secure enclave where they have to keep all this stuff, right?

02:42:13 ◼   ► But I just hope hardware wise there actually is room for more than one. I've got fingers on every device in the house

02:42:19 ◼   ► I've got all my kids devices my wife's everything because you're mostly for convenience

02:42:23 ◼   ► It's not like they're gonna keep me out of the stuff like I know all their passwords

02:42:26 ◼   ► I can get into all the things. It's just it's just convenient

02:42:29 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly and and I had heard rumblings of the same that maybe in the future

02:42:34 ◼   ► It'll be more than one, but I am a little bummed right now that it is just one

02:42:38 ◼   ► Again as with earlier you know not really a big deal

02:42:41 ◼   ► This is still a phone that is unlocking by looking at my face even in the dark like things can be a lot worse

02:42:48 ◼   ► But it did bum me out a little bit

02:42:50 ◼   ► What else about this what else is new other than face 4k 60 Marco wanted it he got it

02:42:55 ◼   ► Oh, yeah, I got it and all the all of them, and they they didn't quite do a perfect job

02:43:01 ◼   ► But they did a pretty substantial job in improving the telephoto camera in the two camera module

02:43:08 ◼   ► but only for the 10, not for the 8 Plus.

02:43:12 ◼   ► Where now the, you know, before,

02:43:14 ◼   ► basically I said last episode what I wanted was that,

02:43:17 ◼   ► you know, with the 7 adding the dual camera thing

02:43:19 ◼   ► to the Plus, the zoomed in telephoto camera

02:43:22 ◼   ► was a narrower aperture, so it let in less light

02:43:25 ◼   ► and was noisier at night, and was not image stabilized.

02:43:28 ◼   ► Which basically made it very hard to ever use that

02:43:31 ◼   ► in low light and get a good picture.

02:43:32 ◼   ► And the software was smart enough to basically not use it

02:43:34 ◼   ► in low light and to just zoom in on the wide sensor

02:43:38 ◼   ► that was better.

02:43:39 ◼   ► Now, the new ones, the aperture difference is smaller,

02:43:43 ◼   ► it's still there but it's smaller,

02:43:45 ◼   ► and they're both stabilized on the 10.

02:43:48 ◼   ► So that's really nice.

02:43:49 ◼   ► I do wish the 8 Plus got the same module.

02:43:53 ◼   ► I don't think there's much reason for it not to have

02:43:56 ◼   ► gotten it other than just price and segmentation,

02:43:59 ◼   ► because there's probably room for it.

02:44:01 ◼   ► So it makes sense why the 8 didn't get it,

02:44:04 ◼   ► there's probably not room for it in the enclosure,

02:44:05 ◼   ► but I do wish they would have brought that

02:44:08 ◼   ► to the plus as well.

02:44:09 ◼   ► But the fact that it's there on the X, that's great.

02:44:13 ◼   ► And that these now do all shoot 4K 60, that's amazing.

02:44:18 ◼   ► Because again, as I mentioned last week,

02:44:20 ◼   ► almost no professional video cameras shoot 4K 60 yet.

02:44:24 ◼   ► That's very rare.

02:44:25 ◼   ► And so to have that in anything, let alone a $700

02:44:31 ◼   ► and up phone is really impressive.

02:44:34 ◼   ► And on top of that, the iPhone is already

02:44:36 ◼   ► such an amazing video camera.

02:44:39 ◼   ► That's a pretty big deal.

02:44:40 ◼   ► So I would say for most people, for most purposes,

02:44:44 ◼   ► the iPhone remains the best video camera in the world.

02:44:47 ◼   ► And this is a giant step forward even for it.

02:44:50 ◼   ► So I'm very impressed with the camera on paper.

02:44:53 ◼   ► And I hope, in practice, I hope it proves

02:44:55 ◼   ► to be as good as it sounds.

02:44:57 ◼   ► - 240 frames per second slow-mo.

02:44:59 ◼   ► I thought that was what the old one did,

02:45:00 ◼   ► but I guess I'm mistaken.

02:45:02 ◼   ► Is that double what the old one did?

02:45:03 ◼   ► - I think that did it, but only for 720p.

02:45:06 ◼   ► - And now it does 1080.

02:45:07 ◼   ► - And so they've upped it to 1080p, yeah.

02:45:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, all right, so that's good.

02:45:10 ◼   ► But now we get to finally the real reason

02:45:13 ◼   ► why people will buy and be happy with this phone,

02:45:16 ◼   ► if this is true.

02:45:17 ◼   ► Two hours more battery life.

02:45:20 ◼   ► It's what we've always wanted.

02:45:21 ◼   ► Don't make the phone thinner, add more battery life.

02:45:23 ◼   ► This phone got a big giant screen on it,

02:45:26 ◼   ► extremely fast, powerful processor,

02:45:30 ◼   ► all sorts of cameras and wireless doodads and sensors

02:45:34 ◼   ► and blah, blah, blah, and they added two hours

02:45:36 ◼   ► of battery life, which is a lot.

02:45:38 ◼   ► That reason, I have to see how it measures up to the plus,

02:45:43 ◼   ► but the seven was already pretty good.

02:45:46 ◼   ► That is going to feel like a premium experience

02:45:49 ◼   ► when people buy this fancy phone for all the money

02:45:51 ◼   ► that it's gonna cost and they get it at their screen

02:45:53 ◼   ► and it's a little bit weird and blah, blah, blah.

02:45:55 ◼   ► But A, it's gonna be a new phone,

02:45:56 ◼   ► new phone's always last longer than your old one

02:45:58 ◼   ► 'cause your old battery is shot.

02:45:59 ◼   ► And B, the fact that this actually has more battery life,

02:46:02 ◼   ► if that comes out the way it does,

02:46:04 ◼   ► that is perhaps the most high-end feature

02:46:07 ◼   ► that you can give to iPhone users in particular

02:46:10 ◼   ► who are used to kind of being starved for battery.

02:46:12 ◼   ► So I was very happy about that

02:46:15 ◼   ► 'cause that was one of the few questions we had

02:46:17 ◼   ► because we may have known the exact milliamp hour size

02:46:21 ◼   ► of the battery from leaks.

02:46:22 ◼   ► I don't know if we knew that or not,

02:46:23 ◼   ► but even if we did, you never know

02:46:25 ◼   ► what is the overall battery life

02:46:28 ◼   ► this very complicated system that involves tons of components going to be, especially

02:46:31 ◼   ► since software is such a big factor in balancing the components. That's one of the things that

02:46:35 ◼   ► can almost never be spoiled for us unless we leak the presentation, which I guess is

02:46:38 ◼   ► what will happen next year. We'll get the keynote slides right a week in advance.

02:46:41 ◼   ► We should get video of the rehearsals.

02:46:44 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

02:46:45 ◼   ► Seriously.

02:46:46 ◼   ► That's a hell of a thing. That made me extremely excited to see that. But not just like, "Oh,

02:46:51 ◼   ► and it's a little bit better." Two more hours that I put that up on a slide. That is amazing.

02:46:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, I hope that translates into real world gains.

02:46:59 ◼   ► We will see over time.

02:47:01 ◼   ► It is worth pointing out that the 8 Plus

02:47:04 ◼   ► still claims higher battery life.

02:47:07 ◼   ► So if battery life is the most important thing to you,

02:47:11 ◼   ► the Plus phone is probably still the right move.

02:47:14 ◼   ► Also, again, if screen size is the most important to you,

02:47:16 ◼   ► Plus phone, still the right move.

02:47:18 ◼   ► But, see, I don't know, this is why,

02:47:21 ◼   ► once again, in the Apple product line,

02:47:23 ◼   ► they have made it so that there is no one

02:47:26 ◼   ► best choice.

02:47:27 ◼   ► Like this was the case for a while on the iPads,

02:47:29 ◼   ► like it's definitely the case in the MacBook Pros,

02:47:32 ◼   ► like there is no one best model here,

02:47:35 ◼   ► it just depends on which things you prioritize

02:47:37 ◼   ► over which other things.

02:47:38 ◼   ► Fans of the Plus should strongly consider

02:47:42 ◼   ► getting the next Plus instead of getting the X.

02:47:45 ◼   ► But the reality is, you know, all of us who talk

02:47:48 ◼   ► on podcasts about these phones and everything,

02:47:50 ◼   ► we're all gonna get the X anyway.

02:47:52 ◼   ► - Yeah.

02:47:53 ◼   ► - I do wanna mention that the,

02:47:55 ◼   ► I think the 8 does as well,

02:47:57 ◼   ► but doesn't the 10 get True Tone?

02:48:01 ◼   ► - Yes, at least the 10 does.

02:48:03 ◼   ► I don't know if the other ones do.

02:48:04 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think they all get it,

02:48:05 ◼   ► which is surprising to me,

02:48:06 ◼   ► because that means they found a place

02:48:07 ◼   ► to smuggle that sensor on the 8s.

02:48:10 ◼   ► I mean, it's nice.

02:48:11 ◼   ► I mean, although this is my biggest surprise

02:48:14 ◼   ► of the thing actually was no ProMotion,

02:48:16 ◼   ► which makes very little sense to me.

02:48:19 ◼   ► Unless there was some kind of battery life thing,

02:48:21 ◼   ► because it's not like they don't have the CPU grunt

02:48:25 ◼   ► to do it and they're not moving that many pixels

02:48:27 ◼   ► and there's plenty of room on the phone

02:48:29 ◼   ► 'cause it's a little bit bigger.

02:48:31 ◼   ► I mean, it must come down to either component size

02:48:33 ◼   ► or costs or battery life

02:48:35 ◼   ► because it's not a technical limitation.

02:48:37 ◼   ► So they found room for True Tone for everybody,

02:48:39 ◼   ► but no promotion.

02:48:41 ◼   ► - I wonder if maybe the OLED panel

02:48:43 ◼   ► can't refresh that fast yet, at least maybe like--

02:48:45 ◼   ► - People said that, but I don't see how that's like,

02:48:47 ◼   ► OLED TVs are refreshed 120 easy.

02:48:51 ◼   ► Like I think your TV does that already.

02:48:54 ◼   ► Maybe they're different when it's smaller, I don't know.

02:48:56 ◼   ► - Or maybe like their particular quality level

02:48:59 ◼   ► of OLED panels getting their color and their contrast

02:49:02 ◼   ► and their gamut.

02:49:03 ◼   ► Maybe those can't do 120 yet,

02:49:05 ◼   ► and they wouldn't have the 8's panels do it

02:49:09 ◼   ► if the 10's panel couldn't do it.

02:49:11 ◼   ► So like that could be a reason.

02:49:13 ◼   ► - I don't know.

02:49:13 ◼   ► I think it most comes down to the hardware

02:49:17 ◼   ► to drive the panel at that rate and finding room for it

02:49:21 ◼   ► and potentially what the power does.

02:49:23 ◼   ► But I would love to hear from somebody

02:49:24 ◼   ► who knows more about the internal details of how

02:49:29 ◼   ► you drive any screen at 120 hertz

02:49:32 ◼   ► and how that might affect-- or if someone on the iPhone team

02:49:34 ◼   ► just wants to write in and tell us why the hell you don't

02:49:37 ◼   ► have promotion.

02:49:38 ◼   ► And especially since the animations on the 10

02:49:41 ◼   ► in particular, they're kind of more prominent.

02:49:46 ◼   ► like when you go back to the home thing of the application that you just chucked upwards

02:49:50 ◼   ► it like floats back into the icon that it came from and all sorts of scaling things

02:49:54 ◼   ► and all those animations would look better at 120 because they're short animations, there's

02:49:57 ◼   ► not that many frames and so they can end up looking stuttery even if they're not actually

02:50:03 ◼   ► dropping any frames because they're so fast so 120 would definitely help there and give

02:50:07 ◼   ► a more sort of fluid experience but maybe next year.

02:50:11 ◼   ► I'm stoked for True Tone though, because I don't have any devices with True Tone.

02:50:17 ◼   ► From what little I've seen, it looked really, really nice.

02:50:19 ◼   ► Not to say promotion isn't by any stretch, but I have seen promotion briefly, and I thought

02:50:25 ◼   ► it was nice.

02:50:26 ◼   ► I'm sure if I had time with it, I would start to say, "Oh no, this is amazing."

02:50:30 ◼   ► But I'm really stoked to have True Tone.

02:50:33 ◼   ► I think I heard it on Upgrade, and Jason had mentioned that a lot of times he's getting

02:50:38 ◼   ► the brightness not to the position he wants it just because he's fighting kind of the

02:50:42 ◼   ► ambient light situation in the room. And I feel like I suffer from the same problem from

02:50:46 ◼   ► time to time for a very loose definition of suffering. But anyway, I feel like having

02:50:52 ◼   ► True Tone is going to be really nice and it's going to be new for me. So I'm excited about

02:50:56 ◼   ► that.

02:50:57 ◼   ► But before you get off True Tone, the best thing I can say about True Tone is that I

02:51:01 ◼   ► enable it and I don't notice that it's on because that's how it should work. You shouldn't

02:51:04 ◼   ► notice that it's making your screen more brown and crap like this horrible flux and nice

02:51:08 ◼   ► shift things that I hate, I leave it on and I don't even notice that it's there.

02:51:14 ◼   ► And if I turn it off, like sometimes I go back and say "what would this look like without

02:51:17 ◼   ► True Tone?"

02:51:18 ◼   ► You see it being like more blue when you're sitting in your house at night.

02:51:21 ◼   ► So True Tone gets a big thumbs up from me as a quality of life thing for a screen where

02:51:26 ◼   ► you're not doing like color work for like, you know, where you need accurate reproduction

02:51:31 ◼   ► of colors where you just want it to like look the way it's supposed to kind of look given

02:51:36 ◼   ► the ambient lighting.

02:51:37 ◼   ► So I really liked your job.

02:51:41 ◼   ► The stuff that we had talked about up until the iPhone X, pre-ordering Friday as I think

02:51:47 ◼   ► I mentioned earlier, and then available a week from Friday.

02:51:51 ◼   ► This one though, the iPhone X is not going to be pre-orderable for basically a month

02:51:58 ◼   ► and a half until the 27th of October, which is again Friday, and available the following

02:52:03 ◼   ► Friday, November 3rd.

02:52:04 ◼   ► That's, I mean, in the grand scheme of things,

02:52:06 ◼   ► not a big deal, but that's a bummer.

02:52:08 ◼   ► I wanna give Apple just unreasonable amounts

02:52:11 ◼   ► of my money sooner than that, please.

02:52:14 ◼   ► - I think it's also, like many Apple launches of late,

02:52:18 ◼   ► the official day one launch, if you're very lucky,

02:52:22 ◼   ► you might hit that, but I think most people

02:52:24 ◼   ► are not getting this phone probably before January.

02:52:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm gonna be really bummed.

02:52:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, and it's fine.

02:52:30 ◼   ► I mean, we always knew this was gonna be,

02:52:32 ◼   ► and there wasn't gonna be much supply and delay,

02:52:35 ◼   ► like it's, you know, we'll survive.

02:52:37 ◼   ► It's better than waiting around

02:52:38 ◼   ► for the color you want, I guess.

02:52:40 ◼   ► The gold phones, people getting in line,

02:52:44 ◼   ► but you know, that's, I bet Apple would have liked

02:52:46 ◼   ► to have more squarely hit the holiday season,

02:52:48 ◼   ► but they're just, you know,

02:52:50 ◼   ► like it's gonna be January for most people, sorry.

02:52:53 ◼   ► You want one under the tree, just print out a picture of it

02:52:55 ◼   ► and put it in a little box and then just sort of cradle it.

02:52:59 ◼   ► - So any other thoughts?

02:53:01 ◼   ► I have one final closing thought,

02:53:03 ◼   ► but any other thoughts before then?

02:53:05 ◼   ► - I didn't see any battery packs for the 10.

02:53:09 ◼   ► - Oh, interesting. - No hunchbacks.

02:53:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, it appears that there aren't new battery cases.

02:53:14 ◼   ► They're saying that cases for the 7 will fit the 8,

02:53:18 ◼   ► and similar for the pluses.

02:53:20 ◼   ► So I imagine that probably means

02:53:23 ◼   ► that the 7 battery case will fit the 8.

02:53:26 ◼   ► There is no 7+ battery case, so that rules that out.

02:53:29 ◼   ► And yeah, it does appear that there's not gonna be,

02:53:31 ◼   ► at least there isn't yet a 10 battery case.

02:53:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, although they do have a folio case.

02:53:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's interesting.

02:53:38 ◼   ► - They do have the leather,

02:53:40 ◼   ► although the folio case,

02:53:40 ◼   ► I saw someone with frustration had the same thing.

02:53:43 ◼   ► They only show it from the back.

02:53:44 ◼   ► There's two pictures on the Apple Store

02:53:45 ◼   ► and they're both from the back.

02:53:47 ◼   ► I think that's just a mistake in the store.

02:53:48 ◼   ► But I'm not that I'll ever buy one of those,

02:53:50 ◼   ► but I wanted to see what it looked like.

02:53:51 ◼   ► But I was excited to see the leather case for the iPhone 10.

02:53:55 ◼   ► That's essentially the same as the leather case

02:53:57 ◼   ► that I have now that comes in some interesting colors.

02:53:59 ◼   ► And I'm a big fan of that case.

02:54:00 ◼   ► So hopefully the new one is just as good.

02:54:02 ◼   ► And because the leather case, Apple's other case, the existing one and the new one are

02:54:05 ◼   ► totally open at the bottom, the one edge where you're going to be swiping constantly, you

02:54:09 ◼   ► won't have to be swiping against the edge of a case.

02:54:11 ◼   ► Oh, and fast charging on both of the, on all the new phones.

02:54:14 ◼   ► The whole like whatever, I don't know what standard is for the USB fast charging thing

02:54:17 ◼   ► where you can get a 50% charge in 30 minutes.

02:54:20 ◼   ► Yeah that was interesting.

02:54:21 ◼   ► Setting aside the wireless thing.

02:54:22 ◼   ► I think that's just like a USB fast charging standard or.

02:54:25 ◼   ► Yeah, it's USB-C power delivery.

02:54:27 ◼   ► And so basically if you have like one of the MacBook Pro adapters or if you have the iPad

02:54:32 ◼   ► fast charge adapter, none of these come stock in the box of any iOS device.

02:54:38 ◼   ► But if you happen to have the USB-C to Lightning cable, which also doesn't come stock in the

02:54:42 ◼   ► box, and one of these fast charging power bricks that also doesn't come stock in the

02:54:46 ◼   ► box and that many of which aren't even made for these products, then it will charge faster,

02:54:50 ◼   ► which is a nice thing to have if you need it.

02:54:53 ◼   ► I do question why they didn't just boost up

02:54:55 ◼   ► the power bricks that come with it,

02:54:57 ◼   ► but you know, Apple, what are you gonna do?

02:54:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, well they wouldn't be able to fit it

02:55:02 ◼   ► in the boxes, the one they give you is the little tiny nun.

02:55:05 ◼   ► You know, and that's probably--

02:55:06 ◼   ► - I honestly think, not to dress up too much,

02:55:09 ◼   ► but I honestly think that one of the reasons

02:55:11 ◼   ► why the Apple TV remote is so bad and unchanged

02:55:14 ◼   ► is because they didn't wanna make the box bigger.

02:55:17 ◼   ► I bet that's a big reason for it.

02:55:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's not just the box.

02:55:21 ◼   ► They don't wanna make the remote bigger.

02:55:22 ◼   ► That's what it comes down to.

02:55:23 ◼   ► They feel like it should be in scale,

02:55:26 ◼   ► and it should be elegant and dainty,

02:55:27 ◼   ► and they don't understand that people's hands

02:55:29 ◼   ► are not that big.

02:55:30 ◼   ► - Yeah.

02:55:31 ◼   ► - Or not that small, rather.

02:55:32 ◼   ► Real time follow up, someone in the chat room

02:55:33 ◼   ► did helpfully provide a view of the front of the Folio case.

02:55:37 ◼   ► I will never buy one of these, but some people like 'em.

02:55:39 ◼   ► And so now there's one from Apple,

02:55:40 ◼   ► because why wouldn't they charge you 70 bucks or whatever

02:55:42 ◼   ► for a thing to put on your phone?

02:55:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, some sort of something about it.

02:55:46 ◼   ► And there's a whole bunch of other small stuff

02:55:48 ◼   ► from the event that we don't have time for.

02:55:50 ◼   ► I mean, we didn't talk about Animoji,

02:55:52 ◼   ► we didn't talk about AirPower or the mats

02:55:54 ◼   ► or anything like that, so yeah,

02:55:56 ◼   ► I guess that'll be part of next week's show.

02:55:58 ◼   ► That'll be like our junk drawer of all,

02:56:00 ◼   ► two weeks with a follow-up, plus like Animoji

02:56:02 ◼   ► and AirPower mats and things like that.

02:56:05 ◼   ► - I don't wanna talk about Animoji other than to say

02:56:11 ◼   ► I have received a few and they are pretty awesome.

02:56:16 ◼   ► And I don't know it's something

02:56:17 ◼   ► that I'm gonna be using a lot or doing a lot,

02:56:20 ◼   ► but they are pretty cool.

02:56:21 ◼   ► It is very amusing, and we can talk more about it next week.

02:56:25 ◼   ► So, closing thought, Marco, what phone or phones

02:56:28 ◼   ► are you going to be buying, and when will you be doing that?

02:56:32 ◼   ► - I mean, again, because I'm a developer

02:56:35 ◼   ► and an Apple commentator, I have to get the 10, no question.

02:56:39 ◼   ► And that's probably gonna end up

02:56:40 ◼   ► being the phone for me overall.

02:56:42 ◼   ► I am disappointed that the screen isn't bigger, wider.

02:56:46 ◼   ► I feel like for the size increase and all the trade-offs,

02:56:49 ◼   ► I would've liked a little bit more width

02:56:51 ◼   ► than what I already have, so that's unfortunate,

02:56:53 ◼   ► but it's probably gonna be great,

02:56:56 ◼   ► I'm probably gonna love it.

02:56:57 ◼   ► I'm definitely going to love having that camera system,

02:57:01 ◼   ► so I really want it for that, if nothing else.

02:57:04 ◼   ► Oh, I'm gonna need to do a lot of work on Overcast

02:57:06 ◼   ► to make it fit the notch.

02:57:07 ◼   ► It's, basically it ruins my entire UI, is how this works.

02:57:12 ◼   ► - The sleeve! - This ruins everything.

02:57:13 ◼   ► So I'm getting the phone for that.

02:57:16 ◼   ► If I were not a commentator and developer,

02:57:19 ◼   ► I honestly might consider the 8 Plus instead,

02:57:22 ◼   ► but oh well.

02:57:23 ◼   ► Maybe I'll end up getting both and putting the 8 Plus

02:57:26 ◼   ► as a dedicated Waze machine in my car

02:57:28 ◼   ► because Waze is amazing.

02:57:29 ◼   ► Anyway, so. (laughs)

02:57:31 ◼   ► So I'm definitely getting the 4K Apple TV

02:57:34 ◼   ► and just because, you know, again, I use it constantly

02:57:37 ◼   ► and I do have a 4K TV and I'm getting the 3G watch,

02:57:41 ◼   ► or sorry, the LTE watch series three.

02:57:44 ◼   ► So yeah, overall it's been a pretty expensive event.

02:57:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, tell me about it.

02:57:49 ◼   ► I mean, I'm in for two watches, like I said earlier, one LTE, one not.

02:57:53 ◼   ► I'm going to be getting definitely one iPhone X in 256 space gray.

02:58:02 ◼   ► Probably one for Aaron too.

02:58:04 ◼   ► We haven't really had time to talk it over yet, but I suspect I will.

02:58:07 ◼   ► I don't know what color she'll want, and I'll almost certainly just insist that she gets

02:58:12 ◼   ► a 256 there.

02:58:14 ◼   ► So between two watches and two phones, no Apple TVs for me, not yet anyway.

02:58:18 ◼   ► I'm looking at something like $3,000 this fall, which is truly and utterly preposterous.

02:58:24 ◼   ► And if you've ever listened to any one of our ads ever, then thank you.

02:58:28 ◼   ► Thank you.

02:58:29 ◼   ► Because if it wasn't for that, I would not be getting probably any of these things.

02:58:33 ◼   ► So, Jon, Jon, what's your situation?

02:58:35 ◼   ► You said Tina's getting a watch and she's probably getting a phone as well and you're

02:58:40 ◼   ► getting just the TV?

02:58:41 ◼   ► Yeah, well, TV is for the whole family, not just for me.

02:58:44 ◼   ► I am not going to live vicariously through my wife, who I'm trying to convince to get

02:58:47 ◼   ► a 10 so I'll have one to play with but it's not it's not my phone year I'm gonna keep using my 7.

02:58:51 ◼   ► I like it I'll add the rest of world experiment I hope she gets a 10 because then I will be able

02:58:54 ◼   ► to play with it and see what it's like without having to actually use it as my phone which I'm

02:58:58 ◼   ► not sure I'm ready for if it was my year I would get a 10 though if it was my phone year I would

02:59:02 ◼   ► totally get that because I'm very convinced that that is the the one that I would want to try.

02:59:07 ◼   ► It's the one that you want. Who who who. I got it but Marco didn't. Oh no I got it yeah. Oh how'd

02:59:15 ◼   ► you get that reference. I know some music. Is it her influence? It's music. I know music.

02:59:20 ◼   ► I have heard music. You can't go, you can't live in the world and not have heard that

02:59:26 ◼   ► song. Ah, you can. Thank you for having heard and seen. Alright. Touche. Always continue

02:59:31 ◼   ► to amaze me. Alright. Thanks to our three sponsors this week. Squarespace, Backblaze,

02:59:36 ◼   ► and Aftershocks. And we will see you next week.

02:59:39 ◼   ► [MUSIC]

02:59:49 ◼   ► Oh it was accidental.

02:59:51 ◼   ► Accidental.

02:59:52 ◼   ► John didn't do any research.

02:59:54 ◼   ► Margo and Casey wouldn't let him.

02:59:57 ◼   ► Cause it was accidental.

02:59:59 ◼   ► Accidental.

03:00:00 ◼   ► Oh it was accidental.

03:00:01 ◼   ► Accidental.

03:00:02 ◼   ► And you can find the show notes at ATP.FM.

03:00:07 ◼   ► And if you're into Twitter, you can follow them at

03:00:13 ◼   ► [music]

03:00:42 ◼   ► - Oh my God, this is a long show.

03:00:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, well I don't know if we really need much

03:00:45 ◼   ► of an after show.

03:00:46 ◼   ► I was surprised you didn't bring up aftershocks

03:00:47 ◼   ► when you were talking about riding your bike

03:00:49 ◼   ► because that is the ultimate time for aftershocks

03:00:52 ◼   ► 'cause they're open air.

03:00:53 ◼   ► - I know, well, the only problem is that

03:00:56 ◼   ► when I'm riding my bike, I am terrified

03:00:59 ◼   ► so I don't want to die.

03:01:01 ◼   ► So I've been mostly using the aftershocks on the walks

03:01:05 ◼   ► and not on the bike rides.

03:01:06 ◼   ► - What are you afraid of on the trail?

03:01:07 ◼   ► There's no cars that are gonna run you over, right?

03:01:09 ◼   ► - I'm mostly afraid of just getting myself to the trail

03:01:11 ◼   ► even though it's quite close to my house.

03:01:14 ◼   ► - Oh, you're on the bike doing it still?

03:01:16 ◼   ► - I mean, I could just pause the podcast,

03:01:19 ◼   ► drive to the trail, bike to the trail, and then resume it.

03:01:24 ◼   ► I'll probably start doing that.

03:01:25 ◼   ► I haven't gotten a lot of biking in.

03:01:28 ◼   ► I guess this is our after show now.

03:01:31 ◼   ► So I have finally completed my bike shopping extravaganza.

03:01:37 ◼   ► - That's a lie.

03:01:39 ◼   ► That's a lie you're telling us and yourself.

03:01:41 ◼   ► - Mm-hmm.

03:01:42 ◼   ► - It turns out I am terrible at buying bikes.

03:01:46 ◼   ► So the way that I buy everything else basically

03:01:50 ◼   ► is I do a ton of research,

03:01:53 ◼   ► it consumes my mind for like two weeks,

03:01:56 ◼   ► and eventually I convince myself to buy the best thing

03:02:01 ◼   ► and I buy it and then I'm happy for a while

03:02:03 ◼   ► until a better thing comes out.

03:02:04 ◼   ► That does not work for bikes.

03:02:08 ◼   ► What I have learned basically is that

03:02:11 ◼   ► The correct best way to buy a bike

03:02:14 ◼   ► is to go into your local bike shop,

03:02:17 ◼   ► drive a few things around that you like,

03:02:20 ◼   ► and whatever one feels the best to you, buy it.

03:02:23 ◼   ► And that's it.

03:02:24 ◼   ► You should do basically no research.

03:02:27 ◼   ► You should learn about almost nothing

03:02:29 ◼   ► about the high end of bikes.

03:02:31 ◼   ► You should read no online reviews

03:02:33 ◼   ► because they're pretty much useless.

03:02:35 ◼   ► The way for most people to buy a bike is just that,

03:02:38 ◼   ► to do it in the most casual way possible.

03:02:40 ◼   ► the way most people buy everything.

03:02:43 ◼   ► I have done such an insane amount of research online,

03:02:49 ◼   ► browsing different things, looking at different specs,

03:02:52 ◼   ► figuring, okay, I definitely want this kind of thing,

03:02:53 ◼   ► I definitely don't want this kind of thing.

03:02:55 ◼   ► It got me basically a lot of nowhere.

03:02:57 ◼   ► It got me to a lot of wasted research time,

03:03:01 ◼   ► a lot of consuming mental time.

03:03:03 ◼   ► It got me to rule out things that I actually like,

03:03:06 ◼   ► not knowing that I was ruling them out.

03:03:08 ◼   ► It got me to get myself really dedicated

03:03:12 ◼   ► to certain types of bikes that are not right for me,

03:03:14 ◼   ► that actually don't fit my needs

03:03:15 ◼   ► and that I'm not comfortable on.

03:03:17 ◼   ► It has taken me a long time to finally figure all this out.

03:03:20 ◼   ► What I did basically, and a special thank you

03:03:24 ◼   ► to the people at Budnitz Bicycles,

03:03:26 ◼   ► who I basically have been bothering and asking questions to

03:03:30 ◼   ► and arranging, like trying to get a loaner to try out

03:03:33 ◼   ► or trying to visit a showroom to try things out

03:03:35 ◼   ► for a good three months now.

03:03:38 ◼   ► They've been very patient with me.

03:03:40 ◼   ► And they even did arrange for me to test out

03:03:42 ◼   ► one of their bikes in the Hamptons,

03:03:44 ◼   ► and therefore I drove to the Hamptons.

03:03:46 ◼   ► They arranged to lend me one of their bikes for free

03:03:49 ◼   ► so I could try it and then order my own,

03:03:52 ◼   ► that, you know, things I would like.

03:03:54 ◼   ► I tried it, it wasn't right for me.

03:03:56 ◼   ► They were very, very tolerant of me, very patient with me.

03:03:58 ◼   ► Thank you so much to the Budnits Bike people.

03:04:00 ◼   ► And if you do want a bike of the kind they make,

03:04:04 ◼   ► which is like a really nice city bike, that's amazing.

03:04:07 ◼   ► they were ridiculously nice.

03:04:09 ◼   ► But I learned basically through all this

03:04:10 ◼   ► that what I actually want, what I'm most comfortable on,

03:04:12 ◼   ► and what I actually need to ride this trail over here,

03:04:15 ◼   ► which is the main way I ride here,

03:04:17 ◼   ► is a pretty normal mountain bike.

03:04:20 ◼   ► - I was gonna hope it was a penny farthing.

03:04:22 ◼   ► - No, I know.

03:04:24 ◼   ► But what I need is a basic mountain bike.

03:04:27 ◼   ► What we've discovered, and Tiff and I went to

03:04:31 ◼   ► a couple of local bike stores,

03:04:34 ◼   ► we just discovered that we don't want to buy

03:04:37 ◼   ► the thing that all the research tells us to buy.

03:04:39 ◼   ► We don't want to get the best possible thing.

03:04:42 ◼   ► We just want to get a bike.

03:04:43 ◼   ► And we, now Tiff and I each have bought bikes

03:04:47 ◼   ► in the last 48 hours.

03:04:48 ◼   ► - And they say Trek on them in big letters.

03:04:51 ◼   ► - Close, they almost did.

03:04:53 ◼   ► No, mine says specialized in big letters.

03:04:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, that was close.

03:04:56 ◼   ► I was gonna say, you're gonna have to,

03:04:58 ◼   ► one of your requirements is gonna have to give

03:04:59 ◼   ► and I bet it's the one with the logos.

03:05:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, that was, that had to, yeah.

03:05:04 ◼   ► Once you go into a bike shop,

03:05:06 ◼   ► trying to get something that looks fairly tasteful

03:05:09 ◼   ► is incredibly challenging,

03:05:11 ◼   ► because all the major brand bikes

03:05:13 ◼   ► are just outrageous looking.

03:05:15 ◼   ► - My Mongoose looks awesome, by the way.

03:05:16 ◼   ► - Of course it does, yes.

03:05:18 ◼   ► Present company excluded.

03:05:19 ◼   ► What Tiff and I both landed on,

03:05:24 ◼   ► even though they are kind of slow at times,

03:05:27 ◼   ► is that we both really had a lot of fun

03:05:30 ◼   ► on 27 and a half inch plus semi-fat tire bikes.

03:05:35 ◼   ► So Tiff and I are each now owners of semi-fat mountain bikes,

03:05:40 ◼   ► both at the fairly entry-level price points.

03:05:44 ◼   ► Mine is literally, this is the actual name of this product,

03:05:47 ◼   ► it is called the Specialized Fuse 6 Fatty/29.

03:05:52 ◼   ► - Wow.

03:05:53 ◼   ► - Is that a comment on the people who buy the bike?

03:05:55 ◼   ► Get on the bike, Fatty?

03:05:57 ◼   ► - I mean, I am buying this bike for fitness purposes

03:06:00 ◼   ► as one of the--

03:06:00 ◼   ► - Seems like a counterproductive marketing strategy.

03:06:03 ◼   ► Bike for you, Fatty.

03:06:05 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I put the link here.

03:06:06 ◼   ► So yeah, so I have the six fatty 29,

03:06:10 ◼   ► and then Tiff has the Orbea Loki 27+ H20,

03:06:15 ◼   ► which is a mouthful also.

03:06:19 ◼   ► - That's a lot of words for the name of a bike.

03:06:21 ◼   ► - But basically what happened is we tried a few bikes

03:06:23 ◼   ► in the store, and I tried all the red ones,

03:06:26 ◼   ► and Tiff tried all the blue ones,

03:06:28 ◼   ► and she picked her favorite blue one.

03:06:29 ◼   ► - This is a great shopping strategy.

03:06:32 ◼   ► - And I picked my favorite red one,

03:06:34 ◼   ► And we got pretty good prices on them.

03:06:36 ◼   ► They're pretty inexpensive, relatively speaking.

03:06:38 ◼   ► And they're not the best bikes in the world.

03:06:40 ◼   ► But they make us the happiest.

03:06:41 ◼   ► And we're not going to be bike power users for a long time,

03:06:44 ◼   ► probably.

03:06:45 ◼   ► So I tried really hard to do my regular research heavy thing

03:06:51 ◼   ► and then eventually get the best or at least get

03:06:54 ◼   ► the most sensible.

03:06:55 ◼   ► And it turns out that's just totally the wrong way

03:06:57 ◼   ► to buy a bike.

03:06:57 ◼   ► And it's just so much easier to just go to the shop

03:07:01 ◼   ► and find the one that rides the best for you and just buy it.

03:07:03 ◼   ► Well, because you have so little experience with bikes, and bikes are such a large world.

03:07:07 ◼   ► Imagine if you had so little experience with computers, and computers are such a large

03:07:12 ◼   ► world, you'd end up buying one based on, like, specs or something, but not realize the importance

03:07:16 ◼   ► you placed on the OS, and it's just too much.

03:07:19 ◼   ► But I bet your research strategy would work if you ride these bikes for many, many years

03:07:25 ◼   ► and kind of get a feel for what you like, and then it's time to buy a new bike, and

03:07:28 ◼   ► then you would be able to do the exhaustive research knowing actually really what you

03:07:32 ◼   ► like and what you don't like.

03:07:33 ◼   ► same way you can with cameras, because you've had a lot of cameras, and you can do the 10

03:07:36 ◼   ► hours reading DP review because you're not going in with no foundational knowledge. Whereas

03:07:43 ◼   ► bikes it was just like they have two wheels and you sit on them, and then there's a bunch

03:07:46 ◼   ► of words that other people's opinions are basically informing yours, right?

03:07:50 ◼   ► Yeah, and online reviews of bikes are all written by pro-bikeists, and they have very

03:07:56 ◼   ► different preferences and needs than what I have as a casual recreational rider.

03:08:02 ◼   ► 'Cause you were shopping for pro bikes that cost like thousands of dollars, so of course

03:08:05 ◼   ► all the reviews are gonna be from pro people.

03:08:06 ◼   ► It's not gonna be from like, "I'm riding the trail behind my house in this $3,000 bike."

03:08:11 ◼   ► - Well, and also, the pro bikes are doing things like complaining about certain component

03:08:15 ◼   ► choices in certain bikes and everything.

03:08:17 ◼   ► And if they say, "Oh, this doesn't have the SRAM A7 brakes," I'm like, "I don't even know

03:08:22 ◼   ► if that's good or not."

03:08:24 ◼   ► I had no concept of what components were good and what weren't.

03:08:30 ◼   ► And there was a large price range for the different types

03:08:34 ◼   ► of bikes people were recommending and that seemed to be

03:08:37 ◼   ► popular sellers and everything.

03:08:38 ◼   ► But what I found when I would go to a bike store,

03:08:41 ◼   ► like ride the really nice ones versus ride the base level

03:08:44 ◼   ► ones, is that I found that I just, in Casey fashion,

03:08:48 ◼   ► I just didn't care about the difference.

03:08:51 ◼   ► And the ones that I found that were super fun,

03:08:54 ◼   ► that just felt right to me, were relatively inexpensive.

03:08:58 ◼   ► No belt drive, no CVT.

03:09:01 ◼   ► - That's true, I tried really hard to find a mountain bike

03:09:05 ◼   ► that has a belt drive and any kind of internal gearing

03:09:08 ◼   ► option, I found one with a belt drive, the Spot,

03:09:13 ◼   ► Spot makes one that has a belt drive,

03:09:14 ◼   ► but it's fixed gear only, and I found zero that have

03:09:19 ◼   ► a belt drive and internal gearing.

03:09:22 ◼   ► - That's what I was getting at when you listed like

03:09:23 ◼   ► belt drive as your requirement, it's like you don't even

03:09:26 ◼   ► know, you don't even know if this is, you just discovered

03:09:28 ◼   ► This is the thing that exists and it seems fancier so you want it, but there's a reason

03:09:31 ◼   ► the chains are all in use.

03:09:32 ◼   ► And it may just be the belts haven't trickled down from the high end yet, but also—

03:09:35 ◼   ► That seems like most of the reason.

03:09:37 ◼   ► There's also that chains are a tried and true technology.

03:09:41 ◼   ► They are a solved problem.

03:09:42 ◼   ► They can make them pretty well.

03:09:44 ◼   ► And of all things, you would think mountain bikes would have the internal ones and not

03:09:47 ◼   ► have it all be mucked up and everything, but I guess they're just either not there yet

03:09:50 ◼   ► or the sort of chunky reliability of a chain.

03:09:54 ◼   ► So I notice this one doesn't have a front derailleur.

03:09:56 ◼   ► That's an innovation in recent decades in mountain bikes.

03:10:00 ◼   ► - I think it's probably also just because

03:10:01 ◼   ► it's like a lower end model.

03:10:02 ◼   ► Like it only has 10 speeds.

03:10:04 ◼   ► You know, like you can get,

03:10:05 ◼   ► a lot of them seem to have like between eight and 11 speeds

03:10:08 ◼   ► that just had a rear derailleur,

03:10:09 ◼   ► which is, that's fine for me.

03:10:11 ◼   ► In many ways, it's probably a cultural demand thing.

03:10:13 ◼   ► Like I don't think mountain bikists want the additional

03:10:16 ◼   ► weight of internal gear hubs on the back wheels.

03:10:18 ◼   ► And also there seems to be a large need for them

03:10:22 ◼   ► to be able to do repairs like while they're out.

03:10:25 ◼   ► So things have to be fairly mechanically simple

03:10:28 ◼   ► for that to be possible.

03:10:29 ◼   ► So like, you know, a belt and a fancy internal gear hub,

03:10:32 ◼   ► like they exist, thank you, I know about roll off hubs,

03:10:35 ◼   ► they exist, but it seems like putting them on mountain bikes

03:10:38 ◼   ► is nearly unheard of, or at least is not usually done

03:10:43 ◼   ► on bikes that you can buy that are stock configured

03:10:46 ◼   ► that way, like people seem to customize them sometimes,

03:10:48 ◼   ► but that's about it.

03:10:49 ◼   ► So all this is to say, I totally failed at buying a bike

03:10:55 ◼   ► through my usual methods, but I did finally just buy one

03:10:58 ◼   ► and now I'm done with it, and now I'm going

03:10:59 ◼   ► to actually enjoy riding it.

03:11:00 ◼   ► 'Cause, you know, a quick way to burn through a whole fall

03:11:03 ◼   ► full of nice weather, not riding a bike,

03:11:06 ◼   ► is to try to spend all this time going bike shopping.

03:11:08 ◼   ► I spent so much time in my car in the last week,

03:11:12 ◼   ► not like just moving bikes around or renting bikes

03:11:15 ◼   ► or transporting myself to and from bike shops

03:11:18 ◼   ► that are far away, like I've missed out

03:11:20 ◼   ► on so much good riding time,

03:11:22 ◼   ► because I was spending too much time

03:11:23 ◼   ► overthinking this problem.

03:11:25 ◼   ► - Sounds rough driving around to bike stores.

03:11:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, the struggle is real.

03:11:29 ◼   ► - Casey and I were at work, just so you know.

03:11:31 ◼   ► (beeping)