Upgrade

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is the 9th Annual Upgradies Award.

00:00:15 ◼   ► These awards ceremonies are brought to you by our fine sponsors.

00:00:19 ◼   ► They are Membifor, Hover, and Rocket Money.

00:00:22 ◼   ► My name is Myke Hurley and I will be one of your hosts for this evening, and I am joined by Jason Snow.

00:00:26 ◼   ► Hello, Jason Snow.

00:00:28 ◼   ► Hi Myke Hurley, how is it possible that this is the 9th annual upgrade-ies?

00:00:34 ◼   ► So I will say this is one of those things where like...

00:00:38 ◼   ► I reckon I'm a relatively smart person.

00:00:41 ◼   ► But I can't really truly get my head around this being the 9th,

00:00:45 ◼   ► when we haven't been doing the show for nine years.

00:00:48 ◼   ► And I know that like you count at one, not zero, like I get it,

00:00:52 ◼   ► but nevertheless, it really breaks my brain that next year will be the 10th annual upgrade-ies.

00:00:57 ◼   ► but upgrade won't be 10 until 2024, you know?

00:01:01 ◼   ► - Right, well it's because we, yeah,

00:01:02 ◼   ► the first annual upgrade is was only,

00:01:04 ◼   ► first annual also not a thing that you are supposed to say,

00:01:07 ◼   ► but now retroactively, maybe we could say it,

00:01:09 ◼   ► the first, the original upgrade is,

00:01:10 ◼   ► was only a couple months after we started the podcast, so.

00:01:13 ◼   ► - Now it would be the first annual though, right?

00:01:15 ◼   ► Because it was the first, and it is annual, so.

00:01:18 ◼   ► - In retrospect, it was the first annual upgrade is, yes,

00:01:22 ◼   ► but at the time it wasn't, that's a.

00:01:24 ◼   ► - For the people that don't know this joke.

00:01:25 ◼   ► - Episode 16. - This is a thing.

00:01:27 ◼   ► - Oh my God, I can't believe that.

00:01:28 ◼   ► People, like I was really focused on this

00:01:30 ◼   ► being the first annual and Jason did not like that.

00:01:33 ◼   ► I kept calling it the first annual,

00:01:34 ◼   ► but now we've done nine of them, so who's laughing now?

00:01:36 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:01:38 ◼   ► - Mm-hmm, me, I'm laughing now.

00:01:41 ◼   ► - Good. (laughs)

00:01:43 ◼   ► I'd like to give some thanks before we begin the upgradees

00:01:45 ◼   ► because this is a whole production every year.

00:01:48 ◼   ► I'd like to thank Chris Breen for our special theme music.

00:01:50 ◼   ► Chris actually composes all of the upgrade themes,

00:01:53 ◼   ► but this is a special one,

00:01:54 ◼   ► so we wanna give thanks to Chris for that.

00:01:56 ◼   ► Thank you to David Dooley for our artwork and branding for this year's Extravaganza.

00:02:01 ◼   ► We can now extend our thanks to Jim Metzendorf for producing and editing the episode.

00:02:07 ◼   ► Thank you to all of the Upgradients for submitting their nominations.

00:02:11 ◼   ► You can find previous winners and hall of fame entrants at Upgradies.com.

00:02:16 ◼   ► We can thank Zach Knox for building and maintaining this website.

00:02:20 ◼   ► To protect spoilers, we won't be putting any of the winners in the show notes.

00:02:24 ◼   ► They will be at Upgradies.com.

00:02:26 ◼   ► Similarly, don't go there until you've listened to it all unless you want spoilers.

00:02:31 ◼   ► Because it's all going to be there.

00:02:33 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:02:34 ◼   ► And I guess a programming note before we begin the extravaganzas this year.

00:02:39 ◼   ► I don't think that's the right words but we're going to go with it anyway.

00:02:42 ◼   ► We changed some categories this year.

00:02:44 ◼   ► We've done this a few times in the past.

00:02:45 ◼   ► We kind of refined some categories, added some categories just as things changed.

00:02:49 ◼   ► We did best holiday gift for a couple of years but then sometimes recorded the upgrades before

00:02:55 ◼   ► the holidays so it doesn't really work out.

00:02:58 ◼   ► But we've made some more changes this year.

00:03:00 ◼   ► We now have a game of the year category which is for all games, no longer an iOS game of

00:03:06 ◼   ► the year, just game of the year so just all games can be included.

00:03:11 ◼   ► Similarly we've removed the multiple podcast categories that we had and now just have a

00:03:16 ◼   ► a favourite podcast category so it's similar to the other media like book, TV, movies.

00:03:22 ◼   ► So we previously had Newcomer and Tech Podcast and now it's just Favourite Podcast is all

00:03:28 ◼   ► of them. However the Lifetime Achievement Award winners of the Flop House and ATP that

00:03:34 ◼   ► carries over. So they continue to be Lifetime Award winners. They are still no longer eligible

00:03:42 ◼   ► for an award because they have achieved lifetime status.

00:03:46 ◼   ► And I was looking over the previous winners.

00:03:49 ◼   ► It is possible that we could crown

00:03:51 ◼   ► some more lifetime award winners in some other categories

00:03:55 ◼   ► in today's upgrade is depending on how things fall.

00:03:58 ◼   ► Maybe we'll talk about that a little later on.

00:04:00 ◼   ► - Well, that's exciting.

00:04:01 ◼   ► - Should we get going?

00:04:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, let's do it.

00:04:04 ◼   ► - Let's begin as we always do with the best iOS app

00:04:07 ◼   ► for the ninth annual upgrade is Jason.

00:04:10 ◼   ► What is your nomination for best iOS app?

00:04:14 ◼   ► - I decided to go with Flighty.

00:04:18 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:04:20 ◼   ► - Now that I am traveling more,

00:04:24 ◼   ► I don't know if I mentioned Flighty last time or not,

00:04:26 ◼   ► but it's just such an impressive app.

00:04:27 ◼   ► It's not cheap, you know,

00:04:28 ◼   ► because flight data is not cheap,

00:04:31 ◼   ► but as a flight tracker, before, during, after,

00:04:36 ◼   ► telling you what gate you're in

00:04:38 ◼   ► and if your flight's been delayed

00:04:40 ◼   ► and what the average flight is on that route.

00:04:42 ◼   ► Is it early? Is it late?

00:04:45 ◼   ► And then this year it added live updates,

00:04:49 ◼   ► including in the Dynamic Island.

00:04:51 ◼   ► So having taken a few trips since then

00:04:54 ◼   ► and also had some friend trips where I'm like,

00:04:56 ◼   ► 'cause they have the ability to add trips

00:04:58 ◼   ► that aren't your trips and you can monitor them.

00:05:01 ◼   ► So like when I'm picking my kids up at the airport,

00:05:03 ◼   ► I've been using Flighty with the live activities

00:05:05 ◼   ► in the Dynamic Island and it's just great.

00:05:08 ◼   ► And I'm just such an impressive, well-designed app.

00:05:13 ◼   ► It's not for everyone and I don't use it every day,

00:05:17 ◼   ► but every time I use it, I'm impressed at how good it is.

00:05:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, there's been like a combo of updates

00:05:23 ◼   ► that the app has received this year,

00:05:26 ◼   ► which has ended up resulting in just an excellent year

00:05:29 ◼   ► for the app, right?

00:05:30 ◼   ► As you mentioned, the live activity support,

00:05:32 ◼   ► but they also added the offline tracking as well,

00:05:36 ◼   ► which works really well.

00:05:38 ◼   ► So even when you're on the plane,

00:05:40 ◼   ► it does a better job of giving you a more accurate estimation,

00:05:45 ◼   ► which then works really well with the live activities,

00:05:47 ◼   ► so you don't even need to open the app,

00:05:48 ◼   ► and it's giving you information that it can.

00:05:52 ◼   ► And also, I think they're doing a thing where you can,

00:05:54 ◼   ► if a plane has Wi-Fi, you can get some updates

00:05:57 ◼   ► from the plane's Wi-Fi,

00:05:58 ◼   ► even if you don't sign up for the plane Wi-Fis,

00:06:01 ◼   ► which is very cool.

00:06:01 ◼   ► - Right, because a lot of airplane Wi-Fi

00:06:05 ◼   ► will support iMessage,

00:06:07 ◼   ► And when you support iMessage,

00:06:09 ◼   ► you're actually supporting everything that comes

00:06:11 ◼   ► from Apple's push notification server.

00:06:13 ◼   ► - Genius.

00:06:14 ◼   ► - And that's where app notifications come from, obviously,

00:06:17 ◼   ► which means that the live activity gets updated invisibly

00:06:22 ◼   ► over the airplane wifi, even if you're not paying,

00:06:26 ◼   ► as long as you've got the iMessage stuff turned on.

00:06:28 ◼   ► And it totally works.

00:06:29 ◼   ► It's amazing.

00:06:30 ◼   ► - So I have a couple of apps,

00:06:34 ◼   ► a small selection of apps that I wanted to bring

00:06:37 ◼   ► for my nominations and I'll give my final nomination

00:06:40 ◼   ► once I've kind of spoken about these a little bit.

00:06:41 ◼   ► So one of the great things about the upgrades

00:06:43 ◼   ► is we say every year, this is the award ceremony

00:06:46 ◼   ► where you get to come behind the curtain

00:06:48 ◼   ► and actually hear the deliberation of the awards

00:06:51 ◼   ► before it being given.

00:06:52 ◼   ► - Right, and I should mention by the way,

00:06:54 ◼   ► 'cause I didn't give a runner up here

00:06:56 ◼   ► that's not my nomination,

00:06:57 ◼   ► but I will mention Fairlight Recording Studio,

00:06:59 ◼   ► which is my favorite iPad and favorite actually,

00:07:03 ◼   ► podcast editing app, just got an update, just came out.

00:07:06 ◼   ► It's amazing.

00:07:07 ◼   ► I feel like we've nominated

00:07:09 ◼   ► and probably awarded "Fahrenheit" in the past,

00:07:12 ◼   ► but it's great.

00:07:14 ◼   ► I feel like it's even more esoteric an app than "Flighty" is,

00:07:20 ◼   ► but I do love it.

00:07:21 ◼   ► And so it was in my consideration list.

00:07:24 ◼   ► I just decided not to go with it.

00:07:25 ◼   ► - "Fahrenheit" won best newcomer in 2015.

00:07:28 ◼   ► - There you go.

00:07:29 ◼   ► - And it's been a runner up as best iOS app two times.

00:07:34 ◼   ► Right, because of course I love it,

00:07:36 ◼   ► and so I keep mentioning it.

00:07:38 ◼   ► But anyway, it's at version three now, and is great.

00:07:43 ◼   ► - So I also wanted to give a nod to Flighty

00:07:46 ◼   ► for all of the reasons that you mentioned.

00:07:48 ◼   ► You know, one of the other features that I really enjoyed

00:07:50 ◼   ► that they added with that friends flight thing,

00:07:52 ◼   ► where you can track friends flights,

00:07:53 ◼   ► it doesn't then get added to your own statistics,

00:07:56 ◼   ► as it used to before.

00:07:57 ◼   ► So I like that they added that,

00:07:58 ◼   ► it's like a smart way to do it.

00:07:59 ◼   ► And I would say as well, it is an expensive app,

00:08:02 ◼   ► and some people will find use in it, some won't.

00:08:04 ◼   ► But I really like that they have very flexible in-app purchase stuff

00:08:07 ◼   ► where you can buy for a short period of time.

00:08:10 ◼   ► There's some information that if someone's a paying user,

00:08:12 ◼   ► they can share flight information with somebody else who isn't.

00:08:15 ◼   ► It is a very well-built, maintained, and designed application.

00:08:18 ◼   ► I also wanted to give a nod similarly to Carrot Weather.

00:08:23 ◼   ► It's just another one of these apps

00:08:25 ◼   ► that just continues to get so many new features,

00:08:29 ◼   ► to a level that I don't even understand

00:08:31 ◼   ► how you can keep adding so many new features

00:08:33 ◼   ► to a weather app.

00:08:35 ◼   ► And some of them are fun, but some of them

00:08:37 ◼   ► are legit really good, useful things for a weather app.

00:08:41 ◼   ► Plus, Brian Mueller just continues

00:08:43 ◼   ► to add so many more features in for the customization

00:08:47 ◼   ► and visual customization stuff.

00:08:49 ◼   ► It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes

00:08:51 ◼   ► to do this stuff in Carrot Weather,

00:08:53 ◼   ► but what I like about it is for me, you do it once

00:08:55 ◼   ► and you kind of set, and then you can maybe tweak things

00:08:57 ◼   ► a little bit over time.

00:08:59 ◼   ► But then I also wanted to give a nod to City Mapper.

00:09:03 ◼   ► It's an app that I've only started using this year.

00:09:05 ◼   ► It's been around forever here.

00:09:07 ◼   ► It's like a mapping application.

00:09:08 ◼   ► It works in only some cities around the world.

00:09:11 ◼   ► It kind of needs good public transport

00:09:12 ◼   ► for the app to be of any use.

00:09:15 ◼   ► And their live activity support is bar none.

00:09:19 ◼   ► So for example, I used it today.

00:09:22 ◼   ► I was going into London.

00:09:23 ◼   ► And in the live activity JSON, they

00:09:26 ◼   ► have a representation of a London underground line

00:09:30 ◼   ► with all the little dots on it.

00:09:32 ◼   ► and your circle is moving across.

00:09:35 ◼   ► And it will say, it will update two more stops, one more stop.

00:09:38 ◼   ► Get off here.

00:09:39 ◼   ► It is unbelievable the amount of information

00:09:41 ◼   ► they're packing into Live Activities.

00:09:43 ◼   ► And so it just kind of means that your phone is constantly

00:09:46 ◼   ► letting you know where you are on your trip in a way

00:09:49 ◼   ► that I've never seen before.

00:09:50 ◼   ► So I just think the app is great.

00:09:52 ◼   ► All of the service is great.

00:09:53 ◼   ► But their Live Activity support is just superb.

00:09:56 ◼   ► Now, of course, we have the Upgradients.

00:09:58 ◼   ► The upgrade ends with 14.9% for Apollo,

00:10:02 ◼   ► which is basically the same every single year.

00:10:04 ◼   ► This category is typically always Apollo at the top.

00:10:09 ◼   ► - Yep, 15% use Reddit and they all use Apollo.

00:10:12 ◼   ► - And they all use one. - I understand.

00:10:14 ◼   ► - Carrot weather at 12.5% and tweetbot at 4.8%.

00:10:19 ◼   ► I think we should give it to Flighty personally.

00:10:24 ◼   ► - I think we should. - Because it's both an app

00:10:26 ◼   ► that we brought to this, and that like,

00:10:29 ◼   ► it feels like a good win, and I think a deserved win.

00:10:33 ◼   ► And then Carrot Weather is a runner up?

00:10:35 ◼   ► - Sure.

00:10:37 ◼   ► - We usually give two runners up.

00:10:39 ◼   ► So I figured we'll just go with Apollo, right?

00:10:41 ◼   ► 'Cause it was the Upgradients vote.

00:10:44 ◼   ► - Sure, why not?

00:10:45 ◼   ► - So for the best iOS app of 2022,

00:10:47 ◼   ► congratulations to Flighty.

00:10:49 ◼   ► - Flighty.

00:10:50 ◼   ► - Along with runners up Carrot Weather and Apollo.

00:10:54 ◼   ► So let's talk about best newcomer iOS app.

00:10:57 ◼   ► What has been interesting to you?

00:10:59 ◼   ► What's the new app that's come across your radar this year

00:11:02 ◼   ► that you wanted to talk about?

00:11:03 ◼   ► - I have two that I wanted to mention.

00:11:08 ◼   ► Actually very late last year,

00:11:10 ◼   ► I came across a new app called Mella.

00:11:13 ◼   ► I don't know if we mentioned it last time or not,

00:11:15 ◼   ► but Mella, I think it was a little too late

00:11:19 ◼   ► to mention that last year in fact.

00:11:21 ◼   ► It's a recipe app and I have been using,

00:11:23 ◼   ► I've been trying to use a recipe manager apps

00:11:26 ◼   ► on Apple platforms since the 90s.

00:11:29 ◼   ► And none of them have stuck, but Mella has stuck.

00:11:35 ◼   ► I've been using Mella for a year.

00:11:36 ◼   ► All of our regular recipes are in it now.

00:11:39 ◼   ► Among the things I like about it, it looks good.

00:11:41 ◼   ► It's got a great design.

00:11:42 ◼   ► It's got a great web clipping feature.

00:11:44 ◼   ► It does a good job of pulling recipes out of web pages

00:11:47 ◼   ► and putting them in your catalog.

00:11:48 ◼   ► It is a delight to use.

00:11:52 ◼   ► It syncs, it does iCloud sync.

00:11:54 ◼   ► You can have shared sync.

00:11:56 ◼   ► So I've got all our recipes,

00:11:59 ◼   ► Lauren's got all our recipes.

00:12:00 ◼   ► We add a new recipe, we both see it.

00:12:02 ◼   ► That's really great too.

00:12:04 ◼   ► And using my iPad as the recipe guide

00:12:07 ◼   ► for cooking something has become really common.

00:12:11 ◼   ► And I like it.

00:12:12 ◼   ► So big fan of Mella, relatively new app

00:12:17 ◼   ► and new to me as well.

00:12:20 ◼   ► Big fan.

00:12:21 ◼   ► - Mella's great.

00:12:21 ◼   ► It's made by the guy who makes Reader, the RSS reader app.

00:12:26 ◼   ► - And so, it's like a clever app for them to build.

00:12:30 ◼   ► Yeah, Silvio, because it's a lot of text passing

00:12:33 ◼   ► to do good recipe applications,

00:12:35 ◼   ► 'cause you've got to pull out the life story

00:12:36 ◼   ► before you get to the recipe.

00:12:38 ◼   ► - Right, exactly.

00:12:40 ◼   ► Yes, the, oh boy, whole sidebar about how every time

00:12:44 ◼   ► you try to Google a recipe,

00:12:45 ◼   ► 'cause obviously there's an SEO best practices

00:12:48 ◼   ► and the SEO best practices is,

00:12:50 ◼   ► write several thousand words about how you were feeling

00:12:54 ◼   ► on the day you decided to make the dish

00:12:57 ◼   ► and all the details of what towels were in the kitchen.

00:13:00 ◼   ► And then eventually there's a recipe

00:13:02 ◼   ► and they have to parse all of that

00:13:03 ◼   ► and just say, here's the recipe.

00:13:06 ◼   ► It's much better.

00:13:06 ◼   ► And then the other one I wanted to float as a nomination

00:13:09 ◼   ► is it's a game, so it may come up in the games too,

00:13:12 ◼   ► but I wanted to float it here.

00:13:13 ◼   ► It's Zach Gage, of course, not words.

00:13:17 ◼   ► New game from Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger

00:13:20 ◼   ► And it is like a backward crossword puzzle.

00:13:25 ◼   ► It's basically the shape of a crossword puzzle

00:13:27 ◼   ► and you know what letters are in various points

00:13:29 ◼   ► in the puzzle.

00:13:30 ◼   ► And then from that, you have to figure out

00:13:32 ◼   ► what the words are and solve it.

00:13:34 ◼   ► But there are no clues.

00:13:35 ◼   ► The clues are just the letters that go in various squares.

00:13:39 ◼   ► It is perfect.

00:13:41 ◼   ► Like it's just a beautifully done game.

00:13:44 ◼   ► And I will tell you that in the 365 days

00:13:48 ◼   ► of 12, well, that's not two,

00:13:50 ◼   ► 'cause I don't remember exactly when it came out,

00:13:52 ◼   ► but I'll put it this way.

00:13:53 ◼   ► I've probably played "Not Words"

00:13:56 ◼   ► at least 250 days this year.

00:13:59 ◼   ► So not every day, but most days.

00:14:02 ◼   ► And I am not an everyday puzzle person.

00:14:04 ◼   ► I'm just not.

00:14:05 ◼   ► My wife is very much an everyday puzzle person.

00:14:09 ◼   ► And she has adopted this too, by the way.

00:14:11 ◼   ► So it gets her seal of approval,

00:14:12 ◼   ► which from Lauren, that is saying something.

00:14:15 ◼   ► But I also love it.

00:14:17 ◼   ► I think it's just the perfect application

00:14:18 ◼   ► of kind of the crossword concept to,

00:14:22 ◼   ► and there are like harder puzzles and simple puzzles.

00:14:24 ◼   ► So you get like three different puzzles a day

00:14:25 ◼   ► and there are puzzle books.

00:14:27 ◼   ► If you want to go back and like do extra puzzles,

00:14:29 ◼   ► it's just, it's such a good app and so fun

00:14:34 ◼   ► and has earned a spot on my home screen on my iPad.

00:14:37 ◼   ► - This isn't one that I've played.

00:14:41 ◼   ► I don't know why.

00:14:42 ◼   ► I play all Zach Gage games,

00:14:43 ◼   ► but this one must've just come out and I missed it.

00:14:45 ◼   ► - It's really good.

00:14:46 ◼   ► It's really good and you don't need to know,

00:14:48 ◼   ► unlike crosswords where you've gotta like,

00:14:50 ◼   ► know, like solve the clue,

00:14:52 ◼   ► this is about like solving what the word is that's there.

00:14:56 ◼   ► It doesn't matter what it means,

00:14:57 ◼   ► it's like what word goes there.

00:14:59 ◼   ► And it's very smart, really good game.

00:15:02 ◼   ► - So iOS 16 brought that feature,

00:15:04 ◼   ► the, what is it, object or person detection feature

00:15:06 ◼   ► where you can just press your finger on somebody

00:15:09 ◼   ► and drag them out of an image, right?

00:15:11 ◼   ► - Right.

00:15:12 ◼   ► - I couldn't really work out

00:15:14 ◼   ► how this would be useful for me in any way.

00:15:16 ◼   ► and to an app called Sticker Drop.

00:15:19 ◼   ► Came across my radar.

00:15:20 ◼   ► Sticker Drop allows you to make iMessage stickers

00:15:23 ◼   ► out of the things that you can drag out of images.

00:15:26 ◼   ► So people, objects, that kind of thing.

00:15:28 ◼   ► You drop them into the application,

00:15:30 ◼   ► and then they show up in your iMessage

00:15:32 ◼   ► for you to make iMessage stickers out of.

00:15:34 ◼   ► It is a wonderful little app.

00:15:36 ◼   ► Very well done, very smart.

00:15:38 ◼   ► It has some great little features

00:15:39 ◼   ► for how you can customize the stickers.

00:15:41 ◼   ► You can put fun borders around them

00:15:43 ◼   ► so it kind of makes them look less weird

00:15:45 ◼   ► that they're these things or people that are cut out,

00:15:48 ◼   ► uses-- you can kind of do it from a share sheet, right?

00:15:53 ◼   ► So you can bring up the share sheet and add it.

00:15:54 ◼   ► But you can also just use the iOS drag and drop system

00:15:57 ◼   ► to drag it out and then just drop it into StickerDrop.

00:16:00 ◼   ► You open the app and just drop it in.

00:16:02 ◼   ► It is a very well done application.

00:16:04 ◼   ► I think it is excellent, and I'm a huge fan of it.

00:16:06 ◼   ► And I think it's just one of these things

00:16:08 ◼   ► where it's like a developer had a really smart idea

00:16:11 ◼   ► after seeing a feature and then just made it happen.

00:16:13 ◼   ► is Aaron Stevenson is the developer's name.

00:16:17 ◼   ► And the upgrade he has agreed with me,

00:16:19 ◼   ► it was 6.6% of the vote went to sticker drop.

00:16:22 ◼   ► This is probably one of the closer categories.

00:16:24 ◼   ► There's so many different suggestions this year.

00:16:26 ◼   ► Nobody got even a double digit percentage of the overall.

00:16:30 ◼   ► Up ahead is an application that I'd not heard of,

00:16:34 ◼   ► and it came in at 5.5%.

00:16:36 ◼   ► This is a really cute-looking application,

00:16:38 ◼   ► kind of reminds me of Animal Crossing in its design,

00:16:40 ◼   ► and it's a countdown kind of app.

00:16:42 ◼   ► So things that you've got coming up in your life,

00:16:45 ◼   ► you put them into Up Ahead,

00:16:46 ◼   ► and it's a very good-looking application to display to you

00:16:50 ◼   ► your upcoming things, and it's got really nice widgets,

00:16:53 ◼   ► just great fun little design.

00:16:56 ◼   ► So that came in at second in the upgradients with 5.5%.

00:17:00 ◼   ► And then RuneStone at 4.9%.

00:17:03 ◼   ► I thought to myself, "Is this a game? No. It is a text editor."

00:17:07 ◼   ► No, it's a text editor for iOS.

00:17:09 ◼   ► I was thinking of RuneScape.

00:17:12 ◼   ► - This is Simon who did a scriptable

00:17:15 ◼   ► and he decided he would build a text editor for his app,

00:17:21 ◼   ► but also for other people to use.

00:17:25 ◼   ► And so he built, he built Runestone

00:17:29 ◼   ► and worked really, really, really hard on it.

00:17:32 ◼   ► And then it put it into an app

00:17:34 ◼   ► and it's also an open source framework

00:17:36 ◼   ► that other people can use

00:17:37 ◼   ► and are using in their iOS apps as well

00:17:39 ◼   ► to have good text editors for that.

00:17:42 ◼   ► But it's very simple because it is like a text editor engine

00:17:46 ◼   ► that was built to be in kind of other apps,

00:17:48 ◼   ► but it uses the standard, you know,

00:17:51 ◼   ► Apple file dialogue, basically, or file sidebar.

00:17:54 ◼   ► So you open it and there's sort of nothing there

00:17:57 ◼   ► except a file browser and you tap on a file

00:17:59 ◼   ► and it opens in the text editor

00:18:01 ◼   ► and then you edit the text and it's very nice.

00:18:03 ◼   ► It was fun to see that come to fruition

00:18:06 ◼   ► because, you know, Simon's been detailing his work

00:18:08 ◼   ► on his new text editor for Scriptable for a long time

00:18:13 ◼   ► and sort of doing it publicly.

00:18:16 ◼   ► And this is where it ended up.

00:18:18 ◼   ► - So now we're gonna make our decisions.

00:18:19 ◼   ► And so I went over to, I have a Google sheet here

00:18:22 ◼   ► where I keep this stuff.

00:18:22 ◼   ► And I was just reminded by like last year

00:18:25 ◼   ► for the Newcomer iOS app,

00:18:27 ◼   ► all of the winners and the runners-up

00:18:29 ◼   ► were all Safari extensions.

00:18:31 ◼   ► Is that the new Safari extensions on iOS?

00:18:35 ◼   ► And just interesting looking at this

00:18:36 ◼   ► that there isn't a similar thing here, right?

00:18:38 ◼   ► like there wasn't like a particular type of app

00:18:41 ◼   ► that was introduced, like some kind of feature

00:18:43 ◼   ► that was introduced where a bunch of developers

00:18:45 ◼   ► could make a similar kind of application.

00:18:47 ◼   ► - Right.

00:18:48 ◼   ► - I mean, I would push for Sticker Drop here,

00:18:50 ◼   ► you know, both Myke and the Upgradients agree.

00:18:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm okay with that.

00:18:54 ◼   ► I mean, if you confirm it, 'cause I saw this too,

00:18:57 ◼   ► and I'm like, what is that app?

00:18:59 ◼   ► And I thought, I mean, honestly,

00:19:00 ◼   ► I message stickers, really,

00:19:02 ◼   ► but I think it's interesting that they're using,

00:19:05 ◼   ► the whole idea here is they're using that

00:19:06 ◼   ► lift the content out of your photo

00:19:08 ◼   ► and turn it into a sticker thing.

00:19:10 ◼   ► So if you vouch for it and the upgradings vouch for it,

00:19:12 ◼   ► I'm okay with it.

00:19:13 ◼   ► - I mean, you can, and as well,

00:19:14 ◼   ► you can use these stickers in other applications as well.

00:19:16 ◼   ► Like it's possible to do that, but like,

00:19:18 ◼   ► I just liked that it makes use of two features

00:19:21 ◼   ► that I otherwise wouldn't really use.

00:19:23 ◼   ► And because they work so well together,

00:19:25 ◼   ► I do use Sticker Drop for iMessage stickers.

00:19:29 ◼   ► It's like particularly fun.

00:19:30 ◼   ► You have memes of friends,

00:19:31 ◼   ► like maybe pictures of each other

00:19:33 ◼   ► that are just like memes that you use,

00:19:34 ◼   ► and then you can create iMessage stickers out of them

00:19:36 ◼   ► again instead.

00:19:37 ◼   ► And should we, let's go,

00:19:39 ◼   ► I would like to put Mella and NotWords in this,

00:19:42 ◼   ► I'll wrap it up.

00:19:43 ◼   ► - Okay, great, thank you.

00:19:44 ◼   ► I appreciate it.

00:19:46 ◼   ► - And NotWords sounds fun and Mella I am a big fan of too.

00:19:49 ◼   ► So it's a really great app.

00:19:50 ◼   ► So moving to Best Mac App.

00:19:54 ◼   ► - Oh boy.

00:19:55 ◼   ► I have a nice collection this time.

00:19:57 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:19:58 ◼   ► - For Best Mac App.

00:19:58 ◼   ► You know, this is always hard, again,

00:20:00 ◼   ► Best Mac App, where it can be anything.

00:20:03 ◼   ► I try to think of this year

00:20:04 ◼   ► because I could literally just say,

00:20:06 ◼   ► well, you know, BB Edit and Fantastic Hal,

00:20:08 ◼   ► and you know, I can come up with my list

00:20:11 ◼   ► of the apps that I use all the time.

00:20:13 ◼   ► But I wanted to highlight four.

00:20:16 ◼   ► - Great.

00:20:17 ◼   ► - The first is AudioHijack 4.

00:20:19 ◼   ► The brand new version of AudioHijack came out this year.

00:20:22 ◼   ► It has support for scripting and shortcuts,

00:20:25 ◼   ► and it was transformative in my workflows

00:20:28 ◼   ► because I can now control what AudioHijack does

00:20:33 ◼   ► and communicate with it and see what it's doing

00:20:36 ◼   ► and have scripts react to it.

00:20:38 ◼   ► It's just changed so much of what I do

00:20:42 ◼   ► now that I can press a button and Audio Hijack

00:20:45 ◼   ► sort of like does what I expect it to do.

00:20:47 ◼   ► Just love it and have been, you know,

00:20:50 ◼   ► obviously we podcasters, Audio Hijack is what we use.

00:20:53 ◼   ► Mac podcasters, this is the tool, this is it.

00:20:56 ◼   ► This is the thing.

00:20:57 ◼   ► - I will say I also have Audio Hijack as one of mine

00:21:01 ◼   ► and I do very little of the scripting, but enough.

00:21:05 ◼   ► What I will say for me,

00:21:07 ◼   ► the thing that really changed with Audio High-Tech this time

00:21:10 ◼   ► is they finally added the ability for you to manually

00:21:12 ◼   ► make the connections between the blocks

00:21:15 ◼   ► where previously it was doing it itself.

00:21:17 ◼   ► And that could be frustrating if you were trying to make

00:21:19 ◼   ► the window as small as possible.

00:21:21 ◼   ► And so I really liked that you can manually edit

00:21:24 ◼   ► the connections between the blocks now.

00:21:26 ◼   ► That made a big difference to me.

00:21:28 ◼   ► And like just that feature on its own,

00:21:30 ◼   ► it would have got the nod from me,

00:21:31 ◼   ► let alone everything else that they added.

00:21:34 ◼   ► - And also the old version of Audio Hijack

00:21:36 ◼   ► was a lot more sort of stateful

00:21:37 ◼   ► where you had to have it open

00:21:38 ◼   ► and you had to have the windows open.

00:21:39 ◼   ► And now if you, using the scripting engine or whatever,

00:21:43 ◼   ► or using its menu bar items, say, just start this one,

00:21:46 ◼   ► it just does it and it runs.

00:21:48 ◼   ► - And the design's good.

00:21:49 ◼   ► The new design's good too.

00:21:50 ◼   ► - And not having to have that like, I gotta leave it open,

00:21:54 ◼   ► I've gotta leave, and then hide the app,

00:21:56 ◼   ► or I gotta bring it forward and all that.

00:21:57 ◼   ► You don't have to worry about that stuff anymore.

00:21:59 ◼   ► So they really did, it's not just the scripting.

00:22:01 ◼   ► The scripting was the biggest win for me,

00:22:03 ◼   ► but you're right, the fact that you can actually,

00:22:04 ◼   ► you've got a complex system,

00:22:06 ◼   ► you can not have it do the auto connections

00:22:08 ◼   ► and you can connect all the blocks together yourself.

00:22:10 ◼   ► There are also new plugins for it.

00:22:11 ◼   ► It's a huge update and is great.

00:22:15 ◼   ► And if you're anybody who does any kind of audio on the Mac,

00:22:18 ◼   ► 'cause it's not just for podcasters,

00:22:19 ◼   ► it's any recording or routing or anything,

00:22:22 ◼   ► it's just an indispensable tool.

00:22:24 ◼   ► - Any audio on your Mac can be recorded of audio hijack.

00:22:28 ◼   ► Just think about what you might want to use that for.

00:22:29 ◼   ► It's awesome.

00:22:30 ◼   ► - And given that this was a new version,

00:22:32 ◼   ► I especially wanted to mention it this year,

00:22:35 ◼   ► even though I could mention it every year.

00:22:37 ◼   ► I want to mention, well, okay, so Ecamm Live,

00:22:41 ◼   ► let's put that in the list here, Ecamm Live.

00:22:44 ◼   ► I wrote a piece about this on six colors this year.

00:22:48 ◼   ► Ecamm Live is a video streaming app.

00:22:51 ◼   ► And I wrote about it a while ago

00:22:53 ◼   ► about how I tried to use it

00:22:55 ◼   ► and felt like it was just too frustrating for me.

00:22:57 ◼   ► and I gave up on it.

00:22:58 ◼   ► And because it was so limited.

00:23:01 ◼   ► And what the beauty of Ecamm Live is,

00:23:02 ◼   ► it's like these big cross-platform things

00:23:05 ◼   ► like OBS and Streamlabs,

00:23:08 ◼   ► where it's an open source project

00:23:11 ◼   ► and then it's been customized

00:23:13 ◼   ► and it runs on all platforms

00:23:14 ◼   ► and all the windows streamers use it,

00:23:16 ◼   ► but it's also on the Mac.

00:23:17 ◼   ► And those apps are out there on the Mac

00:23:19 ◼   ► and they've actually gotten a lot better

00:23:20 ◼   ► in the last year and that's great.

00:23:22 ◼   ► What I love about Ecamm Live is,

00:23:25 ◼   ► the Ecamm guys and they did call recorder

00:23:27 ◼   ► and they've done so many different little Mac utilities.

00:23:30 ◼   ► Ecamm is a Mac developer

00:23:34 ◼   ► and Ecamm Live is a completely Mac, Mac-like,

00:23:39 ◼   ► understandable as a Mac user and fast

00:23:44 ◼   ► because it's just made for the Mac.

00:23:46 ◼   ► In contrast to some of those cross-platform tools,

00:23:49 ◼   ► which at least on the Mac aren't that great.

00:23:51 ◼   ► They're okay, but they're not that great.

00:23:53 ◼   ► It's not cheap again, but it's so good

00:23:55 ◼   ► and it's so Mac-like,

00:23:56 ◼   ► and I really appreciate that about it.

00:23:58 ◼   ► And the best thing about it is,

00:24:00 ◼   ► I used it, I was frustrated at how limited it was.

00:24:03 ◼   ► It was a very new app,

00:24:04 ◼   ► but I was frustrated at how limited it was.

00:24:06 ◼   ► I went away for a year, year and a half,

00:24:08 ◼   ► came back and tried it again,

00:24:09 ◼   ► and everything that had bugged me about it had been fixed.

00:24:14 ◼   ► And I loved that about it too,

00:24:16 ◼   ► that this is an actively developed app

00:24:19 ◼   ► that they really care about,

00:24:21 ◼   ► and they have all sorts of streamers who use it,

00:24:23 ◼   ► and they also use them to do all their demos

00:24:26 ◼   ► and to do their walkthroughs.

00:24:27 ◼   ► And like, they built up this whole kind of like structure

00:24:30 ◼   ► and community around it, including in their marketing.

00:24:33 ◼   ► I think it's super smart.

00:24:34 ◼   ► And I love that at the center of it,

00:24:35 ◼   ► it is a very good Mac app

00:24:38 ◼   ► that is actively being developed

00:24:40 ◼   ► and trying to address its limitations.

00:24:42 ◼   ► And that was such a great thing to see this year

00:24:44 ◼   ► that it evolved so much.

00:24:46 ◼   ► And so now that is the app I use to stream video, period.

00:24:49 ◼   ► That's it.

00:24:50 ◼   ► I've thrown away Streamlabs and OBS

00:24:52 ◼   ► and I just use Ecamm Live.

00:24:54 ◼   ► - That's cool.

00:24:55 ◼   ► I mean, similarly to you, I tried it when it came out

00:24:57 ◼   ► and was like, "Oh, this is interesting,

00:24:58 ◼   ► "but like it doesn't work the way that I want it to."

00:25:01 ◼   ► Or there are things that it doesn't do.

00:25:03 ◼   ► - You and Steven both have streaming PCs.

00:25:04 ◼   ► I would argue that in 2022,

00:25:06 ◼   ► we got to the point where a Mac user

00:25:09 ◼   ► really doesn't need a streaming PC,

00:25:11 ◼   ► unless they're literally streaming PC things.

00:25:14 ◼   ► - Unless you're doing games.

00:25:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, unless you're doing games.

00:25:16 ◼   ► But if you are just using it to stream like live streams,

00:25:20 ◼   ► There was a time when the smart move was to get a PC

00:25:24 ◼   ► to do that dedicated because OBS ran so much better

00:25:28 ◼   ► on Windows than it did on the Mac.

00:25:30 ◼   ► Not only is OBS way better now,

00:25:32 ◼   ► but Ecamm Live is a perfectly viable,

00:25:34 ◼   ► completely viable solution and integrates with Stream Deck

00:25:38 ◼   ► and all of those other things too.

00:25:40 ◼   ► So I went from being really disappointed in this app

00:25:43 ◼   ► to coming back a year later and loving it.

00:25:47 ◼   ► - Cool.

00:25:47 ◼   ► - And my last mention, which is an app

00:25:50 ◼   ► that actually won best newcomer last year,

00:25:52 ◼   ► but it's still not even at version one,

00:25:57 ◼   ► still not being charged for, but being continually updated

00:26:00 ◼   ► and I have come to rely on it on my Mac every day

00:26:03 ◼   ► is MimeStream, the questionably named Gmail client

00:26:08 ◼   ► that feels like what if Apple Mail was way better

00:26:11 ◼   ► and super tuned for Gmail.

00:26:15 ◼   ► And I was so sad when Mailplane, the Mac app wrapper

00:26:20 ◼   ► around Gmail's web interface went away.

00:26:25 ◼   ► I was so sad about that.

00:26:28 ◼   ► And now it's like it never happened

00:26:31 ◼   ► because I'm all in on MimeStream and it's great.

00:26:33 ◼   ► And every time I go back and I use Apple Mail,

00:26:36 ◼   ► I roll my eyes a little bit

00:26:37 ◼   ► because it's just not nearly as good as MimeStream.

00:26:40 ◼   ► - So for me, Audio Hijack 4, as I mentioned,

00:26:44 ◼   ► is an easy one. I also wanted to give a nod to Timery. Timery is just, like Joe is just

00:26:51 ◼   ► not stopping with Mac features, which is amazing, you know, because obviously he's, you know,

00:26:55 ◼   ► I would assume biggest market is iOS, right, is where the app started, and I think for

00:27:00 ◼   ► a lot of people it makes sense to do the tracking there because of all the widgets and that

00:27:03 ◼   ► kind of stuff, but like me, the reason I wanted Timery on my Mac to do my time tracking is

00:27:09 ◼   ► it's where I'm doing my work now, right, it's where I do my work, and having the menu bar

00:27:13 ◼   ► app the way that it is and just so many like little Mac things that you can set

00:27:17 ◼   ► a preference you start a timer and it just throws a cursor into a text box

00:27:22 ◼   ► which you can start typing in and get record like suggestions for what time

00:27:25 ◼   ► you want to run based on the history of timers that you've run like with

00:27:29 ◼   ► projects and tags all that kind of stuff put together so like for example I can

00:27:33 ◼   ► go to Timery you know use the keyboard command to bring up a new timer and just

00:27:37 ◼   ► type UP for upgrade and it will give me upgrade prep, upgrade recording, upgrade

00:27:42 ◼   ► editing and I can just choose which one of those I want. It's very easy to do all that

00:27:46 ◼   ► kind of stuff. The app is just, just continues to get better and better on all platforms,

00:27:51 ◼   ► including the Mac. And so yeah, I wanted to give a nod for Timery.

00:27:55 ◼   ► That's great. The Upgradients voted at 6.7% for Safari,

00:28:01 ◼   ► which is interesting. 4.3% for Craft and 3.5% for Obsidian.

00:28:09 ◼   ► You know, okay, Obsidian is a really interesting app, right?

00:28:14 ◼   ► And it's very powerful.

00:28:16 ◼   ► And I appreciate that about it.

00:28:18 ◼   ► But I will say that if I nominated Slack

00:28:22 ◼   ► or 1Password in this category.

00:28:23 ◼   ► - Love Obsidian, man.

00:28:25 ◼   ► They just love Obsidian. - People would be like,

00:28:26 ◼   ► oh my God, but it's not even a real app.

00:28:29 ◼   ► It's just a collection of web things

00:28:31 ◼   ► that are wrapped on the Mac.

00:28:33 ◼   ► And Obsidian is that too.

00:28:34 ◼   ► But I guess everybody's okay with it

00:28:37 ◼   ► because they do love it, and that's fine.

00:28:39 ◼   ► I specifically, I'm not not nominating 1Password by the way,

00:28:43 ◼   ► because of how it's built.

00:28:46 ◼   ► Actually, there are things I really like

00:28:49 ◼   ► about the new version of 1Password, and I do rely on it,

00:28:51 ◼   ► but there's also a bunch of interface choices

00:28:53 ◼   ► that they made that I think are not good.

00:28:56 ◼   ► And it frustrates me enough that I wasn't gonna nominate it

00:28:59 ◼   ► regardless of how they built it.

00:29:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm kind of like that,

00:29:01 ◼   ► I'm a bit neutral on the new 1Password.

00:29:03 ◼   ► I like some of it, but I also don't like some of it.

00:29:05 ◼   ► Like I used to be able to get to my credit cards

00:29:08 ◼   ► really easily and now it's like,

00:29:10 ◼   ► I've got to go find my credit cards

00:29:12 ◼   ► 'cause it doesn't want to show them to me.

00:29:14 ◼   ► And I don't understand why.

00:29:16 ◼   ► They think I use one password in a way that I don't.

00:29:20 ◼   ► They think I need access in the sidebar

00:29:22 ◼   ► to a bunch of things that I don't

00:29:24 ◼   ► and not the things that I do and it's really frustrating.

00:29:27 ◼   ► And so this year I'm definitely not gonna propose it.

00:29:31 ◼   ► But I just want to point out Obsidian is a-

00:29:33 ◼   ► - It's a funny one to have in there.

00:29:35 ◼   ► It's very funny, but I get why people like it

00:29:37 ◼   ► and the power of it.

00:29:38 ◼   ► I've tried it.

00:29:39 ◼   ► It doesn't work for the way I work,

00:29:41 ◼   ► but every time I hear somebody like Federico talk about

00:29:45 ◼   ► how he's using it, I'm amazed by it.

00:29:47 ◼   ► And I think that's so cool,

00:29:49 ◼   ► but that's where it ends for me. (laughs)

00:29:53 ◼   ► - So, "Run is Up," bonus thought of "Run is Up,"

00:29:56 ◼   ► I would say we should probably go with,

00:30:01 ◼   ► I mean, I don't wanna get, I mean,

00:30:04 ◼   ► I don't really wanna give Safari the best Mac,

00:30:06 ◼   ► I just don't want.

00:30:07 ◼   ► - No.

00:30:07 ◼   ► - So I would say maybe, should we go with a pick Timery,

00:30:11 ◼   ► 'cause I love it, and Ecamm for you,

00:30:14 ◼   ► 'cause we haven't spoken about that one before?

00:30:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, let's do it.

00:30:17 ◼   ► And then we'll do Ecamm Live,

00:30:19 ◼   ► and then we'll put Audio Hijack as the winner.

00:30:20 ◼   ► - And you know what that does?

00:30:22 ◼   ► It creates-- - Oh, is it

00:30:23 ◼   ► in the Hall of Fame?

00:30:24 ◼   ► - It creates our third lifetime award-winning

00:30:27 ◼   ► individual group. (clapping)

00:30:30 ◼   ► So now Audio Hijack has now won the best Mac app three times.

00:30:35 ◼   ► It won in 2022, it won in 2018, and it won in 2016.

00:30:41 ◼   ► So it was won three times overall.

00:30:43 ◼   ► And that's the rule.

00:30:44 ◼   ► You win three times, become a lifetime award winner,

00:30:47 ◼   ► you're no longer eligible for the future.

00:30:49 ◼   ► And this stops, you know, the idea of just like

00:30:51 ◼   ► some categories would just been the same apps all the time.

00:30:54 ◼   ► So we want to mix things up.

00:30:55 ◼   ► So congratulations to Rogan Mieber and Audio Hijack.

00:30:58 ◼   ► Not only have you picked up a win this year,

00:31:00 ◼   ► You are now a Lifetime Award winner,

00:31:01 ◼   ► making the third Lifetime Award winner.

00:31:04 ◼   ► This is the first non-podcast Lifetime Award winner.

00:31:08 ◼   ► - Finally, those podcasters have stopped talking

00:31:10 ◼   ► about audio hijack.

00:31:11 ◼   ► - I know.

00:31:12 ◼   ► - Or will we?

00:31:14 ◼   ► - Or will we?

00:31:15 ◼   ► No one could know.

00:31:17 ◼   ► So that's really cool.

00:31:19 ◼   ► I'm happy about that.

00:31:19 ◼   ► And so should we move on to best newcomer Mac app?

00:31:22 ◼   ► The entire reason that we have Upgradients, do the vote.

00:31:25 ◼   ► This is why we created it, because it can be complicated.

00:31:29 ◼   ► So I would tell you, even though I have been using my Mac

00:31:33 ◼   ► more this year than I have in years,

00:31:35 ◼   ► I don't have an app to nominate in the best newcomer Mac app.

00:31:41 ◼   ► There hasn't been anything that has really

00:31:44 ◼   ► made a significant impact on me that has received

00:31:48 ◼   ► a release in the last year.

00:31:50 ◼   ► There are lots of apps that have been updated

00:31:52 ◼   ► and that kind of stuff.

00:31:53 ◼   ► And I've taken great use of them and I've loved them.

00:31:56 ◼   ► but I haven't had any brand new applications to me

00:32:00 ◼   ► that I felt would be a nomination for me.

00:32:03 ◼   ► - Well, in a shocking turn of events,

00:32:09 ◼   ► I am going to nominate MimeStream,

00:32:13 ◼   ► our previous winner in this newcomer category,

00:32:17 ◼   ► because it's still at version 0.40.1

00:32:21 ◼   ► and hasn't come out yet.

00:32:22 ◼   ► - Okay, so this is interesting.

00:32:23 ◼   ► I saw you do this and it's also, spoilers,

00:32:26 ◼   ► 4% of the upgrade hands voted for MimeStream,

00:32:28 ◼   ► making it third.

00:32:29 ◼   ► Now I love MimeStream, but it's also not a newcomer.

00:32:34 ◼   ► - The newcomer category.

00:32:35 ◼   ► I agree.

00:32:36 ◼   ► I agree.

00:32:37 ◼   ► I just, I laugh about it cause it seems new

00:32:38 ◼   ► because it's still version zero.

00:32:40 ◼   ► - And it's also just feels very much like

00:32:42 ◼   ► it's an active development, which it is.

00:32:43 ◼   ► But I mean like really, really proper development

00:32:46 ◼   ► of like is an update every week kind of active development.

00:32:49 ◼   ► - Yeah. And he hasn't shipped it.

00:32:51 ◼   ► I also nominate Audio Hijack 4 in this category

00:32:54 ◼   ► because it's new version, but I'm not sure if,

00:32:58 ◼   ► I mean, if that really counts

00:33:00 ◼   ► and it just got the hall of fame, so it's hard.

00:33:04 ◼   ► The other app I thought of, and I have not used it a lot,

00:33:07 ◼   ► but I've read a lot of writing about it

00:33:09 ◼   ► and I've used it a little bit.

00:33:11 ◼   ► I've been trying to use it more, is this app Raycast,

00:33:15 ◼   ► which is like a 2020s take on the quick launcher.

00:33:21 ◼   ► on the quick launchers that we all got like 20 years ago.

00:33:26 ◼   ► So like Alfred and my personal favorite launch bar

00:33:32 ◼   ► and Raycast, it's basically one of those.

00:33:38 ◼   ► I think what's different about it is that it's new.

00:33:45 ◼   ► And I like that it's new.

00:33:47 ◼   ► This is a category that felt like it was,

00:33:50 ◼   ► it was basically set, right?

00:33:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, I can't believe there's a new one

00:33:54 ◼   ► of these applications.

00:33:55 ◼   ► - Right, I mean, it started with Quicksilver

00:33:58 ◼   ► and then you got Alfred and Launch Bar

00:33:59 ◼   ► and it was a real thing in what, the 2000s, right?

00:34:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, and then Spotlight, right?

00:34:05 ◼   ► - And then Spotlight picked up a lot of the features of it.

00:34:08 ◼   ► It's true in the default OS, although not,

00:34:11 ◼   ► again, it's an Apple feature, so it's for the masses

00:34:13 ◼   ► and simplified and all of that.

00:34:16 ◼   ► So Raycast existing, I think is kind of cool.

00:34:21 ◼   ► I have moments where I really like the fact

00:34:26 ◼   ► that somebody is trying very hard

00:34:28 ◼   ► to build a new version of these

00:34:30 ◼   ► with the sensibilities of the modern era, right?

00:34:33 ◼   ► They don't have to support existing users.

00:34:36 ◼   ► They don't have to have an evolving code base

00:34:39 ◼   ► that's been around for 20 years.

00:34:41 ◼   ► Raycast can be built for just a brand new world

00:34:44 ◼   ► and a new set of whatever is current on the Mac today,

00:34:49 ◼   ► integration with shortcuts and all those things.

00:34:51 ◼   ► Not to say that the other apps don't have that,

00:34:52 ◼   ► but they have to, you know,

00:34:54 ◼   ► write their building brick by brick over 20 years

00:34:56 ◼   ► and Raycast comes in and is like,

00:34:57 ◼   ► "We got a new take on it."

00:34:59 ◼   ► I like that about it.

00:35:00 ◼   ► What I don't like about it a little bit

00:35:02 ◼   ► is that it feels like they're reinventing the wheel.

00:35:05 ◼   ► And there's something about their writing and their company

00:35:11 ◼   ► where they talk about, "Oh, we got an investment

00:35:13 ◼   ► and we're building this and we've got this thing

00:35:15 ◼   ► that we're doing where I feel like it's very congratulatory

00:35:18 ◼   ► for literally reinventing apps

00:35:21 ◼   ► that have already existed for 20 years.

00:35:23 ◼   ► Like it doesn't feel new.

00:35:27 ◼   ► It feels like a new take on an old thing.

00:35:31 ◼   ► And yet the way it's marketed is sort of like,

00:35:33 ◼   ► oh, it'll blow your mind.

00:35:34 ◼   ► Look at what it does.

00:35:35 ◼   ► I'm like, hmm, hmm.

00:35:38 ◼   ► So I'm torn a little bit, but what I do like about it is

00:35:41 ◼   ► It feels like a real Mac app.

00:35:43 ◼   ► It is designed for Mac productivity.

00:35:46 ◼   ► There are not a lot of those apps out there.

00:35:49 ◼   ► And I do, this is a category

00:35:51 ◼   ► that is near and dear to my heart.

00:35:52 ◼   ► I love these quick launchers.

00:35:54 ◼   ► I think that they can be incredibly powerful.

00:35:57 ◼   ► So I wanna support it,

00:36:01 ◼   ► but I also had that moment where I think,

00:36:03 ◼   ► and yet at the end of the day,

00:36:05 ◼   ► it really is just playing a song

00:36:09 ◼   ► that we all know from 20 years ago.

00:36:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's an interesting app.

00:36:15 ◼   ► I know a lot of people that have come to really like it.

00:36:17 ◼   ► And it's also doing some interesting stuff,

00:36:19 ◼   ► like it has window management tools built into it

00:36:21 ◼   ► because like why not?

00:36:22 ◼   ► And I like that someone's putting all this stuff

00:36:24 ◼   ► into the Mac.

00:36:25 ◼   ► I'm intrigued about the company and what they're up to.

00:36:28 ◼   ► They take an investment, they have a Teams plan,

00:36:30 ◼   ► but it's like really hard to give them money.

00:36:33 ◼   ► The amount that they give away for free

00:36:36 ◼   ► before they start charging is really interesting.

00:36:38 ◼   ► So I wonder where this app's gonna go.

00:36:41 ◼   ► It's been kind of in the corner of my eye for a while.

00:36:44 ◼   ► I might, you know, I've been trying to use it,

00:36:47 ◼   ► like trying it out.

00:36:48 ◼   ► I use Alfred and I'm a very happy Alfred customer,

00:36:50 ◼   ► but I am really intrigued by all of the integrations

00:36:53 ◼   ► that Raycast have.

00:36:54 ◼   ► Like there's like a bunch of extensions.

00:36:55 ◼   ► This is kind of like obsidian really,

00:36:57 ◼   ► where people can write extensions for the app.

00:37:00 ◼   ► - And that's the part that I like about it, right?

00:37:04 ◼   ► When I say that it's modern,

00:37:07 ◼   ► That's the kind of thing where it's like,

00:37:08 ◼   ► okay, we're gonna build this thing

00:37:09 ◼   ► and then we're gonna do the very modern thing of,

00:37:11 ◼   ► we're gonna have all these different extensions to,

00:37:13 ◼   ► you know, web services and things in the system

00:37:15 ◼   ► and we're gonna build those things out

00:37:16 ◼   ► and they're extensible.

00:37:17 ◼   ► And it's not like the other apps don't do it,

00:37:19 ◼   ► but again, the other apps do it in a way that is more

00:37:23 ◼   ► of the 15, 20 years ago take

00:37:25 ◼   ► because that's when they evolved

00:37:27 ◼   ► and this thing is like a fresh take on it.

00:37:29 ◼   ► And that part I find very, yeah, very interesting.

00:37:33 ◼   ► It's just, you know, again, tempered with the fact that

00:37:35 ◼   ► It doesn't feel like there's a lot of new ground

00:37:37 ◼   ► being broken here.

00:37:38 ◼   ► - I mean, if you want an example of its newness,

00:37:40 ◼   ► the one of the most, the top featured extension right now

00:37:43 ◼   ► is to interact with GPT-3.

00:37:45 ◼   ► So you can do that inside of Raycast in case,

00:37:47 ◼   ► I don't know, you need to do it immediately.

00:37:49 ◼   ► - Don't do that.

00:37:50 ◼   ► - So the upgrade-ions of 4% with MimeStream,

00:37:54 ◼   ► because they believe, like you do, that it's a new app.

00:37:57 ◼   ► - It's new to you.

00:37:58 ◼   ► - 5.8% for Diffusion B,

00:38:01 ◼   ► which I thought was really interesting.

00:38:04 ◼   ► Like, but like, you know, and was of the now in a way that I kind of like.

00:38:10 ◼   ► For sure.

00:38:10 ◼   ► Um, and 9.8% for Arc browser from the browser company, which is

00:38:17 ◼   ► fascinating because it was quite a big margin to the second app.

00:38:21 ◼   ► And it's not publicly available.

00:38:24 ◼   ► It is a closed beta that you can get an invite to it.

00:38:29 ◼   ► You can just put your name down, you can put on a list.

00:38:32 ◼   ► This is an app that I am personally really interested in.

00:38:35 ◼   ► I see people that use Arc, they post things that Arc does.

00:38:39 ◼   ► I've seen people build these home pages

00:38:42 ◼   ► that are like a collection of six live tiles of other pages,

00:38:46 ◼   ► and they just do really interesting stuff,

00:38:48 ◼   ► and people write their own code injections

00:38:51 ◼   ► that just get added in really simply.

00:38:53 ◼   ► I think this is going to be a big deal, Arc,

00:38:56 ◼   ► but it's got to come out first.

00:38:58 ◼   ► - I agree.

00:39:00 ◼   ► So I'm kind of stuck here with what is the winner

00:39:04 ◼   ► in this category and what are the runners up.

00:39:09 ◼   ► There's an overlap, but I mean,

00:39:12 ◼   ► I don't know about giving an app best newcomer twice,

00:39:17 ◼   ► but like we make the rules.

00:39:19 ◼   ► So maybe it's kind of funny to do that.

00:39:21 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:39:22 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:39:26 ◼   ► You know, I think so.

00:39:28 ◼   ► I think we should do it.

00:39:29 ◼   ► Alright, so MimeStream does an almost impossible thing.

00:39:32 ◼   ► Two years in a row is the best newcomer.

00:39:34 ◼   ► Ship 1.0, Neil.

00:39:36 ◼   ► We could end up in a weird situation where next year MimeStream becomes a lifetime winner

00:39:41 ◼   ► in the best newcomer category, which would be very weird.

00:39:45 ◼   ► That would be amazing.

00:39:46 ◼   ► And let's go with Raycast, and I want to put Diffusion B in as a run around.

00:39:51 ◼   ► Just because it tells a time in history, as we look back.

00:39:55 ◼   ► You know, when we're doing the 18th annual upgrades, we'll be like, "Oh yeah, that was

00:39:58 ◼   ► year everybody thought that AI art was the thing we were all going to do with our time.

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00:42:08 ◼   ► So we move on to our next category.

00:42:10 ◼   ► We're kind of moving into more entertainment apps now.

00:42:13 ◼   ► We've got the entertainment awards, I should say.

00:42:17 ◼   ► We've got the app awards taken care of.

00:42:19 ◼   ► So move to entertainment.

00:42:21 ◼   ► And we start with game of the year.

00:42:23 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:42:24 ◼   ► - I would like to start here

00:42:25 ◼   ► and just give an emphatic recommendation for Marvel Snap.

00:42:30 ◼   ► This game is so goddamn good.

00:42:37 ◼   ► - All right, please explain it to me

00:42:38 ◼   ► like somebody who doesn't know what Marvel Snap is.

00:42:40 ◼   ► - Yes, Marvel Snap is a card game, right?

00:42:44 ◼   ► Like a collectible card game

00:42:46 ◼   ► where you play against each other, you know,

00:42:47 ◼   ► like in like a Magic the Gathering, like a Hearthstone,

00:42:51 ◼   ► you know, like Pokemon, that kind of idea.

00:42:53 ◼   ► But it's using the Marvel property, right?

00:42:56 ◼   ► So it is a very simplified version of a game like this.

00:43:00 ◼   ► You have a small deck, and each game,

00:43:03 ◼   ► like each actual game is timed

00:43:05 ◼   ► to last about three to four minutes.

00:43:07 ◼   ► There are six rounds, and each of those rounds

00:43:11 ◼   ► has a ticking clock on it, so it can only last for so long.

00:43:14 ◼   ► And the cards are very simple.

00:43:15 ◼   ► You have a cost of the card and how much damage the card can do.

00:43:19 ◼   ► And then there are some cards have additional powers to them

00:43:22 ◼   ► that they can maybe change an outcome

00:43:26 ◼   ► or change the power of other cards, that kind of stuff.

00:43:28 ◼   ► But don't worry about that too much

00:43:29 ◼   ► if you're just trying to learn what the app is.

00:43:31 ◼   ► And effectively, you're just playing

00:43:33 ◼   ► against people in these very short games.

00:43:35 ◼   ► you're looking at the cards that you have in your hand and in your deck and picking

00:43:39 ◼   ► the ones that you think are going to give you the best strategy for winning the game.

00:43:43 ◼   ► Because you are playing against real people, mostly there are bots but they try and match

00:43:47 ◼   ► you up with real people as much as possible. When I win I feel this sometimes can feel

00:43:53 ◼   ► this real sense of accomplishment. If I pull off a strategy, I've got a strategy going

00:43:56 ◼   ► into a game and I win the game, oh it feels so good. And you're also collecting up the

00:44:00 ◼   ► cards as well so you have a collection of cards and they all have great art and you

00:44:05 ◼   ► you can update the visuals of them, you can upgrade the cards. It is a very very good,

00:44:11 ◼   ► so you hear me say all of this, I tell you it's free and you're like oh here we go. You

00:44:17 ◼   ► can play this game as much as you want, as often as you want without paying them a cent.

00:44:25 ◼   ► The only thing that you, so there are a couple of things you can pay for. You can pay for

00:44:29 ◼   ► currency in the game if you want to upgrade your cards faster but all that upgrading the

00:44:34 ◼   ► cards does is just change their visuals. It doesn't change the cards how they play and

00:44:40 ◼   ► you can't buy more powerful cards really. There are some asterisks to that, they might

00:44:47 ◼   ► sometimes have a special event where you can buy one card but it's not like you can go

00:44:51 ◼   ► in and be like give me a pack of cards and maybe in those six I might get one that's

00:44:55 ◼   ► good. No you know what you're buying if you're going to do that. They also have their battle

00:44:58 ◼   ► passes where you can play to earn everything pretty much in the battle pass which is kind

00:45:04 ◼   ► event season but you can also pay them a bit of money to jump forward a few levels but

00:45:09 ◼   ► all it does is just gives you some unlockables but again those unlockables by and large won't

00:45:13 ◼   ► necessarily change the way that you play the game.

00:45:16 ◼   ► It is so good, the tutorial is so good.

00:45:19 ◼   ► If you've never played a game like this before, like I had never played a card game like this

00:45:23 ◼   ► before, their tutorial is so good at explaining how to play this kind of game and you come

00:45:31 ◼   ► out of it and you feel great and you just slowly divulge the pieces of the game to you

00:45:37 ◼   ► and then eventually you're let out into the world and you don't really know at what point

00:45:41 ◼   ► that begins which is also very interesting like it's hard to tell where the tutorial

00:45:45 ◼   ► ends and you actually playing the game with real people begins. It is a truly fantastic

00:45:52 ◼   ► iOS game. It's also on the Mac because they checked the checkbox so you can play the iOS

00:46:00 ◼   ► game on the Mac. I adore Marvel Snap. I only really checked this out because I love Marvel,

00:46:07 ◼   ► right? So it was like an IP that I like. But it is taking the games industry by storm this

00:46:12 ◼   ► year just because of how good it is. It is so well made. It's a wonderful game.

00:46:17 ◼   ► My nomination I've already talked about, which is Not Words by Zach Gage, which is the rare

00:46:23 ◼   ► game. You know me, Myke, I'm very skeptical about any added burden on my time, right?

00:46:31 ◼   ► I'm like, "What is this gonna cost me?" And like, "Do a puzzle every day." It's like,

00:46:36 ◼   ► "Oh, you know, do I really want to commit to doing a puzzle every day?" Well, I don't.

00:46:43 ◼   ► And we've talked about my game playing, right? A couple weeks ago we talked about this in

00:46:47 ◼   ► reference to the playdate, and it's like, I'm really bad at playing games because I

00:46:50 ◼   ► I just always end up prioritizing something else

00:46:52 ◼   ► that I'm doing instead of playing games.

00:46:54 ◼   ► And so, although I wanna play games, I just don't.

00:46:56 ◼   ► And yet, "Not Words" got me to play almost every day.

00:47:00 ◼   ► And that is, and it's a great game.

00:47:03 ◼   ► So that's my, it didn't set the world on fire,

00:47:06 ◼   ► it didn't change the world.

00:47:07 ◼   ► But for me, it was incredibly successful at what it did.

00:47:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, "Gradians" voted, I think, predictably,

00:47:15 ◼   ► which I understand, in that they picked

00:47:18 ◼   ► three of the very best video games released.

00:47:20 ◼   ► this year on traditional consoles. Horizon Forbidden West at 4%, God of War Ragnarok

00:47:28 ◼   ► at 6.3% and Elden Ring at 8.4%. Most game of the years in all outlets this year will

00:47:34 ◼   ► be either Elden Ring or Ragnarok. I think one piece of context that I meant to say with

00:47:41 ◼   ► Marvel Snap, this year I've played more video games than I have in years. I'll talk

00:47:48 ◼   ► about why a little bit later on in the episode but I'm playing tons of games as

00:47:50 ◼   ► yet and I've played some truly fantastic games this year that is how good Marvel

00:47:55 ◼   ► Snap is like I love it more than all of the traditional games that I've played

00:48:00 ◼   ► this year I will say I have yet to play God of War Ragnarok because I haven't

00:48:05 ◼   ► been able to get my PlayStation set up at my new house I have tried Elden Ring

00:48:09 ◼   ► and it's just not for me right so I would like to propose Marvel Snap as

00:48:14 ◼   ► game of the year, not words and Elden Ring as our runners up.

00:48:17 ◼   ► Yep, sounds good.

00:48:18 ◼   ► All right, so we're going to move into favorite movie. I would like you to start this one

00:48:25 ◼   ► off for us.

00:48:26 ◼   ► All right, I had four that I rated very highly on my diary on Letterboxd, because that was

00:48:34 ◼   ► the repository of my brain of what did I watch this year. It's nice to have a repository

00:48:38 ◼   ► for that stuff.

00:48:40 ◼   ► And so I was able to quickly go through,

00:48:43 ◼   ► these are the four that I wanted to highlight.

00:48:46 ◼   ► In the Marvel movie category, "Wakanda Forever,"

00:48:49 ◼   ► I think was the best Marvel movie.

00:48:51 ◼   ► A good movie, not as good as "Black Panther,"

00:48:54 ◼   ► but a very good movie that does some really interesting

00:48:58 ◼   ► things, makes some interesting choices.

00:49:01 ◼   ► I wanted to mention the Pixar movie "Turning Red"

00:49:04 ◼   ► about a girl in Toronto in the 90s, 2000s,

00:49:08 ◼   ► who turns into a giant super panda.

00:49:13 ◼   ► It is super stealth, a Marvel movie,

00:49:18 ◼   ► not based on any Marvel intellectual property mind.

00:49:21 ◼   ► You just, you don't realize it.

00:49:24 ◼   ► And then at some point you're like,

00:49:25 ◼   ► this is kind of a superhero story, isn't it?

00:49:27 ◼   ► It totally is.

00:49:28 ◼   ► It's great.

00:49:29 ◼   ► I love that movie.

00:49:30 ◼   ► And then in the serious theater, serious movie fronts,

00:49:34 ◼   ► I wanted to point out too, the Oscar nominated,

00:49:39 ◼   ► but I watched it this year,

00:49:42 ◼   ► so it counts as far as I'm concerned.

00:49:44 ◼   ► And Oscar winning, "Power of the Dog."

00:49:49 ◼   ► - Oh, the dog movie.

00:49:50 ◼   ► - The dog movie that we talked about, you know what?

00:49:52 ◼   ► It's really good.

00:49:54 ◼   ► - It's powerful.

00:49:55 ◼   ► - Benedict Cumberbatch directed by James Campion.

00:49:58 ◼   ► It's a really good movie.

00:49:59 ◼   ► I saw the dog movie, it's a really good movie.

00:50:01 ◼   ► And on Apple TV Plus of all places,

00:50:06 ◼   ► Denzel Washington in "The Tragedy of Macbeth."

00:50:10 ◼   ► - Interesting.

00:50:11 ◼   ► - A, oh, that movie, a black and white

00:50:16 ◼   ► directed by one of the Coen brothers.

00:50:23 ◼   ► It is in a Shakespeare adaptation.

00:50:28 ◼   ► I watched it because it was an Oscar nominee

00:50:31 ◼   ► and I was interested in watching those.

00:50:33 ◼   ► And I was completely blown away by it.

00:50:38 ◼   ► Not just the performances, but the filmmaking choices

00:50:43 ◼   ► and the way it looked.

00:50:45 ◼   ► It was the single best experience I had

00:50:48 ◼   ► watching a movie this year.

00:50:50 ◼   ► And so "The Tragedy of Macbeth" on Apple TV+,

00:50:54 ◼   ► I would say was my favorite movie of the year.

00:50:57 ◼   ► - Wow.

00:50:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, right?

00:51:00 ◼   ► I'm surprised too.

00:51:01 ◼   ► - Oh, I went with "Turning Red."

00:51:04 ◼   ► Love that movie. - I love that Pixar movie.

00:51:07 ◼   ► - Just love that movie. - It's so good.

00:51:08 ◼   ► - Oh my God.

00:51:08 ◼   ► I did not expect that the movie was gonna make me cry,

00:51:11 ◼   ► and it did big time.

00:51:13 ◼   ► And so this one's a little skewed, "The Batman."

00:51:17 ◼   ► So two things on this.

00:51:18 ◼   ► I did really love this movie.

00:51:20 ◼   ► Like I had a great time,

00:51:22 ◼   ► but I know that part of it was the experience.

00:51:25 ◼   ► watched this in Memphis with Steven.

00:51:27 ◼   ► Like it was the first time I'd seen a movie with friends

00:51:31 ◼   ► in a very long time.

00:51:32 ◼   ► - Ah, yes.

00:51:33 ◼   ► - So my experience of that movie was heightened by that.

00:51:38 ◼   ► - Well, let me tell you about my Batman experience

00:51:40 ◼   ► 'cause Lauren and I started to watch it

00:51:41 ◼   ► and about 30 minutes in, both of us were kind of tired

00:51:43 ◼   ► and it was all dark and slow.

00:51:45 ◼   ► And I was like, this isn't working for either of us.

00:51:47 ◼   ► And I turned it off.

00:51:48 ◼   ► I was like, that's it for the Batman.

00:51:49 ◼   ► Nice try.

00:51:50 ◼   ► I was kind of watching it reluctantly anyway.

00:51:52 ◼   ► - I think the Batman needed to be seen in the cinema.

00:51:56 ◼   ► - Well, hold on.

00:51:58 ◼   ► I then watched the rest of the Batman

00:52:00 ◼   ► like five days later by myself

00:52:04 ◼   ► and I thought it was really good.

00:52:05 ◼   ► - It's a great movie.

00:52:07 ◼   ► - It's a really good movie.

00:52:08 ◼   ► I was in the wrong frame of mind

00:52:09 ◼   ► and I think it starts a little bit slow

00:52:12 ◼   ► and I didn't really get what vibe

00:52:14 ◼   ► that Matt Reeves was going for.

00:52:18 ◼   ► And I think I brought in some of my prejudices

00:52:23 ◼   ► about some of the previous Batman movies

00:52:27 ◼   ► and the things I liked and didn't like about them.

00:52:29 ◼   ► And I'm not a fan of the,

00:52:32 ◼   ► "Oh, it's dark and gritty and everything's miserable

00:52:35 ◼   ► and it's Batman."

00:52:36 ◼   ► 'Cause like, Batman can also be fun.

00:52:39 ◼   ► Batman doesn't have to be like that.

00:52:40 ◼   ► And yet I was like, oh, here's another movie

00:52:43 ◼   ► that's dark and slow and miserable and Batman is in it.

00:52:48 ◼   ► And then the switch flipped when I had that moment

00:52:51 ◼   ► where I thought to myself,

00:52:52 ◼   ► oh, this is, they're literally doing

00:52:57 ◼   ► a almost like '70s dirty, gross,

00:53:02 ◼   ► grungy detective crime movie.

00:53:09 ◼   ► Or something like, or something like "Zodiac," right?

00:53:12 ◼   ► Like that kind of, almost like a period piece,

00:53:15 ◼   ► even though it's not.

00:53:16 ◼   ► And once I realized like, oh, I see what you're doing here.

00:53:20 ◼   ► You really are doing, not doing a Batman movie in many ways,

00:53:24 ◼   ► you're doing a detective movie with Batman,

00:53:26 ◼   ► which is great 'cause he's supposed to be,

00:53:28 ◼   ► you know, it's detective comics, all of that.

00:53:30 ◼   ► And that's when it flipped over for me.

00:53:32 ◼   ► And I'm like, okay, actually, I kind of enjoy this movie

00:53:35 ◼   ► now that I understand what it is.

00:53:36 ◼   ► But it took me a second try to get there.

00:53:39 ◼   ► But I did get there.

00:53:40 ◼   ► - I think that there's a reason that so far, at least,

00:53:43 ◼   ► it seems to be surviving the DC reworking

00:53:48 ◼   ► that James Gunn is doing right now.

00:53:50 ◼   ► It seems like this is one of the things

00:53:52 ◼   ► they're not gonna get rid of.

00:53:54 ◼   ► - It does seem that way.

00:53:56 ◼   ► - The Upgradients vote is 7.7% for Wakanda Forever,

00:54:00 ◼   ► 16.8% for Top Gun Maverick,

00:54:03 ◼   ► and 22.2% for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.

00:54:07 ◼   ► - It's a very popular movie that's gonna do really well,

00:54:09 ◼   ► I think, during awards season as well,

00:54:11 ◼   ► everything everywhere all at once.

00:54:14 ◼   ► I'm gonna expose myself as a monster and say,

00:54:18 ◼   ► "I thought it was fine."

00:54:20 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:54:21 ◼   ► I haven't seen it yet.

00:54:22 ◼   ► - I didn't dislike it,

00:54:24 ◼   ► and I think it probably suffers

00:54:26 ◼   ► from having everybody rave about it before I saw it.

00:54:29 ◼   ► - This is why I haven't seen it yet,

00:54:31 ◼   ► because of that. - But I thought it was fine.

00:54:33 ◼   ► I thought it was a perfectly fine movie.

00:54:35 ◼   ► I didn't think it was earth-shattering.

00:54:37 ◼   ► There's also a possibility here

00:54:38 ◼   ► that I am so deep down in the genre

00:54:42 ◼   ► that things that are maybe surprising to other people

00:54:45 ◼   ► are not surprising to me, and so I don't find it as novel.

00:54:49 ◼   ► But yeah, I thought it was a good movie.

00:54:52 ◼   ► I just, you know, I don't really understand,

00:54:55 ◼   ► it didn't match up with the raves

00:54:56 ◼   ► that I saw from other people about it,

00:54:58 ◼   ► but I get why people love it.

00:55:00 ◼   ► I know so many people love it.

00:55:01 ◼   ► We did the "Incomparable" episode about it, I just opted out.

00:55:04 ◼   ► I had people who loved it talk about it

00:55:05 ◼   ► because I didn't wanna hear me talk about it.

00:55:08 ◼   ► I wanted to hear the people who loved it talk about why they thought it was great, but it

00:55:11 ◼   ► didn't do that for me.

00:55:12 ◼   ► So, let's take a look at what we've got here, right?

00:55:15 ◼   ► We've got a couple of overlaps.

00:55:16 ◼   ► So we've got Turning Red, me and you both voted for Wakanda Forever, you and the Upgradients

00:55:21 ◼   ► voted for.

00:55:22 ◼   ► You love Tragedy of Macbeth?

00:55:24 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:55:25 ◼   ► I'm okay with Turning Red winning this category because that was one of, absolutely one of

00:55:29 ◼   ► my favorites.

00:55:30 ◼   ► I would want Tragedy of Macbeth to be a runner up because it was my favorite movie of the

00:55:33 ◼   ► year.

00:55:34 ◼   ► also do everything everywhere at once. Sure. So I love that. I love because I

00:55:40 ◼   ► don't think Tony Wright's gonna get the nod many places. I'm happy that we get to

00:55:44 ◼   ► do that because that was a very big surprise to me just how much I love that

00:55:48 ◼   ► movie. Me too. Me too. I mean it was a Pixar. I thought it would be good. I...

00:55:54 ◼   ► my expectations were sort of zero. I was just like I don't even know a lot about

00:55:57 ◼   ► this movie and that was why it surprised me too because it was just like oh it

00:56:01 ◼   ► kind of came out of nowhere, it felt like at the time.

00:56:04 ◼   ► I hope that Disney pull Pixar back together again

00:56:09 ◼   ► and do what they need to do with Pixar.

00:56:11 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:56:12 ◼   ► - Because the movies are still great,

00:56:13 ◼   ► but they're just not giving them the market news.

00:56:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, running them all on Disney Plus

00:56:19 ◼   ► and yeah, there's a lot of things going on there

00:56:21 ◼   ► that they need to fix.

00:56:23 ◼   ► - Let's talk about our favorite TV show of the year.

00:56:27 ◼   ► - Oh boy, so many choices.

00:56:29 ◼   ► - So many.

00:56:30 ◼   ► It's a great year for television.

00:56:33 ◼   ► Great year for television.

00:56:34 ◼   ► What have you got?

00:56:37 ◼   ► You want me to go?

00:56:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:56:39 ◼   ► Okay, I'm gonna give you five.

00:56:41 ◼   ► Okay.

00:56:42 ◼   ► Of a list that will probably,

00:56:44 ◼   ► when I think about this a little bit more,

00:56:46 ◼   ► will end up being a top 10 list that I'll post somewhere.

00:56:48 ◼   ► But here are my five.

00:56:50 ◼   ► You know I watch a lot of TV, this is my thing.

00:56:52 ◼   ► Yep.

00:56:53 ◼   ► I think this is my top five.

00:56:55 ◼   ► Severance on Apple TV Plus,

00:56:59 ◼   ► just, you know, chef's kiss.

00:57:01 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:57:02 ◼   ► - I think, I just, I was kind of skeptical.

00:57:05 ◼   ► I was like, I don't know.

00:57:08 ◼   ► It's like a workplace, like black comedy or a,

00:57:11 ◼   ► and then I watched it.

00:57:13 ◼   ► I'm like, this is the best.

00:57:15 ◼   ► - I had very specific places that I thought

00:57:18 ◼   ► it was going to go to of like,

00:57:20 ◼   ► people have relationships in both sides

00:57:22 ◼   ► and then those relationships collide like romantic ones.

00:57:25 ◼   ► And none of, like, you know, it's just like,

00:57:27 ◼   ► that was what I thought the show was gonna be.

00:57:29 ◼   ► - Nah, wasn't that.

00:57:30 ◼   ► So again, like you, I was very surprised with where it went.

00:57:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

00:57:36 ◼   ► It surprised me in all good ways.

00:57:40 ◼   ► And or the Star Wars show.

00:57:43 ◼   ► And I will say, if you are a person who is skeptical

00:57:45 ◼   ► of Star Wars shows and sci-fi shows,

00:57:50 ◼   ► and oh, well, when you say that it's the best show,

00:57:55 ◼   ► What you mean is that it's the best of a, with an asterisk,

00:58:00 ◼   ► the best of this kind of show.

00:58:01 ◼   ► - The best franchise show.

00:58:03 ◼   ► - Exactly, or you're grading it up a little bit

00:58:06 ◼   ► because it was like, oh, no.

00:58:09 ◼   ► Andor is legitimately one of the very best

00:58:13 ◼   ► TV shows of the year, TV shows of the year.

00:58:17 ◼   ► Not good for Star Wars, not good for genre, just good.

00:58:21 ◼   ► Just good.

00:58:22 ◼   ► You can watch it not caring about Star Wars,

00:58:25 ◼   ► And it is good. It is legitimately that good. And that was also a surprise because I went

00:58:31 ◼   ► into that show thinking, "Ah, okay, like it's a guy from the Rogue One movie who is a sort

00:58:39 ◼   ► of secondary character and somehow he's got a show and what will that be about and it's

00:58:48 ◼   ► It's a prequel to a prequel and I don't understand what it's all about.

00:58:53 ◼   ► And it was, um, it just legitimately great.

00:58:57 ◼   ► Legitimately.

00:58:58 ◼   ► All the way.

00:58:59 ◼   ► I haven't seen it yet, but I want to.

00:59:01 ◼   ► The reason I didn't start it when it started, because I was very much, I already knew the

00:59:05 ◼   ► fate of this guy.

00:59:06 ◼   ► Like what stories are they really going to tell to excite me?

00:59:09 ◼   ► But I know like everyone is just praising this show like you wouldn't believe.

00:59:12 ◼   ► It's probably next up for us.

00:59:14 ◼   ► I would argue.

00:59:15 ◼   ► I already know the fate of this guy.

00:59:17 ◼   ► show that's got somebody at their center, right? Like, and Better Call Saul is like

00:59:21 ◼   ► this too, right? It's like, you know the fate of that guy, but it's not the point.

00:59:29 ◼   ► It's how it's, it's, in fact, Andor and Better Call Saul have some things in common, including

00:59:33 ◼   ► the fact that they're both about sort of like, who is this guy and how does he get where

00:59:37 ◼   ► we know he's going to be from that other thing, right?

00:59:42 ◼   ► Yep, that makes sense.

00:59:44 ◼   ► Speaking of we know what's gonna happen to this guy,

00:59:47 ◼   ► Star Trek Strange New Worlds, which is making a lot of top 10 lists too, which warms my heart,

00:59:52 ◼   ► it's just a breath of fresh air. It is a franchise that said

00:59:59 ◼   ► we know what people actually want from Star Trek, which is they want Star Trek. They want

01:00:05 ◼   ► every week they go to a different planet and have an adventure

01:00:09 ◼   ► and have a collection of really interesting characters

01:00:12 ◼   ► along the way and kind of a happy spirit

01:00:15 ◼   ► of adventure and exploration,

01:00:18 ◼   ► which is not in the zeitgeist

01:00:21 ◼   ► of what modern TV, streaming TV is like,

01:00:23 ◼   ► which is why the previous

01:00:25 ◼   ► and the other Star Trek streaming shows

01:00:27 ◼   ► are all sort of like modern prestige dramas

01:00:30 ◼   ► and season-long story arcs and all those things.

01:00:32 ◼   ► And for Strange New Worlds, they're like,

01:00:33 ◼   ► "Nope, bright uniforms, go to a different planet every week.

01:00:36 ◼   ► "USS Enterprise, we're gonna,"

01:00:38 ◼   ► and it's literally a prequel to the original Star Trek,

01:00:40 ◼   ► on the Enterprise with the previous captain,

01:00:43 ◼   ► who we know his fate, but some great performances,

01:00:47 ◼   ► especially Anson Mount as Captain Pike.

01:00:50 ◼   ► 10 episodes, super fun, can't recommend it enough,

01:00:55 ◼   ► just a delight to watch it.

01:00:58 ◼   ► And then I have two more.

01:00:59 ◼   ► The Bear, which is on Hulu in the US,

01:01:03 ◼   ► probably Disney+ everywhere else, I don't know.

01:01:05 ◼   ► - It is now, yep.

01:01:06 ◼   ► The Bear, a show about a famous chef who sort of returns to his family restaurant, kind

01:01:16 ◼   ► of in disgrace, sort of, after the death of his brother who ran the restaurant.

01:01:22 ◼   ► And it is, for a show that is literally about people in a restaurant, and maybe people who've

01:01:29 ◼   ► worked in restaurants will understand why this is, but it is one of the most intense

01:01:34 ◼   ► TV shows I have ever seen and is so good at being about characters and being about, you

01:01:45 ◼   ► know, but also being about action and like it's yeah it was a breath of fresh air and

01:01:52 ◼   ► a shock and it's so good it's it's just I don't know what to say about the bear. Watch

01:01:57 ◼   ► it. You will be glad you did. And then finally I'm gonna say the latest season for all mankind

01:02:03 ◼   ► at number five on my list.

01:02:04 ◼   ► Apple TV Plus show, very good, had a new season,

01:02:10 ◼   ► it's all about going to Mars.

01:02:12 ◼   ► That show builds the tension like no other show on TV

01:02:16 ◼   ► in some ways, and although it is sort of increasingly

01:02:19 ◼   ► outlandish in a lot of ways,

01:02:21 ◼   ► I could not stop watching episode to episode.

01:02:24 ◼   ► Really just a, what a rollercoaster ride

01:02:27 ◼   ► of sort of near future sci-fi-ish action.

01:02:32 ◼   ► Just that show is a great show and I love it.

01:02:34 ◼   ► That's my five.

01:02:37 ◼   ► - My list goes She-Hulk, number four.

01:02:40 ◼   ► I really loved She-Hulk.

01:02:42 ◼   ► It gave me exactly what I wanted from a Marvel show.

01:02:46 ◼   ► - It's a good show.

01:02:47 ◼   ► Breaking some ground, being funny and a little meta.

01:02:52 ◼   ► - And I wanted to see her as a lawyer and we got that.

01:02:57 ◼   ► It was the one thing I wanted from the show is I wanted,

01:03:00 ◼   ► I wanted Jennifer Walters, right?

01:03:03 ◼   ► I wanted to see her do Law and we got that, right?

01:03:06 ◼   ► And it was hilarious.

01:03:08 ◼   ► - Superhero Law.

01:03:09 ◼   ► I mean, it is She-Hulk attorney at Law, right?

01:03:11 ◼   ► Like that was the joke and also the subject matter

01:03:14 ◼   ► is in the title there and it's, yeah, that was very good.

01:03:17 ◼   ► - You mentioned it earlier, but Better Call Saul

01:03:19 ◼   ► finished this year just sublime.

01:03:21 ◼   ► Such a good TV show.

01:03:23 ◼   ► That is a show that builds drama almost unlike anything else.

01:03:28 ◼   ► I will agree with you that For All Mankind,

01:03:30 ◼   ► which is my second favorite show of this year,

01:03:33 ◼   ► I could not believe what they pulled off in this season.

01:03:38 ◼   ► It was like, I don't understand.

01:03:39 ◼   ► It was like every episode, even the first,

01:03:41 ◼   ► the opening episode is one of the most nerve wracking

01:03:45 ◼   ► opening episodes of any TV show I've ever seen.

01:03:48 ◼   ► Like, they took things to such a level,

01:03:50 ◼   ► it felt like that there couldn't have been

01:03:52 ◼   ► the rest of a season.

01:03:54 ◼   ► It's like, how are you going to continue from this point?

01:03:57 ◼   ► Yeah, superb and again, the season ends

01:04:00 ◼   ► and it's just like, we know there's another one coming,

01:04:02 ◼   ► I think, I assume.

01:04:04 ◼   ► I don't recall if they've done it,

01:04:06 ◼   ► but I mean, I couldn't remember if Apple

01:04:07 ◼   ► officially announced that like, hey, we're doing it again,

01:04:09 ◼   ► but I'm sure they have.

01:04:11 ◼   ► But it's again, we're in this situation with the show

01:04:13 ◼   ► where it's like, I don't understand

01:04:14 ◼   ► how you will continue making the show

01:04:16 ◼   ► based upon everything that you've done,

01:04:18 ◼   ► but handled just wonderfully.

01:04:20 ◼   ► Such a fantastic show, but it's just easy.

01:04:23 ◼   ► The best television show this year was Severance.

01:04:26 ◼   ► I just think it's not even up for any argument

01:04:28 ◼   ► like it was the best TV show.

01:04:30 ◼   ► - I agree.

01:04:31 ◼   ► No, it's, I had the Alan Seppenwald,

01:04:33 ◼   ► the TV critic for Rolling Stone tweeted out a message

01:04:37 ◼   ► that was, "You can't do Ties, you can't do also Rands,

01:04:40 ◼   ► name the best show you saw this year, just one."

01:04:45 ◼   ► And I thought that was a really interesting challenge

01:04:48 ◼   ► 'cause it's a lot easy making these lists.

01:04:49 ◼   ► And it made me sit there and think for a while about,

01:04:52 ◼   ► specifically about Severance and Andor.

01:04:55 ◼   ► and it's Severance. It is. And a lot of my pals are like, "Oh, Andor is the best show."

01:05:01 ◼   ► And it's like, "Nah, I gotta go with Severance. It is. I think it is the best. The best."

01:05:07 ◼   ► I think maybe a lot of people, including me, forget that Severance came out in 2022.

01:05:11 ◼   ► Because it was early.

01:05:13 ◼   ► Maybe so. It was early.

01:05:15 ◼   ► So, like, it feels like it was a 2021 show, but no, it came out in 2022 and it was sublime.

01:05:19 ◼   ► Yep. The best.

01:05:20 ◼   ► The upgradings went 5.2% for House of the Dragon.

01:05:23 ◼   ► Okay.

01:05:24 ◼   ► 22.7% for Andor and 26.1% for Severance.

01:05:29 ◼   ► We're all in sync here.

01:05:31 ◼   ► So I think Severance is the winner, Andor and For All Mankind as it runs up.

01:05:36 ◼   ► All right. Yeah, that sounds good.

01:05:40 ◼   ► Favorite book category, which unbelievably I have a nominee for.

01:05:47 ◼   ► Oh boy.

01:05:48 ◼   ► After Steve.

01:05:50 ◼   ► Boo!

01:05:51 ◼   ► I liked it and I read it, alright?

01:05:53 ◼   ► Booooo!

01:05:54 ◼   ► You can boo me, I read the book.

01:05:56 ◼   ► I read a book this year that came out this year.

01:05:58 ◼   ► Congratulations.

01:05:59 ◼   ► Is it also the worst book you read this year?

01:06:01 ◼   ► Uh, no.

01:06:03 ◼   ► But I, because I've read more than one book and I wouldn't say, the other book that I read, I liked, I wouldn't have called it the worst, but I just didn't like as much as After Steve.

01:06:11 ◼   ► Technically that's the worst book you read because you only read two.

01:06:14 ◼   ► Mm-hmm.

01:06:15 ◼   ► Alright.

01:06:16 ◼   ► I, I, I have a problem with that book.

01:06:19 ◼   ► It has lots of interesting things in it.

01:06:20 ◼   ► things in it.

01:06:21 ◼   ► - There is an Upgrade Plus episode where we talk about it.

01:06:24 ◼   ► I don't remember offhand which one it was,

01:06:26 ◼   ► but there is an episode where we talk about it.

01:06:29 ◼   ► I'll see if I can find it.

01:06:31 ◼   ► - Okay, yeah, not for me, not for me.

01:06:35 ◼   ► I read 50 books this year and, you know, it happens.

01:06:41 ◼   ► That's why I'm not playing games.

01:06:43 ◼   ► My three favorite books of the year,

01:06:44 ◼   ► The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik,

01:06:47 ◼   ► which is the third book in her Scholomance series.

01:06:50 ◼   ► We just are, I guess, about to do an incomparable episode

01:06:54 ◼   ► about that whole series.

01:06:56 ◼   ► Great three-book series, now done.

01:06:58 ◼   ► This was the last one.

01:07:00 ◼   ► And you know, some series start with a bang,

01:07:02 ◼   ► and then they kind of fade out as they go.

01:07:04 ◼   ► And this didn't do that.

01:07:05 ◼   ► It did the reverse.

01:07:06 ◼   ► It built up everything that you've

01:07:09 ◼   ► learned in the first two books and then starts

01:07:13 ◼   ► to interrogate some parts of the premise of the books

01:07:15 ◼   ► while it brings it to a really rousing climax.

01:07:19 ◼   ► The Golden Long Enclaves is, well, the whole series,

01:07:24 ◼   ► it's kind of Harry Potter-esque only in the sense

01:07:27 ◼   ► that it is about a magical school that people go to

01:07:30 ◼   ► for high school, except that most of them don't survive it.

01:07:35 ◼   ► Most of them die.

01:07:36 ◼   ► And they're locked inside for four years.

01:07:39 ◼   ► And then some of them come out at the end,

01:07:41 ◼   ► but mostly they don't.

01:07:43 ◼   ► And we follow some students who are in that school.

01:07:47 ◼   ► and it's brutal and really interesting

01:07:51 ◼   ► and it's just great, great story.

01:07:54 ◼   ► Fairy tale by an author, a young up and coming author

01:07:59 ◼   ► you may not have heard of named Stephen King.

01:08:03 ◼   ► It's great.

01:08:04 ◼   ► - It would be funny if it was like,

01:08:05 ◼   ► yeah, no, not that one, that would be hilarious.

01:08:07 ◼   ► - No, no, it's that one.

01:08:09 ◼   ► It's that one, it's Stephen King at,

01:08:11 ◼   ► I would say there are some different Stephen Kings, right?

01:08:13 ◼   ► There's the horror writer Stephen King

01:08:15 ◼   ► And there's this kind of like mythic fantasy writer,

01:08:18 ◼   ► Stephen King, and this is that.

01:08:20 ◼   ► This is that mythic fantasy writer.

01:08:22 ◼   ► My favorite Stephen King book is probably "112263,"

01:08:26 ◼   ► which is the book about a guy who goes back in time

01:08:28 ◼   ► to try to stop the Kennedy assassination,

01:08:30 ◼   ► except it's way more complicated than that.

01:08:34 ◼   ► And that book is great because it's emotional and lyrical.

01:08:37 ◼   ► It's sad.

01:08:39 ◼   ► It's kind of about what history means

01:08:42 ◼   ► and how history affects us

01:08:44 ◼   ► and how you can't change your own personal history

01:08:47 ◼   ► and what it means to learn and grow as a person.

01:08:49 ◼   ► I mean, it gets into lots of different areas.

01:08:51 ◼   ► And "Fairytale" kind of reminded me of that.

01:08:53 ◼   ► That said, "Fairytale" is a book about,

01:08:55 ◼   ► ultimately about a magical portal to another world

01:08:59 ◼   ► and a kid who goes through it.

01:09:01 ◼   ► But even in that, the book takes its time to,

01:09:05 ◼   ► before the portal even is found,

01:09:08 ◼   ► to get you to know who this kid is

01:09:11 ◼   ► and what the rules of the world are

01:09:13 ◼   ► and who's the old man who was basically guarding the portal.

01:09:16 ◼   ► I loved it and I couldn't put it down.

01:09:20 ◼   ► So if you don't,

01:09:23 ◼   ► I think there are a lot of people

01:09:24 ◼   ► who don't read Stephen King.

01:09:25 ◼   ► I think there are also a lot of people

01:09:26 ◼   ► who read Stephen King selectively,

01:09:28 ◼   ► but this is, I think, one of his very best.

01:09:31 ◼   ► And it's the kind of Stephen King that I really like,

01:09:34 ◼   ► which is a little more dark, towery,

01:09:35 ◼   ► a little more in that epic fantasy kind of category

01:09:39 ◼   ► and not the horror spooky stuff.

01:09:42 ◼   ► I will say like on that it is wild to me that Stephen King is continuing to put out books that people like.

01:09:49 ◼   ► Mm-hmm.

01:09:50 ◼   ► Like I just kind of, I kind of can't believe that because just because of how many he's done now.

01:09:55 ◼   ► You know what I mean? It's just like I don't think there are many people that have had the kind of career that he has had.

01:10:00 ◼   ► He's been writing like a novel or two a year since the 70s.

01:10:03 ◼   ► And he's still doing stuff that people like.

01:10:06 ◼   ► You know like he, that's just wild to me.

01:10:08 ◼   ► Like this doesn't, like musicians don't have this kind of success, right?

01:10:12 ◼   ► And in general, right?

01:10:13 ◼   ► - Very rarely, yeah.

01:10:14 ◼   ► - Authors don't, movie makers, you know, don't, like,

01:10:16 ◼   ► he has an almost unparalleled levels of success, Stephen King.

01:10:21 ◼   ► It's really, really interesting.

01:10:23 ◼   ► - And the third book, it's actually a novella.

01:10:25 ◼   ► So it's kind of short, that I adored this year is "Elder Race,"

01:10:30 ◼   ► which is by the British author, Adrian Tchaikovsky.

01:10:34 ◼   ► And it is a delightful story that is simultaneously,

01:10:38 ◼   ► well, okay, interleaved chapter by chapter,

01:10:43 ◼   ► a science fiction story and an epic fantasy story

01:10:48 ◼   ► that are happening at the exact same time,

01:10:51 ◼   ► it just matters which character is narrating.

01:10:55 ◼   ► - I love the premise of that.

01:10:57 ◼   ► - It is because there is a wizard.

01:10:59 ◼   ► - Harry.

01:11:00 ◼   ► - Who needs to solve a problem

01:11:02 ◼   ► that a princess brings to him.

01:11:04 ◼   ► And there is also a very old and depressed

01:11:07 ◼   ► space traveler who is one of the locals on the planet that he's been observing

01:11:16 ◼   ► because he's an anthropologist it comes with a warning that possibly some rogue

01:11:22 ◼   ► leftover technology has gone awry it's the same story it's great and it's short

01:11:30 ◼   ► and Adrian Tchaikovsky is a brilliant writer but this is just a little novella

01:11:34 ◼   ► and it's I loved it to death and so so yeah I'm gonna say and I'm gonna say

01:11:41 ◼   ► that was my favorite although the cool enclaves was also great and fairy tale is also

01:11:44 ◼   ► great but elder race is the one I keep telling to people I love the idea of

01:11:47 ◼   ► that book that sounds fascinating yeah it's really good it's it's so good at

01:11:52 ◼   ► 4.5% the upgradians voted for the lost metal by Brandon Sanderson okay 5.2%

01:12:01 ◼   ► percent for After Steve by Tripp Mickle. What can I say? By the way it's episode

01:12:07 ◼   ► 427 of Upgrade. If you subscribe to Upgrade Plus there is a very long

01:12:12 ◼   ► aftershow where me and Jason have a fight about this book. And at 14.6%

01:12:18 ◼   ► The Nova Incident by Dan Lauren. Dan, he's just doing his job. He's out

01:12:24 ◼   ► there with his street team. They're marketing that for the latest book.

01:12:28 ◼   ► It's a really good book and a really good series. You should you should read them all the galactic cold war by Dan Morin

01:12:33 ◼   ► All right, what are we gonna do here? Well, this one is typically for you to stack right you like

01:12:39 ◼   ► Yeah, so I want to know what what you're feeling. I mean, obviously I would like half to Steve as a runner-up

01:12:45 ◼   ► But it's if you can handle that, you know, man

01:12:50 ◼   ► Okay, let's say elder race is the winner

01:12:54 ◼   ► let's make the Golden Enclaves a runner-up and we need one more runner-up

01:12:58 ◼   ► is that right? it's a Nova incident. Dan Moran is a three-time runner-up in the

01:13:05 ◼   ► upgrades now and I I've got to say I love that you cannot do it right you

01:13:10 ◼   ► cannot do it you just can't do it. if there was if there was a real like empty

01:13:14 ◼   ► hole there where there was nothing but I can't do it no. can't do it? no. we're gonna move

01:13:20 ◼   ► into the brand new category now, favorite podcast.

01:13:24 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean new and yet it's really just a combination of several categories.

01:13:28 ◼   ► Yeah, but it's a new category now. It's like, but it is as you say, it's a smoosh, it's

01:13:33 ◼   ► a smooshing together of all the podcast categories. And so for this, I'm going to recommend a

01:13:39 ◼   ► show that was new for me this year, even though it's been going on for a long time, but it's

01:13:45 ◼   ► It's an example of the type of show that I love the most.

01:13:49 ◼   ► It's the type of show that I make.

01:13:50 ◼   ► It is the Kinda Funny Gamescast.

01:13:52 ◼   ► So Kinda Funny is a podcast network.

01:13:55 ◼   ► They are audio and video.

01:13:57 ◼   ► I tend to watch their shows as video rather than audio.

01:14:00 ◼   ► I just think the presentation is nice and I like to do that.

01:14:05 ◼   ► They have a bunch of different shows.

01:14:06 ◼   ► They do games, they do games news, they do pop culture stuff, movies, TV shows.

01:14:13 ◼   ► one of their shows is the games cast which is just focused on video games what they're

01:14:17 ◼   ► playing reviews that kind of stuff but while it has this topic it is just as much about

01:14:24 ◼   ► the relationships between the hosts than it is about the show itself and where it takes

01:14:31 ◼   ► it even further is like there are like between 8 to 12 kind of funny hosts and they kind

01:14:38 ◼   ► of rotate onto the show depending on who's going to be there and there are just like

01:14:43 ◼   ► it's like us right like there are relationships between everybody there are feuds occurring

01:14:48 ◼   ► between the hosts that sometimes it was spoke about on this show but now it's coming into

01:14:53 ◼   ► this one you know like it is as much about their relationships as it is about the type

01:14:59 ◼   ► of topic right and you get both and that's what I love I love that about kind of funny

01:15:04 ◼   ► in general and the games cast is maybe my favourite because they also have a show called

01:15:10 ◼   ► the kind of funny podcast which is just like four of them get together and they just talk

01:15:13 ◼   ► about whatever and I love that show but it doesn't have a structure it doesn't have a

01:15:18 ◼   ► guiding light where the games cast does so even if there's nothing funny happening they'll

01:15:22 ◼   ► just talk about the video games that they came to talk about so like I think it is like

01:15:25 ◼   ► a perfect example of the type of show that I like to make and enjoy too. I also wanted

01:15:31 ◼   ► to mention the Always Sunny podcast as like you know over the last few years I keep finding

01:15:36 ◼   ► these shows that are about a TV show made by the people who made the TV show it's like

01:15:40 ◼   ► that next level up from the like a lot of stuff that you do on the incomparable right

01:15:44 ◼   ► like where it's like we like the show we're going to talk about it then all of a sudden

01:15:47 ◼   ► it became financially viable for hosts of the shows to do it the fascinating thing about

01:15:54 ◼   ► the Always Sunny podcast is the show is still running like it and the host and it's not

01:15:59 ◼   ► just and the hosts of the show weren't just on the show, they made the show. It's really

01:16:08 ◼   ► unique in that. They are the creators, showrunners and stars of a currently running television

01:16:15 ◼   ► show. For example, now they are referencing and talking about the fact that they are in

01:16:21 ◼   ► the writers room for the next season. I love the Always Sunny podcast. Again, it's a

01:16:27 ◼   ► show that I watched the video of rather than listen to the audio for, I actually switched

01:16:31 ◼   ► over. They started doing a video show and then at a certain point there were a lot of

01:16:36 ◼   ► visual gags. Just how it happens. This is why we don't do video by the way because you

01:16:41 ◼   ► just can't help but get into video. And so I decided to start watching it and I just

01:16:48 ◼   ► love it. It is fantastic and it's hilarious. It is as, I actually prefer the Always Sunny

01:16:56 ◼   ► podcast to Always Sunny in Philadelphia and it is a show I enjoy but like I just

01:16:59 ◼   ► really find those three guys fascinating and they have a producer on the

01:17:04 ◼   ► show who's a producer on Mythic Quest, Megan Gantz,

01:17:09 ◼   ► and she is like was originally like off-camera but now is part of the show

01:17:14 ◼   ► too and so it makes up the four of them and they're just as a group just

01:17:17 ◼   ► excellent. I wanted to mention that one too. They're my two podcasts and I'm bringing it to

01:17:23 ◼   ► - Okay, that's good.

01:17:26 ◼   ► All right, so I struggle with this

01:17:29 ◼   ► 'cause I have very limited time to listen to podcasts.

01:17:33 ◼   ► And so there are very few podcasts

01:17:34 ◼   ► that I listen to every episode of,

01:17:36 ◼   ► but I do dip in here and there to various other podcasts.

01:17:40 ◼   ► And there are ones that I've found that I've enjoyed

01:17:43 ◼   ► and I wanna recognize at least a little bit.

01:17:45 ◼   ► One of them is the Playdate podcast from Panic.

01:17:47 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:17:48 ◼   ► - 'Cause I think it's a well-produced,

01:17:51 ◼   ► Produced with Care show, you know, a little company

01:17:54 ◼   ► with little game device that they are selling

01:17:58 ◼   ► and they want to do.

01:17:59 ◼   ► So it's marketing, I guess, but it's also sort of just

01:18:02 ◼   ► good storytelling about how the product came to be.

01:18:07 ◼   ► And this year it's been also about how the software came

01:18:09 ◼   ► to be and telling the stories of the people

01:18:11 ◼   ► who've written the games.

01:18:12 ◼   ► - Their first episode, which was in April,

01:18:15 ◼   ► the story of Play Date, it's a hundred minutes.

01:18:17 ◼   ► It's one of the best podcast episodes I've ever heard.

01:18:20 ◼   ► Yeah, it's just sublime and incredible and so well done.

01:18:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's the story of how the product came to be

01:18:29 ◼   ► and then the stories of the people who are making the games.

01:18:32 ◼   ► And like, it's just a very well produced podcast

01:18:36 ◼   ► about an interesting subject.

01:18:37 ◼   ► So I wanted to shout out Playdate Podcast.

01:18:42 ◼   ► There is a podcast called Origin Story,

01:18:44 ◼   ► which I really like and I've listened to a few episodes of.

01:18:49 ◼   ► This is "Origin Story" by Ian Dunt,

01:18:52 ◼   ► the British politics writer,

01:18:56 ◼   ► and Dorian Linsky.

01:18:58 ◼   ► And the idea there is they talk about the real stories

01:19:04 ◼   ► behind what they say is the most misunderstood

01:19:07 ◼   ► and abused ideas in politics.

01:19:10 ◼   ► So they take a phrase or a word and they unravel it

01:19:15 ◼   ► and say sort of like, where did this come from?

01:19:18 ◼   ► Why do we use this term?

01:19:20 ◼   ► And I think it's very smart because they're trying to

01:19:23 ◼   ► go beyond the sort of like any of the phrases,

01:19:26 ◼   ► I'm not gonna even mention the phrases that they cover

01:19:28 ◼   ► because any phrase that they cover has a hot button meaning.

01:19:32 ◼   ► And you're like, "Oh, I know what that is."

01:19:34 ◼   ► And the whole point of origin story is that they unravel it

01:19:38 ◼   ► and say, "Well, where did this come from?"

01:19:39 ◼   ► - I think this was a newcomer for you last year, I think.

01:19:43 ◼   ► 'Cause I've heard about this before

01:19:44 ◼   ► and I think it'll only come from you.

01:19:46 ◼   ► - It's possible or I mentioned it,

01:19:47 ◼   ► I think it came out this year though, but anyway,

01:19:49 ◼   ► it wasn't nominated as a newcomer last year.

01:19:51 ◼   ► So I'm going to just throw it in smart idea for a podcast

01:19:56 ◼   ► and a podcast actually let's do a bunch of episodes

01:19:59 ◼   ► of this year.

01:20:00 ◼   ► I think it's a great thing that they're doing it.

01:20:02 ◼   ► And again, it's kind of a revamp of a show

01:20:04 ◼   ► that's been on the air for a bazillion years,

01:20:06 ◼   ► but somebody had the intelligence to be like,

01:20:09 ◼   ► let's do a podcast for our fans who want to know about like

01:20:12 ◼   ► behind the scenes.

01:20:13 ◼   ► And that's because this show got a new producer this year.

01:20:16 ◼   ► there was a lot of drama,

01:20:18 ◼   ► but it's the venerable, long running

01:20:21 ◼   ► American game show "Jeopardy",

01:20:23 ◼   ► which I do watch every episode of and love.

01:20:26 ◼   ► It's a family tradition.

01:20:28 ◼   ► They have a podcast called "Inside Jeopardy"

01:20:30 ◼   ► that is hosted by one of the producers

01:20:32 ◼   ► and interviews the producers and the players

01:20:37 ◼   ► and talks about the gameplay and the strategies

01:20:40 ◼   ► when they change the rules or they do special episodes

01:20:44 ◼   ► in a tumultuous year for the show

01:20:46 ◼   ► where they have like, they had a host

01:20:48 ◼   ► and then they, that guy and a producer

01:20:51 ◼   ► and that guy left and they brought in multiple hosts

01:20:53 ◼   ► and then they ended up with two hosts

01:20:54 ◼   ► and they like, and a lot going on.

01:20:58 ◼   ► The podcast has been really fun and interesting every week

01:21:01 ◼   ► to talk about sort of like what happened this week

01:21:04 ◼   ► on the show and that give me that good behind the scenes

01:21:07 ◼   ► stuff where they're talking about like the decisions

01:21:09 ◼   ► they make and the choices they make

01:21:11 ◼   ► about making the show work.

01:21:13 ◼   ► Again, like you said about the Always Sunny podcast,

01:21:15 ◼   ► There's something to getting that.

01:21:17 ◼   ► Give me the people who make the show

01:21:18 ◼   ► talking about how they make the show.

01:21:20 ◼   ► It's good stuff.

01:21:21 ◼   ► And I love that the executive producer of that show,

01:21:25 ◼   ► who's Michael Davis, who's been doing game shows forever,

01:21:28 ◼   ► like who wants to be a millionaire and like endlessly,

01:21:31 ◼   ► is also a gigantic soccer fan.

01:21:34 ◼   ► And his desire to view Jeopardy

01:21:37 ◼   ► through a sports lens delights me,

01:21:39 ◼   ► because he's like, these are players, these are athletes,

01:21:41 ◼   ► these are sporting events, we need a post-game show,

01:21:43 ◼   ► we need post-game interviews, we need to talk about it,

01:21:46 ◼   ► we need to hype up the events.

01:21:47 ◼   ► I like it.

01:21:49 ◼   ► I think it's a good way of approaching a TV game show,

01:21:51 ◼   ► is to say, this is basically sports for smart people.

01:21:54 ◼   ► - For a show that's been going for so long

01:21:56 ◼   ► and has had such a set format for so long,

01:21:58 ◼   ► it's probably time to do something different with it.

01:22:01 ◼   ► But still keep the show that is cool.

01:22:03 ◼   ► - Keep it fresh.

01:22:04 ◼   ► And when I say sports for smart people, I like sports.

01:22:06 ◼   ► I'm not saying people who like sports are dumb.

01:22:09 ◼   ► I think that lots of smart people like sports,

01:22:11 ◼   ► but you know what I mean.

01:22:12 ◼   ► It's like, these are people whose qualification is

01:22:15 ◼   ► that they stand on a stage

01:22:16 ◼   ► and answer very obscure trivia questions, right?

01:22:19 ◼   ► And like, and Michael Davis's point is to say,

01:22:22 ◼   ► that's a sport, right?

01:22:24 ◼   ► Let's treat it like a sport,

01:22:26 ◼   ► even though, you know, yes, it's not,

01:22:29 ◼   ► but treat it like it is.

01:22:31 ◼   ► And I think that's kind of a brilliant insight.

01:22:32 ◼   ► And that's something that I get more of

01:22:34 ◼   ► by listening to Inside Jeopardy

01:22:35 ◼   ► and understanding what their rationale is.

01:22:37 ◼   ► And then in our own little world, I do listen to Connected.

01:22:41 ◼   ► Connected got slid to the top of my priority queue this year.

01:22:45 ◼   ► It is my number one podcast.

01:22:48 ◼   ► That and the Flop House, I guess.

01:22:49 ◼   ► So the Flop House is number one.

01:22:51 ◼   ► You guys are number two,

01:22:52 ◼   ► but it's my number one tech podcast

01:22:55 ◼   ► that I try to tune in for every week.

01:22:57 ◼   ► - I greatly appreciate that.

01:22:58 ◼   ► Thank you very much. - It's funny.

01:23:00 ◼   ► You guys have a great rapport and you talk about issues,

01:23:02 ◼   ► but it's also funny.

01:23:05 ◼   ► I mean, and there are other podcasts that do that.

01:23:06 ◼   ► The Rebound does a good job of that too.

01:23:08 ◼   ► I like having that change of pace, right?

01:23:10 ◼   ► that's just a little bit less serious and a little bit more about the personalities of the hosts

01:23:14 ◼   ► kind of knocking off each other. It's great.

01:23:16 ◼   ► Yeah, which is exactly what kind of funny games kind of stood for me, right?

01:23:20 ◼   ► Because it's a similar thing.

01:23:22 ◼   ► It's like, I want to hear about video games, but I also want to hear these guys make fun of each other

01:23:26 ◼   ► and play pranks on each other and stuff like that.

01:23:27 ◼   ► The upgradians voted...

01:23:30 ◼   ► So, I'll say something about this when we're done.

01:23:32 ◼   ► 6.4%, Cortex.

01:23:35 ◼   ► 7.6%, upgrade.

01:23:37 ◼   ► We've made, we've finally made some waves this year.

01:23:40 ◼   ► And 13.9% is connected.

01:23:43 ◼   ► So here's the thing that I didn't expect this to happen,

01:23:46 ◼   ► but it makes sense.

01:23:48 ◼   ► - Once again, we established

01:23:49 ◼   ► that Upgrading's favorite podcast is connected.

01:23:52 ◼   ► - Yep, this keeps happening.

01:23:53 ◼   ► But, hey, you know, I just assumed-

01:23:56 ◼   ► - They don't want us to get too confident.

01:23:57 ◼   ► They don't want us to get too cocky.

01:23:58 ◼   ► - No, I just assumed they're like,

01:23:59 ◼   ► "Oh, I'm listening to the show.

01:24:00 ◼   ► Obviously, I really love the show."

01:24:02 ◼   ► They don't, you know,

01:24:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think that's the truth of it,

01:24:04 ◼   ► but it just makes me laugh every single time.

01:24:06 ◼   ► We've got to give them something to aim for.

01:24:09 ◼   ► I did not expect this to be so relay dominated.

01:24:14 ◼   ► I did not expect this to be--

01:24:16 ◼   ► all shows that I'm on would end up being

01:24:19 ◼   ► what happened to this category.

01:24:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:24:23 ◼   ► I will say that it is--

01:24:25 ◼   ► I actually had an emotional reaction

01:24:28 ◼   ► when I was totaling these up.

01:24:30 ◼   ► And I felt pretty humbled by it.

01:24:34 ◼   ► So I appreciate that people enjoyed the shows

01:24:36 ◼   ► that one so much. I will also use this as a reminder to say that there are a ton of

01:24:40 ◼   ► great shows here on Relay FM. Go to relay.fm/shows and find a show that I'm not on and check

01:24:46 ◼   ► that one out too if you haven't already. There are a ton of really great programs. But I

01:24:51 ◼   ► will also say thank you for listening to my shows and please keep listening to my shows

01:24:54 ◼   ► as well.

01:24:55 ◼   ► We may need to change the form for next year to disqualify shows we're on.

01:25:03 ◼   ► - Maybe, yeah, maybe.

01:25:04 ◼   ► I mean, we'll keep playing around with it,

01:25:06 ◼   ► but like, we wanted to simplify it,

01:25:09 ◼   ► and obviously listeners of our shows

01:25:11 ◼   ► will like the shows that we make, right?

01:25:13 ◼   ► Would be my assumption, and that seems to--

01:25:14 ◼   ► - Or at least the shows that you make.

01:25:16 ◼   ► I mean, none of my shows are on this list.

01:25:18 ◼   ► - Well, Upgrade is.

01:25:19 ◼   ► - I mean, yeah, okay.

01:25:20 ◼   ► But the other two are not, they're you.

01:25:22 ◼   ► They love, well, and, but then again,

01:25:24 ◼   ► Cortex is great and Connected is great, so I get it.

01:25:27 ◼   ► - I would like to put the Kind of Funny Games cast

01:25:30 ◼   ► in as a runner-up.

01:25:31 ◼   ► I'm not gonna push for a twirl.

01:25:32 ◼   ► - Okay, great.

01:25:33 ◼   ► - And then I will abstain from deciding the winner.

01:25:36 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:25:39 ◼   ► - Play Date Podcast is the other runner up.

01:25:41 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:25:42 ◼   ► - And Connected is the winner.

01:25:45 ◼   ► - Thank you very much.

01:25:46 ◼   ► So what this does is, because we're gonna look at the,

01:25:50 ◼   ► we're including the tech podcasts here.

01:25:53 ◼   ► So that now makes Connected a two-time winner of an upgradee.

01:26:01 ◼   ► I thought about making Upgrade the runner-up

01:26:03 ◼   ► because I thought it would be funny.

01:26:05 ◼   ► Upgrade was the runner-up last year.

01:26:07 ◼   ► - And the year before.

01:26:08 ◼   ► - There is something funny about our own podcast,

01:26:11 ◼   ► never quite winning the awards.

01:26:12 ◼   ► - Just never doing enough to get it over the line.

01:26:16 ◼   ► - But that's what I would say for this year.

01:26:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, I like that we're simplifying the categories.

01:26:21 ◼   ► I do wonder if,

01:26:25 ◼   ► we'll see how we feel about this for next year.

01:26:28 ◼   ► 'cause if this just ends up happening every year,

01:26:31 ◼   ► I mean, eventually all of our shows

01:26:35 ◼   ► will just get lifetime achievements

01:26:38 ◼   ► and just fall off the line.

01:26:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, but that's a lot.

01:26:39 ◼   ► - But it's like if we didn't do it,

01:26:41 ◼   ► ATP would be here every single time, right?

01:26:43 ◼   ► And so, yeah, we're gonna have to work that out,

01:26:46 ◼   ► but I will say for this time, thank you very much.

01:26:49 ◼   ► - It's an imperfect category.

01:26:50 ◼   ► - It felt pretty good to me, I will say.

01:26:52 ◼   ► Felt pretty good to me.

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01:27:56 ◼   ► or you can create a domain name that shortens it out.

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01:29:03 ◼   ► What is your favorite Apple product of 2022? Well that's a big question isn't it?

01:29:14 ◼   ► a lot of good Apple products this year. M2 MacBook Air this year.

01:29:18 ◼   ► AirPods Pro 2 this year. Love them both a lot. Bought them both, right?

01:29:26 ◼   ► But there's another Apple product that I bought this year that I love, that I bought.

01:29:34 ◼   ► And it blew our minds when it was announced. Because a new Mac in a new category that we

01:29:42 ◼   ► that we haven't seen before, what is this thing?

01:29:44 ◼   ► That's the Mac Studio.

01:29:45 ◼   ► And Mac Studio is my favorite Apple product of the year.

01:29:49 ◼   ► I bought the base model basically,

01:29:53 ◼   ► but I love that they, remember that this is the product

01:29:56 ◼   ► they rolled out, it's the fastest Mac ever.

01:29:59 ◼   ► I believe the high-end M2 Ultra,

01:30:03 ◼   ► or M1 Ultra Mac Studio, like this little thing,

01:30:09 ◼   ► it's the fastest Mac ever.

01:30:10 ◼   ► and it kind of came out of nowhere.

01:30:13 ◼   ► So I feel like we may never see its like again, Myke.

01:30:18 ◼   ► We may never see its like again, but this year we saw it.

01:30:23 ◼   ► - I don't really have a lot of thoughts about the Mac Studio

01:30:25 ◼   ► other than the fact that I think it's an interesting product.

01:30:28 ◼   ► You know, I decided it wasn't one for me

01:30:30 ◼   ► and it's also a weird product in some way,

01:30:31 ◼   ► but that kind of makes it kind of adorable.

01:30:34 ◼   ► But no matter what, it was easy for me.

01:30:38 ◼   ► The M2 MacBook Air is actually my favorite Mac of all time.

01:30:42 ◼   ► It is a perfect laptop.

01:30:46 ◼   ► - It's pretty good.

01:30:48 ◼   ► - I have zero problems with it.

01:30:50 ◼   ► I have never found a better,

01:30:54 ◼   ► I've never experienced a better combination

01:30:57 ◼   ► of portability and power.

01:30:58 ◼   ► And it is so powerful and it is so thin

01:31:03 ◼   ► and it is so light.

01:31:05 ◼   ► It is just an absolutely wonderful computer.

01:31:09 ◼   ► It's my favorite Mac that I've ever owned.

01:31:11 ◼   ► It just makes me happy.

01:31:13 ◼   ► And it's just another reason why it's like,

01:31:16 ◼   ► I'm just all in on the Mac now.

01:31:19 ◼   ► And that laptop is just absolutely perfect.

01:31:22 ◼   ► I can put it in my backpack every day,

01:31:24 ◼   ► take it to and from the studio,

01:31:25 ◼   ► so I can have it at home if I ever need it.

01:31:27 ◼   ► And I barely know it's in my bag.

01:31:30 ◼   ► It is outstanding.

01:31:32 ◼   ► I get that there are more powerful laptops.

01:31:35 ◼   ► I get that.

01:31:38 ◼   ► I get that there are laptops with better screens

01:31:41 ◼   ► and more ports.

01:31:43 ◼   ► Like get, totally get it.

01:31:45 ◼   ► There are more powerful

01:31:48 ◼   ► and feature rich Mac laptops available.

01:31:51 ◼   ► And yet, I think if you looked at the M2 MacBook Air

01:31:57 ◼   ► and what it can do, you know,

01:31:59 ◼   ► and you could say like, oh, well, 20 years ago,

01:32:00 ◼   ► boy, it would blow people's minds.

01:32:02 ◼   ► two years ago it would blow people's minds, right?

01:32:05 ◼   ► Three years ago it would completely blow people's minds.

01:32:08 ◼   ► Of users of any Mac laptop.

01:32:12 ◼   ► And it's the not quite low end

01:32:14 ◼   ► 'cause they kept the M1 around

01:32:16 ◼   ► and put this in at a higher price,

01:32:17 ◼   ► which is one of the unfortunate things about it

01:32:19 ◼   ► is that it can't hold down $999 at this point.

01:32:23 ◼   ► Will eventually probably, but not yet.

01:32:26 ◼   ► But what it's capable of doing,

01:32:30 ◼   ► And we've struggled with this in the computer world

01:32:32 ◼   ► for a very long time now,

01:32:34 ◼   ► which is as Moore's law advances

01:32:36 ◼   ► and we get these more powerful computers,

01:32:38 ◼   ► yeah, we add more features that take advantage of the power

01:32:41 ◼   ► and to do different things.

01:32:43 ◼   ► And there's now machine learning processing,

01:32:45 ◼   ► there's all this stuff going on.

01:32:47 ◼   ► But the truth is a long time ago,

01:32:50 ◼   ► we left the era where computers were not powerful enough

01:32:55 ◼   ► for 95, 98% of the people who use computers.

01:32:59 ◼   ► We did that actually kind of a long time ago,

01:33:02 ◼   ► but even if you'd argue, yes,

01:33:03 ◼   ► but there were these edge cases,

01:33:05 ◼   ► like we've definitely left it now.

01:33:07 ◼   ► That I would argue that unless you are an incredibly

01:33:10 ◼   ► high-end Mac user, which a lot of our listeners are,

01:33:16 ◼   ► but I would say even among those people

01:33:17 ◼   ► who self-identify as high-end Mac users,

01:33:20 ◼   ► you know, like if you get a 14 or a 16 inch MacBook Pro,

01:33:26 ◼   ► I think you're probably doing it

01:33:28 ◼   ► for the ports and the screen and not the power

01:33:31 ◼   ► because almost nobody needs more power

01:33:35 ◼   ► than the M2 MacBook Air.

01:33:37 ◼   ► That's amazing to me.

01:33:39 ◼   ► There are nice things about those MacBook Pros

01:33:41 ◼   ► and when they get their M2s,

01:33:42 ◼   ► they're gonna be really fast and I get it.

01:33:44 ◼   ► But like the M2 is so powerful and has no fan.

01:33:48 ◼   ► And again, yes, are there edge cases?

01:33:53 ◼   ► Of course there are, but they are so edgy now.

01:33:56 ◼   ► So yeah, it's a great laptop.

01:33:59 ◼   ► I bought one, I love it.

01:34:00 ◼   ► It has changed my travel math as well

01:34:04 ◼   ► in that I went for a long time

01:34:07 ◼   ► just trying to avoid bringing my MacBook Air with me.

01:34:09 ◼   ► And now I bring my MacBook Air with me

01:34:11 ◼   ► because it's so light and so completely capable.

01:34:14 ◼   ► - Two ports, MagSafe, like come on, come on.

01:34:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, the MagSafe's really nice.

01:34:20 ◼   ► And just having it to do all the Mac things

01:34:23 ◼   ► and be so capable, it's just as capable as my desktop.

01:34:27 ◼   ► I could not have my Mac Studio

01:34:30 ◼   ► and just have my MacBook Air plugged into this display.

01:34:33 ◼   ► And a bunch of things I do would be slower.

01:34:35 ◼   ► It's absolutely true, but not really any slower

01:34:39 ◼   ► than like the iMac Pro I was using before.