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Upgrade

207: Max Rebate

 

00:00:00   [Intro]

00:00:07   From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, episode 207.

00:00:11   The Summer of Fun continues, and today's show is brought to you by

00:00:14   Squarespace, Pingdom, and Inboard Technology.

00:00:17   I am beach lovin', surfin' turfin', Myke Hurley,

00:00:21   and I'm joined by the master of vibes, Jason Snell.

00:00:26   Hey, dude!

00:00:30   California freewheelin', Jason Snell.

00:00:34   I, uh, when I was a kid and I was on like bulletin board

00:00:38   computer stuff with people from all over the country, I had people,

00:00:42   there were these guys in North Dakota who I knew, and they're in Fargo, North Dakota, and they're

00:00:46   like, "Oh, how often do you go to the beach?" And I'm like, "I got bad news for you." I'm like,

00:00:51   "More than 100 miles from the ocean." They were really sad, because as far as they were concerned,

00:00:55   every single person in California was, "Hey, dude!" And I'm like, "Mmm, radical." Yeah, but

00:01:01   anyway, that's totally what we are. We're standing, this is live from a beach, we're standing under a

00:01:05   palm tree. Fun fact, when the Beach Boys formed, they didn't know how to surf. None of them knew.

00:01:12   This week's #SnellTalk question comes from Will. That is a fun fact. Will wants to know,

00:01:18   Will says, I should say, "I was listening to The Flophouse, and a smart audience member asked them,

00:01:24   'What is the movie that you would like to see a sequel from that there has never been a sequel to?'"

00:01:29   Jason, what is your answer? This is a great question by whoever asked this in that episode

00:01:34   of The Flophouse that was released this weekend. And my answer, I think I'm going to go with the

00:01:41   most obvious answer possible, which is Real Genius, one of my very favorite movies. And I would love

00:01:46   to have seen the further hijinks of the Real Genius people in the '80s. I don't think I want to see a

00:01:54   sequel now, although there was rumors that there was going to be a sequel with Val Kilmer as like a

00:02:00   professor mentoring a new group of young nerds. Maybe, but that's one of my favorite movies. And

00:02:07   it was never made into a sequel because almost everything now is a sequel or a franchise or all

00:02:12   that. But there are lots of classic movies that we love that we might wish there had been a sequel

00:02:17   and there never were. I think that was the premise of the person whose last name was withheld on The

00:02:22   Flophouse this weekend. What about you, Myke? Oh, I don't know. I don't really think I have a good

00:02:28   answer for this. I think maybe not so much of a sequel, but another movie to help flesh out the

00:02:36   story would be Scott Pilgrim. I love Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim. In fact, relay FM members are going

00:02:42   to hear me and Casey talk about it on an upcoming membership episode, bonus episode in a couple of

00:02:48   weeks. But there was so much more to that story that had to be removed and I would love to see it

00:02:55   continue or be fleshed out. I think Edgar Wright did an incredible job with that movie

00:03:00   and the source material. But I feel like it wasn't complete. It didn't have everything it could have

00:03:05   had, even though it's a good chunky two-hour movie, but it doesn't have everything I wanted.

00:03:12   So that's probably where I'll go with less exciting than Raw Genius, I think.

00:03:15   Maybe they should have done a Say Anything sequel where they're in Europe.

00:03:20   Oh man, what a great movie. I need to watch that again. I feel like it's been long enough now since

00:03:25   we did Say Anything. I really want to see that movie again. I loved it so much. I want to see if

00:03:29   it stands up to me on a second viewing. That was very good. I'm incarcerated, Lloyd.

00:03:38   I'm going to put in the show notes, I'll put the incomparable cut of the movie.

00:03:44   Yeah, the mic of the movies.

00:03:45   That will be in our show notes. So if you would like to ask a question for a future episode,

00:03:53   just send in a tweet with the hashtag #SnellTalk and that will help us when it comes to asking

00:03:58   something nice and random to begin our show every week as we do. And we would like to continue

00:04:03   today's episode by moving into some follow-up. This was from a couple of weeks ago, but I thought

00:04:08   it was an interesting question. It came from Josh. While you were discussing how Apple could spend

00:04:13   its money in episode 205, neither of you mentioned a company with smart home products like cameras

00:04:19   and light switches and smart plugs. Do you think that this should be an area that Apple is in,

00:04:24   even though it's a separate brand, something like Beats? What do you think?

00:04:27   I think it's not a surprise and not a mistake that we didn't mention it. I could see Apple doing it,

00:04:38   but it feels like this is so... What could Apple do to really differentiate this category? I feel

00:04:44   like Apple enters categories like this because they see kind of a huge opportunity for them

00:04:50   to take over. Now, Beats is an interesting example, but maybe an outlier. I think sometimes

00:04:57   Apple enters markets because they feel like the stuff out there isn't good enough. And although

00:05:01   the smart home stuff kind of isn't good enough in a lot of cases, I feel like it's getting better.

00:05:06   And I think that... What can Apple contribute to this? And Apple may actually look at

00:05:12   the whole smart home market as a bag of hurt a little bit and trying to just focus on working

00:05:18   with partners. I like that about Apple that with this, they're like, "No, no, no. We're going to

00:05:23   work with partners. We're going to set out our rules for HomeKit and security and stuff." And

00:05:27   some of those went and some of those they had to kind of back off of a little bit in terms of

00:05:30   software versus hardware. So I don't know. They could, but I'm kind of okay that they didn't.

00:05:38   And I didn't even think of it because I don't feel like Apple needs to be Belkin or something

00:05:43   like that. I don't think... Which got bought by somebody, but that kind of thing. I don't see how

00:05:50   that's a must for them, nor do I see that it's necessarily a gigantic market. I could sort of see

00:05:57   maybe something like Ecobee or something like that, where there's a specific company that's

00:06:03   very kind of Apple-like and does a product that's good that is in a particular category. But I don't

00:06:09   know, maybe Google is the lesson here. Google bought Nest and that does not seem to have gone

00:06:13   really well. I think they have problems at Nest. I think Nest would just seem to be a problematic

00:06:18   company. I think that there is definitely merit to Josh's suggestion because I think HomeKit

00:06:25   would be much more successful, I think, if Apple were leading the way and showing the products they

00:06:31   wanted to make and there would be more HomeKit products available. So it'd be kind of interesting

00:06:35   in the way that they bought Beats, right? The way now they have a wider selection, but it does feel

00:06:40   like a distraction more than Beats does. I think Apple doesn't want to be, broadly, and I know

00:06:47   there are exceptions to this, but I don't think Apple wants to broadly be in the accessory

00:06:52   business. I think if they are exiting Wi-Fi, right, they're exiting the airport,

00:06:58   this feels like products that are even less substantial than that, a smart light switch,

00:07:05   a home video camera, that like, how many of these products are they going to need to make? Now,

00:07:10   the argument, the counter-argument would be that this is why you buy a company and you take their,

00:07:16   you know, you integrate them and you create a new kind of home product division and there's a way to

00:07:20   make money there. But if I'm Apple, I think maybe it's better to have a whole bunch of different

00:07:25   companies competing with each other to make good stuff that integrates with Apple stuff.

00:07:30   And if we assume that Apple's looking at everything as through the lens of how does this kind of

00:07:37   accumulate to our ecosystem and grow our services revenue and grow our device revenue, do these,

00:07:46   does having an Apple-owned one of these really do that? Like if Apple was losing, if Apple

00:07:52   had no compatibility with most smart home things, it would be a different story. But today,

00:08:00   everybody is going to fall over themselves to make sure that they work on the iPhone,

00:08:03   not just on Android. So the market's kind of working for Apple right now. So that's why,

00:08:09   and that's why I think they got out of the Wi-Fi business too, is the same thing. Like,

00:08:14   they don't need to be there. It isn't contributing enough to the huge picture of Apple now. Because

00:08:20   it's not like in the old days where like literally, yeah, could Apple buy any company and make a

00:08:25   product that makes a little bit of profit and have it accrue to Apple's profits? Yes, but like Apple

00:08:32   is so huge now and the game it's playing is so large that some of these small products, it's just,

00:08:37   it's like, is it worth their attention at all? Is it worth their marketing time at all? Or are

00:08:42   they better off just letting smaller companies out there fight amongst themselves to make better

00:08:49   products and they're all trying to make them compatible with the iPhone? I think that,

00:08:53   I think in a market like this, that's probably the right approach.

00:08:55   Thank you to everyone who has become a Relay FM member. We have had a really wonderful outpouring

00:09:04   of support, both in new members supporting this show and just in what people have been saying

00:09:10   about how much they enjoyed our special episode Space Station, where we play a text adventure with

00:09:15   CGP Grey with Jason Snell as the computer, the Snellatron. There is a, this was something that

00:09:22   wasn't available when we spoke about the show last week. It went up when the episode went up on

00:09:26   Friday. There is a trailer that Grey have made, which is incredible, which gives you a taste for

00:09:32   what Space Station is all about. I put a link in the show notes so you can go and watch that on

00:09:36   YouTube if you still haven't become a member and you're interested in kind of getting a flavor

00:09:40   for what our text adventure episodes are like. You can still sign up and get this along with all of

00:09:45   the other bonus content and special perks that we have for Relay FM members. Membership start-off,

00:09:51   they have $5 a month. There is a link in the show notes for this show, which you can find on our

00:09:55   website and you can also find in your podcast app of choice. You can tap that and just support the

00:10:00   show very easily. It's just a couple of clicks and you can sign up or you can go to relay.fm/membership

00:10:05   and learn more. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Huge, just thank you so much to everyone that has

00:10:11   become a Relay FM member and I really, really hope that all of the bonus content that you get is

00:10:18   what makes it worth it for you because we try very hard to do that. So I hope that it

00:10:23   that it makes it worth it. I was enjoying some membership content just the other day.

00:10:28   Some special though, the special there's a special reconcilable differences. That's great. Very good.

00:10:33   We have a download clockwise combo that is super wacky about Apple products that either should be

00:10:40   killed or were killed. Oh my gosh. That is coming out this week that is also pretty amazing with me

00:10:47   and Steven and Micah and Dan. I also have this, I got an email from Jared Sorensen who is the author

00:10:53   of the text adventure that we played and his comment is to me, he says, "You are way too

00:10:59   forgiving for you and Grey. I should have been much meaner to you." And also it's hilarious they

00:11:06   keep referring to the spaceship when the game is called Space Station. Oh whatever, you know.

00:11:13   Yeah well that sums it up. Whatever. I will say that the book is wonderful. I have the PDF

00:11:20   that I backed the Kickstarter campaign. It's really, really good. So I'll put a link in the

00:11:27   show notes to that if you want to go and see it. It's really wonderful. Yeah these are great

00:11:31   party games. If you've got a group of people, these text adventures, you buy Jared's book and

00:11:36   there's like 10 different games in there and you can play them where you get everybody in an order

00:11:42   and they all kind of shout commands at the parser and it's actually really hilarious. It's great for

00:11:48   large groups and small groups obviously all the way down to just the two people so people should

00:11:52   definitely check it out. It's fun. I own the book and I think I'm getting, I bought the physical

00:11:55   book too but I can never look in them. No you can't. You can look at the art. You can look at

00:12:00   Space Station now and see the art and see where you went and all of those things and you know you

00:12:05   can look at Spooky Manor. Having seen the instructions you had, I am in even more awe of

00:12:11   your ability to navigate us through that than ever. It's kind of wonderful because that I don't know

00:12:18   how you make it work the way you do but you do. So yeah thank you if you can remember. Please I hope

00:12:23   you enjoy it. That's awesome. Let's do some follow-out. There is a podcast created by The

00:12:30   Midroll which is the kind of advertising podcast advertising giant and I think they own Stitcher

00:12:37   and they produce some content and stuff like that. Yeah they're Earwolf podcast network and Stitcher

00:12:42   and then they do Stitcher Premium and they also sell ads as The Midroll. They have a show about

00:12:47   the business of podcasting which we've both been on before. It's called The Wharf Den and it's

00:12:52   mostly hosted by a friend of the show, Lex Friedman. He just did an episode with Marco

00:12:58   Arment, creator of Overcast and host of Accent Attack podcast etc etc and they spoke a lot about

00:13:03   the real intricacies, some of the challenges and ways that the podcast industry is changing

00:13:11   right now as quite interestingly a corporate ad company and a hesitant to corporations but

00:13:21   app developer right who has a pretty large market share with Overcast. So it was really interesting

00:13:27   to hear them debate a lot of these really intricate things about the industry. It tickles your fancy.

00:13:32   I think it is a very interesting listen. I also just wanted to mention because it was very nice

00:13:36   Marco picked upgrade for the question of the podcast he is jealous of and I thought that was

00:13:41   really cool so thank you Marco. Yes that was I was listening to that podcast because I wanted to hear

00:13:47   those guys who have such different takes on it talking about it. I thought it was pretty good.

00:13:52   I thought it was a really reasonable conversation. I thought there was a lot of actually self

00:13:56   reflection on Marco's part about sort of like yeah that really made me angry but like looking at it

00:14:02   in the long view it's probably not that big a deal. I like that he said like people grow and I

00:14:07   like burst out laughing. It's like yeah I guess they do. That was yeah it's a good conversation

00:14:12   if you care about the nitty-gritty of like how podcasting works and that's something we talk

00:14:17   about here and we've gotten positive feedback about from some people. So if you're one of those

00:14:21   people check out that episode because it's great and I love those guys and it was fun to hear them

00:14:26   kind of joust back and forth a little bit. They refer to each other as like frenemies at the end

00:14:31   and it's very funny and good stuff and very kind. I kind of was not expecting upgrade to be Marco's

00:14:39   choice of podcasts he was jealous of and that was that was an extra delightful thing. Yeah I

00:14:46   learned some stuff. Should we do some quick upstream? Let's have some headlines for you

00:14:50   mostly. Just a little bit. Facebook have bought more football/soccer. They've signed a three-year

00:14:55   deal to show every La Liga game in India. La Liga is the Spanish football league so that's just

00:15:02   another deal that Facebook have done. They're going to be exclusive in India. They seem to be

00:15:06   doing this right now. It really feels like a test right? They're buying live sports stuff and showing

00:15:11   them to markets that are large but probably aren't the main market right? So the biggest market for

00:15:18   La Liga is in Spain right? They're not going for that or the biggest market for the Premier League

00:15:24   is in the UK but they're showing it in some other like far-flung countries. So it's just interesting

00:15:31   to see them going down this road. Yeah and Disney on ESPN Plus their streaming service just signed

00:15:37   up Serie A the Italian soccer league and a similar kind of thing where it's just like let's experiment

00:15:44   with live sports and see on streaming and buying the rights there. A lot of times the rights that

00:15:49   get bought like you said are not the like the super expensive rights. They are often the you know

00:15:55   kind of there's an interesting middle ground where it's not the super expensive because it's popular

00:16:01   and there's also these super expensive for consumers because it's not at all popular.

00:16:06   It becomes a niche. The example I can give you is like cricket in the US. Like if you want to watch

00:16:11   cricket in the US you have to pay a lot of money and that's because almost nobody is going to watch

00:16:16   cricket in the US. They know the people who are going to watch are people who are desperate for

00:16:20   cricket and so they can charge them pay-per-view prices basically. It's very expensive but in the

00:16:25   middle you get something like this which is you know there's a growing market for soccer in the

00:16:30   US. There's a growing appetite for it. Fox has the Bundesliga I think the German league. NBC has the

00:16:38   premier league and so Disney has signed up for the Italian league and put it on their streaming

00:16:44   service and so just more of this experimentation. NBC I mentioned a few months back that they used

00:16:51   to show all the games on their channels or streaming and now they've moved all of the

00:16:57   premiership games that they're not showing on standard channels to their premium streaming

00:17:03   service. So it's another example of like can we get people to pay for our streaming service in

00:17:08   order to get this live sports. So it's a we talk a lot about scripted here but sports is another

00:17:15   example where all of these media giants are experimenting to see what the appetite for this

00:17:21   stuff is and if there's how solid the market is and what they should be spending for the rights

00:17:25   and all of those things it's definitely happening. YouTube's upcoming movie Viper Club is going to be

00:17:29   getting a theatrical release. Google clearly thinks and I guess wants their Susan Sarandon

00:17:35   starred movie to pick up some awards. I guess this is maybe their most serious production so they

00:17:42   want to get it to be considered in you know the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, that kind of

00:17:46   thing. Yeah for the Academy Awards you got to run like a week in New York and a week in LA or

00:17:50   something like that in a theater there are these very specific rules that are to be a legitimate

00:17:55   awards contender. So it's going to be getting a limited run in theaters in the US as well as being

00:17:59   available on YouTube Premium at the same time. It's made for YouTube Premium you know what used

00:18:04   to be called YouTube Red but they want to they want to get some awards they want to pick up the

00:18:08   awards like Amazon and Netflix have been doing. Mostly Amazon right? Amazon seems to be yeah.

00:18:13   Amazon has a straightforward policy where they're like releasing the movies in theaters as a real

00:18:18   theatrical release and then they send it to Prime Video later so like Manchester by the Sea was an

00:18:24   example of that and that was an Oscar-nominated film. Netflix is not so sure they ever ever want

00:18:31   to do that right but they I'm sure they want to win Academy Awards if they could but they seem to

00:18:36   be pretty committed to just premiering their movies on their service and not worry. Yeah

00:18:39   they're taking the route of fighting publicly with the Academy I suppose. And the Cannes Film

00:18:45   Festival and all the rest yeah. And finally Apple have joined the Alliance for Open Media.

00:18:52   This is a group of technology companies currently working on a compression format known as AV1

00:18:58   which is a codec that can compress files to be 25 to 35 percent smaller video files than H.265 or

00:19:05   Google's VP9. Other companies in this alliance include Amazon, Facebook, Hulu, VLC and Google.

00:19:12   So maybe this is how sometime in the future Apple would plan to support 4k for more providers

00:19:18   because they're joining this this open standard alliance. Thank you to Dayton for sending this in.

00:19:24   Yeah this is really interesting I was glad Dayton sent this in. This is maybe how you defuse the

00:19:29   VP9 versus HEVC impasse of Google and Apple which is come up agree on a next generation codec that

00:19:40   everybody supports and use that instead. And then Google can say well we're moving on from VP9 to AV1

00:19:47   and Apple can say we just added support for AV1 which is awesome and it's over at that point. And

00:19:53   maybe that's the best way forward is just to to get everybody on the same page. It's annoying in

00:19:57   the meantime but it's a good it's a good sign for the long term for for customers for regular people

00:20:03   who just want to watch a pretty pretty 4k video on their computers and TVs and all the rest.

00:20:08   It is fun to note that the alliance of open media have since removed Apple from the page.

00:20:15   I'm expecting that because it hit the news Apple were like uh-uh take us off. But I am of the

00:20:22   belief that they are a part of this. I believe that they are because I think it just makes a lot

00:20:27   of sense because literally every other provider is a part of this alliance. So yeah so it is a

00:20:34   little mysterious but it may be that they haven't signed it or maybe they will join but they don't

00:20:38   want to be discussed. They can be a silent partner. Apple does that a lot more than you would think

00:20:43   where Apple joins things and sometimes it's just to be present and to steer it behind the scenes

00:20:51   a little bit and to know what's going on and I would not be surprised if that's what's going on

00:20:57   here. But it does open the possibility that everybody will get together and agree on a on

00:21:03   a standard that Apple will support too. All right let's take our first break and thank our friends

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00:22:20   pingdom.com/relayfm and then the code upgrade for 30% off. Our thanks to Pingdom for their support

00:22:26   of this show and Relay FM. So a Chinese news outlet by the name of the Economic Daily News

00:22:37   is reporting that... Hey it's translated come on. It's reporting... I mean Wall Street Journal is a

00:22:42   ludicrous name too. Wall Street? Which is it? Who's writing in a journal? The Economist right?

00:22:48   Like they're all funny. He must be very old now The Economist. He's been around a long time.

00:22:55   Like the New York Times. It doesn't write up just about New York. When you start to like take these

00:22:59   names out of context they don't make any sense. But anyway the Economic Daily News is reporting

00:23:04   that the OLED funds debuting this year will adopt Apple Pencil support. They are stating that the

00:23:11   Taiwanese chip supplier Elan has been apparently tasked with the project. They currently produce

00:23:17   chips for Wacom Stylus's styli. This also echoes an analyst report from earlier in the week. A

00:23:24   report from a company called Trend Force that states that this is one of the ways Apple will

00:23:29   look to increase ASP on the iPhone line as well as having three storage tiers available 64 gigabytes

00:23:35   256 and 512. I will say that like I saw the analyst report and I wasn't going to include it

00:23:41   because analyst reports are conjecture. They're not proof of anything right? It's just like

00:23:46   sometimes there's whispers but most of the times like this is what we believe will happen for these

00:23:50   reasons and the reasons can make sense but a lot of the time it's just people saying stuff to be

00:23:55   right. It was when it was followed up by this kind of supply chain thing that I thought we would talk

00:24:01   about it today. Yeah I think I wrote a piece a week ago maybe from Tom's Guide. It was one of my

00:24:09   Tom's Guide every other week iPhone stories. They wanted me to kind of jump off of the Galaxy Note 9

00:24:15   and one of the things that and essentially what I talked about is the iPhone 10 plus this thing

00:24:20   that we've been talking about like that larger iPhone and what it is and what it could do and

00:24:23   how it compares to what Samsung just announced and all of that. One of the big parts of that I think

00:24:31   is Samsung for a long time now has had the S Pen with the Galaxy Note. They've got the little thing

00:24:35   you can you know slide it in and pop it out and all of that. What I said in the article is and I

00:24:42   really believe this I don't just write these things and not believe them I believe them.

00:24:45   If there was going to be a time when Apple added pencil support to the iPhone don't you think that

00:24:51   iPhone 10 plus would be like the right time? It's a big 6.5 inch phone huge top of the line you know

00:24:59   and then at that point like the OS already has pencil stuff built into it right. It's already

00:25:05   got the thing where if you tap on the locked screen it brings up a note and lets you let's

00:25:11   you write on it on the iPad right. It's already got that. It's already got all this stuff. There

00:25:15   was an article that I read at an outlet I will not name that was like oh Apple needs to really

00:25:21   follow the Samsung example and one of the examples was like writing with a pencil and stuff like that

00:25:28   and I was like yeah they have it all. They have all the pieces and they could add a few more

00:25:34   that might be phone centric. I feel like the question is like what would the hardware support

00:25:37   be? Will you be expected to kind of like carry it around in your pocket or something because

00:25:42   the current Apple pencil is so long that it's not really a pocketable device. It's a folio kind of

00:25:49   thing for iPads so like that's the part that stumps me a little bit is like you kind of need

00:25:53   to create a new like Apple mini pencil or iPhone pencil or something like that but otherwise I

00:25:59   think it would be great. I think they've laid all the foundation to do pencil support on an iPhone

00:26:05   and that this big rumored big iPhone 10 plus is the perfect place to do it. I know you love the

00:26:11   pencil. What do you think about and you love big phones like is this the perfect mic sweet spot or

00:26:15   what? So I've been predicting like you know in predictions shows I've been predicting this for

00:26:21   like two years now right that like the Apple pencils are bought on the iPhone because it

00:26:26   feels like a logical next step especially when if you say they have all the technology there

00:26:32   an Apple's biggest competitor is doing it and people like it right like the the stylus the

00:26:40   S pen I think was a joke at first where a lot of people was like oh look it's a stylus because we

00:26:44   were in that world of like you're the stylus you blew it right but then that all went away when the

00:26:48   Apple pencil came out because because after the meme died away but now like people buy the note

00:26:57   because of the stylus because the Galaxy S9 or whatever the S9 plus is basically the same size

00:27:03   they're very close in size but then the note has this whole other suite of things that it can do

00:27:08   we spoke about it on last week's episode like I was excited about the fact that has bluetooth now so

00:27:13   you can program the buttons and stuff like that so I think that yes the iPhone the big iPhone should

00:27:20   have Apple pencil support I believe that I'm interested about if this this report is true

00:27:27   that it will be on both of the OLED phones because as we spoke about in the past right the LCD phone

00:27:33   is actually bigger than the smallest OLED phone so there's like this weird stuff here about kind of

00:27:38   like what does size mean but I am sure we will get into that a lot in September right about like the

00:27:44   the lineup and what size means and how it gets spread yeah but do I think Apple's gonna do it

00:27:54   this time around I don't know like I know I want it and it feels logical right but there are a lot

00:28:01   of things that make me question it yeah even if this is the most likely scenario we've ever seen

00:28:08   it doesn't mean it's likely right I feel like this is like a 33 chance 40 chance something like that

00:28:15   it's still not I think more I think it's more likely that they don't do it than that they do

00:28:19   but it does feel like this is an opportunity for them to do it if they choose this seems like a

00:28:27   good time where they've got a lot of the pieces in place to do it because the thing is this is the

00:28:35   thing okay they have to create a new Apple pencil you can't that's it yeah use the current Apple

00:28:44   pencil on a phone because that is ludicrous that is absolutely ludicrous so it has to be smaller in

00:28:50   size if it is will it be stored in the phone that is the most logical thing but it goes against

00:28:55   literally everything Apple seems to believe about how they built their phones right having this big

00:29:01   hole in the phone yeah I have a hard time seeing them use internal iPhone space on a pop-out pencil

00:29:07   kind of thing I'll throw another piece in the mix here which is that when the iPad the the you know

00:29:13   no name iPad was announced in Chicago right it came with this new Logitech crayon support yeah

00:29:21   which they worked with Apple on and it uses wireless tech that is not the Bluetooth tech that

00:29:26   is in the Apple pencil and you don't have to like pair it you just it's proximity based and it writes

00:29:33   on it and that's really interesting because that that makes you at least ask is that a new

00:29:40   technology that Apple is intending to spread to other devices like they did exactly like they put

00:29:46   new wireless capabilities in this iPad just for Logitech just for schools like they went through

00:29:54   all this work like it seems like an awful lot of work to do for a very niche use like if they were

00:30:01   selling the Logitech crayon to everyone I would understand it more but it really does feel like

00:30:06   oh we've been used we've been developing this technology for Apple pencil support on the iPhone

00:30:11   so we'll put it into this iPad as well or like right we've been going down this route and we're

00:30:17   not going to use this exact thing but we developed it so maybe we should put it here because I agree

00:30:21   it seems like they really went through a lot right to to to make this particular link with this

00:30:27   product when in theory Logitech could have just created something that worked the same way the

00:30:33   Apple pencil does they didn't need to create a whole new way of connecting the devices there is

00:30:40   the one the one reason that it happened and that they made it happen is I think there was a concern

00:30:46   for schools one that they wanted a lower cost stylus which is I think why they made the crayon

00:30:52   with Logitech but two this idea of having to pair the devices and in a classroom you might be writing

00:30:59   on different people's iPads and stuff right and the idea with this thing is unlike the Apple

00:31:03   pencil which this does not work you can't take your Apple pencil that's paired with your iPad and

00:31:08   then and then just sort of turn to the person on your right who has an iPad pro and right on their

00:31:13   screen too it doesn't work but with the crayon it does right so there is there is a little bit there

00:31:19   but I agree with you like seems like a long way to go just just for that and not to feel like there's

00:31:27   something else going on we talked about this for the last couple years a lot of times you look at

00:31:30   the things that Apple's doing and it they're like little things but then you look at the bigger

00:31:35   picture and you're like I think they're headed in a direction like with removing the home screen or

00:31:40   the home button you know introducing gestural stuff like that was all leading somewhere and

00:31:47   changing how multitasking works it was all leading somewhere this feels like it's leading somewhere

00:31:51   now maybe that's wishful thinking but it does feel like it and and that's why I wanted to ask you like

00:31:56   you seem to be potentially the prime audience for this sort of thing is that you know is that what

00:32:04   you're thinking is like you would really love to have a new Apple pencil and a giant iPhone to

00:32:10   scribble things down on or you know or is your enthusiasm tempered I'm just kind of curious

00:32:14   because this is much more a product development for you than it is for me yeah let's park to the

00:32:20   side the Apple pencil as it currently is because you know I said a bunch of times like I want the

00:32:23   one on the iPad to be different I want more advancements to it but just looking at the phone

00:32:28   I 100% want this for many reasons you know the same ergonomic reasons that I have for the iPad

00:32:34   to find it more comfortable to to use something in a pen form factor instead of tapping and using

00:32:40   my hands all the time it's just more comfortable for me and I would get a lot of utility out of

00:32:47   being able to scribble things down quickly right like and the idea of being able to have that

00:32:53   as a support in my iPhone seems really interesting but there are so many details about this which

00:33:01   seem kind of unclear and I'm interested about right like will it have any technology in it

00:33:07   really maybe not right maybe it's just as simple as the current Apple pencil is you know like it's

00:33:12   not that buttons or whatever or that crayon right like maybe it's that simple or the crayon yeah

00:33:17   which you know is interesting right and then like how do you charge it and all that kind of stuff

00:33:21   but the biggest thing is how big is it what's the form factor and where does it go my expectation is

00:33:27   it will go in like some kind of folio case but I don't want to use a folio case right so there's

00:33:30   like they have to if that's how it's going to be presented to us then there has to be some really

00:33:36   compelling things for why you would want to use the pencil on the iPhone and I would expect like

00:33:43   all the iPad stuff is great but there should be more right like there's some really cool stuff

00:33:49   that you can do with the note and I would love to see Apple try and maybe find their own things you

00:33:55   know like what I really love with the note is when you're scribbling something down I really like the

00:34:02   way that you just do it on the black screen because they're all lit phones right like it

00:34:05   doesn't actually open a note in their notes app you just write something on the screen and it's like

00:34:10   the the you know it's just I find that quite a delightful interaction so you know I don't really

00:34:15   know what it would be but I feel like if it's not going to be in the phone which I don't believe that

00:34:20   they will do that I really don't think they will do it I think it will be external they have to

00:34:24   give people some really good use cases for why they would want to buy it because Apple will 100

00:34:30   sell it to you they won't include it and I want to see like a really good use case for why they

00:34:37   think that it is the right time to add something like this to the phone I think your folio case

00:34:41   idea which they've announced the first Apple phone folio case last year I think and I wonder there if

00:34:50   that maybe is also a strange sign of things to come where they might offer a folio case

00:34:56   with a pen holder for something like this and it's interesting you're right a lot of people

00:35:03   will be like yeah but then you're buying the the case which costs 120 in the pencil or pen or

00:35:09   whatever they call it or something yeah exactly right and but that's Apple right and and then

00:35:14   there will be third-party opportunities where there'll be a thing you stick on that's like a

00:35:18   little loop or there's like a little magnet adapter or you have whatever I agree it's one

00:35:23   of the problems that I think prevents Apple from doing this is not the hardware of the iPhone and

00:35:28   it's not the software because they've done that on the iPad Pro it's the ergonomics of a pen

00:35:37   with a phone because I think you're right I don't see them making a pop-out stylus like the note

00:35:46   and so then what right then it gets all fiddly and maybe their argument's going to be this is

00:35:51   why you get the notebook case which is a folio with a pen holder and it automatically wakes and

00:35:57   sleeps the device and all those things and now you're carrying around a little notebook that's

00:36:01   also your phone because here's the thing right at that level who needs an iPad mini anymore

00:36:05   oh certainly it's a huge screen this phone is an iPad mini at that point it's like an inch

00:36:13   in difference it has the smart cover right like it becomes an infinitely more compelling device

00:36:21   to certain people like it's an iPad nano at that point and that is a very interesting product

00:36:26   and when you you know you're saying about like you gotta buy the case and you gotta buy the pencil

00:36:31   you kind of go out looking back at what the trend force uh folk were saying they're doing this to

00:36:36   increase the ASP because that helps them in their earnings and stuff now and of course like you're

00:36:42   turning a 1000 phone into a 1500 phone close to right by the time you've got the size you want

00:36:49   then all of the accessories this is one of the ways that they ended up turning the ASP up on the

00:36:55   iPad was by creating these expensive accessories that are really good right you got the smart

00:37:01   keyboard and the apple pencil and it pushed up the ASP on the iPad line and this is a great way to

00:37:08   push up the iPhone on the top end in the pro level is by having a bunch of really good technically

00:37:15   like savvy accessories yeah and that means not only is the ASP of the iPhone line going up but

00:37:20   the ASP of you know of total revenue from a customer goes up because now they're buying

00:37:25   a pencil now they're buying a case now they're doing all those things not everybody will buy

00:37:28   the case you know everybody we know the usual suspects will come out with other ways of holding

00:37:34   or attaching such a thing but apple will have their official story way of doing it and i don't

00:37:42   know i mean i i feel like again we're back to it i feel like this is something they absolutely could

00:37:47   do and i think it'll be good again not a part of the product i think that's actually leaving the

00:37:54   space inside the iPhone that's filled with battery aside making it part of the product makes it

00:38:01   mandatory in a way that i think apple doesn't want to make leaving aside that they can get another

00:38:06   hundred dollars out of you plus maybe a case i think apple doesn't want to say this is the

00:38:11   iPhone that needs a pencil like it doesn't want to do that so it's not going to be i think a part of

00:38:16   it for all of these reasons but i think about people who carry little uh you know little

00:38:22   notebooks little field notes notebooks and pens around with them right all the time and i think

00:38:28   now you don't you know now the pitch is you don't need to do that anymore you can carry around one

00:38:33   of these little apple pens or pencils and your iPhone and your iPhone is your notebook and if

00:38:38   you want to jot something down you literally can just pick it up and start writing and jot it down

00:38:42   and it works and like that is pretty cool and the dream of the Newton is finally realized

00:38:47   only took 25 years 30 years something like that yeah something like that all right today's show

00:38:54   is also brought to you by our friends over inboard technology the genius is behind the motorized m1

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00:41:10   of this show emery lay fm so it is still the summer of fun summer of fun but there's there's

00:41:17   been a casualty of the summer of fun jason oh no ask what do we do i feel like we have not oh yeah

00:41:23   we've been skipping some ask upgrades recently we've not been doing as many because we've been

00:41:27   running out of time so today we're going to do an ask upgrade double feature double the ask upgrade

00:41:33   double the fun double the fun because what is more fun mike than answering questions from listeners

00:41:39   nothing nothing nothing there is nothing more fun and we start with david david says jason do you

00:41:45   use plaques if so why not just rip your 4k blu-ray discs and play it there david is talking about when

00:41:51   we were talking about your 4k issues and having to use like voodoo and all that kind of stuff

00:41:56   and then buying an xbox so that i can play those hdr 4k discs and all of that um xbox is going

00:42:02   great by the way my son really is loving it we're playing uh he's playing no man's sky which has

00:42:06   been updated for 4k as well and uh it's really great and his and his best friend who moved away

00:42:11   um also has it on xbox so they can actually adventure together and play together now

00:42:16   that's awesome yeah what a great game for them to try out like you know to have that kind of

00:42:20   experience and it's it's already a beautiful game but it's like on that 4k tv it's even more

00:42:24   beautiful to answer david's question so first off 4k blu-rays aren't blu-rays they're they're

00:42:31   like next generation blu-rays which means that existing blu-ray hardware won't play them including

00:42:35   my blu-ray disc that i've got the usb drive that i've got so i would need to buy a new 4k blu-ray

00:42:42   drive compatible thing and the other thing is uh ripping discs is it requires uh breaking drm and

00:42:52   as you might expect the 4k uhd discs have new a new drm scheme that after they are slowly figuring

00:43:00   out how to break it but you have to break it not that you would ever you know this is just like in

00:43:05   theory no no no i mean i am in favor if you if you bought the disc if you bought the disc and want to

00:43:11   copy the bits off of it for your own personal use of you but you know you should be able to do that

00:43:15   give you the option to jump out of that if you if you want to no no i am entirely in favor of people

00:43:21   breaking drm in order for their own personal use because i like the power is evil yeah i mean it's

00:43:26   if i bought your disc i'm not pirating stuff i'm buying your disc but if i want to buy your blu-ray

00:43:32   disc and put on my plex server for my own use then um and with the bit rates of of hd stuff

00:43:39   it's seriously only for my own use in my house because i'd pity the person who would try to

00:43:43   stream it um so if i do all that and i get it working well then there's the next case which is

00:43:49   i also have to rely on the my my home network and the device i'm streaming to being strong enough

00:43:56   and then honestly the the size of these files is enormous the size of the regular hd movies is

00:44:03   enormous let alone the 4k which is why i tend to use um don melton's scripts to re-encode them

00:44:09   so i'm not like john sierakusa and leaving them at the original bitrate because the files are too

00:44:13   large and those are just the 1080 versions the uhd versions are going to be massive and at that point

00:44:18   i decided you know what this is so many different barriers when i can just get a movie that i really

00:44:24   want to see in 4k and i can get the disc and i can leave it around and i can stick it in if i want to

00:44:29   watch black panther over the weekend it's beautiful looked so good and that's fine that's fine maybe

00:44:35   i'll feel different if i have hundreds of them but at that point maybe my hard drive will be so huge

00:44:39   that i can fit that stuff on there but for now the point of these things is max bit rate and a max

00:44:46   bit rate file on my even on my drobo server is gonna it's gonna just eat a hard drive with one

00:44:51   thing and at that point i might as well just keep the little optical disc around so i'm gonna these

00:44:56   are my reasons there are many but in the end any one of them would be enough to stop me is max bit

00:45:02   rate max headroom's friend max bit rate will be a supporting player on my reboot of max headroom

00:45:09   which i'm ready to do as soon as somebody from hollywood comes to me just call me call me the max

00:45:15   headroom i would do that in a heartbeat andreas in the chat room has recommended the media station 16

00:45:20   times desktop bd xl blu-ray writer as uh by buffalo as a potential option for you jason so i'll put

00:45:28   that it's huge is it huge i don't know if it's i can't tell i mean we need a banana for scale

00:45:33   it's huge compared to the little one that i have now but it's that's nice i one day maybe but i

00:45:39   i'm skeptical that i will ever go down there because again the file sizes are just enormous

00:45:43   and at this point i don't think i can barely justify putting blu-rays on there for convenience

00:45:48   sake i i definitely can't do it with 4k blu-rays josh has written him with the ipads home button

00:45:54   rumored to be going away where will siri be mapped we pressing and holding on the side buttons makes

00:46:00   sense on the iphone but using the ipads top button might feel weird could we see a software button to

00:46:06   launch siri in the future what do you think i think it's all um there will probably be a hardware

00:46:15   button match including it probably will be that on off button but i think apple's going to really

00:46:20   lean into um just using your voice to trigger it yep like always on triggering and that'll be the

00:46:28   preferred method i think that that would be their argument today is that pressing a physical button

00:46:32   to trigger siri is silly you should just be able to save a words and have it happen yeah there will

00:46:40   be there i believe it will be mapped to a probably larger button right like they will put a bigger

00:46:45   button on it like they have on the iphone 10 but they will be like oh you should use a high

00:46:50   telephone instead right like that that should be the way that you interact with this thing

00:46:54   um and that you know i think that that's probably the way that they're going to end up doing it

00:46:58   uh there's been andreas has put another uh blu-ray writer which is smaller it is smaller for you i

00:47:05   appreciate this nobody else needs to send me any blu-ray suggestions obviously there are some

00:47:10   smaller ones out there that i could use if i want to completely eat up all my disk space which i

00:47:14   don't but thank you so yeah i think software button no they will just say you should just

00:47:20   use the voice command or you could use the physical button for accessibility reasons

00:47:24   dave has asked do you think that disney will bundle their marvel unlimited comic subscription

00:47:31   service into their upcoming streaming offering like dc is planning with theirs so news to me

00:47:37   that dc was working on something didn't know that yeah yeah their their video streaming services

00:47:43   actually encompasses some other stuff including the first time they've added subscription access

00:47:49   to dc certain dc comics do you think that this one makes sense for disney and two that disney would

00:47:56   do it uh the way i understand how marvel is structured marvel comics is a separate division

00:48:04   only recently did they allow marvel studios to go off and report directly to a high-ranking

00:48:11   disney executive marvel tv and the comics all go through um a the guy who basically brought

00:48:19   bought out or bought bought marvel and brought it back from bankruptcy and that's and then sold it

00:48:24   off and that's ike pearlmutter um who is kind of infamous he sounds like an unpleasant person to

00:48:30   work with and he's cheap and um he's strangely not integrated into the rest of disney um in in the

00:48:37   way that dc is dc is just part of warner media group basically at this point they are completely

00:48:44   integrated marvel comics is not um i suspect that has something to do with ike pearlmutter's contract

00:48:51   or something about the conditions of him selling marvel to disney um so i think not just because

00:48:58   of that like the fact that that marvel tv is currently under his auspices under his command

00:49:05   instead of like somebody else at abc or some other part of disney entertainment or of kevin fiegie

00:49:11   at marvel studios suggests that it's hard to to get these uh groups to coordinate inside of disney

00:49:17   so my guess is no my guess is that marvel wants its revenue from marvel unlimited and that uh the

00:49:25   streaming service is going to be over in some other part of the company and they're not going

00:49:29   to interact it's possible but if i had to bet i'd bet no okay um they may offer some sort of mega

00:49:38   marvel subscription which they're already kind of doing where you get some stuff so there may be like

00:49:43   a mega subscription superfan subscription that gets you both but i'm skeptical that they would

00:49:48   essentially just say if you sign up for our streaming service you get marvel unlimited for

00:49:52   free like there could be a bundle but it won't be bundled for everyone it won't be thousands and

00:49:59   thousands of comics that you can get by paying marvel 70 a year or whatever it is yeah but you

00:50:04   could maybe like if you bought both of them you might get it for 50 right like yeah yeah and they

00:50:09   do have like i said marvel has this sort of superfan subscription that i don't subscribe

00:50:13   to because you get like a figurine and i mean it's almost like i'm not interested in any of that but

00:50:18   i could see that where there's a superfan that bundle that gets you both but um and they may also

00:50:24   yeah they may bundle a small collection of comics with the streaming service but it you know this is

00:50:31   a disney streaming service not a marvel streaming service so i think it's most likely that they

00:50:36   won't because it will just confuse the product and same vein uh similar vein nate has asked

00:50:43   all the talks of the upcoming streaming service from disney where do you see it being announced

00:50:47   maybe an apple keynote at their own media event what do you think so um i read an interview with

00:50:54   i think bob eiger from disney but it was a story about this where oh no it was he was doing their

00:50:59   results yeah and one of the things he said is that they would be announcing more details of it

00:51:04   in the near future so where that is i don't know it would be great if they announced details on

00:51:09   stage at an apple keynote there would certainly be a great uh great uh audience for that they

00:51:15   my guess is that they will do their own event uh that they like they do for some of their kind of

00:51:20   other things they do they have like disney events where fans come and stuff like that it maybe it's

00:51:26   something like that it's disney event star wars event i don't know but i do think that it we're

00:51:32   getting close to them offering more details probably including the name and a sense of

00:51:37   their run-up to it they've said late 2019 is when they're launching so they've got a year

00:51:42   to prepare for this but i do think we're going to get more details about this uh streaming service

00:51:48   soon i should mention if somebody's a uh stratechery member ben thompson wrote a nice piece

00:51:54   today august 20th uh for members that is about disney and where their business is going both

00:52:01   in terms of live sports like espn stuff and in terms of the streaming service and it's a very

00:52:06   interesting read about how disney you know they're they're really trying to find a way through this

00:52:11   thicket of people dropping cable but some of them picking up um over the top tv services like youtube

00:52:18   tv and hulu and then uh also trying to build their own streaming services out and it's a tough job

00:52:26   because they're trying to like keep the company running while transitioning from a one media

00:52:31   world to a very different one and it's a good piece by ben thompson as they almost all are there is a

00:52:36   there's a very good quote um from bob eiger that i really liked i liked the kind of uh the way he

00:52:43   sees the company he's like with where we are right now when we're planning to launch which is sometime

00:52:47   in 2019 we know everyone's going to pass us by right like we're being left behind by everybody

00:52:54   but our content is content everybody wants so it doesn't matter right like it doesn't matter that

00:53:02   we're late to this game because if you want star wars and marvel and he didn't say it but you know

00:53:07   all the other stuff they're buying uh pixar pixar yeah pixar and then you know all the other stuff

00:53:12   from from fox like if you want that this is going to be the only place you're going to get it so

00:53:17   they don't care that they're going to be late it seems like what i actually quite like is they're

00:53:21   waiting until they have this right before they launch it because they know that their stuff is

00:53:26   desirable so it doesn't matter and i really like that that kind of view on the position from the

00:53:33   ceo and that he's not really sugarcoating it so i like it's a very disney view of their content

00:53:37   which is disney he was always confident to do things like withhold their products from the

00:53:41   market in order to build up demand with their on home video for example of disney movies and things

00:53:45   like that so they're definitely going there he said you know that they're going to play a quality

00:53:51   game and not a volume game which he said i don't mean to say that netflix isn't playing a quality

00:53:55   game but they're also playing a volume game and he's basically saying we're not going to make

00:53:59   a new show or two and a movie every week that's not going to happen but they are going to make

00:54:05   sure that they have good stuff and they've got a good catalog and they do own all of this content

00:54:10   now especially with the purchase i mean disney streaming service is being built with an eye

00:54:14   toward disney products now they're going to start when the fox deal closes like there's going to be

00:54:20   a whole second way where they start taking all the fox properties and seeing what could they do with

00:54:24   some of those and you might think well a lot of the fox stuff is more adult and won't fit on a

00:54:29   disney streaming service some of that might be true but i think some of that stuff that fox has

00:54:36   in their library will also have value to disney whether it's something like firefly the x files

00:54:42   there's a bunch of stuff in there that is part of the fox collection that they're going to be able

00:54:46   to use and uh and so watch for that too there's a lot going a lot lot of sort of like second wave

00:54:52   from the disney streaming service that got way more interesting now because they're going to

00:54:55   have that extra stuff this episode of upgrade brought to you by squarespace make your next move

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00:56:30   make your next move make your next website so the uh hashtag ask upgrade train rolls on

00:56:36   ask upgrade train has lasers that was very impressive fransois asks i found myself being

00:56:47   annoyed lately at some ios release notes updates companies seem to trying to be too cute now as

00:56:54   like a backlash from just being boring for example a recent youtube update said bug fixes stability

00:57:01   improvements and repairs to the space time continuum jason what is your view on this

00:57:07   i don't love bug fixes and stability improvements i also don't love it when they try to cutesy it

00:57:14   up and say we love our users so much that we are always making improvements and think fixing bugs

00:57:19   and thank you so much like i think there is a discontinuity here where you know apple sort of

00:57:27   views this i think as a way to let developers detail what's changed and uh but a lot of people

00:57:36   a lot of companies view it as kind of a marketing opportunity and there is a real question like what

00:57:42   who who is using this and why are they using this um i would prefer it if companies said

00:57:50   big picture here's what we did and then here are the details um i think it's against some companies

00:57:56   culture to admit that they are fixing specific bugs and i guess there are arguments pro and con

00:58:08   i always prefer to get a big juicy list that says we fixed even it doesn't have to be detailed it

00:58:13   doesn't have to list every single bug fix but to say we fixed a problem where the ipad with with

00:58:18   you know loading in portrait just portrait mode on an ipad pro just to make up an example right like

00:58:26   that's like oh yeah okay great um but i know that a lot of companies view it as like a litany of

00:58:31   failure to like all these things that were broken but now we're fixed and it's very negative so they

00:58:36   just stay positive but you know i would prefer that and and improvements are also like tell me

00:58:43   about your improvements but um i don't know i guess it's every developer's decision to about

00:58:51   what they want to disclose and a lot of developers just don't want to do it but i would um cuteness

00:58:57   like i don't love it um because that feels like not a place to do that and that's just trying to

00:59:02   be kind of like meta about the fact that everything is bug fixes and stability improvements but you

00:59:08   know i don't know i don't i don't need any more whimsy in my uh app release notes i guess i would

00:59:13   say but i don't like the lack of disclosure anyway in those app release notes i don't like it when

00:59:18   they just say bug fixes and stability improvements because the point is that you should be able to

00:59:23   say something about what's changed and um i wish they would be a little more uh open with their

00:59:30   disclosure i feel like some i mean so i would say the bug fixes and performance improvements thing

00:59:35   doesn't really annoy me that much purely because like it doesn't work for companies to list

00:59:41   everything all the time because sometimes there isn't anything particular right like it's right

00:59:45   they might be um because this happens a lot right an update comes out to an app and there's a new

00:59:49   feature that's hidden and they announce it a couple of days later and it rolls out right because

00:59:55   it is unrealistic to to sometimes to announce an update to your application if people have an

01:00:01   update yeah like you i'm sure developers know like how long does it take people to update to

01:00:05   to to a new version or whatever so they want to hold it right and there's there could be security

01:00:09   issues that you don't want to disclose and that's absolutely true and a lot of stuff is really

01:00:13   esoteric like we had this issue that affected you know 10 people and caused this crash and we fixed

01:00:18   it it's like does anybody care about that so i get i don't think that there's a lot like a lot of big

01:00:23   companies like google and facebook and stuff it seems like they are on a um release cadence

01:00:29   right that they will have a release for their apps every two weeks and i would expect sometimes

01:00:34   there's just stuff that's not done yet but it's there right like because they're just pushing out

01:00:38   whatever the code is at a stable point and they keep you know that they just commit it and then

01:00:42   they upload it to the app store and then that will continue to be worked on so i guess there is kind

01:00:47   of probably isn't always stuff that's worth calling out so i understand why it annoys people but at

01:00:52   the same time i feel like i understand the practicalities of these these big corporations

01:00:57   to the point where like sometimes it's just not worth it for whatever reason to disclose literally

01:01:02   every change i think for francoise purpose here like they're trying to do something when they

01:01:07   can't do anything else so they're trying to distract you or make it amusing and it's very meta

01:01:11   and i get how that would be annoying too because i find it kind of annoying but the larger issue is

01:01:16   that they don't have anything to say they literally have nothing to say other than we fix some bugs

01:01:21   yeah so they just say something fun which i mostly don't like it feels unprofessional to me in most

01:01:26   instances phillips written in my wife recently dropped her series 2 apple watch it's being

01:01:31   repaired but might need replacing if it needs to be replaced it will cost us 290 pounds does it make

01:01:39   sense to get a new series 3 right now or is the series 4 likely to be out in the autumn don't don't

01:01:47   don't don't buy it because there will be a new apple watch i mean just today there was a report

01:01:53   about uh some regulatory approvals for six new apple watch models don't do it i broke my ipad

01:01:59   right like and i'm just forging ahead with my broken screen still going strong though

01:02:03   cracks are getting worse but that thing's still going strong because i'm not going to pay 490

01:02:09   pounds when i'm probably going to be paying a thousand pounds in four weeks or five weeks or

01:02:13   something so if you can get by don't do it it would be my would be my advice right now um

01:02:21   because it's too it's just far too soon right now it's far far too soon and you may not want the

01:02:26   series 4 but it means you'll get a series 3 for cheaper so hopefully yeah don't don't do it i was

01:02:31   i have a cracked screen story which is i was at a restaurant on friday in san jose i was in san jose

01:02:38   visiting some friends because there was a convention there uh it was fun it was like uh

01:02:42   celebrating the two-month anniversary of wwc which is a little bit weird but like

01:02:46   the way fewer people by the way apple uh developer conference between a conference and then all of

01:02:52   the like people who are there not going to the conference we really kind of shut down and ruined

01:02:57   downtown san jose it was way it was fascinating to see it it's a little like going to comic-con

01:03:01   going to san diego outside of comic-con after having been to comic-con you're like well wait

01:03:05   are the where are the giant crowds and the long lines it's like they were gone that was really nice

01:03:10   anyway we went to a brewery that's just around the corner from the convention center which was

01:03:14   really great i'm gonna definitely try to go back there um next time there's a brewery around the

01:03:20   corner from the convention center yeah why did nobody know about this well i don't i don't know

01:03:27   i don't know the story you've got the keys to everybody to know that there's something

01:03:31   interesting to go to yeah there's a there's a nice little uh nice little brewery it's kind of like a

01:03:37   block away from the uh the theater the it's the uproar brewing company interesting it's on it's

01:03:43   on uh sense alvador and first um anyway uh they have it's all an ipad checkout system so they've

01:03:51   got an ipad kiosk and then they also have for the dinner rush which we were there you know five to

01:03:55   eight or whatever um drinking beer and then people came and then we had dinner and it was it was busy

01:04:00   they have another ipad that they that they bring out and i can see why they only bring this one out

01:04:05   for the dinner rush because it has a cracked screen which you know i get it you don't want

01:04:11   to pay to fix your ipad whatever but it's one of those things where you know they run your card

01:04:17   and then you need to sign on the screen and i'm signing on the screen over the cracked glass and

01:04:25   i can feel the cracked glass as i'm signing and i think to myself i don't like this this is not

01:04:31   you should not be having your customers run their fingers over cracked glass that may throw a shard

01:04:38   into their finger at any moment seems like a mistake so that's my cracked screen story which

01:04:43   is like you want to do it yourself that's fine but to inflict on your customers moving your finger

01:04:50   over that's i don't want to do that i don't want to move my finger over that crack there because it

01:04:54   could could uh you know put glass in my finger and i use my finger because i have to type things some

01:04:59   cracks are fine you know you can sometimes you your ipad screen if it's your own ipad if it's

01:05:04   your own ipad you choose to take the risk if you want i agree for it for a point of sale ipad that

01:05:10   you should replace seems like a bad idea seems like a bad idea mihir asks will you be upgrading to

01:05:17   presuming they're announced the new ipad pro the new iphones and the apple watch series 4 just 2

01:05:23   or 3 what is your plan right now sight unseen okay the problem with this is that in reality we are

01:05:34   people who write about this stuff and talk about this stuff and therefore i would be i need to try

01:05:41   all the stuff hopefully i can get review units of all the stuff i will but but that said the stuff

01:05:49   that i buy i buy because i want it to be mine and i want to use it for a long time like i'm still

01:05:57   using the ipad pro first generation 12.9 because i bought that one and i got the second generation

01:06:04   review unit i had that but that's not what i use the one i use is what i bought so with that

01:06:09   disclaimer that i hope to have all four of these at least at some point the one that i will certainly

01:06:14   buy is the ipad pro certainly 100 i absolutely will buy a new ipad pro yeah because you're you're

01:06:21   a couple of variations behind at that point right so you're going to get a nice big big jump yeah

01:06:25   yeah and the new you know if it's best of list and all of that like i'm very excited about what

01:06:30   a new ipad pro i use my ipad so much the other ones you know i um i love my iphone 10 i'm

01:06:40   okay i'm okay with it like i'm okay with it so i would not choose for myself to buy

01:06:47   a revised iphone 10 if there is one um that that one is probably not on my agenda um apple watch i

01:06:55   have the series 3 with cellular and i'm very happy with happy with it so i probably would not

01:07:03   buy a new one of that and um yeah so that's for me that's that's it is that i'm really targeted

01:07:10   on the ipad pro what about you i will 100 be buying both ipad pros because i love them and i

01:07:20   want the newness of all of them they're very important to me a bigger iphone 100 of course

01:07:26   right i'm going down that road bigger iphone definitely apple watch i don't want one because

01:07:33   i don't wear it anymore yeah i don't wear the apple watch i haven't worn my apple watch since

01:07:37   may if you are interested in hearing about that because it's too much to get into right now

01:07:43   i direct you to episode 71 of cortex where i explain in detail kind of why i have given up

01:07:49   on the apple watch and why i'm not interested in what i do what i'm doing instead there is a world

01:07:55   in which they could create an interesting enough product that i would want to buy it for the review

01:08:01   purposes or whatever right so i can talk about it but if it is just a jump like they've been doing

01:08:08   probably not right like i'm not going to need it other people having it will will suffice but i'm

01:08:14   not really interested in wearing an apple watch anymore at least for the time being um there has

01:08:21   to be some big changes to the apple watch i don't even know what they would be right for me to want

01:08:25   to go back to it because i am now in the mechanical watch camp so i i like my dumb beautiful watch

01:08:34   yeah you got you got reasons i i i'm not i i wore a mechanical watch for a long time but i don't

01:08:39   know i like my apple watch i enjoy i'm i'm enjoying i did uh this is big for me i closed

01:08:45   all three rings very early on on was it saturday sometime last week i was like oh boy this is big

01:08:52   but then you get in that moment where like i i put on my watch late in the day like 11 o'clock

01:08:58   one morning and i was like oh man i'm never gonna do it now and i did have a moment where i like

01:09:02   stood up and wandered around because i was trying to get credit pro apple watch tip by the way get up

01:09:07   at about 55 after the hour and walk around for 10 minutes and you get credit for two hours of

01:09:12   standing so i think that's a anyway i i enjoyed my apple watch uh watching my wife who's using

01:09:17   a series zero apple watch she'll definitely be getting a new apple watch this fall and i see

01:09:23   somebody on twitter was saying this too how um how much faster the current apple watch is than

01:09:30   the original um there are a lot of people who like try the original apple watch and they're like this

01:09:34   is so frustrating my wife is frustrated with it and now i'm just sort of like just hold on new

01:09:39   one's way better because you know it's just all these pauses like why can't i tap on this thing

01:09:44   now she was trying to get an offy code and she's like tap tap tap tap tap tap and it couldn't get

01:09:50   it to come up and i'm like oh yeah that works fine on the modern watches so we'll see one thing that

01:09:55   i might do if i'm like moderately interested but don't want one for myself i'll buy it for

01:10:00   adina she's still using series zero like the original original um and she wears it and uses

01:10:06   it every day and has absolutely no complaints or problems with it she would be really happy with

01:10:11   a new one but you know i don't think she uses it very very much like she for her it's just like

01:10:15   it's my watch and it tells me the time do you know what i mean like and it gives me notifications

01:10:19   she's not really like digging into it very deeply but that would i've just thought that will be a

01:10:24   pretty nice way for me to get to see the new one and she would get a benefit from it because she

01:10:28   wears it every day all right that's i think we're gonna wrap it up there thank you so much to

01:10:33   everyone who has sent in some questions we Jason i still have a lot more but i always want more

01:10:37   ask upgrade questions so you can always tweet to us with the hashtag ask upgrade to for us to

01:10:42   answer a question from you at the end of the show thanks to everyone that's done that so if you

01:10:46   haven't heard us answer your question i have lots we're going through a big big backlog so maybe

01:10:51   we'll dip in and out of trying to do some more over the next few weeks i always think it's really

01:10:55   interesting to see what people want to hear us talk about there's always some interesting insights

01:10:59   that come out of hashtag ask upgrade which is why you've heard this technology uh in use in some of

01:11:05   your favorite technology podcasts around right this is why this is uh permeated across the

01:11:10   ecosphere because it's a it's a great way to get feedback and to understand what people want you

01:11:14   to talk about so that's why we love doing it and why it has been a mainstay on this show for years

01:11:20   we are actually fast approaching our fourth anniversary on the show and since it's true which

01:11:25   i'm very excited about so thank you to everybody who has tuned in especially those of you who've

01:11:30   been around for a very long time and especially especially to those of you who became relayfm

01:11:34   members over the last week or two or if you've been for for a long time thank you so much relay.fm

01:11:39   membership to find out more about that you can become a supporting member of upgrade by clicking

01:11:45   the link in the show notes you can find jason over at twitter he is at jasonl i am at imike

01:11:51   i m y k e go to sixcolors.com and the incomparable.com for more of jason's work outside of relayfm but he

01:11:58   like i host many shows at relayfm go to relay.fm/shows and i'm sure you'll be able to pick up

01:12:03   something new for your podcast listening pleasure thank you so much to pingdom inboard technology

01:12:10   and squarespace for their support of this week's episode and we'll be back next time until then

01:12:15   jason you're gonna ride off surf off into the sunset say goodbye see you later dude

01:12:23   you

01:12:23   you

01:12:24   you

01:12:24   you

01:12:25   you

01:12:25   you

01:12:26   you

01:12:26   you

01:12:27   you

01:12:27   you

01:12:28   (drum beat)

01:12:30   [BLANK_AUDIO]