Upgrade

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, Episode 182. Today's show is brought to you by Anker,

00:00:14 ◼   ► Freshbooks, and Mac Weldon. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined as always by the wonderful

00:00:18 ◼   ► Mr. Jason Snell. Hello, Jason Snell!

00:00:21 ◼   ► Hello, Myke Hurley, how are you?

00:00:22 ◼   ► I am very well. Jason, we have a Snell Talk question for you this week that comes in from

00:00:26 ◼   ► another Michael.

00:00:28 ◼   ► Great name. Great name. Michael wants to know, Jason, when you're working at home, as you

00:00:33 ◼   ► do most days, is there a time of day where you switch to using your devices for purely

00:00:39 ◼   ► personal use, or does everything blur together?

00:00:42 ◼   ► Um, everything blurs together, I would say. I don't have any artificial sort of barriers

00:00:48 ◼   ► where I have things that I don't check or do check. For me, and I think I've talked

00:00:53 ◼   ► about this a lot on the Free Agents podcast that I do with David Sparks, where we talk

00:00:58 ◼   ► about being independent workers. But what for me, what has happened is that my device

00:01:06 ◼   ► usage has a lot to do and my physical location has a lot to do with my work. So my anecdote

00:01:13 ◼   ► is that Sunday I had to do a little bit of work because I got a message from Myke Hurley

00:01:19 ◼   ► saying that he wanted me to look into the planning document for upgrade. And I had not

00:01:26 ◼   ► set the timer on my heater in the office to be on and we've had a cold spell here. So

00:01:32 ◼   ► it was cold out here and I didn't want to do that. So I actually got my iPad keyboard

00:01:37 ◼   ► and sat on the bed on Sunday morning trying to do my work that I usually do in front of

00:01:46 ◼   ► my computer at my desk. It was just a very different thing. And I realized I have really

00:01:51 ◼   ► compartmentalized my workspace to the point where I'm sitting there trying to work on

00:01:56 ◼   ► on the upgrade notes and Lauren is talking to me. She ends up getting, because it's just

00:02:04 ◼   ► like we, that's our hangout space and we're talking and reading and stuff like that. And

00:02:08 ◼   ► then she went and got like cereal and is sitting there going crunch, crunch, crunch on her

00:02:12 ◼   ► cereal and I'm trying to type like show notes and things. I'm like, I can't do this. I have,

00:02:16 ◼   ► I've become unable to do this. I have, I've been, I ended up like going into the living

00:02:20 ◼   ► room instead. But the point is, that's how I compartmentalize, is a lot of the kind of

00:02:26 ◼   ► work I do, I don't do if I'm not sitting at my desk. And that is a thing that has happened

00:02:35 ◼   ► over the course of the last few years, that there are certain things that I just consider

00:02:40 ◼   ► office things. And I think that's actually one of the great advantages of not having

00:02:47 ◼   ► my primary device in in the house be a Mac because it's an iPad it's more

00:02:55 ◼   ► complicated to do some of the things that I do less complicated to do others

00:02:59 ◼   ► but what it has led to is this kind of division of labor where there's kind of

00:03:03 ◼   ► the Mac stuff I do at my desk and then when I'm in the house I'm not doing most

00:03:08 ◼   ► of that stuff so I'm still online I'm still connected which is I think what

00:03:11 ◼   ► Michaels maybe initial idea here is do you check your email to you look at

00:03:14 ◼   ► Slack, things like that. The answer is yes to all that, but there are certain

00:03:18 ◼   ► kinds of tasks that I don't do out in the other room, or if I do, it's like

00:03:25 ◼   ► with my iPad, if I'm writing on my iPad in there, it's like with that

00:03:28 ◼   ► little setup where I have the little stand and the keyboard attached and all

00:03:32 ◼   ► of that, and I'm writing, and that's usually when there's nobody around. So

00:03:37 ◼   ► yeah, it does all blur together in one way, and it turns out that it's like the

00:03:41 ◼   ► the location and the hardware that are how I differentiate, which surprised me actually

00:03:45 ◼   ► when it happened.

00:03:46 ◼   ► Yeah, it's very normal to just allow everything to blur together, but the environments can

00:03:51 ◼   ► change things for sure, like depending on where you're sitting. And this can be, as

00:03:55 ◼   ► you say, like just as simple as it's just quieter here so I can get my work done in

00:04:00 ◼   ► this room rather than the other.

00:04:02 ◼   ► Now that you have your office, right, I would imagine that a lot of the work that you do

00:04:06 ◼   ► now, you sort of, that's work I do in the office, that's not work I do. I mean, I suppose

00:04:11 ◼   ► you could do it anyway. You could be like, "Oh, I just do all the same stuff whether

00:04:14 ◼   ► I'm on the couch or in the office." But at least for me, it very rapidly became the stuff

00:04:19 ◼   ► that I do in the office and then other stuff that I do elsewhere.

00:04:22 ◼   ► Chris: Right now, I only spend time in my office when I'm doing audio production and

00:04:28 ◼   ► everything else is done throughout the house. But that is because I've realized over the

00:04:34 ◼   ► last few days that I need to reorganize my office and change some of the furniture because

00:04:40 ◼   ► now I've been in it for over a year.

00:04:42 ◼   ► I'm recognizing what I'm actually doing in this room.

00:04:46 ◼   ► - There's a whole episode of free agents about this.

00:04:49 ◼   ► 'Cause this happened to me when I bought my,

00:04:51 ◼   ► well, we talked about it briefly,

00:04:52 ◼   ► when I bought my Calax shelves from Ikea, right?

00:04:56 ◼   ► That was informed by after, you know,

00:04:58 ◼   ► you set up the office not knowing what you're doing

00:05:00 ◼   ► and then you do it for a little while and you're like,

00:05:01 ◼   ► oh, this is not how I want it set up.

00:05:04 ◼   ► So you've had that too.

00:05:05 ◼   ► - Yeah, and so I'm at that point now.

00:05:07 ◼   ► And I think it happens after about a year, right?

00:05:10 ◼   ► like you're kind of...

00:05:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, I let it go longer than that,

00:05:13 ◼   ► but I was just generally frustrated.

00:05:15 ◼   ► - I'm also about 18 months, but like, you know,

00:05:17 ◼   ► it's that kind of idea where you get to a point

00:05:19 ◼   ► and you're like, you have a vision in your mind

00:05:22 ◼   ► for what your working environment will be like,

00:05:25 ◼   ► but then it changes with actual usage.

00:05:28 ◼   ► So like one of mine is removing all of my video games

00:05:31 ◼   ► consoles from my office, 'cause I don't play games in here.

00:05:33 ◼   ► I play them in the living room with the switches.

00:05:36 ◼   ► That's where the better TV is.

00:05:37 ◼   ► So that remains moving.

00:05:39 ◼   ► also them removing the couch that I have,

00:05:41 ◼   ► and can put another desk in.

00:05:42 ◼   ► So like, you know, I'm kind of working it out right now

00:05:44 ◼   ► in my mind.

00:05:45 ◼   ► - Great, that's great.

00:05:46 ◼   ► - It's nice.

00:05:47 ◼   ► All right, so thank you to Michael for that question.

00:05:49 ◼   ► You can send in a question of any kind to start our show.

00:05:53 ◼   ► Just send out a tweet with the hashtag SnellTalk

00:05:55 ◼   ► and we'll pick them up and hopefully use it

00:05:57 ◼   ► in a future episode.

00:05:58 ◼   ► So moving to follow up, the YouTube Apple TV app

00:06:02 ◼   ► has gotten some updates.

00:06:03 ◼   ► This has been, we spoke about it I think last week.

00:06:06 ◼   ► I think I'm the only person in the world

00:06:08 ◼   ► was happy with the redesign. Everybody else hates the redesign because it doesn't make

00:06:14 ◼   ► the bloopy bloop sounds. But I prefer the functionality of the new YouTube app. However,

00:06:20 ◼   ► YouTube have made some changes. They've modified the layout for viewing subscriptions. So you

00:06:25 ◼   ► can win the channels that you subscribe to. It was a bit of a mess to try and view those.

00:06:30 ◼   ► They've changed that. But even better, they've changed some of the video scrubbing tools. So

00:06:34 ◼   ► Now when you pause a video, you can use the touchpad to smoothly scroll through the video

00:06:39 ◼   ► and it shows you a little preview on like a kind of a rolling carousel.

00:06:42 ◼   ► And you can also use the left and right clicky buttons on the touchpad to jump forward and back

00:06:47 ◼   ► 10 seconds nice and smoothly. So honestly, for me, they have fixed the only problem I had with the

00:06:52 ◼   ► app. So I think it's great. Right. Yeah. I mean, this is my experience with Apple TV apps. We were

00:06:57 ◼   ► talking about there's a whole conversation that kind of came back up that I remember complaining

00:07:01 ◼   ► about on upgrade a while ago, a couple years ago, about, um, about like, you know, how

00:07:08 ◼   ► Google's apps, I was complaining, like they don't use, they didn't at the time use like

00:07:12 ◼   ► the iOS share icon. They use the, the Android share icon, which is the Google material design

00:07:17 ◼   ► share icon. But it's one of those things that if you're just an iOS user, you look at it

00:07:20 ◼   ► and you're like, what is that? And they actually changed over time. I spent some time talking

00:07:25 ◼   ► to a Google designer at XOXO, the last XOXO, and he was kind of irate, but at the same

00:07:31 ◼   ► time they were actually already kind of on it. And as Yasmeen, our friend who works at

00:07:38 ◼   ► Google now, pointed out that that is, you know, they do have some very specific sort

00:07:41 ◼   ► of design guidelines about honoring platforms in certain ways. You want to, this is the

00:07:46 ◼   ► challenge, right, is you want to reflect your overall product line, but you also want to

00:07:50 ◼   ► respect the user of a particular platform and the fact that they chose that platform.

00:07:54 ◼   ► My argument was always iOS users chose iOS, not Android. There's got to be a reason for

00:07:59 ◼   ► that. And so if you're Google and you say, "You know what? You really should have chosen

00:08:03 ◼   ► Android, and we're just going to show you Android stuff," that's bad. And likewise,

00:08:06 ◼   ► if Apple does that with an app, I don't know what that would be, Apple Music, I guess,

00:08:10 ◼   ► is all, on Android, the same rules apply. Honor the platform choice of the person who's

00:08:16 ◼   ► using your app. And the same for Apple, iTunes on Windows and things like that, which I've

00:08:21 ◼   ► heard is really bad. So for me though on Apple TV I really don't care about app UI.

00:08:28 ◼   ► I mean there are certain conventions of like do I have to swipe up to see the

00:08:32 ◼   ► menu, do I have to press the menu button, what does that do where it gets

00:08:35 ◼   ► frustrating. I feel like they should be consistent across apps in terms of sort

00:08:39 ◼   ► of moving down and back up in like a hierarchy, but the one that really gets

00:08:42 ◼   ► me is video control. Because like the Apple TV as a video playback device like

00:08:48 ◼   ► every app that does video on the Apple TV should do video playback more or less

00:08:54 ◼   ► like what Apple's apps do. Like, just honor the system convention for that.

00:08:59 ◼   ► That's the thing that frustrates me the most, and I've beaten up on them before,

00:09:03 ◼   ► but I'm gonna do it again because the Olympics just ended and all the video

00:09:05 ◼   ► was on the NBC Sports app on the Apple TV for the Olympics. And the NBC Sports

00:09:09 ◼   ► app is a disaster when it comes to video scrubbing. It doesn't follow any of the

00:09:14 ◼   ► conventions of the platform, so every time I forget, it's like you have to

00:09:18 ◼   ► click to pause it and then you can scrub but the scrub doesn't remember where you

00:09:25 ◼   ► were it's it's just it's a disaster and that so that's the thing like seeing

00:09:29 ◼   ► that YouTube has the tweaks for video scrubbing like if you if you behave more

00:09:33 ◼   ► or less doesn't have to be exact but like if the movements my thumb makes on

00:09:37 ◼   ► the Apple TV remote to navigate through video are more or less the same on every

00:09:41 ◼   ► app I'll be happy that's the thing it turns out for me anyway that is the

00:09:47 ◼   ► killer UI issue with the Apple TV is just make it that if I want to go forward or back

00:09:53 ◼   ► or pause the video or scrub through to find the thing I want, make that consistent with

00:09:58 ◼   ► the platform because I don't want to play a fun game where I can't figure out how to

00:10:03 ◼   ► go 20 seconds forward in video. Like that is awful. And the NBC app anyway, that's exactly

00:10:10 ◼   ► what it does and it is the worst. So yeah. So I feel like Google, they, YouTube have

00:10:16 ◼   ► implemented their own UI and kind of the way that it works for this but it's the

00:10:21 ◼   ► base functionality is the same. Right it's in in the spirit of the way you

00:10:25 ◼   ► move through video on Apple TV which is that's that's all I'm asking. I tend to

00:10:29 ◼   ► hold the relatively unpopular opinion of like sympathizing with some companies

00:10:34 ◼   ► over this sort of stuff. I think that this is a fine because YouTube have the

00:10:38 ◼   ► the way that their platform works which is suggesting more videos to you

00:10:42 ◼   ► Like that's how their business operates and that's what they're playing commands do because when you pause and stuff like that

00:10:49 ◼   ► it shows you other videos and I understand that some people don't like that, but I

00:10:53 ◼   ► Also don't believe that YouTube should not follow their own business just because Apple thinks they know better

00:11:01 ◼   ► That that's my general feeling on this stuff. We can get into this at another point again, but

00:11:07 ◼   ► People disagree with me vehemently. So I

00:11:11 ◼   ► I think, well, I mean, I think there's a balance there, right?

00:11:13 ◼   ► Like I don't, I think they've achieved the balance on this one.

00:11:16 ◼   ► That's yeah, I don't think, and I know people do disagree with you on the, on this one,

00:11:20 ◼   ► but I don't think every Apple TV app needs to look the same.

00:11:23 ◼   ► I just, I don't, the whole point of it as an app platform is that they don't need to do that.

00:11:28 ◼   ► And that's why I keep getting back to maybe what I really want is just a certain set of behaviors,

00:11:35 ◼   ► mostly involving the remote control. Cause that's the UI on the Apple TV. Like there is no trackpad.

00:11:40 ◼   ► I mean, well, there is a trackpad, but there's no, like, keyboard and trackpad.

00:11:44 ◼   ► There's no touchscreen.

00:11:45 ◼   ► It is that little remote with the buttons and the trackpad.

00:11:49 ◼   ► That's what I want to be consistent.

00:11:50 ◼   ► So if I press—because this happens now when Apple TV apps—I press the menu button, and,

00:11:55 ◼   ► like, something weird happens.

00:11:57 ◼   ► Like, you—like, a lot of times it'll be—it'll go back to the previous screen, but sometimes

00:12:01 ◼   ► it'll just exit the app.

00:12:03 ◼   ► Sometimes I'll swipe up and I'll get a menu.

00:12:05 ◼   ► Other times if I press the menu button, I get a menu.

00:12:07 ◼   ► those are the things along with the video scrubbing that I would like the

00:12:12 ◼   ► app developers to look at what the standard platform apps are at Apple TV

00:12:16 ◼   ► and say let's do it that way because that's how people like basic remote

00:12:21 ◼   ► control interaction and then within that what it looks like what happens when you

00:12:25 ◼   ► swipe around all that stuff that's all to play for but like there's a base

00:12:29 ◼   ► level where if every Apple TV app is different in how it implements the

00:12:33 ◼   ► remote so that like pressing any button at any time becomes a real question

00:12:39 ◼   ► about what's going to happen. That is bad for everybody. So that's what that's

00:12:43 ◼   ► where I draw the line. I get that other people don't, but for me it turns out

00:12:46 ◼   ► after using this Apple TV for a couple of years, that's my complaint.

00:12:51 ◼   ► Don't surprise me when I press a button or swipe the trackpad on the remote.

00:12:55 ◼   ► That's where I don't want to be surprised because imagine if you had a

00:12:59 ◼   ► regular TV remote and on certain channels when you press a seven it doesn't go to number

00:13:06 ◼   ► seven it does something completely different you'd be like why does that happen it's terrible

00:13:12 ◼   ► so don't mess with my my controls I guess is is what I'm saying but otherwise I think

00:13:17 ◼   ► I think pretty much an agreement I think I think so I think so otherwise I'm happy to

00:13:21 ◼   ► let YouTube be feel like YouTube yeah let them be there okay so Airplay 2 has been removed

00:13:28 ◼   ► from the most recent iOS 11.3 beta. Who knows what this means. Maybe they wanted to take

00:13:34 ◼   ► it out because they had to do extra work on it. Maybe it means it's delayed. Maybe it's

00:13:38 ◼   ► being pulled out with 11.3. We don't know but it was in all of the 11.3 betas but the

00:13:43 ◼   ► most recent one that came out just about a week ago, it was removed again. So who knows

00:13:48 ◼   ► what's going on with Airplay 2. I really hope that they're able to ship this soon because

00:13:54 ◼   ► the home pod. That's what it's supposed to do. Jason, I have a question for you.

00:14:01 ◼   ► When is WWDC going to happen and when is Apple going to tell us about it? When do you think

00:14:07 ◼   ► all this stuff is going to happen?

00:14:08 ◼   ► I'm not a developer, Myke. I don't know. It sounds like people are thinking it's the week

00:14:13 ◼   ► of the first full week of June, June 4th. I'm hoping that given last year's precedent,

00:14:20 ◼   ► which I think we all laid kind of at the feet of Phil Schiller and said Phil had one of

00:14:28 ◼   ► his little bits of reconfiguration of how developers and Apple interface is that he's

00:14:33 ◼   ► giving developers more time to plan their travel. That's nice. That we'll hopefully

00:14:38 ◼   ► find out soon. I forget when WWDC was announced last year, but let's just guess it'll be similar.

00:14:44 ◼   ► And then, like I said, I have no knowledge of it. June 4th that week seems like what

00:14:50 ◼   ► everybody we know is making hotel reservations for. It's a packed summer.

00:14:56 ◼   ► David: I took a guess and I've booked a hotel for the first week of July.

00:15:01 ◼   ► Tim: The following week is my kids' last week of school, which is traditionally right when

00:15:07 ◼   ► Apple does WWDC because that's when all of the special events are for my kids' school

00:15:12 ◼   ► and I'm at WWDC the whole time. So if that follows, then it would be the week of the

00:15:17 ◼   ► 11th, but let's hope it's the week of the 4th. The Memorial Day weekend is the previous

00:15:22 ◼   ► weekend, so the 4th would be just great if that's what they do.

00:15:28 ◼   ► Yeah, I just think that just seems like it makes the most sense to me. What's not happened

00:15:33 ◼   ► yet, which is what happened last year, it was announced in February. February 16th was

00:15:40 ◼   ► when WWDC was announced.

00:15:41 ◼   ► a little bit behind now. And I'm starting to think that that was an anomaly. Was that

00:15:47 ◼   ► a San Jose war? Like, because they changed the event, they didn't want people going to

00:15:51 ◼   ► the wrong city, so they announced it early. Exactly. That's what I think. I don't know.

00:15:55 ◼   ► I think there's nothing stopping them from doing it early. Honestly, I think in March,

00:15:59 ◼   ► I think we'll find out in March. Okay. But that's just what I'm--I don't know why I

00:16:04 ◼   ► think this, this is just what I think. Unless it's today or the next couple of days, it

00:16:07 ◼   ► will be March or later. Which would be lovely.

00:16:09 ◼   ► But March seems fine. Because I would like to book my plane ticket.

00:16:14 ◼   ► So that would be really nice if I could do that.

00:16:17 ◼   ► Hmm. Yeah.

00:16:19 ◼   ► But yeah, it's rumored by looking at dates of conference centers, which is how these

00:16:25 ◼   ► things are always put together. Classic.

00:16:27 ◼   ► First week of June, June 4 to 8. That's our MAC rumors a couple of weeks ago.

00:16:31 ◼   ► - I am so happy that there is somebody who really likes

00:16:35 ◼   ► delving into conference, you know,

00:16:39 ◼   ► venue event calendars to make their big conspiracy theory

00:16:44 ◼   ► map about what is happening.

00:16:46 ◼   ► I will point out that it doesn't have to be this way.

00:16:51 ◼   ► Last, so Macworld Expo, back, dearly departed,

00:16:54 ◼   ► Macworld Expo, when you left the building,

00:16:58 ◼   ► the big banner on the inside of the expo center said, see you next year and had

00:17:05 ◼   ► the dates of the next year's event.

00:17:07 ◼   ► We'll be back.

00:17:08 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:17:09 ◼   ► Right.

00:17:09 ◼   ► So, so that's what we need from Apple is Apple needs to have like on the Friday,

00:17:15 ◼   ► on a Friday evening of WWDC, you should get a push notification saying you should

00:17:19 ◼   ► check your WWDC DC app.

00:17:21 ◼   ► And when you do, it says WWDC will return on these dates.

00:17:28 ◼   ► And then you press okay, and it deletes itself and that's the end something like that

00:17:32 ◼   ► Get on it Apple. Oh

00:17:35 ◼   ► Love that that would be so good. All right next week on the show. We're gonna do Myke at the movies

00:17:43 ◼   ► We're gonna be talking about aliens. If you want to play along that will be our final segment of next week's episode

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00:19:08 ◼   ► And then we just did the refund,

00:19:09 ◼   ► then I bought the right stuff,

00:19:10 ◼   ► and then I was super happy.

00:19:12 ◼   ► Mack Weldon is my predominant underwear and loungewear now.

00:19:17 ◼   ► I actually need to buy more of my sweatpants

00:19:18 ◼   ► because they used to just be my flying pants, right?

00:19:21 ◼   ► the sweatpants. But now I started wearing them to the gym too because I love the comfort

00:19:25 ◼   ► so I'm wearing them now.

00:19:27 ◼   ► I'm wearing them now. So yeah.

00:19:31 ◼   ► So good. I need to buy some. I need to buy some. Next time I'm in the US I'm going to

00:19:34 ◼   ► get it. That's what I do because they ship to the US so when I'm somewhere like a hotel

00:19:37 ◼   ► I just buy a bunch of stuff, get it sent to me.

00:19:39 ◼   ► Mac Weldon have a bunch of fantastic stuff including silver underwear and shirts that

00:19:42 ◼   ► are naturally antimicrobial. And not only do Mac Weldon's underwear, socks and shirts

00:19:47 ◼   ► look good, they will perform well for you. They're good for working out, going to work,

00:19:51 ◼   ► or for everyday life. Listen to this show can get a wonderful 20% off at Macworlden.com

00:19:56 ◼   ► with the code upgrade that is M-A-C-K-W-E-L-D-O-N.com code upgrade for 20% off.

00:20:03 ◼   ► Our thanks to Macworlden for their continued support of this show and Relay FM.

00:20:06 ◼   ► So there was a report at Bloomberg from Mark Gorman a couple of days ago that Apple is going

00:20:15 ◼   ► to be revising the AirPods. This makes perfect sense considering there was supposed to be

00:20:23 ◼   ► a new case with wireless charging. If they're going to go through that hassle, maybe upgrade

00:20:30 ◼   ► the AirPods as well. So they have like a version 2, apparently you'll still be able to buy

00:20:34 ◼   ► the case if you want to, right, so you can use your current ones. I think that's what

00:20:38 ◼   ► they said when they announced the AirPower mat, which BTW, where is that?

00:20:43 ◼   ► - But where is it?

00:20:45 ◼   ► - There's 10 more months in 2018.

00:20:47 ◼   ► So did they say early or I think they just said

00:20:51 ◼   ► sometime next year. - I can't remember

00:20:52 ◼   ► their actual press.

00:20:55 ◼   ► Like, no at the time. - Plenty of time.

00:20:57 ◼   ► - But the website, I checked it.

00:20:58 ◼   ► It just says coming in 2018.

00:21:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, see, so we got lots of time for the AirPower.

00:21:03 ◼   ► There are some rumors that March, your favorite month,

00:21:07 ◼   ► that there are some rumors that March might be

00:21:10 ◼   ► when the AirPower thing finally ships.

00:21:12 ◼   ► - My kind of feeling on that is that that will drop.

00:21:16 ◼   ► There was some rumors about a revision to the iPad,

00:21:19 ◼   ► the 9.7 inch iPad for March as well,

00:21:22 ◼   ► 'cause there was some European version

00:21:26 ◼   ► of SCC approvals for some iPads.

00:21:28 ◼   ► - Maybe the iPhone SE will get updated then too.

00:21:30 ◼   ► It's the March of minor products.

00:21:33 ◼   ► - Well, I honestly think that that will happen

00:21:36 ◼   ► because this is what they've done in the past, right?

00:21:39 ◼   ► You just throw out a bunch of press releases

00:21:40 ◼   ► for some products that people were not like hugely excited about, right? Like you just

00:21:45 ◼   ► put them out there and you have like, here's AirPower and some new iPads and some new AirPods.

00:21:52 ◼   ► I expect that that's going to happen at some point in March. Yeah, this is like, there

00:21:58 ◼   ► was some in kind of in Europe and Asia, there's some new regulation stuff and some countries

00:22:03 ◼   ► like Belarus and Kazakhstan popped up on the kind of FCC like stuff that these iPads are

00:22:10 ◼   ► going through and they look to be the 9.7s,

00:22:12 ◼   ► which matches up with some supply chain stuff.

00:22:14 ◼   ► So anyway, so the rumor for the AirPods

00:22:18 ◼   ► is that there's gonna be an upgraded wireless chip,

00:22:20 ◼   ► so the W2 most likely,

00:22:23 ◼   ► which will allow you to be able to call Siri

00:22:27 ◼   ► via the trigger word,

00:22:29 ◼   ► which we will refer to as a high telephone as we always do,

00:22:32 ◼   ► and that they will be water resistant, not waterproof.

00:22:37 ◼   ► They will be like, they'll be at the level

00:22:39 ◼   ► that the iPhone is.

00:22:40 ◼   ► So like, the watch is like waterproof.

00:22:43 ◼   ► You can swim with it, right?

00:22:45 ◼   ► The phone is water resistant.

00:22:46 ◼   ► So you can get water on it, you can maybe drop it in water

00:22:49 ◼   ► and it'll be okay.

00:22:50 ◼   ► And that's kind of the route that they're going down

00:22:52 ◼   ► with the AirPods as well.

00:22:55 ◼   ► So I guess you can safely have them on in the rain

00:22:58 ◼   ► would be my, kind of like what they would show for that.

00:23:01 ◼   ► - That seems like what they're saying.

00:23:02 ◼   ► - 'Cause I can't really think of how else

00:23:05 ◼   ► you would get them wet specifically, right?

00:23:07 ◼   ► Like you couldn't swim with these things in,

00:23:09 ◼   ► even if they were waterproof, right?

00:23:11 ◼   ► Because they would fall out of your ears.

00:23:13 ◼   ► So I guess my question really is,

00:23:18 ◼   ► does this excite you in any way?

00:23:20 ◼   ► Like, is this anything you actually really want

00:23:22 ◼   ► from your AirPods?

00:23:24 ◼   ► - This is interesting.

00:23:25 ◼   ► I mean, it's great to hear Apple doing what they do,

00:23:27 ◼   ► which is incrementing products forward.

00:23:30 ◼   ► And you and I have,

00:23:31 ◼   ► we had an Ask Upgrade question a while ago

00:23:33 ◼   ► about what about a next AirPods.

00:23:37 ◼   ► And the challenge, right, is, I mean, I feel this way.

00:23:41 ◼   ► I assume you feel this way too, which is,

00:23:43 ◼   ► they're so good that it actually makes it hard for me to,

00:23:48 ◼   ► I mean, maybe not imagine new features,

00:23:49 ◼   ► but like they're so good that I just think they're great.

00:23:53 ◼   ► Like, take your time, Apple, these are fine.

00:23:56 ◼   ► And so, you know, you end up with wireless charger.

00:23:59 ◼   ► Sure, that sounds great.

00:24:00 ◼   ► Water resistance, sure.

00:24:01 ◼   ► I mean push that forward, people who are getting out in the rain and all of that, or just getting

00:24:07 ◼   ► sweat on them to make them more resilient for that stuff. Great. The rumor that they're

00:24:12 ◼   ► going to listen, which is funny because when the idea of listening for the Ahoy Earbuds

00:24:20 ◼   ► is I thought, wow, that's a lot of intelligence to put in them, and then I realized it's not

00:24:23 ◼   ► really. All they really have to do is have enough power and processing ability for the

00:24:29 ◼   ► microphones to be listening just for the trigger, at which point they do the

00:24:34 ◼   ► equivalent of pushing the button and the device that it's paired with handles the

00:24:38 ◼   ► request. And so it's not like it's not quite like adding it to the Apple Watch.

00:24:43 ◼   ► It's a little bit lighter. But these are all nice. It's just I have one of

00:24:47 ◼   ► those things where I have a hard time, it's the irony of not getting super

00:24:51 ◼   ► excited about the prospect of AirPods updates because I think the AirPods are

00:24:56 ◼   ► so good already.

00:24:57 ◼   ► Can you think of anything that you would want from the AirPods?

00:25:04 ◼   ► I have a couple of things, personally.

00:25:07 ◼   ► I mean, I think ultimately they do need more battery life.

00:25:12 ◼   ► Yep.

00:25:13 ◼   ► I would expect that by the way, right?

00:25:14 ◼   ► So like this new version with the W2, I would, if they don't say that like, oh, it's increased

00:25:21 ◼   ► performance which gets you better battery life, I would be very, very surprised about

00:25:24 ◼   ► that.

00:25:25 ◼   ► feels like something that at this age of a product's life cycle, it should be getting

00:25:29 ◼   ► better battery like how the Apple Watch did. Not that the battery life honestly is ever

00:25:34 ◼   ► really a problem for the AirPods, I never have a problem with them. Which is funny because

00:25:39 ◼   ► it's an intermittent charging device, you only charge it every now and then but I never

00:25:42 ◼   ► have them die on me. But it would just be nice to hear them say that the AirPods themselves,

00:25:49 ◼   ► not just the case, the AirPods last longer so you can wear them for longer. Because you

00:25:54 ◼   ► know sometimes if I'm on a transatlantic flight they will die on me before I arrive.

00:26:00 ◼   ► Yeah I have that every so often I will be I'll go for a walk and I'll come back and

00:26:04 ◼   ► I'm still listening to a podcast and I'll be wandering around the house and at some

00:26:06 ◼   ► point I get that little you know that little beep that's the bloo. The one that the first

00:26:10 ◼   ► time it happens you're like what the heck is that right because you've never heard it

00:26:14 ◼   ► before and I didn't ever expect it. Your AirPods are talking to you right and I get that and

00:26:19 ◼   ► I think oh right yeah the AirPods battery life isn't spectacular and yeah they charge

00:26:23 ◼   ► up pretty fast and you can put them back in, but I think in general that should be a goal

00:26:29 ◼   ► of these things. I think consumer acceptance of them, despite the fact that they've got

00:26:34 ◼   ► the long kind of stems off of the end, the long beams, I still feel like in the end one

00:26:42 ◼   ► of their goals is probably going to be to make those shorter, but I also understand

00:26:46 ◼   ► that that's where all the electronics are and there are probably other things to prioritize

00:26:49 ◼   ► because I'm sure they would love it if it could just be a thing that just pops right

00:26:53 ◼   ► in your ear with almost nothing visible like on the outside, but I think it's going to

00:26:58 ◼   ► be a long time. And then the other thing that I can think of is also going to be something

00:27:02 ◼   ► that is a long time in coming, which is at some point they should just be like, there

00:27:09 ◼   ► should be like a whole Apple watch in there, but it's so miniaturized that I think it's

00:27:13 ◼   ► going to be a long time, and I think Apple figures you've got other devices for connectivity

00:27:17 ◼   ► stuff so they don't need to rush on that. And that's why I come back to like colors,

00:27:21 ◼   ► Myke. Colors. I want colors.

00:27:22 ◼   ► Myke: Yeah, I want colors and I think they should make colors. It's kind of wild to me

00:27:27 ◼   ► that they don't. And I would still like some other less aggressive way of controlling them

00:27:36 ◼   ► than the taps. I don't know what that is or maybe like making the sensors for the tapping

00:27:42 ◼   ► more smart, you know, a little bit more sensitive. I don't know what the answer to that is, but

00:27:49 ◼   ► that is the one thing I don't like about the AirPods is the thunking on the side of my

00:27:53 ◼   ► head. I'm not a fan of that. And I would like to see something more, something better happen

00:27:58 ◼   ► there.

00:27:59 ◼   ► Well, one of the nice things that happens with having Ahoy Earbuds is you don't have

00:28:04 ◼   ► to tap at all anymore for hands-free.

00:28:08 ◼   ► I know you can do that.

00:28:09 ◼   ► I don't want to talk either. I know.

00:28:10 ◼   ► I don't want to do it.

00:28:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, I can see how having a different kind of gesture might be useful, right? Like,

00:28:19 ◼   ► a touch gesture or something where you don't have to actually do the big bump, but you

00:28:24 ◼   ► can just touch.

00:28:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, touch is what I want. I want it to be sensitive to touch, not sensitive to accelerometer

00:28:29 ◼   ► movement. That's the big difference.

00:28:32 ◼   ► - We should mention the other rumor that's out there, which is that Apple actually is

00:28:35 ◼   ► gonna do its own question mark headphones in the style of AirPods.

00:28:42 ◼   ► What do you think about this? I honestly the world of over-ear headphones is just a mystery

00:28:48 ◼   ► to me because I don't like them. I don't use them. I've never used them. I hate them. So

00:28:54 ◼   ► I'm gonna leave it to you. I think it's fascinating that there might be a place between Beats

00:28:57 ◼   ► and AirPods that's an Apple branded one and that's a that's like I assume that you know

00:29:04 ◼   ► Apple would just ride the Beats brand, but I wonder if they figure like they can make like a premium

00:29:09 ◼   ► Apple branded thing where people who might not buy a Beats headphone, but they buy an Apple headphone even if it's very similar to

00:29:16 ◼   ► The the wireless beats that are out there

00:29:20 ◼   ► Maybe it's got a different sound like Marco our friend Marco Arment was commenting on how he was intrigued by this

00:29:26 ◼   ► Because he uses over-ear headphones and doesn't like the Beats ones the sound of them. I think it was Marco

00:29:32 ◼   ► But there are definitely people out there who are like, "Oh no, it wasn't Marco, it

00:29:35 ◼   ► was Federico. Federico didn't like them and he was intrigued by this." So maybe there's

00:29:39 ◼   ► a case for something that does not have the Beats sound but is still using Apple's wireless

00:29:45 ◼   ► technology and some people don't know anything about Beats but they see the Apple logo on

00:29:49 ◼   ► it in the Apple store and they're like, "Oh, okay, Apple makes these, that's great." So

00:29:52 ◼   ► I hope they're not white. But I think it's interesting like…

00:29:58 ◼   ► They 100% will be white, Jason. Oh my god, can you imagine the smudges on that? Anyway,

00:30:05 ◼   ► I think Apple's got this tech and it's only in the two products now and they really like it

00:30:09 ◼   ► and so why would they not put in other products, right? Of theirs.

00:30:13 ◼   ► I agree that this almost feels like an inevitability now that I've seen it.

00:30:17 ◼   ► It's like, yeah, of course, right? Of course. You have this technology that is built specifically

00:30:23 ◼   ► for wearables and headphones. Why would you not have more? Apple have always had different

00:30:29 ◼   ► lines of headphones. They've always had the ones that go in your ear, the more expensive ones,

00:30:35 ◼   ► but then they just do the white ones. Why not just do this? They have the knowledge of Beats

00:30:41 ◼   ► to help them put this stuff together. Honestly, I think that these will just effectively be Apple

00:30:47 ◼   ► branded Beats headphones of a slightly different profile of audio and the W2 chip. I think that's

00:30:54 ◼   ► just what these will be and that would be a great product and would probably be something that a lot

00:31:01 ◼   ► of people will buy. I wouldn't. I don't think I particularly would want these because the only

00:31:06 ◼   ► time I use these types of headphones is on a plane and I think I prefer and I prefer having a cable

00:31:13 ◼   ► for the plane. I would only want these if this is not going to happen, if there was

00:31:17 ◼   ► a way to connect it with a cable to just a regular headphone jack, because I want to

00:31:23 ◼   ► be able to take one set of headphones that I can play with my iPhone with an adapter

00:31:28 ◼   ► and plug into my Nintendo Switch and plug into the airplane system and all that kind

00:31:33 ◼   ► of stuff. So just a pure wireless over-the-ear headphones wouldn't necessarily fit my use

00:31:39 ◼   ► case for over-the-ear headphones.

00:31:41 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, but I think a lot of people would love them. So it makes sense.

00:31:46 ◼   ► Because there are people that will buy these, like in the same way that they have at Apple,

00:31:51 ◼   ► that people just want these. Like why wouldn't they? This is a genius product to make.

00:31:54 ◼   ► I think, and I'm trying not to be cynical when I say this, but I think this is one of

00:31:59 ◼   ► the ways that Tim Cook and Tim Cook's Apple behaves, which is what proprietary technology

00:32:07 ◼   ► do we have? What products are we good at making? What product opportunities are there for us

00:32:12 ◼   ► to make more money? Let's not leave those sitting out there, right? And this is a case

00:32:18 ◼   ► where they can make these products, they will be good, they're not going to be bad, they'll

00:32:23 ◼   ► be good, and they will sell a lot and make a lot of money. And I think Tim Cook, his

00:32:29 ◼   ► reign, that is one of the things that I've noticed about it, right, is provide products

00:32:34 ◼   ► in all the different categories, lots of different price points. If there's something we can

00:32:38 ◼   ► make that people will buy, let's make it. Right? Especially if it's good. I'm sure these will

00:32:45 ◼   ► be good. I have no doubt because the AirPods are good. They've got the knowledge from Beats

00:32:50 ◼   ► about headphones. I think these will be good for a certain audience who is not me.

00:32:55 ◼   ► So you wanted to talk about ARM Macs today.

00:32:58 ◼   ► What's going on?

00:32:59 ◼   ► - I know, it's like a blast from the past.

00:33:02 ◼   ► I thought that it was a very 2017 thing

00:33:05 ◼   ► to talk about ARM Macs.

00:33:06 ◼   ► Why would we talk about them now?

00:33:08 ◼   ► Why would we talk about what if Macs ran ARM processors

00:33:11 ◼   ► like the Apple design processors that are in iOS devices?

00:33:15 ◼   ► I brought this up, it's Stephen Hackett's fault.

00:33:17 ◼   ► Okay, so I blame Stephen.

00:33:19 ◼   ► So last week on Download,

00:33:21 ◼   ► podcast that Stephen and I do with a panel,

00:33:25 ◼   ► I was traveling so Steven put the show together and then I just was the

00:33:28 ◼   ► talking head who asked the questions, which is kind of interesting. And the

00:33:35 ◼   ► documentation for Windows devices running ARM came out. So Microsoft is

00:33:41 ◼   ► trying again to do a whole like separate line of Windows that runs on ARM

00:33:51 ◼   ► processors. It's Windows 10, but it's on ARM and we got the list. There was

00:33:57 ◼   ► like a leaked document and so there was a list of stuff that Windows ARM

00:34:03 ◼   ► laptops won't do. Now why would you have a Windows ARM laptop? The answer is the

00:34:07 ◼   ► same reason you might have a Mac ARM laptop, which is they're going to get way

00:34:10 ◼   ► better battery life. Like dramatically shockingly better battery life than an

00:34:15 ◼   ► Intel laptop would. That's the reason you would do it. But on Windows

00:34:19 ◼   ► anyway. 64-bit apps won't work. Certain classes of apps won't work without being

00:34:25 ◼   ► recompiled for ARM, and that will probably not happen. None of the legacy

00:34:30 ◼   ► x86 Windows drivers that exist for Windows, every other Windows PC, those

00:34:35 ◼   ► won't work. There's no Hyper-V, so there's basically no virtualization to

00:34:38 ◼   ► speak of, you know, and certainly no easy virtualization to speak of. And a lot of

00:34:46 ◼   ► older games and graphics apps won't necessarily work because only certain

00:34:52 ◼   ► modern versions of DirectX will be supported. So the idea here is that

00:34:55 ◼   ► basically the idea that you could buy a PC and it's a PC and depending on the

00:35:01 ◼   ► specs it'll do everything that Windows does and compatibility has always

00:35:06 ◼   ► been like a huge strength of Microsoft and also their weakness because they've

00:35:09 ◼   ► got this huge install base and it's hard to make a break.

00:35:13 ◼   ► So here's Microsoft trying for the second time to kind of make a break and say,

00:35:16 ◼   ► look, there's a lot of benefit to having ARM processors in these things.

00:35:20 ◼   ► We're going to make them our partners are making them but some of this compatibility

00:35:25 ◼   ► that you've come to rely on for old stuff is just not there.

00:35:29 ◼   ► And so if you need that don't buy one of these buy buy a regular laptop,

00:35:33 ◼   ► right the it's not like they're deprecating Intel PC.

00:35:39 ◼   ► So that's not happening, but they're creating a class of computer that runs

00:35:42 ◼   ► Windows 10 that doesn't do a lot of the stuff, the kind of old legacy stuff that a certain

00:35:49 ◼   ► part of the PC market wants, feels they want, requires in some way. They may or may not

00:35:54 ◼   ► use it, but they require it. Okay, so all this is interesting from an Apple perspective.

00:36:00 ◼   ► It's sort of like, "Alright, whatever, forget it, it's Windows town." But it got me thinking

00:36:07 ◼   ► this thought process again about Apple, which is, and so this is a question I would ask you,

00:36:14 ◼   ► which is, what would you give up to get a MacBook that has 20 hours of battery life,

00:36:20 ◼   ► or 15 hours of battery life? Because that's basically what Microsoft is saying here, is,

00:36:24 ◼   ► yeah, it runs Windows, but not all of this stuff. And I think that's a really interesting proposition,

00:36:31 ◼   ► like, how much of what you assume being, you know, it being a Mac is, are you willing to forego

00:36:41 ◼   ► in exchange for having this kind of incredible battery life? And probably it's super small and

00:36:49 ◼   ► thin, it's like a MacBook, but like with way better battery life. I don't know, what would

00:36:53 ◼   ► you give up? What would you be willing to give up? Well, before I answer that, what this honestly

00:36:58 ◼   ► sounds like to me is what somebody goes through when they decide to work on an iPad.

00:37:05 ◼   ► It's like you give up all of the old stuff that a computer can do.

00:37:10 ◼   ► That's effectively like what's happening here.

00:37:12 ◼   ► I mean I know that Windows is still running on it, but what you're getting rid of is a

00:37:16 ◼   ► lot of legacy, right?

00:37:18 ◼   ► So when you're talking about certain types of apps needing to be redone, it's because

00:37:23 ◼   ► there's no shell extensions anymore, right?

00:37:26 ◼   ► So all of that stuff has to be removed before it can work.

00:37:30 ◼   ► So it kind of just feels like to me, yeah this is what happens when somebody decides

00:37:34 ◼   ► to switch to iPad.

00:37:36 ◼   ► They have to shed themselves as their old ways of thinking about computers and then

00:37:42 ◼   ► pick up again from what are all the good things about this new thing.

00:37:46 ◼   ► However if Apple made something like this, the reason people would want it over an iPad

00:37:52 ◼   ► is that it runs Mac OS and therefore runs at least some Mac OS apps, right? I honestly

00:38:00 ◼   ► could see this being a world in which like if Apple ever did this it would just be like

00:38:04 ◼   ► App Store only apps is a possibility but that's maybe a question for another day. Me personally,

00:38:10 ◼   ► if I could get all of the apps that I wanted, like this would make sense to me, like sure,

00:38:16 ◼   ► like I can work with that, right? That seems like a great thing, like we'll just go with

00:38:19 ◼   ► it. Like, sure, fine, I'm happy with it. I can get huge battery life from my laptop,

00:38:26 ◼   ► which would be good for me when I'm traveling, and then I can use logic on a plane or Final

00:38:31 ◼   ► Cut on a plane and it will work absolutely fine. So yeah, I personally would do this,

00:38:36 ◼   ► right? And I would give up whatever I needed to give up because a Mac user like me is still

00:38:42 ◼   ► probably going to be able to do everything that they want to do anyway, right? Because

00:38:46 ◼   ► I'm not deep inside of AppleScript or whatever, but I think that this type of thing, it is

00:38:55 ◼   ► that reason, it is the reason of giving up all the old stuff, which makes me think personally

00:39:00 ◼   ► that Apple's just never going to do this. And what they will do is what we have been

00:39:06 ◼   ► talking about and you've been talking about forever, creating that middle ground computer.

00:39:11 ◼   ► the thing in between the iPad and the Mac, which is more like the Mac but runs on an

00:39:17 ◼   ► ARM processor, rather than taking what they currently have, stripping away all of the

00:39:21 ◼   ► stuff that's just going to make people mad because they can't do it anymore, and saying

00:39:25 ◼   ► here is Mac OS on ARM, and you can't do any of the stuff that makes a computer a computer

00:39:30 ◼   ► to you.

00:39:31 ◼   ► Yeah, the argument is that if—and Apple has followed this so far, which is Microsoft

00:39:37 ◼   ► has been making lots of changes to Windows, but Microsoft only has Windows. Apple has

00:39:40 ◼   ► iOS and the Mac. And the argument is, the Mac's strength is that it's the Mac and it's

00:39:46 ◼   ► everything you expect from a Mac. And why turn, if you're going to turn the Mac into

00:39:52 ◼   ► something it's not, then it's not the Mac anymore. And it's, you know, among Android,

00:40:00 ◼   ► Windows, iOS, and macOS, it's the least popular of them. It's the second most popular OS run

00:40:08 ◼   ► by Apple. Like, it's not... So this is the question. Does Apple want to invest any time

00:40:15 ◼   ► or effort into creating a half Mac thing that would be actually great for certain people?

00:40:24 ◼   ► I get the feeling that maybe the MacBook was at one point going to be this, and they already

00:40:29 ◼   ► made this decision, which was, "Eh, let's not do that." Like, what if we had the Mac

00:40:34 ◼   ► running on ARM in a little thing like the MacBook. So they may have already just made

00:40:40 ◼   ► this decision, we've seen it and that's the end of it, but I think it's this interesting

00:40:43 ◼   ► question of like if you're Apple, do you do that? Do you say, "Well, we're gonna make

00:40:48 ◼   ► a Mac that's not quite a Mac." Or do you say, "Look, the Mac should always be the Mac. It

00:40:52 ◼   ► should be what it's gonna be. We're gonna keep it around, but we're not going to invest

00:40:56 ◼   ► in a fraction of the Mac market, which is already pretty small, that runs this totally

00:41:04 ◼   ► different processor architecture, even if what that would get you is like a laptop that

00:41:08 ◼   ► runs iWork and maybe Microsoft Office and some other stuff, but doesn't do a lot of

00:41:14 ◼   ► things that you're used to doing. And the argument could be that at that point, yeah,

00:41:19 ◼   ► you could also just do that on iOS, which is, I just think it's fascinating. What fascinates

00:41:24 ◼   ► me about it is people are going to start comparing these ARM laptops that run Windows to Mac

00:41:30 ◼   ► laptops, right? That's gonna happen. And Apple's gonna look bad, right? I mean, I think that's

00:41:39 ◼   ► gonna happen because these things are gonna have insane battery life. Now maybe they'll

00:41:43 ◼   ► be slow and maybe the, you know, the Mac, but the MacBook's kind of slow too, right?

00:41:49 ◼   ► It's gonna be at least a possibility that Apple's gonna look kind of behind the game

00:41:53 ◼   ► here. But I'm not sure this is a game Apple wants to play. I don't think, I'm not sure.

00:42:00 ◼   ► could. They could do it. Like, there's nothing stopping Apple from doing this. But do they

00:42:05 ◼   ► want to play that game, or do they want to keep their eyes on something else? And that's

00:42:09 ◼   ► -- I just, I mean, I don't have an answer here, because this is, I feel like, one of

00:42:13 ◼   ► the big questions of our time in terms of what Apple is strategizing, is like, how far

00:42:18 ◼   ► do you take the Mac, and when do you step away and say, "We're not taking it any further

00:42:23 ◼   ► down this road than we've already brought it." The Mac is the Mac, and it's going to

00:42:27 ◼   ► to remain so. But when you see what Microsoft is doing, Microsoft of all companies saying

00:42:33 ◼   ► we're breaking a lot of legacy stuff that is like that's their bread and butter is the

00:42:37 ◼   ► legacy stuff and they're like nope we're not going to do it. I get why they're doing it.

00:42:41 ◼   ► I think it's actually kind of smart. We'll see the what Carolina Milanese said on download

00:42:46 ◼   ► last week was Microsoft talks about doing making these breaks all the time but will

00:42:50 ◼   ► they will they live up to it. Will they go back on themselves. There is a thing about

00:42:54 ◼   ► I want to compare between Microsoft and Apple here.

00:42:58 ◼   ► So what will happen is Microsoft will start making these PCs or having their OEMs make

00:43:03 ◼   ► PCs as well and they're going to be like, "We're getting 20 to 30 hours of battery life

00:43:10 ◼   ► or something insane."

00:43:11 ◼   ► I know it's not going to be that much, but they say 20 hours of battery life.

00:43:16 ◼   ► But that's all Microsoft do.

00:43:20 ◼   ► going to be compared to them and be like "oh the macbooks don't do this" and blah blah blah

00:43:24 ◼   ► and then that will be that and people will be upset but I don't think Apple are going to do it

00:43:29 ◼   ► because it doesn't necessarily matter to them. This is Microsoft. This is the product that they

00:43:34 ◼   ► make. They make PCs. That's all they got is Windows, right? They have no tablets that people

00:43:39 ◼   ► want and they have no phones that people want. They don't even have a phone division anymore.

00:43:43 ◼   ► So like they have to do this because if they don't do this they have nothing to sell.

00:43:48 ◼   ► Apple don't have to do this. They're still going to sell the Mac whether it's got 15 hours of battery life or seven

00:43:55 ◼   ► Because they'll also sell their iPads which get 10 hours of battery life

00:43:59 ◼   ► And you know what Apple could probably start pushing that if if these if these PCs start getting 15 to 20 hours

00:44:05 ◼   ► I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple starting to push battery life on the iPads

00:44:09 ◼   ► Which is clearly not being a priority because the battery life of 10 hours is really all you need

00:44:15 ◼   ► But it will give them a number that they can compare it to and they'll be like well

00:44:18 ◼   ► This is this does 15 hours about your life and is the future of computing anyway, right?

00:44:22 ◼   ► That's kind of right probably what they'll talk about

00:44:24 ◼   ► but they don't need to compete with Microsoft on the battery life of their laptops because

00:44:30 ◼   ► The Mac is not as important to Apple financially as the PC is to Microsoft, right?

00:44:37 ◼   ► Yeah

00:44:38 ◼   ► No

00:44:38 ◼   ► It's it's it's very much a if Microsoft jumped off a bridge

00:44:41 ◼   ► would you jump off a bridge kind of thing and Apple doesn't need to do that

00:44:44 ◼   ► Apple Apple doesn't have to do that if Apple wanted to make a great battery

00:44:49 ◼   ► life touchscreen super thin and light laptop today they could absolutely do it

00:44:54 ◼   ► and it would be an iOS laptop it would be that iBook that that I've written

00:44:59 ◼   ► about a few times I'm not saying they're going to do that either right but I do

00:45:03 ◼   ► here's the thing though I look at these products and I think Apple's got to do

00:45:08 ◼   ► something. Is the MacBook their entire answer here? Is the MacBook running Intel processors?

00:45:14 ◼   ► Can they update that and say, "This is our answer to these laptops, these Windows laptops.

00:45:21 ◼   ► This is..." And again, Apple doesn't have to do Windows device for device. So many Mac

00:45:27 ◼   ► users are Mac users. They choose that. They're not like, "I'll use any operating system as

00:45:31 ◼   ► long as there's a piece of hardware that I want to buy." There aren't a lot of users

00:45:35 ◼   ► who feel that way. But still, I think there's some pride there. Like, if we have these laptops

00:45:42 ◼   ► and Apple's going to compete with them, what is that product? And is it just a revved MacBook

00:45:48 ◼   ► again? Or is it something else? Because Apple, I feel like Apple could compete with these

00:45:53 ◼   ► products three different ways, but it's probably not going to choose all three ways. It's going

00:45:57 ◼   ► to choose one or maybe two. So I don't know. Again, no answers here because, you know,

00:46:03 ◼   ► sometimes the analysis is fun because it's like, "Here's what I think Apple can do."

00:46:07 ◼   ► In this case, it's like, "Apple can do any of these things. What does Apple want to do?"

00:46:12 ◼   ► And that we don't know.

00:46:14 ◼   ► I think that we're more likely to see Apple make your iOS laptop before a macOS ARM laptop.

00:46:26 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, unless they really just change directions, but I've seen nothing. By the

00:46:35 ◼   ► way, News Alert just came in from the chat room. Microsoft has apparently started selling

00:46:39 ◼   ► Lumia phones again. Nobody understands why.

00:46:42 ◼   ► I'm looking at this now and there's a report on Gizmodo. They just appeared.

00:46:46 ◼   ► Extra stock?

00:46:47 ◼   ► It looks like they said, like, the Gizmodo reports is what I would expect. It looks like

00:46:52 ◼   ► they just found a pallet of these somewhere.

00:46:53 ◼   ► That's right. It's like the Flying Dutchman. This phone appears and disappears every so

00:46:58 ◼   ► often.

00:46:59 ◼   ► This is not a revival of Microsoft's smartphone plan. They just have some stock they need

00:47:05 ◼   ► to dump.

00:47:06 ◼   ► Nokia is going to sell that phone from the Matrix.

00:47:09 ◼   ► The banana phone?

00:47:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:47:11 ◼   ► Yeah. Nokia is doing some stuff. More power to them. They're trying to get back in the

00:47:17 ◼   ► game. I think that's pretty cool. Because they're doing what they do. They're making

00:47:21 ◼   ► cheap phones, Android One phones, and so on.

00:47:28 ◼   ► Somebody has to make those phones, it should be a company that knows what they're doing.

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00:49:20 ◼   ► Tim Cynova Breaking news, Myke, breaking news from Mark

00:49:25 ◼   ► Germin at Bloomberg as we worked on the show, listener viewed it in the chat room, pasted

00:49:30 ◼   ► this link in. I wouldn't say that this is a new rumor so much because I feel like the

00:49:37 ◼   ► supply chain and KGI already had this rumor, but Grumberg, yeah, sure, Gurman at Bloomberg

00:49:45 ◼   ► is reporting this story that we talked about a while ago, which is that Apple is intending

00:49:51 ◼   ► on releasing, one, an iPhone 10 Plus, essentially, a larger OLED screen in the style of the iPhone

00:50:00 ◼   ► 10, which I think is fair to call, at least for now, an iPhone 10 Plus this fall. And

00:50:07 ◼   ► a replacement for the iPhone 8 product line, which, according to Germin's report, the feeling

00:50:13 ◼   ► is it looks too much like, you know, because it's the iPhone 6 design, it doesn't look

00:50:17 ◼   ► new. And so what they're, what, according to Germin, they're planning on doing is creating

00:50:23 ◼   ► something that looks very much like the iPhone 10, but has an LCD screen and has, you know,

00:50:28 ◼   ► aluminum bezel and is not made of like the premium materials and stuff that are

00:50:32 ◼   ► in the iPhone 10 that allows them to sell it at a lower price but has more of

00:50:36 ◼   ► an iPhone 10 look about it and I assume that would be like the iPhone 9. So yeah

00:50:41 ◼   ► this is a confirmation of Ming-Chi Kuo's report that we were talking about a few weeks ago.

00:50:45 ◼   ► Exactly. So it's not quite new and it's Mark Gurman and Debbie Wu on the

00:50:50 ◼   ► byline there but it was just as we started this morning this came out.

00:50:54 ◼   ► So it's yes, it's a very similar kind of story

00:50:59 ◼   ► than what we've heard, which is, it's interesting.

00:51:01 ◼   ► Like, I mean, and he frames it as iPhone 10 sales

00:51:04 ◼   ► haven't been as strong as Apple had hoped.

00:51:08 ◼   ► I'm not entirely 100% sure I buy that part

00:51:11 ◼   ► of the narrative here,

00:51:12 ◼   ► but certainly when we all discussed

00:51:14 ◼   ► where Apple could go next,

00:51:16 ◼   ► a plus version is something that you and I both talked about.

00:51:19 ◼   ► And then I think it's intriguing this idea that, you know,

00:51:24 ◼   ► people buy phones because they look new, not just because they are new, and the

00:51:28 ◼   ► problem with the iPhone 8 is that it looks just like the iPhone 7 and 6s and

00:51:33 ◼   ► 6. And so do you want to do a next generation or a next version of the

00:51:38 ◼   ► iPhone for 2018 that is literally just the 6, 6s, 7, and 8 again? And the answer

00:51:45 ◼   ► here would seem to be no. Instead we're going to make it look more like our

00:51:50 ◼   ► super hot high-end 10 except it'll be you know made of cheaper materials because it

00:51:56 ◼   ► won't have the OLED screen and it won't have the the stainless steel and you know who knows

00:52:01 ◼   ► what other details are in there and I think that's I think that's not a not not an unbelievable

00:52:09 ◼   ► rumor that seems that seems reasonable as a product direction for them.

00:52:13 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm really struggling to get my head around these two ideas in parallel, right?

00:52:21 ◼   ► Like one, that the iPhone X isn't selling as well as they'd hoped.

00:52:26 ◼   ► But they sold a lot of iPhones, which therefore means they must have sold a lot of 8 and 8+.

00:52:33 ◼   ► But then you're making a phone that looks like the iPhone X because you want to make

00:52:37 ◼   ► sure that people buy your phones.

00:52:39 ◼   ► they were buying the 8 and 8 plus if they didn't sell a lot of iPhone 10s. It doesn't

00:52:44 ◼   ► marry up for me. The logic is there in each of the individual components, right? I understand

00:52:50 ◼   ► the logic of all of them independently, but when you piece them all together, they don't

00:52:56 ◼   ► marry up anymore.

00:52:58 ◼   ► This is the challenge with reading a lot of these reports that have some details, and

00:53:04 ◼   ► we've talked about it before with Germin, but I think he's a very good reporter with

00:53:08 ◼   ► good sources. Since he's been at Bloomberg though, I definitely feel like Bloomberg wants

00:53:12 ◼   ► to apply more of a broad narrative to every one of his stories. Like, at 9to5Mac he can

00:53:16 ◼   ► make news by saying, "Oh, I can confirm that report that they're working on on iPhone 10+."

00:53:21 ◼   ► Right? And he would write that story with a little bit of background. But Bloomberg

00:53:24 ◼   ► editors seem to want to put it in the grand story of what's going on with Apple, and that

00:53:29 ◼   ► means fitting it into a narrative. And, you know, again, having only read this story while

00:53:35 ◼   ► we were on the air here it looks to me like the product stuff is probably solid

00:53:42 ◼   ► and then the reasons why are imagined like based on the near existing

00:53:47 ◼   ► narrative and existing like what we've already talked about how maybe the

00:53:51 ◼   ► iPhone 10 sales are disappointing and this and that but like I discount when I

00:53:56 ◼   ► read these stories I largely discount the reasons why and just stick to the

00:54:01 ◼   ► reports about the like there's a new product here because the reasons why are

00:54:05 ◼   ► trying to build that build that narrative and Bloomberg wants to do that

00:54:09 ◼   ► I get why they want to do that their audience is going to be a little less

00:54:13 ◼   ► breathless perhaps about the specs of an iPhone 10 plus than the 9 to 5 Mac

00:54:18 ◼   ► audience is but it does lead to some head scratching moments where you're

00:54:23 ◼   ► like yeah I don't know if that actually makes sense

00:54:26 ◼   ► I'm not clear if it's actually like I don't generally see in these stories you

00:54:30 ◼   ► know somebody who's familiar with Apple's strategy says that this is what the strategy

00:54:35 ◼   ► is. Instead those are often sort of like just stated as facts without any sort of like according

00:54:40 ◼   ► to the people which is also weird. So yeah there's a lot to think about on that one.

00:54:45 ◼   ► I haven't read the report yet because it's breaking news but that's very it is very interesting

00:54:50 ◼   ► and I want it and I want the iPhone 10 plus. I don't care what it is I want it because

00:54:55 ◼   ► that's I'm crazy like that. There was an article by Charles Arthur. Who is Charles Arthur?

00:55:01 ◼   ► - He's a tax journalist in your nation, the United Kingdom. And he wrote a little thing

00:55:11 ◼   ► about the, basically his MacBook Pro died. And so he's just started using his iPad Pro

00:55:24 ◼   ► instead. And it's a good story, we'll put a link in. He has a newsletter, a daily newsletter

00:55:32 ◼   ► called "The Overspill." And it was kind of cool to see somebody who was not like, "Alright,

00:55:38 ◼   ► here I am, I'm going to make the leap." But more like, "Oh, I need to continue doing my

00:55:42 ◼   ► job and my laptop broke. I'm just going to use the iPad Pro. It's here. I can do it."

00:55:46 ◼   ► And then he went through the details and he, you know, he's got Word and Scrivener working

00:55:53 ◼   ► on his book, he's got Google docs and Skype and all of that stuff works. He has some workflow

00:56:00 ◼   ► stuff that he built and even some Pythonista scripts that he built so it's a little shades

00:56:05 ◼   ► of Federico.

00:56:06 ◼   ► Yeah, it's like he went through the process that everybody goes through but it's not a

00:56:11 ◼   ► process you go through until you go through it. Like he went through the process of somebody

00:56:18 ◼   ► moving to the iPad, but he did it under duress instead of interest, but he still took the

00:56:27 ◼   ► same path that you took and I took and Federico took. Like, "Oh, okay, so I'm going to use

00:56:33 ◼   ► this thing for whatever reason, and what if I need to do this? Oh, what if I need to do

00:56:37 ◼   ► that? And what if I need to do that? Oh, this works. Oh, and this works, and this works,

00:56:40 ◼   ► and this works, and I might need this workaround, but I can still make it happen."

00:56:44 ◼   ► And here are the five or six things that don't work very well. And he nails those two. That's

00:56:49 ◼   ► the thing that I really was delighted by this is somebody with somewhat fresh eyes looking on this

00:56:53 ◼   ► subject. And like he mentioned, lapability, which I think is actually a huge problem in all the

00:56:58 ◼   ► tablets that try to also be laptops is sitting in a lap like a laptop is they're not good at it.

00:57:04 ◼   ► Like the Microsoft Surface has a kickstand. The smart keyboard has its kind of like folding thing.

00:57:10 ◼   ► they're not super stable in your lap. They're kind of made for being on a table. I actually

00:57:15 ◼   ► tweeted at him and I said I ended up getting the bridge keyboard because I really wanted to

00:57:18 ◼   ► have that laptop context and that was the only way I could do it because it's definitely a failing of

00:57:25 ◼   ► all these products. He talked about selecting text is painful. Websites that are even on a

00:57:32 ◼   ► 12.9-inch iPad Pro, they are convinced that you need the mobile version of their site, which is

00:57:37 ◼   ► so frustrating. Like, you know, I'm not using a phone here. I'm using a 13-inch computer.

00:57:44 ◼   ► Just give me the regular version of your site. And some other stuff that he found. It's really good.

00:57:49 ◼   ► It was a really good story, and it brought back the sort of, like, thoughts. I just was traveling

00:57:54 ◼   ► for a week, and I didn't bring my laptop, and I didn't even think about it. I just traveled with

00:57:59 ◼   ► my iPad, and it was fine. I recorded a couple of podcasts. I used my little Wi-Fi box thing that

00:58:06 ◼   ► does the transfers really fast from the memory card in my recorder over to my iPad so I can

00:58:11 ◼   ► add it on the iPad because Apple doesn't let you actually copy audio files off of a SD

00:58:18 ◼   ► card with their own adapter, so I have to use a workaround, but it works. I brought

00:58:22 ◼   ► my external keyboard, although it turns out I only use that a couple of times because

00:58:25 ◼   ► I was trying to actually be on vacation and not work. And it just struck me that I went

00:58:32 ◼   ► through this where Charles Arthur is. I don't do all of my work on the iPad

00:58:36 ◼   ► because I do use my Mac, but if my Mac died I would find a way to do my

00:58:41 ◼   ► job with my iPad just fine. I wanted to use this though as a way to check in

00:58:45 ◼   ► with you and see where are you on iPad stuff right now.

00:58:49 ◼   ► No change. I'm using the iPad as much as I ever have. Again, like as a reiteration

00:58:56 ◼   ► for anybody tuning in right like I use the iPad I use iOS for all of my work that is non-production

00:59:03 ◼   ► so if I am not recording or editing a podcast I am on my iPad. This includes entertainment,

00:59:10 ◼   ► games and videos as well as all of my email, all of my show preparation, all of my social media,

00:59:15 ◼   ► all of my business running happens on my iPad. And iOS 11 has been a huge step for me

00:59:26 ◼   ► productivity wise. I have settled with iOS 11 very nicely. The multitasking for me is so much better.

00:59:33 ◼   ► The flexibility of being able to move the apps around, switch them around, have a third slide out,

00:59:38 ◼   ► that has really, really significantly improved my workflows. The Files app has extended the system

00:59:45 ◼   ► so much more. It's made everything way more flexible. And this is also kind of coupled with

00:59:51 ◼   ► with just some animation tweaks, applications,

00:59:54 ◼   ► they just open now, they don't flip around

00:59:58 ◼   ► on some kind of carousel every time you open it.

01:00:02 ◼   ► Little things like that have made me feel

01:00:04 ◼   ► much more productive on iOS 11.

01:00:09 ◼   ► My current hardware, I'm still perfectly fine with.

01:00:12 ◼   ► I have no burning need for new iPad hardware.

01:00:17 ◼   ► I use the 12.9 inch at home.

01:00:20 ◼   ► It's like my desktop, it's my home computer.

01:00:23 ◼   ► And then my 10.5 is for travel.

01:00:26 ◼   ► It's like whenever I'm out of the house,

01:00:27 ◼   ► it's like the equivalent of a laptop.

01:00:29 ◼   ► And both of those are working incredibly well.

01:00:32 ◼   ► I have no problems with them speed-wise.

01:00:34 ◼   ► Screens are incredible.

01:00:35 ◼   ► Like I don't feel the need.

01:00:37 ◼   ► I have been in that situation, right?

01:00:41 ◼   ► So when we were like 18 months

01:00:42 ◼   ► into the first 12.9 inch iPad,

01:00:45 ◼   ► which it went for before it was updated at all,

01:00:48 ◼   ► maybe even a little bit longer than that,

01:00:49 ◼   ► like I felt the need for it.

01:00:50 ◼   ► but these things are six months, seven, eight months old,

01:00:54 ◼   ► and I could go another year on them, I think,

01:00:57 ◼   ► before getting any hardware updates,

01:00:59 ◼   ► and I would be perfectly fine with that.

01:01:01 ◼   ► - I'm still using my original first generation

01:01:04 ◼   ► 12.9 inch iPad Pro.

01:01:05 ◼   ► - I didn't know that.

01:01:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's just fine.

01:01:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, of course it is.

01:01:10 ◼   ► It's always a good machine, right?

01:01:12 ◼   ► But there were things that I wanted.

01:01:14 ◼   ► I wanted True Tone, stuff like that, right?

01:01:17 ◼   ► which because I had the 9.7 that had it and I was missing it on the bigger one and the

01:01:22 ◼   ► faster Touch ID and stuff like that. But none of those things were necessary, it was just

01:01:26 ◼   ► stuff that I wanted. I still use the Ample Smart Keyboard for both. This is purely on

01:01:34 ◼   ► the sense of versatility, its size and weight, and the fact that it uses the smart connector.

01:01:40 ◼   ► Those are the three things for me which make the smart keyboard keep winning. Like I think

01:01:45 ◼   ► about the bridge, I think about playing bridge keyboard roulette to see if I get a working

01:01:50 ◼   ► unit, but I don't want a Bluetooth keyboard and I don't want something that's going to

01:01:56 ◼   ► make everything so much heavier and stuff, so I go backwards and forwards on it and honestly

01:02:01 ◼   ► for me, the smart keyboard works and I know the positions that I have to sit in to make

01:02:07 ◼   ► it work on my lap, so much so that I don't even think about it anymore.

01:02:10 ◼   ► It's really good, I don't love using it on the lap. It's usable but it's not great. But

01:02:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's a good keyboard.

01:02:16 ◼   ► I greatly prefer the one, the 10.5,

01:02:19 ◼   ► then the 12.9 because it's just so bulky

01:02:22 ◼   ► on the 12.9 for obvious reasons,

01:02:24 ◼   ► but it's covering so much more ground there.

01:02:27 ◼   ► But yeah, it's a good keyboard.

01:02:28 ◼   ► - Just as the way a keyboard feels,

01:02:30 ◼   ► it is my favorite keyboard.

01:02:31 ◼   ► Like it feels great to me.

01:02:32 ◼   ► - The great disappointment of the iPad Pro smart connector

01:02:37 ◼   ► is that there are no really great alternatives

01:02:43 ◼   ► to the smart keyboard,

01:02:44 ◼   ► but it does help that the smart keyboard is really good.

01:02:47 ◼   ► Like that eases the pain of that a little bit.

01:02:49 ◼   ► - And I still use the Apple Pencil for note taking

01:02:56 ◼   ► and occasional UI navigation like during intensive tasks.

01:02:59 ◼   ► Like if I'm putting a bunch of stuff into a spreadsheet,

01:03:01 ◼   ► I'll grab the Apple Pencil and tap, tap, tap around.

01:03:03 ◼   ► Like I am as happy as I've ever been with my iPad usage.

01:03:08 ◼   ► I know there are people that go backwards and forwards,

01:03:11 ◼   ► but I couldn't be happier.

01:03:15 ◼   ► I could not be happier with it right now.

01:03:16 ◼   ► And I'm good.

01:03:19 ◼   ► I'm good for another year, I think, with everything.

01:03:22 ◼   ► You know, I just want some refinements to iOS 11

01:03:25 ◼   ► just to make sure that they work out some of the kinks

01:03:27 ◼   ► and some of the bugs, especially those in Files app.

01:03:29 ◼   ► And I'm good on hardware.

01:03:30 ◼   ► Like, I could go another year with exactly what I've got

01:03:33 ◼   ► and I think I'll be fine.

01:03:34 ◼   ► - All right, good.

01:03:37 ◼   ► Good check-in.

01:03:39 ◼   ► Do you want to just talk about Altos Odyssey real quick?

01:03:42 ◼   ► Yeah we should do it.

01:03:43 ◼   ► It's such a good game.

01:03:44 ◼   ► It is great.

01:03:46 ◼   ► So I, there is a, we did a review of the game on remaster, it was a video game podcast that

01:03:53 ◼   ► I do on relay FM if you're interested, but I know that you were a big fan of Altos adventure.

01:04:00 ◼   ► So I wanted to see what your feelings are about Altos Odyssey, like did it fulfil what

01:04:07 ◼   ► what you were looking for out of the application.

01:04:10 ◼   ► Did it surprise you in any ways?

01:04:12 ◼   ► Is it something that you're sucked into

01:04:16 ◼   ► in the same way that you were the first time around?

01:04:19 ◼   ► - Yes, basically yes.

01:04:21 ◼   ► It is, what I love about "Alto's Odyssey" is that,

01:04:24 ◼   ► first off, "Alto's Adventure,"

01:04:25 ◼   ► one of the greatest games for iOS.

01:04:29 ◼   ► I played on the iPad, but one of the great games for iOS.

01:04:31 ◼   ► I was playing, I started playing "Alto's Odyssey"

01:04:33 ◼   ► and I realized this is what a AAA iOS game looks like.

01:04:38 ◼   ► Like this is the real stuff.

01:04:40 ◼   ► This is the real stuff.

01:04:41 ◼   ► It is a great follow-up in that I can use my skills

01:04:46 ◼   ► gleaned in playing lots of Alta's adventure.

01:04:49 ◼   ► And yet it is, so that's where I start from.

01:04:54 ◼   ► And then it adds other dimensions.

01:04:57 ◼   ► So because this one is set in a desert landscape

01:05:00 ◼   ► instead of in a snow landscape. It's got different graphics. The

01:05:07 ◼   ► sound is beautiful, the graphics are beautiful, the terrain is far more

01:05:11 ◼   ► varied than it was in Alto's Adventure. There are gameplay modifications, there

01:05:16 ◼   ► are improvements to existing gameplay where they took things that weren't

01:05:19 ◼   ► great like the feather and replace them with new functionality that's different

01:05:23 ◼   ► but better. And there are also lots of extra quirks to gameplay involving

01:05:30 ◼   ► things like the balloons, there are different types of like the vine runs

01:05:35 ◼   ► that you can go on that behave differently. There are the

01:05:42 ◼   ► wall riding is a completely different mechanic. Water and how the water

01:05:47 ◼   ► affects your combos and stuff like that. Yeah so there's a lot in

01:05:53 ◼   ► here so it rewards the existing Altos Adventure user. It doesn't feel, it feels

01:05:59 ◼   ► familiar but doesn't feel like a retread which is a tough line to walk because if

01:06:03 ◼   ► you like with any sequel to anything if you make it too much like the original

01:06:07 ◼   ► like the Hunger Games sequel not to pick on that but that's a good example of like

01:06:12 ◼   ► a lot of a lot of books are like this which like our people like that book I'm

01:06:15 ◼   ► gonna write that book again and they'll buy it again and like the second book in

01:06:18 ◼   ► the Hunger Games sequence sequence was like that where it's like how do we get

01:06:21 ◼   ► them to play the Hunger Games again

01:06:23 ◼   ► let's do that and you see that a lot right and a truly effective sequel the

01:06:27 ◼   ► most effective sequel is one where it's familiar and it's you love it for the

01:06:33 ◼   ► reasons you love the original but then it transcends it it goes further and

01:06:36 ◼   ► that is something that Altos Odyssey really does do well which I was very

01:06:40 ◼   ► impressed by because I was worried it was going to be Altos adventure with a

01:06:43 ◼   ► couple minor tweaks and some new graphics and it is those things and more

01:06:47 ◼   ► it took everything that was good about the last game and then made it better

01:06:52 ◼   ► right which is like everything everything is better in this game after

01:06:56 ◼   ► about 10 minutes a phrase popped into my head which I completely stand by that

01:07:00 ◼   ► Altos Odyssey is the gold standard of iOS games like I think it may be the

01:07:07 ◼   ► best iOS game ever made like it is perfect in every way an iOS game can be

01:07:13 ◼   ► I don't think it works very well in other places like I can't I mean I don't

01:07:19 ◼   ► think I would enjoy this on the switch for example because it's not what it's

01:07:22 ◼   ► about like the direct contact with the screen is what makes this game perfect. It was designed

01:07:29 ◼   ► for that. The tap ticks on the iPhone are incredible but it's great to play on all devices

01:07:33 ◼   ► like it's easy I find to play on the iPad. Yeah pick a screen you can kind of observe

01:07:38 ◼   ► the environment more. The music you hear this like one track I don't know how long it is

01:07:43 ◼   ► but you hear it over and over again doesn't get old right because it's a beautiful piece

01:07:46 ◼   ► of music. The graphics are incredible that they've done so much more with light in this

01:07:51 ◼   ► game which I really like I love the lighting effects it is improved in every

01:07:55 ◼   ► single way but without being a retread as you say like I said this in remaster

01:08:01 ◼   ► I say here too like a good comparison for me is monument valley monument

01:08:07 ◼   ► valley 2 I kind of got bored of halfway through like and I loved monument valley

01:08:13 ◼   ► but the second one for whatever reason it didn't it just didn't really feel

01:08:20 ◼   ► it was adapting in the same way. It felt like it was just making like a bigger, more difficult

01:08:24 ◼   ► version of the first game. Yeah, it was. That's how I would say it's like more levels of Monument

01:08:29 ◼   ► Valley is what it is. Whereas Altos Adventure is not quite more levels of Altos Odyssey. It's got,

01:08:34 ◼   ► because there's enough other stuff going on in there, it is Altos Adventure plus this sort of new

01:08:41 ◼   ► thing that changes the game. Yeah. So yeah, no, it's very good. I highly recommend it. It is,

01:08:47 ◼   ► I mean, you said it's the gold standard. I said this is what a AAA game for iOS looks

01:08:51 ◼   ► like where it's like this is the stuff. This is showing off the platform. This is the best

01:08:57 ◼   ► stuff. It's great.

01:08:58 ◼   ► Yeah. It is as good as a game on iOS can get. Like that's what they've gone and done, which

01:09:05 ◼   ► is...

01:09:06 ◼   ► I think so.

01:09:07 ◼   ► You know, that's because this is a studio that understands iOS. Like it's where they

01:09:12 ◼   ► came from. It's where their bread and butter is, right? Like that's it for them. Like they

01:09:17 ◼   ► understand it. This is their thing. And I'm excited to see some of the other games that

01:09:21 ◼   ► are coming out of this studio. Built by Snowman, it's got a bunch of games on the way including

01:09:26 ◼   ► a skateboarding game called Skate City that I'm really excited about. They definitely

01:09:33 ◼   ► want to keep an eye on really really cool stuff.

01:09:36 ◼   ► Okay, so should we move into Ask Upgrade? Let's do it. Today's episode and today's Ask

01:09:44 ◼   ► This upgrade segment is brought to you by our friends over at FreshBooks.

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01:10:12 ◼   ► out a bunch of invoices.

01:10:14 ◼   ► Freshbooks does not make this feel like a chore because it doesn't take me as long as

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01:11:39 ◼   ► So our first question this week in #AskUpgrade

01:11:43 ◼   ► comes from Rajiv.

01:11:44 ◼   ► Rajiv wants to know, "Jason, do you use any of the

01:11:47 ◼   ► colorblind settings in accessibility in iOS?"

01:11:51 ◼   ► - I don't.

01:11:53 ◼   ► That's the short version of that.

01:11:56 ◼   ► - Have you tried them?

01:11:57 ◼   ► - I tried them, it makes everything look really weird.

01:11:59 ◼   ► I don't have a problem differentiating stuff enough

01:12:03 ◼   ► for that to be something that I need to turn on.

01:12:05 ◼   ► So I turned it on and I was like, whoa,

01:12:06 ◼   ► this is really strange and makes everything look strange.

01:12:10 ◼   ► And maybe that's, you know, I don't know.

01:12:12 ◼   ► - Maybe it gave you the colors, right?

01:12:14 ◼   ► But it's like you can't conceive them.

01:12:15 ◼   ► - Maybe it gave me the colors.

01:12:17 ◼   ► I don't want to live in your color world.

01:12:20 ◼   ► It's no, it's yeah, no, it wasn't necessary for me.

01:12:23 ◼   ► It's most of the stuff that I notice is

01:12:26 ◼   ► sometimes there are games that have,

01:12:28 ◼   ► actually during the Olympics,

01:12:29 ◼   ► they had done the finger skating.

01:12:30 ◼   ► They had these little dots that would be like

01:12:33 ◼   ► yellow under review, green means that they completed

01:12:36 ◼   ► to the whatever properly and red was that they failed at it.

01:12:39 ◼   ► And a little tiny dot that you need to know

01:12:41 ◼   ► whether it's red or green.

01:12:43 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:12:44 ◼   ► Yeah, I can't do that.

01:12:45 ◼   ► That one's hard, but it rarely happens on iOS.

01:12:48 ◼   ► Usually there are games, but they, you know,

01:12:50 ◼   ► a lot of those games have a colorblind mode

01:12:53 ◼   ► where they change the colors

01:12:54 ◼   ► or they do something else to vary it

01:12:56 ◼   ► or they put symbols in them.

01:12:57 ◼   ► - Change shapes and stuff like that.

01:12:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, and there's usually something like that.

01:13:00 ◼   ► Whereas the colorblindness accessibility settings

01:13:03 ◼   ► seem to actually like alter the color palette that's shown on the screen and it just seems

01:13:07 ◼   ► strange to me and it's not for me it's not necessary I'm not quite sure who it's for

01:13:13 ◼   ► but I turned it off after trying that briefly yeah.

01:13:16 ◼   ► I think especially video games I see a lot of video games really trying hard to cater

01:13:21 ◼   ► to color blindness which I think is really cool.

01:13:24 ◼   ► Yeah you can't I mean that's the bottom line is like if you've got there was what was the

01:13:27 ◼   ► game I think was Trism for the an early

01:13:30 ◼   ► iOS game where you have to match items

01:13:33 ◼   ► by color and they had a couple of colors

01:13:37 ◼   ► that were very close for me that I had

01:13:40 ◼   ► a very hard time differentiating and it

01:13:42 ◼   ► made that game impossible to play

01:13:43 ◼   ► because I'd be like "aha I'll go here"

01:13:45 ◼   ► "oh no those aren't the same" right and I

01:13:48 ◼   ► think they added a colorblind mode later

01:13:50 ◼   ► on but it's just one of those things

01:13:51 ◼   ► that if you don't have a colorblind

01:13:52 ◼   ► person you don't think about it and so

01:13:56 ◼   ► So, you know, it's good that I think most games have learned you don't want to differentiate

01:14:02 ◼   ► by color like that or if you do, you want to offer like an alternate view where the

01:14:07 ◼   ► colors are different so that they spread out or that there's a shape or something.

01:14:12 ◼   ► Jay wants to know, "Are there any iOS apps that can turn an old iOS device into a HomeKit

01:14:17 ◼   ► camera?"

01:14:18 ◼   ► Now, the only option that I have for you here, there's an app that Federico has used called

01:14:23 ◼   ► ManyThing which can turn an iOS device into a camera but it doesn't have HomeKit support.

01:14:29 ◼   ► But it does some of what you want but not the whole thing. So if you have an old iOS

01:14:34 ◼   ► device that you want to turn into a camera, ManyThing can do it but you have to use the

01:14:37 ◼   ► ManyThing app to set up notifications and that's how you'd go into view it but it's

01:14:44 ◼   ► not HomeKit.

01:14:45 ◼   ► Interesting. I don't have anything to add other than Steve Trout and Smith, hacker extraordinaire

01:14:55 ◼   ► in terms of like digging through the internals of iOS especially. He went down a path, I

01:15:02 ◼   ► looked it up when I saw this question and decided that the cheapest way to do a HomeKit

01:15:10 ◼   ► camera is to buy a $45 Raspberry Pi Zero W with camera module running Homebridge, and

01:15:20 ◼   ► at that point it's a HomeKit camera. And so if you are feeling like you want to build

01:15:26 ◼   ► something yourself a little bit, that for $45 all in, Steve Trotton Smith says, you

01:15:32 ◼   ► you can get a homekit camera. That's another thing to look for if you're really into finding

01:15:42 ◼   ► a way to do relatively cheap homekit cameras.

01:15:45 ◼   ► Edith - Jonah has asked "How do you deal with text selection on the iPad when writing?

01:15:50 ◼   ► Do you frequently use copy and paste or do you drag things around?"

01:15:54 ◼   ► What do you do?

01:15:58 ◼   ► I do both but it's way more copy and paste because a lot of the time with the drag and

01:16:05 ◼   ► drop it's like I like drag and drop a lot but I've already selected the text so I may

01:16:13 ◼   ► as well just copy it and this is because a lot of times when I'm copying and pasting

01:16:20 ◼   ► Sometimes I'm copying into two different locations.

01:16:23 ◼   ► So drag and drop doesn't help because I have to do it all over again multiple

01:16:28 ◼   ► times. And the other, like sometimes I just,

01:16:31 ◼   ► I just need to just copy it.

01:16:34 ◼   ► Like it's, I don't need drag and drop just for like one sentence or like a word.

01:16:39 ◼   ► I use way more copy and paste and drag and drop for text.

01:16:42 ◼   ► I use drag and drop a lot for other things,

01:16:44 ◼   ► like for moving files around and stuff like that and using moving images.

01:16:48 ◼   ► But for text, I'm way more in the getting the grabbies and moving them around and just

01:16:54 ◼   ► hitting the copy command.

01:16:56 ◼   ► I would just say as an addendum to this, if you use iOS a lot, you have to get used to

01:17:00 ◼   ► reaching out with your hands if you're going to be using a lot of copy and paste.

01:17:03 ◼   ► This is just the way that it is because keyboard selection isn't amazing or sometimes just

01:17:08 ◼   ► straight up doesn't work very well.

01:17:10 ◼   ► And this is where the desire for people like me and you for a mouse would come in is because

01:17:17 ◼   ► we'd like to be able to have more refined text selection.

01:17:22 ◼   ► But yeah, mostly I'm copy and paste.

01:17:24 ◼   ► - The cursor's already there, just do that.

01:17:25 ◼   ► But anyway, so similar to you, I use both,

01:17:28 ◼   ► it depends on the context.

01:17:29 ◼   ► One of the things that I do when I'm doing like this show,

01:17:32 ◼   ► I post a link to this show on Six Colors.

01:17:35 ◼   ► And what I will do is I actually put my,

01:17:37 ◼   ► the Six Colors CMS in split screen

01:17:40 ◼   ► with the upgrade show page.

01:17:43 ◼   ► And I actually use drag and drop for that.

01:17:44 ◼   ► I grab the title bar and drag it into the URL field. I grab the

01:17:49 ◼   ► description of the show and I drag it into the description on the other

01:17:53 ◼   ► web page. I grab the title and I drag it. That's all drag and drop. So that's an

01:17:56 ◼   ► example of it. If I'm using the keyboard, I am more inclined

01:18:05 ◼   ► to copy and paste, but I do use both and I haven't really thought about

01:18:09 ◼   ► what all the different contexts are. A lot of my copy and paste is sort of...

01:18:16 ◼   ► if you can select something and then drag it and you've got to go

01:18:19 ◼   ► through scrolling and moving and stuff like that, it's easier to just cut

01:18:23 ◼   ► it and then paste it. But if you've got something where it's fairly

01:18:26 ◼   ► straightforward to just move... In the case of this show on six colors, I

01:18:31 ◼   ► have to copy four or five different blocks of content, and so drag and drop is

01:18:38 ◼   ► actually way better because I don't want to go back and forth, back and forth, and

01:18:41 ◼   ► back and forth. And if I was doing... I tend not to do huge amounts of text.

01:18:47 ◼   ► Like, it is a number. So like, let's talk about invoicing. One of the big things

01:18:52 ◼   ► for me is send an invoice and then drop it into two spreadsheets that we have.

01:18:56 ◼   ► Well, a system and a spreadsheet. Drag and drop's not good for me there. It's a

01:19:00 ◼   ► five-digit number, right? Like, I'll just copy the number and then paste and

01:19:04 ◼   ► and paste. Drag and drop would be too much work in that.

01:19:08 ◼   ► But URLs are great because URLs are actually hard to select in Safari on iOS especially.

01:19:14 ◼   ► They're almost impossible to select. So frustrating. But you can just drag right out of the bar

01:19:19 ◼   ► and drop it somewhere and the URL comes with and it's great. So I use that all the time

01:19:24 ◼   ► because it's actually way easier to drag and drop than select. And your example is the

01:19:29 ◼   ► exact opposite where it's way easier to just select that thing and copy it.

01:19:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

01:19:35 ◼   ► So it differs, right?

01:19:36 ◼   ► But just for the majority of text stuff that I'm doing,

01:19:39 ◼   ► drag and drop is a little bit too aggressive.

01:19:41 ◼   ► Like it's more than I need for some text.

01:19:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, and since Jenna was asking about writing,

01:19:47 ◼   ► I mostly do text selection in a text editor

01:19:49 ◼   ► with arrow keys and the shift key,

01:19:52 ◼   ► and I copy and paste. - I do a lot of that too.

01:19:53 ◼   ► - And I do that because I don't wanna take my hands

01:19:56 ◼   ► off the keyboard, and so I just do all of it.

01:19:58 ◼   ► And if I can do my text selection and copy and paste,

01:20:02 ◼   ► and maybe I reach up and scroll down to another area and then tap and then I paste it in but

01:20:07 ◼   ► you know I most of my writing behavior I just want to keep my hands on the keyboard and

01:20:12 ◼   ► not break stride in that way and so I'll just use I'll select and copy or cut and paste.

01:20:20 ◼   ► All right Lucas asked do you think that the next version of the regular 9.7 inch iPad

01:20:25 ◼   ► so the cheap one the kind of $329 iPad will get a HDR display? I don't by the way use

01:20:31 ◼   ► my I'm gonna throw out there yeah I would say I would say no to just because

01:20:37 ◼   ► they're gonna keep this iPad as cheap as they can for a long time yeah yep and

01:20:41 ◼   ► and put the keep a high-end features in the iPad Pro so because that is a real

01:20:46 ◼   ► selling price for the 10.5 right like this beautiful screen don't take away a

01:20:51 ◼   ► selling point for the iPad Pro like yep even if you could do it I mean if it was

01:20:56 ◼   ► up to me even if I could do it I probably wouldn't do it because you've

01:20:59 ◼   ► got to have a differentiation in the line. You've got to have that, right? So that would

01:21:04 ◼   ► make sense to me. And then as a secondary question, which I like to put these two together,

01:21:09 ◼   ► Kyle wants to know, "Can you tell me what HDR is? I've heard people say this is a big

01:21:14 ◼   ► feature in TVs, but I'm not really hearing anybody talk about why and I don't know anything

01:21:19 ◼   ► about it." So Jason, what is HDR?

01:21:21 ◼   ► So dynamic range is the concept of like how, in this case, how bright and how dark can a display go.

01:21:32 ◼   ► And so, like, HDR allows more definition between darkness and brightness.

01:21:40 ◼   ► And as a result, if you think about it, like, imagine you're a regular TV,

01:21:45 ◼   ► and then imagine your TV being able to have the blacks be blacker and the whites be whiter,

01:21:51 ◼   ► and everything can go from bright to dark. And that has to do with backlighting on LCD TVs,

01:21:59 ◼   ► having different backlighting zones, but it's more information. HDR means there's more information about

01:22:06 ◼   ► brightness, luminance, I think there's a whole bunch of stuff that's wrapped in there.

01:22:12 ◼   ► And the result is you end up with a picture that is not just more pixels, but what you're seeing

01:22:18 ◼   ► is over a wider range. It's hard to describe, but if you've seen an HDR picture,

01:22:27 ◼   ► especially if you've seen it on something like an OLED, which has kind of amazing

01:22:32 ◼   ► black range, but you're going to see that it's more dynamic. I hate to say it, there's more

01:22:38 ◼   ► dynamic range. The palette is greater at that point. And my words fail me. I mean, it really

01:22:47 ◼   ► is one of those things where it's a way to improve picture quality that is not based on adding more

01:22:54 ◼   ► pixels, but just having the display be more capable of a wider range of image. I'm trying

01:23:02 ◼   ► to simplify it, and I'm sure somebody will write in and say, "Well, technically you should have

01:23:05 ◼   ► use this word and that's probably true but that's the idea is that it's not

01:23:10 ◼   ► we've been talking about picture quality and it's been all about like going from

01:23:14 ◼   ► SD to HD from 720 to 1080 to 4k and HDR is this other piece of it where you can

01:23:22 ◼   ► have a 4k you have a non 4k HDR and you can have a 4k non HDR but you put them

01:23:28 ◼   ► together and that that's an even better combination because you've got lots of

01:23:32 ◼   ► pixels and you've got a display that is capable of showing, because that's the key is it's

01:23:39 ◼   ► not just decoding the HDR data, it's having display that's capable of displaying a wide

01:23:48 ◼   ► dynamic range from darkness to brightness.

01:23:52 ◼   ► The easiest way that I think I could describe it would just be like, "more colours that

01:23:58 ◼   ► look better. That's as much as I can do. Your description is way better.

01:24:04 ◼   ► Well, it looks nicer. It looks nicer and darkness and lightness is

01:24:09 ◼   ► like a big part of it where it's just like you have the ability to display a lot of TVs

01:24:14 ◼   ► that are not HDR. You'll see that if something's really bright, they ramp up all the backlighting.

01:24:19 ◼   ► And if something's really dark, they try to crank down the backlighting. But if you've

01:24:23 ◼   ► got an image that is like super dark here and then super bright here a lot of

01:24:28 ◼   ► those displays are like you know well I can't do that like the darks only going

01:24:31 ◼   ► to be kind of dark and the lights only going to be kind of light because I have

01:24:35 ◼   ► to choose and with HDR they don't have to choose they can make the dark stark

01:24:39 ◼   ► and the brights bright and the display is capable of showing all that

01:24:43 ◼   ► information it's it's yeah that's that's what it is I'll say I just want to give

01:24:50 ◼   ► a shout out to a friend of mine, a fantastic YouTube creator called Austin Evans, his name

01:24:54 ◼   ► is Austin Evans, and every now and then he does a HDR video on his YouTube channel and

01:25:01 ◼   ► they look incredible.

01:25:02 ◼   ► So he just did a video, he got hands on with a Samsung Galaxy S9 and he did a HDR video,

01:25:10 ◼   ► it looks awesome.

01:25:11 ◼   ► Like if you watch it on iPads, it's probably the best place to see it because the HDR,

01:25:17 ◼   ► I don't know if the YouTube app does HDR on the Apple TV.

01:25:20 ◼   ► I can't remember.

01:25:21 ◼   ► Obviously I know it doesn't do 4K,

01:25:23 ◼   ► but I don't know about the HDR support.

01:25:25 ◼   ► But yeah, it looks really good on the iPad.

01:25:30 ◼   ► It looks really, really good.

01:25:31 ◼   ► So we can go check it out there.

01:25:33 ◼   ► So yeah, it looks really nice.

01:25:34 ◼   ► I like the HDR look.

01:25:36 ◼   ► If you want to see an example of something that is free,

01:25:38 ◼   ► right, that is not a movie,

01:25:40 ◼   ► and you want to see what it looks like,

01:25:41 ◼   ► well, that's the place that you can go and do that.

01:25:45 ◼   ► All right, if you want to catch our show notes for this week,

01:25:48 ◼   ► head on over to relay.fm/upgrades/182.

01:25:53 ◼   ► I want to take a moment to thank our sponsors again,

01:25:55 ◼   ► Anchor, FreshBooks, and Mac Walden.

01:25:57 ◼   ► And mentioning Anchor, don't forget to check out Subnet.

01:26:00 ◼   ► It's really cool, Stephen Hackett is hosting it.

01:26:02 ◼   ► It's just like, I like listening to it

01:26:04 ◼   ► when I'm making my coffee in the morning.

01:26:05 ◼   ► I just get to hear Stephen tell me a couple of headlines

01:26:08 ◼   ► and I'm prepared for the day, it's really cool.

01:26:10 ◼   ► So you can go check that out at relay.fm/subnet.

01:26:13 ◼   ► Or you can just ask your smart speaker

01:26:15 ◼   ► and get it set up with your smart speaker.

01:26:16 ◼   ► It's kind of cool that we've got that going now.

01:26:18 ◼   ► If you want to find Jason's work online,

01:26:19 ◼   ► you can go to sixthcolors.com.

01:26:21 ◼   ► You can go to the incomparable.com

01:26:23 ◼   ► or you can head on over to relay.fm/shows

01:26:28 ◼   ► where you'll find a bunch of shows that Jason does

01:26:29 ◼   ► and a bunch of shows that I do as well.

01:26:32 ◼   ► Jason is @jasonel on Twitter.

01:26:33 ◼   ► I am @imike, I-M-Y-K-E.

01:26:36 ◼   ► And we'll be back next week.

01:26:37 ◼   ► Until then, say goodbye, Jason Snow.

01:26:40 ◼   ► - Goodbye, everybody.

01:26:41 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

01:26:43 ◼   ► [ Music ]