Upgrade

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to episode 7 of Upgrade on Relay FM. This episode of

00:00:14 ◼   ► Upgrade is brought to you by Backblaze, online backup made easy,

00:00:18 ◼   ► and igloo, an intranet you'll actually like.

00:00:21 ◼   ► My name is Myke Hurley, but I'm joined by the man of this hour,

00:00:25 ◼   ► Mr. Jason Snell. Hi Myke. This hour. Yeah, figure of this hour that's about to

00:00:32 ◼   ► proceed you will be the man. 3 p.m. is Jason time. Jason daylight time. Yeah,

00:00:38 ◼   ► we're in that time right now where we have switched to daylight

00:00:44 ◼   ► savings time in the United Kingdom but you change in a week. In a week.

00:00:50 ◼   ► so that the trick-or-treaters can have a little more light. That's really it,

00:00:56 ◼   ► seriously, that's why. Oh really? Yeah, yeah they moved it to after Halloween on

00:01:01 ◼   ► purpose so that Halloween would have a little more light in the evening for the

00:01:05 ◼   ► little kids who are wandering around and demanding candy. My word. It's true.

00:01:09 ◼   ► Does that mean we're closer? Doesn't that mean we're closer together, Myke? It does.

00:01:13 ◼   ► I prefer this but I only get one week of it. When it changes back to summertime

00:01:21 ◼   ► we change three weeks earlier than you which is horrible because that's the

00:01:27 ◼   ► wrong way. We're far away. That's nine hours. Yeah, yeah. With the West Coast. With the

00:01:32 ◼   ► best coast, yes. That's upsetting because I can deal with things when it brings

00:01:38 ◼   ► things forward an hour but pushing them out makes it harder. However, next time it

00:01:42 ◼   ► it won't be a problem for me, sir.

00:01:45 ◼   ► - That's good, 'cause you'll just be living

00:01:46 ◼   ► in your vampire hours as a new,

00:01:49 ◼   ► living East Coast hours in England, which is fun.

00:01:52 ◼   ► - I'll be walking around here going,

00:01:53 ◼   ► "What are you guys talking about?

00:01:54 ◼   ► "Daylight savings time, we've got another three weeks of that

00:01:57 ◼   ► "well, what's the problem, guys?"

00:01:59 ◼   ► - My cousin and her husband,

00:02:02 ◼   ► he used to work in a job in Louisville, Kentucky,

00:02:05 ◼   ► and they lived in Indiana.

00:02:05 ◼   ► So they lived in Central time,

00:02:07 ◼   ► but he worked in Eastern time.

00:02:08 ◼   ► And she was a telecommuter to a job in Florida,

00:02:11 ◼   ► which is Eastern time.

00:02:12 ◼   ► So their house was all the clocks were in Eastern time,

00:02:14 ◼   ► even though if you went to the store, it was central time,

00:02:17 ◼   ► but they just pretended that they were in Eastern time.

00:02:19 ◼   ► It was easier for everybody

00:02:21 ◼   ► if they just acted on Eastern time,

00:02:23 ◼   ► 'cause all their work was Eastern time.

00:02:25 ◼   ► - Probably not easier for the people around them.

00:02:28 ◼   ► - Probably not.

00:02:29 ◼   ► My wife used to work, her boss used to live,

00:02:33 ◼   ► still does I think, half the year in New Zealand

00:02:35 ◼   ► and half the year here.

00:02:37 ◼   ► And the way that works, because it's the other hemisphere,

00:02:42 ◼   ► the times come closer each way by an hour,

00:02:46 ◼   ► and then they go away from each other by an hour.

00:02:48 ◼   ► So actually when my wife was working with her

00:02:50 ◼   ► and it was winter here and summer there,

00:02:53 ◼   ► I think the difference in time,

00:02:54 ◼   ► I think it was like four hours.

00:02:55 ◼   ► It was almost no difference in time.

00:02:57 ◼   ► It was very much like a New York,

00:02:58 ◼   ► San Francisco kind of thing.

00:03:00 ◼   ► So it was actually really easy to work

00:03:01 ◼   ► with people from New Zealand,

00:03:02 ◼   ► but then the other half of the year,

00:03:04 ◼   ► they're much further apart.

00:03:05 ◼   ► Time zones, how do they work?

00:03:09 ◼   ► Apparently, however anybody likes is what we've learned today.

00:03:13 ◼   ► Just do whatever you want.

00:03:14 ◼   ► So this is our top of episode digression for this week is a vertical, the vertical this

00:03:19 ◼   ► week, as we said, our vertical podcast of the week.

00:03:21 ◼   ► This is about time zones.

00:03:22 ◼   ► Yeah, and we're not actually, the Kindle will not be a vertical this week.

00:03:26 ◼   ► Who knows if it'll be a topic?

00:03:29 ◼   ► Yo.

00:03:30 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:31 ◼   ► It's in there.

00:03:32 ◼   ► I know it's in there.

00:03:33 ◼   ► There is a chance that it, there's a chance it might be.

00:03:35 ◼   ► There's a chance it might not be.

00:03:37 ◼   ► Just so people know so we can kind of keep abreast of Kindle Talk, which is part of the

00:03:43 ◼   ► Vertical Podcast, which is part of Upgrade.

00:03:46 ◼   ► Do you have your Kindle Voyage?

00:03:48 ◼   ► I do.

00:03:49 ◼   ► Okay, great.

00:03:50 ◼   ► So the Kindle Voyage is in the house.

00:03:55 ◼   ► So now if we don't talk about it, we'll really not be talking about it.

00:04:01 ◼   ► I think it's time for your favorite part of the show.

00:04:05 ◼   ► Sponsors who are our good friends.

00:04:07 ◼   ► - Oh, follow up, follow up is what you mean.

00:04:10 ◼   ► - I do.

00:04:12 ◼   ► - Okay, listener Shep wrote in to say,

00:04:15 ◼   ► "Myke, please, I beg you, don't buy a Mac Mini."

00:04:19 ◼   ► - Wow, wow Shep, you really mean this.

00:04:22 ◼   ► Please tell me more Jason.

00:04:24 ◼   ► Shep, please tell me more via Jason.

00:04:27 ◼   ► - I think you might've gotten this email,

00:04:28 ◼   ► but I forwarded this to you.

00:04:30 ◼   ► But anyway, he says, "The new machines are not only limited

00:04:32 ◼   ► "to dual core, which we mentioned last time,

00:04:34 ◼   ► "but the RAM is soldered onto the machines.

00:04:36 ◼   ► the upgrade price from 4 gigs in the Lowison machine to 16 is a ridiculous

00:04:40 ◼   ► amount because they know you can't do it later

00:04:43 ◼   ► and he said I'd strongly urge you to find

00:04:45 ◼   ► new old stock, I assume he means something that's still floating around

00:04:49 ◼   ► or refurbed or something, of the previous superior version

00:04:53 ◼   ► of the mini that had the quad core i7 processor then do your own 30 second RAM

00:04:57 ◼   ► upgrade

00:04:58 ◼   ► and so he's recommending you seek out an old

00:05:02 ◼   ► previous generation Mac Mini that had the quad core processor and

00:05:06 ◼   ► upgrade the RAM and use that instead of buying one of the limited

00:05:10 ◼   ► new model Mac Minis. That's not a bad idea actually.

00:05:15 ◼   ► If you're doing multi-core, I mean I don't think it's going to be much slower

00:05:20 ◼   ► to do single core and it would be much faster to do multi-core.

00:05:24 ◼   ► If you can find it. Yeah, that's the problem if I can find one.

00:05:28 ◼   ► Um, yeah, definitely not a bad idea.

00:05:30 ◼   ► Maybe I'll save myself some money.

00:05:32 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:05:32 ◼   ► Or maybe there'll be, like, a black market, um,

00:05:36 ◼   ► of these machines.

00:05:38 ◼   ► - Listenership says that PowerMax.com, for example,

00:05:41 ◼   ► has a quad core at $699 US right now.

00:05:45 ◼   ► - Jason, have you ever heard of PowerMax.com?

00:05:47 ◼   ► - No.

00:05:49 ◼   ► - Okay, good.

00:05:50 ◼   ► Well, I'm not gonna buy from them then.

00:05:51 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:05:52 ◼   ► - Just as an example of a...

00:05:56 ◼   ► It's Power Max, it's like Max Power.

00:05:58 ◼   ► It's like the Homer Simpson's alter ego, Max Power.

00:06:01 ◼   ► - I don't remember that. - It's just like that.

00:06:05 ◼   ► Anyway, Myke don't buy a Mac Mini.

00:06:07 ◼   ► That's the only, you only move twice.

00:06:09 ◼   ► You should see that.

00:06:09 ◼   ► That's a great, is that, is that the,

00:06:11 ◼   ► - Oh! - Is he Max Power in that?

00:06:12 ◼   ► No, it's a different episode where he's Max Power.

00:06:14 ◼   ► He changes his name because there's the police cops star

00:06:17 ◼   ► who's a character called Homer Simpson.

00:06:19 ◼   ► And in the pilot episode, he's really cool.

00:06:20 ◼   ► And then in the series episode, he's a loser.

00:06:23 ◼   ► And so he changes his name to Max Power.

00:06:25 ◼   ► that I remember that you only is it moved twice

00:06:30 ◼   ► you only move twice is the one where he gets the job as the James Bond villain

00:06:33 ◼   ► played by Albert Brooks is a nuclear power

00:06:36 ◼   ► guy that is my favorite Simpsons episode of all time

00:06:40 ◼   ► I'm it's a good one it ends with a great joke that you wouldn't understand which

00:06:44 ◼   ► is a

00:06:45 ◼   ► an NFL joke because Dallas Cowboys

00:06:48 ◼   ► he owns the Dallas Cowboys but instead he gets the Denver Broncos

00:06:51 ◼   ► Denver Broncos! Mars is well I don't know it seems funny Mars you don't understand

00:06:56 ◼   ► football because back then the Denver Broncos were terrible then they won the

00:06:59 ◼   ► Super Bowl and ruined the joke. And then everyone on the internet shared that

00:07:02 ◼   ► clip for 24 hours. That's what I found. Yeah that is I think you only move

00:07:08 ◼   ► twice it kind of has everything that is good about the Simpsons. Yeah I kind of

00:07:15 ◼   ► stopped watching the Simpsons in recent years there's a lot of things is

00:07:18 ◼   ► everything bad about the Simpsons. So there's our Simpsons vertical. Done.

00:07:23 ◼   ► They're not tangents anymore, they're vertical. You can sponsor these

00:07:27 ◼   ► verticals in the future. That'll be good. We just get totally

00:07:30 ◼   ► vertically aligned sponsorship deals. This vertical was brought to you by Fox.

00:07:35 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly. By the new Simpsons app from FXX. Listener Joseph wrote in, we had

00:07:43 ◼   ► some Apple Pay comments, and listener Joseph said, "Obviously Apple Pay works

00:07:48 ◼   ► with any NFC compatible system.

00:07:50 ◼   ► He says, "I think Apple's cache will push retailers

00:07:54 ◼   ► to enable NFC and advertise

00:07:57 ◼   ► that they're Apple Pay participants,

00:07:58 ◼   ► but it doesn't look like they have to specifically

00:08:00 ◼   ► partner with Apple."

00:08:01 ◼   ► This is true, and of course,

00:08:01 ◼   ► as we found out some drugstores in the US,

00:08:05 ◼   ► which we call that a chemist, Myke,

00:08:08 ◼   ► in your part of the world. - A chemist, yes.

00:08:10 ◼   ► Or a pharmacy.

00:08:11 ◼   ► - Or a pharmacy, okay, well, indeed.

00:08:13 ◼   ► So many drugstores, pharmacies, chemists

00:08:15 ◼   ► in the United States have actually,

00:08:17 ◼   ► They had it on and when they discovered that it worked with Apple Pay, they quickly turned

00:08:21 ◼   ► it off because they are plotting their own system.

00:08:25 ◼   ► But yes, theoretically if you're an NFC terminal, it should be able to work with Apple Pay.

00:08:31 ◼   ► And I think I read somewhere that somebody in Australia was able to pay with something

00:08:35 ◼   ► using Apple Pay because they had a US credit card and there was an NFC terminal and they

00:08:39 ◼   ► had to pay the conversion rate and all of that, but it actually did work.

00:08:43 ◼   ► So that's good.

00:08:44 ◼   ► if you have a US credit card you can basically pay anywhere in the world. It's

00:08:48 ◼   ► very interesting that that works but it's all... The thing is like I have a... I have

00:08:55 ◼   ► an understanding of this stuff kind of a little bit from a technical level from

00:08:59 ◼   ► my soon-to-be previous employment and these things like the machines and the

00:09:06 ◼   ► NFC chips they just see each other as very basic technology. Apple's not doing

00:09:11 ◼   ► anything magic that requires--

00:09:15 ◼   ► - It's sending numbers, right?

00:09:16 ◼   ► I mean, it's like numbers.

00:09:18 ◼   ► - All it's doing is like, if you have one of these chips

00:09:20 ◼   ► in your credit card or your debit card,

00:09:21 ◼   ► it's the same thing that's inside of what Apple's doing.

00:09:26 ◼   ► And a lot of it, like the terminal doesn't know

00:09:29 ◼   ► what is necessary talking to it,

00:09:31 ◼   ► because then it's kind of by design, but.

00:09:33 ◼   ► - The only difference is that Apple's system

00:09:35 ◼   ► is generating that one time credit card number.

00:09:38 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:09:39 ◼   ► But the terminal doesn't need to know that, right?

00:09:42 ◼   ► All the terminal knows is that it's got a number,

00:09:44 ◼   ► it's valid, and it clears the sale.

00:09:46 ◼   ► - But obviously the mean people

00:09:50 ◼   ► at these American pharmacies have found ways

00:09:52 ◼   ► to stop it from happening.

00:09:53 ◼   ► - Well, there's a whole harebrained scheme

00:09:55 ◼   ► to build their own mobile app that has a barcode

00:09:59 ◼   ► that you take a picture and then you show a barcode

00:10:01 ◼   ► on your phone and it links with your bank account

00:10:06 ◼   ► so they have access to just take money

00:10:07 ◼   ► out of your bank account.

00:10:08 ◼   ► it sounds so evil and so bad and they can track your purchases and aggregate all that

00:10:15 ◼   ► data and presumably resell it and market it.

00:10:20 ◼   ► Walmart is apparently one of the prime movers in it and it sounds really bad and it's all

00:10:24 ◼   ► basically to just get out from paying Mastercard or Visa for transaction fees.

00:10:29 ◼   ► Thing is about this...

00:10:30 ◼   ► Not to help customers at all, right?

00:10:32 ◼   ► Consumers are not supposed to be aided by this in any way, it's just for them to save

00:10:35 ◼   ► money.

00:10:36 ◼   ► I read about this yesterday and it just made me laugh

00:10:41 ◼   ► because like, this is like,

00:10:45 ◼   ► Apple's not giving up on Apple Pay.

00:10:47 ◼   ► I think that Apple consider Apple Pay,

00:10:50 ◼   ► I mean, I'm not the only one who obviously thinks this

00:10:52 ◼   ► as a hugely important thing

00:10:53 ◼   ► to the future of their business.

00:10:55 ◼   ► Like Apple Pay is a big deal.

00:10:56 ◼   ► - Tim Cook said as much.

00:10:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, this is huge.

00:10:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, Tim Cook in his phone call with analysts,

00:11:02 ◼   ► said this is a huge services move for us doing this and you know their whole idea is that

00:11:08 ◼   ► they're basically making money at this, one from the halo of selling more devices that

00:11:14 ◼   ► use this thing that's awesome but also by they're taking a piece of what was the credit

00:11:20 ◼   ► card fee basically as part of the deal and it's not you know it's just sort of like inserting

00:11:26 ◼   ► themselves in the middle there. Anyway it's yeah it'll be interesting to see I think that

00:11:31 ◼   ► a customer hostile attempt to aggregate user data

00:11:36 ◼   ► in exchange for coupons is probably gonna fail.

00:11:41 ◼   ► Or at least will, I doubt it,

00:11:43 ◼   ► they're going to be able to succeed

00:11:45 ◼   ► at making it an either or.

00:11:46 ◼   ► It's more likely that they'll finally say,

00:11:48 ◼   ► 'cause also keep in mind, they can't turn off Apple Pay,

00:11:51 ◼   ► like you said, they have to turn off NFC.

00:11:53 ◼   ► So everybody's gonna get these chips in the US,

00:11:55 ◼   ► these chips in their cards,

00:11:56 ◼   ► and they're gonna wanna do the tap to, you know,

00:12:00 ◼   ► and they're gonna say, "Well, no, you can download our app

00:12:02 ◼   ► "and scan this barcode and all."

00:12:04 ◼   ► And people are not gonna wanna do that.

00:12:06 ◼   ► That's crazy.

00:12:07 ◼   ► Nobody wants to do that.

00:12:08 ◼   ► - I like to say retail, say hello to the music industry

00:12:14 ◼   ► because if the music industry tried to do this with iTunes,

00:12:18 ◼   ► you will not win in this scenario

00:12:20 ◼   ► and your customers will want you to get your,

00:12:23 ◼   ► to buy your products via this.

00:12:25 ◼   ► And there will be people that decide to go to a competitor.

00:12:29 ◼   ► ditch as well, you know?

00:12:31 ◼   ► Wherever you think that's a, you know,

00:12:32 ◼   ► like people who maybe go to Walmart

00:12:34 ◼   ► will go to another supermarket.

00:12:36 ◼   ► Jason, help me.

00:12:37 ◼   ► - If one of those exists, Safeway or Publix or Buy Right,

00:12:42 ◼   ► now I'm making up things.

00:12:45 ◼   ► They'll go to Wall, people who wanna go, let's try this,

00:12:47 ◼   ► who wanna go to Rite Aid will now go to Walgreens

00:12:50 ◼   ► because Walgreens accepts Apple Pay and Rite Aid does not.

00:12:53 ◼   ► - There you go.

00:12:54 ◼   ► - It's sad for me because the Whole Foods

00:12:56 ◼   ► where I can buy things with Apple Pay

00:12:58 ◼   ► surrounded by a CVS and a Rite Aid both of which have now had it turned off

00:13:03 ◼   ► because they're part of this cabal. And you used Apple Pay at the ballpark? I did

00:13:08 ◼   ► I bought a hot dog with Apple Pay. Alert! Stop presses! New story just

00:13:14 ◼   ► breaking. Man buys hot dog. Seen at the ballpark today. Yeah. Is that hot dog he's

00:13:22 ◼   ► carrying purchased with Apple Pay could be.

00:13:26 ◼   ► So I do have a question about purchasing with Apple Pay now you've used me using it for

00:13:30 ◼   ► like all of a week and a bit.

00:13:33 ◼   ► Are you using it genuinely or ironically at the moment still or is it changed or do you

00:13:38 ◼   ► think it will change?

00:13:39 ◼   ► I am going to use it every damn chance I get and not ironically.

00:13:44 ◼   ► I think it's, first off it's fun and second I like the idea that I am just taking my phone

00:13:50 ◼   ► out of my pocket and holding my thumb on the little button and it's all done. I think that's

00:13:54 ◼   ► really cool. Plus, as a writer, I'm also interested in getting into those weird circumstances where

00:14:00 ◼   ► things are not quite right and just experiencing it. Like with the hot dog, the guy wasn't ready

00:14:09 ◼   ► and I beeped his little terminal with Apple Pay and he was like, "No, no, no, wait, wait, wait."

00:14:13 ◼   ► And he pressed a couple of keys and he said, "Now do it." And I did it again and it went through.

00:14:19 ◼   ► So I thought that was interesting that I couldn't just jump ahead.

00:14:22 ◼   ► Like, you know, at some supermarkets, it's not so true now because I think they

00:14:27 ◼   ► realized that people use their terminals differently than they expected.

00:14:30 ◼   ► But it used to be you would sometimes run your credit card and put in your pin or

00:14:35 ◼   ► whatever you would need to do.

00:14:36 ◼   ► And then they would get to the end of the transaction and they'd say, "Okay, now put

00:14:41 ◼   ► in your credit card."

00:14:42 ◼   ► And that was because the terminal wasn't ready yet.

00:14:45 ◼   ► And now I never experienced that.

00:14:47 ◼   ► Now they all know, "Look, if you're gonna run your credit card now, I'll just hold on to it,

00:14:51 ◼   ► wait until the checker says that they're done, then I'll verify your credit card and we'll move ahead."

00:14:57 ◼   ► I feel like that's where Apple Pay is right now. Like, some of these terminals aren't,

00:15:00 ◼   ► aren't like ready to take your payment information yet. Like, I don't know,

00:15:04 ◼   ► I don't know what to do with that, and this is what happened when I bought the hot dog

00:15:07 ◼   ► at the World Series. That, that, the way that you explained about the teller ringing,

00:15:12 ◼   ► I had absolutely no idea what that means. No? Because basically it's the same like with chip

00:15:17 ◼   ► and pin transactions, what happens is, and this is all part of the terminal and the security

00:15:21 ◼   ► and all that sort of stuff, the transaction is finished and then the transaction is sent

00:15:26 ◼   ► to the terminal, which dials to get the authorization to begin the transaction, and then that's

00:15:32 ◼   ► who it is here, and then you put your card in and put it through.

00:15:36 ◼   ► In my supermarket line, so you put your groceries on the conveyor belt or whatever and you go

00:15:41 ◼   ► and they're scanning them all and putting them in bags, and there's usually a terminal,

00:15:46 ◼   ► This is actually one of the rare cases where you actually have a terminal now in the US

00:15:51 ◼   ► because so many of these cases you give them the card and they take it and do things with

00:15:54 ◼   ► it.

00:15:55 ◼   ► But here there's a terminal so you can run your own credit card, put in your pin if it's

00:15:58 ◼   ► a debit card or whatever, put in your affinity card if you've got a club membership or something

00:16:05 ◼   ► that gives you a discount on some things.

00:16:08 ◼   ► And so it used to be that it would be there waiting for your credit card and you could

00:16:13 ◼   ► run your credit card, you could run it through and say, "Okay, I'm ready," before they were

00:16:17 ◼   ► done ringing up your order. And it got very confused, and you usually have to do it again.

00:16:24 ◼   ► However, at least at Safeway, where I go supermarket shopping the most often, they've outsmarted

00:16:31 ◼   ► me. Now, even if I start running my credit card when they've scanned the first two items

00:16:37 ◼   ► and they've got 50 items left to scan, I can run my credit card through. And what the terminal

00:16:42 ◼   ► does is it just waits until the checkout says I'm done here's the total and then

00:16:49 ◼   ► it runs the card and then all I have to do is press the button or put in my pin

00:16:52 ◼   ► or whatever I need to do but I don't need to run my card again it's just sort

00:16:55 ◼   ► of holding on to that information because I think they realize that people

00:16:58 ◼   ► are impatient and want to just run their card right away and not have somebody

00:17:02 ◼   ► say wait wait wait don't do it yet so they just it just it's working around

00:17:06 ◼   ► the human desire to jump the gun in terms of swiping the credit card and now

00:17:11 ◼   ► it just caches that temporarily until the the clerk presses the total button

00:17:17 ◼   ► and then it runs the card. So it's interesting. So that's what I mean.

00:17:21 ◼   ► Here with chip and pin you just have to wait. If you try and use your

00:17:26 ◼   ► card in any way it will just fail and if you like put your card in before it

00:17:30 ◼   ► tells you to put the card in whilst the transaction is in process it will also

00:17:33 ◼   ► fail. Yeah it's literally the person rings you up, you wait and it

00:17:40 ◼   ► it says please insert your card, you then insert your card and the transaction begins.

00:17:44 ◼   ► So you can understand then, the equivalent of that is what happened to me with the hot

00:17:47 ◼   ► dog for Apple Pay, which is, it looked like he was at the end of the transaction so I

00:17:52 ◼   ► got out my phone and went beep, and then he was like no no wait wait wait, and then he

00:17:56 ◼   ► pressed a couple buttons and then I did it again and then it cleared.

00:17:59 ◼   ► So I think you could change the software around so it will accept that, because it's not like

00:18:04 ◼   ► you're, I don't know if you're actually approving a specific amount when you do Apple Pay, I

00:18:09 ◼   ► you're just sort of approving that it happened? I don't know. I don't know. It's interesting.

00:18:13 ◼   ► This is fascinating just from a purely social and sort of like what your script is when you purchase

00:18:19 ◼   ► something aspect separate from the technology that it like upsets our recipe for how we buy things.

00:18:24 ◼   ► So to answer that question that you asked, this is one of the reasons why I'm going to

00:18:30 ◼   ► keep using Apple Pay is not only do I think it's kind of cool and I want to do it, but also I want

00:18:34 ◼   ► I want to have this experience of,

00:18:35 ◼   ► so I can write about it probably,

00:18:37 ◼   ► of what happens in these situations

00:18:40 ◼   ► and how does it change what you do

00:18:42 ◼   ► and could there be ways to make it better or worse?

00:18:45 ◼   ► And so I can at least tell that to myself

00:18:48 ◼   ► that I'm using Apple Pay for research and not anything else.

00:18:52 ◼   ► Related to this, by the way, we have,

00:18:56 ◼   ► we also in the chat room,

00:18:59 ◼   ► there's some real-time follow-up

00:19:02 ◼   ► or a real-time question Brian Hamilton

00:19:04 ◼   ► was asking about loyalty cards and credit cards.

00:19:06 ◼   ► My understanding is that Apple Pay can transmit

00:19:08 ◼   ► your loyalty card at the same time

00:19:11 ◼   ► that it transmits your credit card.

00:19:13 ◼   ► It can actually say, "Oh, I'm at Safeway.

00:19:15 ◼   ► "Here's my Club Card ID, and now here's my Credit Card ID."

00:19:18 ◼   ► Or that you might be able to pick one or the other.

00:19:20 ◼   ► It's capable of it.

00:19:22 ◼   ► I'm not sure anything has been implemented yet.

00:19:24 ◼   ► So I'm not sure they actually are doing that yet,

00:19:27 ◼   ► but I had an Apple person at the Apple event

00:19:29 ◼   ► where they unveiled this say that you could piggyback

00:19:33 ◼   ► affinity card stuff on top of credit card stuff, which is cool, because then instead of running two cards,

00:19:39 ◼   ► you're just going "beep" and it says "oh, I know you're Jason and you get these coupons and now I'll charge your credit card and we're done."

00:19:46 ◼   ► Which is exciting.

00:19:47 ◼   ► The ability to have the loyalty cards attached and used automatically, I find interesting, more appealing than just using my credit card or debit card.

00:20:00 ◼   ► Right, it saves you another step.

00:20:02 ◼   ► Yeah, and also... Just doing it incrementally better.

00:20:04 ◼   ► I would be more likely to sign up for loyalty cards if I then didn't have to carry them around

00:20:08 ◼   ► and I used them every time automatically.

00:20:11 ◼   ► I never carry them around. It turns out usually you can give them your phone number

00:20:14 ◼   ► and then you just put in your phone number and that works.

00:20:17 ◼   ► But I would much rather just have it be in there and know that my loyalty cards are in there.

00:20:22 ◼   ► Related to this, by the way, another piece of follow-up, since we're still doing follow-up,

00:20:25 ◼   ► believe it or not, Lister Tim wrote in to say,

00:20:30 ◼   ► He's not bugged about extra stuff like Office Depot asking if I want my receipt emailed

00:20:34 ◼   ► or even entering in a prompt confirming the amount that he wants to spend, or Walgreens

00:20:39 ◼   ► asking for his phone number for the store rewards program.

00:20:42 ◼   ► What he wants is not to have to enter his PIN, and I've heard this from people.

00:20:45 ◼   ► He said, "I've already used my super cool guy Uber phone to make the payment.

00:20:49 ◼   ► Don't make me slog through the plebeian mud of a PIN number."

00:20:52 ◼   ► This is one of the great questions that a lot of people have had about Apple Pay, which

00:20:56 ◼   ► is verification.

00:20:58 ◼   ► The fact is, my understanding is that Apple Pay, because it's the one-time charge, because

00:21:03 ◼   ► you've got your thumbprint, it's... no other validation is required by the service, that

00:21:10 ◼   ► it's the equivalent of putting in a pin.

00:21:12 ◼   ► The problem is that a lot of these systems have policies put into them, I think by the

00:21:18 ◼   ► stores, saying above a certain amount you need to validate.

00:21:20 ◼   ► And so I've heard people say they paid with Apple Pay but they had to put in a pin, or

00:21:24 ◼   ► they paid with Apple Pay but they had to sign something.

00:21:27 ◼   ► And I think my understanding is that in the long run this probably won't need to happen

00:21:33 ◼   ► because I believe what Apple Pay is supposed to be transmitting is basically saying this

00:21:38 ◼   ► is verified, you're good, and don't ask for anything.

00:21:42 ◼   ► But the software in a lot of these places is set to ask above $25 or $50 or $100.

00:21:50 ◼   ► And so it'll be interesting to watch this and see whether this can get resolved because

00:21:55 ◼   ► it becomes much less exciting to do Apple Pay

00:21:58 ◼   ► if, you know, you were just saying,

00:22:00 ◼   ► if it eliminates a step, it makes it more interesting.

00:22:02 ◼   ► Some of these cases, it's adding steps back in

00:22:04 ◼   ► from the old way, at which point, why even bother, right?

00:22:08 ◼   ► If you have to put in your phone number

00:22:10 ◼   ► and put in your PIN number and sign something

00:22:12 ◼   ► and all these things, then why did I even use Apple Pay?

00:22:16 ◼   ► So it'll be interesting to see.

00:22:17 ◼   ► I have never had to do anything but go, boop,

00:22:20 ◼   ► but I've also never bought anything more expensive

00:22:22 ◼   ► than peanut butter or a hot dog.

00:22:23 ◼   ► - Does Apple Pay-- - Don't have

00:22:24 ◼   ► peanut butter hot dog by the way, that's a bad, bad meal, don't do that.

00:22:29 ◼   ► Especially if you're allergic like me. The hot dogs are a peanut butter.

00:22:32 ◼   ► Yes, you especially.

00:22:33 ◼   ► I'm allergic to peanuts.

00:22:36 ◼   ► Poor Myke, the hot dog allergy is the worst.

00:22:39 ◼   ► So bad. Do you know if Apple Pay has a limit on transactions? I don't recall seeing this

00:22:47 ◼   ► anywhere.

00:22:48 ◼   ► I think it's only whatever your credit card limit is, but I think that individual stores

00:22:51 ◼   ► can have a policy on it. So if you went into the Apple Store even and bought $2,000 worth

00:22:55 ◼   ► of equipment with it, they might have you pay for that. I had somebody tell me that

00:22:59 ◼   ► they had to sign something at an Apple Store and we thought he was crazy on Twitter. Glenn

00:23:03 ◼   ► Fleischman and I sort of engaged him and what. And you know, his fault was he said, "Apple

00:23:07 ◼   ► Pay is stupid because you always have to sign." And we said, "You don't have to sign." He

00:23:10 ◼   ► said, "Well, I had to sign once." I was like, "Okay, that's not always. That's once."

00:23:14 ◼   ► I haven't used it once. I know.

00:23:17 ◼   ► know, forget it Myke, it's Twitter. This stuff happens on Twitter. But it is an interesting

00:23:22 ◼   ► wrinkle that, you know, individual stores may ask you for more information. But like

00:23:29 ◼   ► I said, technically I believe the Apple Pay thing is at that other tier of fraud prevention

00:23:36 ◼   ► where they basically said, look, this has been verified and you don't need a signature

00:23:41 ◼   ► or a PIN or something like that. Because the reason the stores do that is to protect themselves

00:23:45 ◼   ► against fraud. If they ask and there's still fraud, then it's off of their plate a little

00:23:52 ◼   ► bit more. They've gathered more information. But my understanding is that Apple Pay actually

00:23:56 ◼   ► means you don't need to do that, but they still may. And for a while they might, just

00:24:00 ◼   ► because of policy or because of technical limitations, it's possible that some readers

00:24:04 ◼   ► only just know that it's a card number. And if you tapped your NFC credit card to make

00:24:09 ◼   ► a purchase and it was for $5,000, they may just have a policy that, no, we really need

00:24:14 ◼   ► to see your you know your ID and your you need to sign or put in your pin or

00:24:18 ◼   ► whatever it is so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out over time.

00:24:23 ◼   ► Most definitely. Mr. Snell I would like to take a moment to thank our friends. Our

00:24:29 ◼   ► friends. Our new friends at Backblaze. I want to talk about Backblaze. I'm a big

00:24:36 ◼   ► fan of Backblaze. I have come to fall in love with them recently. They've

00:24:41 ◼   ► been helping me out, not just by... Does your girlfriend know? Yeah, I mean she's

00:24:46 ◼   ► okay with it. So are these aren't even our friends, these are like our loved ones at

00:24:50 ◼   ► Blackblaze, it's that good. It is, it is. Do you know why, Jason? I'm looking at it,

00:24:54 ◼   ► I'm looking at it right now in my menu bar. I do know why, but why don't you tell the

00:24:57 ◼   ► listeners why? I'm gonna tell you why, Jason, because it's time to upgrade your backup strategy.

00:25:02 ◼   ► Oh, good. If you're not backing up your data at all, you have to change this. And if you're

00:25:11 ◼   ► If you're just backing up locally, even if you have like a an omni-focus task to remind

00:25:16 ◼   ► you to do it twice daily and swap out the drives, you still need to listen to what I'm

00:25:19 ◼   ► about to tell you.

00:25:20 ◼   ► What if there was a fire?

00:25:22 ◼   ► What if there was a flood?

00:25:23 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:25:24 ◼   ► You'd lose your backup anyway.

00:25:25 ◼   ► It'll be gone.

00:25:26 ◼   ► If it's not backed up, off-site and in the cloud, you need to address this.

00:25:30 ◼   ► And this is where Backblaze can help you.

00:25:32 ◼   ► Backblaze is an online backup solution for all the data you have on your Mac and your

00:25:37 ◼   ► PC.

00:25:38 ◼   ► All documents, photos, videos, movies, everything you have on your Mac or PC will get backed up

00:25:44 ◼   ► and made available online via the Backblaze web and mobile apps for Android and iPhone.

00:25:50 ◼   ► Even if you have a slow connection like I do, this is something you should do.

00:25:55 ◼   ► So yes, the first backup can take a while, multiple days, weeks maybe in some instances,

00:26:00 ◼   ► but it's just a minor inconvenience on your machine that you will have for that period of

00:26:04 ◼   ► time. You can set schedules for when you want the backups to occur, you can set

00:26:08 ◼   ► upload limits, you can set like if you want to throttle it you can. Backblaze

00:26:13 ◼   ► offers unthrottled backup but you can put your own throttles on if you want to

00:26:16 ◼   ► keep the load and your connection down.

00:26:20 ◼   ► And you can very easily just pause the backup if you need it from the menu bar

00:26:23 ◼   ► or from system preferences if you live in there. And once you've got

00:26:27 ◼   ► that first backup out of the way, everything else will back up super fast,

00:26:31 ◼   ► simple in the background you can set it so when you don't even ever see it and

00:26:34 ◼   ► then what you'll have is the peace of mind that all of your files are safe and

00:26:39 ◼   ► secure they all become accessible online if you need them you can grab individual

00:26:43 ◼   ► files or everything at once backblaze can even put all of your stuff on a

00:26:46 ◼   ► hard drive and ship it to you if you have a catastrophic failure and need it

00:26:50 ◼   ► all back in one go so I have been using backblaze and I'm super happy I feel

00:26:56 ◼   ► just better because before backblaze I didn't have a good backup strategy

00:27:00 ◼   ► now I feel a lot better about it.

00:27:02 ◼   ► And if I knock another drink into my laptop,

00:27:05 ◼   ► then I won't be concerned.

00:27:07 ◼   ► So go now and start your risk-free,

00:27:09 ◼   ► no credit cards required, full featured trial

00:27:12 ◼   ► at backblaze.com/upgradepodcast.

00:27:16 ◼   ► I did think when I was working with Backblaze

00:27:19 ◼   ► and these URLs that our shows,

00:27:20 ◼   ► it may be difficult for some of our sponsors

00:27:23 ◼   ► to just have /upgrade,

00:27:25 ◼   ► 'cause they're probably already using it.

00:27:27 ◼   ► But hey, that's why we have /upgradepodcast.

00:27:30 ◼   ► So there are no add-ons, gimmicks, or additional charges

00:27:33 ◼   ► after your free trial, which is $5 per month,

00:27:35 ◼   ► per computer for unlimited fast online backup.

00:27:38 ◼   ► So go to backblaze.com/upgrade podcast,

00:27:41 ◼   ► and you'll be helping support this show.

00:27:43 ◼   ► Thank you so much to Backblaze

00:27:44 ◼   ► for their support of Relay FM and Upgrade.

00:27:47 ◼   ► - Ooh.

00:27:49 ◼   ► We have a little more feedback,

00:27:52 ◼   ► but I'll try to move quickly through this

00:27:53 ◼   ► because we have been doing all feedback.

00:27:56 ◼   ► We are becoming more like ATP all the time.

00:27:58 ◼   ► Just it's all feedback.

00:28:00 ◼   ► That's good. It's a good problem to be more like ATP.

00:28:02 ◼   ► We would have to find a Casey,

00:28:06 ◼   ► or would we have to find a Marco,

00:28:08 ◼   ► or would we have to find a John?

00:28:09 ◼   ► Who are we?

00:28:10 ◼   ► I leave it to the listener to decide which one of us

00:28:12 ◼   ► is Marco, John, and Casey, and who our third would be.

00:28:17 ◼   ► Fantasy casting upgrade as a three-person podcast.

00:28:23 ◼   ► Go to it.

00:28:23 ◼   ► I look forward to your feedback

00:28:24 ◼   ► in our fantasy casting vertical next week.

00:28:28 ◼   ► Lister JP wrote in.

00:28:30 ◼   ► JP is blind.

00:28:32 ◼   ► He says, "Shopping is always hard.

00:28:33 ◼   ► Card readers at retail establishments

00:28:35 ◼   ► are never blind friendly.

00:28:37 ◼   ► Shopping has never been secure for somebody who's blind.

00:28:41 ◼   ► They often require assistance from a clerk.

00:28:43 ◼   ► Every time his card or pin leaves him, he's at risk.

00:28:46 ◼   ► Even if the clerk is completely honest."

00:28:49 ◼   ► He says, "Apple Pay makes this a distant memory.

00:28:51 ◼   ► It's 100% accessible.

00:28:52 ◼   ► I can use my cards without assistance,

00:28:53 ◼   ► which makes it more secure to me.

00:28:55 ◼   ► It allows me independence."

00:28:57 ◼   ► And then obviously companies like Best Buy and Walmart

00:29:00 ◼   ► who are trying to turn off Apple Pay,

00:29:01 ◼   ► he says they're actually turning their heads away

00:29:03 ◼   ► from disabled customers.

00:29:06 ◼   ► I thought it was really interesting,

00:29:07 ◼   ► Stephen Aquino who writes about accessibility or not,

00:29:09 ◼   ► wrote a really quick post on his site about this too.

00:29:13 ◼   ► Apple Pay is an accessible feature

00:29:15 ◼   ► that actually makes life better for people

00:29:17 ◼   ► who are blind in this case.

00:29:19 ◼   ► And I thought that was really an interesting angle.

00:29:23 ◼   ► So thank you JP for sharing that.

00:29:24 ◼   ► I thought that was really great.

00:29:27 ◼   ► Listener Colon wrote in just to say,

00:29:28 ◼   ► we talked about, this is not about Apple Pay,

00:29:31 ◼   ► we talked about a beta app review a week or two ago.

00:29:34 ◼   ► And we were complaining about how,

00:29:36 ◼   ► since they need to app review betas for TestFlight,

00:29:39 ◼   ► which has launched now as part of Apple,

00:29:41 ◼   ► but TestFlight app is out there and all of that,

00:29:43 ◼   ► if you're beta testing apps,

00:29:45 ◼   ► we thought that was ridiculous

00:29:46 ◼   ► that you had to app review betas

00:29:49 ◼   ► and who was gonna do that?

00:29:50 ◼   ► Listener Colon wrote in just to say,

00:29:52 ◼   ► he got beta app review for his app

00:29:54 ◼   ► and it took about two hours,

00:29:56 ◼   ► much faster than a normal review.

00:29:57 ◼   ► So it may be beta app review with something programmatic

00:30:01 ◼   ► where they're running a scanner on it

00:30:02 ◼   ► just to make sure that nothing particularly notably,

00:30:06 ◼   ► you know, automatively bad can be found.

00:30:11 ◼   ► And if so, that's great.

00:30:13 ◼   ► That's great news.

00:30:14 ◼   ► I look forward to seeing how people use TestFlight

00:30:16 ◼   ► because it has this huge benefit

00:30:18 ◼   ► of being able to attach to Apple IDs instead of device IDs

00:30:21 ◼   ► so that when people upgrade their devices,

00:30:23 ◼   ► you run out of slots for beta testers.

00:30:25 ◼   ► So now it'll be the person with their Apple ID as your beta tester.

00:30:29 ◼   ► And if they get a new device, if they drop their phone and have to get a new one, you

00:30:31 ◼   ► don't have to do anything.

00:30:32 ◼   ► They just log in with their Apple ID and they're back on your beta list, which is really cool.

00:30:37 ◼   ► So that was great news from Listener Colon.

00:30:39 ◼   ► I have a quick question about that.

00:30:41 ◼   ► I want to get your opinion.

00:30:44 ◼   ► If it is the case that it is just going through a machine and then the machine spits out the

00:30:49 ◼   ► approved, should Apple communicate this so people can set their expectations that it's

00:30:53 ◼   ► it's not gonna be a two week delay?

00:30:56 ◼   ► Or should they not because then you might as well

00:30:58 ◼   ► just not have it done like that in the first place

00:31:00 ◼   ► 'cause people will still abuse it maybe.

00:31:02 ◼   ► - I don't know.

00:31:05 ◼   ► I mean, I like the idea that it's less

00:31:07 ◼   ► because we said it was untenable if it's more.

00:31:13 ◼   ► And right, the standards can be lower.

00:31:16 ◼   ► The bar can be lower for the beta app review.

00:31:18 ◼   ► So I like this news because it suggests to me

00:31:21 ◼   ► that beta app review is perfunctory,

00:31:23 ◼   ► that it is automated, it's basic,

00:31:25 ◼   ► it's like, let's do a sanity check

00:31:27 ◼   ► before we let you send this thing out.

00:31:29 ◼   ► Because if it's so crazy that it's breaking things

00:31:32 ◼   ► that this thing finds,

00:31:33 ◼   ► you should not distribute it to your beta testers

00:31:37 ◼   ► 'cause you will kill them, which is good.

00:31:38 ◼   ► That is a good thing,

00:31:40 ◼   ► instead of it being like a full on app review kind of thing,

00:31:43 ◼   ► which would be really annoying.

00:31:44 ◼   ► So I think it's good.

00:31:47 ◼   ► Also the percentage of people

00:31:48 ◼   ► who actually do beta testing of apps is so low

00:31:50 ◼   ► that most people are never gonna care.

00:31:52 ◼   ► but as somebody who beta tests apps,

00:31:54 ◼   ► I think this is really great

00:31:55 ◼   ► that the turnaround was so fast

00:31:58 ◼   ► because the prospect of not having to register

00:32:00 ◼   ► all my devices is really exciting

00:32:02 ◼   ► 'cause that really was terrible.

00:32:03 ◼   ► Like I dropped my iPad and I had to write

00:32:06 ◼   ► to everybody whose apps I was beta testing

00:32:07 ◼   ► and say, I'm so sorry.

00:32:09 ◼   ► If you want me to not beta test your app, that's fine.

00:32:12 ◼   ► I understand, but here's my new UDID

00:32:14 ◼   ► for this new iPad that's my replacement.

00:32:17 ◼   ► And then they have to enter it in

00:32:18 ◼   ► and they lose a slot and it's terrible.

00:32:20 ◼   ► So this is better.

00:32:22 ◼   ► This is better.

00:32:23 ◼   ► - There's no reason in my mind where it shouldn't be

00:32:26 ◼   ► that if you can just delete someone,

00:32:28 ◼   ► like I just can't get my head around it.

00:32:31 ◼   ► - It's paranoia.

00:32:32 ◼   ► They are concerned about beta testing being used

00:32:35 ◼   ► as an external app store.

00:32:37 ◼   ► That's what it is.

00:32:38 ◼   ► It's like you add somebody, you give them--

00:32:40 ◼   ► - Sorry, it's like to delete a UDID that I don't know,

00:32:43 ◼   ► I probably can't, but if you could, you know,

00:32:45 ◼   ► somehow then just cut that device off.

00:32:48 ◼   ► I don't know how that would happen, but you know.

00:32:50 ◼   ► - I don't know.

00:32:51 ◼   ► Well, if this works, then we won't have to worry about it,

00:32:54 ◼   ► 'cause it won't be per device, it'll be per person,

00:32:56 ◼   ► which always has made more sense.

00:32:58 ◼   ► - If you have, you listener, ahoy listener,

00:33:01 ◼   ► if you've had-- - Ahoy listener.

00:33:02 ◼   ► - Ahoy listener, if you've, like Colin,

00:33:05 ◼   ► if you've had anything, if you put an app through it

00:33:08 ◼   ► and it's gone through quicker than usual

00:33:10 ◼   ► through the test flight process,

00:33:12 ◼   ► please contact us and let us know.

00:33:14 ◼   ► - All right.

00:33:16 ◼   ► Listener Brian Hamilton in the chat room, by the way.

00:33:20 ◼   ► listen to Brian, says that I'm John and you're Casey.

00:33:24 ◼   ► That's not bad.

00:33:25 ◼   ► - No, probably how I would have gone actually.

00:33:28 ◼   ► - But do we need a Marco then?

00:33:30 ◼   ► - Probably.

00:33:31 ◼   ► Can you find another Marco?

00:33:33 ◼   ► - I don't know.

00:33:35 ◼   ► I have talked about having guests on this show

00:33:37 ◼   ► from time to time, so that would be interesting

00:33:39 ◼   ► to see how that changes the dynamic.

00:33:41 ◼   ► But we gotta get up to speed ourselves before we get there.

00:33:44 ◼   ► - Maybe we just bring Marco on.

00:33:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, sure.

00:33:47 ◼   ► Let's try him out as a Marco,

00:33:49 ◼   ► see what kind of a Marco Marco is.

00:33:51 ◼   ► I got a couple of Twitter things

00:33:53 ◼   ► that I wanted to throw in here.

00:33:55 ◼   ► Mentions to @_upgradefm, our Twitter account.

00:33:59 ◼   ► This is a Hoy telephone related, these both of these.

00:34:04 ◼   ► Leon, listener Leon says, the best way, Leon, I don't know,

00:34:11 ◼   ► L-E-O-N, the best way I've encountered to activate Siri

00:34:16 ◼   ► to say hello telephone is to use the song we built this city by Starship. You know that

00:34:23 ◼   ► one Myke? Do you know that song? Well of course we built it on rock and roll. That's right.

00:34:28 ◼   ► That song's not going to be in my head for the next week and a half. So thank you. Well

00:34:31 ◼   ► it's gonna activate the Siri in your mind. Just think ahoy telephone as you listen. And

00:34:42 ◼   ► And then listener Connor wrote in with a,

00:34:45 ◼   ► he sent us a little video that basically is him

00:34:47 ◼   ► saying a Hoy telephone at the Apple store

00:34:51 ◼   ► and activating phones there with it.

00:34:53 ◼   ► I mean, not saying a Hoy telephone, obviously,

00:34:55 ◼   ► we're not gonna say what he actually said,

00:34:58 ◼   ► but it activated the phones there.

00:34:59 ◼   ► What's funny about the video is that he sort of

00:35:02 ◼   ► almost whispered it and the video only shows

00:35:05 ◼   ► two phones activating.

00:35:06 ◼   ► And when I asked him about that, he basically said,

00:35:08 ◼   ► "Well, I didn't wanna shout it 'cause I thought

00:35:10 ◼   ► that they would think I was a crazy person."

00:35:12 ◼   ► which maybe so--

00:35:14 ◼   ► - But what Connor-- - But thank you to Connor.

00:35:16 ◼   ► - He has answered our question from last week

00:35:18 ◼   ► that it is on and-- - It is on.

00:35:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, so have at it.

00:35:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I've got one more item of feedback

00:35:28 ◼   ► which isn't quite feedback, but I just wanted to mention it.

00:35:30 ◼   ► I don't wanna spend too much time dwelling on it.

00:35:31 ◼   ► Anybody who's listened to ATP has heard

00:35:33 ◼   ► some really great discussion, mostly from John about this,

00:35:36 ◼   ► but I just wanted to mention because Brianna Wu

00:35:38 ◼   ► is somebody who's been on my podcast a lot

00:35:40 ◼   ► and she, if you don't know, got some death threats

00:35:43 ◼   ► and had to move out of her house

00:35:45 ◼   ► and it's all related to "Gamergate."

00:35:47 ◼   ► I wanted to just say, first off,

00:35:48 ◼   ► I wanted to send all my best wishes to Brianna.

00:35:50 ◼   ► She's great.

00:35:51 ◼   ► I've never met her in person,

00:35:52 ◼   ► but she's been great on the podcasts and on Twitter.

00:35:55 ◼   ► And I really appreciate working with her

00:35:57 ◼   ► and look forward to working with her more in the future.

00:36:00 ◼   ► And about the "Gamergate" thing,

00:36:02 ◼   ► I'm not really a gamer.

00:36:04 ◼   ► I'm kind of a fake gamer.

00:36:05 ◼   ► What I would say is it's really dispiriting.

00:36:09 ◼   ► And John Syracuse's, everything that he said on ATP

00:36:11 ◼   ► is pretty much what I think.

00:36:13 ◼   ► It's really sad to see people making threats,

00:36:16 ◼   ► attacking people, bullying people,

00:36:18 ◼   ► and essentially using troll tactics on the internet

00:36:21 ◼   ► to silence discussion of issues that they don't agree with.

00:36:26 ◼   ► And the fact that I approached this on this show

00:36:28 ◼   ► with some trepidation shows that this is actually

00:36:31 ◼   ► what they're trying to do.

00:36:33 ◼   ► They're trying to make it so inconvenient

00:36:34 ◼   ► to talk about these issues

00:36:35 ◼   ► that everybody just shuts up about them.

00:36:38 ◼   ► And I definitely feel uncomfortable about it and I've been hammered on Twitter

00:36:42 ◼   ► by expressing relatively mild things about

00:36:45 ◼   ► "Gamergate" by the trolls and their sock puppets.

00:36:49 ◼   ► Which, boy, trolls and sock puppets sound so much more fun than it actually is.

00:36:53 ◼   ► Wouldn't that be a great game?

00:36:55 ◼   ► Like, sock puppets that just kill trolls or something? I don't know.

00:36:59 ◼   ► Anyway, it's really a dispiriting way where the darkest parts of the internet get used

00:37:04 ◼   ► by people who have agendas that are not related to

00:37:07 ◼   ► What the gamer gate is supposedly about to attack people mostly women?

00:37:14 ◼   ► to push forward an agenda that is mostly anti woman and

00:37:18 ◼   ► Has some pretty serious political undertones as well that they will deny

00:37:23 ◼   ► It's you know, I don't know. I don't know what more to say other than

00:37:29 ◼   ► People like Brianna have my full support. I feel like gaming is a powerful enough cultural force that it can

00:37:37 ◼   ► Take a whole lot of cultural criticism

00:37:39 ◼   ► Games make more money than big budget motion pictures

00:37:43 ◼   ► People who like games are not an endangered species. They are in fact

00:37:49 ◼   ► among the most catered to people on the planet and

00:37:54 ◼   ► When you you know, you've got it good when people start to criticize you and being criticized isn't fun

00:38:01 ◼   ► But it's also a sign you made it and then you got to act

00:38:04 ◼   ► You've got to act it the right way when people criticize you and learn to deal with the criticism and maybe

00:38:10 ◼   ► even listen to it and use it to learn about yourself and

00:38:15 ◼   ► Grow and I do believe actually that one of the reasons all this gamergate stuff is happening

00:38:20 ◼   ► I've seen it in some other areas again. I

00:38:23 ◼   ► I really don't like to get political because that's not what I'm here for and although I have opinions

00:38:27 ◼   ► They're fairly moderate in nature and they're for sure to outrage the most outrageable people on either side of me

00:38:34 ◼   ► but I feel like this is similar to something like gay marriage which

00:38:38 ◼   ► well in this country is tipping rapidly toward being accepted almost everywhere and

00:38:43 ◼   ► That's when people get the most angry is when they see that they're on the wrong side and that the world is changing and some of

00:38:50 ◼   ► their well-held-to beliefs are going to go away, that women are part of gaming and aren't

00:38:59 ◼   ► going to go away, and can't just be used as toys in video games.

00:39:06 ◼   ► And of course people are going to react badly when they realize that the arc of history

00:39:13 ◼   ► is bending away from them.

00:39:15 ◼   ► And I'd like to think that's what we're seeing now.

00:39:18 ◼   ► And I'm not excusing behavior, I'm saying it explains why they're so vociferous about

00:39:23 ◼   ► it is that they know they're losing it and they're gonna lose it.

00:39:27 ◼   ► And they're just gonna go out in a blaze of infamy, I guess?

00:39:31 ◼   ► Anyway, it really upsets me that somebody as cool as Brianna Wu could get chased out

00:39:38 ◼   ► of her home because she has an opinion about how women should have opportunities in video

00:39:44 ◼   ► games, like of all the things, to be chased out of your home about that. Very

00:39:50 ◼   ► upsetting. So anyway, yeah, there it is. Go listen to ATP After Show from last week.

00:39:58 ◼   ► Jon did a great job. Jon Siracusa is a marvel because he is the most...

00:40:04 ◼   ► I think what I say is that he's a computer programmer with the soul of an

00:40:09 ◼   ► artist. He's... and he did get art training. He's a very empathetic person and I

00:40:13 ◼   ► I think that's one of the reasons why people love him,

00:40:16 ◼   ► 'cause he brings a giant bowl of empathy with him

00:40:19 ◼   ► when he talks about technical issues,

00:40:21 ◼   ► and that mixture is amazing.

00:40:22 ◼   ► And he has done a great job talking about this.

00:40:25 ◼   ► Very, I mean, he wouldn't say that.

00:40:27 ◼   ► He'd be like, "Oh, well, I botched it.

00:40:28 ◼   ► "I talked about this and that,

00:40:29 ◼   ► "and you should read this article."

00:40:30 ◼   ► But I think he actually does a very good job

00:40:31 ◼   ► of getting to the heart of why some of these people

00:40:34 ◼   ► are so angry and why we should pity them

00:40:36 ◼   ► more than anything else,

00:40:37 ◼   ► because they obviously have terrible things happening

00:40:40 ◼   ► that have caused them to act this way.

00:40:43 ◼   ► doesn't excuse them but that empathy is interesting to say you know for somebody

00:40:48 ◼   ► to behave like this they really have to be in pain and messed up and that's sad

00:40:52 ◼   ► and anyway so all my best to Brianna and everybody else who's been affected by

00:40:57 ◼   ► the gamergate crap because it's a it's a real shame that we live in a world where

00:41:02 ◼   ► stuff like that can happen. Me and Federica took a bit of time to

00:41:06 ◼   ► discuss gamergate on episode 9 of virtual on this fine podcast network

00:41:11 ◼   ► I agree with the fact that like, Jon is empathetic. I am not so much and kind of

00:41:19 ◼   ► just questioned the terrible side of humanity for a bit. Federico does a

00:41:27 ◼   ► great- if you don't really understand Gamergate and this whole thing

00:41:31 ◼   ► that's happening, because it is very complex, Federico on the episode did a

00:41:35 ◼   ► very very good job of going back to the beginning and explaining it. So he spoke

00:41:40 ◼   ► for about half an hour or 40 minutes or so explaining everything, then I basically shouted

00:41:45 ◼   ► for 10 minutes, so if that's the kind of thing that you'd like to hear, you should go and

00:41:50 ◼   ► check that out, and that's in our show notes for today, as well as that fantastic episode

00:41:53 ◼   ► of ATP as well.

00:41:56 ◼   ► It's all after the show, or the end theme song, it's all in the post show for ATP, because

00:42:01 ◼   ► they like to do it that way, but it's a good, you know, I like to hear John, it's largely

00:42:06 ◼   ► it's John trying to understand why, and list all the reasons why this is bad, but also

00:42:10 ◼   ► of why it happens. And then it's Casey just being like you, actually, you guys, and this

00:42:14 ◼   ► is why you do the show about the feels too. And Casey just being like, I don't understand

00:42:18 ◼   ► it. It really makes me angry, you know, like, which is an absolutely natural response. And

00:42:22 ◼   ► for me, I learned a long time ago that I'm a conflict avoider. I like everybody to get

00:42:25 ◼   ► along. Let's just not. And so something like this is really difficult because it, uh, your

00:42:31 ◼   ► choices between avoiding conflict and saying nothing and allowing it to go and go on or

00:42:35 ◼   ► saying something and getting hit with the conflict. And that's why I said, you know,

00:42:39 ◼   ► One of the ways that this is insidious is all the sock puppets, all the anger, what

00:42:45 ◼   ► they're trying to do is get people to stop talking about it, because that's one of the

00:42:50 ◼   ► goals, is don't talk about it.

00:42:52 ◼   ► Try to divert people, try to make people just want to avoid the subject.

00:42:58 ◼   ► And essentially what that's doing is saying, "We want people to shut up about this, so

00:43:01 ◼   ► we're going to make life miserable for them until they shut up."

00:43:04 ◼   ► And as much as I like to avoid conflict, if that's the alternative, then I can't do that.

00:43:11 ◼   ► Because that's a line too far, and somebody I know and have positive feelings toward is

00:43:17 ◼   ► like on the run now because she had an opinion about video games.

00:43:21 ◼   ► And I can't be silent.

00:43:23 ◼   ► So for what it's worth...

00:43:25 ◼   ► I don't know if I did mention this in virtual, but I wanted to...

00:43:30 ◼   ► amount of respect I have for Brianna because I know that if I was in her situation I would

00:43:36 ◼   ► shut up.

00:43:39 ◼   ► Yeah it would be so easy to do that and she said that. I mean fortunately, and I say this

00:43:42 ◼   ► with actually a great deal of affection, Brianna doesn't back down from anything. She's happy

00:43:48 ◼   ► to be kind of a loudmouth and get pissed off and good for her because it takes people like

00:43:54 ◼   ► that because there are a whole lot of other people who feel the same way who just, you

00:43:59 ◼   ► know, they look at her like, "Why am I doing this?" And for her, she is

00:44:04 ◼   ► saying, "I am spending huge amounts of time. I am affecting my life, but I'm

00:44:09 ◼   ► doing it for the future of an industry that she loves." Also, that's the other

00:44:13 ◼   ► thing is she gets attacked for like not being really into games. It's like, she

00:44:17 ◼   ► loves games so much that she is willing to do this, because she wants

00:44:22 ◼   ► other girls growing up to be able to feel more welcome

00:44:27 ◼   ► in this industry and even just playing games.

00:44:32 ◼   ► And she knows that that's not gonna happen

00:44:34 ◼   ► unless the women in games today say something.

00:44:38 ◼   ► And so full credit to her 'cause yeah, I'm with you.

00:44:40 ◼   ► I mean, it makes me, I get, ugh, I hate it.

00:44:45 ◼   ► I hate even talking about it,

00:44:47 ◼   ► but you can't not talk about it

00:44:48 ◼   ► because that's what they want you to do

00:44:50 ◼   ► is not talk about it.

00:44:51 ◼   ► And I think that the reason that we are talking about it now

00:44:55 ◼   ► is because of Brianna, because she is making it

00:44:58 ◼   ► that it cannot be avoided, and that's how it should be.

00:45:01 ◼   ► You mentioned this, right?

00:45:02 ◼   ► She is bringing this out now,

00:45:04 ◼   ► and is basically putting us in a position

00:45:07 ◼   ► where we have to talk about this,

00:45:09 ◼   ► because it's like, I can't stand by now

00:45:13 ◼   ► and watch this unfold as it is.

00:45:15 ◼   ► It makes me feel sick.

00:45:16 ◼   ► - Well, she sent out something very pointed,

00:45:19 ◼   ► where she was like, I expected more Apple-related bloggers

00:45:23 ◼   ► and podcast hosts to talk about this issue

00:45:25 ◼   ► and a lot of them have been silent.

00:45:28 ◼   ► And I wrote back to her and I said,

00:45:29 ◼   ► well, when the death threats and stuff happened,

00:45:32 ◼   ► I wrote a thing on Six Colors about it,

00:45:34 ◼   ► but I haven't mentioned it on my podcast

00:45:36 ◼   ► and I will rectify that tomorrow and that's today.

00:45:38 ◼   ► And there it is.

00:45:40 ◼   ► And maybe we'll talk more about it.

00:45:41 ◼   ► The only other thing I'll say about Gamergate

00:45:45 ◼   ► is if it's about ethics and journalism,

00:45:47 ◼   ► it's doing a really lousy job

00:45:49 ◼   ► because there are lots of issues

00:45:50 ◼   ► and this is well-documented,

00:45:51 ◼   ► there are lots of great issues about true ethical issues

00:45:54 ◼   ► with games journalism in particular

00:45:55 ◼   ► and you could broaden it to even more other aspects

00:45:58 ◼   ► of journalism including tech journalism if you'd like.

00:46:01 ◼   ► But yet, you know, that's not what it's about

00:46:04 ◼   ► because if it was about those things,

00:46:06 ◼   ► we would actually be seeing things that address

00:46:09 ◼   ► all of the issues of ethics and journalism.

00:46:11 ◼   ► Instead, it's conspiracy theories and attacks

00:46:15 ◼   ► and misogyny and people being used as in the phrase as convenient idiots people being used

00:46:23 ◼   ► by people with ulterior motives and lied to and pointed in directions that they might

00:46:27 ◼   ► not go if they knew the whole story and it's sad but it's not about ethics because there

00:46:31 ◼   ► are lots of ethical issues and journalism and these people aren't addressing them they're

00:46:36 ◼   ► just spinning conspiracy theories and attacking people sad.

00:46:44 ◼   ► So Myke, ahoy telephone!

00:46:50 ◼   ► Let me take a shower, I'll be right back.

00:46:53 ◼   ► Do you want to take a break here?

00:46:55 ◼   ► Yeah, let's take a break and we'll come back with something awesome.

00:47:01 ◼   ► After a word from some friends of ours, I bet.

00:47:04 ◼   ► Let's reset and talk about Igloo.

00:47:07 ◼   ► We love Igloo.

00:47:08 ◼   ► Igloo is an internet you'll actually like.

00:47:10 ◼   ► Hulu is built from the ground up for people that have had to use intranet products. It

00:47:16 ◼   ► is built to be the complete opposite of what you are used to. It's actually built to be

00:47:22 ◼   ► easy to use, which is not always a thing for intranet products. It has fantastic apps like

00:47:28 ◼   ► you're used to. It has stuff like shared calendars, Twitter-like micro-blogs, file sharing, task

00:47:33 ◼   ► management. It's the full solution that you'd want in a product that's supposed to make

00:47:38 ◼   ► you more connected and productive with your co-workers.

00:47:41 ◼   ► That's what igloo is all about.

00:47:42 ◼   ► It helps you work better together with the people you work with.

00:47:46 ◼   ► You are easily able to do things like co-author documents.

00:47:50 ◼   ► Maybe you want to share status updates on what the food truck outside is serving today.

00:47:55 ◼   ► Or maybe you want to be able to manage your projects easily with the people that you work

00:47:59 ◼   ► with all in one place.

00:48:00 ◼   ► You can do all that with igloo.

00:48:03 ◼   ► If someone makes changes to an item in igloo, they send out notifications and you choose

00:48:07 ◼   ► the way you want to receive them, which is really great. The types of things you want

00:48:10 ◼   ► to receive notifications for, how do you want to get them. That's the sort of stuff you

00:48:13 ◼   ► can finally hone and make to be the exact way that you want. This keeps you up to date

00:48:18 ◼   ► with everything. All items like documents that you save have a complete version history

00:48:23 ◼   ► maintained. This keeps you in touch with everyone and in case crazy Annie decides to delete

00:48:28 ◼   ► that thing from the spreadsheet that you put in the other day, you're going to be able

00:48:31 ◼   ► to get it all back again.

00:48:33 ◼   ► Gartner, I love this bit, released their famed report, "The Magic Quadrant for Social Software

00:48:39 ◼   ► in the Workplace," and Igloo appears on this report for the sixth consecutive year, alongside

00:48:45 ◼   ► Microsoft, IBM, Google, and SAP.

00:48:48 ◼   ► Jason, would you like to hear an excerpt from the Gartner profile of Igloo?

00:48:53 ◼   ► Would I, Myke?

00:48:54 ◼   ► Well, let me tell you.

00:48:56 ◼   ► Feedback from Igloo's reference customers was consistently positive.

00:48:59 ◼   ► They praised the product's quick deployment, configuration, and customization flexibility

00:49:03 ◼   ► with self-service options for non-technical users, control over branding and information

00:49:08 ◼   ► organization ease of use.

00:49:10 ◼   ► They also praised the responsiveness of igloo as a whole organization.

00:49:14 ◼   ► Basically what this is, if you need me to help you sift through that, is igloo is really

00:49:19 ◼   ► easy to set up, even for people that are not that technical, you can very easily customize

00:49:23 ◼   ► it and make it fit with part of your business, you have complete control over it and it's

00:49:26 ◼   ► super awesome.

00:49:27 ◼   ► I don't know what more you need than that.

00:49:29 ◼   ► If your company has legacy internet software built on SharePoint or old portal technology,

00:49:35 ◼   ► you should be giving igloo a try.

00:49:38 ◼   ► Quite frankly, you should be trying them if you're in any business because they're free

00:49:41 ◼   ► to use with up to 10 people and you can sign up right now at igloosoftware.com/upgrade.

00:49:46 ◼   ► Thank you so much to igloo for the support of this show and all of Relay FM.

00:49:51 ◼   ► Before we get to the Retina iMac, which is our next discussion today, I want to tell

00:49:55 ◼   ► you about one other little quick thing.

00:49:57 ◼   ► Yes.

00:49:58 ◼   ► Very quick.

00:49:59 ◼   ► Very quick, at Real AFM we want to make sure that we're connecting you, the listener, with

00:50:05 ◼   ► the best type of sponsors and advertisers that we can.

00:50:08 ◼   ► A great way to do this is for us to find out just a little bit more about you.

00:50:13 ◼   ► So we have a short anonymous survey that we'd like you to take.

00:50:15 ◼   ► It takes no more than five minutes to complete.

00:50:18 ◼   ► Your answers will help us match you guys with the best advertisers for you to make sure

00:50:22 ◼   ► that we are keeping a good match between the types of things that you enjoy and the types

00:50:26 ◼   ► of things you hear on this show.

00:50:28 ◼   ► who completes this survey will be entered into an ongoing monthly raffle to win a $100

00:50:33 ◼   ► Amazon gift card. We promise that we will not share or sell your email address when

00:50:38 ◼   ► you do this. No email will be sent to you unless you are a winner of the $100 Amazon

00:50:43 ◼   ► gift card. So please go to podsurvey.com/upgrade and fill that out and help out Upgrade and

00:50:50 ◼   ► RelayFN. Thank you.

00:50:51 ◼   ► Yes, you know, Myke, not to make you all feel guilty, but Myke and I recently left our jobs

00:50:56 ◼   ► or in the process of leaving our jobs and this is one of the ways we actually hope to

00:51:00 ◼   ► support ourselves, if not the only way for Myke.

00:51:02 ◼   ► So filling out that survey really helps because it helps us find good advertisers and allow

00:51:08 ◼   ► them to be happy and allow us to live.

00:51:12 ◼   ► So no pressure.

00:51:14 ◼   ► It helps us find new advertisers because we can kind of say to them this is what we know

00:51:18 ◼   ► because at the moment, aside from knowing that you're all very very handsome and beautiful

00:51:22 ◼   ► people. We only know that you download the show that's effectively it and we

00:51:27 ◼   ► know where in the world you are because that's what we get from our hosting

00:51:30 ◼   ► provider. That's all we know. Yeah exactly so podsurvey.com/upgrade

00:51:40 ◼   ► I don't think we're gonna talk about the Kindle. Oh no no!

00:51:45 ◼   ► Well what do you what so well the Kindle the Kindle has lasted this long it could

00:51:50 ◼   ► last another week if we need to. The fact is there's so much going on now.

00:51:55 ◼   ► Somebody was telling me, you know, "Wow, you've been doing a lot of stuff lately."

00:51:58 ◼   ► I was like, "Well, yeah, I happen to launch my new site and my new podcast right as

00:52:03 ◼   ► Apple does like its busiest six weeks of the year, which is now, where all the new

00:52:08 ◼   ► things are coming out." And, you know, in April, plenty of time, but right now

00:52:13 ◼   ► things are crazy. So if we don't get to the Kindle this week, you know, we will

00:52:17 ◼   ► get to it and I I've only you know used it for a couple of days so if I learn

00:52:23 ◼   ► more about it and we give it the room that it deserves then so be it. In April

00:52:28 ◼   ► we'll really be exploring the verticals. Oh man, it may be vertical month.

00:52:35 ◼   ► Hey Jason what did you have for lunch today? Lunch vertical, important food

00:52:40 ◼   ► related vertical. Okay what do you want to know about the about the retina iMac?

00:52:45 ◼   ► I've had it for a week. My review went up on Six Colors last Friday, Thursday, somewhere in there.

00:52:50 ◼   ► And so it's right behind me, as it was when we recorded the last episode, but I'd only

00:52:57 ◼   ► turned it on then. So what would you like to know? So how have you, you haven't had a retina

00:53:03 ◼   ► computer before have you? You haven't had a retina Mac before? No, I've used a retina MacBook Pro a

00:53:09 ◼   ► a little bit, but I've never had one

00:53:12 ◼   ► as my main system before.

00:53:13 ◼   ► - So how have you found using Retina just day to day?

00:53:17 ◼   ► - That's a good question.

00:53:23 ◼   ► - So let me tell you my feelings.

00:53:26 ◼   ► Let's see if I can try to say it.

00:53:26 ◼   ► - Yes, please.

00:53:27 ◼   ► - 'Cause I have a Retina MacBook Pro

00:53:28 ◼   ► and I've been using a Retina MacBook Pro

00:53:31 ◼   ► for over a year at least.

00:53:33 ◼   ► And I kind of find it to be here and there.

00:53:38 ◼   ► So it's easy for me to forget that it has Retina

00:53:41 ◼   ► because I use Retina devices all the time.

00:53:44 ◼   ► So it's just like, this is a screen that I like.

00:53:47 ◼   ► Anything less than this is just a bad screen

00:53:49 ◼   ► and these are all just like standard screens.

00:53:53 ◼   ► But I still have a bunch of apps that aren't Retina ready.

00:53:58 ◼   ► Microsoft Word, which I do have to use sometimes

00:54:01 ◼   ► and it's just a mess, like just horrible.

00:54:04 ◼   ► - Microsoft Word really still doesn't have Retina text

00:54:08 ◼   ► display? The text in the documents is but like everything else.

00:54:13 ◼   ► All the art and stuff is not written? Just everything is not written

00:54:18 ◼   ► already. I'm opening it right now just to confirm all of that but yeah no it's

00:54:21 ◼   ► definitely not I can see it as soon as I open the app. It's a real sorry state of

00:54:26 ◼   ► affairs there but anyway so I mean so and also you know there there are parts

00:54:32 ◼   ► of the web as well which don't look great on these devices I can only assume

00:54:36 ◼   ► assume that it's interesting on a screen of that size.

00:54:40 ◼   ► So how have you found it to be day to day?

00:54:43 ◼   ► - It's a fast Mac and that's good.

00:54:48 ◼   ► And the screen is beautiful.

00:54:50 ◼   ► I mean, the Mac retina experience is what it is.

00:54:53 ◼   ► So if you've seen, especially Yosemite on a random MacBook

00:54:56 ◼   ► Pro or something like that, you've seen it.

00:54:57 ◼   ► And it's very nice.

00:54:59 ◼   ► And the images are arresting because you're used to seeing

00:55:05 ◼   ► a certain resolution for images.

00:55:07 ◼   ► And it's almost like they're deeper somehow

00:55:09 ◼   ► that you look at it and it's just the same size

00:55:11 ◼   ► and yet somehow there's more in it

00:55:13 ◼   ► because there's literally much more information

00:55:15 ◼   ► in that picture.

00:55:16 ◼   ► They're little tiny details that would previously

00:55:19 ◼   ► have just been washed away.

00:55:20 ◼   ► It's a little bit like going from, you know,

00:55:21 ◼   ► standard def to high def for TV or something like that

00:55:24 ◼   ► where the picture is the same

00:55:25 ◼   ► except the details are completely different.

00:55:29 ◼   ► So if you've seen a Retina MacBook Pro, you've seen it,

00:55:34 ◼   ► except that it's sort of the screen

00:55:36 ◼   ► is the size of four of those screens.

00:55:38 ◼   ► But it's, I don't know, it's beautiful.

00:55:41 ◼   ► Is it necessary?

00:55:44 ◼   ► I had some people tell me that they thought it was.

00:55:46 ◼   ► I think like, if you're a designer,

00:55:48 ◼   ► if you're a photographer, it's necessary.

00:55:50 ◼   ► You should get one.

00:55:52 ◼   ► If you're not, then it's, or like a video editor,

00:55:56 ◼   ► if you're not, it's nice.

00:55:59 ◼   ► And eventually they'll all be like this.

00:56:01 ◼   ► Is it necessary?

00:56:02 ◼   ► Eh, probably not.

00:56:03 ◼   ► But for me, the niceness plus the fact that I'm in the market

00:56:06 ◼   ► for a faster computer and this iMac is,

00:56:10 ◼   ► other than some of the higher end Mac Pros

00:56:14 ◼   ► for multi-threaded processing power,

00:56:17 ◼   ► this is the fastest Mac around.

00:56:19 ◼   ► And you can get one for $500 to start,

00:56:23 ◼   ► $500 less than a MacBook Pro

00:56:25 ◼   ► and it comes with the 27 inch retina display.

00:56:28 ◼   ► So it's a pretty good deal for somebody

00:56:31 ◼   ► who thinks of themselves as a power user of a Mac

00:56:34 ◼   ► who wants a desktop system with a big screen,

00:56:37 ◼   ► if you can afford it, it's a good deal.

00:56:40 ◼   ► It's still an expensive computer at 2,500,

00:56:43 ◼   ► but if you can afford it, it's a pretty good deal

00:56:45 ◼   ► because you're getting that screen

00:56:46 ◼   ► and you're getting a lot of power.

00:56:48 ◼   ► This is not a halfway kind of system.

00:56:52 ◼   ► The processor and the GPU are pretty impressive.

00:56:57 ◼   ► - I think maybe if you're thinking about

00:57:00 ◼   ► what's necessary, potentially a,

00:57:04 ◼   ► the power is more necessary than the retina.

00:57:08 ◼   ► - I agree. - Most people.

00:57:10 ◼   ► - The reason that I wanted, well, there are two reasons.

00:57:13 ◼   ► One, I think I mentioned this last week,

00:57:15 ◼   ► is what Dan Morin's calling our rich uncle who died

00:57:19 ◼   ► and left us some money, which is that our former employer

00:57:23 ◼   ► has as one of our farewell parting gifts,

00:57:26 ◼   ► has given us some money toward a computer

00:57:28 ◼   ► to get us on our way and get us on our feet

00:57:30 ◼   ► and stop eating beans out of a can.

00:57:33 ◼   ► And in order to do that,

00:57:35 ◼   ► you gotta buy it within like three months or something.

00:57:37 ◼   ► So I'm in the market for a computer is what I'm saying.

00:57:40 ◼   ► And I also discovered when we were trying to do

00:57:44 ◼   ► some live streaming of the Dungeons and Dragons podcast

00:57:47 ◼   ► I do over on the incomparable called Total Party Kill,

00:57:49 ◼   ► that my little dual core MacBook Air cannot compress video

00:57:54 ◼   ► and stream it on the fly.

00:57:57 ◼   ► It can't do that.

00:57:58 ◼   ► - Oh, just saying.

00:58:00 ◼   ► So I'm in the market for more computing power.

00:58:02 ◼   ► And as we said last week, with that quad core

00:58:04 ◼   ► that our good listener Shep tells you not,

00:58:09 ◼   ► you know, that you should find remaindered somewhere.

00:58:12 ◼   ► With that off the price list,

00:58:15 ◼   ► if I want a new Mac, my choices are narrowed.

00:58:19 ◼   ► And so I look at this system and I think,

00:58:20 ◼   ► well, I got some money coming from my former employer.

00:58:22 ◼   ► I need a fast system.

00:58:23 ◼   ► I want a quad core processor.

00:58:25 ◼   ► And yeah, so the processor makes it necessary.

00:58:28 ◼   ► and then the screen makes it nice.

00:58:31 ◼   ► - Yeah, I had the question about the,

00:58:35 ◼   ► if I can, you know, your rich uncle.

00:58:38 ◼   ► Did they assume that nobody had,

00:58:40 ◼   ► did you all have computers that were provided

00:58:43 ◼   ► by the company?

00:58:44 ◼   ► Or did they assume nobody has computers or something?

00:58:47 ◼   ► - Actually, we all did have computers

00:58:49 ◼   ► provided by the company.

00:58:50 ◼   ► That is the case.

00:58:52 ◼   ► The company provides you with a computer to work with.

00:58:54 ◼   ► So I think part of what they were saying here

00:58:57 ◼   ► is and the way it's tasked is they say something like it's you can either take it as job training.

00:59:03 ◼   ► Again, some of these outplacement things are very strange and they come from

00:59:07 ◼   ► industries that are different from our industries. So it may be like we're more like we're steel

00:59:16 ◼   ► workers than we're writers. Although you could argue that that journalism maybe is doomed in

00:59:20 ◼   ► industry as being a steel worker. So you could do like job retraining from a couple of different job

00:59:26 ◼   ► retraining firms, or you can put the money toward equipment and material that would help you with

00:59:31 ◼   ► your future career path. And one of those was, very specifically was, you could buy a computer.

00:59:36 ◼   ► And I think it's great that they're that flexible about it. Like we can get you set up with something

00:59:40 ◼   ► that you can use to look for a job or do a job, and we'll pitch in with that. And so, for my

00:59:47 ◼   ► former colleagues who left IDG, that's one of the benefits that we get as part of our departure,

00:59:53 ◼   ► which is which is really nice and so I you know we need to take advantage of that so Dan bought like

00:59:57 ◼   ► a MacBook Air and uh maybe an iPad or something and I'm gonna buy this this iMac I bought it

01:00:03 ◼   ► I ordered it what would you have developed the forum to get reimbursed for it what would you

01:00:08 ◼   ► have retrained as like what industry would you have retrained into if you were going to use it

01:00:14 ◼   ► for retraining lessons? Like circus or something? I think I have no other useful skills. So

01:00:26 ◼   ► if I went to the circus I'd have to be the guy, one of the announcers. I could do that.

01:00:31 ◼   ► Presenting now! Maybe not. You know, I don't know. This is what I do. So I'm sure somebody

01:00:41 ◼   ► in the, you know, what is the line from Ghostbusters in the hospitality or food service industry?

01:00:48 ◼   ► Yeah. Or, you know, I hear steel work is nice.

01:00:54 ◼   ► At this time of year. You mentioned something, I just need, I feel like I need a bit of clarification

01:01:02 ◼   ► on this technically if you can. This is from your view, a great review of the Rettner iMac.

01:01:08 ◼   ► The iMac's got one in three times the pixels

01:01:11 ◼   ► as the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

01:01:13 ◼   ► Explain to me, is this just the space on screen?

01:01:19 ◼   ► Because the PPI is similar enough, right?

01:01:23 ◼   ► The 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro has a higher PPI at 227

01:01:27 ◼   ► than the iMac does at about 200, if my Googling is correct.

01:01:31 ◼   ► So I'm assuming there that what you're saying is

01:01:33 ◼   ► it's just bigger, right?

01:01:35 ◼   ► So it's better because it's bigger.

01:01:37 ◼   ► Is that what, am I right in thinking that

01:01:39 ◼   ► or is it more than that?

01:01:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I think I went back,

01:01:44 ◼   ► I changed this section so I may have changed it,

01:01:45 ◼   ► but basically the 15 inch MacBook Pro

01:01:47 ◼   ► has about 5 million pixels

01:01:49 ◼   ► and the 13 inch has about 4 million pixels, right?

01:01:54 ◼   ► And the iMac with retina display has what,

01:01:58 ◼   ► what did we say?

01:01:58 ◼   ► 14.7 million pixels.

01:02:00 ◼   ► So it's basically three times as many as the 15 inch

01:02:04 ◼   ► and more than three times as many as the 13 inch.

01:02:06 ◼   ► So it's size, the PPI is not that different,

01:02:10 ◼   ► but like literally if you can think of 15 inch diagonal

01:02:14 ◼   ► and then 27 inch diagonal is almost double,

01:02:17 ◼   ► but remember it's not just double

01:02:19 ◼   ► because it's in two dimensions.

01:02:20 ◼   ► So it's quadruple, almost quadruple.

01:02:23 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:02:24 ◼   ► - And so, yeah, it's, yeah, it's 15 megapixels versus five.

01:02:29 ◼   ► So triple the pixels more or less if you're rounding,

01:02:32 ◼   ► which is close enough.

01:02:35 ◼   ► It's size, it's just a huge screen.

01:02:37 ◼   ► It's so even though the,

01:02:39 ◼   ► it's not like the type is notably bigger or smaller,

01:02:41 ◼   ► it's just that there's more of it.

01:02:43 ◼   ► This is a 27, it's a little bit like the,

01:02:45 ◼   ► when you go to a place, a showroom that has TVs,

01:02:49 ◼   ► and you look at a TV and you think,

01:02:50 ◼   ► "Oh, this isn't that big."

01:02:51 ◼   ► And then you get it home

01:02:52 ◼   ► and it doesn't fit through your door

01:02:53 ◼   ► 'cause it's actually huge.

01:02:54 ◼   ► It was just the context of the showroom

01:02:56 ◼   ► that made it seem small

01:02:57 ◼   ► because it was next to an even larger TV.

01:03:00 ◼   ► The iMac's kind of like that.

01:03:01 ◼   ► 27 inches, it's big, it is huge.

01:03:04 ◼   ► And until you see it, you kind of forget.

01:03:07 ◼   ► And then if you put one in the context of your own home,

01:03:10 ◼   ► then like I have done, it's really big.

01:03:14 ◼   ► I look at a 24 inch monitor all day.

01:03:18 ◼   ► So the 27 inches is not much bigger,

01:03:20 ◼   ► but it is definitely bigger.

01:03:23 ◼   ► - I assume it just feels bigger as well.

01:03:25 ◼   ► Like the resolution makes it feel bigger

01:03:28 ◼   ► than it physically is.

01:03:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, and it's really bright.

01:03:30 ◼   ► I mean, you can turn down the brightness obviously,

01:03:32 ◼   ► but it's a big, bright, super sharp display.

01:03:36 ◼   ► It's pretty impressive.

01:03:37 ◼   ► - I imagine kind of when you sit at that computer,

01:03:39 ◼   ► you know the guy who's sitting in the armchair

01:03:42 ◼   ► in front of the jet engine with like the listening to,

01:03:46 ◼   ► you know what I'm talking about, right?

01:03:47 ◼   ► - On headphones, I know what you're talking about.

01:03:49 ◼   ► - I imagine that's what you're like sitting

01:03:51 ◼   ► in front of the brightness of this thing.

01:03:52 ◼   ► You get in a suntan as you're sitting and working.

01:03:56 ◼   ► - I did have to scale down the brightness

01:03:57 ◼   ► and turn on some lights so that I didn't get just, yeah.

01:04:01 ◼   ► There you go, nerds.

01:04:03 ◼   ► We'll all just buy a 27-inch iMac,

01:04:05 ◼   ► so turn up the brightness and we'll talk about that sometimes.

01:04:07 ◼   ► - Get that iMac tan.

01:04:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, perfect.

01:04:09 ◼   ► You mentioned one thing in your review

01:04:12 ◼   ► about how you felt graphics performance was fine,

01:04:16 ◼   ► but if you open a lot of windows and spaces

01:04:18 ◼   ► and use mission control, you see pauses and stuttering.

01:04:21 ◼   ► I have had this problem on my iMac Pro.

01:04:24 ◼   ► There is an issue in Yosemite, I believe.

01:04:29 ◼   ► For example, it's weird.

01:04:31 ◼   ► If I use the trackpad and I try and swipe between spaces, like I swipe and it kind of

01:04:35 ◼   ► moves like a quarter of the way and just gets stuck.

01:04:38 ◼   ► But if I use my magic mouse, it doesn't happen so much.

01:04:41 ◼   ► One thing that I have found that's helped significantly is turning off transparency,

01:04:45 ◼   ► which you can do in System Preferences/Accessibility.

01:04:49 ◼   ► That has pretty much solved the problem.

01:04:51 ◼   ► I also zapped the PRAM at the suggestion of Stephen Hackett, because that's the kind of

01:04:55 ◼   ► thing that he's really good at telling me to do.

01:04:57 ◼   ► tells me to zap the PRAM quite a lot, so I went and did that. It's old school.

01:05:01 ◼   ► Uh-huh, and it fixed it. The combination of those two things pretty much

01:05:05 ◼   ► fixed it. So if you are having problems with this on a retina machine, turn off

01:05:08 ◼   ► transparency. I actually think at the moment I prefer the way Yosemite looks

01:05:13 ◼   ► without transparency. That's a discussion for another time maybe. Yeah, right

01:05:17 ◼   ► after we talk about the Kindle. Right after the Kindle, yeah, we'll get to Yosemite

01:05:21 ◼   ► in about May of next year. But yeah, that's something that I think that's a

01:05:25 ◼   ► software problem and I think it will probably, well I hope it will be fixed, I really genuinely

01:05:30 ◼   ► hope it will be fixed because if Apple were testing, I actually don't know how that sort

01:05:35 ◼   ► of thing gets retesting unless it's like it affects a small percentage of people and then

01:05:39 ◼   ► I still hope that they fix it because I'm sure they were testing Yosemite on Retina

01:05:43 ◼   ► Macs. Well yeah, yes I'm sure they were on the Retina MacBook Pro, maybe not on the iMac

01:05:48 ◼   ► if it was off in a lab somewhere and not announced but yeah, you would think so. And it's variable

01:05:53 ◼   ► Like if I open a lot of windows,

01:05:55 ◼   ► it's more stuttery than if I open a few.

01:05:57 ◼   ► And I saw somebody posted a YouTube video

01:06:01 ◼   ► that looked horribly stuttery,

01:06:03 ◼   ► and I didn't experience that when I tried to replicate it.

01:06:06 ◼   ► So I think there's some strange variability going on here.

01:06:09 ◼   ► I do think there's some bugs.

01:06:10 ◼   ► Also individual apps do a better or worse job.

01:06:12 ◼   ► You pointed out like Microsoft Word has a lot of issues

01:06:15 ◼   ► not being retina friendly.

01:06:17 ◼   ► I found out that Logic Pro 10,

01:06:19 ◼   ► Logic Pro 10 has huge performance issues

01:06:22 ◼   ► when it's running in retina mode, it'll run,

01:06:24 ◼   ► but it's all stuttery and like pinching and zooming

01:06:27 ◼   ► with my track pad, it's laggy and it's stuttery.

01:06:32 ◼   ► And so here's another tip,

01:06:33 ◼   ► if you're somebody using a retina Mac of any kind

01:06:36 ◼   ► and you're unhappy with its performance,

01:06:39 ◼   ► if you go to the finder and open that app in the finder

01:06:43 ◼   ► and choose get info, select it and choose get info, command I

01:06:48 ◼   ► you'll discover a checkbox that you may not know existed

01:06:52 ◼   ► because it doesn't exist on non-retina Macs.

01:06:55 ◼   ► And the checkbox is open in low resolution.

01:06:58 ◼   ► And if you check that box, when you open the app,

01:07:01 ◼   ► it basically runs it at 1X scaled instead of at 2X retina.

01:07:06 ◼   ► And when I did that with Logic Pro X, totally worked,

01:07:10 ◼   ► totally fixed it, no stuttering, no lag.

01:07:14 ◼   ► But something like iMovie was able to run in 2X

01:07:18 ◼   ► and scrolling on a timeline and zooming in on a timeline

01:07:21 ◼   ► and all the things that Logic couldn't do flawlessly.

01:07:24 ◼   ► So it's Logic's problem, not the IMAX problem,

01:07:29 ◼   ► but you would think that they would fix that.

01:07:33 ◼   ► - It's really sad that you have to do that,

01:07:36 ◼   ► like really sad.

01:07:38 ◼   ► - I love that that feature's there, right?

01:07:40 ◼   ► I love that feature.

01:07:41 ◼   ► It's like, just forget Retina on this app, just forget it.

01:07:44 ◼   ► Don't even try.

01:07:45 ◼   ► That's good.

01:07:46 ◼   ► That's, I like that it exists 'cause it fixed the problem.

01:07:51 ◼   ► I was gonna edit an episode of "The Incomparable"

01:07:54 ◼   ► on the Retina iMac.

01:07:55 ◼   ► And that was what I had to do.

01:07:57 ◼   ► I had to do get info and set it to low res mode.

01:08:02 ◼   ► And then it looked normal.

01:08:03 ◼   ► I mean, as normal as it normally looks, it looked like 1X.

01:08:08 ◼   ► Didn't look all fancy, but I don't need all fancy.

01:08:10 ◼   ► I wanted the processor power, not fancy graphics

01:08:12 ◼   ► for something like Logic 'cause it's audio.

01:08:15 ◼   ► And that little checkbox solved it.

01:08:18 ◼   ► - Ah, I just did it with Tweetbot.

01:08:20 ◼   ► Oh my, oh, this is horrible, Jason.

01:08:23 ◼   ► - What have I done?

01:08:25 ◼   ► Well, it's not, you shouldn't try it.

01:08:27 ◼   ► You should only do it when you need it.

01:08:29 ◼   ► If there's a problem. - Well, I just wanted to see.

01:08:30 ◼   ► I just wanted to see what it looked like.

01:08:31 ◼   ► - Word, maybe.

01:08:33 ◼   ► Well, no, 'cause you don't want the text to look awful.

01:08:35 ◼   ► But if you have issues with something looking

01:08:38 ◼   ► totally broken on retina, you can check the box.

01:08:41 ◼   ► - I just wanted to see what would happen.

01:08:43 ◼   ► And now your Twitter is all fuzzy and awful.

01:08:46 ◼   ► - Yeah, it looks bad.

01:08:47 ◼   ► Yeah, so for Word, like to give a bit of a real time

01:08:49 ◼   ► follow up on Word, the text that I type in

01:08:53 ◼   ► does render correctly, but like menus and toolbars,

01:08:56 ◼   ► that does not render in retina.

01:08:58 ◼   ► I can't understand what they're doing.

01:09:01 ◼   ► It's so confusing to me.

01:09:03 ◼   ► So strange.

01:09:04 ◼   ► Okay, we touched on it briefly,

01:09:07 ◼   ► but do you have any different feelings about Yosemite

01:09:09 ◼   ► now having used it more extensively on a retina machine?

01:09:13 ◼   ► if you haven't already, I mean, when you reviewed,

01:09:15 ◼   ► were you using a retina machine at all?

01:09:17 ◼   ► - Well, I have, so my Yosemite reference system

01:09:24 ◼   ► is a retina MacBook Pro that is a loan from Apple.

01:09:28 ◼   ► So that's been my experience with retina,

01:09:30 ◼   ► has been on that system.

01:09:31 ◼   ► - Right, so you kind of, your feelings remain the same

01:09:37 ◼   ► in essence about it.

01:09:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, it is.

01:09:42 ◼   ► I mean, the experience is not any different

01:09:45 ◼   ► running it on an iMac than running it on a MacBook Pro,

01:09:47 ◼   ► other than that you've gone from a smaller screen

01:09:48 ◼   ► to a bigger screen.

01:09:49 ◼   ► And Yosemite, you know, that Helvetica Neue light is a way,

01:09:54 ◼   ► actually the way I would put it,

01:10:00 ◼   ► when I was booting up the Retina iMac,

01:10:03 ◼   ► I was looking at that font and I thought, wow,

01:10:05 ◼   ► that font is, that's sharp enough,

01:10:06 ◼   ► it could cut you by looking at it.

01:10:09 ◼   ► And I think there's, I mean, it is so sharp.

01:10:11 ◼   ► Whereas on a regular screen, it's a font, it's there.

01:10:16 ◼   ► But on the retina screens, it's super thin and sharp

01:10:20 ◼   ► and it looks great.

01:10:21 ◼   ► And yet also, it looks like a font

01:10:23 ◼   ► that is designed for that kind of a screen

01:10:27 ◼   ► because it's just super thin and it's very impressive.

01:10:32 ◼   ► So, I don't know, it's a Mac.

01:10:34 ◼   ► Eventually all Macs are gonna be like that,

01:10:36 ◼   ► but it looks great.

01:10:37 ◼   ► And then I turned, I pivoted from my iMac

01:10:40 ◼   ► to my regular display while working on the review

01:10:44 ◼   ► and had one of those moments where I was just like, ah!

01:10:46 ◼   ► Like there's a film across my, what happened to my screen?

01:10:49 ◼   ► It's all messed up now.

01:10:50 ◼   ► And then after like 10 minutes it went away

01:10:52 ◼   ► and it seems normal again.

01:10:53 ◼   ► And then I look at the retina display and I go, ah!

01:10:56 ◼   ► What happened?

01:10:56 ◼   ► And every time.

01:10:58 ◼   ► So you get used to it.

01:11:00 ◼   ► - The future of Apple Computers Incorporated

01:11:05 ◼   ► It's to go all retina, I assume, everywhere.

01:11:07 ◼   ► Everything will be retina.

01:11:09 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:11:10 ◼   ► - I mean, it's safe to assume where we stand right now.

01:11:12 ◼   ► There will be, you know, all of the laptops will be retina,

01:11:15 ◼   ► there will be retina as, you know,

01:11:17 ◼   ► we don't know when that will happen.

01:11:18 ◼   ► There will be a retina cinema display,

01:11:21 ◼   ► the Mac Pro will be able to drive it, et cetera, et cetera.

01:11:24 ◼   ► - It will happen.

01:11:25 ◼   ► - But you know, you look at these things,

01:11:26 ◼   ► you're like, okay, screens are better now

01:11:29 ◼   ► than they were previously before retina.

01:11:31 ◼   ► Pre-retina screens were better than, like, you know,

01:11:34 ◼   ► lower resolution screens before it.

01:11:36 ◼   ► Can we go any further than Retina?

01:11:38 ◼   ► Like I know it's a dumb thing to say like,

01:11:40 ◼   ► this four megabytes of RAM is all I'll ever need.

01:11:43 ◼   ► But I mean, what point is it just like,

01:11:47 ◼   ► okay, the changes you're making,

01:11:48 ◼   ► people just can't see them anymore.

01:11:51 ◼   ► - Further than Retina.

01:11:53 ◼   ► - Well, we've done that with the iPhones, right?

01:11:56 ◼   ► We have Retina HD now,

01:11:58 ◼   ► because it wasn't high definition enough.

01:12:00 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:12:02 ◼   ► - Well, I mean, I think that is the answer

01:12:04 ◼   ► about what you get when you go further.

01:12:07 ◼   ► You don't, I don't think beyond the point

01:12:10 ◼   ► at which you can't see the dots,

01:12:12 ◼   ► you don't get anything as a user,

01:12:14 ◼   ► except flexibility in what screen size you see.

01:12:19 ◼   ► So the idea with the iPhone 6 Plus is,

01:12:22 ◼   ► unless you are a really sharp-eyed

01:12:27 ◼   ► and picky designer, essentially,

01:12:32 ◼   ► or John Syracuse, I suppose.

01:12:34 ◼   ► You can't tell it,

01:12:38 ◼   ► you can't tell, but the iPhone 6 Plus screen is scaled,

01:12:41 ◼   ► right, it's 3X scaled down.

01:12:43 ◼   ► And the reason you can do that is that screen

01:12:46 ◼   ► is high resolution enough that when you scale,

01:12:49 ◼   ► it used to be if you scaled down an interface,

01:12:52 ◼   ► you could see it was all fuzzy

01:12:53 ◼   ► because you could see the dots that kind of fuzzed it out.

01:12:57 ◼   ► But when the dots are all too small to see individually,

01:13:01 ◼   ► the fuzz kind of just fades away

01:13:04 ◼   ► and you can't see the fuzz.

01:13:05 ◼   ► You just see what it wants you to see,

01:13:07 ◼   ► which is a scaled interface.

01:13:09 ◼   ► So that would be the advantage in all of these devices

01:13:12 ◼   ► of getting higher resolution is having an infinite number

01:13:17 ◼   ► or maybe not infinite, but you know,

01:13:20 ◼   ► a very large number of different resolutions

01:13:24 ◼   ► that you could scale to.

01:13:25 ◼   ► So you could basically say,

01:13:26 ◼   ► I want everything to be a little bit bigger

01:13:28 ◼   ► or a little bit smaller,

01:13:28 ◼   ► and it would all still look clear.

01:13:30 ◼   ► Instead of it being like right now,

01:13:33 ◼   ► where you can do a few steps on the iMac,

01:13:35 ◼   ► but even then some of them you can kind of tell.

01:13:38 ◼   ► But although like the Retina MacBook Pro,

01:13:41 ◼   ► I believe is a scaled interface.

01:13:42 ◼   ► I think it's scaled down from a higher resolution,

01:13:46 ◼   ► just like the iPhone 6 Plus.

01:13:48 ◼   ► And you can't really tell.

01:13:50 ◼   ► So that's the big advantage of going even further

01:13:54 ◼   ► is the more of that you could do

01:13:56 ◼   ► in terms of scaling the interface

01:13:58 ◼   ► to make it whatever size you wanted it to be.

01:14:01 ◼   ► And it would all just look good.

01:14:02 ◼   ► And it wouldn't matter that it wasn't

01:14:03 ◼   ► the native resolution of the display

01:14:05 ◼   ► because all of the anti-aliasing

01:14:08 ◼   ► and all of that is happening.

01:14:11 ◼   ► It's like subatomic anti-aliasing.

01:14:15 ◼   ► It's like, you can't see it.

01:14:17 ◼   ► And so it looks fine.

01:14:18 ◼   ► The problem with anti-aliasing was always

01:14:20 ◼   ► that you could see every pixel.

01:14:21 ◼   ► And so you could see that half shaded pixel

01:14:24 ◼   ► and it made everything fuzzy.

01:14:25 ◼   ► But when that half shaded pixel is something

01:14:27 ◼   ► that is just imperceptibly small,

01:14:29 ◼   ► then everything looks good.

01:14:31 ◼   ► So I think that's it.

01:14:32 ◼   ► 'Cause otherwise, yes, practically,

01:14:34 ◼   ► text can't get more sharper than sharp text.

01:14:36 ◼   ► It's just once it's sharp,

01:14:38 ◼   ► once you can see it all, that's it.

01:14:40 ◼   ► But there are other ways that it can get better

01:14:44 ◼   ► for things like changing resolutions.

01:14:46 ◼   ► That's all I had. I don't know if you want to talk about anything else about the Retina

01:14:53 ◼   ► iMac or anything in general today.

01:14:56 ◼   ► I don't know. I think people should check out the review on sixcolors.com. Do that if

01:15:03 ◼   ► you haven't already. Great. Check your show notes.

01:15:07 ◼   ► Or there at relay.fm/upgrades/seven.

01:15:11 ◼   ► Lucky seven. We finally made it to lucky number seven, Myke.

01:15:15 ◼   ► I got a Kindle, but I guess we don't really have time to talk about that.

01:15:20 ◼   ► I'm reading things on the Kindle now and I will report back perhaps next week.

01:15:25 ◼   ► Who knows?

01:15:27 ◼   ► Oh man, I am sorry because I really thought we would do it this week and then I was looking at all the follow-up and the fact that I also got the red dot iMac.

01:15:33 ◼   ► I had a bunch of people who were, I assume, upgrade listeners who were very excited when I said I got my Kindle and they're like, "Write the review now!"

01:15:42 ◼   ► and I thought I got this iMac here I got a review and let me do that and then

01:15:47 ◼   ► I'll get to it so I got to get to it now and I and honestly I was working on that

01:15:52 ◼   ► a lot to the point where I wasn't reading as much for pleasure as I

01:15:56 ◼   ► usually do so I've only had a you know a few hours reading with the Kindle

01:16:00 ◼   ► Voyage and I want to spend some more some more time with it but it's neat I

01:16:03 ◼   ► like it but we can talk more because I want to talk about Kindles in general

01:16:08 ◼   ► too and why they exist and why you would even want one and all of those all

01:16:12 ◼   ► all of those things to maybe we could get a guest.

01:16:15 ◼   ► Oh, all right, I'm gonna ponder that one.

01:16:18 ◼   ► Maybe we could get a good like Kindle related guest.

01:16:21 ◼   ► Maybe not.

01:16:23 ◼   ► - Mr. Kindle.

01:16:24 ◼   ► - Mr. Kindle, well, Scott McNulty is Mr. Kindle.

01:16:27 ◼   ► Dare we dream of getting Scott McNulty on this podcast

01:16:29 ◼   ► where he could be like, I'm incomparable and be on,

01:16:31 ◼   ► but never say anything.

01:16:32 ◼   ► He may even be here today.

01:16:35 ◼   ► - I'd like to watch a lot of "The Guest".

01:16:38 ◼   ► - Wouldn't be the first time Scott buys,

01:16:40 ◼   ► he may have a problem, he buys every Kindle.

01:16:43 ◼   ► I've only bought about half the Kindles.

01:16:45 ◼   ► But yeah, we'll talk about it.

01:16:47 ◼   ► We'll talk about any books and Kindles

01:16:50 ◼   ► and different reading modes and stuff.

01:16:51 ◼   ► That's totally gonna happen.

01:16:52 ◼   ► It's not gonna be like the, you know,

01:16:55 ◼   ► the what is it John Sirkius always talked about?

01:16:58 ◼   ► He was promising an episode about file systems forever,

01:17:00 ◼   ► I think, and he finally did it.

01:17:02 ◼   ► So we'll get there, it's our white whale.

01:17:04 ◼   ► It's the Kindle episode.

01:17:06 ◼   ► It's gonna happen, just not this week.

01:17:08 ◼   ► So that's it, that's all I got.

01:17:09 ◼   ► I, my Apple Pay total is up to two.

01:17:13 ◼   ► So in the intervening week,

01:17:14 ◼   ► I only bought one other thing with Apple Pay

01:17:15 ◼   ► and it was a hot dog at a sporting event.

01:17:19 ◼   ► And yeah, and the retina iMac has to go back this week

01:17:24 ◼   ► to Apple, but mine is on order.

01:17:27 ◼   ► I ordered the one,

01:17:28 ◼   ► this is something we could talk about right before we go.

01:17:30 ◼   ► I ordered the one with the VESA mount on the back

01:17:33 ◼   ► instead of the foot.

01:17:34 ◼   ► And I don't know if people know this,

01:17:37 ◼   ► It used to be that you could get an iMac

01:17:39 ◼   ► and you could buy a $30 kit from Apple

01:17:41 ◼   ► and pop the foot off of it

01:17:43 ◼   ► and put on an adapter that was a VESA mount

01:17:47 ◼   ► so that you could then put it on an arm

01:17:49 ◼   ► or mount it to a wall.

01:17:51 ◼   ► And with the last design rev of the iMac,

01:17:53 ◼   ► that was no longer an option.

01:17:55 ◼   ► You can either order it with a foot or with a VESA mount.

01:17:59 ◼   ► And once it's in one format, you can't get it in the other.

01:18:02 ◼   ► You can't convert it back.

01:18:04 ◼   ► So you're committing.

01:18:05 ◼   ► So I used, so I've got my 24 inch monitor here on an arm

01:18:10 ◼   ► and I really like it.

01:18:11 ◼   ► I've got my desk and it's got stuff on the desk.

01:18:15 ◼   ► So I've got like a little thermometer

01:18:16 ◼   ► that tells me how warm it is in here.

01:18:18 ◼   ► And I've got a little remote control for my speakers

01:18:20 ◼   ► and I've got a little foam orange brain

01:18:25 ◼   ► that I like to squeeze 'cause it makes me happy.

01:18:28 ◼   ► I have to, I love it so much.

01:18:31 ◼   ► I have, this was sent with a,

01:18:33 ◼   ► some sort of game that we were all sent at Macworld

01:18:36 ◼   ► like 15 years ago.

01:18:38 ◼   ► And I took, and I had one and I loved it so much

01:18:41 ◼   ► that at one point I went around,

01:18:42 ◼   ► 'cause I was gonna order more

01:18:44 ◼   ► and it turns out they didn't make them anymore.

01:18:46 ◼   ► So I went around to all of my coworkers and I said,

01:18:48 ◼   ► do you still have that orange brain?

01:18:50 ◼   ► And they all like had just put it in a drawer

01:18:51 ◼   ► and forgotten that it was there.

01:18:52 ◼   ► And I said, and can I have your orange brain?

01:18:54 ◼   ► So I have like three of these Nerf brains.

01:18:57 ◼   ► I love them.

01:18:58 ◼   ► So I've got that on my desk.

01:19:01 ◼   ► And then I put the retina iMac on my desk.

01:19:04 ◼   ► And we'll put a picture of the brain in the show notes.

01:19:07 ◼   ► And suddenly my desk was gone.

01:19:11 ◼   ► All there was was this screen

01:19:13 ◼   ► because it was at the front of the desk where I'm working

01:19:16 ◼   ► and it was huge.

01:19:17 ◼   ► And then the foot was there.

01:19:18 ◼   ► And then I have to like go around the iMac

01:19:20 ◼   ► to see that there's a desk behind it

01:19:22 ◼   ► and everything's inaccessible.

01:19:23 ◼   ► And you know what?

01:19:24 ◼   ► I really didn't like it.

01:19:25 ◼   ► And that was the moment where I decided

01:19:26 ◼   ► I'm gonna put this thing on an arm.

01:19:28 ◼   ► I don't want it sitting down on my desk.

01:19:29 ◼   ► I like it floating.

01:19:30 ◼   ► I like this monitor floating six or eight inches

01:19:33 ◼   ► above my desk where I've actually still got

01:19:35 ◼   ► a desktop below it.

01:19:36 ◼   ► And the way I figure it,

01:19:39 ◼   ► although there are ways to hack,

01:19:40 ◼   ► there are hilarious ways.

01:19:42 ◼   ► There are the people who make these VISA mounts

01:19:44 ◼   ► that are literally like a clamp that goes onto the foot

01:19:46 ◼   ► of the iMac and then you mount that.

01:19:49 ◼   ► And they look terrible.

01:19:51 ◼   ► I decided if ever there is a day where I wanna put that

01:19:55 ◼   ► on a stand, there are people who make VISA mount

01:19:59 ◼   ► monitor stands.

01:20:00 ◼   ► So I'll just go the other direction

01:20:01 ◼   ► and it won't have the metal Apple foot look to it,

01:20:04 ◼   ► but I don't care.

01:20:05 ◼   ► I really want it on an arm.

01:20:08 ◼   ► So we'll see.

01:20:10 ◼   ► Supposedly my monitor arm can hold 23 pounds

01:20:13 ◼   ► and the iMac is about 20 pounds.

01:20:14 ◼   ► So it should work, but we'll see.

01:20:16 ◼   ► That's the one I ordered and I upgraded.

01:20:18 ◼   ► I got the upgraded CPU and GPU

01:20:20 ◼   ► because I decided if uncle IDG

01:20:24 ◼   ► was gonna help me pay for it,

01:20:25 ◼   ► I was gonna splurge a little bit

01:20:27 ◼   ► and get something that could last a long time.

01:20:29 ◼   ► - Was it the Nerf Brain Ball?

01:20:32 ◼   ► - Possibly.

01:20:36 ◼   ► It is a Nerf Nickelodeon co-branded.

01:20:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, I got it.

01:20:41 ◼   ► - Oh, did you find it on the internet?

01:20:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, the Nick and Nerf Brain Ball.

01:20:45 ◼   ► It was from the '90s, shaped like a brain,

01:20:49 ◼   ► meant to throw like a football.

01:20:51 ◼   ► - Oh man, put that in the show notes.

01:20:53 ◼   ► - It's in there, it is in there.

01:20:54 ◼   ► - Okay, yeah, so I have three of those,

01:20:57 ◼   ► and it's from the '90s.

01:20:58 ◼   ► That's how long ago we got that.

01:21:00 ◼   ► It was some like some piece of software or CD-ROM or something that was like,

01:21:04 ◼   ► it'll magnify your brain power.

01:21:06 ◼   ► And to demonstrate that here's a foam nerf brain.

01:21:10 ◼   ► And like I said, uh, I don't even remember what that thing was.

01:21:14 ◼   ► And I went around and collected everybody's foam brains a couple of

01:21:16 ◼   ► years later, because I really liked it.

01:21:18 ◼   ► It's my little thing that I keep at my desk and I kind of squeeze it.

01:21:21 ◼   ► And, um, and, uh, I'm, you know, it's, it's, it helps me think.

01:21:26 ◼   ► I stare into the brain.

01:21:28 ◼   ► I give it a little squeeze. It helps me thank Myke.

01:21:30 ◼   ► So I want, that is why my iMac is going to be on an arm

01:21:33 ◼   ► because I gotta have the, I gotta have the phone brain handy.

01:21:36 ◼   ► Words to live by.

01:21:38 ◼   ► - With that, if you'd like to get the show notes

01:21:40 ◼   ► I mentioned earlier, really.fm/upgrades/seven.

01:21:43 ◼   ► You'll also find some contact links for us there.

01:21:45 ◼   ► I am iMyke on Twitter, I-M-Y-K-E.

01:21:48 ◼   ► And Mr. Jason Snell is @jsnell, J-S-N-E-L-L on Twitter.

01:21:53 ◼   ► And he writes the glorious sixcolors.com.

01:21:56 ◼   ► Thanks again to our sponsors for this week, Backblaze and igloo, and we'll be back next

01:22:01 ◼   ► week with another episode of Upgrade.

01:22:02 ◼   ► Bye bye.

01:22:03 ◼   ► Kindle Kindle Kindle.

01:22:05 ◼   ► Bye everybody.

01:22:06 ◼   ► [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:22:09 ◼   ► [ Music ]