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Connected

357: I Need my Hands, Especially in the Summer

 

00:00:00   (upbeat music)

00:00:02   - Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 357.

00:00:13   It's made possible this week by our sponsors,

00:00:15   Instabug, Squarespace, and Smile.

00:00:18   My name is Steven Hackett,

00:00:19   I'm joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.

00:00:21   - Hello Steven, how are you?

00:00:23   - I am good, Myke is away this week.

00:00:26   We're in the time of year, we're, you know,

00:00:28   doing some light vacationing.

00:00:30   So Myke is taking a week off, it's just me and you.

00:00:33   - And we're gonna talk about weird topics.

00:00:36   - This doc-- - Yes I am.

00:00:37   - This document is maybe the most scattered shot

00:00:41   we've done in a while.

00:00:42   It's just like a bunch of random things

00:00:44   and you came with some stuff and I came with some stuff

00:00:47   and it's gonna be an adventure for all of us.

00:00:51   - Yes, it's gonna be the most adventurous episode

00:00:54   of Connected you've ever listened to.

00:00:56   So, uh, strap in because it's gonna be fun.

00:00:59   Fun in the summer. What would you call that?

00:01:01   I don't know. Somebody should try and, and like come up with a format for that kind of podcast.

00:01:08   The summer of enjoyment, the summer of amusement. I don't know. Steven, we had some follow-up,

00:01:17   specifically it's about you and your Kickstarter for your Apple Event Calendar. So, congrats.

00:01:22   Thank you.

00:01:22   You've been a thousand percent funded.

00:01:25   Yeah, it crossed 1,000% funded in the final hour, so thank you all who pledged. I've been

00:01:33   hard at work on the calendar and am getting ready to have some samples printed and things are moving

00:01:40   full steam ahead, so if you backed that, I really do appreciate it. It went so much bigger than I

00:01:45   ever anticipated and it's going to be an adventure to get them all out the door, but that's, I think,

00:01:49   part of the fun in a weird way. You've been sending me pictures of somebody that you're following who

00:01:54   who I think is doing a Kickstarter,

00:01:55   and they're shipping things, and you're just like,

00:01:57   "This is coming for you."

00:01:58   - Yes, I'm just getting you ready.

00:02:00   Like, I've been sending you pictures of people,

00:02:02   like, preparing boxes and, you know,

00:02:05   shipping things and mailing things,

00:02:07   and I've been sending you a bunch of links and photos

00:02:09   like this, being like, "This is gonna be your life soon."

00:02:11   I just wanna make sure that you're prepared to have,

00:02:15   how many backers is that number publicly?

00:02:19   - 1,100, something. - Wow, okay.

00:02:21   So soon you're gonna be able to tell us what it feels like to mail a thousand things to

00:02:28   people.

00:02:29   Yeah, it was 1,164 backers.

00:02:31   Wow.

00:02:32   It's amazing.

00:02:34   Most people do not mail 1,000 things in a lifetime.

00:02:38   Yeah.

00:02:39   I'm pretty sure.

00:02:40   And I'm gonna do it in just a few weeks.

00:02:42   Yes.

00:02:43   So if you're a backer, keep an eye out.

00:02:45   I'm gonna be posting regular updates, keeping you informed when they start going out.

00:02:49   So that'll be fun.

00:02:50   Okay, so I'm gonna let you do it because I know this is important to you. Yes. We can talk about the Mac Pro

00:02:57   There are dozens of us who care about this

00:02:59   There's been this rumor that is going to be an updated

00:03:03   Intel Mac Pro before the Apple silicon version comes out and if you read Mark Gurman's very spicy tweet a few minutes ago

00:03:11   It was like there's your new Mac Pro

00:03:13   Apple has announced three new

00:03:18   MPX modules, three new graphic options based on AMD's new

00:03:24   Radeon

00:03:28   I don't know, their new system. I tried reading... do you find that reading about GPUs just as incredibly mind-numbing?

00:03:35   Okay, I just... Oh, yeah. Yeah. So anyways. They all look the same like

00:03:40   Why is the GPU industry so stuck upon like these weird names?

00:03:46   I'm pretty sure that like you know the meme of like two things and the handshake emoji in the middle

00:03:53   It's like Sony and their product names for headphones and then GPUs and the handshake emoji

00:03:59   It's like this is our our DNA to our DNA is the discord has yeah, so it's their new

00:04:07   Whatever that means three new options

00:04:10   the

00:04:12   Radeon Pro W6800X

00:04:15   dual W6800X and the W6900X nice and

00:04:20   You can get them right now when you configure a Mac Pro

00:04:24   But they will be coming as standalone purchases at some point in the near future Apple has done this

00:04:30   Before in fact the GPU that's in my Mac Pro is the I'm looking it up. Why doesn't it say what it is?

00:04:38   it's the

00:04:40   Radeon Pro W5700X this was a GPU that came out

00:04:45   mid-cycle and you could get it built into the machine and then like a few weeks later you could buy it stand alone and I

00:04:50   Bought it and slapped into mine and I've been really happy with it

00:04:53   I don't feel like I have any need to update but if you

00:04:56   Have a Mac Pro and there was some discussion about this in discord earlier. It's like well, why does this matter?

00:05:01   A lot of people who have these professional machines

00:05:03   Their needs change over time and they may need more horsepower for work. They're doing now they weren't doing before

00:05:11   But the other angle is longevity that if you're going to hold on to this machine if you're going to stay in the Intel world

00:05:16   As long as you can you may want to bump up something like this or add more RAM more capacity

00:05:22   So you have more runway in the machine?

00:05:24   For your workload, so sort of standalone units

00:05:29   I'm sure they're going to sell very few, but it will be an option for those who?

00:05:33   Who need it and you know I'm glad Apple is at least doing something

00:05:37   I don't expect much more to come to the Intel Mac Pro

00:05:40   but having new GPUs is them delivering on the promise they made when they

00:05:48   introduced this thing a couple years ago. But you're not gonna get it? No, no, what I

00:05:52   have is perfect for my needs and... What kind of people are... should be

00:05:58   interested in this update? I think... What kind of users? Yeah, I think anyone who is

00:06:02   doing any computation on their GPU where they need more compute units, more memory,

00:06:09   these are obviously better at that. And then if you're doing really high-end 3D

00:06:14   rendering animation that sort of work, I think if you're just cutting videos

00:06:19   together in Final Cut Pro I don't think it's a necessary upgrade. And you

00:06:25   know you could spend money on the Afterburner card if you wanted to. And so

00:06:29   it's really that high-end. I mean if you bought a Mac Pro and you're just editing

00:06:33   podcasts on it, you probably don't need a new video card that's gonna run you

00:06:37   probably four or five grand. Okay and what does this mean for the actual Apple

00:06:45   silicon Mac Pro update? Is this like Apple buying itself some more time to

00:06:51   make sure that like there's still like this GPU spec pump for the Intel Mac Pro

00:06:56   before they can get like an M2 or M2X whatever Mac Pro already lacks here? I

00:07:02   kind of think it is. I think that it does buy them more time and I think it's a

00:07:06   nod to people who invested in this machine that it's not, even though it may be a one

00:07:11   and done in terms of the CPU, that they didn't just completely walk away from it. I mean,

00:07:16   they announced this machine and then, what is it, a year and a half later, like Apple

00:07:22   Silicon is here, so they knew it was coming. And so I think it's also showing those people

00:07:28   that they don't have a debt investment sitting under their desk, at least not yet.

00:07:33   makes sense. Have you started thinking about your strategy for the next Mac Pro?

00:07:38   A little bit. I mean I definitely am very curious all the rumors of the the half

00:07:43   sized and you know what sort of upgradeability that will be available. Of

00:07:50   course I will I want to keep a desktop setup and because I have a Pro Display

00:07:55   XDR like it's a Mac Pro or a Mac Mini and I like having a lot of storage and

00:08:00   like having it all internal.

00:08:02   So I wanna see what it is when it comes out,

00:08:05   but this machine is so great.

00:08:09   Like I don't feel at this point

00:08:11   that I'm gonna be in a rush to move over.

00:08:13   We'll see what happens when it comes out,

00:08:15   you know, mark my words, I guess.

00:08:16   But as far as I can tell you today,

00:08:20   I'm gonna stay on the Mac Pro train,

00:08:21   even after Apple Silicon.

00:08:23   Like I think I would have moved

00:08:24   to whatever that is at some point.

00:08:26   I don't think I'm gonna go back to an iMac.

00:08:28   - I've been thinking about what I wanna do

00:08:30   the Mac Mini and I'm pretty sure that if Apple releases this second generation Apple Silicon

00:08:38   based Mac Mini in late 2021 I am gonna upgrade. I think it's time. Like this rumored Mac Mini

00:08:48   with the M1X, like pro version of the Mac Mini with the M1, I think I'm gonna get it.

00:08:54   If it's like real product and it's coming this year I think that's the computer I'm gonna get.

00:08:58   It feels like this Mac Mini is ready to be taken to a farm upstate,

00:09:04   which will be my beach house in this case,

00:09:06   and replace the Mac Mini on my desk with the new Apple Silicon-based version.

00:09:11   I think it's time.

00:09:12   Yeah, I think that Mac Mini definitely could exist.

00:09:15   Like, it seems like such an obvious product opening,

00:09:20   especially since the Intel One you could really spec out to be really pretty powerful,

00:09:25   at least for a Mac Mini.

00:09:26   And so I can totally see them having two Mac Minis.

00:09:29   They have the M1 that's cheaper,

00:09:31   and then they have sort of an upgraded model

00:09:33   that uses something more powerful.

00:09:34   Maybe it comes in space gray

00:09:35   and they keep the silver for the other one.

00:09:38   But I think that product exists or will exist

00:09:40   as a matter of is it with these MacBook Pros

00:09:43   that are forever right around the corner,

00:09:47   or is it something a little bit later on?

00:09:49   I mean, you could see, right?

00:09:50   You could see the Mac Mini, just like the iMac, right?

00:09:53   There's the entry level,

00:09:54   or like the lower end model is kind of the same

00:09:58   as the MacBook Air, and the upper end model,

00:10:00   so the bigger iMac, and this theoretical faster,

00:10:04   better Mac Mini is kind of like a MacBook Pro inside.

00:10:07   I think the Mac Mini could ride on both of those rails

00:10:10   just the same way that the iMac does.

00:10:12   I think that's easy to understand

00:10:13   for people walking into an Apple store,

00:10:15   especially if they have a color difference between the two.

00:10:19   And so yeah, I think that machine will show up,

00:10:22   and I think it'd be a great option for you

00:10:23   I mean, you're living the Mac Mini lifestyle now,

00:10:26   and moving to Apple Silicon, I think, would be,

00:10:29   I mean, I don't foresee that being any problems

00:10:33   in your setup because you're using Windows

00:10:35   for your weird audio stuff anyways,

00:10:38   so I think you could just move right over

00:10:40   and just see the benefits.

00:10:42   - All right, so moving on,

00:10:43   we also got some other Mac-related news today, Steven.

00:10:48   Apple made the new Magic accessories

00:10:51   that they released with the iMacs a few months ago,

00:10:54   available for standalone purchase.

00:10:56   So that means the new Magic Keyboard with Touch ID,

00:11:00   and the redesigned Magic Trackpad, and the Magic Mouse.

00:11:04   I don't understand, like,

00:11:05   is there anything different about the Magic Mouse?

00:11:08   - I think the side profile is, like, slightly different,

00:11:12   but it's not, it ain't much.

00:11:15   - Like, the Magic Trackpad, you can see that it's got, like,

00:11:18   more rounded shape, which I think looks nice. And obviously the Magic Keyboard has Touch ID,

00:11:24   which is only... can you confirm that it only works on M1 computers? Yes, yes. It will not work.

00:11:31   See, even more reason to stop using this Mac thing that I have. Yeah, I bought my wife a

00:11:39   new keyboard. So she uses a M1 MacBook Air, but always in clamshell mode, like tucked behind an LG

00:11:49   display. And so it's gonna be great for her because she'll be able to use Touch ID when she's at her

00:11:54   desk. And if you use like an M1 Mac Mini or a notebook, you know, maybe it's not even in

00:12:02   clamshell mode, but maybe it's like on a stand up next to your display. It's no fun, like reaching

00:12:07   I'm there trying to hit the button.

00:12:09   - No.

00:12:10   - And so having it just on the desk is gonna be great.

00:12:14   I'm looking, I wish I could do it on my machine.

00:12:17   I would have bought one for myself

00:12:19   if the Intel Mac supported it.

00:12:21   - Same, like I'm so tired of typing in passwords.

00:12:25   And I have this Satechi X1 Slim keyboard.

00:12:30   I actually, now that I think about it,

00:12:31   now that we're talking about this,

00:12:34   I don't know why I'm using this Satechi keyboard anymore.

00:12:37   Because, like, I made this purchase, it was actually very kindly sold to me by a Club

00:12:43   Mac service member, and shipped all the way from Canada.

00:12:46   It took like 40 days to arrive via the Postal Service in Italy.

00:12:51   But I bought this when I thought, "Oh, certainly, iPadOS 15 will introduce some major changes

00:12:58   to external displays."

00:13:00   And so I want to make sure that I'm ready with a keyboard that lets me seamlessly switch

00:13:05   between multiple devices. But then, like, I haven't thought about it in a while, because

00:13:12   then WWDC happened and I started working on the iOS review, but now that I think about

00:13:17   it, why am I using this keyboard? I'm not using the iPad Pro with an external display

00:13:23   anymore because I got tired of waiting for Apple, so I just sort of went back to when

00:13:28   I need to do stuff at my Mac, I'm just gonna use my Mac, but otherwise I'm just working

00:13:34   on the iPad, either as a tablet, like for those times when I just want to hold the iPad

00:13:39   like on the couch or something, but really, I would say 70% of the time I'm just using

00:13:44   the Magic Keyboard, and I'm just looking at the iPad screen, because I got tired of the

00:13:50   pillar boxing and not having real multiple windows on an external display, I got tired

00:13:58   of waiting. When it happens, I will reconsider. So why am I using this keyboard? I don't know.

00:14:04   I should go back to the Magic Keyboard.

00:14:05   You should.

00:14:06   There's no point in doing this.

00:14:07   But the thing is,

00:14:08   are they selling the Compact Magic Keyboard

00:14:11   in Space Gray now?

00:14:12   No, these are all silver.

00:14:15   They're all silver.

00:14:17   And the regular Magic Keyboard,

00:14:20   so like the one that I have here on my desk,

00:14:21   also got a revision, the one without Touch ID,

00:14:24   and it's rounded a little bit,

00:14:26   looks a little bit different.

00:14:28   I should say though too,

00:14:30   that all of these come with lightning,

00:14:33   for charging and the initial sync,

00:14:35   but it now comes with a braided USB-C to Lightning cable,

00:14:40   which is pretty sweet,

00:14:42   because most Macs now just have USB-C,

00:14:45   and so they transitioned this to USB-C to Lightning

00:14:49   and a very nice white cable.

00:14:51   So you could, Federico, get a new Magic Keyboard

00:14:54   with no Touch ID, but it's still just gonna be silver.

00:14:57   Space Gray's gone, and you can't get these

00:14:59   in any of the fun iMac colors either.

00:15:01   - Hold on.

00:15:02   So, okay, okay, hold on.

00:15:03   Let's consider this as a live thing to do on the show.

00:15:07   So, there is a new Magic Keyboard,

00:15:10   but it does not have Touch ID.

00:15:12   Is that the version that I could get?

00:15:14   - That would work with your Intel Mac Mini, yes.

00:15:16   It's $99.

00:15:19   - Okay, I see it.

00:15:20   It's 109 euros.

00:15:22   What's different about it?

00:15:24   Again, it's slightly more rounded.

00:15:26   - Yeah, and I don't know if it uses a different...

00:15:30   Is there anything different in the key mechanism?

00:15:32   I don't know.

00:15:34   Can we call up Myke in Romania and ask him

00:15:36   about the key mechanism of the Magic Keyboard?

00:15:39   Because the Magic Keyboard in the laptops and the Magic

00:15:42   Keyboard like I have now-- like mine is from 2017 or something.

00:15:45   I've had this one a long time.

00:15:47   They are slightly different.

00:15:48   So I would assume they--

00:15:50   Zach says in Discord it's got the globe key.

00:15:53   Thank you, Zach.

00:15:53   It does.

00:15:53   It has the globe key.

00:15:54   And it has a lock key instead of an eject key.

00:15:57   OK.

00:15:58   Cool.

00:15:58   All good information.

00:15:59   So it is slightly different.

00:16:02   I don't think it's worth like,

00:16:03   if you already have a Magic Keyboard on an Intel machine,

00:16:05   like it's not worth buying this.

00:16:08   - I'm not getting it.

00:16:09   I'm not getting it.

00:16:10   I'm just, I have a bunch of Magic Keyboards.

00:16:12   It's fine.

00:16:13   Yeah.

00:16:14   Yeah, but even more reason to upgrade to an M1,

00:16:20   whatever, based.

00:16:23   - Touch ID.

00:16:26   - Touch ID.

00:16:26   Compatible Mac Mini.

00:16:29   Since he's gone, can we talk about Myke taping his keyboard to the underside of his desk for Touch ID?

00:16:34   I saw that photo. What's going on?

00:16:37   So is that a real thing that he did? I thought it was just like a thing he said he was going to do.

00:16:42   No, he did it.

00:16:43   But you know, Myke says many things.

00:16:44   I know, yeah. He's a big talker.

00:16:46   But he has that yellow iMac that he bought, and he uses his fancy mechanical gamer keyboards.

00:16:53   And so he Velcroed, or double-sided tape or something,

00:16:57   the yellow magic keyboard that came with the iMac to the underside of his desk

00:17:01   where he can just reach his finger under there

00:17:03   and hit the touch ID button.

00:17:05   That's a life hack if you've ever seen one.

00:17:09   I mean it's kind of genius though, right?

00:17:11   Like you can just hold your finger under your desk, it's like a secret button.

00:17:15   You know how in the movies like the, there's the bad guy and he presses a button under his desk

00:17:20   and like a hole opens and you fall into like the sewers or something?

00:17:26   You know, like in the... you fall into the underground prison, for example.

00:17:30   It's kind of like that. You press a button and it's like a trap for your office.

00:17:36   I love it. I love the placement of the keyboard under his desk. That's perfect.

00:17:41   What if the folks at iFixit took this apart and managed to just make the Touch ID button work without the keyboard?

00:17:53   That'd be great.

00:17:54   Like what if you could figure out a way to just have a touch ID button that you could

00:17:58   put on your desk?

00:17:59   That'd be fantastic.

00:18:01   I mean I guess it's technically possible, right?

00:18:03   If you know, if you know like in the in the circuit board and the chips what's going where,

00:18:12   right?

00:18:13   I mean you keep it connected to Bluetooth.

00:18:17   I feel like you need a lot of the inside of the keyboard.

00:18:21   I feel, maybe, maybe.

00:18:23   What if instead of that, you had your desk and you like routed out, like the wood of

00:18:29   your desk, like at an angle.

00:18:32   So the keyboard was like in the desk, but the only key that was visible at the surface

00:18:35   was the touch ID button.

00:18:37   And the rest was just like hidden by the top of the desk.

00:18:41   In desk touch ID, it's the future.

00:18:44   Anyway, we should move on because we have a bunch of other topics to talk about.

00:18:48   Let's take a break.

00:18:49   This episode of connected is brought to you by instabug.

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00:20:20   Our thanks to Instabug for their support of the show and Relay FM.

00:20:24   Do you see this big Jeremy news?

00:20:27   Jeremy is now a millionaire, I assume, but this is what it means.

00:20:32   So Emojipedia got sold.

00:20:34   Emojipedia was acquired by a smartphone company called Zedge.

00:20:42   Is that how you would say this, Steven?

00:20:44   That's how I would see it.

00:20:46   It is the number one phone personalization app in the world.

00:20:50   - Okay, well I never heard of it before,

00:20:53   but I mean I'm going to the website

00:20:54   and I see it's one of those apps

00:20:56   like that's got like wallpaper packs, custom icons,

00:21:00   you know that sort of stuff it seems

00:21:02   and they do ringtones, live wallpapers.

00:21:05   It seems like they're more popular on Android.

00:21:07   You know this kind of utility makes more sense on Android

00:21:10   where you have deeper customization for the UI.

00:21:12   So I think it makes more sense there.

00:21:14   But yeah, Emojipedia started in 2013?

00:21:17   Is that when Emojipedia started?

00:21:22   I wanna say it's 2013.

00:21:24   - I think that's when Emojipedia started, yeah.

00:21:27   - Yeah, it's been around for a while now.

00:21:28   And it's now part of the--

00:21:30   - Zedge was founded in 2003.

00:21:32   - Oh wow, okay.

00:21:34   So it's kinda like before smartphones were a thing even.

00:21:37   - Yeah.

00:21:38   - And they are the new owners of Emojipedia.

00:21:41   And for now, obviously, as with a lot of these acquisitions,

00:21:44   it seems like Emojipedia will continue to operate.

00:21:47   So there will still be a website,

00:21:49   there will still be the Emojipedia previews

00:21:53   of the new Emoji and the Emoji draft,

00:21:57   all the things that we know and love about Emojipedia.

00:22:00   Hopefully, it's always a concern

00:22:03   when companies got acquired

00:22:04   that they only stick around for a while.

00:22:06   And initially, it seems like everything is going as before

00:22:09   and then changes happen.

00:22:11   And now, I mean, obviously changes are gonna happen

00:22:14   to Emojipedia, right?

00:22:15   But hopefully not too much,

00:22:17   and hopefully this will continue to be like the source

00:22:19   for keeping track of the history of Emoji,

00:22:22   because it's really quite a comprehensive database

00:22:24   that they have.

00:22:25   I mean, it's really incredible,

00:22:26   all the different versions of Emoji

00:22:28   that they are documenting on Emojipedia.

00:22:30   So it'll be a shame if the entire archive of Emojipedia

00:22:36   were to not be supported anymore.

00:22:39   So congrats to, I mean Jeremy is a friend,

00:22:42   so congrats to Jeremy, we are really happy.

00:22:44   - Definitely.

00:22:45   - That, you know, this is a big deal,

00:22:47   it's a big milestone, and Jeremy,

00:22:50   if you wanna, you know, leave everything behind

00:22:53   and enjoy your millions of dollars on your boat,

00:22:56   we will also understand that, it's also fine.

00:22:59   So we will not fault you for doing that in the future.

00:23:03   We still love you.

00:23:04   - I have some personal news.

00:23:06   How personal?

00:23:07   - I spoke to Jeremy today about the naming of the Jeremy's.

00:23:12   I've decided, in no way part of the cash deal

00:23:16   that I made on the side, that we will continue

00:23:18   to call that game the Jeremy's

00:23:20   in honor of our fallen friend.

00:23:22   - Wow, fallen friend.

00:23:24   Yeah, that's a--

00:23:25   - No, this is awesome.

00:23:27   I'm super happy for Jeremy and the team,

00:23:29   and I don't think he would do anything

00:23:30   to hurt the future of Emojipedia,

00:23:33   so I expect that it has a bright future ahead of it.

00:23:35   Yes, congrats Jeremy and everyone else involved. We're still gonna play our game. We still love guessing the emoji.

00:23:43   So, congrats Jeremy, well done.

00:23:46   YouTube Premium Lite. What is this?

00:23:52   So is it premium or is it lite? No, it's premium lite.

00:23:56   It's premium lite.

00:23:57   This is a new tier of YouTube Premium that is cheaper than YouTube Premium proper.

00:24:02   In fact, it's called Light. So it's not $11.99 a month, it's $6.99 a month being tested in Europe.

00:24:10   Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

00:24:14   Very specific parts of Europe.

00:24:16   Very specific markets. So I guess the difference here is that, so this is YouTube Premium, but what you do not get,

00:24:23   So you still get ad-free, you know, the mobile apps, smart TVs, YouTube Kids, all that stuff.

00:24:32   You do not get the benefits of YouTube Music, so you cannot listen to music ad-free, and

00:24:39   you do not get any background playback feature in the main YouTube app for video.

00:24:47   And also you do not get offline downloads.

00:24:50   So it's YouTube Premium without downloads.

00:24:53   playback and add free music listening. I have to assume, like I haven't seen this

00:24:59   mentioned anywhere, and it's still a feature in testing, I suppose. I do not

00:25:03   have it, but I assume the picture-in-picture will not be part of this

00:25:09   either. So, because it's technically background playback, I assume the

00:25:15   picture-in-picture, whenever it launches in YouTube for everyone, it will not be

00:25:21   available to Premium Lite. That would be my assumption.

00:25:24   Yeah, that's how I read it too. I do have Picture in Picture. I pay for YouTube Premium.

00:25:28   Really?

00:25:29   Yeah, and it's great. It's so good.

00:25:32   No need to mention that. I know. I keep checking every single day and it's not here.

00:25:37   Yeah, it's really good. I've paid for YouTube Premium for several years now

00:25:41   for the ad-free experience. Myke and Jason spoke about YouTube Premium a couple weeks ago,

00:25:46   and yeah, I watch, you know, quite a bit of YouTube, and so I like the ad-free experience,

00:25:50   and the background playback is really nice too,

00:25:54   especially if you're just like listening to something

00:25:56   and picture in picture just makes that even better.

00:25:59   So yeah, if you're in Luxembourg,

00:26:01   I guess try this out and let us know what you think.

00:26:03   - Yeah.

00:26:04   - I think we have listeners in Luxembourg.

00:26:05   I bet we got a couple.

00:26:06   - I'm sure we do.

00:26:07   We have listeners everywhere.

00:26:09   - If you were listening in Luxembourg, please let us know.

00:26:12   - I've thought about this, like, you know,

00:26:15   I don't listen to music on YouTube.

00:26:17   I could switch to this.

00:26:18   offline downloads, I mean, I haven't been on a plane and having to download YouTube

00:26:23   videos for offline usage in forever at this point. I could potentially switch to this,

00:26:29   but then I realized, oh, picture-in-picture will likely not be part of this, and once

00:26:34   I get it, I am going to need picture-in-picture for all kinds of YouTube video consumption

00:26:40   that I do. Because a lot of YouTube videos from a lot of creators, you can leave them

00:26:47   in the background and you can do something else, right? Have you seen, Steven, this thread

00:26:52   on Twitter a few days ago? Someone retweeted it in my timeline, and it was essentially

00:27:00   about this person on Twitter having this super long thread about, like, "Here's something

00:27:07   I've realized about how creators are gaming the YouTube algorithm to make longer videos

00:27:14   and have you stick around, and I'm going to explain that to you in a thread.

00:27:18   But before I get to that, let me tell you this other thing.

00:27:21   And it was basically like the thread version of a lot of YouTube videos, where they say

00:27:26   100 words just to explain 10 words, which is the core concept.

00:27:31   And that is because they need to make it longer so that people stick around more and watch

00:27:35   a longer video, therefore it feels like there's more engagement for the algorithm and all

00:27:40   of that.

00:27:41   Twitter thread was exhausting to read, because it was literally styled in the sense of "Oh,

00:27:47   but before I get to that, let me tell you this other thing." And why is that? Because,

00:27:51   as I told you before, like, it was so verbose and done in the style of so many videos on

00:27:59   YouTube these days. Like, whenever I watch headphone reviews, for example, on YouTube,

00:28:05   Those reviews could be condensed to five minutes, and instead they are twenty-five minutes.

00:28:12   And I understand why, and I love those creators, but those are videos that I could easily put

00:28:16   in the background and watch with picture-in-picture, because there's a lot of repetition and highlighting

00:28:25   the same concept multiple times to make a longer video.

00:28:30   And so I'm not complaining against those creators.

00:28:33   I understand it's necessary because the algorithms, you know, it's hanging over all of them.

00:28:39   And I understand.

00:28:40   But that is also why I want Picture-in-Picture.

00:28:43   Because those are the kinds of videos that I just want to put them on in the background.

00:28:48   I don't need to pay close attention to them.

00:28:51   Right.

00:28:52   And especially on the iPad, Picture-in-Picture is so great for note-taking and research purposes.

00:28:58   It's fine on the iPhone.

00:28:59   And even on the Pro Max, picture-in-picture feels a little cramped, but I've really enjoyed

00:29:03   it on my iPad Pro.

00:29:05   I use it on the iPhone for Twitch.

00:29:07   It's like you make it small and you can still follow along to a stream.

00:29:12   I do that for Myke's keyboards sometimes.

00:29:14   Yeah, I put him in a little box.

00:29:15   Yeah, I put him in a little box and he stays there, you know, soldering stuff, building

00:29:20   keyboards.

00:29:21   It's fun.

00:29:22   It's cute.

00:29:23   It's Myke in a little corner.

00:29:24   All right.

00:29:25   So, uh, Steven, I have a fun topic for you.

00:29:30   It's about Nintendo, it's about sideloading, it's about emulators, it's got it all, there's

00:29:37   everything in this topic.

00:29:40   But before we get to that topic, we should thank our friends at Squarespace.

00:29:44   That sounds good.

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00:30:19   own.

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00:30:27   And all Squarespace websites are optimized for mobile viewing, so your content automatically

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00:30:57   I really do love building where Squarespace,

00:30:59   I've built a bunch of sites on their platform

00:31:00   over the years, and just keeps getting better and better.

00:31:04   The drag and drop stuff is really powerful.

00:31:07   And if you need an escape hatch,

00:31:08   if you need to write some custom CSS

00:31:11   or put stuff in the header of a page or anything like that,

00:31:13   you can do that too.

00:31:14   So it has those power options there for you as well.

00:31:17   head on over to squarespace.com/connected for a free trial with no credit card required.

00:31:23   And when you're ready to launch, use the offer code "connected" to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain name.

00:31:30   That's squarespace.com/connected.

00:31:33   And when you decide to sign up, use the offer code "connected" to get 10% off your first purchase

00:31:38   and to show your support for the show.

00:31:41   Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of connected and all of Relay FM.

00:31:45   Parts of this conversation were held before on remaster, connected with Myke when you were not around,

00:31:55   but that was the beginning of this problem. Now the problem has evolved, and the problem has turned,

00:32:02   as with many things that involved me, into a whole thing. So I'm gonna need to contextualize things

00:32:09   for you, Steven, because I don't think you are as well in tune with certain Nintendo news.

00:32:16   No. So there's this Nintendo series called Metroid. Right. Okay, it's about this space

00:32:23   explorer. Yeah. You know, she needs to explore planets and kill monsters. Now, it's a long stand

00:32:34   and I'm... this is a super simplified description of it. Anyway, there's a new Metroid game coming

00:32:39   to the Nintendo Switch in October, called "Metroid Dread". And it took everybody by surprise, because

00:32:45   it's, uh, like, everybody kind of felt that Nintendo had forgotten about Metroid. And so when they

00:32:54   announced Dread, everyone was like, "Oh, wow, okay, that's amazing." And a bunch of people, including

00:33:02   myself, thought, "Well, it's coming out in October, so maybe the summer could be a good opportunity to

00:33:07   revisit older Metroid games, because this one is gonna be the official, like, fifth installment in

00:33:13   the Metroid series, you know, picking up where previous games left off. And so a bunch of people

00:33:18   thought, "Well, it'd be kind of fun to start playing old Metroid games again, starting from the first

00:33:23   one up until the fourth one, in preparation for the new one coming out on the Switch." And I had the

00:33:29   same idea, right? And so the Metroid 1 came out on the first slide, on the NES in the 80s.

00:33:37   It's not a good game to play these days, you know? It's a very old NES video game. But Nintendo

00:33:48   did a remake of this game about 15 years ago on the Game Boy Advance, with new graphics,

00:33:56   new sounds, new updated gameplay, called Metroid Zero Mission.

00:34:02   So Zero Mission is the remake of the first Metroid.

00:34:05   If you've never played Metroid before, you can start there.

00:34:07   It's got better graphics, it's more playable, it's more approachable than an NES game.

00:34:12   A couple of months ago, I called my mom.

00:34:15   My mom is moving between houses, so she's packing a lot of boxes, a lot of games.

00:34:20   I was like "Hey, mom, can you please find this game for me?"

00:34:23   So it was a whole thing. She found all my old GBA games, and among those games she found my cartridge

00:34:30   of Metroid Zero Mission for the GBA that I bought in 2003, 2004, when I was 15 or 16 or something.

00:34:39   And so I started playing this game on the GBA. One of the many things that I

00:34:46   obsess about is having... I mean, Steven, of all people you can understand this. I have every

00:34:54   Nintendo console in a playable state in my house. Like, I have the original hardware for everything

00:35:00   at this point. Just because I feel like if I want to play an old game, I should be able to do that

00:35:06   on original functioning hardware. And that over the years has meant, you know, changing the batteries,

00:35:12   fixing the screen, buying a new Nintendo GameCube, you know, finding my Nintendo Wii U again.

00:35:21   It's something I care about, because I care about Nintendo and I want to have original

00:35:24   hardware.

00:35:25   So I start playing Zero Mission on a Game Boy Advance, and it took me one night to start

00:35:33   feeling this pain on my wrists.

00:35:38   Because I, you know, the Game Boy Advance is very small in console, and my hands are

00:35:44   not as small as they used to be, I guess.

00:35:47   Or I simply got older, and now my hands cannot stand, you know, being in that fixed position

00:35:54   for several hours straight.

00:35:56   I woke up the next morning and my wrists were hurting, both of them.

00:36:00   I was like, "Eh, well, maybe that's not a good sign."

00:36:04   So I cannot play in the GBA.

00:36:07   So I thought, well, of all the Nintendo consoles that I have, I also have an old Nintendo DS.

00:36:14   The Nintendo DS, you can put a GBA cartridge in, and you can play GBA games on a Nintendo

00:36:19   DS.

00:36:20   And for those asking in the chatroom, Justin, I do not have a Virtual Boy, unfortunately,

00:36:25   never had a Virtual Boy, and Zach, I tried both the original GBA form factor as well

00:36:31   as the SP, which is the clamshell version of the GBA that I did.

00:36:36   I did not try in the GBA micro, because I mean...

00:36:40   That's not gonna help, right?

00:36:41   That's the wrong direction.

00:36:43   That's the wrong direction for me.

00:36:45   But yes, I also have a GBA micro.

00:36:47   So the DS, I thought, well, the DS, slightly bigger than a GBA, better screen, you know,

00:36:54   the backlit is better than the GBA, I could play that in compatibility mode.

00:36:59   So I continued the game on the DS, and I tried that for a couple nights, make good progress

00:37:05   on the game. And same problem occurs. A few days later, my hands were hurting, my fingers

00:37:11   were all weird, and my wrists were hurting, and I needed to write the review, and I thought,

00:37:16   you know, I need my hands, especially in the summer. Because my hands are like the primary

00:37:24   tool of my job. And I cannot afford to not being able to type in the summer. But also,

00:37:31   "Man, I really wanted to play Metroid." Right? So I kept digging and digging down further into the rabbit hole.

00:37:38   I thought, "Well, okay." So I know that I've put a bunch of progress into this GBA cartridge,

00:37:45   but what if I take the old Nintendo Wii U, which is the console that came before the Nintendo Switch?

00:37:53   The Nintendo Wii U, you can still use the Nintendo eShop on it,

00:38:00   and the Nintendo Wii U, unlike the Nintendo Switch, as a virtual console.

00:38:05   So the virtual console is the initiative that Nintendo used to do of, like, you could purchase all the Nintendo games

00:38:12   as effectively, like, an official emulator on the Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS.

00:38:18   Okay.

00:38:19   And in fact, a lot of people, following the announcement of the new Metroid for Nintendo Switch, had the same idea.

00:38:25   Because I saw a tweet a while back showing like here's what the Nintendo eShop on a Wii U looks like now

00:38:32   Because if you boot it up and if you open the eShop you can still see charts for top selling games on that old console

00:38:39   And basically every Metroid game was in the top charts for the virtual console on the Wii U

00:38:45   Because everybody had the same idea and I thought okay, I'm gonna lose my progress on the cartridge

00:38:52   But the Wii U, it's got a gamepad, which is much bigger, much more comfortable for my hands.

00:38:59   It's like a chunky, thick Nintendo Switch, basically.

00:39:03   What if I start playing the game from scratch, which is gonna suck, because I was like two or three hours into the game.

00:39:09   But what if I start playing on the Wii U, and it's probably not gonna destroy my hands?

00:39:15   So I did a whole thing, right?

00:39:17   I needed to find, because I didn't have enough HDMI ports in my TV to accommodate both the Nintendo Switch and the Wii U,

00:39:26   so I found an HDMI, what's it called, like switch on Amazon.

00:39:31   It's like a little thing that from one HDMI port it gives you two.

00:39:36   Right? And I bought it and it works beautifully.

00:39:40   It even, like, auto switches between consoles depending on the signal when the console turns on. Super nicely done.

00:39:46   So I set it up in the back of my TV was a whole thing

00:39:49   Stop start playing on the Wii U. I was like, oh wow, this is much better. My hands are okay. It's not hurting

00:39:55   I love it. I'm gonna play on the Wii U. We talked about this on connected and on remaster, I think

00:39:59   the thing is

00:40:02   Emulation for Metroid Zero Mission on the Virtual Console is

00:40:07   Terrible. Is it like that slow or laggy? Like why is it bad? No, it's laggy

00:40:12   the frame rate is all over the place.

00:40:14   Oh, man.

00:40:15   Like, you can see the game dropping frames when you jump.

00:40:19   I was like, "Oh, no. This is no way to play a game."

00:40:22   No.

00:40:23   I cannot do this. This is terrible.

00:40:26   The only nice thing about it,

00:40:28   I mean, besides the fact that it was on the Wii U

00:40:30   and it was more comfortable,

00:40:32   was that the Virtual Console supports custom save states,

00:40:37   Meaning, you can save the game without being at a checkpoint in the game.

00:40:44   Because it's an emulator, right?

00:40:45   So you can create a save point anywhere.

00:40:48   It's like this, there's like this custom UI on top of it that lets you save your progress

00:40:52   anywhere.

00:40:53   Yeah, it's like saving like a virtual machine, right?

00:40:54   Like you just do it at any point and you're done.

00:40:58   Any point and you can save.

00:40:59   And it's better for like modern times, right?

00:41:01   Because I mean, I'm an adult.

00:41:03   Yes, I love playing video games, but also my video game time is very limited these days.

00:41:08   So this kind of feature is welcome.

00:41:10   But that emulation was horrible. Like, it was genuinely terrible.

00:41:14   And so I was very sad for a few days, until earlier this week.

00:41:21   I think it was Saturday or Sunday.

00:41:24   I sat down, started doing my research, and I realized, okay.

00:41:30   If I want to do this, I want to play Metroid games with a system that lets me save anywhere

00:41:40   and is always with me, and emulation is good enough, and my hands are not going to kill

00:41:45   me, I'm going to have to go with the emulation route on the iPhone.

00:41:51   I'm going to have to install a Nintendo, a GBA emulator on the iPhone.

00:41:56   So I came up with two solutions, but I'm sticking with one of them.

00:42:01   The first one is an emulator that is really well known called Provenance.

00:42:08   Now Provenance is an emulator for a bunch of Nintendo consoles as well as old Atari

00:42:13   consoles, like the Lynx and the Jaguar, the Bandai Wonderswan and Wonderswan Color, the

00:42:22   Sega, Master System, Mega Drive, but you know, for all that concerned me was, can it play

00:42:27   GBA, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 games? And the answer is yes. So Provenance, it's

00:42:34   very well known, you can install it on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. The thing is,

00:42:39   the installation process, it's a bit convoluted. Yeah, I'm reading this page as you're speaking,

00:42:43   it's like, oh, this is a lot of things to jump through. Yes. So the thing is, you gotta

00:42:48   clone the repo using the terminal, which is fine, it's like a single command.

00:42:53   The thing is then you gotta open the Xcode workspace using Xcode and you gotta switch

00:42:59   all settings related to targets and signing certificates, so make sure that you have a

00:43:05   developer account, make sure that you follow the step-by-step procedure to the letter,

00:43:11   otherwise the build will fail, and eventually you can build and run and you can install

00:43:15   Provenance on your iPhone, and if you have a developer account, like a paid developer

00:43:19   account, that app will stay installed with a signing certificate for a year.

00:43:26   So that took me like an hour to figure out, but I have Provenance installed.

00:43:31   It's fine.

00:43:32   Metroid plays well.

00:43:34   It plays much, much better than the Virtual Console from Nintendo itself.

00:43:38   You have it on your phone?

00:43:39   I have it on my phone.

00:43:40   Okay.

00:43:41   I'm looking at it.

00:43:42   You can use MI5 controllers with it.

00:43:44   That's what I was going to ask.

00:43:45   use controllers? Yes, you can. You can use controllers. It's got

00:43:50   custom save points. The UI is not beautiful in provenance. It's very

00:43:56   functional, but it gets the job done. However, what I think I'm gonna stick

00:44:00   with is something that a lot of people have been doing for a while, that I did

00:44:06   in the past and then stopped doing, but now I realize this is the thing for me.

00:44:11   I'm gonna sideload using Alt Store. So Alt Store is this alternative app store

00:44:18   made by Riley Tested, a really great guy, has been running Alt Store for the past

00:44:24   couple of years, and it's effectively like this alternative app store that

00:44:28   lets you sideload apps from your Mac or a Windows PC on your iPhone or iPad. Now

00:44:35   Now, the installation procedure there is also quite convoluted.

00:44:43   You've got to have a developer account.

00:44:45   You've got to install a mail plug-in in Apple Mail

00:44:48   for Mac that sort of handles the bridging between your computer

00:44:54   and the iPhone.

00:44:56   But once you do, you end up with this old store

00:44:59   app on your device.

00:45:01   And by the way, for all those complaining,

00:45:03   making piracy jokes in the Discord.

00:45:06   This is not like me saying piracy is good,

00:45:10   although there's an argument to be

00:45:11   made about what role piracy plays

00:45:14   in video game preservation.

00:45:15   But I digress.

00:45:17   That's another topic for another time.

00:45:20   I have physical copies of all the games I'm going to play.

00:45:24   I even have Metroid Prime trilogy for the Wii.

00:45:28   I have it all, man.

00:45:29   I got all the games I want to play.

00:45:31   It's just that Nintendo is silly.

00:45:33   Anyway, Outstore has an emulator called Delta, also made by

00:45:38   Raritested, that lets you play GBA, Game Boy Color, Super

00:45:42   Nintendo, and even Nintendo DS games on your iPhone.

00:45:47   And the thing is, Delta has excellent performance, and

00:45:51   it's beautiful.

00:45:53   Delta is a really pretty emulator that supports both

00:45:57   Portrait mode on the iPhone, Landscape mode, and MI5 controllers.

00:46:04   I started playing Metroid with Delta, and I love it.

00:46:08   I love it because performance is like, it feels like playing the original game.

00:46:11   I haven't seen any issue related to frame rate or choppy animations like I saw in the

00:46:16   Virtual Console.

00:46:18   What I like about it is that I can choose to play in Landscape with the controller,

00:46:22   or I can play in Portrait mode.

00:46:24   And you can choose these custom skins that you can install in Delta that sort of make

00:46:29   your iPhone screen look like a Game Boy.

00:46:32   It's really nicely done, and you can install some real pretty skins.

00:46:36   And when you play—I love playing in portrait mode because it feels like I'm holding a Game

00:46:39   Boy—and when you press the buttons in Delta, like the D-pad or the A and B buttons, you

00:46:46   get haptic feedback.

00:46:48   It's really... it's like, after a while, you stop paying attention to the fact that you're

00:46:54   emulating a Nintendo Game Boy, and it feels like you're pressing buttons on a Game Boy,

00:46:59   thanks to the Taptic Engine on the iPhone.

00:47:02   It's really well done.

00:47:04   And it's so pretty.

00:47:06   Like I'm gonna send you a screenshot, Steven.

00:47:09   So I started playing last night.

00:47:10   I played for like two hours.

00:47:13   And I'm catching up to where I used to be in the cartridge.

00:47:16   And I played with my Backbone controller, which is this really well-done MI5 controller

00:47:22   for iPhone that plugs in, it's got like this Nintendo Switch-like design, plugs into the

00:47:28   Lightning port, and it's got like this split design with one half on the left side and

00:47:34   the other half of the controller on the right side of the iPhone.

00:47:38   Played for a couple of hours, it's fine, but guess what?

00:47:42   My hands were hurting.

00:47:43   No.

00:47:44   You're just getting old, man.

00:47:46   That's what it comes down to.

00:47:48   But, thanks to my excellent research skills,

00:47:52   I think I've found the final sort of solution that works for me.

00:47:59   I'm going to send you the link. It's in the show notes.

00:48:02   This thing is called the PowerA MoGaClip for Xbox controllers.

00:48:08   So, you take an Xbox controller,

00:48:11   you buy this little thing that costs $15,

00:48:14   and you snap it on on the controller

00:48:16   and then you put your phone inside of the clip

00:48:19   it's like a little cradle for your iPhone

00:48:21   yeah it's like if you've seen

00:48:23   maybe they still do this but like a lot of drone controllers

00:48:27   do this or use your phone as the viewfinder

00:48:29   but you have like analog sticks to fly

00:48:31   the thing is I know the Xbox controller

00:48:34   Xbox controller is fine for my hands

00:48:37   doesn't hurt me

00:48:39   Xbox controller doesn't hurt me, doesn't want me dead

00:48:42   It's fine. It's not gonna hurt me. I know that.

00:48:45   I'm gonna say something that potentially upsets quite a few people.

00:48:48   I prefer the ergonomics of the Xbox controller to the DualShock.

00:48:52   Or should I say the DualSense on PS5?

00:48:55   They changed the name.

00:48:57   The DualSense, the only thing it's got going for it

00:49:00   is the cool design and the attic feedback, which is really well done.

00:49:05   But ergonomically, this one, the Xbox one, is better for my hands.

00:49:11   So starting tonight, I'm gonna put my iPhone hovering above the controller, and I'm gonna

00:49:17   play Delta in landscape mode as, I wanted to say as God intended, but no, nobody intended

00:49:24   this, really.

00:49:26   Nobody did.

00:49:28   Apple definitely didn't, that's for sure.

00:49:30   Apple didn't, Nintendo didn't, you know, accessory makers probably did.

00:49:34   But yeah, this is how I'm gonna play old Nintendo games.

00:49:38   a phone on top of an Xbox controller held in place by a plastic clip that I got from

00:49:43   Amazon for $14 for $14 that's that's the dream setup man it's it's this thing you're living

00:49:51   in the future my friend I am I am now what does this say about Nintendo and a missed

00:49:58   opportunity with the virtual console like I should I shouldn't have to do this right

00:50:04   I shouldn't have to do any of this.

00:50:06   I should be able to give Nintendo my money again

00:50:10   for a game that I purchased when I was 15

00:50:14   and that in 2021 I want to play again

00:50:17   because a sequel is coming out.

00:50:19   But it's like, Nintendo doesn't understand this.

00:50:23   They don't want my money.

00:50:24   They don't want anybody's money, it seems.

00:50:27   And so this is what I'm doing.

00:50:29   I'm playing with Delta, an old store,

00:50:32   and an Xbox controller.

00:50:33   And so one last thing. Now that I have AltStore, a couple of things. I'm using like a free,

00:50:40   separate developer account to authenticate with AltStore, because I always felt kind

00:50:46   of weird about giving my main developer account to AltStore.

00:50:50   Yeah. Good call.

00:50:52   Now, do people do that? Because I know that if you use a paid developer account, you can

00:50:58   increase the signing limit from seven days to a year. And so basically right now I gotta

00:51:04   refresh the apps installed via AltStore every seven days by connecting them to a computer.

00:51:10   I guess the solution could be keep the account separate but sign up for an Apple Developer

00:51:15   account again. And so maybe I could do that. But also, what are other apps that are cool

00:51:24   to use on AltStore. I know that there's like a category of apps that people install. It's

00:51:29   like Tweaks for existing apps. Like there's YouTube++ and Instagram++. Like those are

00:51:37   like popular Tweaks among AltStore users. Now, if I install those, will they arrest

00:51:44   me? Will Google get upset? I don't know. It feels kind of sketchy, right? It feels kind

00:51:51   of, I don't know.

00:51:52   I mean you're definitely pushing the bounds of what Apple...

00:51:56   But this is not jailbreaking potential, like technically it's not jailbreaking.

00:51:59   Right, it's it's sideloading.

00:52:01   It's sideloading.

00:52:02   This really gets to the conversation of like, is the iPhone a computer or console in the sense that all software has to come from the same place?

00:52:11   And I definitely fall on the iPhone and especially the iPad, or should be more like computers,

00:52:18   where if you want to do this, you could install something outside of the bounds of the App

00:52:23   Store.

00:52:24   I mean, I'm sure one reason, and I'm sure there's a million reasons why Nintendo hasn't

00:52:28   built something official for iOS where you could play all these games and emulation,

00:52:33   is that Apple doesn't allow emulation on iOS, and Nintendo wouldn't want to give Apple 30%

00:52:40   of every purchase.

00:52:42   And so there's all these fences put up around the iPhone and iPad that, yeah, you can get

00:52:47   around or if you're on a Mac you just don't have those fences necessarily but

00:52:52   it keeps cool stuff from happening and that's that's a bummer.

00:52:56   Yeah exactly like it shouldn't be this difficult you know especially if I know

00:53:01   if I know what I'm doing if I have a developer account like I don't know and

00:53:06   there's gatekeeper on the Mac like we've talked about this before it should be

00:53:09   easier to take control of your computer and do exactly what you want to do

00:53:13   because you can do that on a Mac like you want to play all the Nintendo games

00:53:17   on a Mac, just install an emulator and you're good to go. You can download one from the

00:53:20   internet and it's fine. But if you want to do that on an iOS device, well, good luck.

00:53:26   So I don't know. I guess I'm gonna keep using, I'm gonna post, Steven by the way, this is

00:53:30   why people should have the connected Pro, because I'm posting in the Discord a picture

00:53:37   of what Delta looks like with the skin that I'm using on my iPhone. This is not a Gameboy,

00:53:42   this is an iPhone. And it's so pretty, right? Look at that.

00:53:45   - It looks really good.

00:53:47   - If connected listeners have any recommendations

00:53:49   for tweaks or apps to install via out store sources,

00:53:54   let me know and we can talk about them in the future.

00:53:59   - I got some real time follow up before we move on.

00:54:02   - Okay.

00:54:02   - It's about GPUs again.

00:54:04   - Okay.

00:54:05   - They're available for standalone purchase.

00:54:07   Do you wanna hear the prices?

00:54:08   - Let me guess.

00:54:10   - Okay, so the 6800X, the new kind of middle of the road.

00:54:15   I don't know

00:54:17   $1,500

00:54:18   Twenty eight hundred dollars. Okay double almost double that wow okay the Radeon Pro

00:54:25   W6800X duo so this has two

00:54:29   W6800X's on board Wow okay

00:54:33   Well I

00:54:37   Don't think you're gonna get one Steven right I mean

00:54:40   You can buy another computer. Yeah, give under the macro

00:54:44   that one is $5,000. And the W6900X, the most expensive one, how much you think

00:54:53   that runs? $12,000. Oh it's a relative deal at $6,000. Well, cheap enough.

00:54:59   It makes the old Vega II one seem a lot cheaper. Wow. Yeah these pricey, these are

00:55:07   real pricey. So tell me again what kind of tasks people use GPUs for?

00:55:12   video playing gameboy emulation delta play play Metroid making Metroid

00:55:22   possibly I don't know I don't know I think it's more in that creation and

00:55:26   than anything else yeah Wow okay so you can drop six grand and your Mac Pro if

00:55:31   you want a w69x maybe you can and you can have two of them because you got so

00:55:37   many MP you slots so MP you that's a podcast MPX lots what if they called

00:55:42   them in pew slots. That'd be fun for me. Okay, we're gonna talk about magnet

00:55:47   magnets in a minute. But first let me tell you about our final sponsor and

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00:56:30   TextExpander. I have just tons and tons of things in TextExpander. I have all the

00:56:36   common things like addresses and emails and that sort of thing but I also have a

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00:57:19   Relay FM. So Federico, a while back you bought the MagSafe popsocket system and

00:57:27   and it's finally shown up, and I would love to hear what you think about this,

00:57:31   but give people a reminder of, you know, why this is an issue.

00:57:35   Why would you want to combine magnets and pop sockets?

00:57:38   Honestly, I don't know. I don't know why I bought it.

00:57:41   Like, I think I bought...

00:57:43   Honestly, I think I bought it because Myke kept on insisting how much he loves the pop sockets,

00:57:48   and what I don't like about pop sockets is how you got to stick them to your phone,

00:57:54   And I saw that there was a MagSafe-enabled version,

00:57:58   and I'm a sucker for all things MagSafe,

00:58:00   so I guess I just wanted to try it.

00:58:03   And so I got the standard sort of pop socket with MagSafe

00:58:08   and the wallet version as well.

00:58:11   And honestly, like, it's pretty much what you expect.

00:58:15   So there's a little -- there's a pop socket

00:58:17   attached to this little base

00:58:20   that snaps onto MagSafe on your phone.

00:58:24   It seems to be working better

00:58:25   if you have a MagSafe case attached to your phone.

00:58:29   I've seen reports of the PopSocket

00:58:32   not having as strong a connection

00:58:35   if it goes just to the phone.

00:58:38   But I have a case.

00:58:39   I have a silicone case and a leather case.

00:58:41   Both are MagSafe, like official cases by Apple.

00:58:44   And look, it's really fine.

00:58:48   It stays in place, and it's a popsocket.

00:58:51   You can hold the thing in between your fingers

00:58:54   with your hand in the back of the phone.

00:58:56   Honestly, it's pretty much what I expected.

00:58:59   So from that perspective, it's not a disappointment at all.

00:59:04   It works perfectly.

00:59:05   It stays in place, connection is strong,

00:59:08   and you can use it as a popsocket.

00:59:10   Small enough, doesn't add a ton of thickness to the phone.

00:59:14   It's perfect.

00:59:15   Like, they delivered on what they promised.

00:59:18   The wallet version, also interesting.

00:59:20   So they have this different mechanism

00:59:24   where you put up to three cards into the wallet.

00:59:29   And the wallet, of course, also has a pop socket

00:59:31   on the outer side of it.

00:59:33   But then when you wanna grab your cards,

00:59:36   you push down on this fabric section

00:59:39   that they have at the top.

00:59:40   And because it's soft, you can push the cards down.

00:59:43   - That's nice. - And you can pick up

00:59:44   the card that you need.

00:59:46   It's really nice.

00:59:47   and the fabric is nice, it's really well done. Build quality is good. And again, it attaches

00:59:53   via MagSafe, and if anything I would say this is my favorite accessories when it comes to

00:59:59   detaching from MagSafe, because you can pull from the pop socket, right? And it detaches

01:00:06   if you apply enough force. So it's really fine. But in trying this, it made me realize

01:00:14   that no matter how you slice it, I don't think I'm a popsocket person.

01:00:20   I don't think I can be.

01:00:22   Holding the 12 Pro Max, it's really not a problem for my hands.

01:00:27   And I know I've got big hands, I'm a tall guy and everything.

01:00:34   I understand why popsockets are popular among people who struggle to hold large phones.

01:00:40   And I think they are the perfect accessory for that case.

01:00:45   It feels kinda unnecessary for me, you know?

01:00:48   Like sometimes I even forget to pop it out and to hold my phone like that because I don't

01:00:54   need to, right?

01:00:56   I can just hold my phone and it's fine.

01:01:00   So as a MagSafe accessory, I would say approved.

01:01:05   They did what they had to do.

01:01:08   don't need to stick your your popsocket to your phone with like that suction cup thing that they

01:01:15   have like which I've always disliked, they have a MagSafe attachment that works really nicely and

01:01:22   stays in place both for the standard version and the wallet version. But as they say in the best

01:01:28   ROM coms, look it's not you, it's me, PopSocket.

01:01:32   (laughing)

01:01:33   The problem is me.

01:01:35   So, not for me, I think I'm gonna give this to Myke

01:01:39   at some point, if he wants him.

01:01:41   I'm gonna write about it, but yeah, not for me.

01:01:47   I'm not the target PopSocket user.

01:01:50   - Yeah, a couple things here.

01:01:51   One, I like on their website, the animation they have

01:01:54   is using Apple's really ugly clear case.

01:01:57   And so this is a great way to cover those white lines up, which is nice.

01:02:01   I've also heard people say, and I think it's definitely true, the battery pack Apple released

01:02:05   also sticks better if you have a case. I think the magnets are just,

01:02:09   I don't know, like the cases are thinner and so the magnets are closer, but

01:02:13   that's been my experience as well with other products.

01:02:16   Ah, see that could be actually,

01:02:20   that could be,

01:02:21   that there's nothing else going on in the case, it's just magnets.

01:02:24   Whereas maybe in the case of the iPhone, there's other stuff going on there.

01:02:29   Ah, that could be actually. That's why the connection is stronger.

01:02:32   Yeah, I think overall MagSafe is better if you have a MagSafe case.

01:02:37   You know, the silicone or the leather, which is what I'm using.

01:02:39   You can't customize these, so the base is black, but you can pop off the pop socket part

01:02:44   and put, you know, your own print on one.

01:02:46   Myke did a custom one with the Relay logo on it a couple years ago.

01:02:51   So you can still customize this.

01:02:53   I'm like you though, I'm not really a popsocket person.

01:02:55   I do have one of my Kindle Oasis and I like it for that

01:02:59   'cause the Kindle Oasis is just an awkward size

01:03:01   to try to hold and I really like it there.

01:03:05   But I've tried it on my phone.

01:03:06   I mean, a few years ago on Connected,

01:03:07   we did a challenge where we,

01:03:09   I think you and I had to use a popsocket for like two weeks

01:03:12   and Myke had to go without or something.

01:03:13   And it's, again, I see why people like it.

01:03:17   It's just not for me, especially in the MagSafe world.

01:03:19   But I'm glad that it's here.

01:03:21   I mean, it took him a long time,

01:03:22   but it sounds like they did it right, which is impressive.

01:03:26   You know, a lot of us definitely had concerns

01:03:28   and their website says, you know,

01:03:29   don't hold your phone just by the grip,

01:03:31   but it seems like it's a lot better than it could have been.

01:03:36   So I think the delay is totally understandable.

01:03:39   - I'm growing my MagSafe collection for sure.

01:03:43   Now that I'm going to the beach,

01:03:44   like I'm gonna have a whole stack

01:03:47   of MagSafe accessories to choose from.

01:03:50   probably gonna need like a separate bag just for my MagSafe accessories.

01:03:55   Oh I know what you need. You need like a metal briefcase so they like magnetize to the case

01:03:59   and you like pop them off and pop it on your phone?

01:04:01   No, what I need is like a belt with MagSafe clips and I can just pop them off from my belt.

01:04:08   I feel like we've had this very idea before.

01:04:10   Yeah it's possible. It's possible. Maybe because it's a good, a really good idea and somebody should do it.

01:04:16   So imagine a belt, a MagSafe belt, and you can stick as many accessories as you want,

01:04:22   and then depending on the situation and the context you're in, you can snap on different

01:04:27   accessories and you can store them on your belt.

01:04:30   I mean all the coolest people store things on their belts, you know.

01:04:34   Smartphones.

01:04:35   You know, cell phones back in the day, you would have like a little belt clip for your

01:04:40   Nokia phone.

01:04:41   Oh yeah.

01:04:42   Glorious times, yes.

01:04:43   Well, I think that does it, Federico.

01:04:46   really covered the full spectrum of

01:04:48   connected nonsense. If you want to read

01:04:51   more about the stuff we've spoken about

01:04:53   head on over to the website at relay.fm/connected/357

01:04:58   while you're there you can send us an

01:05:01   email with feedback or follow-up or if

01:05:03   you want to join and get a longer ad

01:05:05   free version of the show each and every

01:05:07   week there's a join button there at the

01:05:10   top of the page or you can go to

01:05:14   dot FM slash connected slash join the little landing page there for you thank

01:05:19   you so much if you are a supporting member it really means a lot to us while

01:05:23   you're on the relay website check out relays newest show we have a new show

01:05:27   Federico we launched a new podcast this year I know this is so called conduit if

01:05:33   you want to explore the connections between what we should be doing what

01:05:37   ultimately gets done I know I have that chasm in my life sometimes our friends

01:05:42   Cathy and Jay are hosting a new show about that relay.fm/conduit or search for conduit wherever you get your podcasts

01:05:50   It's fantastic and super excited to have Jay on the network. That's a that's a real honor for us

01:05:55   You could find Myke on Twitter. He's

01:05:58   Imyke again, he's off this week. He'll be back next week

01:06:03   You can find Federico on Twitter as Vitici

01:06:06   And he writes about magsafe compatible products at

01:06:11   magstories.net. You need magstories.net.

01:06:17   Wow, okay. Someone's gonna get it. You gotta get it.

01:06:20   Magstories. And then just forward it to the category page for that. Done and done.

01:06:26   Federico, I have a question for you. Okay. What Pokemon... It's nice that you're

01:06:31   doing this again. Okay, what Pokemon do you feel like you resonate with the most?

01:06:35   Generally speaking?

01:06:37   I think there's different ways you could take this, so it's kind of up to you.

01:06:41   Okay, so what kind of Pokémon am I looking for here?

01:06:45   It has to be a dog Pokémon, I think.

01:06:48   Right? I feel like it's gotta be a dog.

01:06:52   So, let's see, let me pull up some reference material here.

01:06:57   I mean, I could go for the boring answer and give you the legendary dog

01:07:00   from the latest Pokémon game.

01:07:05   There's a bunch of dog Pokémon Ark 9 comes to mind.

01:07:09   Lycanroc, but that's more of a wolf Pokémon.

01:07:13   Houndoom. Entei, also legendary Pokémon.

01:07:19   Okay, so I feel like...

01:07:23   Hmm. I'm browsing through my reference material here.

01:07:27   You're Dev and Think Pokémon.

01:07:30   So, okay, definitely a dog Pokemon because dogs are the best.

01:07:34   So I'm torn between Zacian, who's the legendary fairy dog Pokemon from the last Pokemon game,

01:07:44   or, because it's a dog, and I've always think it's a good buddy.

01:07:51   Yeah, I'm gonna go with Arcanine.

01:07:54   Arcanine from from the very first 151 Pokemon first generation a very good dog

01:08:01   Pokemon who breeds fire, you know fire type dog Pokemon doesn't get any better than Arcanine. I'll put that on the show notes people can see

01:08:10   Yeah, okay. You can find me on Twitter as ismh and I write over at 512 pixels dotnet and

01:08:20   Federico and I and Myke we all host a bunch of other shows here on relay FM

01:08:24   So you can check that out if you want to hear more of us. I'd like to thank our sponsors this week

01:08:29   They are instabug squarespace and smile and until next time Federico. Say goodbye. I'll be there to you. Bye all