Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► From, really, if I'm... No, I'm not doing that.

00:00:10 ◼   ► You should do it.

00:00:11 ◼   ► I don't have the energy.

00:00:12 ◼   ► I don't have the energy.

00:00:14 ◼   ► The way that you do it or the way the mic does it.

00:00:16 ◼   ► It's not the way I do it.

00:00:17 ◼   ► Steven doesn't do it.

00:00:18 ◼   ► He just says hello and welcome.

00:00:20 ◼   ► It's the way that you start with the from

00:00:22 ◼   ► and I really don't have that kind of energy in the summer.

00:00:25 ◼   ► It's too hot.

00:00:26 ◼   ► But this is one of those things where...

00:00:29 ◼   ► where you do a thing and people remember you for that thing even after you stop doing it.

00:00:34 ◼   ► TJ says "make it weird, Federico"

00:00:37 ◼   ► Because I don't do the loud "from" anymore, I haven't done that in a long time

00:00:42 ◼   ► because everyone made fun of me, but people still think that I do it even though I don't do it.

00:00:47 ◼   ► I still say "from relay FM" but like I don't do the "from" which is what I do for a while.

00:00:51 ◼   ► I don't do that anymore.

00:00:52 ◼   ► Maybe you could do "from relay FM"

00:00:54 ◼   ► Well what I have been doing recently is like, well, what I started doing was

00:00:59 ◼   ► I just modulate it all over the place from relay FM is what stuff like that

00:01:03 ◼   ► I do now so like you put put the emphasis and the difference of label

00:01:06 ◼   ► interesting

00:01:09 ◼   ► Come here. She started the show now anyway. Yes, yes

00:01:11 ◼   ► from relay FM this is connected episode

00:01:17 ◼   ► 304 you feel the energy guys we ready no this is very very unusual

00:01:24 ◼   ► usually you have a coke today sound like like a NASCAR announcer and corner 3

00:01:32 ◼   ► we have our sponsors pay express VPN do you really have any idea what NASCAR's

00:01:38 ◼   ► announcer would sound like wait which one of us federal you're him well I've

00:01:43 ◼   ► seen movies where NASCAR is mentioned and I have a general idea of what an

00:01:47 ◼   ► asker announcer should sound like like the kind of person that it also would be

00:01:53 ◼   ► yeah tell me more about that kind of person nope don't do that well I imagine

00:01:59 ◼   ► like a fat white guy with like like you know like holding a hamburger in one

00:02:07 ◼   ► hand and a microphone in the other so basically like please stop me here no no

00:02:14 ◼   ► I'm sorry so coming around corner number two it is mr. Federico Viticci hello

00:02:22 ◼   ► I hate this so much.

00:02:24 ◼   ► Wait, just to make sure this is a regular episode, right?

00:02:27 ◼   ► This is actually going up on the internet.

00:02:29 ◼   ► Okay, hi! Thanks for having me after all these years, despite the things I say.

00:02:35 ◼   ► And recovering from his crash coming out of Pit Row, we have Myke Hurley.

00:02:42 ◼   ► You know a lot of terminology over there, don't you?

00:02:45 ◼   ► Pit Row?

00:02:46 ◼   ► Are you secretly an ASCA?

00:02:47 ◼   ► You are utterly at ease doing this, Steven.

00:02:51 ◼   ► Yeah, I know right like immediately like just pulling all this language out. It is just very serious

00:02:57 ◼   ► Felt like you really knew what he was doing. Are you a secret NASCAR fan? I

00:03:01 ◼   ► Wouldn't keep that secret, but no, I'm not okay

00:03:04 ◼   ► Really a NASCAR fan it is interesting that everyone including you Myke or f1 fans all of a sudden because it's the only thing on

00:03:10 ◼   ► TV no, no, my f1 fandom came before because of the

00:03:14 ◼   ► Documentary. Oh, so you're an f1 hipster that long

00:03:17 ◼   ► This was going to be my first season that I was gonna watch because I really liked the Netflix documentary drive to survive

00:03:24 ◼   ► Wait, what are we talking about here? Formula one

00:03:27 ◼   ► Are you a formula one person now? Yeah, I am. Yeah

00:03:31 ◼   ► Since when since the beginning of the season which was now like a month or two ago. Is there a season?

00:03:37 ◼   ► Happening. Yeah. Yeah, there is. Yeah. Yeah, they started they started it like three or four weeks ago

00:03:43 ◼   ► You know the seasons called?

00:03:47 ◼   ► the summer of f1

00:03:49 ◼   ► Like the summer fun but f1 kind of smashed together

00:03:58 ◼   ► They start usually in March formula one was one of the first sports to close down because they actually had a confirmed

00:04:05 ◼   ► Coronavirus case the day before the like the first season so they shut down and one of the cars get sick

00:04:11 ◼   ► Nope, it's one of the many many people that work on f1

00:04:14 ◼   ► So yeah, I've been starting to watch that and I really enjoy it. Interesting. I really I really struggle with sports

00:04:19 ◼   ► Like with following sport, I really me too. But is it this one this one works for me?

00:04:25 ◼   ► The reason it works is that the documentary kind of enlighten me to the fact that there's a ton of drama around it, which is fun

00:04:31 ◼   ► There's only 20 drivers. So like it's not a million people you have to keep up with. It's 10 teams

00:04:37 ◼   ► Every team has two drivers. That's it and the sport itself like the races themselves

00:04:43 ◼   ► They're done in like an hour and a half. That's it. There's no halftime.

00:04:47 ◼   ► I'm familiar with how an F1 thing works.

00:04:51 ◼   ► It's just I struggle with sports in general because

00:04:54 ◼   ► like I struggle watching watching something that I

00:04:59 ◼   ► Will not be able to compete in in the future

00:05:03 ◼   ► Like I watch competitive Pokemon because then I can also compete and win or lose

00:05:08 ◼   ► So it's the it's the opposite of why I like the Winter Olympics

00:05:12 ◼   ► No, but television you don't have a problem with television shows. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no

00:05:16 ◼   ► That's not such a he watches stuff that he can partake in

00:05:19 ◼   ► I watch stuff that I specifically cannot partake in or opposites, but you could play basketball

00:05:24 ◼   ► That's what but I can't ski down a mountain at 100 miles an hour. So I prefer the winner you watch basketball sure

00:05:31 ◼   ► What's not a universal role and I have like a football season tickets and you can play both of those sports

00:05:35 ◼   ► So it's not the same. You just have a weird thing about the Olympics. I do like the Winter Olympics

00:05:41 ◼   ► Olympics. Congratulations. But I'm intrigued about this Federico. Does it extend to all

00:05:48 ◼   ► types of media? Or is it just sports?

00:05:50 ◼   ► No, because media, like TV shows or movies, they have a story to tell. So you need to

00:05:56 ◼   ► know about the story. It's a form of entertainment. Whereas sports, my problem with it is that

00:06:01 ◼   ► it's presented as entertainment to you, but you are not, like there's no story. It's just

00:06:07 ◼   ► something happening out of your control. And also the thing that I really dislike is that

00:06:11 ◼   ► those people make a lot of money and you don't as an audience member. And it's always kind

00:06:18 ◼   ► of funny when I hear people say, soccer obviously is the big thing here in Italy, and when people

00:06:25 ◼   ► when they root for a specific team and they say something like "oh we won" or "we lost"

00:06:30 ◼   ► or "you didn't lose" I don't like that. Those people are making millions of money every

00:06:35 ◼   ► single day and you're like, you know, you're still broke. I know that this is a very normal

00:06:40 ◼   ► thing in all sports and like that people refer to their team as we I'm sure

00:06:44 ◼   ► Steven does it about the teams that he follows in competitive sports too but I

00:06:47 ◼   ► don't I've never liked that it doesn't make sense to me like the we-ness of it

00:06:52 ◼   ► I don't know and just especially again with soccer so the example that I have

00:06:56 ◼   ► here in Italy. I wish you called it football. I wish you football. Yeah okay I would call it

00:07:02 ◼   ► football but then Americans say oh American football no it's not American football.

00:07:05 ◼   ► That's American football.

00:07:06 ◼   ► Okay, so football.

00:07:07 ◼   ► And then the actual football game is called football.

00:07:09 ◼   ► No, it's football and European football.

00:07:12 ◼   ► It's American football and football.

00:07:15 ◼   ► The general animosity surrounding that, like people getting upset when they talk about

00:07:20 ◼   ► it, you don't hear people, well, except maybe for Star Wars fans, but you didn't hear people

00:07:25 ◼   ► getting upset about movies or TV shows.

00:07:28 ◼   ► Like this is another reason why Formula One works for me, because I agree with all of

00:07:33 ◼   ► these things that you're saying, right? But like...

00:07:35 ◼   ► So Formula One is different? Maybe?

00:07:37 ◼   ► Because like...

00:07:38 ◼   ► Why don't you check it out?

00:07:39 ◼   ► There's like teams and individuals and the individuals move around so much to different

00:07:44 ◼   ► teams that it, to me at least, feels a little bit difficult to be like, "Oh, I love this

00:07:49 ◼   ► team." Well, there are teams because there's... I kind of like want multiple people to do

00:07:55 ◼   ► well. So typically, no matter who wins, there's always someone that I really like who did

00:08:00 ◼   ► really well in that race because I have like four different drivers out of the 20 that

00:08:05 ◼   ► I want to see succeed. And plus there is a lot of drama in the sport as well like that

00:08:11 ◼   ► goes on which is interesting to follow. And there's yeah I like it. It works for me. It

00:08:17 ◼   ► really works for me as a sport because it doesn't have a lot of the trappings that I

00:08:21 ◼   ► typically do not enjoy about sports.

00:08:24 ◼   ► Interesting. So the yeah.

00:08:27 ◼   ► If you have any interest at all, even like a sliver, you should watch the Netflix documentary

00:08:32 ◼   ► Drive to Survive because it is also just a very, very good documentary and I was hooked,

00:08:37 ◼   ► like absolutely hooked, so I recommend it.

00:08:40 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:08:41 ◼   ► Start there.

00:08:42 ◼   ► It's a classy sport too Federico, so I feel like you'd enjoy that.

00:08:45 ◼   ► Yeah, really, the main thing I dislike is the team-based culture surrounding all kinds

00:08:50 ◼   ► of sports and I do appreciate, like I do appreciate a good athlete in isolation, like seeing somebody

00:08:56 ◼   ► do something incredible on the field like I don't know Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan

00:09:01 ◼   ► yeah I can appreciate that but then when when when you reach the you know the entertainment

00:09:07 ◼   ► territory and and the culture about you know fans and teams and yeah I really dislike that

00:09:13 ◼   ► it doesn't really I mean like of course there are people that follow teams right in Formula

00:09:17 ◼   ► One but it doesn't feel as diehard as other team-based sports where there's like large

00:09:25 ◼   ► teams or whatever you know and also just that don't don't don't be a fan of

00:09:29 ◼   ► Ferrari right now would be my recommendation to you federal economy

00:09:31 ◼   ► it's gonna be upsetting but they're doing really bad so honestly I don't

00:09:34 ◼   ► really care okay but like you know you say about like it's it's fun to watch

00:09:39 ◼   ► when there's a single person who's very good so you know who Lewis Hamilton is

00:09:42 ◼   ► right you must be familiar with him he's in the musical is the is the driver

00:09:47 ◼   ► right is the dry yeah the driver he is like he is about to equal the records

00:09:54 ◼   ► and it's starting to equal many, but like this year will probably equal the

00:09:57 ◼   ► record for being the best ever. So like he's about to cross over to becoming the

00:10:03 ◼   ► best ever. So like if that kind of thing interests you, that is happening right

00:10:07 ◼   ► now in Formula One, right? That there is someone who is about to become the best

00:10:11 ◼   ► ever at the sport. So you know like that idea of like they're being standout

00:10:16 ◼   ► individuals like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lewis Hamilton is another one of

00:10:20 ◼   ► them. You wanna do some follow-up? Yeah. Have you done the intro by the way? Yeah,

00:10:27 ◼   ► introduced you. Yeah, it was in the NASCAR voice. So Steven, so what I'll say is if

00:10:32 ◼   ► you did not enjoy any of the last ten minutes of the show, you have Steven to blame.

00:10:36 ◼   ► Hmm. That's a bold statement. You started with the

00:10:41 ◼   ► NASCAR voice. No, you said NASCAR first. I never said anything about NASCAR. Maybe

00:10:46 ◼   ► Maybe Federico said it, but I had nothing to do with it.

00:10:48 ◼   ► Federico did.

00:10:49 ◼   ► Federico's fault.

00:10:50 ◼   ► Always is.

00:10:51 ◼   ► So, uh, follow up.

00:10:53 ◼   ► More about my photo situation.

00:10:56 ◼   ► I've conducted a Twitter poll, and it's, um, it's something.

00:11:01 ◼   ► So alright, I have, this is the thing, I have written this in a document that Steven attempts

00:11:05 ◼   ► to try and prove why his system of albums is good.

00:11:08 ◼   ► I think Steven, so Steven posted the following poll on Twitter.

00:11:12 ◼   ► What is the primary way you organize your photo library?

00:11:15 ◼   ► And he gave the following four answers.

00:11:17 ◼   ► Albums, tags, faces, or I let an app do it for me.

00:11:21 ◼   ► Now I believe that when Stephen posted this, he was hoping that he was going to win and

00:11:26 ◼   ► albums were going to be prevalent.

00:11:29 ◼   ► So not only is it in 34% of the vote with I let an app do it for me at 52% of the vote,

00:11:35 ◼   ► I actually have a problem with I let an app do it for me.

00:11:39 ◼   ► Because I don't use an app, I just use the photos thing on my device.

00:11:42 ◼   ► What would you call that?

00:11:43 ◼   ► What would you call that icon you tap that has content in it?

00:11:46 ◼   ► No, because what most people are doing, which is what I do and what Federico does, is I

00:11:51 ◼   ► don't care about sorting.

00:11:53 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:11:54 ◼   ► Yeah, so you let the app do it for you.

00:11:57 ◼   ► No, because it's not about sorting.

00:11:58 ◼   ► The fourth option should it just be either I don't or none of the above.

00:12:05 ◼   ► Like, or maybe just I don't.

00:12:08 ◼   ► Like I don't organize my photo library.

00:12:10 ◼   ► And even with your poor questioning where you're trying to lead the witness, you are

00:12:14 ◼   ► being proved as though you're…

00:12:15 ◼   ► Yeah, it was very odd phrasing with the second, with an ulterior motive, Steven.

00:12:22 ◼   ► Well, maybe I'll win in the Electoral College.

00:12:25 ◼   ► This is exactly the kind of thing that an S. Car announcer would do.

00:12:29 ◼   ► The kind of shitty guy that holds an hamburger and a microphone with the other hand and drips

00:12:34 ◼   ► burger sauce on his shirt. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. He dripped it in the microphone. Yeah, there's burger sauce in the

00:12:40 ◼   ► microphone. Stop saying burger sauce. So, basically, are you gonna concede that

00:12:50 ◼   ► albums is not as popular as you thought it was? Look, just because something is

00:12:56 ◼   ► popular doesn't mean that it's right. Why have you done a poll then? If you're dealing with popular opinion. Because if it had worked in my favor... Then it would have been popular. It would have won. It would have been great. So I will say in the members episode of MacPowerUsers that comes out on Sunday, David Sparks really just took me to task about this. Good, good. I'm pleased that David allowed this to cross over into your serious podcast. Yeah, and so we'll see how

00:13:26 ◼   ► how this goes. Hold on a second, I want to talk about those 29 people, the 1.8% of...

00:13:35 ◼   ► The 1% of PhotoPitch. Those 29 people who organize their photos with tags. As their

00:13:43 ◼   ► primary way. As their primary way. Like, there are 29 people who follow you, Steven, or may

00:13:50 ◼   ► have come across this poll on Twitter, who chose to answer that their primary way to

00:13:56 ◼   ► organize their photo library is via tags.

00:13:58 ◼   ► I don't know what that means.

00:14:00 ◼   ► I am genuinely curious to hear what this means.

00:14:04 ◼   ► So if you are among that group of 29.03 people, please get in touch with Steven for the show.

00:14:13 ◼   ► We have the poll creator right here with us now.

00:14:16 ◼   ► What did you mean by tags?

00:14:18 ◼   ► What's a tag in photo management?

00:14:20 ◼   ► photos you can apply tags or keywords. Where? What? On the Mac version you can't do it on

00:14:25 ◼   ► the stupid iOS version. Oh gee, see you just try and rig everything in your favor. Well

00:14:33 ◼   ► do you go home and you plug in your digital camera? I have my photos by Exif data only.

00:14:40 ◼   ► Oh look at my digital hub, I'm Steve Jobs. I use folders in Finder primarily. I did do

00:14:49 ◼   ► that for a long time as did you Myke so shut your mouth no no no no that was a

00:14:55 ◼   ► secondary backup solution it was not my signing so why don't you shut your mouth

00:15:00 ◼   ► apparently where we go on this show now did I add descriptions in the photos dot

00:15:05 ◼   ► app photo on my application is actually a thing I'm gonna have to write about

00:15:11 ◼   ► this some look I've got a Mac Pro and I might as well apply thousands of

00:15:17 ◼   ► keywords with it to make it earn its keep, you know? It's got to justify the

00:15:21 ◼   ► expense somehow. Is that how you do it? I don't know. I ask my CPA at the end of the

00:15:26 ◼   ► year. So anyway, tags you can add in photos for Mac and once you add a tag

00:15:31 ◼   ► it can become like a filtering thing for... Okay. And it shows up in search as a

00:15:37 ◼   ► token for search. So if, like say that there's a photo with no other data and

00:15:42 ◼   ► there's a tag it would still show up. What do you search for that relevant term?

00:15:45 ◼   ► Okay. What is captions in iOS 14? Captions, you can swipe up on a photo and

00:15:51 ◼   ► you can add like a description for that photo and those will sync between devices. I'm not

00:15:59 ◼   ► sure, I think I've seen somewhere but I still have to test it. It's in my mind map somewhere

00:16:04 ◼   ► that you can also search for the contents of those captions. So like if you have a photo,

00:16:09 ◼   ► I don't know, of a trip to Paris and you want to add a description and say, "Oh, this was

00:16:14 ◼   ► like a good cappuccino that I had in Paris, then later you can search for those keywords

00:16:19 ◼   ► in the caption and the caption will sync between devices. It's not something that I would...

00:16:24 ◼   ► How do you access this functionality?

00:16:25 ◼   ► You swipe up on a photo, so you open photos.

00:16:28 ◼   ► Oh, that's really not... It's like... Okay, it appears underneath the image.

00:16:33 ◼   ► Underneath the image and you can add a caption there. And so, I don't know, let's see. I'm

00:16:39 ◼   ► I'm gonna add the caption ginger looking at the camera while sitting on the bed.

00:16:47 ◼   ► So this is a caption.

00:16:50 ◼   ► It's quite useless.

00:16:52 ◼   ► But if I search then for sitting, it will not find the photo.

00:16:57 ◼   ► Well, I mean, there's a possibility that it has to index those.

00:17:00 ◼   ► Oh, yes, it says indexing.

00:17:02 ◼   ► It's indexing.

00:17:03 ◼   ► It won't be instant.

00:17:04 ◼   ► It's a single photo.

00:17:06 ◼   ► It's indexing.

00:17:07 ◼   ► It's just five words.

00:17:08 ◼   ► God, you've got to run the Siri intelligence on those first.

00:17:12 ◼   ► You do your photos.

00:17:13 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:17:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:17:14 ◼   ► It will.

00:17:15 ◼   ► Very slowly.

00:17:16 ◼   ► I have some exciting news I'd like to share with y'all.

00:17:20 ◼   ► It's actually an announcement.

00:17:21 ◼   ► Oh.

00:17:22 ◼   ► Right here.

00:17:22 ◼   ► Okay.

00:17:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:17:23 ◼   ► So today, like right now as I'm speaking, I am launching a new podcast with our friend, Quinn Rose.

00:17:30 ◼   ► It's a NASCAR podcast.

00:17:32 ◼   ► Yes, it's called Driving in Circles.

00:17:33 ◼   ► No, no.

00:17:36 ◼   ► It is called Bear Left, Right Frog.

00:17:39 ◼   ► It's over on the incomparable.

00:17:41 ◼   ► And what we're doing is once a month,

00:17:44 ◼   ► Quinn and I are watching a Muppet film

00:17:47 ◼   ► and talking about it.

00:17:48 ◼   ► So we just started with 1979's The Muppet Movie.

00:17:51 ◼   ► We'll be going in chronological order.

00:17:53 ◼   ► So in August, we'll have an episode up

00:17:55 ◼   ► about the next Muppet movie,

00:17:56 ◼   ► and then the one after that,

00:17:57 ◼   ► and the one after that until we're done.

00:17:59 ◼   ► - I wonder if there'll be a new Muppet movie

00:18:01 ◼   ► by the time you're done.

00:18:02 ◼   ► - I don't think there's one currently in the works.

00:18:05 ◼   ► I think they're making a TV show for HBO Max or something.

00:18:07 ◼   ► - They are doing a TV show,

00:18:09 ◼   ► which is outside of the scope of this.

00:18:11 ◼   ► - Well, this is very fun.

00:18:12 ◼   ► I'm a big fan of Quinn, the original Quinn.

00:18:14 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:18:15 ◼   ► - So I'm always pleased to hear more Quinn programs.

00:18:17 ◼   ► I am not a Muppet person, though.

00:18:19 ◼   ► I've seen a couple like Christmas Carol and stuff.

00:18:22 ◼   ► So maybe there's, well, here's my question for you.

00:18:26 ◼   ► Will I enjoy these movies if I've never seen them before?

00:18:30 ◼   ► But if I've never seen them before,

00:18:31 ◼   ► like if I didn't have them when I was a kid?

00:18:34 ◼   ► I think so. I will say the older ones, like the ones we're watching now, they have a lot

00:18:39 ◼   ► of references that are very 1979 that we had to look up. So maybe, I think what I would

00:18:45 ◼   ► recommend...

00:18:46 ◼   ► I have also seen the modern one, the modern Muppet movie, which I really enjoyed with

00:18:49 ◼   ► Jason Segel.

00:18:50 ◼   ► I would say watch both modern Muppet movies. So there's two. And then I would go from there,

00:18:56 ◼   ► I would go with like the remake, so like Muppet Treasure Island and Muppet Christmas Carol

00:19:01 ◼   ► look good. Muppet Treasure Island is one of my favorites.

00:19:03 ◼   ► I've seen Christmas, Caro. I've seen the modern one with Jason Segel, the first one.

00:19:08 ◼   ► Yeah, there's one after that that Tina Fey's in.

00:19:10 ◼   ► I don't know if I've seen that one.

00:19:12 ◼   ► It's good. Muppet Treasure Island is also very funny. That's one of my favorites.

00:19:16 ◼   ► Muppets Most Wanted.

00:19:18 ◼   ► Yes. That's the newest one.

00:19:20 ◼   ► I've seen this too, I think. Ricky Jeface is in it. Yes, I've seen this one.

00:19:24 ◼   ► Huh. Okay. Well, at least there's a few episodes that I'll listen to.

00:19:28 ◼   ► I'm very happy for you, Steven, but this is one of those times that sometimes happen

00:19:32 ◼   ► when I'm in California for WWDC when suddenly you guys start talking about

00:19:37 ◼   ► something that is so culturally distant from me that I have no idea what you

00:19:42 ◼   ► guys are talking about and that's when I usually grab my phone and text Sylvia or

00:19:46 ◼   ► something. There was a funny thing earlier where, was this today,

00:19:50 ◼   ► where Federico was trying to explain what Muppets he knew about and

00:19:55 ◼   ► they were all Sesame Street characters I think. I just know Big

00:19:59 ◼   ► bird. I'm a big fan of big bird as a character in general. As a concept, yes. I just think

00:20:05 ◼   ► the concept of a big bird is really fascinating. A big yellow bird is really, really awesome.

00:20:10 ◼   ► Do you know the name of his friend? Snuffleupagus. He's a mammoth. A big purple mammoth. No idea

00:20:18 ◼   ► what you're talking about. I know, right? He's not purple. Isn't he purple? No, he's

00:20:23 ◼   ► like a long-haired brown elephant type. I know Cookie Monster. Is Cookie Monster a muppet?

00:20:31 ◼   ► Yes. Well, one of the Sesame Street characters, right? But they're all technically muppets.

00:20:37 ◼   ► Sesame Street characters are like a subset of muppets.

00:20:39 ◼   ► Oh, so it's not like all inhabitants of Sesame Street are muppets in the same way that all

00:20:48 ◼   ► people who live on Earth are people.

00:20:51 ◼   ► complicated because they're technically one on the same but they're also not

00:20:58 ◼   ► like canonical Muppets. Interesting. Okay well the artwork looks really good

00:21:04 ◼   ► Steven. It's really good. It really does look like you. Yeah I love the artwork

00:21:11 ◼   ► and I'm super excited so this is now my second show on the incomparable I also

00:21:15 ◼   ► do somehow I managed with Tiff Arment where we were re-watching The Office.

00:21:20 ◼   ► - Ah, that one I know. - Which is a lot of fun.

00:21:22 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:21:23 ◼   ► There's not Muppets on that one.

00:21:25 ◼   ► - Very nice.

00:21:26 ◼   ► - Let's take a break, and then we're gonna talk about

00:21:29 ◼   ► new iOS betas, how's that?

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00:23:02 ◼   ► All right, so iOS 14 beta 3/public beta 2 are here.

00:23:10 ◼   ► And there's a lot of changes.

00:23:11 ◼   ► I think more changes than I anticipated for a beta 3.

00:23:14 ◼   ► Did public beta 2 come out as well?

00:23:17 ◼   ► I think it came out just as we set down to record.

00:23:20 ◼   ► And it's based on beta 3?

00:23:22 ◼   ► Yes.

00:23:24 ◼   ► Okay, cool.

00:23:25 ◼   ► Yep, here it is on 9to5Mac.

00:23:27 ◼   ► Nice.

00:23:28 ◼   ► So what are some of these changes, Federica?

00:23:30 ◼   ► I know you were really excited about the music stuff.

00:23:33 ◼   ► Um, essentially, like most of the things in this beta I dislike.

00:23:39 ◼   ► And also this beta is quite buggy, I should say, especially in notes.

00:23:42 ◼   ► I'm having all kinds of issues with the keyboard not appearing in notes. So it's

00:23:48 ◼   ► not surprising usually every other beta in the summer is problematic. So anyway

00:23:54 ◼   ► music, there's a new icon for the music app and the widget color has changed as

00:24:00 ◼   ► well to match the icon. So the icon has gone from a white background with a

00:24:04 ◼   ► the multicolor gradient glyph to an, I'm gonna call it orange or, I don't know, is it really

00:24:13 ◼   ► orange?

00:24:14 ◼   ► Some kind of orange/pink/salmon?

00:24:15 ◼   ► Salmon?

00:24:16 ◼   ► Salmon maybe?

00:24:19 ◼   ► It looks like the pinkish iPhone 5C.

00:24:23 ◼   ► Kind of like that.

00:24:24 ◼   ► It's like the same...

00:24:25 ◼   ► Isn't that coral?

00:24:26 ◼   ► Coral, yes, also that's a good...

00:24:29 ◼   ► Coral.

00:24:30 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:24:31 ◼   ► Coral.

00:24:32 ◼   ► Coral.

00:24:33 ◼   ► Sure, we'll go with that. And there's a white glyph on top of it. Very simple white glyph.

00:24:39 ◼   ► I strongly dislike it.

00:24:41 ◼   ► I hate it. It's so boring.

00:24:45 ◼   ► Isn't this just the Iowa 7 music icon?

00:24:48 ◼   ► Well, it's even not as complex as that, because I believe that the Iowa 8, maybe, music icon

00:24:56 ◼   ► had some kind of gradient going on. A more pronounced gradient that made it look like

00:25:01 ◼   ► somebody actually cared and spent more than 20 minutes doing the icon. Instead

00:25:07 ◼   ► this one is just, yeah, let's take a color and put a white glyph on top of it. It

00:25:11 ◼   ► doesn't, like, I really dislike it because it doesn't have any personality, just a

00:25:15 ◼   ► color and a white glyph. And the old icon, while being, yes, another white icon, at

00:25:20 ◼   ► the very least the music glyph contained inside the icon had the Apple Music

00:25:26 ◼   ► brand colors. That's exactly it, right? Like the previous version felt like a

00:25:32 ◼   ► brand? Yeah. This just feels like the music stock app on the iPhone, which it

00:25:39 ◼   ► was before. It's strange. I find it very peculiar. It's very strange and isn't the

00:25:45 ◼   ► whole point to sell people on Apple Music, you know, and I'm sure that seeing

00:25:51 ◼   ► those colors, and you see them on the Apple website, you see it in

00:25:54 ◼   ► advertisements, you see it in a bunch of places, then you see them on your phone,

00:25:57 ◼   ► and you think "yeah, that's Apple Music", and so maybe if you're not a subscriber, I don't

00:26:01 ◼   ► know. Anyway, it's a very boring icon, but what's even worse, in my opinion, is what

00:26:07 ◼   ► what happened to the widget. Now, the widget has the same color, the music

00:26:10 ◼   ► widget in iOS 14, as the same background color of this icon, so it's a coral

00:26:16 ◼   ► widget. The issue with that is that text, white text on top of a

00:26:26 ◼   ► coral background is kind of tricky to read. So legibility has gone way down,

00:26:34 ◼   ► especially for the caption. So in the compact layout, for example in the small

00:26:40 ◼   ► widget, the name of the artist is in a lighter font, and I find that really hard

00:26:50 ◼   ► to read against an orange background. Also, some music artworks are going to

00:26:58 ◼   ► clash with this coral background, because before Apple had this relatively neutral

00:27:05 ◼   ► white background for the widget, and you could, you know, you use a drop shadow

00:27:10 ◼   ► around the artwork you can be sure that everything is gonna look good on top of

00:27:14 ◼   ► it because it's just a basic white background. But with this orange stuff

00:27:20 ◼   ► some music albums that have a cover that is like multicolor and that has

00:27:25 ◼   ► multiple shades of orange or red or yellow they're gonna look kind of ugly

00:27:30 ◼   ► on top of an orange widget. So two main problems I don't

00:27:35 ◼   ► understand why it was necessary to move away from the brand colors and two well

00:27:40 ◼   ► three main issues. Two, this is boring, and three, the widget is not problematic, because it's less

00:27:45 ◼   ► readable than before, and certain music album artworks are gonna look ugly on top of

00:27:51 ◼   ► the new widget. So, I don't get it. I don't understand why this was necessary. Maybe it's one of those

00:27:58 ◼   ► tests. Sometimes Apple does it to sort of gauge people's reaction to a visual change, and then

00:28:05 ◼   ► then they're gonna revert it in the next version. I really hope this is the case,

00:28:10 ◼   ► but I'm feeling... I'm not feeling optimistic about this one, guys, because

00:28:15 ◼   ► they also changed the icon on the Mac. So Big Sur also has the... or should I say

00:28:20 ◼   ► Big Sur also has the new icon with the new Big Sur style.

00:28:27 ◼   ► - A Grande Sur. - A Grande Sur.

00:28:30 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:28:32 ◼   ► Yeah, so. Some people are surprised that Jiggle Mode is now officially mentioned by Apple

00:28:42 ◼   ► in official copy in iOS 14. There's a new alert that pops up in iOS 14 Beta 3 when you

00:28:50 ◼   ► first open the "Today" page for widgets. That basically explains if you want to add new

00:28:57 ◼   ► you need to long press on the screen to enter jiggle mode. And jiggle mode as a

00:29:03 ◼   ► joke on Twitter has sort of made a resurgence since the WWDC, since Craig

00:29:08 ◼   ► Federighi uttered the word or the expression again. It's not really new,

00:29:13 ◼   ► it's something that like a bunch of people have always called the jiggle

00:29:17 ◼   ► mode, Steve Jobs called the jiggle mode like ten years ago. It's like I've

00:29:22 ◼   ► always referred to that either as jiggle mode or wiggling mode, one of the two.

00:29:26 ◼   ► I think the reason that people are bringing it up and even why I put it in a document is

00:29:32 ◼   ► seeing it written in text on the iPhone.

00:29:34 ◼   ► Sure, it's kind of funny.

00:29:36 ◼   ► It's not only funny, but I think that's not happened before.

00:29:40 ◼   ► Yeah, that's not happened before. So yes, it made its way to official copy inside iOS.

00:29:47 ◼   ► Oh, so yeah, I'll give you that.

00:29:49 ◼   ► Because it's like I don't know what else they've called it, but I know they've called it other things, right?

00:29:53 ◼   ► I think it was called rearrange mode.

00:29:55 ◼   ► Yeah, like oh what you know, but that you know that they've mentioned it in a bunch of ways

00:30:00 ◼   ► I'm sure in the past but this this seems to be like this is what they're calling it

00:30:04 ◼   ► Which I mean honestly it does make sense

00:30:05 ◼   ► Like the reason people refer to it like Steve on stage or jiggle mode is because that's what's happening. It's jiggling

00:30:11 ◼   ► Everything's jiggling get it getting jiggling honestly

00:30:14 ◼   ► I still I I think jiggle jiggle mode shouldn't exist anymore anyway, like I think that it's a little played at this point

00:30:23 ◼   ► But I don't know what you'd replace it with

00:30:25 ◼   ► Yeah, just something like that like everything jiggling around seems so peculiar in an operating system

00:30:32 ◼   ► Which is otherwise pretty devoid of things like this now

00:30:35 ◼   ► Like these types of like playful animations don't really exist in other places

00:30:42 ◼   ► like there are elegant animations there are

00:30:45 ◼   ► Pleasant to look at animations

00:30:48 ◼   ► But this is very much the company that created the genie minimization thing for the dock.

00:30:54 ◼   ► And slow motion mode for it.

00:30:56 ◼   ► Yeah, but Apple doesn't really do that stuff anymore, really.

00:31:01 ◼   ► You can argue as to whether you want them to do it.

00:31:04 ◼   ► But my point is that this kind of feels like a last bastion of an old ideal that they haven't

00:31:10 ◼   ► changed.

00:31:11 ◼   ► Do you think I'm talking off base here?

00:31:14 ◼   ► Yeah, it could be one last concession to that ideal of having that sort of like whimsy in user interfaces.

00:31:22 ◼   ► Maybe to an extent they have brought it back in other places.

00:31:27 ◼   ► Like there are some playful transitions here and there.

00:31:32 ◼   ► Like I do miss that kind of stuff, right? Like a lot of people because I am nostalgic for it.

00:31:39 ◼   ► Sometimes it was a little too much like shredding shredding a pass in wallet like yeah

00:31:46 ◼   ► That's why I'm mostly okay with the fact that that time is over because it does get like like you get out of

00:31:52 ◼   ► overwhelming you feel like you're cutting through the operating system of a chainsaw at times or at like trying to get anything done because it's so like

00:31:59 ◼   ► Everything's so thick

00:32:01 ◼   ► But you know, it's just like a funny thing to say so we know that the hand washing reminders

00:32:09 ◼   ► Not reminders, like the hand washing things come into watch over seven, where like it

00:32:13 ◼   ► can like recognize if you're washing your hands and start doing a 20 second countdown.

00:32:17 ◼   ► They've added a feature, I've seen it referenced in the settings on iOS, but it's obviously

00:32:23 ◼   ► for watchOS, that I actually really like, which is a hand washing reminder based on

00:32:27 ◼   ► location.

00:32:29 ◼   ► So if you get home and your watch has not detected that you've washed your hands, it

00:32:33 ◼   ► will say, "Hey, wash your hands."

00:32:35 ◼   ► I think this is a really clever way of adding functionality to that feature because just

00:32:41 ◼   ► detecting if I am washing my hands and then counting the 20 seconds is not really enough

00:32:46 ◼   ► to do what you might want to be monitoring for, which is I want my devices to be able

00:32:54 ◼   ► to maybe tell me, "Don't forget."

00:32:56 ◼   ► And this is a great one, right?

00:32:57 ◼   ► If I get home and it hasn't detected that I've washed my hands, then one of two things

00:33:01 ◼   ► has happened.

00:33:02 ◼   ► A) I haven't or B) I didn't do it well enough and so I think that's kind of cool.

00:33:07 ◼   ► I have not put watchOS 7 on any of my watches. Federica have you done that on my one watch?

00:33:13 ◼   ► I don't know why I said any of my watches. I haven't put it on at all. Have you tried it?

00:33:18 ◼   ► Yeah it's on my watch right now.

00:33:19 ◼   ► What do you think about this feature?

00:33:21 ◼   ► Well it looked okay initially and I had to disable it after a few hours because it was picking up

00:33:28 ◼   ► hand washing movements for all kinds of movements in my life.

00:33:32 ◼   ► From grating cheese to just doing chores around the house.

00:33:36 ◼   ► I was gonna say, you know, like we all know about Italians,

00:33:38 ◼   ► you're very hand gesturey when you talk, you know, you're just having a conversation.

00:33:41 ◼   ► It's like, hey, you're washing your hands. It's like, no, I'm just upset.

00:33:44 ◼   ► It was like it was coming up constantly. And so I don't think,

00:33:48 ◼   ► I don't think it's very good, honestly. Well, I think it's fair to say

00:33:52 ◼   ► that this is a feature that is much newer from idea to implementation than probably

00:33:58 ◼   ► other features in the operating system. So maybe it will get better over the beta period.

00:34:03 ◼   ► Right, like you got to assume that nobody had this idea until maybe April?

00:34:08 ◼   ► Like March, April?

00:34:12 ◼   ► Even though Apple is on the record saying that "no, we actually thought of this before".

00:34:16 ◼   ► I don't believe them personally.

00:34:18 ◼   ► What, they thought of a 20 second hand washing monitor thing before Covid?

00:34:22 ◼   ► Yeah, they have an interview on CNET, I believe, saying that all the hand washing stuff

00:34:28 ◼   ► they actually thought about it for years.

00:34:30 ◼   ► What did it take them so long for then?

00:34:33 ◼   ► Well, a pandemic I guess. What a coincidence, right?

00:34:38 ◼   ► Look, this might be something, again, you can make that point however you want. Someone

00:34:43 ◼   ► might have suggested it years ago and they got told, "No, that's not important." Right?

00:34:48 ◼   ► Because otherwise, why else did this take years? I haven't read this article even though

00:34:52 ◼   ► it existed.

00:34:53 ◼   ► It's really based on some fascinating tech.

00:34:56 ◼   ► Like they're doing-- they're applying machine learning

00:34:59 ◼   ► to sound analysis to pick up sounds

00:35:02 ◼   ► like the soapy sound of like rinsing your hands.

00:35:07 ◼   ► And they mention like in this interview the particular sound

00:35:11 ◼   ► signature that soap has.

00:35:13 ◼   ► And of course, the sound of running water

00:35:17 ◼   ► and the sound of you rubbing your hands together.

00:35:21 ◼   ► Like they're doing all this extra stuff.

00:35:23 ◼   ► It's not just the accelerometer detecting a particular kind of hand motion.

00:35:27 ◼   ► It's like there's all this entire like software based layer on top of it,

00:35:32 ◼   ► which I think is really fascinating.

00:35:34 ◼   ► It's just too it's just very bad right now.

00:35:36 ◼   ► So I think that this is being misquoted.

00:35:40 ◼   ► So let me give you what I'm talking about here, right?

00:35:43 ◼   ► Unlike other rush - this is from a TechCrunch article -

00:35:45 ◼   ► unlike other rush initiatives undertaken by the company once the virus hit,

00:35:49 ◼   ► the forthcoming Apple Watch handwashing app wasn't built overnight.

00:35:52 ◼   ► The feature was the result of years of work.

00:35:55 ◼   ► Now, I think that that means in all of the underlying technology that allowed for this

00:36:00 ◼   ► to occur, right?

00:36:02 ◼   ► Because they had to make this technology for other things, right?

00:36:05 ◼   ► For like, like the swim in or whatever.

00:36:07 ◼   ► I don't, I genuinely do not believe that three years ago someone was like, we need to build

00:36:12 ◼   ► a hand washing timer.

00:36:13 ◼   ► I'm very skeptical too.

00:36:15 ◼   ► I'm very skeptical too, which is, yeah, exactly.

00:36:18 ◼   ► I completely agree with the fact that it has taken multiple years of work on Apple Watch

00:36:23 ◼   ► sensors to enable this technology, but they're two different things.

00:36:30 ◼   ► That's my thinking on this one.

00:36:32 ◼   ► So anyway, it's not very good right now.

00:36:34 ◼   ► Anyway, it's really not very good, despite all the machine learning and stuff.

00:36:39 ◼   ► So I will try it again at some point.

00:36:40 ◼   ► So if they have worked on it for years, maybe another year.

00:36:44 ◼   ► I mean, why not add an extra couple years?

00:36:47 ◼   ► Just for another one.

00:36:48 ◼   ► Why not add it?

00:36:49 ◼   ► Just whatever.

00:36:50 ◼   ► Anyway.

00:36:51 ◼   ► You gotta wash all the bugs out of there.

00:36:52 ◼   ► Sure.

00:36:53 ◼   ► That's what I'm saying.

00:36:54 ◼   ► Back to iOS 14 Beta 3.

00:36:57 ◼   ► That was a good joke.

00:36:59 ◼   ► You won't appreciate it in your time.

00:37:00 ◼   ► That's right.

00:37:01 ◼   ► Yeah, just like Michael.

00:37:02 ◼   ► There's another new widget.

00:37:05 ◼   ► This is part of the widgets that were shown off at WWDC, but they were not actually included

00:37:12 ◼   ► in Beta 1.

00:37:13 ◼   ► first came files in Beta 2, and now it's the time for the clock widget.

00:37:18 ◼   ► Now, there's a clock widget, it comes in three sizes, I believe it's three sizes, or is it

00:37:23 ◼   ► two sizes?

00:37:24 ◼   ► Well, you can have a small analog clock on your home screen, or you can have a larger

00:37:30 ◼   ► widget showing you multiple analog clocks for the times of different cities around the

00:37:36 ◼   ► world.

00:37:37 ◼   ► like other widgets in iOS 14, you can configure the widget by entering the settings page for

00:37:44 ◼   ► the widget and picking different cities. So it's all very nice and very useful. However,

00:37:50 ◼   ► I also have issues with this one. And let me tell you a very quick story of Federico,

00:37:56 ◼   ► which is me, tweeting about this issue and being called stupid more or less directly

00:38:02 ◼   ► by a bunch of people on Twitter. I noted how while great and very useful to have this clock

00:38:10 ◼   ► widget, a very good example of the kind of dynamic and glanceable things that widgets

00:38:17 ◼   ► enable now, some people like me may have difficulties reading, and I use this expression because

00:38:28 ◼   ► it was very important, at a glance time with an analog clock, you know, with the hands

00:38:36 ◼   ► moving and stuff. And I said I would welcome a digital option where I can just, again,

00:38:43 ◼   ► glance at the numbers, which I find easier to read. And a lot of people were really upset

00:38:49 ◼   ► at me. And for example, some guy told me that the Italian education system failed me because

00:38:57 ◼   ► I couldn't read analog clocks. And yeah, it was, you know, some very unfunny people on

00:39:06 ◼   ► Twitter pointing out that, you know, if you cannot read an analog clock, you're essentially

00:39:11 ◼   ► an uneducated person. So I stand by my statement that analog clocks are, by definition, slower

00:39:23 ◼   ► to read at a glance because you need to do, you know, they come with this latency of looking

00:39:32 ◼   ► at a shape and making sense of that shape. And I stand by my belief that a lot of people

00:39:40 ◼   ► who didn't grow up wearing watches or looking at an analog clock on the wall would very

00:39:47 ◼   ► much welcome a digital option, which is also why on your phone, on your lock screen, you

00:39:53 ◼   ► don't have clock hands, you have the time spelled out with numbers.

00:39:58 ◼   ► Yeah, I am a person who much prefers the visuals of an analog watch face, right? So like, I

00:40:08 ◼   ► wear watches with hands and numbers on a dial, because I like the way that looks. But I agree

00:40:15 ◼   ► with you that a digital readout is easier to understand and it has less ambiguity in

00:40:23 ◼   ► certain circumstances depending on if you use the 24 hour clock or not. I am a proponent

00:40:29 ◼   ► of the 24 hour clock but that's like a different thing for another time. If you're going to

00:40:33 ◼   ► go digital, however, I agree with you, right? Whether you or anybody has a harder time of

00:40:43 ◼   ► reading digital or analog. I don't really know that that's necessarily the, like, has

00:40:48 ◼   ► to be argued. The point is, like, what you're getting at is true. Like, it should be a digital

00:40:54 ◼   ► option because it is easier to read at a glance. You are using a computer, right? Like, showing

00:41:02 ◼   ► a readout in numbers rather than trying to emulate hands of a face is, it makes more

00:41:09 ◼   ► sense in a lot of circumstances. Like, I don't know why they've, you know, maybe, again,

00:41:15 ◼   ► maybe it will come, it should, but like, just having a analog option for these clock widgets

00:41:20 ◼   ► seems peculiar to me.

00:41:21 ◼   ► Yeah. So, Steven, do you have any thought, as the resident old person here, do you have

00:41:27 ◼   ► any thoughts?

00:41:28 ◼   ► Steven would prefer a sundial.

00:41:30 ◼   ► Man, sundials are cool! Sundials are really cool.

00:41:36 ◼   ► Spoken like a true Roman.

00:41:38 ◼   ► [LAUGHTER]

00:41:40 ◼   ► It could use the compass and the phone.

00:41:41 ◼   ► That'd be very exciting.

00:41:44 ◼   ► My takeaway is here, don't be a jerk to someone on Twitter

00:41:47 ◼   ► because they have a clock preference.

00:41:48 ◼   ► Come on.

00:41:49 ◼   ► The world is on fire.

00:41:50 ◼   ► Of all things, and I've said some pretty questionable things

00:41:53 ◼   ► in my time in public in terms of things I dislike

00:41:58 ◼   ► and things I like.

00:41:59 ◼   ► But of all things, this one, it just really surprised me.

00:42:03 ◼   ► But this is a typical thing about the internet.

00:42:07 ◼   ► it will always surprise you the things that upset people the most.

00:42:09 ◼   ► Yeah, I guess. I guess.

00:42:12 ◼   ► Like how many NASCAR fans we're gonna hear from, you know?

00:42:15 ◼   ► Look, I don't have an issue with the NASCAR people.

00:42:19 ◼   ► It's too late now.

00:42:20 ◼   ► I just need to clarify.

00:42:22 ◼   ► I only have this stereotypical image in my brain of the typical NASCAR announcer.

00:42:28 ◼   ► And if we have any NASCAR announcers in the audience...

00:42:30 ◼   ► Stereotypical view of the typical person.

00:42:35 ◼   ► It's very, very, all kinds of typicals.

00:42:37 ◼   ► If we have any NASCAR announcers in the audience

00:42:41 ◼   ► and you feel mischaracterized here,

00:42:46 ◼   ► I'm sorry and I apologize.

00:42:48 ◼   ► - We'll give a personal apology to any NASCAR announcers

00:42:51 ◼   ► listening to the show. - Any NASCAR announcers

00:42:53 ◼   ► in chat right now, please let us know.

00:42:55 ◼   ► - Give us an F in the chat.

00:42:57 ◼   ► - Okay, also shortcuts.

00:43:01 ◼   ► Got a--

00:43:03 ◼   ► - Oh, before we move on from widgets,

00:43:04 ◼   ► I don't know if you've got this too, I've seen people saying things on both sides.

00:43:08 ◼   ► I have lost the weather widget from my iPad.

00:43:11 ◼   ► Oh, reboot your phone.

00:43:13 ◼   ► I've done that.

00:43:14 ◼   ► Oh, really?

00:43:15 ◼   ► Yeah, I've rebooted my iPad and the weather widget is still missing.

00:43:19 ◼   ► Oh yeah, I think it's missing on the iPad.

00:43:21 ◼   ► Oh, okay.

00:43:22 ◼   ► It was also missing on the iPhone, but then on the iPhone, if you restart the iPhone,

00:43:25 ◼   ► it comes back.

00:43:26 ◼   ► It doesn't come back on the iPad.

00:43:28 ◼   ► I know there's no weather app, but there was a weather widget, right?

00:43:31 ◼   ► I bet there's not going to be one because there's not a weather app.

00:43:34 ◼   ► It used to just go to weather.com when you tapped it.

00:43:38 ◼   ► But now they've got the dark sky app.

00:43:43 ◼   ► So where would they send people?

00:43:47 ◼   ► To app.com/weather.

00:43:49 ◼   ► But the data isn't coming from dark sky yet, is it?

00:43:53 ◼   ► It is.

00:43:54 ◼   ► Now?

00:43:55 ◼   ► That widget has like the rain forecast, like micro forecast stuff in it, at least here

00:44:01 ◼   ► in the US.

00:44:02 ◼   ► an icon that says the weather channel in the bottom right left hand corner.

00:44:06 ◼   ► They've merged it at least because it's doing stuff that Elwyn didn't do.

00:44:10 ◼   ► Yeah maybe but again like this is one of those things like American exceptionalism.

00:44:14 ◼   ► Yeah it's not the same everywhere.

00:44:17 ◼   ► We get the... so we are... well it's tricky because in the in America and I believe in Canada too maybe

00:44:24 ◼   ► also I'm not sure they're gonna get the precipitation alerts and stuff.

00:44:29 ◼   ► Which is really annoying because Dark Sky was here.

00:44:34 ◼   ► I could use Dark Sky data. In fact, I do.

00:44:36 ◼   ► You know, this company, how they operate, "Oh, we're gonna do it first in America and then later, like years later."

00:44:43 ◼   ► Like, is it the SpongeBob meme? Like, 75 years later.

00:44:47 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:44:50 ◼   ► In Europe.

00:44:51 ◼   ► Right now I see the Weather Channel as the data source in iOS 14 on my phone.

00:44:56 ◼   ► Doesn't say anything about Dark Sky.

00:44:58 ◼   ► I mean look, honestly I don't care because like as soon as the weather app that I want to use just puts a widget on

00:45:03 ◼   ► I'm gonna switch over but I just don't have that option right now

00:45:06 ◼   ► But it's still annoying

00:45:09 ◼   ► I did get a couple of weeks ago a severe weather alert in weather for raw middle

00:45:15 ◼   ► It was very scary like it was basically like strong winds are coming

00:45:19 ◼   ► Was it one of the system ones where it like makes a noise on your phone and stuff?

00:45:26 ◼   ► No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't one of those. But there was an exclamation point inside the weather app saying "severe alert".

00:45:33 ◼   ► It was just, yeah.

00:45:35 ◼   ► Did you have like some rain?

00:45:36 ◼   ► Like it's just like...

00:45:37 ◼   ► Some wind is coming. Like it's not like a tornado.

00:45:43 ◼   ► It's not incredible outside.

00:45:45 ◼   ► It's not a perfect day for a beach here at the exclamation point.

00:45:48 ◼   ► Now my hair is not on point anymore. Thank you weather app for shortcuts.

00:45:54 ◼   ► There's a new, they added like a starter pack to shortcuts,

00:45:59 ◼   ► essentially. - Which is great.

00:46:02 ◼   ► - But now, in my case, I got two of these.

00:46:05 ◼   ► I'm pretty sure it's a bug.

00:46:07 ◼   ► But in the shortcuts app in iOS 14, you will find,

00:46:11 ◼   ► this accomplishes two things, I believe.

00:46:12 ◼   ► One, it gives you some pre-installed shortcuts,

00:46:16 ◼   ► and two, those shortcuts will be placed in a folder

00:46:18 ◼   ► called Starter Shortcuts.

00:46:20 ◼   ► So Apple will actually show you

00:46:23 ◼   ► that it's possible now to have folders

00:46:25 ◼   ► and that will give you some built-in pre-installed shortcuts

00:46:29 ◼   ► in the app.

00:46:30 ◼   ► - You know what I like about these?

00:46:32 ◼   ► - What do you like?

00:46:34 ◼   ► - They're complicated.

00:46:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, these are like some of the Shazam shortcuts

00:46:39 ◼   ► and the text last photo shortcut.

00:46:42 ◼   ► These are already featured in the gallery.

00:46:44 ◼   ► They were built by the workflow team years ago.

00:46:46 ◼   ► They transitioned to the shortcuts gallery

00:46:49 ◼   ► when the app was relaunched

00:46:51 ◼   ► and they're now going to be the starter shortcuts, which is quite cool.

00:46:54 ◼   ► Because I remember Ari and the guys building these workflows years ago,

00:47:00 ◼   ► and they're still part of the onboarding process, if you will,

00:47:04 ◼   ► which I think is really, really cool.

00:47:06 ◼   ► They vary in complication between the four of them.

00:47:09 ◼   ► And I just think that that's cool because maybe for people that aren't familiar with it,

00:47:14 ◼   ► this will give them, like if they want to poke and look around,

00:47:17 ◼   ► it's like they might realize that this is more powerful than they expected.

00:47:20 ◼   ► Or what will probably happen is they'll be terrified of it and never want to use it.

00:47:25 ◼   ► One point of feedback on this.

00:47:28 ◼   ► Maybe, you know, if I have 250 shortcuts already,

00:47:33 ◼   ► maybe I don't really need the starter shortcuts thing to be added by default.

00:47:38 ◼   ► Just an idea.

00:47:39 ◼   ► Because I'm guessing that, you know, if you see that a user has hundreds of shortcuts in the library already,

00:47:45 ◼   ► maybe it doesn't need to happen by default.

00:47:48 ◼   ► Maybe you'll learn one day, you know.

00:47:50 ◼   ► Maybe you're just one of those people, you're a shortcuts holder, you just accumulate shortcuts in the app.

00:47:57 ◼   ► You don't really use them, but you like to have them there.

00:48:00 ◼   ► Did you also get a folder set up called "homescreen_widgets"?

00:48:04 ◼   ► I think it's just called "widgets".

00:48:07 ◼   ► I have a folder that got set up called "homescreen_widgets".

00:48:11 ◼   ► No, I don't have homescreen widgets. Are you sure you didn't create that yourself?

00:48:15 ◼   ► Who knows, man? Maybe I did make it myself.

00:48:18 ◼   ► Anyway, the other thing I wanted to mention is I'm still having some pretty bad performance

00:48:27 ◼   ► issues with shortcuts in iOS 14, to the point where any time I start working on a new shortcut,

00:48:35 ◼   ► I need to wait like two minutes before I can search for any actions in the app.

00:48:42 ◼   ► Like for two minutes the editor is just blank, and any action I search for doesn't come up.

00:48:48 ◼   ► And if I tap on any of the categories, it's a completely blank page.

00:48:52 ◼   ► And then eventually, like, I can open shortcuts, open the editor, go make a coffee, and then

00:48:57 ◼   ► come back and start working on the shortcut.

00:48:59 ◼   ► And I'm not kidding.

00:49:00 ◼   ► It's just giving you a break.

00:49:01 ◼   ► I'm honestly not kidding.

00:49:03 ◼   ► So that's pretty bad.

00:49:05 ◼   ► Hopefully it will get fixed.

00:49:07 ◼   ► Don't make that a habit or you're gonna get yourself in trouble again.

00:49:11 ◼   ► Every time you want to make a shortcut, you just go make a coffee and you end up, like,

00:49:14 ◼   ► on 20 coffees a day.

00:49:15 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

00:49:16 ◼   ► I don't want to be that person anymore.

00:49:18 ◼   ► I don't want to be that person anymore.

00:49:20 ◼   ► So I think that's it in terms of what's new.

00:49:23 ◼   ► Well, now there's this other thing,

00:49:24 ◼   ► but Steven, can you actually talk about this one?

00:49:26 ◼   ► - Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,

00:49:28 ◼   ► one second before we do that.

00:49:29 ◼   ► I had a bug that seems to have been fixed in shortcuts.

00:49:32 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, you did.

00:49:33 ◼   ► - Which is any of my shortcuts

00:49:36 ◼   ► that had a choose from menu option,

00:49:38 ◼   ► which lots of my shortcuts that I run frequently do,

00:49:42 ◼   ► every now and then it would just run incredibly slowly.

00:49:46 ◼   ► like I would tap it and would maybe wait like 30 seconds or sometimes I would get a notification

00:49:50 ◼   ► after a while that just said this shortcut took too long to run.

00:49:53 ◼   ► Oh, that's too bad.

00:49:54 ◼   ► And they're now running, like they're being responsive now.

00:49:59 ◼   ► Nice. I still believe I still have this issue, this other issue now that you mentioned this.

00:50:06 ◼   ► Sometimes my shortcuts don't appear in the share sheet at all, like in Safari.

00:50:12 ◼   ► I've had this, yeah.

00:50:13 ◼   ► Yeah, and I think it's still happening, unfortunately.

00:50:16 ◼   ► So it's not unusual.

00:50:19 ◼   ► Shortcuts is one of those apps that is so complex.

00:50:21 ◼   ► It's not really surprising that during the initial stage

00:50:26 ◼   ► of the beta season, it's very buggy.

00:50:28 ◼   ► It's very complex.

00:50:29 ◼   ► It's possibly like, I mean, it's very complex,

00:50:32 ◼   ► like hundreds of actions,

00:50:34 ◼   ► all kinds of different integrations across the system.

00:50:36 ◼   ► It comes with the territory, I guess.

00:50:38 ◼   ► But still, we're gonna mention those

00:50:40 ◼   ► just in case anyone is listening

00:50:42 ◼   ► and can pay attention to this.

00:50:44 ◼   ► So yeah, I'm glad the menu stuff is fixed, Myke.

00:50:47 ◼   ► - There is a little bit of a treat in this beta.

00:50:50 ◼   ► So the rumors have been that the iPhone 12 will be two models

00:50:55 ◼   ► a smaller one and a larger one, perhaps around 5.4 inches.

00:51:01 ◼   ► And the addition in this beta is the display zoom option.

00:51:07 ◼   ► So this has been present on the XS and 11 Pro Max,

00:51:12 ◼   ► because you could say, I want to zoom in

00:51:14 ◼   ► and it basically switches from the regular 6.5 inch view

00:51:17 ◼   ► to a 5.8 inch view, making everything bigger.

00:51:21 ◼   ► That hasn't been on the 5.8 inch phones

00:51:23 ◼   ► because there hasn't been anything smaller to zoom to.

00:51:26 ◼   ► So on my 11 Pro, non-Max,

00:51:29 ◼   ► I don't have an option to change this

00:51:31 ◼   ► to something that would be from a smaller phone.

00:51:34 ◼   ► And it seems like an iOS 14 beta three,

00:51:38 ◼   ► the iPhone 10, 10S and 11 Pro all the same size,

00:51:41 ◼   ► now have this option for a zoomed in interface.

00:51:46 ◼   ► And 9to5Mac of course did the math

00:51:50 ◼   ► and kind of figured it out.

00:51:51 ◼   ► And it seems that this zoomed in resolution

00:51:55 ◼   ► would fit perfectly on a 5.4 inch iPhone.

00:51:59 ◼   ► So I think those rumors of a 5.4 inch,

00:52:02 ◼   ► you know, smaller phone with the face ID,

00:52:04 ◼   ► the smaller iPhone 12 seems to be accurate.

00:52:08 ◼   ► - 960 by 2079, they were able to change it.

00:52:11 ◼   ► It was kind of funny the way they worked it out

00:52:13 ◼   ► is they kept forcing the iOS simulator

00:52:15 ◼   ► to run at different resolutions

00:52:16 ◼   ► and this is the only one it didn't crash on.

00:52:18 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:52:20 ◼   ► It's kind of like a great way

00:52:21 ◼   ► to find the answer to something.

00:52:24 ◼   ► So yeah, it would indicate that, as you say,

00:52:27 ◼   ► like it makes the phone smaller, so they've made it,

00:52:30 ◼   ► which means that the phones that would be larger than it

00:52:33 ◼   ► would be able to run display zoom at that resolution

00:52:35 ◼   ► because there is a step down.

00:52:37 ◼   ► So this is, you know, because they've created iOS

00:52:42 ◼   ► at that smaller level, then bigger phones

00:52:45 ◼   ► can take advantage of the fact that iOS runs at that resolution

00:52:48 ◼   ► and use display zoom.

00:52:50 ◼   ► -This makes me think that compact UI must be happening

00:52:54 ◼   ► also because of this, right?

00:52:56 ◼   ► -Well, that's compact UI.

00:52:57 ◼   ► -So compact UI would be the idea that in iOS 14,

00:53:01 ◼   ► It's like more of like an initiative,

00:53:04 ◼   ► more like a marketing term that Apple is using

00:53:07 ◼   ► to describe a bunch of changes.

00:53:09 ◼   ► But this idea that many UI elements in iOS 14 are smaller

00:53:14 ◼   ► and occupy less space on screen than before.

00:53:17 ◼   ► So things like shortcuts when they run,

00:53:20 ◼   ► or Siri when it, you know,

00:53:23 ◼   ► like it takes up less space on screen.

00:53:26 ◼   ► - I thought that might have been something like

00:53:28 ◼   ► size classes or something like that,

00:53:30 ◼   ► but now I know what you mean.

00:53:31 ◼   ► Just the idea of like--

00:53:32 ◼   ► - It's the idea of--

00:53:33 ◼   ► - The system taking less information away from you.

00:53:36 ◼   ► - Phone calls obviously.

00:53:37 ◼   ► So making sure that the UI can sort of recede a little

00:53:42 ◼   ► and if it's not necessary, don't come up in full screen

00:53:47 ◼   ► and maybe menus can be more compact.

00:53:50 ◼   ► So you can see that also in the transition

00:53:51 ◼   ► from action sheets to pull down menus in iOS 14,

00:53:55 ◼   ► all that kind of stuff.

00:53:56 ◼   ► I think it makes sense in the context of one of our phones

00:54:00 ◼   ► and quite possibly the phone that most people are gonna buy

00:54:03 ◼   ► is gonna be smaller.

00:54:04 ◼   ► So I think it makes sense.

00:54:07 ◼   ► And there's a bunch of other reasons,

00:54:08 ◼   ► like we talked about this before,

00:54:10 ◼   ► but I think also having the base model

00:54:12 ◼   ► being slightly smaller than usual,

00:54:14 ◼   ► I think it also helps dictate this kind of direction.

00:54:18 ◼   ► - I think it's great that people have more options

00:54:21 ◼   ► for Face ID phones.

00:54:22 ◼   ► You know, right now there's three,

00:54:24 ◼   ► 5.8 inches being the smallest is too big

00:54:27 ◼   ► for a lot of people.

00:54:28 ◼   ► and you have the SE kinda hanging out

00:54:30 ◼   ► as the low cost option.

00:54:32 ◼   ► So I think this is gonna be a pretty popular size.

00:54:35 ◼   ► I think a lot of people are gonna like this 5.4 inch size.

00:54:39 ◼   ► Now for me, using the iPhone 11 Pro 5.8 inches,

00:54:44 ◼   ► I will buy the nicest phone

00:54:48 ◼   ► because that's usually where the best camera stuff is

00:54:50 ◼   ► and I really care about that.

00:54:52 ◼   ► But it looks like I'm gonna have to give up this size

00:54:54 ◼   ► and go a little bit bigger maybe.

00:54:56 ◼   ► So we'll see how all that shakes out.

00:54:58 ◼   ► but this is a really cool story and I'm with you Myke.

00:55:01 ◼   ► I love the way they found this.

00:55:03 ◼   ► I'm just killing the simulator over and over.

00:55:06 ◼   ► I like the investigative work there by 9to5.

00:55:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's nice when you come back up claims

00:55:12 ◼   ► with actual facts and work.

00:55:14 ◼   ► - Well, Big Sur also got a beta update.

00:55:20 ◼   ► They fixed the terrible battery icon, the system preferences.

00:55:24 ◼   ► Just like, thank goodness that's been,

00:55:28 ◼   ► that's been fixed.

00:55:29 ◼   ► And it fixed an issue that I'd actually

00:55:32 ◼   ► provide a feedback on is that I cannot create

00:55:34 ◼   ► a new touch ID record.

00:55:35 ◼   ► So when I set up Big Sur,

00:55:38 ◼   ► I didn't have any touch ID fingerprints on the system.

00:55:40 ◼   ► I don't know why I had it in Catalina,

00:55:43 ◼   ► but I couldn't add a fingerprint.

00:55:45 ◼   ► I would hit the button and then it would just

00:55:46 ◼   ► not do anything.

00:55:48 ◼   ► And Beta 3 has fixed that for me.

00:55:49 ◼   ► So I can use touch ID again on my laptop.

00:55:52 ◼   ► And it's interesting that Big Sur

00:55:55 ◼   ► does not have a public Beta yet,

00:55:57 ◼   ► least as if we're recording. I don't really know why Apple hasn't said

00:56:02 ◼   ► anything as far as I hope but at some point I guess the public beta will will

00:56:06 ◼   ► show up. I kind of think that maybe it's related to the issue that if you upgrade

00:56:12 ◼   ► from Catalina or if you have a like a APS APFS volume on the same drive that

00:56:18 ◼   ► Catalina is in it Catalina will get software updates like there's a lot of

00:56:21 ◼   ► gotchas with the install and maybe they're trying to iron that out before

00:56:24 ◼   ► opening it up to a lot more people. Mac public beta always seems interesting to

00:56:29 ◼   ► me anyway. Why? Because I feel like that there's the potential for more risk. Oh

00:56:35 ◼   ► on like the user side? Yeah. Yeah oh I think there is because Macs can be

00:56:40 ◼   ► configured in basically endless number of ways and you have like weird utilities

00:56:45 ◼   ► and stuff where with iOS maybe you kind of know what to expect a little bit more.

00:56:49 ◼   ► I feel like I would prefer or I think it would be better to have it as like an

00:56:54 ◼   ► open developer beta so like you add a level in between maybe you know I don't

00:57:00 ◼   ► know I don't know right so it's kind of like you don't have to be in the

00:57:03 ◼   ► developer program to get the beta but you don't call it public beta.

00:57:09 ◼   ► When you think about it who's the target who's the target audience for a Mac OS public beta?

00:57:15 ◼   ► Like either you are...

00:57:16 ◼   ► Enthusiasts.

00:57:18 ◼   ► Are there really any?

00:57:19 ◼   ► What Mac enthusiasts?

00:57:20 ◼   ► If you are a Mac enthusiast, don't you have an Apple developer account?

00:57:25 ◼   ► Don't you want developer beta?

00:57:28 ◼   ► Not necessarily everybody has the money to put behind the beta program.

00:57:34 ◼   ► You may not want to be, or you may not think the beta experience is worth the $99 a year

00:57:39 ◼   ► or whatever.

00:57:40 ◼   ► So yeah, I think there are a lot of people who wait for the public beta, and I think

00:57:44 ◼   ► the people who look at the public beta as being marginally safer than the developer

00:57:49 ◼   ► builds.

00:57:50 ◼   ► we can debate that, I'm not sure that's actually true,

00:57:53 ◼   ► but I think the people who feel more comfortable

00:57:55 ◼   ► on the public beta release cycle than the dev beta

00:57:59 ◼   ► where they feel like things may be broken more often.

00:58:02 ◼   ► - Like me as a 17 year old, 16 year old or whatever,

00:58:07 ◼   ► I would have been bought the computer

00:58:10 ◼   ► but wouldn't have the money to buy the,

00:58:14 ◼   ► you know, like the computer as a gift

00:58:15 ◼   ► was like a gift for me or whatever.

00:58:19 ◼   ► but I wouldn't have really wanted to put down the 100 pounds or whatever to get the...

00:58:23 ◼   ► I didn't have a job, so...

00:58:25 ◼   ► [laughs]

00:58:26 ◼   ► So I didn't have the money to buy the developer account, so it would have been good for me

00:58:30 ◼   ► that way, but it's niche cases.

00:58:32 ◼   ► I'm going with the nicest cases here, but yeah.

00:58:37 ◼   ► No watchOS public beta yet either.

00:58:39 ◼   ► So the Mac and the watch are in the same boat.

00:58:42 ◼   ► I wonder if the lack of open Apple stores in a lot of places in the world have factored

00:58:48 ◼   ► into that because as far as I know they haven't changed the situation where like

00:58:51 ◼   ► if your beta install fails you can't recover it yourself and I don't know

00:58:57 ◼   ► that's one of those two things are tied together or if that's not an issue maybe

00:58:59 ◼   ► they've fixed that this year I don't know I don't learn watch OS betas oh I

00:59:03 ◼   ► wouldn't either mm-hmm not not hip to that I do but it's also because I like

00:59:10 ◼   ► to live dangerously to an extent yeah yeah that is just how you live your life

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01:00:35 ◼   ► Yo, Tichi, how's the review going?

01:00:38 ◼   ► Very strangely, I would say. So I started writing the review a few days ago.

01:00:49 ◼   ► Because you did something you don't normally do, which is you wrote a long article.

01:00:56 ◼   ► No, I usually do. See, everything is weird. I usually do, actually. But I do it when I'm

01:01:04 ◼   ► coming back to Italy from the WWDC. So it doesn't really...

01:01:08 ◼   ► I think it differs. Like one year you wrote a review of an actual iPad.

01:01:12 ◼   ► Yes, yes. 2017.

01:01:15 ◼   ► This felt very much like it would have been in the review, like a lot of what you wrote here.

01:01:20 ◼   ► Which is why I'm gonna reuse it. Which is something that I do.

01:01:24 ◼   ► I adapt things that I write early in the summer.

01:01:28 ◼   ► No, it's different because when I write these articles in the summer,

01:01:33 ◼   ► So I wrote something about the iPadOS 14 public beta.

01:01:38 ◼   ► But when I do that, I do that when I'm coming back from the US to Italy.

01:01:42 ◼   ► So it doesn't really eat into my time that I spent researching or taking notes or working

01:01:47 ◼   ► on the mind map.

01:01:49 ◼   ► And this time, it also didn't, but it happened at a very problematic time in that I had to

01:01:56 ◼   ► make the decision to write something as I was on vacation.

01:02:01 ◼   ► So I actually wrote this article at the beach in southern Italy while Silvia and I and our

01:02:07 ◼   ► dogs were on vacation and Silvia was kind enough and patient enough to let me do it,

01:02:12 ◼   ► but it was very, very much non-optimal, I would say.

01:02:16 ◼   ► Anyway, the review, I feel like I'm slower than usual.

01:02:22 ◼   ► I feel like it's taking me a while to be fully inspired to work on some chapters, but I also

01:02:31 ◼   ► feel like this is perfectly normal this year, and I feel like my...

01:02:38 ◼   ► This is happening because I know that it's going to be a shorter review.

01:02:42 ◼   ► I know that it's going to be more compact.

01:02:44 ◼   ► I mean, I already worked out, like, I have the mind map completed.

01:02:49 ◼   ► I worked out the number of chapters that we're doing.

01:02:52 ◼   ► We're already working on the design assets

01:02:54 ◼   ► for these fewer chapters.

01:02:56 ◼   ► I know it's going to be shorter.

01:02:58 ◼   ► It's going to be less work.

01:02:59 ◼   ► And so maybe that's why I feel like I

01:03:01 ◼   ► can take it to be a bit easier.

01:03:03 ◼   ► At the same time, there's the other half of my brain saying,

01:03:06 ◼   ► no, you cannot take it easier.

01:03:07 ◼   ► Because then you're going to be late,

01:03:09 ◼   ► and you're going to meet your deadline.

01:03:10 ◼   ► You're going to be screwed.

01:03:11 ◼   ► It's going to be horrible.

01:03:12 ◼   ► So I'm trying to balance these two voices in my head,

01:03:15 ◼   ► telling me that, look, it's fine.

01:03:17 ◼   ► You can get it done.

01:03:17 ◼   ► It's going to be shorter.

01:03:18 ◼   ► and the other saying, "No, you're gonna suck,

01:03:21 ◼   ► and you're gonna wait until the last minute."

01:03:23 ◼   ► You know, basically the usual struggle.

01:03:25 ◼   ► But also, I feel like another factor to consider here

01:03:30 ◼   ► is how the feature this year, which is widgets,

01:03:34 ◼   ► is very much dependent on third-party adoption.

01:03:39 ◼   ► Because, yeah, I can write about the Apple widgets,

01:03:42 ◼   ► and I can do my comparisons with the older widgets

01:03:46 ◼   ► from Apple in iOS 12, in iOS 13, and the widgets in iOS 14.

01:03:51 ◼   ► But that's no fun.

01:03:52 ◼   ► Like, I feel like people expect me to show off some examples

01:03:55 ◼   ► of the cool stuff that's gonna be possible.

01:03:57 ◼   ► - So I know from my own personal experience

01:04:00 ◼   ► in reading your reviews, that through the beta period,

01:04:04 ◼   ► when you're using Apple stuff,

01:04:07 ◼   ► and one of the things that I,

01:04:08 ◼   ► one of the ones that really I remember vividly about this

01:04:12 ◼   ► was the new extensions in iOS 9.

01:04:15 ◼   ► Yeah, eight.

01:04:16 ◼   ► Eight, where I actually, funnily enough, read this review on a Kindle on a beach in Palermo

01:04:22 ◼   ► in Sicily.

01:04:23 ◼   ► Wow.

01:04:24 ◼   ► So I have lots of good memories about this specific review.

01:04:28 ◼   ► But it was more about like, I was on the beta and didn't really get to use many extensions,

01:04:34 ◼   ► but then reading all of the extensions you would have from third-party developers in

01:04:39 ◼   ► in beta really kind of helped drive home why this was important.

01:04:45 ◼   ► Well, I feel like I could understand it in the abstract, but the actual specifics will

01:04:51 ◼   ► be what really helped this make sense for me.

01:04:56 ◼   ► So it is a key.

01:04:58 ◼   ► And I wonder if this feature this year with the widgets is maybe...

01:05:03 ◼   ► Do you feel more reliant on other years or is there always something like this where

01:05:07 ◼   ► feel like you have to have third party apps to be able to write this section?

01:05:10 ◼   ► There is always something like this but I feel like it's gonna be more

01:05:15 ◼   ► prominent with widgets because it is such a relatable feature for so many

01:05:20 ◼   ► people. And I think it's more design focused than other stuff too. It's very much design focused so it

01:05:26 ◼   ► really lends itself well to a lots of screenshots and images in the review

01:05:31 ◼   ► lots of like visually showing off what what developers can do and I had this

01:05:36 ◼   ► realization a few days ago. I started writing the review earlier this week. I wrote the

01:05:41 ◼   ► introduction in one session one day. I felt really good about it. And then I moved on.

01:05:45 ◼   ► I looked at the map. So I can tell you right now there's going to be nine chapters in total.

01:05:50 ◼   ► So very compact review. I mean, years ago there was like one review. There was like

01:05:55 ◼   ► 20 chapters, I believe. It was not my best time. So it's going to be nine chapters. And

01:06:02 ◼   ► I was looking at it and I'm like, "Okay, chapter two, setup and performance. I'm not gonna

01:06:08 ◼   ► make the same mistake as last year." Last year, I wrote it in July, like by this time

01:06:15 ◼   ► last year.

01:06:16 ◼   ► Like a fool.

01:06:17 ◼   ► Like a fool. And then iOS 13 got worse during the summer.

01:06:23 ◼   ► Well also the setup thing, I expect that they probably finalized that later in the period

01:06:28 ◼   ► anyway.

01:06:29 ◼   ► Exactly. So I learned from my mistakes and like, I'm not going to write this one until

01:06:35 ◼   ► late August or like early September, because I want to make sure that the setup images

01:06:40 ◼   ► and the performance discussion is as close to the final version as possible. So I moved

01:06:47 ◼   ► on to the next chapter, which is of course the home screen. And in looking at it, like,

01:06:53 ◼   ► As with last year, I am going to touch upon some technical aspects of widgets, but I don't

01:07:00 ◼   ► want to, you know, again, one of the lessons that I learned with iOS 11, it's not really

01:07:07 ◼   ► fun to talk about APIs and really technical stuff in depth in a review.

01:07:12 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:07:13 ◼   ► So, I'm going to have that sort of, I'm going to try and strike the same tone, at least

01:07:17 ◼   ► I want you of last year and iOS 12, where I know the technical stuff and I will mention

01:07:24 ◼   ► it but only when necessary.

01:07:25 ◼   ► I want to try and see if I can make you feel better about something, a thought that I just

01:07:29 ◼   ► have.

01:07:30 ◼   ► Okay.

01:07:31 ◼   ► I know that you are rightly so concerned about the timeline this year, right?

01:07:37 ◼   ► Because you have to be ready for September because you have no idea when iOS comes out,

01:07:44 ◼   ► right?

01:07:45 ◼   ► Yep.

01:07:46 ◼   ► it's probably fair to say that iOS will come out later than usual but we don't

01:07:52 ◼   ► know that but I think you would probably be pretty like good to assume that you

01:07:56 ◼   ► shouldn't but other people can right like we can naturally assume that it will

01:07:59 ◼   ► come later so I bet that you get more third-party betas that you can run

01:08:07 ◼   ► before iOS actually ships because developers will be working on the same

01:08:12 ◼   ► timeline that you are right everyone's gonna be like if I want to be the

01:08:16 ◼   ► their day one, I need to make sure I'm ready for like early September, even though I would

01:08:21 ◼   ► bet that iOS doesn't come out until late September or early October, because the iPhone probably

01:08:25 ◼   ► won't come out that time as well. So I bet you will be able to get more examples of stuff

01:08:30 ◼   ► like widgets than you would in a typical review.

01:08:33 ◼   ► So a couple of things. First of all, I really hope you're right. And if anyone at Apple

01:08:37 ◼   ► even anonymously can at some point this summer confirm this, that would be really exceptional

01:08:42 ◼   ► for my mental health, thank you. Second thing, I had this realization as I was looking at

01:08:49 ◼   ► the map and I'm like, "Okay, now I'm gonna write about widgets." And then I looked at

01:08:53 ◼   ► it and I was like, "This map is missing the really cool and interesting stuff, which is

01:08:59 ◼   ► third-party examples." Like, it's—I can write about the Apple apps. Also, same discussion

01:09:06 ◼   ► for sidebars on iPad, right? I can write about Apple's own sidebars, but really, where's

01:09:11 ◼   ► the fun. I want to write about the third-party adoption. So I put out a call on Twitter saying,

01:09:18 ◼   ► if you're a developer, if you're working on widgets, if you're working on sidebars or

01:09:21 ◼   ► three column layouts on iPad, get in touch. Let me know. Send me an email. Send me a tweet.

01:09:28 ◼   ► And if you have, send me a beta. And so I spent the past two days basically replying

01:09:34 ◼   ► to like hundreds of emails. I have all kinds of examples now.

01:09:37 ◼   ► Brilliant. I already have a couple betas on my phone

01:09:41 ◼   ► right now, actually.

01:09:42 ◼   ► I'm so jealous.

01:09:43 ◼   ► We're third-party widgets, so that's really cool.

01:09:46 ◼   ► And I have, in theory, lots more coming.

01:09:50 ◼   ► All these kind developers get in touch with me and say, "Hey, I'm working on this," like

01:09:54 ◼   ► people showing me screenshots and screen recordings of the simulator, which was very cool.

01:09:59 ◼   ► So thank you if you got in touch.

01:10:01 ◼   ► If you haven't gotten in touch but you're working on something, please get in touch,

01:10:04 ◼   ► because I can always use more examples.

01:10:07 ◼   ► And yeah, I think this is really exciting because I really think this is going to be

01:10:12 ◼   ► like the consumer feature, right?

01:10:15 ◼   ► And I think it really should make for a fun section of the review where like, here's what

01:10:20 ◼   ► this widget can do, and here's what these other developers figured out how to do with

01:10:25 ◼   ► the widget.

01:10:26 ◼   ► Here's the design of it.

01:10:27 ◼   ► Like, I really can play around with a bunch of different examples and it should be fun.

01:10:31 ◼   ► And the rest of the review, obviously, is going to be an iPadOS section.

01:10:37 ◼   ► And even there, as I mentioned, I'm going to show off a bunch of examples of sidebars

01:10:43 ◼   ► and third-party developers doing things.

01:10:45 ◼   ► And obviously, I'm going to talk about shortcuts.

01:10:47 ◼   ► But I think it's pretty safe to assume that the changes in shortcuts this year are not

01:10:53 ◼   ► as massive as last year.

01:10:55 ◼   ► So there will be examples, but you shouldn't expect the kind of massive chapter for shortcuts

01:11:01 ◼   ► that I've had for the past two years with iOS 12 and 13.

01:11:05 ◼   ► Because yes, there are some changes,

01:11:06 ◼   ► but I mean, once you mention folders

01:11:08 ◼   ► and once you mention the other stuff,

01:11:10 ◼   ► like, the new actions are not really groundbreaking.

01:11:14 ◼   ► But even then, third parties can come in here and say,

01:11:19 ◼   ► we're now using in-app intent handling,

01:11:22 ◼   ► which is this new API that on the surface

01:11:25 ◼   ► it doesn't really sound exciting,

01:11:27 ◼   ► but once you try it, it is incredible.

01:11:30 ◼   ► I'm already playing around with a bunch of shortcuts actions made by third-party developers

01:11:33 ◼   ► that use this new technology, which basically means shortcuts actions can now do a lot more

01:11:42 ◼   ► powerful things in the background because of this new API.

01:11:46 ◼   ► And so the other day I did something just wild, which was I created a wallet pass, so

01:11:53 ◼   ► So a custom pass for the Wallet app using a shortcuts action that had like dozen, I

01:11:59 ◼   ► believe like over 30 fields for parameters. So I could put in like custom images and titles

01:12:05 ◼   ► and subtitles and captions and multiple fields. And this is like a very memory intensive thing

01:12:10 ◼   ► to do, but thanks to in-app intent handling, the shortcuts action did it in like five seconds

01:12:16 ◼   ► and it spit out a Wallet pass inside shortcuts. So yeah, that's going to be fun.

01:12:22 ◼   ► Can we go back to, wait just a second, because I had a thought that I wanted to share, right?

01:12:25 ◼   ► Yes, yes.

01:12:26 ◼   ► There has got to be no developer more happy right now than _DavidSmith.

01:12:31 ◼   ► Oh yeah, oh yeah.

01:12:34 ◼   ► Because I recommend, by the way, people listen to the most recent episode of Under the Radar,

01:12:38 ◼   ► because it's very funny when _Flexes in a way that I never would have expected to hear

01:12:45 ◼   ► from him, and it is absolutely fantastic.

01:12:48 ◼   ► to scare off people. If someone else was like, "Huh, I wonder about making something like

01:12:54 ◼   ► Watchsmith, but for widgets," I would hope that there would be less of an interest in

01:13:02 ◼   ► doing that if they know that I'm going to do it too, because then you're like, "You're

01:13:07 ◼   ► going to have a tough time out underscoring 'underscore.'" You're never going to have

01:13:12 ◼   ► as many widgets, you're never going to have as many options. This is what I do. So I kind

01:13:18 ◼   ► of want to stake my claim and say like, "This is what I'm working on. This is how I'm going

01:13:22 ◼   ► to make it. Good luck trying to keep up." So that's sort of where I ended up on secrecy

01:13:27 ◼   ► this summer.

01:13:28 ◼   ► I think that's the most you've ever flexed in public.

01:13:32 ◼   ► Because he is talking about the position that he has found himself in right now, where he

01:13:37 ◼   ► just happened to do a lot of the hard work last year with Widgetsmith, and now can really

01:13:43 ◼   ► It just works now, yeah.

01:13:45 ◼   ► Yeah, we've watched Smith and now he's making Widget Smith, which that is something that

01:13:51 ◼   ► he talks about on Under the Radar.

01:13:52 ◼   ► But basically he can use a lot of the stuff that he put into his wonderful complications

01:13:59 ◼   ► app, which like, you know, when we all saw the complications thing, it was like, "Oh,

01:14:02 ◼   ► amazing, another score's going to be so happy."

01:14:05 ◼   ► And I'm sure he is, right, about the fact that you can put multiple complications on

01:14:08 ◼   ► it now.

01:14:09 ◼   ► having done a lot of the brains to being able to create effectively a

01:14:13 ◼   ► configurable widget application because I guarantee it is gonna be a lot of

01:14:17 ◼   ► people that want to make that app right but no one's as far ahead as he is

01:14:23 ◼   ► because he's done a lot of what's needed like knows how to make all these apps

01:14:27 ◼   ► in SwiftUI because that's what I had to do on the watch and has created like the

01:14:30 ◼   ► brains of this system to like you know I just think it's like a funny thing where

01:14:34 ◼   ► like Underscore's found himself in like a a very lucky position because the

01:14:38 ◼   ► things that he decided to turn his hand towards, Apple also agreed with things

01:14:42 ◼   ► they wanted people to turn their hand towards, so you know, bravo to Dave.

01:14:48 ◼   ► Yes, yes. So, widgets will be really exciting and right now I'm just trying to balance

01:14:55 ◼   ► everything going on this summer. Basically we like my schedule and

01:14:59 ◼   ► whether we want to go on another vacation or not, the fact that I have a

01:15:02 ◼   ► a tattoo to finish at some point, and writing the review in the middle and also working

01:15:09 ◼   ► on all the extra stuff for September or whenever that is going to be. So I really hope that

01:15:14 ◼   ► at some point I will be able to get a sense of the timeline here, but I have to stick

01:15:19 ◼   ► with my plan of "I need to be done in early September" or "I need to be in a very good

01:15:25 ◼   ► place by early September" at least. But as I mentioned, this is going to be shorter than

01:15:32 ◼   ► than previous years, just because of the nature of iOS and iPadOS 14. And I'm going to try

01:15:42 ◼   ► and replicate the tone of the past couple of years, which is technical but not overwhelmingly

01:15:48 ◼   ► so. And if anything, I think judging from the introduction that just came out of me

01:15:54 ◼   ► a few days ago, it's going to -- I think the overall tone of it is going to be a lot more

01:16:01 ◼   ► friendly, maybe is a good word to describe it, than previous years. I think it's very much,

01:16:07 ◼   ► like judging from the intro, it is very much a 2020 inspired review, if you know what I mean.

01:16:13 ◼   ► It's a review written in the current times, acknowledging the fact that 2020 is what it is.

01:16:21 ◼   ► And also from the angle that iOS 14, to an extent, you can see the reflection of that

01:16:28 ◼   ► in some of the features of a post-COVID world. So it is a product of the times, I guess,

01:16:35 ◼   ► and I want it to be approachable and I want it to be more compact than previous years, but also I

01:16:41 ◼   ► want to do a bunch of cool stuff in terms of extras and things surrounding the review.

01:16:47 ◼   ► And also I'm trying to figure out ways to... Something that a lot of people...

01:16:54 ◼   ► that I've been thinking about actually for a few years now is

01:16:59 ◼   ► there's a lot of information in my reviews, right? There's a lot of details

01:17:03 ◼   ► but sometimes people just want to have like a

01:17:06 ◼   ► like a page, like a list where they can go in and discover all these little

01:17:10 ◼   ► tidbits, all these like hidden features and like

01:17:13 ◼   ► smaller details and so I'm thinking always of how can I

01:17:17 ◼   ► make certain details from the review like these little things like if you long

01:17:21 ◼   ► press this icon, something happens.

01:17:24 ◼   ► Like, how can I make it more approachable to have those tidbits from the review also

01:17:32 ◼   ► be available standalone?

01:17:33 ◼   ► It's also something that I'm considering this year.

01:17:38 ◼   ► I have no idea what you would do, but I would like that.

01:17:43 ◼   ► Because those little tidbits, they're like...

01:17:45 ◼   ► They get lost in the story.

01:17:46 ◼   ► They get lost, but sometimes they are some of the things that you would encounter on

01:17:51 ◼   ► on a daily basis that are better for you to use than like, I don't know, something random.

01:17:58 ◼   ► You know what I mean? Like these deep stuff, right? Like these little things that make

01:18:03 ◼   ► the experience of the operating system.

01:18:05 ◼   ► For example, I don't think nobody knows about this. Very few people know about this. Did

01:18:09 ◼   ► you know that in iOS 14 you can hide contact suggestions from the share sheet? Like, you

01:18:17 ◼   ► You know the share sheet and the sharing suggestions for iMessage and stuff?

01:18:22 ◼   ► If you long press 1, you can now suggest less for that person.

01:18:27 ◼   ► Oh, that's good.

01:18:29 ◼   ► Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

01:18:32 ◼   ► Like I never need to send my mom things from there.

01:18:35 ◼   ► Yeah, same.

01:18:36 ◼   ► Like I never text my mom a link, right?

01:18:40 ◼   ► So she doesn't need to be in this list.

01:18:44 ◼   ► That's good.

01:18:45 ◼   ► Check out this thing I found on Hacker News, mom.

01:18:46 ◼   ► Not needed. That's good.

01:18:49 ◼   ► Yeah, so trying to think of better ways to extract these little things and make them accessible in, you know, outside of the review, maybe.

01:18:59 ◼   ► Maybe just as simple as a separate article saying here's like the 50 more most interesting little facts from the review.

01:19:09 ◼   ► Maybe it's just as simple as that, but it's something that I want to do.

01:19:12 ◼   ► They're also pretty good for sharing on social media, I reckon.

01:19:14 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

01:19:15 ◼   ► That's the thing that you want to do.

01:19:16 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah for sure.

01:19:18 ◼   ► We didn't even talk about the tools we should keep that because I'm sure things change over

01:19:21 ◼   ► time but I want to hear more about the tools that you're using.

01:19:24 ◼   ► All right, we could talk about that later.

01:19:26 ◼   ► Yeah, we could talk about that later.

01:19:28 ◼   ► I think that's probably it.

01:19:30 ◼   ► Sounds good.

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