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Connected

291: The Scrooge McDuck of Computers

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:08   Hello and welcome to Connected episode 291.

00:00:12   It's made possible by our sponsors ExpressVPN,

00:00:15   Pingdom, and Bombas. My name is Stephen Hackett and I am joined by Myke Hurley.

00:00:20   Oh, hello. Hey buddy, how are you? Not terrible? Not terrible? Fine. I'm excited

00:00:27   about the Hackett number. You know, look, do you want to know? Like, yeah, things aren't

00:00:31   great. Like, what do you want from me? Like, I'm not a top energy. I'm like happy to be

00:00:36   here. This is one of my very favorite shows to record because it's happy fun times. But

00:00:40   no, things aren't great right now. And I am stressed out like 97% of the time.

00:00:46   Not feeling that big quarantine energy.

00:00:48   Yeah, it goes in waves, you know? Some days are better than others.

00:00:56   Hey Federico.

00:00:58   Hello. Hi.

00:01:00   Wow. You doing okay?

00:01:02   That's some big quarantine energy right there.

00:01:04   I'm great. I'm great. Honestly,

00:01:06   I spend all my days

00:01:08   at home playing with the dogs, eating food,

00:01:10   cooking, drinking wine,

00:01:12   occasionally writing.

00:01:14   Honestly, I'm working a lot.

00:01:16   But yeah, I miss going

00:01:18   outside. But I'm

00:01:20   trying to keep my big energy

00:01:22   up. You know? It's important.

00:01:24   That's good. We have some follow-up, but it's all about me, which is weird.

00:01:29   How are you?

00:01:30   Do you want to do this?

00:01:31   Stephen, how are you?

00:01:32   I'm, oh, thank you.

00:01:33   How are you, Stephen? You're taking care of us, but nobody ever takes care of you.

00:01:36   That's so sweet. I have John. John takes care of me.

00:01:40   Oh, God.

00:01:41   John did take care of me once. He rescued me from the airport.

00:01:44   Oh.

00:01:45   That is true.

00:01:46   He let me stay in his house. It was quite nice. John's house is really nice, guys.

00:01:51   That's what you get. I mean, we should have all become lawyers before we quit our jobs.

00:01:56   And here's a shameless plug, if you want to see Jon's studio, there's going to be a story

00:02:04   in this week's newsletter for Club Max for his members.

00:02:07   This is unacceptable.

00:02:08   I'm just saying, on the topic of Jon's house, if you want to see his studio...

00:02:13   Alright then. If you want to see Jon Siracusa's desk, you need to become a Relay FM member,

00:02:20   And then you need to, I don't know how you do it, Stephen can answer, but you've got

00:02:23   to go and get the last membership email newsletter.

00:02:27   And you can see what John Syracuse's desk looks like.

00:02:28   Yeah, you sign up at relay.fm/connected, you become an annual member, or silver or gold,

00:02:34   whatever you want to do.

00:02:35   There's choices.

00:02:36   Did you start off annual?

00:02:37   I did.

00:02:38   Big annual energy.

00:02:39   Big annual energy.

00:02:40   And you'll get an email, and then that email will be a link, and you can see all the past

00:02:43   newsletters and the most recent one is John Syracuse's desk.

00:02:47   But if you want to see previews of my YouTube videos before they go up, head on over to

00:02:51   512pixels.net/membership.

00:02:54   This is unacceptable.

00:02:55   This is absolutely unacceptable.

00:02:56   Give us your money and we'll show you photos of people's houses.

00:02:59   What do I have?

00:03:00   This is how it works.

00:03:01   Cortex-mark and go to thethemes.com and who knows, someday in the future there might be

00:03:06   some journals.

00:03:07   I don't even want to get into the stress I'm having with journals right now.

00:03:10   It's just a nightmare.

00:03:11   So Myke, do you want to follow up?

00:03:12   Uh, so, so, so follow up.

00:03:15   Now we're out of the shilling portion of the episode.

00:03:18   Yeah, we are so sorry.

00:03:19   Cool.

00:03:20   Phil?

00:03:21   Is Phil here?

00:03:22   You know what?

00:03:23   I am not sorry.

00:03:24   I'm not sorry.

00:03:25   This is tough times.

00:03:26   I got no credit for my Phil Schiller shilling joke.

00:03:29   No, because it wasn't good.

00:03:31   I just wanted to ignore it, Steven.

00:03:33   It's just a bad joke.

00:03:34   Yeah, because you drew attention to it.

00:03:36   So now you can't edit around it because it's in there.

00:03:38   You don't know what I can edit around.

00:03:40   I can keep bringing it up multiple times during the episode.

00:03:44   Just randomly.

00:03:45   That's true.

00:03:46   Right. Like, you remember that bad joke you made, Stephen, about showing it?

00:03:49   He's gonna edit it out every single time.

00:03:51   Yeah, I'll make it in like the middle of sentences.

00:03:54   So it'd be super. Anyway, the Radeon Pro W5700X, which is how I'm assuming that that's said,

00:04:04   is now available. This is the graphics card that you, Stephen Hackett, have been looking

00:04:08   for for your Macintosh professional with feet. Did you buy it? Did you get it? I know you've

00:04:15   waiting for it. So did you get it? Yeah, it's ordered. It's on its way. I knew basically

00:04:19   when I bought this machine that the base GPU wasn't going to be enough. It's really rough

00:04:23   and final cut with 4k video, because it's actually worse than the iMac Pro. So my video

00:04:27   editing is actually more painful than it was. So this will be a nice update. And it's way

00:04:32   less expensive than the Vega. So I'm excited. You should have kept your internet Macintosh

00:04:36   professional with stand rather than moving to your Macintosh professional with feet.

00:04:41   on that you didn't buy the wheels did you? No I did not. No we had a conversation afterwards

00:04:46   where we all agreed that Stephen buying the wheels was just ridiculous so he didn't buy

00:04:50   the wheels even though me and Federico were willing to front the $150 each it still seemed

00:04:55   silly. Yeah. So yeah I'm excited about the video card I'm excited to see an increased

00:05:02   fluidity in Final Cut and yeah I'm excited I'm also excited about installing it because

00:05:06   I get to unscrew things in my computer and that's just the best. Is it? I guess it is

00:05:11   actually. It's pretty good. I've seen inside one of those Macintosh Professional with feet

00:05:17   and they are quite beautiful inside. They are. You finally did what we asked you to

00:05:22   do about a month ago and connected your Macintosh Professional with feet to an old monitor, right?

00:05:28   How did that go? It went really well. You can find a video of it on YouTube. So I was

00:05:33   I'm just gonna do the studio display and then I realized that I had a really old

00:05:37   studio display and a cinema display and so I hooked all three of them up through

00:05:42   what was an increasingly uncomfortable number of adapters and yeah so go check

00:05:48   out the video the link will be in the show notes it was a lot of fun to do.

00:05:51   We need to talk about one of the adapters that you used. Yes. Because it's the size

00:05:58   of an Apple TV mm-hmm what is the deal with this adapter this is the ADC to DVI

00:06:06   adapter we'll put it up what is ADC so ADC was this short-lived video

00:06:12   connection that Apple used that had video USB and power but all over one

00:06:19   cable right so you would have one cable going from your g4 g5 tower and then it

00:06:27   would power the display and power the USB pass-through and everything. The issue

00:06:30   is that DVI came along and well DVI was actually around before this and Apple

00:06:36   switched to ADC then went back it's all very confusing but ADC was short-lived

00:06:42   and so it ended up being a real issue when you went to go plug in your new

00:06:50   computer to you know a display that had this weird adapter. So Apple put this on

00:06:57   sale back in 2002, originally for for the power books when they got DVI. But this thing

00:07:03   is massive. It was $150 new $160 new something like that. And it was it's a yeah, it's about

00:07:12   the size of it's bigger than an Apple TV. It's kind of somewhere in between an Apple

00:07:17   TV and like a old airport base station. And it gets power, a power plug and you plug the

00:07:24   ADC adapter into it and you get DVI and USB to plug into your computer. It's pretty wild.

00:07:30   Oh, you found a good press release. Yeah.

00:07:33   Yeah, when they announced it. I keep all these in Dev and Think so I can just find it.

00:07:39   When watching this video, so my first thought was, "This is cool and this is exactly what

00:07:42   I asked you to do." Well, almost because you didn't try with the Niacat Pro, but that's

00:07:47   fine.

00:07:48   I did tweet from somebody. I'll see if I can find it of using

00:07:52   Using an iPad to power it so you didn't get USB pass-through, but the rest of it worked

00:07:59   How do you keep track and organize all of these dongles and adapters that you have?

00:08:04   Yeah, so that is crucial as you may imagine

00:08:06   So I keep them organized by the type the newest like connector. So all my thunderbolt two ones are together

00:08:13   I got a thunderbolt three ones together and then I sort of have a collection of

00:08:17   like HDMI stuff and so I can go through and find what I need I have them all in

00:08:22   baggies in a drawer I can go through and find what I need. But like but like

00:08:25   they're labeled? The bags are labeled so it's like here are all my

00:08:29   Thunderbolt 2 things and I can just pull it out and anything that's Thunderbolt 2

00:08:32   is in there. So I can can you like with other labels you wouldn't be able to

00:08:37   tell between Thunderbolt 2 and 3? I could but I find it but if they're all in a

00:08:42   giant pile then it takes time to sort through them so the organization is

00:08:46   really to speed the finding up a little bit. Interesting. Okay, well thanks for the video.

00:08:55   I mean it's always awesome when old tech, you know, still working today you can use

00:09:03   it, you know, it speaks very much to my heart to this kind of project. It's very nicely

00:09:07   done. Well like shout out to Thunderbolt 3 for being backwards compatible with everything,

00:09:12   is pretty cool. And on this weekends in Mac power users, it's coming out a couple days

00:09:18   after this show. I talked with David a good bit about the production of this video, I

00:09:22   changed up a lot about how I did this use a teleprompter for the first time. And so

00:09:26   I'll talk to David on that MP you about that. So if you have questions about that, go check

00:09:30   out that episode.

00:09:31   So can about dongles, I realized I was I thought to myself, there was a as a dongle that I

00:09:37   for my iPad, the USB-C dongle, and then I opened my bag and realized I don't have

00:09:43   any of my dongles. My dongles are all in my studio, which is locked up right now.

00:09:49   And that was very upsetting, so the basically the the moral of the story is

00:09:54   you can have a dongle bag but don't leave it anywhere, because then you

00:09:58   can't get it. So I don't have any dongles anymore.

00:10:01   Oh man, the chat room wants me to do a video where I am blindfolded and I have

00:10:06   to identify different dongles.

00:10:08   - I would love to see that video very much.

00:10:10   - I'm putting that in the list of video ideas.

00:10:14   - This show is just becoming like an endless source

00:10:16   of video ideas for you now.

00:10:18   - It's absolutely great.

00:10:20   - Well, what it means is you're giving the people

00:10:22   what they want, you know?

00:10:24   - That's right.

00:10:25   - Which is, that's never a bad thing.

00:10:27   Well, sometimes it's a bad thing probably,

00:10:28   but most of the time it's a good thing.

00:10:30   - All right, that's in my YouTube ideas list.

00:10:33   - Okay.

00:10:35   - Excellent, where'd you keep that list?

00:10:36   - In reminders.

00:10:37   - Not in dev, not in deventing.

00:10:40   - Not in deventing.

00:10:41   No, I use reminders for like little checklist things.

00:10:44   So I have five lists.

00:10:45   I have a grocery list that I share with my wife,

00:10:47   books to read, media to watch,

00:10:50   which I can check the couple off here

00:10:52   'cause I've watched those,

00:10:53   YouTube ideas and then column ideas.

00:10:56   - Right.

00:10:56   - Michael is very curious about apps today.

00:10:58   - He is.

00:10:59   - Yeah, I'm app curious.

00:11:01   - Why are you?

00:11:02   - I don't know.

00:11:03   you just get that feeling like you wanna... You wanna try something new? Yeah, you know where it

00:11:08   started? I can't believe I'm doing this, this is just like Plug Central today. I was listening to

00:11:13   Mac Stories Unplugged. Oh nice! Yeah, you can find that at relay.fm/liftoff. Oh, lift off is that,

00:11:22   oh that's good. Yeah, and you gotta join lift off to get this podcast. But by promoting this

00:11:27   podcast and putting Federico Fattucci on blast, because Federico's back in OmniFocus. Oh no,

00:11:33   I don't see it.

00:11:34   No!

00:11:36   And so it's like, you know, you know,

00:11:39   those things you're like, hmm,

00:11:41   do I want to be back in OmniFocus?

00:11:43   You know, like when you do that and

00:11:45   now I'm like for absolutely

00:11:47   zero, no reason thinking

00:11:49   about upending my entire

00:11:51   productivity to do system

00:11:53   just to try out OmniFocus

00:11:56   again because Federico is doing it.

00:11:58   And then, you know, so so now I'm

00:12:00   just like, well, what else are you

00:12:02   doing, both of you, that might be like a little less disruptive to my entire life.

00:12:06   Right? So like where do you keep your text files? Where do you keep your lists?

00:12:11   Like I just want to know, you know? Interesting. I got some recommendations

00:12:16   for you buddy. I'm testing a bunch of things. I'm sure you are. You need to go to

00:12:21   Remember The Milk. Sign up for an account. But you're not even using Remember The Milk

00:12:25   anymore because you told me you were using Todoist again. I tried things for a

00:12:29   little while recently but then I remembered very quickly that its

00:12:32   repeating reminder system is completely broken for how I work. I can't believe

00:12:37   they haven't fixed that. I feel like we've been talking about it for seven

00:12:39   years. They told, yeah, a year and a half ago they told me they were fixing it.

00:12:42   Nothing. It's so nice though, like design-wise. I know, it was beautiful and

00:12:47   I like a lot about how it works except I want to check off repeating tasks before

00:12:51   they're due because sometimes... I still don't understand how that's not a

00:12:55   feature like that that is incredible. It blows my mind. I wouldn't even consider

00:12:59   Consider it a feature, it just feels like a fundamental way of managing life.

00:13:02   It's like, hey, I've done this thing earlier than expected.

00:13:06   Yeah, no, no.

00:13:09   They are sticklers over at Culture Code.

00:13:11   I want you to live in the moment, man.

00:13:13   Just embrace, you know, don't do things in...

00:13:17   Never help yourself.

00:13:18   Don't do things in advance, man.

00:13:20   Just chill, you know.

00:13:22   That's the spirit.

00:13:24   That's how they live in Germany, I think.

00:13:25   Are they in Germany?

00:13:26   Yeah, they're German.

00:13:27   Yeah, they're German.

00:13:28   Things, yeah, they're German.

00:13:30   I didn't know that.

00:13:31   Yeah, that's why it's so rigid.

00:13:32   Well, the German people are known for their efficiency and such, so like...

00:13:39   And I'm so efficient, sometimes I check the PO box one day early,

00:13:43   and I can't check it off till the next day.

00:13:45   Well, that's wrong of you.

00:13:46   I know.

00:13:47   Okay, we're gonna take a break, and then we're gonna come back.

00:13:51   We're gonna talk about some more things.

00:13:52   That's good.

00:13:55   relay.fm/membership.

00:13:58   I'm just doing it again. Just take a break. I'm sorry.

00:14:01   Are you done?

00:14:04   I think so. I don't know.

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00:15:37   the show and all of Relay FM.

00:15:40   So I'm looking through, just as a quick aside, Steven, through the dev and think forums as

00:15:45   I do. I go on forums. It's very active. There's a lot of people here. There's a lot of people

00:15:51   that use DevOnThink.

00:15:53   I think that there's probably a pretty good Venn diagram of forum user and DevOnThink

00:15:58   user, just in general, that those things probably intersect quite heavily.

00:16:05   Probably.

00:16:06   Yeah, I gotta look into this again, because I used to use DevOnThink years ago.

00:16:12   It's it's really good. If you got a bunch of data, you need to sort through. Okay. All

00:16:17   right. All right. I have a story for y'all. Oh, good. One of our home pods has gone to

00:16:23   the great Apple store in the sky. So we, we had three at one of my office, one of the

00:16:30   kitchen, one in our bedroom and the one of the bedroom has, has been, it's acted weird

00:16:35   for a while. Like sometimes I would need to unplug it and replug it for it to like be

00:16:39   on the network like just strange little things. And the other day, Mary was like, hey, the

00:16:45   HomePod in the bedroom isn't working. I tried plugging it in and like, and it won't come

00:16:49   on at all. And I thought, well, you know, maybe the, you know, it's like, it's a power

00:16:53   strip with some other stuff that will maybe the power strip got kicked off or maybe who

00:16:56   knows what. So plug it straight into the wall and nothing. There's a way to like hard to

00:17:02   reset it. So if it powers on, you can press the top into the top turns red, and then it

00:17:05   like beeps at you and then it will completely factory reset. It can do that?

00:17:09   Yeah. Really? I will put a knowledge base article in the show notes. Of course, of

00:17:16   course you have. You just found your knowledge base article of the week right

00:17:19   there. I did the one about face masks but yeah I can do this one. This is the next one.

00:17:23   Sometimes if you pay attention I do the k-base articles of the week based on

00:17:27   something that's coming later in the week as like a teaser. Ah you have a

00:17:31   whole strategy for that okay. I mean most of the most of the time the strategy is

00:17:34   look for a random article, but sometimes there's a strategy. So anyways, nothing I

00:17:39   couldn't give reset wouldn't power on. So, you know, there's no Apple stores open. So

00:17:46   I went online and, you know, did the thing of like, hey, ask Apple support to call

00:17:50   me and you know, they called me and you can customize your hold music, which is

00:17:55   cool. I think I think we've talked about that. But it's the first time I've

00:17:57   experienced it. It's like, you know, do you want classical or like modern rock or

00:18:02   you know, whatever it was. What is modern rock for you? You know, like... The Eagles.

00:18:09   Yeah. Wings, you know? I'm sorry. Topics from the 80s. Yeah. My era. The more synthesizer,

00:18:26   the better really. So you were saying you were on hold listening to Sweet Home

00:18:31   Alabama. Yes. Yeah and so I talked to the person and hey I have plugged in

00:18:37   different place I've left to unplug for like 24 hours like I was like you know

00:18:40   is there something like some sort of like deep cycle thing tried to reset it

00:18:44   and the person was like well you've done everything I would walk you through.

00:18:47   Turns out this HomePod is out of warranty. Do you know how much an out of

00:18:51   warranty replacement is from Apple support for a HomePod? Just guess. I mean

00:18:55   It's in the document, but just like...

00:18:57   Oh, is it?

00:18:58   Don't look at the document.

00:18:59   What?

00:18:59   I just looked at the document.

00:19:00   You told me not to look at the document.

00:19:02   I couldn't help but look at it.

00:19:03   If you're listening out there, just

00:19:05   guess what a HomePod may be to replace.

00:19:09   Shout the number now.

00:19:11   Yeah.

00:19:12   I mean, to be fair, they're probably

00:19:14   manufacturing one for you.

00:19:16   Just because I don't like--

00:19:19   are they even producing the HomePod?

00:19:21   Like, this is still--

00:19:23   I don't think they are.

00:19:24   - Okay, they're guessing in the chat room.

00:19:25   Here we go.

00:19:26   200, 300, 300, 399, and out of warranty swap is $279.

00:19:31   - That is just ridiculous.

00:19:36   - I went to Best Buy's website, and I thought,

00:19:39   how much does Best Buy have at the HomePod

00:19:41   for sale right now?

00:19:41   You can get an open box return for $249 from Best Buy.

00:19:46   You can get a new one from Best Buy for $299.

00:19:48   It's like, so I told the guys,

00:19:50   like, yeah, I'm not paying that.

00:19:54   No offense against you, but that's crazy.

00:19:55   And...

00:19:56   No offense against you.

00:19:59   You're talking directly to the HomePod development team right there, you know?

00:20:04   It's $2.99 new from Apple.

00:20:06   How is an out of warranty placement, you know, so...

00:20:08   And that's just so upsetting.

00:20:11   $20.

00:20:12   Oh, great.

00:20:12   Thank you.

00:20:13   So I told, I was like, yeah, I'm going to pass on that.

00:20:16   He was, and he said, he was like, yeah, yeah, good call.

00:20:19   He's just being completely honest.

00:20:23   So I'm down to two HomePods. I'm not replacing it right now because I think I want to see if there's a HomePod Mini maybe because the, you know, just kind of see.

00:20:31   So anyways, I have a non-functioning HomePod and I don't know what to do with it.

00:20:34   So I think I'm just gonna put it on my shelf and make it part of the collection.

00:20:36   No, you know what you got to do with it.

00:20:38   Take it apart.

00:20:39   You got to take it apart. You got to open it. You got to see what's inside.

00:20:42   Yeah, open it.

00:20:43   Open it and put it inside the cube.

00:20:46   Just let the computer run it.

00:20:48   Do something. Put a computer in it.

00:20:51   Put a computer in it.

00:20:52   Put an iPod in it.

00:20:54   Put a bird on it.

00:20:55   [laughter]

00:20:57   Yeah, put an iPod in it.

00:20:58   It's probably going to be a better music player.

00:20:59   Try and put something in it.

00:21:00   Pivot to that.

00:21:01   Okay.

00:21:02   You know?

00:21:03   All right, I'll figure out what to do with it.

00:21:04   Or you could do like the guy who turned out to be like a fake video, like the HomePod

00:21:10   Glitter Bomb that he turned out to be staged.

00:21:13   That was the guy who was secretly working for Apple, right?

00:21:16   Yeah, he was.

00:21:17   Yeah.

00:21:18   Yeah.

00:21:19   That was crazy.

00:21:20   Wait, what?

00:21:21   Mark Rober?

00:21:22   for Apple. In secret. Yeah. And also doing YouTube videos. I was thinking of the guy from The Verge.

00:21:28   He was working on like a special projects engineering team. Hmm, okay. All right, should we

00:21:34   should move on to the the big topic? The real topic. The big topic. No, I wanted to just say about the

00:21:41   HomePod last thing real quick. This is not a product that anyone should be buying right now,

00:21:46   like especially at full price, right? Like do not buy a HomePod at full price right now. Like that

00:21:50   is such a silly thing to do. Like it does feel like something should be around the corner

00:21:55   if this is still to be a thing. I don't remember what we spoke about it or not, but like there

00:21:59   was reports that it's that the HomePod OS is now built on tvOS instead, which is super

00:22:05   weird, right? Another massively successful product. I have noticed recently that my HomePod

00:22:11   is making new noises. Have you come across this? It makes a different chime. Mine doesn't

00:22:17   talk anymore because we muted all of them.

00:22:19   Oh yes, yes.

00:22:20   And we're fine.

00:22:21   It's a really expensive earpiece speaker.

00:22:23   Sanity and peace has been restored in our household.

00:22:27   That's good.

00:22:28   Because everything's gone.

00:22:30   Yeah, it's very good.

00:22:32   Anyways, the Hackett number.

00:22:33   Are we ready?

00:22:35   Oh yeah, the Hackett number.

00:22:37   Can you remind people what this is?

00:22:39   Yes.

00:22:40   So last week the question was asked about computers per capita in my household.

00:22:47   we are defining computers as iPad and up. So no iPhones, no game consoles, but iPads

00:22:54   and up and I did count other things. So I have totals. I've asked y'all to guess to

00:23:01   guess what this may be. So we're going to look at desktops, notebooks, and then the

00:23:06   total number and then looking at and then looking at the the hackett number I did I

00:23:13   did just realize that I didn't give a place for you guys to guess iPads, but I have that

00:23:16   number as well. So that's that's alright. So we're gonna have to put that guess in

00:23:19   real quick. Yes I'm sorry. On a scale of one to ten, how much did you enjoy

00:23:24   yourself counting up all of your equipment? It was pretty good. It was hot

00:23:30   in the attic for the few things I have up there, but it took like two hours and

00:23:33   I just listened to a podcast in my office and like took apart my shelves

00:23:37   and counted things and I dusted a bunch of stuff like it was a very it was very

00:23:40   nice time. And what app did you keep do you now have the inventory in? So the

00:23:45   inventory itself lives in WordPress on the site but when I was temporarily

00:23:49   updating it I had it in tot. Hmm. Are you curious about tot Myke? Yep.

00:23:57   Tot curious? Tot curious. I'm curious about all apps now. So how do we want to do this?

00:24:02   Do we want to do like desktops and I tell you the number, notebooks that tell you

00:24:05   the number and then we'll reveal the winner? How do we want to do it?

00:24:09   First of all we should say though that I, unlike Michael, have never been to

00:24:14   Steven's house so I don't have that kind of advantage. Right, but the thing is most

00:24:18   of Steven's stuff is in his attic which I've never been in. No, no, no, very, very little is in the attic.

00:24:22   Oh, there's an attic? Yeah. With just a few things. Okay. Most of it is in the office, but Myke hasn't been here in a year, almost, and

00:24:31   and the way the studio is set up, like, the top shelf is full of laptops and you

00:24:37   have no idea how many are up there. Because what I've been doing is I've

00:24:40   been going through your videos and trying to count computers on the shelves

00:24:43   in the background. Oh my word. I just guessed. Guessing is for suckers, Myke. No, I mean,

00:24:50   well, you know what? How about we'll see, won't we? Okay. Steven, can I get a link to

00:24:56   your inventory thing to put in the show notes? Cause I can't find it. Yes, but we can look

00:25:00   at it after. Ah, yes. I want to look at it now. Do I? Yep. Okay. Okay. Okay. So do we

00:25:08   do desktops first? Yes. Okay, so Myke, how many desktops do you think I have? 35. Okay,

00:25:16   Federico? Uh, I'm gonna go with 20. The total number of desktops is 40. Oh my god, oh my god,

00:25:25   wow, I'm so gonna lose this. Oh boy. Oh, I need to adjust my hacking number now. You're a problem.

00:25:34   We're just keeping the guesses, so... No no no, because you've got the iPads in there,

00:25:38   I need to adjust my Hackett number. Oh okay yeah yeah. Federico, did you adjust your Hackett number

00:25:43   calculation? Yeah I did. Okay. You divided by five right? We have five people in the house.

00:25:47   Yeah. All right, you can carry on, I'm just doing some stuff. Okay so notebooks...

00:25:51   40? How can you have 40? You'd be surprised. So Federico, how many notebooks are you guessing

00:25:58   are in the collection? Oh well, this is gonna be super wrong, uh 35 notebooks. That is super

00:26:04   Myke what about you? 50. You are super close the number is 52. Yeah! Oh my god. Very close.

00:26:13   How's you counting? How's your counting doing for you? Huh? Oh my god. Alright iPads. Let's talk

00:26:19   about iPads. Myke, how many iPads do I have? 10. And Federico? 8. You are equally wrong. I have 9.

00:26:30   9 iPads. That's frustrating. So you split the middle. So that, oh and we, so I counted server

00:26:39   separately, there's two servers, we'll just add them to the desktop number, so that's 42

00:26:43   desktops. That brings the total to 100, I think. 40 plus 52 plus 2 plus 9.

00:26:54   Oh, I broke, I broke, Alfred.

00:26:56   It's not one, it's not 100, it's 101, I think? No. I can do math.

00:27:02   103.

00:27:03   103? 103.

00:27:05   Wow.

00:27:06   Oh my god, it's 40 more than I expected.

00:27:10   You underestimated, Steven.

00:27:13   The Hackett number is 20.6.

00:27:17   My Hackett number was 23.75.

00:27:20   And Federico's, yours was 12.6.

00:27:23   So I won big time.

00:27:25   Yeah, because I thought he was a normal person.

00:27:27   See, I never would have assumed such a thing.

00:27:29   Yeah.

00:27:30   Like, you know, just yes, I have been there, but by being there,

00:27:34   I've seen as much as you've seen by looking on videos.

00:27:38   There are just stacks and stacks of laptops.

00:27:41   Yeah.

00:27:41   Like that's that's the thing.

00:27:43   The amount of laptops that I expected there would be

00:27:46   is what made me bump up my numbers across everything.

00:27:49   I knew the laptop number would be like 50 or something

00:27:53   like that because there's--

00:27:57   how many MacBook Pros do you have?

00:27:58   Or like aluminum, like metal laptops.

00:28:04   That's got to be like over 30.

00:28:06   Yeah, it's pretty close probably because I've

00:28:08   got a lot of iBooks and PowerBooks

00:28:12   that are plastic and stuff.

00:28:14   That is wild, Steven.

00:28:15   So there are 20 computers per human being.

00:28:20   - Yeah.

00:28:21   - There are over 100 computers in Steven's house.

00:28:24   - We haven't even gotten-- - I just try and think about

00:28:26   that. - To the three bonus rounds

00:28:28   that we have for other various computing devices.

00:28:32   - You have over 100 computers

00:28:35   for essentially you and your wife,

00:28:39   because you have three kids,

00:28:41   and your wife is like, you're only gonna use like what,

00:28:44   a MacBook and an iPad? So you have 101 computers for yourself? You are a greedy person!

00:28:56   You're like the Scrooge McDuck of computers. You just have a massive pool that you jump

00:29:02   into and swim around in. You could open up a school and furnish the

00:29:06   school with computers. I mean it would be very bad for most students.

00:29:11   Yeah, most students go to the software.

00:29:12   Well, they would be better than most Chromebooks, but still.

00:29:14   Whoa!

00:29:15   Still!

00:29:16   Oh my god.

00:29:17   Alright, bonus rounds.

00:29:18   We're not even done yet!

00:29:21   Bonus rounds.

00:29:22   We're not even done!

00:29:23   How many Newton devices do I have?

00:29:27   Now this one, so we talk about like, like...

00:29:29   I don't even know.

00:29:30   What's the...

00:29:31   The Newton is...

00:29:32   This number could be telling, because if me and Federico are very close, if you are significantly

00:29:37   higher than this, then the lengths of your problem have yet to be...

00:29:41   Yeah, it goes much deeper.

00:29:43   I guessed five.

00:29:45   Five newtons.

00:29:46   I guessed four.

00:29:47   I have four.

00:29:48   Okay, okay.

00:29:49   Man, I am dead on with this.

00:29:52   Yeah, well, it's getting ready to change.

00:29:56   Okay.

00:29:58   How many iPhones?

00:30:00   21.

00:30:01   25.

00:30:02   Just 15.

00:30:03   15?

00:30:04   Just.

00:30:05   Okay.

00:30:06   words. You're so reserved. Such an iPhone hater. You are... uh... iPods? I said 15. Now see I went big on this one. I went to 30 iPods. Didn't go big enough because the

00:30:21   answer is 42. 42 iPods? Oh my god. You have 42 iPods? Why do you only have 15 iPhones? 42 iPods even exist? Oh yeah. Or is it...

00:30:34   I could go way higher because I only have oh, yeah, the nanos only have the blue and orange ones

00:30:39   But there's billions of nano colors if you have 42 iPods. Why do you only have 15 iPhones?

00:30:46   Because iPhones hold their value way higher on the the second-hand market and I don't keep my old iPhones

00:30:52   They go to family members who slowly destroy them

00:30:54   So yeah, but like you can't say that that 42 number of iPods is because you keep iPods

00:30:59   No, it's not

00:31:00   So one day you will have over 40 iPhones, but you just need to wait for them to all be old enough.

00:31:05   Probably.

00:31:06   Yeah.

00:31:06   Look, you gotta open up a museum, man. Like, I don't know, build like a shed or something, like an actual exhibition.

00:31:14   Yeah, I mean people could just come here, but it's my office, so please don't come here.

00:31:17   Well, not right now, huh?

00:31:18   I'm recording right now. Can't come now.

00:31:21   Well, also, like, it would have to be a super big museum because social distancing.

00:31:25   It's true.

00:31:26   So, hold on, 103 computers plus 4 Newtons, that's 107, plus 15, that's 122?

00:31:41   Plus 42 iPods, that's 164.

00:31:43   164 items.

00:31:44   And I didn't count, like, I think Apple TVs is like 4 or 5, I have some airport base stations,

00:31:51   like I have other stuff, but as far as things that were counted.

00:31:54   So if we do include the number to have iPhones, iPods and Newtons, which I think is, I mean,

00:32:03   we didn't include it in the standard Haggit number, but you could if you wanted to, it's

00:32:07   32.8.

00:32:08   You gotta sit down with your kids and tell them, kids, one day you will own 32 computers

00:32:17   each.

00:32:18   Each.

00:32:19   Well, I mean, by the time he actually sits down to have that conversation, it's definitely

00:32:23   going to be more, isn't it?

00:32:24   But like, so if we do it the same, it's like, it's like, Mary has two.

00:32:27   You have 162 devices.

00:32:31   Just for yourself.

00:32:32   Well, they're for the audience.

00:32:34   No they're not.

00:32:35   Greedy, no, they're for yourself.

00:32:37   No they're not.

00:32:38   You know why I know they're not?

00:32:39   Because you texted us and said you found things you didn't know you had.

00:32:42   That's true.

00:32:43   So, you know, who's that?

00:32:45   Who are those ones for?

00:32:46   You, for the future.

00:32:48   But so for context, how long have you been collecting, collecting things?

00:32:52   I got my cube which was like the first collection piece probably like eight or nine years ago

00:33:00   but I only had when I moved in this office I probably had I mean maybe 25 or 30 items

00:33:07   it's really gross.

00:33:08   So assuming you started nine years ago that would be an average of 18 items you buy each

00:33:15   year.

00:33:16   Which is 1.5 a month.

00:33:21   That's a lot of good number, isn't it?

00:33:24   So what have you bought this month, Stephen?

00:33:26   I bought that ADC to DVI adapter for that video.

00:33:29   We didn't even include it in dongles, and just offered a little peripheral items.

00:33:32   How many displays do you have?

00:33:35   That video had all of my Apple displays in it.

00:33:37   All three of them.

00:33:38   Okay.

00:33:39   Well, no, four, because I have a CRT Apple display over here that I didn't draw up.

00:33:44   Because last time I plugged it in, it made a weird noise.

00:33:46   I'm afraid of it.

00:33:47   And they're really dangerous.

00:33:49   That was a stupid technology.

00:33:51   Yeah, CRTs? Oh yeah. Seriously. And I will say, you know, I'm sure people out there are

00:33:58   just worried. That's fine.

00:34:01   Yeah, I was gonna ask, do you think it's a problem?

00:34:05   I mean, looking at these numbers, it's hard to argue with that.

00:34:10   Okay, good. I just want to make sure that you have the clarity of mind to at least understand

00:34:15   those numbers are high.

00:34:16   I'm not trying to stop you.

00:34:17   I am not. No one's no one's trying

00:34:20   to take your computers away.

00:34:21   The majority of these are in my

00:34:22   little like 200 square foot office

00:34:24   because I have shelving.

00:34:25   You know, there's 11.

00:34:26   There's 11 max in the attic.

00:34:28   You can't justify it by saying

00:34:30   you have space like that's

00:34:32   not a justification.

00:34:33   Someone in the chat room was like,

00:34:34   what is your house look like?

00:34:35   It's like, well, they're all out

00:34:36   here. So

00:34:37   in our old house, they were in

00:34:40   random closets and my wife would

00:34:42   have to move an Apple to see to get

00:34:43   diapers out. It was very upset with

00:34:44   me. Yeah, the studio was a bad move really for this because like you were limited by

00:34:50   how much your family was willing to cope with. Now they don't even know. Now they don't even

00:34:54   know. You don't even know, nobody knows. I don't know. We haven't even considered, like

00:35:00   if you go to the Apple collection page on your website, Steven, and just go to the mice

00:35:07   section, you have the USB mouse in Bondi Blue, Blueberry, Graphite, Grape, Lime, Strawberry

00:35:13   and tangerine. Yeah. Like you have all the... Oh, there's a lot of mice here. There's a lot of mice.

00:35:17   There's things like iPod socks, of course. There's like, there are some extra things.

00:35:27   You have over three mice per person. The Hackett number on mice alone is over three.

00:35:35   And this collection page now is, I think, as up to date as it can be.

00:35:41   The Hackett number on quick take cameras is 0.6.

00:35:45   I have all three of them.

00:35:47   Yeah, that's good.

00:35:50   This is so much better and worse at the same time than I expected.

00:35:57   Yes.

00:35:58   It's a real situation.

00:35:59   Because like...

00:36:00   You have a Hackett number of one on the 5C.

00:36:03   Yeah, I've got all the...

00:36:05   Everyone in your home could have a 5C.

00:36:08   Yeah.

00:36:08   I want the blue one. I call it the blue one.

00:36:11   No, I'm sure you'll get first pick, don't worry.

00:36:13   The iBook G3, Hackett number of one.

00:36:18   Okay, so now we have a set... so okay, part of the reason of doing this

00:36:24   is so we could establish the baseline because then it becomes a convertible number.

00:36:28   So we are set and the actual official Hackett number is 20.6 because that's the rules that

00:36:35   we decided on. So if you need a refresher so everybody can play at home if they want to...

00:36:40   Yes. I want to see a bigger Hackett number with proof if you have a bigger number.

00:36:46   Sure, you gotta ask the Airy Ford Museum.

00:36:48   I didn't even count those 13 iMacs that I gave to them. They don't count.

00:36:53   Yeah, that's kind of you. You know, you only have 100 left.

00:36:57   Yeah. Wait, so you said 13.

00:36:58   Well, they're not in this number because I gave them to the Henry Ford.

00:37:02   I was going to say the Hackett number of computers donated to the Henry Ford Museum is 2.6.

00:37:07   [laughter]

00:37:09   Which is a lot.

00:37:11   But okay, so we're now, from now on,

00:37:13   when we say hackit number, we mean 20.6.

00:37:17   That is the--

00:37:19   When is that ever going to come up?

00:37:21   Right, but like, because I just, because now when we say the hackit number,

00:37:23   it has to be a fraction of that, right?

00:37:25   So the baseline of a hackit number is 20.6.

00:37:29   So if we set that as the baseline,

00:37:31   so that is now the equivalent of 1, right?

00:37:34   Because that is a hackit number.

00:37:35   a Hackett number. So if Google buys Evernote for $20,600, it's some, you know, multiplication

00:37:43   of the Hackett number. Sure. I don't really understand $20,600. Well, I was trying to

00:37:49   be funny because they're not worth anything. $20.6 million. Right. Then it would be 1 million

00:37:54   Hacketts. $20,000 is about right. So the Hackett number is 20.6. So if you owned 10.3 per person

00:38:03   in your home, you are 0.5 hackettes. Right? So that's the equivalent, that's like the

00:38:09   baseline because you remember we were setting it like the kilogram? So the hackit number

00:38:14   is 20.6, that's the value, so one hackit is 20.6. That's where we're going from now. This

00:38:24   now needs to live in our document forever because we will forget it otherwise. Yeah,

00:38:27   I'll put it in the bottom somewhere. Oh, great suggestion from Kate. What do we need to do

00:38:32   to get James to put this into Peacock. I mean honestly, I've found not much because I got

00:38:37   him to put in from a long conversation between me, Grey and James at a dinner table, we were

00:38:49   able to convince James to put into Peacock two values. One is like the mass of a rock

00:38:58   And then also, The Rock.

00:39:02   Right now he's working on a die set for me with the 13 iMac colors.

00:39:06   I sent him high res versions of the Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian graphics.

00:39:10   You see, it's not hard to get James to do things for you.

00:39:13   You've just got to get him on board that it's a fun idea.

00:39:16   So if you're a friend of James Thompson, you can end up with some wild things.

00:39:19   I actually got him to change something very important in PCALC, which I don't know if

00:39:23   I want to say publicly, I'll tell you about it later on, but it was like a big thing.

00:39:27   I just asked him to do it.

00:39:28   agree that it made more sense. No, actually I think it's fine to say. We'll find out.

00:39:32   So when you hit the percentage indicator in Peacock, so if I did like 20,000 minus 17%,

00:39:40   when you hit percent, it shows you what 17% is before you press equals, and then it gives

00:39:45   you the answer, because that mimics Apple's calculator. That's how the Apple calculator

00:39:49   does it. And I convinced him to change that, and that's now the default behavior in Peacock.

00:39:53   So if I do 20,000 minus 17%... what's this number?

00:40:02   That's 17% of 20,000.

00:40:04   Really?

00:40:05   Yeah, and when you press equals...

00:40:06   And you came up with this?

00:40:07   Well, no.

00:40:08   I didn't come up with it.

00:40:09   Apple's calculator does this.

00:40:10   And when you press equal?

00:40:11   It gives you the answer.

00:40:13   This is amazing.

00:40:16   See?

00:40:17   That's the way the calculator... because you get both then.

00:40:19   You get both answers.

00:40:20   That is really nice.

00:40:22   So Apple's calculator does that.

00:40:25   So I requested that I told James that I wanted it, and he said nobody ever asked for it before

00:40:29   and agreed to me that it made sense.

00:40:30   You are an app director, Michael.

00:40:33   I am.

00:40:34   Good job.

00:40:35   I just got promoted.

00:40:37   The chat room has a good idea.

00:40:38   June 20th will be Hack It Day.

00:40:41   Oh my god.

00:40:44   Put it in the calendar!

00:40:46   Hack It Day.

00:40:49   And I am...

00:40:50   Oh, it's a Saturday.

00:40:51   Oh, it is?

00:40:52   What can we do? What can we do? Can you like, I don't know, donate a computer on Hackett day?

00:40:57   Each year you donate a computer to a good cause.

00:41:00   I thought you meant like to Steven. Like everyone sends Steven a computer.

00:41:05   That is a good cause.

00:41:06   Each year you got a new computer on that day.

00:41:09   Mmm.

00:41:10   And I'll say too, a lot of these have come from people, like right now

00:41:14   I have someone mailing me a MacBook Pro. Like people just email me

00:41:17   wanting to know if I want something that they found that they were gonna recycle otherwise.

00:41:20   And I say no to a lot of that stuff, but I also say yes to some of it

00:41:24   So that that is a lot of these are donations, right? I'm not spending money every every

00:41:28   Three and a half weeks on something on eBay

00:41:31   Mmm. Well somebody is though like somebody

00:41:35   Yeah, but you know someone mails me a performa right also hack it number dot report

00:41:42   will forward to the

00:41:44   To what collection page

00:41:48   Relay.fm/membership. Wait, did somebody buy HackItNumber.com? I couldn't, it wasn't for sale, so I bought HackItNumber.Report instead.

00:41:56   There's no way that like, no HackItNumber.com is available, and I now own it.

00:42:01   Oh, Hovard didn't show it to me as being available.

00:42:04   Well, it's because I was, just because they kept it for me. Hmm. Well, I have HackItNumber.Report, which I think is funny, too.

00:42:10   Oh, I think somebody's bought it from out underneath me. Yeah, I couldn't buy it, so. Some of the chat room may be buying it.

00:42:18   Someone's got it in their cart. Yeah. Alright, so... 20.6. Wow. So, June 20th.

00:42:27   June 20th. Put it on my calendar. 20.6 computers per capita. I was not expecting this, honestly.

00:42:35   Thank you for your counting, Steven. You're welcome. What did you use to keep

00:42:40   track of these numbers. What app did you use?

00:42:42   Mmm. Good question.

00:42:44   T.O.T.

00:42:45   T.O.T. See, Myke?

00:42:46   Yeah.

00:42:47   You're using T.O.T.

00:42:48   Everyone's using T.O.T. now. I own HackItNumber.com.

00:42:51   Ah!

00:42:52   Okay.

00:42:53   Got it.

00:42:54   Where are you going to forward it?

00:42:55   I don't know. Maybe this episode?

00:42:57   Okay. And then HackItNumber.report will go to the collection page.

00:43:01   HackItNumber.

00:43:02   Yeah.

00:43:03   No, you should go to HackItNumber.com.

00:43:04   Yeah. You know what?

00:43:05   Always go to the double redirect.

00:43:06   Are you going to put the HackItNumber on your page?

00:43:09   Oh, I should.

00:43:10   Yeah, and then I'll send it there.

00:43:12   Okay, yeah, I'll link to this episode and then explain it.

00:43:16   We're having a meeting now, everyone.

00:43:18   We are.

00:43:19   So this is on your Apple collection page?

00:43:21   That's where you're going to put it?

00:43:22   Yeah.

00:43:23   All right.

00:43:24   That's where I'm forwarding the domain to.

00:43:25   All right.

00:43:26   That was fun.

00:43:29   That was actually a lot of fun.

00:43:30   That was surprising.

00:43:32   Yes.

00:43:33   I'm not surprised.

00:43:35   Like it was a lot to take, but I'm still not surprised if that makes sense.

00:43:41   I know he had a problem, but not to this extent.

00:43:45   And those iPods, I mean, I don't know what's more upsetting, if it's the notebooks or...

00:43:52   No, actually the desktops.

00:43:55   It's either the desktops for me, like 42 desktops, that's insane.

00:43:58   Especially because a lot of those are old, so they're really big.

00:44:01   But the desktops, like 42 desktops.

00:44:05   And they're massive, like these towers? Wow.

00:44:09   Yeah, that's the worst.

00:44:10   That's the worst number.

00:44:11   42 desktops.

00:44:15   That's a lot of desktops.

00:44:16   It is.

00:44:17   All right.

00:44:19   Should we take a break?

00:44:20   Man, everyone just wanted to hear us talk about the Magic Keyboard, right?

00:44:24   That's why people tuned in.

00:44:27   Oh yeah, the Magic Keyboard.

00:44:28   We should talk about that.

00:44:29   Okay.

00:44:31   We'll do it after this break.

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00:45:53   - All right, so the iPad Magic Keyboard.

00:45:57   Federico has one, I have one.

00:46:00   Stevens is on the way, I believe?

00:46:03   - Yeah, it could be here as we record.

00:46:05   So if it is, I'll disappear, but I don't have one yet.

00:46:08   So I'm gonna let you guys share your impressions.

00:46:11   - So I read Federico's wonderful article.

00:46:14   You wrote a great article, Federico Bravo, on that one.

00:46:18   - Thank you, thank you.

00:46:19   I figured we could maybe go through, some of my notes that I've made are taken from

00:46:25   observations of reading your article, some are taken from my own use cases.

00:46:29   I figure we'll just go through all of this as we go.

00:46:33   And then Stephen, I guess you can ask us questions in case you want to know anything you didn't

00:46:37   know about.

00:46:38   Okay.

00:46:39   So I think it's probably, I think maybe funnily enough, the least exciting part of this whole

00:46:46   product or like the thing that is getting spoken about the least is the thing that it's

00:46:51   really supposed to do the most and it's to be a very good keyboard and it is a very good

00:46:56   keyboard and that's not really the exciting part of it. You know what I'm saying? It's

00:47:01   like the keyboard is excellent, right? Like the actual keyboard itself. I find it to be

00:47:06   better than most or if any laptop keyboard I've tried recently and it doesn't feel like

00:47:12   any concessions have been made for this keyboard. The way the keys feel themselves, they feel

00:47:18   full-sized, they're nice and stable. It's great, right Federico? It's just like a great

00:47:22   keyboard. It's a very good keyboard. I've never used one of the new keyboards in the

00:47:32   16-inch MacBook Pro or the new MacBook Air. I have an old external Magic keyboard and

00:47:39   I have as a frame of reference the Sylvia's old 13-inch MacBook Pro with the butterfly keyboard.

00:47:46   And this is so much better than the butterfly keyboard. It has a bit less travel than the old

00:47:53   Magic Keyboard, but it's totally fine for me. I like typing on it. It feels nice, it feels great.

00:48:00   It's quite stable. I honestly have no complaints. The backlight is really even. We both have the

00:48:07   the 12.9, I'm very curious to try out the 11 and see how that feels as a keyboard

00:48:15   because it's naturally going to be more cramped, right? Like it has to be because

00:48:19   on the 12.9 the keyboard runs all the way to the edges. So like I wonder what

00:48:23   that feels like but the 12.9 is very very good. It's very very good. One of the

00:48:32   things that surprised me the most when I was watching all of the YouTube videos

00:48:36   that were coming out in advance, right, because there were people that were

00:48:40   receiving this thing before any reviewers could publish reviews,

00:48:44   was that the level of adjustability seemed less than I expected it to be.

00:48:50   And it is, like even in using it. But I've found that at the same time,

00:48:57   when I'm used in a device itself, it's as much as I need it to be.

00:49:01   I thought it was going to go back further, but I haven't had a situation in using it over the last 24 hours,

00:49:09   which admittedly is only 24 hours, where I feel like I've needed more adjustability from it.

00:49:14   Right, right. Yeah. I think we mentioned that we basically knew that it was not going to fold all the way into the back of the iPad,

00:49:23   and judging from the comments that I've seen and the discussion that I've seen on Twitter and Reddit,

00:49:30   I think a lot of people were actually expecting the opposite.

00:49:33   They thought that they would be able to fold and to have a 180-degree folding angle, basically,

00:49:41   like to completely hide the keyboard in the back of the case and use the iPad in tablet

00:49:47   mode, like in drawing mode for the pencil, or just if you wanted to use the software

00:49:51   keyboard.

00:49:53   As you can do with the SmartKeybarfolio and the SmartFolio, you can fold the entire thing

00:49:58   in the back of the device. And that's not possible with a magic keyboard. But I think,

00:50:06   we mentioned this is not going to be possible, and we talked about my kickstands, we said

00:50:12   you're not going to be able to use the kickstands because this thing is not going to fold. But

00:50:17   I agree with you that I haven't found myself in the position of saying, "Oh, well, I wish

00:50:25   that the screen would go a little further or... I haven't yet found myself wishing for

00:50:32   a bigger viewing angle, if that makes sense. So I do appreciate that I can bring the iPad

00:50:40   closer to me. Say that I'm laying in bed and I have the... using the iPad with the Magic

00:50:51   keyboard, I can bring the iPad closer to the keyboard and it stays

00:50:59   attached and it doesn't fall and crash onto the keyboard.

00:51:03   That's because of the hinge, that it's a relatively stiff inch.

00:51:07   But I don't know, I've seen a lot of complaints about "oh the hinge is too

00:51:15   stiff" or maybe "oh the keyboard is way too heavy" and I don't feel

00:51:19   that way. I think the stiffness of the hinge is regular, like it's normal. It's exactly

00:51:29   what I expected it to be. And the weight and the weight distribution is also like... it

00:51:35   made sense for me right away. I was not expecting this keyboard to be as lightweight as the

00:51:41   smart keyboard. And I guess we were all expecting this. But I'm very surprised, and maybe this

00:51:48   is like my general reaction. I'm very surprised by other people's surprised reaction. Like,

00:51:57   what were you thinking? That this was going to be super lightweight, despite the fact

00:52:01   that it's an actual keyboard with backlit keys and a trackpad, and it needs to support

00:52:08   a floating design? Not even the floating design means it needs to be heavy. Any keyboard like

00:52:15   this would, if it's like to give you adjustability, has to be heavy.

00:52:20   But especially because it's a floating design, which means it's entirely based on this two-hinge

00:52:26   system and magnets. You gotta put that weight somewhere, right? That's just how physics

00:52:34   work? Like, what were you expecting? And so, I don't know, I find most of the conversations

00:52:41   surrounding "Oh, it's an heavy keyboard" or "Oh, it doesn't let you fold it all the way".

00:52:48   Quite surprising because Apple decided to go with this design direction, and we can

00:52:54   talk about that. But how can you wish for... It seems like wishing for impossible things

00:53:02   here. Like, I like the design...

00:53:04   I think a lot of these opinions are held by people that want to use the product. They

00:53:09   an iPad keyboard to be something else. And if you are someone who thinks like this is too heavy for

00:53:16   me or I can't fold it around to the back, well the Smart Folio is the thing for you, right? Like

00:53:23   that's what that's for. You know there is like this product is a focused product, you know, it is

00:53:29   a product for people that use a keyboard so much with an iPad that they want to make it more laptop

00:53:36   like they want to make it more adjustable, they want to have pass-through charging,

00:53:39   and will therefore take the weight addition of this becoming laptop weight, right? Like

00:53:46   that if you're going to carry it around or put it in your bag, you have a laptop now, right? Like

00:53:50   that's what you have. But in it being a laptop, it's way more comfortable to use on your lap.

00:53:55   You can pick it up and carry it around by the base, right? Like these are two things

00:54:00   that were either difficult to do or not as comfortable to do. Like, well,

00:54:04   Wasn't as comfortable. This is more comfortable to use than the smart folio. Not wildly, right?

00:54:10   Like it still has a sharp edge that can dig into your leg. You know, it's it's still it's not

00:54:15   completely balanced in every situation, but it's way better than that. And like you couldn't pick

00:54:19   up like comfortably confidently the smart folio by the keyboard part and carry your iPad around.

00:54:25   But you can do that with this because it's more like a laptop because this thing is super sturdy.

00:54:31   I really want to see someone tear one of these down because I want to know what is in that base

00:54:36   because it's very thin, very heavy, like it does not flex at all which is wild but like anyway my

00:54:41   point being that like this the magic keyboard for iPad Pro is a device for people that consider

00:54:52   a keyboard vital to the usage of an iPad Pro which is not everyone, it doesn't need to be everybody

00:54:57   and for the type of person that uses it so much that they're willing to make some trade-offs.

00:55:01   Right? And like if you are not that person, then there are other products available, which is great.

00:55:07   And at the same time I feel like, and this is not something that I think enough people are

00:55:12   considering, and which is why I try to make this point multiple times in my story,

00:55:17   it's a keyboard that turns your iPad into a laptop, but it's also a keyboard designed to

00:55:23   invite you to detach the iPad when you want to use it as a tablet.

00:55:27   And I feel like that is an important design decision that needs to be considered, that needs

00:55:34   to be understood about the Magic Keyboard. Because Apple could have gone in a bunch of different

00:55:39   design directions, right? They could have done something like the Breach Keyboard, they could

00:55:43   have done something like Logitech and Zag, for example, have done before, with these cases where

00:55:47   where you snap the iPad into, and you have a laptop form factor, but it's also very difficult

00:55:53   and it's like a chore if you want to remove the iPad from it. Whereas the Magic Keyboard

00:55:59   has been designed with the entire thing with the floating design and the magnets. It's

00:56:04   not just to be fancy, it's to be a design that invites you, that encourages you to detach

00:56:09   the iPad when you want to switch to tablet mode. And I think that's an important design

00:56:14   aspect of the Magic Keyboard and not enough reviews or pointing out. Most people are saying,

00:56:19   "Yeah, it turns your iPad into a laptop." But the "why" of the design, you know, like

00:56:24   the way that it works from a design perspective is, yes, it lets you turn the iPad into a

00:56:29   laptop, and yes, it has a customizable viewing angle, but it's designed that way with that

00:56:35   floating design because it makes it as easy as it could be for you to detach the iPad

00:56:41   and hold the screen in your hands.

00:56:43   I found that the detaching was possible. It's not easy or natural to just pick the iPad

00:56:53   up off the stand. Really?

00:56:54   Like I've had many times where the stand comes with me.

00:56:57   Really? Yeah. What I'm saying is your mileage may vary

00:57:02   on this. Sure.

00:57:03   But it is not like, "Oh, you just pick it up and it stays exactly..." No, that's not

00:57:08   the case. I mean, if you cannot do it with one hand though,

00:57:10   we're talking about like using your left hand on the keyboard and picking it up with the right hand.

00:57:14   Which is fantastic, but like the marketing and everyone's been like "oh you just pick it up with

00:57:19   one" and you can, it's possible to do it with the 12.9 inch, but it doesn't work every time.

00:57:24   Sometimes the keyboard comes with it. I've also seen a video sent to us from listener Lamin on

00:57:28   the 11th, it just doesn't work at all. The 11 inch one, like there's just the weight distribution I

00:57:34   guess is different, but like it just stays connected, right? But again you compare it

00:57:40   to a bridge keyboard, you compare it to the Logitech, what you call the slim combo.

00:57:44   They're way harder to get off. I found the bridge keyboard less frustrating than you to remove,

00:57:50   but comparatively between these two, it's night and day. Like we're in different product categories

00:57:55   at this point. Stuffing the iPad into those clips of the bridge keyboard and getting the rubber to

00:58:00   align just right? It's a bad feeling. It's like, and it feels like you're squishing, you know,

00:58:07   Oh, no, no, no, no.

00:58:09   This is so much better.

00:58:10   You know, it doesn't, it doesn't, it just pales in comparison, right?

00:58:15   Like what I'm saying is it is incredibly easy to remove this device from it whilst also

00:58:21   staying connected when you need it to, which is the wonder of the design here, right?

00:58:25   That you can very easily remove it, but it also stays put.

00:58:29   It's like perfectly balanced.

00:58:31   My point is just like, it's very easy to do it.

00:58:34   not as easy always as the ads would let you believe, but they're advertising, right? Like

00:58:39   of course they show the best. I just wanted to get it out there because I've just seen

00:58:42   a lot of people say like, oh, you can remove it one hand. And I think it perpetuates this

00:58:46   idea that it's like the keyboard always stays put, but it's not the way it works. It's also

00:58:51   tricky to open, right? Like it's not... In my mind it wasn't going to be as difficult.

00:58:59   Like we're having very different experiences here.

00:59:02   Can you open it one hand only?

00:59:04   No.

00:59:05   That's what I mean.

00:59:06   What I'm saying is…

00:59:07   But is that a problem?

00:59:08   Like is that a problem?

00:59:09   Using two hands, is that a problem?

00:59:10   No, but what I'm saying is not what I expected.

00:59:13   Like I just in my mind didn't think that it would be like, the hinges would be so stiff,

00:59:22   but I know they need to be, I want them to be, but like it's, you know, they're just,

00:59:27   The reason I'm saying a lot of this stuff is I just want to set the realistic expectations

00:59:34   for our listeners for some of this stuff because there are things... this product you have

00:59:40   to accept physics to accept it. There are things that you imagine this thing you would

00:59:48   want it to do. I would want infinite adjustability everywhere. But it can't do that because then

00:59:57   it would just fall to pieces all the time, right? I would love it to flip around to the

01:00:01   back, but you can't do that, right? I would love to be able to open it up like I do a

01:00:05   laptop, right? Just one hand, but that's not the case because the hinge needs to be stiff

01:00:11   because the iPad's where all the weight is. And I only say all of these things so I get

01:00:17   that out of the way because I'm absolutely in love with this keyboard. It is unbelievably

01:00:24   well designed, it is fantastically executed. They completely nailed it. Apple have given

01:00:31   me the iPad 2 in 1 that I have wanted for a long time now. Since Jason first put the

01:00:39   idea in my mind of an iPad laptop, which was a long time ago now, before I ever tried a

01:00:47   Brydge keyboard, I was like "Oh that could be interesting" and then over time I've bought

01:00:52   different products to try and give me that and I've gotten most of the way there but

01:00:57   this thing is it, right? Like it is it. The keyboard is fantastic. It is adjustable in

01:01:03   the way that I need and there's a freaking trackpad at the bottom of it. It completely

01:01:07   changes the way I use the device. It's amazing. You don't have to charge it. Exactly. When

01:01:13   you disconnect the iPad you don't have to make sure that you turn it off because it's

01:01:16   not Bluetooth. So when you detach the iPad, the keyboard is also gone. So yeah.

01:01:21   And it charges at full power, which I did not expect.

01:01:25   It doesn't seem to support fast charging, but I'm not surprised by that. So it's almost

01:01:30   full speed, but it's not, I mean, it's obviously more than five watts, but it's not like 30

01:01:37   watts. I think it averages around 20 maybe.

01:01:40   But yeah, I was definitely expecting it was going to be a, it will trickle charge.

01:01:44   Right. I was expecting that too, so I'm surprised.

01:01:47   But it's doing full charging but not high speed charging.

01:01:50   So it's like you can continue using it and it will continue charging,

01:01:53   but you can't plug it into the big chargers and get a fast charge from it.

01:01:57   Yeah.

01:01:57   There's some nuance in understanding that it's a little bit confusing.

01:02:01   Which is fine because I mean it's literally power going through a tube,

01:02:05   going to three pins in the back of a tablet.

01:02:09   Like, it's totally fine. You know, I'll take those 20 watts or whatever.

01:02:13   Yeah, exactly. I want to ask you all about the trackpad

01:02:17   I had assumed this was gonna be like the magic trackpad and not moving and how does it feel to go back to a trackpad?

01:02:23   That actually clicks you would never know a difference really

01:02:27   Yeah, because because they they do the all like the entire thing clicks, right?

01:02:33   You know, you could tell me it was

01:02:37   The force touch trackpad and I would believe you because it's so consistent and feels so good

01:02:43   like it's as good as a trackpad clickly in a clicky perspective as you would

01:02:48   want do you agree Federico? Oh because there's another trackpad that doesn't

01:02:53   click? No no no that it's perfect. Yeah it's a perfect trackpad but yeah just

01:02:58   like no but Steven mentioned how does it feel to go back to a trackpad that

01:03:01   physically clicks? Yeah yeah because like in the laptops they don't physically

01:03:05   click it's all... Oh but I don't own a laptop so I don't know. Yeah okay. Yeah I have

01:03:09   no idea, like I have no reference for that. What about the Magic Trackpad? Oh, it doesn't

01:03:14   physically click? No, you see, you wouldn't know, right? Like it just feels the same now.

01:03:18   It just feels the same to me, I don't know. So here's the thing Federico, fun thing for

01:03:22   you to do, turn off your Magic Trackpad and poke it. It breaks your brain. Oh yeah, it

01:03:27   doesn't do anything, it's like the old home button when the iPhone was off. Oh yeah, I

01:03:34   guess it's not a physical click then. But it just feels like it though. Yeah, they feel

01:03:38   exactly the same. It's satisfyingly clicky, I find. I think it's great. This whole thing

01:03:46   is satisfyingly clicky. The keyboard is clicky enough and it feels good. The trackpad feels

01:03:50   good. I have had no problem with the size of the trackpad. It's a small trackpad. Federico,

01:03:56   you measured it, right?

01:03:58   Five centimeters by ten centimeters. I have no idea what that's like in inches or whatever.

01:04:03   Yeah, who needs it? But like which feels wild because Magic Trackpads are so massive.

01:04:08   That is 1.9 inches by 3.93 inches.

01:04:13   I got a lot of love for this. I got a lot of love for this product.

01:04:17   Yeah, it's um... the trackpad is one centimeter shorter than the trackpad in the bridge keyboard Pro Plus,

01:04:26   but this is a trackpad that works and lets you click everywhere. Like you can literally click everywhere.

01:04:32   You don't have dead spots in the trackpad where you cannot physically click.

01:04:36   It works everywhere and it supports up to four-finger gestures.

01:04:39   And I find the four-finger gestures to be a little tricky, like they require a bit of additional precision,

01:04:44   but three fingers are totally fine.

01:04:47   And the three, actually the three-finger and four-finger gestures are basically the same on iPadOS, at least right now.

01:04:53   I am, and I've seen a friend of the show, Steve Chandler-Smith, tweet about this.

01:04:59   I am seeing some difficulties now when trying to pinch to zoom and like pinch you close and open,

01:05:06   like in photos for example.

01:05:08   I do believe this is the kind of thing that will be fixed with a software update.

01:05:13   It feels like that. It doesn't feel like a physical limitation of the trackpad

01:05:16   because it's a multi-touch trackpad.

01:05:18   So the pinch to zoom thing, it does feel to me like something that will be fixed on the iPadOS side.

01:05:25   I am, and this is now, I know that it's my problem but I need to mention it,

01:05:30   I am adjusting the way that I type

01:05:33   and the way that I place my hands on the keyboard because every once in a while

01:05:38   I bump my fingers against the bottom

01:05:41   edge of the iPad because when the iPad, because the iPad is floating on top of

01:05:46   the keyboard

01:05:47   at its most open angle the bottom edge of the iPad is

01:05:51   sort of parallel to the number row, and sometimes my finger bumps against that,

01:05:57   which means that when I'm typing I accidentally touch something on the screen. I know that it's

01:06:02   because of the way I type, because I don't type with all my fingers, I've never learned how to

01:06:10   professionally type. I must be doing something weird with my hands, I'm not like one of those

01:06:15   people that can type with all their fingers and look at the screen. Every few seconds I need to

01:06:20   to look down at the keyboard. I've never learned, because I've never been taught how to actually

01:06:25   type like a professional. And so I'm a just like a professional. Just I type with my index

01:06:31   fingers really fast. That's what I do. But I'm not like Jason style. I am. I am still

01:06:36   trying to get my head around this. You are touching the screen. Yeah. Cause he's, he's,

01:06:42   he's typing with his index fingers, like little finger guns. And so are your knuckles touching

01:06:47   the screen? Yes, exactly. Yeah, I was like holding my hands out up in the air. I'm still

01:06:52   not sure how you're touching the screen though. What fingers are touching the screen? For

01:06:58   example, like my middle finger occasionally. Ah, I get you now. Okay, now I understand.

01:07:03   Right, right, right, right. I've seen you type, now I can get it together, right? Like

01:07:07   I've seen the way that you type. You type slightly differently to me, but you are very

01:07:11   index fingery. So you kind of like, "Yeah, I understand now. Yeah, that's interesting."

01:07:17   But I think I'm adjusting. I think I've done some typing today and I think I was doing

01:07:21   already better than yesterday. So I just need to slightly change the way that I move my

01:07:30   fingers around when I type. But I think I'll be okay. I've had these issues before and

01:07:34   I'll always adjust when I was using different keyboards with the iPad in the past. Also,

01:07:41   issue, that it's not a big deal, it's only happening to me, I've checked with other people,

01:07:46   this is specific to my Magic Keyboard, so I don't know if I got a faulty unit, I don't

01:07:51   think it's a faulty unit, I think it's a problem with the setup that I have that I will describe

01:07:56   now. Sometime, and again, please don't make this a big deal, it's not a big deal, it's

01:08:00   not happening to any, you know, all the other people that I've asked have not seen this

01:08:04   problem but my Magic Keyboard makes a buzzing sort of hissing noise only only when I charge it

01:08:18   with a USB-C cable of course coming from the ultra fine 4k display into the USB-C port of the Magic

01:08:28   keyboard. It's a very loud buzzing noise. I sent you guys a recording yesterday. It woke us up

01:08:35   a couple of nights ago. The dogs thought that it was like a bug or something and they started

01:08:40   barking because they are afraid of bugs. But it's like... it's very loud, actually. And it only

01:08:48   happens when I try and charge the keyboard using the Ultrafine 4K, because the Ultrafine 4K can

01:08:54   also act as a USB-C hub and power source. So, I don't know what's going on there. It's not

01:09:03   promising as a thing for the keyboard to do, so I'm gonna keep an eye on it. But also, I mean,

01:09:13   I don't charge this computer during the day, so I'm fine with charging the iPad via the iPad's

01:09:22   own USB-C port, you know, at night. But I just thought I would mention this because

01:09:27   maybe there's something going on, maybe not. Maybe this keyboard is going to explode, maybe

01:09:31   not. I hope it doesn't, because I really like it. So yeah. But aside from that, I absolutely

01:09:39   love this keyboard. It's, yeah, I mean, it's in the story. It's very easy to tell. I think

01:09:47   it only takes you like 30 minutes or maybe an hour to say "Okay, yeah, this is the real

01:09:51   They've done it again in terms of redefining the iPad Pro experience by just giving you

01:10:00   a new accessory.

01:10:02   It's fascinating how much an accessory can change your perception and your usage of a

01:10:09   device.

01:10:10   And I know that there's more to the accessory, right?

01:10:13   It's the combination of the accessory and iPadOS and 13.4.

01:10:18   But still, it's quite remarkable how you buy a different piece and the main computer changes

01:10:24   with that.

01:10:25   It's, you know, fascinating to me.

01:10:28   Do you think this is going to really change how you work with the iPad day to day?

01:10:32   I mean, you're using it as a desktop a lot of the time.

01:10:35   Do you feel like that's getting ready to change again?

01:10:37   I do believe there will be a healthier balance of when I use the iPad in desktop mode and

01:10:44   when I use it in laptop mode with the Magic Keyboard, because I cannot stare down at a

01:10:52   laptop configuration all day long. I do think it's better for my neck and for my posture

01:11:00   in general to work with the Ultrafine 4K and to keep my head straight and look at the screen

01:11:06   in front of me, whereas with the Magic Keyboard I'm always going to have to stare down, and

01:11:11   I know that's gonna be super bad long term for my back and for my shoulders and everything.

01:11:15   But I do really like using it though. And I mentioned this in the story, I feel like I

01:11:23   must have really missed having a laptop in my life, because it just produces so much enjoyment

01:11:30   for me to be able to just lay in bed or just stay on the sofa and have the iPad in front of me,

01:11:35   and use the trackpad without having to constantly lift my hands off the keyboard and touch the screen.

01:11:42   It just feels so nice and I must have really missed this feeling since I stopped using MacBooks

01:11:48   eight years ago or something. I want to get something that can raise the Magic Keyboard

01:11:56   off my desk. Yes. Stop using the stand that I use and so now I will just put it down

01:12:05   on something and then use my external keyboard and trackpad but never take it out.

01:12:13   Like a bunch of books or some some desktop computers?

01:12:16   Or like one of those 12 south stands that they do for the...

01:12:21   Yeah, I mean, you know, for when I can ever go back to my studio, like my desk has

01:12:25   the laptop VESA arm which will work perfectly fine for this but for what for at home right now

01:12:33   I just, because I don't want to, it's frustrating to like have to put it in the stand, take it out,

01:12:39   put it back in, put it, like I would prefer to just set it down. Like Adina has a, we got her

01:12:45   a new desk and she has one of these laptop arms, she just puts her laptop on the laptop stand on

01:12:50   the face arm. So I want something like that now for my desk where I do all of my kind of like

01:12:59   typical desk work and then that will be great. Then I have to take it out, put it back, take it

01:13:03   it out, put it back. Because this is nice and adjustable anyway, so it will work perfectly.

01:13:08   I just need something to put it on, to lift it off the desk a bit.

01:13:12   The 12 south curve stand for MacBook and laptops looks very nice.

01:13:18   I'll take a look.

01:13:20   It looks like it's fairly big.

01:13:24   Is it going to raise it high enough though? That's what I want to know.

01:13:29   There's a diagram of somebody staring straight ahead.

01:13:33   not massive but it may be enough. I don't think that's high enough. Like my Viacom

01:13:40   stand is high off the table. Yeah it's not as high as the Viacom. Yeah I see, I

01:13:45   want something that can raise it high. But I'm sure there's something like this

01:13:53   maybe by another company exists. It doesn't have to be iPad specific I mean

01:13:59   as long. It's basically a 13-inch laptop. Yeah, you just need a laptop stand.

01:14:04   Federico, can you talk about the media keys and the brightness issues, or what's going

01:14:12   on there? There are no media keys on the Magic Keyboard,

01:14:16   which is unfortunate, and I really think that in a future revision Apple should figure out

01:14:20   a way to have an additional row of function keys and media keys to control brightness

01:14:26   and music playback, have a home button basically. I know that Myke wishes for a physical home

01:14:33   button. That's the only one I care about. I don't care about media keys, I just want

01:14:37   a home button. Personally, that's all I want. Are you going to use it to go back home or

01:14:41   to open multitasking and stuff? I got really used to having a physical home button on the

01:14:48   bridge keyboard. So I know I have the trackpad but I very frequently

01:14:55   would tap that home button after doing something on a keyboard, right?

01:15:00   Send a message, go home, right? That's something I would do all the time and

01:15:06   it's just my hands are on the keyboard and I know that I can do command H to go

01:15:11   home. I know that exists, I use it now, it's what I do, but it's just much nicer

01:15:15   said I have just a button in the place of the escape key, which is where it was, considering

01:15:21   there's no escape key. It's like the perfect placement for a button like that. I would

01:15:25   like that. Apple has gone some way to allow me to remap modifiers. Just let me change

01:15:31   the Caps Lock key to a Home key. Just let me do that. That's what I want, and then I'll

01:15:36   be happy, you know?

01:15:38   Because there are no media keys, if you want to change the brightness of the Magic Keyboard's

01:15:43   keys manually, you have to go in Settings. And it's quite the trip to Settings, because

01:15:48   you've got to do Settings > General > Keyboard > Hardware keyboard, and there you will find

01:15:54   a slider that lets you manually adjust the keyboard's brightness. Now, I've been totally

01:15:59   fine with letting the keyboard adjust its own brightness automatically via the ambient

01:16:03   sensor. Like, I have not felt the need to manually slide this slider, but a lot of

01:16:13   people are saying that it's annoying that they cannot do so quickly. So thanks

01:16:19   to the help of Max Stories readers, we figured out the path to take you directly

01:16:26   to that page in Settings. And in my story I've included a simple two action

01:16:31   shortcut that you can save as a widget and you can tap from the iPad home screen even,

01:16:36   and it takes you directly into the hardware keyboard page of settings. Directly from the

01:16:43   widget, it doesn't even take you to shortcuts first, it jumps straight into settings, straight

01:16:48   into the hardware keyboard page. So that's at least convenient if you're one of those people who want

01:16:52   to manually change the keyboard's brightness, you can do that. Another complaint that I've seen is

01:16:58   the lack of an escape key on the Magic Keyboard, and that is true, there's no escape key on

01:17:05   this keyboard, just like it wasn't on the Smart Keyboard Folio before. But a little

01:17:10   known fact of iOS and iPadOS is that for years now there has been a system-wide keyboard

01:17:18   shortcut that replaces all functions of the escape key, which means closing photos, closing

01:17:27   video players

01:17:29   Dismissing any kind of preview screen or you know menu and that keyboard shortcut that again works

01:17:35   everywhere in every single app because it's a system shortcut like command C to copy is

01:17:41   command period so if you did not know this until yesterday that

01:17:46   Replicates the functionality of the escape key everywhere on iPad OS so

01:17:52   That's been a shortcut on the Mac forever

01:17:55   Back in like the classic Mac OS you could do command period to quit a file copy

01:17:58   I think in logic it works to quit a bounce

01:18:01   So if you're exporting something and then rels you screwed up does it's it's all over the Mac

01:18:06   So like I guess it makes sense to be on the iPad but an escape key would make

01:18:12   Just a billion times more so I mean nicer would be nice a lot nicer thumbs up for the magic keyboard

01:18:18   So happy so far right it's so good. It's good

01:18:23   I'm in love with it. It's like...

01:18:26   You know, I feel like I really wanted to just get out some things which I think are not like...

01:18:31   magical, wonderful about it.

01:18:34   You know, like just to have them out there.

01:18:37   But overall this thing is absolutely awesome.

01:18:40   So good.

01:18:42   Like it's exactly what I wanted from a product.

01:18:44   And more.

01:18:45   It's given me something...

01:18:47   It's given me like an experience that I've wanted for a long time.

01:18:51   where I feel like I actually have an Apple Made 2-in-1, which is what I wanted.

01:18:55   Oh yeah, and speaking of which, because you've said a long time, and I feel like we need to

01:19:01   address this, because somebody on Reddit... Why are you doing this?

01:19:06   If you've started with somebody on Reddit, like, you know...

01:19:09   So this person actually even replied to my reply, and they were actually kind of nice,

01:19:15   but I feel like they were making a bigger point that it's worth addressing on the show.

01:19:20   Basically, the original comment said "I cannot stand" or like "it bothers me" how people

01:19:27   like Federico and Myke, they're saying that the Magic Keyboard is what they've always

01:19:32   wanted while unconnected in the past, they were saying that they did not think that the

01:19:38   iPad could use an external keyboard or a trackpad or a pointer, a cursor, whatever.

01:19:44   Now, that is absolutely true. Years ago, I personally, I was opposed to the idea—and

01:19:53   we're talking 2013, 2014—I was opposed to the idea of split view on the iPad. I

01:19:58   thought it was not necessary. And years ago, I'm sure that if you asked me in 2016, "Hey,

01:20:05   do you think the iPad needs a trackpad to be a real computer?" I'm pretty sure that

01:20:11   I would say no, I disagree with that. I still think that it, if you know me, you know that

01:20:16   it, I mean I was working on the iPad two years ago, I was working on the iPad six months

01:20:20   ago before the Magic Keyboard, before iPadOS. I don't think the iPad needs a trackpad or

01:20:27   a pointer to be a computer. But it is also true that people's opinions change with time

01:20:35   and products, in this case Apple products, evolve and new features are added and the

01:20:40   operating system changes, and the landscape around you changes, the ecosystem around you

01:20:46   changes, and at some point it started making sense for the iPad. Once we had the iPad Pro,

01:20:52   it made sense to have Split View, and once we had these powerful apps with multi-window

01:20:58   and drag and drop, it made sense to say, "Well, why not just also have a trackpad, and have

01:21:05   a pointer and have a keyboard. Because with time I think, yes, maybe Myke and I years

01:21:12   ago had different opinions, but that's just how people are.

01:21:18   One of the biggest changes for me was when I started using the iPad, I didn't have the

01:21:24   type of posture and RSI problems that I do now. So now, for me to be able to use an iPad

01:21:31   Pro as much as I want to, I need to be able to have things like it be elevated off the

01:21:36   desk. I need to be able to not be reaching out and touching it all the time, right? Like

01:21:41   it started with the Apple Pencil for me. I'm sure you could go back far enough and find

01:21:45   a time when I said that a stylus would be ridiculous on an iPad, right? But when things

01:21:50   are introduced and they start to make more sense, you can see them. And sometimes we

01:21:55   can make accurate predictions for our future and sometimes we don't. But the point that

01:21:59   you're making, which is the ultimately most important one, which is always worth remembering,

01:22:03   especially when thinking about and evaluating technology, is appreciating that people's

01:22:08   opinions change over time.

01:22:10   That's healthy. It's a healthy thing.

01:22:12   You should. If you do not change your opinions over time, not on everything, but on things,

01:22:18   you need to think about that. You have to be able to critically assess your own thinking

01:22:25   change it based on input from external sources. That is a very important thing to be able

01:22:31   to do. Or to even be able to actually understand other people's point of views. Like, these

01:22:37   are important traits that you need to be able to develop as a human being. So, yes, I am

01:22:43   sure there has been a time where I've said, "put a mouse on this thing" and it was ridiculous.

01:22:48   It was in the essence of like, TJ's brought it up in the chat room, like you go back far

01:22:52   enough into like cortex and I wasn't using an iPad at all right and thought it was silly.

01:23:01   I remember that. You know like because I have been in and out of using iPads over time and

01:23:06   it wasn't until the iPad Pro where I was like that's it right got it and then you'll hear

01:23:12   times where like Gray right everybody knows Gray like you had a million iPads he just

01:23:16   stopped using iPads for a while completely. And now uses them again. You know, like people

01:23:22   change depending on their situations, you know?

01:23:25   I guess what bothered me in that original comment, and again, the person later replied

01:23:31   and said, yeah, it was my bad for the way that I wrote that comment, is that they said,

01:23:35   oh, Federico, I don't like how he's concluding his magic keyboard article saying this is

01:23:41   the keyboard I've always wanted, and I didn't actually write "I've always wanted" in my

01:23:46   story. I wrote "I've been waiting for..." But you can never win against people's interpretations

01:23:51   of what you say as opposed to what you say. Because I know that I didn't always want a

01:23:56   Magic Keyboard with a trackpad. But also, even if I wrote that, you need to understand

01:24:01   that we've said right here today on the show, "Oh, this is the keyboard I've always wanted."

01:24:06   relative always, if that makes sense. Like it's always since the iPad changed, right?

01:24:13   Not always since, oh, in 1993 I didn't want the Magic Keyboard. Well, of course you didn't

01:24:19   because it didn't exist, right? I am known to exaggerate, you know, I am a

01:24:24   hyperbolic person, right? Like I exaggerate a lot. So I will say things like, I've always

01:24:30   wanted this, where this always has been three years.

01:24:34   Exactly. That's what I mean. It's always relative to the point where you changed your opinion

01:24:40   and you changed as a person since you put yourself in the position to always want something.

01:24:46   From that point on. So that's a clarification for the record. Some day in 2020, maybe in 2026,

01:24:55   somebody will say, "Oh, in 2020, Federico said he wanted the Magic Keyboard." And yes,

01:25:00   people change opinions change that's just how the world turns on and on but yes we do like the magic

01:25:06   keyboard it's it's a very good keyboard very good keyboard ah are we looking forward to mine showing

01:25:13   up so maybe i can provide some additional thoughts next week all right this episode of connected is

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01:26:51   So we're going to end the show talking about some rumors

01:26:53   Let's start with the high-end headphone report. This is in Bloomberg from Mark Gurman and Debbie Wu

01:26:59   Apple according to them is working on high-end headphones with a bunch of features including

01:27:05   Interchangeable parts which would include ear pads and headbands magnetic attachments for some of these options

01:27:12   Made from premium fabrics or light breathable sport materials

01:27:16   So maybe a range of headphones here even and Federico you are the headphone guy, but before we cut you loose

01:27:22   Am I? Oh god, do I have the reputation now?

01:27:25   Between the three of us you are.

01:27:26   Wait, should we do like this Federica number being the value of headphones?

01:27:31   Oh no, no, please don't do it.

01:27:33   No, you say you don't want that Federica number, do you?

01:27:35   Yeah, it's higher than 20.6.

01:27:37   You are like, of the three of us, you care the most about headphones.

01:27:39   Yeah.

01:27:39   Okay.

01:27:40   You're the Marco of the situation.

01:27:42   Yeah.

01:27:43   I'm like a teeny tiny Marco.

01:27:45   Mm-hmm, teeny tiny.

01:27:46   Uh, what, you want my opinion on this?

01:27:49   I do but I just I want to say like the I've seen some tweets like oh my gosh interchangeable

01:27:54   parts like that's not a new thing in headphones like even my I use Sony MDR-7506 is to edit

01:28:00   in and last week I replaced the ear pads like this is a thing but maybe with Apple's flare

01:28:06   I think the magnetic is what is what excites people

01:28:09   yeah but it took me three seconds to like replace the leather with nicer pieces that

01:28:14   weren't disintegrating so sure this would be Apple's flare on top of it I just kind

01:28:18   I'm gonna like put that to bed a little bit in interchangeable parts on headphones. That's a thing an apple of course

01:28:24   I'm sure would do it in a more

01:28:26   Like fantastic way than anybody else, but it is a thing that other companies are doing apples not inventing this

01:28:32   I just wanted to get that out there. Yes, they're not inventing this and in fact

01:28:36   When I cheated about it, we I received a bunch of tweets pointing me to this company

01:28:42   called

01:28:45   Aye aye aye aye aye! It's called A-I-A-I-A-I-A-I audio. Aye aye aye aye aye audio. They do modular

01:28:58   headphones. So this is actually quite awesome and I came this close to making an order for

01:29:05   a custom setup. I was not familiar with this company. They let you put together your own

01:29:12   headphones. So they send you modular headphones. You can choose the headband, you can choose

01:29:17   the ear caps, you can choose the material, you can choose the style, you can choose the

01:29:21   cable, you can make it wired, you can make it wireless. In fact, they have this like

01:29:27   wild technology that is the wireless headband. So the chip is actually in the headband itself

01:29:33   and you can actually upgrade your old AI, AI, AI headphones to be wireless headphones

01:29:41   by just purchasing a new wireless headband.

01:29:44   So anyway, they're called the TMA-2HD headphones.

01:29:49   They are modular headphones.

01:29:50   They have a very nice put-it-together sort of page

01:29:54   where you go step by step through all the components.

01:29:57   It's very nicely done.

01:30:00   But I think-- Stephen, you mentioned the Apple flair of it.

01:30:04   And this is exactly what I think they will do.

01:30:07   So based on this rumor, my gut feeling

01:30:10   is they will do to headphones what they do to the Apple Watch.

01:30:14   Not in terms of like the fashion angle, but in terms of the personalization of it.

01:30:19   Oh, they will be fashionable.

01:30:20   They will be. I also think so.

01:30:22   But I think like the, at least what I would like to see is that the very,

01:30:29   the very basics is the idea that you can buy the Apple headphones and you can buy

01:30:37   these different pieces for it and you can easily swap them and whether they are based

01:30:43   on magnets or you know some other proprietary system but the idea is that you can do it

01:30:49   in 20 seconds and they look good and they look you know they're made of premium materials

01:30:56   and they change the experience for you so I'm thinking I don't know maybe you want to

01:31:01   go with a very breathable fabric for sports situations. So like you want to workout and

01:31:10   you want to wear these headphones, you can go with the light and breathable fabric that

01:31:17   is sweat resistant and whatever. Or you want to sit down and enjoy music, you have these

01:31:22   different types of ear cups and perhaps they're made of leather or Alcantara, I don't know,

01:31:28   you know, premium material that lets you enjoy music and has a better sound isolation and

01:31:33   has, you know, lets you enjoy, you know, the bass response or whatever in a different way

01:31:38   than the workout mode. The idea of like a modular headphones made by Apple is really

01:31:44   intriguing for me because I know that they can make it look nice, they can make it easy

01:31:49   for you, they can make it expensive for you, I'm sure. These will not be cheap headphones.

01:31:56   But it's also the idea of what app... like I can imagine a system where it's not just

01:32:02   that you swap the pieces, like you attach these different components, but also the software

01:32:08   recognizes the things that you're attaching and detaching from the headphones.

01:32:13   So like it'd be cool if the iPhone, for example, when you put on the workout cups, for example,

01:32:20   did something to you with Siri to say, "Oh, it looks like you're about to work out."

01:32:25   like, I don't know, gives you a playlist or whatever, because it recognizes that you're

01:32:29   wearing the iPhones, yes, but also the workout mode for those headphones. You know, the little

01:32:35   things like that, those kinds of integrations. I can imagine Apple doing with these headphones.

01:32:40   So like they recognize the pieces and then adjust? I mean, you got to assume that it

01:32:44   will, right? Because, you know, and they have their custom, what's it called now, the H1

01:32:50   cheap in the in the iPhones. So they can do all sorts of things there like sports,

01:32:55   office mode, you know, listening to music mode, whatever.

01:32:59   So, yeah, it's this is exciting to me because it's the Apple spin on an existing

01:33:05   idea. But hey, this is an Apple podcast.

01:33:08   We like what Apple does most of the time, usually.

01:33:11   So that's why we're excited.

01:33:13   I think about it. You could build like a whole little collection of parts and just

01:33:17   do what you need to do at any given time.

01:33:19   that is exciting to me. Oh you would like to build a collection wouldn't you? I

01:33:23   would yeah. Head pod parts per capita. Literally per capita. Yeah. You know what

01:33:31   capita means right? It's latent. It's a head. Yeah. Yes. Yes. I'll just pass them.

01:33:37   Well yes. I don't think we actually count in heads. Oh what's a figure of speech

01:33:43   called when you like... It's a speech. No but there's a figure of speech for when

01:33:48   you use like a part to indicate the whole. So like when you say "capita" in this case

01:33:55   is like the head but it means a person. And that's a, in grammar and in literature that's

01:34:00   a feature of speech like a, I would find it. This is how my brain works, I'm sorry, go

01:34:04   ahead.

01:34:07   The design of these that is described in this report is very interesting. That it's like

01:34:14   a kind of old school design of like these ear cups will have metal bars coming out of

01:34:22   the top of them and then it goes onto the headband. I just think as a really interesting

01:34:28   design language it feels kind of like 70s maybe, right? Like in its kind of like just

01:34:36   typical design of headphone. I think that that will look really classic. I think that

01:34:40   will be really nice. I'm super intrigued to see if they try and make this fashionable

01:34:48   because my imagination of this product was it would be like it would look like AirPods

01:34:56   in its design language, right? That it would be plastic or white.

01:35:02   The figure of speech is called the Synactoke. Oh, like the movie.

01:35:07   Sure. Yes. It's a part of something that refers to the whole of something or vice versa, which

01:35:16   is different. My teacher in high school always got me for this. It's different from the metonymy,

01:35:22   which is a substitution of cause for effect. So anyway.

01:35:26   All right, then. Yeah. Glad we got that squared away.

01:35:30   Me too. Yes. Yes. Thank you. There's a couple of,

01:35:34   know, uh, synect the key people in the chat, so thank you. I see you.

01:35:39   Synecty heads. I appreciate you is what I'm saying.

01:35:43   Well really, if we only have one, then the whole chat room is that way.

01:35:47   Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:35:50   Think about it.

01:35:51   So anyway, Myke was saying the design language of the AirPods, and I agree with that. I think

01:35:58   it, I think those will be, honestly, they will call it the AirPods Pro. No, well, not

01:36:02   AirPods Pro they cannot call it that right because we do have AirPods Pro now. AirPods

01:36:07   Studio? AirPods Studio is what I'm going with.

01:36:10   Yeah. I wondered if they would want to walk on the Beats branding.

01:36:15   It's possible right? I don't think they would I don't know but then again there's only so

01:36:19   many words right? Yeah. I don't think Max I've had people because we brought this up

01:36:25   a little bit on upgrade too and people have been tweeting at me and saying like AirPods

01:36:29   Max. I don't think that... that doesn't sound right to me.

01:36:34   Although you can go back and listen and we said "Oh, iPhone 11 Pro Max doesn't quite

01:36:39   sound right, it doesn't really roll off the tongue."

01:36:41   And I still stand by that opinion. It's not a good name.

01:36:46   Look at how things went though.

01:36:49   Maybe they will just be AirPods Pro Max. Maybe it's that.

01:36:53   You know it's gonna happen. AirPods Pro Max. So, I am very excited and now that we just

01:37:01   talked about it again, I am once again on the IIII website looking at the TMA2 builder

01:37:09   page.

01:37:11   This is like when I bought the Bridge Pro Plus. This is what you're doing to yourself,

01:37:17   right? You're buying a thing that Apple's gonna make.

01:37:20   No no no, I will not buy it. I gotta be responsible. There's a pandemic going on. Gotta save money.

01:37:26   I did cancel my bridge order by the way.

01:37:28   Yeah, you did the right thing.

01:37:29   I did do it. At this point it would have never been used. Even if they may,

01:37:33   even if there was no problem with their product, like I wasn't gonna use it

01:37:36   past the Magic Keyboard coming out.

01:37:38   I feel bad for them. Yeah.

01:37:41   I figured they'll be okay. Like Bridge-

01:37:45   Eventually.

01:37:46   Bridge have had problematic products in the past.

01:37:49   Do you remember when their original one wasn't working very well?

01:37:53   They just didn't work.

01:37:54   Yeah, and they got through it, they made a better product.

01:37:56   They can recall that.

01:37:57   I have complete faith that they will be able to produce a second iteration of the pro,

01:38:02   or whatever they're calling it, what do they call it? Pro+?

01:38:06   I hope so.

01:38:06   Where the tracking pad will be more effective, provided that Apple actually

01:38:10   allow for external tracking pads.

01:38:12   I hope so. Apple needs the competition, competition is good.

01:38:16   -Yazoop is cheaper and a different form factor and I think some people will prefer straight

01:38:22   up make this a laptop, right? I think some people will really like that still more than

01:38:27   the Magic Keyboard which is like, it's kind of like a laptop but different, you know?

01:38:33   -Yeah.

01:38:34   -Aye aye aye aye.

01:38:35   -Aye aye aye.

01:38:36   -Aye aye aye. I think is the site, right? Yes. But I will not buy them. I will not buy

01:38:44   them because I'm a responsible boy and I will not fight them. Good boy. Yes.

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01:39:31   Pingdom and Bombas and until next time gentlemen say goodbye. Arrivederci. Cheerio. Adios.