278: Honey for my Ears
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(upbeat music)
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- Hello and welcome to Connected episode 278.
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It's made possible by our sponsors,
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Squarespace, Direct Mail, and Booz Allen.
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My name is Steven Hackett
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and I am joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.
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- Hello, Mr. Steven Hackett, how are you?
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- I'm good, how are you?
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- I'm great, yes, thank you.
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And we are joined by Myke Hurley.
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- Hello there.
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- Wow. - Oh, hi.
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- Popped onto the scene there.
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- Yeah, that's my new style for 2020.
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It was a surprise.
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It's a surprise hello, easier style for 2020.
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It's a very specific style.
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See, I did it again.
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- Yes, wow, I'm surprised.
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- I'm not expecting it.
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- I'm shook.
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I am shook. - You're shook?
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- Yes. - I'm so shook right now.
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- We're gonna start the show with some follow-up.
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If Myke, if all your greetings are done,
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do you have any more greetings to do?
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- No. - Find out.
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- Hello, ha ha, see, I said I didn't have one.
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But I did have one.
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- It's too much for me one day, Myke.
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- Last week on the show, I built a little web app
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so you could put next to Twitter for iPad
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if you don't wanna see trends.
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And the listeners made much better versions of this.
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So these are filler 2.0 options.
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We have a version-- these are all in the show notes--
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by Matt, who created an improved version that responds
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to light and dark mode, including the blue,
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kind of dark blue that Twitter uses,
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which I think is really nice.
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And then not to be outdone, we have
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Lars, who made a shortcut to generate an empty web
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page, which can then be added to the home screen.
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It hides the Safari UI.
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But then we have Kyle, not Kyle's the gray, another Kyle.
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Kyle-- - Kyle Jones.
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- Kyle Jones. - Kyle's the Jones.
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- Kyle the Jones, Kyle's the Jones,
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made a PWA that you have to,
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you've run on a server somewhere,
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and then you add to your homepage,
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and you can set the background color,
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you can double tap and it cycles through the colors,
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but you can use it to store tweets temporarily
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via drag and drop.
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So you have the official Twitter app or website,
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and you just drag them over.
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So he made a shelf app for Twitter.
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And it looks incredible.
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And this goes far above and beyond
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what I ever thought would be possible for my little project.
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- I just love that because it's a PWA,
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like it takes advantage of all the latest.
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the WebKit stuff on iOS and iPadOS, which means you can add it to your home screen and
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it gets a custom icon, you can use it in SplitView, which is of course the main use case here.
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This is way more than I was expecting. Actually somebody actually made a PWA that lets you
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store tweets in the browser local storage. PWA, is that like public want for affection
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or something. What is that? No, it is a rap group.
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Oh, okay. The people with attitude, right? Is that what that is? Okay, that's good. That's
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good to know. It's exactly what it is. You can put people
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with attitude on your server. You know what? People with attitude is actually
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a really good name for Twitter in general. Like PWA. I think we found it.
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It's an inception sort of thing. It's a PWA for Twitter.
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You just drag all of the most salty tweets into the PWA and this is my people of attitude folder.
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That's really good.
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I have still very much been enjoying Backfill, which was made by a listener Charlie,
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whose podcast I was on actually. It was a very good interview. Charlie just launched a show
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called Launched, which is mostly about developers launching apps.
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What have you launched, Myke?
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You don't want to know what I've done.
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But I am a person who's launched other things.
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So it was actually a very, very fun interview.
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I will put a link to that in the show notes.
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Charlie did a really good job.
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I know the trials and tribulations of trying to host an interview show, and I think that
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Charlie did a good job, so you should go check it out.
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Also from last week, we had the birth of two Twitter accounts, annual chairman and keynote
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chairman. Currently I have the keys to the keynote chairman account. Federico, you have
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the annual chairman account all year, but you have not done anything with it. Why not?
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Get off my back. I'm being busy.
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You didn't even upload an avatar yet. I was aware of the fact that like Steven for some
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reason set a telephone number on the account. I don't actually know why Steven found it
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upon himself to log into that account.
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So I can tell you what happened.
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I attempted to log into mine, but I have like 35 Twitter logins and one password.
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That's what happened.
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And I got confused in my old age and logged into the wrong one.
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And by the time I realized what was happening, it already had a phone number attached to
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So when I was in there, I gave it a banner image and a bio and stuff.
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Do you see the level at which Stephen believes he will be the chairman that he gave his own
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phone number to the account that's supposed to be passed around?
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Well it required a phone number, so I was there.
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It didn't when I set it up.
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Did it though?
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Did it really require a phone number?
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You just, see in your old age you also missed the very small button that lets you skip it
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because I also skipped it.
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Can we just talk about for a second how bad Twitter is when you create an account?
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We have gotten more email.
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They really want your phone number now, like desperately. You have to like basically put
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them in a headlock to get them an email address. It's kind of interesting. What I will note
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though Federico is that @KeynoteChairman, which is Steven's account, has 550 followers
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and @AnnualChairman has 470. So the moment I start tweeting, that account will get to
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a thousand followers. Will it? Well, what is that going to be? It's going to be some
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hot exclusive content. But when? Anytime now? Well it's a surprise, that's my thing for 2020,
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surprise Twitter account. Wait hang on a second, surprise is my thing for 2020, don't take my thing.
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Yours is a surprise hello, mine is a surprise tweet. Maybe I need a Twitter account for surprise
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hello. You just tweet the word hello? Just yell hello at people? Because yeah, I mean you know,
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I don't deserve a Twitter account because I'm not a winner so maybe eventually later on I can get one.
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It looks like we're gonna get to do this again in March. It seems like there's an event coming.
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Oh yeah? Oh yeah? Wait, what? Is this hashtag breaking news? No, just no, no invites have
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been sent, but it just seems there's a lot of, there's like more and more rumors that there's
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a March event. I did see something today about production ramping up on a small phone. Yeah.
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Yeah, the iPhone hello. The iPhone hello. Hello. Federico, tell us about the Italian baker iPad
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kickstand case mod. What an incredible just can we all just drink that sentence in a little bit?
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Yes, yes. Steven can you say that again but a little bit more slowly? Federico can you tell
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us about the Italian Baker's iPad kickstand and keyboard case mod? Geez boy that sounds good.
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Isn't that good? Wow that is like I don't know honey for my ears. Yeah that's that's incredible.
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Can I just say though real quick how terrible it would be to have a honey poured into your ear?
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It would be so bad for that to happen to you.
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Why? No, look, Steven, Steven, this is one of those things where like you're old again.
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Just saying ASMR is not...
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That's better.
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Italian baker.
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No, see, look, again, again.
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All right, you know what, fine. That's the... you just did some ASMR. Good work.
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Italian baker. You're freaking me out a little bit now because it's making the hairs on my neck stand
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up so you need to stop. Yeah because the ASMR is working. It's actually working. ASMR.
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You just kept saying it over and over again. That's all it is.
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Funny in your ear. Please stop.
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Funny in your ear. You need to stop. Please you need to stop. Like because you just you just awoke
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a selection of people, like, almost like sleeper cell agents, a bunch of people just realized
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their sensitivity. Like, they could be on buses and stuff, like, you need to be more
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careful with that.
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A bunch of people just discovered ASMR because of you, Steve.
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And they got the totally wrong idea.
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So Federico, what is this about?
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ASMR stands for... is that what you want to know more about? Or are we talking about Italian
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bakers again?
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Yeah, tell us about this video. I watched this about four times. It's amazing.
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incredible so a connected listener who goes by the name of Italian Baker which
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is by the way just incredible awesome reference thank you sent me actually
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sent us a video over the weekend containing a v-mail it's a v-mail link
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and this video shows it's basically just a video that this person made for us to
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show how they modded the iPad's smart keyboard folio to accommodate a bunch of additions to the iPad.
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So we were talking last week about the iPad accessories that we would like to see. We mentioned,
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I mentioned it would be nice to have a kickstand or more viewing angle options on the iPad.
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So the Italian baker video, it starts relatively simple.
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It shows how this person bought an accessory called the Zwiches cover body,
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which is a plastic case that protects the edges of the iPad,
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but also serves as a pass-through for the smart keyboard folio.
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So you can put this case on and you can still keep using the Apple smart keyboard.
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But like all it does is that you put the pencil somewhere, right?
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And there's a pencil holder at the top. It comes with a pencil holder. You can still attach the
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pencil magnetically to the iPad Pro, which is why I instantly bought this accessory. I had no idea
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this existed. And it's on my iPad right now. It's a case and a pencil holder. And it's got a smart
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connector pass-through. So you can keep using the smart keyboard. It basically adds no bulk to the
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the iPad Pro, it adds no thickness, it's incredible, it's really well done, it's
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not cheap because I think I paid like $45. It's not cheap but it totally does what
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I want from this. It's a pretty expensive Apple Pencil holder though, right? Yes, it's
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an expensive Apple Pencil holder and it also protects the edges of the iPad Pro which,
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in hindsight, I kind of wish that I knew this before because all my edges are dinged up
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and scratched for some reason, so it's very nice. But the video gets progressively more interesting,
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gets wild after about one minute. Better or worse, depending on your kind of outlook on life.
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Gets so much better. So Italian baker attached a plastic kickstand. This is a standard
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laptop kickstand that you can buy from Amazon to the back of the Zwiecheese cover body case.
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Now, the Italian baker cut a hole in the Apple Smart Keyboard Folio to let the kickstand
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basically come out the other side. This person used magnetic paper, which we talked about last
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year very famously I think MKBHD made this thing popular. It's a piece of paper that
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lets you see where magnets are. So Italian Baker used magnetic paper on the SmartKeyboard
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Folio to see where the magnets were. He then cut a hole into the SmartKeyboard where it
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was magnet free and the hole is cut precisely so that the plastic kickstand can come out
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on the other side. Then he lined up the hole and in the video, I mean this makes so much
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more sense in a way I guess in the video because you see the finished project is actually kinda
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amazing that you have this completely custom iPad Pro with a pencil holder with a case
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and a kickstand that comes out of the back and the SmartKey portfolio is still attached
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but it's got a hole and the kickstand comes out of the hole. It is honestly incredible.
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So I have done something following this video. I did not cut a hole in my smart keyboard
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folio. I don't plan to do so because as we talked about before, I already have kickstands
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in the back of the smart keyboard folio. It's the kickstand method that we talked about
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last year, I have four metal kickstands that allow me to use the smart keyboard with two different...
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I'm surprised it hasn't gone up to six by now.
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No, it's four because I have two different viewing angles, a touch typing angle and a movie mode
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angle. So I have two sets of kickstands. So I don't need to cut a hole and attach a plastic
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kickstand, but I have bought the cover body, pencil holder/case, and I've done something else.
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But I want to keep this a surprise for now, because I will be, and I'm not kidding, I will be extremely
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judged by you both for what I've done. This will be revealed in tomorrow's episode of Adapt,
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here on Real AFM, and I have not yet received this thing. It should be here by next week, so I assume
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the next week's episode of Connected, I will have to suffer the consequences of my decision.
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Wuls, I don't want to share anything else for now, because I really want to make sure
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that especially you both listen to Adapt tomorrow and to that segment and realize what I've
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There is a thing that you have not quite anticipated, which is that both me and Steven have complete
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access to the Relay FM CMS.
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I don't know how you looked.
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I've already looked at the show notes for Adapt.
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So you know.
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So you know.
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It is not completely clear, but I think I know what you've done, and I am incredibly
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excited for next week's episode of Connected, because we can really get into that.
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So I would like to double down on the recommendation for listening to Adapt, so all of our listeners
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can be fully prepared for the glory of next week's episode of Connected.
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See, look, we have always...
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have always. I did not consider that. But you know what? I looked like four hours ago
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because I have been having this in my mind and as soon as I saw that adapt was in the
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system, I went trolling through the show notes. The show notes. Well, yeah. Will you stop
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doing that? You can't just keep doing this. So I'm surprised how low in 2020 is ASMR time
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for Stephen Hackett.
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Myke, it seems like you got confused in talking about 5G.
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Do you want to correct the record?
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Yeah, David wrote in to say that I got my 5G specs backwards.
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Made me feel better by saying it's complicated, so there should be no shame.
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Millimeter Wave is the high band super fast stuff over short distances, and sub-6 or 600
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megahertz is the stuff that's closer to LTE in speeds, and it's what T-Mobile has put
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the point still stands in that Apple is looking to apparently integrate both of these technologies
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into their 5G chips later this year, right? Later this year. Maybe. We'll find out. We'll find out
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together. This episode of Connected is brought to you by Booz Allen. Modernizing for the future is
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a challenge, especially for large organizations. You may need to integrate legacy systems with new
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technology, you may need to incorporate AI and analytics to work more efficiently and
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make fast decisions.
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Everyone needs new ways of thinking to move to what's next, whether for government or
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commercial goals.
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Booz Allen understands that they're helping some of the world's largest organizations
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They understand the missions of government and industry and the need to adapt a constant
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They provide open source solutions so clients can integrate innovation from anywhere, whether
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from visionary startups or major contractors. Plus, they're helping clients power new technologies
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control of innovation. Integrate, innovate, get it done with Booz Allen. Learn more at
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Booz Allen.com/relay. We'd like to thank Booz Allen for their support of the show.
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You may or may not be right about 5g, but I may or may not be right about Apple planning
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original podcasts.
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So this comes from a report in Bloomberg by Lucas Shaw and Mark Mark Gurman a couple of
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days ago that Apple is planning to make original podcasts promoting its TV shows.
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I think we spoke about this exact idea that a lot of TV networks now have podcasts that
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go behind the scenes and shows interview writers and actors and all that sort of sorts of things.
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It seems like a really, to me, really obvious way Apple could get into this.
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And it seems like they are maybe looking into this and they have sent requests for pitches,
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they've been talking to podcast producers, and it seems like maybe this could be moving
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Apparently as well, according to a report which makes perfect sense, is they're going
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to be making them that you would see some stars showing up on the shows.
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Basically they're copying the model that a lot of other TV networks have been doing.
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HBO have done this.
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Who makes The Good Place?
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Yeah, well there's a Good Place podcast which is hosted by one of the characters of the
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show, although not as the character as an individual, as a real human.
00:19:00
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So yeah, this approach makes a lot of sense because it is a good free marketing thing
00:19:08
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►
People like it.
00:19:09
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►
There are tons and tons of podcasts about TV shows just in general, people doing rewatches
00:19:13
◼
►
and this kind of fits into that idea but also includes conversation from the people who
00:19:20
◼
►
made it. Like there was a really good Watchmen podcast for HBO as well. So HBO's been doing
00:19:25
◼
►
a lot of this, the Chernobyl show was apparently very good. Jason always picks them in his
00:19:29
◼
►
favourites of the year when we do the upgrade he's like there's always an entrant of one
00:19:33
◼
►
of these because they're pretty good as look behind the scenes. My expectation if Apple
00:19:39
◼
►
are doing this because it is ultimately a promotional play that they would make these
00:19:46
◼
►
shows available to all. That would be my expectation. Because there's been a lot of questioning
00:19:53
◼
►
around like if Apple made their own podcasts would they only exist inside of Apple podcasts
00:19:59
◼
►
or would they exist everywhere that you could subscribe to a show in? And I think that if
00:20:04
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The idea of your show is that you want to make it a promotional piece for your TV content,
00:20:12
◼
►
that it makes sense to have it available everywhere.
00:20:14
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►
It could be proven wrong.
00:20:16
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But I think this is a very natural and great beginning.
00:20:21
◼
►
This is what we expected if they were going to do something.
00:20:23
◼
►
This seemed like low hanging fruit of a type of show to do because these shows are already
00:20:28
◼
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popular, they do well, and it's not going to be like a conflict of interest for Apple
00:20:33
◼
►
and the types of things that they would want to do. It's not going to cause them trouble.
00:20:38
◼
►
Doing a daily news show could be difficult, right? It could get political or whatever,
00:20:43
◼
►
but this is just easy stuff to do in a pipeline that they can control as well. So this makes
00:20:52
◼
►
a lot of sense, I think.
00:20:54
◼
►
So assuming that Apple is doing this original podcast content, is it just a way to sort
00:21:00
◼
►
of upsell the Apple TV+ content service, or are they also doing actual Apple podcasts
00:21:08
◼
►
originals that are not a way to upsell you on Apple TV+?
00:21:15
◼
►
I think this would be the start, right? Because this is logical. These types of shows are
00:21:22
◼
►
obvious to do, right? And if they did well, maybe they would do more, but I don't know
00:21:29
◼
►
know what more they would want to do. Because you're getting into the whys, right? Which
00:21:37
◼
►
is the trickier thing. Why does Apple want to make their own podcast? What is the benefit?
00:21:44
◼
►
And I think that it is harder to draw that benefit for Apple than it is for Spotify.
00:21:51
◼
►
Spotify's benefit is clear. They want to drive people to sign up for Spotify and also provide
00:21:59
◼
►
Spotify subscribers with more content but people do not subscribe to Apple
00:22:03
◼
►
podcasts right now so Apple would have to if they wanted people to do that like
00:22:07
◼
►
consider it a strong enough business case to somehow move the needle
00:22:11
◼
►
somewhere else I don't know if just like the use of Apple podcasts is that
00:22:18
◼
►
important to them I don't know if it's that much of a big deal like ultimately
00:22:24
◼
►
as part of the business to spend a bunch of money producing shows to lock them
00:22:30
◼
►
inside of Apple podcasts to try and drive growth of Apple podcast. I just
00:22:34
◼
►
don't know if I can see the link there like if they want to give Apple like if
00:22:40
◼
►
they want to put them inside of Apple podcast but they're only available for
00:22:45
◼
►
people that subscribe to TV+ then and I don't know how they would do that but
00:22:50
◼
►
like let's imagine they do that, then sure that is a value add to an existing service.
00:22:57
◼
►
There is also a possibility that Apple could create a subscription service for podcasting
00:23:01
◼
►
but I just don't see that right now. I would see that they will more likely start in this
00:23:08
◼
►
and if this really takes off for them then maybe they will go that route but I don't
00:23:13
◼
►
I think it's still way too early to tell.
00:23:16
◼
►
I would put money on these shows existing everywhere,
00:23:21
◼
►
and then Apple can work out what they wanna do from there.
00:23:25
◼
►
- Possibly, yeah.
00:23:26
◼
►
I mean, I guess it's easier,
00:23:27
◼
►
because with these types of shows,
00:23:29
◼
►
you have the content essentially cut out for you already.
00:23:32
◼
►
You're talking about an existing property.
00:23:34
◼
►
So it's not like you're putting together an original story
00:23:39
◼
►
or doing original reporting.
00:23:41
◼
►
It's easier than to come up with, I don't know,
00:23:43
◼
►
something like Serial, for example. So yeah, I think it makes sense. And I mean, obviously
00:23:48
◼
►
I wouldn't pay for these types of shows, but as a way to sort of attract listeners to eventually
00:23:56
◼
►
pay for something else, maybe I could see that. I don't know.
00:23:59
◼
►
Like I would listen to a podcast about For All Mankind produced by the people that made
00:24:03
◼
►
For All Mankind. Totally. For sure. Like I would do that because I want more of that
00:24:07
◼
►
world and I like the people involved in it and I want to hear more about it, like how
00:24:11
◼
►
they made it and stuff I would like totally be in for that so but I wouldn't
00:24:17
◼
►
switch to Apple podcast to get it. All right so we have another story about
00:24:23
◼
►
things Apple may do in the future and it is about smart keyboards so this comes
00:24:29
◼
►
from DigiTimes and it's kind of a multi-part thing that Apple's next
00:24:36
◼
►
generation iPad would come with a new smart keyboard and that would feature
00:24:42
◼
►
scissor switches. Right now they use butterfly switches but because they're
00:24:46
◼
►
all encased in fabric they don't seem to have the issues that the laptops did
00:24:50
◼
►
where you get debris in there and then they fail. But it's interesting right
00:24:54
◼
►
because I don't know I mean people have issues with the smart keyboard they seem
00:24:58
◼
►
to die sometimes but it isn't an issue like they had on the MacBooks so maybe
00:25:02
◼
►
they just want to bring everything over to the new design I don't know. Not just
00:25:06
◼
►
scissor switches, glowing scissor switches.
00:25:09
◼
►
And that's the more exciting part. It could be backlit.
00:25:14
◼
►
Could it be though?
00:25:16
◼
►
It should be. It'd be awesome.
00:25:18
◼
►
Federico, do you want to write what you put in the document which blew my mind today?
00:25:22
◼
►
Yes. So months ago, I think it was sometime last year,
00:25:26
◼
►
I believe I joked about, hey, what if Apple made a smart keyboard
00:25:32
◼
►
keyboard and the keycaps are made of glow-in-the-dark material. That sort of
00:25:37
◼
►
would be a way to make them kind of backlit without actually adding, you know,
00:25:42
◼
►
wires under the keyboard and lights under the keyboard. Just make it glow in
00:25:47
◼
►
the dark like those, you know, silly toys that, you know, you have when you're a kid.
00:25:51
◼
►
So imagine if it actually comes true that it's a glowing smart keyboard that
00:25:56
◼
►
is still thin and light but you can actually see in the dark. But you can
00:26:00
◼
►
only use it at night for a short period of time before the glow. It's like, it's like,
00:26:05
◼
►
oh, it glows, but you can only work for two hours because that's all you should be doing anyway.
00:26:08
◼
►
And then you should go to bed, right? Because it only will the glowing, well, I guess kind of funny.
00:26:12
◼
►
Yes, it should and probably will be a backlit, but I do love the idea of a glow in the dark
00:26:18
◼
►
keyboard. That's just cute in a way that I would enjoy very much. So this did come from Digitimes.
00:26:24
◼
►
In July of last year, Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple would stick with the rubber dome design on the
00:26:29
◼
►
smart keyboard but who knows things could have changed that could have been wrong.
00:26:32
◼
►
I agree with you Steven there wasn't like a lot of there isn't a lot of call for any change to
00:26:37
◼
►
the underlying mechanism of the smart keyboard but maybe if Apple is unifying again around the
00:26:43
◼
►
magic keyboard that they would just want to make them all the same right like just make one type of
00:26:48
◼
►
keyboard key who knows because this this report does also reiterate the idea of a 13-inch MacBook
00:26:56
◼
►
Pro with a Sysix switch keyboard being released in the first half of 2020?
00:27:00
◼
►
I mean maybe it's just a matter of we're not gonna make the butterfly
00:27:03
◼
►
keyboard anywhere so let's just get rid of all the machines right? It could be a
00:27:06
◼
►
very operation-centric decision and not
00:27:09
◼
►
necessarily one about customer usage or customer satisfaction
00:27:13
◼
►
which would be fine. I mean I for one like I don't mind the smart
00:27:17
◼
►
keyboard it's the keyboard I use most of the time on my iPad. I have a bridge
00:27:20
◼
►
keyboard that I'll bust out if I'm doing like real riding but you know day in and
00:27:24
◼
►
a day out I keep the smart keyboard on there and I don't have any real problems with that
00:27:28
◼
►
keyboard but I wouldn't argue with one that felt even better.
00:27:31
◼
►
So I can imagine like just a unifying story around wanting to move because you know to
00:27:39
◼
►
people that have ever been frustrated with keyboards over the last few years there is
00:27:43
◼
►
something nice about hearing ultimately all of the products if they're gonna go that route
00:27:47
◼
►
being like and we're using the same magic keyboard right they just keep saying that
00:27:52
◼
►
line over and over again, right? I can imagine that kind of putting people at ease of the
00:27:57
◼
►
idea of Apple making bad keyboards, right? It's just like they use one keyboard design
00:28:02
◼
►
everywhere and everyone loves it and everyone's happy and there's no more keyboard problems.
00:28:07
◼
►
I think that's a good story for them to tell. Ready to take a break?
00:28:13
◼
►
All right, this episode of Connected is brought to you by Direct Mail. If you're looking to
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Our thanks to Direct Mail for their support of connected
00:29:33
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and all of Relay FM.
00:29:35
◼
►
- Apple, iCloud encryption
00:29:38
◼
►
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
00:29:41
◼
►
- Buckle up everyone.
00:29:43
◼
►
I have many things to say and then we can talk about it, right?
00:29:46
◼
►
I've been doing a bunch of reading today.
00:29:48
◼
►
According to a report from Reuters yesterday, as we record this, six sources confirmed to
00:29:54
◼
►
them that Apple previously dropped plans to offer fully encrypted iCloud backups.
00:30:02
◼
►
The report partly states that this was after complaints from the FBI.
00:30:06
◼
►
There was a quote from an employee to Reuters saying "legal killed it for reasons you can
00:30:13
◼
►
And I'll continue with another quote.
00:30:14
◼
►
"Once the decision was made, the 10 or so experts
00:30:17
◼
►
on the Apple encryption project,
00:30:18
◼
►
variously codenamed Plessio and KeyDrop,
00:30:22
◼
►
were told to stop working on the effort,
00:30:23
◼
►
three people familiar with the matter told Reuters."
00:30:27
◼
►
So this is the idea that your iCloud backups
00:30:31
◼
►
are not currently end-to-end encrypted, right?
00:30:34
◼
►
So this means that Apple has the ability
00:30:37
◼
►
to access that data of your iCloud backups.
00:30:40
◼
►
I'll get into a little bit more later on
00:30:42
◼
►
about what that actually means, what is encrypted and what isn't.
00:30:45
◼
►
But if we're thinking about the idea that the Apple was previously working
00:30:50
◼
►
on an end to end encryption solution for iCloud backups,
00:30:53
◼
►
then they have since stopped working on that.
00:30:56
◼
►
This could mean one of a few things that the FBI told Apple not to do it,
00:31:00
◼
►
whether Apple disclosed to them or not.
00:31:02
◼
►
But it was pretty clear a few years ago after the San Bernardino
00:31:08
◼
►
shooting, which is what is back in court right now, right?
00:31:12
◼
►
Like, and there's a there's a lot of drum beating from the government about Apple,
00:31:17
◼
►
from the U.S. government about Apple handing over that information, which they
00:31:20
◼
►
previously refused to hand over.
00:31:22
◼
►
Right. Like it's come back around again.
00:31:24
◼
►
I'm writing that Steven. Yes, that's back in the news again.
00:31:28
◼
►
So that's maybe potentially one of the reasons why this story has come out as it
00:31:32
◼
►
has. But so this Apple will talking a lot then about encryption.
00:31:36
◼
►
So it may have been that the FBI told Apple don't do end to end or they disclose
00:31:40
◼
►
to the FBI or whatever, but so it could be that the FBI told Apple not to do it.
00:31:44
◼
►
Apple could have decided not to do it
00:31:47
◼
►
because they knew it would cause more trouble than they wanted.
00:31:49
◼
►
Or possibly Apple is not using end to end encryption on iCloud backups
00:31:54
◼
►
because if people lose their passwords, they lose all of their data.
00:31:58
◼
►
And this has nothing to do with the FBI at all.
00:32:01
◼
►
There's actually a quote in the story from Reuters
00:32:04
◼
►
which says that one employee did say this,
00:32:06
◼
►
that this could have been one of the reasons or a reason
00:32:09
◼
►
to stop pursuing this approach because if you have end-to-end encryption on iCloud
00:32:13
◼
►
backups and you lost your password that was connected to that backup, everything's
00:32:18
◼
►
gone, right? You've lost all of your photos, you've lost everything if there
00:32:23
◼
►
was no other way to recover it. Like if that was as we would expect it to be,
00:32:27
◼
►
and SAP will create something that we've never seen before but that's how we
00:32:30
◼
►
would expect end-to-end encryption to work or the fail state to be. So then from a
00:32:35
◼
►
report from 9to5Mac. Apple currently stores iCloud backups in a non end-to-end encrypted
00:32:44
◼
►
manner. This means that the decryption key is stored on Apple's servers. If a police
00:32:49
◼
►
entity comes to Apple with a subpoena, then the company has to give over all of the iCloud
00:32:53
◼
►
data including the decryption key. This has further rounds of ramifications. For instance,
00:32:58
◼
►
whilst the iMessage server is end-to-end encrypted, the conversations stored in an iCloud backup
00:33:03
◼
►
or not. So whilst we believe end-to-end encryption to exist in iMessage, because that's something
00:33:08
◼
►
that we've been told, whilst that's true, if you use iCloud backup it doesn't matter, right? That
00:33:13
◼
►
your iMessages could then be read if a law enforcement agency was to have gotten your
00:33:19
◼
►
iCloud data or anybody could in theory if they have access to it at Apple. So currently though
00:33:27
◼
►
Data from health, home, keychain and Wi-Fi passwords are end-to-end encrypted.
00:33:32
◼
►
Like this is encrypted, but that's it.
00:33:35
◼
►
So if you were to have my understanding from doing reading on this is even if somebody
00:33:39
◼
►
was to get a subpoena, they couldn't get that information.
00:33:42
◼
►
But messages they could get to if you're using iCloud backup.
00:33:47
◼
►
And of course, none of this matters at all if you're using the backup option
00:33:51
◼
►
that you can do with a Mac through iTunes or Finder where you can have it encrypted,
00:33:56
◼
►
but then you need a password, but then you can't be using iCloud. That's the only way to get an
00:34:01
◼
►
end-to-end encrypted backup of your iPhone or iPad. So basically, Apple store this in like
00:34:09
◼
►
the iCloud backups in an unencrypted manner in case you need help to recover the data.
00:34:15
◼
►
As reported by Benjamin Mayo, Cook of 9to5Mac, Tim Cook told a German newspaper in 2018 the following,
00:34:24
◼
►
Our users have a key and we have one. We do this because some users lose or forget their key
00:34:29
◼
►
and they expect us to get their data back. It is difficult for us to estimate when we will change
00:34:34
◼
►
this practice, but I think that in the future it will be handled on the devices. We will therefore
00:34:38
◼
►
no longer have a key for this in the future. This is a translation from a newspaper that I pulled
00:34:43
◼
►
together from two different sources who's had translation clarifications. I'll put both of those
00:34:47
◼
►
in the show notes. But it seems that from 2016 to 2018 there are numerous quotes in
00:34:53
◼
►
numerous outlets, including places like the Wall Street Journal, of Tim Cook seeming to
00:34:58
◼
►
state that Apple would be changing their encryption practices, but nothing has happened since,
00:35:03
◼
►
which potentially means that they did drop this project for some reason, whether told to by a law
00:35:09
◼
►
enforcement agency or told to by themselves that they decided they weren't going to do it.
00:35:16
◼
►
By the way, Google on some of their newer devices do offer end-to-end encryption on their backups.
00:35:22
◼
►
So it's not impossible to do this. Like law enforcement agencies haven't stopped Google,
00:35:28
◼
►
or Google didn't care, or Google have just decided to do it, or whatever, but Google did do this.
00:35:33
◼
►
I will also for further reading recommend that you read an article from Data Bone over on The Verge,
00:35:39
◼
►
who looks at how tricky this whole thing can be about encryption in general. So this is the
00:35:44
◼
►
place where we are right now. It is not news that end-to-end encryption is not a
00:35:50
◼
►
thing for iCloud backups. I think we all forget it from time to time. I know I
00:35:54
◼
►
always forget it, especially the thing around iMessages because I've been told
00:35:59
◼
►
many times that iMessages are end-to-end encrypted. They are from device to
00:36:04
◼
►
device but if either of those devices is backed up by iCloud that is null and
00:36:10
◼
►
void. I would like the option to be able to end and encrypt my device and I think
00:36:15
◼
►
really that Apple should give a choice and it should be on the user to be smart
00:36:20
◼
►
about their passwords right like where they're stored and how they're stored so
00:36:25
◼
►
they won't forget them. But that's where we are. I you know I honestly can see
00:36:31
◼
►
both reasons so let's imagine that they have not done this for one of those two
00:36:37
◼
►
main reasons. They haven't done it so there is a reason they haven't done it to now. Maybe
00:36:42
◼
►
it's super difficult, maybe it's still coming, but let's just assume that they have abandoned
00:36:46
◼
►
this project. Honestly I can see them doing it because of law enforcement stuff because
00:36:52
◼
►
we have seen things in the past where Apple have done things because they're a big company
00:36:57
◼
►
and big companies have to do things and sometimes that's taking the president around your factory
00:37:01
◼
►
and letting him claim that it was built because of him, right? Like there are games to play
00:37:07
◼
►
And the same reason that Apple does give data to the FBI when requested, right?
00:37:13
◼
►
But I would like to see them build end-to-end encryption
00:37:17
◼
►
because Apple put up posters on the side of buildings
00:37:21
◼
►
that say "What happens on my iPhone stays on my iPhone."
00:37:25
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But what they don't put is an asterisk that says "Unless you backup."
00:37:29
◼
►
By the system which we notify you to backup on
00:37:33
◼
►
that we put a badge on the settings app if you don't use.
00:37:37
◼
►
I kind of wish they would go the full way.
00:37:40
◼
►
This is always the problem.
00:37:41
◼
►
If a company takes a stance which is so strong,
00:37:46
◼
►
they are held to it, right?
00:37:48
◼
►
If you say, "We are the most privacy-conscious technology company
00:37:53
◼
►
and we're never going to look at your information,"
00:37:56
◼
►
and you talk about how great your end-to-end encryption on messages are,
00:38:00
◼
►
you need to back it up.
00:38:02
◼
►
Like it is mind-boggling to me that Google offer this now, but Apple doesn't.
00:38:06
◼
►
So I want to see them do it.
00:38:08
◼
►
And I hope that Apple have not commented at all on this yet.
00:38:12
◼
►
I expect if it continues to be a story over the next few days, they will issue
00:38:17
◼
►
some kind of response, which will go into some more detail, but I would love to see
00:38:21
◼
►
them do this because I would just like to, I would just like the option.
00:38:26
◼
►
And I understand, look, I get it, right?
00:38:29
◼
►
Like it will be an absolute nightmare for them if they let people do this,
00:38:34
◼
►
but it should be a like 20 step process where they make me read a bunch of pop
00:38:39
◼
►
ups that I have to opt into. Like iMessage in the cloud, right?
00:38:43
◼
►
Super useful feature, but you have to go and manually turn it on, right?
00:38:47
◼
►
Make me go into four nested like settings menus to get this feature because I
00:38:53
◼
►
want, it's like FireVault, right? That's difficult to turn on, right?
00:38:59
◼
►
Stephen, like you have to go and do it like they don't do it for you to go and
00:39:02
◼
►
do it because you're encrypting your Mac and if you forgot that password you kind
00:39:06
◼
►
of screwed. I'm writing that yes? I think now it's part of the setup process where
00:39:11
◼
►
it's easier to do. Yeah it kind of it prompts you I believe at some point. Well they're
00:39:16
◼
►
willing to do that but I would like to see them go to that to that route right
00:39:21
◼
►
like that's what I would like to see them do and you know I'm sure that
00:39:25
◼
►
there's that I'm like that company is full of incredibly smart people I'm sure
00:39:30
◼
►
they can come up with ways to try and make this as best a process as it can be
00:39:34
◼
►
but I want to see them do it because I don't think that they can talk the game
00:39:41
◼
►
they talk about privacy and not allow me to do this that's where I am on this one
00:39:46
◼
►
yeah this to me totally feels like the sort of thing that Apple will end up
00:39:51
◼
►
announcing that it's coming in a future version of iOS. It seems like sort of a repeat of
00:39:59
◼
►
the situation that they had with the battery life stuff when they were caught, well maybe
00:40:03
◼
►
not lying necessarily, but you know, lying by omission about what the iPhone was doing
00:40:09
◼
►
to preserve the power efficiency stuff and the battery-related shutdowns. And they were
00:40:17
◼
►
were caught and people started writing about it and then they said, "Okay, we're actually
00:40:22
◼
►
gonna add this." And this to me feels like a much, much more serious and more important
00:40:28
◼
►
problem, especially because there's the government involved, and especially in the United States
00:40:36
◼
►
with the FBI and all these shootings. You know, the other thing is like, yeah, maybe
00:40:39
◼
►
it wasn't the FBI, but maybe it was China. Because Apple were playing ball with the Chinese
00:40:44
◼
►
government that the decryption keys live on servers in China for iCloud in China. So like,
00:40:50
◼
►
yeah, maybe it wasn't the FBI, right? Maybe it was somebody else, you know, like, because
00:40:56
◼
►
that's a whole other thing, right? Like, if they do this, what about China? I don't know
00:41:01
◼
►
what they're going to do there. But like, so that could be a reason why they maybe won't
00:41:04
◼
►
do it or didn't do it or I can't do it. I don't know.
00:41:08
◼
►
I guess the bigger question is that, and I really don't have a good answer to this, the
00:41:14
◼
►
The bigger question, of course, is should the government or should a government agency
00:41:23
◼
►
be able to get access to personal data, such as personal communications and emails, when
00:41:30
◼
►
something bad happens, like a terrorist attack or a shooting or some other criminal-related
00:41:39
◼
►
And that's a big question that folks who have been studying history and politics and all
00:41:47
◼
►
this kind of stuff have not been able to provide a good answer for, because it comes down to
00:41:53
◼
►
some fundamental themes of human rights and privacy and what it all means. And as far
00:42:02
◼
►
as Apple is concerned, this is why I don't necessarily have an opinion more complicated
00:42:07
◼
►
then yes, I know it's a complex problem, but I think Apple should do it. But it comes down
00:42:12
◼
►
to taking a stance, I think, and it feels to me like the sort of issue that years ago
00:42:19
◼
►
I would have said, "Oh, for sure, Apple is gonna take a stance and they're gonna do it,
00:42:24
◼
►
because whatever the government, they're gonna do it because it's the right thing to do."
00:42:29
◼
►
And the fact that I am not so sure about 2020 Apple taking this kind of stance, I'm sort
00:42:36
◼
►
of like 70% sure they're gonna do it. But there's a 30% in the back of my mind that
00:42:41
◼
►
says, "But you know, maybe they want to be on Trump's good side, and maybe they want
00:42:45
◼
►
to be on China's good side, and they're not gonna do this." And that speaks to the sociopolitical
00:42:52
◼
►
changes that we've gone through over the past five years. Everything is more complicated,
00:42:57
◼
►
and the relationship between Apple and the government in the US and in China and with
00:43:01
◼
►
the EU is much more complicated than 10 years ago when Steve Jobs was around. Steve Jobs
00:43:06
◼
►
could take a stance about Flash, right? But it wasn't like this big political fight.
00:43:11
◼
►
It was about Flash player in a web browser. This is about human rights and privacy and
00:43:18
◼
►
encryption and what does it mean for the government to have a corporation that operates in the
00:43:24
◼
►
United States that can hold potentially sensitive data that could be useful for an investigation
00:43:33
◼
►
and you cannot get to that data at all. Is that kind of privacy a human right? Personally,
00:43:42
◼
►
from my perspective, I would say yes, it is a human right. But also, I understand the
00:43:49
◼
►
emotional component of this, and this is why the FBI and all these other agencies are so
00:43:54
◼
►
- and even in Italy we see this type of story every once in a while - why they're so clever
00:43:59
◼
►
been sort of exploiting that emotional component of this, of being like "Oh, what if you were
00:44:05
◼
►
the son of a victim of a shooting? Wouldn't you want to know who was behind it?" And I
00:44:10
◼
►
totally get it, that there's an emotional component, especially when it's about terrorist
00:44:14
◼
►
attacks and shootings and being able to find the truth in that kind of instance. But, you
00:44:21
◼
►
know, politics are often at a different level than the emotional component, or they should
00:44:28
◼
►
be at least. So, I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. It feels like a writing...
00:44:34
◼
►
Encrypting everything after 20 pages of settings, that should be the right thing to do, and
00:44:39
◼
►
this is what Apple should do. And I think, honestly, they're gonna do it. But it's complicated.
00:44:46
◼
►
And I don't know what else is there to say, but it's complicated. It feels right, but
00:44:51
◼
►
it's complex. Honestly, I was under the impression, as Myke said, I keep forgetting that iCalp
00:44:57
◼
►
backups are not end-to-end encrypted 100%. I was under the impression that they were.
00:45:03
◼
►
But yeah, so. I mean it's barely end-to-end encrypted, honestly.
00:45:07
◼
►
Like the amount of information that is end-to-end encrypted is so minuscule compared to everything
00:45:12
◼
►
else that is in my iCloud backup. But does it make sense, like what I'm saying
00:45:17
◼
►
that... Oh yeah, it's incredibly difficult. So like,
00:45:21
◼
►
I'm not the one making those decisions, right? So I just think about me, right? And I want
00:45:27
◼
►
want my data to be end-to-end encrypted. That's what I want. I know it's
00:45:31
◼
►
incredibly complicated and honestly like the thing is I don't have any I don't
00:45:39
◼
►
have a massive problem with the idea of them not doing this. My problem is you
00:45:46
◼
►
can't say one thing and then do another right? You can't say what happens on your
00:45:56
◼
►
iPhone stays on your iPhone when any court in America can change that.
00:46:06
◼
►
And then it doesn't.
00:46:08
◼
►
That's my problem.
00:46:10
◼
►
If Apple was different in what they spoke about, or if they didn't say things like that,
00:46:15
◼
►
then I would just have to choose to live with the situation that I have brought upon myself.
00:46:21
◼
►
And if I cared about it enough, I would stop using iCloud backup and I would start doing
00:46:26
◼
►
encrypted backups on my Mac, right?
00:46:29
◼
►
I tend to just have a problem with marketing that is effectively lying.
00:46:35
◼
►
Like false advertising?
00:46:38
◼
►
From a company that we expect better from because they give their impression to the
00:46:45
◼
►
One of the reasons we all care about Apple so much is because of the way they present
00:46:50
◼
►
themselves, because they present themselves as like better than Facebook, right?
00:46:56
◼
►
And like Tim Cook will tell you that if you ask him, right?
00:46:59
◼
►
You know what I mean?
00:47:00
◼
►
And so it's like when I see stuff like this or when I'm reminded of things like this,
00:47:05
◼
►
it's like, "Ah, but this doesn't jive with what you're saying."
00:47:11
◼
►
Do I have a problem with Apple having this information if they can help save other people's
00:47:19
◼
►
But do I have a problem with them doing this if they say that if they if their marketing tells me that's not what they're doing
00:47:25
◼
►
yeah, I kind of do have a problem with that because
00:47:29
◼
►
It's complicated steven you haven't said anything
00:47:33
◼
►
I mean, I agree with everything that's that's been said. I think apple needs
00:47:37
◼
►
to have this as an option. I think that they
00:47:40
◼
►
I think they're going to be forced to do it now because this is not going to be an issue that fades away
00:47:45
◼
►
I don't think this feels like this is one of those big deals that they have to contend with
00:47:49
◼
►
it does open questions about
00:47:53
◼
►
you know how they explain these things to their users right and I
00:47:58
◼
►
Hey, I think Apple totally regrets that CES banner that they put on the side of the hotel last year
00:48:04
◼
►
So stupid think they they really regret that the fact that we three
00:48:09
◼
►
were confused or had forgotten that iCloud backups were not end-to-end encrypted. Like we're plugged into this more than anybody and
00:48:16
◼
►
I bet you there's a lot of users out there who saw this story if they understand what end-to-end encryption means we're really surprised
00:48:24
◼
►
that the iCloud backup doesn't do it. And so Apple has an opportunity here to not only fix it but to explain
00:48:30
◼
►
what this technology does and what it provides for people because
00:48:37
◼
►
on one hand you have us saying Apple should do this,
00:48:40
◼
►
it should be an option, you should understand
00:48:42
◼
►
that if you do this and you lose your iCloud password,
00:48:44
◼
►
all your data's gone, right?
00:48:46
◼
►
That needs to be clear.
00:48:48
◼
►
'Cause that's the reason,
00:48:50
◼
►
I think the primary reason Apple would say
00:48:52
◼
►
that it is like this,
00:48:55
◼
►
it's so they can get people back into their accounts.
00:48:59
◼
►
But I don't know if people really understand
00:49:03
◼
►
what that means.
00:49:04
◼
►
So we have all this on this side,
00:49:06
◼
►
But then the other side, you have people like the president
00:49:08
◼
►
and politicians saying, we need access to backups,
00:49:12
◼
►
we need access to data, so when things happen,
00:49:14
◼
►
we can deal with it.
00:49:16
◼
►
And that, more people are gonna hear that
00:49:19
◼
►
than are gonna hear this show, right?
00:49:21
◼
►
And hear that the reasons that you should do it.
00:49:23
◼
►
And so Apple has to navigate all that,
00:49:26
◼
►
and it's an opportunity for them to speak really clearly
00:49:28
◼
►
about what encryption is and does in a world
00:49:32
◼
►
where there's a lot of voices saying that it's a bad thing,
00:49:34
◼
►
because it is not a bad thing.
00:49:35
◼
►
Yes, it has consequences.
00:49:37
◼
►
And one of those consequences is the FBI
00:49:41
◼
►
can't see Cerna data.
00:49:42
◼
►
And we have to understand that that's a trade-off.
00:49:46
◼
►
And that's a trade-off that many of us are willing to make,
00:49:49
◼
►
some other people aren't willing to make, and that's fine.
00:49:52
◼
►
But Apple needs to be really clear here
00:49:56
◼
►
about what this option would mean,
00:49:57
◼
►
not only for password resets,
00:50:00
◼
►
but what it would mean in the bigger world.
00:50:02
◼
►
because if they don't,
00:50:05
◼
►
their voice is just gonna be drowned out by the others,
00:50:07
◼
►
and Apple does risk either political or social
00:50:12
◼
►
or sort of feedback or pushback that,
00:50:16
◼
►
oh, you're not willing to help
00:50:18
◼
►
when these terrible things happen.
00:50:20
◼
►
And that's the situation I don't wanna navigate.
00:50:23
◼
►
I'm really glad I'm not Tim Cook this week,
00:50:25
◼
►
but my biggest hope for this is whatever Apple does
00:50:29
◼
►
is that it is very clear about what it means,
00:50:31
◼
►
and they don't do their marketing, you know, spiel on,
00:50:36
◼
►
like what was so refreshing about the thoughts
00:50:38
◼
►
on FlashLetter that you referenced earlier?
00:50:40
◼
►
It seems jobs was very clear
00:50:41
◼
►
about their decision making, right?
00:50:43
◼
►
It wasn't, I mean, he always had his reality distortion
00:50:47
◼
►
feel, but like in reading that letter, I remember being,
00:50:49
◼
►
this is very like clearly worded in a way
00:50:51
◼
►
that I think most people could understand.
00:50:53
◼
►
Apple needs that again today for this.
00:50:56
◼
►
- 'Cause like they have that whole privacy webpage, right?
00:50:58
◼
►
And I just don't feel like it is clear enough.
00:51:04
◼
►
Because there's things like, they talk about end-to-end encryption for
00:51:07
◼
►
iMessages and saying that when it's in transit, it's encrypted.
00:51:11
◼
►
And it's like, that's great.
00:51:12
◼
►
But it doesn't talk about iCloud backup.
00:51:14
◼
►
So you've got like, you know, it talks about, I just, you know, like they
00:51:19
◼
►
talk about on the iCloud backup portion, they talk about the data being
00:51:23
◼
►
encrypted and then they say that it is end-to-end encrypted for these things.
00:51:28
◼
►
but it doesn't really talk about what that means, right?
00:51:32
◼
►
Like these are marketing pages.
00:51:34
◼
►
They are meant to inform people.
00:51:36
◼
►
And I don't, I feel like that they do not go
00:51:39
◼
►
into enough detail about what that encryption means.
00:51:42
◼
►
Will you read me to just, let me just read this to you?
00:51:45
◼
►
- Sure. - Mm-hmm.
00:51:45
◼
►
- So this is end-to-end encryption.
00:51:47
◼
►
This is under the, oh, actually I want to get the,
00:51:50
◼
►
where's the iCloud page?
00:51:52
◼
►
Sorry, I mean, I want to get,
00:51:53
◼
►
I want to make sure I get the right one
00:51:55
◼
►
because I think, yeah, okay, yeah.
00:51:56
◼
►
Encrypted data, this is under iCloud.
00:51:58
◼
►
Your iCloud content like photos, contacts, and reminders
00:52:02
◼
►
is encrypted when it's transferred
00:52:03
◼
►
and when it's stored on our servers.
00:52:05
◼
►
Mail is sent from your device to iCloud
00:52:07
◼
►
with encryption in transit,
00:52:09
◼
►
and it's stored with security features
00:52:10
◼
►
designed to protect your communications
00:52:12
◼
►
while giving you fast and easy access to your messages.
00:52:15
◼
►
Apple also encrypts the information that is transferred
00:52:18
◼
►
between any email app you use in our iCloud's mail servers.
00:52:22
◼
►
Some personal data such as home and health data
00:52:24
◼
►
stored of end-to-end encryption, which provides the highest level of data security. This data
00:52:30
◼
►
is protected of a key derived from information unique to your device and combined with your
00:52:34
◼
►
device passcode, which only you know. No one else can access or read this data."
00:52:39
◼
►
What did you learn from that? Right? Like, when I read that, it makes it sound like
00:52:45
◼
►
all of this data is protected of a key derived from information unique to your device.
00:52:51
◼
►
Like, that's what it makes it feel like. But that's not the case.
00:52:57
◼
►
But that's not it. And there is no asterisk here. There is nothing here which is referencing the
00:53:03
◼
►
fact that like, who can get to this? So I don't know. I know this is super difficult because like,
00:53:08
◼
►
what are they going to do? Like on their security page say like, by the way, if the government comes
00:53:13
◼
►
a knock in, we'll give this data over. Like it's hardly the best marketing. But, and you know,
00:53:19
◼
►
know, it's like fine, I can get on board with that to a point. But like, but who are you
00:53:24
◼
►
trying to be? What are you trying to say as a company? What do you want your company to
00:53:29
◼
►
be? What do you want it to be known for? And I feel like a stronger privacy stance is it.
00:53:35
◼
►
And I think the strongest privacy stance that you can take is you can say, no one gets this.
00:53:42
◼
►
We don't get this. No one can get this, right? For as much as encryption can be trusted,
00:53:48
◼
►
right? Which is, you know, the good encryption is basically unbreakable, especially for an
00:53:54
◼
►
individual like who's really trying that hard to get our data, right? Like, any amount of
00:54:00
◼
►
time that it would take someone to break it is almost pointless. So I would I want to
00:54:05
◼
►
see them go that route. And whether this report is true or not, isn't the story and like,
00:54:11
◼
►
it annoys me when people are like, the story is that we've already known about this. It's
00:54:16
◼
►
"No, that's not the story. I don't care about the fact that this came up two years ago.
00:54:22
◼
►
It came up two years ago and it's the same now. We're still in the same boat and it's
00:54:28
◼
►
not enough. They should be doing more if between then and now the CEO's walking around and
00:54:35
◼
►
saying Facebook should be shut down by the government because their privacy is not strong
00:54:39
◼
►
enough." Right? Where it's like, "Yeah, okay. Facebook messed up big time and gave it away,
00:54:44
◼
►
with enough court orders that give away the same amount, right? Like, you know, if the
00:54:48
◼
►
government comes to them and somehow they have a court order for every single person
00:54:52
◼
►
in the country, what's Apple going to do?
00:54:54
◼
►
Yeah, ultimately their north star should be to just enable full, real, end-to-end encryption.
00:55:03
◼
►
That should be the ultimate goal. Like, no matter how you think about it, yes, it would
00:55:07
◼
►
be a problem for customers who then later would not remember the password, but then
00:55:12
◼
►
use 20 pages of settings.
00:55:14
◼
►
Make it an option. I don't think they should make it the default because it's...
00:55:17
◼
►
It shouldn't be.
00:55:18
◼
►
You know, I do not want my mom to have end-to-end encryption.
00:55:22
◼
►
Because she will lose everything in about 20 minutes and it's all gone, right?
00:55:28
◼
►
The public conversation... I don't know if this can ever happen, but we should stop thinking about real encryption
00:55:38
◼
►
as a helping tool for the bad guys and more as a fundamental right of a person.
00:55:45
◼
►
That's what I believe. I don't think it's what other people believe because most
00:55:49
◼
►
people say "I have nothing to hide" and instead the bad guys are using encryption.
00:55:53
◼
►
I'm not a bad guy therefore I don't need encryption and therefore the government
00:55:57
◼
►
is right. And I think that conversation, that discourse needs to change. But
00:56:02
◼
►
But ultimately, it's Apple that needs to make a decision and have a real, clear, easy to
00:56:09
◼
►
understand public stance that says "We are going to do end-to-end encryption for iCalc
00:56:17
◼
►
We do not want your data.
00:56:19
◼
►
We cannot get to your data.
00:56:21
◼
►
And then we'll handle the government and we'll give them what we can."
00:56:25
◼
►
I don't know what it is that they can give them, but this is where a line needs to be
00:56:30
◼
►
drawn. And this, I believe, will define the real leg. And I don't say this lightly, but
00:56:39
◼
►
I think it will define Tim Cook's legacy here of like, do you actually draw a line and do
00:56:45
◼
►
what's right for your customers and do what's right based on your own marketing campaign?
00:56:51
◼
►
Or do you just let this one go and, you know, just ignore the issue and keep doing what
00:56:56
◼
►
you're doing? Like, this is it. Like, what are you going to do?
00:57:00
◼
►
I don't believe they have to do this. They just need to be clear about who they are.
00:57:07
◼
►
And if they don't want to go the end-to-end encryption route for whatever reason, fine.
00:57:12
◼
►
You don't have to. It's fine, but it will define you.
00:57:15
◼
►
Everything has to match. I just want to say, because the chat room is getting all upset,
00:57:20
◼
►
I was obviously being facetious with my comment about them being like Facebook. I'm clearly
00:57:27
◼
►
stretching metaphors but my point is just like you can't be so strong in your stance in the press
00:57:36
◼
►
when you have these omissions that you're making. You know like Tim Cook is talking about privacy
00:57:45
◼
►
as being a fundamental human right. Now a human right should be worth more than what any particular
00:57:54
◼
►
government in any country wants, right? Human rights, they're more important than that.
00:58:00
◼
►
And so I feel like that you can't talk about these human rights and then be like, "except for"
00:58:08
◼
►
or "except unless" this. And it starts to get messy, right? This is what I'm talking about.
00:58:15
◼
►
Fundamental human right has pretty strong language. And my expectation from the guy
00:58:21
◼
►
who's saying that is that he will let me keep my privacy at all costs but that's not the case so
00:58:28
◼
►
yeah and also fundamental even right with an asterisk doesn't really work that's it
00:58:34
◼
►
yeah yeah exactly quick straw poll do you think apple are going to make a comment about this
00:58:42
◼
►
oh yeah yes before the next episode of the show yes i believe they are i think they will make a
00:58:49
◼
►
a comment in the next few days. I think they have to.
00:58:52
◼
►
I think they won't. This hasn't become, I think, a big enough story as of right now.
00:59:01
◼
►
It's big in our circles, but I don't think it's big enough and they are dealing with
00:59:06
◼
►
much worse from the government right now. I don't think they are going to say anything.
00:59:11
◼
►
Interesting.
00:59:13
◼
►
Okay, we'll see.
00:59:15
◼
►
The story that they are fighting in the mainstream media right now is that Apple is holding back
00:59:22
◼
►
from the government.
00:59:23
◼
►
I cannot imagine them making a press release talking about how they're going to hold back
00:59:29
◼
►
So that's where I am on this one.
00:59:30
◼
►
I'm not saying they won't do this, but I think it would probably be easier for them to announce
00:59:36
◼
►
in June that they're doing this with iOS 14 than if they were to save in the next two
00:59:41
◼
►
days. Oh by the way we're adding end-to-end encryption in the future update of iOS. That's
00:59:46
◼
►
where I think they are in this one. But we'll see. I would love to be proven wrong.
00:59:51
◼
►
Man, things were easier when it was about Flash and the daily. Remember the daily? Those
00:59:57
◼
►
were the days. Yeah, those were the dailies.
01:00:00
◼
►
Things were much easier. We could get upset. We didn't have to think about the government
01:00:05
◼
►
and the FBI. Well, whatever.
01:00:08
◼
►
take a break and then end this episode of something fun. Okay. Yes. Yes, something fun.
01:00:13
◼
►
I like it something fun. This episode of connected is brought to you by Squarespace. Make your
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It was built in some other system 100 years ago, the person who built it's long
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gone and they needed something that they could update themselves over time.
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So rebuilding that on Squarespace has been a lot of fun and I'll be able to
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which is great.
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Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.
01:02:01
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Federico, what have you been up to today?
01:02:03
◼
►
All right, so I've been sort of teasing that I was going to do a bit of a surprise launch
01:02:10
◼
►
for a product on Max Stories.
01:02:13
◼
►
And so today we introduced a new, a bit of a refresh of the whole Max Stories pixel design
01:02:20
◼
►
brand that we have.
01:02:21
◼
►
So if you go to maxstories.net/pixel, you will see the new homepage and the new products.
01:02:27
◼
►
And yes, products, multiple ones, actually.
01:02:31
◼
►
So today we launched a separate new color version
01:02:36
◼
►
of the Max Stories Shortcuts Icons.
01:02:39
◼
►
So for those not aware, in September 2019, a few months ago,
01:02:44
◼
►
we introduced Max Stories Shortcuts Icons.
01:02:47
◼
►
They were originally a set of 300
01:02:51
◼
►
that later grew to 350 with a free update.
01:02:55
◼
►
Custom icons for your shortcuts on the home screen.
01:02:58
◼
►
And the first version, now called the classic version of the icons, it featured monochrome glyphs.
01:03:06
◼
►
So there were white glyphs with a transparent background.
01:03:10
◼
►
And the idea was that when saved to your home screen, when saving a shortcut to your home screen from the shortcuts app using our icons,
01:03:20
◼
►
they will look like standard shortcuts.
01:03:23
◼
►
They would keep the original color of your shortcuts.
01:03:25
◼
►
They will look like Apple icons, but with more icon options,
01:03:30
◼
►
because Silvia made hundreds of glyphs and symbols
01:03:34
◼
►
that are not available in shortcuts.
01:03:36
◼
►
Now, today we launched a separate version.
01:03:41
◼
►
It's called the MaxStory Shortcuts Icons Color.
01:03:44
◼
►
It's the color set.
01:03:46
◼
►
And this takes a different approach.
01:03:48
◼
►
So uses the same glyphs and the same symbols.
01:03:51
◼
►
So the same collection of 350 glyphs.
01:03:56
◼
►
But each one is a multicolor.
01:03:58
◼
►
So each one has been colored.
01:03:59
◼
►
Silvia came up with a color palette
01:04:02
◼
►
that we're using for icons with a white background
01:04:07
◼
►
and multicolor icons with a black background.
01:04:10
◼
►
And those are actually two subtly different color palettes,
01:04:14
◼
►
sort of like Apple does dark mode.
01:04:16
◼
►
The colors in light mode are different
01:04:18
◼
►
from the colors in dark mode.
01:04:20
◼
►
But anyway, the color set features icons,
01:04:24
◼
►
color icons on top of a white background
01:04:28
◼
►
or on top of a black background.
01:04:30
◼
►
And the idea was, let's take a different approach
01:04:34
◼
►
from the standard look of the shortcuts icons
01:04:37
◼
►
and let's give users something that resembles more
01:04:42
◼
►
the look of an app icon.
01:04:44
◼
►
So a normal app icon, especially with the white
01:04:47
◼
►
background icons.
01:04:50
◼
►
a bunch of apps today, they have multicolor glyphs
01:04:54
◼
►
on top of a white background.
01:04:56
◼
►
- You made the enterprise set.
01:04:58
◼
►
- Yes, this is the enterprise,
01:05:00
◼
►
basically it's the enterprise joke, right?
01:05:03
◼
►
Of all the apps having a white background.
01:05:05
◼
►
But that's the reality of the situation.
01:05:07
◼
►
And we thought, let's do something different.
01:05:09
◼
►
So the Apple icons do not have any color.
01:05:12
◼
►
So the Apple glyphs do not have any color.
01:05:14
◼
►
We're gonna have,
01:05:15
◼
►
we're gonna go through the entire list
01:05:18
◼
►
all these shortcuts icons, and we're gonna color each one, choosing from a palette of
01:05:23
◼
►
multiple colors. And then we're gonna offer two different background versions, so you
01:05:27
◼
►
can have a white icon or you can have a black icon. And the black icons, the idea was, they
01:05:34
◼
►
look good on any background, but especially if you have a pure black wallpaper. You know,
01:05:39
◼
►
there's folks who like to use a super minimalistic pure black wallpaper. If you install these
01:05:45
◼
►
you will not see the shape of the icon. You will just see the multicolor glyph.
01:05:51
◼
►
And that sort of allows you to do this custom layout for your home screen that I think
01:05:57
◼
►
it looks really cool and it looks really different from the usual home screens.
01:06:01
◼
►
So that's what we've done. And the set is available just like the first one. The color set is
01:06:10
◼
►
1999 but if you bought the classic one up until this morning
01:06:15
◼
►
You can get the color one at just six dollars. So
01:06:21
◼
►
Pretty big discount if you own the original set you can get the color one at six dollars
01:06:25
◼
►
And in addition to that if you're totally new to maxory shortcut icons if you never bought them before
01:06:31
◼
►
We have a bundle now. So the bundle is C is 30% off
01:06:38
◼
►
the combined price of the two sets.
01:06:40
◼
►
So it's basically $20 and you can get the full bundle and when you add up all the numbers
01:06:46
◼
►
the bundle basically gives you
01:06:50
◼
►
1400 icon options. It's a lot of icons.
01:06:55
◼
►
Because today, also I forgot to mention, if you bought the classic set months ago, there's another free update for you
01:07:04
◼
►
that comes with monochrome black and white versions of the icons.
01:07:09
◼
►
So white glyphs with a black background.
01:07:12
◼
►
There's screenshots for all of this stuff in the post that I wrote on Mac stories, and there's the FAQ section
01:07:20
◼
►
where I also have a bunch of other screenshots. Basically now you can choose, right? We wanted to give people choice.
01:07:26
◼
►
Do you want to go with a standard look that resembles the Apple
01:07:32
◼
►
shortcuts icons and now you also have a monochrome version then go with the classic. Do you want to
01:07:38
◼
►
have something different that has a bit of color and that looks like apps on your home screen? Go
01:07:44
◼
►
with the color set. Do you want to have everything and just mix and match stuff? Go, which is what I
01:07:49
◼
►
do, go with the bundle and go crazy. So that was the idea. So in this post, your announcement post,
01:07:57
◼
►
You included a screenshot of your home screen.
01:08:04
◼
►
I would like to talk about this.
01:08:07
◼
►
Yes, hold on. Before we do that, tomorrow, on Thursday, there will be, as I promised,
01:08:16
◼
►
I was a bit late this year, but it's coming out tomorrow, my must-have apps 2018 edition article.
01:08:24
◼
►
It's coming out tomorrow.
01:08:27
◼
►
Super late, 2018.
01:08:28
◼
►
2019 edition.
01:08:29
◼
►
It's coming out tomorrow.
01:08:33
◼
►
So it was supposed to be out in December, but I got sidetracked and I needed to make
01:08:38
◼
►
a bunch of adjustments to my home screen, but it's done.
01:08:41
◼
►
It's coming out tomorrow and there's going to be details about all the apps that you
01:08:44
◼
►
see on the home screen.
01:08:46
◼
►
But yes, Myke, let's talk about the home screen.
01:08:50
◼
►
So I mean, there are lots of things on here that I don't understand.
01:08:54
◼
►
I don't know where the icons go and I'm very intrigued.
01:08:59
◼
►
So you have a bunch of folders that go down the right hand side.
01:09:02
◼
►
I'm assuming that they're to a shortcut which opens a folder in iCloud Drive or something?
01:09:06
◼
►
Yes. Those are... The idea there was to have a sidebar of folders.
01:09:12
◼
►
So I used the color icons with a black background to sort of make that column look different from the rest of the home screen.
01:09:23
◼
►
and those are shortcuts that open a folder in the Files app.
01:09:28
◼
►
- Okay, so you're using a black background now
01:09:31
◼
►
to make that stuff look good, right?
01:09:32
◼
►
- Yeah, exactly, because it looks different to the side.
01:09:36
◼
►
My goal was to sort of make it look like a desktop of sorts,
01:09:41
◼
►
so that, yeah, I faked my way around it
01:09:43
◼
►
using the black wallpaper.
01:09:46
◼
►
- What is Raindrop?
01:09:48
◼
►
- That's the question that I assumed correctly
01:09:53
◼
►
that a bunch of people were going to ask.
01:09:55
◼
►
So this is actually the longest segment
01:09:58
◼
►
in tomorrow's article.
01:09:59
◼
►
So raindrop.io is this bookmarking service.
01:10:04
◼
►
And yes, I'm using a bookmarking service in 2020
01:10:07
◼
►
and there's a whole backstory there
01:10:09
◼
►
that I actually explained in the article.
01:10:11
◼
►
Basically, I, so Myke knows,
01:10:15
◼
►
I've started playing competitive Pokemon
01:10:18
◼
►
over the past few months.
01:10:21
◼
►
And yes, competitive Pokémon, it's a thing, Steven.
01:10:24
◼
►
And it's a very serious game, actually.
01:10:27
◼
►
Like, bunch of stats, bunch of numbers.
01:10:32
◼
►
It's really incredible, the community around this.
01:10:34
◼
►
But here's my problem.
01:10:37
◼
►
I have been away from competitive Pokémon, like serious Pokémon team building, for the
01:10:46
◼
►
past 17 years, since the Gameboy Advance, basically. And things have changed a lot.
01:10:55
◼
►
So when I started playing Pokemon back in November on the Nintendo Switch, and then
01:10:59
◼
►
when I shared with Myke my intention of like, actually trying to get more serious about
01:11:04
◼
►
it and actually play online, which I never do, usually, I realized, oh boy, things have
01:11:10
◼
►
changed a lot, and I need to catch up on a bunch of things here. So I started reading,
01:11:14
◼
►
I started watching YouTube videos and I realized I was saving all these links in Apple Notes,
01:11:21
◼
►
like a lot of them, and I realized, oh, this is way too many links and they're basically
01:11:26
◼
►
unsearchable. Because in Apple Notes you can search notes by title, but you cannot search
01:11:32
◼
►
the title of a link contained within a note, right? Those are not real bookmarks. And of
01:11:39
◼
►
Of course, bookmarks in Safari, they're clunky and it's not really meant for having
01:11:45
◼
►
a collection of, we're talking about hundreds of bookmarks here.
01:11:49
◼
►
And so I started looking around again and I realized very quickly, well, I don't want
01:11:53
◼
►
to use stuff like devon.think or kipit because I always run into some kind of glitches and
01:12:00
◼
►
bugs and stuff that I don't like.
01:12:02
◼
►
And also devon.think on iOS and iPadOS.
01:12:06
◼
►
I mean, it's inactive development, but really the developers are focusing much more on the Mac version these days.
01:12:11
◼
►
And then, you know, I thought, well, maybe Pinboard is an option. And I know that plenty of folks love Pinboard.
01:12:18
◼
►
Honestly, I just don't like the way that it looks. Like, the website is just... I don't like it.
01:12:24
◼
►
It's not nice. And, you know, what I think about nice things and design, something has to be nice and pleasant to look at for me.
01:12:32
◼
►
Also, before people send me a tweet, yes, pinboard clients exist on iOS, but have you looked at those pinboard clients lately?
01:12:41
◼
►
They're not really, you know, updated very frequently.
01:12:45
◼
►
And so I started looking around again, and I came across Raindrop, which
01:12:50
◼
►
has been around for years. It's a really great looking bookmarking service that works everywhere. So it's got an iPhone app,
01:12:58
◼
►
it's got an iPad app, it's got a web app,
01:13:01
◼
►
desktop extensions, all kinds of different ways to save bookmarks. And these bookmarks
01:13:07
◼
►
you can organize in collections, which I liked, and you can tag, which I also like. But really,
01:13:13
◼
►
it's all about the design. So when you save a bookmark, it gets this rich thumbnail that
01:13:18
◼
►
sort of extracts the main image of a web page, and it tries its best to extract a description
01:13:25
◼
►
of the page as well. And your collections, you can have folders and sub-folders, but
01:13:32
◼
►
also you can customize the icon of the collection. You can choose from thousands of icons. There's
01:13:38
◼
►
going to be screenshots tomorrow in the story showing my Pokémon collections. Each one
01:13:44
◼
►
has a custom Pokémon icon, it's amazing, it looks so pretty. And you can choose from
01:13:48
◼
►
different view options, so you can have bookmarks laid out in a grid or in a list. It's really
01:13:53
◼
►
well done. And what makes it super useful for me is the fact that on iOS, all these
01:14:00
◼
►
bookmarks they open with Safari View Controller. Like, you tap on it and it opens with Safari.
01:14:07
◼
►
Usually these services have their own custom web views, this one does not. It opens Safari,
01:14:12
◼
►
so all of the extensions that you want to use you can use. If you use content blockers
01:14:16
◼
►
it works. If you want to use Safari Reader it also works. And it's super well done, it's
01:14:22
◼
►
so fast and well done and the extension to save links from the iPhone or from the iPad is also very well done because you can
01:14:29
◼
►
save a web page to you as a bookmark with one tap or
01:14:33
◼
►
After you've saved it
01:14:34
◼
►
You can customize it from the extension without
01:14:37
◼
►
Opening the app so you can add a tag or you can change the title or you can change the description
01:14:43
◼
►
so I've been using raindrop to
01:14:46
◼
►
At first to save a bunch of competitive Pokemon basics, so videos and guides and strategies and that kind of stuff
01:14:54
◼
►
Then I started creating my own Pokedex, which would be a list of Pokemon and important stats
01:15:01
◼
►
So like what's the base speed of this Pokemon? What's the like?
01:15:06
◼
►
What is it? What is the Pokemon weak to for example?
01:15:09
◼
►
And then I started using it to save other bookmarks for non Pokemon stuff like
01:15:15
◼
►
things that I want to buy online or music albums that I want to buy in the FLAC format for my Sony Walkman.
01:15:21
◼
►
So I got a bit of a collection of stuff.
01:15:23
◼
►
Let me ask you a couple of questions. These are incredibly important questions for me personally as a human being.
01:15:30
◼
►
When you add a link, can you put in like a note?
01:15:35
◼
►
So you can...
01:15:36
◼
►
There's a description field.
01:15:37
◼
►
You can just type your own stuff in there?
01:15:39
◼
►
Yeah, totally. That's where I keep my notes for
01:15:42
◼
►
the base speed of a Pokémon. It's something that I write because when I'm playing online
01:15:48
◼
►
with the Nintendo Switch and I want to double check like
01:15:53
◼
►
I'm against this person and I want to make sure that my Pokémon is faster than the opponent
01:15:58
◼
►
I open raindrop and I type in very quickly in the search bar the name of the opposing Pokémon and
01:16:06
◼
►
Usually there's my note in there saying "Bass speed is 50".
01:16:11
◼
►
And so I'm like, "Okay."
01:16:12
◼
►
So as a tool to double-check things when I'm playing online, it's perfect for that.
01:16:18
◼
►
And the description field, the note, is shown by default in the main list view.
01:16:24
◼
►
So you see the title in bold, and you see the note in regular font.
01:16:29
◼
►
Okay, one last thing, which is maybe even more important, and I'm expecting this is not possible.
01:16:33
◼
►
I'm assuming you can't just add something like a note randomly, it has to be attached
01:16:39
◼
►
to a bookmark, right?
01:16:40
◼
►
So yeah, unfortunately yes. You can upload images and documents like your own, if you
01:16:47
◼
►
pay for the premium service, you can upload your own files, but not text files for now
01:16:53
◼
►
I think. It's just PDF documents and photos.
01:17:00
◼
►
Have you heard of Evernote?
01:17:02
◼
►
Yeah, and this is so much better because all I want to do is save links from the web.
01:17:06
◼
►
Let me save you some time. Have you tried Notion?
01:17:09
◼
►
Don't open that can of worms.
01:17:10
◼
►
Cool, I just need to say it. I just need to say it because if I don't say it...
01:17:14
◼
►
No, no, and I can answer that because I know that there's a whole group of people out there
01:17:18
◼
►
that are going to say this. Have you tried saving a link from Safari on the iPhone 2
01:17:26
◼
►
Look, this is just... I love it because it's a dedicated tool to manage bookmarks that
01:17:34
◼
►
works well with Safari. The extension to save a bookmark, it works really well in the sharesheet,
01:17:41
◼
►
and when I'm inside the Raindrop app, I tap on a link and it opens with Safari ViewController
01:17:47
◼
►
in line. It's really well done. Like, that's all I want. I want to be able to save a link,
01:17:52
◼
►
a preview and actually also of course be able to search those links, which I cannot do in
01:17:57
◼
►
Apple Notes because it doesn't index the title of a link or the contents of a link.
01:18:04
◼
►
And in theory, like there's a whole bunch of other things that Raindrop does, like it
01:18:07
◼
►
checks broken links for you and it shows you a message if a page that you bookmarked is
01:18:14
◼
►
gone. It does suggestions in the search bar. It's very nice because once you start saving
01:18:23
◼
►
a bunch of things, it provides you with some shortcuts of videos, which automatically give
01:18:29
◼
►
you all the YouTube stuff that you've saved, or articles, for example. The developer is
01:18:36
◼
►
working on full text indexing of web pages, which I think is coming out over the next
01:18:42
◼
►
few months. So yeah, I mean, that's the... I know that's gonna be the big surprise of
01:18:48
◼
►
the home screen this year, which is why I spent a bunch of time in the article talking
01:18:52
◼
►
about the app. Anything else?
01:18:54
◼
►
I feel like we talked about that way longer than the icons.
01:18:57
◼
►
Yeah, on Raindrop, no. I mean, it's close to being something that I'm looking for, but
01:19:03
◼
►
not completely. The ability to not be able to just add text notes, that's a shame for
01:19:10
◼
►
like just arbitrary text notes, then it would be exactly something that I'm looking for
01:19:15
◼
►
right now, which is to replace my Apple Notes workflow for adding, for collecting up information
01:19:21
◼
►
for show research. Sometimes I just add in arbitrary pieces of text into that, right?
01:19:26
◼
►
Like a thought or an outline of something. All right, but I'm going to look in that because
01:19:31
◼
►
it could still do at least half of what I need. Okay, so looking at some of these, I
01:19:38
◼
►
works them out. There are some clear time tracking ones at the bottom.
01:19:41
◼
►
Yes. Timer menu, articles, shortcuts corner, I'm assuming, opens something, or S corner,
01:19:47
◼
►
I'm assuming, is opening something to do with the shortcuts corner in the club.
01:19:50
◼
►
No, it actually starts a timer for the shortcuts corner section.
01:19:54
◼
►
Yeah. What is clip to jar?
01:19:57
◼
►
So there's this beta, this app called Data Jar.
01:20:01
◼
►
Ah. Yep, yep, yep, yep.
01:20:04
◼
►
Made by Simon Stovering, he's the developer of Scriptable.
01:20:06
◼
►
-Mizz Jason. -Mizz Jason.
01:20:08
◼
►
And Data Jar is this utility that...
01:20:12
◼
►
It's one of those shortcuts utilities that is, in theory, coming out in 2020,
01:20:16
◼
►
that basically lets you manage data
01:20:21
◼
►
that you can then access from shortcuts.
01:20:23
◼
►
And what I'm building is a clipboard manager for iOS
01:20:28
◼
►
that works with Data Jar.
01:20:30
◼
►
And that, unlike other clipboard managers that others have tried to do before,
01:20:34
◼
►
This one lets you actually retrieve images and PDF documents and links and music in a rich format, not just plain text.
01:20:43
◼
►
So that's what I'm doing.
01:20:45
◼
►
The new Shortcuts icons, the recent one is the one that I use a lot.
01:20:56
◼
►
That runs a shortcut that shows me a list of my recently modified notes in Apple Notes.
01:21:04
◼
►
So just a way to get back into...
01:21:06
◼
►
- Wait, how? - This is actually on the Mac.
01:21:08
◼
►
It's in the MacStory Shortcuts Archive.
01:21:10
◼
►
I believe it's called Recent Notes.
01:21:13
◼
►
It's quite clever.
01:21:14
◼
►
It searches all your Apple Notes database,
01:21:18
◼
►
sorts your notes by recently modified,
01:21:21
◼
►
and shows you the titles of all those notes,
01:21:24
◼
►
just the titles in a list.
01:21:26
◼
►
And then you can choose from a list
01:21:28
◼
►
and it opens that specific note.
01:21:30
◼
►
- So I bet that works in a widget, huh?
01:21:32
◼
►
- Oh yeah, it does.
01:21:33
◼
►
It's not in there, but in theory it does.
01:21:36
◼
►
Site, it's got an SSH icon, but it's not actually a terminal.
01:21:41
◼
►
I just like the icon.
01:21:42
◼
►
It's a terminal.
01:21:44
◼
►
No, it's not a terminal.
01:21:45
◼
►
It's a menu.
01:21:48
◼
►
It looks like a terminal.
01:21:49
◼
►
It's not a terminal.
01:21:50
◼
►
It's a terminal, but a different kind.
01:21:53
◼
►
It's a menu with a bunch of options for Mac stories,
01:21:55
◼
►
including one which I do all the time, which is sync
01:22:00
◼
►
all repos in working copy.
01:22:02
◼
►
So with the push of a button, it refreshes working copy in the background.
01:22:06
◼
►
So I don't have to open the app and do the pull to refresh myself.
01:22:09
◼
►
And add shortcuts with the Flask, sort of a mad scientist type of deal.
01:22:16
◼
►
That's when I have an idea for a shortcut that I want to build,
01:22:20
◼
►
or that I've already built in my mind,
01:22:23
◼
►
but that I want to make sure that I add to the archive later.
01:22:26
◼
►
You've built it in the shortcuts... Yeah, okay.
01:22:29
◼
►
Sometimes I have this entire flow of a shortcut already developed in my brain
01:22:34
◼
►
and I just need to actually make it, but I know it's gonna work.
01:22:37
◼
►
And so that shortcut adds it to an Apple Note.
01:22:41
◼
►
Does your brain shortcut maker have folders?
01:22:47
◼
►
Frames, I'm assuming, does a bunch of Base64, right?
01:22:51
◼
►
Yeah, that's where all the Base64 is hidden.
01:22:53
◼
►
Oh no. Don't tap that one.
01:22:55
◼
►
No, I tap it all the time.
01:22:57
◼
►
Below frames in the dark next to the Apple Notes icon is like a little picture.
01:23:01
◼
►
What is that?
01:23:02
◼
►
Yeah, that's another shortcut called article formatting, which is just a bunch of...
01:23:09
◼
►
It doesn't make sense to share it, because it's a bunch of Mac Stories specific syntax
01:23:18
◼
►
options for my articles.
01:23:19
◼
►
What if I want those, though?
01:23:20
◼
►
Well, they're going to be useless for you, because you don't have a website.
01:23:24
◼
►
You don't know what I have.
01:23:26
◼
►
I own iOS stories, don't I?
01:23:28
◼
►
Sure, you can try that.
01:23:30
◼
►
Any day now I'm ready to launch it.
01:23:32
◼
►
So that shortcut is basically like a sort of a poor man's
01:23:38
◼
►
text expander type of deal.
01:23:41
◼
►
It shows you a list of text blocks, and you choose one,
01:23:47
◼
►
and it copies that text to the clipboard
01:23:49
◼
►
so I don't have to type it out myself.
01:23:52
◼
►
I'm surprised none of you mentioned in the doc what's next to reminders.
01:23:58
◼
►
Because I mean, I have the calendar on the main home screen, but then I also have Fantastic
01:24:03
◼
►
Al in the doc.
01:24:04
◼
►
I mean, I assume that you're a dual calendar power user.
01:24:08
◼
►
Big boy calendar user.
01:24:10
◼
►
Dual calendar cowboy.
01:24:12
◼
►
Not really, but yeah.
01:24:14
◼
►
C-A-L-B-O-Y.
01:24:15
◼
►
You're a cowboy.
01:24:16
◼
►
I'm a cowboy.
01:24:17
◼
►
I'm a true cowboy.
01:24:18
◼
►
Yeah, I'm a true cowboy. I'm not a power user, but I've been using fantastic...
01:24:27
◼
►
So the real question is, why is the Apple icon still there?
01:24:30
◼
►
So you get the date? Now the date's in the sidebar.
01:24:34
◼
►
Exactly. Initially I thought, well, it's for the date, and then I realized, oh, I'm dumb,
01:24:38
◼
►
because the date is always right there on the home screen. So the Apple calendar will
01:24:42
◼
►
probably go away. I just really like it there as an icon for now. But fantastical, I've
01:24:48
◼
►
been using because they're working on a bunch of things and I, you know, I cannot,
01:24:55
◼
►
I don't want to talk about it now but as like in addition to reminders that was a kind
01:25:00
◼
►
of a trick question, "Why don't you ask me about Fantastical?" Actually I can't
01:25:03
◼
►
talk about it. Federico, that's why I didn't ask about it,
01:25:06
◼
►
all right? It was a whole setup. Yeah, but I wanted to
01:25:09
◼
►
set you up but I failed. Honestly, I failed. I failed very badly.
01:25:14
◼
►
Yeah, it wasn't good. I regret that decision. Actually, no, I do not regret that.
01:25:20
◼
►
Oh, wow. This is a rollercoaster. Yeah, I'm all emotional right now. I don't
01:25:25
◼
►
know. Launch cuts next to shortcuts. No, there's one I want to ask about, and I've waited because
01:25:31
◼
►
I've been wondering what this is for a long time. What is Ideas?
01:25:35
◼
►
Oh, it's a shortcut that...
01:25:39
◼
►
This is the simplest thing, honestly.
01:25:43
◼
►
It's a one-action shortcut that opens an Apple Note
01:25:47
◼
►
called "Shortcut Ideas."
01:25:49
◼
►
- Okay, there was one more, though.
01:25:51
◼
►
There is a couple of other questions I have,
01:25:52
◼
►
but I can't ask them,
01:25:53
◼
►
because you've had some stuff on home screens for a while,
01:25:57
◼
►
and I've been really interested about it,
01:25:59
◼
►
but I don't think it's here, right?
01:26:02
◼
►
- Yeah, that's not here.
01:26:05
◼
►
You can see it, though, probably in the article about the shortcut icons color today.
01:26:15
◼
►
There's the second page of my home screen, which is also interesting because I'm using
01:26:20
◼
►
a real custom layout there with black icons in the middle and then regular icons.
01:26:27
◼
►
Oh, let me go see.
01:26:29
◼
►
I was just looking at the screenshot you put in our document.
01:26:31
◼
►
Yeah, I should have put the second one, sorry.
01:26:34
◼
►
- Alright. - Yeah, there's my tasks and releases.
01:26:38
◼
►
- An agenda. - Profile.
01:26:41
◼
►
Oh, Profile, that's a shortcut that opens the settings page for installing a profile on your device.
01:26:49
◼
►
I basically use it whenever I'm checking whether I have the Apple Developer Beta profile installed.
01:26:55
◼
►
How often do you need to check that?
01:26:57
◼
►
You also have four HomePod shortcuts, one for each HomePod.
01:27:01
◼
►
No, it's for all HomePods.
01:27:05
◼
►
Shuffle love, is that what that means?
01:27:07
◼
►
Shuffle love, shuffle star.
01:27:09
◼
►
You're ready for love?
01:27:11
◼
►
That's what I do. Look, I gotta be efficient at all times.
01:27:14
◼
►
What is my tasks and what is releases?
01:27:18
◼
►
So, those two are...
01:27:23
◼
►
Myke, I need you to take this seriously.
01:27:27
◼
►
Honestly, they are PWAs.
01:27:33
◼
►
I am a hundred percent serious.
01:27:35
◼
►
Why is this happening?
01:27:39
◼
►
It's not that it's happening to you.
01:27:42
◼
►
Oh, we're doing it back here again?
01:27:44
◼
►
Those are- so-
01:27:50
◼
►
Oh, don't do that one.
01:27:52
◼
►
Don't do that.
01:27:55
◼
►
Stop saying that word in that voice.
01:27:56
◼
►
Go back to my tasks.
01:28:01
◼
►
So months ago-- actually, I think it was late August--
01:28:06
◼
►
I asked-- I started working on a shortcut.
01:28:10
◼
►
I was like, wouldn't it be nice if I could put together
01:28:13
◼
►
a shortcut to build a custom calendar view just for me
01:28:21
◼
►
that shows me both tasks and calendar
01:28:24
◼
►
events on the same page?
01:28:26
◼
►
And so I started building that.
01:28:28
◼
►
And at the same time, that was when I began working on MusicBot.
01:28:34
◼
►
And on the side, I started thinking,
01:28:37
◼
►
wouldn't it be nice if the music releases that I saved to my MusicBot collection
01:28:45
◼
►
could also be previewed as their own grid, like in a custom page?
01:28:51
◼
►
And eventually, these two things became sort of the same related project of,
01:28:55
◼
►
like how can I build a responsive grid that shows me
01:29:00
◼
►
for my tasks, reminders and events,
01:29:04
◼
►
and for releases, music albums.
01:29:08
◼
►
And I realized soon after that,
01:29:11
◼
►
that I had no idea how HTML and CSS worked.
01:29:14
◼
►
And so I asked Brett Terpstra,
01:29:16
◼
►
hey, can we work together on this?
01:29:18
◼
►
And so my tasks and releases will eventually be released
01:29:23
◼
►
as Cloud Max Stories Only perks.
01:29:26
◼
►
They are progressive web apps
01:29:29
◼
►
that you can install on your own server
01:29:32
◼
►
and then bookmark on your device with a custom icon,
01:29:36
◼
►
as shown in this screenshot.
01:29:38
◼
►
And my tasks...
01:29:40
◼
►
- Where would one get custom icons?
01:29:42
◼
►
- Well, they come because they are PWAs, Myke.
01:29:45
◼
►
They... - Oh, they come with their own.
01:29:47
◼
►
- They come with their own icon.
01:29:49
◼
►
- Yeah, but you can, I guess they're,
01:29:51
◼
►
I mean, I'll make it possible for you to use any icon you want. I'll think about that.
01:29:56
◼
►
Of course you will.
01:29:57
◼
►
And they are progressive web apps that they open super fast and they fetch a page from
01:30:06
◼
►
your server and then they show you either your schedule for the week or your entire
01:30:11
◼
►
collection of music releases that you've previously saved via MusicBot. Of course, both of them
01:30:18
◼
►
are powered by shortcuts. There's a shortcut that updates the contents of the My Tasks
01:30:24
◼
►
page on your own server, and there's a shortcut that updates the releases webpage. They're
01:30:30
◼
►
fun but I mean, the work comes out for the club at some point before WWDC, I'm sure.
01:30:38
◼
►
But yeah, they are PWAs, Mykey. They're good web apps, you know?
01:30:44
◼
►
Aren't all web apps good? Is it the same as dogs?
01:30:49
◼
►
Well, no. Dogs are all good, that's a fact. Web apps, it depends.
01:30:54
◼
►
I still don't agree with this. Dogs are all good. Nonsense.
01:30:57
◼
►
Let's pick... You are a bad person.
01:31:00
◼
►
But yeah, this is the second screen. You can see the "tutur" icon down there.
01:31:06
◼
►
"Tutur" is there. TV forecast. This is a good one.
01:31:10
◼
►
forecast is an upcoming TV tracker.
01:31:16
◼
►
Used to be around many, many years ago.
01:31:19
◼
►
The developer sort of abandoned the app, and now it's back,
01:31:23
◼
►
and it's super well done.
01:31:24
◼
►
And I'm using that as my TV tracker of choice.
01:31:28
◼
►
And I think everything else you pretty much
01:31:30
◼
►
know about a bunch of other shortcuts,
01:31:33
◼
►
all the new color icons.
01:31:36
◼
►
Yeah, that's about it.
01:31:38
◼
►
Steven, tell people where they can find the show notes
01:31:40
◼
►
for this episode, which would be important.
01:31:42
◼
►
- They can find the show notes
01:31:43
◼
►
at relay.fm/connected/278.
01:31:48
◼
►
So go look through Federico's screens.
01:31:51
◼
►
There'll be links to that Mac Stories article there.
01:31:54
◼
►
There's also other fun activities
01:31:55
◼
►
you can have on the website.
01:31:56
◼
►
You can send us an email with feedback or a follow-up,
01:31:59
◼
►
or you can find us on Twitter.
01:32:02
◼
►
Myke is there as I-M-Y-K-E.
01:32:04
◼
►
Myke is, of course, the host of a bunch of other shows
01:32:07
◼
►
here on relay FM.
01:32:08
◼
►
So go check those out.
01:32:10
◼
►
You can find Federico on Twitter as V I T I C C I,
01:32:15
◼
►
and he's the editor in chief and icon guru
01:32:20
◼
►
over at maxstories.net.
01:32:23
◼
►
You can find me on Twitter as ISMH
01:32:25
◼
►
and my work at 512pixels.net.
01:32:29
◼
►
I think our sponsors this week,
01:32:30
◼
►
Squarespace, Direct Mail, Booz Allen.
01:32:34
◼
►
Until next week guys, say goodbye.
01:32:36
◼
►
I'll do that to you.