254: Hot Salt
00:00:00
◼
►
(upbeat music)
00:00:02
◼
►
- Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 253.
00:00:13
◼
►
It's made possible this week by our sponsors,
00:00:15
◼
►
ExpressVPN and Bombas.
00:00:18
◼
►
My name is Stephen Hackett, I am back
00:00:20
◼
►
and to restore order to whatever happened last week.
00:00:24
◼
►
And it's an odd episode,
00:00:27
◼
►
So Myke, you get to say hello first.
00:00:30
◼
►
- Oh, hello.
00:00:32
◼
►
- Hi, I'm glad to be back.
00:00:33
◼
►
I'm glad you're feeling better.
00:00:34
◼
►
Glad you're sounding better.
00:00:35
◼
►
- I realized that last week I introduced myself first.
00:00:38
◼
►
Just because you have the episode number wrong.
00:00:41
◼
►
It's episode 254.
00:00:44
◼
►
- So Federico, you get to go second, but really first.
00:00:47
◼
►
The first shall be last, as it is said.
00:00:50
◼
►
- I like how you said you're bringing back order
00:00:52
◼
►
and you've actually brought chaos upon the show,
00:00:55
◼
►
is what you've actually done.
00:00:55
◼
►
- This is extremely chaotic for an introduction
00:00:59
◼
►
coming from you.
00:01:01
◼
►
- I feel confused and perplexed, Stephen,
00:01:05
◼
►
what you've done here.
00:01:07
◼
►
You should maybe go back to vacation or something.
00:01:10
◼
►
- I mean, I won't argue with going back on vacation,
00:01:13
◼
►
but we're here, so we probably should just
00:01:16
◼
►
keep doing the show.
00:01:17
◼
►
Can we just move forward, you think?
00:01:20
◼
►
Over the weekend, I was at the MaxDock conference
00:01:25
◼
►
John Voorhees, we should give a special shout out to,
00:01:27
◼
►
who not only picked me up from the airport in Chicago
00:01:32
◼
►
and took me to the airport to leave several days later,
00:01:34
◼
►
then picked me up again when my flight was canceled,
00:01:36
◼
►
let me spend a night in his house with his family,
00:01:38
◼
►
and then took me back to the airport.
00:01:39
◼
►
John, truly my savior this weekend and this week of--
00:01:44
◼
►
- Was that a max stories expense?
00:01:47
◼
►
John, are you listening?
00:01:49
◼
►
- It's between you and John.
00:01:52
◼
►
- You need to buy him like a muffin basket or something.
00:01:56
◼
►
- I should get him something.
00:01:57
◼
►
I should have, guys, we had to talk
00:02:00
◼
►
about John's cable management under his desk.
00:02:02
◼
►
It's not good.
00:02:03
◼
►
- He has a problem, right?
00:02:05
◼
►
- He does, and he was in the middle of like--
00:02:07
◼
►
- Does he have a problem anymore?
00:02:09
◼
►
- Well, so he was like setting up new stuff,
00:02:10
◼
►
and so it wasn't in a state that I could do it,
00:02:12
◼
►
but I think I'm gonna have to go back.
00:02:14
◼
►
And I'm gonna have to go back to Chicago
00:02:16
◼
►
and fix this for him.
00:02:16
◼
►
- I think you liked hanging out at John's house.
00:02:21
◼
►
I really enjoyed it.
00:02:22
◼
►
No, I think he secretly enjoyed Mac stock more than he was expecting, purely on the
00:02:27
◼
►
fact that he just got to open up a bunch of Macs in an unclean environment.
00:02:34
◼
►
I'm looking at these pictures of you doing things with Mac computers and your hands,
00:02:41
◼
►
and there's one that sort of looks like a Renaissance painting, that's like you sitting
00:02:45
◼
►
down handling a Mac Mini and like a bunch of people all around you. I could see this
00:02:51
◼
►
one as a painting. What is that spiral thing? What spiral thing? You know when you like
00:02:55
◼
►
put there's like a there's like a spiral grid that you can put over artwork just like the
00:03:01
◼
►
golden ratio? Somebody needs to overlay the golden ratio and see if it fits because there's
00:03:06
◼
►
a bunch of things happening like David's looking down at you all lovingly and then there's
00:03:10
◼
►
some dude who's giving like a real weird side eye to somebody else like there's like a bunch
00:03:14
◼
►
of things going on and I feel like if you put the spiral on this like I think it would
00:03:19
◼
►
work. Yeah. I think the Fibonacci sequence also kind of fits in here. Not sure how, but
00:03:27
◼
►
I think in all paintings with the gold narration and stuff, the Fibonacci sequence comes into
00:03:31
◼
►
play. And so the composition of this picture... I think that's the thing I'm talking about,
00:03:35
◼
►
the Fibonacci sequence, when you draw like that spiral. Yes. Yes. I think that's what
00:03:41
◼
►
I'm talking about. Somebody's gonna do it, and if it doesn't work, please alter the spiral
00:03:48
◼
►
so that it fits because we just want to see it done, really.
00:03:51
◼
►
I actually think the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence are the same thing.
00:03:55
◼
►
Oh, see, there you go. So I just used two words to mean the same thing. Awesome.
00:03:59
◼
►
Because I wanted to say Fibonacci sequence, but it sounded like a math thing, and it is a math thing.
00:04:05
◼
►
And yeah, it's all very confusing to me, but it's a thing that people do.
00:04:09
◼
►
Anyways, some people, including Rose Orchard, who has a show on the network called Automators,
00:04:15
◼
►
They had some Macs that needed upgrades and they just brought them to the conference and
00:04:20
◼
►
people were asking around.
00:04:21
◼
►
I find this perplexing.
00:04:23
◼
►
I find this whole thing perplexing.
00:04:24
◼
►
You maybe need to help me with this.
00:04:27
◼
►
Why were people bringing their broken Macs to Macstock?
00:04:31
◼
►
Is it like a part of the conference that like you go there and fix the computers?
00:04:35
◼
►
No, it's not.
00:04:36
◼
►
So the iMac was brought by Father John, who I think he just brought it hoping that someone
00:04:44
◼
►
would be able to put we put ram and ssd in it and because it's a 21 inch iMac and there's no ram
00:04:50
◼
►
drawer on it because of stupid reasons you have to take the logic board out to upgrade the ram so in
00:04:54
◼
►
that picture the logic i'm on you know we're getting the logic board out and stuff so took it all the
00:04:58
◼
►
way apart so i think he just brought it hoping someone could do it and i answered the call like
00:05:03
◼
►
batman or some sort of doctor on a plane wait wait wait we're we're not calling john voorhees father
00:05:09
◼
►
John now, right? No, no, no, no, no. So who's Father John? He was the guy at the conference.
00:05:15
◼
►
Oh, he's another person. Okay, okay, another person. All right. Okay. Yes. Not, not, not
00:05:20
◼
►
John Voorhees. Okay. I feel uncomfortable calling John Voorhees Father John. Just clarifying. But
00:05:26
◼
►
you see, I'm just, I find myself perplexed. Where did the suction cups come from? To lift the...
00:05:32
◼
►
He brought, he had all the tools and everything. I just did it. And how did they find you? How
00:05:37
◼
►
How do you, were you like trolling the tables,
00:05:39
◼
►
hoping to start opening up some computers?
00:05:42
◼
►
How did you get involved in this?
00:05:44
◼
►
- I was in line for lunch, and they're like,
00:05:47
◼
►
does anybody know how to take the glass off an iMac?
00:05:49
◼
►
'Cause I think he had planned to do the rest of it himself,
00:05:52
◼
►
he just needed help with the glass,
00:05:53
◼
►
and I was like, well, I know how to do that,
00:05:54
◼
►
and then I ended up doing the whole thing,
00:05:56
◼
►
it took an hour and a half.
00:05:57
◼
►
But it all worked for the record,
00:05:59
◼
►
both of these computers survived.
00:06:01
◼
►
And so the second one was Rose bought a Mac Mini,
00:06:05
◼
►
I think in the United States,
00:06:06
◼
►
So I guess if the European Union is listening,
00:06:09
◼
►
go after Rose.
00:06:10
◼
►
But she brought RAM.
00:06:13
◼
►
- That's not where I thought he was going.
00:06:14
◼
►
- She brought RAM to upgrade it,
00:06:16
◼
►
and she had seen me do the iMacs rather successfully.
00:06:20
◼
►
And she was gonna do the Mac Mini herself,
00:06:22
◼
►
but then said, "Well, you're here, why don't you do it?"
00:06:24
◼
►
So it was the first time inside a new Mac Mini.
00:06:26
◼
►
- There are so many people watching you.
00:06:28
◼
►
- Yeah, it became like a little bit of a situation.
00:06:30
◼
►
And then actually Brett Terpstra had a MacBook
00:06:33
◼
►
that needed a battery taken out, and I drew the line there.
00:06:35
◼
►
I was like, I'm done, sorry Brett.
00:06:38
◼
►
Two is my, one per day for a two day conference
00:06:40
◼
►
felt like enough.
00:06:42
◼
►
This is not something I'm planning on doing
00:06:43
◼
►
at conferences I go to in the future,
00:06:44
◼
►
so if you see me at, you know, WWDC or Release Notes,
00:06:49
◼
►
some of the conference, this is not my normal,
00:06:53
◼
►
my normal emo.
00:06:54
◼
►
- Is it though?
00:06:55
◼
►
- It's not, no see, this is the thing.
00:06:57
◼
►
It is not a normal thing that you do,
00:06:59
◼
►
but I think it's something you would like to do more.
00:07:01
◼
►
- And also it is completely within character
00:07:03
◼
►
for you to do this.
00:07:05
◼
►
Literally nobody is surprised.
00:07:07
◼
►
Well, it's done.
00:07:12
◼
►
Both machines were successfully upgraded.
00:07:14
◼
►
Maybe you should be like a traveling repairman.
00:07:18
◼
►
If the podcasting career doesn't work out,
00:07:20
◼
►
you could have like a van and travel to the United States,
00:07:24
◼
►
maybe even Europe, and just fix people's computers.
00:07:27
◼
►
It's sort of like a street food truck, but you fix computers.
00:07:31
◼
►
I'm not sure how successful that would be as a business,
00:07:34
◼
►
but I do like the idea.
00:07:35
◼
►
Okay, just give it a mic.
00:07:36
◼
►
- Like, I could be like the Matt cowboy.
00:07:39
◼
►
- Sure, you can be that.
00:07:40
◼
►
- Right around town to town.
00:07:42
◼
►
I have some follow out, Myke, about upgrade this week.
00:07:47
◼
►
- Don't give, no look, don't be like Myke,
00:07:49
◼
►
'cause you knew I wasn't gonna know this, right?
00:07:51
◼
►
So you should be aiming your eye out at Jason.
00:07:53
◼
►
- Jason, Jason.
00:07:55
◼
►
So here's what, I was gonna send this to y'all
00:07:57
◼
►
privately as feedback, but I thought,
00:07:59
◼
►
they might not make it in the show, and I thought,
00:08:01
◼
►
what outline do I control where I could say this?
00:08:04
◼
►
and I realized this is the time.
00:08:06
◼
►
So, talking about the rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro,
00:08:10
◼
►
that rumor broke last week, I think,
00:08:12
◼
►
that the starting price is gonna be three grand,
00:08:14
◼
►
which is a lot of money for a laptop.
00:08:18
◼
►
Clearly, this was set above the 15-inch.
00:08:19
◼
►
We've talked about this before.
00:08:21
◼
►
And I saw a couple tweets about this as well,
00:08:23
◼
►
but Jason mentioned that he thought
00:08:24
◼
►
it would be the most expensive starting price
00:08:27
◼
►
for an Apple notebook, and it's not even close.
00:08:30
◼
►
So I went through a little application called Mac Tracker,
00:08:34
◼
►
which has a bunch of this information in it. And I came up with several examples of machines
00:08:40
◼
►
over $3,000. Now, I don't say this, just to correct Jason, although part of me will enjoy
00:08:46
◼
►
that. I just I was supremely shocked at some of these prices. And remember, the most of
00:08:52
◼
►
the machines I'm going to list were for sale in the 90s. So this is like 90s dollars, I
00:08:55
◼
►
didn't do the conversion to current day. But a lot of Apple notebooks have been really
00:09:00
◼
►
expensive. The really only modern example of a machine over three grand was the original
00:09:06
◼
►
17 inch PowerBook G4. It was $3,300 but it fell below $3,000 after its first revision
00:09:14
◼
►
and then kind of stayed you know $2,500, $2,600, $2,700 most of its life. More expensive than
00:09:20
◼
►
the 15 inch at the time but still pricey. But if we go to the 90s, some crazy things
00:09:27
◼
►
Can I ask, these aren't adjusted to today's dollars are they?
00:09:28
◼
►
No, this is 19, these are original prices, so the 17-inch PowerBook came out in 2002,
00:09:33
◼
►
I think, or 2003, and these older PowerBooks are all in the 90s.
00:09:38
◼
►
These are 90s dollar amounts.
00:09:40
◼
►
So it'd be even higher today if we adjusted for inflation and current day dollars.
00:09:47
◼
►
The PowerBook 540 was $3,160, but if you got the 540C that had a color screen, $4,840,
00:09:57
◼
►
just a lot of money. The PowerBook 2400C was $3,500. The PowerBook 3400C, so again color
00:10:06
◼
►
display, if you got the 180 megahertz it was $4,500 but the all-time most expensive Apple
00:10:13
◼
►
notebook the PowerBook 3400C 240 megahertz $6,500. That's a lot of dollars. That is all
00:10:26
◼
►
the dollars. It's twice the dollars. But wouldn't that one technically not be the starting price
00:10:31
◼
►
though? So I mean no but the starting price is still 4500. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's
00:10:39
◼
►
still ridiculous. The the Macintosh portable which is like not really a laptop because
00:10:44
◼
►
it had a car battery in it. Its starting price was $6500. What do you want at a car back
00:10:52
◼
►
Macintosh portable it had like a lead acid battery in it like a car
00:10:56
◼
►
It weighed it weighed 16 pounds nice nice and it's starting price was
00:11:04
◼
►
$6,500 and again to break from the starting price if you wanted a hard drive in it
00:11:11
◼
►
$7,300 computers we used to be expensive turns out yes, and so the 16 inches you know
00:11:20
◼
►
Maybe they are gonna put this a colored logo on it. It's like
00:11:22
◼
►
Make it feel more authentic
00:11:25
◼
►
Expensive like the old days. Yeah, that's all I just wanted to share this research because I wanted in the world
00:11:32
◼
►
I can confirm to you now that we have done this follow-up
00:11:36
◼
►
I would not have included it and follow up for upgrades
00:11:39
◼
►
So I'm pleased that you did it. I know just like you never read my ask upgrade questions about
00:11:44
◼
►
G3 laptops like you just you ignore my existence unless I need to adjudicate your well
00:11:50
◼
►
If you maybe if they weren't all about just really old stuff all the time and maybe yeah
00:11:55
◼
►
But I kind of I got a brand to build here man. Yeah, you mean you keep building it here
00:11:59
◼
►
But I ain't doing it for you
00:12:01
◼
►
Okay. So anyways, I have no doubt that six inch macro Pro be expensive, but it joins
00:12:06
◼
►
the history books of other expensive high-end laptops mm-hmm a couple well a reminder and
00:12:13
◼
►
an announcement and a half
00:12:15
◼
►
This is confusing
00:12:18
◼
►
We are doing a live show in San Francisco on August 22nd
00:12:22
◼
►
That we have just a handful of tickets left. So go check out that link
00:12:27
◼
►
we would love to see you a whole bunch of relay FM hosts are going to be there together and
00:12:30
◼
►
We are going to be putting them through some I don't want to say challenges
00:12:36
◼
►
But I'll just say that it's going to be an extravaganza
00:12:40
◼
►
Beyond anything that podcasting has ever seen I think I think the final number is 18 hosts. Yep. That's where we are
00:12:47
◼
►
We'll be on stage
00:12:49
◼
►
So settle in everybody. It's gonna be a big one. Mm-hmm
00:12:52
◼
►
We're all gonna come out one of those like tiny clown cars from the circus like
00:12:56
◼
►
just kidding
00:12:59
◼
►
The the week before that though is relays birthday week and the episode of that week
00:13:04
◼
►
Which is like August 13th or 14th somewhere in there
00:13:07
◼
►
Myke and I will be having our annual relay QA so this we've done this every year now where we take
00:13:14
◼
►
Listener questions and we answer them on the show one year. We did it on a YouTube video
00:13:18
◼
►
We're gonna put it back in sort of podcast form this year
00:13:21
◼
►
So if you have a question for me and Myke about podcasting of the company really anything you can tweet with the hashtag
00:13:27
◼
►
relay QA and I have a little
00:13:31
◼
►
automation Roomba going around and sucking all those up and putting them in a spreadsheet so
00:13:36
◼
►
Just cleaning up the tweets. That's right. So I tweet with that and those will go in that episode and I
00:13:42
◼
►
Can't announce this because we have something happening tomorrow, but maybe just keep an eye on the relay FM Twitter account tomorrow
00:13:48
◼
►
August 1st, I have literally no idea what he's talking about. So that would be fun for everyone
00:13:53
◼
►
You do know what I'm talking about. I do not know what you're doing tomorrow
00:13:56
◼
►
Those things those things we're doing tomorrow. Oh
00:14:00
◼
►
He's text me yeah, okay. Yeah, that'd be good. It'd be fun. I think you'll like that
00:14:06
◼
►
Well, way to really sell it.
00:14:08
◼
►
I don't want to make it sound like we have 17 new shows starring all of your faves.
00:14:12
◼
►
It's not a new show.
00:14:14
◼
►
It's not a new show.
00:14:16
◼
►
But we have some fun stuff coming tomorrow.
00:14:19
◼
►
You need your wallet, basically.
00:14:21
◼
►
There you go.
00:14:22
◼
►
That sets the expectation, I think.
00:14:25
◼
►
You need your wallet.
00:14:26
◼
►
So that was my announcement.
00:14:27
◼
►
No, that was my reminder and announcement and a half or whatever I said.
00:14:31
◼
►
Thus endeth follow-up.
00:14:32
◼
►
We have a tiny topic, but it's really a 27 inch topic.
00:14:37
◼
►
The LG ultrafine 5k, you know, it was for sale forever.
00:14:42
◼
►
Apple took it off the market for a little bit, but now it's back.
00:14:45
◼
►
And there's been a lot of confusion over the last couple days about what can use this display.
00:14:50
◼
►
So we're going to get to that.
00:14:51
◼
►
But the new ultrafine, it's the same 27 inch panel as before, same sort of clumsy enclosure.
00:14:59
◼
►
It's not the best looking thing in the world.
00:15:01
◼
►
It's not terrible.
00:15:02
◼
►
have the 4k my wife uses it with her MacBook Air and like it's not beautiful
00:15:05
◼
►
but it definitely gets the job done and of course the ultra fine you know that
00:15:09
◼
►
the brightness and volume controls for Mac OS all work with this it's pretty
00:15:13
◼
►
well integrated more so than like a Dell or an HP or some other third-party
00:15:16
◼
►
monitor so that ultra fine this ultra fine keeps all that the same this one
00:15:21
◼
►
adds a webcam and a microphone which the other the old one did not I think I told
00:15:27
◼
►
you guys this privately I don't think I said on the show when I was setting up
00:15:30
◼
►
my wife's with her MacBook Air I thought it was broken like I thought it had a
00:15:34
◼
►
webcam in it I was like like trying to like open photo booth like check out the
00:15:38
◼
►
quality is like where is it that actually looked at the bezel and was
00:15:41
◼
►
there wasn't one this new one includes it I have a question and yes the Mac mini
00:15:47
◼
►
uh-huh does it have a t2 chip in it it does does that have any kind of tie to
00:15:52
◼
►
that webcam because isn't that a thing in like the iMac Pro and stuff well the
00:15:58
◼
►
iMac so t2 max with built-in iSights yes there's some sort of security layer
00:16:03
◼
►
there I do not believe that that is extended to USB webcam so I believe if I
00:16:08
◼
►
plugged in like a Logitech camera to my iMac Pro I figured that was the case it
00:16:12
◼
►
would not gain that protection I just wondered because this monitor is so
00:16:16
◼
►
clearly developed alongside Apple I wondered if it would benefit from from
00:16:21
◼
►
that but I guess not yeah I believe that that's just like the internal routing
00:16:25
◼
►
and stuff. That's a good question, though. It's really a question. See how much I know
00:16:28
◼
►
about Macintosh computers that I would even throw that thing out there. I like I like
00:16:32
◼
►
that you call the Macintoshes. Yeah, one upgrade is that this new 5k display now offers charging
00:16:39
◼
►
over Thunderbolt three to 94 watts, which is higher than the current 15 inch MacBook
00:16:45
◼
►
Pro requires. So wink, wink, nudge, nudge 16 inch MacBook Pro, I suppose. So plenty
00:16:51
◼
►
of power out of this thing for a big 15 inch, you know, you can get into a situation with
00:16:54
◼
►
these USB C Thunderbolt machines where your charger can't keep up with the power drain.
00:17:00
◼
►
I have been having this exact problem and I was just about to go on a little rant here
00:17:04
◼
►
but here we go anyway. Oh please. I have been trying to do some work from the sofa this
00:17:09
◼
►
week on a MacBook Pro in logic I've been needed to do some editing but couldn't be at the
00:17:15
◼
►
desk and I have a charger that I use for my iPad right like it's the iPad charger so I
00:17:21
◼
►
plug it in and all it will do is just maintain battery level, right? And I find it so frustrating
00:17:28
◼
►
because it's like that now the consumer has to be fully aware of the wattage power of
00:17:35
◼
►
the thing that they're using, which has the exact same connection as all of the other
00:17:39
◼
►
devices. It's so annoying that I have to do this. It's really nice, the idea of having
00:17:44
◼
►
one cable to charge so many things, but then you need to be like, well, is it powerful
00:17:48
◼
►
enough. Like you're not gonna know until you plug it in and then the battery
00:17:51
◼
►
thing says "I'm not charging" and it's like oh god that is my... I'm done now.
00:17:57
◼
►
No, it's super annoying. It's like the future is the idea of having the
00:18:01
◼
►
one cable was great until it happened and then we all needed to think about
00:18:04
◼
►
the wattage of our plugs. It's a bummer. I mean some of that was true like the
00:18:08
◼
►
MagSafe days you're like 45 and 80 watt stuff but the way I got around it
00:18:12
◼
►
when I had a 13-inch micro pro now I have the 15 so I had to go up to the higher
00:18:16
◼
►
wattage and I just end up buying a second like an 87 watt charger to have
00:18:22
◼
►
at my desk and have one in the bag so I didn't end up in that situation because
00:18:24
◼
►
that's super annoying. Anyways this display can throw plenty of power around.
00:18:30
◼
►
When this was announced it was kind of misunderstood as being a USB C display
00:18:40
◼
►
with 5k resolution. So people were like oh the iPad Pro can drive it at 5k the
00:18:46
◼
►
MacBook you know the dead 12 inch MacBook could drive it but that's really
00:18:51
◼
►
not the case this continues to be a 5k Thunderbolt display and if you plug in
00:18:58
◼
►
either a USB C only device so the iPad Pro the 12 inch MacBook or if you adapt
00:19:05
◼
►
from Thunderbolt two up to Thunderbolt three with an adapter, you are limited to to 4k resolution,
00:19:13
◼
►
it's still 60 hertz, but you were limited to 4k resolution. And so this is not a 5k USB C display
00:19:21
◼
►
is a 5k Thunderbolt display with a 4k USB C fallback mode. I hate this. I hate this too.
00:19:29
◼
►
It's very confusing because now we have two cables that look the same with the ports and everything.
00:19:34
◼
►
So Federico, I'm confused. I thought, and I think maybe I'm wrong, I thought Apple
00:19:40
◼
►
talked about 5k output with the iPad Pro. They did. They said that the iPad
00:19:46
◼
►
Pro supported up to 5k display resolution on external monitors over
00:19:51
◼
►
USB-C, but we still have to actually see a display that does this on the iPad Pro.
00:20:00
◼
►
Because I bought the old ultrafine 4K because I knew that it was going to support 4K over
00:20:08
◼
►
USB-C. I did not buy the older generation 5K because it was Thunderbolt only.
00:20:15
◼
►
So I'm happy to see that Apple released a new version with USB-C, but I'm disappointed
00:20:21
◼
►
by the fact that it's limited to 4K.
00:20:24
◼
►
It's almost as if they promised 5K, but almost like the software doesn't support it.
00:20:32
◼
►
Like I don't understand why, on one hand last November, last October, they said this device
00:20:38
◼
►
supports up to 5K resolution, but then there's actually no display that does it.
00:20:44
◼
►
I'm really intrigued to see what happens with the Apple Pro Display, what's it called, the
00:20:53
◼
►
Is it gonna have a USB-C mod for the iPad Pro?
00:20:57
◼
►
Is it gonna support 4K, 5K or 6K for the iPad Pro?
00:21:01
◼
►
In theory it should do 5K with some kind of letterboxing, I assume, or pillarboxing rather,
00:21:08
◼
►
because the iPad Pro will not be able to fill the 6K resolution of the whole display.
00:21:14
◼
►
But we still don't even know whether the Pro Display XDR supports the iPad Pro and USB-C
00:21:22
◼
►
mode we don't know what it supports at all right like will it support the macbook pro
00:21:27
◼
►
like there hasn't actually been anything official it seems i heard from uh you know second hand
00:21:34
◼
►
source here he goes teachy-tit take this with a with a very very uh sizable grain of salt sort
00:21:44
◼
►
of like a mine of salt like those crystals like those salt crystals like a very chunky
00:21:50
◼
►
salt crystal. Like a thick salt crystal. But the Pro Display XDR was being tested with
00:22:01
◼
►
support for the iPad Pro and even rotation, because you can rotate the Pro Display XDR
00:22:07
◼
►
and mirroring via an iPad Pro would actually support that rotation of the display. So in
00:22:12
◼
►
vertical mode and in portrait mode. There you go, Tipsters, write that up, make sure
00:22:17
◼
►
you credit the show. That's all we asked for. No, no, really.
00:22:20
◼
►
Oh, don't do it, sorry. Don't do it. I'm just going to say that I don't have the
00:22:23
◼
►
same confidence in this as I had for the mouse support, for example. So it was just something
00:22:29
◼
►
that came up in conversation. I would like to see a USB-C compatibility mode on the Pro
00:22:34
◼
►
Display XDR. I'm not going to buy a Pro Display XDR because I don't need all of those features.
00:22:39
◼
►
I'm not a video editor. But it would be nice to have it. I mean, if you have an iPad Pro.
00:22:46
◼
►
Just drop a cool seven grand for a display for a $1200 iPad?
00:22:50
◼
►
You really don't want to be in a situation where you buy the Pro Display XDR just as
00:22:55
◼
►
an iPad Pro Display, I think.
00:22:58
◼
►
Even though, you know, you can imagine.
00:23:01
◼
►
That flex, though.
00:23:02
◼
►
It's a pretty big flex.
00:23:03
◼
►
Yeah, it will be quite a flex.
00:23:05
◼
►
No, no, Apple said the iPads didn't bend.
00:23:07
◼
►
That's a different thing.
00:23:09
◼
►
No, I thought they said they bended a little bit, but just within their expected tolerances.
00:23:13
◼
►
Small flex, but okay.
00:23:15
◼
►
More flex, but acceptable.
00:23:16
◼
►
I have a question, Steven.
00:23:19
◼
►
What is the likelihood that the iMac Pro will be updated this year?
00:23:23
◼
►
I don't keep up with the Xeon roadmap the way Marco does and some other people do.
00:23:27
◼
►
My understanding, take this with a Xeon-sized grain of salt, is that...
00:23:33
◼
►
That's a huge grain of salt!
00:23:35
◼
►
Yeah, and it gets really hot.
00:23:38
◼
►
It's a big, hot grain of salt.
00:23:43
◼
►
I really like my salt as multi-threaded as possible.
00:23:48
◼
►
I don't know if there's Xeon W chips
00:23:51
◼
►
that are available to update the iMac Pro.
00:23:56
◼
►
I would assume, though, that we would see one,
00:24:00
◼
►
even if it's just sort of like a little bit
00:24:03
◼
►
of a rearrangement, maybe by the end of the year
00:24:05
◼
►
there are GPUs they could go to, faster GPUs now,
00:24:09
◼
►
And it may be that the Xeons, again, this is not something I really give up with closely.
00:24:14
◼
►
The Xeons that are in the Mac Pro may be applicable to the iMac Pro.
00:24:18
◼
►
Don't quote me on that.
00:24:19
◼
►
I'm not positive.
00:24:20
◼
►
But I think at the very least there's room to go up in the GPU.
00:24:23
◼
►
You know, they have lowered the prices on the SSD options, which is really nice.
00:24:28
◼
►
The thing that still boggles my mind about the iMac Pro, we're off topic now, but the
00:24:33
◼
►
The base iMac Pro is a better computer than the base Mac Pro, and I hope that if they
00:24:40
◼
►
do update the iMac Pro line that it continues to be really good value.
00:24:44
◼
►
You know, at $5,000 it is a very expensive computer, but for that $5,000 iMac Pro is
00:24:51
◼
►
a lot, it's not as upgradeable or expandable obviously, but just in raw performance, I
00:24:57
◼
►
think a better machine than the base model $6,000 Mac Pro is, plus you get a 5K display
00:25:02
◼
►
thrown in that's not doesn't have an LG case around it so you know hopefully
00:25:07
◼
►
this year to answer your question but I don't know for sure mm-hmm I can tell
00:25:11
◼
►
you you know I'm coming up on a year and a half of ownership with this I got it
00:25:15
◼
►
pretty early and I continue to genuinely enjoy using this computer yeah I just I
00:25:20
◼
►
don't want to buy it like now and then it gets a it in March right but like I'm
00:25:26
◼
►
my plan is I would like by the end of the year to update to an iMac Pro I have
00:25:31
◼
►
made the final decision that the Mac Pro is not for me. Okay. I think Apple made
00:25:36
◼
►
that decision when they announced it, right? Like, that wasn't for me. Yeah, the iMac Pro would be a great
00:25:40
◼
►
computer for you. You're already in the iMac life, so you're kind of used to the
00:25:43
◼
►
all-in-one, and it's way faster than your old 5k. And there's a family
00:25:47
◼
►
member who needs a new iMac, so I was like, "Oh, okay, you keep yours
00:25:52
◼
►
because I will be updating mine." But yeah, I want to go iMac Pro, but
00:25:58
◼
►
I don't I'm kind of just like trying to hold
00:26:00
◼
►
Basically, my plan is to hold until at least the Mac Pro is released, right?
00:26:06
◼
►
Because that would be in theory when they would release an iMac Pro if there was an update I would assume
00:26:10
◼
►
Yeah, or I think if you make it to the end of the year, I don't know. It's unproven, right? I mean really
00:26:16
◼
►
I I really hope this is not the case. I'm not suggesting it is the case but like it is possible
00:26:20
◼
►
The iMac Pro is a one-off. Yeah, there may never be another one again
00:26:24
◼
►
But it seems unlikely because of the price gap but it does seem unlikely to me as well
00:26:28
◼
►
If so, I don't know. I think it'll get data at some point, but I don't really know when
00:26:34
◼
►
Can we get back to 5k and iPad pro support for a second? Mm-hmm?
00:26:37
◼
►
Federico we I think you were starting down this road, but mm-hmm when you plug an iPad pro into a display
00:26:44
◼
►
Yeah, a lot of apps just mirror, right? Yes, but there there are applications
00:26:48
◼
►
Like I think is my node one of them or maybe there's a text editor where like you have you're working
00:26:54
◼
►
Content on the iPad and the external display is like a preview of that content that sort of thing
00:26:58
◼
►
Yes, some apps can support a second screen API
00:27:03
◼
►
That's been around for several years at this point that allows them to output a secondary interface on an external display
00:27:11
◼
►
Some games support this feature. For example real racing is one of them I think
00:27:17
◼
►
apps include might know then working copy
00:27:22
◼
►
they can provide you with a secondary UI
00:27:25
◼
►
on the external monitor.
00:27:26
◼
►
So for example, in my node,
00:27:28
◼
►
you can have your iPad showing you one section of a map
00:27:32
◼
►
and the external display showing you another section
00:27:34
◼
►
of a map or in working copy,
00:27:36
◼
►
you can have the text editor on the iPad and the preview,
00:27:39
◼
►
like the rich text preview on the display.
00:27:42
◼
►
And when they do, because of that API,
00:27:47
◼
►
the preview, the secondary UI is not limited
00:27:51
◼
►
to mirroring, meaning on my 4K display, for example,
00:27:56
◼
►
when I use MindNode or when I use Working Copy,
00:28:00
◼
►
the UI that I see on the display, on the external display,
00:28:03
◼
►
does not have the pillar boxing
00:28:05
◼
►
because it takes advantage of the full display
00:28:07
◼
►
because those developers can say,
00:28:09
◼
►
we can output a 4K version of this interface
00:28:13
◼
►
on an external monitor.
00:28:14
◼
►
Otherwise, when I go back to the home screen
00:28:16
◼
►
or when I'm using any other app or feature on my iPad,
00:28:20
◼
►
I see the black bars at the sides of the UI
00:28:24
◼
►
with the mirroring going on center,
00:28:26
◼
►
you know, at the center of the display.
00:28:28
◼
►
So I'm curious to hear what happens
00:28:30
◼
►
with this 5K ultrafine.
00:28:33
◼
►
For apps that support the secondary screen API,
00:28:37
◼
►
can they say, no, we actually want to output a 5K image
00:28:42
◼
►
on a secondary monitor,
00:28:43
◼
►
and can they actually take advantage
00:28:45
◼
►
of the full resolution of that display
00:28:50
◼
►
because if they have an iPad app
00:28:52
◼
►
and the iPad Pro allows them to,
00:28:55
◼
►
is this resolution that Apple put in this document
00:28:59
◼
►
referring to the basic mirroring, or does it include,
00:29:03
◼
►
so even if you are MindNode, for example,
00:29:05
◼
►
can the developers of MindNode say,
00:29:07
◼
►
no, we actually want to support 5K output
00:29:10
◼
►
with our secondary screen API,
00:29:13
◼
►
and you're gonna see a 5K image fill up the entire contents
00:29:16
◼
►
of the Ultrafine 5K screen?
00:29:18
◼
►
So that would be my question.
00:29:19
◼
►
Like what happens if you're an iPad developer
00:29:23
◼
►
and you're using the proper APIs,
00:29:25
◼
►
can you actually support 5K or not?
00:29:28
◼
►
So that I'm curious to hear.
00:29:30
◼
►
- So maybe we'll get some follow up
00:29:31
◼
►
if one of our listeners picks up this display.
00:29:34
◼
►
David Sparks has been trying to talk me
00:29:35
◼
►
into the two display lifestyle, but I just, I can't do it.
00:29:38
◼
►
The iMac Pro's enough for me.
00:29:39
◼
►
- It's a big display to have two of them.
00:29:41
◼
►
- Yeah, it's a lot of pixels.
00:29:44
◼
►
All right, we have a couple of more tiny topics,
00:29:47
◼
►
And then we have some shortcuts news.
00:29:51
◼
►
And we have Apple's quarterly results, which we yesterday.
00:29:53
◼
►
We're going to get into those as well.
00:29:54
◼
►
But first, I'm going to tell you about our first sponsor.
00:29:57
◼
►
And that is ExpressVPN.
00:30:00
◼
►
You may think that nobody would want your online data
00:30:03
◼
►
or want to snoop on you while you're browsing.
00:30:04
◼
►
But if you do so without protecting your privacy,
00:30:08
◼
►
you risk just that-- ad companies,
00:30:09
◼
►
hackers, people collecting your data.
00:30:11
◼
►
And it happens to normal everyday people.
00:30:14
◼
►
And that's why I recommend ExpressVPN.
00:30:17
◼
►
It runs in the background of your computer or phone or tablet.
00:30:21
◼
►
It encrypts your data and hides your public IP address.
00:30:24
◼
►
Just download the app, click to connect, and you're protected.
00:30:27
◼
►
ExpressVPN is rated the number one VPN service by TechRadar,
00:30:31
◼
►
and it uses a new cutting edge technology called Trusted Server
00:30:35
◼
►
to make sure there's no logs of what you're doing online.
00:30:37
◼
►
And it costs less than $7 a month,
00:30:39
◼
►
and it comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.
00:30:42
◼
►
I've spent many hours in airports
00:30:45
◼
►
over the last couple of weeks, and I
00:30:46
◼
►
I have many more hours in airports ahead of me this month.
00:30:49
◼
►
Anytime on that public wifi, you know, it's sketchy.
00:30:53
◼
►
And I wanna use ExpressVPN to make sure
00:30:56
◼
►
that what I'm doing stays between me and my device.
00:30:59
◼
►
And so anytime I'm out and about,
00:31:01
◼
►
you better believe that I have ExpressVPN enabled,
00:31:04
◼
►
again, on my phone, my iPad, or my MacBook Pro.
00:31:07
◼
►
You can protect your online activity today
00:31:09
◼
►
and find out how you can get three months for free
00:31:12
◼
►
at expressvpn.com/connected.
00:31:16
◼
►
That's e x p r e s s v p n dot com slash connected for three months free with a one year package.
00:31:25
◼
►
You can take back your online privacy.
00:31:28
◼
►
Go to express VPN dot com slash connected.
00:31:31
◼
►
Our thanks to express VPN for their support of this show and relay FM.
00:31:35
◼
►
Gentlemen, listeners, I have some huge news.
00:31:39
◼
►
The Galaxy fold is coming.
00:31:42
◼
►
All you haters who thought it wasn't going to happen.
00:31:45
◼
►
It's happening.
00:31:46
◼
►
another update from the world's greatest Apple podcast in which one host cannot stop talking
00:31:50
◼
►
about folding phones made by other companies. Samsung themselves have announced officially
00:31:55
◼
►
that the Galaxy Fold will be shipping in select markets in September. They in their post listed
00:32:01
◼
►
a bunch of improvements that they've made to the design. So the previously peelable
00:32:05
◼
►
top layer, do you remember like there was the top layer that everyone was pulling off
00:32:08
◼
►
the phone, which was supposed to protect the phone and would in fact destroy the phone
00:32:12
◼
►
if you took it off. They have now done the logical thing and extended this underneath
00:32:15
◼
►
the bezel so it doesn't look like it can be peeled off anymore. They've added additional
00:32:20
◼
►
reinforcements to the hinge to prevent particles from disrupting it from stuff getting inside
00:32:26
◼
►
and if stuff does get inside the hinge like dust or crumbs or whatever they put metal layers under
00:32:31
◼
►
display and reduce the amount of open space in general so stuff won't kind of get jammed
00:32:36
◼
►
and they've added protection caps at the top and bottom of the hinge to again try and prevent
00:32:40
◼
►
things from getting inside. They've made some user interface enhancements including, this is a quote,
00:32:46
◼
►
it's my favorite thing, "Now with Galaxy Fold you can review charts while talking on a video call
00:32:51
◼
►
and search information all at once." Which I just think it's brilliant. I just love that they've
00:32:55
◼
►
called that specific thing out. I like that a lot. No word on the price. I saw some speculation that
00:33:02
◼
►
the price may have changed, which would be interesting, right? Like that may, it could
00:33:06
◼
►
change either way. Either the additional work that they've had to do could push the price up,
00:33:10
◼
►
or because of its kind of like doomed fate they could have maybe brought the price down.
00:33:16
◼
►
I would hope so.
00:33:17
◼
►
The idea of September, I mean they're announcing it now, they'll probably have it shipping around
00:33:22
◼
►
the same time that the Note 10 starts shipping, which these things are always in September, so
00:33:27
◼
►
it's going to be an expensive September for me. I'm still buying it.
00:33:31
◼
►
You're still in it.
00:33:32
◼
►
I'm going to buy it.
00:33:33
◼
►
You're still in.
00:33:33
◼
►
I'm gonna buy it. Let me tell you the two reasons.
00:33:36
◼
►
You know that you don't have to, right? Like we wouldn't hold it against you.
00:33:40
◼
►
I want to and I'm going to tell you why I want to. I have two reasons why I want to.
00:33:44
◼
►
Reason number one is all of the reviews that I've seen of this product say it's kind of bad
00:33:51
◼
►
but I love it or I need it back again, right? Like all of the reviewers that I've seen,
00:33:56
◼
►
those people that I trust are like there are some serious problems with this product
00:34:00
◼
►
but I love it for reasons I can't explain and that is really intriguing to me because what about this
00:34:06
◼
►
product in general makes people know it's bad but they really want to use it and I find that
00:34:12
◼
►
an interesting thought and the second is... It's kind of like smoking basically it's a bad thing
00:34:17
◼
►
but people want to do it? Sure. I'm not touching that one. The second part is who else in our kind
00:34:29
◼
►
extended podcast universe is going to get one of these.
00:34:34
◼
►
So I will at least be able to talk about something originally.
00:34:37
◼
►
Like I will have a thing, I will know something about it.
00:34:40
◼
►
This is, I think, still remains clearly the future of smartphones.
00:34:43
◼
►
I would like to get the first one and so then I can start to have my
00:34:47
◼
►
opinions on it and I can tell all of our connected listeners what I
00:34:50
◼
►
think about the Galaxy Fold, whether they like it or not.
00:34:53
◼
►
So they are my two main reasons why I still want to get this thing.
00:34:56
◼
►
The other one is I am just genuinely really excited about it because I think it
00:34:59
◼
►
looks cool as hell. It does look cool. That is your update. That is true. Okay.
00:35:06
◼
►
Because I know this is one of those things that when I buy this, whenever I
00:35:09
◼
►
go traveling and we see each other everyone's gonna go "you're gonna bring
00:35:11
◼
►
it" because everyone wants to see it, right? Like if next time, like if I buy
00:35:15
◼
►
this thing and then we're all gonna see each other a few months later you're
00:35:17
◼
►
gonna want me to bring it with me. Yes. See? That's true. Because there is
00:35:22
◼
►
something undeniably cool about it. Yeah, it's like I always travel with a Newton
00:35:26
◼
►
but no one has to see it. Exactly. Yeah, that might tell you something about that. Maybe one day. Maybe one day.
00:35:32
◼
►
But yeah, so there you go. September it seems. I mean, I have like 90% faith that it will ship, like the store apartment.
00:35:41
◼
►
It's like, I don't know. But Samsung have not said anything official until now. This is their first official thing.
00:35:46
◼
►
So we'll see, but I remain hopeful.
00:35:49
◼
►
Do you think that it is actually the first of a movement? Like you still believe that or do you think this is a weird
00:35:55
◼
►
Yes side thing that's gonna go away like 3d cameras on no
00:35:59
◼
►
I I think that this I mean my kind of the the thing that I've been saying the whole time the thing that I believe
00:36:05
◼
►
remains true is like this is the like logically or science fiction II which is the way that a lot of technology is
00:36:12
◼
►
Decided anyway, right like the the imaginations that people have a limited to science fiction
00:36:16
◼
►
This seems like the next logical thing right that you would have an adaptable screen because how if that works
00:36:24
◼
►
Right, like imagine that working out how amazing is that that you could have a phone that could become a tablet?
00:36:29
◼
►
We could have a big phone that could be half the size and be easier to use in certain
00:36:32
◼
►
Circumstances like that idea is a good one
00:36:35
◼
►
it is the only place that smartphones can go from here because
00:36:40
◼
►
Smartphone design as we currently know it has effectively reached its end
00:36:46
◼
►
because at this point
00:36:48
◼
►
All it is is how much like as much screen as you can fill in the body, right?
00:36:52
◼
►
Like there kind of really isn't any way you can go from there.
00:36:55
◼
►
Like they've we're at the end of this, like the kind of the glass rectangle
00:36:59
◼
►
as it is right now.
00:37:01
◼
►
People will keep doing things, more cameras, different authentication.
00:37:04
◼
►
But the overall design, the hardware design, we've kind of met the end of that.
00:37:08
◼
►
And the next stage of that is like, well, how do we break outside
00:37:12
◼
►
of the current form factor?
00:37:13
◼
►
Well, we could have the screens fold.
00:37:15
◼
►
And the fact that there were like five companies all working on this stuff
00:37:18
◼
►
at the same time, I believe it is something that people are trying
00:37:21
◼
►
of move towards but this is the very beginning of it right like the very beginning like there
00:37:26
◼
►
were so many bad touch screen phones before the iPhone. The iPhone wasn't the first phone
00:37:33
◼
►
for touch screen there were loads of them but they were bad they had lots of problems
00:37:38
◼
►
but even then we knew that like this isn't good but it's clearly the future and I think
00:37:45
◼
►
that about the Galaxy Fold and all this stuff like this isn't as good as it should be but
00:37:49
◼
►
but it's clearly the future. That's my opinion on this. And it might be that like it's doomed
00:37:54
◼
►
because we just can't do it until glass can fold. And if that's the case, then people
00:37:58
◼
►
will keep trying to make foldable glass and we'll see where the future goes. But if the
00:38:01
◼
►
technology can work out, even like a very basic level, I see this as being something
00:38:06
◼
►
that all of these companies are going to start pouring more time and effort into.
00:38:09
◼
►
I hope it works out. I hope they fixed it. If it fails again, it's over. You can't do
00:38:18
◼
►
this twice. If it fails again the Galaxy Fold is dead. You know like Samsung, bless
00:38:23
◼
►
them. They got to fold it up. No but there you go. Samsung have no shame with
00:38:28
◼
►
things like this right? Like the notes are exploding on airplanes but they just
00:38:32
◼
►
made a new one like they don't care. But like you know that they would if this
00:38:35
◼
►
doesn't work they will just as you say fold it up they'll wrap it up put it
00:38:39
◼
►
away and they'll try it again. We'll talk about the Galaxy Pixel 4. Oh and the Google Pixel 4.
00:38:42
◼
►
Yes, what did I say? Galaxy? Yeah, that's Samsung. The Google Pixel 4. Google's doing
00:38:50
◼
►
this wild thing where they're just telling people everything about the phone and even
00:38:54
◼
►
though it hasn't been announced yet. They have shown the back camera module. Well, first
00:39:00
◼
►
they just confirmed his existence and then they showed the back camera module. Now they're
00:39:04
◼
►
showing face unlock and this weird gesture thing, which is, speaking of Samsung, very
00:39:11
◼
►
Samsung, this woman waves her hand over the phone
00:39:14
◼
►
and then the pages advance, whatever she's looking at.
00:39:18
◼
►
Very strange.
00:39:19
◼
►
Google has experimented with this before.
00:39:20
◼
►
I believe they bought a company that was very influential
00:39:23
◼
►
in early gestures and they use IR and other things
00:39:26
◼
►
to track your hand movement and stuff.
00:39:28
◼
►
The front camera system will include two IR cameras,
00:39:32
◼
►
radar, dot projector, flood illuminator.
00:39:35
◼
►
There's similar hardware as is in the iPhone 10
00:39:39
◼
►
the iPad Pro and everything for Apple's face ID. And Google says it's going to be more
00:39:45
◼
►
fluid though. So this is from a Mac rumors article, that when you reach for the pixel
00:39:52
◼
►
for the face unlock sensors are activated. And the unlock sensor recognizes you and the
00:39:58
◼
►
phone will open as you pick it up. So I think we've all experienced we pick your phone up
00:40:02
◼
►
and there's like a pause and then it and then it opens. This seems to if it works the way
00:40:08
◼
►
that it's being pitched, that that wouldn't be there.
00:40:10
◼
►
You basically just pick up your phone,
00:40:11
◼
►
it sees your face from any angle, and you're good to go.
00:40:15
◼
►
This would be great.
00:40:16
◼
►
And if Google has gotten this working
00:40:19
◼
►
and it's more forgiving than Face ID,
00:40:22
◼
►
that's good for everybody.
00:40:23
◼
►
So it'll give Apple a benchmark.
00:40:25
◼
►
- Google are also saying it'll work
00:40:26
◼
►
in any orientation as well on the phone.
00:40:28
◼
►
- Which the iPad does, but didn't come to the phone.
00:40:31
◼
►
I would suspect that will come to the iPhone
00:40:32
◼
►
at some point in the future, but--
00:40:34
◼
►
- You'd expect so. - It hasn't.
00:40:35
◼
►
- There's also, like Google have said,
00:40:37
◼
►
in a kind of a blog post that accompanied this,
00:40:41
◼
►
it's going to be all on device as well.
00:40:44
◼
►
Yes, which they have to say, because they
00:40:46
◼
►
do so much server processing.
00:40:48
◼
►
People have trusted you with Google,
00:40:50
◼
►
which is understandable.
00:40:52
◼
►
This is so interesting to me.
00:40:54
◼
►
Not the face unlock stuff, like this
00:40:55
◼
►
is just going to be the new norm.
00:40:58
◼
►
But the fact how they're rolling this out is really interesting.
00:41:03
◼
►
Apple and other companies generally,
00:41:08
◼
►
leaks happen, right?
00:41:10
◼
►
But then Apple gets on stage or whoever,
00:41:11
◼
►
Samsung gets on stage and says,
00:41:12
◼
►
"This is the new phone, these are all the features."
00:41:15
◼
►
Samsung has done a little bit of this sort of
00:41:19
◼
►
like self-leaking with the new Note,
00:41:22
◼
►
which is gonna be coming out pretty soon.
00:41:25
◼
►
But this is a new move for Google.
00:41:27
◼
►
And I'm curious what y'all think.
00:41:30
◼
►
I think it's fascinating.
00:41:31
◼
►
And I think it's a way to keep this phone in the conversation longer.
00:41:35
◼
►
Because the fall is going to be flooded with iPhone news, Pixel news, Galaxy Note
00:41:40
◼
►
news. We have a lot of phones.
00:41:42
◼
►
We're right on the edge of phone season again.
00:41:45
◼
►
And the Pixel 4 can be in multiple news cycles now.
00:41:48
◼
►
Google doesn't sell a lot of these things.
00:41:50
◼
►
I think if they want this to be successful, they just need to try new things to get
00:41:54
◼
►
people's attention. I think this is a pretty good way to try doing that.
00:41:59
◼
►
I think that there's always been an old argument of like, oh you can never talk about, was
00:42:04
◼
►
it Moore's law?
00:42:06
◼
►
Like, is it Moore's law?
00:42:07
◼
►
Uh, what, the way you can't talk about a product beforehand.
00:42:10
◼
►
No, that is Moore's law is like things get faster every time.
00:42:16
◼
►
That is the Osborne effect.
00:42:18
◼
►
The Osborne effect, that's it.
00:42:19
◼
►
The Osborne computer company, right?
00:42:21
◼
►
That's right.
00:42:22
◼
►
The, the idea of like, oh you can't talk about a product when you, like it's going to replace
00:42:26
◼
►
of a product because it means that you won't sell any more of the current one.
00:42:29
◼
►
Who at this point doesn't know there's gonna be a new iPhone every September?
00:42:34
◼
►
Who wants an iPhone? Who doesn't know this? Right? Like, the idea...
00:42:39
◼
►
Even in iPhone sales you see every year this quarter they just ended is always
00:42:43
◼
►
down before they sell new ones. Because everybody knows, like, the only people
00:42:46
◼
►
getting them, people getting them on deals, are people that just don't care.
00:42:48
◼
►
Right? So, like, if you care about the new iPhone you're not gonna buy an iPhone in
00:42:54
◼
►
August, right? Like it's just not a thing that you would do. So there is an interesting argument to be made for like, well,
00:43:00
◼
►
why not do this? You're ahead of the leaks,
00:43:02
◼
►
you're, like the first time anyone's seen that the Google Pixel 4 is gonna have face unlock is by a
00:43:09
◼
►
flashy promotional video that Google made.
00:43:11
◼
►
So you are now running the PR on it again, because there's no leak to be made now. You made your little teaser.
00:43:17
◼
►
It's an interesting, like, way of doing it,
00:43:21
◼
►
And I don't think that the the argument of like you I know you said this but I don't believe you're making argument like oh
00:43:26
◼
►
They sell none of them. Anyways, they can afford to do this. I don't think that that that really holds true anymore
00:43:31
◼
►
Because we all know that there's a new phone. There's like there's gonna be a new galaxy in March or April
00:43:38
◼
►
There's gonna be a new note in October. There's gonna be a new iPhone in September
00:43:41
◼
►
Everybody knew there was going to be a pixel for buddy under a year like in September or October
00:43:45
◼
►
Like everyone knows it if you're paying attention if you're not paying attention, you don't care
00:43:49
◼
►
But anyway, I think that this is an interesting way of doing it. They're getting ahead of leaks
00:43:53
◼
►
Nobody else is really trying it
00:43:55
◼
►
Google is in the position where they can try things that that are against the established norms because they're operating at such a
00:44:01
◼
►
Weakness right like against the against their competition
00:44:05
◼
►
But they sell so many fewer funds than everybody else that they can maybe play around of what is expected to be the norm
00:44:11
◼
►
I think that the gesture thing is stupid. I really want to see why anyone thinks that that's a good idea
00:44:16
◼
►
I'm intrigued to see how they try and pitch that like
00:44:18
◼
►
Why is it better to wave your hand in front of your phone and touch it?
00:44:22
◼
►
Well, and Samsung has tried that sort of thing in the past and it's flopped
00:44:26
◼
►
Well, I mean my expect my expectation of that is that this technology wasn't good
00:44:30
◼
►
Like LG tried to do this once that more recently as well like but maybe with all of these different
00:44:35
◼
►
Sensors that these phones having them now like it might work flawlessly, but like what's the point?
00:44:40
◼
►
Even if it does work is anyone care like why do you need it?
00:44:46
◼
►
That's why I really want to see what the reasoning is.
00:44:49
◼
►
We've all been in a situation like we're cooking,
00:44:51
◼
►
or we've washed our hands, our hands are wet,
00:44:52
◼
►
we need to touch our phone, it doesn't work,
00:44:54
◼
►
or we get water on our phone.
00:44:55
◼
►
That's once a week or something, right?
00:44:57
◼
►
That's not a reason to build a feature,
00:44:59
◼
►
so I'm very curious to your point how they sell it.
00:45:01
◼
►
And also, I just think that that technology
00:45:03
◼
►
is better used in a different device than a phone.
00:45:08
◼
►
Right, like it is better used in a--
00:45:10
◼
►
It makes more sense for a computer.
00:45:12
◼
►
A computer, a tablet, or something like an Echo Show.
00:45:15
◼
►
right, where it's like it's looking at you anyway, right?
00:45:18
◼
►
Like I think it makes more sense there.
00:45:20
◼
►
Like even in the ad, the phone is like floating in midair.
00:45:22
◼
►
It's like, yeah, if the phone was floating in midair in front of my face,
00:45:25
◼
►
I might want to do this, but I'm holding it, right?
00:45:28
◼
►
So like it doesn't I don't think it works the same way.
00:45:30
◼
►
But I am really intrigued by Google's claims about their face unlocking,
00:45:35
◼
►
because this feels like something that the leader in
00:45:39
◼
►
in face recognition would probably be pretty good at.
00:45:43
◼
►
Right. Like and I know that a lot of stuff is done
00:45:45
◼
►
on servers for them, but they must have learned by now how to turn a lot of this stuff into
00:45:51
◼
►
code that can live on a device, like algorithms that they can build.
00:45:55
◼
►
So I'm super intrigued to see just how good it's going to be on the Pixel 4, because I
00:46:01
◼
►
bet it's really good.
00:46:04
◼
►
I would expect that the reason that they can do the Any Orientation thing on the phone,
00:46:09
◼
►
and I don't know what the difference is, Apple's never said why the iPad can do it but the
00:46:13
◼
►
iPhone can't.
00:46:14
◼
►
But I would expect the reason that Google is able to do it is because they're just good
00:46:19
◼
►
at the algorithms needed.
00:46:21
◼
►
This is just the thing that they can do.
00:46:22
◼
►
So it's just going to work for them.
00:46:24
◼
►
This is the same company that runs a photo service that can recognize a child through
00:46:31
◼
►
the various stages of their lives until that person is like 40.
00:46:37
◼
►
In Google Photos you can do that and it's remarkable really.
00:46:40
◼
►
I cannot use it in Italy due to European Union regulations, I think.
00:46:45
◼
►
But I've seen, yeah, I think some of the features of face recognition in Google Photos, and
00:46:52
◼
►
also on Facebook, due to EU laws, we cannot use them, but can be used in the United States.
00:47:01
◼
►
So some of the more advanced face suggestions and sort of, I think, automatic naming, maybe,
00:47:07
◼
►
of those features cannot, at least until last year, they couldn't be accessing the EU.
00:47:12
◼
►
That might be for the best. You know, fine.
00:47:17
◼
►
But I've seen examples on Twitter of people sharing screenshots of Google Photos, guessing
00:47:23
◼
►
correctly that the child from 20 years ago is a person in their photo album now, and
00:47:29
◼
►
it seems to be working, and it's quite impressive and kind of scary at the same time.
00:47:34
◼
►
Anything else about phones, maybe other companies you want to talk about?
00:47:37
◼
►
Tiktok are making a phone. I saw that that's gonna be an absolute disaster. Do you remember
00:47:42
◼
►
a Facebook phone? Yeah wasn't it like a Huawei phone? Was it a Huawei phone? Yeah, yeah it
00:47:47
◼
►
wasn't. None of these companies seem to make the phone actually make this stuff on their
00:47:51
◼
►
own but MKBHD just did a video about the Redmi K20 Pro. This is one of the phones that I
00:47:59
◼
►
wanted you to go look at in the Mi Store, Federico. And it looks like it's like this
00:48:04
◼
►
crazy good phone for like $400. There's some real great value phones in Android
00:48:11
◼
►
world now. It's really kind of amazing. So there you go. You wanted something else,
00:48:15
◼
►
there's something else. This episode of Connected is also brought to you by
00:48:19
◼
►
Bombas. You probably don't think about your socks all that often. I don't,
00:48:25
◼
►
but I'm busy and we still have time to think about that sort of thing. But let
00:48:30
◼
►
me tell you why you should. Why you should think about your socks. Why you
00:48:33
◼
►
should think about Bombas. We've all had socks that don't fit well, they're
00:48:39
◼
►
uncomfortable by the end of the day, maybe they're too warm, you know it's
00:48:43
◼
►
summertime and you're wearing low-cut socks but your feet still sweat.
00:48:47
◼
►
Bombas, they make the most comfortable socks ever and they're made from super
00:48:52
◼
►
soft natural cotton and every single pair comes with arch support, a seamless
00:48:57
◼
►
toe, which like that toe seam is super annoying on lesser socks. Bombas
00:49:02
◼
►
does away with that and a cushioned footbed that's comfy without being too
00:49:06
◼
►
thick so you stay comfortable. And they have it seems like endless colors,
00:49:11
◼
►
patterns, lengths, and styles so they look great in the gym, at the office, or when
00:49:16
◼
►
you're out on the town. Your feet they are dreaming of Bombas right now and for
00:49:21
◼
►
every purchase that you make Bombas donates a pair of socks to someone in
00:49:25
◼
►
need which is super cool. Buy your Bombas today at Bombas.com/connected
00:49:31
◼
►
and you'll get 20% off your first purchase. That's B O M B A S dot com slash connected
00:49:39
◼
►
for 20% off your first purchase. Your feet will thank you for it. The URL one more time
00:49:46
◼
►
is bombas.com slash connected. Our thanks to bombas for their support of connected and
00:49:51
◼
►
all of relay FM. So we have a new iOS 13 beta it is developer beta five public beta four
00:50:00
◼
►
and Federico, there's some stuff going on with shortcuts. What has happened?
00:50:04
◼
►
Yeah, and this latest beta, Apple, has done the surprising move at this stage, I mean,
00:50:11
◼
►
we're basically in August, of disabling a major feature of the new Shortcuts app, which
00:50:17
◼
►
is built into the system. They have disabled the new automation feature that allows you
00:50:23
◼
►
to run shortcuts by using various types of triggers. Those include schedules, or location
00:50:31
◼
►
changes, or every time you open an app. That feature has been, according to some Apple
00:50:37
◼
►
engineers on Twitter, temporarily disabled, and I think Apple also wrote this in the release
00:50:43
◼
►
notes for this beta. In addition to the automation tab being gone from the shortcuts app, Apple
00:50:50
◼
►
is also removed for now the ability to run shortcuts as part of HomeKit automations.
00:50:57
◼
►
So in the Home app, it used to be that until Beta 4, you could create a shortcut using
00:51:02
◼
►
the Shortcuts Editor, but inside the Home app, that feature is also being removed for
00:51:07
◼
►
now. They say that it will be back. My understanding is that it will be back in this Beta cycle.
00:51:15
◼
►
So it should be in the public release of 13.0.
00:51:22
◼
►
So not 13.1, not 13.2, but in September, if it comes out in September, I don't even know.
00:51:29
◼
►
It seems to me that it's unusual for Apple to do this in early August, to pull a major
00:51:37
◼
►
This is one of the major features of the new shortcuts app.
00:51:40
◼
►
And to say that it'll be back, it's been temporarily disabled, it feels kind of late for that.
00:51:45
◼
►
And considering the general state of iOS 13,
00:51:50
◼
►
it's not the most stable beta that we've had so far.
00:51:54
◼
►
Folks have had all kinds of issues related to iCloud Drive,
00:51:58
◼
►
for example, and iCloud Sync.
00:52:00
◼
►
And I still get the occasional springboard crash,
00:52:04
◼
►
for example.
00:52:05
◼
►
Apple is still changing,
00:52:08
◼
►
and we're gonna talk about it in a few minutes.
00:52:10
◼
►
New features and new design,
00:52:11
◼
►
like the share sheet, for example,
00:52:13
◼
►
It feels like a different beta cycle.
00:52:16
◼
►
Yeah, multitasking just flat out doesn't work in a lot of places.
00:52:21
◼
►
Like, you can't...
00:52:23
◼
►
You cannot, in any way, take an app from the home screen
00:52:28
◼
►
and put it into multitasking.
00:52:30
◼
►
Most of the time, apps from Spotlight don't work.
00:52:33
◼
►
I can't drag them into multitasking.
00:52:35
◼
►
There is a lot of just like fundamental stuff still broken in Beo5.
00:52:41
◼
►
It really makes you wonder if this is an OS that can have a GM in a month.
00:52:46
◼
►
Like, I struggle to imagine how...
00:52:49
◼
►
Well, like, they can.
00:52:52
◼
►
Like, when I say they can, I'm not saying it will be fixed.
00:52:56
◼
►
But like, they have done stuff like this before, right?
00:52:59
◼
►
Where it's like, well, it shipped and it wasn't good, but they shipped it anyway, because
00:53:03
◼
►
what are you going to do?
00:53:04
◼
►
They've got to ship it.
00:53:05
◼
►
But they're making the promise that iOS 13 continues down the road of stability of iOS
00:53:11
◼
►
So they're making a big deal out of performance and stability publicly on the website in the
00:53:17
◼
►
you know in the in the features page on apple.com. They've set it on stage. So it's not like
00:53:22
◼
►
I got the best part of two months. Like, you know, it's not impossible to fix. In any case,
00:53:27
◼
►
I'm really I'm really bummed that this feature was removed because I was using it a lot,
00:53:32
◼
►
especially for NFC NFC stickers in the shortcuts app. I think I've talked about it before I
00:53:39
◼
►
I have a bunch of stickers all over my apartment that are now useless for now because my phone
00:53:45
◼
►
was upgraded to beta 5 and now the stickers are just...
00:53:48
◼
►
I thought it was just the creation of them, it's actually also if you're using any they
00:53:53
◼
►
Oh yeah, the whole feature is gone.
00:53:58
◼
►
And also I was relying on it as part of my new HomeKit automations for sending me notifications
00:54:06
◼
►
and running shortcuts within the Home app.
00:54:08
◼
►
I left one of my testing devices, the 11-inch iPad Pro, on beta 4.
00:54:14
◼
►
And because it's an iPad, it can also work as a HomeKit hub.
00:54:18
◼
►
And therefore, I've confirmed that if you leave beta 4 on that device, on any device
00:54:23
◼
►
that you have, those automations will keep working.
00:54:26
◼
►
So my HomeKit automations are working because they're going directly to that iPad Pro running
00:54:32
◼
►
So it's running that code because it's still there.
00:54:36
◼
►
It's still possible.
00:54:38
◼
►
But of course with my iPad Pro I cannot use NFC automation for example, or location changes,
00:54:44
◼
►
because I go around town with my phone or with my iPad.
00:54:49
◼
►
So at least the HomeKit stuff I can still use personally, because I have an iPad on
00:54:53
◼
►
beta 4, and I'll probably leave beta 4 installed until the feature is back.
00:54:58
◼
►
But otherwise it was really surprising to me to see this feature just being disabled.
00:55:06
◼
►
"beta 5 disabled until further notice". That's very surprising to me. I don't recall an instance
00:55:13
◼
►
of this happening before. And that, again, personally speaking, has forced me to revise my
00:55:18
◼
►
writing plans for the review. So I'm skipping the shortcuts chapter for now and going directly into
00:55:24
◼
►
the iPad chapter, which was in my outline, in my notes, was after shortcuts, but I don't want to
00:55:30
◼
►
write about shortcuts until the feature is back and I want to see what it's like. I made the same
00:55:35
◼
►
decision for the sharesheet and that paid off quite well because the sharesheet is entirely
00:55:41
◼
►
new in beta 5.
00:55:43
◼
►
I think we complained about the sharesheet here on the show before, but basically...
00:55:47
◼
►
And on adapt as well.
00:55:49
◼
►
And on adapt.
00:55:50
◼
►
You were talking about on adapt.
00:55:52
◼
►
So the changes in beta 5 don't make it perfect.
00:55:55
◼
►
There's still a few things that I would like to see, but I think it's much, much better
00:55:58
◼
►
than before.
00:55:59
◼
►
Essentially, you now have three sections in this.
00:56:03
◼
►
Well, you have the new share sheet as the top rows
00:56:07
◼
►
with the horizontal scrolling icons.
00:56:10
◼
►
One for contacts, the other for share extensions.
00:56:14
◼
►
The bottom section, so the actions,
00:56:18
◼
►
that's now organized in three subsections.
00:56:22
◼
►
You have your favorite actions,
00:56:25
◼
►
you have the app-specific actions,
00:56:28
◼
►
and you have everything else.
00:56:29
◼
►
So the app specific actions would be,
00:56:32
◼
►
for example, in Safari, you have an action called
00:56:35
◼
►
add bookmark or find on page.
00:56:39
◼
►
Those actions are specific to the Safari browser.
00:56:42
◼
►
The Twitter app, for example, as copy link
00:56:44
◼
►
or open in Safari.
00:56:46
◼
►
Each app tends to have its own,
00:56:48
◼
►
they're called activity items.
00:56:50
◼
►
Each app tends to have its own.
00:56:51
◼
►
So it's good to have a section just for that.
00:56:54
◼
►
I would like to see, however, some kind of text label
00:56:58
◼
►
that says these are Safari actions
00:57:00
◼
►
or these are Twitter actions to sort of make it more clear,
00:57:04
◼
►
but I can leave without one.
00:57:06
◼
►
You can pin all kinds of actions,
00:57:08
◼
►
whether they are third-party extensions or shortcuts
00:57:11
◼
►
or app-specific actions to the very top
00:57:15
◼
►
of the share sheet now,
00:57:16
◼
►
so you can, and you can mix and match between them.
00:57:19
◼
►
So for example, right now in Safari,
00:57:21
◼
►
I have the very top copy,
00:57:23
◼
►
which copies the link of the current webpage.
00:57:26
◼
►
That's a Safari action.
00:57:27
◼
►
I have the 1Password extension, and I have LinkedPost, which is my shortcut that prepares
00:57:34
◼
►
a LinkedPost template in my text editor. So you can put all kinds of actions up there
00:57:38
◼
►
for easier access. And finally, at the bottom, you have everything else that includes all
00:57:43
◼
►
other actions, all other extensions, and all your other shortcuts.
00:57:48
◼
►
It's still kind of weird how you actually manage these actions. There's a strange mismatch
00:57:55
◼
►
of plus buttons and toggles and handles.
00:58:00
◼
►
Like there's lots of ways to enable and disable
00:58:03
◼
►
these actions and rearrange them.
00:58:05
◼
►
Sometimes you tap on a plus button
00:58:08
◼
►
and it adds it to the top.
00:58:10
◼
►
Sometimes you tap on the plus button
00:58:13
◼
►
and it does something else,
00:58:15
◼
►
but then you can also enable and disable with the switch.
00:58:17
◼
►
The UI to manage your actions is kinda confusing for now.
00:58:22
◼
►
But really my main problem
00:58:24
◼
►
that I think I also brought up the last time,
00:58:26
◼
►
is the cognitive load required to visually scan
00:58:31
◼
►
through all of these actions.
00:58:33
◼
►
And my problem is the fact that the text label is
00:58:36
◼
►
on the left side, and the icon for each action
00:58:40
◼
►
is all the way to the right.
00:58:42
◼
►
So my eyes have to scan an entire line to see,
00:58:45
◼
►
OK, this is at bookmark.
00:58:47
◼
►
And then I have to travel with my eyes to the right side
00:58:50
◼
►
and see the bookmark icon.
00:58:52
◼
►
And that's not just how I think humans work,
00:58:56
◼
►
in the sense of seeing a text label right next to an icon.
00:59:00
◼
►
That is so much easier in terms of being
00:59:02
◼
►
able to scan information and digest information.
00:59:05
◼
►
Imagine if you were traveling, you were driving,
00:59:08
◼
►
and you had a sign on the left side of the road
00:59:11
◼
►
and a text message, like stop or something else.
00:59:17
◼
►
Usually you have indications related
00:59:19
◼
►
to the sign on the complete opposite end of the other sign.
00:59:24
◼
►
That would be inefficient.
00:59:27
◼
►
So that's why on roads you tend to have,
00:59:29
◼
►
if a sign requires additional text information,
00:59:32
◼
►
they are placed next to each other
00:59:34
◼
►
or with one directly below the other.
00:59:37
◼
►
And that's what I would do.
00:59:38
◼
►
I would put the icons, I would put the glyphs
00:59:41
◼
►
directly on the left of the text label.
00:59:43
◼
►
'Cause right now it just seems wildly inefficient
00:59:46
◼
►
to have text on one side and icons on the other.
00:59:49
◼
►
And also I wouldn't mind some color.
00:59:52
◼
►
It's all, it used to be blue before.
00:59:56
◼
►
I think now the new share sheet is black and white,
01:00:00
◼
►
the bottom section at least.
01:00:01
◼
►
You have black icons and black text and a white background.
01:00:05
◼
►
And I mean, sure, but really, especially for my shortcuts.
01:00:09
◼
►
My shortcuts have colors in the app
01:00:11
◼
►
and I would like to see those colors in here.
01:00:13
◼
►
But I guess that app will--
01:00:14
◼
►
- I love my colorful shortcuts.
01:00:15
◼
►
- I do as well, except that I used to prefer
01:00:18
◼
►
the older colors, which were brighter and funnier and more vibrant. The new ones are...
01:00:25
◼
►
huh? Don't want to talk about them?
01:00:28
◼
►
They're pretty dull. They're muted, aren't they?
01:00:30
◼
►
Some people are saying, "Well, it works better for dark mode." Well, just make them dull
01:00:34
◼
►
for dark mode then. Don't change them. Apple is doing this for dark mode and light mode.
01:00:40
◼
►
So, they could do the same for shortcuts. Anyway, overall, thumbs up. They're going
01:00:45
◼
►
in the right direction.
01:00:47
◼
►
The placement of the icons still leaves a lot to be desired,
01:00:51
◼
►
but I think they're getting there.
01:00:52
◼
►
Slowly, but they're getting there.
01:00:53
◼
►
- Can you add emoji to shortcut names?
01:00:57
◼
►
Does that populate in this?
01:01:01
◼
►
- Let's see.
01:01:01
◼
►
Well, you can add names, last time I checked,
01:01:06
◼
►
but do they show up?
01:01:07
◼
►
That's a good real-time follow-up.
01:01:09
◼
►
Let's see, do they show up in the share sheet?
01:01:11
◼
►
- That's also a good solution, too.
01:01:13
◼
►
- Yeah, 'cause you get around the icons
01:01:15
◼
►
being on the wrong side. So if I add an Apple watch emoji to this shortcut, my theory is
01:01:20
◼
►
it doesn't show up. Let's see if I'm right or wrong. It does show up, so I'm wrong. So
01:01:25
◼
►
that's nice. It shows up. So you could use, uh, really, you know, I was thinking about
01:01:30
◼
►
this today. There should be, and I'm filing an official complaint to Jeremy Bird, there
01:01:36
◼
►
should be more color dot emoji. There aren't enough color dots. Like I think there's only
01:01:44
◼
►
like a red dot, maybe a black dot, and like a blue square and an orange square.
01:01:51
◼
►
But sometimes I just want to use colors for something that I despise, not necessarily
01:01:56
◼
►
that I love. I kind of want to put hearts next to my text documents. Like, I don't
01:02:03
◼
►
love taxes. Why should I put a heart next to them? I just want a colored indicator.
01:02:08
◼
►
So there should be more colored dots. Either circles or squares will be fine. Triangles
01:02:12
◼
►
will be interesting, but I would prefer a circle, personally. So Jeremy, get on that, please.
01:02:18
◼
►
Yeah, there's only like a white, a black, a red, and a blue in dots.
01:02:22
◼
►
Like, there should be more, you know, rainbow representation in emoji.
01:02:28
◼
►
That being said, again, the sharesheet, they're slowly fixing whatever they did with the first
01:02:36
◼
►
version in the first four betas. They're getting there. Overall I'm a big fan of the top section
01:02:43
◼
►
of the sharesheet. It works really well. Everything else, we'll see where they land.
01:02:47
◼
►
The sweet solution is once again a sweet solution, maybe sweeter than it ever was. It's really
01:02:52
◼
►
interesting, I saw this from your co-host Ryan who also works at MacStories, Federico,
01:02:58
◼
►
that apps that can be... I don't know what an app has to do exactly to be able to be
01:03:04
◼
►
included into this but apps that would donate like an app icon if sorry websites
01:03:10
◼
►
that would donate like an app icon if you save them to the home screen and I
01:03:15
◼
►
go through that whole thing stuff like Instagram and Twitter if you save those
01:03:19
◼
►
now to the home screen and then open them again they look like apps it gets
01:03:25
◼
►
rid of all the Safari Chrome and they show up in like multitasking with the
01:03:30
◼
►
name of the website as if it was an application. So Instagram for iPad, I mean Instagram's
01:03:37
◼
►
web view is pretty good anyway, but now it feels more like an app than it ever has. I
01:03:42
◼
►
mean you can't post photos, but you can at least browse really nicely.
01:03:48
◼
►
Allow me to have a brief teachy-teaches segment here. So these are called progressive web
01:03:55
◼
►
apps, or PWA. And there was some confusion surrounding Ryan's tweet. That tweet was very
01:04:03
◼
►
successful, but unfortunately the feature is not new in iOS 13. Apple has been making
01:04:09
◼
►
these improvements, and Ryan actually issued a correction afterwards. But still, let me
01:04:14
◼
►
talk about it so that we all know more about this feature. Apple has been steadily improving
01:04:20
◼
►
progressive web apps. Since iOS 12.2, I think, those improvements include things like the
01:04:28
◼
►
custom icon that you see in the app switcher, the full screen UI that does not show you
01:04:34
◼
►
a Safari toolbar, state restoration for actually showing you the last screen you used when
01:04:43
◼
►
you open the multitasking switcher, the web share API, which is a web API that allows
01:04:50
◼
►
web apps to bring up the system share sheet, even though you didn't actually tap the share
01:04:55
◼
►
sheet icon. You have a bunch of CSS improvements. You have support for the keyboard color picker.
01:05:03
◼
►
It's literally a color picker in the Apple system keyboard. So there's a bunch of improvements
01:05:08
◼
►
that Apple brought last year. With iOS 13, I think they are making even more improvements
01:05:15
◼
►
to progressive web apps. If I'm not mistaken, I think you should be able to use them in
01:05:22
◼
►
SplitView, and I think if you're a developer you should be able to inspect with the web
01:05:29
◼
►
development tool those web apps. And there's something else that I'm forgetting right now,
01:05:35
◼
►
really the main improvements that Ryan mentioned were from last year. That said,
01:05:40
◼
►
Apple is still bringing more enhancements to progressive web apps in 13. And you can test
01:05:47
◼
►
these types of, like, sort of richer web apps with Twitter, with Instagram, with Pinterest,
01:05:54
◼
►
I think with Uber maybe, or something else. I guess the goal is to sort of replicate the
01:06:02
◼
►
experience of a native app but with a web app so you just go to the website to
01:06:07
◼
►
a website and you add it to your home screen and it's sort of like having a
01:06:11
◼
►
real app it's really not like having a real app for you know the simple reason
01:06:18
◼
►
that on iOS at least web technologies do not advance at the same
01:06:24
◼
►
pace as system technologies so for example PWAs are getting split view
01:06:31
◼
►
support now, but Spillview actually came out in iOS 9, to give an example. So it's a good
01:06:36
◼
►
way to replace or to use something like Instagram that doesn't have a native client on iPad.
01:06:43
◼
►
Now if you actually save the Safari web app to your home screen, it's sort of like having
01:06:49
◼
►
a real app, but it's not, because it's not built with an actual native SDK. Still, it's
01:06:57
◼
►
It's a very nice improvement. Just the things that Ryan mentioned came out last year. And
01:07:04
◼
►
if you've never tried it before, go to a popular website, try to add it to your home screen,
01:07:09
◼
►
and you will notice that when you launch it, it will not take you to Safari, it will take
01:07:13
◼
►
you to a full screen view that sort of behaves like a real app.
01:07:17
◼
►
Even if it is existing, it's something I didn't know anything about, and it's super useful.
01:07:21
◼
►
Yeah. So people should know about it.
01:07:23
◼
►
So you can still be happy about it, even though it's not new.
01:07:26
◼
►
This could have been one of those tweets where it's like, "Hey, did you know your iPhone
01:07:29
◼
►
could do this?" and then it gets like 75 million retweets.
01:07:35
◼
►
Could have been one of those.
01:07:36
◼
►
So close, Ryan.
01:07:37
◼
►
Could have been one of those.
01:07:38
◼
►
Let's talk about quarterly results.
01:07:40
◼
►
Apple made some money, made it in some interesting ways.
01:07:42
◼
►
We've got a bunch of links in the show notes.
01:07:45
◼
►
I like how you say that, like interesting ways, like they did something they shouldn't have
01:07:49
◼
►
Tim Cook's lemonade stand really turned an impressive profit.
01:07:52
◼
►
Warren Buffett, the sort of newspapers.
01:07:55
◼
►
The company generated $53.8 billion in revenue up 1% over the year ago quarter.
01:08:02
◼
►
It was, by just a tiny hair, the third largest quarter in Apple history.
01:08:08
◼
►
Mac revenue was up 11%, iPad up 8%, services up 13%, wearables up 68%.
01:08:16
◼
►
Can I give you a correction?
01:08:17
◼
►
It was the third, I think, the largest third quarter, not the third largest quarter.
01:08:23
◼
►
Oh, the largest third quarter.
01:08:25
◼
►
Huge difference. Yeah, no one cares about the third quarter. No because it's the quarter. Yeah. Okay. Thank you
01:08:31
◼
►
Wearables up 68% iPhone was down
01:08:34
◼
►
12% I will get to the iPhone
01:08:38
◼
►
Services an all-time high of 11.5 billion. Of course. This is before
01:08:42
◼
►
Apple arcade
01:08:45
◼
►
Apple TV plus any podcast move these things aren't here yet, right? This is Apple music Apple care news
01:08:53
◼
►
News plus I didn't mention news that day in the quotes didn't mention that one
01:08:57
◼
►
It's the hundreds of people who were in news plus
01:09:01
◼
►
accidentally
01:09:03
◼
►
Accidentally forgot to turn off their their subscription
01:09:05
◼
►
They said that they've surpassed four hundred and twenty million paid subscriptions
01:09:11
◼
►
Which is like
01:09:14
◼
►
That's a number of people that is big
01:09:16
◼
►
I don't it's unclear to me if what counts as like paid subscriptions. Like I said just
01:09:23
◼
►
Apple Music, but you can pay for Apple Care monthly.
01:09:25
◼
►
You can also pay for your iPhone monthly.
01:09:27
◼
►
Does that get rolled into this?
01:09:28
◼
►
I think it's all of it, right?
01:09:29
◼
►
- Here's the thing.
01:09:30
◼
►
Yeah, because they want this number to look good.
01:09:32
◼
►
That is everything.
01:09:33
◼
►
If you give money to Apple for anything
01:09:35
◼
►
on a recurring basis, or you buy something
01:09:38
◼
►
that lasts for a year or whatever, like Apple Care,
01:09:41
◼
►
or actually you don't keep paying them for Apple Care,
01:09:43
◼
►
but you do it once, they will count that in this number
01:09:45
◼
►
because they need this number to look as good as it can.
01:09:47
◼
►
It's not a lie, right?
01:09:48
◼
►
But like, they will pump it up of everything.
01:09:51
◼
►
Because I mean who would really say that Apple Care is a subscription? No one's thinking
01:09:57
◼
►
about Apple Care as a subscription, right? But like they are including it in that number.
01:10:01
◼
►
They also talked about Apple Pay. They are completing nearly 1 billion transactions per
01:10:06
◼
►
month which is twice the volume of a year ago apparently. They are now have completed
01:10:12
◼
►
their coverage in the European Union. They're in now 47 markets and they threw PayPal. This
01:10:20
◼
►
shade PayPal's way. Based on June quarter performance, Apple Pay is now adding more
01:10:25
◼
►
new users than PayPal and monthly transaction volume is growing four times as fast.
01:10:31
◼
►
I don't know why this should be a surprise. PayPal has been around for like 20 years.
01:10:37
◼
►
It doesn't make it. It's like, yeah, okay, like, you're growing. Congratulations, right?
01:10:42
◼
►
Like it's sure. I mean, I understand why they do this. But like, it's the logic of it. It's
01:10:48
◼
►
weird. It fails at the logic.
01:10:50
◼
►
You want to tell us about the iPhone?
01:10:51
◼
►
48% of revenue.
01:10:53
◼
►
So it's this is the overall revenue.
01:10:56
◼
►
So if you imagine all the money Apple makes, the iPhone is now less than half.
01:11:01
◼
►
It has not been this way for a very long time.
01:11:04
◼
►
iPhone revenue was down 12% from last year, but it is a significant improvement
01:11:12
◼
►
to the previous decline that they've seen.
01:11:15
◼
►
So like the decline in this quarter wasn't as bad as the decline in the last quarter.
01:11:20
◼
►
So that's I suppose a good thing.
01:11:23
◼
►
Tim Cook specifically called out the fact that the in-store trade-in and financing programs
01:11:29
◼
►
have been doing good for Apple, which you'd expect considering how heavily they push it.
01:11:33
◼
►
I saw Mark Gurman tweeting that Apple is promoting a buy one, get one free on the
01:11:39
◼
►
iPhone XR at the moment, which is just like a hilarious thing to see in an Apple store.
01:11:44
◼
►
Then they talk about the fact that, you know, it's like, satisfaction's great in all of our markets and all-time highs.
01:11:53
◼
►
The news here is the fact that the iPhone is 48% of the revenue.
01:11:57
◼
►
And you can, there are a couple of different ways to slice this.
01:12:00
◼
►
You can either show like, that's not good, right?
01:12:04
◼
►
Like, because Apple is the iPhone company.
01:12:07
◼
►
Or you can say, oh this is interesting, their other products can hold them up now.
01:12:12
◼
►
So yeah, there are arguments to be made for both of those things
01:12:15
◼
►
Because they didn't actually have a revenue decline they had but what they had was steady revenue
01:12:21
◼
►
Which they also don't want but there wasn't a revenue decline and the Mac the iPad services and wearables were all up
01:12:28
◼
►
Therefore showing that even when the iPhone is starting to decline Apple is able to keep revenue at least
01:12:34
◼
►
Steady now based upon the improvements that they're making in other areas
01:12:38
◼
►
This is not a good news story, but it is not a bad news story
01:12:43
◼
►
Well, they just continue to to go down the evolution of being a services company
01:12:48
◼
►
And we're gonna talk about wearables like it takes a lot of air pods equal the revenue of a single iPhone
01:12:53
◼
►
But clearly there, you know these other
01:12:55
◼
►
sections of the company are doing really well, so
01:12:57
◼
►
It is strange. I
01:13:00
◼
►
Kind of from like the product perspective like this news that the iPhone is is you know
01:13:07
◼
►
now less than half of their revenue because it feels like okay maybe they
01:13:11
◼
►
can spread some attention to other things like that they realize other
01:13:14
◼
►
things are need to pull more weight so clearly that services right now but if
01:13:20
◼
►
there's other hardware in the future that I think could pick up some of the
01:13:24
◼
►
slack I kind of think that maybe they would think it's just services I don't
01:13:28
◼
►
think really like if you look at the pure revenue numbers they can make
01:13:32
◼
►
significant gains in any of those singular categories I know you're
01:13:35
◼
►
into the Mac to really hold up what they're dropping in iPhone. No, no, I actually want
01:13:39
◼
►
to think about future things like AR glasses or whatever's next. Sure, sure, that's wearables,
01:13:44
◼
►
right? I know you're not saying that, but it's like that's good stuff that goes into the wearables
01:13:47
◼
►
category. This is why they are looking, right? Because I think that what Tim Cook and Luca are
01:13:51
◼
►
probably very aware of is all they're doing right now is chasing the next golden egg, because
01:13:56
◼
►
services, they will run out, right? Like you only have so far before you've got all your customers,
01:14:03
◼
►
right? So that's gonna, this is a greatly growing thing for them right now, but you will hit a
01:14:09
◼
►
saturation point there as well. So what they need is a new big product, right? Apple Watch ain't it,
01:14:16
◼
►
right? AirPods ain't it. Both successful, but they don't make them enough money. They're not even not
01:14:20
◼
►
selling enough Apple Watches and AirPods aren't expensive enough. So there is going to be another
01:14:25
◼
►
thing you would expect, at least that's probably what Apple are working on, and then they just
01:14:30
◼
►
haven't found it yet. I think they were probably hoping to find it before they
01:14:34
◼
►
got into this position with the iPhone. I think it's been very clear that Apple
01:14:38
◼
►
was taken by surprise with the iPhone X and we're in the fallout of
01:14:43
◼
►
that but I expect that they thought it was going to continue to do gangbusters
01:14:48
◼
►
for them until they were ready with their Apple product but then not so much.
01:14:52
◼
►
So they're continuing to push the services narrative which was already a
01:14:54
◼
►
thing they were working on anyway but they're at a point I think where they've
01:14:59
◼
►
been caught by surprise with their main hardware product, not meeting the excitement that they
01:15:06
◼
►
were hoping for, I think.
01:15:08
◼
►
Let's talk about wearables.
01:15:10
◼
►
So it's sensational quarter is the text label we got for the Bezos graph this time, with
01:15:16
◼
►
growth accelerating to well over 50%, 50% of what or from where?
01:15:21
◼
►
No one knows because we don't have numbers on this stuff.
01:15:24
◼
►
But they said that the June quarter revenue record was set for the Apple Watch this time
01:15:31
◼
►
75% of customers buying the Apple Watch in the June quarter were buying their first Apple
01:15:38
◼
►
I found that--
01:15:39
◼
►
This statistic is always so crazy to me, because I feel like we hear that statistic a lot,
01:15:43
◼
►
like for the Apple Watch and for the iPad.
01:15:46
◼
►
And it's so confusing to me, because it's like, how then?
01:15:50
◼
►
You know, it also seems so strange that you'd expect there would be way more people that
01:15:53
◼
►
own them. I think Apple use this statistic in products that don't have a
01:15:59
◼
►
good refresh rate, right? So like they use this as a way to
01:16:07
◼
►
show when people aren't buying a new Apple watch every year, right? So people
01:16:12
◼
►
hold on to Apple watch for a while so this statistic is accurate but sounds
01:16:16
◼
►
good. Where maybe for the iPhone that number isn't so good because people buy
01:16:21
◼
►
new iPhones. Or, I mean it may be about that, what I think about is just that it
01:16:28
◼
►
is a younger product and people are continuing to be introduced to it for
01:16:33
◼
►
the first time. Right, but they used to say this about the iPad until the iPad
01:16:38
◼
►
started to turn around again. They used to say like, "Oh, and 60% were new to iPad,"
01:16:44
◼
►
right? And it was just like a way to make it sound good? I don't know. Yeah, I don't
01:16:49
◼
►
We're not financial analysts.
01:16:52
◼
►
We're just talking.
01:16:53
◼
►
- I am. - Okay.
01:16:54
◼
►
I will say that I feel like, and it's anecdotal,
01:16:57
◼
►
I feel like I see way more Apple watches than I did,
01:17:00
◼
►
maybe even like six months ago.
01:17:02
◼
►
Like they just, they seem to be everywhere,
01:17:06
◼
►
and this number would point to that, I guess.
01:17:09
◼
►
- They're also very happy with the AirPods,
01:17:12
◼
►
and they now say that, again, like this combining of numbers.
01:17:18
◼
►
has a quote, "When you tally up the last four quarters,
01:17:20
◼
►
"our wearables business is now bigger
01:17:22
◼
►
"than 60% of the companies in the Fortune 500."
01:17:26
◼
►
Good job, good job wearables.
01:17:27
◼
►
Federico, you wanna tell us about the iPad?
01:17:30
◼
►
- Well, I will admit that I didn't follow earnings much
01:17:35
◼
►
because it's really difficult for me to focus on this stuff
01:17:38
◼
►
when I'm just thinking about the review,
01:17:40
◼
►
and especially because I literally came back
01:17:42
◼
►
from vacation last night.
01:17:43
◼
►
That said, revenue is up 15%, I think, year over year, and this is the third consecutive
01:17:52
◼
►
quarter that the iPad has returned to growth. So that's a good sign. And Apple specifically
01:17:59
◼
►
called out the fact that the new lineup is performing well, so there will be the iPad,
01:18:05
◼
►
the iPad mini, and the new iPad Air. And if I could just add my thoughts, it almost feels
01:18:11
◼
►
like whenever, you know, if Apple just pays a little bit of attention to the iPad and,
01:18:17
◼
►
you know, that includes hardware and that includes software, things actually start to
01:18:21
◼
►
turn out. And I think we're seeing that there's more choice than ever in terms of the kind
01:18:29
◼
►
of iPad that you want to buy. You can buy a 9.7 inch up until 12.9 with the Pro. You
01:18:33
◼
►
also have the Mini and the Air in the middle. I think the strategy seems to be working well
01:18:40
◼
►
And you can see how from this perspective iPadOS only makes sense in the context of
01:18:46
◼
►
Apple now has a richer and more varied lineup of iPad devices and now they're going to do
01:18:52
◼
►
the software side as well.
01:18:53
◼
►
So sales are up, the lineup seems to be strong, there's supposedly new iPads coming, whether
01:19:01
◼
►
this year or next year Apple has been registering a bunch of new models in the, what they call
01:19:07
◼
►
it the Eurasian database, MacRumors or 9to5Mac articles about this. So all good news in terms
01:19:17
◼
►
of iPad. And we have iPadOS on the horizon, so that's even better news. Do you want me
01:19:24
◼
►
to talk about the Mac really? I won't make you talk about the Mac. Before we move off
01:19:30
◼
►
off the iPad though, just this made me think,
01:19:32
◼
►
like how do we think the iPad, iPad Air,
01:19:38
◼
►
like not the mini, but like there's two middle ones.
01:19:41
◼
►
Like how do we think they're doing?
01:19:42
◼
►
Like do we, I mean, do we think the iPad Air is doing well?
01:19:46
◼
►
It's kind of a product I don't think about much.
01:19:48
◼
►
Like do you guys think it's,
01:19:50
◼
►
- I have no, - It's important
01:19:53
◼
►
for Apple to continue that?
01:19:54
◼
►
- I don't have a good sense of whether people
01:19:59
◼
►
buying the iPad Air or not. My close friends are more interested in the iPad Pro, especially
01:20:06
◼
►
the 11-inch. And for context, my, you know, our friends, you know, the people that Sylvia
01:20:14
◼
►
and I hang out with, they tend to be dancers like Sylvia and therefore are interested in
01:20:19
◼
►
the idea of being able to edit music and cut mixes with a portable computer. So we've been
01:20:26
◼
►
talking to at least a couple of them about the Apple Pro. But I don't ever I
01:20:31
◼
►
haven't been at the Apple Store in forever really. And we talked about this
01:20:36
◼
►
I don't I just don't like going to the Apple Store anymore. I'm not sure if
01:20:40
◼
►
things have changed under the new leadership yet but I haven't been
01:20:45
◼
►
in really several months at this point. So I don't know whether
01:20:49
◼
►
people are actually going to check out the new Air and buying the new Air or not.
01:20:54
◼
►
judging from Mac Stories readers, there's some of them that we've been getting emails,
01:21:01
◼
►
and of course also on Adapt, we've been getting emails from owners of the new iPad Air,
01:21:07
◼
►
but our audience tends to be skewed toward iPad Pro customers.
01:21:11
◼
►
So if Apple says that it's doing well, taking a face value, I guess it's doing well.
01:21:18
◼
►
I just don't have any personal opinion about it.
01:21:20
◼
►
I think that these products will always exist for bulk purchases, education, enterprise,
01:21:27
◼
►
that kind of stuff.
01:21:29
◼
►
And then they're also just different price points for people with different budgets.
01:21:32
◼
►
I mean, I expect that the education market continues to be pretty important for these
01:21:39
◼
►
two devices anyway.
01:21:40
◼
►
And I bet that that holds up quite a bit of the pie.
01:21:43
◼
►
Well, I think we said this when the iPad Air came out.
01:21:47
◼
►
taking the slightly bigger form factor and adding the keyboard makes it a lot
01:21:52
◼
►
more attractive to like a regular consumer as well who may want to do some
01:21:55
◼
►
email and stuff on it. It's a great product. So I think the iPad Air was a really smart move and I
01:22:00
◼
►
hope that it is doing well for them and that people are drawn to it. Let's talk
01:22:04
◼
►
about the Mac before we wrap up. Double-digit revenue growth for the Mac
01:22:09
◼
►
Apple tipping their hat to the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The clearly the
01:22:15
◼
►
map care right there was just pent up demand for an entry level notebook that was good.
01:22:20
◼
►
And the MacBook Pro was revved with those new high end models, which are really expensive.
01:22:25
◼
►
And of course, they sort of hint the Mac with the Mac Pro, there's enormous, enormous amount
01:22:31
◼
►
of things to be excited about for the Mac. And, you know, the Mac Mini, the iMac, there's
01:22:37
◼
►
still things to do there. But the MacBook Air, I think is probably the driver of this,
01:22:41
◼
►
They quote, you know, the 999 MacBook Air for students and third quarter worth of growth,
01:22:48
◼
►
just like the iPad.
01:22:49
◼
►
So I think honestly, I think like the iPad, the Mac benefits from refresh models being
01:22:55
◼
►
available at a bunch of different price points.
01:22:57
◼
►
It seems so basic at Apple didn't do it for so long.
01:23:00
◼
►
And I think hopefully they're getting the picture that we need to keep these things
01:23:02
◼
►
fresh pretty often because people don't want to buy in like you're talking about your iMac
01:23:09
◼
►
necessarily want to buy a product that's been on the market for a year or a year and a half.
01:23:15
◼
►
People are at least sort of aware of that and I think that if we can learn anything
01:23:20
◼
►
from the last year, it's that the iPad and the Mac are going to continue to get refreshed
01:23:26
◼
►
on a pretty regular basis.
01:23:27
◼
►
I think that's good for everybody.
01:23:28
◼
►
Consumers, clearly it's good for Apple, so hopefully they continue down that road.
01:23:32
◼
►
Because they've got the revenue from somewhere.
01:23:33
◼
►
That's right.
01:23:34
◼
►
Got to sell more MacBook Airs because the iPhone is done.
01:23:37
◼
►
That's the lesson.
01:23:39
◼
►
If you want to find links to the stuff we talked about this week, you can head over
01:23:42
◼
►
to the website relay.fm/connected/254.
01:23:46
◼
►
253 was last week, 254 is this week.
01:23:51
◼
►
You can get in touch with us on that page.
01:23:53
◼
►
There's an email link, you can send feedback and follow up, or you can do it on Twitter.
01:23:58
◼
►
You can find Myke there as I-M-Y-K-E.
01:24:00
◼
►
Myke is the host of a bunch of shows at Relay FM, so if you love his point of view and his
01:24:05
◼
►
voice, there's plenty of other opportunities to get that.
01:24:08
◼
►
You can follow Federico on Twitter at Vitici, V I T I C C I. He's the editor in chief of
01:24:13
◼
►
Max stories.net. And when he's not podcasting, he is in his writing cave working hard on
01:24:18
◼
►
his iOS 13 iPad OS review, which I'm very excited about. Thank you. You can find me
01:24:25
◼
►
on Twitter as is m h. I write over at 512 pixels.net. Don't forget, we are live in San
01:24:34
◼
►
Francisco in just a couple weeks with a lot of our friends check out that link
01:24:37
◼
►
if it is Wednesday July 31st we're listening to this go check out the Relay
01:24:42
◼
►
from Twitter account tomorrow we have some some fun stuff being announced
01:24:45
◼
►
tomorrow not new shows but some fun stuff and I think that's it so until
01:24:51
◼
►
next time gentlemen say goodbye. Adios.