Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:00:02 ◼   ► - Hello and welcome to Connected,

00:00:09 ◼   ► episode 224, our 2018 year end review.

00:00:14 ◼   ► It is made possible by our sponsors,

00:00:17 ◼   ► Pingdom, Smile, and Kane11.

00:00:20 ◼   ► I'm your host, Stephen Hackett,

00:00:22 ◼   ► and I'm joined by Myke Hurley.

00:00:23 ◼   ► - Happy holidays.

00:00:25 ◼   ► - Hey, it's Boxing Day where you are,

00:00:28 ◼   ► as we release this.

00:00:29 ◼   ► - Yep, I'm sitting in a box, as the tradition would say.

00:00:32 ◼   ► - You sit in the box?

00:00:34 ◼   ► Is that the tradition?

00:00:34 ◼   ► - That's how it goes, yeah.

00:00:36 ◼   ► Everyone gets their own personal box on Boxing Day.

00:00:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, that's, oh, and, okay.

00:00:42 ◼   ► And Federico Vittucci, hi.

00:00:43 ◼   ► - Hello, hi, happy holidays.

00:00:46 ◼   ► It's good to be here, how are you, Steven?

00:00:49 ◼   ► - I'm good, it's the end of the year,

00:00:51 ◼   ► there's just a few days left,

00:00:52 ◼   ► and we have this tradition on Connected

00:00:54 ◼   ► to look back over the previous 12 months

00:00:58 ◼   ► of news and stories, things we talked about,

00:01:00 ◼   ► and sort of revisit them and see what was a big deal,

00:01:03 ◼   ► what wasn't a big deal, what rumors ended up being true,

00:01:06 ◼   ► which is like my theme for 2018.

00:01:08 ◼   ► The rumor mill was just really bonkers this year.

00:01:11 ◼   ► But before we do that, we have very important business.

00:01:15 ◼   ► - I don't wanna do this.

00:01:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's very important.

00:01:18 ◼   ► It's very important business.

00:01:19 ◼   ► - No, because we're gonna fight.

00:01:20 ◼   ► - We should do it.

00:01:21 ◼   ► - Wait, no, we're gonna fight.

00:01:22 ◼   ► We're gonna fight again, so.

00:01:24 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:01:25 ◼   ► - No, there's no fighting. - I think there is.

00:01:27 ◼   ► - I don't see why.

00:01:28 ◼   ► Why?

00:01:29 ◼   ► - Based upon the rules that you put into place last year.

00:01:32 ◼   ► - Okay, okay.

00:01:33 ◼   ► - The no half points rule.

00:01:35 ◼   ► - We have our annual predictions.

00:01:37 ◼   ► And these are the rules we put forth about a year ago.

00:01:41 ◼   ► Two points for correct picks in the risky pick round.

00:01:45 ◼   ► If your risky pick is wrong, you lose a point.

00:01:48 ◼   ► This is where it gets interesting.

00:01:50 ◼   ► The other two hosts must agree your pick is risky,

00:01:52 ◼   ► which I guess we did a year ago.

00:01:54 ◼   ► And there are no half points.

00:01:56 ◼   ► So that is where I think we could get into some debate.

00:02:01 ◼   ► - I forgot about the risky points rule, which is probably,

00:02:04 ◼   ► that's why, okay, okay, cool.

00:02:06 ◼   ► Then this is clean cut, this is clean cut.

00:02:08 ◼   ► - That's why. - All right, cool, cool, cool.

00:02:10 ◼   ► Wait, we need to do some adjudicating as we go through this,

00:02:14 ◼   ► but I think we're probably good.

00:02:16 ◼   ► I forgot about the risky picks rule.

00:02:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, Myke, are you where you could keep score for us?

00:02:21 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:02:22 ◼   ► - You got a pen and paper there?

00:02:23 ◼   ► - You know I've got a pen and paper.

00:02:25 ◼   ► round one, I'm going to read our predictions and then we can discuss the outcomes. So in

00:02:30 ◼   ► round one, I predicted the Mac Pro would ship by the end of the year after teasing WWDC.

00:02:36 ◼   ► Michael said there will be a bigger iPhone 10 style phone, but will not have an OLED

00:02:42 ◼   ► screen. Federico said, there's a lot of this, iOS 12 will have a focus on quote faster speed

00:02:48 ◼   ► and performance optimizations being a tentpole feature. It will be on a slide. Please appreciate

00:02:54 ◼   ► all these points. I still can't believe you got a point out of this because you picked so many

00:02:59 ◼   ► things. So many things. All of them. You're a madman. The counter, the narrative around iOS 11.

00:03:07 ◼   ► And then he has some examples, faster animations, maybe 64 bit Swift promotion, something under the

00:03:13 ◼   ► scenes, maybe a built in cache cleanup feature. So some of those details are sort of hand wavy. But

00:03:19 ◼   ► I think it's pretty clear that Federico gets a point for iOS 12 having a focus on being faster.

00:03:26 ◼   ► They preach that good news at WWDC. So I have a point I would like to bring to the group.

00:03:31 ◼   ► So I said there will be a bigger iPhone 10 style phone but it will not have an OLED screen.

00:03:37 ◼   ► Now at the time we were thinking max but doesn't the XR fit that exact prediction?

00:03:44 ◼   ► I think it does. I think you get a point as well.

00:03:47 ◼   ► Because iPhone X-styled phone will not have an OLED screen.

00:03:50 ◼   ► Now it's like, I know that at the time, we didn't think that the XR would exist, right?

00:03:55 ◼   ► But by like just the way that we wrote the prediction down, I think it counts.

00:04:00 ◼   ► Yeah, I think it does too.

00:04:02 ◼   ► Because you don't say that the only bigger iPhone X-style phone would be LCD.

00:04:07 ◼   ► You say there will be A1 and that-

00:04:09 ◼   ► Yeah, this counts. This counts.

00:04:11 ◼   ► -That's cool. -To the language, you are correct.

00:04:13 ◼   ► So I'm pleased that I've at least scored this year.

00:04:16 ◼   ► It's like it might be the first time I've ever scored a point.

00:04:19 ◼   ► You always get too specific, which we'll see.

00:04:23 ◼   ► I personally consider myself the winner now. I have the moral victory here.

00:04:27 ◼   ► What a rush, huh? Having a point. How does it feel like?

00:04:32 ◼   ► The power I have right now.

00:04:33 ◼   ► I did not get a point. I will tell you though, this will be my first pick for 2019.

00:04:39 ◼   ► This exact phrase. But there's no Mac Pro this year, so I do not get a point.

00:04:44 ◼   ► Are we gonna do this on our next episode?

00:04:47 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, we do at the beginning of the year.

00:04:50 ◼   ► Oh, I got something. We have to.

00:04:51 ◼   ► I have no idea right now. I know.

00:04:53 ◼   ► You can't come into this off the top of your head.

00:04:55 ◼   ► It goes poorly. No.

00:04:57 ◼   ► We are under listener contractual obligation to do this.

00:05:01 ◼   ► Yeah. Who signed that contract?

00:05:02 ◼   ► Round two.

00:05:04 ◼   ► Michael said, "Apple Watch with an always-on display."

00:05:07 ◼   ► I feel like we were all cheated

00:05:08 ◼   ► by losing this point, personally.

00:05:11 ◼   ► The whole world. Yeah.

00:05:11 ◼   ► Every Apple Watch user was cheated by you.

00:05:14 ◼   ► I cannot believe that this is still not a thing on the Apple

00:05:17 ◼   ► Watch.

00:05:18 ◼   ► It boggles my mind.

00:05:19 ◼   ► Federico said, a streaming service

00:05:21 ◼   ► announces Apple Video one to two months for free,

00:05:24 ◼   ► bundled with Apple Music as an option.

00:05:26 ◼   ► I remember at the time telling you,

00:05:28 ◼   ► that was a wild prediction, because they hadn't even

00:05:30 ◼   ► started shooting the TV shows.

00:05:32 ◼   ► That, I think, is another one that could be totally reasonable

00:05:37 ◼   ► in 2019, by the way.

00:05:38 ◼   ► That is like, that's probably gonna be one of my first picks.

00:05:41 ◼   ► So we're all gonna have to run for that one.

00:05:44 ◼   ► - And I make it onto the board.

00:05:46 ◼   ► Still no new iPad Mini, and I had a parenthetical,

00:05:50 ◼   ► if it's killed I'm not wrong.

00:05:52 ◼   ► The iPad Mini 4 is, as it ever was, still for sale.

00:05:56 ◼   ► So, right now we are tied.

00:05:57 ◼   ► Myke, you have won.

00:05:59 ◼   ► Federico, you have won.

00:06:00 ◼   ► I have won.

00:06:01 ◼   ► - Wait, who's keeping the scores here?

00:06:03 ◼   ► - Well, I mean, they're in green and red now,

00:06:05 ◼   ► so I could see them.

00:06:06 ◼   ► but I'll let you do the final thing.

00:06:09 ◼   ► Okay, risky picks.

00:06:11 ◼   ► So again, if you are correct, you get two points.

00:06:16 ◼   ► If you are wrong, you lose a point from your total.

00:06:20 ◼   ► And we already previously agreed

00:06:22 ◼   ► that these were all risky picks,

00:06:24 ◼   ► so there's not any debate about that.

00:06:26 ◼   ► Federico, Workflow 2 will appear as a system, feature,

00:06:30 ◼   ► or app heavy on Siri integration,

00:06:33 ◼   ► Framework for pro apps to talk to each other and you had two non graded things. I'll just say just for clarity

00:06:40 ◼   ► There probably be a migration tool

00:06:41 ◼   ► I guess from workflow to workflow to or now we know is the shortcut which there was

00:06:45 ◼   ► The App Store version might be kept around for a while. It's only an App Store version. It's only one version

00:06:51 ◼   ► So that was wrong. You should have kept your not graded things in there to be honest because this is a thing

00:06:56 ◼   ► framework for pro apps to talk to each other that's

00:07:02 ◼   ► That's not there. That's not there, but I think overall, like…

00:07:07 ◼   ► But we don't do half points around here, though. So this is where it gets awkward.

00:07:11 ◼   ► If you look at the entire prediction, Workflow 2 will appear as a season feature wrap, heavy

00:07:15 ◼   ► on serial integration. So why does NotGraded even exist, then? That

00:07:20 ◼   ► everything you said had to be graded? I don't know why we did the NotGraded, but

00:07:23 ◼   ► I don't know. Because the point was, because we had this

00:07:26 ◼   ► in the past, of everyone getting way too specific, and if you were more specific and you didn't

00:07:31 ◼   ► all your specific points you didn't get the point like that was the reason for the not graded

00:07:35 ◼   ► and why we thought you were wild i don't know but we decided that it was yeah i don't know why but

00:07:42 ◼   ► at the time we decided that it was not graded so i think we give it to him yeah all right we can

00:07:46 ◼   ► give it to him but we have to put this rule into place because this is a rule that i know exists

00:07:50 ◼   ► which is everything that is written down has to be true for the point to be given i i think yes sure

00:07:57 ◼   ► we could let it slide this time, but I think that all of us get zero points, because

00:08:02 ◼   ► T2 doesn't get a half point, but I'll let it go, but...

00:08:07 ◼   ► I mean, compared to your... but let's compare this one to your risky picks.

00:08:12 ◼   ► I say Workflow 2, you say... Steven says iTunes rewrite or replacement for macOS.

00:08:17 ◼   ► Myke says iOS 12 features a large-scale UI redesign across iOS, the biggest since iOS 7.

00:08:25 ◼   ► We thought that that might happen, right?

00:08:27 ◼   ► Like I might just be one year off.

00:08:29 ◼   ► - Ryan tell Bloomberg said it wasn't happening.

00:08:32 ◼   ► - But your risky picks are complete.

00:08:34 ◼   ► - Yes, they are completely wrong.

00:08:36 ◼   ► - Mine is only partially incorrect for one detail.

00:08:39 ◼   ► - But we don't do half points, no half points.

00:08:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, here's the thing.

00:08:44 ◼   ► I don't think you can compare risky picks to each other.

00:08:47 ◼   ► I feel like they just exist as their own item.

00:08:51 ◼   ► - Riskiness.

00:08:52 ◼   ► - But I think you get it.

00:08:53 ◼   ► Even though the framework for Pro Apps,

00:08:55 ◼   ► I think I know what you were saying then,

00:08:57 ◼   ► but I kinda also think that the Siri shortcuts,

00:09:02 ◼   ► that's not Pro Apps talking to each other,

00:09:03 ◼   ► but it's Pro Apps talking to the system,

00:09:05 ◼   ► I think we give it to him.

00:09:06 ◼   ► - I think it is close enough to correct that I agree.

00:09:10 ◼   ► - If you wanna be super nitpicky,

00:09:13 ◼   ► you could argue that Siri shortcuts as in framework

00:09:16 ◼   ► and the clipboard as a way for apps to talk to each other,

00:09:19 ◼   ► it kinda counts. - The clipboard

00:09:20 ◼   ► is not a framework.

00:09:21 ◼   ► The clipboard is not a framework.

00:09:23 ◼   ► It actually is! It actually is! It actually is a f-

00:09:27 ◼   ► Well, but-

00:09:28 ◼   ► Well!

00:09:29 ◼   ► It's only- it's- it is-

00:09:31 ◼   ► It is partially incorrect.

00:09:33 ◼   ► This- this point.

00:09:35 ◼   ► Alright, you know what? Kate has actually adjudicated this.

00:09:39 ◼   ► Risky picks are worth two points, so you get one point.

00:09:43 ◼   ► But that's a half grading.

00:09:45 ◼   ► I think that works fine. Yeah, but whatever.

00:09:47 ◼   ► Look, we're all trying to find ways to let Federico win this at this point, aren't we?

00:09:51 ◼   ► So we'll just say it's close enough.

00:09:53 ◼   ► It's the holidays, give him the two points, Federico wins.

00:09:57 ◼   ► Federico gets three points.

00:10:00 ◼   ► I am not surprised that I won again.

00:10:02 ◼   ► Take the point away from him.

00:10:04 ◼   ► This is why he doesn't deserve the point.

00:10:05 ◼   ► Thank you, thank you Connected Listeners for supporting...

00:10:08 ◼   ► This is why.

00:10:09 ◼   ► He cannot be humble in his victory.

00:10:12 ◼   ► He has to now be like, "I am the king of all predictions."

00:10:18 ◼   ► supporting the rightful winner of this prediction. See you again next year.

00:10:23 ◼   ► I knew we should know when I'm winning.

00:10:24 ◼   ► Well, we can bring everybody down with round four.

00:10:28 ◼   ► Extra picks?

00:10:29 ◼   ► Extra picks that were not great. These are just things that we put out there.

00:10:33 ◼   ► That we just said.

00:10:34 ◼   ► So let's just blow Federico out of the water. Federico said two things. Apple

00:10:39 ◼   ► Video and Apple Music have dedicated apps for Mac and iOS. Music and Video removed

00:10:44 ◼   ► from iTunes on the Mac.

00:10:46 ◼   ► He also said, this is maybe my favorite,

00:10:50 ◼   ► "Reminders will get a major redesign

00:10:53 ◼   ► "modeled after iOS 11 in files,

00:10:55 ◼   ► "new family sharing features,

00:10:56 ◼   ► "and integration with the HomePod."

00:10:58 ◼   ► - Oh, boy, that's so bad.

00:10:59 ◼   ► - When was Reminders last updated, Federico?

00:11:03 ◼   ► - iOS 7, iOS 7, five years ago.

00:11:06 ◼   ► - Oh, boy.

00:11:09 ◼   ► Not that we're any better.

00:11:10 ◼   ► - Well.

00:11:11 ◼   ► - Not that we're any better.

00:11:12 ◼   ► I said--

00:11:13 ◼   ► - You were close.

00:11:14 ◼   ► An app kit and UI kit give birth to something new

00:11:17 ◼   ► and cross platform like Gurman said.

00:11:20 ◼   ► It's not really true because these apps in Mojave

00:11:23 ◼   ► are just basically UI kit apps with a little shim

00:11:27 ◼   ► to make them work on the Mac.

00:11:29 ◼   ► I also said an iPod touch update,

00:11:31 ◼   ► so maybe I'm the biggest loser here.

00:11:32 ◼   ► - That was the wildest thing.

00:11:35 ◼   ► I can't believe you said that.

00:11:36 ◼   ► - Just going crazy at the end.

00:11:37 ◼   ► - That should have been a risky pick, that one.

00:11:40 ◼   ► - If I'd gotten that right,

00:11:41 ◼   ► I would have won it for all time.

00:11:44 ◼   ► Myke, you set a new Apple Pencil with a button of some kind,

00:11:48 ◼   ► with aluminum with a question mark after it.

00:11:50 ◼   ► You got a new Pencil.

00:11:52 ◼   ► There's the tapping thing, it's kind of the same spirit,

00:11:55 ◼   ► but it doesn't count 'cause there are no points.

00:11:57 ◼   ► Federico wanted a new Smart Keyboard.

00:11:59 ◼   ► I don't know if you knew this,

00:12:00 ◼   ► Federico doesn't really like the Smart Keyboard.

00:12:02 ◼   ► He suggested a new material,

00:12:04 ◼   ► backlit keys and a dedicated Siri key.

00:12:07 ◼   ► You got none of those things.

00:12:09 ◼   ► - I got a new Smart Keyboard,

00:12:13 ◼   ► which is the SmartKey portfolio with a new material,

00:12:16 ◼   ► but it was not what I was expecting.

00:12:18 ◼   ► The new material is the texture for the key,

00:12:21 ◼   ► wow, this is so sad. - So sad.

00:12:24 ◼   ► - Look at this.

00:12:25 ◼   ► - And then Myke also had something,

00:12:27 ◼   ► Myke's interesting, you had a couple

00:12:29 ◼   ► that Bloomberg sort of shot down early on.

00:12:31 ◼   ► On iOS 12, the iPad home screen

00:12:33 ◼   ► features more than just app icons.

00:12:35 ◼   ► - So really, I should blame Federico for my loss.

00:12:40 ◼   ► - Sure. - Right?

00:12:40 ◼   ► - But then Federico wouldn't have gotten speed,

00:12:42 ◼   ► like it's a give and take around here. Well that's it though right? That just helps me win more.

00:12:47 ◼   ► So I blame Craig Federighi for me losing this year. You should just blame yourself for bad picks.

00:12:54 ◼   ► No they were good picks. These are all things that are gonna happen. I was just wrong by maybe one

00:12:59 ◼   ► year. That's just so upsetting about all of this. That's not how it works. Well so you're gonna just

00:13:05 ◼   ► repeat the same picks for 2019? Look I'm not gonna say that it is impossible that I would do that.

00:13:12 ◼   ► Alright? Just, you know, maybe I will do that.

00:13:14 ◼   ► Copy and paste them right out of here.

00:13:16 ◼   ► I am, as we speak, copying and pasting into my notes document.

00:13:20 ◼   ► Okay, good luck.

00:13:21 ◼   ► What is this? What is this good luck from you?

00:13:24 ◼   ► You know, here's the thing, right? You keep playing it like this, everyone's gonna want you to lose.

00:13:28 ◼   ► You know that, right? You're gonna turn everyone against you. Is that what you want?

00:13:31 ◼   ► There's enough people who love me that I feel their support and encouragement to keep producing amazing productions.

00:13:41 ◼   ► See what you will do to him?

00:13:42 ◼   ► Turn him into a monster.

00:13:43 ◼   ► He's a monster.

00:13:43 ◼   ► I'm a monster at winning picks.

00:13:45 ◼   ► That's what I am.

00:13:46 ◼   ► I quit.

00:13:46 ◼   ► No, you have to read the sponsor first.

00:13:50 ◼   ► No, I've quit.

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00:15:14 ◼   ► Emryley FM. So the year in review time, we will go throughout the year talking about primarily,

00:15:21 ◼   ► I think, the things that we spoke about and we were focusing on the most in the show. How are

00:15:26 ◼   ► we going to do this? Who's going to read them all? I feel like Steven's year, right? As the host.

00:15:32 ◼   ► As the resident historian of the Apple community.

00:15:34 ◼   ► That's a good point. Yeah, this is just more history. It's just more recent than you normally do, but...

00:15:39 ◼   ► It's true. Ask me about these things again in 10 years, please.

00:15:43 ◼   ► Okay.

00:15:43 ◼   ► You will know them.

00:15:44 ◼   ► Yeah, it's no problem.

00:15:45 ◼   ► Won't be surprised.

00:15:46 ◼   ► So this really began at the end of 2017. Remember all this? The iPhone battery gate.

00:15:54 ◼   ► Apple is throttling your phone because it would shut down otherwise, and people were mad. The

00:15:59 ◼   ► battery replacements were so expensive. And Apple announced at the very end of the year

00:16:04 ◼   ► that for all of 2018, for a bunch of iPhones,

00:16:08 ◼   ► you could do a $29 battery replacement.

00:16:13 ◼   ► And people were mostly excited.

00:16:16 ◼   ► I think some people thought they should be free,

00:16:18 ◼   ► which is sort of silly.

00:16:19 ◼   ► But 29 bucks, you get a battery put in,

00:16:21 ◼   ► put in your old phone.

00:16:23 ◼   ► I don't know about y'all, I have sent a ton of people

00:16:25 ◼   ► to the Apple Store this year to do that,

00:16:26 ◼   ► including my own parents and family members

00:16:28 ◼   ► as recently as this week, reminding them,

00:16:30 ◼   ► hey, this ends at the end of the year.

00:16:34 ◼   ► And then the other price is gonna go back up. Do you guys think people will be upset about that?

00:16:38 ◼   ► I had completely forgotten about this and now I kind of regret it because I should have told my mom to get a new battery

00:16:44 ◼   ► And now she she will not be able to come to the Apple Store because there's a holiday. Just sitting there in silent regret

00:16:51 ◼   ► She's gonna she's gonna she's gonna be so upset if she finds out. You've let her down. You're a bad son

00:16:55 ◼   ► I'm a bad son. Between this and the pranks you play on her. Yeah, is this just another prank?

00:17:03 ◼   ► I haven't actually pulled any pranks.

00:17:04 ◼   ► You pranked her out of $30. Way to go.

00:17:07 ◼   ► I'm planning something for Christmas.

00:17:09 ◼   ► I still haven't decided what I want to do.

00:17:11 ◼   ► What do you mean, like you're planning something?

00:17:15 ◼   ► What does that mean?

00:17:16 ◼   ► That's what I said.

00:17:18 ◼   ► I want to do something that is fun.

00:17:20 ◼   ► Who is it fun for?

00:17:22 ◼   ► Me, mostly.

00:17:24 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:17:25 ◼   ► And the people who participate in the prank.

00:17:28 ◼   ► Oh, you're gonna have people?

00:17:29 ◼   ► Except for my mom.

00:17:30 ◼   ► Yeah, usually Sylvia, she just plays along because she's also terrible like me.

00:17:35 ◼   ► Yeah, I feel bad. This is ending on the end of the year, right?

00:17:42 ◼   ► Yeah, the fee, thanks to Benjamin Mayo in the chat, the fee will become $49 for all products except the iPhone X, which will change to $69, which is a nice price for a battery change, I think.

00:17:57 ◼   ► And it ends on Boxing Day instead of December 31st.

00:18:02 ◼   ► Oh man.

00:18:03 ◼   ► Well, that battery is gone.

00:18:05 ◼   ► I'm not getting a new battery.

00:18:08 ◼   ► But it's not expensive to change anymore.

00:18:10 ◼   ► 49 instead of 79.

00:18:12 ◼   ► You could just apologize and hand her 30 bucks.

00:18:15 ◼   ► Or you could take care of it for her.

00:18:17 ◼   ► Say, "Hey, I'm going to borrow your phone for the afternoon and go do it as an apology."

00:18:20 ◼   ► She thinks she's going to get a prank, but in fact, you're actually just going to fix

00:18:22 ◼   ► her phone for her.

00:18:23 ◼   ► You come back with a Motorola Droid.

00:18:25 ◼   ► It's a terrible prank.

00:18:27 ◼   ► Well you did that once. I used Android for a long time. Yeah, I've got it over here somewhere.

00:18:32 ◼   ► Up next,

00:18:34 ◼   ► Transmit for iOS is discontinued showing the end of pro app development on the iPad. Pack it up.

00:18:41 ◼   ► I'm so sad that this

00:18:44 ◼   ► This this happened. I'm still using file browser on iOS. I mean it's functional. It does its job well.

00:18:53 ◼   ► And you could you could use a bunch of other apps. I know people use documents for FTP access and that kind of stuff

00:18:59 ◼   ► I prefer fire browser because of some advanced features that I like like shortcuts or like you can add

00:19:04 ◼   ► Specific folders for a remote location to your home screen as an icon, which is nice

00:19:10 ◼   ► But I still miss the UI and like the polish of transmit and I so wish that panic

00:19:18 ◼   ► Like I would subscribe to transmit

00:19:20 ◼   ► This is one of those apps, especially now that I have a Mac Mini, so I connect to a

00:19:24 ◼   ► bunch of folders that I use on my Mac Mini.

00:19:27 ◼   ► I would pay, I don't know, a $10 subscription a year for transmit.

00:19:31 ◼   ► You know, that kind of utility I would pay for.

00:19:34 ◼   ► But I guess they're focused on Coda now.

00:19:37 ◼   ► I think it's the only iOS app they still maintain.

00:19:39 ◼   ► Oh no, and Prompt, which I also use, which is not a podcast, it's an app.

00:19:43 ◼   ► There should be a podcast called Prompt, though.

00:19:46 ◼   ► That's a good name.

00:19:48 ◼   ► But yeah, it's a sad announcement.

00:19:50 ◼   ► I wish they would actually backtrack on this decision,

00:19:54 ◼   ► but I guess it's not happening.

00:19:56 ◼   ► - I'm still using it, it still works.

00:19:57 ◼   ► I sort of assume that that will not be true forever

00:20:01 ◼   ► and then I'll deal with it then.

00:20:02 ◼   ► But I use it actually a fair amount

00:20:04 ◼   ► for uploading shows to our host.

00:20:06 ◼   ► It's very handy.

00:20:07 ◼   ► Up next, we have Apple Previews iOS 11.3.

00:20:12 ◼   ► If you don't remember, the features included

00:20:14 ◼   ► new Animoji and ARKit 1.5.

00:20:18 ◼   ► Tell me how much this has changed the way I work on your iPads and iPhones.

00:20:22 ◼   ► This is, um, this has complete a arcade.

00:20:24 ◼   ► 1.5 has allowed me to use the iPad as my computer.

00:20:29 ◼   ► Um, yes, because now I, I basically, the way that I work is I hold the iPad and I

00:20:36 ◼   ► project a 3d graphic of a Macintosh on my table and, and I, and I touch that

00:20:43 ◼   ► graphic with my hands, real AR.

00:20:46 ◼   ► So this is... you cannot do real AR on a Mac, which is why I'm using the iPad as my primary

00:20:53 ◼   ► AR computer projector. Yes. Totally game changer. No, seriously though, are you guys still using

00:20:59 ◼   ► an emoji? I know Myke. Myke is. He sends an emoji every once in a while.

00:21:04 ◼   ► I'm more... I'm still, as predicted at the time when Memoji came out, I still use Bitmoji

00:21:09 ◼   ► more because of like the little scenes that Bitmoji will put your character in.

00:21:12 ◼   ► And there are those Bitmojis that you send us all the time, like the Savage Bitmoji,

00:21:19 ◼   ► those have become institutions of our private conversations.

00:21:22 ◼   ► Everybody wants to get the Savage one every now and then, because that's when they are

00:21:25 ◼   ► commended for their savagery, you know?

00:21:28 ◼   ► Everyone wants to be Savage.

00:21:29 ◼   ► That's perfect.

00:21:30 ◼   ► I use it, but it's not a ton.

00:21:33 ◼   ► This is one of those things I expect that slowly over time they just keep making better

00:21:37 ◼   ► and better.

00:21:38 ◼   ► I'm intrigued to see what they do to Memoji

00:21:41 ◼   ► like over the next year,

00:21:43 ◼   ► 'cause it feels like something that

00:21:44 ◼   ► probably does help sell the phones,

00:21:48 ◼   ► even because people,

00:21:49 ◼   ► whether they will or they won't use them,

00:21:51 ◼   ► they might think that they'll use them,

00:21:52 ◼   ► and they're kind of like a cute thing,

00:21:53 ◼   ► it's like a demo thing.

00:21:55 ◼   ► You know, I reckon kids love it, you know?

00:21:56 ◼   ► Like it's a cool feature,

00:21:59 ◼   ► it is not a groundbreaking feature,

00:22:01 ◼   ► but it's still fun.

00:22:03 ◼   ► - I just realized I cut my hair,

00:22:05 ◼   ► and I need to update mine,

00:22:07 ◼   ► because my little guy still has long hair.

00:22:09 ◼   ► I should get on that.

00:22:11 ◼   ► - It's a very important task. - I'm gonna do that.

00:22:14 ◼   ► - Why is the next item in our list?

00:22:17 ◼   ► - Because at the heart of Connected,

00:22:20 ◼   ► you may think we cover Apple

00:22:22 ◼   ► and related services and technologies, but really--

00:22:25 ◼   ► - We just do that as filler

00:22:26 ◼   ► until the next news comes up about this service.

00:22:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, BlaBlaCar, our true calling as journalists--

00:22:34 ◼   ► - BlaBlaCar.

00:22:35 ◼   ► - We had some changes in its business 11 months ago,

00:22:38 ◼   ► and I'm skimming this TechCrunch article,

00:22:40 ◼   ► and I don't remember what they did,

00:22:41 ◼   ► but they did something.

00:22:42 ◼   ► - No, see, this is the thing.

00:22:43 ◼   ► This is like the end of our coverage for BlahBlahCar,

00:22:45 ◼   ► because they took away the blobby guy.

00:22:47 ◼   ► - Oh, that's right.

00:22:48 ◼   ► They did the rebranding. - They rebranded.

00:22:49 ◼   ► - No!

00:22:50 ◼   ► - So it's not interesting to us anymore,

00:22:52 ◼   ► because the BlahBlahCar mascot is gone, so.

00:22:56 ◼   ► - The BlahBlahMonster is gone?

00:22:58 ◼   ► Oh, no.

00:22:59 ◼   ► - I'm watching their rebranding video,

00:23:01 ◼   ► and there's people with tiny heads in it.

00:23:03 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:23:04 ◼   ► Yeah, this was part of the whole wonder of everything.

00:23:07 ◼   ► It converged.

00:23:09 ◼   ► Tiny Heads will make an appearance later on.

00:23:12 ◼   ► But, you know.

00:23:13 ◼   ► - Did you know that BlaBlaCar

00:23:15 ◼   ► is the world leading long distance carpooling platform?

00:23:18 ◼   ► And that it's a trusted community marketplace

00:23:20 ◼   ► that connects car drivers with empty seats

00:23:23 ◼   ► to passengers looking for a ride?

00:23:25 ◼   ► - It's super interesting to me

00:23:27 ◼   ► that you can just roll this information

00:23:28 ◼   ► just out from, like, just from your brain.

00:23:31 ◼   ► Did you know that they have 60 million members in 22 countries and over 18 million travelers

00:23:37 ◼   ► every quarter?

00:23:38 ◼   ► I mean, it's an impressive company.

00:23:40 ◼   ► I think I want a seatbelt attaching me to my empty seat, just personally.

00:23:43 ◼   ► I don't want an app to do that.

00:23:45 ◼   ► I want a seatbelt.

00:23:46 ◼   ► Do you pay the cricket sound effect for your own jokes or is it just for mine?

00:23:51 ◼   ► It's just for yours.

00:23:52 ◼   ► It's weird.

00:23:53 ◼   ► I try to put them in Logic after my joke and it crashes every time.

00:23:56 ◼   ► The founder and president of BlaBlaCar, his name is Frederic, so I guess that's a sign.

00:24:05 ◼   ► Frederic Viticchio.

00:24:07 ◼   ► Frederic Mazzella. Sounds kind of Italian. Yeah, Frederic carries BlaBlaCar's vision

00:24:17 ◼   ► of a people-powered travel network. We're all about the people-powered...

00:24:21 ◼   ► You would really hope that he personally would carry the vision of the company that he's

00:24:24 ◼   ► the CEO for, right?

00:24:26 ◼   ► The founder and president, not even a CEO.

00:24:28 ◼   ► He's a president.

00:24:29 ◼   ► Yeah, they hired an adult to be CEO.

00:24:32 ◼   ► Oh really?

00:24:33 ◼   ► Did they?

00:24:34 ◼   ► That happens a lot though.

00:24:37 ◼   ► Alright, the next story I think is perhaps the most interesting for me in January.

00:24:43 ◼   ► Rumors of the iPhone XR began.

00:24:46 ◼   ► And so this is the beginning of what will be a multi-month story of this bigger LCD

00:24:54 ◼   ► LCD foam, but it has a notch and it's aluminum and not stainless steel.

00:24:58 ◼   ► Like even in these early reports, Ming-Chi Kuo had this iPhone XR just locked down, it seems like.

00:25:06 ◼   ► I mean, this is going to come up a lot throughout this episode, I think, but Kuo has just,

00:25:11 ◼   ► he gets a lot right, like a lot right. And it's sometimes it's very like the things he tends to

00:25:19 ◼   ► get more right is when there's some kind of supply chain stuff, right? Like that's where he kind of

00:25:23 ◼   ► of his information tends to live.

00:25:25 ◼   ► But I mean, there's a reason so many people pay attention

00:25:29 ◼   ► to what Quo has to say, I think.

00:25:30 ◼   ► - I mean, this was like at the time we,

00:25:32 ◼   ► I remember the reaction, like the confusion of,

00:25:35 ◼   ► oh, Apple is making an LCD phone without 3D Touch.

00:25:38 ◼   ► What does that mean for 3D Touch?

00:25:40 ◼   ► They're never gonna do this.

00:25:41 ◼   ► And like, I think we realize that,

00:25:45 ◼   ► I don't know if Apple is slowly walking back from 3D Touch,

00:25:49 ◼   ► but I think it's pretty obvious

00:25:52 ◼   ► that they don't necessarily consider it to be a deal breaker at this point.

00:25:56 ◼   ► So they just wanted to make a phone with LCD without 3D Touch.

00:25:59 ◼   ► They just made one and whatever.

00:26:02 ◼   ► I think looking back, this is one of those rumors that at the time

00:26:06 ◼   ► people were losing their minds over.

00:26:08 ◼   ► But now in hindsight, it kind of I mean, it makes the most sense

00:26:12 ◼   ► of all the rumors that I think we we have here.

00:26:14 ◼   ► Yeah, I remember there being so much debate about like what this would mean

00:26:19 ◼   ► for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, would this be the 9?

00:26:23 ◼   ► All the marketing stuff is,

00:26:26 ◼   ► it's rarely present in these rumors,

00:26:28 ◼   ► 'cause that's really internal to Apple,

00:26:29 ◼   ► and sometimes decided really late in the game,

00:26:32 ◼   ► but as Apple gets bigger and they make more of these things,

00:26:34 ◼   ► people just know about what's coming,

00:26:37 ◼   ► hardware-wise at least, and sort of up to the rest

00:26:40 ◼   ► of the world to sort of fill the story in around it

00:26:42 ◼   ► 'til Apple makes it all clear.

00:26:44 ◼   ► It's always interesting,

00:26:45 ◼   ► and it started really early last year.

00:26:47 ◼   ► This was January 23rd.

00:26:49 ◼   ► That's early on in the cycle.

00:26:51 ◼   ► We also had the first reports that began to sink

00:26:56 ◼   ► Myke's pick boat of iOS 12 features

00:27:01 ◼   ► being shuffled off into the future

00:27:03 ◼   ► for a focus on performance.

00:27:05 ◼   ► Another rumor that seemed like it held up over time.

00:27:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, this was, I think the rumor said

00:27:12 ◼   ► that this came from like a meeting that Apple had internally

00:27:16 ◼   ► like a bunch of engineers participated in this meeting.

00:27:20 ◼   ► This is, I feel like, in regard to software,

00:27:23 ◼   ► this is sort of the rumor that shaped the narrative

00:27:26 ◼   ► for Apple going into WWDC,

00:27:29 ◼   ► what they were going to show for iOS 12.

00:27:31 ◼   ► And it's pretty incredible that, basically, six months before,

00:27:35 ◼   ► we had sort of a rough outline of what to expect for iOS 12.

00:27:40 ◼   ► There were a bunch of surprises, of course,

00:27:43 ◼   ► But I think, once again, Gorman had this information correct.

00:27:48 ◼   ► And there were people-- there are always people on Twitter

00:27:52 ◼   ► that do not necessarily believe what Gorman reports,

00:27:56 ◼   ► or that sort of accuse Gorman of being too--

00:28:01 ◼   ► not sharing too many details.

00:28:03 ◼   ► But I think in hindsight, looking back

00:28:06 ◼   ► at all the reports from Gorman, I

00:28:07 ◼   ► think he tends to be very correct,

00:28:10 ◼   ► even though sometimes he doesn't exactly

00:28:12 ◼   ► get the specifics right,

00:28:14 ◼   ► or rather, sometimes he doesn't share the specifics

00:28:18 ◼   ► too many months before, if that makes sense,

00:28:22 ◼   ► but the rough outline of what he's saying

00:28:25 ◼   ► tends to be coming through all the time.

00:28:27 ◼   ► So, German and Quo, I guess,

00:28:30 ◼   ► are the winners of the year, if you will.

00:28:34 ◼   ► - And it brings us to February.

00:28:37 ◼   ► right out of the gate we had a big dramatic news story.

00:28:42 ◼   ► Apple was going around stripping emoji out of apps,

00:28:47 ◼   ► banning people from the app store

00:28:49 ◼   ► 'cause they used a single emoji in their UI.

00:28:52 ◼   ► People were freaking out.

00:28:53 ◼   ► What happened here, Myke?

00:28:55 ◼   ► - Well, it was like there was a couple of applications

00:28:58 ◼   ► that were being rejected,

00:29:00 ◼   ► and as far as we could see,

00:29:03 ◼   ► it was all they were being rejected for using emoji.

00:29:06 ◼   ► And this was around the time where a lot of large applications, apps like WhatsApp and

00:29:11 ◼   ► stuff had started to redesign their emoji because they had previously just been scraping

00:29:17 ◼   ► Apple's emoji even on other platforms.

00:29:20 ◼   ► And so there was a lot of like, "Huh, what is actually happening here?"

00:29:24 ◼   ► And basically it turned out that some apps were being rejected for using emoji as images

00:29:31 ◼   ► rather than as text, right?

00:29:32 ◼   ► That was kind of one part of it.

00:29:34 ◼   ► But then it ended up kind of looking like there were some wild app reviewers who were

00:29:41 ◼   ► just rejecting things left and right.

00:29:43 ◼   ► And it mostly seemed to have got sorted out, like the applications that were originally

00:29:47 ◼   ► getting rejected ended up getting through again.

00:29:51 ◼   ► It seemed to be one of those many situations where something weird happens at app review

00:29:56 ◼   ► and nobody can understand why it's happening and then it gains a bit of traction and then

00:30:00 ◼   ► just gets fixed and taken care of.

00:30:02 ◼   ► I do not remember this at all.

00:30:05 ◼   ► I don't know why, I think I know why

00:30:09 ◼   ► I wasn't paying attention,

00:30:10 ◼   ► because I was working on a story that,

00:30:15 ◼   ► like in February I was mostly busy writing

00:30:17 ◼   ► a couple of the in-depth stories for the next month, I think.

00:30:22 ◼   ► So this completely like flew past me.

00:30:24 ◼   ► I had almost no recollection of this entire saga.

00:30:29 ◼   ► So I guess now developers can use emoji as fonts

00:30:34 ◼   ► as long as they don't actually embed the images,

00:30:37 ◼   ► which I think is fine.

00:30:39 ◼   ► It was a weird controversy,

00:30:42 ◼   ► like one of those things that I completely removed

00:30:46 ◼   ► from memory.

00:30:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think where that ended up is fair.

00:30:49 ◼   ► I mean, like so many of these things,

00:30:52 ◼   ► it was just awkwardly handled.

00:30:53 ◼   ► Like the App Store review team seems to start doing stuff

00:30:56 ◼   ► and people don't know why,

00:30:58 ◼   ► and then Apple has to backfill with a message.

00:31:00 ◼   ► And they could always do better at that,

00:31:02 ◼   ► but I feel like where it finally settled,

00:31:05 ◼   ► you can use the font, but the images are ours.

00:31:07 ◼   ► Don't embed them.

00:31:08 ◼   ► Definitely don't put them in another platform.

00:31:10 ◼   ► That, I think, is pretty within Apple's right

00:31:13 ◼   ► and pretty reasonable from my point of view.

00:31:15 ◼   ► February saw the launch of the HomePod.

00:31:18 ◼   ► Remember that thing?

00:31:19 ◼   ► It was--

00:31:20 ◼   ► - That was delayed, right? - It was, yep.

00:31:23 ◼   ► missed the holiday, showed up in early February,

00:31:28 ◼   ► as did the tiny head tee,

00:31:30 ◼   ► perhaps the best connected tee shirt we've ever done.

00:31:33 ◼   ► It was a real exciting time with tiny heads

00:31:35 ◼   ► and giant speakers, but the hot pot was incomplete,

00:31:39 ◼   ► wasn't it, there was something missing.

00:31:41 ◼   ► - Airplay 2 was delayed to, it came out eventually

00:31:45 ◼   ► with iOS 11.4, just before WWDC sometime in May.

00:31:52 ◼   ► And I remember February because I asked our common friend John Voorhis to get me a HomePod

00:32:01 ◼   ► in America and ship it to me with very expensive overnight shipping with FedEx or DHL maybe.

00:32:09 ◼   ► It turned out to be very expensive with a lot of taxes for Italian customs.

00:32:15 ◼   ► But that was my first HomePod.

00:32:18 ◼   ► Then shortly after getting the first US one, I got a second one from a guy on eBay, like

00:32:27 ◼   ► this random person, an Italian person on eBay.

00:32:30 ◼   ► I think he did what I did.

00:32:32 ◼   ► He bought a HomePod from the United States and put it up for sale on eBay, Italy, and

00:32:38 ◼   ► I also bought that one.

00:32:40 ◼   ► And the third one came later at WWDC.

00:32:42 ◼   ► I bought one with you guys.

00:32:45 ◼   ► I think it was at the Apple Park retail store, and I came back to Italy with a third HomePod,

00:32:53 ◼   ► which I placed in the bedroom and I wanted to see how long it would take Sylvia to notice

00:32:58 ◼   ► the new HomePod and spoiler alert, just like the new iPad Pro that I bought last week,

00:33:07 ◼   ► it didn't take her long.

00:33:12 ◼   ► She's got her eye on you, man.

00:33:13 ◼   ► She knows what you're up to.

00:33:14 ◼   ► She noticed the iPad, the 11-inch iPad Pro, which I guess we'll discuss in the next episode,

00:33:20 ◼   ► maybe.

00:33:21 ◼   ► She noticed the new iPad Pro the next day, and she noticed the HomePod also the next

00:33:26 ◼   ► day.

00:33:27 ◼   ► So, she notices things.

00:33:28 ◼   ► I cannot hide from her.

00:33:31 ◼   ► If memory serves, we were all a little bit skeptical about the HomePod as to whether

00:33:36 ◼   ► it was actually going to be something that we would like.

00:33:39 ◼   ► I think that there was a lot of like, "Eh, are we going to get one?

00:33:41 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't know."

00:33:42 ◼   ► we will have multiple ones.

00:33:44 ◼   ► And you especially, Myke, you were skeptical of the HomePod.

00:33:47 ◼   ► I was very skeptical.

00:33:49 ◼   ► Yeah, I said I wasn't going to buy one and then I bought one.

00:33:52 ◼   ► So I was maybe the most skeptical, but

00:33:56 ◼   ► but that's probably why I only have two and you two have three.

00:33:59 ◼   ► Skepticism.

00:34:01 ◼   ► Do we know like are there things that we think Apple is going to add

00:34:06 ◼   ► to the HomePod like before WWDC?

00:34:08 ◼   ► Do we think there's anything they should do before like the next major

00:34:12 ◼   ► major version of the software?

00:34:15 ◼   ► - I don't really have any feature requests

00:34:17 ◼   ► for the HomePod to be honest, to be quite honest.

00:34:20 ◼   ► - It feels like all that I want is for Apple to follow

00:34:24 ◼   ► sort of like an Amazon Echo model of like,

00:34:27 ◼   ► you can enable a bunch of things

00:34:29 ◼   ► and you don't need to have your iPhone

00:34:31 ◼   ► with the app installed.

00:34:32 ◼   ► I don't know if they're ever gonna do this.

00:34:36 ◼   ► - Well, yeah, yeah, I would like that, like skills.

00:34:39 ◼   ► - That and multi-user support,

00:34:41 ◼   ► Even if it can't detect your voice, if you go to it and say, add this to

00:34:46 ◼   ► Steven's reminder list, add this to Mary's reminder list, like just some awareness

00:34:50 ◼   ► that most people live with other people.

00:34:52 ◼   ► What a concept.

00:34:53 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:34:54 ◼   ► All right.

00:34:56 ◼   ► What else do we have in February?

00:34:59 ◼   ► We have the first rumors of a over ear headphones from Apple.

00:35:03 ◼   ► Head pods, head pods, head pods.

00:35:08 ◼   ► I would really like these because I would like some,

00:35:12 ◼   ► some, uh, either USB-C or Bluetooth over headphones.

00:35:17 ◼   ► Um, I'm still using the B&O H6 with a now a dongle attachment when I travel,

00:35:22 ◼   ► but I'm kind of like refusing to buy any right now in the hopes that like Apple

00:35:27 ◼   ► will make something amazing like AirPods level of amazing. Uh,

00:35:32 ◼   ► but I don't, I have no idea when that would even exist like a product like that,

00:35:36 ◼   ► but I'm kind of holding out for now.

00:35:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm still very much waiting for this.

00:35:39 ◼   ► I do have over a year USB-C headphones from Sony,

00:35:43 ◼   ► the MHX 1003 something, and they're amazing,

00:35:48 ◼   ► but I also want Apple to make their own with maybe USB-C,

00:35:52 ◼   ► but mostly the W1 chip for like longer battery,

00:35:56 ◼   ► better performance, that kind of stuff.

00:35:57 ◼   ► So I hope this is one of the 2019 products,

00:36:01 ◼   ► but I'm kind of skeptical because we haven't heard

00:36:04 ◼   ► anything else about this rumor, I think there are no more details.

00:36:08 ◼   ► It's sort of one of those rumors that just disappeared a few months ago.

00:36:13 ◼   ► And we don't know what's going to happen.

00:36:15 ◼   ► Stephen, the next item in March, this is a very,

00:36:20 ◼   ► why are we talking about this? Why did you decide of all,

00:36:26 ◼   ► of all news, why this one specifically?

00:36:29 ◼   ► Myke, Myke put this in here.

00:36:32 ◼   ► I put it in there because it's one of those ones that everyone will have forgotten about

00:36:35 ◼   ► and I think it's too fun to not mention again.

00:36:38 ◼   ► In March there was a news report that Apple employees kept walking into the doors, the

00:36:42 ◼   ► new glass doors at Apple Park and that there were many 911 calls.

00:36:47 ◼   ► So for anybody who forgot or didn't see this, this article is so wonderful to read I think

00:36:53 ◼   ► that it's worth looking back again.

00:36:55 ◼   ► Just reading the transcripts between the security people and the 911 dispatchers.

00:37:01 ◼   ► just wild things to read like we had an individual or run into a glass wall

00:37:07 ◼   ► pain and they hit their head they have a small cut on their head and they're

00:37:11 ◼   ► bleeding slightly disoriented we have on-site security with them right now are

00:37:15 ◼   ► you with the patient now no I am NOT with the patient we are trying to have a

00:37:19 ◼   ► secure my god this is easy awake is conscious is he breathing that we do not

00:37:24 ◼   ► Oh no! Yes, he's conscious and breathing! Oh my god!

00:37:28 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:37:31 ◼   ► You see? They're great! So if you've not read these, you should just read them.

00:37:36 ◼   ► They're very, very good. They're very fun to read. And luckily it seems like nobody was badly hurt.

00:37:42 ◼   ► Hmm. Since the guy quit reading them, I'm being conscious.

00:37:44 ◼   ► Why are they talking like they're talking about apps? Like, "Dispatcher, is he completely alert?

00:37:50 ◼   ► Color unknown at this time. We're still waiting for an update

00:37:53 ◼   ► Okay, well

00:38:02 ◼   ► If they fix this problem, do we know if the fix this problem with the maybe with stickers?

00:38:07 ◼   ► What didn't wasn't there a report somewhere that they were putting like I height stickers and some of the doors

00:38:12 ◼   ► They were putting just all the black Apple stickers they made for the Mac Pro

00:38:16 ◼   ► They got those back from the factory and you put those everywhere, okay?

00:38:20 ◼   ► face ID iPad rumored to debut in

00:38:24 ◼   ► June

00:38:26 ◼   ► We were worried they were gonna put a notch on the iPad. Oh, yeah, we were talking about the notch on the iPad

00:38:32 ◼   ► It's still but it still seemed like they were gonna put it see actually seem more likely to put a notch on the iPad after

00:38:38 ◼   ► WWDC right because they split the status bar up. Yeah, so it still seemed possible

00:38:44 ◼   ► Honestly, we were still wondering if it was going to be a notch up until they showed it.

00:38:49 ◼   ► But also it didn't come out in June.

00:38:50 ◼   ► And we were expecting, I remember we were expecting, like we were talking, are there

00:38:56 ◼   ► going to be new iPads in June?

00:38:58 ◼   ► And then we were very sad when they didn't show any iPads.

00:39:01 ◼   ► It didn't happen in September either.

00:39:03 ◼   ► It was very sad in September, right?

00:39:05 ◼   ► Like might be more sad in September.

00:39:07 ◼   ► Welcome to being a Mac user, guys.

00:39:09 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:39:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:39:11 ◼   ► a lot of talk about what orientation this thing could be in, right?

00:39:14 ◼   ► Because the iPhone's locked to portrait orientation.

00:39:16 ◼   ► But as we know now, the iPad is effectively agnostic

00:39:20 ◼   ► about which way you hold it for Face ID to work.

00:39:22 ◼   ► As long as the camera's not hidden,

00:39:24 ◼   ► or you're not like, to an extreme of an angle.

00:39:27 ◼   ► And I don't know about y'all, but like,

00:39:29 ◼   ► the only time I ever have trouble with Face ID on my iPad

00:39:32 ◼   ► is if my hand's over it, you know,

00:39:34 ◼   ► if something's silly like that.

00:39:35 ◼   ► But it works really well.

00:39:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, I still remain very happy with it.

00:39:39 ◼   ► March also marked the beginning of a multi-month story

00:39:44 ◼   ► about a cheaper MacBook Air.

00:39:47 ◼   ► Again, we have friend of the show, Meng-Chi Kuo,

00:39:50 ◼   ► talking about a affordable MacBook Air that would be in Q2.

00:39:56 ◼   ► That, again, also didn't happen.

00:39:58 ◼   ► It was basically the end of the year.

00:40:00 ◼   ► But there was so much--

00:40:03 ◼   ► Wasn't affordable, right?

00:40:05 ◼   ► And not more affordable.

00:40:06 ◼   ► Yeah, it wasn't.

00:40:07 ◼   ► Yeah, it's still too expensive.

00:40:09 ◼   ► There was a new MacBook Air. This product that was being spoken about here in this rumor

00:40:14 ◼   ► did not come to pass. They didn't exist.

00:40:17 ◼   ► No, I don't think so. Part of me still has hope that out there on the horizon there is

00:40:23 ◼   ► a $1000 Apple notebook, but the MacBook Air is not that machine, at least what we know

00:40:28 ◼   ► of it today. But this rumor came in the midst of a lot of conversation about what's going

00:40:35 ◼   ► on at the low end of Apple's notebook line, and frankly, Apple hasn't done much to solve

00:40:39 ◼   ► that. In some ways, they've made it worse with an additional machine at $1200.

00:40:44 ◼   ► Apple acquired Texture this month as well, which is the magazine app, sort of all-you-can-eat

00:40:49 ◼   ► magazine. You pay a subscription, you can read a bunch of stuff. I've never actually

00:40:53 ◼   ► used Texture. I don't know if either of y'all have, but it's a thing. Apple owns it. It's

00:40:57 ◼   ► still on the app store. It's $5 a month. It really seems like at any point, it's just

00:41:02 ◼   ► going to get pulled into Apple News to me.

00:41:05 ◼   ► was a Bloomberg report like two weeks ago. Oh, is there time saying that it will be?

00:41:09 ◼   ► Yeah. Yeah, that that Apple is going to be rolling it into into Apple News, and they're

00:41:16 ◼   ► currently struggling with getting some of the larger companies on board because at $5

00:41:23 ◼   ► a month, how can you convince the New York Times that this is going to be cost effective

00:41:26 ◼   ► for them compared to what they can get people to pay on their own? What was the there was

00:41:31 ◼   ► an app or service like this years ago for like indie web publishers?

00:41:36 ◼   ► Readability man. Yeah that's all this is. It's Readability 2.0.

00:41:39 ◼   ► They used to send you a check. They sent you a check. Your commissions. I got one.

00:41:44 ◼   ► Yeah. That's what everybody wants. Check. Paper checks please. In Europe. We love them.

00:41:48 ◼   ► Yeah I bet this is gonna be one of the things of 2019. Like one of the announcements of

00:41:55 ◼   ► 2019, this expansion of Apple Music to magazines with like a new subscription model. This is

00:42:04 ◼   ► going to be part of the narrative in 2019 and it could go alongside the new Apple Video

00:42:08 ◼   ► Service which seems like it's going to launch in 2019 at some point. So I'm curious to see

00:42:15 ◼   ► what they do from a technical perspective. Like, will you read actual scans of magazines

00:42:22 ◼   ► in Apple News, that seems inelegant. So I want to see, then again, will they convince

00:42:27 ◼   ► all these publishers to turn their magazines into like actual HTML content customized for

00:42:32 ◼   ► Apple News? I don't know.

00:42:34 ◼   ► I think that's what it's going to be. It'll be the content from the magazines, not like

00:42:38 ◼   ► the old timey magazine pages scanned in.

00:42:40 ◼   ► It's like getting past the New York Times or Financial Times's paywalls in Apple News,

00:42:45 ◼   ► right? That's probably what they're trying to build here.

00:42:47 ◼   ► I think that's exactly right.

00:42:48 ◼   ► So it was a very public thing.

00:42:52 ◼   ► It was on Apple's newsroom, for crying out loud.

00:42:54 ◼   ► A lot of times they acquire companies and you just sort of hear whispers, but they were

00:42:57 ◼   ► very upfront about their purchase, and I think we are going to hear a lot more about it next

00:43:02 ◼   ► year.

00:43:03 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:43:04 ◼   ► Allow me to surprise you all by reminding you that there was an Apple event in March.

00:43:09 ◼   ► Yeah, the one at the high school, right?

00:43:11 ◼   ► It was the education event.

00:43:12 ◼   ► Yep.

00:43:13 ◼   ► where they spoke about education, where it was basically nothing new, but they were just

00:43:18 ◼   ► focusing on it, and they unveiled the now $329 iPad, the sixth generation iPad, with

00:43:25 ◼   ► the Logitech Crayon, which is the Logitech branded third-party product that works like

00:43:31 ◼   ► an Apple Pencil, but has specific technology in it that means it can just work still with

00:43:36 ◼   ► that sixth generation iPad.

00:43:38 ◼   ► I have one of these iPads that I bought for some doing like reading and watching video.

00:43:44 ◼   ► It's a good iPad, but I cannot use it anymore because I cannot stand the bezels and the

00:43:49 ◼   ► home button anymore, which is why I got an Intrepid Pro, but we'll talk about that.

00:43:55 ◼   ► I think it was a... it's not an exciting event, but it was a bunch of old information, especially

00:44:02 ◼   ► about the education features.

00:44:05 ◼   ► But it was in Chicago, I think. Was that in Chicago? And John was very excited about the

00:44:10 ◼   ► fact that it was in Chicago. And also Apple did a bunch of things at the Chicago Apple

00:44:15 ◼   ► Store.

00:44:16 ◼   ► Which had just opened, if memory serves.

00:44:19 ◼   ► Yeah. And I think John was interviewed by the local television network. So that was

00:44:26 ◼   ► cool.

00:44:27 ◼   ► Oh, yeah.

00:44:28 ◼   ► Yeah. Mostly, mostly boring event, unless you're a teacher. And even then, teachers

00:44:32 ◼   ► I have some thoughts I hear from Fraser that, you know, most of the stuff they talked about

00:44:37 ◼   ► was kind of old.

00:44:39 ◼   ► The iPad, I think, is a great value for what you get.

00:44:43 ◼   ► In all of Apple's lineup, it's probably the best value of any hardware they sell.

00:44:48 ◼   ► The next item I had completely forgotten about until a few weeks ago.

00:44:53 ◼   ► Me too.

00:44:55 ◼   ► Well, even then, though, right?

00:44:57 ◼   ► So do you want to say what it is?

00:44:59 ◼   ► March Foxconn acquired Belkin and therefore also Linksys and the Wemo brands.

00:45:07 ◼   ► Um, I, cause we were talking about this as one of them.

00:45:11 ◼   ► Like I think this came up, I don't remember how, but we were saying, oh, do

00:45:14 ◼   ► you remember when Foxconn bought Belkin?

00:45:16 ◼   ► But I, I completely forgot that they also included Linksys and Wemo.

00:45:19 ◼   ► I had, when I remembered this, I had the same reaction that I had last year.

00:45:24 ◼   ► When I remembered that Mozilla now owns Pocket.

00:45:29 ◼   ► I had completely removed that piece of information, and when I remembered that, I had the same

00:45:35 ◼   ► reaction.

00:45:36 ◼   ► So, yeah, they acquired Belkin, which is one of the...

00:45:39 ◼   ► Belkin continues to be one of those accessory makers that Apple sort of collaborates with.

00:45:45 ◼   ► For example, like Logitech, for instance.

00:45:47 ◼   ► In this case, Belkin is making a bunch of, like, the wireless charging dock for the iPhone

00:45:53 ◼   ► an Apple watch and the hdms USB C to HDMI adapter with support for 4k and HDR

00:45:59 ◼   ► which are only available on the Apple Store so it's one continues to be I

00:46:03 ◼   ► guess it's not surprising because it's Foxconn and they make iPhones so they

00:46:07 ◼   ► have a relationship but they continues to be one of the the brands that sort of

00:46:11 ◼   ► do the only at Apple type of deals for accessories that brings us to April which

00:46:20 ◼   ► started off with a real exciting article on the second Bloomberg reporting that

00:46:25 ◼   ► Apple will switch to ARM in its max in 2020 leaving Intel behind going to the

00:46:32 ◼   ► future of their own chips. This seems like it's still probably the the course

00:46:38 ◼   ► forward it feels like 2020 is totally reasonable to me. What do you guys think?

00:46:42 ◼   ► I think this year has only added more fuel to the fire like it feels like

00:46:48 ◼   ► things Apple's missed on plus things Apple seem to be working towards all

00:46:54 ◼   ► only further indicate that this is a very strong possibility. I think WWDC 2019

00:47:02 ◼   ► should be able to give us a hint if this is actually happening or not like

00:47:07 ◼   ► depending on the scale of the project Marzipan or project sneak peek whatever

00:47:11 ◼   ► it's called depending on how extensive that is I think we'll have a pretty good

00:47:16 ◼   ► indication that they're actually moving forward with this idea. The only the only

00:47:21 ◼   ► thing that is kind of strange to me is the fact that a Mac Pro is coming out in

00:47:26 ◼   ► 2019 and it's not gonna be ARM based so it'd be kind of I don't know it'd be

00:47:31 ◼   ► kind of weird to have such a major release. But that's probably always gonna

00:47:34 ◼   ► be the last product though in in in the transition right? It was last time. I

00:47:40 ◼   ► guess so maybe it'll come out in 2019 and the ARM version will be ready in 2023

00:47:44 ◼   ► or something. I think to people who are going to buy the Mac Pro may be more

00:47:52 ◼   ► comfortable staying on Intel longer. I think that was definitely true in the

00:47:57 ◼   ► PowerPC to Intel transition that a lot of people always hung on to PowerPCs

00:48:02 ◼   ► maybe pros are more apt to do that especially if they had you know PowerPC

00:48:07 ◼   ► specific things and so I agree with you Federico it's a little weird but I think

00:48:12 ◼   ► I think in the grand scheme of things,

00:48:13 ◼   ► that'll shake out okay,

00:48:15 ◼   ► that the Mac Pro will be the last new Intel Mac.

00:48:20 ◼   ► And I think, the more I think about this,

00:48:23 ◼   ► the Mac Pro has been delayed,

00:48:25 ◼   ► again, is now a 2019 product.

00:48:28 ◼   ► I wonder if part of that is building an Intel Mac,

00:48:32 ◼   ► but building it, building the infrastructure

00:48:35 ◼   ► for that machine in a way that they could move it to ARM

00:48:38 ◼   ► without totally redoing it all.

00:48:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, so that it doesn't require a brand new Mac.

00:48:43 ◼   ► - Mac Pro again, you know, third time.

00:48:47 ◼   ► - Because didn't the cheese grater,

00:48:50 ◼   ► didn't that go from PowerPC to Intel, same design?

00:48:53 ◼   ► - It did, and how they did it was the case stayed the same,

00:48:56 ◼   ► but they totally redid all the guts,

00:48:58 ◼   ► and maybe they're doing a Mac Pro with arm in mind.

00:49:01 ◼   ► You know, I think that's a reasonable thing to expect,

00:49:04 ◼   ► so definitely something to look for.

00:49:05 ◼   ► I agree with you guys, 2019 just pointed me

00:49:08 ◼   ► in this direction more and more.

00:49:10 ◼   ► or 2018 did, I'm sure 2019 will as well.

00:49:13 ◼   ► We also had a huge, huge iPhone release.

00:49:17 ◼   ► The red, product red iPhone 8 came out,

00:49:21 ◼   ► and I gotta say, like the iPhone XR uses the same design.

00:49:26 ◼   ► It looks so good.

00:49:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, this was confusing though, right, at the time.

00:49:31 ◼   ► It was like, oh, iPhone 8 is the one you're doing?

00:49:35 ◼   ► Okay, or 'cause the, it was like,

00:49:37 ◼   ► shouldn't have been the iPhone X?

00:49:39 ◼   ► Like it was a little bit confusing at the time.

00:49:41 ◼   ► Still remains, still continues to be confusing.

00:49:43 ◼   ► I don't really know why they did it.

00:49:45 ◼   ► But now, at least, I guess we can probably assume

00:49:49 ◼   ► there will not be a Project Red iPhone X

00:49:51 ◼   ► because of the XR, right?

00:49:53 ◼   ► There probably won't be one.

00:49:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't think so.

00:49:55 ◼   ► I feel like they're happy to have just one of them.

00:49:57 ◼   ► I don't see the XS showing up in red this spring.

00:50:01 ◼   ► We also have a proposal from Apple in April

00:50:05 ◼   ► for accessibility focused emoji.

00:50:09 ◼   ► This included several items, an ear with a hearing aid,

00:50:14 ◼   ► a service dog, person in a wheelchair,

00:50:16 ◼   ► person with a cane, lots of emoji options

00:50:19 ◼   ► to sort of round things out.

00:50:21 ◼   ► I absolutely loved the story when it came out.

00:50:25 ◼   ► I love it now and it's gonna be really great

00:50:27 ◼   ► when these start showing up.

00:50:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's 2019 by the way,

00:50:32 ◼   ► 'cause this was a proposal.

00:50:33 ◼   ► this wasn't Apple saying like we're debuting these emoji.

00:50:37 ◼   ► Like they had to propose them to the Unicode committee.

00:50:41 ◼   ► So--

00:50:42 ◼   ► - Jeremy has to approve them first.

00:50:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, so this, for Apple though,

00:50:46 ◼   ► this might be early 2020.

00:50:49 ◼   ► Like it depends on when they're gonna release it, right?

00:50:52 ◼   ► 'Cause like, if you think like Apple don't always,

00:50:55 ◼   ► they don't release the new emoji with the,

00:51:00 ◼   ► with these like zero iOS release.

00:51:03 ◼   ► So it could be late 2019, early 2020,

00:51:06 ◼   ► it just depends really.

00:51:07 ◼   ► But they're great.

00:51:08 ◼   ► You would expect they would get these ones in

00:51:10 ◼   ► as quickly as possible,

00:51:11 ◼   ► considering they do already have the designs done.

00:51:13 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:51:14 ◼   ► Right?

00:51:15 ◼   ► They did the designs, this was all in the blog post.

00:51:18 ◼   ► But yeah, it's great.

00:51:19 ◼   ► - It's really, really awesome.

00:51:21 ◼   ► We also had big news that would have rocked 2007, Steven.

00:51:26 ◼   ► Smug mug bought--

00:51:29 ◼   ► It's the smug bug.

00:51:31 ◼   ► Hello there, I've bought your Flickr.

00:51:35 ◼   ► Smug mug, bought Flickr.

00:51:42 ◼   ► It is not part of Oath/Verizon Media Group as it was renamed last week.

00:51:48 ◼   ► What is Verizon Media Group? Oh my god.

00:51:51 ◼   ► This is the new thing man.

00:51:54 ◼   ► They have just a big capital Y as their logo, which doesn't make any sense.

00:51:58 ◼   ► - Are you getting sense?

00:51:59 ◼   ► - Oath was a company owned by Verizon.

00:52:02 ◼   ► Oath was made up of Yahoo properties and AOL properties

00:52:06 ◼   ► taped together by Tim Armstrong.

00:52:09 ◼   ► He left, whoever was running Oath previously left.

00:52:12 ◼   ► Now Verizon has a new CEO and he came in and said,

00:52:16 ◼   ► "Why do we have all these dying media companies?

00:52:17 ◼   ► "We should just build out 5G."

00:52:19 ◼   ► And so Oath is being renamed Verizon Media Group,

00:52:22 ◼   ► which is the most boring company name

00:52:24 ◼   ► in the history of the planet.

00:52:25 ◼   ► And they very unfortunately are downsizing a lot of people,

00:52:29 ◼   ► including like friends of ours at other websites,

00:52:31 ◼   ► which is a real bummer.

00:52:32 ◼   ► But I am glad Flickr was sort of scooped out of this.

00:52:37 ◼   ► Smug-a-Mug seems to be a pretty well-run company.

00:52:39 ◼   ► I think it's a family company, which is pretty cool.

00:52:41 ◼   ► - It is a family company.

00:52:42 ◼   ► I remember, I know this because we said it last time.

00:52:45 ◼   ► That's how I found that out.

00:52:46 ◼   ► - Just like really, it's a family company.

00:52:48 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:52:49 ◼   ► And the, it's not really true.

00:52:54 ◼   ► But Flickr did make some waves at the end of 2018 saying that if you had over a

00:52:58 ◼   ► thousand photos on your free account, they were going to start like photos above

00:53:02 ◼   ► a thousand were going to be removed unless you paid, which was not awesome.

00:53:06 ◼   ► Some people really were upset about that.

00:53:08 ◼   ► I mean, the truth is Flickr is, is over, you know, it's, it's glory days.

00:53:12 ◼   ► We're 10 years ago and it's sad.

00:53:15 ◼   ► You know, I have an account there.

00:53:16 ◼   ► I was a pro member for a really long time.

00:53:18 ◼   ► I let it lapse years ago.

00:53:19 ◼   ► Uh, it's kind of a, my to do list just to, I have some pictures that I've

00:53:23 ◼   ► reference a blog post I need to move those and then I'm gonna be done it's

00:53:26 ◼   ► just time to go it's time in the Sun yeah well smoke smug bugs don't like the

00:53:33 ◼   ► Sun

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00:55:18 ◼   ► That's Smilesoftware.com/podcast.

00:55:20 ◼   ► Our thanks to PDF-Pen for their support of this show and all of Relay FM.

00:55:24 ◼   ► May marked the biggest story of the year.

00:55:27 ◼   ► The iMac G3 celebrated its 20th anniversary.

00:55:31 ◼   ► See, this is where you put in the crickets.

00:55:33 ◼   ► That's not nice.

00:55:40 ◼   ► By I have one memory of this which was you and Jason working together to write an article

00:55:45 ◼   ► In Austin at my bachelor party, that's true

00:55:48 ◼   ► We were in the hotel and Jason texted said hey come come come pro blog with me. And so we blogged together

00:55:57 ◼   ► It's a lot of fun. You really know us nerds really know how to do bachelor pie. Yeah, it was crazy

00:56:03 ◼   ► Blogging, podcasting, all the great stuff.

00:56:06 ◼   ► - May also was yet another chapter in Twitter's

00:56:09 ◼   ► slow murder of third party clients.

00:56:13 ◼   ► So when they announced the API changes

00:56:14 ◼   ► that now we're living with,

00:56:16 ◼   ► that things like favorites and retweets

00:56:19 ◼   ► and push notifications were all gonna be different now

00:56:22 ◼   ► with third party apps.

00:56:24 ◼   ► They initially had said, I think,

00:56:26 ◼   ► I've read back through these,

00:56:27 ◼   ► and I cannot tell what actually happened,

00:56:29 ◼   ► but basically Apple, or Twitter, excuse me,

00:56:31 ◼   ► had a date and everyone freaked out so they moved the date back to August and they announced

00:56:37 ◼   ► that change.

00:56:38 ◼   ► Yeah but they didn't change anything.

00:56:40 ◼   ► Just changed the date.

00:56:42 ◼   ► Nothing changed, just the date.

00:56:44 ◼   ► So that was sort of part one of this.

00:56:46 ◼   ► We're going to come back to the story in a later month when I actually got implemented.

00:56:50 ◼   ► We also saw a class action lawsuit over the MacBook Pro keyboards.

00:56:55 ◼   ► We all remember that a single crumb would come under a keyboard and then you'd have

00:57:00 ◼   ► to use an iBook G3 during a live podcast recording because your MacBook Pro is

00:57:04 ◼   ► useless. Very relatable example. And you know, Class Action Lawsuit, which I don't

00:57:09 ◼   ► cover these, like I find them sort of gross to talk about. Like I don't know, I

00:57:13 ◼   ► guess don't, they feel weird. But it was just a sort of a line in the

00:57:18 ◼   ► Seine with these keyboards, which Apple has improved a little bit. The 2018,

00:57:22 ◼   ► actually my 2018 has been pretty solid, but that old keyboard, the second

00:57:26 ◼   ► keyboard is still present on the MacBook and the MacBook escape so if you have

00:57:31 ◼   ► one of those don't eat a sandwich near it I guess or if you do you can join the

00:57:36 ◼   ► section lawsuit couple of weeks ago that one of the keys on her 2017 MacBook Pro

00:57:41 ◼   ► I started to fail so she's gonna join the class action I don't know she's no

00:57:48 ◼   ► but we're gonna go to the Apple store so nice I think we also had Federica your second life article which is a

00:57:55 ◼   ► a game I remember from like 2005 I guess you finally checked it out yes that was

00:58:00 ◼   ► a story about the game Second Life and say don't give Stephen the credit he

00:58:06 ◼   ► only knows this because of the office no that is 100% yeah you see I know I know

00:58:12 ◼   ► where you got your references I just saw the episode like two days ago we're also

00:58:16 ◼   ► watching the office I mean I'm watching the office Sylvia doesn't like the

00:58:20 ◼   ► office so I'm watching about myself it's a great show this was a good article

00:58:24 ◼   ► actually and sort of a... thank you. One of your best. About workouts and using the Apple

00:58:31 ◼   ► Watch, good stuff. I enjoyed writing this one even though it's kind of heavy in places

00:58:35 ◼   ► but it's one of the articles that I'm actually kind of proud of. So always, you know, it's...

00:58:42 ◼   ► You can choose to ignore this question if you want and it's perfectly fine but are you

00:58:46 ◼   ► still keeping it up? Mostly, yeah. It's been a rough period for, like, the month of December.

00:58:50 ◼   ► I haven't worked out much.

00:58:52 ◼   ► I think we've been like,

00:58:56 ◼   ► and this is like personal stuff, but it's fine.

00:58:58 ◼   ► We're being busy with like taking care of the dogs

00:59:02 ◼   ► and like a bunch of schedule things that we had planned.

00:59:05 ◼   ► And also like I was busy with the traveling and stuff,

00:59:09 ◼   ► but it's, I'm buying new equipment for working out

00:59:14 ◼   ► because my old indoor bike is starting to fall apart.

00:59:17 ◼   ► So I'm gonna be jumping back into my old schedule and routine as soon as I'm done with all these things for the holidays.

00:59:26 ◼   ► Because one of the things that I was not expecting is that when I do not exercise and when I don't do my workouts, I miss that feeling.

00:59:38 ◼   ► And it's something that, especially in the past two weeks, as if we've been busy with Ginger, one of our dogs,

00:59:44 ◼   ► and the site, Max Stories, has just been crazy and I haven't been able to work out.

00:59:49 ◼   ► But I actually crave that feeling again.

00:59:52 ◼   ► Like, I need to work out and I need to do all of these things again,

00:59:58 ◼   ► which I guess it's a good sign.

01:00:00 ◼   ► So, yeah.

01:00:03 ◼   ► Looking back at this article, it kind of...

01:00:06 ◼   ► It's funny because it sort of serves as inspiration for myself,

01:00:10 ◼   ► which is a weird thing to say,

01:00:12 ◼   ► But I'm very it's one of the articles that I'm really happy and that I wrote it's up there with them in my personal favorites with the I

01:00:20 ◼   ► Made you a mixtape story from two years ago

01:00:23 ◼   ► It's one of the articles that I constantly look up to so

01:00:28 ◼   ► Thank you for including this in the roundup

01:00:30 ◼   ► I'm glad that people liked it

01:00:33 ◼   ► And that brings us to June which is the biggest month of Apple news we have

01:00:41 ◼   ► D.C. Lots of W's in there. We had our first live show in San Jose which was a lot of fun.

01:00:49 ◼   ► Federico taught us about Susan Hammer which was critical to the coverage we had to do

01:00:55 ◼   ► that day.

01:00:56 ◼   ► It's all you need to know.

01:00:57 ◼   ► Was it tennis or something?

01:00:59 ◼   ► Yeah, she was really into Susan Hammer, former mayor of San Jose. She was really into tennis

01:01:07 ◼   ► and also she was a mayor in the 90s when MC Hammer was a he was a popular I guess and kids

01:01:16 ◼   ► would stop Susan Hammer in the street yelling "it's hammer time" which was just an incredible story

01:01:23 ◼   ► I got me again

01:01:26 ◼   ► just imagine it's just like it's it's not like mean bullying right like it's not mean

01:01:36 ◼   ► No, but it's like it's like the best kind of like teenager bullying, right? Where like

01:01:42 ◼   ► they're saying a thing to you and you can't say anything back to them. It's just like

01:01:47 ◼   ► you have no response to that. You have to kind of embrace it. So good. Such a good story.

01:01:53 ◼   ► I love it. We thank Susan Hamer for her service to the city of San Jose and for giving her

01:01:59 ◼   ► name to the beautiful theater where we had our live show and where most importantly,

01:02:06 ◼   ► where we all won some trophies. I mean, mine was a good trophy, Stephen's was a decent

01:02:13 ◼   ► trophy. Myke, how was your trophy? My toilet trophy still sits in my windowsill. Next year

01:02:25 ◼   ► you'll get a better one, Michael. Well, will I though? The better ones will be available.

01:02:33 ◼   ► Will I get one? We'll see.

01:02:35 ◼   ► Depends.

01:02:37 ◼   ► Oh yeah, I see in the show notes, this is very important, the prompt briefly returned in the month of June.

01:02:45 ◼   ► It did.

01:02:46 ◼   ► For a very, very complex round robin that I had completely removed from memory.

01:02:54 ◼   ► It was like-

01:02:55 ◼   ► Steven destroyed the tradition of the round robin in our special episode.

01:02:59 ◼   ► It was a special episode. We had like the logo and the music I think and the follow-up sounds I miss the sound effects

01:03:06 ◼   ► Timer quality. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna yeah. Hey timer quality

01:03:13 ◼   ► But it was a very complex round-robin that we never attempted ever again. So

01:03:18 ◼   ► It was very confusing Steven. Well, I think it's only never been attempted again because me and you revolted so badly

01:03:25 ◼   ► Yes, I was it supposed to work again like round-robbing but then flipped in reverse

01:03:30 ◼   ► It was super confusing. No every time it wasn't that hard every new round someone the next person started

01:03:38 ◼   ► It's only fair way to do it or otherwise someone would always be last and no one wants to be last

01:03:42 ◼   ► All right month of July. So hang on. We're just skipping over all the actual news from WWDC

01:03:49 ◼   ► I just wanna be clear about that. We're just moving on

01:03:51 ◼   ► I mean, what's the point in going over it?

01:03:53 ◼   ► it right like we all know what happened like I'm fine with that my feeling is

01:03:57 ◼   ► like WWDC and the September event like there's not really much point in cover

01:04:03 ◼   ► in those like because I mean special shout out though to ARKit2 which and

01:04:10 ◼   ► our artwork that was in the document we should definitely take a moment to talk

01:04:15 ◼   ► about that I think about that moment a lot it is my Twitter banner what an

01:04:19 ◼   ► incredible thing. Not just one of the best things of the year, one of the best things

01:04:24 ◼   ► that has ever happened to me because I never would have believed that I, we, could have

01:04:29 ◼   ► been in that position. Like, I have like this fracture on my wall, not a sponsor of this

01:04:35 ◼   ► episode, but it's a true thing, of Tim Cook standing in front of an Apple Watch with the

01:04:38 ◼   ► connected logo on it. Like, what an incredible thing to have happened. Just wonderful.

01:04:43 ◼   ► Yeah. I think about the moment a lot too, like when I was in the audience and I actually

01:04:48 ◼   ► saw the logo, like I couldn't believe that I was seeing the connected logo and Casey

01:04:52 ◼   ► brought me back to reality. It was incredible. So that was very cool.

01:04:56 ◼   ► And I guess in true, you know, just like, of course it would happen to us. Not one of

01:05:00 ◼   ► us was in the same place as one of the other one of us during that moment. Because that,

01:05:06 ◼   ► I guess that just feels like the way we would do things. Right? And they're just never together.

01:05:11 ◼   ► Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Cause I didn't make it out to San Jose until the day of the live show

01:05:17 ◼   ► and you were there and Federico was in the room. If you haven't seen this picture, it's

01:05:21 ◼   ► the artwork for this episode. So anyway, I'm in WBC iOS 12 ARK2, which is the only true

01:05:29 ◼   ► announcement of the show and all the demos for ARK2. Yeah, we should move on to July,

01:05:37 ◼   ► which was a good month for you Michael, I suppose.

01:05:40 ◼   ► Oh yeah. It was fun to go through these stories to be like, I remember that. Oh, it's because

01:05:46 ◼   ► I wasn't on the episode. I did listen to them, but I didn't remember talking about this stuff

01:05:51 ◼   ► because I was off for basically the whole month, which was great. Thank you both for

01:05:54 ◼   ► covering for me. And it did result in another very connected thing where our 200th episode

01:05:59 ◼   ► was just Steven.

01:06:03 ◼   ► So for context, Michael got married in the month of July. And I remember this because

01:06:08 ◼   ► at Mac Stories, we were doing a 10th anniversary series of articles and podcasts for the App

01:06:18 ◼   ► Store that turned 10 on July 10, July 8 or something. And as we were working on this

01:06:25 ◼   ► stuff and publishing articles and episodes of App Stories every day, Michael was getting

01:06:29 ◼   ► married. So one of my, I think my article launched on the day that Myke, of Myke's wedding,

01:06:35 ◼   ► which was fun. But it was like this huge effort that we had worked on for like a couple of

01:06:41 ◼   ► months, me and John. But it was fun to look back at the history of the App Store, like

01:06:47 ◼   ► some old apps and old games that I hadn't heard the names for a long time. I personally

01:06:55 ◼   ► did a story about App Store preservation and sort of the future of like what happens when

01:07:01 ◼   ► an app or a game disappears from the App Store.

01:07:04 ◼   ► And that article had a bunch of quotes from the MoMA,

01:07:08 ◼   ► the Museum of Modern Arts, which was very cool

01:07:10 ◼   ► to be able to ask them questions.

01:07:12 ◼   ► Yeah, it was this huge effort for the month of July,

01:07:16 ◼   ► and I was exhausted after that, but it didn't matter

01:07:19 ◼   ► because I needed to start working on my iOS 12 review

01:07:21 ◼   ► in July, so that was fun.

01:07:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, my story for that was 10 years of App Store changes,

01:07:29 ◼   ► And it was hands down the hardest thing I wrote this year.

01:07:33 ◼   ► It was so difficult to--

01:07:35 ◼   ► I had to find devices.

01:07:37 ◼   ► You can't install old versions of iOS very easily.

01:07:39 ◼   ► It's like finding an iPod Touch, running iOS 3,

01:07:43 ◼   ► and the app barely works anymore.

01:07:45 ◼   ► This stuff is all just disappearing out from under us.

01:07:49 ◼   ► And I'm glad we were able to capture it in that article.

01:07:51 ◼   ► I'm really proud of that column.

01:07:53 ◼   ► But it was really back-breaking.

01:07:56 ◼   ► It was very good.

01:07:57 ◼   ► What else do we have here?

01:07:58 ◼   ► We have Mac Mini refresh rumors beginning.

01:08:03 ◼   ► We also have with that larger display Apple watches.

01:08:07 ◼   ► Again, two things that Ming-Chi Kuo effectively write on.

01:08:12 ◼   ► Months in advance, you know,

01:08:16 ◼   ► minus the low cost notebook thing.

01:08:19 ◼   ► So I remember the time the only thing being strange

01:08:22 ◼   ► about the Mac Mini rumor to me is that it was right

01:08:24 ◼   ► after WWDC that it was rumored.

01:08:26 ◼   ► and sometimes July is kind of a quiet time for Apple News

01:08:29 ◼   ► because people are just sort of heads down

01:08:32 ◼   ► working on stuff out of the conference.

01:08:34 ◼   ► But here we are with rumors already.

01:08:37 ◼   ► We also had Instapaper splitting away from Pinterest,

01:08:40 ◼   ► which we mentioned because we all three

01:08:42 ◼   ► have been Instapaper users in the past.

01:08:43 ◼   ► I still am, I still use it every day.

01:08:46 ◼   ► And it's something that, an app that I care about

01:08:49 ◼   ► made by people who know what they're doing,

01:08:52 ◼   ► a nice team running it.

01:08:54 ◼   ► And I think it's fair to say that under Pinterest,

01:08:57 ◼   ► it didn't necessarily get the attention

01:08:59 ◼   ► someone just wanted. - Hashtag GDPR.

01:09:00 ◼   ► - And now it's sort of, yeah, they were basically

01:09:04 ◼   ► broken in the EU for a long time.

01:09:06 ◼   ► But it seems like they've got that stuff behind them

01:09:08 ◼   ► and they're pushing out nice updates again.

01:09:11 ◼   ► And I'm optimistic about Instapaper's future.

01:09:14 ◼   ► I really am.

01:09:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't use it, not for any particular reason.

01:09:18 ◼   ► I just don't, I don't really read articles in this way.

01:09:21 ◼   ► But I hope that it still exists, as it

01:09:24 ◼   ► feels like one of those applications which

01:09:26 ◼   ► has been around for such a long time

01:09:28 ◼   ► that I would love to see it continue.

01:09:30 ◼   ► Yeah, it's got a long history.

01:09:31 ◼   ► I mean, it was in the App Store really early on.

01:09:35 ◼   ► We also had new MacBook Pros spec-bumped,

01:09:41 ◼   ► the revised keyboard we talked about.

01:09:43 ◼   ► But there was an issue with the firmware.

01:09:48 ◼   ► They were basically heavily throttling.

01:09:51 ◼   ► and Apple had a software fix for that

01:09:53 ◼   ► and everything was kind of okay again.

01:09:56 ◼   ► Such a weird story.

01:09:57 ◼   ► It's so strange that this shipped this way.

01:09:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, super weird.

01:10:00 ◼   ► - Oh, the next item is not fun at all.

01:10:03 ◼   ► I remember this. - Ew.

01:10:05 ◼   ► - Okay, so month of August. - We're into August, yes.

01:10:08 ◼   ► - Yes, which is a very important month

01:10:11 ◼   ► because I turned 30.

01:10:12 ◼   ► Just, you know, the more you know.

01:10:14 ◼   ► - Happy birthday. - Thank you.

01:10:16 ◼   ► It's kind of late, but I'll take it.

01:10:18 ◼   ► - I always wait for the year review episode

01:10:21 ◼   ► wish you a happy birthday. Sure. Apple kills officially this time the app, the app affiliate

01:10:28 ◼   ► program. So Apple used to run through a platform called Performance Horizon Group or PHG,

01:10:33 ◼   ► an affiliate program for apps where people could earn commissions on sales for apps and games and

01:10:40 ◼   ► in-app purchases and that kind of stuff. There were rumors that Apple was going to discontinue

01:10:48 ◼   ► this program the previous year in 2017, but then Apple sort of said no, the announcement

01:10:54 ◼   ► was wrong. That was a very weird story. But eventually in August 2018 they confirmed that

01:10:59 ◼   ► yes, they were ending the affiliate program for apps in November, I think, or October,

01:11:06 ◼   ► on October 1st. So that essentially, the consequences of that announcement, I think, are still being

01:11:15 ◼   ► felt and through the Apple community. Luckily, Mac Stories and other websites, we moved away

01:11:23 ◼   ► from affiliate linking as our primary source of income years ago, when Apple started lowering

01:11:29 ◼   ► their commissions and just not paying much attention to the program. And also, with the

01:11:34 ◼   ► transition to freemium apps and free downloads, those commissions were going down anyway.

01:11:40 ◼   ► So Mac stories and other websites, I think, we moved away from that model years ago and

01:11:46 ◼   ► were fine.

01:11:47 ◼   ► But other publications, I remember Touch Arcade, for example, being impacted by this announcement.

01:11:52 ◼   ► And also apps and utilities and other services surrounding the affiliate program had to be

01:11:58 ◼   ► discontinued.

01:11:59 ◼   ► For example, the Blink app by a friend John, which I still use because it's an excellent

01:12:04 ◼   ► way to search the App Store and copy a link to an app and read its release notes.

01:12:10 ◼   ► He was discontinued and he never came out on the Mac.

01:12:13 ◼   ► John actually had a Mac app ready to go the next day, but Apple announced the end of the

01:12:19 ◼   ► affiliate program and the day before John decided to never release the Mac version.

01:12:26 ◼   ► Yeah, that was a very unfortunate series of announcements.

01:12:30 ◼   ► I mean, I'm sad that this has happened.

01:12:34 ◼   ► For example, I don't know if you noticed, but this year we didn't do Thanksgiving

01:12:39 ◼   ► like Black Friday roundup for up discounts on Mac stories just because it

01:12:44 ◼   ► doesn't make sense to do it anymore

01:12:46 ◼   ► there's no money to be made there yeah so I don't know what's going to happen

01:12:49 ◼   ► to max or is deals which is the Twitter account that we used to run for up

01:12:52 ◼   ► discounts because that that just become becomes a cost because it doesn't make

01:12:58 ◼   ► any money directly anymore

01:12:59 ◼   ► so I don't know but it's sad that Apple did this and you know it's falling the

01:13:03 ◼   ► right to to to end this program but it's still said for

01:13:08 ◼   ► Indie websites, smaller publications and other services that make money off the program.

01:13:13 ◼   ► So that was sad.

01:13:16 ◼   ► But in better news, besides my birthday, Relay FM also had a birthday in August.

01:13:22 ◼   ► Relay FM turned four, so happy birthday, Myke and Steven.

01:13:26 ◼   ► You are four.

01:13:27 ◼   ► Thank you for all the great birthdays.

01:13:28 ◼   ► Yes.

01:13:29 ◼   ► A new host you had a special Q&A episode of, Connected.

01:13:34 ◼   ► That was a very good one.

01:13:37 ◼   ► I think I was not on it because I was on vacation at the beach.

01:13:40 ◼   ► Yep. So it just all worked out perfectly.

01:13:42 ◼   ► Gav was the place to do our Q&A because you were on the beach.

01:13:45 ◼   ► Yeah. To get topping up your tan.

01:13:48 ◼   ► Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

01:13:50 ◼   ► It's hard to believe it's been four years now, four and a half.

01:13:53 ◼   ► Five years next year.

01:13:55 ◼   ► So next up, third party Twitter apps had to remove their features

01:14:01 ◼   ► because of the API changes that we spoke about earlier.

01:14:04 ◼   ► So this saw Tweetbot and Twitterrific remove a bunch of notification features

01:14:08 ◼   ► and one of the big kind of things that ended up being removed was

01:14:13 ◼   ► stats and activity stuff was just taken away.

01:14:17 ◼   ► This killed Apple Watch apps as well. I miss the ability to see the stats

01:14:23 ◼   ► and stuff very easily but that's about it for me. I mean this

01:14:27 ◼   ► is kind of what I said at the time because I just wasn't using the other

01:14:29 ◼   ► types of features. The only other thing really is like

01:14:32 ◼   ► Tweets are a bit slower, but in times when I want real-time tweets, like if I'm watching

01:14:36 ◼   ► like some kind of event or something and want to see tweets in real-time,

01:14:39 ◼   ► I just move over to the regular app. Like, it's fine. But it's a shame.

01:14:44 ◼   ► Yeah, those features are still there. You can go to the web as well if you need to,

01:14:50 ◼   ► but it's just not in these third-party apps. I kind of feel how you feel. Like it's a bummer,

01:14:55 ◼   ► but it hasn't really changed my relationship with my Twitter client. I still use Tweetbot, and

01:15:00 ◼   ► It's a little frustrating at times, but it hasn't been that big of a deal.

01:15:06 ◼   ► We also have this month, again, returning to iPhone rumors that 3D Touch would be removed

01:15:14 ◼   ► from all 2019 iPhones.

01:15:16 ◼   ► We still don't know if this is going to be true or not.

01:15:18 ◼   ► We know that the iPhone XR lacks 3D Touch and they are replacing with Haptic Touch.

01:15:23 ◼   ► In fact, the most recent iOS update included more places where Haptic Touch works, which

01:15:28 ◼   ► Which is basically just a long press that then the thing just kicks you and says, "Hey,

01:15:33 ◼   ► I did it."

01:15:35 ◼   ► I would be okay with it.

01:15:37 ◼   ► As long as they bring to Haptic Touch, Peak and Pop, I do use that frequently.

01:15:43 ◼   ► I believe that the Haptic Touch stuff doesn't support that yet.

01:15:47 ◼   ► I think they would need to add that for me to be okay with giving up the rest of it.

01:15:52 ◼   ► I agree with you.

01:15:53 ◼   ► I think they've got quite a bit of...

01:15:56 ◼   ► There's a little way for me that they would need to go.

01:15:58 ◼   ► I think Pecan Pop seems like it would be a difficult thing for them to do

01:16:00 ◼   ► because like so I played around with the haptic touch on notification center.

01:16:04 ◼   ► It does not work the same.

01:16:07 ◼   ► You have to on the tenor, you the notification pops up when you let go.

01:16:12 ◼   ► It's very peculiar, so I can press down and let go and it pops up,

01:16:17 ◼   ► so it still doesn't even work the same as the iPad.

01:16:20 ◼   ► So it's kind of peculiar and I don't really get it.

01:16:23 ◼   ► It seems like there's still some work to do on it, to be honest.

01:16:27 ◼   ► Alright, that rounds out August, so we've just got a few more months left of the year

01:16:32 ◼   ► and there really isn't much that we're going to talk about for the end of the year because

01:16:36 ◼   ► it's just happened. But there's still some stuff, September and October are big months,

01:16:41 ◼   ► but before we tell you all about those, let me take a moment to thank our final sponsor for this

01:16:45 ◼   ► episode and that is Cane 11, the company who make ridiculously comfortable socks in precisely your

01:16:50 ◼   ► size. The socks that you're wearing right now, I'm sure that they are a one size fits all or

01:16:55 ◼   ► one size fits like a group of sizes type thing, but we don't have the same size feet.

01:17:00 ◼   ► And that is why the folks over at Kane 11 thought that since we wear our socks every

01:17:03 ◼   ► day, it's time to change that. Kane 11's Merino wool socks offer a precise fit. Their

01:17:09 ◼   ► name, Kane 11, comes from the fact that there are 11 available sizes from 7 through to 17

01:17:15 ◼   ► and you will be amazed when you feel the difference of socks that actually fit your shoe size.

01:17:21 ◼   ► They are high quality and they will hold up wash after wash. I mentioned that they're

01:17:25 ◼   ► made of merino wool.

01:17:26 ◼   ► This means that it's gonna keep your feet warm

01:17:27 ◼   ► in the winter and cool in the summer.

01:17:29 ◼   ► It's magic, it's truly magic stuff.

01:17:31 ◼   ► And K-11 socks are available in smart, confident styles

01:17:34 ◼   ► to suit your look.

01:17:35 ◼   ► Stephen, could you tell me about your K-11 socks, please?

01:17:38 ◼   ► I wanna know how comfortable your feet are.

01:17:40 ◼   ► - They're great.

01:17:41 ◼   ► I am one of those people that the all size fits all,

01:17:44 ◼   ► I kinda fall in between, so I have socks

01:17:47 ◼   ► that are either too big or too small,

01:17:50 ◼   ► and then you try to stretch it.

01:17:51 ◼   ► It's always been a problem.

01:17:53 ◼   ► And K & Eleven you can go and you can order

01:17:56 ◼   ► exactly the size you are.

01:17:57 ◼   ► And their website gives you some advice

01:17:59 ◼   ► that if you're like a 10 1/2,

01:18:01 ◼   ► maybe you should do this instead of that.

01:18:02 ◼   ► It's really great.

01:18:04 ◼   ► So they showed up and they fit perfectly.

01:18:07 ◼   ► It's really awesome.

01:18:08 ◼   ► So I've actually ordered some additional ones.

01:18:10 ◼   ► They're gonna be here after Christmas.

01:18:11 ◼   ► And I'm excited to transition out of my

01:18:15 ◼   ► all size fits all except Steven

01:18:16 ◼   ► into a world where my socks fit perfectly.

01:18:19 ◼   ► - All purchases come with the K & Eleven promise.

01:18:21 ◼   ► If for any reason you don't love your socks,

01:18:23 ◼   ► just send them back for an exchange or a return, no questions asked.

01:18:26 ◼   ► Kane 11 socks make the perfect gift for the person who has everything in their life because

01:18:30 ◼   ► they definitely don't have these.

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01:18:35 ◼   ► And once you wear Kane 11 socks, you'll never go back to that one size fits all again, just

01:18:39 ◼   ► like Steven, or the one size fits all but Steven size that he was having before.

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01:18:49 ◼   ► get 20% off your order.

01:18:51 ◼   ► It's kane11, kane11.com/connected, promo code connected, for 20% off your first order.

01:18:58 ◼   ► Thanks to kane11 for their support of this show and Relay FM.

01:19:02 ◼   ► September the month of new iPhones and new Apple watches and off the bat we have product

01:19:10 ◼   ► names and images for both.

01:19:14 ◼   ► This was such a wild day.

01:19:16 ◼   ► This story and going through it reminded me of the year prior, right, where we had the

01:19:21 ◼   ► HomePod leak, which gave away a bunch of information.

01:19:25 ◼   ► This was like that.

01:19:26 ◼   ► 9to5Mac were sniffing around on some URLs and they found product photography of two

01:19:32 ◼   ► sizes of iPhone and the larger screened Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Series 4.

01:19:40 ◼   ► the wild like "what is this Apple Watch screen? There's so much information, right? This is

01:19:47 ◼   ► ugly!"

01:19:48 ◼   ► The best part of this article is the image caption that says "not a mock-up".

01:19:58 ◼   ► Just so you know, not a mock-up. And then also within 24 hours there was a lot of talk

01:20:05 ◼   ► about what the new iPhone names would be, iPhone XS Max was the name, to which many

01:20:11 ◼   ► people, including yours truly, believed could not possibly be the name of the larger phone.

01:20:16 ◼   ► Yeah, again, people were losing their minds, and I thought it was very strange. The only

01:20:24 ◼   ► argument that I sort of bought into was the idea that Plus sounded kind of like it had

01:20:30 ◼   ► something more but max just sounded like it was bigger and that kind of turned out to

01:20:36 ◼   ► be true because the XS and XS Max are the same phone but one is bigger. So I guess the

01:20:42 ◼   ► change to the max name kind of made sense. It still sounds very strange to call it the

01:20:49 ◼   ► basically the way that people call it the iPhone XS Max. They don't say XS, they say

01:20:55 ◼   ► say "excess" or in Italy they say "ixess". So, yeah, I found "ixessemax". So, that's

01:21:03 ◼   ► not a good couple of words to say together. But yeah, I guess it, you know, whatever works

01:21:10 ◼   ► for Apple works for us. September also, I mean September event, 10h, 10s, 10s max, Apple

01:21:19 ◼   ► watch Mojave which I still not sure how to pronounce. You see Mojave, you see Mojave,

01:21:25 ◼   ► nobody knows. And iOS 12. Mojave. Is that the smug bug voice again? The smug bug. Everyone

01:21:34 ◼   ► the smug bug knows how to pronounce product names. He's very smug about them too. Yeah,

01:21:41 ◼   ► it's because he knows them and you don't. Yeah. He's very smug about them. He would

01:21:44 ◼   ► never call it the iPhone XS. I'm just saying. No he wouldn't. He's too smug. Yeah, even

01:21:48 ◼   ► never. There were more anniversaries, 10 years of Steven's website, because it wasn't, it's

01:21:56 ◼   ► not 10 years of 512 pixels, right? It's like 10 years of Steven's website, is that right?

01:22:01 ◼   ► Yeah, it's got to be right. It had a name change a couple years into its life. But it's the same

01:22:05 ◼   ► same thing, right? Like same site, but just a different name. 10 years. It is continuous.

01:22:09 ◼   ► All of the links still work is my understanding. And Club Max Stories, the Club Max Stories,

01:22:15 ◼   ► which is the Mac stories membership newsletter that Federico has been writing. So it's third year.

01:22:21 ◼   ► It did strike me that you two chose, I mean, I don't know if 10 years ago it was the same,

01:22:26 ◼   ► but like just interesting times of the year, like a very busy time of the year to

01:22:30 ◼   ► to launch such a big project. Not the case 10 years ago. No, I can imagine that. The iPhone was a

01:22:36 ◼   ► WBC product, you know, kind of like the new phones announced in the summer. It wasn't until the 4S,

01:22:42 ◼   ► till it was the fall. So I just started in September because that's when I left the Apple

01:22:46 ◼   ► Store and I could block it wasn't anything to it. It was just how fast can I stand up a WordPress

01:22:51 ◼   ► site? But yeah, a decade it really I mean, I go through the archives and we're talking about just

01:22:57 ◼   ► a year on this show. We've forgotten things. There are things in my archives I come across

01:23:01 ◼   ► sometimes that like, I don't remember writing. I don't remember, you know, it's like, it's just

01:23:05 ◼   ► so much stuff. But it's one of those things like I will always have this site

01:23:11 ◼   ► no matter what else happens, it's just a part of me at this point.

01:23:14 ◼   ► - Yeah. Mine was just a stupid decision to launch in September three years ago.

01:23:18 ◼   ► But I did it for one specific reason, which was... And in hindsight, I'm actually pretty happy about

01:23:25 ◼   ► it because it worked out well, that I wanted to launch and immediately have an integration

01:23:31 ◼   ► between the club and my iOS 10 review. So the idea was, I launched this thing,

01:23:39 ◼   ► and there's immediately going to be benefits for members, and there's going to be the exposure

01:23:43 ◼   ► of the iOS review that is going to drive people to the club.

01:23:47 ◼   ► And that worked.

01:23:48 ◼   ► So now I'm stuck, sort of, with this September, combination of events in September, but every

01:23:55 ◼   ► time I try to make the best out of that situation by having those kinds of extras, like special

01:24:02 ◼   ► things, be exclusive for Club Maxoris members.

01:24:06 ◼   ► We also had of course your ios 12 review and audiobook narrated by a british person

01:24:14 ◼   ► Mug yeah, the smug bugs

01:24:16 ◼   ► Smug, but got him

01:24:19 ◼   ► I've forgotten how the smug bugs sounds down which is a shame. I've forgotten how the voice went it was like three seconds ago

01:24:25 ◼   ► go.

01:24:26 ◼   ► [Music]

01:24:27 ◼   ► Hello there! I've bought your flicker!

01:24:37 ◼   ► He's gone forever now, it's just me. Yep, I did that, you did that, it's a big thing

01:24:42 ◼   ► every year, it's much bigger for Federico than it is for me, but it's a big job.

01:24:49 ◼   ► Why is there an AirPower link in here in September? Oh yeah, the manual. Yeah. So Apple is...

01:24:58 ◼   ► People discovered that Apple was referencing AirPower in the instructional manual of the

01:25:05 ◼   ► iPhone XS. And some people... I remember this on Twitter. Some people thought that it was

01:25:10 ◼   ► fake. There was like a bad Photoshop. But no, Apple does reference the wireless AirPower

01:25:16 ◼   ► charger in the little instruction booklet that it's inside the iPhone XS package.

01:25:20 ◼   ► So that's awkward, but...

01:25:23 ◼   ► I mostly included this just to note that all year we've been wondering where this product

01:25:29 ◼   ► is, right?

01:25:30 ◼   ► Like it hasn't made an appearance in our list, like our countdown so far.

01:25:35 ◼   ► All year we've...

01:25:36 ◼   ► It's a meme at this point, AirPower.

01:25:39 ◼   ► Well September 2 was a year since they announced it, because they announced it with the iPhone

01:25:44 ◼   ► X.

01:25:45 ◼   ► I mean at this point, we're recording this in December, my thought is it's just dead.

01:25:51 ◼   ► And if it shows up it'll be a nice surprise.

01:25:53 ◼   ► But I'll tell you what, I'm not putting it as my risky pick for 2019.

01:25:57 ◼   ► No way.

01:25:58 ◼   ► No part of that.

01:25:59 ◼   ► No way.

01:26:00 ◼   ► October brought about maybe one of the best episodes of Connected, which was when Federico

01:26:06 ◼   ► attempted to name all of iOS 12.1's emoji without ever having seen the name.

01:26:12 ◼   ► LA1.

01:26:13 ◼   ► Did you?

01:26:15 ◼   ► I think I did pretty well, but it was not a contest.

01:26:20 ◼   ► I think we all won.

01:26:22 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:26:23 ◼   ► Also, it marked the

01:26:25 ◼   ► very important debut of We Are The Fish

01:26:29 ◼   ► in our

01:26:31 ◼   ► connected

01:26:33 ◼   ► back catalogue of references.

01:26:35 ◼   ► I would have said "cell",

01:26:41 ◼   ► But also I could see some kind of weird fish being like this

01:26:47 ◼   ► Are you thinking of like a puffer fish?

01:27:00 ◼   ► Okay, is this weird fish the name which what are you going with weird fish?

01:27:09 ◼   ► Fish. You really are gonna go weird fish? I don't know what else to choose. It's either

01:27:20 ◼   ► weird fish or cell. It is a microbe. What? What is a microbe?

01:27:31 ◼   ► So that was a very fun episode to do. I guess, I don't know, we'll probably do it again in

01:27:36 ◼   ► the future we'll see depends on the new emoji. Maybe it should become a tradition. I don't

01:27:41 ◼   ► know. We'll see what happens.

01:27:42 ◼   ► I think it should. I guess at some point we will have all of the accessibility ones we

01:27:49 ◼   ► talked about earlier, but there'll be some strange ones too to pick, I'm sure of it.

01:27:53 ◼   ► We also saw the release of the Google Pixel 3, and it was Google's press event in New

01:27:58 ◼   ► York, which was kind of a strange event in ways, but I think there's no arguing the Pixel

01:28:02 ◼   ► is an excellent phone. Myke, you've got one and you seem to have enjoyed your time with it.

01:28:08 ◼   ► Yeah, I feel like I'm never going to talk about this phone. I just feel like at this point,

01:28:12 ◼   ► I don't even know why I have to say it. I really like it. It's a great phone and the camera's

01:28:16 ◼   ► incredible. That's my review of the Pixel 3, I think. It's great. It's very nice. I like it.

01:28:23 ◼   ► I get the small one. It's pink and it's nice to hold and it is a good Android phone and it does

01:28:29 ◼   ► some cool stuff and the camera is amazing. That's my Pixel 3 review.

01:28:32 ◼   ► I'm glad we've been waiting for that. It's good.

01:28:35 ◼   ► We also saw Apple's

01:28:39 ◼   ► or Adobe, excuse me, Apple invited Adobe

01:28:42 ◼   ► to show off Photoshop for the iPad and Apple's press event where they also

01:28:46 ◼   ► announced Macs.

01:28:47 ◼   ► But it was shown off before. So Adobe showed off.

01:28:50 ◼   ► Oh it was, like a week before, right? I think it was a little bit before.

01:28:54 ◼   ► Adobe Macs, so they

01:28:58 ◼   ► which is Adobe's conference is where they unveiled it.

01:29:00 ◼   ► Having previously acknowledged that it would happen, which they did,

01:29:04 ◼   ► they showed off what it was going to look like.

01:29:08 ◼   ► And then they joined Apple on stage for the iPad Pro presentation

01:29:11 ◼   ► to give a condensed demo.

01:29:13 ◼   ► So June next year, but still pretty monumental news.

01:29:17 ◼   ► And I'm very excited for it.

01:29:19 ◼   ► We had our live show in New York with Federico's cousin,

01:29:23 ◼   ► who was very gracious and taking time off.

01:29:25 ◼   ► That was incredible.

01:29:27 ◼   ► Like, I had no idea.

01:29:29 ◼   ► Unfortunately, I couldn't join you guys in New York.

01:29:33 ◼   ► But it was such an incredible thing for my cousin to do.

01:29:39 ◼   ► Like, I was not expecting it at all.

01:29:42 ◼   ► Big moment.

01:29:42 ◼   ► He's a very busy guy.

01:29:44 ◼   ► You know, he runs a very important business.

01:29:48 ◼   ► He sells vinyls in America.

01:29:52 ◼   ► So I know he's very busy with his company.

01:29:55 ◼   ► Yeah, vinyl cast. So it was very gracious of him to fit in for me. You know, so it's

01:30:04 ◼   ► a very good episode and Marcus makes some really good points. So you should also check

01:30:11 ◼   ► out his company, Vinyl Cast.

01:30:13 ◼   ► It's a snappy dresser.

01:30:15 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:30:16 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:30:17 ◼   ► It was. Ming-Chi Kuo makes a return in October saying there will be a new...

01:30:21 ◼   ► I feel like he never left.

01:30:22 ◼   ► He's always here.

01:30:23 ◼   ► He's here with me right now.

01:30:26 ◼   ► I'm back boys, here's an iPad Mini.

01:30:30 ◼   ► Saying that yeah, iPad Mini 5 late 2018 or early 2019, so this is still within the realm

01:30:35 ◼   ► of possibility, I think this is a product that if they don't do anything in 2019 then

01:30:41 ◼   ► it should just go away.

01:30:42 ◼   ► Like the new, the 6th generation iPad being cheaper than this thing, being better at this

01:30:48 ◼   ► thing in every single way except that the mini has a laminate laminated display and the

01:30:55 ◼   ► sixth generation iPad does not. Other than that the iPad mini just outgunned and it's

01:30:58 ◼   ► more expensive and just feels like a relic and I'd like to see him do it. I think there's

01:31:04 ◼   ► probably still a market for it but I can understand if it goes away. And then of course we had

01:31:09 ◼   ► the October event which brought about the MacBook Air, the Mac Mini and the iPad Pro

01:31:14 ◼   ► which two out of three everyone's been really happy with.

01:31:18 ◼   ► MacBook Air has had a bit of a tumultuous life so far,

01:31:22 ◼   ► I think, including Steven being upset

01:31:24 ◼   ► about the storage last week, so.

01:31:26 ◼   ► - Gotta get the 1.5 terabyte version, man.

01:31:29 ◼   ► - Can't wait for that.

01:31:30 ◼   ► Can't wait to do it.

01:31:31 ◼   ► - It's so expensive. - It's that .5

01:31:34 ◼   ► that really seals the deal.

01:31:36 ◼   ► - We spent basically the entire month of November

01:31:38 ◼   ► debating the iPad.

01:31:40 ◼   ► - Well, some people did.

01:31:42 ◼   ► - We did.

01:31:43 ◼   ► I looked at the show notes, we did.

01:31:45 ◼   ► No, but I mean like some people get really upset about it and I don't think we do.

01:31:50 ◼   ► Like in the sense that, you know, there's these blog posts and these videos, can you

01:31:55 ◼   ► get real work done on the iPad?

01:31:56 ◼   ► And I feel like we're sort of, we handle that conversation in a different way because we

01:32:02 ◼   ► know that it's possible to get work done on the iPad, but we also know its limitations.

01:32:07 ◼   ► And I think other blogs and other YouTubers, they make more sort of dramatic announcements

01:32:14 ◼   ► and like claims that, you know, they go viral for like a week or so and then...

01:32:22 ◼   ► That's just my opinion though.

01:32:25 ◼   ► But yes, we did discuss the iPad Pro.

01:32:28 ◼   ► I started the iPad Diaries series about the new iPad Pro.

01:32:32 ◼   ► I started spending a lot of money on USB-C accessories and keyboards.

01:32:38 ◼   ► It was a very productive month.

01:32:40 ◼   ► I got a lot of writing done, the episodes were good, we had some fun discussions.

01:32:46 ◼   ► I'm curious to see what the situation is going to be like in six months, because this iPad

01:32:52 ◼   ► discussion, this is a point that I made on connected in the past.

01:32:56 ◼   ► few months, this entire thing sparkles up again and people start arguing about the iPad

01:33:03 ◼   ► for work. I bet it's gonna surface again sometime in February or March. Somebody's gonna complain

01:33:08 ◼   ► with a tweet or with a blog post and the whole cycle is gonna spin up again. And the iPad

01:33:14 ◼   ► Pro discussion will begin anew. So we'll see when it happens. I bet it's gonna be... It

01:33:19 ◼   ► usually happens every 3 to 4 months. So I think we're only like 2 to 3 months away from

01:33:25 ◼   ► cycle. Is that going to be in your 2019 predictions, predicting when people will start talking

01:33:30 ◼   ► about the iPad Pro again? That's a point for sure. Like, that's the,

01:33:34 ◼   ► it wouldn't, it would be unfair. It would be unfair. Nothing else of note I think happened

01:33:40 ◼   ► in November. We just were, we were just getting work done.

01:33:43 ◼   ► Yeah, it was a lot of conversation, like it was a lot of conversation, you know, and talking

01:33:48 ◼   ► about the merits of the product, defending the product where we thought it needed to

01:33:52 ◼   ► be and then as you say like talking about some of the things that you were doing you know some of the

01:33:57 ◼   ► apps that you were excited about some of the dongles and stuff and yeah but there was news

01:34:02 ◼   ► but news that mostly hasn't changed so isn't really worth looking back on and then December

01:34:07 ◼   ► the biggest I think the biggest story in December at least in the Apple community I think is Apple

01:34:11 ◼   ► Music arriving on the Amazon Echo because it's wild this is a wild story it was crazy when it

01:34:17 ◼   ► was announced and it got even crazier when it was released. Ed has been very interested

01:34:24 ◼   ► in it and I am really keen. Like I just saw someone sent me a screenshot of an email that

01:34:29 ◼   ► Apple sent them talking about how to set it up and all the things like giving prompts

01:34:33 ◼   ► about what you should say. Just goes on and on. Just won't stop. And also in December

01:34:38 ◼   ► we all bought Mac Minis. Which is something we would never have put in our predictions.

01:34:45 ◼   ► We're all gonna buy Mac Minis this year.

01:34:46 ◼   ► - It's true, we're three for three.

01:34:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, and I can tell you that writing more

01:34:52 ◼   ► about Mac stuff is something that I wanna do in 2019,

01:34:56 ◼   ► which is something that I haven't done.

01:34:57 ◼   ► - Uh-oh, he's put the Mac back in Mac stories.

01:35:00 ◼   ► - Well, John is writing about the Mac on Mac stories

01:35:04 ◼   ► most of the time.

01:35:05 ◼   ► I guess I'm gonna-- - You personally.

01:35:07 ◼   ► - I personally will write about Mac automation.

01:35:10 ◼   ► Like, I haven't written about this stuff in four, actually five years.

01:35:16 ◼   ► So it should be fun.

01:35:17 ◼   ► It's one of my goals for the next year.

01:35:19 ◼   ► But we'll talk about that in our first episode of 2019, because this is a very

01:35:27 ◼   ► important final point that I personally put in the document.

01:35:30 ◼   ► The episode is over.

01:35:32 ◼   ► And just like the year is over, I would say overall, do we give a thumbs up to

01:35:39 ◼   ► Apple in 2018?

01:35:40 ◼   ► I think yes. I mean, I would have liked to see better improvements to iOS for iPad.

01:35:49 ◼   ► That's my only negative note, honestly. The iPad hardware is now so much more ahead of the software.

01:35:55 ◼   ► It's kind of ridiculous to look at that contrast between the two.

01:36:00 ◼   ► But overall, the devices are great. The XS Max and the Series 4 are great.

01:36:05 ◼   ► Yeah, just the iPad software could have been you know could have been a nice more

01:36:09 ◼   ► a nice thing to have but so one more thing to look forward for 2019

01:36:13 ◼   ► If you want to find links to all the stuff we talked about head on over to relay.fm/connected/224

01:36:23 ◼   ► While you're there you can get in touch with us via email or you can find us other places online

01:36:29 ◼   ► You can find Myke on Twitter at

01:36:31 ◼   ► I-M-Y-K-E. Myke is the host of a lot of shows here at Relay FM. You can find Federico at

01:36:37 ◼   ► V-I-T-I-C-C-I on Twitter, and you can find him, of course, at maxstories.net, writing

01:36:42 ◼   ► about Automator and Terminal and Activity Monitor, all that good nerdy Mac stuff. You

01:36:49 ◼   ► can find me on Twitter as @ismh and I write 512pixels.net.

01:36:53 ◼   ► A quick programming note, our next episode will be out on January 9th. We are taking

01:36:58 ◼   ► the week of New Year's off. We hope that you have a wonderful holiday with friends and

01:37:02 ◼   ► family. I'd like to thank our sponsors, Pingdom, Smile, and K-11. And until, I guess until

01:37:09 ◼   ► next year, guys, say goodbye.

01:37:11 ◼   ► Arrivederci and bonanno.

01:37:12 ◼   ► Cheerio and happy new year.

01:37:14 ◼   ► Adios.

01:37:15 ◼   ► Ah, it's happy new year.

01:37:17 ◼   ► Feliz Nuevo.

01:37:18 ◼   ► Feliz año nuevo.

01:37:19 ◼   ► Hey, we'll go with that one.