Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:00:02 ◼   ► - Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 219.

00:00:12 ◼   ► I'm your host, Stephen Hackett,

00:00:13 ◼   ► and this show is made possible by Pingdom,

00:00:15 ◼   ► Luna Display, and Hover.

00:00:18 ◼   ► I am joined, as always, by my co-host, I have Myke Hurley.

00:00:21 ◼   ► - Hi, welcome back.

00:00:23 ◼   ► - Hey, it's good to be back.

00:00:26 ◼   ► You know, we had a complaint on Twitter

00:00:27 ◼   ► that people like when you introduce the show

00:00:30 ◼   ► better than when I introduce the show.

00:00:32 ◼   ► And, you know, that's not a very nice thing to say.

00:00:35 ◼   ► - I told that person that they were mean

00:00:37 ◼   ► and they apologized.

00:00:38 ◼   ► To me, not to you.

00:00:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, well, I'll be waiting.

00:00:42 ◼   ► You can find me on Twitter @ismh.

00:00:44 ◼   ► And we have Federico Vittucci.

00:00:48 ◼   ► - Hello Stephen, welcome back.

00:00:50 ◼   ► - It's good to be back with y'all.

00:00:52 ◼   ► I enjoyed my time away.

00:00:54 ◼   ► It's actually kind of like my first time off all year, I think, but it was great.

00:00:58 ◼   ► But I, I did, I listened to the show.

00:01:01 ◼   ► I always listen to the show when I miss it.

00:01:03 ◼   ► And I've got to say, starting the show with a topic, having follow up at the end is

00:01:08 ◼   ► chaos.

00:01:09 ◼   ► Oh, shut up, Dad.

00:01:10 ◼   ► No, I thought it was perfect.

00:01:13 ◼   ► I stand by our decision.

00:01:14 ◼   ► We had an important iPad review episode to do.

00:01:17 ◼   ► You've wasted time for posters of you.

00:01:19 ◼   ► You weren't even on the show.

00:01:21 ◼   ► The posters are all very good.

00:01:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:01:23 ◼   ► But we're going to start off the episode, "Oh, we have a co-host, he's not on the episode

00:01:28 ◼   ► today, let's talk about pictures people made of him."

00:01:31 ◼   ► It's like it's a monster memoriam.

00:01:33 ◼   ► It's weird.

00:01:34 ◼   ► Start the show like that.

00:01:36 ◼   ► I greatly enjoyed your iPad Pro review.

00:01:39 ◼   ► I was listening, thinking, "What could I add to it?"

00:01:42 ◼   ► And honestly, I think you guys just nailed it.

00:01:44 ◼   ► I don't really have anything to add, except that I'm really enjoying the 12.9-inch.

00:01:49 ◼   ► The keyboard folio's just okay, I don't hate it as much as Federico does.

00:01:53 ◼   ► And I, like on this trip, I basically, I took my MacBook Pro but I think I used it once,

00:01:58 ◼   ► all the show prep and you know, I had to do a couple little things in the evening and

00:02:01 ◼   ► I did it on the iPad.

00:02:02 ◼   ► It was pretty awesome, so.

00:02:04 ◼   ► Yeah, I started downloading a bunch of apps like Affinity Photo and LumaFusion and stuff

00:02:11 ◼   ► like that.

00:02:12 ◼   ► Like, that's like my next little thing I want to play with.

00:02:14 ◼   ► Like I want to play with those like really complex creative apps.

00:02:17 ◼   ► I'll tell you, I do not understand Affinity Photo.

00:02:20 ◼   ► Whoa boy, I do not.

00:02:21 ◼   ► Affinity Photo is really hard. I've been having fun with Lightroom.

00:02:26 ◼   ► Okay, I should try that then. Maybe.

00:02:29 ◼   ► I tried to use Affinity Photo and I just can't understand how to work it.

00:02:33 ◼   ► I just have no idea what I'm doing.

00:02:35 ◼   ► I cannot work it out. One of my problems with Affinity Photo is that

00:02:38 ◼   ► I think some of the icons are unlabeled, so it doesn't tell you what each button does.

00:02:45 ◼   ► But I've been having a good time with Lightroom.

00:02:47 ◼   ► I've actually been talking to some friends of mine, like, they've been giving me some

00:02:52 ◼   ► tips on like, what the adjustments mean, what you're supposed to do, like, I've been reading

00:02:57 ◼   ► online and also been playing with the beta, with the iPad beta of Darkroom, which is coming

00:03:03 ◼   ► to the iPad.

00:03:04 ◼   ► And it's really, really, really good.

00:03:06 ◼   ► Like it's one of those UIs that it kind of makes sense on the phone, but on the iPad

00:03:11 ◼   ► is so much better.

00:03:13 ◼   ► So...

00:03:14 ◼   ► But LumaFusion?

00:03:15 ◼   ► Oh my God.

00:03:16 ◼   ► Luma my god that application is

00:03:18 ◼   ► Amazing. Yeah

00:03:22 ◼   ► Jonathan Morrison who has a YouTube tech YouTube channel did a video where he edited this

00:03:28 ◼   ► I haven't watched it yet, but it's it's it's wild. Yeah, this has been on my list

00:03:33 ◼   ► It's the only reason that I didn't want to talk about it today like in depth is because I haven't yet watched the video

00:03:38 ◼   ► Okay, okay, we'll hold it. Well, that's what you can say. Like it's amazing. Like that's cool

00:03:42 ◼   ► But like I actually want to talk about this, but I just haven't gotten around to watching it yet

00:03:46 ◼   ► So it's in the show notes is the first link you should go check that out

00:03:49 ◼   ► It really opened my eyes to what these these programs can do because you know

00:03:53 ◼   ► I think it's easy to say well

00:03:54 ◼   ► Wasn't there final cut or logic and the reality is there are really good alternatives on the iPad now like today

00:03:59 ◼   ► You can go download them. So go check that out it really I was surprised at how easy it seemed

00:04:06 ◼   ► You know, he's like a professional. He's great like professional guy. So it's pretty good

00:04:12 ◼   ► Good.

00:04:13 ◼   ► We do want to point people to our Cotton Bureau store.

00:04:16 ◼   ► There have been a lot of requests for the AirPod stickers to make a comeback, and they

00:04:21 ◼   ► are currently in stock as I'm saying this.

00:04:24 ◼   ► I don't expect that to last.

00:04:25 ◼   ► We're doing something kind of fun this time.

00:04:27 ◼   ► You can get two AirPod stickers, so you have one for your AirPods now and one for your

00:04:31 ◼   ► AirPower AirPod case in three years.

00:04:34 ◼   ► And it comes, I have mine right here, with an enamel pin of the Hackett and Hurley name,

00:04:40 ◼   ► Like name, uh, look pharmaceuticals company.

00:04:43 ◼   ► Yes.

00:04:44 ◼   ► Right.

00:04:45 ◼   ► That's what it is.

00:04:46 ◼   ► This is right.

00:04:47 ◼   ► Like that's the joke.

00:04:48 ◼   ► I think.

00:04:48 ◼   ► Well, yeah.

00:04:49 ◼   ► Or something like Smith and Smith, you know, like just random insert.

00:04:53 ◼   ► There you go.

00:04:53 ◼   ► Yeah, we got it.

00:04:54 ◼   ► We found it.

00:04:55 ◼   ► Oh, a lot of bleeping in the section now.

00:04:57 ◼   ► Uh, this pen is awesome.

00:05:01 ◼   ► The stickers look great.

00:05:02 ◼   ► Uh, like I said, there's not many of these and once they're gone, they're gone.

00:05:07 ◼   ► So, uh, go, uh, go check that out.

00:05:09 ◼   ► Can I also recommend that people go to upgradeyourwardrobe.com to get Donald

00:05:13 ◼   ► Panties?

00:05:14 ◼   ► This t-shirt. So I,

00:05:16 ◼   ► I'm in the design Slack room in the relay Slack, right?

00:05:20 ◼   ► With a couple people. And when I saw these shirts show up,

00:05:24 ◼   ► I freaked out. Like they're so good.

00:05:27 ◼   ► And I ordered an orange one the second they were available and I'm going to wear

00:05:31 ◼   ► it basically every day.

00:05:32 ◼   ► Yep. It's, we're very excited about it. Um, and I only, I,

00:05:36 ◼   ► I've only mentioned it because people seem to really like it.

00:05:39 ◼   ► So I kind of just wanted to go forth and buy upgrade merch,

00:05:43 ◼   ► if you so desire.

00:05:45 ◼   ► - We talked about this a couple of weeks ago,

00:05:47 ◼   ► but we've always had, sort of in our Google Doc,

00:05:50 ◼   ► what we would call like a topic zero.

00:05:52 ◼   ► So like a small topic in between follow-up

00:05:55 ◼   ► and the real topic, and that recently graduated

00:05:57 ◼   ► into what we're calling tiny topics.

00:05:59 ◼   ► - I still think topic zero exists, right?

00:06:02 ◼   ► Like tiny topics can exist, but topic zero still can exist.

00:06:06 ◼   ► So you think topic zero would be in between a tiny topic and a full topic?

00:06:10 ◼   ► Yeah, I have no idea what the hierarchy is.

00:06:13 ◼   ► I do it mainly by feel.

00:06:15 ◼   ► Right?

00:06:16 ◼   ► It's like, sometimes, like today, we have a topic 2.5 in a document.

00:06:19 ◼   ► I don't know why it's that.

00:06:21 ◼   ► It just is that.

00:06:23 ◼   ► We have a very, very strict topic numbering system that nobody understands.

00:06:28 ◼   ► It's not good.

00:06:30 ◼   ► But a tiny topic is something that's not really follow-up because we haven't talked about

00:06:33 ◼   ► it before, but it's not a full-blown topic.

00:06:36 ◼   ► So for today's tiny topic, I want to talk about something that I mentioned on Twitter

00:06:40 ◼   ► several weeks ago, and it's just a situation that I'm in in social media.

00:06:44 ◼   ► I'm an Instagram user, I like Instagram, I use it several times a day.

00:06:50 ◼   ► But the application, or I guess the advertising algorithm that lives within the application,

00:06:56 ◼   ► seems to believe that I'm a woman.

00:06:58 ◼   ► So I get ads for feminine products, for bras, for clothing, for purses, handbags.

00:07:06 ◼   ► They're very targeted.

00:07:07 ◼   ► If I were a woman, I feel like these ads would all be spot on, but I'm not.

00:07:13 ◼   ► They're targeting a person very well.

00:07:16 ◼   ► That person is just not you.

00:07:18 ◼   ► It's not me.

00:07:20 ◼   ► Not you.

00:07:21 ◼   ► So here's a question.

00:07:22 ◼   ► I don't know if you've done this.

00:07:24 ◼   ► Have you checked Mary's ads?

00:07:27 ◼   ► I haven't. I should ask her about that and see if she feels like she's getting ads for

00:07:34 ◼   ► NASA things and whole computers.

00:07:36 ◼   ► Well, no. I just wonder if the two of you are getting the same ads because you don't

00:07:40 ◼   ► have a Facebook account, right?

00:07:41 ◼   ► Neither does she.

00:07:42 ◼   ► So, oh. Well then that's no help, right? Because I was thinking maybe you are getting her ads,

00:07:48 ◼   ► but if she doesn't have one either, I don't know what's going on.

00:07:51 ◼   ► interesting too because Instagram has the explore section so if you hit the

00:07:55 ◼   ► magnifying glass to search in there shows like suggested photos and

00:07:59 ◼   ► accounts I've got it I've got to give them credit that stuff's like spot-on

00:08:02 ◼   ► it's all like old jeeps and old computers and like it's just perfect I

00:08:09 ◼   ► love all of it but this I feel like there must be different things though

00:08:13 ◼   ► right okay I bet the explore tab Instagram handles but the ads are

00:08:17 ◼   ► handled by Facebook's platform. Yeah I'm sure they're totally separate so yeah so I don't

00:08:21 ◼   ► know I don't know if it's some like weird type of accounts I follow or like

00:08:26 ◼   ► and are you like trying to tailor it because you can say right like this ad

00:08:31 ◼   ► isn't relevant to me you do I am and it's still doesn't seem to have really

00:08:35 ◼   ► any effect does Mary do shopping online on one of your devices mm-hmm I mean we

00:08:46 ◼   ► shop online stuff but not only my devices yeah but like even if that was

00:08:50 ◼   ► the case, Stephen was going to shop online on his devices more than Mary would. The problem

00:08:55 ◼   ► is there's no, there probably isn't that much of a strong link because there's no Facebook

00:09:00 ◼   ► account.

00:09:01 ◼   ► Yeah, it's a weird thing. So that is what it is. If you're listening and you're in charge

00:09:06 ◼   ► of Instagram advertising, like good job, like all this stuff feels really cohesive. You

00:09:10 ◼   ► just have the wrong person.

00:09:13 ◼   ► You have the female version of you.

00:09:17 ◼   ► This is the other side of targeted ads, right? You wouldn't care if they were spot on. It's

00:09:24 ◼   ► more frustrating to you that they're wrong.

00:09:27 ◼   ► Yeah, it is. I know a lot about the Warby Parker bras. That's a way a company talks

00:09:33 ◼   ► about itself. I've seen their ad a lot.

00:09:35 ◼   ► Is that Third Love, I think they're called? I've heard them on podcasts.

00:09:39 ◼   ► Yeah, they're out there just using that Warby Parker name. Anyways, that's me. That's where

00:09:43 ◼   ► I am with Instagram. I'm still using it, but the ads, it's sort of funny to me now. Like

00:09:47 ◼   ► I just find it amusing. So there, that's where I am.

00:09:52 ◼   ► As Kate says in the chat room, Stephanie Hackett would love it.

00:09:58 ◼   ► I mean it seems to be pretty good for me. Instagram knows me pretty well. I get ads

00:10:02 ◼   ► for tattoos, I get ads for jewelry, and for video games. So it's pretty much me.

00:10:10 ◼   ► I get video games. I get lots of Kickstarter projects.

00:10:14 ◼   ► You're just a sucker for those Kickstarters, Myke.

00:10:18 ◼   ► I guess I am. I've got a Lacoste ad right now.

00:10:21 ◼   ► That's kind of cool. I don't know.

00:10:23 ◼   ► That seems fine. This one isn't good.

00:10:25 ◼   ► What is this? Cybersecurity?

00:10:27 ◼   ► Oh no, no, no.

00:10:29 ◼   ► They're trying to tell you something.

00:10:30 ◼   ► So I'm going to hide that ad to say it's not relevant.

00:10:34 ◼   ► I'm I think that

00:10:36 ◼   ► I'm pretty happy with the ads that I get because there's a Mont Blanc ad.

00:10:40 ◼   ► I mean, come on, it knows me.

00:10:41 ◼   ► Like I'm happy with my ads because I.

00:10:44 ◼   ► I feel because I tweak them.

00:10:47 ◼   ► So like I tell Instagram, like this isn't right for me.

00:10:50 ◼   ► I mean, of course they have to have a base idea of who I am as a human being before

00:10:54 ◼   ► they start serving me these ads.

00:10:56 ◼   ► But I think that if you are unhappy with your Instagram ads, this is not for you,

00:10:59 ◼   ► Steven, because you're beyond help at this point, then just, you can tap the button

00:11:03 ◼   ► and say hide and just say like, it's not relevant.

00:11:05 ◼   ► And I found that that would just say, and sometimes they ask, they give you a little

00:11:09 ◼   ► survey you can say you are an ad power user Myke yes I would 100% sounds me up

00:11:20 ◼   ► perfectly actually yeah yeah it's actually a huge part of my life so yeah

00:11:25 ◼   ► I guess I had the power user perfect she should be in your bio somewhere maybe

00:11:31 ◼   ► you should change your bio on peach to say that you're an ad power user

00:11:36 ◼   ► Peach is still kicking, you know. It still goes.

00:11:39 ◼   ► Can you change your bio on Peach?

00:11:41 ◼   ► Yes, still alive.

00:11:42 ◼   ► Can you actually change it and say that you're an ad-powered user but just on Peach? Is that

00:11:46 ◼   ► possible?

00:11:47 ◼   ► I don't know, man. I can try. Let me see.

00:11:50 ◼   ► But like…

00:11:51 ◼   ► Please everybody go follow Myke on Peach for very important content.

00:11:56 ◼   ► Oh, I don't think I can get… Like, it's a bit messed up on the iPhone.

00:12:01 ◼   ► Oh, boy.

00:12:02 ◼   ► They're actually one of the things. Oh, edit bio. Yep. Add power user. So that's more use

00:12:10 ◼   ► than Peaches got all month. So like an alarm just went off somewhere, right? Like, did

00:12:15 ◼   ► you have Peach already installed on your phone? Yeah, man. It's just there. Well, yeah, but

00:12:26 ◼   ► I installed from backup. I can't really judge. I found probably like eight months ago in

00:12:33 ◼   ► a folder on my iPhone the application path. Remember that? Oh yeah. So man, what a good

00:12:40 ◼   ► app. Okay, so that's my tiny topic. Federico, I believe you have one as well. Yes. I wanted

00:12:46 ◼   ► to quickly point our listeners to the latest update for Working Copy, which is the GitHub

00:12:52 ◼   ► client that I've been using since 2016 on my devices. It's a working copy at a

00:12:58 ◼   ► basic level. It lets you manage your GitHub repos or you can use other

00:13:04 ◼   ► services as well on your iOS devices. And one of the things that made

00:13:11 ◼   ► working copy always stand out from competing apps on iOS is its

00:13:16 ◼   ► integration with native iOS features. The developer is always fast in terms of

00:13:22 ◼   ► adopting the latest APIs, the latest screen sizes.

00:13:25 ◼   ► And working copy is one of, before today's update,

00:13:29 ◼   ► was already one of the best apps that integrated

00:13:32 ◼   ► with the files app and the files API on iOS.

00:13:37 ◼   ► Today, version 3.6 of working copy enables this feature

00:13:42 ◼   ► that I've already seen in one other application on iOS.

00:13:46 ◼   ► That application was Textastic, a text editor.

00:13:50 ◼   ► This feature is called Opening Place for Directories.

00:13:54 ◼   ► So Opening Place can be used by third-party apps

00:13:58 ◼   ► for individual documents as well as for entire folders.

00:14:02 ◼   ► And the idea would be that instead of duplicating

00:14:06 ◼   ► the same document in a bunch of apps,

00:14:07 ◼   ► if you wanna make changes to the document,

00:14:10 ◼   ► every other application can just open the same file

00:14:13 ◼   ► and make changes directly without having to import

00:14:16 ◼   ► that document or creating duplicates

00:14:19 ◼   ► and resaving the document and all that kind of stuff.

00:14:22 ◼   ► You have one file, and a bunch of apps

00:14:24 ◼   ► can open that single file and make changes to it.

00:14:27 ◼   ► Now, working copy supports the same idea

00:14:29 ◼   ► but for entire folders.

00:14:31 ◼   ► So you can pick any application folder from iCloud Drive.

00:14:38 ◼   ► The developer is using a few apps as examples of this.

00:14:41 ◼   ► For example, IA Writer, Scriptable,

00:14:45 ◼   ► which is the JavaScript app that came out with iOS 12,

00:14:49 ◼   ► Codia, which is like a visual code editor,

00:14:53 ◼   ► and then some other apps that I don't remember.

00:14:56 ◼   ► But the idea would be you open an entire application folder

00:15:01 ◼   ► and you add it as a repo in working copy.

00:15:04 ◼   ► So you create a location for that app folder

00:15:07 ◼   ► from iCloud Drive in working copy.

00:15:09 ◼   ► And at that point you establish a two-way sync

00:15:12 ◼   ► between working copy and iCloud Drive.

00:15:15 ◼   ► So for example, in my case, I imported the IA writer,

00:15:19 ◼   ► iCloud Drive folder into working copy.

00:15:21 ◼   ► And now whenever I make a change in writer,

00:15:24 ◼   ► I see that change in working copy.

00:15:26 ◼   ► And if I make a change in working copy,

00:15:28 ◼   ► I see that edit back in IA writer.

00:15:31 ◼   ► So it's a two way sync between a third party app

00:15:33 ◼   ► and the iCloud Drive folder from a third party app.

00:15:36 ◼   ► So it's poking a little hole in the sandbox

00:15:39 ◼   ► through the opening place APIs.

00:15:42 ◼   ► What's even-

00:15:43 ◼   ► - Okay, so let me ask you,

00:15:45 ◼   ► Why would you want to do that though?

00:15:47 ◼   ► Like why is that good?

00:15:47 ◼   ► - There's a second layer of this,

00:15:49 ◼   ► in that you can configure a remote connection

00:15:53 ◼   ► for a night out drive folder in working copy.

00:15:56 ◼   ► So for example, I took my IA writer folder

00:16:01 ◼   ► and I added it to working copy.

00:16:06 ◼   ► And then I said, I want you to work

00:16:09 ◼   ► with this remote GitHub repo,

00:16:12 ◼   ► which was my existing repo on GitHub.

00:16:15 ◼   ► my personal private one.

00:16:16 ◼   ► Oh, oh, OK.

00:16:17 ◼   ► And you can say, take whatever is in iCloud Drive, commit the changes and push them up

00:16:22 ◼   ► to GitHub.

00:16:24 ◼   ► So I have a, by default, instead of having to do this manually myself, like export a

00:16:30 ◼   ► document and overwrite and do this entire work document by document myself, the working

00:16:37 ◼   ► copy just picks up all of the changes from IA Writer and says, "Do you want to save these

00:16:43 ◼   ► changes to GitHub and I say yes and pushes them up. The third layer of

00:16:48 ◼   ► this is that that repo on GitHub, a bunch of people are invited to that repo. So

00:16:54 ◼   ► for example, John and Ryan are part of that repo. If they make a change through

00:16:59 ◼   ► whatever device, whatever OS, whatever app they want to use, when I sync the repo

00:17:06 ◼   ► back down to my device, those changes will be automatically reflected in

00:17:12 ◼   ► a writer as well because it's a two-way sync.

00:17:14 ◼   ► Right, because that to me seems like the key part.

00:17:18 ◼   ► It's like now every time you sync working copy, it's also syncing your text editor.

00:17:23 ◼   ► You don't have to keep jumping between one and the other, right?

00:17:27 ◼   ► That's cool.

00:17:28 ◼   ► That is cool.

00:17:29 ◼   ► Now, I could see some horrific accidents coming from that, but it does seem really great.

00:17:34 ◼   ► Welcome to using GitHub.

00:17:36 ◼   ► Yes, you just gotta get... and that's what I wrote in the post.

00:17:40 ◼   ► You gotta get used to the terminology and to just learning what you can actually do

00:17:44 ◼   ► and not do with GitHub.

00:17:46 ◼   ► I am pretty paranoid about saving copies of my articles, so the really important ones,

00:17:53 ◼   ► they are backed up in three locations, so also Dropbox is also part of the picture in

00:17:57 ◼   ► that case.

00:17:58 ◼   ► But if I'm working on a 2000-word post, having a copy in iCalDrive and GitHub is usually

00:18:04 ◼   ► okay.

00:18:05 ◼   ► Yeah, because if you're using your text editor and then somebody accidentally deletes something

00:18:10 ◼   ► or all of it in GitHub and then it just syncs back to your local text editor.

00:18:13 ◼   ► That's like a weird thing to happen to you.

00:18:16 ◼   ► You got to be careful with that, but thankfully you can see all of the versions

00:18:19 ◼   ► of a file in working copy and you can pick them up and you can restore them.

00:18:23 ◼   ► And of course, everything.

00:18:25 ◼   ► OK, yeah, you can see all the versions and you can actually what I do,

00:18:28 ◼   ► you can drag an individual version out of working copy and it becomes a file.

00:18:34 ◼   ► And so if you use something like kaleidoscope, for example,

00:18:37 ◼   ► which is a diff comparison tool for iOS.

00:18:39 ◼   ► What I do is I pick up two versions from working copy

00:18:42 ◼   ► and I compare the changes and I can see the individual words

00:18:45 ◼   ► that are changed between versions.

00:18:47 ◼   ► It's very cool.

00:18:48 ◼   ► So, I mean, Apple should do this stuff on its own inside of files.

00:18:54 ◼   ► I think it's incredible that files doesn't have a versions feature built in,

00:18:59 ◼   ► doesn't have any way to recover deleted files, for example,

00:19:03 ◼   ► doesn't have a way to let you see multiple versions of the same item.

00:19:07 ◼   ► This feature has been available on macOS since, I don't know,

00:19:10 ◼   ► Leopold? Snow Leopold, maybe?

00:19:12 ◼   ► Yeah, at least.

00:19:12 ◼   ► I remember when it came out.

00:19:13 ◼   ► So working copy, if you use GitHub, if you use Markdown, if you,

00:19:17 ◼   ► I mean, if you're a programmer, of course, and you want to use GitHub

00:19:21 ◼   ► and you want to work from iOS, this is super, super highly recommended.

00:19:25 ◼   ► If you're a, you know, I use working copy,

00:19:28 ◼   ► maybe not for its intended use case as a, you know,

00:19:32 ◼   ► a writer who needs to collaborate with two editors on iOS, but it works really well for us,

00:19:38 ◼   ► and it's been working well for us since 2016. So, really recommended.

00:19:42 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, it's not the intended use, but I do see how GitHub could be used quite easily for this

00:19:48 ◼   ► exact purpose, right? Like, multiple people collaborating, not in real time, but like,

00:19:54 ◼   ► asynchronously. Yeah, it's great.

00:19:56 ◼   ► Right? Like, it makes perfect sense. I mean, Federica, you adopted me into this

00:19:59 ◼   ► system when I brought my history column to MacStories like a year and a half ago or whatever.

00:20:06 ◼   ► It makes so much sense the way that you guys do this.

00:20:10 ◼   ► I for a long time just did it on the Mac and then it's like, "Oh, I'll get back to my Mac

00:20:14 ◼   ► and push it to GitHub."

00:20:16 ◼   ► I finally downloaded a working copy three or four months ago and started using that

00:20:20 ◼   ► as well.

00:20:21 ◼   ► It really is powerful to have all of that just on your device you have with you all

00:20:25 ◼   ► the time.

00:20:26 ◼   ► It's pretty sweet.

00:20:27 ◼   ► And even new iPad Pro power user Casey List is a fan of working with me.

00:20:31 ◼   ► Oh, man, that settles it then.

00:20:33 ◼   ► So, you know, it is the app you got to try.

00:20:35 ◼   ► If Casey List, the iPad power user is...

00:20:39 ◼   ► It is so much like I'm enjoying watching him go through this

00:20:43 ◼   ► because I just can taunt him now. Right.

00:20:46 ◼   ► It's like watching your kid making the same mistakes you made.

00:20:50 ◼   ► Well, but it's more that like he was so, so like set in his ways, right,

00:20:55 ◼   ► about the iPad for so long.

00:20:57 ◼   ► And but the iPad will come for us all.

00:21:00 ◼   ► Wow.

00:21:00 ◼   ► Eventually.

00:21:01 ◼   ► Very dark.

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00:22:24 ◼   ► So one thing we like to do on Connected is check back in with technology that we have

00:22:30 ◼   ► been using for a period of time.

00:22:32 ◼   ► No, we cannot talk about the Newton, Steven.

00:22:34 ◼   ► Next topic.

00:22:35 ◼   ► Dang!

00:22:36 ◼   ► Well done.

00:22:37 ◼   ► So we're going to have to go to the next one on the list.

00:22:40 ◼   ► I think all three of us are still grappling with the switch to OS X from OS 9, and we're

00:22:44 ◼   ► going to talk about that today.

00:22:46 ◼   ► I think we all three just are understanding the way that we use things changes over time,

00:22:51 ◼   ► so we like to touch base on things.

00:22:53 ◼   ► And so this week we're going to talk about the HomePod, which has been out for, I don't

00:22:58 ◼   ► even know now, like nine months or something?

00:23:01 ◼   ► It came out in December of last year.

00:23:04 ◼   ► No, it was February.

00:23:05 ◼   ► It was February.

00:23:07 ◼   ► It came out in February of this year.

00:23:10 ◼   ► So nine months.

00:23:11 ◼   ► You can edit that together, right?

00:23:12 ◼   ► Make you sound smart.

00:23:13 ◼   ► No, I was leaving that just the way it happened.

00:23:18 ◼   ► This was one of those things as we're getting closer to the end of the year.

00:23:20 ◼   ► I do remember feeling this now.

00:23:22 ◼   ► I remember going through this of like looking back at stuff that's happened this year. I was like, oh my god

00:23:28 ◼   ► The whole book came out this year. That was the same possible like that as soon as you serve everybody's like, oh

00:23:34 ◼   ► I remember that feeling because they missed the holiday

00:23:36 ◼   ► Purchasing cycle like just about like eight weeks. It's like come on guys. Mm-hmm

00:23:41 ◼   ► Yeah, cuz that was it right because we were also that's why I'm thinking about December because we were all so surprised

00:23:47 ◼   ► They didn't make it and then oh two months later. They've made it sad

00:23:51 ◼   ► But it's out and it's been our lives for a while and I just kind of want to talk a little bit about at least

00:23:56 ◼   ► How in my family the usage has changed so I think long-term listeners will know that I stuck it in my kitchen

00:24:02 ◼   ► Unplug the echo we had and put the home pod in and I don't want to say my family revolted

00:24:08 ◼   ► But they weren't they weren't fans. It just didn't work for us sort of in its early days

00:24:13 ◼   ► The big kicker was the multiple timers in the kitchen

00:24:15 ◼   ► But so the home pod got banished out here to my studio the echo

00:24:20 ◼   ► retain its place in the kitchen, but after the iOS 12 updated the multiple timer thing,

00:24:25 ◼   ► I wanted to give it another shot, another shot in the kitchen. I'm not one to like

00:24:30 ◼   ► hand-wring over like Amazon Echo listening listening in on us when I don't know like

00:24:34 ◼   ► I generally trust the Echo and trust what Amazon is doing with it, but I wanted to compare these

00:24:39 ◼   ► products. And so the HomePod has been back in my kitchen now probably for like six weeks and

00:24:45 ◼   ► Honestly, I think the family seems to be really happy with it.

00:24:51 ◼   ► The multiple timers is a huge win.

00:24:52 ◼   ► Of course, we cook a lot.

00:24:54 ◼   ► That's absolutely a big deal there.

00:24:57 ◼   ► Another thing that I think has come to be appreciated by all of us is that even if you

00:25:02 ◼   ► pay for the Echo, the Amazon Prime Echo music plan thing, it's roughly like $10 a month,

00:25:11 ◼   ► And it gives you access to a lot more music than just what you get for free.

00:25:14 ◼   ► Even with that, Apple Music is just much larger and much better than Amazon's offering.

00:25:20 ◼   ► At least it seems like it is.

00:25:22 ◼   ► And so Siri seems to be doing a much better job, at least for us, in finding the music

00:25:27 ◼   ► that we want to listen to and being more forgiving in how we ask it.

00:25:32 ◼   ► Siri has some actually some really interesting ways you can ask for music if you can't quite

00:25:36 ◼   ► think of the name of the song or the album it's on.

00:25:40 ◼   ► You can ask it for the newest album by the Senors, and then you'll get the new album

00:25:46 ◼   ► by those guys.

00:25:49 ◼   ► That's one of my favorite things.

00:25:50 ◼   ► I remember when Kings of Leon, they had an album come out just years ago, when the Echo

00:25:56 ◼   ► first came out, and the name of the album was the same name as one of the singles, and

00:26:04 ◼   ► it would never play the album.

00:26:06 ◼   ► It didn't matter how I asked, it would never play it.

00:26:09 ◼   ► I can never remember the names of albums now.

00:26:12 ◼   ► This is the problem with the days of streaming.

00:26:14 ◼   ► I never remember the names of albums or songs anymore.

00:26:17 ◼   ► I just don't pay attention in the same way.

00:26:19 ◼   ► So now I'll just be like, give me the latest album

00:26:23 ◼   ► from Such and Such and it will just play.

00:26:25 ◼   ► - It's cool. - I love that.

00:26:26 ◼   ► That is really cool.

00:26:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, and I think, I don't know why this has happened,

00:26:32 ◼   ► but it seems like my kids interact with it less.

00:26:35 ◼   ► So they would go up and ask the Echo to tell them a joke

00:26:39 ◼   ► or ask the weather, or like, they just talk to it a lot.

00:26:43 ◼   ► And like, sometimes I felt a little strange about that.

00:26:47 ◼   ► And this is like a complicated subject

00:26:49 ◼   ► I don't wanna get into today,

00:26:50 ◼   ► but like, things that we're okay with,

00:26:52 ◼   ► but we see our kids not be okay with,

00:26:53 ◼   ► even though it's the same thing.

00:26:54 ◼   ► It's like, oh, my kid uses too much screen time.

00:26:56 ◼   ► It's like, do you know how many hours

00:26:58 ◼   ► I look at my phone every day?

00:26:59 ◼   ► That's a whole topic, but they do seem to interact

00:27:02 ◼   ► with the HomePod a little bit less.

00:27:05 ◼   ► And maybe that's 'cause they think Siri is bad.

00:27:07 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:27:08 ◼   ► But all in all, it seems like it may hold the place

00:27:13 ◼   ► in the kitchen, and I really knew I was in trouble

00:27:16 ◼   ► when I realized that I miss having it in the studio.

00:27:18 ◼   ► Most of the time, I just listen to music on my iMac Pro,

00:27:21 ◼   ► but if I'm just working in the office,

00:27:23 ◼   ► and I'm listening to a podcast,

00:27:24 ◼   ► if I'm doing a photo shoot or setting up something,

00:27:29 ◼   ► then I'd use AirPlay to the HomePod a lot,

00:27:31 ◼   ► and not having it has actually made me miss it.

00:27:34 ◼   ► and all my lights out here I can control via Siri.

00:27:38 ◼   ► And I don't have, I still like pick up my phone

00:27:40 ◼   ► and ask it to turn my lights on

00:27:42 ◼   ► as opposed to just sort of shouting into the void

00:27:46 ◼   ► when I walk in the office.

00:27:47 ◼   ► So I may end up being a two HomePod family here

00:27:49 ◼   ► before too long.

00:27:51 ◼   ► I'm kind of hoping there's some good Black Friday deals

00:27:53 ◼   ► and I may pick up a second one for the office.

00:27:55 ◼   ► - In the beginning of October, I bought a second HomePod

00:27:58 ◼   ► because anyone listening to Cortex recently,

00:28:02 ◼   ► I've been on this like music quest for a while.

00:28:06 ◼   ► Like I just found myself listening to more and more music,

00:28:09 ◼   ► like a lot of the time.

00:28:11 ◼   ► And then I had been in a couple of friends' homes

00:28:15 ◼   ► who had multiple home pods and could hear the difference.

00:28:19 ◼   ► And as I started to just get more and more interested

00:28:22 ◼   ► in listening to more music when I'm at home,

00:28:25 ◼   ► I decided to get a second home pod for the stereo pair.

00:28:29 ◼   ► Like it's a terrible thing to say

00:28:30 ◼   ► because of the price of doing this,

00:28:32 ◼   ► but it does really feel like once you have a second one,

00:28:35 ◼   ► that is the best way.

00:28:36 ◼   ► The stereo pairing really changes the experience

00:28:41 ◼   ► of listening to music of a home pod.

00:28:45 ◼   ► The sound is much more richer and more complex,

00:28:48 ◼   ► even if you're not in between the two of them.

00:28:50 ◼   ► We have it set up so there's one on either side

00:28:54 ◼   ► of our sofa in our living room,

00:28:57 ◼   ► but even if I'm in the kitchen,

00:28:58 ◼   ► I can still hear the stereo separation.

00:29:02 ◼   ► It's very clever, like the way that they do a lot

00:29:05 ◼   ► of the stuff that they do.

00:29:06 ◼   ► Like we also hooked it up to our Apple TV.

00:29:08 ◼   ► So then we'd like, if we're watching something serious,

00:29:11 ◼   ► like a movie or like a house of cards or something, right?

00:29:14 ◼   ► Like we will play it through the HomePod,

00:29:18 ◼   ► HomePods, 'cause it gives us like a pseudo fake surround

00:29:22 ◼   ► sound, right?

00:29:23 ◼   ► Like it just adds more richness and complexity to the audio

00:29:26 ◼   ► than the TV's speakers will, right?

00:29:29 ◼   ► It's like it just sounds better.

00:29:30 ◼   ► So I've been enjoying the overall audio experience

00:29:36 ◼   ► of using multiple HomePods.

00:29:38 ◼   ► We still use the Echo though.

00:29:40 ◼   ► Like for a lot of the same things we were doing before,

00:29:43 ◼   ► we have an Echo in the kitchen and one,

00:29:45 ◼   ► I have one by my bedside.

00:29:48 ◼   ► And this is mostly because it still has skills and features

00:29:54 ◼   ► that only work there and that Apple are not going to implement.

00:29:57 ◼   ► Like there are there are like third party skills that we use, which I can't

00:30:01 ◼   ► imagine how we would do it any other way if we want to keep using it.

00:30:04 ◼   ► And what again, like the multiple timer thing, it's just more frustrating

00:30:09 ◼   ► on the HomePod than it is on the Echo.

00:30:12 ◼   ► Like the way it all works, the way you set it, the way you check it, the way it

00:30:16 ◼   ► alerts you, like it's all less than.

00:30:20 ◼   ► But I will say the more I use the HomePod, the more I realize how bad the microphones are in my Echo.

00:30:26 ◼   ► Like, especially the original gen.

00:30:30 ◼   ► Like, I just I think I'm getting used to speaking to the HomePod at a certain volume level that the Echo is not happy about.

00:30:38 ◼   ► And as I've used the Echo less and the HomePod more, so I don't use IFTTT for home stuff anymore on the Echo.

00:30:47 ◼   ► I do it all on the HomePod because all of the stuff that we want to control is HomeKit

00:30:52 ◼   ► enabled, especially with the shortcut stuff.

00:30:56 ◼   ► So my Roomba, I just can do that too, by using IFTT and the thing that Federico worked out.

00:31:03 ◼   ► So you can do all of that stuff.

00:31:05 ◼   ► So I just do all that on the HomePod.

00:31:06 ◼   ► But for the stuff that I use the Echo for, I'm like, "Oh, these microphones are not as

00:31:13 ◼   ► good."

00:31:14 ◼   ► original gen, so like maybe it's gotten better on like subsequent echoes. But yeah, I'm very

00:31:20 ◼   ► happy with the HomePod now. Like at first I kind of wasn't that sure about it, and that

00:31:25 ◼   ► was mostly because I just wasn't listening to enough music. But now I am, I'm getting

00:31:30 ◼   ► great value I think out of having one and especially out of having a second. So Federico,

00:31:37 ◼   ► how is your 15 array of HomePods? How is that treating you?

00:31:41 ◼   ► I am officially announcing today that I am discontinuing Mac Stories and I'm launching

00:31:47 ◼   ► HomePod Kolo, it's my new HomePod collocation service.

00:31:51 ◼   ► It's like, you know, you know, like those historic photos of like all the Marshall amps

00:31:56 ◼   ► stacked up, right? And like, there'd be like someone like it's like that kind of trope,

00:32:01 ◼   ► you know, like a ton of Marshall amps stacked up and you've got someone playing guitar in

00:32:04 ◼   ► front of them. There's just like 70 HomePods all stacked up and you're just like standing

00:32:08 ◼   ► in front of it with your hair blowing back. We have three of them still and we actually

00:32:19 ◼   ► removed the stereo pair last week because we bought a new piece of IKEA furniture for

00:32:26 ◼   ► our very small hallway that separates the living room and the bedroom. We now have one

00:32:33 ◼   ► of those. IKEA Besta something, it's like a drawer and it's not too tall so it's kind

00:32:41 ◼   ► of perfect for having a HomePod sit in the middle of it so we can actually use the touch

00:32:48 ◼   ► controls if we want to and so now we have one in the kitchen/small living room, one

00:32:53 ◼   ► in the bedroom, one in the hallway and we love it. I mean I love the way that it sounds,

00:32:58 ◼   ► I love how I can trigger my shortcuts from it.

00:33:03 ◼   ► And since getting the Mac Mini and I'm now

00:33:08 ◼   ► starting to set up some home automation the way

00:33:11 ◼   ► that I like it, with Homebridge, I've

00:33:14 ◼   ► set up some iTunes shortcuts in the sense that I now have--

00:33:21 ◼   ► this is, I think, part of the discussion Stephen and I will

00:33:24 ◼   ► have about the Mac Mini.

00:33:25 ◼   ► But as far as the HomePod is concerned, I now have commands for triggering specific playlists

00:33:34 ◼   ► on shuffle with just one word. Instead of saying the whole "play this playlist on shuffle", I can

00:33:41 ◼   ► just say one word. And I also have the ability to automatically start playing certain playlists

00:33:48 ◼   ► on shuffle when I run a HomeKit scene. So for example, if I want to say "relax time", I can

00:33:55 ◼   ► turn all my lights red and dim them and also start playing music via iTunes on the Mac Mini,

00:34:01 ◼   ► which is streaming audio to the HomePods. It's pretty cool. So, I love the HomePod. I wish,

00:34:09 ◼   ► the more I keep using it, the more I keep coming back to this single thing that I don't like about

00:34:14 ◼   ► it, besides the fact that Siri gets us wrong sometimes. Actually, two things. First, I've

00:34:21 ◼   ► noticed that in the past few months Siri picks up accidental activations more

00:34:28 ◼   ► often than when I first got the HomePod. It definitely happens at least once a

00:34:34 ◼   ► week now, whether it's the TV talking or, for example, a few days ago the plumber

00:34:40 ◼   ► was at my house and he was doing some work on the on the on a on a gas pipe or

00:34:49 ◼   ► something. And he was just talking to me, was explaining what he was doing. And suddenly

00:34:54 ◼   ► Siri goes, "What's that?" And it's like, you gotta imagine how weird it is that Siri in

00:35:01 ◼   ► my house is in English. And the plumber is just talking to me and suddenly this lady

00:35:06 ◼   ► from the speaker starts talking in English and I needed to explain the whole situation.

00:35:11 ◼   ► So it activates accidentally a lot more than back in February for sure. Also, the second

00:35:18 ◼   ► thing, the main one I don't like, I cannot tell, due to the way that the HomePod is

00:35:24 ◼   ► designed, it doesn't have a ring around it, so it doesn't show you with the light

00:35:28 ◼   ► or with the status indicator that it's actually listening. You gotta look on the

00:35:33 ◼   ► top of the HomePod, but because two of our HomePods now are sitting on a

00:35:38 ◼   ► shelf that are higher than our line of sight, we cannot see the top surface. So

00:35:44 ◼   ► So in the second generation HomePod, I would prefer to see a design more like the Echo

00:35:50 ◼   ► so that you can place the HomePod on any surface at any height so that you can see whether

00:35:55 ◼   ► it's actually listening or not.

00:35:58 ◼   ► I have a, kind of following on from that, a request if anybody knows this.

00:36:03 ◼   ► For a reason that I don't understand, what I assume is the dominant HomePod changed.

00:36:09 ◼   ► So if you have a pair, when you give a request, there is one that will listen and respond.

00:36:17 ◼   ► But for some reason this changed and it's not the one I wanted to be.

00:36:21 ◼   ► And I don't know how to change that.

00:36:25 ◼   ► But like just one day it was the one.

00:36:27 ◼   ► So there's like there's one by the door of the living room.

00:36:31 ◼   ► That was the original home pod.

00:36:32 ◼   ► So I'm used to looking at it.

00:36:34 ◼   ► And it's also like if we're triggering stuff like IFTTT stuff, we typically can always

00:36:39 ◼   ► see that from wherever we are. But the one that keeps responding is now the one by our

00:36:43 ◼   ► window which I never expect. And so I say something like I do the command like the Ohio

00:36:50 ◼   ► telephone and start speaking and it's not lit up and I'm like oh it's not working. But

00:36:54 ◼   ► it's because it's the other one that's taking my request. If anybody knows how I can swap

00:36:58 ◼   ► that I would love to know. I don't even know if it's possible to do and I don't know why

00:37:02 ◼   ► it changed. It just changed. And like Rick Allen said in the chat, can you take it out

00:37:08 ◼   ► the pair reset it and add it back in. In theory, yes, but then how do I tell it which one is

00:37:14 ◼   ► the right one, right? They're both solo HomePods at that point. Is there a way to say this

00:37:20 ◼   ► is the dominant one? That's what I want to know.

00:37:23 ◼   ► That's our HomePod update. What did you call it? HomePod Colu?

00:37:29 ◼   ► HomePod Kolo is my new service where we provide people with remote connections.

00:37:35 ◼   ► And so yeah, you can totally run a web server on HomePod and also play music.

00:37:44 ◼   ► So whenever somebody visits your website, the HomePod is going to play a song.

00:37:49 ◼   ► It's pretty sweet.

00:37:50 ◼   ► You can imagine it's a very loud collocation space.

00:37:54 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:37:59 ◼   ► Everyone has April Texas, it's mandated.

00:38:01 ◼   ► I should also say, on a more serious note, I should also say that on the record, I wrote

00:38:06 ◼   ► this in my iOS 12 review and I'm going to say that again on the show, I want shortcuts

00:38:11 ◼   ► to have native HomePod actions, native AirPlay actions.

00:38:15 ◼   ► I want to be able to write little scripts that play specific albums or specific playlists

00:38:21 ◼   ► on specific HomePods with specific volume levels. Like, I want to control the whole

00:38:26 ◼   ► thing. I want to be able to automate my HomePods from shortcuts. I don't think that would be

00:38:32 ◼   ► too crazy to have, considering that I paid $300 for these speakers. Well, a normal person

00:38:37 ◼   ► would pay $300 for this. I pay double because it's a very sad story. But yes, HomePod actions

00:38:46 ◼   ► in shortcuts. That would be nice.

00:38:49 ◼   ► It was interesting to me that you started that statement with "on the record".

00:38:53 ◼   ► Can the rest of the show not be used?

00:38:55 ◼   ► Sometimes I say things on the show in an unofficial manner of sorts.

00:39:03 ◼   ► Sometimes you shouldn't treat those as final statements from me, because sometimes it's

00:39:09 ◼   ► the character saying things, it's not the Max Stories editor saying things, if they

00:39:14 ◼   ► make sense.

00:39:16 ◼   ► The character?

00:39:18 ◼   ► Federico Viticii is just a character that I play on podcasts.

00:39:22 ◼   ► For example, do you really think I'm launching a HomePod collocation service?

00:39:26 ◼   ► That's w- no!

00:39:27 ◼   ► Well, don't say it.

00:39:29 ◼   ► No, but it's fun.

00:39:32 ◼   ► I mean, it's, you know, it's fun to say.

00:39:34 ◼   ► I'm just gonna register a domain real quick.

00:39:36 ◼   ► Some people just take every single thing I say literally, but I'm just saying sometimes

00:39:43 ◼   ► it's entertainment.

00:39:45 ◼   ► So I am not discontinuing Mac stories, that's what I mean.

00:39:49 ◼   ► Well Jon shut it down already, so he took care of that.

00:39:52 ◼   ► Well there you go, do you guys have a job for me?

00:39:56 ◼   ► Besides the podcast?

00:39:59 ◼   ► So there's HomePod Kolo dot global, HomePod Kolo dot tech, oh here it is, HomePod Kolo

00:40:10 ◼   ► dot online.

00:40:11 ◼   ► That's good.

00:40:13 ◼   ► Well, it's online. It is online. I'm going to spend a little company money, Myke. It's

00:40:18 ◼   ► very important. All right. That's great. And this actually, and this is unplanned, but

00:40:23 ◼   ► very nicely helps me pivot into our next sponsor, which is Hover. With Hover, you can find the

00:40:32 ◼   ► domain that shows everyone what you're most passionate about, whether that is HomePods

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00:41:10 ◼   ► You can search for a domain and if they don't have the exact thing you're looking for, they're

00:41:13 ◼   ► going to make a bunch of recommendations. They'll maybe give you some different words

00:41:16 ◼   ► you can throw in there, maybe some different configurations and help you find the domain

00:41:21 ◼   ► that most perfectly helps you express what you are looking to put out into the world.

00:41:26 ◼   ► Domain names are so important but they're not just important for websites. You could

00:41:31 ◼   ► also get a really cool domain name for an email address.

00:41:35 ◼   ► If you're maybe trying to run something professional, maybe you don't want to have

00:41:39 ◼   ► this at generic email provider dot com. You want to create

00:41:43 ◼   ► your own. I've done this before. I have some domain names that I

00:41:47 ◼   ► basically just use for email because it looks really professional

00:41:51 ◼   ► and that's great. And you're in safe hands with Hobber. They offer best in class customer

00:41:55 ◼   ► support. They have no annoying up sales. It's super easy to buy from them

00:41:59 ◼   ► because you're not having to go through 700 screens to get to the checkout.

00:42:02 ◼   ► They even offer Whois protection that you get that just for free.

00:42:06 ◼   ► So that means that people can't find out your information online.

00:42:09 ◼   ► It's great. You can even go right now.

00:42:11 ◼   ► If you're a designer or maybe some kind of creative person,

00:42:14 ◼   ► you can get Dot Design as a domain name.

00:42:17 ◼   ► Don't just get a dot com or dot biz.

00:42:19 ◼   ► Like if you have a portfolio you want to put on the web or something,

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00:42:48 ◼   ► Our thanks to Hover for their support

00:42:50 ◼   ► of this show and Relay FM.

00:42:52 ◼   ► - All right, so this week Federico,

00:42:55 ◼   ► you published something,

00:42:56 ◼   ► I know you've been working on it for a while,

00:42:58 ◼   ► you had some of us looking at some beta versions of this,

00:43:01 ◼   ► but you have released a shortcut

00:43:03 ◼   ► that is a home screen icon creator.

00:43:08 ◼   ► You can launch apps, you can launch contacts,

00:43:11 ◼   ► this thing seems to do everything.

00:43:13 ◼   ► What have you created?

00:43:15 ◼   ► - So yes, at a basic level, it is a way to create icons

00:43:22 ◼   ► on your iOS home screen for launching apps,

00:43:25 ◼   ► for launching contacts or contact actions,

00:43:30 ◼   ► and to have solid color icons.

00:43:33 ◼   ► If you have like a black wallpaper or, I don't know,

00:43:36 ◼   ► a white or a red wallpaper, you can create icons

00:43:39 ◼   ► that sort of allow you to fake having gaps

00:43:43 ◼   ► on your home screen so that you can create custom layouts.

00:43:46 ◼   ► That would be the idea.

00:43:48 ◼   ► I assume you wanna know the story

00:43:52 ◼   ► of how this shortcut came together.

00:43:54 ◼   ► Yes, please.

00:43:55 ◼   ► So I've always been intrigued by the feature

00:44:00 ◼   ► that Workflow had years ago, and that feature

00:44:03 ◼   ► was maintained by Apple in the transition to shortcuts,

00:44:07 ◼   ► that you can add a shortcut to your home screen.

00:44:10 ◼   ► And when you do this, you open a shortcut in the shortcuts app,

00:44:13 ◼   ► and you tap the Share icon, and you choose Add to Home Screen.

00:44:17 ◼   ► And what happens is you're taken to Safari,

00:44:21 ◼   ► and you see in the address bar something

00:44:23 ◼   ► that says data, colon, and then a bunch of text.

00:44:27 ◼   ► And I never, like, Workflow had this feature,

00:44:31 ◼   ► so I realized, well, it's not like a proprietary thing

00:44:35 ◼   ► if Workflow used to have it,

00:44:37 ◼   ► and Shortcut says it still has to be something

00:44:40 ◼   ► that is open to developers.

00:44:41 ◼   ► And I never really paid attention to the link.

00:44:48 ◼   ► But then, like in late October, I realized, you know what?

00:44:53 ◼   ► I actually want to take a look at this data link that contains a bunch of text, like random

00:45:00 ◼   ► text. I want to see what it is. And so I assumed that that text, like an insanely long string

00:45:07 ◼   ► of text, was going to be base64 encoded text. Your best friend, Myke, base64.

00:45:13 ◼   ► I don't understand base64.

00:45:16 ◼   ► Like there's a page on Wikipedia that tells you that there's an algorithm that's...

00:45:20 ◼   ► Yeah, and you've explained it to me, but it still doesn't make sense.

00:45:23 ◼   ► It's something that exists in the world and there's nothing you can do about it. You can just accept it.

00:45:28 ◼   ► Don't test me.

00:45:30 ◼   ► So...

00:45:32 ◼   ► I'll eradicate Base64.

00:45:34 ◼   ► I thought this is going to be Base64, so what I did is I copied the link from Safari and I opened Shortcuts

00:45:40 ◼   ► and I went like, here's the text, decode it, and it didn't work.

00:45:44 ◼   ► So I googled "Bay64 decoder" and there's a bunch of web apps that can do this for you.

00:45:51 ◼   ► And I don't know if it was like a memory limitation of shortcuts or if I did something wrong myself,

00:45:57 ◼   ► but I was able to decode the text by using one of these online web services.

00:46:04 ◼   ► And what I found was amazing in that it was the code for an HTML web page that contained CSS,

00:46:12 ◼   ► contained an HTML structure and that also contains some JavaScript. And by

00:46:18 ◼   ► taking a look at this and this code I realized that Apple was essentially

00:46:22 ◼   ► putting together a web page. So here's how it works. When you add a

00:46:27 ◼   ► shortcut to the home screen, shortcuts creates on the fly some HTML. This HTML

00:46:35 ◼   ► contains the web page that you see in Safari with the blue background and the

00:46:38 ◼   ► instructions on how to add the shortcut to the home screen. But it also contains

00:46:42 ◼   ► meta tags for having a home screen icon and for having a splash screen when you

00:46:50 ◼   ► open the shortcut icon from the home screen. And fun fact...

00:46:52 ◼   ► Right, because this is piggybacking on the sweet solution thing.

00:46:56 ◼   ► Yes, yes.

00:46:57 ◼   ► It's web apps for the iPhone.

00:46:58 ◼   ► Using web app technologies. And fun fact, when you add a shortcut to the home screen with the Apple Shortcuts app,

00:47:05 ◼   ► Shortcuts creates on the fly a local host server connection, like a local server, to provide Safari with instructions on which kind of splash screens to use depending on the device you have.

00:47:23 ◼   ► So it's basically opening a connection to localhost to say this is an iPhone, use a splash screen that is, I don't know, a thousand pixels tall and 500 pixels wide, something like that.

00:47:36 ◼   ► Anyway, the most important step of this super inelegant workaround is the following.

00:47:46 ◼   ► When you add this HTML webpage to the home screen, web apps have a way to detect whether they are running in what is called a standalone mode.

00:47:59 ◼   ► Standalone mode is when you add a website to your home screen and you launch it from the home screen.

00:48:04 ◼   ► This is supported on Android, on iOS, and it's part of the, I think it's called, Progressive Web Apps technologies.

00:48:11 ◼   ► When it's running in standalone mode, what happens is, via JavaScript,

00:48:17 ◼   ► Shortcuts simulates a mouse click on a hidden link in the web page.

00:48:25 ◼   ► And it uses mouse events, which is part of the standard JavaScript library,

00:48:30 ◼   ► to simulate a click on a link that is invisible.

00:48:34 ◼   ► And that link has a URL scheme that takes you to Shortcuts

00:48:39 ◼   ► and runs the shortcuts you selected.

00:48:42 ◼   ► Once I figured this out, I always wondered,

00:48:45 ◼   ► how can you add a shortcut to the home screen

00:48:48 ◼   ► that is actually a web app, but then when you open it,

00:48:50 ◼   ► it launches shortcuts, and that is how.

00:48:53 ◼   ► It's using JavaScript to fake clicking

00:48:57 ◼   ► on an invisible link on a webpage.

00:49:00 ◼   ► And at that point I realized, well,

00:49:05 ◼   ► I can just turn this system into whatever I want

00:49:09 ◼   ► because I can put together the HTML

00:49:11 ◼   ► for presenting users with a webpage in Safari,

00:49:14 ◼   ► and I can use the same script to launch any link I want

00:49:19 ◼   ► when the icon is tapped from the home screen.

00:49:22 ◼   ► And so I got to work and I added support

00:49:25 ◼   ► for running any app URL scheme you want,

00:49:29 ◼   ► like launching Tweetbot or launching Google Docs.

00:49:33 ◼   ► I added support for running any shortcut

00:49:36 ◼   ► from the shortcuts app.

00:49:38 ◼   ► Added support for contact actions.

00:49:41 ◼   ► So you can pick a contact and you can say,

00:49:43 ◼   ► "I wanna create an icon for texting my wife,

00:49:46 ◼   ► "or for FaceTiming my friend Steven."

00:49:49 ◼   ► And also I added the option to create a solid color icon.

00:49:54 ◼   ► I customized the HTML that you see in Safari

00:49:57 ◼   ► by using CSS and HTML shortcuts.

00:50:01 ◼   ► I can present users with a responsive web page that uses the San Francisco font that

00:50:10 ◼   ► has an embedded instruction image that tells you how to add a web app to your home screen.

00:50:20 ◼   ► And I also customized the splash screen that you see for a second when you tap this icon

00:50:26 ◼   ► on the home screen.

00:50:27 ◼   ► This was not necessary, but I hated that when I tapped the icon, the experience was not pretty enough.

00:50:34 ◼   ► So I wasted at least a week figuring out media queries for adding splash screen support,

00:50:43 ◼   ► which is something that people will see for a fraction of a second.

00:50:46 ◼   ► But it matters to me because it's nice and it's prettier.

00:50:49 ◼   ► But basically I had to learn how pixel ratios work in WebKit.

00:50:57 ◼   ► So the idea that, for example, most iOS devices have a pixel ratio of 2,

00:51:02 ◼   ► but modern iPhones and modern iPad...

00:51:05 ◼   ► No, actually just modern iPhones have a pixel ratio of 3.

00:51:08 ◼   ► So it was a whole thing, calculating device size and creating images on the fly inside the shortcut.

00:51:17 ◼   ► But at the end, I ended up with this shortcut that is over 200 actions long, and it's definitely the most complex thing I've ever worked on.

00:51:28 ◼   ► But you can use it and you can create icons for whatever you want.

00:51:33 ◼   ► You can customize it. If you don't like the options that I provided, everything has a comment in the shortcut so you can see what all the steps do.

00:51:44 ◼   ► By default, for example, my shortcut uses icons from the App Store.

00:51:48 ◼   ► So if you want to have a custom icon on the home screen, you can just search the App Store

00:51:52 ◼   ► and use the icon for any app from the App Store.

00:51:57 ◼   ► This is how people create secrets on their phones.

00:52:01 ◼   ► Yes, exactly.

00:52:02 ◼   ► Well, why would you want to open my calendar?

00:52:05 ◼   ► It's boring, but actually takes you to a private photo album.

00:52:09 ◼   ► Just saying.

00:52:10 ◼   ► Oh, no.

00:52:11 ◼   ► Oh, no.

00:52:12 ◼   ► - Some people do that.

00:52:14 ◼   ► - Oh, I know, it's like a big thing on Android, right?

00:52:16 ◼   ► Like here's a calculator app,

00:52:18 ◼   ► but actually it's a hidden photo thing.

00:52:20 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:52:21 ◼   ► - So do not endorse that.

00:52:23 ◼   ► - But yeah, everything is pretty much modular.

00:52:26 ◼   ► You can change things,

00:52:29 ◼   ► you can switch the order of options in the menu.

00:52:32 ◼   ► And a first version that I published yesterday

00:52:35 ◼   ► required Dropbox for image uploads,

00:52:40 ◼   ► but then thanks to a Mac Stories reader,

00:52:42 ◼   ► I figured how to remove the need for Dropbox altogether.

00:52:47 ◼   ► So these 200 actions,

00:52:50 ◼   ► the shortcut takes five seconds to run now.

00:52:53 ◼   ► And all the images, all the assets are provided

00:52:55 ◼   ► in base 64, Myke.

00:52:59 ◼   ► - Of course they are.

00:53:00 ◼   ► Everyone's friend.

00:53:01 ◼   ► - All the icons, all the splash screens,

00:53:03 ◼   ► everything is local to your device.

00:53:05 ◼   ► Nothing gets uploaded.

00:53:07 ◼   ► It runs offline.

00:53:08 ◼   ► You don't need an internet connection.

00:53:09 ◼   ► I mean, you need one if you want to search the app store for an icon.

00:53:14 ◼   ► But otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the result.

00:53:17 ◼   ► And this approach, the idea of loading custom HTML in Safari, I've been explaining how to

00:53:26 ◼   ► take advantage of this on Club Max Stories, because I'm building like a custom reading

00:53:31 ◼   ► list highlights tool.

00:53:34 ◼   ► That's wild, too, by the way.

00:53:36 ◼   ► That thing is madness.

00:53:37 ◼   ► I've been building that on Club Max Stories.

00:53:39 ◼   ► Max Stories I share the home screen icon creator and also Max Stories I'm gonna

00:53:44 ◼   ► explain in the future how to load other types of data and files in Safari from

00:53:50 ◼   ► the home screen which is also going to be pretty interesting.

00:53:53 ◼   ► I want to ask you, this is all great, this is amazing, but what are you actually

00:53:59 ◼   ► using this for? I want some examples.

00:54:02 ◼   ► Okay, so I've been using one example, I've been using Agenda on iOS because I think I

00:54:08 ◼   ► finally figured what this app does.

00:54:12 ◼   ► You figured it out.

00:54:13 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:54:14 ◼   ► You're the person who figured it out.

00:54:15 ◼   ► Yeah, so.

00:54:16 ◼   ► Oh, poor Agenda.

00:54:17 ◼   ► It's a nice app.

00:54:18 ◼   ► I just can't work out what it, how.

00:54:22 ◼   ► Like you need to have a mind made for that app.

00:54:26 ◼   ► So what I'm using it for is to--

00:54:30 ◼   ► it's a very simple use case.

00:54:32 ◼   ► I have a project called Shortcut Ideas.

00:54:36 ◼   ► And into this project, there's a bunch of ideas for shortcuts

00:54:40 ◼   ► that I want to test.

00:54:41 ◼   ► So what I do is I take an individual note,

00:54:44 ◼   ► and I add it to my calendar so that on that day,

00:54:47 ◼   ► I remember that I need to test something.

00:54:49 ◼   ► So for example, tomorrow morning,

00:54:51 ◼   ► I know that one of my shortcut ideas, which

00:54:53 ◼   ► is called Car Playlist with Launch Center Pro.

00:54:57 ◼   ► It requires me to configure an iBeacon in my car,

00:55:01 ◼   ► like a little USB dongle that uses the beacon technology.

00:55:05 ◼   ► So it's a way to add notes, but make them calendar-based,

00:55:10 ◼   ► so that I know where I can do them.

00:55:14 ◼   ► - It's a very beautiful app.

00:55:16 ◼   ► - It's very beautiful.

00:55:17 ◼   ► - It's very good-looking.

00:55:18 ◼   ► I just feel like I don't work in the way

00:55:22 ◼   ► that it wants me to work.

00:55:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, but this app, it also,

00:55:26 ◼   ► I think the way I like it is because I,

00:55:31 ◼   ► I never fully got the OmniOutliner approach on iOS.

00:55:37 ◼   ► Like, I love outlines,

00:55:39 ◼   ► but OmniOutliner is too much for me.

00:55:41 ◼   ► And the idea of having these simple outlines,

00:55:45 ◼   ► but also the calendar integration is nice.

00:55:48 ◼   ► I am, I hope, so my dream is that the agenda developers

00:55:52 ◼   ► will offer you the option to create reminders instead

00:55:56 ◼   ► of calendar events, because I would

00:55:58 ◼   ► love to be able to tie an agenda link to a reminder.

00:56:03 ◼   ► For now, I think I'm just going to write

00:56:04 ◼   ► my own shortcut that converts agenda events into agenda

00:56:08 ◼   ► reminders.

00:56:09 ◼   ► So whenever I create an event from agenda,

00:56:13 ◼   ► I can just run a little widget shortcut,

00:56:16 ◼   ► and I can say turn this event into a reminder.

00:56:18 ◼   ► I don't need to see it into my calendar.

00:56:20 ◼   ► But anyway, I have a custom, so to answer your question,

00:56:25 ◼   ► I have a custom agenda icon that uses the agenda icon,

00:56:30 ◼   ► the agenda logo, but is called automation.

00:56:33 ◼   ► And it takes me into the shortcut ideas project.

00:56:37 ◼   ► I'm gonna do the same for Keepit.

00:56:40 ◼   ► So using the same app icon,

00:56:43 ◼   ► but to launch me into specific screens

00:56:47 ◼   ► of the apps that I use the most.

00:56:49 ◼   ► so that I retain quick access to the app.

00:56:52 ◼   ► But whenever I type the icon,

00:56:53 ◼   ► I'm taken into a specific part of it.

00:56:56 ◼   ► So that's a big thing for me.

00:56:57 ◼   ► On the iPad--

00:56:58 ◼   ► - I wanna give you a feature request.

00:57:00 ◼   ► - Sure.

00:57:01 ◼   ► - You probably thought of this.

00:57:02 ◼   ► I just don't know how, I don't know how you could do it.

00:57:04 ◼   ► It'd be great if you could though.

00:57:05 ◼   ► Like to be able to do, modify the app icon in some way,

00:57:10 ◼   ► like put a border around it or a color on it.

00:57:13 ◼   ► So like you could have five agenda icons

00:57:17 ◼   ► and they all have like a slight difference to them.

00:57:19 ◼   ► So you could hit the one you want for a specific project that you know it to be.

00:57:23 ◼   ► Right. Because otherwise, like you end up with the app icon

00:57:28 ◼   ► and then a shortcut to something in the app and it's just the same icon.

00:57:32 ◼   ► I don't know if it's possible, but it's just something that I would like.

00:57:34 ◼   ► Something I'm like the next thing I'm working on is

00:57:39 ◼   ► and some folks are going to copy this now that I'm talking about it.

00:57:43 ◼   ► I don't care.

00:57:43 ◼   ► Mine's going to be better anyway.

00:57:47 ◼   ► A way to create wallpapers with shortcuts.

00:57:51 ◼   ► So taking the same idea of using HTML and CSS

00:57:57 ◼   ► to build up a web page that is never shown to the user,

00:58:02 ◼   ► but that web page, that presentation

00:58:04 ◼   ► is converted to a PDF and then to an image.

00:58:07 ◼   ► And what I'm playing with is the idea of instead of just using

00:58:11 ◼   ► solid colors, like plain colors, I

00:58:13 ◼   ► I would want to learn CSS gradients so that I can make beautiful gradients

00:58:19 ◼   ► and then use them as wallpapers for shortcuts.

00:58:22 ◼   ► So I could probably do something like take this image

00:58:25 ◼   ► and add a border around it with CSS.

00:58:28 ◼   ► Yeah. Yeah, that'd be cool.

00:58:30 ◼   ► Let me save it in Agenda, Myke.

00:58:32 ◼   ► - Hold on. - Yeah, please do.

00:58:34 ◼   ► How does this app work on the Mac? Oh, God.

00:58:37 ◼   ► Well, I will save it, Myke, in Agenda eventually.

00:58:41 ◼   ► But yeah, so, HomeScreenIconCreator,

00:58:44 ◼   ► it took me way longer than I expected,

00:58:47 ◼   ► but I mean, the response has been pretty amazing.

00:58:49 ◼   ► It was at the top of the shortcuts subreddit yesterday,

00:58:54 ◼   ► got a bunch of comments and what are they called?

00:58:56 ◼   ► AppVotes, I suppose that's the name.

00:58:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, sure.

00:59:00 ◼   ► - So I was really happy with that.

00:59:01 ◼   ► Yeah, it was fun to put together.

00:59:03 ◼   ► - It's wild, it's wild. - Thank you.

00:59:05 ◼   ► - Like, I don't fully know what I would use it for yet,

00:59:08 ◼   ► but I have it and it's just like...

00:59:10 ◼   ► - Well, here's what I wanted to--

00:59:11 ◼   ► - You know what, actually, here's the thing.

00:59:13 ◼   ► The fan is very interesting.

00:59:15 ◼   ► The fan is very interesting.

00:59:16 ◼   ► I was playing around with my Pixel.

00:59:19 ◼   ► And you know on iOS, when you 3D touch on an icon

00:59:24 ◼   ► and you get the quick actions that pop up, right?

00:59:28 ◼   ► Android has these, but you can take those quick actions

00:59:32 ◼   ► and you can drag them to your home screen.

00:59:35 ◼   ► So for example, Todoist has a quick action thing

00:59:39 ◼   ► to add a task. But on Android, it doesn't even open the app. It just opens a little

00:59:43 ◼   ► box and you just type it in. So I now have on my home screen on my Android phone, it

00:59:48 ◼   ► just says new task and it has the todoist, like a version of the todoist icon, which

00:59:52 ◼   ► is small inside of a bigger bubble. So you can tell it's not the same thing. Tap it and

00:59:56 ◼   ► I can just enter a task. And it's like making me think like, huh, I wonder if there is a

01:00:03 ◼   ► like a version of a home screen, which is focused around and Gray's done some of this.

01:00:10 ◼   ► And he's mentioned some of his stuff on Cortex 2 of like, it's not app focused.

01:00:17 ◼   ► It is action focused.

01:00:20 ◼   ► Yeah. Right.

01:00:21 ◼   ► Which is making me think about what I would like to see the future of the iPad home screen be is not app focused, but something else.

01:00:30 ◼   ► Yeah. Right.

01:00:32 ◼   ► Because I pulled this out in my head and now I'm excited about it.

01:00:36 ◼   ► I keep thinking about it.

01:00:38 ◼   ► Why don't we just have on the dock on iOS what is essentially Launchpad and just all

01:00:45 ◼   ► the apps live in that and the apps aren't on the home screen anymore.

01:00:50 ◼   ► We use the home screen for something else.

01:00:52 ◼   ► I think that's more of what I personally would want to see rather than just this grid.

01:00:56 ◼   ► I would just put everything in a dock.

01:00:58 ◼   ► Just give me the Launchpad.

01:01:00 ◼   ► weird that Launchpad even exists on the Mac and not on the iPad when you really start

01:01:03 ◼   ► thinking about it. It's like it doesn't make sense. It's in the wrong place. So I've been

01:01:10 ◼   ► thinking about like what does an action home screen look like and like is it something

01:01:16 ◼   ► that is like I have in addition to an app launch screen? I don't know. I don't know

01:01:21 ◼   ► if I'm ever going to do anything about this, but it's just something I've had turned over

01:01:24 ◼   ► in my head. In part because of what you've done.

01:01:28 ◼   ► Well, one other thing that I do on the iPad, I don't know if you've looked at my iPad Pro home

01:01:37 ◼   ► screen, but it's got a black wallpaper and it uses the black icons on top of the black wallpaper to

01:01:45 ◼   ► fake having a gap in the middle of the screen in landscape so that I keep my most used apps on the

01:01:51 ◼   ► the left side and folders in a vertical orientation on the right side. So of

01:01:57 ◼   ► course this only works in landscape, the layout gets all messed up in

01:02:03 ◼   ► portrait because the iPad rotates and it doesn't keep your your layout but I

01:02:08 ◼   ► don't use my iPad Pro in portrait on the home screen. I never think of my... like if I ever

01:02:15 ◼   ► have my app in portrait it's like I don't know where anything... my iPad I don't

01:02:19 ◼   ► or anything is anymore. Like I have no idea what this layout is.

01:02:26 ◼   ► So this was fun. It's cool Federico, it seems like something that people should know about.

01:02:35 ◼   ► Like it feels like you've done something here that Apple wants to have hidden away, but

01:02:40 ◼   ► now it's out there.

01:02:41 ◼   ► It was an open API before some other apps used to do this kind of trick before, but

01:02:47 ◼   ► But now if you want to have a contact on your home screen, you don't need to download an

01:02:50 ◼   ► app from the App Store, you can just do it for free with my shortcut.

01:02:53 ◼   ► So there you go.

01:02:56 ◼   ► I think it's super awesome.

01:02:58 ◼   ► I just wish I had the ideas to take advantage of it, but time.

01:03:02 ◼   ► Time is what I need.

01:03:03 ◼   ► You will have the ideas.

01:03:04 ◼   ► There's the holidays coming up, Myke, and you will have time to think, instead of playing

01:03:08 ◼   ► with your Nintendo Switch.

01:03:10 ◼   ► Think about your home screen.

01:03:11 ◼   ► No, I'll probably just play Pokemon.

01:03:15 ◼   ► episode is also brought to you by our friends at Luna. If you have a Mac and an iPad, listen up

01:03:21 ◼   ► because there is something missing from your setup and that is Luna Display. This is something that

01:03:26 ◼   ► could totally change the way that you interact with your devices. Like Luna Display allows us

01:03:31 ◼   ► to use our iPads as a wireless display for our Mac. Isn't that an incredible idea? How useful!

01:03:37 ◼   ► You have this beautiful screen, why not take advantage of it? You can connect over Wi-Fi or

01:03:42 ◼   ► USB once you've plugged in the Luna display dongle, you've got more screen real estate right there for you.

01:03:48 ◼   ► You can have multiple screens even when you travel. This allows you to have a multiple screen setup

01:03:52 ◼   ► even if you have a laptop. You don't have to lug around an extra monitor because like how would you even, right? Like

01:03:58 ◼   ► No, no, that's not a situation you want. Like don't just take my word for it that this thing is awesome.

01:04:04 ◼   ► I'm more said that Luna will change your travel workflow. TechCrunch have described the visual fidelity as frankly stunning and it is super cool.

01:04:11 ◼   ► My favorite thing is just how easy it is to set up.

01:04:13 ◼   ► Like you just plug it in, you open the apps, one on the Mac, one on the iPhone,

01:04:17 ◼   ► and it's done. And then you can even set it up that the

01:04:20 ◼   ► that it will just open like the lunar display app on the Mac,

01:04:23 ◼   ► which is open whenever it's logged in or whenever the lunar display is plugged in,

01:04:27 ◼   ► which is super great.

01:04:28 ◼   ► I've been like tying around the idea of when I get my Mac mini very soon

01:04:33 ◼   ► of just plugging in a lunar display into that and play

01:04:36 ◼   ► and then just using my iPad as the way to interact with that Mac mini.

01:04:40 ◼   ► Turns out, it's possible, Lunar Display put together a whole video and blog post about

01:04:45 ◼   ► how to do it because they thought that the idea sounded super cool, they tried it out

01:04:49 ◼   ► and it works.

01:04:50 ◼   ► And I am very excited about the prospect of this because it just looks like a super cool

01:04:53 ◼   ► way to be able to manage that Mac Mini but also if I do need to do something super quick

01:04:59 ◼   ► on a Mac I can just use the Lunar Display for it.

01:05:02 ◼   ► Super super awesome, there's tons of uses for this thing and it's super simple too.

01:05:06 ◼   ► Go right now to Lunadisplay.com that is L-U-N-A-D-I-S-P-L-A-Y.com. Once you're there, use the promo code

01:05:15 ◼   ► connected at checkout and you'll get 10% off a lunar display. That is Lunadisplay.com and

01:05:20 ◼   ► promo code connected at checkout. Our thanks to Lunadisplay for their support of this show

01:05:25 ◼   ► and Relay FM.

01:05:26 ◼   ► I have some real time follow up from Kate in the chatroom, she's linked to me to a support

01:05:31 ◼   ► article about how to control which home pod responds. Apparently the left home pod becomes

01:05:36 ◼   ► the dominant home pod. Why did they make that choice? But they did.

01:05:39 ◼   ► It's left brain and right brain, you know, that stuff.

01:05:43 ◼   ► Oh yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Apparently all you need to do is go up to the

01:05:49 ◼   ► home pod that you want and you tap on it and you ask it to turn on Siri and then that will be the

01:05:54 ◼   ► one that uses it. Seems like a very simple way to do it, I just wished that it was more obvious.

01:06:00 ◼   ► But yeah, so I will be trying that out once we're done today.

01:06:04 ◼   ► You guys have in the show note Apple's holiday ad, which I've watched and I've watched the

01:06:09 ◼   ► behind the scenes and it seems like the two of you have many more feelings about this than I do.

01:06:15 ◼   ► It's beautiful.

01:06:17 ◼   ► Oh, it brought tears to my eyes.

01:06:19 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah. I don't know, there's something about...

01:06:22 ◼   ► Am I a monster? That I wasn't moved?

01:06:24 ◼   ► Maybe.

01:06:25 ◼   ► You are an old man with a heart of stone.

01:06:28 ◼   ► You've experienced every feeling you could possibly experience by now. Me and Federico

01:06:33 ◼   ► still have new ones. There's nothing more for you to feel, is what we're saying. So

01:06:43 ◼   ► leave it to the teenagers here to share emotional comments on a commercial from a multi-billion

01:06:49 ◼   ► corporation. This ad, I like it because it's something that resonates with me, the idea

01:07:00 ◼   ► of sometimes keeping your creative endeavors away from people.

01:07:08 ◼   ► Because you feel like they're not good enough.

01:07:10 ◼   ► Because you feel like they're not good enough or that nobody's gonna like them or they're

01:07:13 ◼   ► too personal or too, you know, people will not be able to relate to them or whatever.

01:07:19 ◼   ► And the message of it's okay, like you should share your creativity with other people. It's

01:07:26 ◼   ► something that I struggle a lot of times myself and so seeing this message in this ad and

01:07:33 ◼   ► I love the style, I love the animation work and there's a dog and the fact that as a dog

01:07:38 ◼   ► person the fact that the dog is sort of helping the main character overcome this problem is

01:07:47 ◼   ► even better for me because it's interesting you see it that way I just saw it as the dog

01:07:51 ◼   ► made an accident like he just accidentally chased after something and opened the window

01:07:55 ◼   ► The dog knew what he was doing, Michael.

01:07:58 ◼   ► Yeah, they always do, right? Dogs have...

01:08:00 ◼   ► They always do.

01:08:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:08:02 ◼   ► I don't want to hear anything about this.

01:08:04 ◼   ► This was done on purpose.

01:08:07 ◼   ► So, yeah, it's it's a message that resonates.

01:08:11 ◼   ► It's done in a style that I like.

01:08:13 ◼   ► And there's a dog.

01:08:14 ◼   ► And there is a behind the scenes video.

01:08:16 ◼   ► Funnily enough, I don't know why this is.

01:08:19 ◼   ► Both the ad and the behind the scenes video are the exact same length.

01:08:24 ◼   ► I don't, it's just one of those, I noticed it.

01:08:26 ◼   ► I was like, they're both two minutes and 53 seconds.

01:08:29 ◼   ► Huh?

01:08:29 ◼   ► Why, why are they both anyway, but they are.

01:08:33 ◼   ► And the behind the scenes video shows that I would never have guessed this.

01:08:37 ◼   ► This, the characters are CG.

01:08:39 ◼   ► The environments are practical.

01:08:41 ◼   ► They are sets.

01:08:42 ◼   ► They are miniaturized sets that were built.

01:08:44 ◼   ► And this added on to me because like, like the whole thing is about sharing your

01:08:48 ◼   ► gifts, which is a great tagline.

01:08:49 ◼   ► It's a great play on words.

01:08:51 ◼   ► you know, like that you share your gifts with people, but also the holidays are a

01:08:55 ◼   ► time when people share gifts with each other.

01:08:57 ◼   ► Right. It's very clever. And like, I was just remarked to talk about like sharing

01:09:01 ◼   ► gifts, like showing these people, like the things that they're able to build.

01:09:05 ◼   ► Right. Like that is a gift.

01:09:07 ◼   ► And I think this is a beautiful ad and it has a wonderful message.

01:09:11 ◼   ► You know, I guess, Stephen, I'm surprised you didn't at least get like called

01:09:16 ◼   ► Tyriad because the character whose name is Sophia or Sophie, I think they

01:09:21 ◼   ► mentioned in the behind the scenes, is just using a Mac. I thought that might have at

01:09:24 ◼   ► least brought a tier to your eye. Yeah, she's creating on a Mac because you can't do real

01:09:29 ◼   ► gift sharing on an iPad. Yeah, that's true. I love the Supreme sticker. I think that's

01:09:33 ◼   ► funny. Yes, I love the song by Billie Eilish. She's amazing. She's 16. She's been making

01:09:41 ◼   ► music since she was 11. So she's the perfect person for this ad, right? She's perfect.

01:09:46 ◼   ► She got signed by a major label when she was 14, so two years ago. And if you have a home

01:09:51 ◼   ► pod. Here's a teachy music tip. Thank you. If you have a home pod, set it loud. So set

01:09:58 ◼   ► it like 70 or 80% and play by Billie Eilish. The title of the song is You Should See Me

01:10:06 ◼   ► in a Crown. Trust me, home pod very loud during the day. Don't do this at night. You should

01:10:13 ◼   ► see me in a crown by Billie Eilish. You will not regret it. The song is great. And I'm

01:10:18 ◼   ► I'm not saying I don't like it, I like the message.

01:10:20 ◼   ► I think the message is great.

01:10:22 ◼   ► Fidor, it's interesting you say that you struggle with this.

01:10:25 ◼   ► I struggle with the opposite that sometimes I feel like--

01:10:27 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:10:28 ◼   ► - My ideas are too good.

01:10:29 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:10:30 ◼   ► - No, no, not that.

01:10:31 ◼   ► - No, I'm kidding.

01:10:33 ◼   ► - The mechanism, I feel like sometimes I only make things

01:10:36 ◼   ► because I have to share them and then I don't make

01:10:38 ◼   ► enough stuff just for me that's private,

01:10:40 ◼   ► which is like a different thing.

01:10:42 ◼   ► But yeah, the behind the scenes video really was cool.

01:10:46 ◼   ► I had no idea that they were background sets.

01:10:50 ◼   ► I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna watch a two-minute thing

01:10:53 ◼   ► about how CGI works, and it's like,

01:10:55 ◼   ► oh, holy cow, they built a city.

01:10:58 ◼   ► That's awesome.

01:10:59 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:11:00 ◼   ► - And it shows how much, it's like the HomePod video

01:11:03 ◼   ► from earlier this year with the room

01:11:06 ◼   ► that it extends as she's dancing.

01:11:07 ◼   ► - Love that ad.

01:11:08 ◼   ► - Apple puts a lot of money and effort into these things,

01:11:10 ◼   ► and that is really cool.

01:11:12 ◼   ► - I love that.

01:11:13 ◼   ► That HomePod ad is one of my favorite commercials

01:11:15 ◼   ► of all time.

01:11:16 ◼   ► I have many times just watched it for fun, right?

01:11:20 ◼   ► Like it's just a wonderful, wonderful ad.

01:11:22 ◼   ► Let me ask you, in America, are Christmas ads a thing?

01:11:27 ◼   ► Like emotional Christmas stories?

01:11:30 ◼   ► - Oh yeah. - Okay.

01:11:31 ◼   ► - Yes. - 'Cause that's the thing

01:11:32 ◼   ► that I think it started here, like it's John Lewis, right?

01:11:36 ◼   ► Like John Lewis at the department store.

01:11:38 ◼   ► John Lewis' Christmas ad this year,

01:11:40 ◼   ► it's probably the best they've ever done.

01:11:42 ◼   ► - Should I watch it?

01:11:43 ◼   ► - Oh, it's an Elton John ad?

01:11:45 ◼   ► Oh my God.

01:11:46 ◼   ► Oh my god, it's so good.

01:11:49 ◼   ► It's so good.

01:11:50 ◼   ► I will put a link in the show notes

01:11:52 ◼   ► to the John Lewis Christmas ad.

01:11:55 ◼   ► It is incredible.

01:11:57 ◼   ► I cried, I cried my eyes out watching it.

01:11:59 ◼   ► So that's that.

01:12:01 ◼   ► But the S Apples ad is very, very nice, very nice.

01:12:04 ◼   ► - We don't have emotional Christmas ads in Italy.

01:12:07 ◼   ► I don't think we do.

01:12:09 ◼   ► There was an ad a few years ago

01:12:12 ◼   ► that sort of became viral among my friends

01:12:16 ◼   ► and on Facebook in Italy from I think it was like a German or like a Danish supermarket

01:12:23 ◼   ► chain. It was an I don't remember exactly details but it was an ad about like this old

01:12:29 ◼   ► man that was always spending his Christmas alone and then his family realizes and they

01:12:37 ◼   ► spend Christmas together and I swear like I cried a lot watching that ad. It was really

01:12:44 ◼   ► beautiful and touching. But they're not a thing in Italy. I think we are too cynical

01:12:50 ◼   ► as a country to get emotional for ads.

01:12:55 ◼   ► Is Christmas commercialized significantly in Italy?

01:12:58 ◼   ► Oh yeah, but not... yes. Well, it's kind of weird because there's this divide between

01:13:06 ◼   ► the commercialized aspect of Christmas, of course, and the religious aspect, because

01:13:10 ◼   ► we have the Vatican.

01:13:11 ◼   ► Because I would have figured the religious aspect was even more so than some other countries.

01:13:17 ◼   ► There's a lot of debate amongst, you know, between the religious people who say, "Well,

01:13:25 ◼   ► Christmas is now too commercialized and everybody else is just spending money." So we feel that

01:13:32 ◼   ► debate a lot because of the Vatican and because of the religious aspect of Italy. But yeah,

01:13:40 ◼   ► very commercialized and I feel like maybe this is happening everywhere but

01:13:43 ◼   ► I've been seeing Christmas decoration go up in late October which is nonsense

01:13:47 ◼   ► like we're starting this thing earlier every year I mean next year we're

01:13:52 ◼   ► probably gonna see Christmas stuff in August I mean why not you know yeah

01:13:56 ◼   ► it's crazy it's harder outside of America because there's no Thanksgiving

01:14:01 ◼   ► barrier yeah right they're pushing right through it but they don't care anymore

01:14:05 ◼   ► more than just like whatever. Yeah Thanksgiving has lots of holes in it and Christmas oozes

01:14:11 ◼   ► through. That's wonderful. I have one last thing I want to talk to you guys about today

01:14:16 ◼   ► because I saw this and I just want to know what you think. The 12 South power pick. What

01:14:22 ◼   ► is this? I have not looked at this yet. I saw this and I wanted to react on the show

01:14:27 ◼   ► so I'm loading the page. Let me explain what this is for our audio listeners. It is a wooden

01:14:33 ◼   ► picture frame that hides the 10 watt Qi charger underneath the image. So, it's just a picture

01:14:43 ◼   ► frame and you put your phone in the frame and then it will charge your phone up. So

01:14:49 ◼   ► it's got like a stand, that's where it lives, you put it in there. 12 South have also, they've

01:14:53 ◼   ► gone an extra step, they've created some images and wallpapers that pair together. So like

01:14:59 ◼   ► have one where it's like a blank sky with some marble floor but when you put your iPhone in it

01:15:05 ◼   ► there is like a matching Eiffel Tower or Tour de Eiffel, is that it? I think that's it, I'm gonna

01:15:12 ◼   ► go with that, that would then be in its place so you complete the whole image. Wait, hold on, so

01:15:18 ◼   ► you gotta use their own wallpapers for this effect? No you don't have to, you don't have to, you can

01:15:23 ◼   ► can use whatever you want, but they created a bunch of like freely

01:15:27 ◼   ► downloadable images that pair together nicely, right?

01:15:31 ◼   ► But you can do whatever you want, or you don't have to have an image at all, right?

01:15:34 ◼   ► Like you can just have a picture in the frame and then you just, you know.

01:15:38 ◼   ► Can you put your own physical picture in the frame?

01:15:42 ◼   ► Yes, yes, yes.

01:15:43 ◼   ► These pictures, they are downloadable photos, right?

01:15:46 ◼   ► So like you can download the images, you can print off the images to go in the frame

01:15:51 ◼   ► and then you can download the wallpaper if you want to, or you can just put any image you want in the frame.

01:15:56 ◼   ► Okay. Okay. I mean, I love 12 South. They make some really great stuff.

01:16:03 ◼   ► They make some questionable stuff too, though.

01:16:05 ◼   ► This is not one of them. Like, I feel like we are-

01:16:08 ◼   ► They make great stuff, but then they also make like, the cases that you stick-

01:16:13 ◼   ► The back candle?

01:16:14 ◼   ► No, the candle is like, that was, I think that was probably always a joke.

01:16:17 ◼   ► Oh, the cases that look like a Bible that are, yeah, yeah.

01:16:22 ◼   ► Yeah, then I don't like those.

01:16:24 ◼   ► So I feel like this is just approaching the wild territory of, it's a shower head, but

01:16:31 ◼   ► it's also a G charger.

01:16:32 ◼   ► Wouldn't that be great?

01:16:34 ◼   ► It's like, I don't want this.

01:16:37 ◼   ► I don't want to have chips and cables and power in every single object that I touch.

01:16:44 ◼   ► I don't want to walk around the house with my hands with gloves and be like,

01:16:47 ◼   ► Ooh, is that a charger? Can I touch it? It's like, well,

01:16:50 ◼   ► it looks like a coffee maker,

01:16:53 ◼   ► but actually if you put your phone on the top of it, I don't want that.

01:16:57 ◼   ► So, um,

01:16:58 ◼   ► what I would think if,

01:17:00 ◼   ► if I went to someone's house and I saw a picture frame with an iPhone leaning in

01:17:04 ◼   ► it, I would not think, Oh, that's a charger. I would think two things. A,

01:17:09 ◼   ► that phone is just going to fall out of there and break. But B who's,

01:17:12 ◼   ► who are they angry at that they are covering the face of this former loved one with their

01:17:17 ◼   ► phone? Right? Like, oh, that picture, you know, like, I'm not talking to that person

01:17:21 ◼   ► right now. So I just covered them. I just put my phone in there. So I don't have to

01:17:24 ◼   ► see them looking at me. It's, I want to, I'm trying to imagine the ideal user for this

01:17:32 ◼   ► product. Somebody just casually walking around the house, you know, they're doing chores,

01:17:36 ◼   ► they're doing something. And then this person was like, who let me put my phone in the picture

01:17:40 ◼   ► frame per second than to charge it. Like, why would you do this? I don't understand.

01:17:48 ◼   ► I don't, I'm not going to buy this product because it's, I just don't want it. But I

01:17:53 ◼   ► feel like I have a, I understand it more than, than you two do. Like, I feel like I kind

01:17:59 ◼   ► of get it that like Qi charges are ugly and like a picture frame is something that's always

01:18:03 ◼   ► just sitting there anyway, wherever it's sitting. So like, why not put a Qi charger in the back?

01:18:09 ◼   ► However, that line of thinking does lead to many more ridiculous situations as Federico

01:18:17 ◼   ► has explained.

01:18:18 ◼   ► So I do not encourage the line of thinking of "why not put a Qi charger in it?"

01:18:22 ◼   ► Like I don't like that sentence.

01:18:26 ◼   ► Why not put a Qi charger in it?

01:18:28 ◼   ► Because again, I will say, I've said this many times, Qi charging makes me uncomfortable.

01:18:32 ◼   ► It just makes me uncomfortable.

01:18:34 ◼   ► There's just something about it that I don't like and I don't know why it is.

01:18:38 ◼   ► I don't ban Qi charging from my home.

01:18:40 ◼   ► I'm thinking of getting a Qi charger soon, but it's still, I feel more comfortable with

01:18:45 ◼   ► a cable that I plug into the phone.

01:18:46 ◼   ► It's just, it's just how my brain is built.

01:18:49 ◼   ► What if you had a Qi charger, but it was not vertical.

01:18:54 ◼   ► It was more like a mat, like something that you rest somewhere.

01:19:01 ◼   ► What if it supported multiple devices at once, like say an iPhone and your Apple Watch and

01:19:07 ◼   ► in your AirPods.

01:19:09 ◼   ► Wouldn't that be nice?

01:19:11 ◼   ► - What would you call it?

01:19:12 ◼   ► - I don't know, picture power?

01:19:14 ◼   ► Like power mat?

01:19:15 ◼   ► - Power mat's good. - Power pad.

01:19:19 ◼   ► Power pad. - Power pad.

01:19:21 ◼   ► Power pad, like somebody should work on that.

01:19:24 ◼   ► You know? - Sounds very good.

01:19:25 ◼   ► - Should file a patent for it, maybe.

01:19:27 ◼   ► - That's a good idea.

01:19:30 ◼   ► All right, I think that does it for this

01:19:33 ◼   ► very special episode of Connected.

01:19:36 ◼   ► You can now no longer avoid your family,

01:19:38 ◼   ► you must go to Thanksgiving dinner.

01:19:40 ◼   ► But if you just want a couple more minutes with us,

01:19:42 ◼   ► head over to the website, relay.fm/connected/219

01:19:46 ◼   ► to find links to all the stuff we talked about.

01:19:49 ◼   ► You can get your cousin a photo

01:19:51 ◼   ► that is also a wireless charger,

01:19:55 ◼   ► or you can buy AirPod stickers,

01:19:57 ◼   ► or you can watch a video of a guy making a movie

01:20:01 ◼   ► on an iPad, which frankly seemed impossible.

01:20:03 ◼   ► All that stuff and more is over there.

01:20:05 ◼   ► Relay FM slash connected slash 219.

01:20:08 ◼   ► While you're there, you can get in touch.

01:20:10 ◼   ► You can send us feedback, follow up.

01:20:12 ◼   ► Follow up goes at the beginning of the show,

01:20:13 ◼   ► so if you email us, we read that first.

01:20:16 ◼   ► Or you can do so over on Twitter.

01:20:18 ◼   ► You can find Myke there as I-M-Y-K-E.

01:20:22 ◼   ► Myke, of course, is the host of a lot of great shows

01:20:24 ◼   ► on Relay FM.

01:20:25 ◼   ► You can find Federico on Twitter at Vitici, V-I-T-I-C-C-I,

01:20:29 ◼   ► and he is the editor-in-chief of MaxStories.net

01:20:32 ◼   ► and the founding executive of HomePodColo.Online.

01:20:37 ◼   ► So go check that out.

01:20:42 ◼   ► By the time this is up, someone will have bought that

01:20:45 ◼   ► and I can't promise you where it goes.

01:20:47 ◼   ► You can find me on Twitter @ismh

01:20:49 ◼   ► and I write 512pixels.net.

01:20:51 ◼   ► And until our next episode, guys, say goodbye.

01:20:54 ◼   ► - Adios, echos.

01:20:55 ◼   ► - Cheerio. - Adios.

01:20:56 ◼   ► [ Silence ]