207: The Best Easter Egg is You
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(upbeat music)
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Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 207.
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It is made possible this week by our sponsors,
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Casper, Pingdom, and Green Chef.
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I'm your host, Stephen Hackett,
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and I am joined again by the two co-hosts of Connected.
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We're all back together two weeks in a row.
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Up first, we have Federico Vittucci.
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- Hey, how you doing?
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- I'm great.
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I'm glad you're here and we have Myke Hurley.
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- It's a new day, here we are.
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- It's a new day, it's a new.
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That's a song, right?
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That's totally a song. - Yeah, I'm feeling good.
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- Yeah, yeah.
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Well, I want to, we need to clarify something
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before we do the show.
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People were worried about me.
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Someone even thought that I was drunk on the show.
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- Well, no, I don't think they thought you were drunk,
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they thought you were hungover.
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- Oh, okay, yeah, hungover, okay.
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- Which is slightly different, you know?
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Yeah, but I just had a cold. I don't know if you can still feel the last bits of the cold,
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which is basically gone at this point, I'm doing much much better, but it was just a cold.
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I don't drink before podcasts, that's not professional, you know?
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-And especially... -I think you did one time.
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If I cast my memory back, I am very confident there was an episode of
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at least the prompt where you were drinking wine.
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I was drinking wine but I was not drunk. That's different.
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Yeah, but this is one of those things where it's like, you were also a little bit looser
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than usual. I remember this. I don't know what episode it was and I probably would never
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find it, but there was an episode where you were drinking wine and you were having a little
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bit of a holiday party I think.
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Well, even if I was a hangover you wouldn't know because you wouldn't notice. I'm very
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professional like that with my drinking. So maybe, maybe, maybe I've done many episodes
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of Connected and I was hungover and you didn't know.
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You would never know.
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Last week I just had a cold. So thank you for warning about me but I'm fine, I think.
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Moving on, can we do follow up?
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I'm glad you're okay.
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Last week we were speaking about the Aqua Screenshot Library put together and we talked
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about how I wanted…
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world-famous, internet-famous Aqua Screenshot Library.
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Yeah, it's done many hundreds of thousands of page views.
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I knew you before your Aqua Screenshot Library, so don't forget about us.
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I knew Aqua before it became famous.
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Do you feel, I will ask you, because I'll just say this has been linked all over the
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web this week.
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It's like, when you look back at it, it's like this is one of those perfect little things
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that when a big website needs a link for the day, it's like perfect food for that, right?
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Because it was on Lifehacker and stuff where it's like they need something interesting
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to link to today and someone had found this and they're like, "This is perfect."
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It's one of those, it's like candy for these bigger websites, which I think is probably
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why it's getting linked to everywhere and doing hundreds of thousands of page views,
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right? In hindsight, it's like, "Oh yeah, this is perfect for that," which is the same
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as the desktop wallpapers. Same idea, right? Like, these things are very interesting to
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nerds, so big websites find them, they find them interesting, and then they put it in
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their selection to link to later on, which is great. Does the fact that it has done hundreds
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and thousands of page views now in like a week make it feel like it was worth the time
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investment to you?
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Yeah. Yeah. Since it was so well received, and I haven't gotten to all of them, but I
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I have a bunch of emails and tweets from people like sharing like,
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Oh, I forgot about this. Oh, I ran this on my first computer.
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Like people are like genuinely like connecting with it, which is what I wanted.
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But you, you know, we've all done this, right?
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You just never know if it's actually going to work.
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So I'm pumped. I liked your pump. Oh yeah. The connected thing. That's good.
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You know what I haven't actually done yet is look through tiger,
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which was my first, my first version. I'm like, I'm flicking through it now.
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haven't even thought about that. Look at these icons. Ah, iTunes was green! Yeah, the
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iTunes icon has changed a bunch over the years. Oh gosh, brush metal, brush metal. I
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always forget about it until I see it and I'm like, oh god, there it is.
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I always get confused between Cheetah and the other with the
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name that's like a shoe brand. Puma? Yeah. I always get confused. Which came first?
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Cheetah, Cheetah was the first one right? Yes I'm loading it now. I've looked at it
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too much I don't actually know. Yes Cheetah was 10-0, Puma was 10-1. 10-1 okay yeah.
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Why is the calculator made out of metal? Why isn't it? Why shouldn't it be? I feel
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like that it would like you press the buttons and they would like maybe
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scratch a little bit you know. It makes it really heavy like it feels good in the hand.
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So yeah, it's done well.
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Which is really exciting.
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You chose Songs of Innocence as the album!
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That's very good!
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That's very good, I'm ruining all your Easter eggs now.
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That's probably the biggest Easter egg, honestly.
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That's very good.
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No, no, no, no.
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The best Easter egg is you.
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In the, uh, in the FaceTime booth.
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That's the best.
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There are some incredible pictures here.
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I haven't looked at any release in as much depth as I'm looking at this one where I'm
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looking at every image. So now I'm noticing all of the things I've kind of just like perused
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through, you know, but now I'm looking at like keyboard and mouse preferences, which
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I wouldn't necessarily look at. But here I am now going through all of this. And it's
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funny because I probably look to all of this, right? Because I was so interested in that
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can probably like my you know my first Mac I was more interested in than any
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other computer right like I wanted to look at everything and see what
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everything did because I was new to it right so I would go in and I probably
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would have spent a little bit of time in like date and time system preferences
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for whatever reason just like what is this what's in here so yeah this is nice
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I'm pleased that you did this project and I am very very happy that it's
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getting a lot of attention but you do have some things that you're working on
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with it though right? I do so I we mentioned last week I wanted to have the
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inclusion of a page where you could compare a single image across all of its
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releases like what did like the main screen assistant preferences look from
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the public beta all the way through High Sierra. Which is a super important thing
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for the project right like it makes sense for like if people are looking at
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this for historical purposes which they ultimately will end up doing that you
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would want to be like what happened to calendar all the way across like yes
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important to see yeah absolutely and I had an example of that in the blog post
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but I hand-built that gallery and I needed a way to do this programmatically
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because with 1500 screenshots it was already a lot of work to do what's up
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there now and in starting to build those manuals like very quickly without a hand
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and so I just said on the show if anyone is WordPress dev maybe knows how I could
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this get in touch and a couple people emailed me but I owe a big thanks to Warren Harding,
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not the dead president turns out. He's a really nice guy in Australia.
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That's really exciting for a second man.
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Yeah he's not dead he's just been learning PHP all these years.
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Maybe he should have been dead.
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Please email Federico directly about that comment.
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PHP is a fate worse than death.
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So, Warren has built me a tool to do this, and I hope to get this rolled out in conjunction
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with the Mojave screenshots coming up.
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But it's working in beta, and it does what I want it to do.
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So I know Warren's a listener, so thank you again.
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Thank you to everyone who emailed and I talked with Warren, picked up the ball and ran with
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And it's really great, and I'm excited to roll it out.
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So keep an eye out for that.
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I'll be sure to talk about it here.
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It's really, it's gonna be cool.
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So I'm gonna have it as a single page
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where you can go in and compare screenshots.
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Select the one you want and look through all the releases.
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But I got some metadata stuff to deal with
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to get it all to work, so.
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- I really like how you say that name, by the way.
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- Warren, yeah, there's not, there's no,
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there's just one long letter, really.
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- It's just one sound, it's just a sound.
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- I guess I would say Warren, right?
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- Yeah, I can't do that.
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- Like, Johnnie Kavula, Warren.
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- Warren. - Warren.
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Warren Hart. Warren Harting. Thanks, Warren. Thank you, Warren. Warren, I'm expecting Warren
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is very happy right now. We apologize for ruining it. I mean, he's alive, so he must
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be happy. And learning PHP. Oh, boy. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to the library updates.
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I've played around with the exclusive beta and I'm pleased that you're taking steps to
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improve because I mean, of course we're joking about PHP, but the fact that for historical
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purposes people are going to use this resource, which is a horrible word, but it is what it
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is and several years from now, if you keep it up to date, people will use it and it will
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become like a destination when you, you know, when you search for, what's the name of that
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website that used to exist? Sort of had a thing similar to yours, but I don't think
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it's updated anymore. I don't think the website still exists.
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There was like, there was like GUI library.
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Yeah, I'm thinking of guidebook, but with the logo was like GUI, something like that.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. That's, that's what it is.
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So if you can sort of turn your screenshot library into this sort of modern version of
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that, I think that will be great.
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So I'm really happy that you're continuing to update it, and I was really happy to see
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it linked in a bunch of places.
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I have to apologize to you, Stephen, though, that I didn't look on Italian websites, because
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I really don't follow them.
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So you may have been linked on a bunch of Italian blogs, but I wouldn't know, because
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I don't read them.
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I think it was on Sunday, one of the big referrals was a couple of websites in Russia, which
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was exciting. I tried reading them with Google Translate and it struggled.
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But they seemed to like it.
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We could have had a Frederick Tendrils moment with you.
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Yeah. Yeah. They seemed happy with it in Russian. So, it's good.
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Yeah. I hear they're happy with the Americans lately.
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Swiftly moving on. Thank you to everybody who has become a Relay FM member. We will
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We will be releasing our member special on September the 4th and we are going to be talking
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about the wonderful movie, The Pirates of Silicon Valley, so you can tune in to hear
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what I think is going to be pretty varied reviews from all of us, so that's going to
00:11:22
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be a lot of fun.
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And I'm hoping that you will also hear, because we are actually recording that today, so this
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is why I'm talking about it, like it's, I don't know what's happened yet, because I
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I'm hoping that Steven will be able to provide some historical context and an accuracy rating
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for the movie itself.
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So you can sign up now, there's a link in the show notes where you can sign up to give
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$5 a month to Connected, which we'd greatly appreciate.
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But if you want to find out more about Relay FM membership or maybe donate to another show
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or all the great shows, go to relay.fm/membership to learn more.
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Last week we mentioned the app Opener, and I think this was in context of opening a Twitter
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link in tweetbot?
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It was to open a twitter link in the twitter app.
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So in tweet terrific and tweetbot now, you can no longer find out who liked to tweet
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or whatever.
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So this is a way that if you open in the share extension the link to the tweet, you can then
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have it automatically default to open in twitter or any other app that you so choose.
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So do we actually need opener for this?
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We had some feedback that maybe you could do it other ways.
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Well, yeah, there's a—we got an email or a tweet—I think it was a tweet—about the
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fact that there's a—in the Twitter—actually, in the Tweetbot app or in the Twitter app,
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there's an "Open in Safari" sort of activity item as an action extension, but it's not
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really an action extension because it's not available in other apps.
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still the idea that you can open in Safari from Tweetbot and by doing that you will be
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redirected to the Twitter app because iOS uses universal links, so instead of opening
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the link in Safari you will be taken into the Twitter app because the system sees the
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Twitter.com link and it says "well, you have the Twitter app installed so instead of opening
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Safari in a webview I will take you to that tweet inside of the native client".
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That seems to be working for some people, but speaking from personal experience, this
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is an unreliable solution.
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It is so random.
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It seems so random that sometimes I open a link, and this happens with Twitter, this
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happens with YouTube, it happens with Safari View Controller sometimes, other times it
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doesn't, but Universal Links, as much as I kind of like the concept of the link is tied
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to a page inside of a native app, the implementation in iOS so far has been unreliable for me.
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I don't know what the issue is. I don't know if something perhaps changed since Universal
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Links were introduced with iOS 9, that would be three years ago, four releases ago. But
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I prefer to use OpenR because it always works and I know what I'm doing. So it's an extra
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tap, actually not if you're using AutoOpen, which I described last week, but yes, you
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would need to have OpenAir installed. But in my experience, using OpenAir is much more
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reliable than sort of the lottery of universal links, and also it allows you to open links
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in many other third-party alternatives, not just the official clients. So back in the
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day when ProTube was available, the excellent YouTube client that is not available anymore,
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I used Opener to open YouTube links in ProTube and that was amazing. But I still use Opener
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for a bunch of other types of links, including, you know, Tweetbot and Twitterific for example
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are options that Universal links do not support. So this may work for you, or may not. If it
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doesn't I seriously recommend trying out Opener. Yeah I've been very happy with it
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I like it a lot it's a great little app and it's good to set up with other
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things right so as you're saying like YouTube and stuff like that because if
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YouTube opens in Safari View Controller it's never signed in anymore right so
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then I have that whole problem but then I try and sign in and then it opens the
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YouTube app and I'm not where I want to be because you know like I see a see a
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video and I add it to my watch later queue or whatever and it's just never it
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just doesn't work the way I want it to so with opener I don't have to worry
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about this stuff because it can just pass the URLs over to the application
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and open it where I need so I understand yes it would be wonderful if universal
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linking did this accurately and if it does for you then awesome but I have
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found that is not the case so that's why I am enjoying the use of opener very
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much in our post API destruction world.
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Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Casper. Say goodbye to Selma by taking
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Something I think about a lot in the summer is our, it's just hot and humid here, right?
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Like you have a ceiling fan, you have air conditioning, but if you have a mattress where
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you sort of sink down into it, it gets like hot to sleep in, and that's just uncomfortable
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and kind of gross.
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And the Casper mattress is great in the summer because it's got that right balance.
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And so it's comfortable, but I'm not like being swallowed into it to be all hot and
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sweaty at night.
00:17:31
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It's much more comfortable than other mattresses we have owned in the past.
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For a limited time, visit casper.com/savings and you can get 10% off any order of a mattress.
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So this special offer is until September the 3rd, 2018.
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So act right now.
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Terms and conditions apply.
00:17:49
◼
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is casper.com/savings to get 10% off any order of a mattress until September the 3rd. Our
00:17:55
◼
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thanks to Casper for their support of this show and Relay FM.
00:17:58
◼
►
Alright, so there is an update out today for the application DUE. All these apps have names
00:18:07
◼
►
that when I say them they all sound the same.
00:18:09
◼
►
Not called DUE, like do something. It's DUE.
00:18:16
◼
►
Can you say that again, Steven? What's the name?
00:18:19
◼
►
No. They all sound the same. Do, do, do. That's D-O-D-U-E and D-E-W. They all sound the same.
00:18:26
◼
►
Don't forget, teux, D-E-U-X, D-E-U-X. That's my favorite of all the bad names.
00:18:31
◼
►
That's the French one, "tadour." Is that how you say it?
00:18:34
◼
►
"Tadour." I think that's how it's pronounced.
00:18:40
◼
►
You know, I can't remember what it's called, but what is it called? Like, is it the title
00:18:43
◼
►
of a web page, you know, like you can hover over the top and see like the, it has like
00:18:49
◼
►
the name. You know what I'm talking about, the little description in the web page. I'm
00:18:53
◼
►
trying to think. All right. So yeah, you might be able to help me here. When, when we click
00:19:01
◼
►
the bookmark clip that adds a link to the CMS. Yes. And it prefills that field that
00:19:06
◼
►
says Ty Tool. What is that called on a website? I don't know. Let me see.
00:19:14
◼
►
But okay, the reason I'm saying this is that in trying to add the TÜR DÜR website to the
00:19:20
◼
►
show notes, their description is "TÜR DÜR, what DÜR DÜR have TÜR DÜR TÜR DÜR?"
00:19:26
◼
►
which I think is friggin hilarious. Check the show notes, it will be in there. I think that
00:19:30
◼
►
they very much lean into their silly branding, which I like very much. But what is it called?
00:19:36
◼
►
Like you can get that...
00:19:38
◼
►
Like the page title?
00:19:40
◼
►
Yeah, the webpage title.
00:19:43
◼
►
Right? That's what I said, but everyone laughed at me.
00:19:45
◼
►
How does... Oh, so that... You were just trying to describe the... where you see the joke.
00:19:54
◼
►
Yeah, because it's not... you can't...
00:19:57
◼
►
The name of the thing was not the joke itself.
00:20:00
◼
►
Okay, now I get it.
00:20:03
◼
►
What is happening?
00:20:04
◼
►
I had to describe where you see the joke and then I could say the joke.
00:20:08
◼
►
I thought the name of the place where you see the joke was the joke.
00:20:16
◼
►
Oh, so that's two of us.
00:20:17
◼
►
Now we've cleared that up.
00:20:19
◼
►
That's all definitely staying in, by the way.
00:20:21
◼
►
Let me talk about...
00:20:22
◼
►
Of course it is, I wanted to.
00:20:23
◼
►
Let me talk about Dew, which is one of my very, very favorite iOS apps.
00:20:27
◼
►
And I've been using this beta for a few months now.
00:20:31
◼
►
I really love it.
00:20:34
◼
►
I do. I love it very, very much.
00:20:35
◼
►
And the reason so Dew is an application which I mostly use for like
00:20:41
◼
►
quick reminders or repeating tasks that don't feel worthy of going into
00:20:47
◼
►
my task manager. So this could be stuff.
00:20:49
◼
►
Remember, so not not and remember the milk.
00:20:52
◼
►
No, because there's no milk.
00:20:53
◼
►
Actually, do you know what? If I do need to remember milk, it goes in here.
00:20:56
◼
►
So like if I need to buy milk, it goes in here because stuff like buy milk,
00:21:01
◼
►
in my opinion, should not be going into your task manager, because that's just.
00:21:04
◼
►
But what if your task manager is remember the milk and you have a task
00:21:08
◼
►
and that manager called remember the milk?
00:21:10
◼
►
Then you've made a bad decision.
00:21:11
◼
►
You've made it.
00:21:12
◼
►
You've already made a bad decision, though, if you're using that.
00:21:15
◼
►
So I don't trust any of the choices that somebody could make.
00:21:17
◼
►
Don't if they were using the milk.
00:21:20
◼
►
I would, there is a reason we're not doing the iPhone home screen episode this year and
00:21:25
◼
►
that is part of it. So stuff like take out trash, like buy groceries or do your exercises,
00:21:33
◼
►
take your pills, those kinds of things that you may need to do every day and have to be
00:21:38
◼
►
done. And one of the best features of Dew is the fact that it will keep reminding you
00:21:45
◼
►
on an interval of an item until it is marked "completed".
00:21:50
◼
►
And this isn't something that a lot of applications will do.
00:21:53
◼
►
It will just keep reminding you.
00:21:55
◼
►
And a little while ago they added in some features to snooze the action from the reminder,
00:22:03
◼
►
just from a very simple list of options that you have.
00:22:06
◼
►
But my very favorite feature about JU 3.0, this is taking advantage of some notification
00:22:12
◼
►
changes that were made I think in iOS 11 where now you can instead of just taking
00:22:19
◼
►
the notification and saying remind me in a preset time like 10 minutes or 30
00:22:23
◼
►
minutes and then it goes away and then comes back again in 10 minutes or 30
00:22:26
◼
►
minutes you can now tap on it and you can press a button to custom snooze for
00:22:32
◼
►
as long as you want you can just keep tapping these intervals so you could be
00:22:35
◼
►
like one hour one hour one hour save and then it will remind you in three hours
00:22:40
◼
►
You kind of have to see this to understand what I mean and there's a link to the Mac stories review in our show notes
00:22:46
◼
►
But what this does is it means that I get those notifications and instead of me just saying like a preset time for it to remind
00:22:53
◼
►
Me again, I can tell it exactly when I want it to remind me again. It is a wonderful wonderful
00:22:58
◼
►
Update to the application. This is a really excellent feature
00:23:02
◼
►
It also has haptic feedback and a pure black theme for all the phones, but the custom snooze stuff
00:23:09
◼
►
it is really wonderful. And I haven't seen it implemented in any app like the way it's
00:23:15
◼
►
done here. Basically they're creating like a custom keyboard, is that right Federico?
00:23:20
◼
►
For that it's almost like a keyboard as opposed to just preset options.
00:23:25
◼
►
It looks like a keyboard but it's actually a custom view that you can load below the
00:23:31
◼
►
content of a notification. I think that's what's happening here.
00:23:34
◼
►
And there aren't many apps that I've seen that do stuff like this.
00:23:37
◼
►
No, it's actually really clever.
00:23:40
◼
►
I think I've seen only one other instance of a developer using
00:23:45
◼
►
It's perfect for you, because it sort of retains
00:23:48
◼
►
the context of these custom snooze times
00:23:51
◼
►
that you create in the app.
00:23:52
◼
►
You can bring them over to the notification.
00:23:56
◼
►
I'm not sure if it's like a separate view controller
00:24:00
◼
►
or if they're doing something to sort of hack
00:24:03
◼
►
into the-- like a custom key.
00:24:06
◼
►
But it's not a custom keyboard because you need to enable a custom keyboard first.
00:24:10
◼
►
So they're showing a custom UI at the bottom of the notification.
00:24:14
◼
►
And this is super clever.
00:24:15
◼
►
Yeah, this is perfect use of the notification content APIs that they introduced with iOS
00:24:24
◼
►
10 and iOS 11.
00:24:25
◼
►
So I'm impressed.
00:24:27
◼
►
The first time you showed me a screenshot of the beta, I was really surprised because
00:24:33
◼
►
it's not something that you see every day.
00:24:35
◼
►
Most people probably wouldn't care, but as someone who obsesses over these little APIs
00:24:40
◼
►
that you are also forced to, well not forced, but you Myke had to read this stuff last year,
00:24:47
◼
►
you were not forced.
00:24:48
◼
►
You were not forced.
00:24:49
◼
►
For some of that stuff I was forced.
00:24:52
◼
►
I felt like.
00:24:55
◼
►
But I'm always happy to see developers taking advantage of all the little possibilities
00:25:00
◼
►
that iOS offers.
00:25:01
◼
►
So it looks really cool.
00:25:04
◼
►
It is worth noting that Joo is a paid app and those two features, the black theme and
00:25:10
◼
►
the custom snoozing are an in-app purchase for existing customers.
00:25:15
◼
►
So you have to pay $2.99 to get that, but it's worth it in my opinion.
00:25:20
◼
►
It's well worth those features.
00:25:21
◼
►
If you use the application with any kind of frequency, you should upgrade.
00:25:26
◼
►
Trust me, it's worth it.
00:25:27
◼
►
So it's a great app.
00:25:29
◼
►
So that was an app.
00:25:30
◼
►
You know, that's an app that we expect to be updated, right?
00:25:32
◼
►
I think Joo has been in, you know, it's been an app that's been, had updates and it's taken
00:25:36
◼
►
care of and we know that it exists and so we expect it to be updated.
00:25:39
◼
►
However, something else got updated yesterday that literally nobody, not one person, would
00:25:44
◼
►
have expected would have happened.
00:25:47
◼
►
The Airport Express, do you remember that product?
00:25:49
◼
►
The product Apple explicitly doesn't sell anymore and stopped selling like a good few
00:25:54
◼
►
months ago, got updated to support AirPlay 2.
00:25:58
◼
►
No, no, I gotta say, shout out to Zach Hall from 9to5Mac.
00:26:04
◼
►
He actually expected this.
00:26:06
◼
►
He has been tweeting screenshots.
00:26:08
◼
►
Because there was sort of like-- it looked like a bug
00:26:11
◼
►
since the iOS 11.4 beta.
00:26:14
◼
►
But the Home app showed you like an Airport Express icon
00:26:19
◼
►
as a device that you could add to HomeKit.
00:26:22
◼
►
Well, let me rephrase what I'm saying is my expectation.
00:26:25
◼
►
When they got rid of the product and announced that AirPlay 2 was
00:26:28
◼
►
existing, I don't think anybody expected at that point that the Airport Express,
00:26:33
◼
►
once it stopped being sold, would ever get it right.
00:26:36
◼
►
Like there may have been breadcrumbs which could have could have said it afterwards.
00:26:40
◼
►
But I can't imagine anyone would have really expected that.
00:26:42
◼
►
Not really. Yeah, it's it's so strange to me.
00:26:45
◼
►
And I actually tweeted this this morning that it was strange to me to see
00:26:49
◼
►
a discontinued product get such a major upgrade because I mean,
00:26:53
◼
►
we're talking about Airplay 2, one of the key features of the iOS 11
00:26:57
◼
►
release cycle. Some people said yeah it's totally surprising it doesn't really
00:27:01
◼
►
make sense. Other people said it's more I'm not surprised because it's sort of
00:27:08
◼
►
like sort of like a goodwill gesture from Apple saying we know we discontinue
00:27:14
◼
►
this product so here get this one last feature to you know sort of to as a as a
00:27:21
◼
►
thank you please forgive us. The funny thing though is the Airport Express is
00:27:26
◼
►
now more desirable as a product for me to own. So it doesn't really make sense. Which makes it the
00:27:30
◼
►
weirdest thing. Like I now am more inclined to want to own one because then I would be able to
00:27:37
◼
►
turn any speakers into Airplay 2 speakers. Well you can get one on Amazon pretty cheap,
00:27:44
◼
►
or eBay still pretty cheap. Gray market hasn't caught on yet. I actually bought one when they
00:27:51
◼
►
announced they were going away because I thought this is something that I should have.
00:27:54
◼
►
This is super cool because I mean these Airport Expresses like their whole deal was like you
00:28:03
◼
►
could extend your wireless or you put a printer somewhere but what a lot of people use these
00:28:06
◼
►
specifically for was to stream music from iTunes to like their home speaker system and
00:28:13
◼
►
a bunch of people did that for a really long time and now those users have a modern way
00:28:18
◼
►
to do that you know without having to to go on and buy something else and I had I had
00:28:23
◼
►
I'd always sort of secretly hoped that Apple was going to do something with AirPlay 2 to
00:28:28
◼
►
make it like, make anything an AirPlay 2 speaker because the HomePod doesn't have an output.
00:28:33
◼
►
And I was afraid they were just going to say, well, the answer is get rid of your stereo
00:28:37
◼
►
and buy a HomePod or 6 if you're Federico.
00:28:40
◼
►
But this is a nice way to go about it.
00:28:43
◼
►
So you know, I think if you're in the market, get one before the price goes up on eBay.
00:28:48
◼
►
My guess is they will climb in price now.
00:28:51
◼
►
like between 40 and 50 bucks right now it looks like. Yeah it's about what it is here too.
00:28:55
◼
►
I looked on Amazon Italy last night just out of curiosity and Amazon was out of stock of course
00:29:04
◼
►
but you could buy from third-party resellers on Amazon and a bunch of stores had the
00:29:11
◼
►
Airplay 2 compatible Airport Express up for 400 euros. So yeah. This is that HomePod thing you've
00:29:23
◼
►
been hearing about. Yeah so there's one here 500 pounds on Amazon. Yeah holy cow. Yeah there you go.
00:29:32
◼
►
Used like new for 500 pounds and 4.59 pounds delivery. That's bananas. But to show how
00:29:40
◼
►
versatile this can be, Jason Snell hooked it up to an iPod HiFi, which is about the
00:29:46
◼
►
best thing I've ever seen. Someone on Twitter replied to both of us and said, "Well, you
00:29:50
◼
►
could use..." There used to be this program called Line In where you could take audio
00:29:54
◼
►
in from a machine and make it play through its own speakers. It's like, "Well, what if
00:29:57
◼
►
I did Airport Express to an old iMac and had music playing out of an iMac G3 from Siri?"
00:30:04
◼
►
I was like, "Yeah, you could do that too." They should still make this thing, even if
00:30:09
◼
►
it's not like it does so don't make the airport express again but Apple should
00:30:12
◼
►
make a little airplay to receiver that you can plug into audio so I'm pop mini
00:30:17
◼
►
it's gonna be one day it will be a product right like the Google home mini
00:30:21
◼
►
or something right all the the echo dot like that's what it will be if they ever
00:30:24
◼
►
do it I hope so because it just gives you so much more flexibility and it lets
00:30:29
◼
►
you use existing equipment with the new like interface stuff right that you
00:30:34
◼
►
don't have to go and replace your home stereo or like the system that's wired
00:30:37
◼
►
into your living room. Everyone already replaced their home stereos when the the
00:30:41
◼
►
iPod hi-fi came out. Do you remember? That's true and then again then they
00:30:45
◼
►
went to Sonos and now they're on home pods. People just want to be quit they
00:30:50
◼
►
want to quit being you know director. That is one of my very favorite Steve Jobs quotes
00:30:55
◼
►
right when he says that he replaced his whole home audio system with the iPod
00:31:00
◼
►
hi-fi. It's very good. There's no way that's actually true. It's very good it's
00:31:05
◼
►
story, millionaire, right? Can you imagine what he had? And he's like, "Oh no, I'll just
00:31:09
◼
►
get one of these things." I don't believe you, Steve.
00:31:11
◼
►
Yeah, I just put it all on the curb in a cardboard box. I brought home an iPod, iFi. It is cool.
00:31:17
◼
►
And I mean, props to Apple for doing this. Airplay 2 obviously had such a struggle coming
00:31:22
◼
►
into this world, right? Like, it was delayed, and then it was buggy, and then it was out
00:31:26
◼
►
of the betas, and then they finally shipped it. And to then do the work to make it, you
00:31:33
◼
►
know work on an Airport Express that got updated last like 2012 or something
00:31:37
◼
►
like that's that's that's like legitimately cool and mm-hmm maybe this
00:31:42
◼
►
is why maybe the Airport Express support is what made their play too late that's
00:31:46
◼
►
probably not true but can you imagine if it was but I I really do appreciate it's
00:31:52
◼
►
easy to joke about this but I really do appreciate them doing that because it
00:31:55
◼
►
gives like this thing was cheap when it was news like a hundred bucks or
00:32:00
◼
►
something and like they didn't have to do this right like no one to your point
00:32:04
◼
►
no one like would be upset if this never happened except for Zach but now that it
00:32:08
◼
►
has happened like it it's a nice thing and I'm glad they did it it is I just
00:32:13
◼
►
wanted to mention the airport line was discontinued in April well airplane 2
00:32:20
◼
►
was supposed to be out well before then so the airplane 2 could have been like
00:32:23
◼
►
the parting piece for the airport Express and then maybe it was supposed
00:32:27
◼
►
to be. And then they couldn't make it or they couldn't ship it in time and then
00:32:33
◼
►
it just all sort of fell apart. And the Airport Express was last updated in June
00:32:37
◼
►
2012. This is only on the 802.11n style so it looks like a baby white Apple TV
00:32:44
◼
►
with the Airport Express before that like looked like a big wall charger like
00:32:49
◼
►
it plugged and hung from the from the prongs in the wall. This one it looks like
00:32:53
◼
►
I had that one. Yeah, I've got a couple of them. It's Fight. Airport Express Fight.
00:33:01
◼
►
No thanks. Today's show is brought to you by our amazing friends at Pingdom. Pingdom are
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brilliant because they help keep your sites and the sites you love online because they monitor
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Our thanks to Pingdom for their continued support
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of this show and Relay FM.
00:34:24
◼
►
- Okay, so we're gonna talk about the Mac Mini.
00:34:26
◼
►
We promised last week that we were gonna talk about reasons
00:34:29
◼
►
that we may want to purchase Mac Minis
00:34:33
◼
►
or how we use the existing ones we have.
00:34:36
◼
►
But first I wanted to talk a little bit more
00:34:37
◼
►
about the idea of like who is the Mac Mini customer
00:34:41
◼
►
'cause we're gonna talk about like the way we are going,
00:34:43
◼
►
like the way we want to use them or the way that we do.
00:34:46
◼
►
But on a sort of a broader landscape,
00:34:49
◼
►
some feedback we got-- - Hang on a second.
00:34:51
◼
►
Are we doing follow-up as a topic?
00:34:54
◼
►
- It's a-- - No.
00:34:56
◼
►
- It's just like a little,
00:34:58
◼
►
it's like a little follow-up icing on a topic.
00:35:01
◼
►
- Interesting.
00:35:03
◼
►
- Nachmani got promoted from follow-up to a topic,
00:35:05
◼
►
but there's still a little follow-up DNA left in it, so.
00:35:09
◼
►
- Just a couple examples.
00:35:11
◼
►
neural sandwich on Twitter which I'm sure is his given name wrote the Mac
00:35:14
◼
►
mini for me is great if you want to have two matching monitors and not have to
00:35:19
◼
►
deal with laptop clamshell weirdness and it doesn't cost the price of a small
00:35:24
◼
►
home which is kind of funny so I think I have used a laptop in clamshell before
00:35:29
◼
►
back when I had a job that's basically how I use my new book all day every day
00:35:33
◼
►
and that can be definitely weird like it doesn't wake up or don't go to sleep
00:35:38
◼
►
correctly you get home and it's been running in your bag because it woke up
00:35:41
◼
►
when you unplugged it and freaked out. And a Mac Mini is nice because you can
00:35:44
◼
►
have it on the desk and you can have two matching displays. Right now at least if
00:35:50
◼
►
you want to use an external display with like something like an iMac it's not
00:35:54
◼
►
gonna match. You know for a while the iMac and like the LED cinema display and
00:35:58
◼
►
thunderbolt display they all sort of had a similar language and then the iMac
00:36:02
◼
►
sort of moved on and Apple didn't update the displays again. So if this is an
00:36:06
◼
►
important factor for you, which it is for some people, then the Mac Mini kind of is
00:36:11
◼
►
the only option.
00:36:12
◼
►
Just put stickers on everything.
00:36:14
◼
►
Yeah, just cover it all up.
00:36:16
◼
►
There's like camouflage the borders and you can't tell what's going on.
00:36:18
◼
►
I wonder if dbrand make a Mac Mini skin.
00:36:21
◼
►
I'm sure they do.
00:36:25
◼
►
This is like a use case.
00:36:26
◼
►
I can confirm that they make skins.
00:36:28
◼
►
Well, yeah, skins.
00:36:29
◼
►
Well, this is slick wraps that I'm looking at now.
00:36:32
◼
►
They make Mac Mini skins.
00:36:34
◼
►
I don't know if dbrand do though.
00:36:37
◼
►
- Please put those in the show notes.
00:36:38
◼
►
- They will definitely be there.
00:36:40
◼
►
- So, you know, this, you know,
00:36:42
◼
►
I don't know how big of a use case this is,
00:36:43
◼
►
but it's one if you want to use multiple monitors,
00:36:44
◼
►
the Mac Mini is sort of like the easiest way to do that
00:36:48
◼
►
that doesn't involve buying a Mac Pro.
00:36:50
◼
►
Tyler wrote, which I think is interesting too,
00:36:53
◼
►
I had said that desktop switchers
00:36:55
◼
►
weren't real people anymore,
00:36:57
◼
►
but Tyler is one of those people.
00:36:59
◼
►
So I guess I'm weird, but if I got a Mac Mini,
00:37:01
◼
►
it would be, as a switcher,
00:37:03
◼
►
I have very little desire for a notebook,
00:37:05
◼
►
but I'm tired of my desktop PC.
00:37:07
◼
►
So I think Tyler's representative of a group of people
00:37:11
◼
►
that is still out there,
00:37:12
◼
►
so maybe I was wrong to write that off completely.
00:37:15
◼
►
I do think Tyler's probably in the minority here,
00:37:17
◼
►
but there are people who, like I'm a desktop person,
00:37:21
◼
►
Myke, you're a desktop person,
00:37:22
◼
►
and so if we were gonna be switching from a PC to a Mac,
00:37:26
◼
►
then maybe we would be looking at the Mac mini
00:37:29
◼
►
if it were a viable option.
00:37:31
◼
►
- And I understand that,
00:37:32
◼
►
But like when we say things like it is an incredibly small percentage of the market,
00:37:37
◼
►
like that is categorically true because we know things like, for example,
00:37:41
◼
►
that desktops take up 20 percent of the Mac market, which is already a shrinking
00:37:46
◼
►
market. And I can almost definitely assure you that the majority of purchases are
00:37:51
◼
►
IMAX, because otherwise Apple would have updated the Mac Mini more than they did in
00:37:55
◼
►
the last four years.
00:37:57
◼
►
I think something that goes hand in hand with that conversation is like the
00:38:02
◼
►
the span of the iMac. The iMac you can get one that's relatively inexpensive. I
00:38:09
◼
►
mean that's that's different for everybody of course but the iMac starts
00:38:13
◼
►
at something I'm loading the page installing it starts at $1099 that does
00:38:22
◼
►
not have a display has a hard drive but then of course you can go up to
00:38:26
◼
►
something like the 27 inch and spend you know over $3,000 but the iMac is a very
00:38:31
◼
►
broad product and I think one reason it sells so well is it's I think it's kind
00:38:38
◼
►
of like the default option because it has a display and everything and it's
00:38:41
◼
►
it's sort of like the flagship of the desktop line. I think part of it is too
00:38:45
◼
►
is that reach where Myke you can edit podcasts and video on one and then
00:38:51
◼
►
someone can buy a machine that is more or less the same computer and use it in
00:38:55
◼
►
an office and not not really need any of that stuff so they can buy a cheaper one
00:38:59
◼
►
and the idea of a pro Mac Mini may tap into this a little bit where there is
00:39:05
◼
►
like a really basic entry level but if you need to to spec it up into something
00:39:09
◼
►
more powerful you can with a broader range of the Mac Mini's ever had. That's
00:39:13
◼
►
what I'm hoping for with this new machine. So maybe they can take some of
00:39:17
◼
►
that iMac flexibility and apply it to the Mac Mini in which case the sales may
00:39:22
◼
►
come up some if it's if it's a more if it's a more reasonable option to more
00:39:27
◼
►
people. You know right now not many people are buying them because they're
00:39:30
◼
►
old and that means that they're slower than other Macs on the line. That's
00:39:33
◼
►
okay for some people but for others of us, including the three of us I'm
00:39:37
◼
►
going to talk about, it's not quite enough. Lastly I got an email from
00:39:41
◼
►
somebody, they asked to be anonymous, but they support a mixed PC and Mac
00:39:48
◼
►
environment in a big company. So they work for a corporation with an IT
00:39:51
◼
►
department and I had not really considered this but they have a standard
00:39:58
◼
►
like display keyboard and mouse bundle for all of their users and then the
00:40:04
◼
►
users just get a Mac mini or they he sent me the the model number I looked at
00:40:08
◼
►
I was like a small like HP desktop it's kind of like a Mac mini it's like small
00:40:12
◼
►
form factor a little HP and they basically drop in either a Mac mini or
00:40:16
◼
►
an HP depending if the user is getting a Mac or a PC but the rest of the install
00:40:20
◼
►
is standard like standard display standard USB keyboard and mouse standard
00:40:25
◼
►
power like power strip and all that sort of stuff they just drop in a different
00:40:29
◼
►
desktop and that's not it that's not something that I had really thought
00:40:32
◼
►
about but I think it makes sense that that that's sort of like the switcher
00:40:37
◼
►
or like I said unplug my PC and plug into Mac Mini well I think there are use
00:40:41
◼
►
cases where the Mac Mini's like sort of universal inputs and and like small form
00:40:47
◼
►
factor make it more flexible for different types of users.
00:40:52
◼
►
I guess this company is still buying old ones.
00:40:55
◼
►
I emailed them back just last night and hadn't heard anything.
00:40:58
◼
►
So I assume they're still buying just old ones, but I think that's kind of an interesting
00:41:04
◼
►
The iMac is clearly not going to fit into the way they buy computers, but the Mac Mini
00:41:08
◼
►
does so they buy them.
00:41:09
◼
►
I think that's a use case that's worth considering as well.
00:41:13
◼
►
So should we talk about some other use cases?
00:41:17
◼
►
Puerto Rico, why do you want a Mac Mini?
00:41:19
◼
►
- I miss being able to organize my TV shows
00:41:24
◼
►
and movies with Plex, and I would like to have
00:41:29
◼
►
an actual Plex server that can do transcoding
00:41:32
◼
►
and store multiple gigabytes of content
00:41:37
◼
►
on my local network, so I would use a Mac Mini
00:41:41
◼
►
as a media server for TV shows and movies, for sure.
00:41:44
◼
►
But in general, speaking of encoding video,
00:41:49
◼
►
I would use the Mac Mini so that I
00:41:52
◼
►
can keep using my 2015 MacBook Pro for podcasting,
00:41:57
◼
►
and I don't have to ask Silvia to use her 2016 MacBook Pro
00:42:05
◼
►
whenever I need to encode a video for my iOS reviews.
00:42:10
◼
►
I would love to have a Mac Mini in my house that I can connect to, that I can feed a video
00:42:18
◼
►
file and say you need to encode this video or multiple videos at once in the background
00:42:24
◼
►
in three different formats.
00:42:26
◼
►
Because we use Mac stories when we do videos inside of our stories and especially for my
00:42:30
◼
►
iOS reviews, those videos are actually in three different formats depending on the browser
00:42:36
◼
►
that you use.
00:42:37
◼
►
So we use MP4, WebM and OGG, I think, as a fallback option.
00:42:43
◼
►
And I really don't, you know, I feel bad asking Sylvia to do this thing on her computer because
00:42:48
◼
►
it's faster than mine.
00:42:50
◼
►
I suppose that if a new Mac Mini is released and if I max it out and it's got the new Intel
00:42:55
◼
►
chips inside and I put in tons of RAM and, you know, I should be able to process like
00:43:02
◼
►
five or six small videos at once, which are not super long videos that are like 30 second
00:43:07
◼
►
snippets of, you know, features of iOS, but still that would be really helpful. And I
00:43:14
◼
►
would be able to set up, you know, these automations to sort of look for video files in my Dropbox
00:43:19
◼
►
and maybe use Hazel and kick off these tasks with the shell or automator in the background,
00:43:24
◼
►
it would be fun. And also, it would be a centralized backup location for my MacBook, for Sylvia's
00:43:32
◼
►
Macbook and especially Sylvia, she has a lot of graphics assets and other video files for
00:43:39
◼
►
her job that she needs to archive. So I would very much prefer to have a central location
00:43:45
◼
►
that is not a Synology with its terrible UI and RAID whatever means. Please don't email
00:43:52
◼
►
me, I know you love your Synology, that's fine, I'm happy for you. I want a Macintosh
00:43:58
◼
►
Also specifically, Casey?
00:44:01
◼
►
It's fine. Don't worry about it. We're good.
00:44:03
◼
►
It's fine. Don't worry.
00:44:05
◼
►
It's too late. He's already DM'd you in Slack.
00:44:12
◼
►
Entertainment, automation and video encoding for screencasts that we use in our articles,
00:44:21
◼
►
and backup location for my computer, Silvio's computer,
00:44:25
◼
►
and maybe something like an off-site backup of iCloud for library of Google
00:44:31
◼
►
Photos that we can also keep you know copies of those services offline. So three
00:44:38
◼
►
main use cases. Mine are pretty similar honestly like I've been toying
00:44:42
◼
►
around, this is something I've had in the back of my mind for a while but like I
00:44:46
◼
►
would definitely be more keen to do it if and when Apple upgrades the Mac Mini
00:44:50
◼
►
because the Mac Mini is the perfect machine for doing this kind of thing.
00:44:54
◼
►
where I want to have a Mac that is turned on all the time.
00:44:58
◼
►
I don't like to leave my iMac even in sleep.
00:45:02
◼
►
I turn it off every day because it's powering some USB devices
00:45:06
◼
►
that are really expensive, they're audio equipment.
00:45:09
◼
►
And I just prefer it to be off.
00:45:12
◼
►
I just prefer it like again, like I understand that many people
00:45:16
◼
►
think it's fine and I get that, but I just prefer to not have these things
00:45:22
◼
►
on all the time so I turn them all off every day. But I would like to have a machine which
00:45:28
◼
►
is on so it could do things like running some Hazel scripts for me, like processing photos
00:45:33
◼
►
in my Federico Vittucci created but nobody else uses except me Hazel scripts with the
00:45:38
◼
►
Dropbox photo thing that I have running.
00:45:41
◼
►
From six years ago.
00:45:44
◼
►
From like 2014 or something, I don't know, but like I'm still doing that. And I'm sure
00:45:48
◼
►
I could come up with some other stuff too, like ways for me to,
00:45:52
◼
►
especially with shortcuts, the shortcuts app seems to have some restrictions
00:45:57
◼
►
about and I don't think they're going to get fixed
00:45:59
◼
►
about where it can save files.
00:46:02
◼
►
It used to be with workflow, you could save files
00:46:05
◼
►
any way you wanted, right, to Dropbox or Box or iCloud Drive.
00:46:08
◼
►
But shortcuts only allows files to be saved to the shortcuts
00:46:13
◼
►
folder on iCloud Drive.
00:46:14
◼
►
So unless Dropbox creates their own shortcuts actions,
00:46:18
◼
►
which I don't know about that yet, or some enterprising third party could do it,
00:46:23
◼
►
which I believe will happen.
00:46:25
◼
►
But if it wouldn't, then I could have Hazel watching that folder
00:46:28
◼
►
and then moving things where they needed to go, which would work nicely.
00:46:31
◼
►
But there's always things I can do there.
00:46:33
◼
►
I also would like to have a machine that I can like VNC to from my iPad
00:46:37
◼
►
using an app like screens or something to perform basic tasks
00:46:41
◼
►
that I need my Mac to do.
00:46:42
◼
►
There's just some stuff that like Federico's video encoding
00:46:45
◼
►
that I need a Mac to be able to do.
00:46:48
◼
►
It's easier to do on a Mac.
00:46:49
◼
►
So I would, but I would prefer to not have to turn my Mac on
00:46:53
◼
►
specifically to do that one thing.
00:46:55
◼
►
So just being able to use an app to just access
00:46:58
◼
►
that machine would be great.
00:46:59
◼
►
And also network attached storage.
00:47:01
◼
►
I don't really have anything for that.
00:47:02
◼
►
And I just am not keen on having like a Drobo set up
00:47:06
◼
►
to my iMac, but I could totally do that right with a Mac Mini
00:47:11
◼
►
and just attach some external storage to it,
00:47:13
◼
►
hide it away in my office somewhere.
00:47:15
◼
►
and it would just be humming away and I could say things to it and it would be great.
00:47:19
◼
►
So a Mac Mini would be perfect for that.
00:47:21
◼
►
Yeah, so I've got one and my use cases for it definitely overlap what you guys talked
00:47:28
◼
►
So I have a mid 2011, it's hooked up to my television, it's like an i5, 8 gigs of RAM
00:47:33
◼
►
and I put SSD in it like 100 years ago.
00:47:35
◼
►
It is hooked up to the TV, we use the Apple TV as like the default input but the Mac Mini
00:47:40
◼
►
is nice for some video stuff that's not easy to get to the Apple TV because I don't have
00:47:43
◼
►
Plex I have Plex set up but don't use it now and we because we have kids like
00:47:47
◼
►
there's still stuff that we watch some DVD and so we have a USB Super Drive
00:47:51
◼
►
plugged into the Mac Mini we can watch DVDs on the on the television it does
00:47:56
◼
►
host a Drobo over Thunderbolt I would have that Drobo here in the office
00:48:01
◼
►
hooked up to the iMac except for the noise that it makes and my wife doesn't
00:48:06
◼
►
love that it sits where the TV sits but it's it's got like six hard drives in it
00:48:10
◼
►
and a fan and I basically have to like power it down anytime I record and that
00:48:15
◼
►
seems like a lot of you know a lot of just back and forth and so it's in the
00:48:18
◼
►
house and I connect to that Mac Mini over Ethernet from the studio and into
00:48:22
◼
►
the house and pull files off of it but that is directly attached to the Mac Mini
00:48:27
◼
►
and I like that because that means I can do file sharing and I can back it up
00:48:31
◼
►
with backblaze because it's directly attached to a Mac. Things that you again
00:48:35
◼
►
you can do with a NAS but are a little bit trickier and can be a little more fragile.
00:48:41
◼
►
I'm not super keen to learn how one of these things works when I know how a Mac works,
00:48:46
◼
►
right? Like, and that's one of the reasons I prefer it, right? Like, I know how a Mac
00:48:49
◼
►
works, I know how the apps that I can download work and they're gonna work with my iPad,
00:48:54
◼
►
like I'm sure you can do all of this stuff with a Synology and probably more in some
00:48:58
◼
►
cases but I don't, I'm not, I'm just not really keen to learn a whole new thing. I would just
00:49:04
◼
►
like to use macOS? Yeah, I like that the Mac just sees it as an external hard drive. The
00:49:11
◼
►
Mac just sees it as a drive and you don't have to use a Drobo, you can use like a Promise
00:49:14
◼
►
RAID or a Pegasus or something. There's other options out there. Promise RAID is a very
00:49:20
◼
►
interesting name. Yeah, is that the name of that company? They promised that your RAID
00:49:26
◼
►
would work. Promise technology. They make some Thunderbolt stuff. So you have some options
00:49:34
◼
►
But I like it just attached to the Mac because I can just use Mac OS to manage everything
00:49:38
◼
►
So that combination the Mac money in the Drobo do several things. I host a big family iTunes library there
00:49:45
◼
►
That's there's not there's some music in that but my wife and I use Apple music now
00:49:48
◼
►
So the music is less important
00:49:50
◼
►
But that iTunes library is set to download any any movies or TV shows that we purchase which is less and less over time, but
00:49:58
◼
►
Occasionally we still do that and and then the I that iTunes library will grab a copy of it
00:50:03
◼
►
That iTunes library is also subscribed to every relay FM show and so I download all of the mp3s
00:50:09
◼
►
We publish and have them on the drobo because you never know when you're gonna need something you
00:50:13
◼
►
Have you ever know but one day but one day I might
00:50:18
◼
►
One day when I build the relay the relay aqua library, I'll be set
00:50:24
◼
►
I have an application running on my Mac mini called print opia
00:50:27
◼
►
So I have like this like brother network printer that does not support air print
00:50:32
◼
►
So I can't print from an iOS to the printer directly
00:50:35
◼
►
There are several different Mac apps that do this print up is just the one that I use and it basically
00:50:40
◼
►
Exposes my brother printer to my iOS devices like through the Mac
00:50:45
◼
►
So I can print from my iPhone or iPad
00:50:47
◼
►
To my brother printer as long as the Mac mini is up and running which is
00:50:51
◼
►
Very handy if you have an older printer or one like mine that just doesn't support air print
00:50:55
◼
►
I have time machine server running from my MacBook Pro
00:50:59
◼
►
There's link in the show notes how to set that up.
00:51:02
◼
►
That's pretty new to Mac OS.
00:51:03
◼
►
It used to only be in Mac OS server.
00:51:05
◼
►
And then content caching.
00:51:07
◼
►
So you can set up a Mac server-- Mac OS server is basically
00:51:12
◼
►
dead-- to cache things like software updates and app store
00:51:17
◼
►
updates and stuff for other machines on the network.
00:51:20
◼
►
It's a little bit evolved to set up, but it's not too bad.
00:51:22
◼
►
There's a KBase article in the show notes.
00:51:24
◼
►
And I have that running.
00:51:26
◼
►
So it downloads a Mac OS update, and then
00:51:29
◼
►
And we have like, you know, my wife's got an iMac now.
00:51:32
◼
►
I've got my iMac Pro and a MacBook Pro and it just allows those downloads to be faster.
00:51:39
◼
►
It's not I really set that up because I want to play with it, but I've left it running
00:51:42
◼
►
because it's helpful.
00:51:43
◼
►
And then because I have a SuperDrive, CD and DVD sharing to the modern Macs on the network.
00:51:49
◼
►
So occasionally, I'll need to pull something off an optical disk.
00:51:51
◼
►
And I have a USB SuperDrive in my office, but I can never seem to find it.
00:51:55
◼
►
and sometimes I just pop it in the one in the house
00:51:57
◼
►
and just share from there.
00:51:59
◼
►
So Myke and Federico, I totally agree with y'all's reasons
00:52:03
◼
►
for wanting a Mac Mini because it is like
00:52:05
◼
►
a really versatile tool and you can,
00:52:08
◼
►
because it's so small and it's effectively silent,
00:52:11
◼
►
you can just leave it running all the time.
00:52:13
◼
►
My Mac Mini only gets rebooted when it freaks out
00:52:15
◼
►
because it's getting older or there's a software update for.
00:52:18
◼
►
Other than that, it's just running all the time
00:52:20
◼
►
and I don't interface with it directly very often.
00:52:23
◼
►
I do have a keyboard and mouse paired to it
00:52:26
◼
►
that sort of live in the entertainment center.
00:52:28
◼
►
Most of the time I just use screen sharing from another Mac
00:52:30
◼
►
and you know how I need to pull something off of it
00:52:32
◼
►
or change the setting.
00:52:33
◼
►
But most of the time it just runs and it hosts that Drobo
00:52:36
◼
►
and does these things for me
00:52:38
◼
►
without really much interference
00:52:39
◼
►
and that's really what I wanted.
00:52:40
◼
►
- Yeah, I'm excited to get back into the idea of
00:52:45
◼
►
I have a server at home doing things in the background
00:52:48
◼
►
and I can issue sort of commands from my iPad with shortcuts
00:52:53
◼
►
which is something that I wasn't able to do.
00:52:54
◼
►
Back when I used to have a Mac Mini in 2012, 2013,
00:52:58
◼
►
I used to have a personal Mac Mini at Mac Mini Colu.
00:53:01
◼
►
And I didn't have workflow to do this sort of
00:53:05
◼
►
remote execution of commands.
00:53:08
◼
►
So I used to rely on these hacks and workarounds,
00:53:11
◼
►
something like saving a command,
00:53:14
◼
►
like a shell command inside of a text file in Dropbox
00:53:17
◼
►
and using Hazel to sort of read the contents of that file
00:53:21
◼
►
and executing the command.
00:53:24
◼
►
Crazy stuff, but with shortcuts now,
00:53:26
◼
►
I could issue like an SSH command from my iPad
00:53:30
◼
►
or from my iPhone, even from Siri,
00:53:32
◼
►
and kick off a series of tasks at home.
00:53:36
◼
►
Do we think there will be an announcement
00:53:38
◼
►
at the September event?
00:53:40
◼
►
Where do we stand?
00:53:42
◼
►
- All right.
00:53:43
◼
►
- No, I don't think there will be any Macs
00:53:45
◼
►
at September event.
00:53:46
◼
►
I actually don't even think they're gonna mention Mojave
00:53:49
◼
►
in the September event.
00:53:50
◼
►
Is it because you think there's going to be a second event in October or just like...
00:53:55
◼
►
There will be a second event of some kind I believe, either like a press event or like some
00:54:00
◼
►
briefings or just some product releases. Depends on what they're announcing but yeah I don't think
00:54:06
◼
►
that the Mac will get any time in the September event because there's so... you could... that event
00:54:13
◼
►
could just be iPhone, like nothing else right and you would fill an hour because they've got three
00:54:19
◼
►
phones at least that they're debuting so I don't think I don't think that we're
00:54:25
◼
►
gonna see it Stephen I want to ask you actually do you feel that Mojave is as
00:54:31
◼
►
ready as iOS 12 is no I don't interesting because that might be another
00:54:38
◼
►
thing right like maybe Mojave just isn't even coming out in September but for
00:54:41
◼
►
this reason because they're gonna hold it and wait until it yeah so they've
00:54:44
◼
►
been a like over the last several years Apple's done a it's really hard to
00:54:47
◼
►
Dictate or guess what they're gonna do because they've done a bunch of different things they have done
00:54:51
◼
►
Everything in one event they have broken out the Mac stuff separately
00:54:55
◼
►
They've done like you said Mac is like press release stuff or like you know our journalist friends have
00:55:01
◼
►
New Macs, and then there's an embargo and they all drop at the same time
00:55:07
◼
►
Mac OS has come out the same time as iOS and it's come out later and it just depends on where things are and
00:55:12
◼
►
This year in particular there's not a lot of new stuff in between iOS and Mac OS like when they did
00:55:18
◼
►
When did they upgrade to iCloud drive that goes at iOS 8?
00:55:21
◼
►
So I could so yes, but it didn't have an actual app in iOS 8
00:55:29
◼
►
Right got the app in iOS 9. Yeah your
00:55:32
◼
►
applications upgraded to use iCloud drives storage the
00:55:37
◼
►
The thing that was weird about that is that the Mac version,
00:55:40
◼
►
or whatever, I guess, I don't know what came out that year,
00:55:43
◼
►
but whatever version of Mac OS was that year, it was later.
00:55:48
◼
►
And so you could upgrade to the new Notes,
00:55:50
◼
►
or upgrade to iCloud Drive storage,
00:55:52
◼
►
or something like Mac. - Yeah, I remember that.
00:55:54
◼
►
- Remember that? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
00:55:56
◼
►
- There's nothing like that this year,
00:55:58
◼
►
that as far as I can tell,
00:56:00
◼
►
that is really dependent on both Mac OS
00:56:03
◼
►
and iOS coming out together.
00:56:04
◼
►
So I think the Mac could totally be an October thing. I don't know if there's enough to hold a Mac event
00:56:11
◼
►
I think they could put it in like iPhone keynotes take way less time
00:56:15
◼
►
They used to like if you if you sit and actually watch the iPhone segments
00:56:18
◼
►
They're much shorter than they used to be because a the phones like just evolve
00:56:23
◼
►
Last year every year and like people already know a bunch about them. So you don't have to go
00:56:27
◼
►
like as in depth about like the camera subsystem as they used to because the changes are
00:56:33
◼
►
smaller deltas and people kind of understand what they do and so even if it's like
00:56:38
◼
►
iPhone iPad watch like then I think that's probably like an hour and a half or two hours, but
00:56:44
◼
►
You know, I feel like you're way more likely to see iPhone
00:56:48
◼
►
It's like you probably go like in the in the importance order right iPhone watch iPad then max
00:56:54
◼
►
Like I can't imagine a September event with iPhone and the Mac mini and then like there's an October
00:57:02
◼
►
Yeah, I mean unless the Mac stuff is real short and they use it to open the event and then they move on
00:57:06
◼
►
So we'll see it's not impossible. We'll see I think either way is totally possible
00:57:10
◼
►
But if it's just the Mac mini and like spec bump die max and it may just be press release stuff
00:57:16
◼
►
I don't know. We're way off topic now, but
00:57:18
◼
►
Either way like whatever happens. I think all three of us are interested in what a new Mac mini would be
00:57:24
◼
►
I would really like to replace mine at home
00:57:25
◼
►
I would maybe replace the one that we have at Mac Stadium
00:57:29
◼
►
For live streaming although we just put a new drive in it not too long ago
00:57:32
◼
►
So hopefully we're good to go for a while. So we'll see we'll see how it goes
00:57:36
◼
►
I think a lot of people are watching this and I think if the three of us are
00:57:39
◼
►
Any indication there are users other users like us who want to use it as a home server and office server and?
00:57:46
◼
►
Having something a little bit more powerful
00:57:49
◼
►
And maybe smaller at the same time would be nice for those people. So like I said, like I said last week
00:57:54
◼
►
I'm genuinely excited about the possibility of a new Mac mini
00:57:57
◼
►
Maybe it's just been so long, but I'm pretty pumped about it. Today's show is also brought to you by Green Chef
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Green Chef is a meal delivery service that includes everything that you're gonna need to cook delicious
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but Green Chef sends a wide variety of organic ingredients and imaginative new recipes every week in a way that I find super interesting because
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They have meal plans for diet types. So they have meal plans that include paleo vegan
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Maybe if your dietary preferences change or you want to try something completely
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new. Now Stephen I know that you've got some Green Chef boxes and I'm interested
00:59:15
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to know what you think. Yes so we did the the gluten-free options. It was nice
00:59:20
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knowing that that was how things were going to be. Sometimes when you order
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things like you've got to really pay attention to the labels and make sure
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that you get what you think you're gonna get. I didn't have that worry
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with Green Chef. They're right up front on their website about, "Hey, we offer all
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these options." That really sets them apart. So somebody who eats a modified
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diet, I greatly appreciated that. So we tried a couple of different meals and
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everything was really easy to understand how it went together. You know, I can cook
00:59:48
◼
►
some basic stuff but like you get anything fancy fancier than my level and
00:59:52
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I start to get worried I'm doing it wrong I didn't have that worry with
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◼
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Green Chef and the meals are great we my wife and I enjoyed them the kids enjoyed
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everything we tried we got them to try some new things which is apparent it's a
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huge win and oh congratulations it's a real moral victory some days to get your
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kids try new foods but Green Chef let us do that so we the Hackett family was a
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a bunch of big fans. For $50 off your first box of GreenChef go to
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your first box of GreenChef. Our thanks to GreenChef for their support of
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connected and relay FM. Alright so we've got some more iPhone rumors to round out
01:00:38
◼
►
this week. Yeah. We're just like in it with iPhone rumors. iPhone rumors. I like iPhone rumors. Go for it.
01:00:45
◼
►
I had a pretty tongue-in-cheek blog post the other day of like these four iPhone rumors came out today
01:00:51
◼
►
I was like there's so much stuff
01:00:53
◼
►
so we're gonna start with the
01:00:55
◼
►
The Apple pencil there's been talk of maybe this is the year the Apple pencil gets added to the iPhone Myke
01:01:01
◼
►
I know you and Jason have talked a lot about that on upgrade it makes sense
01:01:05
◼
►
You look at the galaxy note line people really like it. Maybe Apple could do something here the new
01:01:09
◼
►
Again for lack of knowing the real names the iPhone 10 plus is an enormous phone
01:01:14
◼
►
it looks like and it'd be great to be able to take out a pencil and do stuff with it,
01:01:18
◼
►
but it seems like that's maybe not the case after all.
01:01:22
◼
►
Well, it looks like Apple doesn't want any of the serious business happening with the
01:01:29
◼
►
Galaxy Note.
01:01:31
◼
►
I see this gentleman walking around with a Galaxy Note, typing in on the phone with a
01:01:38
◼
►
I assume they're all editing cells in a spreadsheet.
01:01:41
◼
►
looking all serious with this ass pen. Wouldn't it be easier though? But it would be easier
01:01:46
◼
►
though like to access Google sheets with, I mean that's how I find with my Apple Pencil.
01:01:52
◼
►
So you're saying that you would like to walk around and edit spreadsheets as you're walking
01:01:56
◼
►
with the phone and a st... Sure. Yeah man. Why not do it at a desk? Sometimes I have
01:02:00
◼
►
to get real business done. Because you know I'm a man on the move. You're a man on the
01:02:05
◼
►
move, okay. You know I travel around, I'm a very important businessman. You know? So
01:02:10
◼
►
sometimes I'm out on the prowl.
01:02:13
◼
►
I don't know what I'm talking about anymore.
01:02:14
◼
►
And I need I need access to my Google Sheets.
01:02:18
◼
►
That's just how it is. What can I say?
01:02:19
◼
►
Sure. Well, I hope that someday you will get your wish.
01:02:24
◼
►
I want I want an Apple pencil.
01:02:27
◼
►
I want Apple pencil support on the iPhone.
01:02:29
◼
►
Like I want it for the same reason that I have that.
01:02:31
◼
►
I like it on my iPad, like the ability to write stuff down, drop stuff down
01:02:36
◼
►
and have an additional way to access UI elements would be really important to me.
01:02:41
◼
►
Like I love the Apple Pencil for that.
01:02:43
◼
►
There's no reason I wouldn't want it on an iPad with a vertical 6.5 inch screen,
01:02:49
◼
►
like a sorry, like a what do they call it?
01:02:51
◼
►
Diagonal, diagonal 6.5 inch screen.
01:02:55
◼
►
It's going to be a really, really big screen.
01:02:58
◼
►
It is like I would love to have an Apple pencil, like a smaller,
01:03:01
◼
►
much smaller Apple pencil that was designed for that purpose.
01:03:05
◼
►
I could think that would be really great.
01:03:06
◼
►
Like, and I know why, you know, I know you can make fun of it, like,
01:03:09
◼
►
because the note has always been a thing to make fun of.
01:03:12
◼
►
But over time, everything that people have made fun of about the note
01:03:15
◼
►
has happened to iPhones, right?
01:03:18
◼
►
Getting really big and all that kind of stuff.
01:03:20
◼
►
Except the fire thing.
01:03:22
◼
►
Could happen.
01:03:23
◼
►
There is absolutely no reason why that couldn't happen to Apple as well.
01:03:27
◼
►
Like Samsung were just the unlucky ones that it happened to first.
01:03:30
◼
►
But it hasn't yet.
01:03:31
◼
►
So I'm just saying that there's the conversation like the Logitech
01:03:34
◼
►
crayon maybe even so like you could have one device to easily go back and forth
01:03:38
◼
►
between the phone and an iPad as opposed to right now it's sort of paired and you
01:03:42
◼
►
wouldn't want to be like plugging into the lightning port every time you change
01:03:45
◼
►
devices I think it'd be I think it'd be nice I don't think it's for me I don't
01:03:49
◼
►
use my Apple pencil hardly at all but for people who do like it like why not
01:03:53
◼
►
make it an option right like you're not bundling it like you they do with the
01:03:57
◼
►
note it's not gonna be embedded in the body you eject it like it's gonna be a
01:04:00
◼
►
separate purchase because that's how Apple is. Why not give people the option at least?
01:04:05
◼
►
So Federica you don't have to use it but Myke you can. That seems fair to me but it seems like
01:04:10
◼
►
it's not going to be the case so maybe next year Myke.
01:04:15
◼
►
There were also rumors of production delays for the iPhone 9 so the LCD phone. Apparently the
01:04:22
◼
►
OLED phones will be available in September but like the iPhone 10 the LCD version might launch
01:04:29
◼
►
later on. So there might be some there's clearly some kind of production issue because there's no
01:04:33
◼
►
reason why they wouldn't want to ship them all in September. But it seems like they might be having
01:04:38
◼
►
some some trouble which it kind of tracks for me, right? Because the OLED phone was super weird and
01:04:43
◼
►
new and they had to do all that crazy stuff with this display and stuff that I'm not surprised that
01:04:48
◼
►
there was some hiccups and I would expect this is similar kind of thing for the LCD one. Like they
01:04:52
◼
►
know how to make an iPhone 10 at this point. Like that's not an issue, right? So like making a new
01:04:57
◼
►
iPhone X and a bigger iPhone X probably doesn't pose significant issues for them
01:05:02
◼
►
but this new LCD phone again it's like different in different ways the bezels
01:05:07
◼
►
are smaller smaller than they've been on an LCD phone before you know like so I'm
01:05:10
◼
►
it wouldn't surprise me if they were if they announced that the iPhone 9 will be
01:05:16
◼
►
shipping a little bit later because it kind of would track with when they
01:05:19
◼
►
announced the X. Does that make sense? And I could see how maybe some people will
01:05:25
◼
►
say "well I don't want to wait for the iPhone 9, I'll just get the new iPhone 10, thus giving
01:05:30
◼
►
Apple more money."
01:05:31
◼
►
We're not saying it's a conspiracy theory, but it sure is an interesting thing to think
01:05:39
◼
►
And that is what's a little bit different this time, if this pans out. Last time it
01:05:45
◼
►
was like the high-end enthusiast phone that was late, so all of us just waited. If the
01:05:49
◼
►
nine is the sort of the mainstream phone which I'm not sure it's it was gonna
01:05:55
◼
►
I think it is I think I think you could argue that that even though the prices
01:05:58
◼
►
will be more like the ten is the you know they're kind of positioned as the
01:06:02
◼
►
mainstream phone now right like that's gonna be the the kind of fault the
01:06:07
◼
►
middle phone in the line right like the one the medium phone the one for
01:06:11
◼
►
everyone not in size but in price yeah you know because they you know we've
01:06:15
◼
►
spoken about this and there was a Mark Gurman report that seemed to clear up most of what
01:06:20
◼
►
we believe to be true, right, at this point about like the sizes and even in that report
01:06:26
◼
►
it says that the 6.1 inch phone looks like it's gonna have some colors and we've spoken
01:06:31
◼
►
about that on this show, right, like how I think risky that decision is on Apple's part
01:06:38
◼
►
to make colored versions of a phone again after the 5C.
01:06:42
◼
►
The color's not why the 5C failed.
01:06:44
◼
►
It's because it was old and no one wanted it.
01:06:47
◼
►
Right, but it's not that it's old.
01:06:49
◼
►
It's that you know that the 5C was old by looking at it.
01:06:53
◼
►
And you will know that you have the not expensive iPhone
01:06:56
◼
►
by looking at it.
01:06:58
◼
►
And if that's a problem, we don't know.
01:07:00
◼
►
But I hazard that it might be.
01:07:02
◼
►
I guess we'll see.
01:07:03
◼
►
So much of the way they've done things
01:07:06
◼
►
is turned upside down now.
01:07:09
◼
►
So we'll see.
01:07:10
◼
►
I still have some concern that the mainstream phone
01:07:13
◼
►
is too big, but I guess we'll see how that goes.
01:07:16
◼
►
When it's the best selling iPhone ever,
01:07:18
◼
►
then we'll know I was wrong.
01:07:19
◼
►
But right now, I feel like there are people
01:07:21
◼
►
who are gonna be upset that the 4.7 inch
01:07:24
◼
►
is now no longer a flagship.
01:07:27
◼
►
- Sure, but this has been a thing
01:07:30
◼
►
that's moved over time, right?
01:07:32
◼
►
Like the 4.7 inch phone is bigger
01:07:34
◼
►
than the phones used to be.
01:07:35
◼
►
- It is, but I wonder if this is too big.
01:07:38
◼
►
Again, we'll see how the sales numbers pan out.
01:07:42
◼
►
While we're talking about displays,
01:07:44
◼
►
there's this interesting report by Barclay
01:07:46
◼
►
saying that the 2019 phones,
01:07:48
◼
►
so not the phones we're gonna see here in a couple weeks,
01:07:50
◼
►
but the phones a year from now,
01:07:52
◼
►
will, according to this report, drop 3D Touch.
01:07:57
◼
►
This echoes a report by Ming-Chi Kuo
01:08:00
◼
►
saying that 3D Touch was not gonna be a feature
01:08:02
◼
►
on this iPhone 9 this year,
01:08:04
◼
►
which I think he's backed off of.
01:08:07
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So what do you guys think about this?
01:08:10
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This is based on part sourcing,
01:08:13
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and the parts used to sense 3D Touch
01:08:16
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have not been ordered for the next year's phones,
01:08:19
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or those suppliers are being told that they're SOL.
01:08:22
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But that could be interpreted as,
01:08:24
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oh, they found a new way to do it
01:08:26
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that doesn't involve these parts,
01:08:27
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so maybe it's thinner and lighter.
01:08:28
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And they did that with the iPhone X.
01:08:30
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The 3D Touch subsystem in the iPhone X
01:08:32
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is different than previous phones.
01:08:35
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Maybe they've just been able to change
01:08:36
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improve that again, or if you take it as far as this report says that 3D Touch will be
01:08:41
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going away, being removed from the iPhones. I don't know which one it is, but what do
01:08:45
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you guys think about that? Federico, do you use 3D Touch on your phone?
01:08:49
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Yeah, I do. I actually do. But it depends on which implementation of 3D Touch. So, for
01:08:56
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example, I use the Peek and Pop all the time for previews, whether I want a preview link
01:09:04
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in a web view or I want to expand, for example, a tweet and I want to see the replies to that
01:09:11
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tweet. So the pick and pop system I really enjoy and I really use all the time. I don't
01:09:17
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use quick actions on the home screen as much, mostly because I forget about them. I forget
01:09:23
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about the fact that they exist. And every time when I sort of remember and I look at
01:09:27
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those quick actions and I go like, "Oh, that's really useful," and then I forget again. So
01:09:31
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So those haven't been able to stick for me.
01:09:36
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And they're just inconsistent, right?
01:09:39
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Some apps have really good options and then some apps just say "Share".
01:09:44
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I've also mostly found it not really that great.
01:09:50
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You're pressing down and you're going to a place, but then the app opens and then goes
01:09:56
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The implementation of how it works has never felt right to me.
01:09:59
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I never really feel like I'm saving any time because like I'm just watching the app do the things I've done
01:10:06
◼
►
To get to that point. I have a theory that I'm going to share here
01:10:11
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►
And I don't know if it'll I don't care if it'll come true or not. We're not this is a
01:10:16
◼
►
It's it you can share you can share things like this on podcasts because nobody really it's a theory
01:10:21
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►
It doesn't it's not a prediction. So I don't have to worry about
01:10:26
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►
the prize or winning, so this is fine. I'm very relaxed in sharing this theory.
01:10:32
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So if Apple does a redesign on the home screen and they remove 3D touch,
01:10:39
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I could see the quick action
01:10:42
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►
feature going away altogether and
01:10:45
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►
being replaced, to avoid the very issue that Myke just mentioned of "I'm just watching an app
01:10:53
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navigate to a page",
01:10:55
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►
I could see shortcuts becoming home screen elements, in that you could have shortcuts
01:11:04
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►
on the home screen to perform actions in the background without having to open the app
01:11:10
◼
►
or show you stuff from the app. Sort of like a widget, but based on the more powerful framework
01:11:19
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►
that is shortcuts.
01:11:21
◼
►
So we're going to discuss this, I don't think 3D touch is going away, but if it does and
01:11:28
◼
►
if it's replaced by the shortcuts API, you know how Apple likes to introduce a framework
01:11:35
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or a technology and it's one thing when they launch it and then over the next few years
01:11:42
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►
they sort of reuse it for other things.
01:11:46
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And I could see...
01:11:47
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►
example like here NSUserActivity becomes the building blocks of shortcuts.
01:11:51
◼
►
Exactly, or SiriKit. You know, it's all these APIs that they start off as one
01:11:57
◼
►
thing and later you go "oh now I see why you introduced this feature years ago".
01:12:01
◼
►
I could see shortcuts becoming part of a redesigned home screen if, you know,
01:12:04
◼
►
Gherman said several months ago that a new home screen is one of the key
01:12:09
◼
►
features of iOS 13 in 2019, so we'll see. But anyway...
01:12:13
◼
►
I can totally see that happening. I think that is a very very good prediction
01:12:18
◼
►
but I don't think that 3d touch needs to be included in that, you know, like I don't think that
01:12:22
◼
►
You have to remove that you would do that because you remove 3d touch or vice versa, right?
01:12:28
◼
►
Like I feel like that the 3d touch actions on the icons. I
01:12:31
◼
►
Don't think people use those really at all. I mean again, I'm sure some people do but like in the aggregate
01:12:38
◼
►
I don't think that they use by a lot of people but I you know
01:12:41
◼
►
I use 3D touch every single day for all sorts of things.
01:12:45
◼
►
Peek and pop like to look at elements.
01:12:49
◼
►
You know, maybe I want to see a message, but not have it as read yet.
01:12:53
◼
►
Or I want to be able to just peek into a link.
01:12:57
◼
►
I do that all the time. Right. Like I see a link and then I'll just
01:12:59
◼
►
I press down on it and then push it in if I want to actually go to the website.
01:13:03
◼
►
Like I use this stuff all the time and I can't imagine Apple
01:13:09
◼
►
completely removing this. I don't think that this is on the money. I think that what has
01:13:15
◼
►
probably happened is that the parts have changed. The way the technology is, the physical technology
01:13:24
◼
►
is different and people just interpret that to mean something. But I don't think that's
01:13:29
◼
►
the case at all.
01:13:30
◼
►
This feels like one of those analyst moves a little bit where analysts sometimes have
01:13:34
◼
►
to swing really big because in two years we're not going to remember this unless they were
01:13:38
◼
►
Like oh yeah, Barclays man way to go 3d touch guys
01:13:42
◼
►
Yeah, I don't I don't think it's going away, I think the parts have changed
01:13:47
◼
►
I think it is interesting to talk about how Apple could change it in software
01:13:49
◼
►
Which of course no analyst has any idea of because software this sort of stuff only leaks when Apple puts out home pod firmware
01:13:55
◼
►
But I do think there's room for Apple to improve 3d touch, and I think the home screen is the number one place
01:14:02
◼
►
I love the idea of like exposing shortcuts via 3d touch as opposed to the quick actions. I think I think to
01:14:08
◼
►
I think if Apple is going to
01:14:11
◼
►
Like if they're redesigning this like if they're having new parts that make this possible
01:14:16
◼
►
Maybe we finally see it on the iPad, you know
01:14:19
◼
►
Maybe whatever is going on here with the hardware allows them to put it on a bigger screen
01:14:23
◼
►
I don't think that would be for this year's iPads unless we're gonna have a fun surprise
01:14:28
◼
►
but you know in the future like it's already sort of fragmented between the phone and the tablet and
01:14:35
◼
►
That's only going to get more noticeable if developers use their Dtouch more
01:14:39
◼
►
And maybe it's maybe it's time. I mean, what do you guys think?
01:14:43
◼
►
There's a couple of things that I want to that I want to share about the arguments against 3D touch and
01:14:50
◼
►
Sort of in favor of 3D touch if that's okay
01:14:53
◼
►
Because I see these arguments being shared on Twitter though, the first one is accessibility
01:15:00
◼
►
It's this word that a bunch of people throw around and they say things like
01:15:04
◼
►
"3D touch is terrible for accessibility and Apple should remove it because it's not easy to use."
01:15:11
◼
►
And my problem with this statement is that there's different types of accessibility
01:15:22
◼
►
and different types of inclusive design.
01:15:25
◼
►
And so while you could make the argument that from a motor skill perspective, 3D touch is
01:15:30
◼
►
not accessible, on the other hand, I also think it's true that people with vision impediments,
01:15:36
◼
►
for example, that really don't like the fact that to get to some piece of information,
01:15:42
◼
►
you need to navigate into multiple screens deep into an app and its navigation stack.
01:15:49
◼
►
3D touch as a shortcut to preview content could be an accessibility feature in that
01:15:54
◼
►
you're saving taps, you're saving time, and you can see, you know, you can get to your
01:15:59
◼
►
information more quickly.
01:16:00
◼
►
So the accessibility argument doesn't really hold true because of the different shades
01:16:04
◼
►
of what inclusive design on iOS means.
01:16:08
◼
►
The second argument that I could see why 3D Touch may be going away -- so as you can tell,
01:16:15
◼
►
I'm a little torn on this topic.
01:16:18
◼
►
The fact that it's still not available on the iPad is a -- should be maybe, I don't
01:16:23
◼
►
know, a warning sign. But the iPad has its unique set of challenges when it comes to
01:16:29
◼
►
implementing 3D touch. It's a big display, so if you press hard on the display, of course,
01:16:34
◼
►
you know, maybe it'll bend, or maybe you're using your iPad on a desk with a smart keyboard
01:16:39
◼
►
or a smart cover propped up, and if you press on the screen, the iPad will just fall on
01:16:44
◼
►
the desk. You just push it over the angle of the cover. So that's a problem. But then
01:16:51
◼
►
Then you look at Apple and you see Apple for example replicating some 3D Touch features
01:16:57
◼
►
on the iPad with a standard long press.
01:17:01
◼
►
So things like clearing notifications all at once in iOS 12, you can do that with a
01:17:07
◼
►
Or the files widget in iOS 11 that you get on the home screen by long pressing on the
01:17:12
◼
►
That doesn't require 3D Touch at all.
01:17:15
◼
►
Or also in iOS 12, stuff like notification previews.
01:17:19
◼
►
You just need to long press, I also think 11 actually, you just need to long press on
01:17:24
◼
►
a notification and it pops open without having to use pick and pop.
01:17:28
◼
►
One of the ones that I find the funniest is like on the iPad in Control Center, why can't
01:17:33
◼
►
I not just tap the home icon?
01:17:35
◼
►
Yeah, that doesn't make sense.
01:17:36
◼
►
That doesn't make sense.
01:17:38
◼
►
Like, why do I have to long press it?
01:17:40
◼
►
Like what am I doing now?
01:17:41
◼
►
But that's another good example.
01:17:42
◼
►
Control Center, you can expand with a long press.
01:17:45
◼
►
So the folks who are saying 3D touch is going away because it's useless, just look at the
01:17:50
◼
►
long press gesture.
01:17:52
◼
►
That argument also kind of makes sense.
01:17:54
◼
►
So my main problem, as Steven mentioned, is the fact that you introduce this new technology
01:18:01
◼
►
and you get developers, you know, you sort of get traction among the developer community
01:18:06
◼
►
to implement 3D touch.
01:18:09
◼
►
And it's not a technology that is considered legacy at this point.
01:18:13
◼
►
I mean, it was introduced four years ago.
01:18:15
◼
►
It's not like the headphone jack or stuff that was introduced in iOS 3 or iOS 4.
01:18:24
◼
►
It's a relatively new feature.
01:18:26
◼
►
And I agree it's not totally discoverable, but just mixing 3D Touch without giving it
01:18:31
◼
►
a second chance, I don't think it's the right answer.
01:18:37
◼
►
Especially after you've made such a big deal out of the display technology that you needed
01:18:41
◼
►
to implement and all these sensors.
01:18:44
◼
►
You build, as a company, you build the Taptic Engine to provide haptic feedback and work
01:18:50
◼
►
alongside 3D Touch.
01:18:51
◼
►
So you make a big deal out of this new feature and then suddenly it just disappears.
01:18:57
◼
►
While there are plenty of arguments that would justify that, I also think it would be weird,
01:19:03
◼
►
because it would sort of, it would smell like a failure in modern Apple history.
01:19:11
◼
►
a huge failure because it's just a feature of the iPhone but still something that was
01:19:16
◼
►
introduced, made a big splash and just removed four years later, three years later. I don't
01:19:22
◼
►
think it's a good look.
01:19:24
◼
►
There's precedent for them changing the way that it works, right? Like at watchOS where
01:19:28
◼
►
3D touch has been downplayed, it's still there but I think watchOS in its early days really
01:19:36
◼
►
struggled with like...
01:19:37
◼
►
It was the discoverability problem.
01:19:39
◼
►
There was just too much hidden behind what
01:19:42
◼
►
was called force press then.
01:19:43
◼
►
And so they sort of, OK, you don't
01:19:45
◼
►
have to force press or 3D touch to do everything.
01:19:47
◼
►
Now you can swipe or do these other things.
01:19:49
◼
►
And maybe that's where it goes on iOS,
01:19:51
◼
►
but I think we're in agreement that it's not going away,
01:19:54
◼
►
that this is an over-reading of the situation by this analyst.
01:20:00
◼
►
I think one of the key things is there's still
01:20:03
◼
►
stuff being put behind 3D touch in iOS 12, right?
01:20:07
◼
►
don't think that you would continue to use 3D touch as heavily as it's used in
01:20:13
◼
►
iOS and in some places even in Apple's own apps if they were removing not just
01:20:19
◼
►
like the hardware but the actual feature itself it just doesn't seem realistic
01:20:24
◼
►
yeah so so I guess we're saying it's here to stay at least for now yeah in
01:20:30
◼
►
some way right like there may be a change and there probably will be a
01:20:34
◼
►
change but it's still going to exist like it's still going to be what we know
01:20:39
◼
►
now but maybe that may be done in a different way maybe they don't need to
01:20:43
◼
►
use that maybe they're just gonna use do it all in software right that they can
01:20:46
◼
►
work out like when you're pushing your finger down into the screen more like
01:20:50
◼
►
that if there is no plate that is recognizing presses or anything like we
01:20:54
◼
►
don't know but I believe that the next iPhones think we all believe the next
01:20:58
◼
►
iPhones will use will have 3d touch and then the way that they always have the
01:21:03
◼
►
tactic mode will be there and it will press on you when you do something like
01:21:06
◼
►
it's still going to exist. So let me ask you a final question. When you think of
01:21:10
◼
►
analyst firms, do you think they're like the Wolf of Wall Street? Like tons of, you
01:21:16
◼
►
know, questionable substances and parties and these people just having the best
01:21:21
◼
►
time of their life and... This is not a thing that I would be willing to comment
01:21:26
◼
►
on one way or another. Because I sometimes think about it and I like to
01:21:31
◼
►
imagine it's like that, you know, and in their spare time they make iPhone predictions.
01:21:37
◼
►
I worked in a very big company, right?
01:21:40
◼
►
Don't ruin it for me.
01:21:41
◼
►
Which would be very similar to a lot of these firms, especially like the Barclays firm,
01:21:47
◼
►
I think it's a lot more boring than you think it is.
01:21:49
◼
►
That's too bad.
01:21:50
◼
►
I'm sorry to say.
01:21:51
◼
►
Alright, well that's fine.
01:21:53
◼
►
Good for them.
01:21:54
◼
►
Alright, Steven, take us home.
01:21:55
◼
►
Alright, so thank you for listening to this episode of Connected.
01:21:58
◼
►
If you want to find links to stuff we talked about,
01:22:01
◼
►
they're in your podcast app or on the website
01:22:03
◼
►
relay.fm/connected/207.
01:22:07
◼
►
You can get in touch with us there via email
01:22:09
◼
►
or of course you can do so on Twitter.
01:22:12
◼
►
Myke is I-M-Y-K-E and Myke is the host of a bunch of shows
01:22:16
◼
►
at relay.fm/shows.
01:22:19
◼
►
You can find Federico on Twitter as viticiviticci
01:22:23
◼
►
and he is the editor-in-chief of maxstories.net.
01:22:28
◼
►
You can find me as ismh and I write 512pixels.net.
01:22:32
◼
►
I'd like to thank our sponsors this week, Casper, Pingdom, and GreenChef.
01:22:37
◼
►
And thank you for listening and until our next episode guys, say goodbye.
01:22:41
◼
►
Arrivederci.
01:22:48
◼
►
No, you just gotta leave it as is.
01:22:50
◼
►
Well, there you go.