Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► So I'm going to start now. I'm not going to do my regular start because changing it up.

00:00:04 ◼   ► So I've wrestled back control of the show. It's mine again for this week. Today's episode of

00:00:18 ◼   ► Connected is brought to you by Squarespace, PDF Pen and Pingdom. There is no Steven, so you know,

00:00:25 ◼   ► If you've been enjoying the Steven regime, it has been overthrown for one week.

00:00:30 ◼   ► And I'm joined by Federico. Hi Federico.

00:00:32 ◼   ► Hi, Myke. You have banned Steven from this podcast.

00:00:37 ◼   ► Yeah, he has been banned. Banned for bad behavior.

00:00:40 ◼   ► So that's what happens now when Steven's not on the show.

00:00:43 ◼   ► He has been banned because when I'm on the show, I'm dead.

00:00:45 ◼   ► So Steven has been Steven. Yeah.

00:00:48 ◼   ► Putting time out for a week.

00:00:50 ◼   ► He has done unimaginable things and we needed to ban Steven

00:00:55 ◼   ► because of the things he's done, which we cannot share.

00:00:57 ◼   ► But Steven has done the unthinkable,

00:00:59 ◼   ► and he didn't deserve to be on the show anymore.

00:01:02 ◼   ► - So here's the deal, dear listener.

00:01:06 ◼   ► I wasn't on this episode, but I am editing this episode.

00:01:10 ◼   ► I have not been banned.

00:01:12 ◼   ► I will not have my name sullied

00:01:14 ◼   ► by these so-called co-hosts of mine.

00:01:17 ◼   ► So every once in a while during this episode,

00:01:19 ◼   ► I may chime in and add my own thoughts.

00:01:24 ◼   ► And as is usual when Steven doesn't show up,

00:01:27 ◼   ► there is no follow up, so there will be no follow up today.

00:01:30 ◼   ► I am gonna do a piece of follow out,

00:01:33 ◼   ► which is to recommend and let people know about a new show

00:01:37 ◼   ► that we have at Relay FM called Subnet.

00:01:39 ◼   ► Subnet is hosted by the banished one, Steven Hackett.

00:01:42 ◼   ► And it is a week on weekdays,

00:01:46 ◼   ► Steven posts a couple of minutes every morning or for you

00:01:51 ◼   ► with tech head, it's all the tech stories you wanna know.

00:01:53 ◼   ► So Subnet is basically our flash briefing show,

00:01:56 ◼   ► and it is available on Amazon Echoes and Google Homes.

00:01:59 ◼   ► And you can also tune in on your HomePod,

00:02:01 ◼   ► and Federico has a little hack for that,

00:02:03 ◼   ► which he'll tell us about in a minute.

00:02:04 ◼   ► But what I love about Subnet,

00:02:06 ◼   ► I'm kind of getting ready in the morning,

00:02:08 ◼   ► and I'm making my coffee,

00:02:09 ◼   ► and I ask my Echo to give me my flash briefing.

00:02:12 ◼   ► And Stephen tells me about the technology stories

00:02:14 ◼   ► that I need to know.

00:02:15 ◼   ► And I feel like I'm somebody

00:02:16 ◼   ► who is pretty informed about technology,

00:02:19 ◼   ► but every day he tells me stories

00:02:21 ◼   ► for some reason I had no idea existed, which is very good because it's kind of just helping

00:02:26 ◼   ► me keep abreast of what's happening in the wider world of technologies. It covers all kinds of

00:02:30 ◼   ► technology. It's very, very good, very, very good. Go to relay.fm/subnet and you can find out more

00:02:36 ◼   ► about how to subscribe or you can just set it up on your Google Home or on your Amazon Echo.

00:02:41 ◼   ► There are skills that you can enable. Currently, these skills are only available in the US and the

00:02:45 ◼   ► UK, but they are being expanded to, I think, basically every native English-speaking country

00:02:51 ◼   ► We're doing this with Anchor, we're working with Anchor, and Anchor are working with Amazon on our behalf.

00:02:56 ◼   ► Turns out Amazon are really difficult with the skill stuff and the language support.

00:03:01 ◼   ► It's really freaking annoying, but we're working on it. But you can go and you can try it out.

00:03:05 ◼   ► Or you can listen to it on iOS devices with the Apple podcast app, which also extends out to HomePod.

00:03:11 ◼   ► And because Siri sucks, it tries to play for me a Shakespeare sonnet every time. I'm not killing.

00:03:17 ◼   ► when I ask for subnet it plays me a sonnet. Federico you have a tip that you stole

00:03:25 ◼   ► which you've incorporated into your life. Yes I saw this tip on Twitter courtesy of Terra

00:03:32 ◼   ► Man. It's a way to, if you have a home pod especially, or just any device with Siri,

00:03:38 ◼   ► to create in the Apple Podcasts app, which I've been testing again because of the home pods,

00:03:47 ◼   ► you can create what are called stations. So basically playlists, they're called stations.

00:03:53 ◼   ► And the benefit of setting up a station in the HomePod, or rather in the Apple Podcast app,

00:04:00 ◼   ► and to use the HomePod, is that you can ask Siri to play your station with just a single command,

00:04:07 ◼   ► which is very convenient because, of course, you know, Siri integration is limited to Apple-owned

00:04:13 ◼   ► apps. And what I do and what Terra also does is you create a station and to this station

00:04:22 ◼   ► you add a bunch of these new types of daily shows like subnet or 9to5Mac daily. Actually,

00:04:29 ◼   ► if you have recommendations for other daily tech shows like two minute, three minute podcasts,

00:04:34 ◼   ► I would love to know. And every morning when you're making coffee or having breakfast or

00:04:39 ◼   ► something, you can ask Siri to play your station. The limitation that I've found is that my station

00:04:46 ◼   ► is called TechNews, and if I ask Siri to play my TechNews, it starts playing some kind of

00:04:54 ◼   ► unrelated tech podcast that is called TechNews, which is not in my library, which is kind of weird

00:05:01 ◼   ► because it goes to iTunes search, I guess, to find that show. Anyway, the correct syntax for me

00:05:08 ◼   ► is to say "Play my tech news podcast station" because if I omit the word podcast it also starts

00:05:16 ◼   ► playing a radio station on Apple Music which I guess there's a tech news station on Apple Music

00:05:23 ◼   ► for some reason. Anyway, if you say "Play my tech news podcast station" it'll work and it'll sync

00:05:30 ◼   ► sync with iCloud. Also this is a sub-level teachy tip. I would say make sure that if

00:05:38 ◼   ► you're using the Apple podcast app that you manually pull to refresh. Because I've discovered

00:05:44 ◼   ► that sometimes, once you stop listening on your iPhone and you want to continue on the

00:05:50 ◼   ► HomePod, sometimes you've got to manually sync your progress. Otherwise the HomePod

00:05:57 ◼   ► will not pick up your playback position. So yeah, create a station, add subnet to the

00:06:03 ◼   ► station, bunch of other daily shows, and listen to Steven's, you know, soft tones as you're

00:06:10 ◼   ► brewing coffee in the morning. It's perfect for that.

00:06:14 ◼   ► So Apple had a press release today about some Apple Watch features, right?

00:06:19 ◼   ► Yes. Which is kind of strange, because these features, they actually launched with Watch

00:06:25 ◼   ► WatchOS 4.2 in December, but Apple decided today to have this kind of big marketing push

00:06:31 ◼   ► with the press release, a bunch of stories and recommendations on the App Store, and

00:06:37 ◼   ► I assume some more media coverage coming later this week.

00:06:42 ◼   ► What they are doing is they are promoting watch apps that use the new workout APIs in

00:06:49 ◼   ► in watchOS 4.2 to integrate skiing and snowboarding activities with the Workout API, with the

00:06:59 ◼   ► Health app on the iPhone, and with the Activity app on the iPhone and Apple Watch.

00:07:04 ◼   ► These apps include Slopes by our friend Curtis Herbert, and there's another called Snow with

00:07:10 ◼   ► two Ws, which I originally thought was a typo from the Apple press release.

00:07:15 ◼   ► like "sno". But no, that's the name. It's interesting because I see it as a way, and

00:07:25 ◼   ► I should say before I move on, that you will be able to track the vertical descent, the

00:07:30 ◼   ► horizontal distance of your runs, the number of runs, your speed, your total time, and

00:07:36 ◼   ► your calories burned. Which is actually pretty neat, this is pretty awesome. Anyway, I think

00:07:42 ◼   ► it's interesting because it's a fascinating PR approach to what is effectively a delayed

00:07:48 ◼   ► feature, which was originally announced with the Apple Watch Series 3 in September, delayed

00:07:56 ◼   ► to WatchOS 4.2 in December, and now promoted at the end of February on the App Store and

00:08:04 ◼   ► with the press release through the help of third-party developers. I think it's an interesting

00:08:09 ◼   ► approach to, you know, we've been talking about Apple sort of having this a bunch

00:08:13 ◼   ► of iOS features and watchOS features sort of scattered throughout the year

00:08:18 ◼   ► and this is another approach to that problem of how do we make a big push?

00:08:23 ◼   ► Well, we ask developers to coordinate their app updates with us so that we can

00:08:29 ◼   ► have one cohesive story with the press release, a dedicated section in the today

00:08:35 ◼   ► view of the App Store and we can maybe get in touch with some

00:08:39 ◼   ► websites that talk about ski resorts and that type of stuff like dedicated

00:08:43 ◼   ► publications so we can have more coverage. I think it's really smart from

00:08:47 ◼   ► an API perspective. I think one of the things about this that interests me the

00:08:51 ◼   ► most is that Apple built the APIs but didn't put it into the workout app

00:08:56 ◼   ► themselves, which is weird. Because they built this for swimming, right?

00:09:01 ◼   ► Because swimming and like skiing, right, there are specific movements that are specific to

00:09:07 ◼   ► that type of activity that if you want to track properly you have to do the work.

00:09:12 ◼   ► Like I, one of my favorite things that the watch can do, it knows what type of swimming

00:09:18 ◼   ► I'm doing, it knows if I'm doing backstroke, freestyle, yeah, or breaststroke.

00:09:23 ◼   ► And it will, when I'm done with a swim, it will list out what it believes I've done in

00:09:29 ◼   ► like in meters in each stroke and that's because of the work they've put in. It's not simply like

00:09:34 ◼   ► how long are you doing this for right? Which you know I would assume for a lot of the general

00:09:40 ◼   ► workout activities they're just tracking how long have you been doing this for, estimating some kind

00:09:45 ◼   ► of distance based upon what type of work you're doing and showing you the calories burned right?

00:09:49 ◼   ► That's like the general thing but they went into specifics of swimming in the same way that they've

00:09:54 ◼   ► they've gone into specifics of skiing, but they haven't included skiing into the workouts

00:09:58 ◼   ► app. So one thing that I look at, I find this interesting, but another way that I look at

00:10:03 ◼   ► it is I expect now many more types of activities like this, which are kind of like pseudo sports

00:10:09 ◼   ► for a lot of people, but like they're like recreational activities for others where the

00:10:13 ◼   ► app will start to rely on third parties so they don't clog up the workout app, right?

00:10:18 ◼   ► So other types of activities, like, I don't know, maybe rowing or football or tennis or

00:10:28 ◼   ► something like that, where you're doing some other kind of sporting activity.

00:10:31 ◼   ► Well tennis is a sport, I think.

00:10:34 ◼   ► Well yeah, but it's something people play in the same way that like skiing is a sport,

00:10:39 ◼   ► right?

00:10:40 ◼   ► But do you know what I mean?

00:10:41 ◼   ► Like finding… and when I said rowing, I meant like literally rowing in a boat, not

00:10:45 ◼   ► in like a machine.

00:10:47 ◼   ► So I don't know, I honestly expect to see them do more with this, exposing the APIs,

00:10:53 ◼   ► but then kind of just giving it over to third parties to work on. I think that's a good

00:10:58 ◼   ► approach. It's an interesting approach, at least.

00:11:00 ◼   ► Yeah. I mean, because you're still burning calories and you're still doing physical exercise,

00:11:05 ◼   ► even if you're shoveling snow. Now, I don't think Apple will have a shoveling type of

00:11:10 ◼   ► workout in the workout app, but maybe someone else could make a third party app for, you

00:11:17 ◼   ► know if you live in Chicago like a friend John and and you need to shovel

00:11:20 ◼   ► snow on a weekly basis in the winter I mean that that's an exercise you know I

00:11:26 ◼   ► hear from John that... And wouldn't that be kind of cute right like if they were to

00:11:30 ◼   ► sneak stuff like that in? Yeah. Right like it can tell it's like hey you shoveling

00:11:35 ◼   ► snow right now let's stick there and there's something kind of fun about that

00:11:37 ◼   ► that I would kind of like. I spent some time yesterday digging holes in my yard

00:11:43 ◼   ► dealing with some old house problems and this would be pretty nice. I think I

00:11:48 ◼   ► tweeted that I actually filled my exercise ring by digging holes. It wasn't a

00:11:52 ◼   ► single workout but the the Apple Watch knew that I was working harder than I

00:11:56 ◼   ► normally do. And by the way my plumbing it's all fixed.

00:12:01 ◼   ► So we we have some news regarding Ring. Myke what is Ring exactly? Ring is a

00:12:09 ◼   ► a digital doorbell, a video camera doorbell. I will say they have been a sponsor of Relay

00:12:15 ◼   ► FM like a year or so ago, but like it's not important for this discussion.

00:12:18 ◼   ► That's, that's, that's what, that's totally why they've been acquired by Amazon.

00:12:24 ◼   ► Yeah, we gave them the platform that they needed to go ahead and be acquired for $1

00:12:30 ◼   ► billion by Amazon. But it's like one of, it's like a home security system, but it goes on

00:12:34 ◼   ► the outside of the door. You know, like it's got sensors in it, it's got a camera in it.

00:12:40 ◼   ► My uncle has one of them and it's cool. Like it is a cool piece of technology because you

00:12:44 ◼   ► know, you can, if anybody walks past, it will send a notification to you and you can speak

00:12:49 ◼   ► to people through the doorbell. They also do cameras, they expand it to like everything,

00:12:54 ◼   ► right? Creating like a home security system. Well, it was announced yesterday that Amazon

00:12:59 ◼   ► of bought Ring for a billion dollars, it is expected that they are going to use this as

00:13:06 ◼   ► a way to bolster the Amazon Key project, which is, you may remember this, this is the thing

00:13:15 ◼   ► where Amazon will set you up with, like you buy it but they come and fit it, a lock, some

00:13:21 ◼   ► kind of camera doorbell, and I think Ring was one of the camera doorbells they were

00:13:27 ◼   ► working with anyway and that meant that delivery drivers could come to your house, they could

00:13:32 ◼   ► be let in, they could just leave a package for you and go.

00:13:37 ◼   ► So it is expected, and I think it's easy to see, that they have bought Ring so they can

00:13:42 ◼   ► brand their own technology and use Ring's expertise in helping them create and expand

00:13:49 ◼   ► this and maybe even also, and probably very likely, offering this as a service to existing

00:13:55 ◼   ► Ring digital doorbell owners. Because they have also bought probably, and I think it's

00:14:02 ◼   ► pretty easy to assume, the largest current user base of digital doorbells. They have

00:14:07 ◼   ► just bought those, right? Because Ring is pretty popular. And I mean, I honestly don't

00:14:13 ◼   ► know another one. I'm sure that there are other ones, but like Ring is the only one,

00:14:17 ◼   ► at least in my mind, that occupies any kind of like brain space.

00:14:22 ◼   ► So this is not, is this also a door lock or just a doorbell?

00:14:27 ◼   ► I believe that Ring only do a doorbell.

00:14:29 ◼   ► That is correct.

00:14:32 ◼   ► And but there are other companies that do door locks.

00:14:35 ◼   ► I mean, honestly, I now expect to see

00:14:37 ◼   ► if there is some kind of third party vendor that makes locks. Right.

00:14:41 ◼   ► I expect to see Amazon buy them now as well.

00:14:43 ◼   ► Like like is that like the August smart lock?

00:14:47 ◼   ► Yeah, I know that one.

00:14:49 ◼   ► I know that one.

00:14:49 ◼   ► And then there are existing companies like Kensington, right, who make

00:14:52 ◼   ► make actual locks, they make them as well, right? Because they're trying to make sure that they

00:14:56 ◼   ► remain relevant, which is a smart thing to do. So I kind of have a couple of thoughts about this,

00:15:01 ◼   ► that kind of questions like, if you're a customer of Ring, like how, how, how would you feel about

00:15:07 ◼   ► this? Like, is it frustrating to have the company that you've kind of invested into your home change

00:15:14 ◼   ► hands and then possibly change direction? But if you get additional features, is it worth it? Like,

00:15:20 ◼   ► what do you think about this? I know that neither of us have these, but how do you expect

00:15:25 ◼   ► you would feel if you were a customer of Ring?

00:15:29 ◼   ► I wonder if the customer of Ring is the type of person who also owns an Amazon Echo. Because

00:15:37 ◼   ► if that's the case...

00:15:38 ◼   ► I mean, there's got to be a pretty good overlap. Like if you're in the digital doorbell world,

00:15:43 ◼   ► you probably have another product that hooks into that sort of stuff.

00:15:48 ◼   ► Exactly. Now, if you are a Google person, now this may be a problem because you are

00:15:52 ◼   ► in a different ecosystem.

00:15:53 ◼   ► Oh man, I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon still extended that out. You know what they're

00:15:57 ◼   ► like. I mean, all of this stuff is just to make sure that people buy more things from

00:16:00 ◼   ► Amazon.

00:16:01 ◼   ► I don't know. On one hand, there's the ecosystem play that I think it's interesting to consider.

00:16:09 ◼   ► Like if you're the tech-obsessed person who buys a digital doorbell because you want streaming

00:16:15 ◼   ► video when someone rings at your door. Are you happy that now Amazon owns the doorbell?

00:16:22 ◼   ► But also there's the fact that this ties into the whole system of the Amazon delivery person

00:16:29 ◼   ► is coming to your house and now we have a better... like I don't want this to sound

00:16:36 ◼   ► wrong but you could make the case for the Ring doorbell to be an employee monitoring

00:16:41 ◼   ► system for Amazon to check how their delivery people actually work.

00:16:46 ◼   ► I think that that is definitely another part of the Amazon Key project, that they get to

00:16:52 ◼   ► know how their people are actually working.

00:16:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:16:56 ◼   ► I mean, it's not a wild thing to assume.

00:16:59 ◼   ► There has been this...

00:17:00 ◼   ► Now, I don't know if this is actually...

00:17:02 ◼   ► You know that...

00:17:03 ◼   ► I should give you some context.

00:17:05 ◼   ► Italian folks have been obsessed with this word that they have discovered over the past

00:17:11 ◼   ► few months under the elections, which is fake news. Now, everywhere in Italy, on a

00:17:18 ◼   ► daily basis, on the news, on websites, on newspapers, you see mentions of fake news.

00:17:23 ◼   ► And there's been this story that was going around a few weeks ago of Amazon

00:17:29 ◼   ► using ankle bracelets on employees working in the Italian shipping center,

00:17:36 ◼   ► distribution center in Northern Italy,

00:17:40 ◼   ► using these ankle bracelets to monitor

00:17:43 ◼   ► what the employees were doing inside of the warehouse.

00:17:46 ◼   ► And there's been this huge outcry

00:17:48 ◼   ► about these ankle bracelets.

00:17:50 ◼   ► And I think a couple of Amazon spoke people.

00:17:53 ◼   ► They said, "We're doing --

00:17:57 ◼   ► This is just like a patent.

00:18:00 ◼   ► It's not like a real product. This is fake news."

00:18:03 ◼   ► But I think even the fact that Amazon is exploring the idea of, you know, ankle bracelets...

00:18:10 ◼   ► Like you still thought of it?

00:18:14 ◼   ► Like the devices that, you know, law enforcement use for house arrest, basically.

00:18:21 ◼   ► Use those to monitor employees.

00:18:23 ◼   ► Even the fact that somebody at Amazon thought about this idea is terrifying to me.

00:18:32 ◼   ► And so when you mentioned the doorbell with video and the Amazon Key project, I mean,

00:18:35 ◼   ► of course they're going to check on how the Amazon delivery person actually does the work

00:18:42 ◼   ► at your door. Man, it's creepy from that point of view.

00:18:46 ◼   ► Let me ask you a super quick question, because we never actually spoke about the Amazon Key.

00:18:51 ◼   ► It was in my list for a while and we just never got to it. Would you use this? I mean,

00:18:56 ◼   ► you have a very specific problem, right? Would you use this?

00:18:59 ◼   ► No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

00:19:00 ◼   ► no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

00:19:01 ◼   ► no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

00:19:02 ◼   ► no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

00:19:03 ◼   ► no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

00:19:03 ◼   ► I'm not letting anybody in my house, not even in, you know, not even before, like in the

00:19:10 ◼   ► area between the front door and the actual door. I don't know if there's a name for that,

00:19:16 ◼   ► like like, yeah, like the porch or whatever. Like the porch or something? The hallway?

00:19:19 ◼   ► Okay, I see what you mean. Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm like, no, no, my personal stance is that,

00:19:25 ◼   ► No, the package stays outside.

00:19:28 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't I don't have a complete answer.

00:19:33 ◼   ► Why?

00:19:35 ◼   ► Because I fully appreciate the creepiness to it, but I would want to like weigh

00:19:43 ◼   ► this up in the way that I weigh up every argument of like creepiness versus

00:19:48 ◼   ► convenience. The good thing is I'm at home most of the time when Amazon

00:19:52 ◼   ► deliveries are coming in. But like if I didn't work at home I might consider

00:19:56 ◼   ► this. Like if my house is empty every day Amazon just can't deliver to me like

00:20:02 ◼   ► ever. But if I had this then they can. And I know that I hate it when I miss

00:20:09 ◼   ► deliveries. Maybe you should just move next door to a bakery. Yeah I mean it's

00:20:17 ◼   ► just it's just creepy from that point of view and as you mentioned real quick

00:20:21 ◼   ► it's not an ankle bracelet, it's a wristband. I found, I found, so that's, that's still...

00:20:26 ◼   ► -Riskstand feels better than an ankle bracelet in a way that I can't fully explain.

00:20:30 ◼   ► -You're still, you're still asking employees to put on a thing that, anyway, anyway, I understand

00:20:39 ◼   ► why you, why you would like the idea of never missing a delivery, but still there's the idea...

00:20:47 ◼   ► But yeah, this is my thing. This isn't a clear cut thing because there is still that "hmm, but, hmm, but"

00:20:54 ◼   ► [Music]

00:20:57 ◼   ► That runs around in my brain. Because this isn't a problem with Amazon. This is a problem with other humans.

00:21:06 ◼   ► Do you know what I mean? Like a lot of these problems are like, "I have a problem with the company."

00:21:11 ◼   ► but I don't necessarily have a problem with the company, but this is just like random people

00:21:15 ◼   ► walking into my home, right? So that's the problem I have. There's a good video that I put in the

00:21:21 ◼   ► show notes from the Washington Post, they put a video together about this, like showing how

00:21:26 ◼   ► people are actually delivering. It looks interesting. I recommend people go and watch it.

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00:22:44 ◼   ► move, make your next website. So do you remember that was probably a month or so ago? Ming-Chi Kuo

00:22:51 ◼   ► had a report with KGI Securities about the upcoming line of iPhones for this year, right? And it

00:23:01 ◼   ► included a complete refresh, three phones, different sizes, etc, etc. As of yesterday,

00:23:09 ◼   ► when we're recording this, so on Monday, Monday 26th of February, Mark Gurman, I was gonna

00:23:17 ◼   ► call him Mark Bloomberg, which was something that Jason did on upgrade. So there's just

00:23:22 ◼   ► something in me now.

00:23:23 ◼   ► He said, he said, he said, Glumberg or something.

00:23:27 ◼   ► Gloomburg, that was it. Mark Gloomburg. The very talented Mark Gurman reported in Bloomberg

00:23:37 ◼   ► basically confirming this and giving some additional details. So based upon Mark's sources,

00:23:43 ◼   ► in 2018 we're going to see three phones. The first one, which is kind of the headline of

00:23:48 ◼   ► this, is an iPhone X Plus. It will have a screen, it will be basically the body of the

00:23:53 ◼   ► the current Plus model, with a screen size of close to 6.5 inches, making it one of the

00:23:58 ◼   ► largest screens in a mainstream phone on the market. The possibility of the screen resolution

00:24:04 ◼   ► of this will be 1242 x 2688, which is the most awkward screen resolution I think I've

00:24:10 ◼   ► ever come across.

00:24:11 ◼   ► - Bunch of random numbers.

00:24:13 ◼   ► - Just nothingness. It will have all of the features from the X, like an OLED screen,

00:24:18 ◼   ► face ID and Apple are considering adding a dual SIM card slot. This would be for the

00:24:23 ◼   ► first time it's done. This is a big feature in some markets in Europe and in Asia. It's

00:24:28 ◼   ► for business travelers, right? When you're traveling across a landmass where you might

00:24:32 ◼   ► need different SIM cards, which is not necessarily a thing that happens in the US. Depends on

00:24:37 ◼   ► availability of carrier. But obviously the Apple SIM will be a perfect task for this,

00:24:42 ◼   ► like on the iPad. So you could just buy whatever you need when you need it. But as you can

00:24:48 ◼   ► understand carriers are pushing Apple on this which is why the Apple sim does not exist

00:24:55 ◼   ► in a phone right now. As well as the iPhone 10 plus there will be an update to the iPhone

00:25:00 ◼   ► 10 probably like an iPhone 10s or something like that. It will feature a faster processor

00:25:05 ◼   ► with all the regular updates but they are considering adding a gold color to the line

00:25:10 ◼   ► which this phone would get. And then also I mean I don't know which is more interesting

00:25:15 ◼   ► to me either the Plus or this, which is a lower cost iPhone X style phone. Let's call

00:25:19 ◼   ► it the iPhone 9 for the sake of conversation, because that makes sense.

00:25:24 ◼   ► I wanted to go with iPhone X Lite, but sure.

00:25:28 ◼   ► Let's just keep it simple. So the iPhone 9 will look basically like the iPhone X. It

00:25:35 ◼   ► will feature an edge-to-edge screen, it will have face ID and a notch, but will feature

00:25:39 ◼   ► an LCD screen instead of OLED, an aluminium on the edges instead of stainless steel, it

00:25:44 ◼   ► keeps the glass back for wireless charging. So I'm going to ask you Federico, so this

00:25:49 ◼   ► is the lineup, right? Why are Apple expanding this line so fast, both up and down?

00:25:55 ◼   ► So I had this conversation with my girlfriend a while back, when the rumor first appeared.

00:26:03 ◼   ► Because I wanted to measure her reaction, so she's still using the iPhone 7. She didn't

00:26:07 ◼   ► want to upgrade to the iPhone 8, and she didn't want to get an iPhone X. And I told her, so

00:26:14 ◼   ► So Apple may be doing three iPhones this year, they're gonna do like an iPhone 10 but faster,

00:26:19 ◼   ► a bigger iPhone 10 Plus, and a new lower priced iPhone that looks like the 10 but it's not

00:26:26 ◼   ► the real 10.

00:26:28 ◼   ► And her first reaction was "Why are they doing the cheap iPhone again?

00:26:32 ◼   ► Nobody wants the cheaper iPhone."

00:26:35 ◼   ► So there's...

00:26:36 ◼   ► Now, I don't think she's totally right in her assessment of the situation, but I think

00:26:43 ◼   ► she's right in that there's a perception of, especially this year, of Apple has

00:26:48 ◼   ► done these two iPhones where the iPhone 8 and the 8 Plus, I count them as one, but

00:26:56 ◼   ► basically there's a perception, I think, that people see this old boring iPhone

00:27:01 ◼   ► that nobody wants and the cool new iPhone that is too expensive. Now, and I

00:27:10 ◼   ► think you know that the numbers they speak for themselves that you know Apple

00:27:14 ◼   ► still sold a lot of iPhones and some folks are saying they didn't sell enough

00:27:18 ◼   ► iPhone 10 units and others are saying the iPhone 8 sold surprisingly well I'm

00:27:23 ◼   ► not talking about the numbers here I'm talking about I think there's a general

00:27:26 ◼   ► perception there's a sense that nobody wants the cheap the cheaper not the

00:27:31 ◼   ► cheap the cheaper iPhone you know I'm gonna take it a step further than that

00:27:35 ◼   ► actually because I'm agreeing with the majority of what you're saying here but

00:27:39 ◼   ► there is a different point which you have to consider of how long it takes to make these

00:27:42 ◼   ► phones, right? So like, this plan will have been in place before the iPhone X came out, in theory,

00:27:49 ◼   ► because there's a long lead time of making these things. So it isn't, I don't believe that it is

00:27:55 ◼   ► about public perception. I believe it is Apple's assumption of future public perception that would

00:28:02 ◼   ► have made them make this decision, which is like the general agreed upon notion that phones with

00:28:08 ◼   ► new designs sell better, right? They are more appealing. So like, I don't think that this

00:28:14 ◼   ► is a reaction. I think a lot of people are painting this and I'm not saying you were,

00:28:18 ◼   ► but a lot of people paint this as like a reaction to the iPhone 10 in some way. I don't think

00:28:23 ◼   ► it's that at all. It is the assumption of smart product designers about what people

00:28:29 ◼   ► will think of their products.

00:28:30 ◼   ► Yeah, but in any case, the conclusion is the same, you know, so that that's, yeah, that's

00:28:36 ◼   ► That was my point, like the conclusion is the same, but I just want to say, I agree

00:28:40 ◼   ► with what you're saying, but I just think that like where it comes from is slightly

00:28:44 ◼   ► different.

00:28:45 ◼   ► Yeah, but you know, from a general public perspective, you know, folks, they do not

00:28:50 ◼   ► assume that, oh yes, Apple totally planned this.

00:28:53 ◼   ► And I agree with you.

00:28:54 ◼   ► I want to believe that they saw this in advance.

00:28:58 ◼   ► People will see this as a reaction and they will say, oh, so Apple also knows that they,

00:29:04 ◼   ► know the iPhone 8 didn't do well and so they're making every iPhone like the iPhone 10. Which

00:29:09 ◼   ► I think, you know, no matter the angle that you're taking to evaluate this, I think is

00:29:13 ◼   ► the right decision. That there's the idea of new. That, as Don Draper used to say, creates

00:29:19 ◼   ► a niche in people. It's a way to get into people's minds, to make something feel new.

00:29:26 ◼   ► So I agree, whereby I agree, I mean, I think it's a good idea to have three iPhones that

00:29:32 ◼   ► look new. And especially the 10 plus I think both you and I were going to totally get one because it

00:29:39 ◼   ► sounds incredible. A 6.5 inch screen iPhone. It's yeah imagine that. The iPad mini is 7.9 inches.

00:29:47 ◼   ► Like yeah that was gonna be like next level. I'm gonna feel like I'm holding a billboard.

00:29:55 ◼   ► it's just be incredible. As I've said before I'm not sure that a larger iPhone

00:30:01 ◼   ► 10 really is for me I've gotten used to the smaller form factor but I definitely

00:30:06 ◼   ► want to check one out if this rumor does come true in the fall.

00:30:10 ◼   ► Yeah but I want to talk about this cheaper one because I have a few

00:30:14 ◼   ► questions I want to know how can Apple differentiate the line out like even the

00:30:19 ◼   ► basic stuff. How do you pick a name? I mean, let's assume iPhone 9. Okay. How do you separate

00:30:26 ◼   ► features, color options, storage capacities, or how do you sell the idea that this one

00:30:36 ◼   ► doesn't have OLED? Do you want to explain OLED versus LCD, or do you just gloss over

00:30:41 ◼   ► and pretend it's not a difference? So where do you draw the line? Is it the camera? Do

00:30:47 ◼   ► you get like a like a inferior camera on the 9 but you get the better one on the

00:30:52 ◼   ► 10 and the best on the on the 10 plus do you do you do you make the 10 plus the

00:30:58 ◼   ► the best option in terms of battery or memory does Apple want to mention memory

00:31:04 ◼   ► I don't think so I just wonder what's the best way to explain people why this

00:31:10 ◼   ► this iPhone that looks like the X but it's not a X costs less without making it too technical.

00:31:18 ◼   ► Here is my theory on this, right? You draw as little lines as you possibly can and I think

00:31:25 ◼   ► there's two reasons for this. One, Apple should have learned from the 5c. They drew a lot of lines

00:31:32 ◼   ► with the 5c and it didn't sell very well, right? And I think Apple were expecting and hoping to

00:31:38 ◼   ► to keep that phone around for a while and they kind of didn't because there wasn't that

00:31:41 ◼   ► much difference between the C and the S, right? It was a small price difference and it was

00:31:47 ◼   ► very different visibly. So I expect that this phone will look as close as they can possibly

00:31:53 ◼   ► make it to look like the iPhone X. If there are colors, it will have all of the colors

00:31:58 ◼   ► and it will be pretty close. I mean, I would even say it will get like, and I have a reason

00:32:03 ◼   ► for this, I think it will get like the fastest chip available at the time so they'll all

00:32:06 ◼   ► getting new chips, they'll give the best camera they can possibly give it so it

00:32:09 ◼   ► will be an improvement on the 8, right? Maybe it gets the camera the iPhone X has,

00:32:13 ◼   ► for example, and the reason that I think they do all of this, they pack this

00:32:17 ◼   ► thing full of features because it stays around for three years and that they

00:32:24 ◼   ► keep this phone in the lineup as a cheaper version of the iPhone X when

00:32:29 ◼   ► they push the more expensive ones forward and then they slow the

00:32:33 ◼   ► development down on the cheaper version, it continues to become cheaper whilst

00:32:38 ◼   ► continuing to look fresh and it's full of like features that's gonna last a

00:32:42 ◼   ► couple of years. So they effectively have a second iPhone SE. That's my theory on this.

00:32:48 ◼   ► That could be, that makes a lot of sense. My only preoccupation is

00:32:55 ◼   ► that the not for the 10 plus but that the difference between the 9 and the 10

00:33:03 ◼   ► will be hard to tell unless there's some visual cues like... Well, stainless steel in an aluminium will be a big one, right?

00:33:14 ◼   ► Like, visually. Could be. Could be. Could be. Most people keep it in a case, so that

00:33:20 ◼   ► element is sort of more subdued, I guess. I just... I guess that in any instance

00:33:28 ◼   ► this is probably good news for Apple, because at that point you just want to have one of

00:33:35 ◼   ► two new phones, and you're not creating that sense of "oh, I'm spending money to buy a

00:33:41 ◼   ► phone that looks old, but everybody's gonna be happy anyway because the phone looks new".

00:33:47 ◼   ► So that's good news.

00:33:50 ◼   ► I would say the thing is, if you look at the 6, the 6s, the 7 and the 7s, that would argue,

00:33:56 ◼   ► that Apple don't really care about trying to make the phone look different

00:34:00 ◼   ► from other ones. Those phones, they didn't really do anything specific to

00:34:05 ◼   ► make them look visibly different than the ones that came before it, so they may

00:34:09 ◼   ► just apply that thinking to this. So like the the 9 and the 10, they look

00:34:14 ◼   ► basically the same. Do we think that they're making the... because when the

00:34:20 ◼   ► iPhone 8 came out, a lot of the other folks with websites and tech

00:34:27 ◼   ► podcasts, they made the argument that the iPhone 8 was a classic design that it

00:34:32 ◼   ► didn't need to change. So if they're changing it with the iPhone X, are they

00:34:36 ◼   ► doing it because they don't think that design is classic anymore, or is it

00:34:42 ◼   ► because it's the right thing to do to move the line forward, or is it because

00:34:46 ◼   ► of more profits. It has to go away eventually, right? Like you can't keep that design around

00:34:52 ◼   ► literally forever. Unless it's the SE. Well but the SE, I think the SE, that exists in

00:35:00 ◼   ► size not design. So they wouldn't be able to shrink that design down in theory, right?

00:35:08 ◼   ► Like I think the SE exists for size and price and I expect them to do something there with

00:35:13 ◼   ► that going into the future.

00:35:15 ◼   ► But like, it's just like, you know, I

00:35:17 ◼   ► agree that it is like a classic

00:35:18 ◼   ► design because it's been around for

00:35:20 ◼   ► so long and they took it to its Mac

00:35:21 ◼   ► to its end.

00:35:22 ◼   ► But like, you can't just keep it

00:35:24 ◼   ► around forever for the sake of it.

00:35:25 ◼   ► And you know what? They'll probably

00:35:27 ◼   ► keep it in the lineup for one more

00:35:28 ◼   ► year as an even cheaper, cheaper

00:35:30 ◼   ► phone. Right. Like you could still

00:35:32 ◼   ► buy it if you wanted to, you know,

00:35:34 ◼   ► like that you keep the old design

00:35:35 ◼   ► around for a while as they've always

00:35:37 ◼   ► done. They could still do that

00:35:38 ◼   ► because it will probably they'll

00:35:39 ◼   ► probably still be able to sell the

00:35:41 ◼   ► iPhone eight for cheaper than the

00:35:43 ◼   ► iPhone 9, right? So they may just keep it around for another year or two as an even

00:35:46 ◼   ► cheaper version of a phone to buy. But, you know, I think you've got to move on from it.

00:35:53 ◼   ► Personally, I think it's the right thing to do, to move on. If anything, just to continue

00:35:59 ◼   ► to proliferate Face ID as a thing, right? Face ID and wireless charging, get that into

00:36:05 ◼   ► every phone that you release now, like how they did with Touch ID, right? You put Touch

00:36:10 ◼   ► ID into every product. Apple should not be releasing a new iOS device in 2018 that doesn't

00:36:17 ◼   ► include Face ID. That's just what they should be doing now. If they're releasing a kind

00:36:23 ◼   ► of top class product, it should include Face ID. I would like to see Face ID on the SE,

00:36:29 ◼   ► but I don't know what... I don't even know if they know what they're going to do with

00:36:32 ◼   ► that. That seems like a really difficult problem to solve. If you're going to keep the SE around,

00:36:37 ◼   ► you do with it. But yeah, I'm very interested in this. I do have a question for you actually

00:36:42 ◼   ► about the Plus phone. In German's article he says that there are concerns that the larger

00:36:51 ◼   ► phone could cut into the iPad market. I rolled my eyes at this and I wonder what you think.

00:36:58 ◼   ► I don't think it's the case. It's not the same. Because even if the size is inching

00:37:05 ◼   ► closer to an iPad mini. There's still a big ergonomic difference between holding an iPhone

00:37:13 ◼   ► Plus and an iPad mini.

00:37:15 ◼   ► And you'd expect it's going to look like a big iPhone from a UI perspective, and applications

00:37:21 ◼   ► will treat it like a big iPhone. They're not going to treat it like a small iPad.

00:37:25 ◼   ► No, no they're not. And I don't think it's a... especially because the iPad market seems

00:37:32 ◼   ► to be pretty established in either the cheaper iPad, the 9.7, and the iPad Pro line, I don't

00:37:40 ◼   ► think people using the 9.7 or a 10.5 or a 12.9, they will accept an iPhone Plus as a

00:37:47 ◼   ► substitute for whatever they're doing on an iPad.

00:37:51 ◼   ► So I would also roll my eyes at that belief that with an iPhone Plus, now folks who are

00:37:58 ◼   ► using iPads will stop using and buying iPads to just use the iPhone. Because from an ergonomic

00:38:03 ◼   ► and UI perspective, it's a different device. Yes, it runs some of the same apps, but you

00:38:10 ◼   ► wouldn't want to work at a desk with an iPhone Plus and a Bluetooth keyboard. That would

00:38:14 ◼   ► be horrible. Like, iPad users will not accept that as a replacement. And not even casual

00:38:20 ◼   ► users. Like, if you're buying an iPad for your kid or because you want to read some

00:38:26 ◼   ► books at night, you're not gonna get an iPhone Plus instead.

00:38:31 ◼   ► So yes, it is going to be more useful for more people that can do more, but if you made

00:38:38 ◼   ► up your mind that you wanna use an iPad, especially for work, which is what apparently most people

00:38:43 ◼   ► do with the iPad these days, because we can talk about the numbers and the ASP and all

00:38:47 ◼   ► that stuff, I don't think you're going to get an iPhone Plus as a replacement.

00:38:53 ◼   ► And unless you are that niche of extremely casual iPad users who also use an iPad Mini

00:39:02 ◼   ► and very infrequently, then maybe you will just say, "You know what?

00:39:07 ◼   ► I'll just watch Netflix on my iPhone."

00:39:11 ◼   ► But I don't think that should concern the iPad division at Apple, that this phone is

00:39:17 ◼   ► going to cut into the iPad profits.

00:39:20 ◼   ► Do you have anything else you want to add on the iPhone lineup?

00:39:26 ◼   ► Just one note, and it's a question that I wonder if one of the differentiators here

00:39:36 ◼   ► between the 9 and the 10, if it's going to be the aluminum versus steel, and I wonder

00:39:42 ◼   ► is it limited to just the band around the device or is it also aluminum in the back?

00:39:48 ◼   ► And if it's also in the back, how can you enable wireless charging?

00:39:51 ◼   ► I think, I'm pretty sure I read in the report that he mentions it will keep glass.

00:39:56 ◼   ► It's a bit difficult because he's mentioning multiple different things, but yeah I think

00:40:00 ◼   ► that it will keep glass.

00:40:01 ◼   ► And that would be weird because that would be a regression from the 8.

00:40:05 ◼   ► If it went with an aluminium back instead of a glass back, you're regressing which doesn't

00:40:08 ◼   ► make any sense.

00:40:10 ◼   ► That would be a bad decision I think.

00:40:11 ◼   ► So yeah it'll probably just be the band and support wireless charging because they're

00:40:16 ◼   ► making this big move into air power in theory and wireless charging...

00:40:21 ◼   ► What's that sorry? Is that a product that exists? I don't know.

00:40:26 ◼   ► I really want... I was thinking today about air power that I actually want like a couple

00:40:31 ◼   ► of those. Are you still not in the wireless charging, you know, bandwagon mic?

00:40:39 ◼   ► No, there isn't a wireless charging product that exists today that entices me.

00:40:43 ◼   ► I'm not like a wireless charging denier, right? Because there is someone in my household that uses it every single day, right?

00:40:52 ◼   ► Like I don't think that it's bad. It just doesn't do anything for me, like personally.

00:40:59 ◼   ► I already have products that do what I want and there is no wireless charging product currently on the market that gives me anything different.

00:41:08 ◼   ► You are the cable equivalent of flat earther like a cabling.

00:41:15 ◼   ► Like a lightninger.

00:41:18 ◼   ► Power comes from cables only.

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00:43:14 ◼   ► So there's a rumor in Mac rumors.

00:43:17 ◼   ► This came from previously mentioned being cheek.

00:43:19 ◼   ► Well, we're in rumor season right now.

00:43:21 ◼   ► I think this is mostly because this is a real dead time for especially Apple news, right?

00:43:29 ◼   ► So rumors kind of take over.

00:43:31 ◼   ► But it is interesting.

00:43:32 ◼   ► You know, we have a lot of good discussion about it.

00:43:34 ◼   ► And this is a new one.

00:43:35 ◼   ► This is a brand new one.

00:43:36 ◼   ► According to Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is planning to create their own over-the-ear headphones.

00:43:42 ◼   ► They will have what is referred to as an all-new design.

00:43:45 ◼   ► And my thought on that is, well, yes, of course, because it doesn't exist right now.

00:43:50 ◼   ► design is all new and will include the W1 and W2 chip.

00:43:55 ◼   ► Both of them?

00:43:55 ◼   ► Apparently. Oh, W1 or I should say. W1 or W2 chip, like whatever is around, right? Because

00:44:02 ◼   ► there are also rumors that there are new AirPods coming with a W2 chip. So I guess it depends

00:44:07 ◼   ► whatever the current is. Or maybe they put both of them in, who knows? I doubt that. I doubt that.

00:44:11 ◼   ► But you never know. Apparently Apple is currently lining up parts suppliers. Do you think that Apple

00:44:16 ◼   ► would make these. Do you think this is a thing? Do you read this rumor and you're like, yeah,

00:44:21 ◼   ► this makes sense?

00:44:23 ◼   ► It does from the perspective of Apple is making a HomePod for your ears, therefore a HeadPod

00:44:32 ◼   ► in the sense of their…

00:44:33 ◼   ► Please don't. Please don't come up with product names for them. Please don't do

00:44:36 ◼   ► that. Don't be that guy.

00:44:38 ◼   ► I know, I know that you, I know, you know I have so much fun pretending, making up Apple

00:44:45 ◼   ► product names. There's folks who do it on Twitter like seriously.

00:44:49 ◼   ► That's why I don't, just keep them in your own brain.

00:44:53 ◼   ► I do it sarcastically just for you because I know you love it.

00:44:57 ◼   ► I have no problem with like um...

00:45:00 ◼   ► MacBook adorable, that type of stuff.

00:45:03 ◼   ► Well I never come up with those. I proliferate them. I just don't like HeadPod.

00:45:08 ◼   ► real bad. Why don't you wanna head pod? I really, I can tell you I actually don't wanna

00:45:15 ◼   ► do that. Do you want phone pods? Is that why you want, like, phone pods? Or... I don't

00:45:21 ◼   ► even know what you would call over the ear headphones. Alright, so anyway, the real point

00:45:26 ◼   ► is that I could see a space... Oh god, they might actually call them head pod. Oh god.

00:45:35 ◼   ► So my point is that there's a space, I think, between, or rather like a niche of people

00:45:47 ◼   ► like me who would like something that are not Beats headphones.

00:45:53 ◼   ► Because I find the, it's not even the Beats sound, which I'm not super a fan of, but I

00:45:59 ◼   ► also don't think it's the end of the world.

00:46:02 ◼   ► Like the...

00:46:03 ◼   ► changed your opinion on that? You used to like the sound of beats, right? I will say

00:46:06 ◼   ► for the record, to help you, I liked, I had a pair of beats and I liked the way they sounded.

00:46:11 ◼   ► I liked them. I don't love them. I think they work best for some types of music. The sound

00:46:19 ◼   ► that I love is something more similar to the B&O H6 2nd gen. You know, it tends to be more,

00:46:28 ◼   ► You know, I don't want to talk about sound, but I think the Beats works best for hip-hop

00:46:32 ◼   ► and, you know, EDM, that type of stuff.

00:46:37 ◼   ► But my main problem with the Beats, so it's not the sound, and I know that a lot of people

00:46:40 ◼   ► think Beats are like the Antichrist or something.

00:46:43 ◼   ► No, I think they're totally fine, sound-wise.

00:46:46 ◼   ► My main problem is that even the Beats Studio, which I'm wearing right now, I use them to

00:46:51 ◼   ► do podcasts.

00:46:54 ◼   ► I cannot wear them for multiple hours because they give me a headache.

00:46:59 ◼   ► Even if in theory they are over-ear headphones, they still, they're not big enough for me.

00:47:08 ◼   ► Whatever it is, they just give me a headache.

00:47:10 ◼   ► They're not as bad as the Solo, which are on-ear headphones.

00:47:14 ◼   ► Those give me a headache in like 20 minutes.

00:47:18 ◼   ► And I think there's a way for Apple to make a product that sounds even better than the

00:47:25 ◼   ► Beats headphones, that is much more comfortable, and that approaches the high end, the same

00:47:33 ◼   ► way that the HomePod approaches the high end of home speakers, and that is easy to use,

00:47:39 ◼   ► has insane battery life, is easy to configure like AirPods, and has some kind of Siri integration,

00:47:47 ◼   ► and maybe active noise cancelling. I could see... because I know that I want this type

00:47:54 ◼   ► of product when I sit down to just listen to music, which is something that I think

00:48:02 ◼   ► not everybody does, just sitting down to listen to music, because most of us, we treat music

00:48:07 ◼   ► as background, fancy background noise. That's what music for many people is, me included,

00:48:14 ◼   ► because most of the time I just leave music in the background.

00:48:16 ◼   ► But there's also times when, like a couple of hours at night, where I just, I want to

00:48:21 ◼   ► go through my music library, and I want to listen to music without doing anything else.

00:48:25 ◼   ► I want to read the lyrics, I want to just listen to music.

00:48:28 ◼   ► And those types of headphones would be great.

00:48:30 ◼   ► Now, is that a niche big enough to justify making a product?

00:48:35 ◼   ► Maybe because, you know, Apple makes...

00:48:38 ◼   ► I bet you it's bigger than HomePod.

00:48:40 ◼   ► bigger than a HomePod and there's I don't think there would be any confusion

00:48:45 ◼   ► as to what is you know under Beats and what is made by Apple you know I don't

00:48:52 ◼   ► see because there's folks saying people don't know there's folks saying oh but

00:48:56 ◼   ► what what there's a problem because there's the Beats studio and then the

00:49:00 ◼   ► Apple headphones no because Apple makes AirPods and they also sell the Beats

00:49:04 ◼   ► Sport and the Beats X it's not a problem. Beats is a brand that people know I

00:49:09 ◼   ► I don't think that everybody that knows the Beats brand knows that Apple own Beats, and

00:49:14 ◼   ► even if they do, I don't think anybody cares. I don't think that that is too much of a problem,

00:49:20 ◼   ► like it's not an issue for them. I have a thought about noise cancelling. This feels

00:49:25 ◼   ► like something that Apple will turn around and be like, we've solved noise cancelling,

00:49:31 ◼   ► right? And they'll have like a way that they do it, which is different. Like I feel like

00:49:36 ◼   ► if any machine learning that's what you know what I mean like something yeah

00:49:40 ◼   ► right like there is just a thing that they will be able to say like we have

00:49:44 ◼   ► done if I mean I would say like if they're gonna be able to turn around and

00:49:47 ◼   ► say that they're doing anything new I mean it might just be that they just it's

00:49:51 ◼   ► everything we currently know and they make nice headphones but like if they

00:49:54 ◼   ► have some kind of innovative feature I can imagine it being some new way of

00:49:58 ◼   ► doing noise cancelling that nobody else thought of and the only reason I want

00:50:01 ◼   ► this the only reason I think of this is because noise cancelling currently

00:50:05 ◼   ► However, it is I don't know why but it makes me feel nauseous

00:50:07 ◼   ► And I just hope that I find some way of doing it where it wouldn't but honestly, I can't believe that that's the case

00:50:12 ◼   ► Same for me noise cancellation is like someone tickling the inside of my brain

00:50:18 ◼   ► But the part of my brain that is directly connected to vomiting it's it's really awful. I

00:50:24 ◼   ► Have tried at least four different versions of ANC by Sennheiser

00:50:30 ◼   ► by Beats, by Pioneer, and by someone else I don't remember.

00:50:35 ◼   ► And it works. I actually think the noise cancelling in the Pioneer

00:50:42 ◼   ► Lightning earbuds is my favorite one, but it still does some weird stuff to your brain.

00:50:51 ◼   ► You know, that sort of hiss that you have constantly in your ears.

00:50:56 ◼   ► I can't stand that.

00:50:58 ◼   ► It's unsettling for a lot of people and I understand why there could be an opportunity

00:51:04 ◼   ► for Apple to say we've figured out a way to make this better because we have, I don't

00:51:08 ◼   ► know, tons of data about people and we have a lot of resources to get this right.

00:51:13 ◼   ► I could see that.

00:51:14 ◼   ► I could see that.

00:51:16 ◼   ► There's a question that I wanted to ask you.

00:51:19 ◼   ► So let's assume that this product is real and Apple is entering this high-end audio

00:51:24 ◼   ► space with the home speaker and with the over-ear headphones.

00:51:31 ◼   ► Now why did Apple buy Beats?

00:51:36 ◼   ► It's a question that has been going in my brain for a while now.

00:51:42 ◼   ► And I was looking at this story again in hindsight, because it's been like three or four years

00:51:50 ◼   ► now.

00:51:51 ◼   ► So Apple has so far improved parts of the Beats product line with stuff like the W-series

00:51:59 ◼   ► chips, longer battery life and better reliability.

00:52:05 ◼   ► They have not dramatically changed the designs of Beats stuff, which arguably is the entire

00:52:12 ◼   ► point because people know Beats.

00:52:13 ◼   ► I feel like that would be a bad idea, right?

00:52:15 ◼   ► They would have come in and changed the design, because Beats are popular because of the design.

00:52:20 ◼   ► They haven't also dramatically improved the sound quality.

00:52:25 ◼   ► I would say that probably the Studio 3, they sound slightly better than the Studio 2.

00:52:32 ◼   ► Beats Music was entirely replaced, arguably with an inferior product with Apple Music.

00:52:39 ◼   ► Beats Music was doing things way ahead of Spotify four years ago.

00:52:45 ◼   ► Some stuff that nobody else is doing.

00:52:47 ◼   ► else is doing it today, four years later. And now Apple is making apparently their own

00:52:53 ◼   ► audio accessories with the HomePod, AirPods, and maybe these headphones. So was this part

00:53:00 ◼   ► of the plan when buying Beats or do you think that maybe Apple had a different vision that

00:53:06 ◼   ► didn't exactly work out and now they're just trying to make the best of this situation?

00:53:12 ◼   ► Well my thought would be that they bought Beats so they could make Apple Music and AirPods

00:53:18 ◼   ► and these over the ear headphones.

00:53:20 ◼   ► My thought would be that they bought the people and the technology.

00:53:26 ◼   ► Beats may have done all of this on their own in a parallel universe.

00:53:32 ◼   ► They may have made AirPods, right?

00:53:35 ◼   ► These tiny little in-ear Bluetooth completely untethered things.

00:53:41 ◼   ► We don't know what they had in their labs, right?

00:53:45 ◼   ► My feeling would be that they bought Beats so they could make a new headphone line of

00:53:51 ◼   ► their own, so they could also have people and talent and developers and curators to

00:53:58 ◼   ► make Apple Music, and also own the most popular headphone brand in the world, just as a side

00:54:04 ◼   ► note.

00:54:06 ◼   ► That's how I would look at it.

00:54:08 ◼   ► I know that there are people that understand how to do wireless technology inside of Apple,

00:54:15 ◼   ► but I would really expect that they got some help from the company that they bought that

00:54:22 ◼   ► makes headphones.

00:54:23 ◼   ► It would be kind of wild if they didn't.

00:54:26 ◼   ► You think they bought them because of the people, the technology and the prestige of

00:54:31 ◼   ► owning Beats?

00:54:32 ◼   ► Yeah, and I think it is a mix of all of it, which is why they've been very particular

00:54:37 ◼   ► about what they changed and what they didn't.

00:54:41 ◼   ► Beats Music was not going to win against Spotify.

00:54:45 ◼   ► That was not going to happen for them, I don't think.

00:54:49 ◼   ► So they changed that.

00:54:50 ◼   ► They bought that and changed that.

00:54:52 ◼   ► Beats headphones, you'd be dumb to call them Apple headphones because the same people that

00:54:57 ◼   ► buy Beats headphones probably wouldn't buy the Apple ones because it's a completely different

00:55:01 ◼   ► brand.

00:55:02 ◼   ► It has a different message.

00:55:05 ◼   ► You can see it.

00:55:06 ◼   ► Its branding and advertising has not changed.

00:55:12 ◼   ► Their brand message is basically the same as it was before.

00:55:16 ◼   ► And they have ads that you see every now and then.

00:55:18 ◼   ► People will tweet about an ad and be like, "Oh, Apple made this!"

00:55:21 ◼   ► Right?

00:55:22 ◼   ► It's like, "No, but no though."

00:55:24 ◼   ► It still beats, right?

00:55:26 ◼   ► Because people were making jokes about that Beats pill, right?

00:55:29 ◼   ► And it had that rubber dude you could put it in.

00:55:32 ◼   ► Yes.

00:55:33 ◼   ► Remember?

00:55:34 ◼   ► But that's their brand.

00:55:35 ◼   ► Like, you'd be crazy to buy a company like Beats and then change the brand.

00:55:41 ◼   ► It is a branding company that sells headphones.

00:55:44 ◼   ► It also kind of explains why they're still using mini USB instead of lightning, because

00:55:51 ◼   ► there's, you know, Android users, they don't have lightning cables.

00:55:54 ◼   ► Yeah, it's bigger than that.

00:55:56 ◼   ► It would be almost like a thumb in the eye to a big part of your user base, right?

00:56:03 ◼   ► are people that don't want that. They're not going to use that. Really, they should move

00:56:07 ◼   ► to USB-C, which they probably will. And then you can hit everyone, because everyone has

00:56:12 ◼   ► those now in theory. So I think that you buy a company like Beats to drain it for the talent

00:56:18 ◼   ► that you need, and then you keep it going as an important thing, and you do cross-pollination.

00:56:23 ◼   ► So you would never know that the Beats X and the Solo 3 had anything to do with Apple.

00:56:31 ◼   ► yet they carry a chip in them that Apple in theory designed. But it doesn't say on there

00:56:37 ◼   ► anywhere that it's like the Apple chip. It might say like, "Oh, works great with the

00:56:42 ◼   ► iPhone because of this." But they don't start throwing huge iPhone images and logos all

00:56:48 ◼   ► over it. They kept it pretty chill because they're smart enough to understand that that

00:56:54 ◼   ► brand is useful on its own. But then you start making Apple branded stuff because you can

00:57:00 ◼   ► and then suck more oxygen out of another market.

00:57:04 ◼   ► - Do you think, so let's assume

00:57:06 ◼   ► that Apple is making these headphones.

00:57:07 ◼   ► And the reasoning is Apple should,

00:57:11 ◼   ► maybe like a classic Tim Cook strategy of,

00:57:14 ◼   ► Apple should make a first party version

00:57:17 ◼   ► of all the things where our customers are spending money.

00:57:20 ◼   ► So let's assume that Apple wants to move

00:57:24 ◼   ► to almost like a Xiaomi-like ecosystem

00:57:28 ◼   ► of we're just gonna make everything.

00:57:30 ◼   ► Should Apple make sensors for your home?

00:57:33 ◼   ► Should Apple make heart rate chest straps?

00:57:37 ◼   ► Should they make light bulbs?

00:57:39 ◼   ► Because if we follow this idea of people are buying

00:57:43 ◼   ► headphones, well, we'll make our own headphones,

00:57:45 ◼   ► like Bender from Futurama type of scenario.

00:57:50 ◼   ► Do you think they should make their own stuff

00:57:53 ◼   ► from every single area of the most important areas,

00:57:58 ◼   ► maybe, of the iPhone ecosystem.

00:58:00 ◼   ► Because if we follow that idea,

00:58:03 ◼   ► then I could see like an Apple scale,

00:58:06 ◼   ► an Apple light bulb, an Apple, you know,

00:58:09 ◼   ► humidifier, weather sensor, like an Apple everything.

00:58:13 ◼   ► So I wonder where does Apple draw the line in terms of...

00:58:17 ◼   ► - It's difficult, right?

00:58:19 ◼   ► 'Cause like my immediate gut reaction answer to that

00:58:23 ◼   ► "Oh well they just make things within the area that they play in" but that area is growing, right?

00:58:30 ◼   ► So like the area that Apple always make things in areas that they play in but yet that now includes

00:58:36 ◼   ► headphones and speakers in the home and things that you put on your body, right? So like that

00:58:43 ◼   ► just keeps growing. I think that like there are logical ways to move but if I'm Tim Cook I will

00:58:52 ◼   ► I will make as much as I possibly can because I don't have an iPhone in me, right?

00:58:58 ◼   ► Like I don't have the new revolutionary thing.

00:59:02 ◼   ► So considering they probably don't have that, right?

00:59:04 ◼   ► Like I'm just going to naturally assume that in current development at Apple, there is

00:59:09 ◼   ► not the next revolution and this is nothing against anybody that works there.

00:59:13 ◼   ► But like, this is, they don't know what the next revolution is.

00:59:17 ◼   ► Well, I was going to say this should be once in a lifetime for people.

00:59:21 ◼   ► I mean, it was for Steve Jobs like two or three times in a lifetime, but like the iPhone

00:59:26 ◼   ► should be a once in a lifetime type thing.

00:59:30 ◼   ► And so there's no, there shouldn't be an expectation that they have in a product lab, the thing

00:59:35 ◼   ► that's going to dethrone the iPhone, right?

00:59:38 ◼   ► Because that's not how this stuff works.

00:59:41 ◼   ► So if I'm Tim Cook, I'm like, well, what we have to do is just make sure that nobody ever

00:59:48 ◼   ► leaves us.

00:59:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:59:50 ◼   ► just keep making as much as we can. It's what Mark Zuckerberg is doing. It's almost like

00:59:55 ◼   ► an insurance for your company to sort of saturate your ecosystem. All of these big tech companies

01:00:01 ◼   ► are doing this, right? Like Amazon just bought the Ring doorbell. Because they are doing

01:00:08 ◼   ► everything they can, like Google is, like Facebook is, like Apple is, to extend into

01:00:13 ◼   ► your life a point that you cannot let go. That's all it is. They just want to make sure

01:00:20 ◼   ► that they lock in everyone that they have and then make it even more appealing for people

01:00:24 ◼   ► to join. That's what all these tech companies are doing now. And I mean, that's what you

01:00:29 ◼   ► do, right? Like to a infinitesimally small degree, me and you do that with our businesses.

01:00:37 ◼   ► Like you expand within the realm that you can and you keep growing it in a way that

01:00:41 ◼   ► people want to keep coming to you to consume whatever they're consuming.

01:00:45 ◼   ► Right. Yes.

01:00:46 ◼   ► We just launched a subnet, which is a daily tech news briefing, because that is a new

01:00:51 ◼   ► area of podcasting that we think we could do pretty well.

01:00:55 ◼   ► And we want to make sure that people consume relay FM content in their lives.

01:00:58 ◼   ► So we do that.

01:01:00 ◼   ► It's like you and John thought that you had some interesting stories to tell and create

01:01:04 ◼   ► a new podcast for people so they could consume Mac Stories content in a new way.

01:01:08 ◼   ► And you take off a piece of that audience.

01:01:10 ◼   ► So you created App Stories.

01:01:11 ◼   ► This is what businesses do to survive, but Apple is doing it at a scale which is so huge

01:01:20 ◼   ► it is unforeseen previously.

01:01:24 ◼   ► So yeah, if I'm Tim Cook, I'm going to keep making weird and wonderful technology things

01:01:29 ◼   ► that people can bring into their lives so that they'll never leave me.

01:01:32 ◼   ► Yeah, it's an interesting contrast between, you know, a few years ago Apple sort of, when

01:01:41 ◼   ► they were still the underdog in a way. All these experiments, they would have been like

01:01:46 ◼   ► the weird and fun experiments of a company trying to survive. And now that they're this

01:01:54 ◼   ► huge corporation, the weird experiments are still an attempt to survive, maybe, but I

01:02:02 ◼   ► see them, and I think people see them in a different light of, "Oh, now Apple is going

01:02:07 ◼   ► after all these other smaller companies because they want to eat their lunch and they want

01:02:11 ◼   ► to make sure that people spend more Apple money.

01:02:16 ◼   ► And I mean, you could see this concept in multiple areas.

01:02:19 ◼   ► Like even Apple Pay with the Apple Wallet and the Apple Pay Cash Card.

01:02:25 ◼   ► It's a way to make sure that you never leave.

01:02:28 ◼   ► Some people think it's creepy.

01:02:31 ◼   ► And I think when you think about it, it is not creepy but unsettling in a sense that

01:02:37 ◼   ► there's this corporation that owns you.

01:02:40 ◼   ► Like they control your home automation framework and your health records and your money to

01:02:48 ◼   ► an extent.

01:02:49 ◼   ► I don't think it's...

01:02:52 ◼   ► It is disconcerting that you know that somewhere inside of Apple there are meetings every day

01:02:57 ◼   ► and it's like written on the wall is a phrase like lock-in.

01:03:01 ◼   ► Yes.

01:03:02 ◼   ► You know that I would expect they probably have their own phrase for this so it doesn't

01:03:06 ◼   ► sound so whatever, but the sentiment is still there, right?

01:03:10 ◼   ► I mean that's what the services division is, right?

01:03:13 ◼   ► Like continuing to find ways to increase the hold that you have on the customer.

01:03:19 ◼   ► And the strangest thing to admit for me is that I am not put off by that idea of, you

01:03:32 ◼   ► know, as long as this stuff works better for me, I don't care.

01:03:37 ◼   ► And this is scary.

01:03:38 ◼   ► - It's the trade-off.

01:03:39 ◼   ► It's the trade-off you make.

01:03:40 ◼   ► - But it's kind of scary to admit that like I'm fine with letting a corporation control

01:03:46 ◼   ► these aspects of my life and to the point where I kind of feel bad and I'm like no I

01:03:51 ◼   ► should be you know I should be concerned I should be worried but then I think about it

01:03:57 ◼   ► like no I'm not and I'm fine with it because I don't you know better Apple than than someone

01:04:04 ◼   ► else but I also like when I think about it I also know that it is concerning so I you

01:04:11 ◼   ► know and all this discussion coming we were just talking about headphones but I was trying

01:04:14 ◼   ► to kind of consider the bigger idea of Apple making more different type of things and how

01:04:20 ◼   ► it relates to like you're into this huge ecosystem and there's a single corporation and a single

01:04:26 ◼   ► CEO that you know they call the shots here and how does that make me feel and I feel

01:04:32 ◼   ► both happy because it works and concerned when I think about it because it's kind of

01:04:37 ◼   ► creepy not in the sense that I think Apple is creepy but in the sense of there's an entity

01:04:42 ◼   ► that controls this stuff and there's nothing I can do about it. And instead I'm here, I'm

01:04:46 ◼   ► just like a stupid guy here liking all of this. You know, does it make sense? Like this

01:04:53 ◼   ► contrast of feelings about this sort of scenario?

01:04:57 ◼   ► Yeah, I just decided not to worry about it. And the reason is, I mean, I can appreciate

01:05:02 ◼   ► it, but I don't worry about it because I weigh up my benefit. And I figure that I'm happy

01:05:08 ◼   ► to let the companies have this stuff, let them have information about me, let them become

01:05:14 ◼   ► every device I own in my life because I'm happy to trade it off. And I know that there

01:05:19 ◼   ► are people that aren't and like more power to you, right? Like that's your decision and

01:05:23 ◼   ► like you can live your life in the way that you want to live it. I just choose to go for

01:05:28 ◼   ► the easiest possible route, especially when it comes to my technology because I have so

01:05:33 ◼   ► many other things to do. And if I can get something that works in a way that I'm happy

01:05:38 ◼   ► with and does all the things that I want, I'm willing to make trade-offs. That's what

01:05:43 ◼   ► all of this stuff is.

01:05:44 ◼   ► That's exactly my approach. I'm just aware of what I'm trading off and I'm fine with

01:05:51 ◼   ► it as long as it works better.

01:05:54 ◼   ► As long as you're aware and you're making the decision, you're the one with the real

01:05:58 ◼   ► power Federico. You just keep telling yourself that.

01:06:01 ◼   ► That's what I'm telling myself.

01:06:02 ◼   ► As long as you're the one making the decision, you're in control. Nobody else. That decision

01:06:06 ◼   ► you made completely free of any influence from any third party in any way. That's your decision,

01:06:12 ◼   ► buddy. Yeah, as long as you, you know, through the looking glass, essentially. Yeah.

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01:07:34 ◼   ► and Relay FM. So I want to tell I want to talk to you about fingerprint readers. Okay. Do you

01:07:40 ◼   ► remember those? Uh from uh from a few years ago I guess. Yeah yeah fingerprint readers in phones. So

01:07:47 ◼   ► uh a week or two ago MKBHD had a video where he was showing off the Vivo X20+UD which is a phone

01:07:57 ◼   ► that includes that you could you can it's I believe it is available like it is a phone that

01:08:01 ◼   ► you can buy that includes a fingerprint reader in the screen. It's made by a company called Synaptics.

01:08:10 ◼   ► It is what's known as an optical sensor. It only works on OLED displays for technical reasons that

01:08:16 ◼   ► I don't fully understand and it can only scan your fingerprint at specific moments because what it

01:08:24 ◼   ► it needs to do is a light needs to be shone onto your finger from inside the display which you can

01:08:30 ◼   ► see the screen lights up you can make a little animation but what it's doing is illuminating the

01:08:34 ◼   ► screen at that point so then it can read your fingerprint so this means you have to wait for

01:08:40 ◼   ► the phone to be ready which is kind of like face id right like you raise the phone to wake it or tap

01:08:45 ◼   ► the screen and then it looks at you right so it's similar in that you'd have to like tap the screen

01:08:49 ◼   ► or unlock it or raise the phone up so it's ready to shine the light onto the sensor area

01:08:55 ◼   ► and monitor your fingerprint.

01:08:57 ◼   ► Now in MKBHD's tests he concluded that it is faster than Face ID but slower than Touch

01:09:05 ◼   ► ID.

01:09:06 ◼   ► So it sits somewhere in the middle and that is because whilst it is quicker at doing the

01:09:10 ◼   ► authentication than Face ID is but you still have to do something to let the phone know

01:09:16 ◼   ► that you're ready.

01:09:19 ◼   ► And Synaptics have said that in theory, the sensor is unlimited in size, so you can make

01:09:25 ◼   ► it as big or as small as you want.

01:09:27 ◼   ► And they've just done this.

01:09:28 ◼   ► So Mobile World Congress is this week, or just this past week, and they have a concept

01:09:34 ◼   ► phone called the Vivo Apex.

01:09:38 ◼   ► And what this has done, it has taken the sensor from the size of your fingertip, which it

01:09:45 ◼   ► was in the in the that phone that you can get now the X20 and they've extended it to become

01:09:51 ◼   ► basically the bottom quarter of the entire display of the phone so you can effectively just put your

01:09:58 ◼   ► finger or your thumb anywhere on that area of the screen and it will unlock it can scan it and

01:10:04 ◼   ► unlock just as a side note this phone also includes what i think is a kind of cool pop-out selfie

01:10:10 ◼   ► camera so the selfie camera pops out at the top of the phone and they do this so

01:10:15 ◼   ► they can keep super tiny bezels without needing a cut out which is kind of cute

01:10:21 ◼   ► and I kind of I think I kind of love it I don't think I would want it on an iPhone

01:10:25 ◼   ► really does pop out but like I kind of think it's really fun like there's

01:10:30 ◼   ► something kind of fun about it it just pops out when you need it and then you

01:10:33 ◼   ► don't have to worry about the NSA looking at you all the time

01:10:37 ◼   ► Marques predicts that this may become a widespread feature in phones by 2019

01:10:43 ◼   ► because it's kind of... there's still some quirks about it, right?

01:10:47 ◼   ► Like a company like Samsung would probably only want to do it when they

01:10:50 ◼   ► could scan a larger area, right? So there's an additional benefit and that

01:10:55 ◼   ► technology, whilst available now, is taking time to roll out. And I believe

01:11:00 ◼   ► from what I can piece together on this, I think Synaptics are making these phones

01:11:05 ◼   ► So people will buy their fingerprint chips

01:11:09 ◼   ► Right, like they are a company that has created this technology

01:11:14 ◼   ► That can do the fingerprint scanning

01:11:17 ◼   ► So they are making phones in small quantities and also phones that you can that they're showing in concepts

01:11:25 ◼   ► So people will will buy that so by the way

01:11:30 ◼   ► I don't know if I mentioned but the vivo apex concept phone that was a video done by the verge

01:11:35 ◼   ► who were at Mobile World Congress. So this is technology that is now beginning to exist, right?

01:11:42 ◼   ► Like it was something that we were talking about a bunch when thinking about what the

01:11:46 ◼   ► a bezel-less iPhone would look like. So having thought about this, having looked at this,

01:11:52 ◼   ► would you want this? Would you give up Face ID for this kind of fingerprint reader?

01:11:59 ◼   ► No. Why? I was reminded of this today, or rather yesterday. It's not a real bed in Rome

01:12:09 ◼   ► and I was wearing gloves and I realized when I unlocked my phone that it was not a problem.

01:12:18 ◼   ► Like it was last year when I went on to the Alps for the holidays and it was constantly a problem.

01:12:26 ◼   ► Yes, I could have bought iPhone compatible gloves, but I didn't want to worry about it.

01:12:34 ◼   ► And instead with Face ID it was not a problem. And I realized, oh yeah, it's nice that this is no

01:12:41 ◼   ► longer a concern. Or anytime I take a shower and then I can use my iPhone and I can unlock without

01:12:49 ◼   ► having to wipe my hand real, real good because it's, you know, water interferes with Touch ID,

01:12:57 ◼   ► you know, all that stuff. I like Face ID. Yes, it's not perfect, but the times that it's not

01:13:04 ◼   ► perfect are less important than the daily problems and limitations of Touch ID. So I would not want

01:13:13 ◼   ► to go back. I like Face ID more than Touch ID. What about in addition? I don't see the point of

01:13:21 ◼   ► having in addition to Face ID. I think Apple should make one single biometric

01:13:28 ◼   ► authentication system that works great, not a couple that work okay. I think once I would

01:13:35 ◼   ► I would rather have Apple invest all of their time and money on making Face ID 2.0 better

01:13:42 ◼   ► than saying "Oh, we're gonna stay on Face ID first gen for a while and then also roll back Touch ID inside the screen."

01:13:50 ◼   ► I could see the accessibility arguments for saying "Well, Touch ID worked better for some types of users

01:13:58 ◼   ► because of some physical limitations that are involved with Face ID."

01:14:03 ◼   ► But for the majority of people, I think either there's a way to make Face ID work for everybody,

01:14:10 ◼   ► or it's just not worth it to bring back Touch ID and add complexity, even just for developers,

01:14:18 ◼   ► to account for two different systems or two different interfaces.

01:14:22 ◼   ► I think we're past the Touch ID era, and we're going to see Face ID everywhere.

01:14:31 ◼   ► It would be strange, I think, to see Apple saying "Oh, we're bringing it back and now

01:14:36 ◼   ► you need to choose."

01:14:38 ◼   ► I don't think it's happening.

01:14:39 ◼   ► I agree that I don't think that they would ever do it.

01:14:44 ◼   ► My only point would be I really hate having to enter my passcode and I definitely have

01:14:48 ◼   ► to still enter my passcode more than I ever entered my passcode with Touch ID.

01:14:52 ◼   ► Really?

01:14:53 ◼   ► Yeah, it still fails on me and it fails on me in situations where I can't work it out,

01:14:59 ◼   ► right?

01:15:00 ◼   ► All I really want is just some kind of secret way that I can tap something on the screen

01:15:05 ◼   ► to let it scan my face again.

01:15:09 ◼   ► Tell the phone to scan it again.

01:15:11 ◼   ► It failed once.

01:15:12 ◼   ► Let's do this over.

01:15:14 ◼   ► That's what I want, really.

01:15:16 ◼   ► Even if you just tap the padlock and it will do another scan.

01:15:19 ◼   ► Because sometimes I know there's a reason that it wouldn't work, so sometimes it doesn't

01:15:23 ◼   ► work and I don't know why it is.

01:15:25 ◼   ► and I feel like I'm having to lock and turn off the screen, re-awake the screen.

01:15:32 ◼   ► Because I'm still, and one of the reasons for this is I'm still doing the thing where it shows me my notifications

01:15:38 ◼   ► after it does the Face ID thing. Right? So sometimes I just want to read my notification on my phone or whatever

01:15:45 ◼   ► and it won't unlock and I don't know why. So I would like it for that.

01:15:51 ◼   ► But outside of that, I don't want touch ID or fingerprint sensors instead of the face

01:15:59 ◼   ► sensor because I do really like all of the benefits that it has, as you mentioned, that

01:16:04 ◼   ► you don't need to be, if you're out in the snow and you've got your gloves on, you don't

01:16:08 ◼   ► need to scan your fingerprint.

01:16:09 ◼   ► And I like that when I hold my phone, I just look at my phone and it unlocks.

01:16:13 ◼   ► I like that sort of stuff.

01:16:14 ◼   ► When it works, it is like a million times better, but it doesn't work 100% consistently,

01:16:23 ◼   ► and it doesn't work as consistently as fingerprint scanning did.

01:16:28 ◼   ► And I hope and believe that Apple will just make it better and better over time, but let's

01:16:33 ◼   ► just imagine, hypothetically, if this was as good as it could ever get, then I would

01:16:38 ◼   ► also kind of like a fingerprint sensor as well, as like a secondary, because I don't

01:16:42 ◼   ► have to enter in a passcode anymore.

01:16:44 ◼   ► I hate entering the passcode. I feel like a Luddite when I'm entering the passcode because

01:16:48 ◼   ► I feel like I've gone back so far, right, at that point, you know? Because this was

01:16:53 ◼   ► never a thing that you had to do with Touch ID. And one of the reasons, and one of the

01:16:56 ◼   ► reasons I think it sticks out to me more, is if Touch ID failed, you had a way to just

01:17:01 ◼   ► make it do it again. And I think that it makes the failures stand out more to me because

01:17:07 ◼   ► if it fails, I can't make it do it again.

01:17:12 ◼   ► I'm on the record saying that I don't like the lock screen UI. I think it should be done better.

01:17:20 ◼   ► I think there should be, just the design itself, it should be different and it should allow you to more easily say repeat this process, repeat this step.

01:17:32 ◼   ► So, yeah, I'm with you on this. I think part of the problem could be fixed by a redesign

01:17:38 ◼   ► of the lock screen and the authentication dialogue that comes up. But the thing where

01:17:45 ◼   ► you get more, you know, failed scan sessions, that's interesting, that it's not getting

01:17:54 ◼   ► better. Because the whole system was built on the assumption that because of machine

01:18:01 ◼   ► I think it might be getting better. I don't think it's getting worse. I think it might be getting better

01:18:06 ◼   ► But it is still failing on me right like it still fails and it fails more than I want it to fail. Yeah, right

01:18:14 ◼   ► But like I will say I do notice that like there are times recently where it is unlocking where my hand is

01:18:21 ◼   ► clearly obscuring part of my face and I'm like

01:18:24 ◼   ► Good work, right?

01:18:26 ◼   ► Like, I can see you're getting better now because you're only seeing like 75% of my

01:18:31 ◼   ► face and you know it's me. So like, I know it's getting better, but then there are times

01:18:35 ◼   ► where it doesn't work and I'm like, I can't work out what I'm supposed to give you.

01:18:39 ◼   ► Maybe now the iPhone assumes that the hand is part of your face.

01:18:43 ◼   ► Oh no! That's, I've trained it badly.

01:18:48 ◼   ► Now you've created another problem.

01:18:52 ◼   ► Now I have to like just draw some fingers on my face and that's how I live. But yeah,

01:18:56 ◼   ► fingerprint scanners these are going to show up in a bunch of android phones i think because i mean

01:19:02 ◼   ► like if i'm if i am an android phone maker like i would hang on to fingerprint scanning for a while

01:19:07 ◼   ► because it's a differentiator for people that want that they don't they can't buy an iphone anymore

01:19:13 ◼   ► like if you do if you are like i was gonna say like biometrically imposed uh to using uh it's

01:19:21 ◼   ► That's a terrible, terrible pun and you shouldn't be allowed to do anything anymore.

01:19:24 ◼   ► Like if you don't want to use a face ID thing, like if you don't want to use that, Apple

01:19:34 ◼   ► can't give you that product if you want a new phone.

01:19:37 ◼   ► I could see the argument for companies that their security policies, they do not allow

01:19:44 ◼   ► face scanning for some reason.

01:19:47 ◼   ► Because it's new, right? And I feel that's perfectly fair, because it's more new, and

01:19:51 ◼   ► fingerprint scanning has been around for a very, very long time.

01:19:55 ◼   ► That's the only possible argument that I can think about of businesses that require fingerprints,

01:20:02 ◼   ► and therefore are not adopting iPhones or future iPads because they only ship with FaceID.

01:20:10 ◼   ► But I don't know, that seems like a policy that could be changed, rather than forcing

01:20:15 ◼   ► Apple to roll back Touch ID. All right, are we done for today? I think so. I think we

01:20:21 ◼   ► did a good job. I'm very proud of us. If you want to find our show notes, go to relay.fm/connect/182.

01:20:27 ◼   ► Oh, by the way, thank you if you bought a t-shirt. We're very happy with the sales of

01:20:33 ◼   ► the Tiny Head T and we can put the rest Tiny Heads forever now. Thank you if you bought

01:20:38 ◼   ► a t-shirt. They'll be shipping out to you pretty soon, I think. Very excited to get

01:20:42 ◼   ► If you want to find Federico online he is @vitiici on Twitter and you can find his

01:20:48 ◼   ► work at MacStories.net.

01:20:49 ◼   ► I am @imike.

01:20:53 ◼   ► You can find this show and many other shows that I do and many other wonderful people

01:20:57 ◼   ► do at Relay.fm/shows.

01:21:00 ◼   ► If you want to wish Steven Hackett back to the show he is @ismh on Twitter.

01:21:06 ◼   ► Maybe you can be the reason that he will be let out of his banishment jail to return to

01:21:11 ◼   ► us next time.