171: Leave it to Stephen
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From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 171. Today's show is brought to you very
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kindly by our friends at Eero, Away and Hover. My name is Myke Hurley, I'm joined by Steven
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Hackett. Hello Steven Hackett. Hello Michael Hurley. And welcome back for
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recovery TT. Ciao ciao ciao. Hey guys, it's good to be back. I really missed you last week.
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Oh, that was nice. I missed you too.
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You guys each had some time off, and once again I had to be the responsible adult and be here every week.
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But now we're all together.
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Listen to this, like he never takes a week off.
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This is not how it works, Dad. Come on.
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He just thinks he can come in here and treat it like he's the one who only does all the work for this show.
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Do you know what then? I tell you what, take it. Take it away, buddy. It's all on you now.
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Well, I mean, follow-ups to the next part.
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Yeah, take it away.
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That's my part. So, we've been talking-
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Don't help him Federico.
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Wow. And I'm just going to monologue for the next 75 minutes.
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for the next 75 minutes.
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- Yeah, this is on you now.
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This is yours.
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- And this is the last episode of Connected.
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171's a nice round number.
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- Yeah, it's good, it's good.
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If you're ever gonna stop, 171, best place to stop.
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Juan wrote in suggesting that smart assistants
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have a quote, "Wit slider," like carrot weather.
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And I think this is a good idea.
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So we've talked about Siri.
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I think all three of us are annoyed
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when Siri gets something wrong
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and then is sort of cutesy about it.
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And Myke, you were speaking last week
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that the Google Home is just very talkative.
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It just wants to say stuff.
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- It won't shut up.
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- It just wants to have a bond with you.
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And I think Amazon does a good job,
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like hey, turn on the light and it says okay,
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and the light comes on.
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I like this idea that hey, I could go into Siri settings
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and say you know what, I don't need any of your sass.
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I just want you to do what you're told.
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And then when the robot uprising comes,
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Siri will destroy me.
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- Would you like some real world examples of this?
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would you like me to to get them to go on head to head and see how it sounds?
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I could do it right now.
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All right, let me grab the things.
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Oh, God. Oh, boy.
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OK, OK. What is that in here?
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Sorry, everyone, for setting off your devices, but Alexa, turn on the office lamp.
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OK. OK, so that's that, right?
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That's that's what that one does.
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And then we'll go for this. OK. All right.
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Hey, Google, turn off the office lamp.
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OK. Turning the office lamp off.
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Why you got to do that?
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Why you got to do that? Why you got to say so much?
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there's an extra confirmation. It wants you to know it did its job. It wants to be congratulated,
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Myke. I mean, can you imagine being like an AI in Google's server farms? Must be really
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sad and lonely once you get out into the canister. You just want to talk to people.
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I have noticed that the voice on the Google Home sounds significantly better, but that's
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probably because I hear more of it. It's craving some human connection. It really is.
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Smart speakers are feelings too Myke. There is something like that great
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copywriting can go a long way for this stuff so we we use a company in the UK
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in London called Ocado for shopping so like you know you do like online
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grocery shopping they bring it to you they just they just created a new echo
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skill where you can add things to your trolley just by voice which is fantastic
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I've wanted this forever and the copywriting is so good like there are
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lots of steps that you have to go through to like to it you ask it for
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something it confirms if this is the thing that you meant and tells you it's
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putting it in the cart but like when you say at the end it's like hey is there
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anything else can help you with and you're like no and it's like okey-dokey
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and it's like just little things like that where it's it's not being stupid
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It's not being silly. It's not making a dumb joke
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But it's friendly
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And and I really noticed it cuz I was like that was a nice experience
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Because it sounded kind of more like something a human would say as opposed to a robot and it changes like they're clearly there
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Copywriting is clearly
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Extensive because sometimes it's like okay. Otherwise, it's like okey-dokey like I like it. It's kind of just a little bit more playful
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So yeah, good copywriting can go a long way.
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It doesn't have to just be dumb jokes.
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- Yeah, I think there's a balance there.
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And I think maybe Google's too far to one side
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and Siri definitely is as well.
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And I think with Siri it's just frustrating
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because it seems to be the cutest when it gets things wrong
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or like, I don't know, something about that
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is just really grating for whatever reason.
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So Myke, you use Gboard on your iPhone
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which is Google's third party keyboard.
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I don't quite understand what this is,
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so it is auto switching to dark mode?
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What is this?
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- So previously with Gboard, you could choose
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between a light theme and a dark theme for your keyboard.
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And it was basically a creamy white and black.
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So you would choose, and then that was it.
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So I used to use the black theme, like the dark theme,
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but the problem was I would open an app like Messages
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and I would have a white screen and a dark keyboard.
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And since iOS may be 10 or nine,
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Apple's keyboard is actually a bit more context aware
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and the color changes.
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So if you're using messages, it's white,
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and if you pull down to use Spotlight, it goes dark,
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it goes a kind of like a translucent dark color.
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But Gboard, I was kind of stuck between one or the other.
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They just put out an update yesterday,
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and two things changed, which I find interesting.
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Their default theme,
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the white what was clearly a creamy white is now gray.
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So it looks like the iOS keyboard and their dark theme continues to be dark.
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But if you turn on the settings for automatic,
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but actually I don't even think you need to turn on automatic setting.
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It just does it on its own.
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Now it detects when an application has a mostly dark theme or a light theme and
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switches to keyboard to be more context aware. And I think it's fantastic.
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It was one of my only remaining frustrations about Gboard was the fact that
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like the keyboard didn't match up in ways that I wanted,
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but now it does and I'm super happy about it.
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And I will continue to endorse Gboard
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as the way of the future.
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Like I've convinced Casey List to try it
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'cause he's been complaining about AutoCorrect
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and I never have problems with AutoCorrect because--
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- And now Google will know his secrets.
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- Exactly. - Secrets of the--
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- This is why I didn't directly suggest
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that Casey should try it.
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I mentioned it on upgrade and now he's trying it.
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And the reason is because I know he'll go all Casey
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about it, right?
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Like for example, Kyle is now posting in the chat room the fact that there was this other virtual keyboard
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that leaked a bunch of client records and like as a way to kind of be like I'm assuming
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Oh don't use a on the keyboard because they might link it. But the thing is right Google has this information
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Regardless right that it could leak from anywhere. Like I don't care. I could just don't care. Mm-hmm
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So I I asked around the bunch last night
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I was playing with Gboard and I was impressed by this how I managed to switch themes
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in a bunch of apps and there's a native, of course there's a native iOS API that
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maybe a lot of developers don't know or simply don't take advantage of but
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Google is doing nothing shady to detect whether you know you're using an app
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with the light team or a dark team. It's just querying an iOS API that basically
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returns whether the system keyboard would be, you know, the Apple
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keyboard would be in the light version or the dark version that you get for
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example when you swipe down. So Google is saying, okay, if the system keyboard in this
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very instance would be in the dark version, then I'm going to be in the dark version as
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well. So it's not like Google is monitoring the apps that you use. That's not what's going
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on. It's a native iOS API that Apple made specifically, I guess, for third-party custom
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keyboards. So all natively supported. Nothing secret or shady going on.
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So again, I love Gboard.
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The autocorrect is significantly better.
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It has an emoji search bar.
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You can search for GIFs from the keyboard and it even does some smart stuff where it
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recognizes the names of places and it shows Google searches for them.
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I think it's fantastic.
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I don't care about the Google stuff because I just really don't believe that they're trying
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So I use it every day and have done for a long time and since the iPhone X it's gotten
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even better because I never get that like weird Apple keyboard anymore like I
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don't, you know, cause I deleted the, the standard Apple keyboard, right?
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So I don't have it.
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So if I would like access something when my phone is locked, like a notification,
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I would get like an Apple keyboard without any quick type of any auto correct
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as the way I would reply to messages. It was like this super just like barren
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keyboard, like sometimes the keys would fall off. It was really upsetting. Um,
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But now, since the iPhone X, because every time I'm looking at my phone it unlocks it,
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I get my Gboard.
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So it's great.
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Do you know, Myke, if Gboard, like if we set up the system replacements on tech…
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Yep, it keeps the system replacements.
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And I don't know how, but I have better luck with them on my iPhone than my iPad.
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I don't know what the difference is.
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I don't know what Google's doing, but they work.
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So like I set up a bunch of emoji mostly, but yeah, they work.
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The system replacements work.
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And even the Google's version of QuickType, the little bar at the top, it shows the emoji,
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or it will show the text replacement for you as well.
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So I have one to show the little nerd face, which is N-N-E.
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When I type that, the emoji pops up and I press space and it just auto fills.
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But it knows it's there.
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So it's all very clever and it's just getting better and better all the time.
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Very happy with it.
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So there has been a lot of news about some software bugs at Apple.
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We are not going to recap the news because this has all happened like a week ago.
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So we're going to assume moving forward that you know about the High Sierra root bug and
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the fix and the fix was broken.
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More like Buy Sierra, am I right?
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Oh god, oh god.
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That's good.
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That's what everyone says now, they don't want a Sierra.
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It's not, define everyone.
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I feel like everyone is you.
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Well, no, nobody wants it anymore because it's full of security holes, that's my understanding.
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And bugs and problems and nobody puts any focus on it.
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That's what I know.
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Also the December 2nd gate where local notifications would crash springboard endlessly on December
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2nd for some users.
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We need a better name than that, I think.
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That's the December 2nd gate, I think we can do better than that.
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I think it's a perfect name.
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I thought about this for quite a bit of time and I really can't come up with anything.
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Do we need to brainstorm it or are you going to come back to that?
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What about Dategate?
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Damn, that's good.
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I don't know, it's all just like really unfortunate.
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That's the way I look at it.
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It's just, this is sad for everybody.
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Yeah, either one of these stories would be a rough week for Apple, but having both of
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them just like five days apart, it's not great, not a great look.
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Let me ask you, right, like if this sort of stuff is happening to you two personally,
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would you prefer these two things to happen at the same time or separately? Because like,
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you know, if they're happening at the same time, like it's really bad, but you're kind
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of already in the mode of trying to fix stuff, so like another thing is just another thing,
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but like if these happen two months apart, it's like, "Oh man, I thought we fixed this
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stuff." You know? Maybe it's better that it happens at the same time.
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I don't know. It's like you wrote the band-aid off at once or slowly. Interesting question.
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So I'm curious how the two of you feel about this. I think my sort of thought walking away
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from last week is, okay, clearly something Apple needs to look at some processes and
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maybe look at some teams and some managers and try to work some things out. But I keep
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thinking about like, what what's the long term? What's the long term effect of these things? And
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my guess is that there's probably not much of one, especially the iOS bug, because they got 11.2 out
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so fast, it was already ready, this pushed out a couple days early. I think out in the real world,
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the number of people who ran into this, their phone rebooting was actually probably really
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small. Like I was anticipating Saturday being full of calls and text messages from my friends
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and family saying my phone is rebooting, please help me. I didn't hear a single thing. And usually,
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you know, I'm the person people come to who know me like, hey, what about this? What about this?
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And so I didn't hear a single thing, which I was really surprised. I think the high Sierra bug is
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the more serious of the two by far. And I think that I think that especially like,
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like pro it people, they're going to remember this for a while and they're going to,
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this is going to be something that is hard to shake if you are a Mac admin or you, you know,
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have to defend the Mac in your workplace or something like that. This is a pretty big
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piece of ammunition against the Mac and enterprise. But but I think for like, average users,
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like I don't know anyone who's like, next time they're going to buy a computer, the high Sierra
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a login bug is going to make them think about picking up a surface instead of a MacBook
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And so long term, you know, I think Apple, I think their reputation, like, is definitely
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There's definitely a trust issue, especially if you're like a power Mac user.
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But I think at the end of the day that it's not like, there's not something that we're
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like, I don't think any of us are calling for like, Craig Federighi's head on a platter,
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or for like, massive restructuring.
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We're like, yeah, maybe some people in the QA department need to be looked at, you know,
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We need to figure out what happened, but I don't think it's the end of the world. It's bad
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It's a it's they're bad, but it's not I don't think it's crippling. What do y'all think so? I feel like it's really
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It's really just a just an unfortunate
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Coincidence that it happened both the date stuff and the high Sierra stuff on the same really within a couple of days of each other
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Obviously, I also think the I Sierra bug is there, you know, even from a PR perspective
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was the worst one for Apple. I'm not sure, as an iOS user, I'm not sure how I feel about the
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High Sierra stuff. I've been thinking about this, like how do I explain this maybe to my friends?
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Because one of the common themes of all the people that I've convinced to switch from Windows to
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the Mac is you get no, you don't get malware, you don't have to worry about, you know, like viruses
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or stuff affecting your computer and obviously this is normal where this is no, you know,
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I have to install an antivirus on my PC but it's still, it was at least a huge security problem so
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how do I reconcile the fact that I've pushed all my friends to get a Mac for security with this
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kind of major security problem and I think, I don't have a clear answer, I just think that
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it was good to see a quick response from Apple
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and a quick fix and documentation within basically just a few hours.
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But it's a black eye.
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That's the way that I see it. It's a black eye.
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I'm not sure. There really isn't a way to recover
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because this stuff just happens and once it happens, it's out there.
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There's no way to make good on it. You release a software update but it happened.
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And the fact that it happened even just once, it's something that we'll remember.
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And I just think it's just too bad that it happened because we were not used to this kind of security problem
00:16:13
◼
►
affecting, at least to my memory, affecting Apple computers.
00:16:16
◼
►
And I imagine if this stuff happened on an iPhone, like if you were able to log into an iPhone by just typing
00:16:23
◼
►
zero zero zero on the passcode UI that would have been incredibly bad. Of course
00:16:30
◼
►
this was maybe more contained but I fear for the day that a similar problem could
00:16:37
◼
►
occur on an iPhone and on the lock screen of an iPhone so I don't know.
00:16:43
◼
►
My general feeling of this is that all of this is not good like all of this is
00:16:50
◼
►
not good for the overall perception of Apple software quality.
00:16:55
◼
►
I think that people are, talking about it's not great with Jason, I think that people
00:17:00
◼
►
are hesitant to update their devices anyway. That has become a trend
00:17:05
◼
►
over the last couple of years. And every time something bad, potentially like this
00:17:10
◼
►
happens, I think that you end up in a scenario where more people were just
00:17:15
◼
►
concerned for updating their phones and/or just generally trusting Apple's software
00:17:22
◼
►
quality. I don't think that it's a good look because these bugs were... the only way to
00:17:29
◼
►
fix them was to tell people. Like a big stink had to be made. A lot of noise had to be made
00:17:36
◼
►
in the effort to try and make sure that people fixed these things and/or didn't run into
00:17:40
◼
►
them and/or didn't do the bad thing that might have to happen for it to occur to you. So
00:17:45
◼
►
I don't think that it's good overall.
00:17:48
◼
►
I don't think that this specific thing is going to make a difference, but I think it
00:17:51
◼
►
is adding to the overall perception of poor quality software, which and/or I'm scared
00:18:00
◼
►
of updating my device.
00:18:02
◼
►
I think it's adding to all of that.
00:18:04
◼
►
And I think that in the long run that is really bad for Apple because they don't want to be
00:18:09
◼
►
seen as that company.
00:18:11
◼
►
There's something that I wanted to say that I really didn't like on Twitter a few days
00:18:16
◼
►
ago when this stuff was going down.
00:18:19
◼
►
The response is from a few people.
00:18:23
◼
►
Everybody was sort of trying to explain what to do with this security bug, and I saw some
00:18:27
◼
►
tweets saying, "But hey, sure, on Windows and on Android you get all these other security
00:18:34
◼
►
problems and everyone now is making a big fuss about this High Sierra bug."
00:18:39
◼
►
I was thinking about this response that I really don't understand what something happens
00:18:42
◼
►
to your favorite company, you point to something bad from some other company.
00:18:48
◼
►
And I don't think it's the best way to discuss these issues.
00:18:53
◼
►
Like imagine if your kid, your parent and your kid does something bad.
00:18:58
◼
►
You don't say, "Well, but those other kids did something worse."
00:19:01
◼
►
You need to care about your own kid.
00:19:03
◼
►
And in this sense, you know, when we're talking about Apple, because we follow Apple, of course
00:19:07
◼
►
who were not, Apple is not our kid, but in the sense that we care about this
00:19:12
◼
►
company and I think it's not productive or not honest to point out to
00:19:20
◼
►
other companies and their own security problems when we should be discussing
00:19:24
◼
►
this one because we hold Apple to such a high reputation that of course this in
00:19:30
◼
►
any possible measure this is a this is a this has damaged their apples
00:19:36
◼
►
reputation. So to say well but it's worse on Windows and it's worse on Android, sure
00:19:40
◼
►
maybe but that's really beside the point.
00:19:43
◼
►
Yeah I agree, I completely agree. So there you go, it's taken care of, I don't think
00:19:50
◼
►
that it's good for them overall but it isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to them,
00:19:55
◼
►
I don't think.
00:20:00
◼
►
So let's hope there's nothing, no more big bugs to talk about next week.
00:20:05
◼
►
- Just give us a week. - Don't say it.
00:20:06
◼
►
- Give us a week off. - Don't say it,
00:20:07
◼
►
'cause you don't wanna jinx it.
00:20:08
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they're just plugged directly into the wall and they just sit on the wall and then also
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because they're sitting right there why don't they do something else?
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Okay what about a built in LED night light with an ambient light sensor as well.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And I've got a couple of those new beacons and they're great because you don't have to
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So Federico, a couple of days ago you sent me and Steven an iMessage message and included
00:22:49
◼
►
in that iMessage message was a picture and the picture I think at the top just said "Grazzi"
00:22:55
◼
►
like that and then it was like an order for an Apple Watch. You bought an Apple Watch
00:23:01
◼
►
for a reason that doesn't completely make sense.
00:23:04
◼
►
Well I bought the Series 3 Apple Watch without cellular because we don't have the cellular
00:23:12
◼
►
version in Italy and basically there's a couple of reasons behind this. One
00:23:19
◼
►
of them is I wanted to have the latest Apple hardware from 2017. I wanted to
00:23:24
◼
►
have the full line because I really like what Apple has released this year from
00:23:28
◼
►
the iPhone to the iPad and even the Apple TV 4k something that I want to get
00:23:32
◼
►
and so I wanted to have the complete line but really I wanted to use my
00:23:38
◼
►
Apple Watch more. I've been hearing about the Series 3 and the
00:23:43
◼
►
speed improvements and the battery life improvements and I was kind of jealous
00:23:46
◼
►
of, you know, I was listening to John, I was listening to you and I thought even
00:23:50
◼
►
if I cannot get the cellular one I feel like I could use the the speed
00:23:54
◼
►
improvements and the battery life stuff because I like to use my Apple Watch for
00:23:58
◼
►
sleep tracking and I feel like, you know, if the battery lasts longer it becomes
00:24:03
◼
►
easier for me to find a moment during the day when I can recharge my Apple
00:24:06
◼
►
and really there's a couple of apps that I really want to use on my watch like Shazam for example,
00:24:11
◼
►
and they used to be really slow on the Series 2 watch and so the combination of I don't want to
00:24:19
◼
►
wait for Italian carriers because I you know they could maybe make up their mind next year in June
00:24:24
◼
►
when Apple announces the Series 4 and the fact that I really wanted to try these faster and
00:24:31
◼
►
and better series 3, I just went for it.
00:24:35
◼
►
And I, luckily I have already sold my series 2 watch.
00:24:39
◼
►
I actually, I've actually been pretty disciplined about selling my old stuff.
00:24:45
◼
►
Selling old stuff is something that I really don't like to do because I don't have the
00:24:48
◼
►
patience or I don't have the time for it.
00:24:50
◼
►
But I've been able to sell my iPhone 7 Plus, I sold my watch, I'm probably gonna sell my
00:24:55
◼
►
PS4 so it's I don't feel bad about buying new stuff as much as like last year for example.
00:25:01
◼
►
So I have the series 3 on my wrist right now and I there's nothing much to say really I have no
00:25:11
◼
►
cellular features but I really like it it's much much faster I'm using apps like Shazam and Things
00:25:20
◼
►
actually more because they launch in just a couple of seconds and I love the fact that Siri talks back,
00:25:27
◼
►
that it's not limited to tapping you when it's done and being useless like it was on the series to watch.
00:25:34
◼
►
It actually talks back and it's really useful because I can talk to it,
00:25:38
◼
►
go back to do something else like washing the dishes and then Siri talks back to me through the speakers.
00:25:44
◼
►
So it's really nice and it's basically, I'm basically repeating
00:25:48
◼
►
everything you probably heard or already discussed about the Sirius 3 watch,
00:25:52
◼
►
but without the cellular benefits, because I cannot get those features now.
00:25:57
◼
►
Yeah, that's really the story. I wanted a better watch,
00:26:01
◼
►
and I got the better watch. That's all I did.
00:26:06
◼
►
Doesn't make sense, Myke. Is it an accent?
00:26:07
◼
►
Yeah, no, that makes sense. It makes sense.
00:26:10
◼
►
Do you use the audio of Siri then? Like, on your watch? I don't do that.
00:26:14
◼
►
Oh yeah, oh yeah. I love, I've always liked the idea of Siri on the wrist. Like having a,
00:26:19
◼
►
like a Siri attached to me all the time. I love that idea. I love how Siri works with HomeKit stuff
00:26:29
◼
►
especially. And also something I've been doing lately, mostly on the iPhone, I don't do that
00:26:33
◼
►
on the watch as much, but I'm asking for movie information. Like when I'm watching a movie or
00:26:41
◼
►
TV show and I'm asking Siri about the name of an actor.
00:26:44
◼
►
It's like if you want to know about Michael Fassbender, right?
00:26:47
◼
►
Like you just ask.
00:26:48
◼
►
Yeah, for no actual actors.
00:26:50
◼
►
I feel like I feel like who is this random person on my television
00:26:53
◼
►
that I can't understand.
00:26:55
◼
►
Yeah, it's always it's like Federico again.
00:26:59
◼
►
It's Michael Fassbender.
00:27:00
◼
►
Like how many more times?
00:27:01
◼
►
That's just what Siri says to you.
00:27:04
◼
►
Keep going through this.
00:27:05
◼
►
Also, also something that I do a lot is conversion from USD to Euros,
00:27:11
◼
►
because of course. But yeah, I use Siri quite a bit these days. I think we've talked about this before.
00:27:18
◼
►
I'm not a... I don't do like crazy workflows with Siri because it's like just some simple questions
00:27:26
◼
►
every once in a while but quite often during the day and it works really well on the Series 3 with
00:27:32
◼
►
with audio feedback. I really really like it. I feel like I wasn't using Siri before because
00:27:38
◼
►
I truly didn't like the tapping back when it was done and it was also slow so right now it's faster
00:27:45
◼
►
and it talks it's actually it feels like the true Siri on the wrist which is really really nice.
00:27:51
◼
►
Steven do you use it like that?
00:27:54
◼
►
On occasion uh if I'm out for a walk or something or my hand or you know hands are full or whatever
00:28:05
◼
►
I'll do it but it's not as much as I thought it would be. When I do use it, it's effective,
00:28:13
◼
►
it's fast and it works better than Siri ever has on the watch but it hasn't fundamentally
00:28:18
◼
►
changed my usage of Siri I don't think.
00:28:21
◼
►
So all of this whole topic was just as a way to trap Federico into talking about things.
00:28:28
◼
►
You mentioned that you use things on your watch and you're back now so you've gotten
00:28:33
◼
►
away from hiding from us for a week. What is going on? Like I need the story now, especially
00:28:40
◼
►
because on App Stories you spoke about the application itself, right? But neglected to
00:28:46
◼
►
really talk about what the situation is. I feel like at this point you've run out of
00:28:52
◼
►
options. Why are you using things?
00:28:55
◼
►
But I could just hang up on Skype right now.
00:28:58
◼
►
You could, you could, and we could just leave it to Steven. But we need it from you, we need the content.
00:29:05
◼
►
So there was a question that I kept repeating in my brain a few weeks ago.
00:29:13
◼
►
Why am I doing this?
00:29:15
◼
►
Pretty much. I was asking myself, do I really need all these automations that I've put together,
00:29:26
◼
►
that I've built for my task manager. Do I really need all these workflows?
00:29:32
◼
►
Because when you make these automations, when you make all these
00:29:35
◼
►
workflows, you are walking a fine line between workflows being really useful
00:29:42
◼
►
but also just adding complexity in your life because it's fun to make them.
00:29:46
◼
►
And I'm totally aware of the fact that, and I always say as much, that all the
00:29:51
◼
►
workflow, most of the workflows that I publish that I read about are proof of
00:29:55
◼
►
concepts and things that I just have fun to play with and to explain. But for
00:30:00
◼
►
Todoist I built a lot of workflows for MaxSories and myself to automate as
00:30:07
◼
►
many parts as possible of my daily schedule and routine. And so I was asking
00:30:14
◼
►
myself this question, is it really necessary for me to have all this
00:30:17
◼
►
automation? And at the same time this is basically the reason why it feels so
00:30:22
◼
►
strange it's because it's a really personal story. I've been feeling
00:30:28
◼
►
since September, since publishing my IOS 11 review, I've been feeling stressed
00:30:35
◼
►
more than usual at this time of the year and every time I was looking I was
00:30:40
◼
►
opening my task manager and there was like a dozen, like 20-25 tasks due today
00:30:48
◼
►
and mostly overdue from several days before and changing their color to red
00:30:55
◼
►
and you know having priorities set high by my automations and I was and just
00:31:03
◼
►
opening the Todoist became like like a source of anxiety and stress and feeling
00:31:09
◼
►
bad and guilt because it's been it's been a strain it's been a different year
00:31:14
◼
►
for me. Usually I publish my iOS review in September and then I take
00:31:20
◼
►
a brief break or mini vacation like a week or ten days and then I'm back
00:31:26
◼
►
to normal work and this year instead I published my iOS review and I jumped
00:31:31
◼
►
straight into preparing a presentation for the Release Notes conference in
00:31:35
◼
►
Chicago and then I came back and I was totally behind the work and I was
00:31:39
◼
►
totally behind on admin stuff for the site and so I took care of that and
00:31:44
◼
►
then I also realized oh my god the iPhone X is coming out so I better work
00:31:47
◼
►
on a story for the iPhone X and of course I spent a month writing about the
00:31:52
◼
►
iPhone X and so I'm you know it's been a strange year, it's been a
00:31:57
◼
►
different year and you know with the dogs and with a bunch of problems I've
00:32:02
◼
►
been feeling a lot of stress and on top of that when opening the task manager I
00:32:07
◼
►
I was like, okay, now maybe I'm gonna feel more organized when I look at my inbox.
00:32:11
◼
►
But no, I was feeling more stressed, I was feeling more anxiety.
00:32:14
◼
►
And really the problem was, and sort of the tipping point was that the more I was feeling stressed
00:32:22
◼
►
and the more my automations kept working in the background and creating tasks for me.
00:32:28
◼
►
And I was like, no man, I just need a break here.
00:32:30
◼
►
I just, I cannot do this anymore.
00:32:32
◼
►
like I when I feel like that I'm catching up on my to-do list there's
00:32:36
◼
►
like five workflows on Zapier creating ten more tasks for me.
00:32:41
◼
►
All right let me ask you a question at this at this juncture. I understand what you're saying
00:32:47
◼
►
but aren't they things that need to be done? Isn't that why it's happening?
00:32:52
◼
►
Like all you're doing is hiding from the tasks.
00:32:55
◼
►
I am. And I was.
00:32:57
◼
►
Okay, cool. Just as long as we all know that we get it.
00:33:00
◼
►
Yes, yes, yes, I was.
00:33:02
◼
►
And so I did two, I tried to make two changes.
00:33:07
◼
►
One is I figured that the problem was,
00:33:13
◼
►
I tried to fix the problem at the source of why,
00:33:17
◼
►
and I'm probably gonna sound like gray to you,
00:33:19
◼
►
but why do I need to do these things?
00:33:22
◼
►
Is it absolutely necessary for me to do these things?
00:33:25
◼
►
And so I made a few changes to be able to delegate
00:33:28
◼
►
those tasks to someone else. But at the same time I realized it's maybe time for me to try another task manager
00:33:41
◼
►
because I've been using Todoist for a year and I feel like I said at the time when I was switching from
00:33:49
◼
►
Todoist maybe that I wanted to experiment with Todoist and I feel like I did my experiment and I did my, you know,
00:33:56
◼
►
I think I have a pretty good understanding of automation and Todoist and all the APIs.
00:34:01
◼
►
So maybe it's time for me to try something else.
00:34:04
◼
►
Maybe I need to see if organizing my life in a different way could be better for me.
00:34:11
◼
►
And so the combination of I'm delegating these things to someone else
00:34:17
◼
►
and the automations that I absolutely need I can make them work with Slack so
00:34:27
◼
►
all the notification based tasks that I was creating in Todoist I can now
00:34:34
◼
►
create reminders in Slack but all the other ones I've discovered that I
00:34:42
◼
►
can replicate with iOS 11 drag-and-drop for example. Let me
00:34:49
◼
►
offer you a practical example here. So I had a series of tasks every day that
00:34:54
◼
►
allowed me to automate how I post about new episodes of connected and remastered
00:35:01
◼
►
on canvas on Mac stories and that used to be a workflow on Zapier that set a
00:35:08
◼
►
a task for me on Todoist with a high priority and a due date and a reminder.
00:35:14
◼
►
And I was doing all kinds of crazy things with Python and scraping the Relay website, sorry Steven,
00:35:23
◼
►
to get the HTML and convert it to Markdown.
00:35:26
◼
►
But I realized with iOS 11 I can literally just open the Relay website in Safari.
00:35:32
◼
►
I can select the connected webpage.
00:35:34
◼
►
It's a very nice website too. You're given a official treat every time.
00:35:38
◼
►
and I can just select the text of the new episode and drag it into Ulysses
00:35:44
◼
►
and when I drop it, it's already converted to Markdown. It's all that I
00:35:49
◼
►
need to publish to Mac Stories. So I realized that with iOS 11 and drag and
00:35:53
◼
►
drop, some of these things I didn't need automation for anymore. And so when you
00:35:59
◼
►
consider these three changes, I wanted to try something new. I wanted to delegate
00:36:04
◼
►
more and I wanted to take advantage of iOS 11 more it seemed to me that I was
00:36:13
◼
►
I had all the conditions to try and switch my task manager for a while and
00:36:18
◼
►
with things there's a part of me that wanted to try things because
00:36:26
◼
►
since version 3 came out in May I was really attracted by the design and
00:36:32
◼
►
and the way that it was different from OmniFocus or Todoist or these other professional task managers.
00:36:40
◼
►
But also I was under the impression just by talking to people who use things
00:36:46
◼
►
that it was good for that kind of person that was suffering from stress and anxiety
00:36:57
◼
►
in terms of managing tasks and managing responsibilities on a daily basis.
00:37:02
◼
►
And really it all comes down to a single feature of things that I think it's helping me cope better with
00:37:10
◼
►
remaining calm when I realize I'm behind on the things that I need to do.
00:37:16
◼
►
And that is that things is heavily based on this "Today" feature.
00:37:21
◼
►
you can basically mark to-dos as due today. You don't need to attach a due time, you
00:37:29
◼
►
don't need to attach a notification, and you have this today screen which is
00:37:34
◼
►
organized in two separate sections. One is today, which would be the
00:37:39
◼
►
morning and the afternoon, and the other is this evening. It literally just says
00:37:42
◼
►
this evening, and there's a moon icon, and there's a horizontal separator between
00:37:46
◼
►
the two. And it's a very simple, very visual way to sort of organize what I
00:37:51
◼
►
need to do during the day and what I can do at night, maybe after dinner, you know,
00:37:55
◼
►
the lighter stuff that it's not as urgent. But I feel like the reason that I
00:38:04
◼
►
like things, and again I talked about all the features on App Stories, but the
00:38:09
◼
►
bigger theme is it's the kind of tax manager that I need at this point in my
00:38:16
◼
►
life because the design and the way that today's screen works, it makes me more relaxed when
00:38:26
◼
►
I look at my task manager, when I look at my to-do list, it doesn't make me feel bad.
00:38:33
◼
►
There's no different coloring for overdue items.
00:38:37
◼
►
There's no priorities.
00:38:41
◼
►
I don't feel guilt when I look at it.
00:38:44
◼
►
And if you don't complete something today, it just automatically goes on to tomorrow
00:38:49
◼
►
and it doesn't get a special color.
00:38:50
◼
►
It just stays there.
00:38:54
◼
►
And there's two conclusions that I feel that I want to make after.
00:38:58
◼
►
I've been trying things for like two weeks at this point.
00:39:00
◼
►
So it's, again, this is not like a full commitment.
00:39:03
◼
►
I just, I feel like we're talking about it because you guys saw that I was using things
00:39:08
◼
►
and you're like, why are you using things?
00:39:10
◼
►
No, you confessed it.
00:39:11
◼
►
You just randomly confessed it.
00:39:12
◼
►
You brought this upon yourself.
00:39:14
◼
►
Sure, alright. But there's two conclusions that I want to make.
00:39:20
◼
►
One is, and I think I've talked about this before, I am increasingly drawn to apps with beautiful designs on iOS.
00:39:32
◼
►
Apps that feel native to iOS. It's the reason why I cannot stop paying for Apple Music even though I also pay for Spotify.
00:39:42
◼
►
As time goes on, I have less and less patience for stuff that doesn't feel native to my iPhone or my iPad.
00:39:55
◼
►
And things are absolutely beautiful just to look at and to use. It's elegant, it's simple.
00:40:00
◼
►
It feels like the task manager that Apple would make if they didn't make reminders, which is unfortunate.
00:40:07
◼
►
But also, the bigger conclusion is I'm starting to accept the fact that maybe I'm just not the person who can make a task manager recommendation forever
00:40:23
◼
►
and say this is the absolute best task manager that I recommend for the next five years.
00:40:29
◼
►
And then maybe I'm the kind of person who, just like I change hairstyles or I change the music that I listen to on a monthly basis
00:40:38
◼
►
or, you know, sometimes I play for a month with my Nintendo Switch and sometimes I play with my PlayStation 4
00:40:44
◼
►
Sometimes I maybe I just, the task manager is also a reflection of my life and how I'm dealing with responsibilities, how I'm coping with work
00:40:55
◼
►
So maybe I'm not the best guy to make a tax manager recommendation because it
00:41:01
◼
►
highly depends on what my life is like at this very moment and I don't know if
00:41:08
◼
►
this makes any sense but I've been thinking about why I switched from
00:41:17
◼
►
Todoist in the first place and what are the conclusions that I'm reaching and
00:41:20
◼
►
and hopefully somebody else that listens to the show will find some meaning in all of this rambling explanation.
00:41:29
◼
►
I have a question for you. I'm just trying to help you here.
00:41:35
◼
►
Like, just to identify some potential hazard points of your new system.
00:41:40
◼
►
This is literally therapy going on.
00:41:42
◼
►
Yeah, I'm doing my account for you.
00:41:44
◼
►
I talk about and think about this stuff enough now in my life that it is of great interest to me.
00:41:49
◼
►
So it seems like what you're doing is the same amount of stuff, but you're just shuffling it
00:41:57
◼
►
around. So you mentioned about, and like this is something I've seen you do, you had this automation
00:42:03
◼
►
that would remind you to post about a podcast episode on Mac stories and it would just,
00:42:09
◼
►
you used it as the example here, right? It would pop up in Todoist and you said you've moved it to
00:42:14
◼
►
to Slack. So I'm assuming that you've set up a channel in Slack where these posts go
00:42:20
◼
►
to and then when you see them, you post about them on the site, right?
00:42:26
◼
►
That is the same action, just in another place? You're still doing the same thing and every
00:42:30
◼
►
time you open Slack, there's going to be a little unread notification badge there.
00:42:37
◼
►
No? Well, the channel's –
00:42:38
◼
►
Well, it's not going to be on the icon, it's – yeah, on the channel.
00:42:41
◼
►
So every time you're talking to someone,
00:42:43
◼
►
you swap over to that bot, there's that thing there,
00:42:45
◼
►
and you're like, oh, I gotta do that thing later on.
00:42:47
◼
►
They gotta do that thing, that thing's there,
00:42:48
◼
►
I know what that means, I gotta do that thing.
00:42:50
◼
►
My concern is, this is gonna turn you away
00:42:52
◼
►
from Slack eventually.
00:42:54
◼
►
I think that what this is proving is that
00:42:57
◼
►
you might have to think about that action itself
00:43:01
◼
►
as opposed to the way that it presents itself to you,
00:43:04
◼
►
because all you've kind of done is shuffled
00:43:07
◼
►
the deck chairs around a little bit
00:43:10
◼
►
as to where it's gonna be living,
00:43:12
◼
►
because it's still an action you need to perform.
00:43:15
◼
►
I understand completely why you're doing this.
00:43:18
◼
►
I feel like I cannot argue with your reasons,
00:43:23
◼
►
because they are personal to you,
00:43:26
◼
►
especially with where they're coming from,
00:43:29
◼
►
which is like a feeling of overwhelm,
00:43:31
◼
►
but I would just say that it might be worth
00:43:36
◼
►
paying a little bit more attention
00:43:38
◼
►
to the things that you're doing and working out
00:43:41
◼
►
if you can get rid of more of them
00:43:42
◼
►
as opposed to just like,
00:43:43
◼
►
oh, I'll remove the automation from Todoist,
00:43:46
◼
►
I'll set up a new automation in Slack instead.
00:43:48
◼
►
- Yeah, but that's really like the smaller part
00:43:53
◼
►
of this process.
00:43:55
◼
►
Like getting rid of the automations,
00:43:59
◼
►
it's just one of the many reasons
00:44:03
◼
►
and it's not even the most important one.
00:44:05
◼
►
I think the two most important reasons are the fact that things by design, it makes me...
00:44:17
◼
►
I like the way that it looks and it's calm.
00:44:21
◼
►
It doesn't look like...
00:44:24
◼
►
I'm not sure what the best way to convey this would be but it doesn't look like work.
00:44:31
◼
►
My concern is though that it's because it's new.
00:44:35
◼
►
have just assigned that feeling of this looks like work to Todoist in your mind
00:44:40
◼
►
so like when you open Todoist you're like oh I'm in work now and it's just
00:44:45
◼
►
because you have this new fancy shiny application it doesn't feel like work.
00:44:50
◼
►
It could be, it could be but again I want to understand like if I'm not
00:45:01
◼
►
This is a question that I'm asking you, I guess, but there's some apps and services
00:45:07
◼
►
that I cannot stop using, right? Like, I cannot stop using WordPress because
00:45:13
◼
►
otherwise my stories would disappear. I cannot stop using Slack, otherwise I
00:45:17
◼
►
wouldn't be able to talk to my teammates. But if I can find an alternative, why is
00:45:25
◼
►
is it so bad to switch task managers? Because we switch email clients, we
00:45:31
◼
►
play around with multiple tax editors, but whenever I'm testing another
00:45:37
◼
►
task manager a lot of folks are really almost shocked by the idea. And there's
00:45:46
◼
►
this... I'm not sure why, but it feels like switching a task manager is almost
00:45:54
◼
►
like an absurd and like a crazy thing to do. It's a religious war. It's what it's almost like.
00:46:01
◼
►
It's like people super believe in the system that they're using and especially, I mean as well,
00:46:07
◼
►
okay, a lot of part of it for you Federico is people use these systems because of your
00:46:12
◼
►
recommendation. So like one of the reasons I was so upset with you moving to things is because
00:46:18
◼
►
Because I moved to Todoist because you convinced me. So now what?
00:46:22
◼
►
But it doesn't make Todoist any worse for you.
00:46:25
◼
►
I don't know that until you tell me why. Right? Which is why I've been hounding you for three
00:46:30
◼
►
weeks. I need to know why you've switched. Because if you're telling me now that things
00:46:36
◼
►
is better because of X, Y and Z and they're the same reasons that you told me to go to
00:46:41
◼
►
Todoist in the first place, I need to know that because I might be missing out.
00:46:46
◼
►
Ah, I get it.
00:46:48
◼
►
You know, I gotta say, the fact that whenever I try something else, for a very personal reason,
00:46:58
◼
►
that my audience, let's say, starts asking why, like you, it doesn't help the fact that...
00:47:12
◼
►
like I'm trying things because I'm going through some personal problems but the
00:47:17
◼
►
people at large they expect some kind of productivity explanation whereas it's
00:47:24
◼
►
just no to do is better than things when it comes to automation when it comes to
00:47:28
◼
►
collaboration when it comes to you know cross-platform it's totally better but
00:47:33
◼
►
mine is a like mine is a personal problem and well and it's it's you know
00:47:40
◼
►
it's hard to reconcile the fact that I'm switching task managers for personal
00:47:45
◼
►
reasons with the people now expect a story on the site. So now we're going
00:47:50
◼
►
into a very different world here where it's... okay so we're down a very deep
00:47:55
◼
►
rabbit hole. About the idea of living in public. Yeah. So you decide, you made
00:48:03
◼
►
decisions in your life which have led you to where you are and part of that is
00:48:07
◼
►
is that you share things with the internet.
00:48:10
◼
►
You share them with the world.
00:48:11
◼
►
As a way of being like, I am an authority,
00:48:15
◼
►
and I have good opinions and taste,
00:48:17
◼
►
and I believe that you should listen to the things
00:48:20
◼
►
that I have to say about applications, right?
00:48:22
◼
►
Like that's Federico Vittucci, that's what people look at.
00:48:25
◼
►
You are a person who people trust
00:48:27
◼
►
to give them recommendations.
00:48:29
◼
►
So every time you share an application that you're using,
00:48:32
◼
►
people will assume it is the best one,
00:48:34
◼
►
unless you tell them otherwise.
00:48:36
◼
►
So just saying or posting a screenshot
00:48:39
◼
►
which has things in it, people will be like,
00:48:42
◼
►
oh, what's this all about?
00:48:45
◼
►
This isn't the application that Federico
00:48:47
◼
►
recommended that I use.
00:48:49
◼
►
I wanna know why Federico's using it for a reason.
00:48:52
◼
►
I wanna know that reason.
00:48:53
◼
►
So there is a, if the problem that you're having
00:48:57
◼
►
is you talk about a thing and then people
00:48:59
◼
►
wanna know about it, you just don't talk about it.
00:49:02
◼
►
You're just gonna keep it to yourself
00:49:04
◼
►
until you're ready to tell everybody else.
00:49:06
◼
►
'Cause people wanna know.
00:49:08
◼
►
- Yeah, it's not really a problem.
00:49:09
◼
►
I wouldn't say it's a problem, it's just,
00:49:12
◼
►
I don't know how to explain it when it's something so,
00:49:18
◼
►
like I'm not gonna go on my stories and say,
00:49:20
◼
►
"Well, I was feeling stressed,
00:49:21
◼
►
so I switched my task manager."
00:49:24
◼
►
It's not a good enough reason for an article.
00:49:26
◼
►
- Connect is a whole different situation.
00:49:28
◼
►
We can talk about it here.
00:49:30
◼
►
It's just me and you.
00:49:31
◼
►
- Exactly, it's on the podcast,
00:49:32
◼
►
I can talk about it with you guys.
00:49:34
◼
►
But it's not, I mean, I love the fact that people
00:49:38
◼
►
trust what I like and use what I like and, you know,
00:49:41
◼
►
try the workflows that I make and stuff.
00:49:43
◼
►
That's awesome.
00:49:44
◼
►
But it's just, this time I don't feel like
00:49:47
◼
►
I have a good enough reason or the story behind it
00:49:51
◼
►
is just, it wouldn't be applicable to someone else.
00:49:54
◼
►
That's the problem.
00:49:55
◼
►
Not the fact that people listen
00:49:57
◼
►
and want to try the same stuff,
00:49:59
◼
►
but this time I'm not even, like my explanation,
00:50:04
◼
►
it had a bunch of different reasons.
00:50:07
◼
►
I'm not even sure myself why.
00:50:09
◼
►
And I don't know, I'll probably be back to Todoist.
00:50:12
◼
►
I don't know.
00:50:13
◼
►
I still think Todoist is honestly the best one.
00:50:15
◼
►
See, this is my point.
00:50:17
◼
►
I want the freedom to try something else.
00:50:20
◼
►
I would say that's maybe the conclusion here.
00:50:24
◼
►
I wanted to be able to excuse myself
00:50:27
◼
►
and try something else for a while?
00:50:29
◼
►
Well, again, it's completely fine, but I think that like, if this is a thing that
00:50:37
◼
►
frustrates you, then you just need to build a system of caveats when you talk
00:50:41
◼
►
about things. Right.
00:50:42
◼
►
So like, just say I'm trying it out.
00:50:45
◼
►
I'll let you know what I think about it and then you can move on.
00:50:48
◼
►
I think most people then just wait.
00:50:50
◼
►
They'll wait for the twenty five thousand word teacher review.
00:50:52
◼
►
That's never going to come. But they think it's going to come.
00:50:54
◼
►
You know, it's just like, OK, like, I'll wait.
00:50:56
◼
►
he'll write a big review and then eventually you're just like nah it wasn't worth it and
00:51:00
◼
►
everyone goes okay thanks for letting me stick with Todoist. Nobody wants to be left behind.
00:51:07
◼
►
So there you go. That's my two cents.
00:51:10
◼
►
But is this the kind of story that you were expecting?
00:51:16
◼
►
I assumed there was something going on. For you to move to an application that doesn't
00:51:22
◼
►
have workflows in it makes me assume that something big has changed.
00:51:27
◼
►
Obviously I didn't think it was this thing exactly, but I knew that there was some kind
00:51:31
◼
►
of seismic shift going on because I know the way that you work, right?
00:51:39
◼
►
And again, you haven't moved away from the workflows.
00:51:44
◼
►
The workflows have just been changed, right?
00:51:48
◼
►
I couldn't work out how you were getting yourself into a situation where you were trusting yourself to just do it
00:51:55
◼
►
Right because the workflows are the safety net so that was why I've been so
00:51:59
◼
►
Incessant in wanting to understand what the heck was going on
00:52:02
◼
►
Because I could see something had bigger changed and I was wondering what it was. I hoped it was some some like
00:52:09
◼
►
Revelation of like i've cracked it i'm able to get things done at a faster rate than ever before so I could learn from you
00:52:16
◼
►
But instead it's just a feeling that I think all of us
00:52:20
◼
►
can have from time to time.
00:52:24
◼
►
I'm having it right now because I leave the country
00:52:25
◼
►
again in two days.
00:52:27
◼
►
So I'm feeling that overwhelmedness feeling.
00:52:31
◼
►
And a lot of the time, what you need to do
00:52:33
◼
►
and what you are doing is just take a step back,
00:52:36
◼
►
look at what your system is doing for you,
00:52:38
◼
►
see where you can optimize it, and then move on from there.
00:52:42
◼
►
And you're in that world right now,
00:52:43
◼
►
but unfortunately it's compounded with the fact
00:52:45
◼
►
that people just want to know why you're using a new application, Federico.
00:52:48
◼
►
They just want to know.
00:52:50
◼
►
Yeah, and it's like, my problem was, I'm not working on a review.
00:52:57
◼
►
I'm not even sure. Like, I'm supposed to be working now on my must-have roundup of the year,
00:53:05
◼
►
and I've got to make up my mind, am I switching to things for real, or am I going back to Todoist?
00:53:12
◼
►
because honestly I miss the collaboration stuff.
00:53:15
◼
►
I miss the integrations with my email client
00:53:20
◼
►
and all the way that I can talk to the echo
00:53:23
◼
►
and create stuff in Todoist.
00:53:27
◼
►
I miss all of those features.
00:53:29
◼
►
And now I'm supposed to make a decision,
00:53:32
◼
►
and I'm not sure, like, and as you say,
00:53:35
◼
►
am I just running away from the problem?
00:53:37
◼
►
The problem is not the task manager.
00:53:39
◼
►
The problem is maybe the things
00:53:40
◼
►
that I'm putting into the task manager.
00:53:42
◼
►
Am I just remixing and switching things while avoiding the real problem that lies underneath?
00:53:52
◼
►
So now that I'm done with my iPhone X story and that I'm not traveling anymore,
00:53:58
◼
►
I'm just here and that big project is also done, now maybe I have more time to think for myself
00:54:05
◼
►
and maybe I'll figure something out, I'll figure whether the problem is in the Task Manager or in the task itself.
00:54:14
◼
►
So, we'll see.
00:54:16
◼
►
Yeah, and I think, I mean, I get what Myke, what you're saying, that
00:54:21
◼
►
if this, if you have something bigger going on, then changing the Task Manager isn't going to solve it.
00:54:27
◼
►
And I agree with that. But I think too, as someone who's done this countless times,
00:54:33
◼
►
there is benefit to
00:54:37
◼
►
moving into a new system because it allows you to see every
00:54:41
◼
►
single list and project and to do item
00:54:45
◼
►
It's like a really big review right? Yeah, when I moved into
00:54:49
◼
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RTM I realised that I had some stuff in here
00:54:53
◼
►
that just didn't need to be in here. Some things that you know,
00:54:57
◼
►
this could go into notes or this really should be on my calendar and it
00:55:01
◼
►
did clear some things up. And so there is benefit to that. But anytime you sort of blow
00:55:08
◼
►
up your system and put it back together, I anytime I do it always try to ask like, what,
00:55:13
◼
►
what am I actually trying to do? Like, what am I actually anxious about here? And is it
00:55:18
◼
►
really about, you know, sorting lists or repeating tasks or whatever it is? Or is there something
00:55:23
◼
►
like more fundamental going on? So I'm glad that you're thinking about that. Because it
00:55:26
◼
►
can be frustrating to go through all this and then still feel crappy at the end of the day.
00:55:31
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►
Should we take a break? Federico, I hope that you return to full power soon.
00:55:40
◼
►
Mmm. Are you gonna accept me, whether I used to do this or not? Are we still gonna be friends?
00:55:49
◼
►
You know that my love for you endures all task managers. How's Remember the Milk?
00:56:01
◼
►
Uh, you know, what you talked about last week, that the lack of, um, sub lists is a little
00:56:08
◼
►
I have like a super janky work around for that right now, but we'll see what happens.
00:56:13
◼
►
Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Away.
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their support of this show and Relay FM. So as we were talking today, iOS 11.2 came out
00:58:46
◼
►
over the weekend and sometime yesterday Apple turned on Apple Pay Cash. It is US only so
00:58:52
◼
►
I apologize to my co-host. But if you haven't come across this yet and you're in the US,
00:58:58
◼
►
when you open messages on your phone or iPad you're going to get an ad now for Apple Pay
00:59:03
◼
►
Cash. People emailed me about that. It's very much similar to the "Hey sign up for Apple
00:59:08
◼
►
music but they gotta tell people I guess. Apple Pay Cash is not a standalone app
00:59:14
◼
►
it is just an iMessage application so you can use it in iMessage. It's
00:59:19
◼
►
part of QuickType which is very clever so if someone messages me and says hey
00:59:24
◼
►
you owe me 10 bucks then QuickType brings up Apple Pay as a option that it
00:59:31
◼
►
knows that I may want and I can very quickly send somebody that 10 bucks or I
00:59:36
◼
►
and do whatever I need to do. It is. We spoke about this when it first came out, Myke, but
00:59:43
◼
►
basically this works as its own like virtual debit card. So you can leave money on your Apple Pay card
00:59:50
◼
►
for use later in the iMessage app or anywhere Apple Pay is accepted. So right now I've got
00:59:55
◼
►
like six bucks on my Apple Pay card because I've been sitting the same two or $3 at different
01:00:00
◼
►
people as they've been on the beta and yesterday as they want to try it out. And then if you want
01:00:05
◼
►
to withdraw it to your real bank account you can do that as well. That's in the
01:00:10
◼
►
Apple Pay settings. This is a little limited. You can only have one account
01:00:14
◼
►
set up for withdrawal at a time. So for instance somebody like me who I have my
01:00:19
◼
►
personal finances and then I have my company's finances and then I have
01:00:22
◼
►
Relay's finances. I really need to decide what I'm going to use Apple Pay Cash for
01:00:27
◼
►
because it's a big hassle to remove an account and add another one
01:00:32
◼
►
for withdrawal and I understand why they did that it adds a lot of complexity I
01:00:35
◼
►
think it adds some opportunity for shady business going on so for me I'm just
01:00:41
◼
►
gonna use this for personal things I'm not gonna incorporate Apple Pay cash
01:00:44
◼
►
into into either business but it works as advertised it's it's fast it's it's
01:00:51
◼
►
pretty simple to understand I get because you're already because it's
01:00:55
◼
►
within the framework of iMessage a world that we already all know so okay
01:00:59
◼
►
I'm texting with, you know, Jason, I can send Jason this money. I don't have to go elsewhere.
01:01:04
◼
►
And I don't have to know his PayPal or dollar account. I don't have to know who what his
01:01:08
◼
►
handle is, or something like Square Cash. I don't use Venmo. It's already within the
01:01:14
◼
►
the application that we're using to talk. And so I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be
01:01:20
◼
►
a big hit. I think people are going to trust it because they trust iMessage, just Apple Pay.
01:01:27
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►
And I think it's going to be a real convenience factor for people who use iOS all the time.
01:01:32
◼
►
It's not the Mac. In fact, on the Mac, you get a little notification saying, Hey,
01:01:36
◼
►
if you want to see more about this transaction, open your iPhone. So that's that's a little bit
01:01:42
◼
►
of a bummer. But it's, it's, it's great. I mean, in testing during the beta, it works exactly the
01:01:49
◼
►
way you think it would transfers are basically instant the withdrawals really fast. If you take
01:01:53
◼
►
take the money from Apple Pay to your bank account,
01:01:55
◼
►
it gets there quickly.
01:01:57
◼
►
So yeah, I've enjoyed using it and testing
01:01:59
◼
►
and I'm looking forward to seeing the first time
01:02:01
◼
►
when someone out in the world says,
01:02:02
◼
►
"Hey, can I just Apple Pay you this money?"
01:02:05
◼
►
'Cause I think that's coming,
01:02:06
◼
►
I think people are gonna use this.
01:02:08
◼
►
- Yeah, I really wanna try this.
01:02:11
◼
►
Because I have my, how can I say it,
01:02:17
◼
►
American Apple ID and I keep my--
01:02:21
◼
►
Why is that a shady thing to say?
01:02:24
◼
►
I have a, as you would say...
01:02:28
◼
►
Because it requires an American credit card and an address.
01:02:36
◼
►
And I also keep my region setting to US.
01:02:38
◼
►
I see the Apple Pay Cash app in iMessage and I can go through the initial setup, but then
01:02:44
◼
►
it asks me for my social security number, which of course I don't have.
01:02:49
◼
►
the last missing piece of the puzzle. I don't have a social security number so I
01:02:53
◼
►
cannot use it. But it looks really nice, it looks really great. You know, I
01:02:57
◼
►
think the transaction limits make sense, the integration is awesome. Like, I
01:03:04
◼
►
actually have all these shortcuts on my device, even if they're useless. Like, if I
01:03:08
◼
►
open my contact card for Silvia on my iPhone, there's a pay icon with a
01:03:14
◼
►
US dollar icon on top. And if I tap that, it's useless because it doesn't work. But
01:03:19
◼
►
But all these integrations and the fact that it works with Siri, Contacts, iMessage, I
01:03:24
◼
►
think it's great.
01:03:25
◼
►
Hopefully it will launch in Italy before 2025.
01:03:33
◼
►
Yeah, I hope that we will get it at some point.
01:03:38
◼
►
It looks really interesting.
01:03:39
◼
►
I think it's one of the best representations of what an iMessage app can be.
01:03:47
◼
►
It makes perfect sense that you would do it here.
01:03:50
◼
►
Even if the iMessage App Store didn't exist,
01:03:53
◼
►
this is the type of thing that you would want
01:03:55
◼
►
to be in iMessage, right?
01:03:57
◼
►
This is sensible.
01:03:59
◼
►
You only ever typically need to send this money
01:04:01
◼
►
to a contact that you already know.
01:04:03
◼
►
You have their information, their information's tied
01:04:05
◼
►
to their Apple ID, your information's tied
01:04:07
◼
►
to your Apple ID, let's just make this happen, right?
01:04:11
◼
►
Rather than needing to go and sign up for like,
01:04:12
◼
►
"Oh, you want this service?
01:04:14
◼
►
"No, I want this service.
01:04:15
◼
►
"Oh, now I need to sign up."
01:04:17
◼
►
don't nobody wants any of that kind of stuff this is a much better way of doing
01:04:20
◼
►
it so I think big thumbs up from me like I think that this looks great
01:04:24
◼
►
yeah agreed well excited about it so Federico this morning you published your
01:04:31
◼
►
big iPhone 10 review and in typical Federico Vittucci style it's broken into
01:04:38
◼
►
sections and there's graphs there's screenshots lovely screenshots and I I
01:04:45
◼
►
I want to talk a little bit before we get into the review itself, talking about the
01:04:51
◼
►
workflow a little bit.
01:04:52
◼
►
Is this similar, does this come together in a similar way that something like your iPad
01:04:55
◼
►
Pro reviews have?
01:04:56
◼
►
Or is this more like an iOS review?
01:04:58
◼
►
How do you approach this review this time?
01:05:01
◼
►
Yeah I would say so.
01:05:03
◼
►
There's fewer screenshots and media than an iOS review.
01:05:09
◼
►
That's a different approach that I wanted to try.
01:05:11
◼
►
I wanted to have more text and fewer, because I'm not reviewing iOS
01:05:19
◼
►
and there's little point in investing on getting a proper camera equipment
01:05:24
◼
►
to take iPhone X photos when just about everybody else has taken photos of the iPhone X.
01:05:29
◼
►
So from the media perspective it was relatively easy.
01:05:33
◼
►
There's probably 10 to 12 screenshots and photos in the review.
01:05:38
◼
►
And the writing was also similar to what I did in the past.
01:05:41
◼
►
I took notes, this time in bare, because I wanted to have markdown.
01:05:45
◼
►
I wrote the review in Ulysses, and I did the final editing in editorial,
01:05:51
◼
►
because I needed the automation and the snippets and the workflows
01:05:54
◼
►
that I used to massage markdown, as they say, and do all my custom things.
01:06:00
◼
►
And I also used workflow for the battery tests and the benchmarks.
01:06:07
◼
►
I wrote about this in issue 105 of Mac Stories Weekly.
01:06:14
◼
►
There's a workflow that I made to automate these battery tests that uses reminders to send me a reminder every five minutes to check the battery level of my iPhone 10.
01:06:25
◼
►
and I used numbers to keep track of these statistics and I had to use a Mac to generate the chart for the battery section.
01:06:37
◼
►
I'm not sure if this is possible on iOS or not, I couldn't find the feature on the iPad,
01:06:42
◼
►
but on the Mac if you use numbers you can right click on a chart and it says copy as PDF.
01:06:48
◼
►
So what I did, I copied as PDF, then I opened preview and preview as a feature called new from clipboard.
01:06:55
◼
►
And so I created a PDF file in Preview, I exported the file as a PNG,
01:07:03
◼
►
and then I used Acorn on the Mac to generate a high quality version and a JPEG, a lower quality version of the chart.
01:07:10
◼
►
So a little Mac usage for me this time. But yeah, mostly similar workflow to the other reviews.
01:07:19
◼
►
So let's get into the the battery
01:07:22
◼
►
testing a little bit. For me, I of
01:07:24
◼
►
course wanted to know your impressions
01:07:27
◼
►
and your thoughts on the phone, but I
01:07:29
◼
►
think the most sort of like long-lasting
01:07:32
◼
►
part of this review, like I think what
01:07:33
◼
►
will really be a resource for people for
01:07:35
◼
►
a long time to come, is the battery
01:07:39
◼
►
testing. So looking at this you used
01:07:41
◼
►
everything from the little dinky adapter
01:07:46
◼
►
that comes in the box that Apple has
01:07:48
◼
►
shipped for years and years all the way up through what is it a 65 watt what's
01:07:54
◼
►
the one that comes with the big MacBook Pro? 87. All the way up through an 87
01:07:59
◼
►
watt 15 inch MacBook Pro USB C brick and you use some third-party stuff as well
01:08:05
◼
►
so you really went from the the smallest charger 5 watts all the way up to the
01:08:11
◼
►
biggest thing Apple sells and what I found interesting about this is that
01:08:17
◼
►
these chargers kind of basically grouped themselves. You had a bunch of high
01:08:21
◼
►
wattage stuff that basically are charged more or less at the same speed.
01:08:26
◼
►
And then you have some stuff in the middle, I think some battery
01:08:29
◼
►
chargers and some wireless stuff. And then you had the stuff at the bottom.
01:08:35
◼
►
So did you have any surprises in this? And I think the big takeaway is what should
01:08:39
◼
►
people buy to charge their phones quickly?
01:08:41
◼
►
Okay so there's a first and important disclaimer here.
01:08:45
◼
►
This is not the kind of test where I drain my iPhone to zero and then I charge it to 100%.
01:08:52
◼
►
I decided to do a 60 minute test.
01:08:56
◼
►
So I wanted to answer this question.
01:08:58
◼
►
If I only have one hour of free time and I want to charge my iPhone, how do all these chargers
01:09:04
◼
►
stack up against each other?
01:09:06
◼
►
So I'm not charging the iPhone to 100%.
01:09:11
◼
►
And in addition to that explanation,
01:09:15
◼
►
like I wanna see how much I can get in an hour.
01:09:18
◼
►
There's also the fact that every iPhone battery
01:09:23
◼
►
has to account for trickle charging.
01:09:26
◼
►
And trickle charging happens according to Apple after 80%.
01:09:30
◼
►
And so it becomes a very different test
01:09:34
◼
►
if you want to measure all these fast chargers
01:09:36
◼
►
and the wireless chargers and the USB chargers.
01:09:40
◼
►
if you go from normal charging to fast charging and eventually trickle charging after 80%.
01:09:46
◼
►
So I'm only measuring the charge that an iPhone gets in 60 minutes from 1% to up whatever it is that a charger does to an iPhone.
01:09:59
◼
►
And also, I would say that the takeaway here is the 5W charger, you really shouldn't be using that.
01:10:12
◼
►
If you want the absolute best experience, you need to get a USB-C adapter from Apple.
01:10:21
◼
►
Now, I would recommend the basic 29W adapter, which is the one that also fast charges the iPad Pro.
01:10:29
◼
►
But if my tests in an hour, all the USB-C adapters usually arrive at somewhere around 80-85%, 81-82%.
01:10:42
◼
►
But I know that the more expensive ones, the 61 and the 87 especially, the difference that they make
01:10:55
◼
►
can be seen after 80%. So between 80 and 100%, the 87.1 will be faster than the 29W adapter.
01:11:07
◼
►
But it is a big difference in price point. And really the difference we're talking here,
01:11:16
◼
►
if you consider the entire 100%, the difference between the 87 and the 29W is probably going to be
01:11:25
◼
►
20, 30 minutes. It doesn't really matter at that point. So I would say if you just
01:11:32
◼
►
want to get your iPhone to 80% in an hour get the 29 watt adapter.
01:11:38
◼
►
That one is what? 49 US dollars? And then you need a USB-C and a lightning cable
01:11:44
◼
►
which is like another 20 or so. Yes. So with this one you will get your iPhone
01:11:49
◼
►
from 0 to 80 in 60 minutes. But if you get the Apple 12 watt adapter, so in my
01:11:59
◼
►
tests the 12 watt USB adapter, not USB-C, just standard USB-A, it got me around 65
01:12:09
◼
►
to 70 percent in 60 minutes. Now I'm not sure what's going on here, there's a
01:12:16
◼
►
footnote in my story about the fact that the iPhone 10 is not always requesting
01:12:21
◼
►
the proper 27 watt charge from the USB C power delivery spec. There's somebody did
01:12:30
◼
►
a technical analysis using an electrical measuring tool which of course I don't
01:12:35
◼
►
have but there's a man then I apologize so I would say that if you if you're on
01:12:42
◼
►
a budget and if you just want something better than the default charger in the box and you
01:12:49
◼
►
want to save money, get the 12W adapter.
01:12:53
◼
►
This has always been the case, even for iPhones before the iPhone X, it's even more true now.
01:12:58
◼
►
But if you want fast charging and if you don't care about getting the last drop of battery
01:13:04
◼
►
life in the shortest amount of time possible, don't spend money on the 6e1 or 8e7, get the
01:13:11
◼
►
However, if you also have other USB-C devices like a Nintendo Switch or a USB-C battery pack or a MacBook for example, then maybe consider the 61W or the 87W version.
01:13:26
◼
►
Of course, if you already have a MacBook Pro and you have a 61W adapter or an 87W, then just get a lightning cable and charge your iPhone X as well.
01:13:35
◼
►
well. So it really depends on what your needs are, how many USB-C devices
01:13:40
◼
►
you have, but ideally the conclusion is if you're on a budget get the 12 watt, if
01:13:46
◼
►
you want to spend a little bit more get the 29 watt, you'll be fine.
01:13:51
◼
►
It's complicated. Yeah, you need to account for all kinds of people, you know.
01:13:57
◼
►
I want to spend money, I don't want to spend money, I also have a MacBook. I don't
01:14:00
◼
►
have a MacBook but I have other USB-C devices. You know, whenever you talk about
01:14:04
◼
►
by USB-C, it gets complicated. It's just impossible to have a simple
01:14:09
◼
►
discussion about this because it's so versatile and that's awesome, but it's
01:14:13
◼
►
also the downside that you need to account for all these possible variables.
01:14:17
◼
►
So, you mentioned this in the article and I want to just underscore it.
01:14:22
◼
►
It is ridiculous how expensive these are and what actually comes in the
01:14:25
◼
►
box. I think it's really bad on Apple's point.
01:14:30
◼
►
This is like, and you mentioned it, I completely agree, it's like the 16
01:14:34
◼
►
gigabyte storage thing all over again. Yes. They're nickel and diamond customers.
01:14:38
◼
►
Yeah, yeah, I agree. It's just the five watt charger, I think I called it cheap
01:14:47
◼
►
disgrace in the story and I stand by it because you're spending, I mean, in Italy,
01:14:53
◼
►
I spent like 1400 something euros on the iPhone 10 and when I open the box, I get
01:14:59
◼
►
the 5W charger. It's like you're selling me a Ferrari but when I get into the car the
01:15:05
◼
►
steering wheel is made out of cardboard. And it's like why? I'm paying such a premium for
01:15:12
◼
►
this device but the charger, the thing that I need to charge the phone on a daily basis,
01:15:20
◼
►
giving me the the 5 watt one it's like come on in 30 minutes the 5 watt charger
01:15:28
◼
►
there's a chance you will not even get past 20% of charge yeah which is that's
01:15:34
◼
►
really bad like that's really bad I have a bunch of questions for you I know
01:15:39
◼
►
Steven still has some more just about this kind of review and just some more
01:15:43
◼
►
thoughts on the iPhone X in general but let me take our final break for today
01:15:46
◼
►
and thank hover for supporting this week's show building your online
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identity it's never been more important and with hover you can find a domain that shows
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possible. That is just like a prerequisite these days and more than ever it is becoming
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more and more important to get domain names. I mean it's one of the reasons why all of
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these other TODs exist now because it's giving people more and more options to give themselves
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great domain names. Like this is something that we've all thought about. Like we all
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have certain identities and certain brands and certain characters and things that we
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want to have on the internet. Right? Like when I started a little website where I just
01:16:32
◼
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wanted to post some pictures of stuff, I was like, "Oh, this needs a domain probably. Oh,
01:16:37
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I know what I'll do. I'll come up with something funny." And I got michaelsright.com. Right?
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So it's just like there are little things that people want to do these days and you
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need domains for them. And they can be for serious stuff or for silly stuff. It doesn't
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really matter. Hover has all the tools that you want. They have fantastic customer support,
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it's best in class. They have personalised emails. We always talk about these domains
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as a way to get yourself a great domain for a website, but you could just get yourself
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a wicked called domain for email. Hover has all the stuff that you need for that and they
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can help you get set up and you could just end up with a great email address. And talking
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about those domain options, they have over 400 domain name extensions for you to choose
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from including all of the classics and the fun niche ones as well so you can grab yourself
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Hover is there to help you make that first step. Head to hover.com/connected right now
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and you'll get 10% off your first purchase. Thank you to Hover for their support of this
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show. Alright so Federico, love the review. I did want to ask you a very quick question.
01:17:39
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►
Were you concerned about writing a review of a product many months after it came out?
01:17:43
◼
►
Yeah, yeah, I was. And I tried to... because I knew I couldn't... of course I couldn't beat other websites in terms of timing.
01:17:56
◼
►
And the fact that I didn't get the iPhone X on Friday when it launched, you know, sort of destroyed all my plans for a first impressions story.
01:18:05
◼
►
So I decided to try something else and
01:18:11
◼
►
write about the bigger themes that I noticed around the iPhone X and sort of the
01:18:19
◼
►
the features and and the ideas that will have an impact long term. I didn't want to
01:18:26
◼
►
sort of talk about Face ID in the sense of like all the first reviews that
01:18:33
◼
►
rightfully did the comparisons between Touch ID and Face ID, I wanted to try about the long-term impact of Face ID and True Depth camera
01:18:40
◼
►
as it relates, for example, to attention awareness and what that could do to iOS. So I was concerned, I am still concerned,
01:18:48
◼
►
I hope that I was able to convey this in the story and I hope that I was able to do a good job,
01:18:53
◼
►
but I realized if I want to do something that makes sense after a month,
01:18:58
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►
I need to take a look at the big picture instead of, you know,
01:19:02
◼
►
all the details that the first reviews covered.
01:19:05
◼
►
I wanted to talk to you about Face ID actually.
01:19:08
◼
►
Because I saw you writing this, I've seen a lot of people writing this about like how
01:19:13
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►
Face ID is great because it removes the previous restrictions of Touch ID with like wet hands.
01:19:18
◼
►
Everyone talks about wet hands. Everyone's hands are wet all the time.
01:19:21
◼
►
And Touch ID, Touch ID was a problem for all of us.
01:19:26
◼
►
But I really do think that Face ID is just bringing its own new restrictions.
01:19:33
◼
►
Like it gets rid of the wet hands problem but like I have noticed since I bought my
01:19:38
◼
►
iPhone how much I touch my face because I can't unlock my phone.
01:19:41
◼
►
Right, like I have my hand in front of my face or like I'm like in bed and I'm trying
01:19:45
◼
►
to unlock my phone and I've got my face down in the pillow, right?
01:19:50
◼
►
So that doesn't work because it can't see my face properly or my favorite one which
01:19:55
◼
►
you mentioned as well, I think everyone's going through this, I realised that I unlocked
01:20:00
◼
►
my phone in the morning before I can even properly open my eyes because my phone won't
01:20:04
◼
►
let it work. And you mentioned for you that you feel that some of this stuff has gotten
01:20:09
◼
►
better, like these exact examples, but like I don't feel like I'm having much more
01:20:16
◼
►
luck than I was before with these things. Like I feel like the machine isn't learning
01:20:21
◼
►
so well for me and I'm still struggling with them but even if they are better even if I'm
01:20:26
◼
►
getting less of these over time 100% without a doubt face ID fails for me more often on
01:20:33
◼
►
a daily basis than touch ID did.
01:20:36
◼
►
It's just like I am looking at my phone and I'm trying to wait for it to unlock me and
01:20:40
◼
►
I get the little doo doo and then I can't find a way like I'm looking at my notifications
01:20:45
◼
►
and I'm waiting for my notifications to appear and they won't appear and I'm wondering if
01:20:49
◼
►
I'm noticing it more than you two because I still have that notification thing on. So
01:20:55
◼
►
you could be reading and it's getting that second read of you, because it will do one
01:20:59
◼
►
read and then might do another one, where I am noticing every failure because my notifications
01:21:05
◼
►
aren't available to me. So I'm seeing it more and I am convinced of this without a shadow
01:21:11
◼
►
of a doubt that that face ID is less is less reliable for me I love it and
01:21:21
◼
►
honestly like I wouldn't go back seriously I wouldn't go back like it is
01:21:25
◼
►
less reliable but everything else about it is fantastic so because it when it
01:21:28
◼
►
does work it works like a billion times better than touch ID because it's just
01:21:33
◼
►
so much nicer than like totally with you right the idea of like moving your thumb
01:21:37
◼
►
down and pressing a physical or pretending to be physical button to go
01:21:40
◼
►
to a place like or to like to not even necessarily go to a place but to
01:21:45
◼
►
authenticate me like moving my phone to the home button to authenticate me for
01:21:50
◼
►
one password now just feels like this super strange and weird thing especially
01:21:54
◼
►
on my phone because my phone's just in my hand well like I have both of my arms
01:21:59
◼
►
and my hands out when I'm using my iPad anyway like it's a very it feels
01:22:03
◼
►
different to me right but like with my phone it's like this is wild town but I
01:22:07
◼
►
I do feel that it is less reliable, like without a doubt for me.
01:22:10
◼
►
Yeah, it's it's the opposite for me.
01:22:14
◼
►
I I honestly think that Face ID is much, much more reliable
01:22:21
◼
►
than face than Touch ID was for me.
01:22:24
◼
►
And I have the notification setting turned on as well.
01:22:28
◼
►
And I feel like it's gotten better at recognizing
01:22:32
◼
►
recognizing my face in the morning.
01:22:35
◼
►
So yeah, my experience I would say is very different than yours and
01:22:39
◼
►
I don't know why that is the case. I feel like maybe I
01:22:45
◼
►
Like when you say I don't use my iPhone when I'm lying down with my face in the pillow in bed
01:22:54
◼
►
I don't do that. So maybe that's one of the reasons why I haven't noticed
01:22:59
◼
►
But yeah, overall like the fact like I
01:23:04
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►
the wet hand problem. That was really, like I hated when Touch ID didn't work because
01:23:11
◼
►
whenever I was washing the dishes or getting out of the shower or like I was playing with
01:23:17
◼
►
the dogs at the beach for example and it never worked and with Face ID that is not a problem.
01:23:22
◼
►
So I really noticed that besides the joke. I really actually noticed that difference.
01:23:27
◼
►
I think that maybe more than Touch ID, Face ID is dependent on your personal situations.
01:23:34
◼
►
I feel like that there are more things that can be independent to a person than Touch
01:23:41
◼
►
ID necessarily would have been.
01:23:43
◼
►
Because inherently the system is vastly more complicated.
01:23:48
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►
What it is doing is incredibly more complicated, so it feels like there are more potential
01:23:53
◼
►
avenues for a problem to occur.
01:23:56
◼
►
But yeah, I don't doubt that your situation is fine.
01:24:00
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►
I really don't.
01:24:01
◼
►
I believe that.
01:24:02
◼
►
I'm not like, "Ah, Federico's just drunk the Kool-Aid and he's loving his perfect face."
01:24:09
◼
►
I believe that you are having great luck with it.
01:24:13
◼
►
But I think that it is just differing from person to person.
01:24:15
◼
►
But it is not a situation where I'm finding myself being annoyed at it, but I am recognizing
01:24:20
◼
►
Yeah, I get it.
01:24:22
◼
►
That Mophie Qi battery that you have, the external battery with the cloth on it, that
01:24:26
◼
►
thing looks legit.
01:24:28
◼
►
My Mophie, my original kind of Mophie, my small Mophie that I just have for emergencies,
01:24:33
◼
►
I think the battery isn't as strong on that as it used to be.
01:24:36
◼
►
So all right, wait, the Qi one is not the one with the cloth.
01:24:40
◼
►
The Qi one is just black.
01:24:43
◼
►
What's the one with the little cloth on it then?
01:24:46
◼
►
That one is just USB-C. USB-C battery.
01:24:49
◼
►
Well then, I don't want it anymore.
01:24:51
◼
►
The Qi one is just a black rectangle.
01:24:52
◼
►
No, I don't want it anymore.
01:24:54
◼
►
I like the cloth.
01:24:55
◼
►
The cloth was cool.
01:24:56
◼
►
I can tell you that it's awesome.
01:24:57
◼
►
I have it right now next to me.
01:24:58
◼
►
I'm talking to you via the microphone.
01:25:00
◼
►
There's a Qi battery and my iPhone is on top.
01:25:03
◼
►
I can pick up both with one hand and when I'm done, I can just pick up the iPhone and
01:25:08
◼
►
There's no cable because it's a battery with a Qi surface on top, which is awesome.
01:25:13
◼
►
Right now I want someone to make a Qi battery that supports the 7.5W wireless charging on iOS 11.2.
01:25:25
◼
►
With cloth on it.
01:25:26
◼
►
That doesn't exist yet.
01:25:27
◼
►
Put cloth on it.
01:25:28
◼
►
I'll do it this afternoon.
01:25:31
◼
►
Okay, do a Kickstarter Stephen for a Qi battery with cloth. If it doesn't catch fire, go for it.
01:25:38
◼
►
When you say that do you mean like if the Kickstarter doesn't catch fire like it's like it's not excitable
01:25:44
◼
►
I mean the actual battery. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah don't die try to leave battery
01:25:49
◼
►
I believe Steven could make a non non flammable battery
01:25:52
◼
►
Sure. Sure. I believe that you have my we have my three dollars Steven for the campaign
01:25:59
◼
►
That is not a lot of money. This is really cheap as well three dollars
01:26:03
◼
►
It's the super fast charging battery with cloth. $3. You heard it here first.
01:26:09
◼
►
I just need 14 million backers. You know, the math.
01:26:13
◼
►
You gotta make it up in volume, man. Come on, that's capitalism, man. That's how it works.
01:26:19
◼
►
Yeah, it's subscription models.
01:26:21
◼
►
It's the Amazon approach. You should do the Bezos. Do the Bezos. It's $3, but for 20 million
01:26:26
◼
►
people. It totally works.
01:26:29
◼
►
So, so what's the long story with the iPhone X?
01:26:35
◼
►
Right now it's at the high end of the market, it's this phone that's unlike anything else,
01:26:40
◼
►
but eventually we're going to see these features wind their way down the product line, right?
01:26:45
◼
►
Where do you see that going in the future?
01:26:49
◼
►
So I've been thinking about like how will the iPhone X affect the next iPad and the
01:26:58
◼
►
next iPhones. And I think we can, like, I tried to highlight the sections that I
01:27:04
◼
►
that I chose to write about, because I think those will be the key elements
01:27:10
◼
►
that we'll see trickle down to the next iPhones and the next iPads.
01:27:16
◼
►
The fact that the camera will increasingly get into the 3D space in
01:27:23
◼
►
in the sense that we'll get more portrait features, more AR features, we'll get perhaps the ability to do portrait videos in addition to photos.
01:27:35
◼
►
And all this idea of capturing 3D information via the TrueDepth system and making an emoji, that could be applied to a bunch of ideas like,
01:27:46
◼
►
for example, making a user avatar, like a tiny cartoon, like a Mii character from the Nintendo Wii,
01:27:53
◼
►
like you could make that with TrueDepth in the future maybe, or I could see how TrueDepth could be brought to the
01:27:58
◼
►
the rear camera and make an even more powerful portrait mode. And for example, the fact that
01:28:08
◼
►
iOS will continue to gain more attention-based features, like am I looking at the screen or not,
01:28:13
◼
►
Am I looking at maybe a specific portion of the screen or am I making a specific
01:28:18
◼
►
expression that the iPhone can detect right now and maybe do something else
01:28:21
◼
►
based on whether I'm smiling or not?
01:28:23
◼
►
And how can Apple integrate all these face recognition things behind the scenes?
01:28:28
◼
►
So it's not like I'm controlling my iPhone with my face, but my iPhone can
01:28:33
◼
►
subtly react to what I'm doing.
01:28:37
◼
►
So there's all these bigger themes and of course, wireless charging, we're going to
01:28:41
◼
►
get the air power met next year and all the fact that iOS is an entirely
01:28:46
◼
►
gesture based operating system now with the last button being gone, with the home
01:28:51
◼
►
button gone, it's all gestures now. So what does that mean for the iPad for
01:28:55
◼
►
example? So there's these bigger topics that I think will, in a matter,
01:29:00
◼
►
honestly I think Apple is gonna be kind of aggressive here. I would say that in a
01:29:04
◼
►
couple of years we're going to see all these features, you know, attention, 3D
01:29:08
◼
►
camera and wireless charging and the gestural operating system. I'm pretty
01:29:15
◼
►
confident that we'll get it on the iPad and we'll get it on the, you know, not
01:29:19
◼
►
just on one iPhone but on multiple iPhones within a couple of years.
01:29:22
◼
►
So I would be surprised if next year's iPad Pros have a home button and do not
01:29:30
◼
►
embrace, you know, these gesture only controls or if they don't have Face ID. I
01:29:37
◼
►
I believe that once the precedent has been set with the iPhone X,
01:29:42
◼
►
then it's all just a matter of trickling down to the other devices in the ecosystem.
01:29:46
◼
►
And there are some features that maybe will be more difficult to implement,
01:29:53
◼
►
like OLED on the iPad, for example.
01:29:55
◼
►
We have rumors that say that Apple is not going to bring OLED to the iPad next year,
01:29:59
◼
►
and I can see why.
01:30:00
◼
►
But overall, the major themes of the camera is now doing more 3D stuff than ever,
01:30:06
◼
►
and the camera can now authenticate you with your face and recognize your emotions and expressions
01:30:11
◼
►
and there's wireless charging everywhere and iOS is all about gestures now. I can see that
01:30:18
◼
►
happening to every other Apple device in a span of two years. I don't doubt that. This is like
01:30:25
◼
►
the root, right? Like in the way that Touch ID was the root, in the way that Retina screens were
01:30:29
◼
►
the root, like this is it. This is the future of how these devices will look. So you can go
01:30:35
◼
►
and find Federico's lovely little review over at maxstories.net. It's nice and chunky and
01:30:42
◼
►
there are multiple pages and there's a bunch of different really interesting topics that
01:30:46
◼
►
Federico raises and they're more than what we've touched on today. So you can go and
01:30:49
◼
►
find that at maxstories.net and Federico is @Vitici on Twitter, V-I-T-I-C-C-I. Steven
01:30:55
◼
►
also produces wonderful content, colorful content full of spans all space and time over
01:31:00
◼
►
at five-tail-pixels.net and he is @ismh on Twitter. I am @imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Our show
01:31:07
◼
►
notes today are relay.fm/connected/171. Thanks again to our lovely sponsors, the five folk
01:31:14
◼
►
over at Eero, Away and Hover. We'll be back next time. We'll be recording a little bit
01:31:21
◼
►
later if you listen live because I'm going to be on location in Seattle, but I refuse
01:31:26
◼
►
to miss the episode so I'm gonna be back on the show next week we all will be
01:31:30
◼
►
here it's gonna be a wonderful time have by everybody until then say goodbye guys