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Connected

105: What Does Done Mean?

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:04   From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 105.

00:00:08   Today's show is brought to you by PDF/PEM from SMILE, FreshBooks, and MacWeldon.

00:00:14   My name is Myke Hurley, and I am joined by Mr. Steven Hackett.

00:00:17   Hello, Steven Hackett.

00:00:18   Hello, Michael Hurley.

00:00:19   You have returned to health. That is the very best of news.

00:00:23   Thank you.

00:00:23   And we have even more very best of news.

00:00:25   Federico is back.

00:00:27   Hello.

00:00:27   Hi.

00:00:28   Hello!

00:00:29   Hello, I'm back.

00:00:31   How are you Federico?

00:00:33   Where have you been?

00:00:34   I've been on vacation in Puglia, which is in the southern part of Italy.

00:00:39   It's a beautiful place, great food, good people.

00:00:44   It's been a great 10 days.

00:00:46   I'm feeling refreshed and I'm back to the show and I'm back on working for Maxories.

00:00:52   It's going to be a fun couple of weeks ahead.

00:00:54   Yeah.

00:00:55   Whilst that is great news, of course there has been some horrible news in Italy this

00:00:58   week and if you are unaware there was a horrible earthquake it was just outside

00:01:03   of Rome is that right? Well no maybe not really outside of Rome but it's

00:01:07   basically this series of villages on the mountains and the location is exactly in

00:01:16   the middle of three regions one is the Lazio which is the region where Rome is

00:01:21   located and two other regions so it's very difficult positions for you know

00:01:27   for rescue to reach these villages because they're located on the mountains

00:01:31   and there's been a more than 250 victims and it's just

00:01:39   horrible. We were on vacation, we woke up the other day to... I woke up to Sylvia

00:01:48   checking her phone and she told me about this very early in the morning because

00:01:53   because it happened overnight.

00:01:54   And I checked my phone and I had like 50 messages

00:01:57   from people on Twitter checking if I was okay

00:02:00   because the international news websites

00:02:03   reported the earthquake being in Rome,

00:02:06   but it wasn't really in Rome.

00:02:07   And I wasn't in Rome anyway.

00:02:09   So if you're living in Italy, make sure to check out.

00:02:14   I don't know, there's a number that you can use

00:02:16   to send an SMS to make a donation of two euros

00:02:21   the relief fund of these villages and I would seriously recommend checking the proper ways

00:02:29   to show your support. I saw a lot of people, especially in Viterbo, my hometown, kind of

00:02:35   organizing themselves to send food, to send, you know, like items of first necessity, but

00:02:42   instead I think it's better if you check on the official ways to help. And, I mean, they

00:02:48   also said this on the news, to try not to come up with your own solutions, to send like

00:02:52   boxes of food, because maybe these people need something else. So I would strongly recommend

00:02:58   to make a donation in other ways, to check on your local government office. What's the

00:03:03   best way to help? And it's not the first time, unfortunately, that this happens in this part

00:03:10   of Italy. It's, you know, earthquakes are... unfortunately they happen quite often in that

00:03:17   area and, you know, maybe this time we'll do better at kind of reconstructing, rebuilding

00:03:23   and helping those people. I wish I could say more, I wish I could do more. So yeah, just,

00:03:30   you know, sending some love and show your support, especially financially, because it

00:03:34   really helps.

00:03:35   I've put a link in the show notes to a Time magazine article that lists a selection of

00:03:40   ways that you can officially donate and help out with the really fun.

00:03:45   There are obviously some Italian-based solutions with the Red Cross and there are some international

00:03:52   solutions as well for people that don't speak Italian or aren't based in Italy.

00:03:56   So you can go and do that.

00:03:57   So yeah, it's horrible and we just wanted to obviously take a moment to mention this

00:04:01   because it's because of our links to Federico is near and dear to our hearts

00:04:06   and I'm for one very thankful that you weren't in Rome.

00:04:10   Thank you but really you know a few people were unhappy when I tweeted that

00:04:18   I was on vacation and I was happy to come back and I mean of course I'm

00:04:22   thinking of those people it's just you know what else can we do you know it's

00:04:27   It's difficult for people who are not affected by these tragedies to go back to normal life

00:04:35   and try not to think about it when there's other people suffering.

00:04:38   So if all we can do is money, then let's send some money out, because money is really needed

00:04:43   to rebuild everything.

00:04:44   Because basically we need to rebuild roads, we need to rebuild houses, we need to give

00:04:49   food and shelter to people.

00:04:51   So if all we can do is money, then let's give some money, let's show our support financially.

00:04:55   I feel like that's what we can do right now.

00:04:58   Yep, I've done it.

00:05:00   You should do it too.

00:05:01   There's a link in the show notes to help you do that.

00:05:03   But let's move on to the topics of the day.

00:05:06   Stephen, I think you have some follow up about secure iOS storage.

00:05:10   And Federico, I don't know if you have any ideas for this.

00:05:13   Maybe you'll have something once Stephen talks about what he does or what this person does.

00:05:17   So we had a question last week from listener Max about how to store data safely and in

00:05:24   encrypted fashion on iOS. On the Mac he was using encrypted disk images and Glenn

00:05:30   wrote in to recommend an application called Boxcryptor which basically what

00:05:37   it does is it encrypts the data on your device before it is synchronized to

00:05:41   something like Dropbox or Google Drive or OneDrive. It works kind of the way

00:05:45   that Arc does which is a backup client for the Mac. They've been a sponsor in the

00:05:48   past where they encrypt your data locally with a key that you control and

00:05:52   and then they move that encrypted information to the service.

00:05:57   So the service can only see an encrypted file or folder

00:06:03   because it doesn't have the key to that.

00:06:05   - So I guess you would have to access all of your files

00:06:08   through this application before sending them off

00:06:10   to anywhere else, right?

00:06:10   Because pages wouldn't be able to read

00:06:14   an encrypted pages document from Boxcrypto.

00:06:17   - That's correct.

00:06:18   Boxcrypto would always sit kind of in the middle

00:06:20   of your workflow.

00:06:21   And I looked into them, they seem like they're the real deal.

00:06:24   - Sure, but if they ever went out of business.

00:06:28   - Well, if the app still works and you have the key,

00:06:30   then you can decrypt it.

00:06:32   - What?

00:06:33   - You're not dependent on them running a service to do this.

00:06:37   And it was also recommended on Twitter Security Now show,

00:06:40   so that's another thumbs up in my book.

00:06:43   - Stamp of approval, yep.

00:06:45   - Kevin wrote in to remind us that even with

00:06:48   two-factor authentication, Dropbox and other services can read your data on their server

00:06:53   if legally compelled to do so by the government. So we saw this with Apple and iCloud in the

00:07:00   past as well, where the government can say, "Hey, I need Stephen Hackett's contact database

00:07:07   from his iCloud account," and Apple may be compelled legally to do that. The same is

00:07:13   with Dropbox. We have a link in the show notes to the Dropbox support document about this.

00:07:20   And so Kevin and some other people were kind of upset with me saying that, you know, I

00:07:24   thought Dropbox two-factor authentication would be enough. And I clearly, I was just

00:07:30   thinking about having enough security against other people, right, that I don't want Myke

00:07:34   to guess my Dropbox password and log in and get all the, you know, sweet hot iMac photos

00:07:38   that I keep stored on there.

00:07:40   I have them all.

00:07:42   Well, I think this is just the world we live in now.

00:07:47   Like, none of these services are completely safe in that regard, right?

00:07:51   Like, the only way that you can ensure safety, I guess, is by, I don't know,

00:07:57   actually, there is nothing.

00:07:58   There's nothing you can do, right?

00:07:59   Because there is a problem with everything.

00:08:02   So, like, someone could just come into your house, like the government could just come to

00:08:04   your house and take your stuff away, right?

00:08:07   Sure.

00:08:07   There is no safe, complete safety.

00:08:11   I think with just all of this stuff, you just need to decide what you think is safe enough.

00:08:15   Personally, I'm happy with my two-factor authentication with Dropbox, because all I'm doing is I just

00:08:21   want to stop people that want to get at my stuff.

00:08:24   Like the government, whilst I don't want the government looking at my stuff, if the government

00:08:28   looks at my stuff, if they look at my financial data and things like that, like that's whatever,

00:08:34   like they can look at that.

00:08:35   I just don't want other people doing it, right?

00:08:37   Like individuals.

00:08:38   Because I have nothing to hide from any governments.

00:08:41   Like I'd prefer them not to look at my stuff, but I'm not living in this world where I need

00:08:45   absolute security like that.

00:08:46   So something that can just stop individuals getting at my things, like two-factor authentication,

00:08:52   is enough for me.

00:08:54   I don't know if you guys agree or not, but like, of course I don't want anybody looking

00:08:58   at my documents, but if it's an agency like that, I mean, what are you going to do?

00:09:02   Like I can live with that.

00:09:03   I mean the alternative is to put things on zip disks and bury them in glass jars in your yard

00:09:08   But then that's what I'm saying though someone could just come dig them up right? Yeah, I mean I got a shovel

00:09:12   Stephen Hackett zip disk digger

00:09:17   And if Federico do you have any thoughts on this? I don't know I try not to

00:09:23   think about it too much for two reasons one I

00:09:27   also subscribe to Myke's theory that if any agency wants to look into your stuff they will find a way and

00:09:33   Two I'm not really an expert on like security and making like encrypted drives and documents

00:09:41   So I try to live with the idea that I shouldn't be a criminal because I will get caught so I pay my taxes

00:09:48   I try not to send nude pictures to my friends and family and

00:09:53   and if the government wants to look at my transactions, so be it, because I'm a good citizen.

00:09:59   And it shouldn't be this way, but it's just the world we live in, and like, I do whatever I can to ensure my basic security,

00:10:08   and I applaud companies like Apple that really want to help users stay safe and secure,

00:10:15   but at some point I just don't have the time to think about this too much.

00:10:21   And also, I guess I have the privilege to not think about it too much. I know it's a

00:10:25   problem for a lot of people in a lot of different countries, you know, to have kind of government

00:10:31   agencies that, you know, really go after you, such as we saw yesterday, for example, with

00:10:37   the iOS 9.3.5 story.

00:10:40   It's kind of perfectly timed, this discussion, really.

00:10:43   Exactly. So really, we need to consider the fact that, you know, to be able to say this,

00:10:48   to say stuff like "I try not to think about it too much because whatever." That's a privileged

00:10:52   position to be in. And I honestly don't know what else to say.

00:11:00   Update your iOS devices.

00:11:01   Yes.

00:11:02   That's the other thing.

00:11:03   Go right now and do that. I mean, this is all very complicated and I think the right

00:11:08   answer is different for every person. If Max, the original asker of the question, has something

00:11:13   that really needs to be secure from everybody,

00:11:18   then he needs to find a solution for that.

00:11:19   And I will say, just to,

00:11:22   'cause I can hear the emails coming in,

00:11:23   that the idea that, well, I have nothing to hide

00:11:27   means I can kind of live with it.

00:11:28   I don't think any of the three of us are okay

00:11:31   that the government can go and do this sort of thing.

00:11:33   I know that I'm not.

00:11:34   - Yeah, but I can just accept

00:11:36   that this is the world that I live in.

00:11:39   There's nothing that I can do,

00:11:40   so I either need to accept it or not accept it.

00:11:43   And I can accept it to a point, right?

00:11:45   That for me as an individual,

00:11:49   like personally, I have nothing to hide.

00:11:51   There are people that have things to hide,

00:11:53   which are good, right?

00:11:54   Like they're doing good things, right?

00:11:56   Like people who are like activists for a good cause, right?

00:11:59   - Sure. - Like I get that,

00:12:00   but I'm not one of those people.

00:12:02   And I want those people to be as secure as possible.

00:12:05   And I hope that they find the ways to do that.

00:12:07   But I'm saying for my own personal use,

00:12:09   I'm comfortable with it

00:12:10   because I personally have nothing that I'm scared of getting out into the world via a

00:12:15   government agency.

00:12:16   Yeah, couldn't have said it better. Thank you, Myke.

00:12:19   I hope that all of you activists out there who have good causes behind you, you have

00:12:25   secure systems. Maybe Max has some kind of reason. I'm not going to go into this. Let's

00:12:31   let's paint Max in an interesting light. Steven, please take me out of this.

00:12:34   Yeah, I don't. You're just circling the drain in a hurry. So we did talk about this last

00:12:39   week because the goal of last week's show was for me to talk as little as possible.

00:12:43   Although if you haven't heard it, you can suffer through my voice and I think the relay

00:12:48   Q&A we did came out really nicely. So go back an episode if you haven't. But you and Jason

00:12:55   Snell both were in my office and you guys saw the IMAX which are still here and something

00:13:02   really interesting happened where we started pulling them down off the shelves and looking

00:13:06   at them and you guys picked your favorite colors and made comments about them. It just

00:13:12   sort of struck me as funny that you guys have mocked me endlessly on the show for it, but

00:13:16   then you wanted to touch them and see them in person.

00:13:20   But this is the thing. They're very nice things to look at, they're very nice things to talk

00:13:24   about and to handle because they're historic. But I'm not going to buy one of them. I'm

00:13:28   not going to buy 13 of them, right? It's still, I think, valid for me to mock the amount that

00:13:34   that you have, but I loved looking at it all.

00:13:37   And it wasn't just this, right?

00:13:38   Like all the stuff you have at home, like all the old Macs,

00:13:41   Jason kept picking them up to show me the ports on them.

00:13:44   Like you've got the Cube and we were handling old iPods.

00:13:47   It's brilliant that you have all of this stuff

00:13:49   'cause it's like a museum where you can touch things.

00:13:52   But I still don't wanna own it.

00:13:54   - Yeah.

00:13:55   - I'm happy you do.

00:13:56   - It was fun to show it off.

00:13:57   So we pulled down all the iPods and everything,

00:14:00   we're looking through them.

00:14:01   And I had a funny thing happen yesterday.

00:14:04   So I've posted a few pictures, I think on Instagram,

00:14:08   I've set some bookshelves up in the office

00:14:11   with some computers and stuff,

00:14:13   and we had someone in our house yesterday

00:14:15   coming to work on something,

00:14:17   and they wanted to know about them.

00:14:19   And it was a very funny moment in my life

00:14:22   of trying to explain this to a person

00:14:23   who just saw a bunch of old computers.

00:14:26   There's no context for it,

00:14:27   and I probably look a little bit like a person

00:14:31   that maybe needs to get out more.

00:14:32   but what can you do?

00:14:34   - I'm putting a link in the show notes

00:14:38   that just says Steven's Home Museum,

00:14:40   and you can go and look at a picture.

00:14:42   It's a nice way of presenting them, by the way,

00:14:43   that little shelving unit you have.

00:14:45   - It's a very small number of them.

00:14:49   When I get my studio built, there's gonna be a whole wall.

00:14:51   It'll be good, but until then,

00:14:53   just a few lucky ones make it out of the dark.

00:14:56   - You have a bit of a problem on your hands now

00:14:58   with your collecting, because you now have a bidder

00:15:00   with very deep pockets who's in the game.

00:15:03   - This is crazy, right?

00:15:05   - Can you explain what's happened here?

00:15:07   - Yeah, so someone had put a bunch of

00:15:12   old system software on eBay,

00:15:14   like I think System 7.0 and some other things.

00:15:17   As a side note, the seller was named Marco Guy.

00:15:21   I checked with Marco, that's not him.

00:15:26   and Apple bid and won the auction.

00:15:31   And I've heard of this before from people

00:15:35   that Apple employees will bid on things

00:15:38   and then suddenly you're shipping something

00:15:40   to one infinite loop.

00:15:41   - 'Cause they have a museum, right?

00:15:44   - Well, so this is, they did,

00:15:46   and Steve Jobs burned it to the ground.

00:15:49   But now apparently Campus Two is going to have one again.

00:15:52   But what this person was told,

00:15:53   so this person emailed the buyer

00:15:55   and was like, holy cow, why am I shipping this to Apple?

00:15:59   And basically they said that Apple

00:16:04   has an archive of software, and I assume hardware as well,

00:16:08   but of software, and that it was incomplete,

00:16:11   and that this person had some disks that Apple wanted.

00:16:16   - I think they just called you.

00:16:17   I bet you've got it all.

00:16:18   - I don't have 7.0 developer beta one, or whatever this was.

00:16:23   - You have a hole in your collection.

00:16:25   - I know.

00:16:26   So anyways, it's kind of interesting.

00:16:28   I think that it's really interesting

00:16:30   that Steve Jobs very famously didn't want to look back.

00:16:33   He pulled down the museum,

00:16:34   and you guys have all seen photos, I think,

00:16:36   of the icon garden.

00:16:38   So there's like huge life-sized dog cow statue,

00:16:41   and all that got pulled down when he returned.

00:16:43   He didn't want to look back.

00:16:45   But now Apple seems to be doing that a little bit more.

00:16:48   So I don't know, Apple's in its 40s now.

00:16:51   You know, it made that crazy video that I went through,

00:16:54   and broke down slide by slide, you know, 40 and 40.

00:16:58   Maybe Apple's just getting a little older, you know?

00:17:01   You turn 40, you get a little gray hair around your temples

00:17:03   and you start, you know, thinking about the past.

00:17:05   - It's that time of year again,

00:17:06   it's the Apple Music Festival.

00:17:08   I think this is the first time

00:17:09   it's the Apple Music Festival.

00:17:10   Maybe they changed the name last year, I don't remember.

00:17:13   Federico, do you remember?

00:17:14   Was it the Apple Music Festival last year?

00:17:16   - I think it was last year when they changed the name,

00:17:19   when Apple Music launched in June.

00:17:22   I think in September it was called the Apple Music Festival.

00:17:25   I think so.

00:17:26   - Okay, okay, yeah, that makes sense.

00:17:28   Maybe it was the first one.

00:17:30   Carl's the Gray in the chat room is telling me that it was.

00:17:33   It's always in London.

00:17:34   It has run in London for 10 years.

00:17:37   This is the 10th.

00:17:39   But this is the first time where this event

00:17:42   has not been open to everyone.

00:17:45   You used to be able to apply through iTunes

00:17:48   or then through the music app

00:17:49   through the app, like the iTunes Store app, but this time tickets are only available to

00:17:54   Apple Music subscribers.

00:17:55   Oh, of course.

00:17:57   I think this makes sense. Like, this is, these are free. I think it makes sense to make it

00:18:02   for an Apple Music thing. I know it's going to upset people, but it's like, this is something

00:18:06   that Apple is giving to its customers, and its customers are Apple Music customers. It's

00:18:10   called the Apple Music Festival now.

00:18:12   These are free. Give us some money in other ways.

00:18:14   Yeah, it's free asterisk.

00:18:17   I have applied for tickets.

00:18:20   It's a pretty good lineup.

00:18:22   I'm bringing up my Apple Music app right now,

00:18:24   so I can tell you who I have applied for tickets to see.

00:18:29   It's an interesting lineup.

00:18:30   And as they always do, they'll announce one set of people,

00:18:34   and then they will kind of add more in as it goes along.

00:18:38   So so far, I have applied for Elton John, Robbie Williams.

00:18:44   Do you guys know who Robbie Williams is? He was part of Take That.

00:18:48   I know Robbie Williams.

00:18:49   Yeah, you're European so you probably will know. I don't think Steven would know.

00:18:53   Michael Buble, of course. Oh my god, Michael Buble.

00:18:56   Nice.

00:18:57   It's so good live. That's who I've applied for. It's also the 1975 Alicia Keys, One Republic,

00:19:02   Calvin Harris, Bastille, Britney Spears and Chance the Rapper are on the bill right now.

00:19:07   So I've just applied for a few tickets. I have applied I think every single year. I

00:19:12   I think I got tickets two times, but I ended up not being able to make the gigs because

00:19:16   of work engagements or whatever.

00:19:19   But if I get any of those tickets, especially the Elton John or Michael Buble ones, I will

00:19:23   move everything I possibly can to go to those, because that would be amazing.

00:19:28   It sounds like the WWDC lottery, but for hipsters.

00:19:31   Yes, I think that's very accurate.

00:19:34   They're probably going to give away a bunch of tickets on Beats 1 and stuff.

00:19:37   Kyle's is asking me in the chat room, "Where did I apply?"

00:19:41   It's in the news section of the app.

00:19:45   There is a button that you can press, like a banner, to take you to the music festival.

00:19:50   I wouldn't be surprised if they only have it in UK users.

00:19:54   I haven't seen it.

00:19:57   I think it's UK only.

00:20:00   I think they did some of these at South by Southwest for the first time last year, right?

00:20:05   They did something.

00:20:06   I think it was South by Southwest, but I know they did some American version of this last

00:20:10   year but this is the this is something that they've always done I assume it's

00:20:13   gonna be at the Camden Roundhouse as it always is and has been for its whole

00:20:17   history it's which is a fantastic venue I've seen some other acts there so I

00:20:22   hope I get some tickets and then I can I don't know can give my report of the

00:20:26   music festival which would be a kind of a weird thing to do but I think I would

00:20:30   love it all right let me take our first break and I want to talk to you about

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00:22:07   be buying it, right? Just buy it all the time. It's brilliant. They also have their silver

00:22:11   underwear line which is where they actually have silver underwear and undershirts. So

00:22:16   they have actual silver in them and this is naturally antimicrobial. This is a word I

00:22:23   I've really struggled with Steven can you help me with that word?

00:22:25   Antimicrobial you're asking the wrong guy, but sure basically whatever that word is

00:22:30   It means that they eliminate odor which is some really cool science stuff

00:22:34   Mac what I want you to be comfortable

00:22:36   So even if you don't like it

00:22:37   So say you buy some mac world and stuff and you're not happy with it

00:22:40   They'll refund you and they'll tell you to keep it. They don't want your underpants back you keep them if you get a refund

00:22:45   They all the mac world and stuff looks good feels good

00:22:49   You're gonna look good no matter what you're doing no matter where you are. Listeners of this show can get 20% off at

00:22:53   MacWeldon.com that's M A C K W E L D O N dot com with the code connected at checkout you'll get 20% off

00:23:01   Thank you so much to MacWeldon for their support of this show and Relay FM

00:23:05   Love that stuff

00:23:07   It's real good

00:23:09   We finally can I guess

00:23:12   rule out the final photo

00:23:16   storage solution that isn't owned by a big company,

00:23:18   Picture Life is now dead.

00:23:20   I think this is the second time Picture Life has died,

00:23:23   but now it is like dead dead.

00:23:25   - Super dead.

00:23:26   I think this marks the end of the curse of the prompt.

00:23:29   - Yeah, I don't know if Picture Life

00:23:32   really suffered from it as much.

00:23:33   Like the curse was we would talk about something

00:23:35   and it died, and I don't think anybody has used

00:23:39   Picture Life outside of Casey List for a long time.

00:23:41   - Yeah, he was the only user.

00:23:43   So a couple things have happened.

00:23:46   So Picture Life was earlier in the year,

00:23:49   had a lot of issues.

00:23:50   They were down for a while.

00:23:52   They came back.

00:23:54   People's data was not lost.

00:23:56   It was still there, but now they're gone

00:23:58   for at least this time. - They also had,

00:23:59   they had a struggle not too long ago,

00:24:01   like a few weeks ago, where they were down again,

00:24:04   and like there was nothing coming from the company at all.

00:24:07   And it seemed, it was looking like people were worried

00:24:10   that it was all gone, right?

00:24:12   Yeah, we'll put a link in the show notes to Reply All episode 71 podcast episode just

00:24:21   about picture life and what happened there.

00:24:25   But the news this week is that they are gone and there's an update over on their Facebook

00:24:33   page.

00:24:34   Basically what's going on is that SmugMug, which is another photo service, and they do

00:24:41   Coasting and printing and much different stuff if you had data on picture life

00:24:45   You can now log into smug mug and all your stuff is there you can download it for free

00:24:50   From their service and then close the account if you want I guess

00:24:54   But uh, but they're gone

00:24:56   and I think it's just another example that this is a really expensive business to be in and

00:25:02   Really the only people that are doing it are

00:25:07   Platform vendors, you know, I guess you still have like Flickr and and smug of course, but they're more like

00:25:12   Hosting services and like sharing services not really like I want to put them in the same category

00:25:19   Something like Google Photos or iCloud photo library. Yeah, it's it's less of the automatic backup and

00:25:25   Archiving stuff or more like you choose what you put there and then you put stuff there, right?

00:25:30   Like I think that's kind of the difference between those systems

00:25:34   Which is kind of strange and just smug mug do like what Flickr does where you can license photos and stuff

00:25:39   I think so. I've never really looked at them in detail to be honest

00:25:43   So I think the key thing here is

00:25:47   It's quite clear at this point

00:25:50   The only platform vendors can afford to do this like it feels that a company

00:25:55   Companies seem to struggle when this is all that they offer like that that photo storage is

00:26:02   something that is used as a way to kind of get ecosystem lock-in and that the cost of

00:26:09   the servers and delivering of the files and all of the infrastructure that's needed is

00:26:14   offset by hardware or advertising profits, right, that you gain when you have these users

00:26:20   within your ecosystem.

00:26:21   So I guess you're looking at Apple and Google, right?

00:26:24   Like Apple continue to sell more devices to make more money and also they sell iCloud

00:26:28   storage and then Google, they sell storage if you want it, but other than that, like

00:26:32   they're just building out the strength of their system. Like that's where they make

00:26:36   their money. They make all of their systems get better, which means that they make money,

00:26:40   right? That's kind of like feeding into the huge Google brain, which is something that

00:26:43   Google Photos does. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah, I mean, when you consider how smartphones

00:26:51   are really cameras at this point, it's obvious that, you know, organizing and managing photos,

00:26:57   become a feature of the device that you buy. It's not just like an app that you download

00:27:04   to collect photos. It's an essential part of the entire experience. And I really struggle to see

00:27:11   how any third-party company at this point can provide an alternative solution, unless you go

00:27:18   after the professional market with something like Lightroom, for example, to appeal to very specific

00:27:25   use cases, but I feel like the basic consumer photo management needs are being addressed

00:27:31   by Apple and Google and Facebook, but that's a different story.

00:27:37   If you buy an iPhone, there's iCloud 4 library and Apple is now offering intelligence in

00:27:42   iOS 10.

00:27:45   I really believe it's good enough.

00:27:47   Whereas I wouldn't say the same for file management yet.

00:27:52   I wouldn't say, well, why'd you use Dropbox?

00:27:55   You can just use iCloud Drive.

00:27:58   I feel like the argument is stronger for photos

00:28:03   than for file management.

00:28:05   But I fear that at some point we'll

00:28:08   be saying the same thing about why'd you use a third party

00:28:12   file management service instead of using

00:28:14   the default one on your phone.

00:28:16   Maybe it's already that way for most users.

00:28:19   But for people like us, we're still using Dropbox.

00:28:22   But when you look at photos, I mean, there's only Steven at this point who's

00:28:25   keeping photos in Dropbox, I think.

00:28:27   I mean, I am, but it's not where I live.

00:28:33   It's not where I access them.

00:28:34   But my photos go there because that's just a system I have set up now.

00:28:39   Like, there's no point changing it.

00:28:40   It's just another place where my pictures live.

00:28:41   But that's not like my view.

00:28:43   My view is iCloud photo library.

00:28:45   I don't have everything in there, though, right?

00:28:48   As soon as I get a better internet connection, I'm going to be putting my 10 years worth

00:28:52   of photos or whatever, maybe 15 years of photos up into iCloud Photo Library.

00:28:57   But right now it only goes back kind of three or four, I think.

00:29:02   So I had a lot of problems with iCloud Photo Library a while back.

00:29:05   I wrote a big blog post about it that got an embarrassing amount of attention.

00:29:10   And I actually was able to work with Apple Support and get basically my iCloud account.

00:29:16   There's like somebody like master reset they can push

00:29:18   If you talk to the right support team

00:29:22   So anyway, so I had that done

00:29:25   but was still using Dropbox and then

00:29:27   My wife and some other people like him like in my close family and some close friends were starting to use it

00:29:33   And so of course naturally you get questions about it

00:29:36   And so I decided like, you know

00:29:38   let me just put like ten albums in this make sure that the problems I was having with sync or resolved and that there were and

00:29:44   and I have since moved, I'm kind of like Myke right now, I've got like some stuff

00:29:50   in iCloud Photo Library and some stuff in Dropbox. I'm kind of living with a foot

00:29:54   in both camps right now. I still don't like the abstract nature of iCloud Photo

00:30:00   Library that I can't go and like poke a JPEG right on my hard drive, but what is

00:30:06   really nice about it and what I am coming around to is having all of your

00:30:11   photos available to you on all your devices is actually pretty nice and like

00:30:16   I said I'm still not quite all the way there but even with the ones that I have

00:30:19   like pick up an iPad like looking through photos from six years ago that I

00:30:23   wouldn't have synced over and without having to use Dropbox or another viewer

00:30:28   app is pretty nice and so I don't know where I'm gonna end up with that but it

00:30:33   is something that I'm playing with again and in part also due to like the iOS 10

00:30:38   and stuff that you can do the searching

00:30:40   and memories and everything.

00:30:41   But I still, I think like the two of you,

00:30:44   I'm also uploading all this stuff to Google Photos

00:30:47   and that's really where I sort of go into

00:30:50   really for the memory stuff, if we're searching,

00:30:52   that if I need something and I can't quickly find it

00:30:54   in my local library, then I'll just open Google Photos

00:30:57   in the browser and search for it there.

00:31:00   - Yeah, I actually forgot about Google Photos.

00:31:01   That is like my need a picture, nothing else will find it.

00:31:06   Like it is the place that I know

00:31:07   if anything's gonna find it, that's gonna find it, right?

00:31:10   Like that's kind of my thinking about Google Photos

00:31:12   and how it integrates.

00:31:14   - Yeah, and they're definitely ahead of where iOS 10 is.

00:31:16   Now I agree with Federico's thought that like

00:31:19   a lot of people will be exposed to this for the first time

00:31:24   in iOS 10 and it'll be fine.

00:31:25   And it'll do the job they want

00:31:27   and they'll be impressed with it.

00:31:28   But it's nice that there's something

00:31:29   that is a little more powerful

00:31:32   if you're willing to do business with Google,

00:31:34   which I'm fine with.

00:31:35   So it's nice that there are options.

00:31:37   I do wish, you know, I do wish that the curse of the prompt

00:31:40   wasn't a thing, I think it would be,

00:31:42   I think this space would be better

00:31:43   if there were some good like non first party options.

00:31:47   - I loved Everpix, right, like all of the UI

00:31:50   that they built, all of the tools that they built.

00:31:53   I've never been happy with a photo service

00:31:57   in the way that I was with Everpix.

00:31:58   Like that was something that I checked every single day

00:32:02   just to see what was in there,

00:32:03   but I never do it with anything else

00:32:04   and I don't know why, but like,

00:32:06   Everpix just had the balance.

00:32:08   - Yeah.

00:32:10   - One thing for me, like with iClub Photo Library,

00:32:12   it frustrates me is, I don't think it does the best job

00:32:16   that I would like at the way that it stores my photos.

00:32:19   You know, it has that like selective storing.

00:32:21   Sometimes, like I go back, a picture that I took

00:32:23   a week ago and it's downloading,

00:32:25   and I'm like, what are you doing?

00:32:27   Leave them on there for a little while, you know?

00:32:30   - I can't seem to find the rhyme or reason.

00:32:32   Like, I can look at stuff that's really old,

00:32:34   on my iPad and it's there and then like you said something two weeks ago isn't I don't

00:32:38   really I mean what's the alternative that right they they give you like 19 switches

00:32:43   to pick like do this automatically but also like follow my rules of keeping everything

00:32:49   around for 30 I mean I'd be messy but I'm happy for them to make the decisions I just

00:32:54   think that some of the decisions seem peculiar like you know in my mind like I would have

00:32:58   just thought like keep any pictures from the last month and then apply it backwards but

00:33:03   They're smarter people than me working on this stuff and I'm sure that they have loads

00:33:06   more data, right, which means it is why they pick their solution to be the way that it is.

00:33:11   T.G., you're still using iCloud Photo Library completely, right?

00:33:16   Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, I also upload to Google Photos. Basically, I created a reminder each

00:33:22   Thursday. I leave my phone connected to Wi-Fi and the power for like a couple of hours,

00:33:28   and I beam everything up to Google just as a backup, but I browse photos and I search

00:33:34   for photos in the Apple Photos app.

00:33:37   I don't seek out Google Photos intentionally unless I really need to look for something

00:33:43   with a specific search query or if I want to compare features for review purposes.

00:33:50   But yeah, iCop 4 Library is the main tool that I use for photos for everything.

00:33:57   This is one of the reasons that I still have my Dropbox thing going.

00:34:02   I have this weird house of cards going on.

00:34:07   I'm using the Dropbox app on my phone.

00:34:10   Every time I open that, which is frequent, images are going up.

00:34:15   And then they find their way onto my Mac in random intervals.

00:34:18   My Mac then processes them using the scripts that Federico made, which I'll put in the

00:34:22   show notes.

00:34:23   And then all the Hazel scripts.

00:34:26   And then Google Photos looks at those folders and uploads from there.

00:34:32   So I have like this really weird system, which is why like Google Photos on my phone, it's

00:34:36   not very good because it shows me the stuff that is in the cloud and also shows me my

00:34:41   photos from my device.

00:34:42   So like I don't sync from Google Photos on my device because I just end up with a bunch

00:34:46   of duplicates.

00:34:48   But because I'm not using it as my viewer, it doesn't bother me.

00:34:50   But now I have my photos kind of in all of these different places.

00:34:54   It's weird because I don't really consider my photos to be so incredibly important that

00:35:00   I would back them up maybe more than anything else.

00:35:03   It's just the different services that I've used over the years, I just haven't got rid

00:35:06   of any of them.

00:35:08   So they're all just doing their thing.

00:35:12   But it works for me.

00:35:13   Yeah.

00:35:14   I mean, like I said, think how better this ecosystem would be if there were even more

00:35:18   options.

00:35:19   But it's not an underserved market, right?

00:35:23   could choose just Google or just iCloud, it would be perfectly fine. Only nerds like us

00:35:27   are going to pick a combination of them. But um...

00:35:30   Yeah, like if I was starting this now, I probably wouldn't do the Dropbox thing. I would just

00:35:35   have everything uploading to Google and iCloud. Like I wouldn't do the Dropbox. But now it's

00:35:39   set up, it just runs on its own. It doesn't take any work from me at all. I just let it

00:35:43   run. I have like a terabyte of Dropbox space. Right now I'm only using 22% of it, so I'm

00:35:50   good to just let that keep filling up.

00:35:52   Good luck everyone with your photo management services and solutions.

00:35:58   This week's episode is brought to you by FreshBooks, the company on a mission to help small business

00:36:02   owners save time and avoid the stress that comes with running their businesses.

00:36:07   When I started out thinking about having to send invoices to people frequently, we decided

00:36:13   to go with FreshBooks because it was a service that we'd heard a bunch of good things about,

00:36:17   but I hadn't used it.

00:36:19   And I always thought to myself, "Oh, invoices are just going to be the worst.

00:36:22   I'm going to hate doing that."

00:36:23   Because any invoice that I'd done myself previously, I've generated in pages, right, using their

00:36:28   templates.

00:36:29   That's no way to make an invoice.

00:36:30   Like, yesterday, I had five minutes spare before I had to take a call.

00:36:35   So I was like, "I know what I'll do.

00:36:36   I'll send some invoices."

00:36:38   Now, can you imagine having that thought and having to create these invoices in pages or

00:36:43   words?

00:36:44   You would just never think like that.

00:36:45   But I can think like that because FreshBooks make it so easy.

00:36:48   It takes just 30 seconds for me to create and send an invoice and it's just gone.

00:36:52   Like everything's pre-filled, I have a bunch of different drop downs.

00:36:55   I could just say this client, I want to send them, they took this sponsorship, this sponsorship,

00:36:59   this sponsorship.

00:37:00   It fills it all in for me.

00:37:01   All I need to do is say, send it.

00:37:04   And all I do is like I like to write a little personal note to them that I send.

00:37:07   But you don't need to do that because FreshBooks is stuffed, their emails are all nicely formatted.

00:37:11   You can put your own logo on it and all that stuff so it's really simple and it just goes

00:37:15   out.

00:37:16   maybe four or five invoices yesterday in just a couple of minutes that I had spare.

00:37:21   What's great as well is whilst it's also quick to send, you're also going to get

00:37:25   paid faster. FreshBooks customers get paid five days faster on average because

00:37:29   they make it so simple for you to integrate card payments, integrate with

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00:37:39   open them, they pay you straight away. They also do third-party integrations,

00:37:43   and time tracking.

00:37:44   They do expenses reconciliation if you're in the US.

00:37:48   You can take pictures of receipts and scan them in.

00:37:50   It's so simple.

00:37:52   They have automatic reminders that you can set up

00:37:54   for late payment.

00:37:55   You can see when someone's looked at your invoice,

00:37:57   so you can see what they're doing with it.

00:37:58   You can even see when they printed it, which I really like,

00:37:59   because that means it's going into accounts payable.

00:38:02   FreshBooks is amazing.

00:38:03   It's so simple.

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00:38:06   I love it. We love it.

00:38:07   I couldn't imagine using anything else.

00:38:09   FreshBooks is offering a 30-day free trial

00:38:11   listeners to this show with no credit card needed. You just go to freshbooks.com/connected

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00:38:24   and then FreshBooks will know that you came from this show. Thank you so much to FreshBooks

00:38:28   for their support of this show and Relay FM. Alright so there was one of the very very

00:38:36   many Mark Gurman articles that have been appearing over on Bloomberg recently. The guy's been

00:38:43   on fire and he's had a lot a lot of stuff. I'm sure that Bloomberg were very happy with

00:38:47   the hire, right? I think he's doing good for them right now. This is something kind of

00:38:53   unprecedented. I hate when I go to these articles and I have to wait for the video to start

00:38:57   playing. Anyway, that's just a frustration that I have. I want to run through some of

00:39:03   So there are a lot of headlines out there that are saying Apple is building a social network, right?

00:39:10   That is what people are taking away from this piece. I know what you guys think, but when I read this, that is not the case.

00:39:15   They are building what looks like social tools and are

00:39:19   integrating social networks and social media into their system more as opposed to actually building a social network.

00:39:26   I think the wording that should be used is they are moving into social, but this doesn't mean that they are creating

00:39:33   a Snapchat clone. One of the things they're doing is creating a video sharing and editing

00:39:38   application for iOS. This is part of a newly directed focus to integrate social networking

00:39:44   applications within Apple's mobile products. That's in quotes from Germin's piece. Germin

00:39:50   says that it is a response to Facebook and Snapchat. Now, what it looks like, this application,

00:39:56   is it will let users record video, apply filters and drawings, and send it to contacts or via

00:40:02   existing social networks. And that doesn't sound like a Snapchat competitor to me. It

00:40:05   sounds like they're building some features, like stuff you can do in Snapchat, but it

00:40:10   doesn't sound like they're actually creating a social network, but just tools to let you

00:40:14   share stuff socially. Am I reading this wrong?

00:40:17   I mean, I'm looking at this article, and it's not clear exactly if grammar means Apple is

00:40:23   going to do a whole social network. Like, you can add contacts, you can have public

00:40:28   profiles, you can have private conversations, or if they're just testing ways to share with

00:40:36   iMessage but through a separate, perhaps more lightweight app.

00:40:40   Because it really, like the way that it says, it literally says, send it to contacts or

00:40:47   via existing social networks. Like it feels like they are creating stuff that you can,

00:40:52   so you can use these applications to share stuff socially, but not that there'll be a

00:40:56   new ping.

00:40:57   - Yeah, and it does sound like perhaps

00:41:00   a more full featured version of Digital Touch,

00:41:04   which is in iMessage and iOS 10,

00:41:06   because you can already do some of that.

00:41:07   Like you can annotate pictures and videos in real time

00:41:12   with drawings and stuff.

00:41:14   You can--

00:41:15   - And then you can put stickers on them.

00:41:17   - It does sound like Apple is exploring the idea

00:41:19   of a separate app to do that kind of media sharing,

00:41:24   annotations, sketches, drawings, stickers, big emoji, whatever.

00:41:29   And it seems like they're doing this separate utility, which is standalone from iMessage,

00:41:35   which I kind of understand, but on the other hand, does it really make much sense to,

00:41:41   instead of just going to Snapchat and Instagram, to open the Apple app first,

00:41:45   and then sharing to other services from the Apple video app, whatever?

00:41:50   I don't understand. Some of the details on these are

00:41:53   too blurry, I would say.

00:41:56   This takes me into the response to Facebook and Snapchat. Like, the why are they doing this? Like, why

00:42:03   do Apple feel that they need to respond to the popularity of these services? Like, I get the whole idea of

00:42:09   services being their business, right? They're then trying to push that sort of stuff.

00:42:13   So let's imagine that they are creating a social network just for the sake of argument or even just these tools, right?

00:42:18   How do Apple intend to make any money from this like are they expecting that their tools and services will get so good that they might

00:42:26   Sell more devices that seems like a really tough bet when companies like Facebook and snapchat

00:42:31   Have been doing this for way longer and their tools are incredible right now. Like what do Apple really think they're gonna gain

00:42:38   By making stuff like this

00:42:40   I don't know if Apple looks at that sort of thing on a piece by piece basis

00:42:44   you could say that about any like one thing and I was 10 like I

00:42:48   I think what they look at is the overall experience.

00:42:52   And I think I sort of agree with what you guys are saying,

00:42:55   that this sounds like digital touch

00:42:57   and all the new crazy stuff and messages.

00:42:59   Like maybe instead of just sending out via iMessage,

00:43:02   you could send that sort of content across other platforms.

00:43:07   I have lots of questions about the technicality behind that,

00:43:10   but we'll just leave that aside for now.

00:43:12   But I don't know if Apple looks at every single new feature

00:43:17   and thinks about it as far as lock-in or something like that on an individual basis.

00:43:22   I mean if you look at something like Photo Booth, right, that was a perfect example of this kind of

00:43:27   thing. There wasn't stuff like that at the time, you know, like this was an application where you

00:43:31   could take really weird photos of yourself and I, you know, know from my own personal experience

00:43:35   that Photo Booth helped sell Macbooks at the time. But that's because it was cool then and

00:43:40   no one was doing it. So unless they have something that's really very special, I just find it strange

00:43:47   that to do this. Like I know what you mean about building the whole picture, but this

00:43:51   isn't something that they need to build. Like they can just have Snapchat on the phone.

00:43:57   There's two interesting points I think. The first one is the timing of this rumor is somewhat

00:44:02   ironic, because just a few couple of weeks ago, really, maybe last week, there was an

00:44:06   interview with Apple executives, I think on Fast Company maybe, and Eddy Cue said "We

00:44:13   think Facebook is doing a great job with their Facebook app, we're not trying to recreate

00:44:17   the Facebook app at Apple because we don't do social networks. So this rumor is kind

00:44:22   of ironic. The second point is, Gurman says Apple may explore the idea to package the

00:44:32   functionality into the iPhone's camera app. So if you think of Snapchat and the way that

00:44:38   it lets you easily create a story of your day, like a 24-hour rolling story, like a

00:44:47   diary of what you see, where you're at. Imagine that feature built into the camera app, especially

00:44:53   when you consider all the easy ways to get into the Apple Camera app on iOS, whether

00:44:58   it's the lock screen or control center, it will remove a lot of friction from wanting

00:45:06   to document what you're seeing, like taking a selfie or taking a picture of a pretty landscape

00:45:10   in front of you. But it still begs the question, where are these pictures going? So are you

00:45:16   creating a diary, a story on iMessage? So it doesn't mean that you can have a public

00:45:21   profile on iMessage and friends can follow you. Because reading this rumor, the feeling

00:45:26   that I get is of another Apple utility on the App Store, like the, what was the name

00:45:33   of the photo cards app from a few years ago.

00:45:37   Cards, maybe?

00:45:38   I think it's just called Cards.

00:45:41   Which, by the way, RIP, I miss that thing.

00:45:44   I used to send those out at, like, holiday time or whatever.

00:45:47   They were amazing letter-pressed cards.

00:45:49   They were great, but I miss that.

00:45:51   There's a fundamental question.

00:45:52   Is Apple getting into the idea of a social network,

00:45:55   or does Apple believe that there's utility in providing

00:45:59   an easy way for users to create these pictures

00:46:02   and then sending these pictures and videos to other services,

00:46:06   so they basically want to help Snapchat and Instagram

00:46:08   and Facebook?

00:46:10   Or is this an addition to iMessage,

00:46:13   so you can share this stuff more privately with friends?

00:46:17   But if the latter option, if iMessage is the case,

00:46:20   how is this different from Digital Touch?

00:46:25   So this is what I don't get of this entire story,

00:46:28   I don't understand.

00:46:31   I mean, I kind of, I get the idea of there being better tools, more tightly integrated

00:46:38   to allow you to create fun stuff.

00:46:39   But I feel like the answer is more APIs as opposed to Apple should build an application.

00:46:46   It just seems strange to me that they would go the route of "oh no, we'll just build it"

00:46:51   and then you just share it on Facebook.

00:46:52   It just seems, it just seems strange.

00:46:55   The second part of the article, I think is...

00:46:59   Second part is very interesting.

00:47:00   It's very interesting and it makes, from a technical point of view, I think it makes

00:47:04   more sense, especially when you consider iOS 10.

00:47:06   So Gurman says there's going to be enhancements to the proactive assistant functionality to

00:47:13   help you more effectively connect with your contacts.

00:47:18   And he mentions a way to bring more services together and to get like a single view of

00:47:24   every status update, every communication with an individual, with a person.

00:47:30   So me and Federico would have a view where in one view we would see all of our iMessages,

00:47:36   we would see all of our emails, we'd see all of our Twitter DMs in one view.

00:47:42   This is something that has been done in WebOS and BlackBerry OS.

00:47:46   Rest in peace.

00:47:48   When you consider iOS 10 and the intense API and the way that Apple is letting third-party

00:47:54   communication apps, such as messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, or VoIP apps like

00:48:01   Skype, plug into the contact card of an individual, of a person in contacts. So you can open a

00:48:09   contact card and you can see mic, phone number, FaceTime, that's okay, default options. But

00:48:15   then in iOS 10 you can also see mic on WhatsApp, or mic on Telegram, or mic on Skype. When

00:48:21   When you consider these APIs that are kind of laying the foundation this year, it will

00:48:25   make sense next year to kind of enhance the contact card with not just icons to open those

00:48:31   services but also a summary from those services.

00:48:35   So when I open Myke's contact card, not only can I see a WhatsApp shortcut or a Telegram

00:48:40   shortcut, I can also see, say, the last five messages that we exchange on Telegram or a

00:48:48   of the last two calls that we had on Skype. So I think the second part of the

00:48:53   rumor is more, makes more sense and is more technically accurate and I feel

00:48:57   like the first half is something that he got out from, I don't know, internal tests.

00:49:04   One of those things that Apple is still not sure what to do, whereas the second

00:49:09   half I think it's more set in stone maybe for next year. That's the feeling

00:49:14   that I personally get and I'm trying to put words into Gherman's math but it's,

00:49:17   you know, technically speaking, I think the second half is more interesting for me and not so accurate.

00:49:23   Just my impression.

00:49:27   So, no, I mean, I would, I think that I would really love.

00:49:31   Like, my phone being more aware of the stuff that I do and showing all of that stuff. Like, if I could go

00:49:37   just to one view and see, like, say I go to Steven and I can see our Slack DMs,

00:49:42   our iMessages, like, and then I could search that stuff, you know?

00:49:47   Like a universal search across all of those?

00:49:50   Which you can already do with Spotlight, but it could be simpler.

00:49:54   It can't search the messages and stuff, and that can be wonky at times.

00:49:59   But a universal search is really good for documents,

00:50:02   but I would like to be able to have it in this one little constrained view.

00:50:07   To be like, go to this person, all of the stuff between me and this person, and have it all there.

00:50:12   That might be kind of cool.

00:50:14   So that makes more sense.

00:50:17   Enhancements to the contact cards and to have summaries from a number of places, I feel

00:50:23   like that makes a lot of sense.

00:50:25   Doing Snapchat from Apple or Instagram from Apple, I don't understand because there's

00:50:30   only so many ways Apple can fail at social.

00:50:34   And we've seen it happen before, and if it's an addition to iMessage, it will require a

00:50:42   fundamental rethinking of iMessage, you know, when you deal with public profiles or, you

00:50:47   know, any kind of social networking.

00:50:49   So if it's a separate social network, does it tie into your Apple ID?

00:50:55   So many questions.

00:50:56   I don't even want to think about it.

00:50:58   It makes my head explode already.

00:51:00   Yeah, I think that people saying that Apple are building a social network, I think they've

00:51:05   misunderstood what's happening here.

00:51:07   There's just no world in which I imagine them doing this sort of thing.

00:51:10   That is a huge business to be in.

00:51:12   And the reasons that companies go into this stuff

00:51:16   is the reasons that Apple don't use advertising.

00:51:20   Google have tried to have social networks for years

00:51:23   because they can mine data for advertising.

00:51:24   - Do you feel, Myke, like there's a potential

00:51:27   for a Myke was right 2017 about this?

00:51:31   - I mean, I think that it should and does

00:51:35   just go on forever now, you know?

00:51:37   But yeah, sure, let's push this into 2017 now.

00:51:41   Thank you so much for that Federico.

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00:53:41   Now Federico, you've been away from us for a little bit and I know you were taking a

00:53:46   little vacation, but I'm wondering now that it's been a few weeks since we've spoken about

00:53:52   it and you've been taking this break, how is the review coming along? How's the iOS

00:53:56   review progressing?

00:53:58   Imagine two separate train tracks.

00:54:02   So the review is on the first one and it's going great.

00:54:06   My physical and psychological, I would say, well-being,

00:54:13   is going backwards.

00:54:16   It's going the other way.

00:54:19   So you've got two-- there's two trains,

00:54:20   and they're both going away from each other

00:54:22   at the speed of an iOS review.

00:54:24   Come September the 15th, how far away will they be?

00:54:27   that's a new math problem for all of you listeners to solve.

00:54:30   So yeah, the review is going great. I left for vacation with just a couple of sections

00:54:39   that I didn't write, because I wanted to wait a little longer, I wanted to kind of take

00:54:45   some time off to finish those sections, to kind of think about them. One of them was

00:54:50   Siri, and the conclusion is the other one. And then a bunch of subsections that I still

00:54:55   haven't finished such as Apple Music because I'm still waiting to see if Apple is gonna

00:55:00   ship the Discovery Mix feature that they announced at WWDC.

00:55:03   Yeah, shhh.

00:55:04   I know.

00:55:05   They're not going to, they're not going to.

00:55:08   That's the thing that I have.

00:55:10   So we'll wait for the event, I guess.

00:55:14   And then I have like really minor stuff to add, which is proactive changes, stuff like

00:55:20   the recommendations that you get in the QuickType keyboard for like phone numbers, locations,

00:55:24   that type of thing.

00:55:26   And what else?

00:55:27   Maybe I got up right about the bedtime feature

00:55:30   in the clock app.

00:55:33   But really, I finished Siri today.

00:55:36   It's done.

00:55:37   I got the conclusion left to do,

00:55:38   and then a bunch of fixes.

00:55:40   I've already--

00:55:42   - When you say that something's done,

00:55:44   what does done mean? - Done means

00:55:46   it's been written in Scrivener.

00:55:49   It's not edited yet, doesn't have links,

00:55:52   doesn't have fixes, doesn't have screenshots.

00:55:55   So it means it's out of my head and it's on the page,

00:55:59   but then it needs to be, let's say, massaged for future,

00:56:04   for being ready for the public consumption.

00:56:08   - Who edits? - I do.

00:56:11   But I'm also sharing the draft

00:56:13   with a few close friends for now, such as you, Myke,

00:56:16   but you still haven't read the review.

00:56:19   Steven has, so has John.

00:56:21   I'm going to share the draft with a few more people as I get closer to September.

00:56:26   As I've done last year, I have a really close, you know, really, really tight group of close

00:56:33   friends that I want to share this with.

00:56:36   But primarily I do the editing.

00:56:38   I thought about, and I even got a few offers from professional editors.

00:56:44   And it's probably something that I will do in the future.

00:56:47   But for now, I feel like having an editor that is not me will only make me more.

00:56:54   And I mean this not as a negative comment on people who do editing for a living, but

00:57:01   it's just I'm a deeply flawed human being and I wouldn't accept the suggestions of

00:57:07   another person.

00:57:08   And really, I am the problem.

00:57:12   I am my own problem in this regard because I just I know how things are supposed to be even if I'm

00:57:19   wrong. It's just I like them to be in a very specific way. So if I... It's your way. It's

00:57:25   my voice. It's my way. It's my past three months. And so yes, I do the editing, Myke. And I feel

00:57:33   like I'm starting to feel exactly like last year at this point. Tired, of course, but also really

00:57:41   nervous about the scale that I'm going this time. I don't want to give you the work count

00:57:49   and I don't want to give you the details on the really big surprise that we're working

00:57:55   on for the review. Just maybe when we get closer I'll show you something, but for now

00:58:03   it's even a bigger project than last year and for me I feel like it's only natural every

00:58:10   year to try to do better, so I learned a lot from the last time that I did an iOS review

00:58:15   and this time I want to do even more and I want to do better and I want to have a better

00:58:19   product for readers on the website and other, you know, like the ebook and other solutions.

00:58:26   So I think, so here's the summary.

00:58:32   I think I'm in a good spot, but because of my own mind, I feel like I'm not in a good

00:58:41   spot.

00:58:43   And so even if people tell me, "You don't have a problem.

00:58:49   You're making much better progress than last year.

00:58:52   You still have three weeks left.

00:58:54   Everything's okay."

00:58:55   My mind is telling me that everything is not okay and that I still got a lot of work to

00:59:00   do and that oh my god the Apple event is coming and then I will only have a week to finish

00:59:06   everything.

00:59:08   But what's different this time though? There's got to be something different, good or bad.

00:59:13   Like in how you're feeling and how you've prepared.

00:59:17   I try to, if I try to be honest, I am in a better spot. You know, it's more detailed

00:59:27   the last year, it's better researched and the core of the review, so the core features

00:59:36   which are notifications and messages, I think I've done a much better job than I was originally

00:59:44   expecting because I was able to really test these features with apps in daily usage, like

00:59:54   in a very practical sense. I think I have a good understanding of what is happening

00:59:59   and what it means. The only thing I don't like is that I wasn't able to test Siri,

01:00:09   because I still haven't got a single SiriKit beta, so I don't like that. But there's

01:00:15   nothing I can do. So the Siri sections will inevitably be more descriptive, rather than

01:00:23   explanatory in a practical sense. And I don't like that I'm not a programmer and I cannot talk about

01:00:30   playgrounds. But it's just two things that I need to accept. Because first, I cannot create a Siri

01:00:38   app myself, and second, I cannot teach myself Swift in three weeks. So those things I don't like,

01:00:45   but everything else, I think it'll be okay. And I think it'll be better than last year. And

01:00:51   especially because I have John and I have the rest of the Maxories team.

01:00:55   Every year I tell you guys they're really helping me out. This time they're going way beyond what

01:01:03   they've done in the past. I mean if you just look at the last week or so they've basically run the

01:01:09   entire website. The past two months really. Whilst you've been on the beach. Yeah but really the past

01:01:13   two months I haven't, I don't want to say I haven't done anything for the website but it's

01:01:18   close to that. I mean you're doing something else for the website.

01:01:22   My hope is that when it's done and when it's ready and when it's finished just the way I like it,

01:01:31   it'll justify my absence for, since June basically. We're pulling out all the stops, really.

01:01:39   It's gonna be, it's, I wanted it to be extra special because it's number 10, because that,

01:01:45   you know, because I tried it last year and I liked it.

01:01:49   We'll see.

01:01:51   Yeah.

01:01:53   - What tools have you been using this time that are different?

01:01:55   I know you mentioned Scrivener,

01:01:57   and we spoke about that many weeks ago.

01:01:59   So Scrivener has stayed the application

01:02:01   you're putting this thing together in?

01:02:03   - I'm still using Scrivener,

01:02:06   but I'm approaching the point

01:02:08   where I will need to export from Scrivener,

01:02:12   and I'll probably export the draft to editorial.

01:02:16   - Why?

01:02:18   Oh, okay, this is an unexpected chain of events.

01:02:22   So one, why do you need to export it?

01:02:23   And two, why are you going to editorial?

01:02:25   - I need to export it because the

01:02:27   screen reader is not really meant for markdown editing.

01:02:33   It's great for writing,

01:02:36   and it's great for the first round of editing,

01:02:38   which is, you know, correcting typos and cutting stuff.

01:02:41   and inserting like bold italics and links.

01:02:46   But when it comes to the,

01:02:48   if I tell you I'm gonna spoil the surprise,

01:02:50   but I basically need editorial for automation

01:02:53   and I need editorial for a special syntax

01:02:57   that I cannot write in Scrivener.

01:03:01   - Okay, so there's just some little bits and bobs

01:03:04   that editorial can do better.

01:03:07   Why can't it do it better than Ulysses though?

01:03:09   Is it 'cause of the little ways

01:03:10   you can program things? Because I have my own workflows.

01:03:13   Oh, okay. Look at that. He's up to something, everyone.

01:03:15   I'm gonna take out the workflows that I put in the closet since I left the tutorial last

01:03:25   year. Brush them off.

01:03:27   Because really the best way to save time when you're doing this kind of repetitive editing.

01:03:34   And yeah, I will probably go to editorial, even if it's still in beta.

01:03:40   I mean, the latest version with iOS 9 split view support is still in beta on TestFlight,

01:03:46   so fingers crossed everything will be okay.

01:03:49   If it's not okay in editorial, I'll probably have to try RAN Writer or Ulysses and see

01:03:57   if search and replace works.

01:04:00   I don't know.

01:04:01   We'll see.

01:04:02   Do you, to back way up, so you did iOS 9 last year.

01:04:09   This one from what I can tell is bigger and better.

01:04:14   Do you think that this is something that you're going to do long term?

01:04:18   Because it is taking a toll on your day to day work, your, you know like you said, even

01:04:23   maybe your well being.

01:04:25   Is this something that you can keep up or do you just, are you just taking this one

01:04:29   year at a time?

01:04:31   I think I will continue. I like to complain about my wellbeing also as sort of a defense

01:04:39   mechanism, maybe to just accept the... kind of to justify the insane amount of hours that

01:04:46   I'm putting into this. But the truth is, I love doing this. It's such an awesome project

01:04:55   every summer. You know, the different steps and the different, you know, collaborations

01:05:01   with friends. Even to talk to you guys about it, to talk about it on the show, it's, it's,

01:05:07   I have a lot of fun doing it. Even if I like to complain, I have, I have a lot of fun.

01:05:11   It's the time of my life when I get to do this. So as long as I'm healthy and as long

01:05:17   as I can, as I get six or seven hours of sleep at each night, it is something I plan to continue

01:05:25   I mean, I guess it's hard to predict the future. Maybe at some point I will have to say,

01:05:33   "Yeah, you know, John was right. I cannot do this anymore." But for now, yeah, I want to do this.

01:05:40   It's something that I -- not that I need to do, but that I want to do, which is different, because I love it.

01:05:49   So, do you feel like you're in a rhythm now? Do you feel like, okay, this is a thing that

01:05:56   I can just keep doing and this is the way that my year rolls on, that kind of stuff?

01:06:01   Yeah, I feel like it's become a tradition. I think I've found a structure to what I do

01:06:13   with these types of stories, and especially when it comes to the iOS review, I think I've

01:06:18   found a way to break up my summer in steps. So I can identify June, Research, July and

01:06:29   August, Riding and Vacation, End of August and September Editing. And I feel like I've

01:06:35   adjusted my personal schedule and my personal life to this kind of flow. So, last year it

01:06:44   it was more difficult than this time. And this year it's just... you know, there's

01:06:52   something that I do every time, which is until every section is finished, I'm super nervous.

01:06:59   And I talk to Silvia and I'm, you know, I guess it's difficult to be around me in that

01:07:07   stage, because until I remove every single document that is labeled "In Progress",

01:07:16   until I have a complete draft, I tend to have an nihilistic view of what I'm doing.

01:07:23   But as soon as I know that the draft is complete and all that's left is editing, I feel much

01:07:29   better.

01:07:30   according to my plans, so today is the 26th, I think by Monday or Tuesday I could have the first complete draft,

01:07:42   which gives me about two weeks of editing, but I've already done the first round of editing,

01:07:51   Like, I've already read the review from top to bottom once.

01:07:57   And as I finish these sections, I'm also, when I don't write, I take a break, and then

01:08:04   I edit.

01:08:05   So I'm also in the middle of a second editing session.

01:08:10   So I do two things simultaneously.

01:08:12   Which is why, you know, finishing these sections also makes me nervous, because I'm doing two

01:08:16   things at once.

01:08:17   But last year I think I read the review five or six times.

01:08:22   I think I'll do the same this time, maybe six or seven times of a complete read-through,

01:08:28   top to bottom, editing, cutting, adding links, and doing all the special surprises that I'll

01:08:35   show you in the future.

01:08:38   So we're just a few weeks away from the main event then, I guess, right?

01:08:41   I suppose it's the announcement, which I guess we're expecting a couple of weeks?

01:08:46   I guess we're expecting the Apple event to be on the first 10 days of September.

01:08:52   People are saying September 7th.

01:08:54   Makes sense.

01:08:55   And if that's the case, we'll likely see iOS 10 on September 14th and new iPhones on the

01:09:01   16th.

01:09:02   Maybe.

01:09:03   I mean, if Apple wants to release iOS 10 on September 21st, that's even better for me.

01:09:07   But something that Silvia tells me every time, even if Apple gives you more time, you'll

01:09:13   still be nervous until the very last day.

01:09:15   Yeah, then more time doesn't help.

01:09:17   More time doesn't really help.

01:09:18   So just get it over with and be ready for the first thing.

01:09:21   Yeah, she's right.

01:09:24   Most thing I'm excited about, of course, is your review.

01:09:27   New iPhone, whatever, I don't even care about it.

01:09:29   It's all about the teacher review.

01:09:31   I also don't like to tease people this much.

01:09:34   Like, you know, I try to keep the tweets very low about this because people get annoyed

01:09:39   and be like, "Just show us already."

01:09:43   I'm excited.

01:09:44   I'm really excited.

01:09:47   There's no point showing people you're here, actually.

01:09:48   Nothing to show them.

01:09:49   It's not done.

01:09:50   It's just a bunch of text files, really.

01:09:52   It's nothing to see.

01:09:53   Move along.

01:09:54   Nothing to see here.

01:09:56   If you want to find our show notes for this week, you can head on over to relay.fm/connecting/105.

01:10:01   They do actually exist there.

01:10:02   We're not teasing you about that.

01:10:05   If you want to find Federico online, he's at ftgpi.ticci, and you want to keep it locked

01:10:09   to macstories.net over the next few weeks.

01:10:12   Or months, I guess.

01:10:13   probably last for about a month from now. If you want to find Feder-- I've already told

01:10:17   you where you can find Federico. Steven is at ISMH on Twitter and he's at 5

01:10:31   Mac OS 8. It'll be a dueling page view battle. You should just go for Mac OS 10, you know?

01:10:37   Like really kind of, kind of just match it up there. I'm doing plenty of that. It'll

01:10:43   be out soon. Look at that, see? I'm not reviewing anything. I'm just editing podcasts like this

01:10:50   one. And I am @imyke on Twitter. Actually, I'm not editing this episode, which is fantastic.

01:10:58   gonna do it. So if you got today in this episode and you thought to yourself, "Gah, that was

01:11:03   terribly edited," or "Wow, that was amazingly edited," Steven did it. So you know, you can

01:11:10   either get angry at him or you can congratulate him on his great job. It's up to you, really.

01:11:14   Or you can just go, "Oh, I didn't notice anything," and even in that sense, I still think.

01:11:18   I think that's the real victory. If no one can tell, that's when we've done a good job.

01:11:23   So if you didn't know, if you got this far and you didn't see any, feel any change, you

01:11:28   should open your Twitter machine and open up a tweet and type in @ismh and just say,

01:11:35   well done buddy and press send.

01:11:37   That's what you should do, right?

01:11:38   That's what people should do.

01:11:39   So say well done buddy.

01:11:41   And you can maybe put an emoji of your choice in there.

01:11:43   Make it a fun one.

01:11:45   If you, I would love it if you would support our sponsors, the great folk today that have

01:11:49   sponsored this episode. Smile with PDF Pen, Freshbooks and Mac Weldon. Not Mac Weld in,

01:11:57   as many people think I say. It's Mac Weldon. It's not Mac World. It's a different thing.

01:12:02   Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye guys.

01:12:06   Arrivederci. Adios.