Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:05 ◼   ► We're your friends at Relay FM. This is Connected, episode 77. This week's show is brought to you by Ministry of Supply and Igloo.

00:00:14 ◼   ► My name is Stephen Hackett and I'm joined this week as always by my friend and yours, Mr. Federico Vittucci.

00:00:20 ◼   ► Hello, Stephen. How are you?

00:00:21 ◼   ► I'm doing well. We're still British-less.

00:00:25 ◼   ► We're still a couple, me and you, there's no third guy here.

00:00:30 ◼   ► Myke is still, I mean, we made a joke, you know, he's a deceased co-host,

00:00:36 ◼   ► but this time I feel like we went a little too far, because he's still gone, and I don't know if he's coming back.

00:00:42 ◼   ► Hopefully he is. He's still on the mend, I guess, from his crazy throat disease, so...

00:00:51 ◼   ► We miss you Myke. We do miss him. It's it's always it's surprisingly stressful to do the show intro and

00:00:58 ◼   ► Everything and get it all ready. So I'll be glad when Myke resumes his post of being in charge of the podcast

00:01:05 ◼   ► Yeah, Myke should do like should do a spin-off

00:01:08 ◼   ► Show of connected called disconnected and it's like a diary. It's like a daily log of his

00:01:15 ◼   ► You know problems

00:01:17 ◼   ► I feel like there's a potential for Myke to document his experience being off the show

00:01:21 ◼   ► Yeah, the one-man podcast is hard though. I know he's dabbled in it

00:01:27 ◼   ► I know other people do it and some people do it successfully Sean Blanc does it successfully, but it is

00:01:31 ◼   ► The single person podcast is it's a tough thing because you're just saying they're monologuing like some sort of yeah in a Pixar movie

00:01:38 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't know Myke could maybe do you know quick shows maybe could do an interview with his doctor

00:01:46 ◼   ► You know talk about that kind of stuff. I don't know Myke think about it if you're listening

00:01:49 ◼   ► Steven we do we do have a show today. However, we we do have a show today and we're gonna start with some

00:01:56 ◼   ► some follow-up

00:01:59 ◼   ► We've got some feedback if people aren't thrilled with us continuing to check in on Google Docs, but the answer is it's still not updated

00:02:07 ◼   ► But Federico you have issued I don't want to say ultimatum

00:02:12 ◼   ► but you've issued an ultimatum to Myke and I that you're done using Google Docs after this week and so

00:02:17 ◼   ► Wasn't really an ultimatum it was more of a I

00:02:23 ◼   ► Don't know like a confession like I'm seriously upset guys. We're wasting time here and Google is doing nothing

00:02:31 ◼   ► I just feel like at this point like it was fine initially to say yeah, it's still not been updated

00:02:37 ◼   ► but at this point just

00:02:40 ◼   ► You know preparing the show and the show notes on the iPad is really a pain with Google Docs

00:02:45 ◼   ► And so it was maybe like a strong suggestion not an ultimatum, you know

00:02:50 ◼   ► So we'll see we'll see we're gonna end up you have been tasked with finding a replacement. Yes, and I think that will be fun

00:02:58 ◼   ► Many topic in the future

00:03:00 ◼   ► I did issue an ultimatum saying that if we went back to our cry cloud that I was quitting the show and the network and

00:03:06 ◼   ► everything so so we're not going back to

00:03:08 ◼   ► actually keep that in mind so iCloud is

00:03:12 ◼   ► out of the question I feel so much

00:03:13 ◼   ► responsibility at this point when you

00:03:15 ◼   ► say I've been tasked with with finding a

00:03:18 ◼   ► solution that's such high pressure

00:03:20 ◼   ► we'll follow up I'll ping you next week

00:03:23 ◼   ► and we'll see where we are

00:03:24 ◼   ► okay you also want to follow out we do

00:03:28 ◼   ► want to follow out still gotta learn the

00:03:30 ◼   ► terminology follow up on a show that is

00:03:32 ◼   ► not our own and John Sirkisa has

00:03:35 ◼   ► approved all of this language so it's totally fine. On this week's Cortex

00:03:39 ◼   ► episode number 22 towards the end of it

00:03:43 ◼   ► Myke and Gray are talking about the iPad Pro and the Pencil and the 9.3 beta and

00:03:53 ◼   ► and basically we talked about it on connected as well but the pencil now no

00:03:57 ◼   ► longer works for UI gestures so you can't scroll a list or scroll a webpage

00:04:02 ◼   ► or use it to tap buttons. Apple has basically said more or less that the

00:04:08 ◼   ► pencil is for drawing and creating not for navigating. And it... So I want to point

00:04:15 ◼   ► out Cortex because it's particularly interesting and Gray kind of goes off the

00:04:19 ◼   ► rails a little bit with it. But I wanted to ask you what you thought about

00:04:23 ◼   ► like this statement. Sometimes Apple does this with their products. They won't

00:04:27 ◼   ► ever come out and say this is how you should use it but it is strongly implied

00:04:31 ◼   ► by either what the product does or doesn't do.

00:04:34 ◼   ► And to Gray's point, it's upsetting that this works and now it's been taken away.

00:04:41 ◼   ► What do you think about all that?

00:04:43 ◼   ► Well I can tell you that I have heard secondhand rumor that it is not a bug.

00:04:51 ◼   ► It is intentional and it's a very... it's the kind of decision that people are going

00:04:58 ◼   ► to argue a lot and again don't take this with a huge grain of salt, maybe.

00:05:06 ◼   ► But they're playing around with the idea of just using the Pencil for drawing and that

00:05:11 ◼   ► type of limited functionality.

00:05:14 ◼   ► My assumption, and at this point we're just speculating here, my assumption is that they

00:05:18 ◼   ► maybe saw the way that people were using the Pencil as a... maybe similarly to how you

00:05:25 ◼   ► use a Surface tablet, you know, with a stylus type of device, that you use the pen accessory

00:05:31 ◼   ► to interact fully with the device. And from what I understand, of course it's not final,

00:05:40 ◼   ► and it could change, but I would strongly suggest people, if you're upset, to speak

00:05:46 ◼   ► up, to say that you don't like this, what's happening in the iS9.3 beta.

00:05:53 ◼   ► Personally, maybe I understand Apple's position here, and I can understand why they're looking

00:06:03 ◼   ► at the way that people are using the Pencil to scroll lists, to interact with iOS, and

00:06:11 ◼   ► I understand why the Pencil was made as a sort of artistic accessory, to draw, to sketch,

00:06:19 ◼   ► to jot down ideas, not necessarily as a replacement for multitouch.

00:06:24 ◼   ► And maybe Apple is afraid that people are going to replace multitouch with a pencil.

00:06:28 ◼   ► I don't agree with that position, if only because there are serious RSI benefits for

00:06:36 ◼   ► people who want to work on an iPad Pro and do not want to constantly be touching the

00:06:42 ◼   ► screen and to use their hands and therefore their wrists to interact with a big 12-inch

00:06:48 ◼   ► display, using a pen in a different position while the iPad is on a desk has considerable

00:06:56 ◼   ► benefits when it comes to preventing fatigue and stress on the wrist.

00:07:01 ◼   ► That is why primarily the reason why I want to see Apple reversing this decision eventually

00:07:07 ◼   ► in the future.

00:07:08 ◼   ► It's not a big deal personally for me because I do like multi-touch and at least so far

00:07:13 ◼   ► I haven't come across that type of issues with my hands and with my wrist especially,

00:07:20 ◼   ► but I know that it is a concern for people, for many people.

00:07:23 ◼   ► And for those people, I would say the Pencil provided a sort of solution, even if it was

00:07:28 ◼   ► not officially promoted by Apple.

00:07:32 ◼   ► So having this change could be problematic.

00:07:36 ◼   ► I guess we'll see what happens by the final release and with iOS 9.4 if that's

00:07:43 ◼   ► gonna happen. I've also heard about that but you know we'll see.

00:07:48 ◼   ► I think what you touched on about multi-touch is an interesting point that

00:07:53 ◼   ► I do believe someone at Apple has looked at the pencil and how people are using

00:07:57 ◼   ► it and say no no no we designed it for this and this is what it's good at but

00:08:02 ◼   ► it also feels a little bit defensive

00:08:04 ◼   ► about multi-touch that the

00:08:09 ◼   ► even in the introduction you know

00:08:11 ◼   ► Schiller's like well you know we have

00:08:13 ◼   ► multi-touch and multi-touch is still the

00:08:14 ◼   ► primary way you interact with iOS and

00:08:18 ◼   ► the pencil is just this this new thing.

00:08:19 ◼   ► So I don't know it does feel like there

00:08:23 ◼   ► may be a little bit defensive about that

00:08:24 ◼   ► and and still want people to use and

00:08:28 ◼   ► consider multi-touch as the primary

00:08:31 ◼   ► method for interacting but um I don't know it just seems silly if people are

00:08:36 ◼   ► using it it's not it's not harmful in any way to iOS or the iPad that I can

00:08:42 ◼   ► think of it's not undermining anything that I can think of so just it really

00:08:46 ◼   ► it really just it doesn't bother me as much as it does gray and mic but it

00:08:50 ◼   ► definitely is definitely annoying so I guess we'll see what happens. I can think of if I were in

00:08:57 ◼   ► Apple's position I can think of a few counter arguments you could say that

00:09:00 ◼   ► maybe the pencil's battery life suffers when you use it all the time to interact with iOS

00:09:05 ◼   ► and not just in individual moments when you want to draw or when you want to sketch.

00:09:10 ◼   ► And maybe you could also say if you use iOS with the pencil, maybe it becomes less comfortable

00:09:17 ◼   ► to perform multi-touch gestures because the pencil is a single tip on the screen and maybe

00:09:22 ◼   ► Apple wants to promote using two fingers, using three fingers at once, so they don't

00:09:26 ◼   ► wants to have people constantly using the pencil, then removing the pencil, using their hands.

00:09:32 ◼   ► But even in that case, that's a weak argument, I'd say, when you contrast that with people saying

00:09:41 ◼   ► "OK, I get it, but using the pencil is just more comfortable for me, and when I'm on my desk and I'm working on the iPad Pro,

00:09:48 ◼   ► it's just better for me not having to touch the screen all the time."

00:09:52 ◼   ► from an ideological point of view I understand Apple, but from a practical

00:09:58 ◼   ► perspective I would just leave the pencil as it is and let people use it

00:10:01 ◼   ► however they want it, you know? So, I don't know. It's still in Beta 3 and we

00:10:09 ◼   ► understand based on rumors that iOS 9.3 is coming out next month with the

00:10:15 ◼   ► Apple event and all that, so there's still time, but you know, usually not a

00:10:19 ◼   ► good sign when a behavior is changed and by beta 3 still, you know, not reversed.

00:10:25 ◼   ► So we'll see what happens even.

00:10:28 ◼   ► So lastly a follow-up, we talked about this on upgrade a little bit yesterday,

00:10:32 ◼   ► but Apple's opened up a Mac Pro repair program. So we've talked about Myke's Mac Pro

00:10:37 ◼   ► in the past and he had some pretty significant issues with basically

00:10:41 ◼   ► locking up and not shutting down and just being crashy. Like it's not a very

00:10:47 ◼   ► good computer unfortunately it seems like all that is tied to the GPU and so

00:10:51 ◼   ► Apple has opened a repair program where even if you are out of warranty they

00:10:56 ◼   ► will repair this or replace this component for you for free because it's

00:11:00 ◼   ► kind of their problem and so we got a link in the show notes to that if you

00:11:04 ◼   ► have a Mac Pro and you've had issues you should go check it out and if you have a

00:11:07 ◼   ► Mac Pro if you have a friend who has a Mac Pro and they're sad maybe this will

00:11:11 ◼   ► help them. Seems uh she's pretty widespread with these machines

00:11:15 ◼   ► unfortunately so I just want to point that out since we've talked about mic

00:11:17 ◼   ► computer woes in the past but he's now on a red eye Mac and I think I think

00:11:22 ◼   ► very happy with that so yeah it's good all right Federico you have put together

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00:13:34 ◼   ► All right, Federico, you want to talk about app updates.

00:13:38 ◼   ► So what's on your mind?

00:13:39 ◼   ► So this is the kind of topic that has been in the back of my mind for, I would say, many

00:13:44 ◼   ► years and I never find a way to talk about it because, you know, it's not strictly a

00:13:50 ◼   ► technological topic.

00:13:52 ◼   ► It's more of a mix of feelings and release notes, which is kind of a strange combination.

00:14:00 ◼   ► I want to talk about app updates and our personal relationship with the

00:14:07 ◼   ► apps that we use every day and how we feel about seeing updates to the tools

00:14:14 ◼   ► that we employ to get work done. My main question for you, Steven, is do you

00:14:21 ◼   ► prefer apps that are updated often or not? This is the core idea behind this topic.

00:14:27 ◼   ► topic? You know, since you suggested this a couple days ago, I've been

00:14:32 ◼   ► thinking a lot about it, and I think the extremes are bad. So you have apps, and

00:14:38 ◼   ► we're gonna get into this, like Facebook on iOS, which is updated every 10 days or

00:14:43 ◼   ► so, and it's very clear they're just working on a schedule, and there's no

00:14:48 ◼   ► release notes, and there's no real idea of what's going on. But then on the other

00:14:51 ◼   ► end you have apps that may only get updated for major OS releases, so things

00:14:58 ◼   ► that you know are quiet for a year and then a new version of OS X and iOS are out

00:15:02 ◼   ► there updated for compatibility and move on. And I really think I'm somewhere in

00:15:06 ◼   ► the middle where I understand those two extremes and understand that if you're a

00:15:11 ◼   ► large company with a you know large development team and you work in sprints

00:15:17 ◼   ► and you have stand-ups and you have a fancy coffee machine that a weekly or

00:15:22 ◼   ► bi-weekly or something schedule that you stay that you stay married to may make a

00:15:26 ◼   ► lot of sense. And I can see on the other side that if you're a small development

00:15:30 ◼   ► shop or one or two people that you have you know fewer opportunities to keep

00:15:36 ◼   ► things updated so you're you know more in a compatibility mode of making sure

00:15:39 ◼   ► that it works and you can't invest the time and money to add new features. So

00:15:44 ◼   ► To answer your question with a not a real answer, I think somewhere in the middle makes

00:15:48 ◼   ► sense where as a user I see new features and things are updated.

00:15:54 ◼   ► Of course we're staying up to date for compatibility, but not so often that my workflow is going

00:16:00 ◼   ► to be radically changed or broken on a regular basis.

00:16:05 ◼   ► In a way that the communication from the developer to me as a user is clear and I'm not overburdened

00:16:12 ◼   ► with running an update every eight days.

00:16:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, and that's precisely what I want to talk about.

00:16:19 ◼   ► We're very fortunate in that we get to work every day

00:16:23 ◼   ► with computers and tablets and phones,

00:16:26 ◼   ► and I would say for the most part we have fun doing so,

00:16:30 ◼   ► but that comes at a cost, which is we gotta choose

00:16:33 ◼   ► from millions of possible tools for the jobs.

00:16:37 ◼   ► If you open the App Store or the Mac App Store,

00:16:40 ◼   ► which is still around, there's just so many options.

00:16:43 ◼   ► And what I want to discuss is, do we make our choices

00:16:47 ◼   ► on the software that we use based on the release schedules,

00:16:52 ◼   ► based on the support from the developer,

00:16:54 ◼   ► based on how many updates we see coming in

00:16:57 ◼   ► from the App Store?

00:16:59 ◼   ► And I know that this is something

00:17:01 ◼   ► that I really struggle with,

00:17:03 ◼   ► because every time I decide that I want to start

00:17:09 ◼   ► using an app, because I gotta get some things done on my iPad or on my phone.

00:17:14 ◼   ► And I gotta find the software that, you know, helps me doing so. There's a lot of

00:17:20 ◼   ► insecurity for me when it comes to not only finding the best tool or, you know,

00:17:27 ◼   ► finding the app that, you know, kind of strikes my preferences, but there's an

00:17:32 ◼   ► insecurity in analyzing whether an app is, in the future, is going to continue

00:17:38 ◼   ► being updated, receiving new features, receiving fixes. And that, if I were to

00:17:45 ◼   ► dig deeper, I would say that the problem for me is making an informed decision

00:17:51 ◼   ► not only for right now, but for the future. Because I don't want to find

00:17:56 ◼   ► myself in the position where I start using an app right now, and

00:18:00 ◼   ► two months later I gotta find something else because the app has been abandoned.

00:18:04 ◼   ► And this is a very big topic when you think about it. There's many factors

00:18:08 ◼   ► at play here. There's indie developers struggling to make a business on the App Store. And there's

00:18:15 ◼   ► big companies which maybe have an interest in having frequent release schedules and bringing

00:18:23 ◼   ► new features all the time to their apps on the App Store. And so I kind of want to talk

00:18:28 ◼   ► about it in individual segments. The apps that I find myself having this kind of process

00:18:39 ◼   ► all the time are the apps that I really use on a daily basis. So those would be my text

00:18:45 ◼   ► editor, my email client, and my calendar app. Especially for the text editor, which is the

00:18:51 ◼   ► app that I use, probably the app that I use the most because I gotta write, I gotta take

00:18:56 ◼   ► I gotta prepare articles for the website, I gotta prepare articles for Club Maxories.

00:19:01 ◼   ► It is the single piece of software that I use the most.

00:19:06 ◼   ► And over the past year, and we've talked about this, I've been having doubts on my use of editorial on iOS.

00:19:14 ◼   ► Which is this text editor that came out in 2013 and that I even brought a book about.

00:19:20 ◼   ► about. And for the past couple of years, editorial has seen only, I would say, two major updates,

00:19:28 ◼   ► because the developer falls into that kind of group where the updates are not frequent.

00:19:37 ◼   ► I mean, the app has not been updated in over a year, I think. And when it does update the

00:19:42 ◼   ► app, it receives a lot of new stuff, a lot of new compatibility with the new iOS features

00:19:47 ◼   ► and devices. But I was thinking, when I was preparing my iOS 9 review, is this really

00:19:54 ◼   ► the app that I want to use going forward? Because there's a fine balance between the

00:20:01 ◼   ► existing functionalities of an app and the potential for future improvements. And finding

00:20:07 ◼   ► that balance, or thinking, this app right now does a lot of things that I like, and

00:20:15 ◼   ► And I depend on a lot of those things.

00:20:17 ◼   ► But going forward, is this going to be a problem if the app doesn't change, if the app doesn't

00:20:22 ◼   ► update, if it doesn't receive new features or stays up to speed with changes to iOS?

00:20:28 ◼   ► And I found myself thinking about that, and eventually I switched to OneRider, which is

00:20:33 ◼   ► another text editor for iOS.

00:20:35 ◼   ► And I've been doing a lot of work in the app, and it works fine.

00:20:40 ◼   ► It doesn't have all the features of editorial, which I still keep installed, but it's an

00:20:47 ◼   ► example of this kind of problem that I have.

00:20:50 ◼   ► And on the other hand, I'm looking at all these other apps that I have on my devices.

00:20:55 ◼   ► Utility apps, the kind of apps that do one thing and do it so well, but I don't spend

00:21:01 ◼   ► a lot of time in those apps.

00:21:03 ◼   ► And so even if they don't receive a lot of updates, it's not necessarily a problem.

00:21:09 ◼   ► And you know, TextSpender, custom keyboards, emoji apps, they do one thing and even if

00:21:17 ◼   ► they don't receive updates, that single feature that they have, it's not a problem for me

00:21:24 ◼   ► if they don't receive updates every other month.

00:21:28 ◼   ► And then there's another category of apps, maybe.

00:21:32 ◼   ► When you simply don't have an alternative, Pythonista or Workflow come to mind, they

00:21:39 ◼   ► have one key feature or one key aspect and there's just no other solution. So in that case,

00:21:47 ◼   ► you could say they're irreplaceable. There's just no alternative. So whether they receive updates,

00:21:53 ◼   ► such as Workflow, or whether they don't, such as Pythonista, you know, it's another app from the

00:21:59 ◼   ► same guy behind the tutorial which is on an annual release schedule, it doesn't matter because I just

00:22:05 ◼   ► have to use them. And so I'm looking at these three types of apps and I'm wondering, has

00:22:13 ◼   ► the App Store created an update culture in people like us, you know, geeks and then people

00:22:20 ◼   ► who like to spend a lot of time playing around with computers and working with computers

00:22:26 ◼   ► and new apps? Has the App Store sort of nurtured that kind of line of thought when you don't

00:22:34 ◼   ► see an update or when you don't see frequent updates, you start wondering, "Maybe I have

00:22:41 ◼   ► to find other options. Maybe I have to look around and maybe I have to change." And I

00:22:47 ◼   ► know that this is maybe one of my flaws, when something is working perfectly fine, but a

00:22:56 ◼   ► couple of months pass and there's no update, and I start wondering, "Is this app abandoned?

00:23:02 ◼   ► Is this app dead?"

00:23:04 ◼   ► And a sort of fear of missing out maybe creeps in, and I start thinking, "Maybe I'm the problem,

00:23:12 ◼   ► and my problem is I chose the wrong app."

00:23:15 ◼   ► And I'm sure that I'm overthinking this, but I'm also sure that I'm not alone in this.

00:23:20 ◼   ► So have you ever found yourself using an app and everything's working okay, but then you

00:23:25 ◼   ► see the last update was four months ago, and you go, "What is going on here?"

00:23:31 ◼   ► Yeah I have and especially things like you said that I am really dependent on

00:23:36 ◼   ► and you know maybe it's maybe four months is too short of a time but I

00:23:41 ◼   ► definitely sort of have that thought sometimes like what if this utility or

00:23:46 ◼   ► app that I you know it's part of my workflow every day what if it goes away

00:23:50 ◼   ► and so part of it maybe is driven from the update culture but I think part of

00:23:55 ◼   ► it for me too is like I always want to make sure I have a safety net that

00:23:59 ◼   ► there's always something else that I could, you know, plug into this spot and

00:24:03 ◼   ► still get my work done like you did with one writer and an editorial, you know. You went

00:24:07 ◼   ► this whole thing of creating all of this crazy JavaScript stuff in one writer so

00:24:12 ◼   ► you could mimic what you were doing in editorial. I think that's just, I think

00:24:16 ◼   ► that's pretty common for like nerds to always want to know that there is a

00:24:22 ◼   ► alternative, that there is a way out if something they depend on goes away. But I

00:24:27 ◼   ► I think more importantly than that,

00:24:29 ◼   ► I think something that is a big factor in this,

00:24:32 ◼   ► you mentioned this like app store culture,

00:24:35 ◼   ► is the cost of an app.

00:24:37 ◼   ► You know, we're seeing sort of this two track thing

00:24:42 ◼   ► going in the app store where a lot of apps

00:24:43 ◼   ► are still in a race to the bottom,

00:24:45 ◼   ► but there is a little bit of a,

00:24:47 ◼   ► sort of a resurgence of more expensive apps.

00:24:51 ◼   ► And I can't help but think that that is a factor in this,

00:24:54 ◼   ► that if you paid a dollar for an app a year ago

00:24:58 ◼   ► and there hasn't been an update,

00:24:59 ◼   ► well maybe that's one thing,

00:25:00 ◼   ► but if you paid $30 for an app,

00:25:04 ◼   ► and this is especially more true on the Mac side, I think,

00:25:07 ◼   ► if an app is expensive,

00:25:08 ◼   ► you sort of expect there to be ongoing development.

00:25:12 ◼   ► And whether that's fair or not to a developer, I don't know.

00:25:15 ◼   ► I think in a lot of ways,

00:25:17 ◼   ► a lot of this is not fair to developers.

00:25:19 ◼   ► But from the consumer standpoint,

00:25:21 ◼   ► I totally see what you're getting at,

00:25:23 ◼   ► where you have that just sort of creeping thought

00:25:26 ◼   ► in the back of your mind, like well, is this forgotten?

00:25:28 ◼   ► Is this something that the developer, you know,

00:25:32 ◼   ► doesn't care about?

00:25:33 ◼   ► And you and I, of course, are in a unique position

00:25:35 ◼   ► where we know a lot of the developers

00:25:37 ◼   ► behind the apps that we love.

00:25:38 ◼   ► So like, I know what's coming in the future versions

00:25:40 ◼   ► of a bunch of apps on my home screen.

00:25:43 ◼   ► But the vast majority of people don't have that.

00:25:46 ◼   ► And I can totally see if you are relying on something

00:25:50 ◼   ► and especially if you paid what you consider to be a lot of money for an app,

00:25:56 ◼   ► then I can see that tension rising pretty easily.

00:26:00 ◼   ► Yeah, when you think about it, what we're talking about here is just in a way ephemeral.

00:26:08 ◼   ► It's just bits of software. There's nothing tangible.

00:26:12 ◼   ► You're not talking about an object.

00:26:15 ◼   ► You're not saying, "Oh, I bought this tool for my job and it's a physical object and it's not going to get updates."

00:26:23 ◼   ► But I'm okay because it works for me.

00:26:25 ◼   ► But when you're talking about people like us, the way that we get our work done is by using software

00:26:34 ◼   ► and maybe applying our skills to software or our information with making something out of our thoughts using software.

00:26:43 ◼   ► you fall into this line of thinking that you always want to have an improvement.

00:26:50 ◼   ► You're always looking for, at least I am, always looking for updates, always looking for better things to have in your life.

00:26:59 ◼   ► And so, at least over the past six years, I have found myself feeling, and this is going to sound maybe stupid or silly, I don't know,

00:27:10 ◼   ► But every time I see an update to an app that I use every day, I feel a weird combination of joy and satisfaction.

00:27:21 ◼   ► Because I know that the app that I chose is getting support from the developer.

00:27:25 ◼   ► And that's why I feel like my expectations have been altered considerably by the App Store.

00:27:33 ◼   ► Many years ago, I was maybe one of those people who were getting annoyed by software updates.

00:27:41 ◼   ► Now, whenever I see an update, I'm just happy. I'm glad that the developer is finding ways to improve the app.

00:27:48 ◼   ► And I want to say that maybe Apple is contributing to this sort of update culture,

00:27:53 ◼   ► you know, with annual software updates for iOS and OS X, new devices every year.

00:28:00 ◼   ► And as a consequence of those aspects, there's an expectation on developers to keep up the pace,

00:28:06 ◼   ► to keep working on their apps and to bring new features. And there's also the API aspect.

00:28:13 ◼   ► A lot of the apps that we use every day are based on services that have an API that developers

00:28:18 ◼   ► can plug into. So we're talking about RSS clients, Twitter clients, any app that has a web component

00:28:27 ◼   ► exposed to an API and when that API changes the user is expecting an update, you know, to

00:28:33 ◼   ► to have modern functionality in their apps and when the API breaks it's a problem. So, you know,

00:28:40 ◼   ► you can try to use a Twitter client that were made six years ago today and you wouldn't be able to

00:28:46 ◼   ► because the Twitter API, the first version, is gone. So there's different factors at play here

00:28:53 ◼   ► And the key contrast, however, is that while people like us, we sort of cherish the update

00:29:01 ◼   ► and we are happy when we see change logs on the App Store, when we see, you know, an app that is

00:29:06 ◼   ► being updated every month with new features, design tweaks, whatever, there's a considerable

00:29:12 ◼   ► majority of iOS users who are maybe annoyed by updates. I've been speaking with some friends

00:29:21 ◼   ► to kind of understand what normal people think about this.

00:29:25 ◼   ► And the vast majority of my friends, they are annoyed every time they see that they

00:29:30 ◼   ► have to update Facebook or Messenger or a Google app or any other app that they use

00:29:37 ◼   ► on their iPhones, just because there's a common fear that the update is gonna break stuff.

00:29:45 ◼   ► And this is probably the reason why Apple made automatic updates an option on the app

00:29:50 ◼   ► a few years ago, but there's sort of an expectation in people who don't obsess over apps and the

00:30:00 ◼   ► App Store, an expectation that the update brings bad news, maybe.

00:30:06 ◼   ► And this is such an interesting point of view, because whenever I see an update, my mind

00:30:13 ◼   ► goes, "Okay, there's fixes, there's new stuff, this is good news."

00:30:17 ◼   ► But when other people see an update they're just, "Oh, God, there's another update that

00:30:21 ◼   ► I gotta perform."

00:30:23 ◼   ► And I don't know, but have you seen that kind of maybe stance or line of thinking in people

00:30:31 ◼   ► unlike us?

00:30:33 ◼   ► I have.

00:30:34 ◼   ► I do think it's a little bit better now with auto-updating in the App Store that you always

00:30:40 ◼   ► see a friend who has a 37 badge on their App Store icon.

00:30:44 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:30:45 ◼   ► It's like, "What are you doing?

00:30:46 ◼   ► Oh, it takes time.

00:30:47 ◼   ► But I do think that some of that annoyance does come from these big apps that everyone

00:30:55 ◼   ► has Facebook and Messenger installed and that they're in that list so frequently that it

00:31:00 ◼   ► does form a type of fatigue.

00:31:05 ◼   ► That may be exaggerated that everyone has those apps and that those apps are really

00:31:13 ◼   ► sort of a class of apps unto itself, right?

00:31:15 ◼   ► like the Omni group is not going to update OmniFocus every 10 days.

00:31:19 ◼   ► But Facebook and Twitter and these other big companies can do that.

00:31:23 ◼   ► And I do think there's some sort of balance to be struck.

00:31:29 ◼   ► If you're doing that, you need to prove that it's useful.

00:31:32 ◼   ► And unfortunately, the companies that are updating so frequently are the ones who are

00:31:37 ◼   ► just miserable at the note section and the updates.

00:31:42 ◼   ► Not that everybody reads that,

00:31:44 ◼   ► and I think most people don't,

00:31:45 ◼   ► but for those who do want to read it,

00:31:47 ◼   ► I think it should be there and it should be helpful.

00:31:50 ◼   ► And there's this trend right now of,

00:31:53 ◼   ► oh yeah, we have fixed some bugs and it's more reliable,

00:31:56 ◼   ► and we do this every two weeks

00:31:58 ◼   ► to keep your app nice and healthy.

00:32:00 ◼   ► And it's like, that's not any information

00:32:03 ◼   ► that is helpful to me.

00:32:04 ◼   ► And so I don't know, I think developers could do more

00:32:08 ◼   ► to ease that fatigue.

00:32:11 ◼   ► And I do think there's an element of stress as well.

00:32:15 ◼   ► Is this going to break?

00:32:16 ◼   ► Is this going to make it worse?

00:32:17 ◼   ► And we've spoken a lot about that

00:32:19 ◼   ► with Apple's OS updates itself.

00:32:22 ◼   ► Oh gosh, there's a new version of iOS.

00:32:25 ◼   ► Is it gonna make my phone slower?

00:32:27 ◼   ► Is it gonna make my battery run down?

00:32:29 ◼   ► Is it gonna, whatever.

00:32:30 ◼   ► And some of that's based in fact and some of it's not.

00:32:34 ◼   ► But I do think some of that trickles into this as well.

00:32:37 ◼   ► Like oh, I updated the Tumblr app and now it doesn't

00:32:40 ◼   ► have the old style of reblogging anymore.

00:32:42 ◼   ► It has this new thing and I don't like it.

00:32:44 ◼   ► Maybe people are afraid to update

00:32:46 ◼   ► because of that sort of thing.

00:32:48 ◼   ► I really think it boils down to

00:32:50 ◼   ► having respect for your users

00:32:53 ◼   ► if you're a developer and knowing that

00:32:56 ◼   ► an update takes time and data

00:32:58 ◼   ► from them and it should count.

00:33:01 ◼   ► I think on the user perspective

00:33:04 ◼   ► there's a place for some respect and some understanding

00:33:06 ◼   ► of a developer's schedule

00:33:08 ◼   ► and just the economics of the App Store.

00:33:12 ◼   ► To back up a second, talking about these annual releases that Apple's doing, we've done it

00:33:18 ◼   ► on this show.

00:33:19 ◼   ► There's lots of concern over that about Apple itself, right?

00:33:22 ◼   ► That if the core iOS team is responsible for a new major revision every year, every 12

00:33:29 ◼   ► months, then they really only get about six months to do that.

00:33:32 ◼   ► And then they are working on point updates and then they're on to the next thing.

00:33:38 ◼   ► And that cycle can only, I imagine, be worse if you're a small developer, if you're a single

00:33:46 ◼   ► person or a couple of people working on an app.

00:33:51 ◼   ► And you know, especially on iOS, there's been some major stuff the last several years, and

00:33:55 ◼   ► it may take from June until September to get that ready.

00:33:59 ◼   ► You know, you start at WWBC with the bills and the new APIs, and you work and you get

00:34:04 ◼   ► it ready and you ship it and you should have support for the new version of iOS

00:34:08 ◼   ► on day one, let's say, ideally. And a lot of good developers do that. A lot of the

00:34:13 ◼   ► apps I use, except for Google's, are ready on day one or very shortly thereafter

00:34:17 ◼   ► and that's amazing to me. I can't imagine the work that must take.

00:34:21 ◼   ► But what that does is it's taken a quarter of your year and has basically

00:34:27 ◼   ► dedicated it to compatibility, a compatibility update. And what if iOS or

00:34:33 ◼   ► OS X like it used to be was on a slower cycle. Would we see developers have more

00:34:39 ◼   ► time and more energy for feature updates, for design refinements, for updates that

00:34:45 ◼   ► matter in different ways than just compatibility or just keeping up with

00:34:50 ◼   ► new features? And so part of this whole thing like the underlying thing for me

00:34:54 ◼   ► is that this release cycle is A) completely artificial because Apple just

00:34:59 ◼   ► made it. But B, it's got to be a huge weight on developers to be able to just keep up with

00:35:04 ◼   ► Apple's pace.

00:35:06 ◼   ► You raised an interesting point about Apple, because as we were seeing with iOS 9.3, it

00:35:13 ◼   ► appears that Apple is moving to actually a faster release cycle in that they're adding

00:35:18 ◼   ► new features in the middle of the year before WWDC, so before they're showing what's next

00:35:27 ◼   ► for iOS and OS X, they're bringing changes to the system, they're bringing improvements

00:35:32 ◼   ► to Notes, and so there's an argument there that also Apple is sort of aware of the best

00:35:40 ◼   ► way to catch people's attention is maybe to add new stuff. And it's funny when you think

00:35:48 ◼   ► about it, but maybe emoji may be the best way to get people to upgrade to a new version

00:35:52 ◼   ► of iOS. Because there's an intrinsic and catchy feeling of the strength of something new that

00:36:05 ◼   ► gets your attention. And so when you see new features, when you see new ways to use your

00:36:11 ◼   ► iPhone or new ways to get work done on an iPad, at least for me, curiosity gets a hold

00:36:18 ◼   ► of me and I want to see what's new and I want to have more features.

00:36:23 ◼   ► This is a very, I feel like it's one of the basic points of this discussion.

00:36:29 ◼   ► It is extremely hard to keep an app simple with a limited set of features while still

00:36:40 ◼   ► having updates on a frequent basis.

00:36:43 ◼   ► Let me explain.

00:36:45 ◼   ► make a text editor and you have this idea of a very simple text editing

00:36:50 ◼   ► environment where you write and you edit and you share. And once you ship your

00:36:56 ◼   ► idea and the idea is done you just gotta have, you know, compatibility updates, keep

00:37:02 ◼   ► up with basic new iOS features such as, I don't know, the share sheet or the iPad

00:37:07 ◼   ► Pro, but the basic idea of an app is unchanged. And then at some point users

00:37:13 ◼   ► start wondering, "Well, why don't you do this?" or "Why don't you do that?" and as a

00:37:17 ◼   ► developer, and this applies to indie developers I would say, as a developer

00:37:21 ◼   ► you go, "Well, this is the basic idea of my app. I don't want to add more

00:37:25 ◼   ► functionality. I just have this idea and the idea doesn't change with, you know,

00:37:31 ◼   ► as years go by, the idea doesn't change with new versions of iOS." But

00:37:36 ◼   ► there's a portion of the user base which maybe, like me, sort of

00:37:41 ◼   ► expect change to happen eventually. And I've seen this with the so-called opinionated apps,

00:37:51 ◼   ► where it's a single well-crafted idea that doesn't change a lot, but because the idea

00:37:56 ◼   ► doesn't change, the updates become less frequent. And as the updates become less frequent, some

00:38:02 ◼   ► users start wondering, "Well, maybe I gotta find another option, I gotta find an alternative

00:38:06 ◼   ► because this app is dead.

00:38:09 ◼   ► I think it's important to distinguish and to find a balance between, are you looking

00:38:18 ◼   ► for an idea that doesn't necessarily change with time?

00:38:23 ◼   ► So are you looking for a piece of software that does something that doesn't depend on

00:38:29 ◼   ► change?

00:38:30 ◼   ► Or are you looking for ongoing development?

00:38:33 ◼   ► Are you looking for something that changes with you?

00:38:38 ◼   ► And it's difficult to apply this statement to every type of app, because each one of

00:38:45 ◼   ► us is different, we have different needs, and so while I may be looking for a task manager

00:38:50 ◼   ► that does a lot of things and changes with time and changes all the time, maybe you just

00:38:55 ◼   ► want to have a task manager that is structured in a very specific way, doesn't change its

00:39:00 ◼   ► design, doesn't add new features, simply does one thing exceptionally well and doesn't put

00:39:07 ◼   ► a pressure on you, because there is a pressure here, doesn't put the pressure of knowing

00:39:12 ◼   ► what's new, learning what's new, and adapting to the app.

00:39:16 ◼   ► So when you... and I know that I've been guilty of this, you know, being confused myself by

00:39:25 ◼   ► by whether I'm looking for an idea that stays the same over the years, or looking for a

00:39:33 ◼   ► piece of software that changes, and that is flexible.

00:39:37 ◼   ► I'm looking at something like To-Do, for example.

00:39:40 ◼   ► A task manager that has changed a lot over the years, and that every time the developer

00:39:46 ◼   ► releases an update, which are frequent, there's something new to learn.

00:39:50 ◼   ► There's a new feature, a new design, a new setting.

00:39:53 ◼   ► a discussion here to make about feature creep or having too many features in your app. And

00:40:00 ◼   ► as a developer, you get to understand your audience also. Am I selling this app to the

00:40:05 ◼   ► kind of people who are okay with custom updates, with custom changes? Or am I the kind of developer

00:40:12 ◼   ► who makes an app that is very specific in terms of design and features and doesn't want

00:40:18 ◼   ► change, but at what cost am I choosing to not change, to not copy the competition, to

00:40:24 ◼   ► not add new features? It's a very difficult problem to solve, and it comes down to, and

00:40:33 ◼   ► we've discussed this before, but it comes down to knowing your audience. This is the

00:40:37 ◼   ► single most important aspect, I feel like, if you're an indie developer. So let's set

00:40:42 ◼   ► aside for a moment the Googles and Facebooks and Twitters. But if you're an indie developer,

00:40:47 ◼   ► So if you're a small team or a single person making an app on the App Store, knowing your

00:40:52 ◼   ► kind of people is essential to know whether it's okay for you to add settings, to add

00:41:00 ◼   ► features, to change your design, to constantly be on the verge of making changes to the product

00:41:07 ◼   ► or wondering if you're maybe the developer of an app that does one thing, it's so utilitarian

00:41:14 ◼   ► And it's so immutable, with time and with other external conditions, that it's okay

00:41:20 ◼   ► for you to say "I made this app two years ago, I may release updates every six or seven

00:41:26 ◼   ► months and that's okay, because this app does this very specific thing and it doesn't need

00:41:32 ◼   ► to change.

00:41:33 ◼   ► Now, to wrap up, Steven.

00:41:37 ◼   ► I don't feel like, personally, there's any hope for improvement when it comes to me.

00:41:48 ◼   ► Simply because of one aspect, which is I gotta write about software.

00:41:54 ◼   ► And intrinsically, change is intertwined with what I do.

00:42:03 ◼   ► In a big way.

00:42:05 ◼   ► I write about change.

00:42:07 ◼   ► I write about what's new.

00:42:10 ◼   ► And it's difficult to make articles or record shows that are evergreen.

00:42:21 ◼   ► And this is a very high-level discussion.

00:42:25 ◼   ► But when you think about it, making an app or writing an article or making a podcast is not too different.

00:42:33 ◼   ► You're releasing software, whether it's text or audio or an app, it's still software.

00:42:41 ◼   ► And there's nothing...

00:42:43 ◼   ► You're not making...

00:42:46 ◼   ► Forgive my very far-fetched comparison here, but you're not making a baby.

00:42:53 ◼   ► You're not making an object. You're not building a monument.

00:42:56 ◼   ► You're releasing software, right?

00:42:58 ◼   ► And it's bound to change or to perish or to be obsolete at some point.

00:43:05 ◼   ► Which is sad when you think about it, but there's also the upside, which is

00:43:10 ◼   ► you always have the option to improve, you always have the option to tweak,

00:43:16 ◼   ► and you always have the option to revise.

00:43:20 ◼   ► So, you know, I don't think I'm going to stop looking for updates to the apps that I use the most.

00:43:27 ◼   ► And on many occasions, this feels like therapy to me, but on many occasions I feel sort of anxiety

00:43:40 ◼   ► when I don't know what's new in the apps that I use or in the blogs that I follow.

00:43:48 ◼   ► And this is why I talk about update culture. It's because there's a fear that I don't know what's changing.

00:43:56 ◼   ► And I can apply this to articles on blogs and I can apply this to Apple News or to apps on the App Store.

00:44:05 ◼   ► But I feel like I'm hopelessly bound to stay updated.

00:44:14 ◼   ► But if you're a developer, you don't have to be in this situation.

00:44:20 ◼   ► Understand what kind of app you're making and know that it is okay to not release

00:44:28 ◼   ► updates every two weeks or to not release updates every six months, but it

00:44:33 ◼   ► depends on the kind of app that you're making. And this is also true for podcasters,

00:44:38 ◼   ► you know, for writers. You don't have to blog every single day, you don't have to

00:44:42 ◼   ► make a podcast every single day, you can make one every two weeks or you can write

00:44:46 ◼   ► every couple of months. It's okay. It just depends on your audience, which is

00:44:51 ◼   ► probably the issue here. What's an audience? But maybe that's a

00:44:55 ◼   ► topic for another time. Sorry, Steven, if I went on for too much.

00:44:59 ◼   ► No.

00:45:00 ◼   ► That kind of topic is that I just got to get it out of my head.

00:45:02 ◼   ► No, it's a really interesting topic, and so much of the time conversations about the App Store

00:45:08 ◼   ► evolve around the economics of the App Store, right? Pricing, paid upgrades, all

00:45:13 ◼   ► that sort of normal territory. So I think it's interesting to talk about the App

00:45:17 ◼   ► Store from a different angle. And updates are a huge part of it and

00:45:21 ◼   ► honestly one that I think has changed a lot over the years and maybe a lot it

00:45:27 ◼   ► feels like even recently. So I think it's an interesting topic and

00:45:30 ◼   ► something that will only become more of a talking point I think in the future as

00:45:38 ◼   ► the app stores become more mature and is more and more people are buying all of

00:45:44 ◼   ► their software through them right I mean on iOS it's always been a choice but

00:45:47 ◼   ► even on the Mac you know it's it's it's become part of the culture there as well

00:45:52 ◼   ► so I think it's a I think it's well worth the conversation. This episode of

00:45:57 ◼   ► connected is also brought to you today by igloo the internet you will actually

00:46:01 ◼   ► like. With igloo you don't have to be stuck at your desk to do your work you

00:46:05 ◼   ► You can manage your task list from your laptop during a meeting, share status updates from

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00:46:19 ◼   ► These days everything is mobile and your work should be too.

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00:46:26 ◼   ► hate me and everyone I know," well these days are over.

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00:47:52 ◼   ► Thank you so much to igloo for supporting connected and all of Relay FM.

00:47:56 ◼   ► Alright, we are going to return to some connected QA this week.

00:48:03 ◼   ► Yay!

00:48:04 ◼   ► And so we got some questions here from listeners and we'll go through these.

00:48:11 ◼   ► So Jimmy asks, "Do you think Apple plans a smart keyboard or pencil with the iPad Air

00:48:16 ◼   ► 3 this spring?"

00:48:19 ◼   ► Well that's a big question, right?

00:48:22 ◼   ► talked about this last week, I think, or two weeks ago. It seems fair to say that

00:48:29 ◼   ► eventually the iPad Pro accessory line and hardware were trickled down to other

00:48:36 ◼   ► iPads, much like iPhone features trickled down the product line

00:48:41 ◼   ► eventually, and it makes sense to me to have this smart connector become a

00:48:46 ◼   ► a shared option across many types of iPads. I don't know if Apple plans on adding

00:48:54 ◼   ► Pencil support for the iPad Air 3, if only because they made a big deal

00:48:59 ◼   ► of the Pencil being an iPad Pro only accessory just a few months ago, but as

00:49:04 ◼   ► we've discussed, Apple doesn't like to not add features based on what they said

00:49:10 ◼   ► in the past, so I would be surprised if eventually the Smart Keyboard and the

00:49:16 ◼   ► pencil don't come to the 10-inch iPad. I don't know if it's with the next iPad,

00:49:21 ◼   ► but I wouldn't be surprised. I think the other thing for me is, on the Smart Keyboard angle,

00:49:29 ◼   ► is having a keyboard that is wide enough to be full size but also small enough to

00:49:34 ◼   ► kind of fold over like the Pro Keyboard does. I don't really see them doing a

00:49:39 ◼   ► Smart Keyboard if it's a lot smaller and a lot worse than the Smart Keyboard is

00:49:44 ◼   ► now so for me that's the bigger question I think the pencil is probably a

00:49:47 ◼   ► no-brainer but I guess we will see in just a couple of weeks.

00:49:52 ◼   ► Ryan asks specifically about the iPad Pro what are some accessories that we'd like to see

00:49:58 ◼   ► developed and maybe some types of apps we'd like to see come to the iPad Pro that

00:50:04 ◼   ► aren't there now? Hmm. Wow okay so accessories podcasting accessories

00:50:13 ◼   ► microphones, docking stations, whatever. I just want to be able to run audio apps, Skype simultaneously,

00:50:23 ◼   ► and to record audio with the proper interface, with proper hardware, without having to buy a dozen adapters and cables.

00:50:32 ◼   ► As for apps, what kind of apps do I want to see?

00:50:38 ◼   ► Maybe this is something that I really want to have.

00:50:46 ◼   ► An iOS version of BB Edit or an iOS version of Sublime Text.

00:50:52 ◼   ► You can see that I'm a really big fan of text editors here.

00:50:56 ◼   ► I just want to see...

00:50:58 ◼   ► And also another dream of mine is a

00:51:04 ◼   ► full featured

00:51:06 ◼   ► iOS browser

00:51:08 ◼   ► with a focus on research. So maybe a combination of what you have on the Mac with dev on Think,

00:51:16 ◼   ► and

00:51:19 ◼   ► just like a supercharged Safari

00:51:23 ◼   ► with many many features for research. So highlight web pages,

00:51:28 ◼   ► drag and drop

00:51:32 ◼   ► snippets of web pages around, create files from those snippets,

00:51:36 ◼   ► organize web pages, and there's a bunch of iOS browsers that do this,

00:51:41 ◼   ► but not to the extent that I want to see. Like I would pay $100 for a very powerful browser

00:51:47 ◼   ► with note-taking functionalities, research features all built into a single package.

00:51:53 ◼   ► You know, that's the kind of app that I wanted to have for many many years.

00:51:59 ◼   ► Yeah, I think for me, I think the audio stuff is definitely the biggest and having, I mean,

00:52:07 ◼   ► it's a conjunction of hardware and software, of course.

00:52:09 ◼   ► For me, that would really

00:52:12 ◼   ► make the iPad Pro, especially for travel, like having to record on the road and stuff, just much better than

00:52:17 ◼   ► and plugging my MacBook Pro and an interface and a microphone and everything.

00:52:20 ◼   ► The other thing that sort of comes to mind and we've been talking about it in

00:52:26 ◼   ► Slack some is just some more options for carrying the thing around. So,

00:52:29 ◼   ► some more options for sleeves and bags and things that accommodate the bigger size. I think that will come. A lot of manufacturers are

00:52:37 ◼   ► catching up to that now, but just having some more options when you need to stick it in your bag and go somewhere

00:52:43 ◼   ► I think would be nice.

00:52:46 ◼   ► Yeah, waters wants to know what we think about a MacBook Pro update once and predictions

00:52:52 ◼   ► Yeah, so this is yours. It's heavily rumored. Skylake is

00:52:57 ◼   ► Coming to the MacBook Pro. Hopefully pretty soon

00:53:01 ◼   ► That's the next generation of Intel chipset that brings along with it things like

00:53:06 ◼   ► USB-c and Thunderbolt 3 which are plug compatible so could ride over the same connector just be

00:53:12 ◼   ► great, um

00:53:15 ◼   ► For me, I would like especially the the 13 inch to be a really good option

00:53:21 ◼   ► I've got a 15 inch now like I was telling Jason yesterday. I think I'm gonna go back to a 13 at some point

00:53:26 ◼   ► it's just it's a lot more computer than I want to lug around and I

00:53:29 ◼   ► Don't use it as a laptop hardly ever

00:53:32 ◼   ► It's always docked even now to a display and keyboard and mouse and everything

00:53:35 ◼   ► So having something a little bit smaller to carry around but still is powerful would be nice

00:53:39 ◼   ► And so I hope that Skylake allows them to do that where a computer can be really powerful

00:53:45 ◼   ► I do wish the MacBook Pros get better battery life. The 15-inch in particular

00:53:49 ◼   ► is okay. The 13-inch MacBook Pro in my experience is a pretty miserable battery life

00:53:55 ◼   ► especially compared to something like the Air and so I really hope that they don't

00:53:59 ◼   ► take Skylake's performance increase and a lot of a bunch of battery often keep the same. I would like to see them increase the battery

00:54:07 ◼   ► life, but I know that's probably silly.

00:54:09 ◼   ► So for me a nice well-rounded 13-inch MacBook Pro would be great.

00:54:13 ◼   ► I do have some questions about adapting from USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 down to old Thunderbolt.

00:54:19 ◼   ► I got a bunch of Thunderbolt stuff running around, but I'm sure that will be

00:54:23 ◼   ► pretty pretty easy to do.

00:54:26 ◼   ► People in the chat room are talking about Touch ID on MacBooks. I mean sure that'd be great. I don't see that happening.

00:54:31 ◼   ► I think that's I think that technology is pretty rooted in Apple's ARM chipset

00:54:36 ◼   ► and I don't even know if if that would be possible in any feasible way

00:54:41 ◼   ► With the Intel chipsets they use in the Mac, but I don't know I'm not a chip guy

00:54:45 ◼   ► But I would not hold my breath on touch ID coming to your Mac anytime soon, unfortunately

00:54:51 ◼   ► The next one I'll ask you first my answer is probably predictable

00:54:59 ◼   ► How is your Apple watch fairing after it's coming up on a year? I guess appear pretty soon

00:55:06 ◼   ► How's how's the Apple watch treating you Federico?

00:55:09 ◼   ► Well, I'll tell you that I still have to write an article about the Apple Watch. I feel like that says a lot.

00:55:15 ◼   ► I'm still

00:55:18 ◼   ► understanding what the Apple Watch does for me.

00:55:21 ◼   ► It doesn't become...

00:55:24 ◼   ► It doesn't become, at least right now,

00:55:28 ◼   ► a must-have.

00:55:31 ◼   ► I do miss it when I'm not wearing the Apple Watch, but I also get by, you know.

00:55:38 ◼   ► On a couple of occasions. I forgot to put on my Apple watch in the morning, and I went out and I was like oh

00:55:45 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't have an Apple watch that's inconvenient, but you know it's also not a big deal

00:55:49 ◼   ► it's been very nice for notifications and

00:55:54 ◼   ► for

00:55:56 ◼   ► Seeing messages come in it's been fine for fitness stuff

00:56:01 ◼   ► You know to check on my heartbeat to monitor workouts to check on my step count

00:56:07 ◼   ► But the big problem for me is that the software is unreliable. It's slow, it's very slow.

00:56:13 ◼   ► And even after watchOS 2, apps either fail to launch or they take several seconds to launch,

00:56:21 ◼   ► which makes them unusable because the whole thing is based on the premise that you should be able to launch apps in a second

00:56:28 ◼   ► and to glance at information in a second.

00:56:30 ◼   ► a second. But when you swipe up to open the glances and they take three to four

00:56:35 ◼   ► seconds to update or they don't update at all or when you try to go to the home

00:56:40 ◼   ► screen and you tap on an icon and the app doesn't launch or it shows you a

00:56:43 ◼   ► spinner for eight to nine seconds, well that's a problem, right? And it sort of

00:56:47 ◼   ► makes the whole thing unusable for me when I want to install apps and the apps

00:56:51 ◼   ► don't work. So it's okay for the system features, you know, to look at

00:56:56 ◼   ► notifications to archive an email message from my wrist, that's convenient.

00:57:00 ◼   ► Or this is something that I do quite often, to change the song

00:57:06 ◼   ► that I explain with a music glance. That's been nice, and I also

00:57:13 ◼   ► use it for podcasts to kind of skip ahead when I don't want to listen to

00:57:18 ◼   ► specific sections or to kind of rewind and listen again to something

00:57:23 ◼   ► that a person said. But aside from that, the Apple Watch is no iPad for me, it's no iPhone either.

00:57:31 ◼   ► From a fashionable point of view it's very nice, especially when you combine that with the

00:57:36 ◼   ► different bands and accessories, that's very cool looking, I would say. But from a software point of

00:57:43 ◼   ► view, functional perspective, it's very problematic for me. And I want to see the next generation or

00:57:49 ◼   ► or watchOS 3, whatever it is, just make it fast. Because right now it's slow, it's unreliable,

00:57:55 ◼   ► and I find myself not being interested in watchOS apps for two reasons. One, because

00:58:00 ◼   ► it doesn't work, so I don't have an incentive to look out for new apps because I know I'm

00:58:07 ◼   ► going to be disappointed. And two, because many of the apps that I want to use don't

00:58:11 ◼   ► have watchOS 2 updates. So I want to have a to-do glance or to-do complication. Well,

00:58:18 ◼   ► a glance but it's slow and there's no

00:58:20 ◼   ► complication because the developer did

00:58:22 ◼   ► an update to watchOS2 and this is a

00:58:24 ◼   ► common problem it's not to call out to

00:58:26 ◼   ► do or whatever many many apps that I

00:58:28 ◼   ► use don't have a watchOS2 version so

00:58:30 ◼   ► Apple watch almost a year on it's nice

00:58:33 ◼   ► but there's a long long road ahead

00:58:36 ◼   ► yeah I agree with everything you say for

00:58:41 ◼   ► the most part I will say that the soft

00:58:43 ◼   ► the speed is definitely an issue and I

00:58:45 ◼   ► think that is only going to be resolved

00:58:47 ◼   ► with new Apple Watch hardware that until they can rev the thing with a faster

00:58:53 ◼   ► system on a chip that it's just going to be slow and that and you know it

00:59:00 ◼   ► definitely feels the slowest when it's pulling a lot of data from the iPhone and

00:59:04 ◼   ► I know watch OS 2 is supposed to help with that and so maybe it's a

00:59:07 ◼   ► combination of slow hardware and developers just being a little bit

00:59:11 ◼   ► behind but I totally see the developer standpoint of it not being a huge

00:59:17 ◼   ► value add to have like a really killer Apple watch app yet so and I think

00:59:24 ◼   ► that's hurting the platform I think that a lot of people have cooled on the watch

00:59:28 ◼   ► because of that the promise of like just flicking your wrist up and seeing what's

00:59:33 ◼   ► going on like doesn't really work all the time and something like the watch

00:59:38 ◼   ► like it should be flawless you shouldn't have to you know swing your arm around a

00:59:44 ◼   ► bunch of times to see your to-do list.

00:59:45 ◼   ► And so that frustration, I think, is a very real thing.

00:59:49 ◼   ► For me, and we've talked about this in the past,

00:59:51 ◼   ► I've basically stopped wearing mine.

00:59:53 ◼   ► And it has everything to do with everything you just said,

00:59:56 ◼   ► but it has a lot to do also with just the change in my life

00:59:58 ◼   ► of being self-employed.

01:00:00 ◼   ► My previous life, I was working at a firm.

01:00:04 ◼   ► We had design and development clients,

01:00:09 ◼   ► and I was their account manager.

01:00:10 ◼   ► So I spent a ton of time most days

01:00:13 ◼   ► in and out of other people's offices

01:00:14 ◼   ► and on conference calls and in meetings.

01:00:17 ◼   ► And so for me, it was really great to have calendar

01:00:20 ◼   ► and email and text notifications coming to my wrist

01:00:24 ◼   ► so I could discreetly check them,

01:00:27 ◼   ► but also just know without digging my phone out

01:00:29 ◼   ► what was next on the agenda.

01:00:30 ◼   ► And all that's gone away for me now.

01:00:32 ◼   ► And so for me, most of the time,

01:00:35 ◼   ► I'm either in my office here

01:00:36 ◼   ► or I'm at home working my office there.

01:00:37 ◼   ► And I just don't have the need for those notifications

01:00:41 ◼   ► and that glain smell information like I used to.

01:00:44 ◼   ► And so I do still own it, I still have it.

01:00:48 ◼   ► I do still wear it some.

01:00:50 ◼   ► I still like the activity stuff a lot.

01:00:53 ◼   ► But the rest of it has sort of become less important to me.

01:00:58 ◼   ► And so what I'm actually wearing today

01:01:00 ◼   ► is something I'm working slowly towards a review on

01:01:03 ◼   ► is the Why Things Activite Pop,

01:01:06 ◼   ► which we'll put it in the show notes,

01:01:10 ◼   ► but it is a, it looks at first glance

01:01:15 ◼   ► like a very traditional watch.

01:01:17 ◼   ► It is really clean, really nice looking.

01:01:22 ◼   ► I've got it in the gray, which I like a lot,

01:01:27 ◼   ► but it has a step counter in it

01:01:30 ◼   ► and it connects with Bluetooth to your phone.

01:01:32 ◼   ► Now they are, I should say,

01:01:33 ◼   ► they are having pretty significant problems

01:01:35 ◼   ► in the 9.3 beta, like my watch and phone

01:01:38 ◼   ► just stop talking to each other for days at a time.

01:01:40 ◼   ► They say they're working on it,

01:01:41 ◼   ► I'm positive they will get it fixed.

01:01:43 ◼   ► I own their scale as well,

01:01:44 ◼   ► I've been nothing but impressed from their products.

01:01:48 ◼   ► And so this is like a normal watch,

01:01:50 ◼   ► but it has another hand,

01:01:52 ◼   ► and basically you tell it your step goal,

01:01:55 ◼   ► and then it counts your percentage towards that step goal.

01:01:58 ◼   ► Currently my step goal is pretty low

01:02:00 ◼   ► because most of the days I'm just at home.

01:02:01 ◼   ► Like one day I had like 170 steps, which is super bad.

01:02:04 ◼   ► So I'm being realistic about getting up

01:02:07 ◼   ► and getting around right now.

01:02:09 ◼   ► And so I can just see like right now I'm about 25%

01:02:12 ◼   ► to my step goal.

01:02:13 ◼   ► I was up doing a bunch of stuff this morning.

01:02:16 ◼   ► I do wish you could change that hand to be something

01:02:19 ◼   ► besides your step counting.

01:02:21 ◼   ► Like for me, what is more interesting for me to track

01:02:25 ◼   ► is standing once an hour, because I think

01:02:28 ◼   ► a lot of people are this way who work at a computer.

01:02:31 ◼   ► It's very easy for me just to like not move for four hours.

01:02:33 ◼   ► And if I stand, I'm going to get up and walk around.

01:02:37 ◼   ► So I wish there was some flexibility with that.

01:02:38 ◼   ► there's not I don't think there's going to be but I like that it looks like a

01:02:42 ◼   ► traditional watch and the battery lasts like eight months and you just pop

01:02:47 ◼   ► the back off and put a new like standard watch battery in it so there's no

01:02:50 ◼   ► nothing to recharge or anything and it's water water resistant a bunch of other

01:02:54 ◼   ► stuff so I'm experimenting with this as like if the activity thing is really

01:03:00 ◼   ► what I care about on the Apple watch and this does that but in a package it's much

01:03:05 ◼   ► thinner which is nice it doesn't call them sleeves like my Apple watch does

01:03:08 ◼   ► It weighs less. It looks more like an additional watch.

01:03:11 ◼   ► So we'll see if this sticks. I've been wearing it for a couple weeks and

01:03:16 ◼   ► it does like

01:03:18 ◼   ► alarm, you know you can set an alarm and stuff on it. It'll wake you up silently.

01:03:22 ◼   ► It's a pretty interesting mix between a watch and a fitness tracker, so we'll see with the sticks.

01:03:27 ◼   ► But it's what I'm currently wearing, currently experimenting with.

01:03:34 ◼   ► So

01:03:35 ◼   ► Up next Nick want us to touch on the day one thing so

01:03:40 ◼   ► Day one is a journaling app for Mac and iOS. They just think last week had day one version two

01:03:46 ◼   ► Huge update to the Mac and iOS simultaneous updates. They're both paid updates

01:03:52 ◼   ► They are

01:03:56 ◼   ► In this update made of they've made a lot of changes the big one is they have moved

01:04:02 ◼   ► from an option to sync with either their own server or iCloud or Dropbox and now

01:04:09 ◼   ► it is only you can only use day one sync and they have said that that brings a

01:04:14 ◼   ► lot of flexibility for them and a lot of reliability they're gonna be able to do

01:04:18 ◼   ► things like build an Android client build a web client have shared journals

01:04:24 ◼   ► and all this stuff because they're they control the whole stack now but the

01:04:28 ◼   ► fallout that's been really interesting I think that there's of course always the

01:04:32 ◼   ► noise if someone has a paid update but there's also the there's some concern

01:04:39 ◼   ► about the syncing and a couple other things I for one I found the syncing

01:04:44 ◼   ► reliable I beta tested it I actually moved to their sync engine in version

01:04:48 ◼   ► one basically as soon as they announced it just to see what it was like and it's

01:04:52 ◼   ► crazy fast it was much faster using Dropbox before and it's much faster than

01:04:55 ◼   ► Dropbox and I've been really impressed with it. I was happy to pay for the

01:05:00 ◼   ► updates. I mean I used day one on a very regular basis and so for me it

01:05:07 ◼   ► wasn't a big deal but I do see people's point that they want options. I do see

01:05:10 ◼   ► people's point that I don't think day one's been as clear as they could have

01:05:14 ◼   ► been with some of the security stuff and they had some reliability issues on

01:05:18 ◼   ► launch day and that sort of thing but I don't know. I know you at one point at

01:05:23 ◼   ► least were using day one a bunch. Is it still something that you use pretty often?

01:05:27 ◼   ► Yeah, not on a regular basis. Mostly because it's kind of painful for me to look back on some memories.

01:05:37 ◼   ► And, you know, sometimes I open day one and I see old pictures and I'd rather not see them.

01:05:44 ◼   ► If only because, you know, the memory in my brain is enough, you know.

01:05:49 ◼   ► But it is an excellent app, and it's been interesting to see the reaction from people,

01:05:53 ◼   ► so either on Twitter or if you read the reviews on the App Store, a lot of people saying,

01:05:58 ◼   ► "Well, I won't come back," and this is always a funny threat, "I won't come back or I won't

01:06:05 ◼   ► leave a five-star review unless you bring back Dropbox and iCloud."

01:06:10 ◼   ► And the argument that I saw, that I wasn't expecting to see, is "I trust iCloud.

01:06:15 ◼   ► I don't want to use your custom syncing service.

01:06:19 ◼   ► And it's fascinating because we went from a time

01:06:22 ◼   ► where people were concerned with iCloud,

01:06:24 ◼   ► either because it didn't work or because they didn't trust Apple,

01:06:27 ◼   ► to saying, I only trust iCloud.

01:06:29 ◼   ► I don't trust you.

01:06:30 ◼   ► And I don't want to think about signing up

01:06:33 ◼   ► for another web service.

01:06:34 ◼   ► I don't trust you to provide the kind of privacy

01:06:37 ◼   ► that Apple gives me.

01:06:38 ◼   ► I just want to use iCloud.

01:06:40 ◼   ► And in just five years, I would say,

01:06:44 ◼   ► iCloud, the perception from a lot of people has changed,

01:06:49 ◼   ► and it's interesting to kind of see this drawback

01:06:51 ◼   ► from customers to an app that says,

01:06:54 ◼   ► well, we want to add custom syncing options,

01:06:59 ◼   ► and iCloud doesn't give us that freedom,

01:07:01 ◼   ► so we developed our own solution,

01:07:04 ◼   ► which makes sense, because they want to integrate

01:07:06 ◼   ► with web automation, with IFTTT and other services.

01:07:10 ◼   ► They want to have support for cross-platform

01:07:14 ◼   ► with Android and other devices.

01:07:17 ◼   ► So it makes sense to have a custom web component.

01:07:20 ◼   ► But I find it interesting to see the reaction

01:07:23 ◼   ► from people saying, "I trust iCloud,

01:07:26 ◼   ► why don't you give me iCloud?"

01:07:28 ◼   ► - Right.

01:07:29 ◼   ► - So it doesn't look like they're gonna go back

01:07:33 ◼   ► and re-add Dropbox and iCloud.

01:07:36 ◼   ► They're gonna stick with day one sync,

01:07:38 ◼   ► which I think makes sense.

01:07:40 ◼   ► Maybe I would have shipped the 2.0 update

01:07:43 ◼   ► with the custom encryption functionality

01:07:47 ◼   ► that they are talking about,

01:07:49 ◼   ► to have your own encryption key.

01:07:51 ◼   ► That feels like it would have eased the concerns

01:07:54 ◼   ► from people before getting them to move from iCloud

01:07:58 ◼   ► to day one sync, but it's coming,

01:08:00 ◼   ► so eventually everything should be okay, I guess.

01:08:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, and maybe they should have done a better job

01:08:07 ◼   ► just communicating all of that,

01:08:08 ◼   ► but I think the dust will settle,

01:08:10 ◼   ► And I know that they've got some dates in the works

01:08:15 ◼   ► to maybe ease some people's minds about the security thing

01:08:19 ◼   ► with private key encryption and a couple other things.

01:08:21 ◼   ► But it's something to consider.

01:08:26 ◼   ► And I know they're also looking at some Apple ID login stuff

01:08:31 ◼   ► so there's a lot more coming.

01:08:32 ◼   ► I think they sort of had to get it out the door

01:08:34 ◼   ► and then circle back.

01:08:35 ◼   ► But it is definitely still an app that I use

01:08:40 ◼   ► pretty often and in hearing you share that I definitely have some of that in

01:08:47 ◼   ► my day one and the new version actually allows you to have multiple journals and

01:08:51 ◼   ► so I'm actually thinking about putting some of that stuff in a separate journal

01:08:54 ◼   ► so it's not in my primary one anymore so if I want to go see some of that stuff I

01:08:59 ◼   ► can but it's not immediately accessible which may be a nice way to sort of

01:09:04 ◼   ► continue to use it but not have to relive terrible things every time you

01:09:08 ◼   ► open it. Yeah it's definitely not pleasant to look at some pictures you

01:09:13 ◼   ► know I'm like okay I want to save my thoughts in day one. I open the

01:09:17 ◼   ► app and I see you know some pictures and I'm like okay well there you go I'm

01:09:23 ◼   ► going to close the app now. So yeah maybe multiple journals is what I want to do

01:09:28 ◼   ► just move everything that's old and painful to another journal and start a

01:09:33 ◼   ► new one. I don't know. Sometimes I just don't have the patience to, you know,

01:09:40 ◼   ► after an exhausting day to sit down and be like, "Okay, now I have to go through

01:09:44 ◼   ► all the concerns and fears and doubts that I had today and just write them

01:09:49 ◼   ► down in a journal." I struggle with that, you know. I'll try again.

01:09:55 ◼   ► The last question I think is pretty interesting, asking about our sort of work setup, the idea

01:10:05 ◼   ► of when we sit down at our desk or where we do our work.

01:10:09 ◼   ► I think this is more interesting for you being an iPad user.

01:10:13 ◼   ► What is your desk like when you're sitting working?

01:10:17 ◼   ► It looks like a kitchen table with an iPad.

01:10:20 ◼   ► That's what it looks like, really.

01:10:21 ◼   ► I work primarily in the kitchen.

01:10:24 ◼   ► because it's a kitchen slash living room and I enjoy having my Sonos there, my

01:10:29 ◼   ► coffee machine nearby, you know, I can grab a snack or some

01:10:36 ◼   ► refreshments and it just looks like an IKEA table, a black one, with an iPad Pro,

01:10:45 ◼   ► no keyboards because I use primarily the software one, and in addition to my

01:10:51 ◼   ► setup that I absolutely love is the 12 South Park Slope, which I bought from Amazon about

01:11:01 ◼   ► a month ago, at the end of December, and it's just perfect. It's the kind of stand that

01:11:07 ◼   ► props up the iPad at an angle that I love. It's got a rubber finish at the bottom with

01:11:14 ◼   ► some rubber protection that prevents the iPad from falling over the table. The angle is

01:11:20 ◼   ► just right, super comfortable, works with the iPad Pro, works with any MacBooks.

01:11:25 ◼   ► It's just the iPad, the Park Slope, cup of coffee, and my Sonos.

01:11:31 ◼   ► That's what it looks like. I like that. I'll put a link in the show notes. I wrote

01:11:36 ◼   ► up the desk I'm at now in my office where I podcast. I wrote that up

01:11:41 ◼   ► back in September. It's basically the same as it was then. My desk at home is very

01:11:47 ◼   ► similar in a way. I've got a MacBook Pro and I use a Thunderbolt

01:11:52 ◼   ► display at home and it's more or less the same. I do use, speaking of 12 South, I

01:11:57 ◼   ► do use their book ark to keep my desk at home is smaller than my desk here and so

01:12:02 ◼   ► I keep my MacBook Pro closed in clamshell mode and sort of tucked behind the

01:12:05 ◼   ► display a little bit. But it's more or less the same where I have a MacBook Pro

01:12:10 ◼   ► that is with me all the time and it's a matter of basically hooking it up to a

01:12:14 ◼   ► display and external hard drives and

01:12:17 ◼   ► Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and that

01:12:19 ◼   ► sort of thing. If I do work on my iPad

01:12:21 ◼   ► it's actually like you said

01:12:24 ◼   ► generally in my dining room table and

01:12:27 ◼   ► it's just usually in the smart keyboard

01:12:30 ◼   ► which I just bought a couple weeks ago

01:12:31 ◼   ► and actually I'm coming to like and it

01:12:35 ◼   ► gives me that flexibility but if I'm working at a

01:12:38 ◼   ► Mac it's usually hooked up to a bunch of

01:12:39 ◼   ► other stuff so that link will be in

01:12:42 ◼   ► the show notes you can see it's got a

01:12:44 ◼   ► picture and outline and everything so.

01:12:47 ◼   ► Well, Federico, I think we've done it. I think we've survived another episode without Myke.

01:12:51 ◼   ► Well, yeah, actually this is fun, you know? Me and you.

01:12:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:12:56 ◼   ► Maybe we should fire Myke at this point. He doesn't want to come back.

01:13:01 ◼   ► We can do this, Steven. We can go on without-- I'm joking, Myke. We miss you. Please come back.

01:13:06 ◼   ► That's to say, I'm out next week, so it's just gonna be you.

01:13:09 ◼   ► Oh, well, then I can do the monologue, finally.

01:13:12 ◼   ► It's just gonna be an hour talking about Italian food and working on the iPad.

01:13:17 ◼   ► I hope you will enjoy it, Steven.

01:13:19 ◼   ► I think a lot of people would actually enjoy that.

01:13:22 ◼   ► If you want to find show notes for this week, open your podcast app of choice, or you can

01:13:27 ◼   ► find them on our website at relay.fm/connected/77.

01:13:32 ◼   ► There in the sidebar you'll see a whole bunch of other stuff.

01:13:35 ◼   ► You can send us an email, you can talk to us on Twitter.

01:13:39 ◼   ► show is @_ConnectedFM. Federico can be found on Twitter @Vatici and he

01:13:45 ◼   ► writes the glorious @MaxStories.net. You can find me on Twitter @ismh, I write

01:13:51 ◼   ► 512pixels.net. You can find Myke, wherever he is, on Twitter @imyke. And we'd like to thank

01:13:59 ◼   ► our sponsors one last time, Ministry of Supply and Igloo for sponsoring this

01:14:04 ◼   ► week's episode so until next week Federico say goodbye.

01:14:08 ◼   ► Arrivederci. Adios.