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Connected

46: It’s Not a Feature; It’s a Feeling

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:06   From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode number 46.

00:00:10   Today's show is brought to you very kindly by Squarespace, build it beautiful,

00:00:14   and Tapforms Organiser, an easy to use yet very powerful database application

00:00:19   for the Mac, iOS, and Apple Watch. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by

00:00:23   the wonderful Mr Federico Vittigi.

00:00:26   Hey Myke!

00:00:27   Hello Federico, how are you?

00:00:28   I'm doing well. How are you in the Great Britain with the heat, with the sun?

00:00:34   You never see the sun, so what's up with the summer there?

00:00:37   It's very hot right now. It's very hot right now. I feel like the sun is just parked in this country.

00:00:42   You could say that it's getting hot in there.

00:00:45   I could say that. And I would say that. And that right there is the returning fresh from

00:00:52   NASA. This is Stephen Hackett.

00:00:56   - Hey, it's so good to be back.

00:00:58   I have missed you guys immensely.

00:01:01   I've enjoyed listening to the show,

00:01:02   so thank you again to David for filling in last week,

00:01:06   but it's good to be back with you boys.

00:01:08   This is where I belong.

00:01:10   - It is, we've missed you.

00:01:11   I mean, follow-ups missed you more than anything.

00:01:13   I just decided not to do it last week.

00:01:16   - Which is fine.

00:01:17   I await your ransom demands for follow-up back,

00:01:23   I believe is what you guys spoke about,

00:01:25   but I haven't gotten any.

00:01:26   So I thought that we could just jump right in.

00:01:29   I think we could just hit the ground running.

00:01:31   So last week you guys spoke about the iOS public beta.

00:01:35   So like the OS 10 public beta,

00:01:38   you don't have to necessarily be a paying developer,

00:01:41   but you can say, hey, Apple, I would like to test your betas

00:01:44   and at least with OS 10, they seem to release

00:01:47   like kind of every other, every third dev release

00:01:50   is a beta release.

00:01:50   So you might have, you know, three versions of OS 10 Yosemite

00:01:55   and then the public beta starts

00:01:56   and then you have some more dev builds

00:01:58   in the public beta too.

00:01:59   Kind of a slower pace.

00:02:01   And I just wanted to clarify that this actually

00:02:05   has been going on for a while.

00:02:07   We have an article over on Engadget

00:02:10   saying that about iOS 8.3 was the first one

00:02:15   to be in the public beta.

00:02:16   So it's not necessarily new,

00:02:18   but iOS 9 is sort of the first major iOS release

00:02:23   to be in the public beta.

00:02:25   Now I know you guys are probably running

00:02:27   the developer bills at this point.

00:02:30   I have not touched any of this stuff yet

00:02:32   because I've been away.

00:02:34   And I really, if you didn't listen last week,

00:02:38   you should definitely go back and listen to the,

00:02:39   especially the conversation about the public beta

00:02:41   from a developer perspective.

00:02:43   I thought that was a really interesting take

00:02:44   of like dealing with people who, you know,

00:02:48   the barrier to entry is lower than a developer account.

00:02:51   but kind of how you manage expectations and reviews

00:02:55   and that sort of thing.

00:02:56   It was a really interesting conversation, I think.

00:02:58   - Yeah, I think it's worth pointing out though,

00:03:01   like whilst this beta process isn't necessarily new,

00:03:06   I think a 8.3 update is very different

00:03:09   to an iOS 9 update.

00:03:11   And like the problems that we were discussing

00:03:15   probably are less likely to affect applications

00:03:20   on a point release and then on a full-blown OS,

00:03:24   like full-blown like cycle release

00:03:27   or whatever you'd call it.

00:03:28   - Absolutely.

00:03:29   - So yeah, whilst the public beta as a thing isn't new,

00:03:32   I still think that everything that we spoke about last week

00:03:34   is still valid.

00:03:35   - No, absolutely.

00:03:38   That was really my point of yes,

00:03:40   like the people who wrote in to say public beta isn't new,

00:03:43   yes, that is correct.

00:03:44   But this is a whole new era.

00:03:46   This is a whole new thing of having a major version of iOS,

00:03:51   a full point release being new and on the beta.

00:03:56   So coming up next Federico,

00:03:57   do you have any more car Bluetooth dashboard

00:04:01   workflow follow-up for us?

00:04:03   - Yes, that I don't know what I'm doing.

00:04:05   That's my follow-up.

00:04:06   (laughing)

00:04:07   Basically, besides the fact that I bought this accessory,

00:04:13   there's a sticker that you need to stick onto your car's dashboard.

00:04:18   And then the device itself, you gotta like stick it to this magnet, right?

00:04:23   And because of the heat in Rome, the sticker is coming off from the dashboard.

00:04:28   Like the glue is kinda becoming like not so glue-ish, if it means anything to you.

00:04:35   Like it doesn't stick anymore because it's too hot.

00:04:38   - Yeah, it's melting.

00:04:40   - It is melting.

00:04:41   It's like an ugly substance on my car's dashboard and each time

00:04:45   I'm trying to go there and trying to push me with my thumb and trying to you know make it stick again

00:04:50   But it doesn't so I'm kind of kind of a bummer there

00:04:53   But the main follow-up is that I got a bunch of people on Twitter saying that

00:04:59   The the ios 9 car reminders. They've been working fine for them. They just kind of connected to the Bluetooth

00:05:08   Device on iOS 9 beta 1 and beta 2 and it just works it

00:05:12   Siri is able to recognize that they are connected to the car and I asked different people like what kind of device do you have?

00:05:20   And I got people saying oh I got my built-in

00:05:23   Bluetooth like support in my car other people saying I got a device from Amazon and

00:05:31   So I don't know because I got this little

00:05:35   accessory called the Oki from Amazon and it doesn't work with the car reminders in iOS 9.

00:05:41   Now could it be that it's a personal issue with my iPhone and the iOS 9 beta 2 in Italy?

00:05:49   I don't know.

00:05:51   Or these people maybe are kind of lying to me, but I don't know because I got pretty

00:05:56   awesome followers on Twitter, so I don't think they're lying to me.

00:06:00   I mean why would they lie to me?

00:06:02   So the only theory that I have is that I got two readers saying that before connecting

00:06:11   to the Bluetooth in iOS 9, the device was showing up with some kind of car multimedia

00:06:17   property in the Bluetooth setting, which I don't see.

00:06:21   So maybe there's like a car specific kind of protocol or something that my device doesn't

00:06:27   support.

00:06:28   But on my device I checked on the instructional manual.

00:06:33   It's like the Bluetooth standards, it supports I think they're called HFP and A2DP or something.

00:06:43   There's a bunch of different Bluetooth protocols that these devices support.

00:06:46   And my car device appears to be kind of pretty modern, so I don't know.

00:06:53   Basically like I told you Steven, I don't know what I'm doing.

00:06:55   I guess I'll just keep waiting. I'll reinstall Beta 3 if it comes with Apple

00:07:00   Music and we'll see how it goes because right now I'm back to iOS 8.4 on my

00:07:06   iPhone and I got iOS 9 on the iPad but I don't carry my iPad in my car so I'll

00:07:13   wait until Beta 3 and check again.

00:07:15   So we're going to talk a lot about Apple Music today as you might expect but you

00:07:20   guys spoke a lot about, everybody spoke a lot about, Taylor Swift and Eddy Cue and

00:07:25   1989 is on Apple Music. It was the first album that I streamed on Apple Music

00:07:32   so I've not really ever streamed music before and at least to any real extent

00:07:36   I've never listened to 1989 and so the universe collided and I listened to it

00:07:42   streaming driving around yesterday so. And? Ehhhhh. Come on. Why? I'm gonna give it I'm gonna

00:07:51   give another try I'm not willing to pass judgment yet I did not love it on first

00:07:55   listen but the streaming was fine streamed really well driving around no

00:08:01   buffering or anything out on LTE. So you were driving around in Tennessee

00:08:06   listening to Taylor Swift on Apple music. Yes I was it was very millennial of me

00:08:13   except for my location. So as you guys know I've been gone I spent last week in

00:08:21   Florida down at NASA of all places got to spend four or five days there

00:08:28   covering the SpaceX launch. They had a rocket that was going to go to the space

00:08:34   station and with food and water and some experiments some done by some eighth

00:08:40   graders at a school in Colorado they were testing if you could if worms could

00:08:45   make compost in space efficiently so they had some worms and some garbage

00:08:49   that we're gonna eat on the space station. What a great experiment man, that's so amazing.

00:08:56   The worms didn't survive the launch but uh... Oh no! Yeah, so yeah it was really cool. So

00:09:04   in the show notes, which can be found online Michael I believe. Yes at relay.fm/connected/46.

00:09:15   They can also be found in space.

00:09:17   Yes.

00:09:18   If you know where to look.

00:09:19   If you know where to look.

00:09:22   The little lines on our podcast logo are actually our satellites that are flying around the

00:09:28   earth at all times.

00:09:29   Yeah, a lot of chink.

00:09:31   So yeah, so I've got three links there, kind of talking about the experience, got a link

00:09:37   to a Flickr set of a bunch of images.

00:09:39   And by the way, Flickr has gotten awesome all of a sudden, like that photo set looks

00:09:42   really good and I don't know when they decide to get better but um really a

00:09:48   very cool experience kind of a once-in-a-lifetime type thing to go see

00:09:53   behind the scenes like this wasn't public tours this was stuff that the

00:09:59   public normally can't see he doesn't get to see and so that was a that was really

00:10:03   cool as a space nerd so I don't know if you guys had any questions or I got a

00:10:08   couple more things like to say about it but um I'm sorry a rocket blew up

00:10:12   Well, it's Elon's.

00:10:14   Well, Elon and Malexander.

00:10:17   There's their rocket really.

00:10:19   So yeah, so at launch, we were like four miles away.

00:10:24   And there's a video in that flicker set.

00:10:26   It's crazy that you I mean, I know how sound and light work.

00:10:29   And we were told what to expect.

00:10:30   But even in the video, you see it before you hear it, which is just a really interesting

00:10:35   phenomenon to experience.

00:10:37   And we sort of saw it break up a little bit, because it was over us, it was kind of hard

00:10:41   to see what was going on.

00:10:42   Yeah, you can find the video online.

00:10:46   There's a video of it on SpaceX website

00:10:49   that we can find for the show notes.

00:10:51   It did sadly break up.

00:10:52   They're still kind of looking into it.

00:10:54   But that said, it was still really great

00:10:57   to go play journalists.

00:10:59   We got to go to press conferences and ask questions.

00:11:01   Microsoft was there.

00:11:02   They were sending two sets of the HoloLens.

00:11:05   - Yeah, it blew up.

00:11:06   - Yeah, to the space station.

00:11:07   Yeah, the HoloLens, some guy on a boat

00:11:10   probably, you know, swiped them from the ocean.

00:11:13   - There was probably a plan from Microsoft

00:11:16   to destroy prototypes.

00:11:18   (laughing)

00:11:18   Just blow them up on a rocket.

00:11:19   - I think there's easier and cheaper ways to do it.

00:11:22   - Ah, no, 'cause then when the HoloLens doesn't come out

00:11:25   or it comes out late, they can just be like,

00:11:27   "Oh, they blew up in the rocket."

00:11:30   - We're sorry, you know.

00:11:33   Satya will be all, "Yeah, well, we tried to send it to space,

00:11:37   "but it just didn't work."

00:11:39   - Yeah, so the hololens stuff

00:11:41   was actually really fascinating.

00:11:43   The plan is to use it, so if you're an astronaut

00:11:47   and you're performing an experiment

00:11:48   or you're doing a task that maybe you need extra help with,

00:11:51   so you're training, you need a refresher

00:11:55   or you just need an extra set of hands or an extra set of eyes

00:11:58   you would wear the hololens

00:11:59   and the feed is being beamed back to Earth.

00:12:01   And so a technician or a scientist or a doctor,

00:12:05   whoever it is on Earth can be seeing

00:12:09   what the astronaut is seeing

00:12:10   and helping place digital objects in their field of vision

00:12:15   and get to interact with them in that way,

00:12:19   which is like a really great use

00:12:21   for that sort of technology, I think.

00:12:23   It's actually one of the most interesting meetings

00:12:24   I went to.

00:12:25   And so yeah, it was really, it was cool

00:12:29   to kind of see what Microsoft's doing there.

00:12:31   I think it was really fascinating

00:12:32   and a good, a good use of it.

00:12:34   Someone in the press corps did ask about Google Glass and the Microsoft guy kind of just,

00:12:38   he just didn't answer that part of the question but was like, "Really?

00:12:42   Google Glass isn't doing anything."

00:12:44   That is an interesting use of that technology.

00:12:47   It was interesting when they were showing someone changing something in their sync.

00:12:53   But the idea of it being able to help the astronaut fix something is really kind of

00:12:59   cool.

00:13:00   Yeah, it's great.

00:13:01   It's one of those things too.

00:13:04   They were saying that NASA and Microsoft have been working on this a long time together.

00:13:07   So the impression I have is not that Microsoft built it and someone was like, "Oh, this would

00:13:11   be helpful in space."

00:13:12   But that sort of thinking was built into it from day one.

00:13:19   And not just in space, right?

00:13:20   Like if you're working on an oil platform or something else and you need training or

00:13:26   sort of hands-on assistance, you could use it for that here on Earth.

00:13:29   What was fascinating is they you know?

00:13:32   HoloLens if you

00:13:33   Uses a lot of sensors and stuff to kind of understand where it is and where you are in the world and apparently all that stuff

00:13:39   Just worked in microgravity. They didn't have to like re-engineer special versions to go to space which is just really like fascinating to me that

00:13:46   Something that on the tin is a consumer electronic device can be used in that way is really exciting. I think and

00:13:53   Definitely give me a new outlook on HoloLens as a platform that I didn't have before this trip

00:13:59   Yeah, that's awesome. That is really cool. Yeah, it's cool. So definitely like give me

00:14:05   those articles, look at the pictures. You know, I was able to learn a lot. It's really

00:14:09   fascinating. You know, NASA is in this transition right now. There's not space shuttle program

00:14:15   anymore. I got to see a space shuttle, which was really cool. But, you know, they're focusing

00:14:20   on Mars and I think that will be actually this and that will be a topic for us in the

00:14:26   future like the way technology is getting us beyond anywhere we've ever

00:14:30   been as a species before but in this you know their folk NASA's focusing on Mars

00:14:35   and they're letting these other companies like SpaceX and Boeing and a

00:14:40   couple others worry about the space station getting supplies and astronauts

00:14:45   back and forth so SpaceX and Boeing are in those rapid cycles to get vehicles

00:14:50   that can fly the space station and back and this sets them back a little bit

00:14:53   fortunately no one was hurt or or killed in this you know the accident on Sunday

00:14:58   but it was really interesting to kind of see like I think I wrote in the first

00:15:04   piece you know I used to like sort of look at my parents generation and like

00:15:10   the space nerd in me would be envious that they got to see like man like you

00:15:14   know walk on the moon and like there's not anything like the shuttle was around

00:15:18   we were growing up but it was kind of it wasn't the same level as excitement and

00:15:22   now look at my kids and they'll be

00:15:24   You know still young when when we foot

00:15:27   We first put man on Mars and that's like really crazy to think that that's the thing that's actually happening and

00:15:33   came to talk to some of the people who are making that happen and

00:15:36   See the facilities and see that the vehicles are going to use it was just a huge

00:15:41   Really exciting thing for me, you know only 30 people got to do this

00:15:46   I applied during WWDC on a whim and you know got in and

00:15:51   and really a lot of fun. So it was cool.

00:15:56   I'm happy you got to do it.

00:15:58   Yeah it's, I mean like I told you, I think you and I spoke some when I was gone.

00:16:02   It's like this really is like, I felt a little indulgent, right?

00:16:06   Because like, you know, I mean imagine if, I mean, all three of us would feel this way

00:16:11   if we got to go like a behind the scenes at Apple.

00:16:13   Like spend a day in the industrial design lab, spend a day here, spend a day with this group.

00:16:18   And it was that level of excitement for me to sort of in a different category of my interests. So

00:16:23   Well worth the the time off even even from you guys

00:16:27   Are you saying that you prefer space to us?

00:16:32   I will say that I

00:16:36   missed recording with you guys, but

00:16:38   I was glad that the reason was what it was

00:16:42   Well Myke, I think you're better than Mars

00:16:47   And I think that you're better than all of the solar system, Federico.

00:16:52   Thank you, Myke.

00:16:53   It's good to know that I got you here.

00:16:56   We appreciate each other, at least.

00:16:59   Amazing.

00:17:00   This week's episode of Connected is brought to you by our friends over at Squarespace.

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00:19:03   support for this show.

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00:19:07   Squarespace, build it beautiful.

00:19:09   - So as you guys know, Apple Music is now live.

00:19:12   We've been talking about it all month

00:19:14   and then really even leading up to WVDC

00:19:16   and it's been out for a couple of days now.

00:19:18   You could say that we've been testing it

00:19:20   for a couple of days and we have some sort of

00:19:24   first impressions of the service.

00:19:29   - On principle, we've been testing it for years, basically.

00:19:33   - Yeah.

00:19:35   know, we imagine this kind of service eventually coming and now it's here.

00:19:39   Theoretical beta testing.

00:19:42   Yeah, that's the thing. So you guys were both on Beats, of course, there's a lot of

00:19:49   Beats audio in this thing, the onboarding process where you have the circles where

00:19:53   you kind of tap about the genres you like, the bands you like, and you can dismiss

00:19:56   them. Very, like, I really like the interface, it's very playful. That was from Beats and

00:20:01   And of course a lot of the technologies from Beats and of course the whole idea of human

00:20:05   curation.

00:20:06   You guys were using Beats and I know they offered an upgrade path.

00:20:09   Did that work for you guys?

00:20:10   What was that process like?

00:20:12   Myke, you should go first.

00:20:13   It was a disaster.

00:20:14   This didn't work at all.

00:20:17   So this is because I used a US Apple ID to download Beats, right?

00:20:22   Because it wasn't in the UK.

00:20:24   Oh yeah.

00:20:25   Oh that's...

00:20:26   Myke, if you go fake US, you gotta go all in with the fake American identity.

00:20:30   I'm not doing that.

00:20:32   Because I have like years and years built up on my UK Apple ID, right?

00:20:36   That's where everything is.

00:20:37   That's what iCloud is.

00:20:38   So I updated the app.

00:20:40   I signed into the US App Store, updated the app, opened it,

00:20:43   and it was like, no, you can't do this.

00:20:45   So what's wrong with you?

00:20:47   So I press it now, it says get started.

00:20:49   I press the button, it opens music and it says

00:20:52   we can only move an American Beats music account to an Apple ID.

00:20:56   Which doesn't even make any sense as a message.

00:21:00   and all I can do is press OK and then that goes away again.

00:21:03   Game over.

00:21:04   So you had to start over with all the recommendation stuff?

00:21:07   Yeah, I did all of that.

00:21:09   And it did OK, I mean, because I have some music in iTunes, right?

00:21:11   So like the stuff like the For You, which we'll talk about in a bit, it was all fine.

00:21:15   But my problem is now I have to like manually recreate and redownload everything again that

00:21:20   I want to download for offline.

00:21:21   So that's going to be a long-term process which I've not gotten through yet.

00:21:27   So for me the process was really basically perfect because I have an American Apple ID

00:21:34   that I use for the iTunes store and I have a personal Italian regular real iCloud account.

00:21:43   But the process migrating from Beats Music to Apple Music, it basically associates your

00:21:48   old Beats Music account with the App Store account.

00:21:51   So I just updated the Beats Music app and it told me like "Hey, there's Apple Music,

00:21:57   do you want to upgrade?"

00:21:58   And I clicked OK and it took me to the new Music app and there was like a dialog and

00:22:02   it told me "This is your App Store account, if you want to start using Apple Music there's

00:22:08   going to be 3 free months and we'll give you $8, we'll credit you $8 to your Apple ID balance

00:22:17   because you're switching from a paid subscription.

00:22:20   And I was done.

00:22:22   I didn't see the bubble interface

00:22:24   to pick my music taste again.

00:22:28   And I just got my username from Beats Music,

00:22:32   my following list of bands and artists that I follow,

00:22:37   and stuff in my library, and I started using Apple Music.

00:22:41   - Did you have to re-download your offline tracks?

00:22:44   I assume, yes.

00:22:45   I don't have offline tracks.

00:22:47   Interesting.

00:22:48   Yeah.

00:22:49   I always have basically 4G or 3G wherever I go.

00:22:53   So you don't mind using the data up?

00:22:56   No, because I got enough.

00:22:57   I got like 20 gigs on my iPad and I got 3 gigs on my phone.

00:23:01   And plus when I'm out and about I'm usually with my girlfriend.

00:23:05   And if I'm with my girlfriend or with some friends I don't want to like isolate myself

00:23:09   and listen to music.

00:23:10   I want to talk to them.

00:23:11   So usually it's like a very rare occasion that I'm out and I need to listen to music,

00:23:18   to a lot of music on 3G, that it would be a problem.

00:23:21   So it's not really an issue for me.

00:23:23   Okay.

00:23:24   Yeah.

00:23:25   Steven, did they migrate your iPod Classic for you?

00:23:28   I had to mail it to them and then they brought the music over.

00:23:33   Just put it all in there.

00:23:34   It was great.

00:23:35   It was really spectacular.

00:23:36   Steven, I got a Beats sticker if you want.

00:23:39   I can like mail it to you in America and you can stick it to your iPod.

00:23:45   Perfect.

00:23:47   You don't sound convinced.

00:23:50   Yeah, we'll get to that.

00:23:54   So before we get to the streaming stuff, do you guys want to talk about Beats 1, the radio station?

00:23:59   Let's just do it. Let's just talk it over.

00:24:03   So Myke, tell me, you seem to like, plus you know Zane Lowe.

00:24:08   So you're from the UK, you're familiar with this person?

00:24:11   Yeah, we're buds.

00:24:12   You're buddies, so...

00:24:14   So I tuned into the first broadcast, and it was pretty much like what I expected,

00:24:21   and I think it surprised people who aren't familiar with the Radio 1 style of DJing,

00:24:28   which is basically how Zayn is there, so a lot of the stings are repeated,

00:24:35   and like sort of stings are like the beats won that type of stuff always on always on

00:24:40   worldwide right so that sort of stuff like that they play that a lot right that is just a thing

00:24:46   i mean i don't know about american radio but i know that's who it is here and people seem to

00:24:49   be complaining about it but the stings are there like they're there for a purpose like they're

00:24:53   meant to like represent the radio station and those things will be played a lot they're played

00:24:58   in the music like people seemed upset that sometimes zayn would talk during the songs

00:25:02   Like this is all just a thing and it's you ever like that or you don't like that and I do like that because when I'm

00:25:08   Listening to the radio. I like the personality that comes through with DJs

00:25:12   Because otherwise you could just listen to the tracks

00:25:15   So, you know

00:25:17   I like it when he will like jump in join in a royal blood song and be like

00:25:20   Listen to this drum solo and then as a drum solo like I like that kind of stuff

00:25:24   Especially because I like his personality and style

00:25:28   I really really loved Zayn's first set

00:25:32   It was just all the music that I enjoy and it was really exciting and he was talking about like

00:25:37   Some of the behind the scenes stuff and he was saying like, you know

00:25:40   We didn't even know if we were gonna be able to do this

00:25:42   Like we didn't even have all the music we needed like it was kind of crazy that he kind of just like was just talking very

00:25:47   openly about the way that the station was set up and since then like I've been tuning in here and there like

00:25:53   Zane's show is to show that suits me the most some of the stuff

00:25:58   from London and LA

00:26:01   um it tends to be a little bit too rappy for me but whenever i tune in like i can listen to it

00:26:08   for 10 minutes and i'm probably going to find something that i like but the big thing for me

00:26:11   is a lot of like the special shows that they're doing which i i need to kind of get to grips with

00:26:16   the schedule a little bit more like there's a tumblr with the schedule and it's a little bit

00:26:21   confusing but what it seems like it is is they play the sets every 12 hours like there's only

00:26:25   12 hours of programming every day and then they repeat it so it means that you can you've got a

00:26:30   a good shot of being able to listen

00:26:32   no matter where you are in the world,

00:26:34   which is an interesting way to do this,

00:26:36   but it seems like a logical way to do it.

00:26:38   - Yeah, I saw some complaining, I think,

00:26:40   from The Verge maybe saying that, you know,

00:26:41   Apple's tagline of 24 hours always on, you know,

00:26:45   seemed not quite true, but I guess to your point,

00:26:48   the issue is that if you are truly doing new programming

00:26:51   24 hours a day, like, a lot of people

00:26:54   in a lot of the world are gonna miss big chunks of it

00:26:56   because the one time-- - Yeah, you have to repeat it

00:26:58   because if I want to listen to Zayn's show

00:27:02   and it's at 5 a.m. or whatever, I can't do that.

00:27:06   So I think it makes sense to repeat it.

00:27:09   You do 12 hours of programming and repeat the programming,

00:27:12   but they need to get a bit better as presenters

00:27:16   in how they talk about that.

00:27:18   I think they need to be a little bit more aware of it,

00:27:20   'cause I was listening to Julie,

00:27:24   I always struggle with her saying it.

00:27:25   - Adonuga. - Adonuga's set today,

00:27:28   and she was talking about what else is happening

00:27:31   this evening, but this was at like 12 p.m.,

00:27:34   so this is like at noon.

00:27:35   So I think they need to start to be a little bit

00:27:37   more aware of the fact that it's repeated.

00:27:39   But these are all just like little things

00:27:41   that will get better over time.

00:27:42   But I think it makes sense.

00:27:44   But one of the great things is,

00:27:46   as well that I really like,

00:27:47   is that there are playlists created of the sets.

00:27:51   And it seems like from what I can tell is,

00:27:53   the playlist is created after the second time it airs.

00:27:57   So the show might air at 5 a.m. and then 5 p.m.

00:28:00   and then sometime after 5 p.m.

00:28:02   they create a playlist and you can follow each DJ

00:28:05   in the connect section and you can subscribe

00:28:08   to their playlists because everyone was going crazy

00:28:11   about the Saint Vincent--

00:28:13   - Mixtape.

00:28:15   - Mixtape and I missed it both times

00:28:17   but now I have subscribed to the playlist

00:28:21   and it is awesome.

00:28:23   But it's like it's stuff like that.

00:28:24   I think that this is really interesting.

00:28:26   Like this is exactly the kind of thing that I was looking for because this is like, there

00:28:31   is some, for me anyway, like there's something romantic about radio in, like radio now in

00:28:38   2015 and what that looks like.

00:28:40   And I think it is about the fact like, so I was listening, whenever I listen, like there's

00:28:44   stuff that I wouldn't choose to listen to, but I listen to it and I'm like, this is really

00:28:47   cool and it's helping me find some new stuff.

00:28:50   And I don't plan to be listening to Beats 1 all day, every day, but what I've been finding

00:28:55   I've been doing, and this has only been a couple of days, but times where I would just

00:28:58   be, like, I don't know, milling around the house or something, where I might not be listening

00:29:03   to anything, or if there's just silence in the room, I just bring up my iPhone or open

00:29:08   iTunes and just go to Beats 1 and press play and just see what's happening.

00:29:11   And I really like that it's there, because it's just always there with new music to recommend

00:29:16   to me.

00:29:17   And I think it really is a really, really interesting thing.

00:29:20   Yeah, I did I didn't think I would like Zayn's show as much as I as I am liking it like I can

00:29:28   Relate I feel - it seems to have like an over caffeinated personality. Yes crazy

00:29:34   energetic

00:29:35   And and when I listen to that type of music

00:29:38   I feel like I'm in the same way and having another person that kind of shares my same energy unlike

00:29:46   upbeat mood in a way. It's kind of refreshing.

00:29:50   Your Espresso Brothers.

00:29:51   Yeah, and it feels like it... and it sounds like...

00:29:55   it's contagious, right? Because it feels like he's having fun, and that's like...

00:30:01   I haven't been listening to radio in a long time.

00:30:04   And it's a strange feeling having another person on the other hand

00:30:09   and picking music for you.

00:30:13   And I don't think this is like traditional radio.

00:30:16   I know that it's like, of course it is similar to radio.

00:30:21   You tune in and you listen to music and there's a DJ and the DJ, you know, picks

00:30:25   the songs, but it also feels like a strange in between kind of service for now,

00:30:34   because it's in a hundred countries, right?

00:30:37   And I was on Twitter the other day and there was people from America, people from

00:30:43   France and Germany and India and you know all these other places

00:30:46   Listening to the same radio and the same person and the same songs at the same time globally

00:30:52   I feel like yes, the basic medium is radio, but the delivery

00:30:57   It's not traditional radio. I mean it on the surface. It's you know, it's the same concept

00:31:04   but the scale makes it different and

00:31:07   I

00:31:09   Agree with you Myke when you say it's kind of romantic

00:31:12   Totally, because we lost the personal touch, not just in the DJ picking the songs, but

00:31:21   the interpersonal touch of multiple people listening to the same stuff at the same time

00:31:27   and being able to discuss it on Twitter or messages, whatever.

00:31:32   It's very human and it's been only three days, but I think if there's one thing that doesn't

00:31:42   that doesn't get annoying. Over time it's having the same feeling with other people,

00:31:51   like empathy. Even when listening to music, that's not a novel feature that you're like,

00:31:58   you try it for two days and then okay, whatever. I want to keep being able to discuss with

00:32:04   you guys, "Hey, did you listen to the same song?" That's not a feature, that's a feeling,

00:32:11   And it's different.

00:32:12   And it's difficult to describe because I don't want to sound too, like, I don't know, maybe

00:32:19   cheesy, but it truly feels like it's a bunch of people globally listening to the same radio

00:32:25   station.

00:32:26   I know that there's people gonna say, "Yeah, but Sirius XM in America, they've been doing

00:32:32   the same thing."

00:32:33   But America is not the world.

00:32:35   I'm sorry, Steven.

00:32:36   And when you go on Twitter and you see all these different kinds of people listening

00:32:42   to the same music, it feels unique.

00:32:46   I think it's important to point out that Apple didn't create this.

00:32:49   This is something that has existed.

00:32:51   You could listen to BBC World Service, right?

00:32:54   Everyone in the world could listen to it.

00:32:56   But the difference is...

00:32:58   It's on your phone.

00:32:59   It's on your phone, it's everywhere.

00:33:01   And also they're making a big point of it.

00:33:03   There's a lot of promotion behind it, which is making people listen to it.

00:33:06   So this isn't a new thing, but this style is new for us.

00:33:12   There have been times in the world where everyone in a country or whatever, or even people across

00:33:17   multiple countries would sit down in front of the radio and they would listen to things

00:33:20   together and it was like the way that people watch TV, right?

00:33:23   The difference is, this type of radio, this radio as a cultural touchpoint, people listening

00:33:30   to stuff that's happening live on the radio, the music that's happening and talking about

00:33:35   it. It's not new, but the way that this is being done is it's bringing this style

00:33:40   to a new audience and that's why it's like this. I know there are

00:33:43   people that are gonna be rolling their eyes and saying "oh we had this

00:33:47   when I was 15" or whatever. I get all of that, but this is an experience that I

00:33:53   think the three of us probably haven't had in this way, so that's why I think

00:33:58   we're quite excited about it. Although I don't know how you feel Steven.

00:34:02   I think it's great. I

00:34:04   Wanted to say a little bit later. I sort of have a fundamental like lack of

00:34:08   interest in a lot of music discovery stuff

00:34:12   So that sort of stuff is lost on me a little bit but I agree

00:34:18   I think that this is something that older generations experience

00:34:21   I mean you go back to like the ancestor of the podcast being like weekly radio serials and the entire

00:34:28   Like family the entire nation would be gathered around their sets on a Sunday night to listen to a new installment of a show

00:34:34   Some of that has been lost in our world of you know on demand I can curate my entire existence

00:34:42   Type of life right like I can listen to only people in the Apple space

00:34:47   I can only watch the news that agrees with my political views and

00:34:50   so I think I think one reason like we're so drawn to this is sort of a generation is

00:34:56   is that sort of commonality that we can share about it.

00:35:00   I mean, Twitter has been crazy the last couple days,

00:35:04   people talking about Beats 1 as it's happening.

00:35:08   And that's something that I think Apple tried to get across

00:35:13   like in their keynote with some of those videos,

00:35:15   like the History of Music video,

00:35:17   of trying to recapture some of that magic where,

00:35:21   'cause at some point,

00:35:22   and Federica you said this a second ago,

00:35:24   isolating yourself music went from a community or family and friends type experience to

00:35:30   Something you did do by yourself with with the iPod and the white earbuds

00:35:35   of course that was going on to with the Walkman and dismember before and so this is sort of a

00:35:39   Mashing up of those ideas you might still listen by yourself in your car in your home

00:35:44   But you are listening to what all your friends listening to as well. So that's really it's really interesting. I

00:35:50   feel like I

00:35:54   I saw many people on Twitter kind of making the joke that Apple invented radio on the

00:36:00   internet.

00:36:03   I feel like the argument that I really wanted to make is, in fashion, in technology, in

00:36:10   music, in movies, whatever, there's a basic truth and that's that history tends to always

00:36:18   repeat itself.

00:36:21   When you observe all these changes in any type of industry, what you don't have to do

00:36:27   in my opinion is to stop at the idea of "yeah, this was done 20 years ago".

00:36:34   Because the interesting parts lie in the modern twists on old ideas.

00:36:42   In any type of endeavor, whether it's music, movies, food even, or fashion, design, you

00:36:49   You can never, I mean it's super hard to say "I made something that is totally new and

00:36:56   doesn't borrow from anything old".

00:36:58   But what's the good part is being able to kinda look at what used to exist before and

00:37:06   what we have now and trying to catch the little twists, the little changes.

00:37:11   And I feel like with Beats 1 in this very particular case, it's a combination of old

00:37:18   the ideas, the radio, the presenter, the little stings during the songs.

00:37:24   That was done many, many, many, many times before.

00:37:28   But today we have these devices always with us.

00:37:33   We can have an app and we tune into the app and it's the same app for everybody.

00:37:40   Everybody has this app and you go there and you tap a button and you listen and everybody

00:37:44   can listen at the same time in a hundred countries.

00:37:48   And there's all these modern things, like you go to a Tumblr page and you open in a

00:37:53   web browser that's on your phone and you can view a schedule and the schedule changes according

00:37:58   to your time zone.

00:38:00   And so everybody globally can make sure that they can listen to the same stuff at the same

00:38:04   time.

00:38:05   And I feel like saying, yeah, but it's like radio.

00:38:07   You're literally comparing driving around in your car and tuning into a radio station

00:38:12   with a knob, with dial that you need to touch, or buttons that you need to press on a small

00:38:18   LCD display, to having a phone in your pocket that's really like a computer and that it's

00:38:23   available to people like across the globe.

00:38:26   I feel like the basic idea is the same, but the delivery is modern and is new and I feel

00:38:33   like more companies will try to do this because there's, again, history repeats itself and

00:38:40   And maybe we're at the point where people kind of miss the human touch, the commonality

00:38:45   of being there with other people, even if those people are far away from you.

00:38:53   And I don't know.

00:38:54   It feels good.

00:38:55   That's my overall take so far.

00:38:59   Let's talk about the actual Apple Music service as well.

00:39:03   I think that it's a good first try.

00:39:06   I think that there are some weird parts of the UI that need to be cleaned up.

00:39:10   Like it can be difficult at points to try and look at an artist if you're

00:39:15   listening to them on a stream or like you're trying to find some information

00:39:19   is weird. Some of the navigation and like the UI is strange like if you press like

00:39:24   if you're on a song or on an album and you press those three dots buttons and

00:39:28   you get like 50 options pop up. Yeah. So I think some of that stuff needs to be

00:39:33   cleaned up a little bit but overall I think it looks pretty good it works

00:39:38   pretty good I personally haven't come into any gaps in what I'm looking for

00:39:44   but I know like a few people that I know have like my girlfriend was looking for

00:39:50   London Grammar the band London Grammar their albums just not on Apple Music so

00:39:55   there are gonna be some gaps but there are some stuff on here that I've had to

00:39:59   fight with and other streaming services like to try and get the black keys but

00:40:03   they're all Apple music and then they're not on Spotify or audio well their most

00:40:08   recent stuff isn't anyway so I found some stuff on there which is great and

00:40:12   I've been able to kind of prune my library down to where I kind of want it

00:40:16   to be I had to get rid of a bunch of old iTunes purchases that I just didn't want

00:40:20   in my library but overall I mean I'm I'm happy enough with it that that I would

00:40:26   that I am using it. The thing is, Beats had a bunch of foibles as well.

00:40:31   Beats was not perfect. It had a bunch of really weird stuff, and

00:40:35   some of the weird stuff that Beats has doesn't exist in Apple Music, so that

00:40:38   makes me happy, like cutting off songs randomly, which was my biggest problem

00:40:42   with Beats. So I'm relatively happy with it,

00:40:47   but especially as a 1.0, but there is definitely some room for improvement in places.

00:40:51   places. I have a list of things that I like and don't like. I've kind of been

00:40:58   taking a lot of notes. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah, can I just go over some

00:41:04   of them because maybe all of them is too much. Yeah, looking at this document all

00:41:08   of them is too many. But I can sum up. I can sum them up really quickly. So my

00:41:13   basic take is that it's a really fun interface. I don't think it is confusing

00:41:17   but there's many many aspects that like little tweaks and changes that I would like to see.

00:41:23   Some stuff should be horizontally scrollable, like sometimes I can swipe on an album or a

00:41:31   recommendation and it's a gallery, it's a carousel that I can swipe, other times it's not, it's an

00:41:37   edge-to-edge visualization of three albums and there's seemingly no difference visually between

00:41:44   them, so that's kind of confusing. A big thing that's lacking for me is that there's no way

00:41:50   to always go to artists or go to album when you're listening to a song, whether it's from

00:41:56   Apple Music or Beats 1. This is one of the things that Spotify gets right, whenever you're

00:42:01   listening to a song you can go to the artist of that song with two taps or to the album

00:42:06   containing that song. And in Apple Music you can sort of fake it by tapping the contextual

00:42:13   menu, you know, the one that it's like three meters tall, and if you tap the artwork, sometimes

00:42:21   you go to the song, other times it does nothing, and other times again, I get unknown album

00:42:28   when I tap on the artwork.

00:42:30   So that's kind of weird and there's, I feel like that menu is maybe even too cluttered

00:42:35   and there should be like some console, some, you know, basically prune it down and have

00:42:41   fewer options or maybe have some icons instead of all text. It's like a wall of text when

00:42:47   you tap the contextual menu. I also feel like there's some confusion when it comes to the

00:42:55   recommendations for related artists and albums. When you're listening to a song or you're

00:43:01   listening to an album, sometimes I scroll to the bottom and there's "You might also

00:43:06   Other times there's not that option, so there's no consistency in the related media that it finds.

00:43:15   I've been a big fan of the, to my surprise, I've been a big fan of the Connect section so far.

00:43:24   I've discovered a couple of great bands from the Connect area because I missed,

00:43:31   Just for instance, yesterday I missed the Zane show and there was a couple of recommendations

00:43:39   from the Apple channel into the Connect page.

00:43:42   I also like that some artists are sharing demos and snippets in the Connect area, like

00:43:49   Trent Reznor has a couple of, I think, acoustic or instrumental versions of his songs and

00:43:57   also Zed, which is this guy does like electro pop music as a demo in the

00:44:03   Connect page. So I know that... Yeah I like some of that stuff, like I've seen a few

00:44:06   people do that as well, but like what I find is probably quite entertaining

00:44:09   about it is like, are the music... I assume the music labels are contacting

00:44:16   the artist management as like you need to have three things uploaded today.

00:44:19   That's how I imagine this is right now, like I'm sure that at some point you're

00:44:22   gonna get some artists that really embrace it, but the fact that there was a

00:44:25   bunch on day one is like this was in the agreement you need to do this and then

00:44:30   like Michael Buble is like putting a piano thing up because I was you know

00:44:35   talking about pruning my music library I was following Michael Buble because I

00:44:39   bought an album once for a Christmas mix so I got to find out I got to see

00:44:44   Michael Buble play a bit of piano but it's like it's not really a criticism

00:44:47   like it's like whatever but it just made me smile I just thought it was quite

00:44:51   funny that like a bunch of artists were definitely like their label called was

00:44:55   like you need to do this today.

00:44:56   - I was in the same boat, you Myke.

00:44:57   I had a lot of artists in connect that,

00:45:00   again, I bought a single from,

00:45:01   or I had some that I bought a soundtrack.

00:45:05   You know, soundtrack is usually done by groups of artists.

00:45:07   And I mean, I think Apple did the right thing

00:45:11   from their perspective of like lump everybody into here

00:45:13   that you've ever interacted with an iTunes.

00:45:16   But yeah, I went through and definitely paired that down

00:45:19   to artists actually really care about

00:45:20   and not one that I accidentally

00:45:22   or unintentionally followed years ago.

00:45:27   Linkin Park had a selfie in the Connect page, which was kind of funny, because they had

00:45:32   like a professional intro video and then like a selfie taken obviously with the front-facing

00:45:38   camera because it was very bad quality.

00:45:40   It was kind of funny.

00:45:42   I think Connect looks really good.

00:45:44   Yeah, it's kind of like very similar to Ping in a way, but also it does more.

00:45:51   I don't remember having demos and videos.

00:45:55   I think Ping just like pulled in Twitter.

00:45:58   I don't know what it did.

00:45:59   Yeah, it was just like text and maybe links to songs and albums on the iTunes Store.

00:46:06   This is, I mean, again, it's the same basic idea, but there's a modern twist in that artists

00:46:12   can share even more types of content.

00:46:15   I heard that if you sign up for Connect,

00:46:19   you get a share extension on your iOS device,

00:46:23   and you can share photos and stuff from the Photos app

00:46:26   from other places on iOS.

00:46:28   - That's smart.

00:46:29   - Yeah, they have an extension for artists,

00:46:33   and it's quite cool, I think.

00:46:35   So again, this is one of those things,

00:46:37   you gotta wait and see how it goes,

00:46:39   because it could be like you said, Myke,

00:46:41   that the labels are saying,

00:46:42   look, you gotta go to the Connect page,

00:46:43   for three months, post at least two photos and a demo each week.

00:46:50   We gotta see if this is really genuine, that it really comes from, again, from

00:46:56   Buble or from Linkin Park, whether they really want to share or whether it's

00:47:00   like the assistant that is there and needs to go to the connect page because

00:47:05   the label said so. So we'll see. I love playlists. The playlists, you know, it's

00:47:10   like it's you we were talking about them how great we loved them with beats but

00:47:13   I'm finding some stuff that I'm just loving like there's just some playlists

00:47:17   in here that it's just like well this is just amazing like a bunch of stuff like

00:47:21   alternative stuff and things that I really love and so it's great to like

00:47:25   they're really pushed up front and that the artworks great and you get a kind of

00:47:30   a peek inside basically they show like the album artwork of what's in the

00:47:33   playlists and it has all of the stuff from like beats where it's like deep

00:47:38   cuts and you know, non-LP tracks of Oasis is one of them that I found and I love to

00:47:45   play this stuff, I think it's so awesome.

00:47:47   Yeah, and it's clever because in my case I often listen to indie rock and hip-hop and

00:47:54   I have these two very different genres in my history on Beat music and Apple music and

00:48:03   Yesterday in the "For You" recommendation page, I got a playlist from the Apple Music

00:48:11   team for like indie and hip hop songs.

00:48:17   And it's like, there's all these tracks with collaborations between indie artists and rappers.

00:48:24   It's very, very cool.

00:48:26   It shows that the more you listen, the more they learn from you.

00:48:30   And they don't give you this computer made list of songs, they give you this very small

00:48:38   collection, it's like 15 songs.

00:48:40   Because there was someone who, like me, listened to these two types of music and sat down and

00:48:46   said "ok, I need to put together this kind of playlist".

00:48:49   Because again, it's clearly not made by a computer, it's from someone who knows what

00:48:54   is recommended to people.

00:48:56   And that's really clever.

00:48:58   I do miss from Beats Music one of my favorite features when I went to the artist page, you

00:49:07   could browse.

00:49:09   And there was very clever organization.

00:49:11   Singles, albums, compilations, EPs, remixes, remastered editions, there was all this metadata

00:49:19   was kinda used to better organize albums and instead in Apple Music it's just albums and

00:49:26   everything is thrown in there. So if you go to the Oasis page, you see the albums, but

00:49:32   you also see the singles, all the compilations, the EPs, and I feel like that feature in Beats

00:49:38   Music was really well done, and I really want to see it in Apple Music again.

00:49:43   So what I wanted to ask you guys, as an app, I feel like the interface is really fun and

00:49:52   modern, colorful, and it's got this kind of personality even in the interface that I like.

00:49:59   We talked about Beats 1 and we talked about the aspects coming from Beats Music,

00:50:08   so the curation and the recommendations in the front page.

00:50:11   I want to take a look at the big picture because there's many small problems in Apple Music,

00:50:19   whether it's how you manage your queue or, as I just said,

00:50:23   the organization of albums, the love shortcuts

00:50:27   that you tap to say, hey, I like this song.

00:50:31   Sometimes it doesn't work.

00:50:32   iCloud sometimes doesn't put the albums

00:50:36   that you add to your library back to your Mac or your iPhone.

00:50:40   So there's many small issues.

00:50:42   And I like to see those resolved.

00:50:45   But taking a look at the big picture,

00:50:46   I wanna kinda talk with you about what Apple wants to do with this.

00:50:51   And I feel like when it comes to this service, like you search for music and you stream music,

00:50:59   even with all these small problems, the basic stuff is done and now they need to kinda just

00:51:07   you know tweak here and there and improve.

00:51:09   But there's just so many ways you can search.

00:51:12   And at one point, what else can you do with basic search or the new page?

00:51:19   That's just the basic of streaming.

00:51:21   And that's done, I think.

00:51:25   Done in the sense that it's only iterative improvements from now on.

00:51:30   And I feel like the areas where Apple Music really will grow and where we will see innovation

00:51:38   and changes, like very global scale stuff, that's in the Beats 1 and Connect.

00:51:46   And I'm thinking, so I have a couple of ideas.

00:51:50   Beats 1 sounds like, obviously an international expansion is in the cards, and I can only

00:51:57   imagine like local channels or an Italian Beats 1 or a French Beats 1.

00:52:02   Well, I don't think it will even be Beats 1.

00:52:05   I mean, it's clear to me in the name that there will be a Beats 2.

00:52:08   Oh yeah, Beats 2, Beats Italy, Beats France, yeah of course.

00:52:12   So I'm thinking international expansion and for Connect I also see a lot of potential

00:52:18   there.

00:52:20   I mean, right now you go to Connect, you see a selfie, you listen to a demo, see a video,

00:52:27   but can you imagine, like I'm seeing a lot of artists already share screenshots of concert

00:52:33   dates and locations and it seems so obvious to me that one day you will be able to buy

00:52:38   tickets for a concert with Apple Pay inside Connect.

00:52:42   That feels like a natural evolution because if you look at where, I'm in complete agreement

00:52:48   with you, if you look at where it is now, where Apple Music is right now, where Connect

00:52:52   is right now, the bones of the service are there so now it's a point of like where do

00:52:56   you go next?

00:52:57   Okay so we keep adding things in, right so what's first?

00:53:00   let's add merchandise so you can buy band t-shirts of Apple Pay. Fine let's do

00:53:04   that that's done great and then can you know different merchants can set

00:53:08   up their stuff and connect. Oh let's get merchandise in there now too right great

00:53:12   let's do that merchandise is in there and then you start seeing like more

00:53:15   exclusive stuff like iTunes has been doing forever and you know you end up

00:53:19   with Apple Music is the only place to buy X person's album. I mean in it because

00:53:23   it really just means like where are they going and you know the idea is now they

00:53:26   have a bunch of people on staff who have been music executives for years. So it's

00:53:31   like what do they do next? Does Apple become a label? Like what do you do? Like

00:53:35   where do you go with this? If you keep stretching it out there is a lot of

00:53:38   different places that Apple could take this if they really really want to flex

00:53:41   their music muscles and buying a company like Beats and bringing on everyone that

00:53:45   that brings on and keeping those people on staff. It does say to me that like

00:53:51   Apple is waking up again to how important music is in their business.

00:53:58   Because they kind of slept for a bit.

00:54:01   And I think that there's something key to say that music was one of the things that

00:54:06   saved Apple.

00:54:07   And maybe they're realizing again just how much of an impact that can have for their

00:54:13   core business.

00:54:15   Because music is, again, everybody, almost everybody, likes music.

00:54:20   and listens to music, at least on a daily basis.

00:54:24   It's one of those things that clicks for people, you know, when you're able to listen to music

00:54:29   in a way that's easy, shared, friendly and relatively cheap.

00:54:35   I feel like people can relate to that.

00:54:38   And what you mentioned about Apple working with the industry, it feels to me like Apple

00:54:45   Apple wants to help the industry, help the fans of music and help themselves.

00:54:51   Of course, because people will come to rely on Apple Music and will buy maybe iPhones

00:54:56   or at least pay Apple a subscription to use Apple Music.

00:55:00   So this way of helping different, you know, working towards different goals, but with

00:55:07   a common product that can, you know, help people listen to listen to music and pay for

00:55:13   or again, maybe in the future, concerts or t-shirts or like exclusives.

00:55:19   I feel like that with the simplicity of an iPhone and maybe Apple Pay, you know, Touch

00:55:24   ID, all this stuff, you remove a lot of barriers.

00:55:27   You remove a lot of friction from not just listening to music, but the world that gravitates

00:55:34   around music.

00:55:35   Yeah, the whole experience.

00:55:37   Yeah.

00:55:38   So, Stephen, tell me before we move on, what are you going to do with Apple Music?

00:55:43   Do you think that you're gonna use it

00:55:44   or are you gonna go back to your hand-picked library

00:55:47   that you have nurtured?

00:55:50   - Yeah, I'm not sure yet.

00:55:51   I've streamed some stuff,

00:55:53   like we talked about earlier in the show

00:55:56   about 1989 driving around town.

00:56:00   I don't know what I'm gonna do with Apple Music.

00:56:02   Yeah, I've done some streaming.

00:56:04   Part of my issue with it is that during the day

00:56:07   I'm at my Mac and while there are issues

00:56:11   in the UI and UX of the iOS app.

00:56:13   In iTunes, it really feels just grafted on

00:56:17   to what they already had.

00:56:19   So, you know, a lot of people, this is a return to iTunes,

00:56:22   so maybe haven't used it in a long time.

00:56:24   But as someone who's been in it every day for like a decade,

00:56:28   it definitely feels added on in sort of a weird way,

00:56:32   where it's just sort of in the music tab across the top.

00:56:36   I was expecting it being a little more broken out.

00:56:39   That's sort of one of my key problems with it.

00:56:42   There's a lot of blurred lines between your local library,

00:56:47   what is available to you in iTunes Match

00:56:49   if you pay for that,

00:56:49   which I let my subscription expire this year,

00:56:52   and what is on Apple Music

00:56:55   that you have downloaded locally to listen to.

00:56:57   So it's, I understand why they're doing it.

00:57:01   I mean, obviously Apple doesn't want you

00:57:03   to worry about library management anymore,

00:57:05   and that's fine, it's not for me.

00:57:08   But for those of us who do want to keep local music

00:57:12   and then use this to augment our libraries,

00:57:14   I wish it were a little bit clearer where things are

00:57:17   and what's available to you where.

00:57:18   There's been a lot of conversation online about,

00:57:21   hey, I told this album to download to my phone,

00:57:23   but iTunes doesn't see it

00:57:25   'cause I have iCloud music turned off,

00:57:27   but if it turned on, it does this other thing.

00:57:29   There's a article by our friend Christina Warren

00:57:32   yesterday on Mashable saying that

00:57:33   if you start mixing these things,

00:57:35   iTunes will blow up your metadata in your local library,

00:57:37   which is not super great.

00:57:39   For me, it's just that lack of clarity is a problem,

00:57:43   but I think where I may settle,

00:57:46   depending on how this trial goes,

00:57:48   is having my local library and then streaming things

00:57:50   that aren't in my library that I wanna listen to,

00:57:53   but not really mixing the local downloads in very much.

00:57:56   But we'll see.

00:57:57   I mean, it's only a couple days old,

00:57:59   and the 90-day trial is so brilliant for people like me

00:58:02   who are really on the fence about this sort of thing.

00:58:06   I think I'll have a pretty definitive answer by the end of the trial.

00:58:10   So many differences between the way that you listen to music and the way that I listen

00:58:15   to music.

00:58:16   Like, I almost never, ever browse my library.

00:58:21   Every time I want to listen to music, I either go to the recommendations page, so I let the

00:58:25   service give music to me, or I search for music, whether it's text search or Siri, now

00:58:31   with Apple Music.

00:58:32   never just go to my library and scroll and I go to the artist and I say yeah I

00:58:36   want to listen to this one. I just either search for a song or an album or I let

00:58:40   the service you know push music to me. So it's interesting to hear like I didn't

00:58:47   even think about the problems you know for iTunes match and iTunes libraries so

00:58:52   that's fascinating to hear Steven. Yeah and Srdi's done a lot of good work over at

00:58:56   iMore explaining those differences and I mean if you sit down and read all that

00:59:00   stuff it does make sense but in the UI Apple should clear that up and you know

00:59:06   this is it's sort of like for me to like to back up from music for one second and

00:59:11   kind of talk about Apple like this is kind of two products in a row following

00:59:15   the Apple watch where the UI is complicated and not immediately obvious

00:59:20   to everybody and understand this like music the music app is doing a lot of

00:59:24   stuff now and you can go into settings on iOS and turn some of it off you can

00:59:30   rearrange some of it same thing in iTunes you can turn it off but it's

00:59:33   there's a lot going on in here and my concern is that it's not immediately

00:59:38   clear what to do not from a I might lose my music standpoint but from a like

00:59:43   Apple is not doing super great at complex software UI design right now and

00:59:50   and I would like them to be better at it.

00:59:53   - But is the watch really confusing after two months?

00:59:55   - I think once you get used to it, it's fine.

00:59:58   Like I never second guess myself now,

01:00:01   but it took a while and a lot of people,

01:00:05   a friend of mine just unboxed one yesterday

01:00:07   and she was like, how do I,

01:00:09   she was asking me very simple questions

01:00:11   that I think her assumption was that she could just

01:00:16   turn it on and start using it because for a long time

01:00:19   how Apple products have been and I you can grow into this and I think after

01:00:24   maybe even as much as the two of you have used Apple music you already have

01:00:27   the UI down but that learning curve is a new thing to a degree and so I just I

01:00:32   would like them to I don't think the answer is to do like iPhotos for iOS

01:00:39   had where it's like a UI overlay with a bunch of arrows on it like please do not

01:00:43   do that again but but I think there's this room for clarity and it's a 1.0 and

01:00:48   and it's, you know, clearly, they had the issue

01:00:51   of they're sort of smashing beats

01:00:53   in the existing music app together,

01:00:54   and that's just a lot of work to do.

01:00:57   So I think overall they did a good job.

01:00:59   I just wouldn't mind a little extra polish on it,

01:01:01   is really all I'm saying.

01:01:02   - Cool, right, let's take our second break,

01:01:06   and then we have a couple of little quick topics

01:01:08   that we wanna get to today.

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01:02:40   connected. So Fento man, haven't heard about that in a long time. Yeah that brought me back.

01:02:45   I had a custom bento job or custom bento template at an old job to track

01:02:51   stuff and it was brilliant. So Federico I assume you're starting the the hard work

01:02:57   of your iOS 9 review?

01:03:00   Yes, I have.

01:03:01   I started taking notes.

01:03:04   Well, I'm taking notes.

01:03:07   I've still got to watch some videos from the WWDC sessions.

01:03:12   My plan this year is to kind of do more.

01:03:16   I want to have a proper iOS review because I feel like in the past few years it's never

01:03:21   been like a full-on review.

01:03:23   It's been more like always a story, like an opinion piece, very in detail sometimes, but

01:03:29   still an opinion piece that didn't cover all of the features.

01:03:33   I just took like a sort of "here's what I use in iOS" and this is my article about it.

01:03:40   And this year I feel like it's appropriate to maybe sometimes even force myself to use

01:03:47   Apple apps that I wouldn't normally use and that's leading to some interesting discoveries

01:03:53   so far using Apple Mail or using Notes or Reminders or the Podcast app because I feel

01:04:00   like I've been using iOS for so long at this point and to do anything for the website,

01:04:08   I use it every day whether it's on my phone or my iPad and I feel like I kind of owe it

01:04:13   to my readers to have a more in-depth, complete review of iOS.

01:04:20   So the approach that I'm taking is, I mean, I cannot cover the more technical aspects,

01:04:27   but I do want to write about and I want to test all of the consumer facing aspects of

01:04:35   iOS 9 and I kind of want to try to see whether during this summer I will be able to talk

01:04:44   to developers who are using some of the new APIs in some new apps that don't, you know,

01:04:51   these features are not available in the system. Like I'm thinking about, there's a new way

01:04:55   to record gameplay in video games on iOS and you can share a video. And I wanna see if,

01:05:02   I mean, Apple doesn't use this, so when you set up a new iOS 9 device from scratch in

01:05:07   September you won't be able to see this feature. But maybe there's an app that will be able

01:05:12   to use this new Gameplay Recording API and I want to see if maybe in my review I can

01:05:16   sort of talk about the APIs in a way that's more practical because I have examples.

01:05:22   So this is why I'm taking notes.

01:05:24   I'm taking a look at the more accessible sessions that I understand and I want to talk to developers.

01:05:31   I want to see if my review can go very in detail in a bunch of different features that

01:05:37   I wouldn't normally cover and I want to see if I can have examples of what I'm talking

01:05:42   about instead of having just a list of here's what's new in Safari, here's what's new in

01:05:47   Notes, here's what's new in Podcasts.

01:05:50   And this is kind of the approach that I want to take and also see of course once I'm on

01:05:54   iOS 9 full-time on all my devices because right now I'm back on iOS 8 on my phone, I

01:06:00   want to see how it changes the way that I work.

01:06:03   And especially, I mean, obviously on the iPad because of multitasking.

01:06:07   But that's been a slow process so far because I don't want to write while I'm still digesting

01:06:12   the information and I feel like I don't have a complete thought around iOS 9 until all

01:06:20   the apps that I use on a daily basis or at least my most used ones are updated to take

01:06:26   advantage of iOS 9.

01:06:29   So obviously you mean with betas though, right?

01:06:31   Because otherwise your review would be really late.

01:06:33   I'll need betas and so far some developers have been using hockey again to put builds

01:06:41   for iOS 9 for testing.

01:06:45   We're all waiting for TestFlight to start accepting iOS 9 builds for external testers

01:06:50   because right now it's only for internal testers for a company.

01:06:54   So yeah, I'm talking about betas and I feel like I've started an outline, I have a basic

01:07:01   I have the introduction, I've already written five paragraphs of what I want to open the review with.

01:07:12   So far I only have many notes, different notes in the app.

01:07:18   So every time I go over a session video or a particular feature, I create a new note

01:07:23   and then I basically have the outline of what's new, like the basic summary and then my thoughts

01:07:30   at the bottom.

01:07:31   And I'm also keeping a list of features and problems that I want to see or that I encounter

01:07:36   with the iOS 9 betas.

01:07:38   All the problems and all the feature requests I create a router on the Apple bug reporter

01:07:44   and I save the number of the radar that I need to, that I send me to Apple.

01:07:51   When it's fixed, I eliminate the note from the Notes app.

01:07:57   If it's not fixed, it will become a problem in my review.

01:08:01   I'm taking this approach and want to see how it goes.

01:08:04   I feel like later this month, maybe even in two weeks, I will be able to start writing.

01:08:13   I'll be in lockdown mode for a month and I'll see how it goes.

01:08:19   So Federico, you are using the notes app with iOS 9, I assume?

01:08:23   Yeah.

01:08:24   Are you writing in there or is that just sort of a research kind of outlining phase and

01:08:28   then you're moving into editorial to actually write?

01:08:30   Yeah, I'm just taking notes and you know, like very small ideas and points so far.

01:08:39   It's like outlines and brief notes.

01:08:42   I wrote the intro in the notes app, but I feel like I should move that to editorial

01:08:47   and start writing from there.

01:08:50   Because every time I write for me, the main problem is seeing the empty document, the

01:08:57   page below, like no text, and that huge hole of emptiness is my biggest problem when getting

01:09:08   started with an article.

01:09:10   So I think I'll just put the outline in there, like merge different notes in a single text

01:09:16   file in editorial and just start writing without worrying about the outline.

01:09:21   And I can put together a very long review, even in two weeks if I want to, but I want

01:09:28   to take a slower, more considerate approach this time.

01:09:33   Again, because I want to do more, and I want to offer the readers a more complete look

01:09:40   at iOS from the perspective of someone who really uses iOS.

01:09:45   So I feel like I need to be a grown up this year.

01:09:49   - No, I think it's great.

01:09:51   And I know I'm the same way.

01:09:53   I'm always the hardest on myself

01:09:55   when it comes to past work.

01:09:56   But I think you have covered iOS really well in the past.

01:10:00   But I kinda see what you're saying.

01:10:01   There hasn't really ever been a Syracusean level

01:10:05   of iOS review.

01:10:07   You're the guy to do that.

01:10:11   You'll do it for 10 years and then you'll have to

01:10:15   retire, but...

01:10:16   - No, I don't think so.

01:10:18   - I'm excited because one thing that you're good at

01:10:22   and that Syracuse was good at, and his OST reviews

01:10:24   was finding little nooks and crannies of the thing.

01:10:27   So the three of us were talking before we recorded

01:10:30   about a way to rearrange the share sheet stuff.

01:10:33   And one of us wasn't aware that's the way it worked

01:10:36   or that it could work that way,

01:10:37   'cause there are multiple ways.

01:10:38   Same on the Mac, there are multiple ways

01:10:41   to get things done sometimes.

01:10:42   And so seeing all that detail fleshed out,

01:10:47   I think it's really exciting, you know,

01:10:48   seeing sort of the fine grain details,

01:10:50   like well, what can you do with notes?

01:10:52   Like I know from Apple's website, I can do bulleted lists

01:10:54   and I can do a bunch of rich text, I can do photos

01:10:56   and like what are the limits of that?

01:10:59   How far can I push it?

01:11:00   What is reasonable to do within it?

01:11:02   I'm excited to read that as someone who uses iOS every day,

01:11:07   not as like my primary system,

01:11:11   But we'll talk about this more next week, but I've got a lot of stuff going on and changing

01:11:18   some of the ways that I work and I want to be able to use the iOS more.

01:11:22   And so that coverage is something that excites me as a Max Stories fanboy.

01:11:27   Thank you.

01:11:29   No pressure Federico.

01:11:30   Oh wow.

01:11:31   Like Steven, he has no expectations for you, clearly.

01:11:35   No, no, it's like just not writing buddy, it's fine.

01:11:39   Yeah, I'm trying not to think about, you know, maybe getting people excited about this.

01:11:48   So maybe even talking about it on the show was a mistake.

01:11:52   But maybe instead it was like therapy, you know, I can talk in the open about my plans

01:11:57   so I don't have to live in secrecy anymore.

01:12:00   And I can also, if you want to, like have progress reports.

01:12:06   I would like that very much actually.

01:12:07   That's what I was about to suggest.

01:12:09   I guess at the end of the day, this is like, it's not a secret that you're going to do

01:12:14   something, so we may as well talk about the process of it a little bit as well.

01:12:18   Yeah, it's a very open development, like early access to my reviews.

01:12:24   We're greenlighting it now.

01:12:26   Yeah, thank you.

01:12:28   Appreciate that, Myke.

01:12:29   Yeah, I'm just, I gotta go over some final session videos, and then I think I'm good

01:12:34   with starting the writing process.

01:12:37   Cool.

01:12:38   Alright guys, I think that about wraps it up for today.

01:12:43   So there is just one last thing that I wanted to mention before we finish today.

01:12:48   We have a new show on Relay FM which is an interesting thing for people that listen to

01:12:54   this show but I think it's something that they should check out.

01:12:56   It's called Material and Material is a show all about Google and Android which is, you

01:13:03   know, come on guys, I want you to be open here." Right, so the show, its hosts are

01:13:07   Russell Ivanovich, Andy Anocco and Yasmin Evgen, and they're talking about

01:13:11   everything that happens in Google and Android. And one of the conceits of the

01:13:15   show, one of the things that they care about, is to create a show that has this

01:13:18   topic, but is created to be listened by everyone, right? So they want Apple

01:13:25   users to listen to the show. And it's something that I wanted and I know that we

01:13:30   wanted for a long time at Relay is to be able to create a show about Google and

01:13:34   Android that could be listened to by anyone so people can kind of like keep

01:13:38   up with what's happening in that world and I think it's gonna be something

01:13:43   that's really cool. The episode one and a special episode zero is out and you can

01:13:47   check them out now at relay.fm/material and I think that you should

01:13:51   because it's gonna be awesome and it is awesome. I've already heard the first

01:13:54   episode and I think you're really gonna enjoy it so please go give it a listen.

01:13:58   yeah it's uh it's real quick it's it's a super exciting no we've talked about

01:14:04   like you said talking about doing a Google show for a long time and and

01:14:09   Russell and and the group have done such a great job making it accessible you

01:14:15   know I was listening to episode one the other day and it it's their their

01:14:22   approach to it is not, you know, Google's is the the only way but again like we all

01:14:29   live, and they even talked about in the show, like we all live in multiple

01:14:31   ecosystems. Like we've talked about it here where we use Apple hardware and we

01:14:35   use iCloud but you know we also like use Google Apps like Relay runs on top of

01:14:39   Google stuff and and the reality is that no one lived, most people at least, don't

01:14:45   live in a single company's camp but we we bridge and we do different things and

01:14:50   And so approaching Google the way that we approach Apple here on Connected, I think

01:14:56   the two shows are very complimentary in that way.

01:14:58   And you should definitely check it out.

01:15:00   It's really great and we're just so thrilled to be working with those guys.

01:15:06   So that about wraps it up for this week's episode.

01:15:08   If you want to find the show notes for today, you should go over to relay.fm/connected/46.

01:15:15   Thanks again to our sponsors, Tapforms and Squarespace.

01:15:19   Thank you for listening and also thanks to my co-host as always Mr. Steven Hackett who

01:15:23   you can find on Twitter.

01:15:24   He is @ismh and he writes at 512pixels.net and Federica Vitici at vitici v-i-t-i-c-c-i.

01:15:30   He writes at maxstories.net and I am imike@imyke on Twitter and we'll be back next time.

01:15:37   Until then, say goodbye guys.

01:15:39   Arrivederci.

01:15:40   Adios.