Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► *Intro Music*

00:00:07 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 20.

00:00:11 ◼   ► This show is brought to you by Lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts for a 10-day free trial.

00:00:18 ◼   ► Visit Lynda.com/Connected.

00:00:20 ◼   ► Squarespace, start here, go anywhere, and Sketch Party TV, the fun, fast drawing and guessing game for Apple TV.

00:00:28 ◼   ► My name is Myke Hurley and I'm joined today by Mr. Steven Hackett.

00:00:31 ◼   ► Hello, Steven Hackett.

00:00:32 ◼   ► Hello, Michael Hurley.

00:00:34 ◼   ► And this is it.

00:00:35 ◼   ► It's just the two of us today.

00:00:36 ◼   ► Just the two...

00:00:37 ◼   ► Hi, how you doing?

00:00:38 ◼   ► It's...

00:00:39 ◼   ► I miss Federico, but this is kind of like old times.

00:00:41 ◼   ► It is kind of like old times.

00:00:43 ◼   ► Many people who listen to this show may not know, but once, many moon ago, me and Steven,

00:00:47 ◼   ► we had our own little technology show that we did together.

00:00:50 ◼   ► It's just the two of us before the prompt, even.

00:00:54 ◼   ► Pre-prompt.

00:00:55 ◼   ► Pre-prompt.

00:00:56 ◼   ► Yeah, pre-prompt.

00:00:57 ◼   ► prompt. So I have to say we have three of, well, we have two of the most amazing

00:01:03 ◼   ► pieces of follow-up and the third one is special, I don't mean to downplay it, but

00:01:09 ◼   ► some very important follow-up, Michael. Very important. If you remember a

00:01:16 ◼   ► couple weeks ago we were talking about Twitter clients. Do you remember that?

00:01:23 ◼   ► I do remember that. Do you know what? I remember it. I remember it so well. It's

00:01:26 ◼   ► It's like it's all coming back to me now.

00:01:28 ◼   ► What are you getting me for Christmas, Myke?

00:01:32 ◼   ► A Twitter client.

00:01:34 ◼   ► Really?

00:01:35 ◼   ► Yeah, I've been developing tg-tweet for a few months now.

00:01:40 ◼   ► I'm happy to say that I really like it.

00:01:42 ◼   ► I am using Swift.

00:01:44 ◼   ► Yep, so it runs nice and fast for you.

00:01:47 ◼   ► Yep.

00:01:48 ◼   ► That's really your summary of Swift.

00:01:51 ◼   ► It runs nice and fast.

00:01:53 ◼   ► Nice and fast.

00:01:55 ◼   ► So if there, hang on, before we talk about the real topic, if there was a

00:01:59 ◼   ► teachy twitter app, I think that you would open the app and it's a grid and there's a picture of pasta,

00:02:07 ◼   ► there's a picture of espresso, there's a picture of an ipad, and then there's a picture of a question

00:02:13 ◼   ► mark, and you tap the buttons and a tweet goes out, it's it's pre-populated, a tweet goes out about one

00:02:19 ◼   ► of those items. So if you hit the ipad, something about working on the ipad, pasta or espresso,

00:02:24 ◼   ► But if you hit the question mark, it searches "Giffy" at randomly pulling from the dictionary

00:02:32 ◼   ► and posts that.

00:02:33 ◼   ► And I frankly think that podcasting is over and we should develop this app full time.

00:02:38 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't know why we're still waiting around here.

00:02:44 ◼   ► Somebody's made DJ tweets.

00:02:48 ◼   ► You can find it in the App Store.

00:02:49 ◼   ► There's a link to our share notes.

00:02:51 ◼   ► And I have to say, Myke, I've been testing this app for a couple of weeks now, and frankly

00:02:56 ◼   ► I've uninstalled every other app on my phone.

00:02:59 ◼   ► It's literally just this.

00:03:00 ◼   ► So this is incredible.

00:03:01 ◼   ► So this was made by a really close friend of the show now, Daniel Breslin.

00:03:06 ◼   ► He's family of the show.

00:03:08 ◼   ► Within 24 hours of that show coming out, he had an alpha version that he sent us a Test

00:03:14 ◼   ► Flight invite for, and then we kind of gave some simple feedback, and I know that you

00:03:19 ◼   ► helped out craft some of the tweets and now it's here. So basically it's an app

00:03:24 ◼   ► and you can find it in the show notes which if you go to relay.fm/connected/20

00:03:29 ◼   ► you will find the show notes and you are presented with a few choices some emoji

00:03:33 ◼   ► choices and you select from them and it will randomly give you it will randomly

00:03:38 ◼   ► give you tweets that you can send out in the style of Federica Fettucci. It's all

00:03:43 ◼   ► hashtagged and everything. It's incredible. It's so funny. It's just great. It's a great

00:03:50 ◼   ► example of what we love about you guys. And Danny, thank you so much for bringing my app

00:03:56 ◼   ► to life. Actually, I mean, my code name is Danny, and I built this app as I explained

00:04:03 ◼   ► that.

00:04:04 ◼   ► That's right. That's right. Well, if Danny were real, and if Danny were to get in touch,

00:04:07 ◼   ► I would definitely mail Danny a Fattici seal of approval.

00:04:10 ◼   ► Right, we can do that.

00:04:12 ◼   ► Well actually, I think he's in the UK, so maybe I should just do that.

00:04:15 ◼   ► Yeah, maybe you should just... we can... workflows behind the scenes stuff. People

00:04:20 ◼   ► don't even know how the sausage is made. Speaking of that, we also have a movie poster.

00:04:28 ◼   ► If you remember last week, our movie "Reconnected" written by Federico Viticci starring Bradley

00:04:34 ◼   ► Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is definitely underway.

00:04:40 ◼   ► it's being written right now. It'll be in pre-production very soon.

00:04:44 ◼   ► But we have our movie poster, which you can see on Twitter.

00:04:48 ◼   ► And I have to say, seeing the three of us together like this really gets me

00:04:52 ◼   ► excited about our art. Doesn't it, you?

00:04:57 ◼   ► I am very, yes, I was very happy to see this.

00:05:00 ◼   ► There have been, I've tried to tell many people in my life this week

00:05:05 ◼   ► about this movie. A lot of people aren't interested.

00:05:09 ◼   ► Like people on the subway, like, "Hey, I'm going to be in a movie with Brad the Cooper."

00:05:15 ◼   ► Well, I'm not going to be in the movie. He's playing you, and I'm being played by Benedict

00:05:21 ◼   ► Cumberbatch. Many people that I've shown this picture to, this was originally including myself,

00:05:26 ◼   ► didn't even know that he was ever in a movie where he had a beard like that.

00:05:29 ◼   ► Really, my favorite part of it is how he looks crazy with that beard, and looking off into space.

00:05:37 ◼   ► My beard is kind of that length right now.

00:05:40 ◼   ► It's grown really quickly, which is great fun for everyone, especially me.

00:05:46 ◼   ► Wow.

00:05:48 ◼   ► So there's that.

00:05:50 ◼   ► And I think that it's maybe the best thing that's ever happened to Hollywood,

00:05:57 ◼   ► really, in the history of Hollywood, the best thing.

00:06:01 ◼   ► It's going to save the movie industry.

00:06:03 ◼   ► Sony destroyed it, and we're going to fix it.

00:06:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:06:06 ◼   ► So you might read about this in those Sony leaked documents.

00:06:10 ◼   ► Nope.

00:06:10 ◼   ► Hopefully you won't.

00:06:12 ◼   ► Jimmy Boss, Boss A, Jimmy Boss A on Twitter has--

00:06:18 ◼   ► I think you're giving him a bit more flair.

00:06:21 ◼   ► Well, I mean, he's got a beard.

00:06:23 ◼   ► He's got glasses.

00:06:24 ◼   ► He needs a little flair.

00:06:26 ◼   ► He's got a little flair to him.

00:06:27 ◼   ► He has giraffes as his profile picture.

00:06:29 ◼   ► It's awesome.

00:06:30 ◼   ► He has loaded our show notes in the PS3 browser.

00:06:34 ◼   ► Myke, do you own a PS3?

00:06:36 ◼   ► No, I own a PS4.

00:06:37 ◼   ► PS4. I didn't know if you had a PS3. I assumed the browser is terrible. But you can zoom, so he has

00:06:43 ◼   ► this. It appears to be on his television in his living room. There's kid stuff around,

00:06:49 ◼   ► and there's a picture of the three of us for all of his family to enjoy. We are partaking

00:06:54 ◼   ► in his home life now with his family, and I think that's really sweet. PS3. I do have to say, Myke,

00:07:02 ◼   ► can we have a little follow-up confession?

00:07:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:07:05 ◼   ► I believe that I promised screenshots running in Next Step and I failed.

00:07:13 ◼   ► Why did you fail? Do you not know how to use computers?

00:07:16 ◼   ► I forgot until just now. Maybe I can do it during the show.

00:07:21 ◼   ► How would you do that in some sort of virtual machine?

00:07:24 ◼   ► Yes, let's see if I have it on here. I do, I have Next Step 3.3.

00:07:31 ◼   ► I guess that might be open step. Let's see. Okay. I'll do this. We can carry on with the

00:07:37 ◼   ► show. If I get screenshots during the show, we will real-time follow up to our follow-up.

00:07:42 ◼   ► I don't know how comfortable I am with you doing that whilst we record. I feel like something could

00:07:48 ◼   ► go horribly wrong. What do you mean? I don't know. Well, one, I feel like I could lose you

00:07:54 ◼   ► into some sort of like fugue state. Running next step? Yeah, just because you'll be like,

00:08:00 ◼   ► you know you'll feel at home and you'll never want to leave and then then the

00:08:05 ◼   ► podcast will have to stop because like if it's like a time travel movie or

00:08:09 ◼   ► something because you end up going so far back in the past that podcasting

00:08:14 ◼   ► doesn't even exist and then the show will end. I think you might be overreacting.

00:08:20 ◼   ► Well it is my job in this business to just think about the the possible

00:08:25 ◼   ► problems and then you fix them. That does seem to be our scenario. Myke, why don't you

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00:09:41 ◼   ► Lynda.com have highlighted a few courses that they think that you'd be interested in.

00:09:44 ◼   ► So for listeners of this show they were thinking about what do they think listeners of Connected

00:09:49 ◼   ► will like. So what about getting started in audio and music production? Maybe you

00:09:53 ◼   ► want to create your own podcast. They have some great courses there on stuff

00:09:55 ◼   ► like Logic and things like that. What about the documentaries Helvetica

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00:10:09 ◼   ► Lynda.com as well. Maybe you want to learn a bit about design. I've seen some

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00:10:20 ◼   ► interested in. They have this great new innovative course which is called their

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00:10:30 ◼   ► that they'll have a code problem and then a bunch of different people will

00:10:34 ◼   ► present different answers in different methods so you can kind of see the

00:10:38 ◼   ► thinking of a bunch of different people. It's a really interesting way of kind of

00:10:42 ◼   ► looking at different development challenges and stuff like that.

00:10:45 ◼   ► I saw that and I thought that was pretty interesting.

00:10:49 ◼   ► I can imagine for people that are trying to learn this type of stuff it's cool because

00:10:53 ◼   ► you can see different people's different ways of thinking.

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00:11:19 ◼   ► Thank you so much to Lynda.com for supporting this show and all of Real AFM.

00:11:23 ◼   ► That's Lynda.com/connected.

00:11:24 ◼   ► So we thought we would spend today, which is the last episode of 2014, looking back

00:11:35 ◼   ► at the year, but not just at Apple, but kind of looking at some of the big tech stories

00:11:40 ◼   ► of the year.

00:11:41 ◼   ► And I don't think we're going to go back through them in detail, but kind of see what

00:11:45 ◼   ► stuck? Like what has remained important? What sort of... didn't it just get

00:11:51 ◼   ► washed away? But what has remained for 2014? And shockingly we found stories for

00:11:57 ◼   ► every month of the year which was a little bit... actually it wasn't as hard as

00:12:02 ◼   ► I thought it would be. So there was an interesting way that I cheated

00:12:06 ◼   ► a little bit on this. Oh, share your workflow. Yeah I would like to share my

00:12:09 ◼   ► workflow. When we were putting these documents together we were like looking

00:12:13 ◼   ► through some stuff things are coming to mind I was looking at some other

00:12:16 ◼   ► roundups as well and picking out some things that I thought were interesting

00:12:19 ◼   ► and then there are a couple of months that were empty so I went to the show

00:12:24 ◼   ► notes of the show and just looked at the descriptions that's like oh yeah that

00:12:29 ◼   ► happened wow there was a good there was a quiet window for a couple of months

00:12:33 ◼   ► but I don't know what that was about I mean every year there's you know as you

00:12:39 ◼   ► have... there was no show. Oh interesting. So yeah I thought we're gonna go through

00:12:47 ◼   ► month by month and we're gonna pick out a couple of the stories that we find

00:12:50 ◼   ► interesting and maybe talk about if they still actually mean the same thing you

00:12:56 ◼   ► know as we thought or if they've basically just gone away. I like this

00:13:01 ◼   ► plan a lot so let's start in the beginning with January. CES coming up

00:13:07 ◼   ► some CES stuff last year happened. You know for me at least, I don't know how

00:13:12 ◼   ► you feel Myke, but like I just get really tired during CES. Like you know I follow

00:13:16 ◼   ► I follow the Virgin and Gadget and like they'll have 400 posts a day about some

00:13:21 ◼   ► crazy like TV that's 3D and curved and like I don't care about those things.

00:13:29 ◼   ► Yeah. So I find I personally find CES very tiring but you know there's always

00:13:35 ◼   ► a few things here and there that sort of come out and I think one of the things

00:13:40 ◼   ► that is obviously still making an impact is the Pebble Steel which was announced

00:13:44 ◼   ► at CES last year which you are wearing on your wrist right now.

00:13:49 ◼   ► Yep. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted it. So I was always interested in a

00:13:54 ◼   ► Pebble but I didn't like the way the plastic ones looked. But the Steel one I

00:14:00 ◼   ► liked I liked the view of it it had like this wasn't exclusive to the Pebble

00:14:04 ◼   ► but it came with like the second version of pebbles software so I decided to go

00:14:10 ◼   ► for it and plus they were doing a deal I can't remember how much it was but I

00:14:13 ◼   ► think it was free like expedited shipping and there was a little bit of

00:14:17 ◼   ► money off I think something like that when they when they first announced it

00:14:20 ◼   ► if you pre-ordered so I pre-ordered I think like the day it was announced and

00:14:24 ◼   ► and I maybe got it in February maybe something like that and I've worn it

00:14:29 ◼   ► every day except for my brief stint with the OGG watch but I continue to love it

00:14:36 ◼   ► and it's one of the best tech purchases that I've made this year for me

00:14:41 ◼   ► because it it's really improved the way that I use these sort of connected

00:14:47 ◼   ► devices in my life. Connected devices? Mm-hmm. Another one in January I think

00:14:56 ◼   ► happened right after CES was Google announced that they bought Nest for 3.2

00:15:01 ◼   ► billion dollars which is a big price tag but as we come like further about 2014

00:15:07 ◼   ► like really not all that much money like remember when they bought Facebook

00:15:11 ◼   ► bought Instagram for 1 billion and now people measure like acquisitions and how

00:15:15 ◼   ► many instagrams it is yeah but you know there was a lot of a lot of blowback

00:15:22 ◼   ► especially from like, I hate to say this,

00:15:24 ◼   ► but from the Apple community,

00:15:26 ◼   ► that Google was going to be doing creepy things,

00:15:28 ◼   ► like people were between, they were going to take nests

00:15:30 ◼   ► off their wall, which is ridiculous,

00:15:31 ◼   ► like I own a nest, I'm,

00:15:33 ◼   ► everything is opt-in with Google,

00:15:36 ◼   ► like I'm not, you don't have to send stuff to them.

00:15:38 ◼   ► They've done really very little in terms of

00:15:42 ◼   ► bringing Nest closer in line with Google stuff.

00:15:46 ◼   ► I think there's some Google Now integration now,

00:15:47 ◼   ► but again, that's opt-in.

00:15:50 ◼   ► But clearly a really big announcement for like the quote "Internet of Things" of, you know,

00:15:55 ◼   ► hey, like these internet connected devices, but now sold by a giant company, which is

00:16:02 ◼   ► pretty interesting.

00:16:03 ◼   ► Yeah, I think the interest, one of the things that I find interesting about this is that

00:16:10 ◼   ► it's been pretty much a year and Nest do seem still to be pretty separate.

00:16:19 ◼   ► They do and one thing that's a little surprising a year later is that they haven't had much

00:16:26 ◼   ► in the way of new announcements.

00:16:28 ◼   ► I know the thermostat got a pretty nice software update, mine just got it a couple weeks ago,

00:16:33 ◼   ► and they've got the smoke alarm but I believe the smoke alarm predated the Google acquisition

00:16:38 ◼   ► I think.

00:16:41 ◼   ► Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

00:16:44 ◼   ► But I don't know what I was expecting but it seems to have been kind of quiet on that

00:16:48 ◼   ► front since then. So I don't know if they have new hardware coming.

00:16:52 ◼   ► Hardware takes a long time. I think part of this is that I forget that

00:16:58 ◼   ► the NES took a long time to develop because hardware is difficult. But I'm

00:17:03 ◼   ► looking forward to seeing what they do. And I think with Google backing them, I

00:17:06 ◼   ► think the sky's the limit on what Tony Fadell and his team can create.

00:17:10 ◼   ► Yeah it's one of those interesting things as well. It's like what do you

00:17:13 ◼   ► continue, what do you make? At some point you just need to iterate what

00:17:16 ◼   ► you've got and then think of other things.

00:17:19 ◼   ► They don't need to have 20 different products,

00:17:21 ◼   ► just the ones that make sense

00:17:22 ◼   ► and have them connect up in a nice way.

00:17:24 ◼   ► There's definitely scope for growth

00:17:27 ◼   ► and that's probably one of the main reasons

00:17:30 ◼   ► I would expect that they accepted the Google deal,

00:17:32 ◼   ► is it gave them facilities and resources

00:17:37 ◼   ► you wouldn't believe to go out and do this stuff.

00:17:41 ◼   ► I expect that they are probably in product development mode,

00:17:45 ◼   ► in a heavy, heavy way right now,

00:17:47 ◼   ► 'cause there's so many things the company now

00:17:48 ◼   ► doesn't need to worry about,

00:17:50 ◼   ► 'cause they've got Google looking after them instead.

00:17:52 ◼   ► - Right.

00:17:53 ◼   ► I do think the overall fervor has died down

00:18:00 ◼   ► from the Apple crowd.

00:18:04 ◼   ► I don't know if anyone actually took them off their walls.

00:18:06 ◼   ► I hope not, I think that's a really childish reaction.

00:18:10 ◼   ► But like you said, I think they're in good shape.

00:18:15 ◼   ► But it's kind of funny, I didn't really put these two together until we did this

00:18:22 ◼   ► document. So they bought NES for 3.2 billion in early January and the end of

00:18:27 ◼   ► January they sold Motorola to Lenovo for 2.91 billion.

00:18:33 ◼   ► Yeah this was such an interesting story because it proved what so many people

00:18:36 ◼   ► thought was the point in the first place. Like Google originally bought Motorola

00:18:41 ◼   ► it was like a defensive strategy when they needed some patents, right? Because they

00:18:45 ◼   ► were going into a lawsuit with Apple. They heavily overpaid because they did

00:18:48 ◼   ► it in a rush and then they sold them for just basically a hair on the what they

00:18:54 ◼   ► paid for them in the first instance. Yeah which is a little embarrassing. You know

00:19:01 ◼   ► what a great deal for Lenovo though. Yeah. I'm totally wrong so I have to correct

00:19:07 ◼   ► myself. They paid 12.5 billion for them in 2012 and then sold them for 2 billion

00:19:13 ◼   ► in January 2014.

00:19:17 ◼   ► Like that is, you know, what a deal for Lenovo.

00:19:20 ◼   ► Like what an incredible deal that they had.

00:19:24 ◼   ► It's so sad as well because Motorola were doing such interesting stuff.

00:19:29 ◼   ► But no, not at least in the smartphone arena.

00:19:34 ◼   ► Well they were.

00:19:36 ◼   ► Their Android phones were awesome.

00:19:39 ◼   ► Occasionally they had an awesome one.

00:19:40 ◼   ► The original Droid was great, I owned one for a long time, but then they just got in

00:19:43 ◼   ► bed with Verizon and made the Drodo the Drodo.

00:19:46 ◼   ► The Drodo, the Drodo.

00:19:48 ◼   ► Everybody remembers that phone.

00:19:50 ◼   ► It's a flightless Android phone.

00:19:51 ◼   ► I'm talking about the stuff they did with Google, the G and the X.

00:19:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:19:56 ◼   ► And they were really interesting phones.

00:19:58 ◼   ► Sure, I own a Moto G. The Moto X is great, and I think if I were to buy an Android phone

00:20:03 ◼   ► today I'd buy the Moto X. But it, you know, I think this story doesn't exist in a vacuum,

00:20:09 ◼   ► None of these do.

00:20:10 ◼   ► This is Motorola's decline, I think, before the G and the X had a lot to do with Verizon.

00:20:18 ◼   ► They were making phones only for Verizon in the States.

00:20:21 ◼   ► They're very aggressive in their marketing, but not in a good way.

00:20:25 ◼   ► Samsung came in and just ate their lunch.

00:20:30 ◼   ► For a long time, the original Droid was the Android phone to buy, but then Samsung just

00:20:37 ◼   ► flooded the market and Motorola's penetration never really made a pass

00:20:41 ◼   ► Verizon and and so for Lenovo to come in now they're doing the the G and the X

00:20:47 ◼   ► have both been updated they both look really good I think the X especially

00:20:52 ◼   ► looks amazing for for you know coming from a company that's not Apple like

00:20:57 ◼   ► it's the I think I really think it is one of the Android phones to buy but I

00:21:02 ◼   ► think it's more interesting from the Lenovo perspective you know they bought

00:21:05 ◼   ► ThinkPad business forever ago from IBM, Lenovo has been very successful in the

00:21:09 ◼   ► PC market much more so than some of these other guys and and they're you

00:21:14 ◼   ► know I think Lenovo is slowly making a play to be a real contender but like

00:21:20 ◼   ► everyone else they don't control any of their own software so I'm curious what

00:21:23 ◼   ► Lenovo is going to do with Motorola they're going to continue you know so

00:21:27 ◼   ► far they've run basically stock Android plus a few special features but are they

00:21:32 ◼   ► going to look at developing something else that can own the whole stack?

00:21:36 ◼   ► I genuinely think that in five years time we'll look back and say how Google could have

00:21:42 ◼   ► won like completely flat out could have won if they would have continued to make or just

00:21:48 ◼   ► made their own devices. I really do think the fact that they do not make their own Android

00:21:53 ◼   ► devices which take advantage of everything that they try and make from a software side

00:21:58 ◼   ► and really push the Nexus platform into being something that is its own brand, like what

00:22:02 ◼   ► Microsoft is about to start doing with the Lumia brand.

00:22:06 ◼   ► Right but Google is in the same boat Microsoft, especially was in, you know, maybe before

00:22:14 ◼   ► five or six years ago, where like, if Google were to step in and say, "Hey, you know, we're

00:22:18 ◼   ► gonna make an Android phone" and people feared this when they did it.

00:22:23 ◼   ► Like Google can't really like make Samsung angry because Google needs Samsung to run

00:22:30 ◼   ► Android on its phones.

00:22:32 ◼   ► I don't think it's the same and the reason I don't think it's the same is because Google's

00:22:36 ◼   ► revenue does not come from licensing of the software.

00:22:42 ◼   ► Samsung now needs Google more than Google needs Samsung because the phones are already

00:22:46 ◼   ► out there so the market share is there, right?

00:22:49 ◼   ► People have got the phones are out there.

00:22:51 ◼   ► need to be able to continue to sell new Galaxy phones, so they can't move away from Android

00:22:55 ◼   ► now.

00:22:57 ◼   ► So they will continue to do that.

00:22:58 ◼   ► They're locked in, in the way that potentially Windows OEMs won.

00:23:02 ◼   ► And I genuinely think that Google should be making their own phones.

00:23:06 ◼   ► I think it would be a lot better for them if they were able to do that.

00:23:11 ◼   ► Like one, Google should have bought Nokia, and Nokia should have made Android phones

00:23:15 ◼   ► for them.

00:23:16 ◼   ► They really missed out in letting Microsoft get to them first.

00:23:20 ◼   ► I think that there are parallels or lines to draw between them, but there are just enough

00:23:25 ◼   ► nuanced differences where I think that it's going to make a big difference over the next

00:23:30 ◼   ► few years.

00:23:31 ◼   ► The market's always going to be there, but they could be completely dominant, completely.

00:23:35 ◼   ► Yeah, and I can't help but wonder from Google's perspective how they view that scenario.

00:23:46 ◼   ► Do they view it that it's okay that Samsung takes Android and just does crazy things

00:23:50 ◼   ► with it.

00:23:51 ◼   ► I mean, clearly they are to a degree because it continues to happen.

00:23:54 ◼   ► They've made pushes with lollipop and some other things to incentivize OEMs to stay closer

00:24:01 ◼   ► to stock.

00:24:02 ◼   ► But it's definitely an odd position.

00:24:05 ◼   ► I think your point about the license fee is really good.

00:24:11 ◼   ► Clearly not exactly the same scenario, but it's weird, right?

00:24:14 ◼   ► When you make a product for your competitors in a way.

00:24:18 ◼   ► is a really strange... it's like Samsung and Apple, right? Samsung and Apple are

00:24:22 ◼   ► suing each other into oblivion in court, but Samsung makes a ton of

00:24:26 ◼   ► components for Apple's devices. It's sort of weird, but then

00:24:31 ◼   ► you have to remember these corporations are huge, and the part of Samsung

00:24:34 ◼   ► that makes chips and parts is different from the part of Samsung

00:24:39 ◼   ► that's selling phones in a Sprint store. So anyways... That was January.

00:24:44 ◼   ► - What's next on the calendar?

00:24:47 ◼   ► - So after January comes a little month called February

00:24:50 ◼   ► and it's a little month because it's shorter

00:24:52 ◼   ► than all the other months, Stephen,

00:24:53 ◼   ► I don't know if you know that,

00:24:53 ◼   ► but sometimes, every four years, it gets an extra day.

00:24:57 ◼   ► - It's like a little bonus.

00:24:58 ◼   ► Did you know anyone who was born on a leap day?

00:25:00 ◼   ► - No, I do not know anybody who was born on a leap day.

00:25:02 ◼   ► - I grew up with a girl, we went to school together,

00:25:05 ◼   ► who was born on a leap day.

00:25:06 ◼   ► And so the joke was that she was like,

00:25:10 ◼   ► I don't know if we were 16, that she was really four.

00:25:12 ◼   ► I think since you probably got tired of that joke.

00:25:16 ◼   ► But it's weird.

00:25:20 ◼   ► So Microsoft has some news in February.

00:25:22 ◼   ► Huge news.

00:25:23 ◼   ► Huge.

00:25:24 ◼   ► Huge news.

00:25:25 ◼   ► Satya Nadella became the CEO in February.

00:25:29 ◼   ► When did Balmer leave?

00:25:32 ◼   ► It was in 2014, wasn't it?

00:25:35 ◼   ► Well they announced it and then the takeover felt really quick.

00:25:41 ◼   ► It felt like a matter of weeks that there was a search.

00:25:46 ◼   ► Yeah, so maybe we can find that.

00:25:49 ◼   ► Kyle says August 2013.

00:25:51 ◼   ► That seems too far back.

00:25:52 ◼   ► Anyways, so this guy, Nadella, was at Microsoft.

00:25:56 ◼   ► He was in the part of the company that was cloud services, not from the consumer or enterprise

00:26:03 ◼   ► software side, but cloud enterprise solution type stuff.

00:26:09 ◼   ► And I for one, I don't know how you feel, I guess we're getting ready to hear, I really

00:26:14 ◼   ► like him.

00:26:15 ◼   ► I think it's a great move for Microsoft, A, to hire from within.

00:26:18 ◼   ► If you're going to do that, you can't pick somebody from Office or Windows because those

00:26:22 ◼   ► products are not the whole story of Microsoft's future.

00:26:25 ◼   ► I think they still have a part of Microsoft's future, but Microsoft has to become more well-rounded

00:26:30 ◼   ► with things like Azure services for it to survive in the 21st century.

00:26:34 ◼   ► And that's where this guy comes from, it's his bread and butter.

00:26:37 ◼   ► And so to put that at the CEO level is real smart.

00:26:41 ◼   ► - I am maybe more excited about what Microsoft could do

00:26:46 ◼   ► in the next few years than maybe any other tech company.

00:26:50 ◼   ► Because they are uniquely positioned right now

00:26:54 ◼   ► to do some crazy stuff, right?

00:26:57 ◼   ► Because no one's really expecting them to do anything

00:27:00 ◼   ► that all of the other tech companies are doing.

00:27:03 ◼   ► Nobody's expecting Microsoft to have a great phone.

00:27:06 ◼   ► Everyone's expecting that, but everyone's expecting it with Google and Apple every year.

00:27:11 ◼   ► So Nadella can kind of do anything because their expectations are continue to have Office

00:27:18 ◼   ► and Windows.

00:27:20 ◼   ► And that's just going to happen because they don't even really need to innovate.

00:27:26 ◼   ► People are still going to buy it.

00:27:27 ◼   ► What they've proven is if they innovate too much, people won't buy it.

00:27:31 ◼   ► So they can kind of coast on that and do some new things.

00:27:34 ◼   ► clearly the company is evolving and developing and changing because you've got all the Dropbox

00:27:44 ◼   ► stuff is crazy to me, but in the best possible way.

00:27:51 ◼   ► So the fact that you don't need to have an Office 365 account to use their apps anymore,

00:27:56 ◼   ► you can just use Dropbox, and they're heavily integrating Dropbox into Office, that makes

00:28:02 ◼   ► no sense because they have their own product. They have OneDrive. But what

00:28:06 ◼   ► they're showing is we shouldn't, and it's the way everybody feels it

00:28:10 ◼   ► should be, we shouldn't push people towards a product. Just let them into our

00:28:15 ◼   ► platform however they want to get into it. It's the way that like

00:28:19 ◼   ► Nadella to me feels like an average nerd who thinks about things in average nerd

00:28:24 ◼   ► ways rather than a CEO of a company. And maybe you know I'm sure that's all

00:28:29 ◼   ► like not all but to a point it's a facade right it's good business but yeah

00:28:34 ◼   ► I'm I'm I'm very yeah it's just it's just I'm very interested in him and I'm

00:28:39 ◼   ► very interested in what they're gonna do next. Yeah and they did they did

00:28:42 ◼   ► announce his retirement August of 2013 there's a all things D-Link in the

00:28:47 ◼   ► show notes. It felt quick though. Yeah it did and I think I think one thing that's

00:28:52 ◼   ► so exciting about this guy is that Balmer was like the last man standing of

00:28:57 ◼   ► of the Mac and PC wars, like Jobs is gone,

00:29:01 ◼   ► Gates is more or less out of the picture,

00:29:03 ◼   ► though he's kind of back now on the board.

00:29:05 ◼   ► But like the age of like 80s and 90s fighting

00:29:10 ◼   ► for the desktop, Balmer was the veteran of that

00:29:14 ◼   ► and he carried that baggage into the 21st century.

00:29:17 ◼   ► I really think that's why he saw issues like

00:29:20 ◼   ► Office not being on iOS for a really long time.

00:29:24 ◼   ► I can't help but think that part of that is at Ballmer's feet.

00:29:30 ◼   ► And so to see that generation of leadership go into the sunset and to see somebody new

00:29:37 ◼   ► who didn't come up railing against Apple, but came up and Apple was just a known quantity,

00:29:45 ◼   ► I think is a really key difference and I think one that does free them up to do things.

00:29:50 ◼   ► Microsoft doesn't have to always have an eye cut towards Apple anymore.

00:29:54 ◼   ► They can fight with both hands.

00:29:55 ◼   ► They don't have to have one tied behind their back.

00:29:57 ◼   ► I'm really speaking in a lot of metaphors today, Michael,

00:29:59 ◼   ► but it's because I'm excited.

00:30:01 ◼   ► It's like to a lesser extent,

00:30:03 ◼   ► like saying what you did then about like being encumbered by the old wars,

00:30:07 ◼   ► it's kind of a little bit like what Apple becomes at WWDC, right?

00:30:12 ◼   ► So,

00:30:12 ◼   ► Jobs and his like restriction on things and the way he needs to think about

00:30:17 ◼   ► things went away.

00:30:18 ◼   ► and then a bunch of Android-like features comes to iOS.

00:30:21 ◼   ► There's a parallel.

00:30:24 ◼   ► I mean, I always feel like in these conversations,

00:30:26 ◼   ► it has to be noted that Microsoft's most profitable era

00:30:30 ◼   ► was under the Marvel leadership.

00:30:32 ◼   ► It has to be noted, because it's true.

00:30:35 ◼   ► And everybody says failing Microsoft,

00:30:38 ◼   ► but they're making more money with him

00:30:41 ◼   ► than they did at any other point.

00:30:43 ◼   ► But it's the irrelevance that's the problem.

00:30:46 ◼   ► Right.

00:30:49 ◼   ► And the relevance not only in the consumer space, but what's terrifying to Microsoft

00:30:54 ◼   ► is growing your relevance in small and medium business.

00:30:59 ◼   ► You and I have a small business.

00:31:00 ◼   ► I work for a small business.

00:31:01 ◼   ► It was my day job.

00:31:03 ◼   ► We don't use anything in Microsoft.

00:31:05 ◼   ► You and I use Skype.

00:31:06 ◼   ► But we're not dependent on them like we would have been had we started our business in 1993.

00:31:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:31:13 ◼   ► Google definitely dominates our small business services, for that shadow of a doubt.

00:31:16 ◼   ► we use them for Google Apps and we use Google Docs more than anything else.

00:31:21 ◼   ► If you think, so many of the things that Microsoft used to do in

00:31:26 ◼   ► the business, we use Google instead. We don't use Exchange and we

00:31:30 ◼   ► don't use Office. They're kind of the key business points and we

00:31:35 ◼   ► just don't touch them ever. Sometimes I do have to use Office because people send

00:31:39 ◼   ► me weird documents but that's it. What is this dot doc? I don't even know what to do with it. Man Office for the Mac is so bad. I know that they're gonna be bringing out like the metro one and I cannot wait for that because yeah it's so many parts of it are not retina.

00:31:57 ◼   ► Before we move on to Facebook and WhatsApp can I can I share with you something? Yes.

00:32:01 ◼   ► - It's between me and you.

00:32:03 ◼   ► - There's no beneath the sink, so.

00:32:05 ◼   ► - That's factually untrue.

00:32:07 ◼   ► So I really, I liked Microsoft Entourage in college.

00:32:13 ◼   ► Every student had an exchange account and it was great.

00:32:16 ◼   ► Because I really liked mail, calendar, contacts,

00:32:19 ◼   ► all being in one app and I really want that.

00:32:21 ◼   ► I want Outlook for the Mac to be good

00:32:24 ◼   ► and be able to hook it up with an iCloud or Gmail account

00:32:26 ◼   ► and have everything in one application.

00:32:28 ◼   ► But I'm not keeping my hopes up

00:32:30 ◼   ► because Office on the Mac hasn't been good since Word 5.

00:32:34 ◼   ► Past then, Office 97, 98 on the Mac, X, 2004,

00:32:39 ◼   ► whatever it is now, all of them bad.

00:32:41 ◼   ► But I want it to be good.

00:32:45 ◼   ► - I always think it's funny when you hear people say

00:32:48 ◼   ► about how great the, you know, like,

00:32:51 ◼   ► "Oh, they're that team inside Microsoft.

00:32:53 ◼   ► "They're like a real Apple team, you know?

00:32:55 ◼   ► "They're really focused."

00:32:56 ◼   ► Like, have you used Office on a retina machine?

00:32:59 ◼   ► If they are focused, they're focused on the wrong things, because that is like a wasteland.

00:33:05 ◼   ► It's horrible.

00:33:06 ◼   ► Anyway.

00:33:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:33:08 ◼   ► Facebook buys WhatsApp for 16 Instagrams.

00:33:12 ◼   ► It's maybe the most ridiculous news of the year.

00:33:15 ◼   ► Yeah, it's one-

00:33:16 ◼   ► 19.

00:33:17 ◼   ► 19.

00:33:18 ◼   ► It's in the document incorrectly.

00:33:21 ◼   ► 19 billion.

00:33:22 ◼   ► I think-

00:33:23 ◼   ► 19 billion.

00:33:24 ◼   ► 19 billion dollars.

00:33:25 ◼   ► Wasn't 16 of it in cash and three in stock?

00:33:28 ◼   ► Something like that?

00:33:29 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what we'll go with.

00:33:31 ◼   ► I don't...

00:33:32 ◼   ► I'll be the first to admit that I don't...

00:33:34 ◼   ► I didn't understand this at the time.

00:33:39 ◼   ► Because I think at least...

00:33:42 ◼   ► This is like the problem with the internet is that it's too big and I don't use WhatsApp.

00:33:47 ◼   ► I barely use Facebook.

00:33:48 ◼   ► And so for me to like understand what this means is difficult, but $19 billion is a big

00:33:53 ◼   ► number and this BBC article in the show notes says WhatsApp at the time had 450 million

00:33:59 ◼   ► monthly users which is insane.

00:34:03 ◼   ► That's what the kids call ginormous.

00:34:08 ◼   ► Still not worth it though.

00:34:10 ◼   ► In my eyes.

00:34:13 ◼   ► If you look at some of the other acquisitions we're going to talk about and some of the

00:34:16 ◼   ► ones we already have spoken about, Facebook is not worth this amount of money in my opinion.

00:34:21 ◼   ► 16 billion dollars is an insane amount of money for WhatsApp.

00:34:27 ◼   ► It just doesn't make sense to me.

00:34:30 ◼   ► It's a messaging app.

00:34:31 ◼   ► And the only reason Facebook bought it is to keep their Messenger app alive?

00:34:38 ◼   ► There's no other reason they bought it because they didn't want WhatsApp to be the biggest.

00:34:43 ◼   ► That is a real dumb thing to spend 16 billion dollars on.

00:34:46 ◼   ► It's defensive.

00:34:47 ◼   ► But you gotta remember too, Facebook is, you know, like they went on a shopping spree.

00:34:53 ◼   ► And it definitely was...

00:34:55 ◼   ► Yeah, but the thing is, because they keep the company separate, people are still using

00:35:00 ◼   ► WhatsApp instead of Facebook.

00:35:02 ◼   ► But Facebook wins.

00:35:03 ◼   ► Yeah, but they don't win.

00:35:05 ◼   ► Because the reason that they're being defensive is so people stay inside the Facebook bubble.

00:35:11 ◼   ► But they're not in the Facebook bubble inside of WhatsApp.

00:35:15 ◼   ► All Zuckerberg has done is like, for his pride?

00:35:19 ◼   ► If they're not going to bring those users in, if they're not going to make WhatsApp,

00:35:23 ◼   ► like Facebook WhatsApp, which they say they're not going to, then I don't understand the

00:35:27 ◼   ► reason for it.

00:35:29 ◼   ► Purely defensive doesn't make any sense.

00:35:32 ◼   ► It's like if we bought another podcast network, but then let them remain free for the idea

00:35:40 ◼   ► of competition.

00:35:42 ◼   ► like if you go, like if you pull off the side of the road somewhere and you're

00:35:46 ◼   ► gonna do this like four fast-food restaurants, three of them are owned by

00:35:49 ◼   ► the same company, right? Like three of them are getting your five dollars even

00:35:53 ◼   ► though it's the illusion of choice. Well that only works because in those

00:35:57 ◼   ► scenarios you're making money. WhatsApp, it has a revenue model. Yeah they're

00:36:04 ◼   ► selling soft tacos on the side of the interstate. Wait. WhatsApp's revenue model

00:36:08 ◼   ► doesn't meet Facebook's revenue model. WhatsApp's revenue model is like a

00:36:12 ◼   ► like a euro or a dollar a year, right?

00:36:15 ◼   ► That's what you pay WhatsApp.

00:36:17 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:36:18 ◼   ► - But that doesn't meet what Facebook's revenue model is,

00:36:21 ◼   ► which is ads.

00:36:23 ◼   ► And in the ideas where you've got three, you know,

00:36:27 ◼   ► three restaurants all owned by the same conglomerate,

00:36:29 ◼   ► the money floats back up to the conglomerate,

00:36:31 ◼   ► everyone's happy.

00:36:33 ◼   ► But the thing is, is like Facebook's business model

00:36:38 ◼   ► comes from them being a place where you put

00:36:42 ◼   ► all of your information into.

00:36:44 ◼   ► And if they're not tapping into the WhatsApp info,

00:36:47 ◼   ► which they say they're not going to,

00:36:48 ◼   ► business left as it is,

00:36:49 ◼   ► then it's kind of the only reason they bought it

00:36:52 ◼   ► was just so Mark Zuckerberg didn't feel bad?

00:36:57 ◼   ► - I guess.

00:36:59 ◼   ► - As time has gone on,

00:37:00 ◼   ► I just can't see the real reason anymore.

00:37:02 ◼   ► Like a defensive move for what?

00:37:04 ◼   ► Like if everyone still leaves Messenger

00:37:07 ◼   ► goes to WhatsApp, Facebook are in no different situation.

00:37:11 ◼   ► They never would have bought them in the first place.

00:37:14 ◼   ► But anyway, as I say, just kill WhatsApp.

00:37:16 ◼   ► Which is what they will do.

00:37:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, done, unplug the server.

00:37:20 ◼   ► It did kick off though, what really I think,

00:37:22 ◼   ► I think if you look at this year in technology

00:37:25 ◼   ► in really broad strokes, I think there are

00:37:26 ◼   ► a couple highlights.

00:37:27 ◼   ► I think one of them is messaging.

00:37:31 ◼   ► And this really sort of kicked that off.

00:37:32 ◼   ► You know, I think what Apple's doing with iMessage,

00:37:35 ◼   ► It predates 2014, but 2014 added SMS Relay, so you can send SMS messages sort of via the

00:37:41 ◼   ► iMessage bridge.

00:37:43 ◼   ► Facebook Messenger is now its own application, it spun out of the main app.

00:37:46 ◼   ► And you have things like Slack that have absolutely taken over for small businesses and teams

00:37:55 ◼   ► for instant messaging-like scenarios.

00:37:58 ◼   ► Private messaging really blew up in 2014, which seems so weird because we all used AIM

00:38:04 ◼   ► for a decade and then now the last year there have been six or seven different things people

00:38:07 ◼   ► have tried. But it's been a really exciting year for that little corner of things.

00:38:14 ◼   ► So we move on to March and we can kind of blast through March really. CarPlay launched

00:38:20 ◼   ► and nothing's happened. Yes.

00:38:23 ◼   ► So that was kind of as expected I think because car technology is slow to move. But yeah we

00:38:31 ◼   ► have that. Office for iPad came out this is kind of Satya's big first big thing

00:38:39 ◼   ► but they yeah they've been sitting this iPad up for who knows how long and he put it out in the world.

00:38:45 ◼   ► Yep just sort of squirted it out.

00:38:47 ◼   ► Yep. Office for iPad. Who got that? Well done buddy.

00:38:53 ◼   ► Android Wear was announced and Google were the first company to kind of tip

00:38:58 ◼   ► their hand and show what this type of thing could look like on a wearable

00:39:02 ◼   ► device. I think that they had a good first outing, a lot of the devices leave

00:39:08 ◼   ► something to be desired. Software is quite interesting but I think Apple's

00:39:15 ◼   ► owning of the stack will make them in a little better position. I think so too.

00:39:20 ◼   ► And what were the, I guess it was like the LG G Watch, the Moto 360, like all

00:39:25 ◼   ► those sort of first generation Android Wear products.

00:39:28 ◼   ► And what is interesting about Android Wear,

00:39:31 ◼   ► as opposed to Android sort of proper,

00:39:34 ◼   ► what we think of as Android, is Android Wear

00:39:36 ◼   ► is very locked down.

00:39:37 ◼   ► These companies have very-- like your LGG

00:39:40 ◼   ► watch and the Moto 360 operate the same way.

00:39:42 ◼   ► They do the same thing.

00:39:44 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:39:44 ◼   ► All they can do is they can give you different watch faces.

00:39:47 ◼   ► Right, which is like--

00:39:48 ◼   ► You can design your own watch faces.

00:39:50 ◼   ► Like backing up to January or whenever it was,

00:39:54 ◼   ► if Google had done that with Android itself,

00:39:56 ◼   ► like how different would this playing field be?

00:40:01 ◼   ► But they didn't, and they are exposing

00:40:05 ◼   ► or like controlling Android Wear in a very particular way,

00:40:07 ◼   ► which isn't new for Google, and I think the right move,

00:40:10 ◼   ► especially for a device that like,

00:40:12 ◼   ► I don't want like Samsung running some

00:40:14 ◼   ► like really cruddy software on my watch

00:40:16 ◼   ► and it dying after three hours.

00:40:18 ◼   ► So I understand why they're doing it,

00:40:19 ◼   ► I think it's the smart move.

00:40:22 ◼   ► - Yep, so we'll see how that goes.

00:40:25 ◼   ► What else do we have?

00:40:28 ◼   ► Facebook buys Oculus for $2 billion

00:40:31 ◼   ► and more Facebook insanity.

00:40:32 ◼   ► But this one, I think, makes more sense.

00:40:37 ◼   ► - What, why?

00:40:38 ◼   ► - Makes more sense than WhatsApp,

00:40:40 ◼   ► but still to pay twice this amount

00:40:42 ◼   ► than Instagram doesn't make any sense.

00:40:44 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's two Instagrams and--

00:40:47 ◼   ► - Well, 'cause this is a bet on the future.

00:40:49 ◼   ► - But what?

00:40:51 ◼   ► Mark Zuckerberg's reasoning for this made so much sense to me.

00:40:55 ◼   ► I don't know if he said it actually, but people said it about him.

00:40:58 ◼   ► Facebook missed out on mobile.

00:41:01 ◼   ► Yes they did.

00:41:02 ◼   ► In a huge way.

00:41:03 ◼   ► They weren't there for a long time.

00:41:04 ◼   ► They're still catching up.

00:41:05 ◼   ► They're still catching up.

00:41:07 ◼   ► If VR is the next big thing, they are in with the company that's pioneering it.

00:41:12 ◼   ► And if it's not, it's gonna be the company that invested in Newtons.

00:41:18 ◼   ► But a company that can drop $6 billion for defensive reasons, $2 billion is fine.

00:41:24 ◼   ► Because you can imagine a Facebook product which is in virtual reality, you can imagine

00:41:29 ◼   ► that.

00:41:30 ◼   ► They could do a lot of things that are interesting with that technology.

00:41:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:41:35 ◼   ► I can see all my family's photos and terrible political views in 3D around me.

00:41:40 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:41:41 ◼   ► You can have them thrown into your face by your family.

00:41:43 ◼   ► That's basically how Chris's break was.

00:41:46 ◼   ► I tried explaining to so it I I don't know if this happens to you

00:41:54 ◼   ► Michael Michael Hurley of the United Kingdom

00:41:58 ◼   ► But no one in my family understands podcasting let alone podcasting network letting it let alone making money at

00:42:05 ◼   ► Podcasting and like having a business partner who works full-time on it

00:42:08 ◼   ► I think one of my uncle's thinks I'm involved in like illegal Bitcoin mining

00:42:14 ◼   ► it's very like it's it I really lost control of the narrative well what

00:42:17 ◼   ► explain what relay was one of my grandparents thought that I was involved

00:42:21 ◼   ► with Julian Assange at one point so that's another thing yeah no that's fine

00:42:25 ◼   ► that's definitely what we're doing here so we're up to April yeah you're gonna

00:42:32 ◼   ► need to help me with this one because I never really understood this in the

00:42:34 ◼   ► first place okay so April marked the the news of the heart bleed on April 9th of

00:42:43 ◼   ► this year. And I mean to boil Heartbleed down... That sounds horrible. Yes, to boil your

00:42:50 ◼   ► heart down into like a little nugget, a little heart nugget. It was

00:42:57 ◼   ► an issue with OpenSSL, just a security dingus, and it was really bad. And

00:43:06 ◼   ► basically every, almost every major web server or web service you have ever used

00:43:11 ◼   ► had this issue because everyone relied on this technology and it was not

00:43:18 ◼   ► great. I mean people were saying you need to change all your passwords, you need to

00:43:22 ◼   ► you know... Set your computer on fire. Yeah which I mean I definitely did not do but

00:43:30 ◼   ► at the same time like Heartbleed was a serious issue and having this

00:43:34 ◼   ► like critical vulnerability in SSL is scary because the world relies on things

00:43:40 ◼   ► like this. But at the same time, like now, you know, eight months later, like, I didn't

00:43:48 ◼   ► see any side effects of this. I don't, you know, I didn't have my email or my Dropbox

00:43:55 ◼   ► account broken into.

00:43:58 ◼   ► It was one of those times where basically I was just getting like multiple emails a

00:44:01 ◼   ► day from every web service I've ever signed up for telling me they were okay.

00:44:06 ◼   ► Yeah, it's I really like it felt it's it feels now at least more like a theoretical

00:44:12 ◼   ► Security breach in an actual one. I know there were real problems

00:44:16 ◼   ► but you know not being a

00:44:19 ◼   ► Web developer like it didn't affect me day to day

00:44:22 ◼   ► But definitely a good at the very least a good reminder

00:44:27 ◼   ► For you know everyone to have you know

00:44:31 ◼   ► Unique strong passwords and not to use the same thing everywhere

00:44:35 ◼   ► Because if you do and it's leaked at one place, it's leaked everywhere else.

00:44:41 ◼   ► I think Yahoo was hit pretty hard.

00:44:45 ◼   ► They had usernames and passwords leak according to CNET.

00:44:48 ◼   ► Google had some issues.

00:44:49 ◼   ► I mean, big name companies.

00:44:51 ◼   ► This wasn't just little startups.

00:44:55 ◼   ► Also in April of this year, MacStories 4.0 launched the world and we finally got the

00:45:01 ◼   ► responsive design that we all wanted.

00:45:04 ◼   ► I really love the way that MacStories looks now.

00:45:07 ◼   ► I really, really like it a lot.

00:45:09 ◼   ► I think Federico and Co. did a great job.

00:45:13 ◼   ► And I'm happy that it's there.

00:45:14 ◼   ► I'm happy that his really long articles don't crash my web browser anymore.

00:45:19 ◼   ► So that's always good, because that boy, he loves to write.

00:45:23 ◼   ► It does look really good.

00:45:25 ◼   ► I remember seeing the first versions of it.

00:45:27 ◼   ► He was sharing screenshots with us and I was like, "You have to do this."

00:45:32 ◼   ► It looks great and it's been a great year for being a Mac Stories reader.

00:45:37 ◼   ► I think Federico is doing the best work he's ever done.

00:45:39 ◼   ► Definitely.

00:45:40 ◼   ► I don't just say that because he's not here.

00:45:42 ◼   ► I would say it if he was here, but then he'd get embarrassed.

00:45:46 ◼   ► We should stop talking about him because he didn't show up today.

00:45:48 ◼   ► Yeah, what's up with that guy?

00:45:50 ◼   ► I know, right?

00:45:51 ◼   ► Let's talk about our second sponsor for this week and that is Sketch Party TV, the fun,

00:45:55 ◼   ► fast drawing and guessing game for Apple TV.

00:45:58 ◼   ► Using Airplay Mirroring you can turn your HDTV into a wifi drawing canvas and a high

00:46:03 ◼   ► tech party game. It's perfect for holiday parties and family get togethers, special

00:46:07 ◼   ► occasions or impromptu game nights.

00:46:09 ◼   ► Sketch Party TV is a drawing game for two teams of up to 8 players per team that plays

00:46:13 ◼   ► a little bit like Pictionary. The standard gameplay settings give each player 5 words

00:46:18 ◼   ► to draw in the space of 2 minutes and each player gets 2 of these 2 minute turns. With

00:46:24 ◼   ► 6 total players a full game can be played in around half an hour.

00:46:27 ◼   ► All you need is an Apple TV, an iPad or an iPhone.

00:46:31 ◼   ► Games can be customised to be as long or brief as you like, with options for the number of

00:46:35 ◼   ► words to draw per turn and a time limit to draw them in, with word lists of varying difficulty.

00:46:41 ◼   ► There's even a word list for kids.

00:46:43 ◼   ► There are thousands of words to draw in seven different languages, including French, German,

00:46:47 ◼   ► Spanish, English and even Italian.

00:46:49 ◼   ► Sketchparty TV is great for the classroom too, with a custom word list editor available

00:46:53 ◼   ► as an in-app purchase.

00:46:55 ◼   ► The custom wordlist editor is regularly an additional $1.99 but through to January 5th.

00:46:59 ◼   ► The editor add-on is totally free so you want to get in now and get it.

00:47:02 ◼   ► Now Stephen you have been playing SketchYT TV, what has been your opinion of the game?

00:47:07 ◼   ► It's been great.

00:47:08 ◼   ► It's, you know, when you hear things like AirPlay or like Streamed through Apple TV

00:47:11 ◼   ► you think of things like lag or it being problematic but it was none of those things.

00:47:16 ◼   ► Drawing on the iPhone and being on the TV immediately, like, the technology doesn't

00:47:21 ◼   ► get in the way of having the fun, it only makes it more fun.

00:47:27 ◼   ► And it's great.

00:47:30 ◼   ► If you're one to have people over, or have family game night or something, it's definitely

00:47:34 ◼   ► something that should be in your collection.

00:47:38 ◼   ► It's critically acclaimed and enjoyed by people worldwide, including Steven Hackett from Memphis,

00:47:43 ◼   ► Tennessee.

00:47:44 ◼   ► Sketchparty TV is available on the App Store or at sketchparty.tv/connected.

00:47:50 ◼   ► So what's up next?

00:47:51 ◼   ► We are now in May, and May is the month in which Apple acquired Beats, this little company

00:48:02 ◼   ► called Beats Music/and Beats Electronics for three Instagrams.

00:48:09 ◼   ► What a shock this was.

00:48:10 ◼   ► I was thinking about this when we were going back, and when the rumors came out and everyone

00:48:14 ◼   ► was like, "Nah, that'd be so crazy.

00:48:16 ◼   ► You crazy."

00:48:17 ◼   ► But now look where we are.

00:48:19 ◼   ► they've done that and haven't really seemed to do much. So yeah, so this is

00:48:22 ◼   ► like CarPlay or like any of these other things and again like stuff takes time

00:48:27 ◼   ► but how is that how is it the Beats streaming app is still like separate

00:48:32 ◼   ► from iTunes radio? They've done a little bit on the headphones front like Beats

00:48:37 ◼   ► is you know more prominently shown in Apple stores but they left the brand

00:48:41 ◼   ► separate and they haven't done anything with the software yet. Clearly I think I

00:48:47 ◼   ► I think the further we get away from this, I think the more clear to me, at least, is

00:48:51 ◼   ► that this was about staffing, of having the co-founders at Apple, and the technology was

00:48:55 ◼   ► sort of a bonus, because they haven't been quick to rush in on Beats Music and make changes.

00:49:03 ◼   ► I actually, the more that I've thought about it, I think that in a couple of years' time

00:49:07 ◼   ► we'll look back and see that it was about the hardware stuff.

00:49:11 ◼   ► was about selling Apple products to young people again making it cool making

00:49:17 ◼   ► it the white headphones you know right because because you know people like me

00:49:21 ◼   ► are dying off and they need a new group of consumers yeah and I think that this

00:49:27 ◼   ► coming year we're gonna see some some cool Beats Bluetooth headphones that go

00:49:31 ◼   ► with the Apple watch I think that that's gonna be something we're gonna see and

00:49:36 ◼   ► they're gonna be like Apple beats you know like Beats by Apple that's gonna be

00:49:40 ◼   ► like the first Beats by Apple product. We'll wait and see. We'll wait and see about that.

00:49:45 ◼   ► But I think that there's going to be something. There's going to be a physical product that

00:49:49 ◼   ► the Beats team releases. In a few years time, Beats will just be a division of Apple that

00:49:54 ◼   ► we know that make music-related stuff. It's where their music is going to go. You know

00:49:58 ◼   ► Apple's love for music? That's all just going to be tied up in Beats.

00:50:01 ◼   ► Yeah, because when you look at the iTunes model of, "Hey, I want this album. I'm going

00:50:07 ◼   ► go pay $12 for that album, it's going to download on my computer, then I sync it to my iPod.

00:50:12 ◼   ► That is broken on numerous levels from the device now being instead of an iPod that is dependent on

00:50:19 ◼   ► a FireWire USB connection, it's a smartphone that's in our pockets at all times of the day

00:50:25 ◼   ► and night with always on the internet connection. People aren't buying music anymore, they're

00:50:29 ◼   ► streaming. And Apple's model worked really well for a decade, but if they want to continue to be

00:50:35 ◼   ► be the leader of the pack when it comes to digital music and, you know, sort of like

00:50:42 ◼   ► music on the go, they had to move into streaming and Beats definitely offered a lot of good

00:50:48 ◼   ► things at a good price.

00:50:50 ◼   ► And so it's, you know, it's weird because we don't like Apple makes acquisitions.

00:50:56 ◼   ► We just don't always see them.

00:50:57 ◼   ► I think the second, you know, you got a couple famous ones, you have this, you have next.

00:51:01 ◼   ► I think for those of us who follow Apple a little more closely, the PA semiconductor

00:51:08 ◼   ► guys who are now building the chips in the Apple devices, like those are big, those are

00:51:14 ◼   ► kind of like the big three.

00:51:15 ◼   ► Like I can't even name a fourth without sitting here and actually thinking about it.

00:51:18 ◼   ► But yeah, I really think, I agree with you Myke, I think in 2015 we're going to start

00:51:22 ◼   ► to see some movement here.

00:51:25 ◼   ► Especially around the watch.

00:51:26 ◼   ► You know, Beats is a fashion brand, Apple's leveraging the watch as a fashion accessory.

00:51:31 ◼   ► I think there's a lot of potential there for some interesting things.

00:51:36 ◼   ► Indeed.

00:51:39 ◼   ► What else do we have?

00:51:41 ◼   ► App.net died.

00:51:42 ◼   ► Yeah, it was sad.

00:51:44 ◼   ► It is sad.

00:51:46 ◼   ► Especially now.

00:51:48 ◼   ► That's the last blog post.

00:51:50 ◼   ► They haven't posted since then.

00:51:52 ◼   ► So May 6, 2014, App.net, they basically laid off their staff, except what's for some people

00:52:03 ◼   ► to keep it actually running.

00:52:08 ◼   ► They're going to move to contractors, they open sourced a bunch of their code.

00:52:12 ◼   ► There was this thing that could tell you how many active users there were.

00:52:18 ◼   ► anyone in the chat room can find that out for me I'd really love to know or

00:52:22 ◼   ► maybe someone send it in as follow-up like how what is the current active user

00:52:27 ◼   ► base of App.net because I just wonder how far away are they before they just

00:52:31 ◼   ► shut down completely. I think they could do it at this point and not make any any

00:52:37 ◼   ► noise about it you know. Yeah you could do it and no one would know it's so sad. I'm gonna log in to it now.

00:52:45 ◼   ► Five twelve was still like auto posting to it to like three months ago

00:52:48 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm totally logging in as well. I'm gonna I'm gonna post. Yeah, we're gonna bring their servers down

00:52:53 ◼   ► There there are actually people still posting. It looks like it's automatic

00:52:57 ◼   ► mostly Thomas brand

00:53:00 ◼   ► I'm posting to out on that. We're reviving the service. There's a red light going off somewhere

00:53:05 ◼   ► I'm also I've done anything because we're we're out the name. Oh look at that old avatar

00:53:13 ◼   ► Yeah, I was surprised by mine too.

00:53:16 ◼   ► Alright, I'm going to see what my profile says.

00:53:19 ◼   ► Volcano executive, blogger, podcaster.

00:53:23 ◼   ► Internet broadcaster and producer, you can find my shows on Five by Five.

00:53:27 ◼   ► So there we go.

00:53:28 ◼   ► #TBT.

00:53:29 ◼   ► There you go.

00:53:31 ◼   ► So June, you know, for those of us in the Apple camp, June is the big month of the year

00:53:37 ◼   ► with WWDC.

00:53:40 ◼   ► There's a lot to cover here.

00:53:42 ◼   ► iOS 8, Yosemite, Renee Ritchie called it a love letter to developers.

00:53:49 ◼   ► You know, it was then wasn't it?

00:53:52 ◼   ► It was then and now it's like a big middle finger.

00:53:56 ◼   ► That's harsh.

00:53:57 ◼   ► Now it's like a cold shoulder.

00:53:58 ◼   ► Now Apple like went to bed before you came home.

00:54:01 ◼   ► Wow, you're really on the metaphors today.

00:54:05 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm deep in it today.

00:54:09 ◼   ► So you and I were both there, and I've been to a couple of these things now, and there

00:54:13 ◼   ► was definitely a level of excitement after the keynote.

00:54:17 ◼   ► And really what was amazing to me in hindsight was that excitement didn't lessen throughout

00:54:22 ◼   ► the week.

00:54:23 ◼   ► Some of these events you go out to and it's like, "Hey, keynote stuff," and the week goes

00:54:27 ◼   ► on and people are in sessions.

00:54:31 ◼   ► They're NDA'd, but when you're there people talk.

00:54:33 ◼   ► It's like, "Yeah, they're doing this stuff."

00:54:36 ◼   ► year like as the week went on the excitement just kept you know the same

00:54:39 ◼   ► pace that people were excited about what they were seeing behind closed doors

00:54:43 ◼   ► I remember coming back flying back you know watching videos on the plane and

00:54:48 ◼   ► just like being excited about where Apple was headed and I think that the

00:54:56 ◼   ► current like whatever is happening in the App Store business like I hope

00:54:59 ◼   ► that's a speed bump to this world that Apple promised of devices that know each

00:55:05 ◼   ► other and can interact with each other seamlessly and with things like Swift

00:55:11 ◼   ► lowering the barrier to entry to development for iOS and OS X is a bunch

00:55:17 ◼   ► of really good stuff and Yosemite's while weird in places like a really good

00:55:21 ◼   ► version of OS X and iOS 8 a little buggy in places but a really good release of

00:55:25 ◼   ► iOS and I'm not I still have that excitement that I had in WDC but it's

00:55:32 ◼   ► sort of like, you know, it's worn off a little bit, it's been beat up a little bit

00:55:37 ◼   ► by, you know, the subsequent months of news and app store rejections. Yeah,

00:55:43 ◼   ► definitely. I think Swift was maybe the biggest surprise out of

00:55:50 ◼   ► everything. I think so because it came, everything else had sort of been

00:55:55 ◼   ► rumored. Or was expected or was like a little surprise but this was a big

00:56:02 ◼   ► surprise that nobody knew anything about. And part of this is that it was a very

00:56:07 ◼   ► small team but you know and sort of like Tim Cook's Apple they announced Swift

00:56:14 ◼   ► and then there's like a book on the iBook store like that night like we were

00:56:19 ◼   ► sitting in the hotel bar and people have their iPads out like flipping through

00:56:22 ◼   ► this ebook about Swift. Like, what is happening? You know, a very different sort of approach.

00:56:30 ◼   ► And clearly, you know, we're in Tim Cook's Apple, we're post Katie Cotton a little bit,

00:56:36 ◼   ► and at this point, we're starting to see those changes in the way Apple relates to the press

00:56:41 ◼   ► and to developers. And, you know, I think they're still trying to lay another feet from

00:56:46 ◼   ► some of those changes but I think that WWDC 2014 will go down as an important one.

00:56:53 ◼   ► Definitely.

00:56:54 ◼   ► Yep.

00:56:55 ◼   ► Now we have the sad part of June.

00:57:00 ◼   ► Very sad.

00:57:01 ◼   ► Well...

00:57:02 ◼   ► I played with one.

00:57:03 ◼   ► Did I tell you this?

00:57:04 ◼   ► I spent some time with one.

00:57:05 ◼   ► Thomas Brand has one.

00:57:06 ◼   ► He was in town.

00:57:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:57:08 ◼   ► The Amazon Fire Phone is really bad.

00:57:09 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:57:10 ◼   ► Really...

00:57:11 ◼   ► It's just terrible.

00:57:13 ◼   ► Like we did the upgradeies yesterday, award show on upgrade, and the Amazon Fire phone

00:57:19 ◼   ► was like my biggest disappointment of the year.

00:57:22 ◼   ► I just think it's so ridiculous.

00:57:26 ◼   ► Just because why are they doing it?

00:57:28 ◼   ► What are they trying to achieve?

00:57:30 ◼   ► There's no point in them doing it, and if they're going to do it, they need to have

00:57:34 ◼   ► a great phone, and they have just by all means like a terrible phone to the point where Amazon

00:57:41 ◼   ► have even kind of said yeah it didn't do very well and you can just get it for like

00:57:44 ◼   ► for nothing now and on a contract it's yeah they hyped up so much and then it's just like a

00:57:53 ◼   ► disappointment and a waste of time and money yeah I want to do an Amazon if

00:58:00 ◼   ► probably not an episode but definitely a section on Amazon pretty soon but I

00:58:03 ◼   ► think Amazon has this really like core problem of that Amazon that has some

00:58:08 ◼   ► really great things about it like their stores great their their services so s3

00:58:12 ◼   ► AWS like that's a really good like good technology going on but then you get

00:58:17 ◼   ► another consumer products and like I like the Kindle voyage not everybody did

00:58:21 ◼   ► but like their tablets and now the phone like they forked Android their fork

00:58:26 ◼   ► isn't very good you're stuck in the Amazon App Store which is pretty

00:58:29 ◼   ► miserable and it's just like I don't I don't understand why Amazon is doing

00:58:34 ◼   ► that if Amazon's goal, you know, the Firefront has this feature, like you

00:58:37 ◼   ► point it at a Coke can and you can order like Coke from the Amazon store.

00:58:43 ◼   ► Um, like if their goal was to like extend their e-commerce like platform

00:58:49 ◼   ► into the real world, like put that app on every device you can find, like

00:58:53 ◼   ► build that, build that app for like Blackberries, like put it everywhere.

00:58:57 ◼   ► And don't like lock it away on like your weird little phone with your

00:59:01 ◼   ► weird little fork of Android with like four cameras, 3D perspective, and menus

00:59:05 ◼   ► flying around. What they say their goals are don't make sense.

00:59:09 ◼   ► One of your main selling points for your phone shouldn't be to help you buy

00:59:14 ◼   ► things on our web service. Like it doesn't even make sense but it's been in

00:59:17 ◼   ► the ads. Like look how cool Flow is, you can buy stuff. It's like that's not a

00:59:23 ◼   ► benefit. Like I can... yeah it's weird. It's really really weird. I think that Flow

00:59:29 ◼   ► is an app on the iPhone. I don't know. But yeah, I mean, okay, make it, that's fine, but

00:59:38 ◼   ► don't, like, don't make a phone based around it. It doesn't make any sense.

00:59:44 ◼   ► Amazon don't need a phone, like, they just don't need a phone. It doesn't make any

00:59:51 ◼   ► sense. And I think, you know, it's hurting their, like, consumer stuff, like

00:59:56 ◼   ► their consumer technology whatever branding they have there like it's

01:00:02 ◼   ► gonna take a lot for the public to take the next Amazon phone or for Amazon

01:00:07 ◼   ► phones from now seriously because like they really got off on the wrong foot

01:00:13 ◼   ► whoo July we're up to July now Michael it's hot now it's really it's hot

01:00:19 ◼   ► outside it's July yeah it's America's birthday so happy birthday America happy

01:00:26 ◼   ► birthday Obama. Apple and IBM, their global partnership to transform

01:00:32 ◼   ► enterprise mobility was announced on July 15th. Big surprise news again. Would

01:00:40 ◼   ► never expected this. I don't think if you would have given me enough guesses I

01:00:45 ◼   ► could have guessed this would happen. I mean it's it's weird and if they have

01:00:53 ◼   ► some apps out I think that's later in the year or pretty recently but

01:00:56 ◼   ► But Apple looking at the enterprise where Apple historically has not been strong, even

01:01:03 ◼   ► on the Mac, and saying, "Hey, we want to go there.

01:01:06 ◼   ► How do we get there?"

01:01:07 ◼   ► Well, IBM owns the space.

01:01:10 ◼   ► And really, IBM does stuff in the enterprise we don't see.

01:01:15 ◼   ► If you're a big company and you need a cloud service to track your widget, IBM builds that

01:01:21 ◼   ► for you.

01:01:22 ◼   ► It's not like they sell.

01:01:23 ◼   ► They don't sell.

01:01:24 ◼   ► hardware to Lenovo. They don't make chips anymore really for Apple, but it's very

01:01:29 ◼   ► like enterprise behind the curtain type stuff. It's a trusted brand to

01:01:34 ◼   ► enterprises and Apple is riding it on their coattails. They're building

01:01:38 ◼   ► apps together, they're selling iOS devices, and I think again I think it's

01:01:43 ◼   ► like new Apple under Tim Cook like seeing its weaknesses and partnering

01:01:48 ◼   ► with people to counter those weaknesses. Jobs never would have done it.

01:01:53 ◼   ► I don't think he would.

01:01:54 ◼   ► He never would have done it.

01:01:56 ◼   ► Just because IBM was the enemy once.

01:02:00 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:02:02 ◼   ► August.

01:02:04 ◼   ► I think this was a tech story to a point,

01:02:07 ◼   ► but I think it's an interesting one.

01:02:09 ◼   ► I think it leads to chilling effect,

01:02:10 ◼   ► which was the hacks or social engineering hacks

01:02:15 ◼   ► on Sabri's that led to a bunch of compromising photos

01:02:20 ◼   ► and information being leaked out.

01:02:23 ◼   ► The reason that I thought this was interesting to include

01:02:26 ◼   ► was where it ended up seeming to be Apple's poor security

01:02:30 ◼   ► from a security questions perspective

01:02:34 ◼   ► and some of the stuff around that.

01:02:35 ◼   ► Some of Christina Warren's work on this was incredible.

01:02:40 ◼   ► I just thought that it was interesting that basically

01:02:44 ◼   ► the news reported this as the iCloud hack.

01:02:47 ◼   ► And it kind of stuck that way.

01:02:51 ◼   ► It did, and I think because on the surface that's what it is.

01:03:00 ◼   ► These photos were in iCloud or PhotoStream or something, I mean, we're the photo management

01:03:04 ◼   ► show and I barely understand how it works, and then we're out in the public.

01:03:08 ◼   ► But in reality, and we'll link to Christina's piece where she went through the steps, and

01:03:16 ◼   ► was a so is it not exactly like Matt Honan's deal but this was like social

01:03:21 ◼   ► engineering and like a lot of things in play like an Apple address some security

01:03:27 ◼   ► stuff like a lot of this was around there if I remember correctly their

01:03:29 ◼   ► security questions and like you could get your way around them that was also

01:03:34 ◼   ► part of Matt Honan's deal but I think overall like this did the story like went

01:03:42 ◼   ► away I don't like people today aren't like turning still turning off iCloud

01:03:46 ◼   ► photostream because their selfies are gonna end up on Reddit. I don't... I

01:03:53 ◼   ► think it was a thing and I think while it was portrayed as iCloud was hacked I

01:03:59 ◼   ► do think that the real story and sort of like the whole story did get out a

01:04:04 ◼   ► little bit because I don't think iCloud took that big of a hit reputation wise.

01:04:08 ◼   ► Yeah I think that what it... whether iCloud does or not I think it does have an

01:04:14 ◼   ► effect for the cloud as a thing and the way that people react maybe react to

01:04:20 ◼   ► that and yeah I think that it could be interesting that you know we may not see

01:04:26 ◼   ► celebrities use this stuff in the same way which may lead to less endorsements

01:04:30 ◼   ► I don't know but it was a it was a big story that had a tech component like to

01:04:34 ◼   ► the point where it kind of still keeps popping up in different news outlets

01:04:37 ◼   ► every now and then I thought it would be worth at least mentioning oh yeah

01:04:42 ◼   ► absolutely. But the biggest news in August was Real AFM. Oh yeah. We did that

01:04:49 ◼   ► in August. August 18th, if my memory serves me well enough, and I just wanted to

01:04:54 ◼   ► mention it because it was the biggest news of my year. Me too. You had a son. Come on buddy.

01:05:01 ◼   ► It was my biggest professional news. There you go, congratulations. Yeah and you know

01:05:08 ◼   ► we, I think we've talked a little bit about it. I don't know if this is the

01:05:12 ◼   ► right channel to do that but we know it's it really started over the summer

01:05:15 ◼   ► and but it was very quick I mean by the time we sat down and started working and

01:05:20 ◼   ► we were launched was like super fast. We didn't even have a website in WWDC like

01:05:26 ◼   ► we did no it wasn't even it was still very much just an idea and the work

01:05:33 ◼   ► didn't start until after WWDC so yeah it's here and we're really

01:05:41 ◼   ► excited about what we're doing 2015. We're also excited that Amazon bought

01:05:45 ◼   ► Twitch. So Myke, I'm not a gamer. Can you explain Twitch? Like, I don't... A) like

01:05:50 ◼   ► look at this URL on Amazon's press release. It's phx.corporate-ir.net.

01:05:57 ◼   ► I don't know what the IR could mean. I think it's infrared. Ah, corporate infrared.

01:06:02 ◼   ► That's how we get into the URL. So explain Twitch to me because I don't... like I know what it

01:06:06 ◼   ► is but like why is it special? Why should I care? So you wouldn't. If I were a gamer

01:06:18 ◼   ► why should I care? Right so basically Twitch is a way for people to live

01:06:23 ◼   ► stream their video games. That's in essence what it is. They do a lot of

01:06:28 ◼   ► other video game related content so like award ceremonies and stuff and E3 like

01:06:35 ◼   ► the presentations they get streamed on Twitch. It's basically a video community

01:06:39 ◼   ► for gamers and it's being baked into consoles now so natively you can

01:06:47 ◼   ► start streaming to Twitch from the PS4 and the Xbox One. It's basically a

01:06:53 ◼   ► way that people show the game that they're playing to people that want to

01:06:57 ◼   ► watch. It's kind of like, you know, there's this big eSports thing,

01:07:02 ◼   ► that's really kind of seeing a growth now and I think a lot of the twitch stuff

01:07:07 ◼   ► helps with that. We had twitch plays Pokemon which was the best thing of the

01:07:12 ◼   ► year which was just this insane insane thing that happened. It's difficult to

01:07:22 ◼   ► explain but basically it's because the way that I can try and explain it

01:07:26 ◼   ► it doesn't make any sense it's just a way that people watch other people play

01:07:30 ◼   ► video games. Okay. Like Polygon wrote they did a really really really great

01:07:40 ◼   ► piece about Twitch which I will put in the show notes you need to read it

01:07:47 ◼   ► because it's better than I could ever explain it it's like a full this was all

01:07:52 ◼   ► before the the purchase and it kind of explains how Twitch was born by accident

01:08:00 ◼   ► out of Justin TV. Do you remember Justin TV? I do. Yep, they shut that down slightly

01:08:05 ◼   ► before the purchase by Amazon. It was a big deal to the

01:08:14 ◼   ► video game community and I wish Federico was here so I could have someone help me

01:08:18 ◼   ► explain it. Is it in trouble with Amazon? Like what's the feeling that

01:08:22 ◼   ► Amazon owns it? Nothing's happened. So it's like all these are purchases we've

01:08:28 ◼   ► talked about. It's like most of the stuff that Amazon buys they leave it alone for

01:08:31 ◼   ► a very long time. And then they put four cameras on them to make it 3D. Well then

01:08:36 ◼   ► they just call that Amazon Prime. Yeah I mean. The worst thing that Amazon could

01:08:41 ◼   ► do in this scenario is do that. I mean but you've got IMDB do you do you even

01:08:46 ◼   ► remember that IMDB is owned by Amazon? I do. You do remember that like every time

01:08:51 ◼   ► you go there? I mean I just know it as a fact. But it's like when you go to the

01:08:55 ◼   ► site it doesn't say like Amazon Prime instant movie information. Right. You know.

01:09:02 ◼   ► But it could. But it could. But they haven't done that and I think that was

01:09:06 ◼   ► that one of their first acquisitions. So yeah it was man dude IMDB was launched

01:09:13 ◼   ► October 17th 1990. Yeah one of the one of the very first websites. That's as old as

01:09:18 ◼   ► you are. I've claimed that as a fact. IMDB was the first website. Did you know that?

01:09:23 ◼   ► I know that that's not accurate of all the websites IMDb was the first IMDb stands for

01:09:29 ◼   ► Internet's

01:09:31 ◼   ► most

01:09:33 ◼   ► Difficult brand they IMDb their first website

01:09:38 ◼   ► So we also have bomber surfacing again in August he bought the LA Clippers

01:09:46 ◼   ► I don't remember how many instagrams he paid for it. Let's see an amount of

01:09:52 ◼   ► two instagrams and is

01:09:55 ◼   ► Stepped off the board of directors

01:09:59 ◼   ► And there's a picture of him yelling in front of a clipper sign and I can just see him shouting like point guards point guards

01:10:05 ◼   ► developers developers, but

01:10:08 ◼   ► I mean I think making any sense to me

01:10:11 ◼   ► Have you never seen the Steve Ballmer developer developer joke or video? I don't know what point guards are. It's a position in basketball

01:10:21 ◼   ► That's fine. So he's off Michael George. I

01:10:25 ◼   ► think um

01:10:27 ◼   ► like I look at bomber now and like

01:10:29 ◼   ► You know, he it's ousted as a CEO like who wants to stay around in that environment

01:10:36 ◼   ► But like he just bought an NBA team because he can and you know what?

01:10:41 ◼   ► I'm not one to judge that because that's frankly pretty cool

01:10:45 ◼   ► and if you're a rich guy you can do that and so I think he's just hanging out like being a dude and

01:10:51 ◼   ► buying basketball teams and who doesn't want to do that honestly?

01:10:56 ◼   ► Me. Yeah. If you were ever in the States during basketball season I would take

01:11:03 ◼   ► you to a game. I used to go to basketball in London. There was a team called the

01:11:09 ◼   ► London Leopards. The London Leopards? Were they itchy? This week's episode of

01:11:17 ◼   ► Love Connected is also brought to you by Squarespace, the all in one platformer that makes it fast

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01:12:29 ◼   ► Mr. Stephen Hackett, can you tell me about some of the things that you've done with Squarespace

01:12:32 ◼   ► recently and why you love it?

01:12:34 ◼   ► Yeah, I did two things recently.

01:12:37 ◼   ► One I launched or relaunched Stephen Hackett dot com.

01:12:40 ◼   ► I think if you can own your name as a domain, I think you should.

01:12:43 ◼   ► a good way for people to find you.

01:12:45 ◼   ► And it's just a picture of my face with much more hair on it than there is currently and

01:12:50 ◼   ► a little bit about me and some links to things I do.

01:12:54 ◼   ► Just I think it's important for people to stumble across it than they were to find you.

01:12:57 ◼   ► But 512 pixels, my blog runs on Squarespace and just did a little bit of touch up on the

01:13:04 ◼   ► design just this week and there, it's great, they have a lot of drag and drop stuff, you

01:13:09 ◼   ► can put blocks in, you can hover over something and change the fonts but then you can do a

01:13:13 ◼   ► drop in and do custom CSS, you can do your own JavaScript, and that's all without the

01:13:19 ◼   ► developer tools.

01:13:20 ◼   ► Like I'm just on their standard account and you have a lot more power.

01:13:23 ◼   ► Like Squarespace is super easy but that doesn't mean that it's not incredibly powerful.

01:13:28 ◼   ► And that balance, I think they strike really well of if you don't ever want to see that

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01:14:23 ◼   ► So now September.

01:14:24 ◼   ► We're in Q4 now guys, Q4.

01:14:27 ◼   ► The leaves are starting to change a little bit.

01:14:29 ◼   ► They are.

01:14:30 ◼   ► Oh look at those leaves changing.

01:14:32 ◼   ► It's nice.

01:14:33 ◼   ► Wow.

01:14:34 ◼   ► Leaves, why you changing?

01:14:36 ◼   ► news in our corner of the world the Apple keynote iPhone 6 Apple watch Apple

01:14:41 ◼   ► pay big big event we spoke about it at length but I think the thing that sticks

01:14:47 ◼   ► with me now a couple months later having not rewatched it or anything is that the

01:14:54 ◼   ► phone like sort of played second seat to the watch and it really was the watch

01:14:59 ◼   ► event they're like oh we have iPhones and we're gonna get the they were done

01:15:02 ◼   ► with the phones in like 18 minutes or something.

01:15:05 ◼   ► And clearly, the further we get away from it, the more I think about next year.

01:15:10 ◼   ► Apple is, like all of Apple is behind this effort for the watch, for better or for worse.

01:15:18 ◼   ► And I think that's going to be the story of next year coming out of Cupertino, is all

01:15:22 ◼   ► about the watch.

01:15:24 ◼   ► When do you think we're going to hear about the watch next?

01:15:28 ◼   ► I think we're going to see it sooner than most people think.

01:15:33 ◼   ► I'll leave it at that.

01:15:35 ◼   ► Ooh.

01:15:37 ◼   ► See, you probably don't know anything,

01:15:40 ◼   ► but it makes it sound like you do.

01:15:41 ◼   ► I know, actually, I know exactly what you know.

01:15:44 ◼   ► So there's that.

01:15:46 ◼   ► You put Ben Gate in here.

01:15:48 ◼   ► What do you think-- why?

01:15:49 ◼   ► I mean, do you think that's--

01:15:51 ◼   ► That was a big story.

01:15:52 ◼   ► Was it?

01:15:53 ◼   ► Yeah, it was a big story.

01:15:54 ◼   ► Ben the iPhone--

01:15:55 ◼   ► Is it still a big story?

01:15:56 ◼   ► Because people still ask me if my iPhone bends.

01:15:59 ◼   ► I still get asked that question every time people see it.

01:16:02 ◼   ► "Oh, does it bend?"

01:16:04 ◼   ► No.

01:16:05 ◼   ► Bend your face.

01:16:06 ◼   ► No, I don't say that.

01:16:08 ◼   ► It's annoying.

01:16:09 ◼   ► It's annoying.

01:16:10 ◼   ► Is it bent?

01:16:12 ◼   ► Yes.

01:16:15 ◼   ► Mine is a little bent.

01:16:17 ◼   ► So mine's in the Apple leather case, but if I take it out and I put it face down like

01:16:22 ◼   ► a glass table something I know is perfectly flat like the the corner that

01:16:26 ◼   ► the camera's on and then the diagonal corner like I can push them like up and

01:16:31 ◼   ► down and it rocks a little bit which is what happens if you put it face down

01:16:34 ◼   ► well so if it's face down yes so your phone is bent yeah I don't have a bent

01:16:40 ◼   ► phone oh I thought you said you did no yeah mine is definitely been a little

01:16:45 ◼   ► bit and I know exactly when it happened and know exactly what caused it and

01:16:51 ◼   ► and that's just sad for me.

01:16:55 ◼   ► - What happened? - And it bothers me.

01:16:55 ◼   ► - What caused it?

01:16:56 ◼   ► - It's embarrassing.

01:16:59 ◼   ► I did not sit on it.

01:17:00 ◼   ► - What did you do?

01:17:01 ◼   ► - I keep it in my car.

01:17:03 ◼   ► The handbrake is in like a leather boot,

01:17:06 ◼   ► I think is what it's called.

01:17:07 ◼   ► And I put it next to the e-brake.

01:17:11 ◼   ► It's like leather cover that goes down.

01:17:14 ◼   ► It's like a little pocket.

01:17:15 ◼   ► And so I dropped my phone in there.

01:17:17 ◼   ► It was like the USB cable runs there really nicely.

01:17:20 ◼   ► And so I put it there, and then I got out my car one day

01:17:24 ◼   ► and I pulled the emergency brake with my phone still in there.

01:17:28 ◼   ► And the phone kind of got wedged between the emergency

01:17:30 ◼   ► brake and the side of the little container it lives in,

01:17:34 ◼   ► and it bent.

01:17:35 ◼   ► You don't deserve to own an iPhone anymore.

01:17:37 ◼   ► Stop!

01:17:37 ◼   ► It's really embarrassing.

01:17:39 ◼   ► You need to have your phone taken away.

01:17:40 ◼   ► You clamped it in with the emergency brake.

01:17:44 ◼   ► What's wrong with you?

01:17:47 ◼   ► So I have it in a case.

01:17:49 ◼   ► And the case basically is enough that I don't notice.

01:17:54 ◼   ► - But now everybody knows.

01:17:58 ◼   ► The next one is one of the biggest stories, I think,

01:18:02 ◼   ► and one of the most underestimated stories of this year,

01:18:04 ◼   ► which is Microsoft buying Mojang,

01:18:06 ◼   ► who owned and created Minecraft for $2.5 billion.

01:18:11 ◼   ► Huge news, so much so that Notch could outbid

01:18:16 ◼   ► Jay-Z and Beyonce for a mega-mansion.

01:18:19 ◼   ► Did you see that like in Beverly Hills?

01:18:20 ◼   ► Did you see that?

01:18:21 ◼   ► - Yeah, he bought a huge house

01:18:23 ◼   ► with like a candy factory in the basement.

01:18:26 ◼   ► - Yeah, but like the huge,

01:18:27 ◼   ► I think the biggest part of it is he outbid

01:18:31 ◼   ► Beyonce and Jay-Z.

01:18:32 ◼   ► - Well, Jay-Z's last album wasn't very good.

01:18:34 ◼   ► Maybe they're struggling.

01:18:36 ◼   ► - Maybe they are, I'm sure they are.

01:18:38 ◼   ► And then did you see the tweet where he just like,

01:18:41 ◼   ► he just tweeted about it?

01:18:42 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:18:44 ◼   ► - And it was just him like just with his feet up,

01:18:47 ◼   ► which is just the best.

01:18:48 ◼   ► Yeah, that's the picture I'm thinking of.

01:18:50 ◼   ► It looks like there's a wall of jelly bean containers.

01:18:52 ◼   ► Yeah, and I've read some other tweets by him later.

01:18:55 ◼   ► It's like he doesn't even like jelly beans,

01:18:56 ◼   ► but he felt like it was the best way to show his crazy house.

01:19:01 ◼   ► Yeah, I think so.

01:19:02 ◼   ► I think if you live in a house that has a candy wing,

01:19:04 ◼   ► that you're doing pretty well.

01:19:05 ◼   ► $70 million.

01:19:07 ◼   ► Yeah, that's crazy.

01:19:10 ◼   ► Crazy pants.

01:19:11 ◼   ► So Microsoft owns Minecraft.

01:19:14 ◼   ► So I am sort of like...

01:19:18 ◼   ► Every time I open my mouth on the show, I sound old.

01:19:23 ◼   ► Can I just preface this?

01:19:25 ◼   ► So my son got some Minecraft stuff for Christmas

01:19:27 ◼   ► and he doesn't play Minecraft.

01:19:29 ◼   ► It was from a extended family member.

01:19:31 ◼   ► So now Minecraft is in my home.

01:19:34 ◼   ► He's not playing it, but he's aware of it now.

01:19:37 ◼   ► He's six, which I think is a little young.

01:19:40 ◼   ► But I know it's coming

01:19:42 ◼   ► And I'm actually pretty excited about it.

01:19:45 ◼   ► He's big into-- so many LEGOs in my house

01:19:48 ◼   ► right now from Christmas.

01:19:50 ◼   ► He likes the building and thinking that way.

01:19:55 ◼   ► And again, my question with Amazon, is this OK?

01:19:59 ◼   ► Is Minecraft in good hands in Redmond?

01:20:02 ◼   ► Unclear.

01:20:06 ◼   ► I mean, probably.

01:20:07 ◼   ► That's a good robot answer.

01:20:09 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:20:10 ◼   ► Well, now it's on Windows Phone.

01:20:12 ◼   ► Situation unknown. It's still I think the top paid app or top grossing app in the

01:20:17 ◼   ► iOS app store. It's been that way for like a year.

01:20:20 ◼   ► Yeah so it's now on Windows Phone which is hilarious like it just arrived

01:20:24 ◼   ► relatively quickly.

01:20:26 ◼   ► Top paid app. It's got four and a half stars with 10,000 reviews.

01:20:31 ◼   ► My original concern which remains as a concern for me again even no matter

01:20:35 ◼   ► what Mojang and Microsoft say, Microsoft have the ability now to pull the

01:20:42 ◼   ► plug on Minecraft on any other platform except for PC and Xbox.

01:20:48 ◼   ► The fact that they've said they're not going to do that means that I also don't understand

01:20:52 ◼   ► why Microsoft did this.

01:20:55 ◼   ► Because the biggest video game on the planet, arguably, or maybe the fastest growing, I

01:21:02 ◼   ► don't know, it's probably not the biggest, but it's probably the most important video

01:21:06 ◼   ► at the moment like it has been for some time and will be again for even further

01:21:12 ◼   ► it is the Mario of the current kids generation right it's gonna spawn a

01:21:18 ◼   ► whole different like I think that minecraft is incredibly important I

01:21:23 ◼   ► would actually recommend listening to there's an episode of virtual I think

01:21:27 ◼   ► it was last week's episode where Federico plays for the first time it's

01:21:33 ◼   ► It's hilarious just to listen to how emotionally invested and upset he gets when playing the

01:21:41 ◼   ► game.

01:21:42 ◼   ► But then I also go on this big rant about how important I think Minecraft is, so I don't

01:21:46 ◼   ► want to just rehash it all.

01:21:47 ◼   ► Because I actually think that you should listen to that.

01:21:49 ◼   ► It's like the first part of the episode too, so you don't have to listen to all of it if

01:21:52 ◼   ► you're not interested in video games.

01:21:54 ◼   ► So it's episode 19.

01:21:57 ◼   ► But what I find so crazy about this is they paid $2.5 billion for it, where I cannot see

01:22:05 ◼   ► how WhatsApp is worth $19 billion, that much more important than Minecraft.

01:22:12 ◼   ► I don't get it.

01:22:14 ◼   ► Minecraft is one of the most important things on the planet right now, and it's still got

01:22:21 ◼   ► long life ahead of it because kids are obsessed with this game like obsessed

01:22:26 ◼   ► with this game and like I was sort of digging around when we were talking

01:22:31 ◼   ► about the amount of users you said 400 million users right for minecraft effort

01:22:35 ◼   ► for whatsapp yeah 450 I think so minecraft in February passes 100 million

01:22:41 ◼   ► registered users this is for a video game yeah it's a hundred million

01:22:45 ◼   ► registered users of a video game like all the people and people get obsessed

01:22:51 ◼   ► I just think that I think the importance of this acquisition is underplayed and I

01:22:57 ◼   ► think that it was way underpriced and I will never understand how it came to be

01:23:01 ◼   ► this amount like Microsoft bought a cultural phenomenon for 2.5 billion

01:23:06 ◼   ► dollars. It's weird when you say it like that too.

01:23:12 ◼   ► October we had another Apple event which was kind of I mean not really that

01:23:18 ◼   ► important in the game of things. Well I mean what was announced? Compared to the watch,

01:23:25 ◼   ► yeah sure, but I mean iPad Air 2, like that's fine, the iPad Mini is sad. I think the

01:23:30 ◼   ► Red and iMac is a big deal but I will admit to being somewhat biased in this

01:23:36 ◼   ► regard. I think the Red and iMac is a big deal and I think the big

01:23:44 ◼   ► story of October is Tim Cook. His essay in Businessweek, I reread it,

01:23:52 ◼   ► reread it for today's episode and like still get chills reading it. It's so

01:23:58 ◼   ► powerful and so important. So incredible. Yeah. I think it's the most important

01:24:06 ◼   ► thing that Apple have done this year.

01:24:09 ◼   ► About a shadow of a doubt.

01:24:11 ◼   ► There are some choice words in here which are so powerful.

01:24:17 ◼   ► I want to find the quote, I still think about this a lot, where Tim says,

01:24:24 ◼   ► "So let me be clear, I'm proud to be gay and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

01:24:29 ◼   ► I love that line so much. I think that is such a powerful line.

01:24:36 ◼   ► because there are so many people that would disagree with that so fundamentally

01:24:41 ◼   ► and I really really love it, I really love it.

01:24:44 ◼   ► And I love Tim's, like, how courageous and gutsy this is of a thing to do.

01:24:53 ◼   ► Like, the nerve that it must have taken to be able to be the most powerful CEO on the planet

01:25:00 ◼   ► And to say something like this is just so incredible and it's so influential.

01:25:06 ◼   ► Yeah, and sort of on a zoomed out model a little bit, you know, Apple under Steve Jobs

01:25:12 ◼   ► was not influential in politics or in social issues.

01:25:19 ◼   ► Steve Jobs sort of famously, like didn't it, at least that we know of, like give a lot

01:25:23 ◼   ► of money to things?

01:25:25 ◼   ► His wife has done some things.

01:25:29 ◼   ► But under Tim Cook, Apple has, under his direction, has been throwing its weight around a little

01:25:35 ◼   ► bit.

01:25:36 ◼   ► You know, the sort of famous stockholder meeting where the guy's like, "What are you doing?

01:25:43 ◼   ► What's the return on investment on solar energy?"

01:25:45 ◼   ► And Tim's like, "It's not about that.

01:25:47 ◼   ► If you think it is, if you want it to be about the ROI every time, get out of my stock."

01:25:54 ◼   ► And Cook is in a very unique position with Apple to do all sorts of things.

01:26:03 ◼   ► And I think the environmental record alone is great, but then you add it to this social

01:26:10 ◼   ► causes.

01:26:11 ◼   ► The diversity stuff.

01:26:12 ◼   ► Yeah, it's huge.

01:26:13 ◼   ► And obviously there's a lot of ground to be made up.

01:26:16 ◼   ► I think the last diversity report, Tim Cook's like, "This isn't where it should be yet."

01:26:22 ◼   ► But the fact that he's talking about it and the fact that Apple as a corporation, as a

01:26:28 ◼   ► giant in the American stock market, is just really, really great.

01:26:38 ◼   ► And I think that it embodies some of the things we love about Apple, of it being a company

01:26:43 ◼   ► for creatives and for people who don't fit into the box and sort of all that like old

01:26:50 ◼   ► of thinking about Apple as the underdog fighting for the little guy. I see that in Tim Cook,

01:26:58 ◼   ► and as an old-school Apple fan, as well as someone who agrees with his political statements. I think

01:27:05 ◼   ► it's really exciting. Totally, 100%.

01:27:08 ◼   ► Yep. We will say, AF Wilder in the chat room sent us a link about the Jobs family and charity,

01:27:17 ◼   ► So we'll put that in there, we want to be fair.

01:27:20 ◼   ► But clearly not on the same level as Tim Cook writing in Businessweek.

01:27:27 ◼   ► And I think he's going to be remembered very fondly by history for his actions in October.

01:27:33 ◼   ► So what else do we have for the, we're into November now, right?

01:27:37 ◼   ► We are into November.

01:27:40 ◼   ► is Watch Kit season I think you can go hunting for Watch Kit. What? I like that joke.

01:27:51 ◼   ► It's funny. You finally said something that's funny on the podcast. Congratulations you

01:27:56 ◼   ► made your first joke. Yeah and four years together Myke, four years. Net Neutrality I

01:28:05 ◼   ► I think it's the big story out of November.

01:28:07 ◼   ► There's a link to 512 in here where I embedded a CGP Grey video, but spoke a little bit about

01:28:14 ◼   ► like net neutrality is like this big thing and it's political and it's like it doesn't

01:28:22 ◼   ► make much sense until you think about it on the individual level.

01:28:25 ◼   ► I think that's the case for a lot of political things, but especially something like this.

01:28:28 ◼   ► So like, what I wrote about was like relay.

01:28:32 ◼   ► And if without the protection of neutrality,

01:28:35 ◼   ► Comcast could go to Libsyn where our files are hosted

01:28:37 ◼   ► and say, you know what, Libsyn, like you got to pay us.

01:28:41 ◼   ► We're doubling your access to the,

01:28:44 ◼   ► like if you went across Comcast copper,

01:28:46 ◼   ► it's gonna cost you twice as much as it does elsewhere.

01:28:49 ◼   ► And like, Libsyn would be forced to either do that

01:28:53 ◼   ► and charge us more, which would make me sad,

01:28:55 ◼   ► or not do that and our downloads be slow

01:28:58 ◼   ► anyone on Comcast which would make me even more sad. And so it's it's

01:29:03 ◼   ► definitely one of those things where like what happens in Washington affects

01:29:08 ◼   ► people like on a super micro level and it's really scary to see it be you know

01:29:20 ◼   ► going away. It's kind of where it's been left.

01:29:26 ◼   ► And it's not just here, I mean there's news in December about

01:29:30 ◼   ► neutrality and some European countries also not in good shape. Yeah, we're a bit

01:29:38 ◼   ► more progressive though here. There is more that's happening, there is

01:29:42 ◼   ► more of this stuff in the UK, more competition, and there are European Union

01:29:47 ◼   ► guidelines about net neutrality, so at least some of the lawmakers are embracing

01:29:52 ◼   ► it. Yeah, I think it's a must in an internet-driven economy than, you know, like the economy that,

01:30:05 ◼   ► you know, our parents grew up in being sort of like post-industrial, like moving into

01:30:12 ◼   ► the information age. Like the electric company didn't tell you that running your refrigerator

01:30:18 ◼   ► would be twice as expensive as running your stove.

01:30:22 ◼   ► That sort of mentality just doesn't make sense in a market that is completely driven.

01:30:28 ◼   ► Most small businesses in America are internet-based, and to see them in trouble because of this

01:30:33 ◼   ► is terrifying on multiple levels.

01:30:36 ◼   ► I think more of the problem is the American view on the rest of the world.

01:30:43 ◼   ► That's the problem, I think, in this.

01:30:45 ◼   ► I think the biggest problem with net neutrality is America making decisions and this affects

01:30:49 ◼   ► the rest of the world and as much as I love you guys you don't have the right to make

01:30:53 ◼   ► those decisions.

01:30:55 ◼   ► The internet is not an American thing.

01:30:56 ◼   ► It doesn't belong to America and the American government or anyone in America cannot make

01:31:02 ◼   ► decisions that will affect me and the United Kingdom.

01:31:06 ◼   ► You just can't do that.

01:31:08 ◼   ► I totally agree.

01:31:09 ◼   ► So there we go.

01:31:12 ◼   ► The December news, I mean we probably don't need to talk about it because it's happening

01:31:15 ◼   ► right now.

01:31:16 ◼   ► Listen to the last three weeks of shows.

01:31:18 ◼   ► I mean Sony, which we haven't, we really didn't talk about all that much.

01:31:26 ◼   ► Because it's a minefield and a mess.

01:31:30 ◼   ► It is a mess and it's a minefield.

01:31:33 ◼   ► Because I've learned the hard way if you have opinions on this stuff people will say that

01:31:37 ◼   ► you're calling America a coward so I don't really want to get into it. I've already just slammed down on

01:31:45 ◼   ► America a moment ago. I need to do it again. I love you guys. Yeah I mean I will say that I think

01:31:50 ◼   ► I think Sony's in a really hard position but I think the reason that we're gonna remember this

01:32:00 ◼   ► movie in two decades is because they decided not to show it and then sort of decide to show it

01:32:04 ◼   ► after all like it seems the movies terrible yeah but but not that but like

01:32:10 ◼   ► responding to that sort of thing by accepting some level of like command is

01:32:19 ◼   ► sort of strange yeah they never should have made the movie in the first place

01:32:24 ◼   ► and then they really shouldn't have I mean looking at in hindsight I think

01:32:29 ◼   ► that maybe they should never have made it I think that the frets about it

01:32:33 ◼   ► should say that they shouldn't have released it but at the end of the day

01:32:36 ◼   ► you can't allow a company, sorry another country to censor you, you

01:32:40 ◼   ► just can't do that I guess. Yeah and then App Store stuff which we talked a little

01:32:45 ◼   ► bit about back in June you know like a half an hour ago time has moved quickly

01:32:51 ◼   ► and so slowly you know the App Store issues of Apple built these tools and

01:32:59 ◼   ► developers are using them and there's not a great definition of what's allowed

01:33:03 ◼   ► and what's not allowed and that's hurting developers.

01:33:06 ◼   ► That has hopefully been quiet, but then I realized,

01:33:10 ◼   ► I was thinking about this this morning,

01:33:11 ◼   ► and then I realized that, well, the App Store

01:33:12 ◼   ► has been closed for a week because of Christmas.

01:33:16 ◼   ► You haven't gotten any updates on your phone

01:33:17 ◼   ► because there's no updates.

01:33:19 ◼   ► So hopefully that doesn't fire back up in January.

01:33:22 ◼   ► But I think we're at a point,

01:33:24 ◼   ► where this continues to be an issue that,

01:33:27 ◼   ► we have to hear from Apple officially.

01:33:30 ◼   ► Developers getting emails from App Review,

01:33:32 ◼   ► It's a very real thing, but it's not Apple making a statement.

01:33:35 ◼   ► And I think Apple has to make a unilateral decision about what's allowed and what's not

01:33:42 ◼   ► and be very clear about it.

01:33:44 ◼   ► And I think that's at a point where it's got to come from somebody like Schiller, who is

01:33:48 ◼   ► in charge of this stuff.

01:33:51 ◼   ► And there's been a lot of chatter from well-known iOS developers who are really unhappy.

01:34:00 ◼   ► And as Android gets better, I think some developers are looking at it for the first time and that's

01:34:07 ◼   ► not what Apple needs.

01:34:09 ◼   ► Apple needs good apps to be completely, solely only on iOS.

01:34:14 ◼   ► Do you remember a couple of years ago there was an amount of problems, there was a groundswell

01:34:21 ◼   ► of anger and upset about something developer-related, I can't remember what it was, and then Apple

01:34:27 ◼   ► overhauled the App Store developer guidelines and included the piece on "This is a living document."

01:34:32 ◼   ► Right. Do you remember that? I do. I think that's gonna happen in Q1.

01:34:38 ◼   ► I think it's got to because I don't think they can make it back to another WWDC without addressing it.

01:34:45 ◼   ► Yeah, because the way that you don't have a

01:34:48 ◼   ► letter from Federighi, right?

01:34:52 ◼   ► Where you address that we see this as a problem the way that you don't do that is by making a change like this

01:34:58 ◼   ► It's like we're always gonna change them and you can you know

01:35:00 ◼   ► You can never try and Apple will never allow you to draw the dots between them, but it's obvious what they were doing it for

01:35:06 ◼   ► Yeah

01:35:08 ◼   ► to a point

01:35:10 ◼   ► To a point I agree with you, but I think I

01:35:14 ◼   ► Think like hiding behind the comment of that. It's a living document

01:35:19 ◼   ► Like I get the intention of that but this the cynical viewpoint is that Apple can just hide behind that anytime they want

01:35:26 ◼   ► And it's not a living document if they're not editing the document like they haven't clarified any of these rules yet

01:35:32 ◼   ► to any great extent and so it's like

01:35:36 ◼   ► It's living document, but it's not and I think they've got to deal with that

01:35:42 ◼   ► They don't want to go into a WBC with new features, you know, assuming Lee

01:35:48 ◼   ► I think it's pretty safe to say we're gonna see the watch before June and they're gonna see like the next level of watch kit

01:35:54 ◼   ► at WWE DC this year and

01:35:56 ◼   ► They have to have people on board with that and there's a lot of people

01:36:00 ◼   ► who were saying like to your point a couple weeks ago on the show that like look at the watch and they're like

01:36:05 ◼   ► I'm not going to do that because you know

01:36:09 ◼   ► I don't want to go build something and invest in it and then not be

01:36:14 ◼   ► approved or worse be

01:36:17 ◼   ► rejected later. And so a lot of developers are holding their cards close right now

01:36:22 ◼   ► and that's not what Apple needs. Apple needs developers to be risky and it's time to address it.

01:36:27 ◼   ► I think the App Store development guidelines should be written in Google Docs so like they could be edited by multiple people once.

01:36:34 ◼   ► That's...

01:36:35 ◼   ► Someone would just select all and delete.

01:36:36 ◼   ► Well, you know living document. Do you remember when you and Federico did that?

01:36:41 ◼   ► Yeah, we opened up a Google Doc to the world and it got horrible and broken and fell apart really fast.

01:36:46 ◼   ► It got really weird before it did though.

01:36:50 ◼   ► So that's the year.

01:36:51 ◼   ► That's 2014 in review.

01:36:53 ◼   ► I've enjoyed this actually.

01:36:55 ◼   ► It's nice to look back at all of the things that actually don't matter.

01:37:00 ◼   ► Should we pick an Apple story of the year?

01:37:04 ◼   ► I already kind of did an upgrade but I mean mine and I kind of said it a moment ago.

01:37:09 ◼   ► I think that Tim Cook's article, his Businessweek article, is the most important thing that

01:37:16 ◼   ► Apple's done this year, but probably the watch from a product perspective. If you look at

01:37:22 ◼   ► Apple as the company rather than as Tim Cook, the individual, probably the watch is the

01:37:26 ◼   ► biggest thing. Love it or hate it, it's what Apple's bet in the next couple of years on,

01:37:31 ◼   ► I think. Agreed.

01:37:34 ◼   ► Because I think as well, you look at something like this and you look at where the iPhones

01:37:38 ◼   ► are and where the iPads are, innovation is slowing down and it's going to continue to

01:37:43 ◼   ► slow down and Apple, I think that Apple will be relying on the watch to be where their

01:37:48 ◼   ► innovation goes because it's a new product and it will take maybe some of the sting away

01:37:53 ◼   ► from the fact that there isn't a lot going on in the phones or the iPads.

01:37:57 ◼   ► I think that's a really good point that they can sort of channel, re-channel things.

01:38:01 ◼   ► You saw that with OS X and iOS that OS X slowed down like change to change when iOS was young

01:38:12 ◼   ► And now that IOS is a little more mature,

01:38:14 ◼   ► they picked the pace back up with OS X,

01:38:17 ◼   ► we get things like Yosemite.

01:38:19 ◼   ► I think a lot of that is a testament

01:38:21 ◼   ► to their new integrated team structure.

01:38:25 ◼   ► But I think a lot of it is like,

01:38:26 ◼   ► yeah, there's only so many hours in the day,

01:38:29 ◼   ► there's only so many people here to do these things.

01:38:31 ◼   ► And something is always gonna have priority,

01:38:35 ◼   ► and I think you're absolutely right

01:38:36 ◼   ► that the watch is going to be that for a while.

01:38:39 ◼   ► And then maybe they do that and they circle back.

01:38:43 ◼   ► I think it's a pretty common scenario.

01:38:48 ◼   ► - I hope that they just focus in one place anyway

01:38:50 ◼   ► 'cause they can't.

01:38:52 ◼   ► They can't prove it.

01:38:53 ◼   ► - I hope they focus on iWork.

01:38:57 ◼   ► I'm just kidding.

01:38:58 ◼   ► - iWork in the cloud.

01:38:59 ◼   ► - All right.

01:39:03 ◼   ► - So that's about it.

01:39:04 ◼   ► We've got a load of show notes today.

01:39:05 ◼   ► our whole host, a incredible stack of show notes, which you can find at relay.fm/connected/20

01:39:12 ◼   ► weeks, Steven, 20 weeks of Relay FM.

01:39:16 ◼   ► It's nuts.

01:39:17 ◼   ► Congratulations on the biggest, most important thing in your year.

01:39:21 ◼   ► I really feel bad about that.

01:39:24 ◼   ► Biggest professional thing.

01:39:25 ◼   ► There you go.

01:39:26 ◼   ► Okay.

01:39:27 ◼   ► Biggest professional thing.

01:39:28 ◼   ► We'll be back next week with another episode of Connected.

01:39:32 ◼   ► Thank you so much to our sponsors this week.

01:39:34 ◼   ► Linda, SketchpartyTV and Squarespace.

01:39:37 ◼   ► If you want to find me online I am @imike, I am YKE and I host a bunch of shows at Relay.fm

01:39:43 ◼   ► and Stephen Hackett.

01:39:44 ◼   ► He is @ismhage on Twitter and he writes the fantastic Five Tool Pixels.net.

01:39:49 ◼   ► And next week we will be joined by our absent co-host, not dead, okay, just absent.

01:39:56 ◼   ► It's important.

01:39:57 ◼   ► You're the one who...

01:39:58 ◼   ► I'm the one that is deceased, yes.

01:40:01 ◼   ► You can find Federico's great work at maxstories.net and his app for teaching on Twitter, V-I-T-I-C-C-I.

01:40:07 ◼   ► We'll be back next time.

01:40:08 ◼   ► Thank you so much for listening.

01:40:09 ◼   ► Bye-bye.

01:40:10 ◼   ► Adios.

01:40:12 ◼   ► [BLANK_AUDIO]