Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [music]

00:00:08 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 439.

00:00:12 ◼   ► It's made possible this week by our sponsors Indeed and Capital One.

00:00:17 ◼   ► My name is Stephen Hackett, and I have the pleasure of being joined by Mr. Myke Hurley.

00:00:20 ◼   ► Hello, and I have the pleasure of being joined by Federico Vittucci.

00:00:25 ◼   ► Hello, and I have the pleasure of being joined by nobody else. It's the three of us.

00:00:30 ◼   ► That's the three of us.

00:00:31 ◼   ► Just three of us.

00:00:33 ◼   ► What was that song there that you were doing?

00:00:36 ◼   ► I don't know, isn't that a thing?

00:00:37 ◼   ► I think it's just the two of us.

00:00:39 ◼   ► Well, just the two of us.

00:00:40 ◼   ► Yeah, just the three of us is a very different song.

00:00:43 ◼   ► A different vibe.

00:00:44 ◼   ► It's a more modern vibe, I think.

00:00:47 ◼   ► That's true.

00:00:48 ◼   ► That is true.

00:00:49 ◼   ► Yes.

00:00:50 ◼   ► Yes.

00:00:50 ◼   ► Okay.

00:00:53 ◼   ► So, Hugh and Lickitung, if you want to know what that's in reference to, you should go

00:00:57 ◼   ► to getconnectedpro.co, you know?

00:01:00 ◼   ► A wild one today.

00:01:01 ◼   ► Steven had a tough week.

00:01:04 ◼   ► Yes.

00:01:05 ◼   ► And it's only Wednesday.

00:01:08 ◼   ► Here for you, man.

00:01:09 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:01:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:01:11 ◼   ► Well, we have a bunch of follow-up.

00:01:12 ◼   ► All of this follow-up was submitted at our fancy form at relay.fm/connected.

00:01:17 ◼   ► There's a submit feedback button.

00:01:20 ◼   ► It's also at longthigh.social.

00:01:22 ◼   ► Is it?

00:01:24 ◼   ► It is.

00:01:25 ◼   ► Oh, okay.

00:01:26 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:01:27 ◼   ► That's the domain I bought a few weeks ago.

00:01:28 ◼   ► We talked about this.

00:01:29 ◼   ► Were you surprised at how, that we got no more, nobody else wanted to challenge the

00:01:34 ◼   ► to be the thigh to beat.

00:01:35 ◼   ► I was really surprised by this.

00:01:37 ◼   ► We got no more thighs this week.

00:01:39 ◼   ► So we have a thigh champ and so no one, no one's challenging the thigh.

00:01:45 ◼   ► There's no other thigh to beat.

00:01:47 ◼   ► We did have feedback, basically back to back from each other.

00:01:51 ◼   ► One person said, "Please stop."

00:01:52 ◼   ► Another person said, "Please keep going with it."

00:01:54 ◼   ► So, I don't know what people want.

00:01:57 ◼   ► But we have some non-Thai-related follow-up.

00:02:00 ◼   ► Today, we're going to start with Sebastian, who writes, "A million episodes ago, Mr. Viticci

00:02:06 ◼   ► asked for recommendations for a wallet with AirTag support.

00:02:10 ◼   ► I assume he got good recommendations from the passionate ones, and we never got to hear

00:02:14 ◼   ► back from him.

00:02:15 ◼   ► He needs to be a man of the people and share what he got.

00:02:18 ◼   ► I think this is incorrect.

00:02:19 ◼   ► I'm pretty sure I shared what I bought because somebody else asked the same question and

00:02:25 ◼   ► I think I'm gonna say it again.

00:02:28 ◼   ► I bought a cheap wallet from Amazon Italy called the Haoanik wallet.

00:02:35 ◼   ► I have no idea what this brand is or does.

00:02:39 ◼   ► It's exactly what I needed.

00:02:41 ◼   ► I'm gonna send you, I'm gonna post it in Discord. This is what I bought. It's the Howanik wallet

00:02:49 ◼   ► and it's got a cheap AirTag thing in it. It's like very simple, very minimal, it's called minimalistic.

00:03:00 ◼   ► it let me it lets me put some I can store some cash three three cards ID the Italian equivalent

00:03:12 ◼   ► of a social security card and that's about it also I got my coupe my my my like the little

00:03:20 ◼   ► coupon card for my barber shop they put a little stamp on it what color what color uh-huh it's the

00:03:27 ◼   ► The black one.

00:03:28 ◼   ► Okay.

00:03:29 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:30 ◼   ► How often do you go to your barbershop

00:03:33 ◼   ► that you need a punch card?

00:03:35 ◼   ► Well, like every couple of weeks actually.

00:03:37 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:39 ◼   ► Keeping it tight.

00:03:41 ◼   ► Yeah, well, I got it.

00:03:42 ◼   ► I got it.

00:03:43 ◼   ► You know, keep a long beard.

00:03:43 ◼   ► You gotta care for it.

00:03:45 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:46 ◼   ► No, you're right.

00:03:47 ◼   ► Of course, I got my whole kit at home

00:03:50 ◼   ► with the soap and the balm and the oil

00:03:54 ◼   ► and all that kind of stuff.

00:03:55 ◼   ► But still, it's also kind of relaxing

00:03:57 ◼   ► to just go to the barber.

00:03:59 ◼   ► The guy takes care of you

00:04:00 ◼   ► and puts the hot towel on your face.

00:04:02 ◼   ► It's very relaxing.

00:04:03 ◼   ► - I like the hot towel.

00:04:05 ◼   ► - A while back, I was actually kind of falling asleep

00:04:07 ◼   ► because I had a long day.

00:04:08 ◼   ► It's like, geez, I totally forgot that I was at the barber.

00:04:11 ◼   ► It's like, and this is very relaxing

00:04:14 ◼   ► with the towel on my face.

00:04:15 ◼   ► But yes, anyway, this is the wallet.

00:04:17 ◼   ► I like it.

00:04:18 ◼   ► It's fine.

00:04:20 ◼   ► - I think as soon as you said,

00:04:21 ◼   ► we've talked about this before,

00:04:22 ◼   ► I remembered that we talked about it before.

00:04:23 ◼   ► So, it's covered twice now.

00:04:26 ◼   ► Dan wrote in referring to our previous episode,

00:04:30 ◼   ► Federico talked about his Apple Watch Ultra

00:04:32 ◼   ► and his annoyance with launching shortcuts

00:04:34 ◼   ► from a complication, requiring a confirmation tap.

00:04:38 ◼   ► What about running a shortcut via the action button?

00:04:41 ◼   ► - Let's see.

00:04:44 ◼   ► So if instead of running,

00:04:48 ◼   ► so I set it up with the action button.

00:04:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's in the settings on the watch app.

00:04:53 ◼   ► Yeah, it skips the confirmation step.

00:04:57 ◼   ► It's kind of weird because it auto-confirms

00:05:01 ◼   ► that you want to run it.

00:05:02 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:05:03 ◼   ► - But then I gotta give up the flashlight integration.

00:05:09 ◼   ► - The flashlight is good.

00:05:11 ◼   ► - I don't know if that's a good thing.

00:05:14 ◼   ► So it skips the confirmation step if you press the button.

00:05:18 ◼   ► - Yeah, it brings me--

00:05:18 ◼   ► - That feels like a way to accidentally run a shortcut

00:05:21 ◼   ► a lot of times.

00:05:22 ◼   ► - Well.

00:05:23 ◼   ► - You really can't accidentally hit the action button.

00:05:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, you really gotta press it.

00:05:29 ◼   ► - Because of the crown guard.

00:05:31 ◼   ► - No, the action button's on the other side.

00:05:33 ◼   ► - The crown guard is on the other side.

00:05:35 ◼   ► We're not making that voice, we're not bragging.

00:05:39 ◼   ► - I did have a thing, I said I was in London yesterday

00:05:41 ◼   ► and just stay clear of the Apple Store.

00:05:44 ◼   ► I just keep steering clear of the Apple Store.

00:05:46 ◼   ► I've been doing that since September.

00:05:48 ◼   ► I just won't go into them because I fear what will happen

00:05:51 ◼   ► if I go into an Apple store,

00:05:52 ◼   ► so I just stay away from the Apple store.

00:05:54 ◼   ► - Apple Watch Ultra would jump onto your wrist?

00:05:56 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:05:57 ◼   ► - Have you tried one on?

00:05:58 ◼   ► - Yes, David Sparks's.

00:06:01 ◼   ► - That's right.

00:06:01 ◼   ► - He put it on my wrist in Disneyland.

00:06:03 ◼   ► He just made me wear it and I liked it a lot.

00:06:06 ◼   ► - Hmm, a little watchy tongue action.

00:06:08 ◼   ► - That's true.

00:06:09 ◼   ► - Well, maybe you don't have to buy an Apple Watch Ultra.

00:06:12 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:06:13 ◼   ► - I thought it was great.

00:06:14 ◼   ► This really made me laugh.

00:06:16 ◼   ► GS Light posted about this in the members discord.

00:06:19 ◼   ► It is a third party product that is just like a case,

00:06:24 ◼   ► like a shell to go on an Apple Watch Series 8

00:06:29 ◼   ► to make it look like an Apple Watch Ultra.

00:06:32 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:06:34 ◼   ► And they're just, I don't know why,

00:06:36 ◼   ► but there's just something so funny about this to me.

00:06:38 ◼   ► - This reminds me of people who like put extreme things

00:06:43 ◼   ► on their car or their truck, right?

00:06:46 ◼   ► like racks and like shovels and like a tent maybe,

00:06:51 ◼   ► but then they never go in the woods with their car, right?

00:06:55 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Same energy.

00:06:56 ◼   ► - It's like having a pickup truck, right,

00:07:00 ◼   ► in like the city or whatever.

00:07:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, who would do that?

00:07:03 ◼   ► - Exactly, that's the kind of thing.

00:07:05 ◼   ► But this is very funny to me.

00:07:07 ◼   ► I think that this is a hilarious product

00:07:10 ◼   ► that I'm pleased exists in the world

00:07:13 ◼   ► for people that wanna pretend they have an Apple Watch Ultra

00:07:16 ◼   ► but don't actually have one.

00:07:18 ◼   ► I just, I think it's fantastic.

00:07:20 ◼   ► - I feel like I've seen an uptick

00:07:22 ◼   ► in Apple Watch Ultras in the world.

00:07:24 ◼   ► For a long time, I didn't see another one at all,

00:07:27 ◼   ► but I've seen a few just like at the grocery store,

00:07:29 ◼   ► like, you know, out and about in the world.

00:07:32 ◼   ► Maybe everyone's doing this with a $13 Snap-on cover.

00:07:36 ◼   ► - Yeah, that actually could be what's happening.

00:07:38 ◼   ► I feel like I'm seeing them more and more these days too,

00:07:41 ◼   ► which again, doesn't help me for my want of one,

00:07:46 ◼   ► but I'm just still not gonna do it.

00:07:47 ◼   ► I'm gonna wait, I'm waiting, I'm waiting.

00:07:49 ◼   ► - Anyway, now that I'm trying this,

00:07:51 ◼   ► thank you, Dan, for the suggestion

00:07:54 ◼   ► that you don't know about the skip the confirmation step

00:07:57 ◼   ► when you trigger a shortcut from the action button.

00:07:58 ◼   ► I'm gonna think about this.

00:08:00 ◼   ► I think I run this shortcut more often

00:08:04 ◼   ► than I trigger the flashlight,

00:08:06 ◼   ► so it may be worth it to just pair it with the action button

00:08:10 ◼   ► and go back to control center for the flashlight.

00:08:14 ◼   ► - Is it within your security parameters

00:08:17 ◼   ► to share what the shortcut is?

00:08:19 ◼   ► - It's my shortcut to append some text

00:08:24 ◼   ► to the bottom of a note in Notion.

00:08:26 ◼   ► - So you just speak into the watch and like--

00:08:29 ◼   ► - Or type. - Okay, that's cool.

00:08:31 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Hey Notion,

00:08:33 ◼   ► Notion, this is my secret, please write it down,

00:08:35 ◼   ► thank you Notion. (laughing)

00:08:37 ◼   ► - Like that?

00:08:38 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's exactly like,

00:08:39 ◼   ► whenever I dictate something on the watch,

00:08:42 ◼   ► I whisper to the watch.

00:08:43 ◼   ► And also you say, "Hey Notion."

00:08:45 ◼   ► Like every note says, it starts with, "Hey Notion."

00:08:48 ◼   ► Every note starts with, "Hey Notion," comma,

00:08:51 ◼   ► and then the actual note.

00:08:53 ◼   ► You should see Steven's calendar.

00:08:56 ◼   ► It's like, "Hey Calendar."

00:08:58 ◼   ► Every meeting starts with, "Hey Calendar."

00:09:02 ◼   ► Every task is like, "Hey Todoist."

00:09:04 ◼   ► Hey buddy.

00:09:05 ◼   ► It changed roof.

00:09:09 ◼   ► You also posted a picture of your Apple Watch Ultra,

00:09:14 ◼   ► so I think we need to re-roast your home screen

00:09:16 ◼   ► because your watch face is completely different, Federico.

00:09:18 ◼   ► What's going on?

00:09:19 ◼   ► How come you've completely redone your watch face?

00:09:23 ◼   ► Because we shamed him.

00:09:24 ◼   ► Well, that's because you don't read my newsletter.

00:09:27 ◼   ► -Oh. -That's because...

00:09:28 ◼   ► Oh, it's on... Look, hang on a minute.

00:09:30 ◼   ► No, you just wait. You just wait.

00:09:33 ◼   ► I have in Reader an unread item

00:09:36 ◼   ► on my Club Max Stories RSS feed,

00:09:39 ◼   ► which says a lighter approach to focus modes

00:09:42 ◼   ► with iPhone and Apple watch ultra.

00:09:43 ◼   ► - It's people like you are killing blogs.

00:09:45 ◼   ► - I'm not paying, am I paying?

00:09:48 ◼   ► I don't even know.

00:09:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, I took some time to make two focus modes.

00:09:53 ◼   ► Just I don't wanna be like those people

00:09:55 ◼   ► with 20 focus modes.

00:09:57 ◼   ► I got it, I don't have time or energy

00:09:59 ◼   ► like I used to be, yes, big mistake two years ago,

00:10:02 ◼   ► never gonna do it again.

00:10:04 ◼   ► So I just have one for like during the day when I'm working

00:10:08 ◼   ► or after 9 p.m. when I'm just chilling, minding my own business.

00:10:13 ◼   ► And I got the watch faces to go along with those home screens on the iPhone.

00:10:18 ◼   ► And this one is the,

00:10:22 ◼   ► because it was a Sunday,

00:10:24 ◼   ► this home screen and like personal focus mode is also enabled all day on Sunday.

00:10:30 ◼   ► And this is what it looks like. And the shortcut in question,

00:10:33 ◼   ► is the complication in the bottom left corner.

00:10:37 ◼   ► That's the shortcut for Notion.

00:10:39 ◼   ► Like the timer, which I use a lot when cooking pasta.

00:10:42 ◼   ► Time zone for New York,

00:10:44 ◼   ► and carat weather, five day forecast complication.

00:10:47 ◼   ► And the home one to open and control home kit accessories.

00:10:52 ◼   ► - The home app on the Apple Watch is just,

00:10:54 ◼   ► I think I said this before recently,

00:10:56 ◼   ► but like I just can't even work out why it's so bad.

00:10:59 ◼   ► Like why is it so bad?

00:11:01 ◼   ► Did you try that app?

00:11:02 ◼   ► We were talking about this, weren't we?

00:11:05 ◼   ► Did you try and, did you set up that other app?

00:11:06 ◼   ► What was it called? Home?

00:11:07 ◼   ► - No, Home Run? - Home Run?

00:11:09 ◼   ► - Didn't have the time.

00:11:10 ◼   ► Didn't have the time, but I think I will.

00:11:13 ◼   ► I still find scenes in HomeKit kind of confusing.

00:11:18 ◼   ► And sometimes I don't know if what I want

00:11:23 ◼   ► is a scene or a shortcut.

00:11:26 ◼   ► And what I also find weird is

00:11:30 ◼   ► sometimes the kind of quote unquote scene

00:11:33 ◼   ► that I want to make is more of a shortcut,

00:11:36 ◼   ► like control a bunch of things at once,

00:11:38 ◼   ► but also have conditions.

00:11:40 ◼   ► And I just find it weird that I cannot create this

00:11:45 ◼   ► in the Home app.

00:11:47 ◼   ► In the Home app, you can create automations

00:11:49 ◼   ► with like a mini version of the Shortcuts Editor,

00:11:52 ◼   ► but only if they are automations.

00:11:54 ◼   ► And so I ended up creating-

00:11:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, my brain doesn't work in scenes

00:11:59 ◼   ► for all of the things I wanna do in my home.

00:12:00 ◼   ► - Exactly, yes.

00:12:01 ◼   ► - Like I have some scenes that make sense to me,

00:12:05 ◼   ► like a good night scene or whatever.

00:12:08 ◼   ► But like I have a scene for the studio,

00:12:10 ◼   ► which is just turn the two radiators on.

00:12:13 ◼   ► And that doesn't make sense to me as a scene.

00:12:15 ◼   ► That's just like controlling two devices at once, right?

00:12:17 ◼   ► - Yes, thank you, yes.

00:12:19 ◼   ► - It doesn't make sense to me to do that,

00:12:22 ◼   ► but that's the only way that I can find to do it

00:12:24 ◼   ► and then set automations on it.

00:12:26 ◼   ► It's complicated.

00:12:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, and sometimes like I just wanna have

00:12:30 ◼   ► like control of multiple devices,

00:12:33 ◼   ► but only if some other condition is being met

00:12:37 ◼   ► and I wanna run these things manually.

00:12:39 ◼   ► Like I'm not super into like all these automations

00:12:44 ◼   ► that come and go and they do things on like on their own

00:12:47 ◼   ► and they're gonna surprise people in your home.

00:12:49 ◼   ► And it's so surprisingly convoluted to put this together

00:12:52 ◼   ► because you gotta go into the shortcuts app

00:12:54 ◼   ► and I'm like, okay, I'm guessing I'm gonna have

00:12:56 ◼   ► to make a custom shortcut.

00:12:58 ◼   ► I feel like this should be simplified

00:13:01 ◼   ► and this integration between shortcuts and home

00:13:04 ◼   ► is kind of confusing at the moment

00:13:05 ◼   ► because it's only like halfway there.

00:13:07 ◼   ► You have a mini shortcuts UI when you create automations,

00:13:11 ◼   ► but you cannot have the same shortcuts UI

00:13:13 ◼   ► when you create a scene.

00:13:14 ◼   ► And so you end up creating a custom shortcut

00:13:16 ◼   ► for home control that doesn't show up in HomeKit at all.

00:13:21 ◼   ► I don't fully understand it.

00:13:24 ◼   ► - I have seven focus modes.

00:13:26 ◼   ► - Seven? - Yeah.

00:13:27 ◼   ► - One for each day of the week, like God intended.

00:13:30 ◼   ► Yes. Okay.

00:13:31 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:13:32 ◼   ► You rest on Sunday?

00:13:35 ◼   ► I am. Do not disturb. Sleep, vacation, weekend, travel, fitness, and recording.

00:13:42 ◼   ► Vacation and weekend are different?

00:13:45 ◼   ► Vacation, weekend, and travel. They're all different, yeah.

00:13:48 ◼   ► They're all different. How is vacation?

00:13:50 ◼   ► Yeah, so weekend is just like, it just, it effectively just removes a bunch of stuff from my home screen.

00:13:56 ◼   ► A year of the weekend.

00:13:57 ◼   ► Which is like exactly

00:13:59 ◼   ► Weekend and that's why so travel is like it's got it puts front and center like the flighty widget and stuff like that

00:14:06 ◼   ► and like my airline app and then vacation is like

00:14:09 ◼   ► Tripsy and my fantastic like it's more widget focused really, you know

00:14:14 ◼   ► Hides those work apps get out of here work apps. You know what I mean?

00:14:18 ◼   ► I totally agree that the

00:14:21 ◼   ► that there's confusion between scenes and shortcuts and basically where I draw the line is I will make a scene for something

00:14:28 ◼   ► That someone in the house wants to do with their voice

00:14:30 ◼   ► because the home pod understands scenes it will not run a shortcut because I don't have the

00:14:36 ◼   ► Private whatever it is like data access thing turned on on the home pods

00:14:41 ◼   ► and so I've got a couple of scenes and then the rest of the stuff that like I just want to do like maybe from

00:14:46 ◼   ► My phone because I have on my today's

00:14:50 ◼   ► View screen thing, you know to the left of the home screen a bunch of shortcut

00:14:55 ◼   ► Shortcuts in a widget and most of those are actually homekit stuff and I find that to be easier to manage

00:15:02 ◼   ► from a widget perspective than scenes but

00:15:06 ◼   ► Really? It seems like these should be the same thing and it's just you can get to them from two different places

00:15:11 ◼   ► I don't understand why there's like this

00:15:14 ◼   ► subtle distinction between them or

00:15:18 ◼   ► You have some capability if you come from one side, but if you come from the other side, it's different

00:15:23 ◼   ► It's it's confusing and it feels like it's one of those things that and I'm this is conjecture

00:15:27 ◼   ► But maybe like fell in between the cracks right? It's like oh well what team is actually

00:15:32 ◼   ► Supposed to do it. No one knows and so it's kind of kind of messy the shortcuts widget that you mentioned like the small one. I

00:15:41 ◼   ► Also have a couple in the today page

00:15:45 ◼   ► Let's talk about it. I feel like that shortcut is its potential like that widget its potential is so wasted

00:15:52 ◼   ► that small square like the smaller size

00:15:57 ◼   ► Shortcuts widget. I feel like that widget should allow me to have like four buttons. Yeah. Oh, yeah

00:16:04 ◼   ► Why is it just one?

00:16:06 ◼   ► None of them are dense enough. Really? No, no, they're not and

00:16:12 ◼   ► They I'm pretty sure that like two years in they still don't have an Excel size

00:16:19 ◼   ► widget on the iPad for shortcuts

00:16:21 ◼   ► Like the big rectangular one. Mm-hmm. I don't think so. No. Yeah, they don't have it. It's been two years

00:16:27 ◼   ► I think since that feature launched

00:16:29 ◼   ► I

00:16:31 ◼   ► Don't know what they're doing. I don't know what they're doing. I have a

00:16:33 ◼   ► call to listeners if you are out there and you have a 3d printer and

00:16:40 ◼   ► you want to help with something for the 2023 Podcast-a-thon for St. Jude, knowing

00:16:46 ◼   ► that you may not, you cannot tell Myke what I'm up to. Okay, so you can't share

00:16:52 ◼   ► spoilers in Discord or Mastodon. Some people have come very close. We actually

00:16:57 ◼   ► took a picture down because it was pretty close to being a spoiler. If

00:17:01 ◼   ► you're willing to commit to complete secrecy and pitch in with your 3D

00:17:07 ◼   ► printer please send me an email it's stephen@relay.fm and I have

00:17:16 ◼   ► something I would like some help with so a bunch of people are already helping

00:17:21 ◼   ► but the more the merrier. This is very this is upsetting to me on a

00:17:26 ◼   ► number of levels because like one I don't know what this is I don't know if

00:17:29 ◼   ► this is like a good thing or a bad thing it's probably a bad thing and then like

00:17:34 ◼   ► I don't like the idea of like 3D printed things.

00:17:38 ◼   ► Like what is it going to make, what's that going to mean?

00:17:40 ◼   ► Like how painful is that going to be?

00:17:42 ◼   ► And then the other one, who has agreed to a podcastathon?

00:17:46 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:17:47 ◼   ► We haven't agreed to this.

00:17:49 ◼   ► Who's agreed to the two of the podcastathon this year?

00:17:51 ◼   ► I haven't had any conversations with anybody yet.

00:17:53 ◼   ► Well, Jill is fully in the loop on this.

00:17:56 ◼   ► I did it.

00:17:56 ◼   ► Oh, I'm sure Jill is in the loop.

00:17:58 ◼   ► I'm just saying like, we've yet to even like

00:18:00 ◼   ► have a conversation about podcasting.

00:18:01 ◼   ► Well, we have a date, you know?

00:18:03 ◼   ► You you made it you made a day we agree to a date sir

00:18:07 ◼   ► Well, I I'm not agreeing to any dates now. There's subterfuge, you know, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to renegotiate

00:18:14 ◼   ► No, it's just it's just a just a jape. That's all it is

00:18:18 ◼   ► I find I find the whole idea of 3d printing so creepy. Why? Oh, I don't know like making objects

00:18:25 ◼   ► Like you make babies. I don't know. I find it so odd like you can just

00:18:30 ◼   ► make something and it pops out from a thing.

00:18:33 ◼   ► Do you think making babies is creepy?

00:18:36 ◼   ► Well, no.

00:18:37 ◼   ► Okay, okay, because you said like it's creepy like making babies.

00:18:42 ◼   ► No, no, no.

00:18:43 ◼   ► We should just stop there.

00:18:46 ◼   ► It's the idea of taking a substance

00:18:50 ◼   ► and it becomes an object that didn't exist before.

00:18:54 ◼   ► That's just construction.

00:18:56 ◼   ► I mean, you...

00:18:57 ◼   ► No, it's like, I think...

00:18:59 ◼   ► Federico, does it make you feel uncomfortable because it's like people think they're playing God or something?

00:19:04 ◼   ► I was literally gonna say, I think a lot of people who are into 3D printing have like this God complex

00:19:11 ◼   ► that they should probably talk to someone about because like, and I see all these folks make like

00:19:16 ◼   ► "Oh, I 3D printed this and I made this" and it's like, would you stop printing stuff, please?

00:19:22 ◼   ► Like, why are you printing so many things?

00:19:25 ◼   ► It's like AI, right?

00:19:27 ◼   ► You don't know what the, you know,

00:19:28 ◼   ► it's like you're training these models

00:19:30 ◼   ► and who knows, they might turn against us.

00:19:32 ◼   ► What if the 3D printing turns against us?

00:19:34 ◼   ► And then everybody who's into 3D printing,

00:19:36 ◼   ► they always post like the little time lapses

00:19:40 ◼   ► of the printing that I also find creepy

00:19:42 ◼   ► because you can literally see like this liquid

00:19:44 ◼   ► that turns into like, I don't know,

00:19:46 ◼   ► a little figurine or whatever they're printing.

00:19:49 ◼   ► And everybody who was into 3D printing,

00:19:51 ◼   ► they also print for whatever reason,

00:19:54 ◼   ► like the cup holders, they're super into printing cup holders.

00:19:58 ◼   ► Everybody wants these cup holders.

00:20:00 ◼   ► I'm like, how many cups do you need to hold and where?

00:20:03 ◼   ► Steven, do you have a cup holder?

00:20:04 ◼   ► I have a 3D printed cup holder in my truck.

00:20:06 ◼   ► You're right. You got him.

00:20:10 ◼   ► Got him.

00:20:11 ◼   ► It is, it's been a fun hobby to get into, but yeah,

00:20:20 ◼   ► there's a lot of people who are way, way too into it.

00:20:23 ◼   ► Yeah. We have a lot of questions about, uh, what you find creepy.

00:20:28 ◼   ► I'm just going to run through these and you give me a yes or no.

00:20:31 ◼   ► How does that sound? Okay. Yeah, go for it. Do you find Minecraft creepy? No.

00:20:35 ◼   ► Lego. It's very nice. Uh, no. What about 3d printed babies?

00:20:40 ◼   ► Yes. Yeah. Don't I googled it. Don't look at them. It's horrifying. Uh,

00:20:45 ◼   ► what about, uh, DIY? You know, what do you,

00:20:50 ◼   ► Depends. Like, generally speaking, super in favor.

00:20:54 ◼   ► But you can overdo it. I think you can overdo it. Like we have a neighbor,

00:20:58 ◼   ► really into like do it yourself kind of stuff,

00:21:02 ◼   ► but I think he's too into it to the point where it's now reached,

00:21:06 ◼   ► it's now reached the point where he is making furniture himself,

00:21:10 ◼   ► for the new, like,

00:21:12 ◼   ► we're all like relatively young people who moved into brand new apartments.

00:21:17 ◼   ► And I think nobody has the courage to tell him that the furniture he's making is not very good.

00:21:22 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:21:24 ◼   ► That's not where I thought that one was going, but I like it more.

00:21:27 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:21:29 ◼   ► He can't stop. He's terrible at it though.

00:21:31 ◼   ► It's like, look at this cabinet that I miss.

00:21:34 ◼   ► Like, ah, yes, that is...

00:21:37 ◼   ► Oh, you can't tell him you like it too much, because then he's going to make something for you.

00:21:42 ◼   ► And then you're stuck with it.

00:21:43 ◼   ► You got to walk the lines, a fine balance.

00:21:45 ◼   ► So not creepy, but you can overdo it.

00:21:48 ◼   ► - Gotta be like, not my style, but I like it for you.

00:21:51 ◼   ► You know?

00:21:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's usually what I do.

00:21:55 ◼   ► But really, it's mostly the time lapse

00:21:58 ◼   ► that's problematic for me.

00:22:00 ◼   ► It's the watching the thing be shaped into existence

00:22:04 ◼   ► by a machine.

00:22:06 ◼   ► It kind of reminds me, I think now I'm sort of

00:22:10 ◼   ► self-analyzing my brain.

00:22:13 ◼   ► It reminds me of the scene from one of the earlier seasons

00:22:17 ◼   ► of Westworld, where they show how they make the human robots

00:22:22 ◼   ► out of like that milk-like, like plastic substance.

00:22:29 ◼   ► And they're like actually, you know,

00:22:32 ◼   ► making them with all the filaments and all the joints.

00:22:35 ◼   ► And it was super creepy.

00:22:37 ◼   ► And 3D printing kind of reminds me of that,

00:22:39 ◼   ► that scene from Westworld.

00:22:43 ◼   ► So you see why my brain makes those associations.

00:22:45 ◼   ► So I should not send you a time-lapse.

00:22:47 ◼   ► No, I'll send you a picture of what we're doing though, as a group.

00:22:50 ◼   ► Okay.

00:22:51 ◼   ► I'll send that to you privately after the show.

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00:24:45 ◼   ► and Relay FM.

00:24:46 ◼   ► - Federico sent to our group thread

00:24:49 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:24:50 ◼   ► a selection of time-lapses for 3D printing now.

00:24:54 ◼   ► It's a baby group.

00:24:55 ◼   ► This is upsetting.

00:24:56 ◼   ► Oh, I don't like that it's like in pieces and then it,

00:24:59 ◼   ► ooh, that's unfortunate.

00:25:00 ◼   ► - I found that scene from Westworld.

00:25:03 ◼   ► I was telling you about.

00:25:05 ◼   ► Tell me they're not similar. I mean, you see why I am.

00:25:09 ◼   ► I'll put that in the show notes of people.

00:25:12 ◼   ► Apple frames 3.1 after months of work,

00:25:16 ◼   ► Federico, you have published calling this,

00:25:19 ◼   ► calling this a shortcut does not do it justice.

00:25:23 ◼   ► You've created an ecosystem of shortcuts. So, uh,

00:25:28 ◼   ► could you start with what's new in 3.1 sort of the main shortcut.

00:25:32 ◼   ► and then I want to get into these others

00:25:34 ◼   ► that you've built to go along with it.

00:25:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, so for the main shortcut,

00:25:39 ◼   ► I restored support for devices that I forgot

00:25:43 ◼   ► to include in version 3.0.

00:25:45 ◼   ► That was the iPhone 8 Plus,

00:25:49 ◼   ► the Apple Watch Series 7 and 8 in the 41 millimeter size.

00:25:55 ◼   ► And I also fixed a problem that I found

00:25:59 ◼   ► with the 11 inch iPad Pro.

00:26:01 ◼   ► I don't know if you guys read the entire story, but if you saw I dropped a little thing

00:26:07 ◼   ► About the 11 inch iPad Pro. I don't know if you caught it. You didn't? No, I did read it though

00:26:13 ◼   ► So I don't know what I've missed. Yeah that I ended up buying an 11 inch iPad Pro

00:26:17 ◼   ► You know what? I'm gonna be honest

00:26:19 ◼   ► I skipped that part because like it felt like because it's like this is and fixes that part wasn't interesting to me. I'm sorry

00:26:26 ◼   ► Bug fixes and improvements.

00:26:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, that was what that part felt like,

00:26:29 ◼   ► which is very helpful,

00:26:30 ◼   ► but I wasn't feeling like anything was missing,

00:26:32 ◼   ► so I didn't read that part.

00:26:34 ◼   ► - Yeah, here's what he wrote.

00:26:35 ◼   ► "I fixed an issue with Apple Frames 3.0

00:26:38 ◼   ► that was causing screenshots taken on an iPad Pro 11 inch

00:26:41 ◼   ► in portrait orientation

00:26:43 ◼   ► with the more space display scaling mode

00:26:46 ◼   ► enabled not to be framed properly."

00:26:49 ◼   ► Then you apologize to everyone whose lives you ruined.

00:26:52 ◼   ► "I ended up buying an 11 inch iPad Pro myself

00:26:54 ◼   ► so I could debug the issue

00:26:55 ◼   ► and figure out what was going on.

00:26:57 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:26:58 ◼   ► - You really are a developer now.

00:26:59 ◼   ► You have testing devices, you know?

00:27:02 ◼   ► - I got an 11 inch iPad Pro,

00:27:04 ◼   ► which I've been using in fact, instead of the big one,

00:27:07 ◼   ► instead of the big iPad Pro.

00:27:09 ◼   ► I don't know, it's complicated feelings

00:27:11 ◼   ► about the 11 inch iPad Pro.

00:27:13 ◼   ► It's pretty lovely, except the display.

00:27:16 ◼   ► It really, I really--

00:27:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's the perfect form factor.

00:27:18 ◼   ► They just didn't do anything to it.

00:27:19 ◼   ► - Really nice form factor.

00:27:21 ◼   ► It's the limit, like it reaches the limit of,

00:27:24 ◼   ► I think like how small would I like a keyboard

00:27:28 ◼   ► with a magic keyboard, I mean.

00:27:30 ◼   ► It's workable for me.

00:27:33 ◼   ► Too bad about the display.

00:27:34 ◼   ► Anyway, so that's for the main shortcut,

00:27:39 ◼   ► which you can continue using like you've always done.

00:27:42 ◼   ► You know, you run it manually from the shortcuts app

00:27:45 ◼   ► or I guess from the widget, from the dock on macOS.

00:27:49 ◼   ► You run it, you pick a screenshot

00:27:52 ◼   ► and it gets framed and you can choose what to do with it.

00:28:00 ◼   ► So support for some new devices.

00:28:02 ◼   ► The other feature that everybody can take advantage of

00:28:05 ◼   ► is there's this new merge mode that you

00:28:09 ◼   ► can choose what to do with it.

00:28:10 ◼   ► So by default, Apple Frames has always

00:28:13 ◼   ► merged multiple screenshots into a single image at the end.

00:28:19 ◼   ► So if you run Apple Frames and select five iPhone screenshots,

00:28:23 ◼   ► at the end, you end up with one image, like one PNG image,

00:28:28 ◼   ► with all the iPhones, like all the framed screenshots

00:28:31 ◼   ► with the iPhones side by side.

00:28:34 ◼   ► Some people don't like it.

00:28:36 ◼   ► And maybe it's not that they don't like it.

00:28:39 ◼   ► Maybe they don't find it as useful

00:28:41 ◼   ► as having five individual PNGs, each with an iPhone screenshot

00:28:46 ◼   ► that gets framed.

00:28:47 ◼   ► So I added a variable toward the beginning of the shortcut

00:28:52 ◼   ► that is set to true or false.

00:28:55 ◼   ► By default, it's true, meaning that it combines

00:28:58 ◼   ► all the screenshots in a single image.

00:29:00 ◼   ► If you set it to false, that will produce

00:29:05 ◼   ► individually framed images.

00:29:07 ◼   ► So at the end, you will have five or whatever

00:29:11 ◼   ► the number is, different files that you can save to photos,

00:29:15 ◼   ► copy to the clipboard, share with an extension, whatever.

00:29:18 ◼   ► So you have that sort of shortcut wide setting

00:29:23 ◼   ► that applies to the entire shortcut.

00:29:25 ◼   ► And yeah, these are the changes for the main shortcut.

00:29:30 ◼   ► But the other big change in version 3.1

00:29:35 ◼   ► is the Apple Frames API,

00:29:37 ◼   ► which is a really, really fun project

00:29:41 ◼   ► that I started working on a few months ago,

00:29:43 ◼   ► I told you guys about a few months ago, and it evolved into this much bigger and complex

00:29:49 ◼   ► thing.

00:29:51 ◼   ► Now, obviously, an API, as I wrote in the post, it's kind of funny to call it an API,

00:30:04 ◼   ► but it is actually that.

00:30:06 ◼   ► So the idea is it is an API in the sense that it lets you program Apple Frames and it gives

00:30:13 ◼   ► you an interface to program Apple Frames to change its behavior.

00:30:19 ◼   ► And at a very high level, this API means you can send some text to Apple Frames.

00:30:27 ◼   ► You can give it some commands.

00:30:30 ◼   ► And those commands can be of two categories.

00:30:33 ◼   ► You can tell Apple frames where to get the images from and what to do with them at the

00:30:39 ◼   ► end.

00:30:40 ◼   ► The idea being that now you can automate Apple frames and you can write shortcuts for a shortcut.

00:30:48 ◼   ► So I guess from a basic level, right, the way that I've understood this is you're taking

00:30:55 ◼   ► advantage of the fact that you can run a shortcut within a shortcut.

00:31:00 ◼   ► you are you have defined a selection of text strings.

00:31:05 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:31:06 ◼   ► I don't know if strings the right word that you can.

00:31:07 ◼   ► Yeah, it is.

00:31:08 ◼   ► You can pass to the next shortcut.

00:31:11 ◼   ► It's looking for those strings as texts that can get passed to it.

00:31:14 ◼   ► And then when you do that, it can return information back to the original shortcut.

00:31:17 ◼   ► A genius idea.

00:31:19 ◼   ► Have you ever seen this done before with shortcuts?

00:31:21 ◼   ► No.

00:31:22 ◼   ► No.

00:31:23 ◼   ► Because I mean, I hadn't either, but I figured you were more in this world than me.

00:31:26 ◼   ► This is a fascinating way to use this feature.

00:31:32 ◼   ► I mean, it does create a horrifically complicated looking shortcut to me.

00:31:40 ◼   ► Like I was, we were talking about it today because long time listeners will know, I have

00:31:46 ◼   ► a knack for breaking Federico shortcuts.

00:31:49 ◼   ► Which is very useful.

00:31:50 ◼   ► Every single time I run a shortcut that Federico makes, I find something weird, like something

00:31:55 ◼   ► weird happens to me, I don't know why this happens but it just does. I'm a unicorn I

00:32:00 ◼   ► suppose. And you told me to go in and look for something and I went in to look for it

00:32:06 ◼   ► and how many actions are in this shortcut like the Apple frames shortcut now?

00:32:10 ◼   ► Oh now I think it's over 300 at this point.

00:32:14 ◼   ► How do you even build it? Like how are you building it? Like what platform are you doing

00:32:22 ◼   ► on? Like how is it even possible?

00:32:23 ◼   ► Patience.

00:32:24 ◼   ► - I just can't imagine, it must be a nightmare

00:32:27 ◼   ► to try and work in there.

00:32:29 ◼   ► - It's not great, it's not great.

00:32:31 ◼   ► And I do with like, I use the iPad of course

00:32:34 ◼   ► is the more convenient platform,

00:32:36 ◼   ► especially if you put an iPad in portrait mode

00:32:38 ◼   ► and use it like that.

00:32:40 ◼   ► There are still so many little quirks and bugs,

00:32:43 ◼   ► especially when a shortcut gets too long like this one.

00:32:47 ◼   ► When you use drag and drop for the actions,

00:32:49 ◼   ► the whole editor gets kind of weird

00:32:53 ◼   ► and the blocks jump around when you drag them in.

00:32:57 ◼   ► I do wish that for people like me--

00:33:00 ◼   ► and I know that I'm probably in a niche of users of shortcuts--

00:33:04 ◼   ► I do wish that Apple gave us better tools

00:33:07 ◼   ► to make it easier for other people

00:33:10 ◼   ► to understand our shortcuts.

00:33:12 ◼   ► Like, for example, I don't know, let me color code

00:33:16 ◼   ► some sections of the shortcut.

00:33:18 ◼   ► Or let me put a big message that says, look here.

00:33:22 ◼   ► and change this setting, or more broadly speaking,

00:33:26 ◼   ► something that I realized with Apple Frames,

00:33:29 ◼   ► it would be really convenient to have the ability to design

00:33:34 ◼   ► settings for a shortcut.

00:33:37 ◼   ► Like, if I could offer--

00:33:39 ◼   ► like, imagine if my shortcut, if Apple Frames,

00:33:41 ◼   ► could have a settings page, like a preference pane, where

00:33:45 ◼   ► you could go in and visually change settings

00:33:49 ◼   ► that I can design, instead of me telling you,

00:33:53 ◼   ► like I did with Myke, go look for this action

00:33:57 ◼   ► somewhere in the middle of this shortcut.

00:34:00 ◼   ► You will find this action.

00:34:02 ◼   ► - I was looking for quite a while to find it,

00:34:06 ◼   ► 'cause I didn't know where it was.

00:34:08 ◼   ► So I'm just like scrolling. - Did you see that?

00:34:09 ◼   ► I tried to make it stand out with the folder emojis.

00:34:12 ◼   ► - Yep, that's how I found it.

00:34:14 ◼   ► Without that, I never would have found it.

00:34:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly, yeah.

00:34:16 ◼   ► So I do wish that I could design like a setting screen,

00:34:20 ◼   ► because these shortcuts, when they get so complex,

00:34:22 ◼   ► you wanna make sure that people have options, right?

00:34:24 ◼   ► And they can configure all these options to their needs,

00:34:27 ◼   ► but I can't, I can't offer a settings screen.

00:34:30 ◼   ► So all I can do is guide you through the process of like,

00:34:33 ◼   ► if you wanna change this behavior,

00:34:35 ◼   ► you gotta open the shortcut, scroll and find the action.

00:34:39 ◼   ► But yes, your description of how the API works

00:34:43 ◼   ► is exactly right.

00:34:46 ◼   ► Look, this is not a web service, right?

00:34:48 ◼   ► This is not, like I'm not running shortcut in the cloud

00:34:51 ◼   ► and I'm using a web API for the shortcut.

00:34:54 ◼   ► It's a bare bones, lightweight quote unquote API

00:34:59 ◼   ► that allows you to program the shortcut

00:35:04 ◼   ► to perform, to take images from specific sources

00:35:09 ◼   ► and to perform specific actions with them.

00:35:13 ◼   ► The benefit being, if you do that, there's no longer any manual interaction involved.

00:35:21 ◼   ► Like you're not picking things from a list anymore.

00:35:25 ◼   ► And you can just use Apple Frames as a feature of other shortcuts, of other workflows on

00:35:32 ◼   ► your computer.

00:35:33 ◼   ► It sort of becomes a function that runs in the background, and you can program however

00:35:38 ◼   ► you want, given the options that I built, of course.

00:35:42 ◼   ► And then with these you've gone and made some, I don't know how to call them mini shortcuts,

00:35:47 ◼   ► I don't really know what word to use where it's like...

00:35:50 ◼   ► I call them helper shortcuts, I don't know if there's a better word for them.

00:35:54 ◼   ► One of the ones I just think is so cool is like there's a shortcut to take a screenshot

00:35:59 ◼   ► of my Mac I'm running on it and then just immediately spit out an Apple framified version

00:36:06 ◼   ► of it.

00:36:07 ◼   ► - Just a very clever way of doing things.

00:36:09 ◼   ► And also what I can imagine helps with like,

00:36:13 ◼   ► someone might have a, as I'm saying this

00:36:15 ◼   ► and realize this is obviously why you did this.

00:36:18 ◼   ► Someone may have a thing that they want to do,

00:36:20 ◼   ► but they don't want to go in and tinker with your shortcut

00:36:23 ◼   ► because that is like, as we've already established,

00:36:27 ◼   ► not a good thing to do.

00:36:28 ◼   ► But this way they can make their own shortcut

00:36:31 ◼   ► that takes advantage of the power of Apple frames to like,

00:36:34 ◼   ► I don't know, take a screenshot

00:36:36 ◼   ► and upload it to a specific place

00:36:38 ◼   ► without there needing to be any intervention.

00:36:40 ◼   ► And this would allow them to do that

00:36:42 ◼   ► by using the simple kind of API that you've written.

00:36:45 ◼   ► And such, it's very smart.

00:36:47 ◼   ► - That's exactly right.

00:36:48 ◼   ► And the idea was like,

00:36:50 ◼   ► it all started because I kept hearing from designers

00:36:53 ◼   ► and developers who use Apple Frames to produce screenshots

00:36:57 ◼   ► for the App Store or for their websites.

00:37:00 ◼   ► And a couple of people asked,

00:37:02 ◼   ► "It would be great if I could run Apple Frames

00:37:05 ◼   ► on a folder full of screenshots, and if we could spit out in another folder framed images,

00:37:13 ◼   ► individual images.

00:37:15 ◼   ► And it all started there.

00:37:16 ◼   ► I was like, "Hmm, that's an interesting idea."

00:37:18 ◼   ► And now you can do that.

00:37:20 ◼   ► So you can just say, "Take this folder, take each image, frame each one, put the framed

00:37:26 ◼   ► version in another folder."

00:37:27 ◼   ► And so imagine if you're a designer or a developer and you've got 50 screenshots or 100 screenshots,

00:37:32 ◼   ► you can just put together a little utility that uses Apple Frames.

00:37:36 ◼   ► Basically Apple Frames becomes sort of this engine that runs behind the scenes and does

00:37:40 ◼   ► that for you.

00:37:41 ◼   ► That's one of the many things that it can do now.

00:37:44 ◼   ► And in fact, I'm going to give you guys a little preview.

00:37:48 ◼   ► This Friday I will probably release a very small 3.2 update to Apple Frames with just

00:37:57 ◼   ► one feature, just one thing that I already built.

00:38:01 ◼   ► Because on Friday, MacStories Weekly, one of the things that I'm going to explain is,

00:38:06 ◼   ► in fact, you can now run Apple frames from the command line on macOS.

00:38:12 ◼   ► And you can actually, all these things, if you're a power user, so whether you're using

00:38:16 ◼   ► AppleScript or the terminal or utilities like Raycast, like whatever, you can run Apple

00:38:23 ◼   ► frames from the command line via the native shortcuts run command that Apple built.

00:38:30 ◼   ► And one of the things I'm adding is, because it doesn't have it right now, is a new pass-through

00:38:35 ◼   ► mode.

00:38:37 ◼   ► The idea being that, so right now, Apple Frames 3.1 has all these different output commands,

00:38:45 ◼   ► things like take a framed image and copy it to the clipboard, or save it to photos, or

00:38:51 ◼   ► save it in Finder.

00:38:53 ◼   ► But it doesn't have a thing where it just says,

00:38:56 ◼   ► okay, I am just returning the frame image

00:39:00 ◼   ► in the output of the shortcut.

00:39:02 ◼   ► - It has to finalize in the Apple Frame shortcut currently.

00:39:07 ◼   ► - And to put it somewhere.

00:39:09 ◼   ► It always puts it somewhere,

00:39:10 ◼   ► whether it brings up Quick Look,

00:39:12 ◼   ► or it puts it in the clipboard,

00:39:14 ◼   ► or it saves it on your desktop, whatever.

00:39:16 ◼   ► But it puts it somewhere.

00:39:19 ◼   ► And I just built a pass-through mode

00:39:21 ◼   ► that doesn't save it anywhere, it just puts it in the output of a shortcut,

00:39:27 ◼   ► meaning that it's going to be even better.

00:39:29 ◼   ► If you run a shortcut from the command line, or if you run a shortcut using the action,

00:39:36 ◼   ► Run Shortcut, you're going to see the output of Apple frames in line in the shortcut.

00:39:44 ◼   ► Like you're going to see, oh yeah, this is the output, you didn't have to save it anywhere.

00:39:47 ◼   ► you're just getting the framed image back as a variable, basically.

00:39:53 ◼   ► And that's the pass-through mode that I will probably release on Friday.

00:39:57 ◼   ► Once you think about it this way, it is a shortcut, but it can also become much more

00:40:06 ◼   ► flexible, especially on the Mac.

00:40:09 ◼   ► That's the thing about it, I think especially on macOS.

00:40:13 ◼   ► Because of all the flexibility that you have in terms of running shortcuts from the terminal,

00:40:17 ◼   ► via script with Keyboard Maestro, with stuff like Alfred or Raycast. You can just call

00:40:23 ◼   ► this up, make your little custom utility for it, and you run it with the keyboard shortcut

00:40:31 ◼   ► anywhere on your Mac. I think it's pretty nice. It's going to save you a lot of time.

00:40:36 ◼   ► It's super good, man. So good.

00:40:37 ◼   ► It's wild. I don't know how you come up with this and I have no idea how you do it,

00:40:41 ◼   ► but it's really great.

00:40:43 ◼   ► Thank you, thank you. And there's actually an interesting question from Ramon in the discord.

00:40:48 ◼   ► Ramon asked when should it just be an app rather than a shortcut, which is a question that I hear

00:40:56 ◼   ► very often. The thing is, it should probably be an app, but then I will reply with Apple should give

00:41:04 ◼   ► me the tools to make apps without code. The thing about shortcuts is that none of this involves any

00:41:12 ◼   ► any code. Even the API that I made, I made it visually, like in the spirit of shortcuts.

00:41:17 ◼   ► It's a very shortcutified API in the sense that it's all visual. Like, I don't want to

00:41:25 ◼   ► learn any code. I think I'm pretty bad at code, actually, and remembering all the things,

00:41:32 ◼   ► but I'm pretty good at shortcuts, I think, and arranging things visually.

00:41:35 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:41:36 ◼   ► - So if they give me-- - Fairy cover t.g.

00:41:38 ◼   ► I'm pretty good at shortcuts, I think.

00:41:41 ◼   ► By the way, here's my shortcuts API that I built this week.

00:41:45 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:41:46 ◼   ► - But the thing is like, yeah, it should probably be an app.

00:41:50 ◼   ► I would love for this to be an app

00:41:52 ◼   ► and have like better integration with the system, whatever.

00:41:57 ◼   ► Like imagine if you had a real Apple frames extension

00:42:00 ◼   ► or like a, like there's so many other things

00:42:03 ◼   ► that apps can do.

00:42:05 ◼   ► but I don't want to code.

00:42:07 ◼   ► I just want to touch variables and see things visually,

00:42:12 ◼   ► so that's why I make shortcuts.

00:42:15 ◼   ► - When you make these, when you work on these,

00:42:18 ◼   ► what device are you using your iPad?

00:42:20 ◼   ► - I can tell you that over the past three months,

00:42:24 ◼   ► all of the shortcuts that I've built,

00:42:26 ◼   ► I've done them on the iPhone.

00:42:28 ◼   ► - What?

00:42:29 ◼   ► - This is a topic for another time, but yeah,

00:42:31 ◼   ► mostly been working on the iPhone.

00:42:34 ◼   ► use the iPad this week just to debug a few things for that.

00:42:39 ◼   ► Why are you doing this to yourself?

00:42:40 ◼   ► Your poor hands, you know what I mean?

00:42:44 ◼   ► Oh, man.

00:42:46 ◼   ► Okay.

00:42:47 ◼   ► Yeah, well, it's the Apple device

00:42:52 ◼   ► that I am using all the time.

00:42:57 ◼   ► The others, not so much.

00:43:00 ◼   ► So that's why I'm keeping shortcuts there.

00:43:03 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, it's fine, right?

00:43:05 ◼   ► Especially on a Pro Max.

00:43:07 ◼   ► It could be better.

00:43:09 ◼   ► But given that I'm not using the iPad

00:43:13 ◼   ► and the Mac that much anymore,

00:43:16 ◼   ► I'm building all of them on the iPhone.

00:43:20 ◼   ► - We have some breaking news.

00:43:22 ◼   ► Apple has increased trade-in values

00:43:26 ◼   ► for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.

00:43:29 ◼   ► How much well, let's see iPhone 13 line. The pro line is up about $30

00:43:35 ◼   ► The iPhone 12 Pro Max up 20 you get 420 now for an iPhone 12 Pro Max

00:43:41 ◼   ► iPhone 7 plus is up to $60 over 50

00:43:45 ◼   ► The max are up probably like 40 to 50 bucks across the board

00:43:50 ◼   ► So it's it's some it's something Apple watch series 7 up to 165 Apple watches lose their value

00:43:58 ◼   ► And we talked about this, other than the fancy ceramic one Myke had, all the other ones just

00:44:03 ◼   ► like game over when it comes to value after the fact.

00:44:09 ◼   ► Still not enough.

00:44:10 ◼   ► Still not enough, but at least it's going back in the right direction.

00:44:12 ◼   ► So that's good.

00:44:13 ◼   ► iPad Air up to 320 before it was 230.

00:44:17 ◼   ► So I think that's maybe the biggest jump, but not enough.

00:44:20 ◼   ► There's better ways to get money back out of a device that you sell or don't need anymore.

00:44:26 ◼   ► This episode of connected is made possible by Capital One.

00:44:29 ◼   ► A Capital One technology makes direct deposits available up to two days sooner, improves

00:44:35 ◼   ► fraud defense with machine learning, and helps businesses manage data challenges in the cloud

00:44:40 ◼   ► with Slingshot, the first solution from Capital One software.

00:44:45 ◼   ► Search technology at Capital One to learn more.

00:44:48 ◼   ► Our thanks to Capital One for the support of this show and Relay FM.

00:44:53 ◼   ► Capital One, what's in your wallet?

00:44:55 ◼   ► I want to talk to the two of y'all about live activities.

00:44:59 ◼   ► So there was a story, I think last week now,

00:45:02 ◼   ► that the iPhone Uber app had been redesigned

00:45:07 ◼   ► and it includes live activities.

00:45:09 ◼   ► So you can see.

00:45:10 ◼   ► - Finally, they were one of the demos, right?

00:45:12 ◼   ► - So it's finally out.

00:45:15 ◼   ► The update includes the live activity.

00:45:16 ◼   ► So you can see your car and driver

00:45:19 ◼   ► and how far the pickup is out.

00:45:21 ◼   ► Exactly what you would want from Uber, right?

00:45:24 ◼   ► finally here, and it kind of had me thinking like,

00:45:27 ◼   ► where are all the live activities and how are we using it?

00:45:32 ◼   ► You know, the phone has have been out now

00:45:34 ◼   ► four or five months, it's not a long time,

00:45:37 ◼   ► but you know, we're roughly halfway through the cycle now.

00:45:40 ◼   ► And it's curious how this has impacted the two of you.

00:45:45 ◼   ► What you think about it?

00:45:46 ◼   ► - So I would, if I could just jump in for a second

00:45:50 ◼   ► to talk about, you know, to try and maybe answer

00:45:52 ◼   ► where are all the live activities?

00:45:54 ◼   ► So friend of the show, underscore David Smith,

00:45:57 ◼   ► put out version five of Podometer++ today,

00:45:59 ◼   ► which is a really wonderful rewrite of the app.

00:46:02 ◼   ► - It is.

00:46:03 ◼   ► - An absolutely full rewrite.

00:46:04 ◼   ► It is beautiful, it looks fantastic.

00:46:07 ◼   ► It has live activities in it for,

00:46:10 ◼   ► you can start workouts in Podometer++ now

00:46:12 ◼   ► and watch the live activity.

00:46:14 ◼   ► And I was talking to him about this recently

00:46:16 ◼   ► and was kind of asking him the question of like,

00:46:18 ◼   ► having built a live activity,

00:46:21 ◼   ► where are the live activities?

00:46:23 ◼   ► And he said, live activities are very complicated,

00:46:27 ◼   ► especially in the dynamic island.

00:46:28 ◼   ► Like live activities in general,

00:46:31 ◼   ► my understanding from what you're saying is not so bad,

00:46:33 ◼   ► the dynamic island, especially very complicated,

00:46:36 ◼   ► like to get them right and to get them working correctly.

00:46:39 ◼   ► So potentially one of the reasons that this is slow

00:46:42 ◼   ► is live activities seem to be,

00:46:44 ◼   ► they require a lot of debugging

00:46:46 ◼   ► and a lot of effort and work on them,

00:46:49 ◼   ► which might be why we haven't seen

00:46:50 ◼   ► as many as we were maybe hoping we would see.

00:46:52 ◼   ► But, you know, if all the rumors are to be believed,

00:46:55 ◼   ► which I think they are,

00:46:56 ◼   ► the dynamic island's gonna be rolling out

00:46:59 ◼   ► to all of the iPhones starting this year.

00:47:02 ◼   ► So this will only increase, like Apple's serious about it.

00:47:06 ◼   ► And when it does work, it works great,

00:47:08 ◼   ► but it seems like it is difficult to build for.

00:47:12 ◼   ► So that might be the reason that we haven't seen

00:47:14 ◼   ► as many as we maybe would have hoped.

00:47:15 ◼   ► - I mean, it makes sense, right?

00:47:16 ◼   ► It's a new thing.

00:47:19 ◼   ► And while the lock screen version of live activities,

00:47:24 ◼   ► I think it's probably pretty straightforward

00:47:25 ◼   ► in terms of like design.

00:47:27 ◼   ► And I mean, the technology is the same

00:47:30 ◼   ► whether it's on the lock screen or in the dynamic island.

00:47:34 ◼   ► But I'm sure the dynamic island

00:47:35 ◼   ► comes with design challenges.

00:47:38 ◼   ► Something I noticed just the other day actually,

00:47:40 ◼   ► I forget what album it was,

00:47:42 ◼   ► I was listening to some music

00:47:43 ◼   ► and it's in the live activity

00:47:45 ◼   ► and this album artwork had like a white border around it.

00:47:48 ◼   ► and the corners are clipped

00:47:50 ◼   ► because Apple makes everything a round rect in there.

00:47:52 ◼   ► And it's like, come on, Apple Music,

00:47:54 ◼   ► like just shrink the artwork down a little bit

00:47:58 ◼   ► so it doesn't have like these weird white lines

00:48:00 ◼   ► down two sides of it.

00:48:01 ◼   ► I don't know, I'm sure it's tricky,

00:48:03 ◼   ► but how are y'all using it at this point?

00:48:07 ◼   ► - I feel like I'm using it for three things.

00:48:09 ◼   ► So maybe not as many as I helped months ago,

00:48:12 ◼   ► but those three things I really, really like.

00:48:14 ◼   ► And it's very simple for me.

00:48:15 ◼   ► Like I use it a lot for controlling music

00:48:18 ◼   ► and podcast playback with the Now Play and integration

00:48:21 ◼   ► in the dynamic island, for timers, and for Timery,

00:48:26 ◼   ► the toggle time tracking app.

00:48:32 ◼   ► Really, mostly those three things.

00:48:34 ◼   ► The timer one is excellent when I'm cooking

00:48:36 ◼   ► and I'm keeping the iPhone nearby because like,

00:48:38 ◼   ► I don't know, I'm like stirring whatever,

00:48:41 ◼   ► like pasta or sauce, like with one hand,

00:48:44 ◼   ► and the other hand I'm catching up on my Mastodon timeline,

00:48:48 ◼   ► And so it's useful to have the timer right there

00:48:52 ◼   ► in the live activity.

00:48:53 ◼   ► The timer one is excellent when, for example,

00:48:58 ◼   ► I'm making shortcuts like Apple frames

00:49:00 ◼   ► and I got my little timer going on up there saying,

00:49:03 ◼   ► Mac stories, shortcuts research.

00:49:06 ◼   ► It's very useful to expand it.

00:49:09 ◼   ► Like the whole sort of gesture vocabulary

00:49:13 ◼   ► of live activities and the dynamic calendar

00:49:15 ◼   ► has grown on me.

00:49:17 ◼   ► the idea of long pressing to expand and tap to open.

00:49:21 ◼   ► I used to be kind of against it at the beginning.

00:49:25 ◼   ► Now that I'm used to it, I don't know,

00:49:27 ◼   ► it kind of makes sense because it's like holding down

00:49:30 ◼   ► on the island to expand a lot of activity.

00:49:33 ◼   ► It's kind of similar to how you bring up a context menu

00:49:36 ◼   ► in iOS, you hold down and something appears.

00:49:39 ◼   ► So I understand why Apple did it more

00:49:42 ◼   ► than I did months ago.

00:49:44 ◼   ► And the now plain integration is also excellent.

00:49:47 ◼   ► Like I'm listening to something,

00:49:49 ◼   ► whether it's a podcast or some music,

00:49:51 ◼   ► and I can just hold it and pause or skip,

00:49:54 ◼   ► it works really well.

00:49:56 ◼   ► Now, I think these are not exactly creative uses

00:50:01 ◼   ► of live activities in the dynamic island.

00:50:04 ◼   ► All of these, by the way,

00:50:06 ◼   ► are also incredibly useful on the lock screen,

00:50:09 ◼   ► the timer you want, especially with the always on display.

00:50:12 ◼   ► Maybe I'm typing away in my computer,

00:50:15 ◼   ► but I'm keeping the iPhone nearby,

00:50:17 ◼   ► like on the desk, and I can glance at the live activity

00:50:20 ◼   ► to see the minutes that I've been tracking my time.

00:50:23 ◼   ► That is excellent on the lock screen.

00:50:25 ◼   ► But these are just three use cases.

00:50:27 ◼   ► And maybe months ago, I thought everything was gonna be live,

00:50:31 ◼   ► oh, live activities everywhere, dynamic calendar everywhere.

00:50:34 ◼   ► Then it hasn't turned out to be that.

00:50:37 ◼   ► But at the same time, I'm not complaining

00:50:40 ◼   ► because these three use cases,

00:50:41 ◼   ► I use them a lot and they really work well.

00:50:44 ◼   ► So, you know, if I had to grade it,

00:50:48 ◼   ► which you guys have not asked me to do,

00:50:51 ◼   ► but 75% positive, you know, sentiment.

00:50:56 ◼   ► - What is the it you're grading?

00:50:58 ◼   ► - The general sort of my relationship

00:51:01 ◼   ► with the dynamic island and live activities.

00:51:03 ◼   ► - Okay, 75%?

00:51:04 ◼   ► - 75% positive, yeah, yeah, it's pretty good.

00:51:07 ◼   ► Could be better, but you know, pretty good, yeah.

00:51:09 ◼   ► - It's pretty high.

00:51:10 ◼   ► I would agree with your general thesis,

00:51:12 ◼   ► which is like, I expected there to be more

00:51:14 ◼   ► and I would still like there to be more,

00:51:17 ◼   ► but the live activities that I use a lot

00:51:20 ◼   ► are the really the exact apps

00:51:23 ◼   ► that I want to be using it for.

00:51:25 ◼   ► - Yes, yeah.

00:51:26 ◼   ► - You know, my one that I,

00:51:28 ◼   ► the only one that's missing for me

00:51:30 ◼   ► is we have a food delivery service here called Deliveroo

00:51:34 ◼   ► and I want them to adopt.

00:51:36 ◼   ► - I love Deliveroo, I love it.

00:51:38 ◼   ► - Do you have Deliveroo in Italy?

00:51:40 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:51:41 ◼   ► I'm not sure what countries they operate in.

00:51:43 ◼   ► - Big delivery fan.

00:51:45 ◼   ► I think at some point I was paying

00:51:46 ◼   ► for their delivery plus subscription.

00:51:48 ◼   ► - I pay for that.

00:51:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, okay, yeah.

00:51:50 ◼   ► - Because it's like you order a few things a month

00:51:52 ◼   ► and you do save on it.

00:51:53 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:51:54 ◼   ► - Because they like, you know,

00:51:55 ◼   ► it's like with all of these food delivery things,

00:51:57 ◼   ► they'll send you like 12 notifications.

00:51:59 ◼   ► It's just like, I just want the one persistent thing.

00:52:02 ◼   ► And so like Uber doing it is a good sign for me

00:52:05 ◼   ► because it signifies that like at least a large company

00:52:09 ◼   ► who definitely should be using this has found a way to implement it. So like my hope is

00:52:14 ◼   ► that more of these apps will continue to do it, especially if Uber Eats does it, which

00:52:18 ◼   ► I expect they probably will, the liberal probably do it here at least, big competitors. But

00:52:23 ◼   ► the apps that I'm using that I use extensively, my favorite of all is CityMapper, which is

00:52:31 ◼   ► a transit application. And CityMapper's live activity is like it's God tier good. Like

00:52:37 ◼   ► I don't know how they have made it as good as they've made it.

00:52:40 ◼   ► So I'll give you an example, right?

00:52:42 ◼   ► If I open up a route on CityMapper,

00:52:45 ◼   ► like I'm at home and I want to get somewhere,

00:52:47 ◼   ► they have like a go button, right?

00:52:49 ◼   ► So you're kind of like, you're saying I'm on the trip.

00:52:51 ◼   ► It is able to track, turn left, turn right, go forward,

00:52:55 ◼   ► like to walk to a train station.

00:52:57 ◼   ► When I'm on the train, it's tracking every stop.

00:53:00 ◼   ► Like if you do the press and hold,

00:53:01 ◼   ► it shows me the line that I'm on,

00:53:03 ◼   ► say this one part of the underground.

00:53:06 ◼   ► - That's cool.

00:53:07 ◼   ► - And it's tracking me along that route

00:53:09 ◼   ► and will then say like, and the iconography changes.

00:53:13 ◼   ► So even if it's like the little one, right?

00:53:15 ◼   ► If it's, you've got to make a change,

00:53:18 ◼   ► it changes to a little alarm clock with an arrow of like,

00:53:21 ◼   ► hey, your stop's coming up and then it will,

00:53:25 ◼   ► then I will go make that.

00:53:26 ◼   ► And I can see all in the live activity.

00:53:28 ◼   ► And then even again, it will then change

00:53:32 ◼   ► to walking directions.

00:53:34 ◼   ► It's wonderful how good this is.

00:53:37 ◼   ► I don't know how they do such a good job.

00:53:40 ◼   ► Like it's next level good compared to all of the other ones

00:53:44 ◼   ► that I've tried, they are really on it.

00:53:47 ◼   ► Like, so I think that's fantastic.

00:53:48 ◼   ► Timery, of course I use, Timery is one where

00:53:54 ◼   ► it gives me the wish, I wish that apps could start

00:53:58 ◼   ► a live activity for information that has occurred

00:54:02 ◼   ► without me opening the app.

00:54:03 ◼   ► So if I start a timer on my Mac, I wished that timer on my iPhone had the ability to know and start a live activity.

00:54:12 ◼   ► I feel like live activities should be startable, terrible word, from a notification that occurs.

00:54:20 ◼   ► If say, for example, an app like Timery, right, had, uh, was able to send a notification to my other devices that a timer had started, it could then start a live activity.

00:54:29 ◼   ► I wish that this was possible.

00:54:31 ◼   ► Like similarly, I like Fantastic House Live activity.

00:54:34 ◼   ► Puts the information right up front for the next meeting

00:54:38 ◼   ► that I've got.

00:54:38 ◼   ► If it's got a Zoom link or whatever,

00:54:41 ◼   ► it's a nice join button I can tap

00:54:43 ◼   ► and it'll just start the call.

00:54:45 ◼   ► But it can only show me that if I've already opened the app,

00:54:47 ◼   ► which makes it less useful, right?

00:54:50 ◼   ► So I wish that there was a way for that handoff to occur.

00:54:55 ◼   ► Similarly, I use the Now Playing one.

00:54:57 ◼   ► The Now Playing one's great because it collects

00:54:58 ◼   ► all of the different types of audio that you could be listening to, right?

00:55:03 ◼   ► Whether it's audio from your podcast app, your music app, YouTube, like whatever, it

00:55:08 ◼   ► just all falls into that, which is great.

00:55:11 ◼   ► And then similarly, Carrot weather I love, because it's kind of like CityMapper in a

00:55:15 ◼   ► way of being very adaptable with the UI.

00:55:19 ◼   ► Like, really it's for rain stuff, but it's helpful because I can see it's going to rain,

00:55:24 ◼   ► I can get a little graph.

00:55:26 ◼   ► So they're the ones that I use.

00:55:28 ◼   ► And these are the kinds of things that are exactly what I want to be using Live Activities

00:55:32 ◼   ► and a Dynamic Island for.

00:55:34 ◼   ► I guess I forgot to mention, I don't know if, it's not necessarily a Live Activity,

00:55:38 ◼   ► but obviously when you run a shortcut, it temporarily goes in the Dynamic Island and

00:55:46 ◼   ► I love that, how it like, just how it works on the iPhone now, but it's not a Live Activity

00:55:52 ◼   ► per se in the sense that once it's done running, it just disappears.

00:55:57 ◼   ► I guess those are like some of the dynamic island features that are not live activities,

00:56:03 ◼   ► they're just like custom integrations.

00:56:05 ◼   ► And the shortcuts one is super good because like now you're getting that confirmation

00:56:10 ◼   ► step and it's not intrusive, it sits up there in the dynamic island for however long the

00:56:17 ◼   ► shortcuts needs to run.

00:56:20 ◼   ► It's got a stop button, which is super useful.

00:56:23 ◼   ► So if a shortcut is taking too long or if you change your mind, you can just stop it

00:56:27 ◼   ► In fact, I wouldn't mind having more stuff as like this custom live activity in the future,

00:56:35 ◼   ► like more types of notifications, more types of interactions could probably sit there as

00:56:41 ◼   ► like little special notifications like the shortcuts one that you can dismiss, you can

00:56:48 ◼   ► minimize or you can expand and you can continue to do something else on your iPhone in the

00:56:53 ◼   ► meantime.

00:56:54 ◼   ► So...

00:56:55 ◼   ► would be that the next version of iOS will bring some of this kind of stuff

00:56:59 ◼   ► because my assumption would be that not everybody working inside of Apple knew

00:57:03 ◼   ► that dynamic island even existed right so in the intervening time there may

00:57:07 ◼   ► have been some teams who are like oh we could put this there maybe podcasts with

00:57:13 ◼   ► a live activity that shows you a real-time transcript of what the hosts

00:57:19 ◼   ► are saying wow you're really you're really swinging for the fence a lot of

00:57:23 ◼   ► things have to come in line. Yeah. Am I willing to make this a risky pick? Probably not. It would be one. It would be one though. Okay. I think my uses are very similar to

00:57:37 ◼   ► y'all's. I mean, outside of Citymapper, I'm using, you know, Timery and now playing.

00:57:42 ◼   ► Sports Alerts is the only sports score app that I have found that has live

00:57:49 ◼   ► activities and maybe others, but I've been using that. I wrote it up on the blog a

00:57:52 ◼   ► a while back. It's fine. Like it does the job but the big, the big apps haven't haven't

00:57:59 ◼   ► done that yet. I do have a fundamental complaint about live activities that I've been really

00:58:06 ◼   ► bothering me is that if you're running a timer, you can open the clock app from the dynamic

00:58:13 ◼   ► island, but you cannot open the clock app from the lock screen. So a bunch of other

00:58:18 ◼   ► live activities like you tap it and it opens the app but the timers one doesn't it just

00:58:25 ◼   ► sits there and stares at you and I don't understand why that's the case like I if I'm running

00:58:31 ◼   ► a timer very often I want to go look at the clock like oh what time is this going to go

00:58:35 ◼   ► off or you know I want to make an adjustment right you kind of go got to go around your

00:58:39 ◼   ► elbow to get to it and that's that's a little annoying I don't know why it's that way.

00:58:43 ◼   ► Saying about sports, there is an app that I use that I'm not... that says it has live activities, but I've yet to experience them

00:58:50 ◼   ► It's a Formula One app called BoxBox, which has incredible widgets, but the season hasn't started yet

00:58:55 ◼   ► So there's no live activities to show

00:58:57 ◼   ► But they say they have them so I'll look forward to experiencing them when that happens. Sounds like a future follow-up

00:59:05 ◼   ► Yeah, it will be. Anything else with live activities? I feel like we're pretty happy with what's there

00:59:10 ◼   ► But we would like to see more I think that's where we come down

00:59:13 ◼   ► Before we go we have to touch on the biggest news of the year in

00:59:17 ◼   ► iOS 16.4 beta 2

00:59:21 ◼   ► Apple books page turn animation has been returned as an option

00:59:25 ◼   ► Yeah, so so so good to see Apple listen to feedback in iOS 16 and I press 16 about the you know

00:59:34 ◼   ► Important features like this one

00:59:39 ◼   ► Lots of people complained about this.

00:59:43 ◼   ► I also complained about this, linked to a Verge story, I think in November, October.

00:59:49 ◼   ► I don't recall, but how Apple basically sucked all the fun out of the books app in 16.

00:59:58 ◼   ► And I mean, I can tell you, there are quite a few people out there, people who unlike

01:00:07 ◼   ► me read a lot of books.

01:00:09 ◼   ► think Jason Snell, but angrier and on Mastodon complaining about the redesign of the Books app

01:00:18 ◼   ► in iOS 16. They come off as kind of angry and upset, but if you take the time to listen to

01:00:27 ◼   ► their complaints about the Books app design, I think they actually have a point. So I guess

01:00:33 ◼   ► they just need better PR from that perspective, like these people, because their points are

01:00:38 ◼   ► actually valid in terms of like it takes way too many clicks or taps to change some books settings

01:00:44 ◼   ► in iOS 16. I'm not a heavy reader like those people, but I think they have a point. And so,

01:00:54 ◼   ► for example, case in point, neither you, Steven, or John, I think, were able to find the setting for

01:01:02 ◼   ► reactivating the page curl animation.

01:01:04 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I've read this. I've been running the beta because of the emoji and we talked about that last week

01:01:10 ◼   ► I was like, oh, let me check this out because I actually have been reading in the books app

01:01:13 ◼   ► Just the next book on my list is like well

01:01:15 ◼   ► let me try the books app out because I haven't tried it basically since it came out and

01:01:19 ◼   ► I like the sliding panel design. I'm actually like team team panel. I think interesting

01:01:25 ◼   ► I was afraid they got rid of the panel and had just gone back

01:01:28 ◼   ► It's like well

01:01:29 ◼   ► Let me go see and it's like in a sub menu of a sub menu in there and none of these menus have labels on

01:01:34 ◼   ► but just like icons that are seemingly unused

01:01:38 ◼   ► by other Apple applications.

01:01:40 ◼   ► It's a little confusing in there.

01:01:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, that UI, which we talked about last year

01:01:45 ◼   ► here on Connected, that weird menu that they have with like,

01:01:49 ◼   ► there's, I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly,

01:01:51 ◼   ► there is a button that is both a button

01:01:54 ◼   ► and also a slider at the same time.

01:01:55 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:01:56 ◼   ► - What?

01:01:57 ◼   ► I don't remember this.

01:01:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, man.

01:02:00 ◼   ► No, no, I covered this in my review of iOS 16.

01:02:02 ◼   ► There is in the, okay, let me look.

01:02:05 ◼   ► In the books app, in iOS 16,

01:02:08 ◼   ► in the new design that they have,

01:02:10 ◼   ► there is, when you open a book, the new menu,

01:02:14 ◼   ► there's a button that is both a button and also a slider.

01:02:18 ◼   ► Yes, the contents button.

01:02:20 ◼   ► So when you open that weird icon

01:02:24 ◼   ► in the bottom right corner on the iPhone,

01:02:26 ◼   ► this new pill-shaped menu that they have,

01:02:31 ◼   ► The first button at the top called contents

01:02:35 ◼   ► is both a button and a slider at the same time.

01:02:39 ◼   ► - So you can like scroll?

01:02:43 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:02:44 ◼   ► - That's interesting UI though.

01:02:47 ◼   ► - It's a very interesting piece of UI

01:02:50 ◼   ► that has no precedent on iOS whatsoever.

01:02:53 ◼   ► It's the first time I'm seeing this element.

01:02:56 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah.

01:02:57 ◼   ► - It's doing a bunch of weird things.

01:02:59 ◼   ► - We've talked about this before.

01:03:01 ◼   ► We've analyzed this menu before.

01:03:03 ◼   ► - 'Cause I remember we did when it was first shown off,

01:03:06 ◼   ► right, as like a, is this the future?

01:03:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, it was free WWDC announcement

01:03:12 ◼   ► when Apple announced the accessibility stuff

01:03:15 ◼   ► in like in late May last year.

01:03:17 ◼   ► While you were most likely incubating COVID, Myke.

01:03:22 ◼   ► - I don't know why, what did I do to take the shot?

01:03:27 ◼   ► - Come on, now you can laugh about it, come on.

01:03:31 ◼   ► It's in the past. It's in the past.

01:03:33 ◼   ► Not May. I was just like sticking around for like six weeks. Yeah, I guess it's until it

01:03:40 ◼   ► can strike me at my weakest, my most vulnerable.

01:03:44 ◼   ► It waited until it knew you were on the plane. Like, you know what?

01:03:48 ◼   ► Go, go, go, take him down.

01:03:53 ◼   ► Take him home from dreams.

01:03:56 ◼   ► This whole menu is so strange.

01:03:58 ◼   ► And so, as I was saying, those people, as is often the case with Apple users, something

01:04:04 ◼   ► I've picked up over the years, is that I think a lot of people have really valid opinions,

01:04:12 ◼   ► but they fail to convey them in a way that is, what's the word, conducive?

01:04:19 ◼   ► Is that a word?

01:04:20 ◼   ► It is a word, but it depends what you're going to say next.

01:04:23 ◼   ► To change, to actual change.

01:04:26 ◼   ► And I wish, yeah, like it's a joke, but like they need better PR in the sense that like

01:04:33 ◼   ► I got, so for example, a few weeks ago, I got this super long angry email from a person

01:04:40 ◼   ► about Apple books, like really, really upset tone, like, you know, uppercase exclamation

01:04:46 ◼   ► marks all over the email.

01:04:48 ◼   ► You know, that energy like is too much for me, but out of curiosity, I was like, okay,

01:04:55 ◼   ► Let me read what the email says.

01:04:57 ◼   ► They were actually, like, they actually had a point

01:05:01 ◼   ► about all the things in the books app.

01:05:04 ◼   ► Okay, maybe you should be, you know,

01:05:05 ◼   ► that's a use case for chat GPT.

01:05:08 ◼   ► Like take this angry message and turn it into, oh my God.

01:05:13 ◼   ► Imagine take an angry message and turn it

01:05:16 ◼   ► into a feedback item formatted

01:05:19 ◼   ► for the Apple feedback system.

01:05:21 ◼   ► - Well, I mean, let me open Edge.

01:05:23 ◼   ► - We'll see what Edge can give us.

01:05:26 ◼   ► So compose, tell us what you want.

01:05:28 ◼   ► What do we want?

01:05:31 ◼   ► - Well, compose, how would you explain it?

01:05:35 ◼   ► It needs to be in the style of the Apple feedback forums.

01:05:38 ◼   ► - Well, I can try that.

01:05:40 ◼   ► So like, what are we asking for?

01:05:42 ◼   ► - Explain why the new design of the Books app in iOS 16

01:05:48 ◼   ► is a regression from iOS 15.

01:05:51 ◼   ► explain why the design of the Apple Books app in iOS 16 is a regression of the style

01:06:05 ◼   ► in iOS 15 in the style of the Apple feedback form.

01:06:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:06:11 ◼   ► What tone?

01:06:12 ◼   ► Professional, casual, enthusiastic, informational, or funny?

01:06:15 ◼   ► Professional, professional.

01:06:16 ◼   ► Professional.

01:06:17 ◼   ► All right.

01:06:18 ◼   ► Short, medium, or long?

01:06:20 ◼   ► Medium.

01:06:21 ◼   ► Medium.

01:06:22 ◼   ► Fine.

01:06:23 ◼   ► In my experience, that short, medium, or long means nothing.

01:06:27 ◼   ► I've asked for some short things and it spit out like eight paragraphs.

01:06:31 ◼   ► Alright, here we go.

01:06:32 ◼   ► I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the design of the Apple Books app in

01:06:37 ◼   ► iOS 16 compared to the previous version in iOS 15.

01:06:41 ◼   ► The new design is a regression in terms of usability, aesthetics, and functionality.

01:06:45 ◼   ► The new design has removed the option to view books by categories, making it harder to find

01:06:50 ◼   ► in organized books. The new design has also changed the color scheme from a soothing white

01:06:54 ◼   ► and blue to a harsh black and red, which is unpleasant to look at and strains the eyes.

01:07:00 ◼   ► The new design has also introduced unnecessary animations and transitions that slow down

01:07:05 ◼   ► the app and consume more battery. I urge you to revert back to the previous design, or

01:07:10 ◼   ► at least provide an option to choose between the two designs. The Apple Books app in iOS

01:07:15 ◼   ► 16 is a disappointment for loyal users like me who value simplicity and elegance over

01:07:20 ◼   ► for flashy and gimmicky features.

01:07:22 ◼   ► - That is, half of that information is not,

01:07:25 ◼   ► it's just false.

01:07:27 ◼   ► - This is that hallucination thing

01:07:29 ◼   ► that people talk about now, right?

01:07:30 ◼   ► There is no black and red version of the Apple box app.

01:07:34 ◼   ► - It's the Mac Stories version.

01:07:36 ◼   ► - Yep, I wanna just give this another go with a funny tone

01:07:40 ◼   ► 'cause I'm just intrigued.

01:07:42 ◼   ► I don't really know what that would mean,

01:07:45 ◼   ► so we're generating a new one here from Bing.

01:07:48 ◼   ► Dear Apple,

01:07:49 ◼   ► I am writing to express my utter disappointment with the design of the Apple Books app.

01:07:53 ◼   ► It is a regression of the style which is already mediocre at best.

01:07:57 ◼   ► This isn't funny.

01:07:59 ◼   ► Here are some of the reasons why.

01:08:00 ◼   ► The new font is too small and too thin.

01:08:02 ◼   ► It hurts my eyes to read anything longer than a tweet.

01:08:05 ◼   ► That's funny.

01:08:06 ◼   ► I feel like I need a magnifying glass and a flashlight to enjoy my books.

01:08:10 ◼   ► The new layout is too cluttered and confusing.

01:08:12 ◼   ► There are too many buttons, icons, menus and tabs that distract me from content.

01:08:16 ◼   ► I don't know where to look or what to tap.

01:08:18 ◼   ► I feel like I need a map and a guide to navigate my library.

01:08:22 ◼   ► The new colour scheme is too dull and boring, it lacks contrast and vibrancy.

01:08:26 ◼   ► It makes me feel depressed and sleepy.

01:08:29 ◼   ► I don't want to read books that look like they were printed on recycled paper with faded

01:08:33 ◼   ► ink.

01:08:34 ◼   ► Please revert back to the design, or better yet, improve it with some creativity and innovation.

01:08:38 ◼   ► You are Apple after all, not Microsoft.

01:08:43 ◼   ► Says Bing.

01:08:45 ◼   ► - Wow.

01:08:45 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:08:48 ◼   ► - Look at that.

01:08:49 ◼   ► There you go, no Microsoft bias in Bing it seems like.

01:08:51 ◼   ► Didn't really help, did it?

01:08:54 ◼   ► I mean, what I will say is,

01:08:56 ◼   ► it at least provided a better overall structure

01:08:59 ◼   ► with like less anger, right?

01:09:01 ◼   ► That like dripping anger,

01:09:03 ◼   ► but didn't really get the information right.

01:09:05 ◼   ► - Yeah, and it's possible that also

01:09:09 ◼   ► Chai GPT doesn't have information about iOS 16 yet,

01:09:13 ◼   ► because the data set is probably not updated

01:09:15 ◼   ► to September, 2020.

01:09:16 ◼   ► - The Bing version, which I'm using,

01:09:19 ◼   ► is completely up to date.

01:09:20 ◼   ► That's the difference between it and chatgpt.

01:09:22 ◼   ► It's using web searches as well to get that information.

01:09:25 ◼   ► - These are like one of the use cases

01:09:27 ◼   ► that I am really fascinated by.

01:09:30 ◼   ► Similar tech, I have it.

01:09:33 ◼   ► They launched it, I think last week,

01:09:35 ◼   ► the Notion AI feature.

01:09:38 ◼   ► Same deal with a bunch of these AI integrations,

01:09:41 ◼   ► like you have GPT technology inside of Notion.

01:09:43 ◼   ► And one of the things I am intrigued by

01:09:46 ◼   ► was like summarization and take a bunch of,

01:09:51 ◼   ► because that's also like the aspect

01:09:54 ◼   ► that I'm not creeped out by.

01:09:56 ◼   ► Like take something that I created

01:09:59 ◼   ► and summarize it in different styles.

01:10:02 ◼   ► So for example, I didn't end up using it

01:10:05 ◼   ► because I'm too much of a control freak

01:10:07 ◼   ► to trust a post created by an AI.

01:10:11 ◼   ► But I took my entire blog post of Apple Frames 3.1,

01:10:16 ◼   ► like the whole thing that I published on Mac stories,

01:10:18 ◼   ► last night, I pasted it in a Notion document.

01:10:22 ◼   ► And at the bottom of the document,

01:10:24 ◼   ► I asked the Notion AI, which is ChatGPT,

01:10:28 ◼   ► take this document, write an announcement post

01:10:31 ◼   ► in the style of a tweet.

01:10:34 ◼   ► - That's good.

01:10:35 ◼   ► with multiple lines explaining the shortcut

01:10:40 ◼   ► that I'm announcing here.

01:10:42 ◼   ► And it was pretty good.

01:10:44 ◼   ► And then I was able to like to finesse the announcement,

01:10:48 ◼   ► like add emoji every once in a while.

01:10:51 ◼   ► And it was pretty good.

01:10:53 ◼   ► Ultimately, it felt kind of impersonal.

01:10:55 ◼   ► And like I said, as a creative person,

01:10:58 ◼   ► I also tend to be very much a control freak

01:11:01 ◼   ► with all the things that I put out.

01:11:02 ◼   ► So I wouldn't want to use it.

01:11:04 ◼   ► but like this idea of take something that I made

01:11:08 ◼   ► and help me out with styling it differently

01:11:11 ◼   ► or summarizing it or like that use case,

01:11:14 ◼   ► I am kind of in favor of, I think.

01:11:17 ◼   ► - Similarly, I hate writing descriptions

01:11:19 ◼   ► for podcast episodes.

01:11:21 ◼   ► I'm not good at it and it annoys me.

01:11:23 ◼   ► I would love to be able to give it the file,

01:11:25 ◼   ► use the whisper thing to listen,

01:11:28 ◼   ► transcribe the entire thing

01:11:29 ◼   ► and then give me a 200 character description.

01:11:34 ◼   ► By the way, I asked Bing to tell me

01:11:37 ◼   ► about Federico Vatici's API.

01:11:39 ◼   ► Federico Vatici is a tech journalist

01:11:41 ◼   ► and founder of MacStories,

01:11:42 ◼   ► a website that covers Apple news and apps.

01:11:44 ◼   ► He has created an API for his app, Apple Frames,

01:11:47 ◼   ► which lets users add device frames to screenshots.

01:11:51 ◼   ► He has also written about how to use Workflow,

01:11:53 ◼   ► an iOS automation app, to interact with any web API.

01:11:57 ◼   ► He is active on Twitter, where he shares his opinions and tips on Apple products and services.

01:12:03 ◼   ► So close, so close Bing.

01:12:05 ◼   ► If you want to see links for stuff we spoke about this week, including Federico's awesome

01:12:10 ◼   ► new Apple Frames 3.1, look in your podcast player of choice or on the web at relay.fm/connected/439.

01:12:20 ◼   ► In either place you will also see a link to submit feedback and to join.

01:12:25 ◼   ► Pro members get longer ad-free versions of the show each and every week. You also

01:12:30 ◼   ► get access to the Relay FM members discord, newsletter, a couple of members

01:12:34 ◼   ► only podcasts. It's a great deal, $5 a month or just $50 a year. Go check it out.

01:12:40 ◼   ► You can find us all online. You can find Myke on Mastodon at imike@mike.social.

01:12:47 ◼   ► He hosts a bunch of other shows here on Relay FM and is the co-founder of

01:12:52 ◼   ► of Cortex brand. You can find Federico at MacStories.net where he is the

01:12:57 ◼   ► editor-in-chief. He's a real pro blogger over there making shortcuts on his phone

01:13:01 ◼   ► like a true champion. You can find him on Macedon as well. He's at Vatici at

01:13:09 ◼   ► MacStories.net there. You can find me on MacPowerUsers every Sunday here on

01:13:14 ◼   ► Relay FM. I also write at 512pixels.net and I'm on Macedon as ismh@eworld.social.

01:13:21 ◼   ► That E-word social will never get old for me.

01:13:24 ◼   ► It's so good. It's so good. It's good forever.

01:13:27 ◼   ► I'm glad you like it.

01:13:28 ◼   ► I'd like to thank our sponsors this week.

01:13:30 ◼   ► They are Indeed and Capital One.

01:13:32 ◼   ► And until next week, guys, say goodbye.

01:13:35 ◼   ► Arrivederci.

01:13:36 ◼   ► Cheerio.