Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03 ◼   ► From Relay FM, This is Connected, episode 450.

00:00:12 ◼   ► That's a nice number.

00:00:13 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by our three excellent sponsors,

00:00:16 ◼   ► Fitball, Electric, and NetSuit.

00:00:18 ◼   ► And it's my pleasure to introduce Mr. Stephen Hackett

00:00:21 ◼   ► to the show.

00:00:22 ◼   ► Hello, Stephen.

00:00:23 ◼   ► Hello, Federico.

00:00:24 ◼   ► How are you?

00:00:24 ◼   ► Doing fantastic.

00:00:26 ◼   ► I forgot to say my name in this intro,

00:00:29 ◼   ► but I'm assuming that people can tell who it is.

00:00:31 ◼   ► It's Federico, by the way.

00:00:33 ◼   ► Yeah, we're 450 in.

00:00:34 ◼   ► I mean, people should know us.

00:00:36 ◼   ► You've got to assume that people could tell.

00:00:39 ◼   ► But hey, maybe somebody was surprised.

00:00:41 ◼   ► Maybe somebody was like, hey, this person

00:00:43 ◼   ► didn't say their name.

00:00:44 ◼   ► But yes, it's me.

00:00:45 ◼   ► Speaking of surprises, we are joined

00:00:47 ◼   ► by everyone's favorite John, John Voorhees.

00:00:52 ◼   ► Hey, bud.

00:00:53 ◼   ► Hey, Stephen.

00:00:54 ◼   ► How you doing?

00:00:54 ◼   ► I am good.

00:00:55 ◼   ► Thanks for stepping in today.

00:00:57 ◼   ► Mike is out.

00:00:57 ◼   ► He's got some travel going on.

00:00:59 ◼   ► And we said we haven't had our friend on in a long time.

00:01:03 ◼   ► And so here we are.

00:01:04 ◼   ► I'm not even sitting in Federico's lap

00:01:07 ◼   ► for this episode.

00:01:08 ◼   ► I mean, it seems like the last two times I've done it,

00:01:10 ◼   ► I've done it in Federico's old apartment, which

00:01:13 ◼   ► was a little crowded, shoulder to shoulder.

00:01:15 ◼   ► But I'm sitting at home at my spacious desk.

00:01:18 ◼   ► And it's good to be here.

00:01:20 ◼   ► And your slightly unalive MacStudio.

00:01:22 ◼   ► Yeah, my MacStudio has had some real troubles.

00:01:25 ◼   ► But it's on the mend now that I've got a brand new user

00:01:28 ◼   ► account.

00:01:29 ◼   ► That's good.

00:01:30 ◼   ► I'm glad it's looking up.

00:01:32 ◼   ► You've been retelling some of that story on App Stories.

00:01:35 ◼   ► And you've been through the ringer with that computer.

00:01:38 ◼   ► I really haven't.

00:01:39 ◼   ► And especially, it's like always comes at the worst time

00:01:41 ◼   ► when I've got something that I have to get out.

00:01:43 ◼   ► And here I am stuck spending.

00:01:45 ◼   ► I spent last Saturday.

00:01:47 ◼   ► I spent 4 and 1/2 hours on the phone with Apple support.

00:01:52 ◼   ► I don't wish that on anybody.

00:01:53 ◼   ► Oh, we have a little bit of follow up around the Beats

00:01:56 ◼   ► Studio Buds Plus.

00:01:59 ◼   ► This is the earbuds that were foretold by the Mike Hurley

00:02:03 ◼   ► Top Tech tip line for tips.

00:02:05 ◼   ► They are available for order today.

00:02:08 ◼   ► They are translucent.

00:02:10 ◼   ► They look incredible.

00:02:12 ◼   ► They are amazing.

00:02:13 ◼   ► And I wish that Apple would make everything translucent,

00:02:18 ◼   ► like in the good old days.

00:02:21 ◼   ► It's a whole vibe.

00:02:22 ◼   ► Imagine having this and an iPhone that's translucent

00:02:27 ◼   ► and maybe a little computer, like a translucent Mac Mini.

00:02:32 ◼   ► That would be so sick.

00:02:34 ◼   ► I've been hovering over the purchase button

00:02:37 ◼   ► on the Italian Apple Store, Steven and John.

00:02:41 ◼   ► And John knows, I can't buy this yet,

00:02:44 ◼   ► because it says they're coming soon.

00:02:46 ◼   ► They're not available.

00:02:47 ◼   ► Like, I see them.

00:02:48 ◼   ► It says new, shows all the pictures

00:02:52 ◼   ► of the transparent version.

00:02:54 ◼   ► But it says not yet available.

00:02:58 ◼   ► We can get them in two days here, Federico.

00:03:00 ◼   ► And I'm thinking about it.

00:03:03 ◼   ► It may be time for my big Apple buddy again.

00:03:07 ◼   ► The real big Apple buddy, being me, not the people in New York.

00:03:11 ◼   ► No, not those people, the real one from North Carolina,

00:03:15 ◼   ► the big Apple buddy from North Carolina,

00:03:18 ◼   ► who sends me stuff occasionally.

00:03:20 ◼   ► So we'll see.

00:03:21 ◼   ► Ideally, I would just get the Italian version.

00:03:25 ◼   ► But usually with these things,

00:03:27 ◼   ► it means like the product page is up,

00:03:30 ◼   ► but it's not going to be available for a few weeks.

00:03:33 ◼   ► And I really wanted to have those before my travel to WWDC

00:03:37 ◼   ► so that I could test the noise canceling on a plane.

00:03:41 ◼   ► That was my idea, but we'll see.

00:03:43 ◼   ► However, the design, I mean,

00:03:45 ◼   ► it's so beautiful to look at, look at this.

00:03:48 ◼   ► You can see all the stuff inside.

00:03:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, I like them a lot too.

00:03:52 ◼   ► - It looks awesome.

00:03:53 ◼   ► It uses USB-C for charging.

00:03:55 ◼   ► There's no wireless charging here

00:03:56 ◼   ► and there's no in-ear detection.

00:03:58 ◼   ► So the thing where you take the AirPods Pro out

00:04:01 ◼   ► and they stop.

00:04:01 ◼   ► - Oh, interesting.

00:04:02 ◼   ► - And according to the Verge, the ANC and transparency

00:04:06 ◼   ► is maybe not quite as good as the AirPods Pro,

00:04:08 ◼   ► but they come in at 169.

00:04:10 ◼   ► That is $20 more than last time.

00:04:12 ◼   ► But these things are popular

00:04:14 ◼   ► and this looks incredible.

00:04:16 ◼   ► And I hope we see much more of this sort of design language.

00:04:20 ◼   ► So I want to talk to you a little bit

00:04:21 ◼   ► about automation April.

00:04:24 ◼   ► Today you published the winners of the Shortcuts.

00:04:29 ◼   ► Shortcuts what?

00:04:32 ◼   ► Shortcuts like a-

00:04:33 ◼   ► - Contest.

00:04:34 ◼   ► - Cage match for shortcut creators.

00:04:37 ◼   ► There's a bunch of awesome things in here.

00:04:39 ◼   ► You guys sent me this list last night

00:04:41 ◼   ► and I downloaded a bunch of them and played with them.

00:04:44 ◼   ► Could you all run me through some of your favorites

00:04:46 ◼   ► and how you feel like it went this year?

00:04:48 ◼   ► - Yeah, we got a great crop of entries this year,

00:04:52 ◼   ► well over a hundred.

00:04:53 ◼   ► And we were fortunate enough to have a great panel of judges

00:04:57 ◼   ► to help us get through all this.

00:04:58 ◼   ► But at the end of the day, we picked our six winners.

00:05:01 ◼   ► And I'll start off by talking about

00:05:04 ◼   ► the best everyday shortcut,

00:05:06 ◼   ► which is kind of a category that's special to me

00:05:09 ◼   ► in Federico, I think,

00:05:10 ◼   ► because it's meant to emphasize that a shortcut

00:05:15 ◼   ► doesn't have to be complicated to be good.

00:05:17 ◼   ► And so this year's winner for that was Jason Beetic,

00:05:22 ◼   ► I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly,

00:05:26 ◼   ► with a shortcut called Yes More Events.

00:05:29 ◼   ► And Yes More Events is a great title, a great name,

00:05:32 ◼   ► because it really, it's a play on no more events

00:05:36 ◼   ► when you get your calendar widget

00:05:38 ◼   ► or your complication on your watch.

00:05:39 ◼   ► And you see you have no more events for the day.

00:05:42 ◼   ► It's really a waste of space.

00:05:44 ◼   ► And so what this shortcut does is it grabs

00:05:47 ◼   ► a couple of overdue tasks from the Reminders app

00:05:50 ◼   ► and puts them in a pre-populated calendar event

00:05:55 ◼   ► that occurs at like 11.45 p.m. until midnight.

00:05:59 ◼   ► So that when you get to the end of your day

00:06:00 ◼   ► and you've got all of your meetings

00:06:03 ◼   ► and appointments taken care of,

00:06:05 ◼   ► you've still got something there

00:06:06 ◼   ► that has some valuable information in it

00:06:08 ◼   ► with a title that shows you how many tasks are overdue,

00:06:13 ◼   ► and then a notes section that shows you what the tasks are

00:06:16 ◼   ► so that if you have a little free time,

00:06:17 ◼   ► you can knock those off.

00:06:18 ◼   ► And it could be, it's a shortcut

00:06:20 ◼   ► that could be easily adapted for other things too.

00:06:22 ◼   ► You could put an inspirational quote in there

00:06:25 ◼   ► or something else.

00:06:25 ◼   ► It's a pretty cool one.

00:06:27 ◼   ► - And apparently Jason is in the Discord right now

00:06:30 ◼   ► and just found out that he won in this category.

00:06:34 ◼   ► - Oh, well, congratulations, Jason.

00:06:37 ◼   ► You gotta go read Mac stories more frequently.

00:06:39 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:06:42 ◼   ► - So yeah, I love that.

00:06:43 ◼   ► I love that shortcut.

00:06:45 ◼   ► Personal favorite of mine is, I mean,

00:06:48 ◼   ► we're gonna talk about the best overall shortcut

00:06:51 ◼   ► in a couple of minutes.

00:06:53 ◼   ► The best media one by Joshua Dick.

00:06:57 ◼   ► The best media shortcut, Qmedia.

00:06:59 ◼   ► I love this one.

00:07:00 ◼   ► So the idea for this is kinda simple,

00:07:03 ◼   ► but yet so effective at the same time.

00:07:06 ◼   ► So Qmedia, it answers the question of,

00:07:09 ◼   ► I wanna save music or video for later.

00:07:13 ◼   ► I don't wanna have to choose between multiple extensions

00:07:16 ◼   ► to save that content.

00:07:18 ◼   ► So what this shortcut does,

00:07:20 ◼   ► it lets you use a single shortcut called Qmedia

00:07:23 ◼   ► that depending on what you're sharing via the share sheet,

00:07:27 ◼   ► it understands if you're sharing music

00:07:29 ◼   ► from Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Bandcamp,

00:07:33 ◼   ► or if you're sharing a video from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter,

00:07:37 ◼   ► I forgot which other sources.

00:07:39 ◼   ► So it checks that,

00:07:41 ◼   ► and then depending on whether you're saving music

00:07:43 ◼   ► or video for later,

00:07:45 ◼   ► it uses the native actions for Play by Mark Kostanaka

00:07:49 ◼   ► or Music Box, also by Mark Kostanaka.

00:07:52 ◼   ► So the idea being,

00:07:54 ◼   ► there's these two apps made by the same developer.

00:07:57 ◼   ► One of them lets you save videos for later.

00:07:59 ◼   ► The other lets you save music for later.

00:08:02 ◼   ► Instead of using two share extensions,

00:08:04 ◼   ► you can just use one shortcut in the share sheet

00:08:07 ◼   ► that understands the type of content you're sharing

00:08:09 ◼   ► on its own automatically.

00:08:12 ◼   ► And I just love that idea

00:08:13 ◼   ► because it sort of becomes this catchall,

00:08:16 ◼   ► kind of like a read later shortcut

00:08:18 ◼   ► that it's very low friction.

00:08:21 ◼   ► And I mean, I'm a fan of play a music box.

00:08:24 ◼   ► So this was kind of perfect for me.

00:08:26 ◼   ► I love this idea and how it does the checking

00:08:30 ◼   ► of the type of content you're sharing, very nicely done.

00:08:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, another one that won an award

00:08:36 ◼   ► was for productivity shortcut

00:08:39 ◼   ► is Jan Damscher's meeting notes for Obsidian.

00:08:44 ◼   ► Now, this is to me was kind of an interesting one

00:08:47 ◼   ► because Obsidian has an awful lot of automation tools

00:08:51 ◼   ► built right into it.

00:08:52 ◼   ► And I think a lot of people in the Obsidian community

00:08:55 ◼   ► really stick to those automation tools,

00:08:58 ◼   ► whether it's community plugins or some of the other features

00:09:01 ◼   ► built right into the app by default.

00:09:04 ◼   ► But this uses shortcuts and I've actually found myself

00:09:07 ◼   ► that shortcuts is a great way to create templates.

00:09:11 ◼   ► And that's what this shortcut does.

00:09:13 ◼   ► It combines information from your calendar

00:09:17 ◼   ► with text actions and generates a format for meeting notes

00:09:23 ◼   ► with things like attendees, the dates, the meeting title,

00:09:28 ◼   ► and a place to take notes about it.

00:09:30 ◼   ► So it just kind of pulls all that information together

00:09:33 ◼   ► in one place and then uses a community plugin

00:09:36 ◼   ► called Advanced URI to save that to Obsidian

00:09:41 ◼   ► because the standard URL scheme for Obsidian

00:09:46 ◼   ► doesn't have the ability to do that.

00:09:47 ◼   ► Advanced URI allows for the creation of a note

00:09:51 ◼   ► with content in it 'cause all that content

00:09:53 ◼   ► gets encoded into the URL, then dropped into Obsidian

00:09:57 ◼   ► where it is saved in whatever folder you pick

00:10:00 ◼   ► when you install the shortcut.

00:10:02 ◼   ► - I think one of my favorites is the one

00:10:04 ◼   ► that won best Mac shortcut that lets you use a QR code

00:10:08 ◼   ► on Mac OS because I mean, it's like ridiculous

00:10:11 ◼   ► 'cause I've been in this situation.

00:10:12 ◼   ► I'm sure a lot of people have like,

00:10:13 ◼   ► oh, there's a QR code on this website

00:10:16 ◼   ► and I wanna do the thing at my computer,

00:10:18 ◼   ► but I gotta get my phone.

00:10:20 ◼   ► I gotta like open the camera, use their new weird UI,

00:10:23 ◼   ► which isn't as good as the old one.

00:10:25 ◼   ► And so this one, it uses like a web API to basically,

00:10:30 ◼   ► I guess, look at the QR code and then figure out

00:10:32 ◼   ► what you're supposed to do with it.

00:10:33 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's exactly right.

00:10:34 ◼   ► I mean, it's a really nice thing to be able to do that

00:10:38 ◼   ► with the Mac because it's not built in.

00:10:42 ◼   ► - I wanna talk about the best overall shortcut.

00:10:44 ◼   ► So the best overall shortcut is called Inline Converter

00:10:48 ◼   ► and it's made by Dylan Mac.

00:10:49 ◼   ► In fact, Dylan, Steven won last year

00:10:53 ◼   ► for one of your favorite shortcuts, the meme maker.

00:10:56 ◼   ► - That one is very good.

00:10:58 ◼   ► - That was very good and Dylan won last year

00:11:00 ◼   ► in the best everyday category and came back this year

00:11:03 ◼   ► with Inline Converter, which is such a genius idea, I think.

00:11:07 ◼   ► So Inline Converter was inspired by something

00:11:10 ◼   ► that is missing on Mac OS,

00:11:13 ◼   ► which is the Inline Unit Conversion stuff

00:11:16 ◼   ► that Apple added in iOS and iPad OS 16,

00:11:20 ◼   ► but they didn't add it in Mac OS Ventura.

00:11:23 ◼   ► I'm referring to the ability to just select any text on iOS.

00:11:27 ◼   ► And if it contains like a unit of length or temperature

00:11:30 ◼   ► or currencies, whatever,

00:11:32 ◼   ► it automatically converts that for you.

00:11:35 ◼   ► And even if you don't select the text,

00:11:37 ◼   ► sometimes those things, they get underlined.

00:11:41 ◼   ► And so you can tap those and it's like a data detector

00:11:44 ◼   ► and you got a little pop-up with your conversion.

00:11:46 ◼   ► Excellent feature, but it's not on the Mac.

00:11:49 ◼   ► And so Dylan had this idea for, well,

00:11:52 ◼   ► what if I made a shortcut that sort of brought

00:11:55 ◼   ► that functionality over to Mac OS?

00:11:57 ◼   ► And it works beautifully in that you can select any text

00:12:01 ◼   ► and Inline Converter works as a quick action on Mac OS.

00:12:05 ◼   ► So you will find it in the services menu.

00:12:07 ◼   ► And for any text that matches units of length, weight,

00:12:12 ◼   ► volume, temperature, and I forgot what else,

00:12:16 ◼   ► you get a pop-up after running the shortcut.

00:12:19 ◼   ► You got a pop-up that says,

00:12:20 ◼   ► here's all the values you may wanna convert.

00:12:23 ◼   ► Like for example, when you convert Celsius,

00:12:25 ◼   ► you get a pop-up with Celsius, Fahrenheit,

00:12:28 ◼   ► and Kelvin temperatures, sort of like it works on iOS.

00:12:33 ◼   ► And the beautiful thing about this shortcut is that

00:12:36 ◼   ► I mentioned Mac OS because it was designed for Mac OS,

00:12:38 ◼   ► but you can totally use it on iOS and iPad OS.

00:12:41 ◼   ► In fact, it's so fast to use, I pinned it to my iPad dock.

00:12:46 ◼   ► And whenever I wanna convert something quickly,

00:12:48 ◼   ► I can just run the shortcut from there.

00:12:50 ◼   ► And the beautiful part is Dylan did a lot of work

00:12:54 ◼   ► to match all possible sort of permutations

00:12:58 ◼   ► of how you may find units written down as text.

00:13:03 ◼   ► So there's a lot of regular expressions in the shortcut.

00:13:08 ◼   ► You never see any of this.

00:13:09 ◼   ► You never see any of this complexity.

00:13:12 ◼   ► But behind the scenes, Dylan did a lot of work to,

00:13:15 ◼   ► for example, all the different ways

00:13:17 ◼   ► you can spell and write centimeters.

00:13:21 ◼   ► So it can be centimeter or centimeters or cm,

00:13:25 ◼   ► or cm could be with a space, without a space.

00:13:29 ◼   ► And all those things are things that

00:13:31 ◼   ► when you're writing regular expressions,

00:13:33 ◼   ► it takes a lot of work.

00:13:34 ◼   ► And he did all of this for all the five,

00:13:37 ◼   ► I believe different categories of units

00:13:39 ◼   ► that are supported.

00:13:40 ◼   ► It's a beautiful work in terms of the structure

00:13:44 ◼   ► and the code of the shortcut with a very clear idea

00:13:49 ◼   ► with the flexibility of being able to say

00:13:52 ◼   ► this works as a quick action on Mac OS,

00:13:55 ◼   ► but it also works if you run it manually.

00:13:57 ◼   ► It also works from Siri.

00:13:59 ◼   ► It works from the share sheet.

00:14:01 ◼   ► It works from a bunch of other places.

00:14:03 ◼   ► And it's just, it's useful.

00:14:05 ◼   ► It's actually a useful thing to have.

00:14:08 ◼   ► So Dylan is one of the best shortcuts creators

00:14:13 ◼   ► out there at the moment, I think.

00:14:15 ◼   ► And so having this kind of recognition,

00:14:17 ◼   ► I and John and the team of judges,

00:14:19 ◼   ► we felt like, yeah, this is the one

00:14:22 ◼   ► that should win it all this year.

00:14:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, it was a really great shortcut.

00:14:27 ◼   ► I don't want to forget Tim Nhumpke,

00:14:29 ◼   ► who won with the best health shortcut too, right?

00:14:33 ◼   ► - Yes. - Action Health.

00:14:34 ◼   ► - That one is also very good.

00:14:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, Action Health is really good

00:14:36 ◼   ► because it's built on a series of list actions

00:14:40 ◼   ► and it kicks off with allowing you to pick from a list

00:14:43 ◼   ► to decide what workout you want to do

00:14:46 ◼   ► or whether you want to log water, caffeine, or your weight.

00:14:49 ◼   ► And it's really pretty simple in that sense,

00:14:52 ◼   ► but there was a lot of setup that went into it

00:14:53 ◼   ► because it builds in a whole bunch of different kinds

00:14:56 ◼   ► of workouts that can be started directly from the shortcut.

00:14:59 ◼   ► You can, at the outset, you can delete the workouts

00:15:05 ◼   ► that you don't do because it's a really long list

00:15:07 ◼   ► and narrow it down to just--

00:15:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, that was a cool feature.

00:15:09 ◼   ► It was like, I'm never gonna do an open water swim.

00:15:11 ◼   ► I don't need it in here.

00:15:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, exactly.

00:15:15 ◼   ► 'Cause it's got really everything in there

00:15:17 ◼   ► with emoji and everything to help make it easy

00:15:20 ◼   ► to pick what you're doing.

00:15:22 ◼   ► And this is a new category for us this year.

00:15:24 ◼   ► We did HomeKit last year,

00:15:26 ◼   ► which is a little bit hard to judge

00:15:27 ◼   ► because sometimes it requires particular hardware.

00:15:31 ◼   ► And the thing about this shortcut

00:15:34 ◼   ► is that it takes advantage of the action button

00:15:37 ◼   ► on the Apple Watch Ultra.

00:15:38 ◼   ► It can be used with a regular Apple Watch too,

00:15:41 ◼   ► but it was really designed to be a one button press

00:15:44 ◼   ► type of shortcut, which I thought was really cool.

00:15:47 ◼   ► And it really does, it shows that you can do

00:15:49 ◼   ► some very interesting things with shortcuts on the watch,

00:15:52 ◼   ► even though, as Federico and I discussed on App Stories

00:15:55 ◼   ► when we did our watchOS wishes,

00:15:58 ◼   ► shortcuts on the watch is a very limited system.

00:16:03 ◼   ► So that's the list of winners.

00:16:05 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think they're all fantastic.

00:16:07 ◼   ► I know talking to you guys behind the scenes

00:16:09 ◼   ► the last couple of weeks,

00:16:10 ◼   ► it seems like y'all are very pleased with how this went.

00:16:13 ◼   ► So I think we're all can look forward to it again

00:16:15 ◼   ► next year, right?

00:16:16 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:16:17 ◼   ► I mean, now we're on the hook for this.

00:16:19 ◼   ► So now we gotta keep doing it.

00:16:20 ◼   ► - That's right.

00:16:21 ◼   ► - And I honestly think like we found a better balance

00:16:24 ◼   ► this year in terms of like content on the site,

00:16:27 ◼   ► activities in Discord, you know,

00:16:29 ◼   ► stuff in Mac Stories Weekly,

00:16:32 ◼   ► the Plus and Premiere content.

00:16:34 ◼   ► Like it's a nice sort of a way to take advantage

00:16:39 ◼   ► of all the different things we do.

00:16:41 ◼   ► And so, yeah, I mean, hopefully next year,

00:16:46 ◼   ► I don't know, maybe we'll do best Reality Pro shortcut

00:16:50 ◼   ► or whatever like that.

00:16:52 ◼   ► Hey, maybe we're gonna do VR shortcuts, you know?

00:16:56 ◼   ► But realistically, my hope for next year

00:17:00 ◼   ► is that we're gonna have more changes in shortcuts this year

00:17:04 ◼   ► than we did last year when, you know,

00:17:07 ◼   ► it didn't really change much.

00:17:08 ◼   ► And so I was also,

00:17:11 ◼   ► I think it was challenging for people this year

00:17:13 ◼   ► to come up with new shortcuts, with new ideas,

00:17:16 ◼   ► because the actions that we got,

00:17:18 ◼   ► the new features that we got in shortcuts in iOS 16,

00:17:21 ◼   ► weren't exactly groundbreaking.

00:17:24 ◼   ► - No, they didn't really open any new avenues

00:17:26 ◼   ► for new types of shortcuts.

00:17:29 ◼   ► - Hopefully next year we'll get a lot of new ideas,

00:17:31 ◼   ► but yeah, that's done.

00:17:33 ◼   ► Now we're gonna send out the prizes.

00:17:35 ◼   ► I believe Dylan, I gotta get in touch with Dylan.

00:17:37 ◼   ► Dylan is based in New Zealand, so it's probably take away.

00:17:41 ◼   ► - Boy, if we had known that,

00:17:41 ◼   ► we wouldn't have given him a prize we have to ship.

00:17:44 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:17:46 ◼   ► - See, the thing is, we don't know who the winners are

00:17:50 ◼   ► until we picked the shortcuts,

00:17:53 ◼   ► and then we ask Alex, hey, give us the data.

00:17:56 ◼   ► Like, I have no idea, we had no idea who won

00:17:59 ◼   ► until we asked Alex at the end,

00:18:01 ◼   ► get the info from the database.

00:18:03 ◼   ► - Okay, okay, so yeah,

00:18:06 ◼   ► so you're judging them blind, basically.

00:18:08 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, that's the idea,

00:18:10 ◼   ► and sometimes a few people put in their names

00:18:13 ◼   ► in like the description of the shortcut inside the shortcut,

00:18:17 ◼   ► so at that point you're gonna know,

00:18:19 ◼   ► but otherwise I prefer to go in blind

00:18:21 ◼   ► without any info whatsoever on who made the shortcut.

00:18:25 ◼   ► - This episode of Connected is brought to you by Fitbod.

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00:20:43 ◼   ► - So Apple continues to release news

00:20:47 ◼   ► in the lead up to WWDC.

00:20:50 ◼   ► We got a couple of big stories this week from them.

00:20:52 ◼   ► I wanna start with the one that is definitely

00:20:55 ◼   ► right up y'all's alley,

00:20:56 ◼   ► now with Apple announcing new quote,

00:20:59 ◼   ► "concert discovery features"

00:21:01 ◼   ► on Apple Maps and Apple Music.

00:21:04 ◼   ► So John, can you tell us a little bit about what this is?

00:21:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, so Apple did a couple of different things.

00:21:08 ◼   ► They built in a new category of guides

00:21:13 ◼   ► into Apple Maps,

00:21:14 ◼   ► which concentrate on music venues

00:21:19 ◼   ► in a dozen or so cities.

00:21:20 ◼   ► There are cities in North America,

00:21:23 ◼   ► in the United States, Europe,

00:21:26 ◼   ► and Japan, and Australia,

00:21:29 ◼   ► as well as Mexico City.

00:21:32 ◼   ► So there's a lot of venues in here.

00:21:36 ◼   ► It's a little limited so far.

00:21:38 ◼   ► There are roughly 40 of these,

00:21:40 ◼   ► but if history is any guide, I think,

00:21:43 ◼   ► these guides will in fact expand over time

00:21:46 ◼   ► because if you think back to when guides

00:21:48 ◼   ► were first introduced in Apple Maps,

00:21:51 ◼   ► I think it was like, it was either two or three years ago,

00:21:54 ◼   ► there were only a few,

00:21:55 ◼   ► and they were like in LA, New York, London,

00:21:58 ◼   ► and maybe a couple of other cities.

00:22:00 ◼   ► And now, anytime you visit a city of really any size,

00:22:05 ◼   ► there are guides available,

00:22:06 ◼   ► and there are more like geographical guides as well.

00:22:09 ◼   ► So it's good to see the venues in there.

00:22:11 ◼   ► You can pick up tickets even

00:22:13 ◼   ► and see what shows are playing

00:22:14 ◼   ► because a while back, Shazam added a feature

00:22:19 ◼   ► that allows you to see what concerts are coming up.

00:22:23 ◼   ► And so that Shazam feature,

00:22:25 ◼   ► which was just in the Shazam app,

00:22:27 ◼   ► has been integrated with Maps.

00:22:29 ◼   ► And then the second component of this is the set lists,

00:22:34 ◼   ► which are really kind of a new sort of playlist

00:22:38 ◼   ► in Apple Music.

00:22:39 ◼   ► It'll show big artists who are out on tour right now

00:22:43 ◼   ► and compile a playlist,

00:22:45 ◼   ► which I assume is presumably based

00:22:47 ◼   ► on what they're playing in concert.

00:22:49 ◼   ► And yesterday, when I looked at it at first,

00:22:52 ◼   ► it hadn't fully populated, but it is now.

00:22:55 ◼   ► So if you go to the browse section,

00:22:57 ◼   ► you can go into a dedicated section

00:22:59 ◼   ► that just has these set lists,

00:23:01 ◼   ► or you can search for them.

00:23:02 ◼   ► And they've got Sam Smith in there and Taylor Swift,

00:23:06 ◼   ► and I think Beyonce, and a bunch of other people

00:23:09 ◼   ► who are out on tour right now.

00:23:10 ◼   ► It's fairly limited.

00:23:12 ◼   ► I mean, there's some information in there about the tours,

00:23:14 ◼   ► but it usually is like a paragraph or two.

00:23:17 ◼   ► But it's something that, you know,

00:23:20 ◼   ► Federico and I have talked about this for years and years.

00:23:22 ◼   ► Like, why doesn't Apple integrate music

00:23:24 ◼   ► with more of the things that it does?

00:23:26 ◼   ► More of its apps, more of its services.

00:23:29 ◼   ► And this is a, it's a first step.

00:23:31 ◼   ► And I think it's kind of a small one,

00:23:34 ◼   ► but it is also, at least on the guide side,

00:23:37 ◼   ► and I guess on the music side too, it's editorial content.

00:23:40 ◼   ► And I think Apple usually tends to start relatively slow

00:23:44 ◼   ► with editorial content and build it up over time.

00:23:47 ◼   ► So I'm hoping we'll see more of it in the future.

00:23:49 ◼   ► - Obviously very much thrilled to see this feature.

00:23:53 ◼   ► I think it's the right approach to sort of combine

00:23:56 ◼   ► Apple Maps and Apple Music and have these,

00:23:58 ◼   ► all these sort of two-way street

00:24:00 ◼   ► of integrations between them.

00:24:03 ◼   ► That being said, I mean, it's obviously a small rollout.

00:24:05 ◼   ► Do we know, John, what data set Apple is using

00:24:09 ◼   ► for concerts and schedules?

00:24:11 ◼   ► Is it bands in town?

00:24:13 ◼   ► Are they using them?

00:24:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, they're using bands in towns, yeah.

00:24:15 ◼   ► - Okay, so, but that means they're not,

00:24:17 ◼   ► they do not have, like, how are they compiling the list of,

00:24:22 ◼   ► like the actual set list for a concert?

00:24:25 ◼   ► - That I don't know.

00:24:25 ◼   ► It's not really stated anywhere.

00:24:27 ◼   ► I assume that they've got an editorial team doing it.

00:24:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, because I sort of wish that Apple would just go ahead

00:24:33 ◼   ► and use an excellent service that I've been using,

00:24:36 ◼   ► I believe since I was in high school.

00:24:37 ◼   ► So that was like approaching 20 years ago.

00:24:40 ◼   ► Setlist.fm, such an incredible website

00:24:45 ◼   ► that is sort of crowdsourced databases for sort of

00:24:50 ◼   ► what songs artists actually play

00:24:53 ◼   ► in which dates of their tours.

00:24:56 ◼   ► And I don't think Apple is using this.

00:24:59 ◼   ► Otherwise they would have mentioned it.

00:25:01 ◼   ► So I think it's obviously a small rollout,

00:25:04 ◼   ► geographically speaking, very limited.

00:25:07 ◼   ► It's gonna be a while before they're gonna expand this

00:25:10 ◼   ► to all major locations around the world.

00:25:13 ◼   ► But still, this is the right idea.

00:25:15 ◼   ► Like integrate with Apple Maps and Apple Music,

00:25:19 ◼   ► bring in editorial content, have playlists

00:25:22 ◼   ► for when they're actually, you know,

00:25:25 ◼   ► what they're actually playing.

00:25:27 ◼   ► And you could imagine down the road, like,

00:25:29 ◼   ► okay, well, what if you could buy,

00:25:31 ◼   ► I don't know if Apple wants to go down this road,

00:25:34 ◼   ► but what if you could buy a concert ticket

00:25:36 ◼   ► from Apple Music using Apple Pay?

00:25:37 ◼   ► Like the potential is obviously there.

00:25:40 ◼   ► And I mean, now that Apple is effectively a bank

00:25:44 ◼   ► with their own debt, credit card and whatever,

00:25:47 ◼   ► like it's not so far-fetched to imagine,

00:25:50 ◼   ► okay, now you can buy concert tickets from Apple Music.

00:25:52 ◼   ► And I mean, shortly in the United States,

00:25:56 ◼   ► when you consider all the drama surrounding Ticketmaster,

00:25:59 ◼   ► all that scene, like it does feel like a field

00:26:04 ◼   ► that is ripe for more competition, healthier competition.

00:26:08 ◼   ► So, you know, I wouldn't mind seeing that.

00:26:13 ◼   ► - The guides are quite good.

00:26:14 ◼   ► I mean, I checked out the Chicago one

00:26:16 ◼   ► for the alternative music scene

00:26:17 ◼   ► because I know Chicago's venues pretty well

00:26:20 ◼   ► of having to live there.

00:26:21 ◼   ► And it did a good job of picking out some of the top venues.

00:26:24 ◼   ► So, you know, I mean, it's a start.

00:26:26 ◼   ► It needs to be in more cities, of course,

00:26:27 ◼   ► but it seems like it's a pretty good start.

00:26:30 ◼   ► - Hey, let me ask you both this.

00:26:33 ◼   ► What's the last concert you've been to?

00:26:36 ◼   ► - I went in October of 2019.

00:26:40 ◼   ► October of 2019, I saw Frank Turner in Chicago.

00:26:45 ◼   ► - Okay, or whatever you see.

00:26:49 ◼   ► I think you've been to a concert lately.

00:26:52 ◼   ► - I'm trying to think.

00:26:53 ◼   ► I know I saw Death Cab in 2019 in Nashville.

00:26:56 ◼   ► - Didn't you go see Jimmy Ewoldt at some point?

00:26:59 ◼   ► - I think we talked about it, but I didn't go.

00:27:01 ◼   ► - Oh, we talked about it.

00:27:03 ◼   ► - Honestly, I think that Death Cab show in '19

00:27:05 ◼   ► may have been the last one.

00:27:07 ◼   ► - Last one for me was Liam Gallagher in February, 2020,

00:27:11 ◼   ► like a week before the COVID outbreak in Italy.

00:27:13 ◼   ► - Oh, wow.

00:27:14 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:27:16 ◼   ► Wow, that's crazy.

00:27:17 ◼   ► - Liam was doing two dates in Italy,

00:27:18 ◼   ► one in Milan and the other in Rome.

00:27:21 ◼   ► I almost went to the Milan one, but then I went to Rome

00:27:24 ◼   ► because it was obviously close to home.

00:27:27 ◼   ► And it turned out later that the Milan concert

00:27:30 ◼   ► was one of the first sort of like hotspots for the outbreak.

00:27:34 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:27:35 ◼   ► - I bet, wow, wow.

00:27:37 ◼   ► - I'm seeing-- - I'm seeing a bullet there.

00:27:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm seeing Boy Genius right after WWDC.

00:27:43 ◼   ► He's telling Federico again to just make him jealous

00:27:46 ◼   ► because I know he'd like to go.

00:27:48 ◼   ► - I am so jealous.

00:27:50 ◼   ► I was wondering today,

00:27:52 ◼   ► do you guys saw the WWDC schedule

00:27:58 ◼   ► that Apple put out last night?

00:28:00 ◼   ► They sent developers who were selected to attend

00:28:03 ◼   ► sort of the keynote day,

00:28:06 ◼   ► a schedule for what they're gonna do.

00:28:08 ◼   ► And there's apparently like this evening activity

00:28:11 ◼   ► at Apple Park. - I saw that, yeah.

00:28:13 ◼   ► - Which it seems to me like it could be

00:28:16 ◼   ► a sort of a music performance by somebody.

00:28:20 ◼   ► - It could be.

00:28:21 ◼   ► That's what I thought.

00:28:21 ◼   ► Although I immediately saw developers speculating

00:28:23 ◼   ► that it's like a headset try-on thing.

00:28:26 ◼   ► My mind went originally--

00:28:27 ◼   ► - Oh, why a night?

00:28:28 ◼   ► Are you gonna make you try the headset at sunset?

00:28:30 ◼   ► - I know, my mind went immediately to a concert too.

00:28:33 ◼   ► - I mean, imagine if Boy Genius.

00:28:36 ◼   ► - That would be cool.

00:28:37 ◼   ► - Do we know where Boy Genius is on June,

00:28:40 ◼   ► what is it, June 3rd?

00:28:42 ◼   ► What's, no, what's June 5?

00:28:44 ◼   ► - They're probably on the East Coast

00:28:45 ◼   ► because I'm seeing them shortly after that, yeah.

00:28:50 ◼   ► June 2nd, they're playing in San Diego.

00:28:52 ◼   ► - Oh. - Oh.

00:28:54 ◼   ► - June 3rd, they're at the Rose Bowl.

00:28:56 ◼   ► - Okay, so that's not too far away.

00:28:59 ◼   ► It's Southern California, but.

00:29:00 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:29:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, they are not playing on June 5th.

00:29:04 ◼   ► They have a day off that day.

00:29:06 ◼   ► - If Boy Genius, if I'm calling,

00:29:08 ◼   ► if I'm wishing into existence right now,

00:29:11 ◼   ► Boy Genius playing live at WDC,

00:29:13 ◼   ► I'm just, I'm gonna lose it, guys.

00:29:14 ◼   ► I know. - Yeah, especially

00:29:15 ◼   ► since Press Access doesn't,

00:29:17 ◼   ► does Press Access come with concert access in the past?

00:29:20 ◼   ► - Not necessarily.

00:29:21 ◼   ► - Well, I will beg for it.

00:29:24 ◼   ► - Yeah, so will I. - To everybody I know.

00:29:25 ◼   ► - So will I.

00:29:25 ◼   ► - This, I mean, I can't help but think about

00:29:30 ◼   ► Apple's former entrance into this, right?

00:29:33 ◼   ► Of course, you have iTunes Ping,

00:29:34 ◼   ► and then we had Apple Music Connect,

00:29:39 ◼   ► where artists could go on, it was like a weird thing.

00:29:43 ◼   ► - Oh, yeah, it's like a weird social--

00:29:44 ◼   ► - They could upload photos and stuff.

00:29:46 ◼   ► Clearly, neither of those worked right,

00:29:47 ◼   ► and this, by having Apple and its partners do it

00:29:52 ◼   ► and not necessarily relying on artists

00:29:54 ◼   ► to have their PR person log into Apple Music Connect

00:29:57 ◼   ► on the web and upload photos, right?

00:29:59 ◼   ► That was all probably a terrible experience.

00:30:01 ◼   ► This seems, while much smaller in scope,

00:30:05 ◼   ► at least at this point, that's pretty exciting.

00:30:08 ◼   ► But again, it's 10 cities worldwide right now.

00:30:12 ◼   ► So they're starting small,

00:30:13 ◼   ► but it makes sense to pull these

00:30:17 ◼   ► different platforms together, right?

00:30:19 ◼   ► That you have maps and music

00:30:21 ◼   ► and some Shazam stuff maybe.

00:30:23 ◼   ► And Apple has these different services and apps,

00:30:27 ◼   ► and they don't always really know about each other.

00:30:30 ◼   ► And I think this is a really interesting way

00:30:32 ◼   ► to sort of cross-pollinate things

00:30:35 ◼   ► a little bit more than they've done before.

00:30:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, next up, and I've been seeing this forever

00:30:40 ◼   ► at this point, next up should really be news.

00:30:43 ◼   ► Like when I'm imagining if I'm using Apple Music,

00:30:45 ◼   ► we talked about this on the show.

00:30:47 ◼   ► Imagine if I'm using music and I'm like,

00:30:49 ◼   ► to keep that example,

00:30:51 ◼   ► imagine if I'm like,

00:30:55 ◼   ► in the album page for The Record by Boy Genius,

00:31:00 ◼   ► and there's a little expandable section at the bottom

00:31:04 ◼   ► that is a curated list from Apple News

00:31:08 ◼   ► for reviews for the album.

00:31:11 ◼   ► Like that could be useful, that could be fun.

00:31:14 ◼   ► So I don't know, we'll see, but I agree.

00:31:18 ◼   ► Music is such like, there's so many different things

00:31:21 ◼   ► you could do with it.

00:31:21 ◼   ► Concerts, merch, editorial content, podcasts, right?

00:31:26 ◼   ► There's a whole other aspect of

00:31:29 ◼   ► why are the Zane Lowe interviews and some of the other,

00:31:34 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:31:35 ◼   ► - Some of the other presenter interviews,

00:31:37 ◼   ► why are they so hard to find in Apple Music

00:31:40 ◼   ► and subscribe to?

00:31:41 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:31:42 ◼   ► - So it also feels like there's definitely potential for

00:31:44 ◼   ► having a better podcast integration with Apple Music

00:31:47 ◼   ► than what we have right now,

00:31:48 ◼   ► which is like effectively right now you have,

00:31:51 ◼   ► those interviews are like any other music content,

00:31:55 ◼   ► except they're not, they're not music.

00:31:57 ◼   ► They're content about music.

00:31:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think Jason's complained about

00:32:01 ◼   ► how they're presented in the app.

00:32:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

00:32:04 ◼   ► It's like those should be,

00:32:05 ◼   ► those are more similar to video channels or podcasts

00:32:09 ◼   ► than a music album.

00:32:10 ◼   ► And yet you discover them and you interact with them

00:32:15 ◼   ► as if it was another piece of music content in Apple Music.

00:32:18 ◼   ► And I think that's wrong.

00:32:19 ◼   ► That's the wrong approach.

00:32:20 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:32:21 ◼   ► - So there's a lot that Apple could do

00:32:22 ◼   ► to sort of cross pollinate between services.

00:32:25 ◼   ► And maybe this is the beginning of something.

00:32:27 ◼   ► Maybe it's just a one-off thing, but I hope it's not.

00:32:31 ◼   ► - This episode of Connected is brought to you by Electric.

00:32:35 ◼   ► Turning a small business into an empire takes work.

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00:33:39 ◼   ► This stuff is just a reality as your company grows.

00:33:42 ◼   ► We've definitely been through this where the beginning,

00:33:44 ◼   ► just Mike and I would just do things, right?

00:33:46 ◼   ► But as we've grown, we've had to formalize things.

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00:34:10 ◼   ► for a free pair of Beats Solo 3 headphones

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00:34:14 ◼   ► Our thanks to Electric for their support of the show

00:34:16 ◼   ► and Relay FM.

00:34:18 ◼   ► The other big bit of news out of Apple this week

00:34:21 ◼   ► came with Accessibility Awareness Day, which is this week.

00:34:25 ◼   ► And Apple is previewing some features

00:34:28 ◼   ► that will come later this year.

00:34:29 ◼   ► So, assuming the next versions of iOS, iPadOS,

00:34:34 ◼   ► MacOS, et cetera.

00:34:36 ◼   ► And there's really quite a few things in here,

00:34:38 ◼   ► maybe half a dozen features or so.

00:34:41 ◼   ► And I thought we could walk through them

00:34:42 ◼   ► starting with Assistive Access,

00:34:46 ◼   ► which is a new customizable UI for the iPhone and iPad.

00:34:51 ◼   ► So, users with cognitive disabilities

00:34:54 ◼   ► can lighten the load of using their favorite apps.

00:34:56 ◼   ► And Apple has a lot of screenshots, examples of this.

00:34:58 ◼   ► They're in your story as well, John.

00:35:00 ◼   ► Say the Messages app, and instead of a bunch of buttons

00:35:03 ◼   ► and a bunch of things going on,

00:35:04 ◼   ► really simplifying that to make it easier.

00:35:08 ◼   ► And I don't think we quite know

00:35:09 ◼   ► how the customization works yet,

00:35:11 ◼   ► but this looks very exciting to me.

00:35:13 ◼   ► And John, do you know if this is coming to third parties?

00:35:16 ◼   ► Like if I made a Mastodon client,

00:35:19 ◼   ► could I kind of enroll it in this

00:35:21 ◼   ► and make my UI simpler for people

00:35:23 ◼   ► who want to lighten the load?

00:35:26 ◼   ► - Kind of yes and no.

00:35:28 ◼   ► I mean, the way Apple explained it to me is that

00:35:31 ◼   ► it comes automatically with the OS.

00:35:35 ◼   ► So a developer doesn't actually have to do anything

00:35:38 ◼   ► to include their app, say, in this grid of giant icons,

00:35:42 ◼   ► if it's set up that way.

00:35:44 ◼   ► Because one of the options is kind of a big chunky buttons

00:35:47 ◼   ► on the iPad or iPhone with big text and high contrast,

00:35:51 ◼   ► making it really easy to hit those targets and so forth.

00:35:55 ◼   ► And so third party apps can be included in that.

00:35:58 ◼   ► And when you go into those third party apps,

00:36:01 ◼   ► you'll see this really big back button,

00:36:02 ◼   ► which is one of the features of assisted access

00:36:05 ◼   ► that makes it easier for users to find their way back

00:36:08 ◼   ► to where they started.

00:36:10 ◼   ► But the rest of the UI, the UI that the developer creates,

00:36:14 ◼   ► I don't believe has any special APIs

00:36:17 ◼   ► to make something assistive access friendly.

00:36:20 ◼   ► It's not, you know, I don't,

00:36:22 ◼   ► they weren't talking about it this week

00:36:25 ◼   ► and I don't think those APIs exist yet,

00:36:27 ◼   ► but it would be nice over time to see the ability

00:36:31 ◼   ► for developers to have that alternative UI.

00:36:33 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:36:34 ◼   ► - The other, you know, the other thing that can be done too

00:36:36 ◼   ► with assistive access, 'cause it's really customizable,

00:36:39 ◼   ► it doesn't have to be those big chunky buttons,

00:36:41 ◼   ► which are what were shown off because they were so visual.

00:36:43 ◼   ► But if someone is more text oriented, it can also be done.

00:36:47 ◼   ► And I haven't seen a picture of this,

00:36:49 ◼   ► but it's more like rows in a table.

00:36:52 ◼   ► So I think my sense is it's maybe more like looking

00:36:55 ◼   ► at a spreadsheet or something and picking your apps

00:36:57 ◼   ► from a list as opposed to having colorful icons.

00:37:02 ◼   ► - Another feature that definitely gained a lot of attention

00:37:04 ◼   ► was live speech and personal voice.

00:37:08 ◼   ► So this is a new feature across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac

00:37:12 ◼   ► that allows users who can't speak to type responses

00:37:16 ◼   ► that are spoken aloud on the phone.

00:37:19 ◼   ► So it's kind of, I mean, it is text to speech,

00:37:21 ◼   ► but the person is doing the text entry, if you will.

00:37:25 ◼   ► And you can also use this in in-person conversations.

00:37:29 ◼   ► And what is really interesting about it is that

00:37:32 ◼   ► if you have 15 minutes, you can sit down and record

00:37:35 ◼   ► a bunch of randomized text prompts,

00:37:38 ◼   ► and it will build a facsimile of their own voice.

00:37:43 ◼   ► So if you're working with somebody who maybe is at risk

00:37:46 ◼   ► of losing their voice over time, that you can preserve that

00:37:50 ◼   ► and then use that in these conversations.

00:37:53 ◼   ► And that is just fascinating to me.

00:37:56 ◼   ► And a lot of these are AI powered,

00:37:59 ◼   ► but Apple doesn't brand them as that.

00:38:01 ◼   ► This definitely feels like something that is definitely

00:38:04 ◼   ► powered by machine learning or whatever under the hood.

00:38:07 ◼   ► And it is English only at launch,

00:38:09 ◼   ► which is a bit of a bummer that this isn't more

00:38:11 ◼   ► international, but I think it really solves a problem

00:38:15 ◼   ► for a lot of people who would kind of be stuck

00:38:19 ◼   ► with using a voice that doesn't sound like them,

00:38:22 ◼   ► that doesn't reflect who they are,

00:38:24 ◼   ► and this makes it much more personal, which I love.

00:38:28 ◼   ► - Right, there are already apps on the App Store

00:38:30 ◼   ► that are designed to do this, not with a personalized voice,

00:38:34 ◼   ► but creating spoken out loud responses for people to use.

00:38:38 ◼   ► And I know those developers are really excited

00:38:41 ◼   ► about the option of being able to use a voice

00:38:45 ◼   ► that's in a person's own voice.

00:38:47 ◼   ► - From what I understand, once you read these prompts,

00:38:51 ◼   ► it's using the neural engine on Apple Silicon,

00:38:55 ◼   ► and it takes hours for that to process.

00:38:58 ◼   ► But then at the end, you'll have your voice.

00:39:02 ◼   ► And I saw a demo of this, it was very, very short,

00:39:06 ◼   ► so it's a little hard to judge how good it is.

00:39:08 ◼   ► I have cloned my voice in Federico's

00:39:11 ◼   ► using 11 Labs technology, and it's interesting.

00:39:15 ◼   ► Mine, I think, was pretty good.

00:39:16 ◼   ► The intonation was a little strange at times.

00:39:18 ◼   ► - Mine was horrible.

00:39:20 ◼   ► - Federico's was, imagine Federico sounding

00:39:23 ◼   ► extremely American with only a hint,

00:39:26 ◼   ► a hint of his underlying voice.

00:39:28 ◼   ► It was--

00:39:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, I sounded like somebody from Ohio.

00:39:31 ◼   ► - You did, you really did.

00:39:33 ◼   ► Midwestern teaching, it was really pretty funny.

00:39:36 ◼   ► But in the demo I saw, the woman who gave it

00:39:40 ◼   ► had an Indian accent, and it handled her accent pretty well,

00:39:43 ◼   ► which I know 11 Labs stuff doesn't,

00:39:45 ◼   ► so it'll be interesting to see how this goes.

00:39:48 ◼   ► I mean, I think you really have to listen

00:39:50 ◼   ► to more than a couple of sentences spoken

00:39:52 ◼   ► to really judge how good the quality of the voice is,

00:39:55 ◼   ► but I think it's still, even if it's not

00:39:57 ◼   ► the highest quality, it's still a really nice feature

00:40:00 ◼   ► for people to have who are at risk of losing their voices

00:40:02 ◼   ► because of like an ALS diagnosis or something like that.

00:40:06 ◼   ► - And of course, since we,

00:40:08 ◼   ► I shared this feature on Mastodon yesterday.

00:40:13 ◼   ► I got a, shall we say, a cluster of,

00:40:17 ◼   ► a type of people.

00:40:20 ◼   ► You guys know the type of people I'm talking about.

00:40:23 ◼   ► Is there a name for the extremely,

00:40:28 ◼   ► extremely privacy-concerned folks out there?

00:40:33 ◼   ► Like, the people who see a potential,

00:40:36 ◼   ► like the people who think some kind of

00:40:39 ◼   ► state-sponsored agency is after them,

00:40:42 ◼   ► even though they are absolutely not a high-risk individual.

00:40:47 ◼   ► - Right, I don't think so,

00:40:49 ◼   ► but I know who you're talking about.

00:40:51 ◼   ► - And I got a few, I got a few replies

00:40:53 ◼   ► and some emails from people saying,

00:40:54 ◼   ► oh, this feature is bad because what if,

00:40:57 ◼   ► now somebody told me over email,

00:41:00 ◼   ► I'm not gonna talk in public anymore

00:41:06 ◼   ► if there are iPhones and iPads in the room

00:41:09 ◼   ► because it means they're gonna sample my voice

00:41:12 ◼   ► and they're gonna make a fake version of my voice.

00:41:15 ◼   ► Well, first of all, good luck with that.

00:41:18 ◼   ► But second, I think that's actually inaccurate

00:41:23 ◼   ► because iOS 17 supposedly will let you

00:41:28 ◼   ► make you go through these prompts

00:41:32 ◼   ► where you gotta read a random sentence, right?

00:41:35 ◼   ► - Right.

00:41:36 ◼   ► - And what was the example in the story of a sentence,

00:41:39 ◼   ► John, was like--

00:41:41 ◼   ► - Oh, I don't remember.

00:41:42 ◼   ► - It was like a very specific, I'm looking it up right now.

00:41:44 ◼   ► So for example, one of the prompts that you gotta read

00:41:47 ◼   ► is grabbing a cup of coffee this afternoon sounds great.

00:41:51 ◼   ► And imagine like there's multiple of these phrases.

00:41:56 ◼   ► Actually, the screenshot says one of 150.

00:42:00 ◼   ► So I assume you will have to read one of a,

00:42:04 ◼   ► you will have to read at the very least

00:42:06 ◼   ► 150 phrases for 15 minutes.

00:42:09 ◼   ► - I don't think that's accurate.

00:42:11 ◼   ► That, well, there was some--

00:42:12 ◼   ► - Well, the screenshot says one of 150.

00:42:15 ◼   ► - I know.

00:42:16 ◼   ► That question was asked during the briefings

00:42:18 ◼   ► and it was not clear whether it was actually 150.

00:42:21 ◼   ► It's like 15 minutes.

00:42:22 ◼   ► - But let's say that we have, I don't know, let's say 30.

00:42:26 ◼   ► We have 30 phrases that you need to read

00:42:29 ◼   ► at are totally random.

00:42:30 ◼   ► Like maybe another phrase will be,

00:42:33 ◼   ► yes, I think I will need to go out with an umbrella.

00:42:35 ◼   ► Somebody, if they really wanted to quote unquote,

00:42:38 ◼   ► steal your voice, they will need to sort of

00:42:41 ◼   ► social engineer you into speaking these random phrases,

00:42:46 ◼   ► even though they're totally disconnected from each other

00:42:48 ◼   ► in a public setting with their iPhone

00:42:52 ◼   ► out recording your voice.

00:42:54 ◼   ► And so, I mean, you could probably tell

00:42:57 ◼   ► if somebody's starting you asking questions

00:42:59 ◼   ► that would generate this exact phrase as a response.

00:43:03 ◼   ► It's impossible, right?

00:43:05 ◼   ► You see, it's impossible for somebody

00:43:07 ◼   ► to sort of find a way to clone your voice

00:43:11 ◼   ► without you knowing.

00:43:13 ◼   ► So I think that concern is kind of silly and--

00:43:16 ◼   ► - It is, it is with Apple.

00:43:17 ◼   ► I think it's a real concern potentially with other tools.

00:43:20 ◼   ► I mean, I think-- - It is, yes.

00:43:21 ◼   ► - With 11 Labs, I mean, I cloned your voice

00:43:24 ◼   ► and I didn't ask your permission.

00:43:25 ◼   ► And it did a very bad job and I did that for $5.

00:43:30 ◼   ► You can sign up for $5 to generate a voice.

00:43:32 ◼   ► You can generate up to three or four of them, I think.

00:43:34 ◼   ► So there are tools out there to do this

00:43:37 ◼   ► for very inexpensively.

00:43:40 ◼   ► - Voices are cheap these days.

00:43:41 ◼   ► - They are, they are.

00:43:42 ◼   ► - You gotta wonder why people pay for podcasts.

00:43:45 ◼   ► - Hey, we'll just have to--

00:43:46 ◼   ► - Hey, no, keep paying, keep paying.

00:43:48 ◼   ► Get connected pro.co.

00:43:51 ◼   ► - We'll just write scripts and have them go through the voices.

00:43:53 ◼   ► - Don't tell him that, John.

00:43:54 ◼   ► Get connected pro.co and keep paying for the show

00:43:59 ◼   ► if you are, thank you.

00:44:01 ◼   ► So yes, I don't think this can be abused

00:44:05 ◼   ► because of how Apple design showed how this feature

00:44:08 ◼   ► is gonna look like when it comes out.

00:44:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, I would also point out that they said

00:44:12 ◼   ► that this does not sync over iCloud by default

00:44:15 ◼   ► because they were concerned about things

00:44:17 ◼   ► like someone having an iPad in a household

00:44:20 ◼   ► that is used by other people.

00:44:21 ◼   ► So you can turn on end-to-end encrypted sync

00:44:25 ◼   ► of these voices between devices,

00:44:27 ◼   ► but by default, that's not enabled.

00:44:30 ◼   ► That's an opt-in thing.

00:44:31 ◼   ► - Something that I found very impressive

00:44:33 ◼   ► and we had a video in the story as well.

00:44:36 ◼   ► And John, you gotta understand, Stephen,

00:44:39 ◼   ► that John is so fancy these days.

00:44:41 ◼   ► He got the briefing and I didn't.

00:44:43 ◼   ► So, much J, very, very high-end,

00:44:48 ◼   ► fancy Apple press member.

00:44:51 ◼   ► The point-and-speak feature of the magnifier,

00:44:54 ◼   ► how does it work?

00:44:56 ◼   ► - It works a lot like door detection,

00:44:57 ◼   ► which we got last year, where if you remember,

00:45:00 ◼   ► you point the magnifier app at a door

00:45:03 ◼   ► and it will give you information about how to open it.

00:45:05 ◼   ► Basically, it'll tell you whether it's open or closed

00:45:07 ◼   ► and what kind of handle it has, that sort of thing.

00:45:10 ◼   ► And this is an extension of that.

00:45:11 ◼   ► It uses LIDAR and the camera and text recognition.

00:45:15 ◼   ► So you can, the demo, the video we had in the story

00:45:19 ◼   ► is of someone holding the magnifying app

00:45:21 ◼   ► up to a microwave oven and it does more

00:45:26 ◼   ► than just read the buttons.

00:45:27 ◼   ► What it does is, as you put your finger over a button,

00:45:31 ◼   ► it tells you what the text of the button

00:45:33 ◼   ► under your finger is.

00:45:34 ◼   ► So it's read it all in advance

00:45:37 ◼   ► and as you get to the start button, it'll say start.

00:45:40 ◼   ► And then if you move your finger down, it'll say stop.

00:45:45 ◼   ► It'll do that kind of thing.

00:45:47 ◼   ► It's really neat.

00:45:48 ◼   ► And it's designed to work with more than just appliances too.

00:45:51 ◼   ► I mean, another example that was given was,

00:45:54 ◼   ► someone is in an office environment

00:45:57 ◼   ► and is looking at a file cabinet

00:45:58 ◼   ► and there are labels on the file cabinet

00:46:01 ◼   ► saying what's in the drawers

00:46:02 ◼   ► and it will be able to tell them what those labels say

00:46:05 ◼   ► so they can find things without any assistance.

00:46:08 ◼   ► So it's a really cool feature.

00:46:10 ◼   ► - I mean, that's gotta make sense for,

00:46:11 ◼   ► like there's obvious potential there for a headset, right?

00:46:14 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, definitely.

00:46:16 ◼   ► - Down the road, like eventually glasses, right?

00:46:20 ◼   ► The idea of you look at something and it tells you,

00:46:23 ◼   ► in this case, like the buttons on a microwave oven,

00:46:27 ◼   ► like that is an incredible functionality,

00:46:31 ◼   ► obvious benefits for the accessibility community,

00:46:36 ◼   ► but just in general, like incredible tech.

00:46:39 ◼   ► And I think there's a lot of potential here

00:46:42 ◼   ► for something that you actually wear on your face

00:46:44 ◼   ► and it shows you information in front of your eyes,

00:46:48 ◼   ► as opposed to through the screen of a phone.

00:46:51 ◼   ► But still, the magnifier app really becoming

00:46:55 ◼   ► one of the most powerful and useful and life-changing,

00:47:00 ◼   ► I would say, apps that Apple makes.

00:47:04 ◼   ► Like it started as a fancy zoom button for the camera

00:47:09 ◼   ► and look what it's turned into.

00:47:11 ◼   ► So I would love to get the backstory at some point

00:47:14 ◼   ► of the magnifier app because it's really grown

00:47:18 ◼   ► into one of the most powerful things that Apple makes.

00:47:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's become kind of this crossroads

00:47:25 ◼   ► for both accessibility features and features

00:47:29 ◼   ► that maybe people who don't consider themselves

00:47:31 ◼   ► in needing accessibility features also can benefit from

00:47:34 ◼   ► because maybe they have a hard time reading a menu

00:47:38 ◼   ► at a restaurant in dim light and so they use the magnifier

00:47:41 ◼   ► and the flashlight to magnify that.

00:47:43 ◼   ► So it's a really interesting app in that way to me.

00:47:46 ◼   ► - There's something in the grab bag list of changes

00:47:51 ◼   ► that caught my attention and I asked John about it.

00:47:55 ◼   ► John, in his fanciness, didn't have unfortunately

00:48:00 ◼   ► any more details for me.

00:48:01 ◼   ► So I'll discuss this with both of you,

00:48:04 ◼   ► including Steven and our audience.

00:48:07 ◼   ► Shortcuts is adding, remember this,

00:48:10 ◼   ► a shortcut for users with cognitive disabilities

00:48:14 ◼   ► that creates a visual diary in the Notes app.

00:48:18 ◼   ► - My theory on this is not the Notes app,

00:48:20 ◼   ► it's the journaling app that they haven't launched yet.

00:48:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, okay, okay, okay, okay.

00:48:25 ◼   ► That's where I wanted to go.

00:48:26 ◼   ► - Ah, that's a good one.

00:48:28 ◼   ► - So this to me smells like that, but also an evolution

00:48:33 ◼   ► of the remind me about this feature that Apple added

00:48:38 ◼   ► to Siri in, what's that, iOS?

00:48:44 ◼   ► 12?

00:48:45 ◼   ► Something like that, years ago.

00:48:48 ◼   ► So in Siri, you can say, hey thing, remind me about this.

00:48:53 ◼   ► And most of the time it should create, I know,

00:48:58 ◼   ► but it should create a reminder that contains a deep link

00:49:03 ◼   ► that takes you back to the this,

00:49:06 ◼   ► to the thing you're looking at.

00:49:07 ◼   ► So if you do remind me about this and you're in Safari

00:49:10 ◼   ► looking at a webpage, it'll be a link to the page.

00:49:12 ◼   ► If you're looking at a location in Maps,

00:49:15 ◼   ► it'll be a deep link to Maps.

00:49:16 ◼   ► It's based on the NS User Activity API,

00:49:20 ◼   ► the API that Apple loves to use for everything.

00:49:22 ◼   ► Remember this, creates a visual diary in the Notes app.

00:49:29 ◼   ► It sounds like an evolution of that, but I agree.

00:49:32 ◼   ► If they're working on a journaling app,

00:49:34 ◼   ► they're saying notes now because that's what they gotta do.

00:49:39 ◼   ► I think this will probably go in the journal thing.

00:49:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think that's a great theory.

00:49:43 ◼   ► I mean, I think the simple explanation

00:49:45 ◼   ► is that it's simply a shortcut that'll show up in Gallery

00:49:48 ◼   ► one day that lets you save a screenshot

00:49:50 ◼   ► to a particular note or a photo.

00:49:54 ◼   ► - I mean, you can do it today.

00:49:57 ◼   ► If that's all that is--

00:49:59 ◼   ► - No, I understand.

00:50:00 ◼   ► - You can build that today.

00:50:02 ◼   ► I mean, also a fun idea.

00:50:03 ◼   ► You could make a shortcut that does get what's on screen,

00:50:06 ◼   ► which is an action right now in iOS 16, create note, boom.

00:50:11 ◼   ► That's it, like you replicated that shortcut,

00:50:13 ◼   ► if that's the case.

00:50:15 ◼   ► Because right now, what you cannot do right now,

00:50:18 ◼   ► it could also be notes instead of the Diary app.

00:50:25 ◼   ► Because something that is supported in Notes today,

00:50:30 ◼   ► but only if you save a note in a specific way,

00:50:34 ◼   ► is saving deep links inside Apple Notes.

00:50:38 ◼   ► So native deep links to apps.

00:50:40 ◼   ► You can save those, but only via Quick Note.

00:50:45 ◼   ► Quick Note is, it lets you capture a deep link

00:50:49 ◼   ► to apps on screen or apps that you recently used.

00:50:53 ◼   ► But if you're just creating a regular note

00:50:56 ◼   ► without Quick Note,

00:50:57 ◼   ► there's no way to capture those deep links.

00:51:00 ◼   ► So maybe Apple is actually doing new things

00:51:03 ◼   ► for deep links in iOS 17.

00:51:07 ◼   ► - I mean, if I were to, if this were the Ricky's, Steven.

00:51:12 ◼   ► - Just a couple of weeks away.

00:51:16 ◼   ► - Because I could make a case here for,

00:51:20 ◼   ► this is just a sign of a bigger thing that Apple is doing.

00:51:24 ◼   ► In iOS 17, they're gonna let you create deep links manually

00:51:27 ◼   ► for whatever you want.

00:51:29 ◼   ► And that could become the Apple flavored way, for example,

00:51:35 ◼   ► to create wiki links for Apple Notes.

00:51:38 ◼   ► - Yep, yep, absolutely.

00:51:40 ◼   ► - Because you know if they're gonna do that,

00:51:41 ◼   ► that feature, like you may have seen it in Obsidian,

00:51:44 ◼   ► in Kraft, in Notion,

00:51:46 ◼   ► that could be a very Apple way to do it.

00:51:49 ◼   ► Like, oh, it's not a wiki link, it's a--

00:51:52 ◼   ► - It's a deep link.

00:51:52 ◼   ► - Magic link, whatever you wanna call it.

00:51:55 ◼   ► - Magic link.

00:51:55 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:51:57 ◼   ► You know?

00:51:58 ◼   ► - There were a couple of Mac specific things

00:52:00 ◼   ► in the grab bag I wanted to mention.

00:52:03 ◼   ► One is that made for iPhone hearing devices

00:52:06 ◼   ► will work with M1 and M2 Macs.

00:52:08 ◼   ► So these are class of hearing aids

00:52:10 ◼   ► that integrate nicely with iOS.

00:52:12 ◼   ► Perhaps the most interesting thing on the Mac

00:52:15 ◼   ► is adjusting text size.

00:52:18 ◼   ► So I assume this is dynamic type coming to macOS.

00:52:22 ◼   ► This has been an area of accessibility on the Mac

00:52:24 ◼   ► that historically has been pretty poor.

00:52:28 ◼   ► Their preview only shows a handful of their own apps

00:52:32 ◼   ► like Finder, Messages, Mail.

00:52:34 ◼   ► I think Calendar and Notes were in there.

00:52:37 ◼   ► But there's a lot of question about

00:52:38 ◼   ► is this going to be something system-wide?

00:52:40 ◼   ► Because as many ways to do text in an app on iOS as there are

00:52:45 ◼   ► on the Mac, there's even more.

00:52:47 ◼   ► And we've all been in a situation where like

00:52:51 ◼   ► you wanna use dynamic text

00:52:53 ◼   ► or you wanna help somebody set it up

00:52:54 ◼   ► and like the one app they really needed in,

00:52:56 ◼   ► it doesn't support it very well.

00:52:58 ◼   ► Or it's like very clearly broken,

00:52:59 ◼   ► they didn't really test it.

00:53:01 ◼   ► And so I'm curious how Apple will do this on the Mac.

00:53:04 ◼   ► Is it going to be something that gets added to,

00:53:07 ◼   ► I mean, a bunch of these apps they listed are AppKit,

00:53:10 ◼   ► but Messages is not.

00:53:12 ◼   ► Messages is Mac Catalyst.

00:53:15 ◼   ► So like, is this coming to both AppKit and Catalyst

00:53:18 ◼   ► and to SwiftUI?

00:53:19 ◼   ► And if you use some sort of web thing, you're on your own.

00:53:22 ◼   ► I just wanna know how this is going to work

00:53:25 ◼   ► because if you have only a handful of Mac apps support this,

00:53:29 ◼   ► then it's gonna be frustrating for people who want to use it

00:53:33 ◼   ► or need to rely on it.

00:53:35 ◼   ► - There is also a new voiceover feature

00:53:38 ◼   ► where it'll sound, the Siri voices will sound more natural

00:53:42 ◼   ► when they're played back anywhere from 0.8X to 2X.

00:53:46 ◼   ► And while these are Siri voices and not human voices,

00:53:50 ◼   ► I do wonder whether that is tied to technology

00:53:53 ◼   ► that might be coming to something like Apple Podcasts

00:53:56 ◼   ► with an overcast style smart speed feature

00:53:59 ◼   ► for the Apple Podcasts app,

00:54:01 ◼   ► because now we've got that in voice memos already,

00:54:05 ◼   ► and now we're seeing it crop up in voiceover

00:54:08 ◼   ► with the Siri voices.

00:54:09 ◼   ► It's not a real stretch to imagine that coming

00:54:13 ◼   ► to another app like Podcasts as well.

00:54:15 ◼   ► - I really think they're gonna do it this year.

00:54:17 ◼   ► Like I would be shocked if Podcasts does not get

00:54:21 ◼   ► the equivalent of a smart speed or trim silence,

00:54:25 ◼   ► whatever you wanna call it, if it doesn't get it this year.

00:54:28 ◼   ► And you know that, again, the Apple-flavored way

00:54:32 ◼   ► to do something that's sort of become something

00:54:35 ◼   ► that you expect in third-party apps,

00:54:37 ◼   ► but Apple comes out and says, "We have this,

00:54:39 ◼   ► "but we've done it in a unique way."

00:54:41 ◼   ► - Magic Podcasts. - You know if they're gonna

00:54:42 ◼   ► do Magic Voices, Magic Voices, Magic Voice.

00:54:46 ◼   ► Hey, every podcast has a magic voice

00:54:49 ◼   ► if you really like the show.

00:54:51 ◼   ► You know, that's a nice way to think about it.

00:54:54 ◼   ► But if they're gonna do it, they're gonna say,

00:54:57 ◼   ► "Oh, this is all done by the neural engine on device."

00:55:00 ◼   ► And we analyze the voices and we make 'em sound even better

00:55:05 ◼   ► so that you can enjoy your favorite shows even more

00:55:09 ◼   ► thanks to the power of the neural engine

00:55:11 ◼   ► and it's all done on device as you listen to podcasts.

00:55:15 ◼   ► They don't even need to be downloaded,

00:55:16 ◼   ► like something like that.

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00:57:08 ◼   ► - Hey, before we talk about this thing

00:57:10 ◼   ► you put in the notes, Steven,

00:57:11 ◼   ► this is not in the notes,

00:57:14 ◼   ► but I have a couple of things I wanna share.

00:57:17 ◼   ► And the first one is a confession.

00:57:19 ◼   ► - Uh-oh. - Ooh.

00:57:20 ◼   ► - I like stage manager now.

00:57:22 ◼   ► - Ah. - On the Mac.

00:57:25 ◼   ► - There you go.

00:57:26 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:57:27 ◼   ► I felt that one coming.

00:57:29 ◼   ► - This all started because John was making a case.

00:57:33 ◼   ► So you were saying before the show, Steven,

00:57:36 ◼   ► that John and I have a kind of like a toxic relationship

00:57:39 ◼   ► and in a way we kind of do,

00:57:41 ◼   ► but it's the good toxic, it's not the bad one.

00:57:45 ◼   ► It's that sort of relationship where like John tells me,

00:57:49 ◼   ► "Hey, you should check this out."

00:57:50 ◼   ► And I spend a bunch of money and I do.

00:57:52 ◼   ► And sometimes I like it and other times I don't.

00:57:54 ◼   ► And then there's me making John jealous of something.

00:57:58 ◼   ► And it's like, "Oh, I gotta check out the thing

00:58:00 ◼   ► that Federico does."

00:58:01 ◼   ► And John spends a bunch of money

00:58:02 ◼   ► or spends a bunch of time doing something

00:58:05 ◼   ► and maybe likes it or not.

00:58:06 ◼   ► It's like this constant push and pull of what we do.

00:58:11 ◼   ► In any case, the latest example of this being

00:58:14 ◼   ► John telling me a few days ago,

00:58:17 ◼   ► "Hey, you should really try stage manager on the Mac."

00:58:19 ◼   ► And I gotta tell you, it's been a bit of a shock initially.

00:58:24 ◼   ► And there's plenty of things that I would change,

00:58:27 ◼   ► but I just had a moment as we were recording this

00:58:31 ◼   ► when it did something that made sense.

00:58:35 ◼   ► And I was like, "You know, that's actually kind of nice."

00:58:39 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:58:41 ◼   ► I feel like it makes a lot more sense on the Mac than iPadOS

00:58:46 ◼   ► where you don't have the limitations

00:58:49 ◼   ► of four windows per workspace.

00:58:51 ◼   ► You have the total control over the resizing.

00:58:55 ◼   ► It's like that great combination of the multitasking

00:58:59 ◼   ► and multi-windowing you already know and love,

00:59:01 ◼   ► but with this little sort of guard rails around it,

00:59:05 ◼   ► with this little structure around it,

00:59:08 ◼   ► that even though it's not perfect,

00:59:10 ◼   ► I feel like it's a much better pill to swallow

00:59:15 ◼   ► than stage manager on iPadOS.

00:59:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, I figured it would appeal

00:59:21 ◼   ► to your organizational side.

00:59:23 ◼   ► - Yes, that's exactly what I'm liking about it

00:59:26 ◼   ► because I like to organize things.

00:59:30 ◼   ► It makes me feel good to organize things,

00:59:33 ◼   ► both digitally and in the physical realm.

00:59:38 ◼   ► But yes, yeah.

00:59:40 ◼   ► Steven, do you use it?

00:59:44 ◼   ► - No, I gave it a shot early on and I haven't revisited it.

00:59:48 ◼   ► So, you know, I've got, what am I using?

00:59:51 ◼   ► I think I'm using magnet right now

00:59:52 ◼   ► as my window management thing

00:59:55 ◼   ► 'cause I like the keyboard shortcuts it has,

00:59:57 ◼   ► but I don't know.

00:59:59 ◼   ► Maybe I need to give it another shot.

01:00:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, it's like Federico said,

01:00:05 ◼   ► it really does need a lot of work.

01:00:06 ◼   ► I mean, it's very frustrating that it's so mechanical

01:00:10 ◼   ► to have to set up your stages in the first place.

01:00:13 ◼   ► Especially if you're working in just a handful of apps

01:00:17 ◼   ► for a long period of time, it's pretty nice then.

01:00:20 ◼   ► And you know, it needs shortcut support,

01:00:22 ◼   ► it needs keyboard shortcuts, it needs a lot of stuff,

01:00:25 ◼   ► but it's not nearly-- - It needs a lot.

01:00:27 ◼   ► It needs a lot. - Yeah.

01:00:28 ◼   ► It's just not as frustrating though

01:00:30 ◼   ► as it is on the iPad.

01:00:31 ◼   ► On the iPad, I feel like I have handcuffs on,

01:00:34 ◼   ► especially as soon as I try to use an external display.

01:00:37 ◼   ► With the Mac, it's an annoyance,

01:00:39 ◼   ► but it's also, there's a benefit to it too.

01:00:42 ◼   ► 'Cause I've been using it full-time really

01:00:44 ◼   ► since the betas last summer.

01:00:46 ◼   ► - I think part of it, I just turned it on,

01:00:48 ◼   ► and the immediate thing I hate is all the animation.

01:00:52 ◼   ► - Yes. - So how I use my Mac,

01:00:54 ◼   ► like things overlap a lot.

01:00:57 ◼   ► And I do have, I run Quitter by our friend Marco,

01:01:01 ◼   ► and it will hide apps.

01:01:03 ◼   ► I don't have it quit apps, but I have it hide apps

01:01:05 ◼   ► that are in the background over time.

01:01:07 ◼   ► So over time, things slowly go away, some things,

01:01:12 ◼   ► but all the zooming in and out and going back and forth,

01:01:17 ◼   ► I just don't need.

01:01:19 ◼   ► - Yeah, I feel like they need to calm down

01:01:21 ◼   ► with these animations, like we get it.

01:01:23 ◼   ► You're Apple, you're capable of making

01:01:25 ◼   ► these beautiful animations. (laughing)

01:01:26 ◼   ► And I'm sure, I get it.

01:01:29 ◼   ► You wanna be proud of those, and look, we all are.

01:01:31 ◼   ► We think you do a great job,

01:01:33 ◼   ► but like, it's fine, like make it, you know.

01:01:36 ◼   ► Maybe these animations, maybe, I don't know,

01:01:40 ◼   ► maybe an idea for power users could be that maybe

01:01:44 ◼   ► animations, they're like people, they age over time,

01:01:48 ◼   ► and over time you stop seeing them,

01:01:50 ◼   ► because like those animations are not as young

01:01:53 ◼   ► as they used to be.

01:01:54 ◼   ► When you first started using stage managers,

01:01:56 ◼   ► maybe like a year into using a particular feature,

01:02:01 ◼   ► you don't see the animations anymore, because they aged,

01:02:05 ◼   ► and now you don't need to see it.

01:02:06 ◼   ► In any case, they need to calm down with the animations.

01:02:09 ◼   ► You gotta be able to label the workspaces

01:02:12 ◼   ► in the strip on the left.

01:02:14 ◼   ► You gotta be able to make like fixed presets

01:02:17 ◼   ► for here's my podcasting workspace, and there should be--

01:02:21 ◼   ► - And you can do that with spaces to a degree.

01:02:23 ◼   ► - You can, yes. - You can say,

01:02:25 ◼   ► always open this app in this space,

01:02:27 ◼   ► even this space on this display.

01:02:30 ◼   ► And yeah, I would like all of those things to be true,

01:02:33 ◼   ► but the biggest one is the animation,

01:02:35 ◼   ► especially on a studio display, right?

01:02:37 ◼   ► It's like a giant chrome window came swinging back in.

01:02:40 ◼   ► It's like, okay.

01:02:41 ◼   ► - It's a lot, it's a lot of swooshing and swooping

01:02:46 ◼   ► all around the place.

01:02:47 ◼   ► Okay.

01:02:48 ◼   ► - It's a very swoopy UI, for sure.

01:02:50 ◼   ► - Yes, it's like, okay, here we go again.

01:02:54 ◼   ► It's animating, it's coming into view.

01:02:57 ◼   ► It just happened to me.

01:02:58 ◼   ► But there's, I feel like there's a lot more

01:03:03 ◼   ► to potentially salvage here than iPadOS.

01:03:08 ◼   ► With, if I guess Apple has chosen,

01:03:13 ◼   ► because by this time, you know, Mac OS 14,

01:03:19 ◼   ► as I've decided to call it, Mac OS Skyline,

01:03:22 ◼   ► I'm convinced that will be the name.

01:03:24 ◼   ► I don't have any insider information.

01:03:27 ◼   ► There is no such thing as a t.g. tip line.

01:03:30 ◼   ► I also don't want it.

01:03:32 ◼   ► It feels like too much pressure in my life.

01:03:35 ◼   ► - Is Skyline a place in California?

01:03:37 ◼   ► - That's what I asked him.

01:03:37 ◼   ► - Well, it's a registered trademark.

01:03:40 ◼   ► - Oh, oh, it's a neighborhood in San Diego, it looks like.

01:03:43 ◼   ► - There you go.

01:03:44 ◼   ► I am convinced.

01:03:47 ◼   ► I don't have any insider information.

01:03:49 ◼   ► Mac OS Skyline.

01:03:50 ◼   ► - I like the sound of it.

01:03:51 ◼   ► - Oh yes, by this time, things are locked.

01:03:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, they're done, right?

01:03:56 ◼   ► They're done, they're done.

01:03:57 ◼   ► They're probably already using beta two

01:03:59 ◼   ► of whatever they're building.

01:04:02 ◼   ► But if Apple decided to put in the work,

01:04:05 ◼   ► I think there's plenty they could do

01:04:06 ◼   ► with stage manager on the Mac.

01:04:08 ◼   ► There's a lot they should do with stage manager on iPadOS,

01:04:12 ◼   ► but I'm liking the organization.

01:04:14 ◼   ► And just a few minutes ago, I was clicking a link

01:04:19 ◼   ► and it took me briefly into another workspace.

01:04:22 ◼   ► And then when I was done,

01:04:23 ◼   ► it took me back into my previous workspace.

01:04:26 ◼   ► And yes, I could use fewer animations.

01:04:28 ◼   ► I could use some general speed up of the whole thing,

01:04:33 ◼   ► but it's nicer than iPadOS.

01:04:37 ◼   ► And the second thing, I told you I had two things.

01:04:40 ◼   ► It's more like an open-ended question for people.

01:04:44 ◼   ► I'm just wondering what everybody's using

01:04:46 ◼   ► as a notebook for "Zelda Tears of the Kingdom."

01:04:49 ◼   ► Like, is the connected,

01:04:53 ◼   ► are the passionate ones using Apple Notes, Obsidian,

01:04:56 ◼   ► dedicated apps to keep notes for "Tears of the Kingdom?"

01:05:00 ◼   ► Stephen, I'm familiar.

01:05:01 ◼   ► I'm assuming you are familiar

01:05:03 ◼   ► with what "Tears of the Kingdom" is.

01:05:05 ◼   ► - Yes, but I don't know why you need a notebook for it.

01:05:08 ◼   ► - Oh, there's so much information.

01:05:09 ◼   ► - Wow. Oh, Bob.

01:05:11 ◼   ► Oh, Stephen.

01:05:12 ◼   ► Yes, for these games like "Elden Ring,"

01:05:16 ◼   ► do you know what "Elden Ring" is?

01:05:17 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:05:18 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:05:19 ◼   ► - These massive games that have tons of side quests

01:05:23 ◼   ► and collectible items and things you gotta do,

01:05:26 ◼   ► you gotta keep a note, like a little note.

01:05:29 ◼   ► You gotta do something.

01:05:31 ◼   ► In fact, Steam on PC

01:05:35 ◼   ► is getting like a native note-taking feature,

01:05:38 ◼   ► which is genius. - Oh, I didn't know that.

01:05:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, they're getting, like in the Steam overlay,

01:05:43 ◼   ► they're adding like a built-in note-taking thing,

01:05:47 ◼   ► which is genius because like that notepad will sync

01:05:50 ◼   ► across all of your devices,

01:05:52 ◼   ► including eventually on the Steam Deck.

01:05:54 ◼   ► So if you're playing something on PC

01:05:56 ◼   ► and you take a note and later on the Steam Deck,

01:05:57 ◼   ► you find the same note.

01:05:59 ◼   ► But "Zelda" is on Nintendo Switch, of course.

01:06:01 ◼   ► And right now I'm using Apple Notes

01:06:04 ◼   ► just because it allows me very quickly

01:06:07 ◼   ► to either put down a link or some text or a screenshot

01:06:10 ◼   ► of what I'm doing in the game.

01:06:12 ◼   ► But I'm sure that people have other systems for this.

01:06:15 ◼   ► And so if you're playing "Zelda"

01:06:17 ◼   ► and you're taking notes about "Zelda"

01:06:19 ◼   ► and you think you have a good system for taking your notes

01:06:21 ◼   ► and saving locations on the map or whatever, let me know.

01:06:26 ◼   ► Because yeah, I'm looking for that sort of a solution.

01:06:31 ◼   ► - I got nothing for you, Tichi.

01:06:32 ◼   ► Other than-- - I know you've done nothing

01:06:34 ◼   ► because you've just been wandering around.

01:06:35 ◼   ► You haven't done anything in this game.

01:06:37 ◼   ► - I wandered out into the mountains

01:06:39 ◼   ► and didn't even play the game.

01:06:40 ◼   ► I just wandered the countryside,

01:06:43 ◼   ► fighting people and using up all my resources.

01:06:45 ◼   ► But yeah, yeah, that's me.

01:06:48 ◼   ► - Before we go, I wanted to talk to y'all about a story.

01:06:52 ◼   ► It was linked on Mac Stories a while ago,

01:06:54 ◼   ► and now it's sort of available to everybody

01:06:56 ◼   ► where with Phone Link, which is an app for Microsoft,

01:07:00 ◼   ► you can use iMessage from a PC.

01:07:05 ◼   ► I think y'all have been playing with this,

01:07:07 ◼   ► and I'm curious how it works and how it's working out.

01:07:12 ◼   ► - There's a lot of limitations in this feature.

01:07:14 ◼   ► I've been using it for a while.

01:07:17 ◼   ► It is convenient.

01:07:19 ◼   ► I'll give you that.

01:07:20 ◼   ► It's better to have it than to not have it, for sure.

01:07:24 ◼   ► It's useful if you're on PC and you have a paired iPhone.

01:07:29 ◼   ► And so for example, when I got a message from John,

01:07:31 ◼   ► if I happen to be playing a game on my PC,

01:07:34 ◼   ► I get a notification with that message from John

01:07:37 ◼   ► so that I just don't have to grab my phone

01:07:41 ◼   ► and use the messages app there.

01:07:43 ◼   ► I can just see the notification from my PC

01:07:45 ◼   ► and reply from there.

01:07:47 ◼   ► However, that only works for one-to-one

01:07:52 ◼   ► message conversations.

01:07:54 ◼   ► Like it doesn't support iMessage threads at all.

01:07:57 ◼   ► It doesn't support groups.

01:07:59 ◼   ► So you can only reply.

01:08:00 ◼   ► It's basically like, it's a glorified version

01:08:05 ◼   ► of car Bluetooth integration.

01:08:08 ◼   ► It pulls all of your contacts, notifications,

01:08:12 ◼   ► sort of like old school Bluetooth cars could do.

01:08:17 ◼   ► Not CarPlay.

01:08:18 ◼   ► I'm not talking about CarPlay.

01:08:19 ◼   ► - It's the same thing that lets you get

01:08:20 ◼   ► message notifications on Fitbit and stuff too, I think.

01:08:25 ◼   ► - Yes, yes.

01:08:26 ◼   ► It's basically that system, but on a PC

01:08:29 ◼   ► with a nicer UI around it

01:08:32 ◼   ► than you probably could have found on a Fitbit.

01:08:34 ◼   ► You have an app and you have two tabs

01:08:38 ◼   ► for notifications and messages.

01:08:40 ◼   ► You can see other notifications from apps.

01:08:42 ◼   ► Of course you cannot interact with them.

01:08:45 ◼   ► I believe they do not get marked as read.

01:08:49 ◼   ► So later you're still gonna find your notifications

01:08:51 ◼   ► that you've already seen on PC.

01:08:53 ◼   ► You're gonna find those on the iPhone,

01:08:56 ◼   ► but still given the limitations, it's nice to have.

01:09:00 ◼   ► And yeah, I think it's a clever workaround for,

01:09:06 ◼   ► and I don't think we're gonna get any more than this.

01:09:08 ◼   ► I don't think Apple,

01:09:09 ◼   ► I don't think it's in Apple's top priority list to say,

01:09:13 ◼   ► oh, we need to have better support for Windows 11 computers

01:09:17 ◼   ► for messages and notifications.

01:09:19 ◼   ► So given the Bluetooth nature of it all, it's pretty okay.

01:09:23 ◼   ► It's all right.

01:09:24 ◼   ► It's a nice way to get notifications

01:09:26 ◼   ► and to reply to the occasional message from your Windows PC.

01:09:30 ◼   ► - So it doesn't sound like it's gonna let people

01:09:33 ◼   ► get the full iMessage experience.

01:09:35 ◼   ► - No, absolutely not.

01:09:36 ◼   ► No, no, no, no.

01:09:38 ◼   ► - It's more of a gap filler, it sounds like,

01:09:40 ◼   ► really like, as you said, Federico,

01:09:42 ◼   ► when you happen to be on your PC

01:09:43 ◼   ► and maybe your phone's not around

01:09:45 ◼   ► or you don't wanna grab your phone,

01:09:46 ◼   ► you can fire off a quick message.

01:09:48 ◼   ► - Something funny that it does,

01:09:50 ◼   ► I guess because of security concerns,

01:09:53 ◼   ► if you send, so if I'm on PC and via this app,

01:09:58 ◼   ► I send a URL to John, correct me if I'm wrong, John,

01:10:04 ◼   ► but I believe that by default,

01:10:06 ◼   ► that URL does not expand into a rich link.

01:10:10 ◼   ► You gotta say tap preview.

01:10:13 ◼   ► - That's why I've been getting those.

01:10:14 ◼   ► All right, now I understand, yeah.

01:10:17 ◼   ► I think you're right because I've noticed that with you

01:10:20 ◼   ► that sometimes I get those and they don't expand out.

01:10:22 ◼   ► It'll just be like the--

01:10:24 ◼   ► - Tap to preview, it says tap to preview, I think.

01:10:28 ◼   ► Or they do not get a preview at all.

01:10:30 ◼   ► But yeah, they kinda work, but not as they would normally

01:10:35 ◼   ► work with iMessage to iMessage from an Apple device, yeah.

01:10:40 ◼   ► - It always brings up conversations of iMessage on Android

01:10:42 ◼   ► and I think we all just kind of understand

01:10:44 ◼   ► that Apple's not gonna do that, right?

01:10:48 ◼   ► - But why would they, why would they, right?

01:10:50 ◼   ► - The iMessage is a huge lock-in factor for their ecosystem.

01:10:52 ◼   ► - Exactly, like even beyond the security concerns

01:10:57 ◼   ► of using RCS or whatever Google is asking about,

01:11:01 ◼   ► even beyond that, so setting those concerns aside

01:11:04 ◼   ► for a minute, from a pure business perspective,

01:11:06 ◼   ► why would you, when it's become the thing

01:11:10 ◼   ► to be a blue bubble in iMessage conversations,

01:11:14 ◼   ► it's such a huge lock-in effect,

01:11:17 ◼   ► much more so than iCloud or Apple Music.

01:11:22 ◼   ► None of those services matter anymore

01:11:25 ◼   ► for the lock-in effect.

01:11:26 ◼   ► It's all about iMessage.

01:11:28 ◼   ► And so why would you give that up?

01:11:30 ◼   ► - Yep, not until you're forced to, I guess, right?

01:11:32 ◼   ► I mean, that's really what it comes down to.

01:11:35 ◼   ► - Yes, yeah, yeah.

01:11:37 ◼   ► - Cool, well, that about does it for this week.

01:11:39 ◼   ► Before we let you go, a reminder that we are

01:11:41 ◼   ► in annual specials season here at Relay FM,

01:11:45 ◼   ► where a bunch of our shows publish into the crossover feed

01:11:48 ◼   ► that all of our members have access to.

01:11:51 ◼   ► The connected special is up there and genius is there.

01:11:53 ◼   ► I think the pen addict is this week,

01:11:56 ◼   ► a bunch of good stuff coming.

01:11:57 ◼   ► So if you are a member, be sure to check that out.

01:12:00 ◼   ► And if you're not, now is a great time to join.

01:12:03 ◼   ► Connected Pro is a longer ad-free version of the show

01:12:06 ◼   ► each and every week.

01:12:07 ◼   ► It's just five bucks a month or $50 a year.

01:12:09 ◼   ► We'd love to have you join.

01:12:11 ◼   ► Mike is gone, so we don't care, you know,

01:12:13 ◼   ► where you can find him on the internet.

01:12:15 ◼   ► But if you wanna follow Federico,

01:12:16 ◼   ► he's the editor-in-chief of maxstories.net.

01:12:19 ◼   ► And he is on mastodon.maxstories.net as Vitici.

01:12:24 ◼   ► You can find me at 512pixels.net

01:12:27 ◼   ► and I'm on Mac Power Users every Sunday here on Relay FM.

01:12:31 ◼   ► John, where can people find you?

01:12:33 ◼   ► - Well, you can always find me, of course,

01:12:34 ◼   ► at maxstories.net and on Mastodon,

01:12:37 ◼   ► I'm John Voorhees, my full name.

01:12:40 ◼   ► - Awesome.

01:12:41 ◼   ► I'd like to thank our sponsors this week.

01:12:42 ◼   ► They are Fitbaud, Electric and NetSuite.

01:12:45 ◼   ► And until next time, guys, say goodbye.

01:12:48 ◼   ► - Arrivederci.

01:12:48 ◼   ► - See you later.