458: A High Speed Train Goes Past
00:00:08
◼
►
From Realy FM, this is Connected, episode 458.
00:00:12
◼
►
Today's show is brought to you by NetSuite, Squarespace and ZocDoc.
00:00:16
◼
►
My name is Mike Hurley. I am joined by Federico Vatici. Ciao Federico.
00:00:20
◼
►
Ciao Mike. How are you?
00:00:22
◼
►
I'm good. I was trying to emulate your energy when you introduced the show.
00:00:27
◼
►
So that's why I liked it. Because it was like, yes.
00:00:29
◼
►
I was aiming for how you're like, very like, hey, we're here, we're a podcast and there's nothing you can do about it.
00:00:35
◼
►
That's kind of the energy.
00:00:36
◼
►
It's like the beginning of the show, the beginning of the show should have the same feeling of you being like at the train station,
00:00:41
◼
►
just sort of staring straight ahead and then a high speed train passes.
00:00:47
◼
►
Okay, I didn't know what the word is.
00:00:49
◼
►
Zoom. It's like from, you know. From Realy FM.
00:00:53
◼
►
It's like it goes past you, but you get swept up and you're on the train.
00:00:57
◼
►
You didn't even want to be on the train, but you're on it.
00:00:58
◼
►
You sort of fly, you know. Yes.
00:01:01
◼
►
We're also joined by Mr. Stephen Hackett. Hello, Stephen.
00:01:03
◼
►
Conductor. Conductor Hackett.
00:01:10
◼
►
I feel I think the conductor has an announcement for the passengers.
00:01:16
◼
►
Dear passengers, this is the final warning call for the 2024 Apple History Wall Calendar.
00:01:23
◼
►
If you were looking for the Apple History Wall Calendar for 2024, please exit at the next stop.
00:01:30
◼
►
Next stop, give me your money. Right?
00:01:34
◼
►
Next stop, money back station.
00:01:36
◼
►
I feel like I want to break out of the show for a second to just...
00:01:41
◼
►
I think people need to understand that absolutely zero of that was planned and that the three of us are podcast geniuses.
00:01:49
◼
►
None of this was planned.
00:01:50
◼
►
Stephen, and I've got to seriously take my hat off to you there.
00:01:55
◼
►
That was very clever. Bravo, Stephen.
00:01:58
◼
►
I'm actually wondering, do you improvise train announcements much in your life?
00:02:04
◼
►
Because that was almost too good to be improvised.
00:02:06
◼
►
Have you ever been on a train?
00:02:08
◼
►
That is too good to be improvised, honestly.
00:02:14
◼
►
I've never been in like a real train, but I've been in...
00:02:17
◼
►
I've used the tube a bunch and I've been in London.
00:02:21
◼
►
Wait, why? You've never been in a real...
00:02:23
◼
►
Oh, because you don't have trains in America.
00:02:25
◼
►
Not really. Not in my part of America.
00:02:28
◼
►
Because it was very good, but there's no trains.
00:02:31
◼
►
Well, there is a train, but it just gets in your way. That's what it does.
00:02:33
◼
►
There is the train that's always in my way, if you follow me on Instagram.
00:02:36
◼
►
I would very much like...
00:02:38
◼
►
There's a train that runs...
00:02:39
◼
►
It's like Chicago, Memphis, and then it goes to New Orleans.
00:02:42
◼
►
And I would love to take it. It's overnight to New Orleans.
00:02:45
◼
►
And I would love to do that sometime for like a weekend.
00:02:47
◼
►
Just go to Mardi Gras.
00:02:49
◼
►
Haven't made it happen. You want to go?
00:02:50
◼
►
Yeah, you definitely wouldn't want to go to Mardi Gras.
00:02:52
◼
►
No, it's not. It's not my scene.
00:02:54
◼
►
You could take the midnight train and go anywhere.
00:02:59
◼
►
You could take the midnight train to Georgia.
00:03:01
◼
►
I didn't know there was a train station in Memphis, honestly.
00:03:03
◼
►
Yeah, it's downtown. It's Amtrak.
00:03:05
◼
►
There you go. You learn something new every day.
00:03:07
◼
►
But anyway. Anyway.
00:03:11
◼
►
The Kickstarter.
00:03:12
◼
►
If you were listening to this live, you have about 22 hours left.
00:03:17
◼
►
If you're listening to it after I publish it, you have until Friday, July 14th,
00:03:22
◼
►
at 10.44am Eastern to back the Kickstarter.
00:03:26
◼
►
And I would love it if you did. Go check it out. Time is...
00:03:29
◼
►
You should go.
00:03:30
◼
►
...of the essence.
00:03:31
◼
►
It really is.
00:03:31
◼
►
If you don't get off at this stop, I can't tell you what happens to the train after that, you know?
00:03:36
◼
►
Train derails.
00:03:37
◼
►
...into a pile of packing materials.
00:03:41
◼
►
Everyone... Nobody makes it.
00:03:43
◼
►
That's the end.
00:03:44
◼
►
Oh, it's so sad. You must back.
00:03:45
◼
►
If you don't back now, the train will derail.
00:03:48
◼
►
If you want to save all the passengers, go to Kickstarter.
00:03:53
◼
►
Please do. It's the first link in the show notes.
00:03:55
◼
►
Thank you very much.
00:03:57
◼
►
We have just a little... It's not really follow up. It's like follow forward.
00:04:02
◼
►
It's about something we're going to talk about in the future.
00:04:05
◼
►
Follow forward?
00:04:06
◼
►
Follow forward.
00:04:06
◼
►
Follow forward?
00:04:07
◼
►
Follow forward.
00:04:08
◼
►
Follow... Follow forward.
00:04:11
◼
►
Keith Brony, the person who is now running Emojipedia,
00:04:17
◼
►
he beat Jeremy in a sword fight and took over, I think is how that went.
00:04:21
◼
►
Oh, new Jeremy. Sure.
00:04:23
◼
►
New Jeremy. Federico, you can't look at this, but Keith has...
00:04:26
◼
►
Oh, I guess it's too late. I clicked the link. Now my family's dead. My family's dead.
00:04:31
◼
►
I clicked the link.
00:04:32
◼
►
That train derailed. The emoji train derailed.
00:04:34
◼
►
It literally says, "Don't look, T.G. Ride above the link."
00:04:37
◼
►
I didn't click it. I didn't click it.
00:04:39
◼
►
So this is a preview of what will be coming in new emoji over the next several months.
00:04:47
◼
►
We will play the Jeremy's as we always do and as I always forget on the episode that coincides with
00:04:54
◼
►
Apple's announcement of the emoji that they'll be adding in iOS 17.3 or .4 at some point.
00:05:02
◼
►
So we're not going to play yet, but we always get questions.
00:05:05
◼
►
And I just want to... Maybe, Mike, maybe you and I can do a
00:05:08
◼
►
recreation of our conversation this morning in Slack.
00:05:13
◼
►
If you want to open that up.
00:05:14
◼
►
So 9.52 a.m., I just put a link into this blog post on Emojipedia.
00:05:21
◼
►
I never remember when we play the game.
00:05:24
◼
►
When Apple announces, "I knew you were going to say this. You do it every time."
00:05:28
◼
►
I like the fake laugh that it was good.
00:05:33
◼
►
Ha, ha, ha. And then I said, "Put it in the document or something.
00:05:36
◼
►
When Apple has their images is when we do it."
00:05:39
◼
►
Oh, man, it's literally in there.
00:05:42
◼
►
I kind of pay for an audiobook of you two reading your chats.
00:05:48
◼
►
This is very captivating content.
00:05:52
◼
►
This is how we communicate.
00:05:54
◼
►
Every single time when this happens, both when Emojipedia show that when there's any
00:06:00
◼
►
articles and then when Apple also shows, Steven always has to ask me, "When do we play the
00:06:05
◼
►
game?" He can never remember.
00:06:06
◼
►
So at some point he put it in the document and now he's forgot that he put it in the
00:06:10
◼
►
Federico, can you take your headphones off for like 10 seconds?
00:06:14
◼
►
I think we should read the rest of this because I want to get to my joke, Mike.
00:06:17
◼
►
But he can't hear it.
00:06:17
◼
►
Okay, I'm actually, okay, all right, cool.
00:06:20
◼
►
I took them off.
00:06:21
◼
►
All right, go Mike.
00:06:22
◼
►
Pretty small list this time.
00:06:23
◼
►
Lime is the real winner.
00:06:25
◼
►
I am very excited about that.
00:06:28
◼
►
It is needed.
00:06:29
◼
►
It was literally low hanging fruit.
00:06:32
◼
►
And then I will now give the, this is what my emoji was.
00:06:36
◼
►
Federico can come back.
00:06:40
◼
►
Does he know this?
00:06:41
◼
►
I don't know.
00:06:41
◼
►
Maybe we text him.
00:06:43
◼
►
Federico, come back.
00:06:45
◼
►
Hey, come back.
00:06:46
◼
►
Are you done?
00:06:50
◼
►
In like October, you can go back and listen to that.
00:06:53
◼
►
You just texted me come back.
00:06:58
◼
►
I have some Shazam follow up.
00:07:01
◼
►
Like the movie?
00:07:03
◼
►
Fury of the gods.
00:07:04
◼
►
The hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change.
00:07:09
◼
►
No Shazam, the app.
00:07:10
◼
►
It can now recognize music from inside of other applications.
00:07:15
◼
►
So open Shazam, hit the button, switch to the app that there was music in, Instagram, TikTok
00:07:21
◼
►
or whatever you like.
00:07:21
◼
►
What is that song on this Instagram reel?
00:07:24
◼
►
Shazam continues to listen.
00:07:25
◼
►
Then you go back to the application and it tells you what was playing.
00:07:29
◼
►
Wait, wasn't this like Shazam and control center can do this already?
00:07:33
◼
►
I mean, maybe.
00:07:35
◼
►
Shazam and control center, like I think it was two years ago or last year.
00:07:38
◼
►
So the Shazam thing in control center, it can listen to audio from apps.
00:07:46
◼
►
But now I guess the main Shazam.
00:07:48
◼
►
This is in the main app.
00:07:50
◼
►
Like I didn't remember that.
00:07:52
◼
►
So now the main app can do it.
00:07:52
◼
►
This is an update to the app itself, so you can open the app, press the button, go to
00:07:56
◼
►
another one, come back.
00:07:57
◼
►
Oh, that's cool.
00:07:59
◼
►
Because like maybe some people don't know about the control center integration.
00:08:03
◼
►
So yeah, that makes sense.
00:08:04
◼
►
Maybe Shazam forgot.
00:08:06
◼
►
Or that, sure.
00:08:08
◼
►
And they were like, oh, we have a good idea for a feature.
00:08:10
◼
►
And they already built it, but they forgot.
00:08:12
◼
►
I only use it through control center.
00:08:14
◼
►
I don't even think I have the app installed.
00:08:15
◼
►
I use it with Siri.
00:08:18
◼
►
I always forget you could do that.
00:08:20
◼
►
Because you can ask like what's playing.
00:08:22
◼
►
Or what's playing.
00:08:23
◼
►
Or like, well, I said like, what's this song?
00:08:25
◼
►
Cause what's playing would be weird.
00:08:26
◼
►
I was like, what is this song?
00:08:27
◼
►
And then it just listens.
00:08:28
◼
►
I use the control center thing all the time because like, I always feel very, uh, subconscious
00:08:34
◼
►
about sort of talking to Siri in English while I'm in public in Italy.
00:08:39
◼
►
I whisper to Siri.
00:08:40
◼
►
So you whispered to Siri.
00:08:41
◼
►
You should try that.
00:08:43
◼
►
I always whisper.
00:08:45
◼
►
And you always whispered to Siri.
00:08:47
◼
►
Into my phone.
00:08:48
◼
►
I'm like, turn on the lights.
00:08:52
◼
►
Cause that's just weird.
00:08:53
◼
►
Like you're in the room on your own.
00:08:54
◼
►
Someone else is in the house and you're like, what did you say?
00:08:58
◼
►
I didn't say anything.
00:09:00
◼
►
You know, I just, I just whispered to Siri.
00:09:04
◼
►
We're going to talk about Siri in the next topic because they have some followup questions,
00:09:09
◼
►
but they make more sense, I guess.
00:09:11
◼
►
When we talk about iOS 17.
00:09:13
◼
►
This episode of Connected is brought to you by NetSuite.
00:09:18
◼
►
Being a business owner or working closely with business owners means knowing your numbers.
00:09:23
◼
►
If your business earns millions or maybe even tens of millions in revenue, stop what you're
00:09:28
◼
►
doing and take a listen because NetSuite by Oracle has just rolled out their best offer.
00:09:33
◼
►
NetSuite gives you the visibility and the control you need to make better decisions faster.
00:09:39
◼
►
And for the first time in NetSuite's 22 years as the number one cloud financial system,
00:09:44
◼
►
you can defer payments of a full NetSuite implementation for six months.
00:09:48
◼
►
That's no payment and no interest for six months.
00:09:52
◼
►
And you can take advantage of this special financing offer today.
00:09:55
◼
►
So why are NetSuite number one?
00:09:58
◼
►
Well, they give your business everything you need in real time, all in one place to reduce
00:10:03
◼
►
manual processes, boost efficiency, build forecast and increase productivity across every department.
00:10:11
◼
►
Having all the information you need in one place makes it much easier to make good decisions.
00:10:16
◼
►
I know as a business owner what a difference that can make and how much easier everything
00:10:20
◼
►
operates when information is available.
00:10:23
◼
►
It really does mean that smart decisions can be made faster.
00:10:26
◼
►
NetSuite is offering an unprecedented offer to make this all possible for you and your business.
00:10:31
◼
►
More than 36,000 companies have already upgraded to NetSuite and they've gained visibility and
00:10:36
◼
►
control over their financials, inventory, HR, e-commerce and more.
00:10:42
◼
►
If you've been sizing NetSuite up to make the switch, then you know this deal is unprecedented.
00:10:46
◼
►
No interest and no payments.
00:10:48
◼
►
So take advantage of the special financing offer today at NetSuite.com/connected.
00:10:54
◼
►
That's N-E-T-S-U-I-T-E.
00:10:58
◼
►
NetSuite.com/connected.
00:11:01
◼
►
There you can get the visibility and the control you need to weather any storm.
00:11:06
◼
►
Our thanks to NetSuite for their support of the show and Relay FM.
00:11:10
◼
►
It's public beta season.
00:11:11
◼
►
The public betas are available.
00:11:13
◼
►
We're on developer beta 3.
00:11:14
◼
►
We're on developer beta 3 remastered, I think is probably what they call it now.
00:11:20
◼
►
We're at 3HD because there was a second release.
00:11:23
◼
►
Yeah, you don't want to get the first.
00:11:25
◼
►
You don't want to get beta 3 regular.
00:11:28
◼
►
That's the...
00:11:29
◼
►
Or maybe the original one is like the hipster beta now.
00:11:32
◼
►
Nah, nah, nah.
00:11:34
◼
►
So we're on developer beta 3.
00:11:36
◼
►
And that includes the public betas for all of the platforms.
00:11:41
◼
►
Mac OS, watchOS, iPad OS, iOS, MacRumors...
00:11:48
◼
►
Your Mac stories, Mac stories and Six Colors.
00:11:51
◼
►
My website MacRumors.
00:11:54
◼
►
Federico Rosinho is here from MacRumors.
00:11:59
◼
►
Mac stories and Six Colors both had big roundups of all of the features.
00:12:04
◼
►
We have the pleasure of being joined by Federico who wrote about iOS and iPadOS.
00:12:09
◼
►
I would say I loved your article Federico.
00:12:11
◼
►
The vibes are good and that makes me happy to know you're happy.
00:12:16
◼
►
It's much better than last year.
00:12:19
◼
►
The article made me feel like I can finally breathe again.
00:12:23
◼
►
Obviously in terms of like the kind of content that I write in the summer,
00:12:28
◼
►
I don't ever want to feel like last summer ever again.
00:12:33
◼
►
That was not pleasant at all, especially when moving to a new place.
00:12:38
◼
►
So yeah, yeah, I'm so happy that you liked it.
00:12:42
◼
►
What do you want to talk about with iOS and iPadOS?
00:12:46
◼
►
You all have the betas installed now, right?
00:12:49
◼
►
On your foot.
00:12:50
◼
►
So I didn't touch upon this in my story because I'm saving,
00:12:55
◼
►
like it's impossible to talk about every single feature in a preview for the public beta.
00:13:00
◼
►
So I said also you want to hold something for the review, like, you know, just like, yeah,
00:13:05
◼
►
exactly, exactly.
00:13:07
◼
►
So before we talk about the actual stuff that I wrote about, let me ask you,
00:13:11
◼
►
have you played around at all with the new contacts,
00:13:15
◼
►
contact posters, features, and the new airdrop stuff?
00:13:20
◼
►
I've only had the contact poster thing crash when I tried to set it up.
00:13:24
◼
►
So I haven't gotten very far with that.
00:13:26
◼
►
Same, same here.
00:13:28
◼
►
Yeah, I've set it up, but I'm not happy with mine.
00:13:31
◼
►
I don't think it looks very good.
00:13:32
◼
►
Like the image that I'm using now, which is one of the ones that Apple took of us at WWDC,
00:13:39
◼
►
like it just is not a very good image for that.
00:13:42
◼
►
So I need to play around with it.
00:13:43
◼
►
I'm also a little bit confused as to how to like select what information I want to be
00:13:50
◼
►
shared with people.
00:13:50
◼
►
Like I'm a little bit puzzled by that.
00:13:52
◼
►
Yeah, I set mine up, like I tried to set mine up and it crashed.
00:13:57
◼
►
Then I did it again, but I just selected my Memoji and I don't think it's a particularly
00:14:01
◼
►
effective contact poster.
00:14:03
◼
►
So I got to redo it.
00:14:04
◼
►
And the airdrop stuff, I really wanted to try, but it's impossible to do it if you don't
00:14:10
◼
►
have somebody else on the iOS 17 beta.
00:14:13
◼
►
So I'm guessing that up.
00:14:15
◼
►
So it's either going to go that I'm going to get a second iPhone and put iOS 17 on it,
00:14:23
◼
►
or I will sneak the iOS 17 public beta on Sylvia's phone.
00:14:27
◼
►
Don't do that.
00:14:28
◼
►
Wait, what about your special iPod?
00:14:32
◼
►
Well, but I got to keep something on 16 for the comparisons.
00:14:36
◼
►
For the comparisons.
00:14:37
◼
►
What about having an iPad?
00:14:43
◼
►
Can't you just do it to the iPad?
00:14:45
◼
►
Yeah, I guess I'll do that.
00:14:48
◼
►
You didn't think about that until I said it, did you?
00:14:49
◼
►
I didn't think about that.
00:14:51
◼
►
But will it work though?
00:14:53
◼
►
But will it work?
00:14:53
◼
►
With the U1 and all that kind of stuff?
00:14:56
◼
►
I wanted the phone to phone, the bump thing.
00:14:59
◼
►
So you need, instead of day phone, night phone, you need send phone, receive phone.
00:15:03
◼
►
I need morning, afternoon, and night phones.
00:15:08
◼
►
I need three of them.
00:15:09
◼
►
It's the next step.
00:15:10
◼
►
Music phone.
00:15:11
◼
►
There's so many phones.
00:15:13
◼
►
It's the next logical step in the collection of iPhones is to break it up by morning, afternoon,
00:15:19
◼
►
and evening like Apple does in reminders.
00:15:21
◼
►
You got to have three of them.
00:15:23
◼
►
And John, we have one true John real time feedback.
00:15:26
◼
►
The airdrop thing does not work from iPad to iPhone.
00:15:31
◼
►
Wait, is he just texting you and not us?
00:15:33
◼
►
Yeah, John is upset with you both.
00:15:35
◼
►
What did we do?
00:15:35
◼
►
I don't know.
00:15:37
◼
►
I just made it up.
00:15:38
◼
►
But it will be at some point.
00:15:40
◼
►
And when it happens, I'll be correct.
00:15:42
◼
►
We will upset him.
00:15:46
◼
►
Well, I mean, everybody upsets somebody at some point, right?
00:15:50
◼
►
I feel like you're, of all of the three of us, of the three of us, you are the most likely
00:15:55
◼
►
to upset John, I feel like.
00:15:57
◼
►
He texted you, you know what you did.
00:15:59
◼
►
Well, I think he's saying that to you personally.
00:16:02
◼
►
It's, you know what you did.
00:16:03
◼
►
Anyway, anyway, so maybe I'll get a third iPhone.
00:16:15
◼
►
But so a big chunk of my story was sort of dedicated to widgets and this idea of widgets
00:16:22
◼
►
everywhere in iOS 17.
00:16:25
◼
►
And not only widgets everywhere, but interactive widgets.
00:16:28
◼
►
So we have widgets on the home screen, on the lock screen, on the watch, obviously,
00:16:33
◼
►
and in standby.
00:16:35
◼
►
And all of these type of widgets support interactions.
00:16:40
◼
►
As I wrote in my story, I kind of feel like three years ago when iOS 14 came out, and
00:16:46
◼
►
in the summer, I had so much fun sort of trying to understand all these different options
00:16:53
◼
►
and combinations for widgets while also waiting for third-party developers to come out with
00:16:58
◼
►
their widgets.
00:16:59
◼
►
And now I feel like I've been waiting for this moment of widgets gaining some form of
00:17:05
◼
►
interactivity.
00:17:06
◼
►
And now they have that.
00:17:08
◼
►
And even the few third-party examples that I have now, those have been so useful that
00:17:15
◼
►
I cannot even begin to imagine when it's September and realistically, every single app that I
00:17:20
◼
►
have on my phone is going to have some kind of interactive widget.
00:17:23
◼
►
How am I going to decide how many home screens I want to have?
00:17:27
◼
►
How many widgets I want to use?
00:17:29
◼
►
And it's a great problem to have, right?
00:17:30
◼
►
Because it means you have such a great feature that you really want to use it.
00:17:34
◼
►
I feel like I'm going to have to redo all of it again because I've already just like
00:17:37
◼
►
having used it for a couple of days, I have like a whole different screen now.
00:17:42
◼
►
So yeah, I'm in that.
00:17:43
◼
►
Like I have so few apps that even have it, right?
00:17:46
◼
►
So I feel you completely.
00:17:48
◼
►
I feel like maybe I'm going to use stacks now, which is something that I think you have
00:17:55
◼
►
It's something that I never really did, but I guess I have to at this point, especially
00:17:59
◼
►
because like, for example, small widgets now, the square ones on the little widget, the
00:18:06
◼
►
little widget now supports multiple touch targets.
00:18:11
◼
►
So like, for example, Apple did a small shortcuts folder, which that shows you two shortcuts
00:18:21
◼
►
instead of just one.
00:18:22
◼
►
And that's much better.
00:18:23
◼
►
I mean, realistically, they could even show four.
00:18:26
◼
►
I feel it because that's as small as the HomeKit one.
00:18:32
◼
►
Like the HomeKit one, you could put four in one.
00:18:34
◼
►
So why can't I put four widgets?
00:18:36
◼
►
I think little widgets can do it.
00:18:39
◼
►
You know, you can, you can, you can do it for shortcuts.
00:18:43
◼
►
You can give it for shortcuts and it'd be like, sure, I'll do it.
00:18:46
◼
►
But yeah, so the small widgets, I think they lend themselves really well to stacks, just
00:18:51
◼
►
sort of flipping through.
00:18:52
◼
►
Like, for example, the home widget that you mentioned, it's a small one and it's got four
00:18:56
◼
►
accessories, which I've been using a lot.
00:18:58
◼
►
And then there's standby.
00:19:02
◼
►
And I kind of wanted to get a feel from you, like, now that you have the beta, have you
00:19:06
◼
►
been using it much?
00:19:07
◼
►
I've tried it out and set it up.
00:19:11
◼
►
Like, I don't have any charging solutions, right?
00:19:14
◼
►
So like, I just have to plug my phone in because I don't have any docks or whatever, right?
00:19:19
◼
►
Ah, because you are, yeah, because you are, you have, you have the MagSafe conspiracy
00:19:24
◼
►
theory going on.
00:19:25
◼
►
I'm annoyed how much I like it because I now know it's going to cause me some problems.
00:19:29
◼
►
Like, I need to buy some stands because this is a fantastic feature, like a truly excellent
00:19:37
◼
►
Like, the only third party app that I have that supports it is Timery.
00:19:41
◼
►
And just that alone is superb.
00:19:45
◼
►
Like, superb as for standby.
00:19:48
◼
►
I like it too.
00:19:50
◼
►
I do have a upright version of Studio Neat's material dock at my desk.
00:19:56
◼
►
And I've just started putting my phone in there in landscape.
00:20:00
◼
►
And it's, it's kind of like off in the corner of my desk, but these widgets are huge, right?
00:20:06
◼
►
It's kind of designed to like see from across the room.
00:20:08
◼
►
So I have a clock and I have the weather and I love it.
00:20:12
◼
►
Like, it's, I still want it on an iPad.
00:20:14
◼
►
I still think this is really useful in other contexts other than just the phone.
00:20:18
◼
►
But it's pretty good on the phone.
00:20:19
◼
►
I'm, I am, I thought it would be a little gimmicky, but I'm sold.
00:20:24
◼
►
Like, I'm here for it.
00:20:26
◼
►
Yeah, I think for me personally, it makes a lot of sense as a desk companion, like having
00:20:33
◼
►
Timery off on the side and you can sort of stop a timer there or just having a calendar
00:20:39
◼
►
for reference.
00:20:40
◼
►
I think it's really useful.
00:20:41
◼
►
And I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you a fun, a fun story, which I was supposed
00:20:46
◼
►
to save for, you know, private conversation time, but I guess whatever.
00:20:50
◼
►
So standby has this feature called, in theory, MagSafe memory, where it should remember the
00:21:00
◼
►
standby configuration for each charger that you have.
00:21:05
◼
►
And this only works with MagSafe because MagSafe chargers have a unique ID, right, associated
00:21:12
◼
►
They support some basic data transmission effectively, which is also why, for example,
00:21:17
◼
►
when you attach a MagSafe case to your phone, you see the color of the case in the animation,
00:21:23
◼
►
right, on your phone.
00:21:24
◼
►
That's the sort of data that the iOS can take from a MagSafe certified accessory.
00:21:31
◼
►
Qi accessories, like regular wireless chargers, do not have this kind of feature.
00:21:36
◼
►
They do not have an ID that iOS can recognize.
00:21:40
◼
►
With MagSafe and standby, this memory feature looks at the ID of a charger and, in theory,
00:21:47
◼
►
should remember.
00:21:47
◼
►
For example, I see that on the charger that you have in the kitchen, you want to have
00:21:53
◼
►
a calendar and a music widget.
00:21:56
◼
►
But I see that on the nightstand, you prefer to use the clock page of standby.
00:22:03
◼
►
And in theory, as you place your phone on different chargers, the right page and the
00:22:11
◼
►
right widget configuration for the first page, in case you use that, should come up automatically.
00:22:18
◼
►
So standby should remember the page you're using, and if you're using the widget page,
00:22:26
◼
►
which widgets you're using, sort of as default on the charger.
00:22:31
◼
►
This feature hasn't been working for me at all in the public beta, and I'm guessing that
00:22:36
◼
►
the problem is that I have those cubes, the anchor MagSafe cubes.
00:22:41
◼
►
So these are certified, right?
00:22:43
◼
►
They are MagSafe official, and it's not working at all, and so I've been trying to work it
00:22:50
◼
►
out with Apple, "Hey, what's going on here?"
00:22:51
◼
►
And I didn't know this, but in iOS 17, when you place your phone on a MagSafe charger,
00:22:58
◼
►
and if you go into settings, general, about, after a few seconds, with the phone being
00:23:06
◼
►
placed on the charger, you will get details about the charger from the settings app.
00:23:12
◼
►
So let's see if it works now.
00:23:14
◼
►
I'm going into, so I place my phone on the cube.
00:23:16
◼
►
In theory, and this doesn't always work, which I guess is the problem, in theory, if I go
00:23:22
◼
►
into settings, it should give me the, so settings, general, about, it should recognize the charger,
00:23:30
◼
►
and of course it doesn't.
00:23:31
◼
►
So see, this is the problem that I'm having now.
00:23:33
◼
►
iOS 17 beta doesn't always recognize a MagSafe charger, so standby comes up, but it doesn't
00:23:39
◼
►
remember any settings.
00:23:41
◼
►
But when it, I guess at some point it'll start working, when it does, that should be pretty
00:23:45
◼
►
cool, right?
00:23:46
◼
►
That standby will remember sort of, "Hey, on this charger, I know that you like to use
00:23:50
◼
►
such and such page, but on this other one..."
00:23:52
◼
►
But it requires MagSafe certification.
00:23:55
◼
►
It requires MagSafe certification, because when it works, when this page appears in settings,
00:24:01
◼
►
it'll tell you the name of the, like the manufacturer of the charger, the ID, and the firmware version
00:24:08
◼
►
of the charger.
00:24:09
◼
►
So, but yeah, this is only for MagSafe certified accessories.
00:24:15
◼
►
So if you have one of these chargers that doesn't charge at full speed, it's not going
00:24:20
◼
►
And people get confused, like I asked about this on Threads, and I got exactly the kind
00:24:25
◼
►
of replies I knew I was going to get, like I asked for a MagSafe official, so MagSafe
00:24:29
◼
►
certified chargers, and people just respond with MagSafe compatible, which is a different
00:24:36
◼
►
thing, right?
00:24:37
◼
►
MagSafe compatible is not-
00:24:38
◼
►
- MagSafe compatible is nothing.
00:24:40
◼
►
It's just key charging of a magnet.
00:24:41
◼
►
- MagSafe compatible is nothing, exactly.
00:24:44
◼
►
It's like saying, "I am soccer compatible, but like I don't play soccer, but in theory,
00:24:49
◼
►
- In theory, you have all the parts.
00:24:50
◼
►
- In theory, I have all the, yes, I have all the body parts necessary for being soccer
00:24:55
◼
►
compatible, but I'm not soccer certified, you know?
00:24:58
◼
►
And that's the difference.
00:24:59
◼
►
- Who certifies you?
00:25:00
◼
►
Like who does that?
00:25:01
◼
►
- FIFA, sure, yes.
00:25:03
◼
►
- Referee, yes.
00:25:04
◼
►
- Referee, historically.
00:25:05
◼
►
Interesting.
00:25:06
◼
►
- Anyway, so in theory, when that starts working, should be pretty cool, and it's also another
00:25:13
◼
►
reason why I am convinced that I want MagSafe on the iPad now.
00:25:19
◼
►
They should just do it.
00:25:19
◼
►
I've seen the light.
00:25:21
◼
►
They should do it.
00:25:22
◼
►
- A couple of quick things before we move on.
00:25:25
◼
►
One, when they made MagSafe and like they decided that each one would have its own ID,
00:25:30
◼
►
like what a good move if this feature wasn't on the map already.
00:25:34
◼
►
Maybe it was, but that's very clever.
00:25:36
◼
►
More importantly though, I have discovered, and maybe this was talked about, I missed
00:25:41
◼
►
it, but it's news to me.
00:25:43
◼
►
When the iPhone is in landscape and it's in this standby mode, you have to authenticate
00:25:51
◼
►
with Face ID to change the widgets, and Face ID works horizontally on the phone now.
00:25:55
◼
►
I don't know when that has it.
00:25:56
◼
►
- Oh, it has for a while.
00:25:58
◼
►
- They added it last year or two years ago.
00:26:01
◼
►
I have this problem where I cannot differentiate between 2021 and 2022.
00:26:06
◼
►
- No one can.
00:26:07
◼
►
- I would say it doesn't work very well.
00:26:09
◼
►
Like it's not as reliable.
00:26:11
◼
►
Like I found that, right?
00:26:12
◼
►
Like the landscape one misses me more than the portrait one.
00:26:15
◼
►
- It's worse than the portrait.
00:26:17
◼
►
And also it's kind of weird.
00:26:18
◼
►
I don't know.
00:26:19
◼
►
How do you guys feel about when editing standby requires being in standby mode?
00:26:28
◼
►
- That's a little annoying because I want my phone in my hand, not on the dock.
00:26:33
◼
►
- And when you try to edit it and Face ID comes up, very often my thumb is covering
00:26:41
◼
►
- And it fails.
00:26:43
◼
►
- And so, yeah, that fails.
00:26:46
◼
►
Before we move on to the next section of the betas, just one thing I want to say,
00:26:51
◼
►
because Mike said sort of the vibes are good in my story, just how happy I am with iPadOS
00:26:58
◼
►
this year, even though it doesn't do all the things I wanted, right?
00:27:02
◼
►
iPadOS 17, for example, does not have anything for audio, for recording podcasts and all
00:27:12
◼
►
But just the fact that they listen to feedback for Stage Manager, for keyboard shortcuts,
00:27:18
◼
►
for like some very fundamental problems of Stage Manager, that makes me so happy.
00:27:24
◼
►
And just working with it, again, even without the podcasting related features and even without
00:27:32
◼
►
clamshell mode, which I do believe will happen before any sort of audio interface.
00:27:40
◼
►
But it still feels so much nicer.
00:27:45
◼
►
And I kind of feel like if only they listened last year, right?
00:27:49
◼
►
Could have saved me all the trouble.
00:27:50
◼
►
But I guess sometimes you got to go through the process, right?
00:27:55
◼
►
To ship something that faces a lot of criticism and you got to listen and go back and fix
00:28:02
◼
►
a few things and that, maybe that's part of the process and every once in a while that
00:28:06
◼
►
needs to happen.
00:28:07
◼
►
And it happened this time.
00:28:09
◼
►
But now in 17, I'm very happy.
00:28:12
◼
►
And we should say it came up in the Discord that if you're running a phone without an
00:28:18
◼
►
always on display, you have to tap the display to see the clock and widgets and stuff.
00:28:25
◼
►
Honestly, I'm surprised that it's on them.
00:28:27
◼
►
In my mind, I just figured it was an always on display phone feature only.
00:28:32
◼
►
I'm glad they brought it backwards.
00:28:36
◼
►
I could have seen a word where they didn't pretty easily.
00:28:39
◼
►
The very last thing, columns in reminders and internal links in notes.
00:28:47
◼
►
And sections in reminders lists, which is something that THINGS has and Todoist has
00:28:54
◼
►
now, I think.
00:28:55
◼
►
But I think it's really useful.
00:28:56
◼
►
Like if you have a really big project, you could have instead of a list for like each
00:29:01
◼
►
section of the project, you can have just little dividers and reminders.
00:29:05
◼
►
And those get translated into columns in that new Kanban view.
00:29:12
◼
►
Very cool stuff in both of those apps.
00:29:14
◼
►
My pitch for Apple is to take the people who work on reminders, notes, and free form, put
00:29:24
◼
►
them together in a room, and tell them "fix mail."
00:29:30
◼
►
Those people take those people 100, 200, I don't know how many they are, but they obviously
00:29:36
◼
►
do excellent work.
00:29:37
◼
►
So you take them all together, you put them in a room of the ring, or like you give them
00:29:43
◼
►
the fitness center or whatever, and you have a year to reimagine the mail app.
00:29:49
◼
►
Honestly, I think it's a pretty good strategy.
00:29:51
◼
►
They should do it.
00:29:52
◼
►
Yeah, those teams, and I think those teams have a lot of overlap within Apple, but that's
00:29:59
◼
►
really some of the most exciting work happening on Apple software anywhere.
00:30:04
◼
►
We've talked a lot about this on Mac Power Users over the last year, that Apple's really
00:30:08
◼
►
taken their productivity suite very seriously over the last couple of years.
00:30:13
◼
►
And really, if you roll back the clock, Notes has been taken seriously since like, was it
00:30:17
◼
►
iOS 9 and LCAP where it finally got its own sync engine and started getting good?
00:30:23
◼
►
These apps make noticeable improvements every couple of years, and it makes me sad for the
00:30:30
◼
►
other apps that don't.
00:30:31
◼
►
Mostly mail, because like you said, it's right there.
00:30:34
◼
►
It's in the same sort of vibe of productivity, and it doesn't get the love the others do.
00:30:40
◼
►
It's a little bit sad.
00:30:41
◼
►
One thing on the iPad I just want to touch on, you talked about the changes to Stage
00:30:49
◼
►
Could you be a little specific about what those changes are and what they mean to you?
00:30:54
◼
►
So the core changes to how Windows work, if you're calling iPadOS 16, Stage Manager
00:31:04
◼
►
was very opinionated about the sizing of Windows and the placement of Windows.
00:31:11
◼
►
And both of those things have changed in 17, meaning the way Windows are resized in
00:31:19
◼
►
Stage Manager for iPad is still similar to last year, in that you're effectively switching
00:31:25
◼
►
between predetermined size classes for apps.
00:31:28
◼
►
But it almost feels like you have more options, like more steps in between for resizing a
00:31:34
◼
►
window now than you had last year.
00:31:36
◼
►
So you have more flexible sizing options in 17 compared to 16.
00:31:44
◼
►
But more importantly, I think, you have a lot more freedom when it comes to placing a window
00:31:52
◼
►
on screen and the window staying there where you want it.
00:31:56
◼
►
Last year, you would pick up a window, drag it somewhere, let go, and it would move from
00:32:02
◼
►
underneath your cursor.
00:32:03
◼
►
The system would say, yeah, I see that you placed it here, but I'm just going to move
00:32:09
◼
►
it there, because I think that's the sort of optimal placement for you.
00:32:13
◼
►
And that drove me crazy last year.
00:32:16
◼
►
And I know that it's one of the most common criticisms from people who try to use Stage
00:32:22
◼
►
Manager coming from a desktop computing environment.
00:32:25
◼
►
That's changed in 17.
00:32:29
◼
►
Now, when you pick up a window and you drag it somewhere, 90% of the time it stays there.
00:32:36
◼
►
And I'm excluding that 10% because the system, Stage Manager, still tries to very subtly
00:32:44
◼
►
optimize the workspace for you.
00:32:47
◼
►
And I think this year they have reached a much better balance for this idea.
00:32:53
◼
►
The idea being that on the iPad, Apple tries really hard to not hide windows that are behind
00:33:02
◼
►
other windows.
00:33:04
◼
►
This is the problem of the traditional multi-windowing environment of macOS.
00:33:09
◼
►
You open a bunch of windows, and it's easy to lose track of them, because something else
00:33:14
◼
►
is covering them.
00:33:16
◼
►
With Stage Manager last year, Apple said, we're going to limit the workspace to four
00:33:21
◼
►
windows at once, and Stage Manager will always try to make all windows visible at once for
00:33:30
◼
►
you so you don't lose track of them.
00:33:32
◼
►
But in doing that, they went a little too far, and they overcompensated a little for
00:33:39
◼
►
And the result was, Stage Manager was always moving windows for you.
00:33:42
◼
►
This year, I don't know what they did, I don't know what kind of discussions they had
00:33:48
◼
►
internally, but now, generally, when you pick up a window and you place it somewhere, it
00:33:54
◼
►
stays there.
00:33:55
◼
►
And you can do layouts now that were not allowed last year.
00:33:59
◼
►
So for example, you make a window really small, and you want to drag it all the way to the
00:34:04
◼
►
left of the screen, but then you want to pick up another window, make it slightly bigger,
00:34:08
◼
►
and place it on the very far right side of the display.
00:34:13
◼
►
Now you can do it.
00:34:15
◼
►
And it sounds obvious, right?
00:34:16
◼
►
It sounds obvious that you should be able to do this.
00:34:17
◼
►
Take a small window, place it on the left, take a bigger window, place it on the right,
00:34:22
◼
►
leave a gap in the middle.
00:34:23
◼
►
It sounds obvious enough, and it was not possible last year.
00:34:27
◼
►
If you tried to do this last year, this very simple layout, Stage Manager would take both
00:34:32
◼
►
windows and center them in the middle of the screen.
00:34:35
◼
►
It doesn't do it anymore.
00:34:38
◼
►
And this is especially effective on an external display, where you have a much bigger canvas,
00:34:44
◼
►
and you're free to say, "Okay, I'm going to take a music window, make it a small rectangular
00:34:48
◼
►
shaped window, place it on the top left, take my Mastodon client or whatever, make it a
00:34:55
◼
►
square in the bottom right corner."
00:34:57
◼
►
And now you can do it.
00:34:59
◼
►
Then there's keyboard shortcuts.
00:35:01
◼
►
Notably, you can now shift-click basically anywhere.
00:35:07
◼
►
You can shift-click an icon in the dock to add the selected app to the current workspace.
00:35:15
◼
►
You can shift-click in the strip on the left side for recent apps.
00:35:22
◼
►
And you can shift-click Spotlight App Results.
00:35:25
◼
►
So there's a much better keyboard-driven way to add a window to the current workspace without
00:35:34
◼
►
having to use drag and drop.
00:35:36
◼
►
And that's really the core of the changes in Stage Manager.
00:35:40
◼
►
And they sound like small things, but in aggregate, and when you're actually trying to get work
00:35:45
◼
►
done, they make a big difference.
00:35:48
◼
►
This episode of Connected is brought to you by Squarespace.
00:35:52
◼
►
The all-in-one platform for building your brand and growing your business online.
00:35:56
◼
►
With Squarespace, you can build a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell
00:35:59
◼
►
anything, products, services, and even content.
00:36:02
◼
►
Squarespace has everything you need, all in one place.
00:36:06
◼
►
With Squarespace, you can make the most of Fluid Engine, Squarespace's next-generation
00:36:11
◼
►
website design system, to unlock your creativity more easily than ever before.
00:36:16
◼
►
Start with a best-in-class website template and customize every design detail with
00:36:21
◼
►
reimagined drag-and-drop technology for desktop or mobile.
00:36:25
◼
►
You can stretch your imagination online with Fluid Engine.
00:36:29
◼
►
It's built-in and ready to go on any new Squarespace site.
00:36:32
◼
►
And whether you sell physical or digital products, you can sell them with Squarespace's
00:36:38
◼
►
online store functionality.
00:36:40
◼
►
They have all the tools you need to start selling online.
00:36:43
◼
►
And your customers get flexible payment options.
00:36:46
◼
►
Checkout is seamless for your customers with simple but powerful tools.
00:36:51
◼
►
Accept credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay, and offer customers the option to buy now
00:36:57
◼
►
and pay later with Afterpay and Clearpay.
00:37:00
◼
►
I love building on Squarespace, and these new tools really are awesome.
00:37:03
◼
►
I spent some time playing with the new Fluid Engine, and it's amazing what you can do
00:37:07
◼
►
with simple drag-and-drop with Squarespace's engine.
00:37:11
◼
►
You can really make something look exactly what you had in mind.
00:37:16
◼
►
So go to squarespace.com/connected for a free trial.
00:37:20
◼
►
And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/connected and use the code
00:37:24
◼
►
"Connected" to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain.
00:37:29
◼
►
Once again, that's squarespace.com/connected and the code "Connected" for that 10% off
00:37:34
◼
►
and to show your support for the show.
00:37:35
◼
►
Our thanks to Squarespace for the support of Connected and Relay FM.
00:37:39
◼
►
So there was also WatchOS and macOS.
00:37:44
◼
►
I was reading through the articles that Alex and John put together.
00:37:48
◼
►
There were a couple of things I wanted to point out that I just thought were interesting
00:37:52
◼
►
and helped clarify some things.
00:37:54
◼
►
So I knew that the buttons and what the buttons did on the watch had changed a bit,
00:37:59
◼
►
and Alex kind of helped explain this to me in a way that made sense.
00:38:02
◼
►
So to get the dock, which is like in the current version of WatchOS,
00:38:06
◼
►
you press the side button and you can see, you can configure it to show you apps,
00:38:11
◼
►
and they can either be recent ones or apps that you've chosen.
00:38:14
◼
►
I use this quite a lot to switch between just like the three or four apps that I use on my Apple Watch.
00:38:20
◼
►
And I heard that they were getting rid of this because now the side button,
00:38:24
◼
►
you press it and it brings up Control Center.
00:38:26
◼
►
I'm not thrilled about that personally.
00:38:30
◼
►
It's like a makes sense to me.
00:38:32
◼
►
Like the idea of pressing a physical button to get to Control Center is like kind of weird to me.
00:38:39
◼
►
But you press the button and you get to Control Center,
00:38:43
◼
►
or now you can get to that dock again, but you double click the crown, which is fine.
00:38:48
◼
►
Because actually there's something about that which is quite logical to me
00:38:51
◼
►
because it feels like a kind of multitasking thing.
00:38:55
◼
►
And that double clicking the home button.
00:38:58
◼
►
There's something about that to me, which I don't know, that feels like it's a way to get to apps.
00:39:03
◼
►
Like I can't really explain why I feel that way, but like, yeah, okay, I see that.
00:39:06
◼
►
Because it's like I press that button to get to apps.
00:39:10
◼
►
So if I press it twice, I get to my open apps.
00:39:13
◼
►
Do you know what I mean?
00:39:14
◼
►
Like there's something about that logically that makes sense.
00:39:16
◼
►
Because it's like there's one button to get like to navigate between apps and the watch face.
00:39:23
◼
►
And it's the crown.
00:39:24
◼
►
But now, like the one of the reasons they've done all of this is because of the widgets thing,
00:39:28
◼
►
which is now both swiping and moving the crown to get to the widgets.
00:39:35
◼
►
For me, I feel like they should have just left the swipe where it was.
00:39:38
◼
►
Like and the swipe brought up control center and you just use the crown for widgets.
00:39:43
◼
►
Like I'm not, I don't really feel like it needs two ways to get to the same like piece of UI.
00:39:50
◼
►
But clearly they want people to discover this.
00:39:53
◼
►
So they're like just throwing as many things into it as possible.
00:39:56
◼
►
I want to read a quote from Alex about the widget smart stack.
00:40:01
◼
►
So this is kind of like when you scroll up and the widgets are there.
00:40:05
◼
►
In a word, excellent.
00:40:06
◼
►
I love the smart stack and I think this new feature will be opening up a flood of increased
00:40:10
◼
►
usage of Apple watch apps throughout the system.
00:40:12
◼
►
Because realistically what's going on here is it's like the Siri watch face on steroids, right?
00:40:19
◼
►
Like realistically you can say I want to use these widgets, but Apple's going to serve them
00:40:26
◼
►
to you in the way that it thinks you want, except for the ones that you pin, which you also pin
00:40:30
◼
►
some to the top.
00:40:31
◼
►
I'm excited to try this out.
00:40:33
◼
►
I'm hoping that it is as useful as I want it to be.
00:40:36
◼
►
But Alex seems pretty jazzed on it.
00:40:37
◼
►
Yeah, I haven't spent a lot of time sort of playing around with watchOS channels because
00:40:43
◼
►
as Alex mentioned in the story, like it really comes down to the apps that we use offering
00:40:50
◼
►
And like right now I have the music widget, the reminders one, and you know, very basic
00:40:56
◼
►
sort of built in stuff.
00:40:57
◼
►
I think that's going to change once we have more third party options.
00:41:01
◼
►
For example, the weather widgets, right?
00:41:03
◼
►
I don't even, I'm not even sure there's any shortcuts widgets at the moment in watchOS
00:41:10
◼
►
But I think I'm going to use it.
00:41:13
◼
►
I just, it's more of a problem of remembering that now I'm supposed to do that, that I can
00:41:19
◼
►
scroll up to see widgets.
00:41:21
◼
►
And yeah, the reminders one has been really useful.
00:41:25
◼
►
Just being able to tap on the today widget and sort of immediately see a list of
00:41:31
◼
►
my tasks due today.
00:41:33
◼
►
But for example, I haven't tried the time area once yet.
00:41:37
◼
►
I know that the latest beta of time area added widgets and I don't have any caret widgets.
00:41:43
◼
►
I'm sort of just waiting for more third party options before I really commit, I guess.
00:41:48
◼
►
Steven, how are you feeling about this stuff with watchOS?
00:41:51
◼
►
I want to install it so bad.
00:41:53
◼
►
I haven't yet.
00:41:56
◼
►
Why haven't you, if you want to do it so bad?
00:41:58
◼
►
I don't know.
00:41:59
◼
►
I just haven't.
00:42:01
◼
►
I mean, your watch has such a big battery life.
00:42:03
◼
►
Like what, you know what I mean?
00:42:04
◼
►
Like the beta is not going to hurt.
00:42:06
◼
►
Yeah, that's true.
00:42:07
◼
►
So I don't know.
00:42:08
◼
►
Maybe I, maybe I jump on board, but take one for the team.
00:42:12
◼
►
I haven't tried it.
00:42:13
◼
►
But I never loved the rotate the crown and things happen on the watch face.
00:42:20
◼
►
And I just, I wonder if that's the right move.
00:42:23
◼
►
Cause it used to be, what was that feature used to be called?
00:42:25
◼
►
You could like roll back a clock face, time travel, go through time, time travel, time
00:42:29
◼
►
travel, time travel, and I don't know.
00:42:32
◼
►
So that was kind of a weird interaction and easily done accidentally.
00:42:35
◼
►
Also swipe though.
00:42:37
◼
►
Like you can just swipe, like that's your album.
00:42:40
◼
►
But I don't want, what I'm trying to get to is I think I accidentally did time travel
00:42:45
◼
►
a lot and I don't, I don't want to accidentally go into widgets either.
00:42:49
◼
►
So I don't know.
00:42:52
◼
►
Maybe I'll install it and report back next week.
00:42:55
◼
►
I'm super intrigued.
00:42:56
◼
►
Like, as I said at the time, like I'm happy they're doing stuff.
00:42:58
◼
►
This wasn't exactly what I was hoping and looking for.
00:43:02
◼
►
Like I was actually kind of hoping for something a bit more fundamental, but maybe the new
00:43:07
◼
►
design, like that new kind of like watch OS design of apps might make the whole operating
00:43:12
◼
►
system just feel different anyway.
00:43:14
◼
►
Some of the examples that Alex shows, like they do look really different and that is
00:43:18
◼
►
kind of cool, but I'm holding out.
00:43:22
◼
►
I'm like, I'm reserving judgment.
00:43:24
◼
►
I do think I'm going to dig it, but it is going to take some time to get used to.
00:43:28
◼
►
The way that this is working and, and I'm, I'm not a hundred percent sold that they've
00:43:34
◼
►
set these buttons up in a way that I'm going to find pleasing.
00:43:36
◼
►
I also wanted to touch on a couple of macOS features from John's article.
00:43:40
◼
►
John says no single Sonoma feature has had an immediate effect on how I use my Mac as
00:43:47
◼
►
interactive desktop widgets.
00:43:48
◼
►
I want to try this so bad.
00:43:50
◼
►
I want to try this so bad.
00:43:52
◼
►
Especially while with stage manager, because clicking anywhere on your desktop hides all
00:43:56
◼
►
of your open windows and activates your widgets in full color.
00:43:59
◼
►
As a stage manager user, I'm very excited about this and I got to hand it to Apple again,
00:44:06
◼
►
like looking at John's screenshots, absolute genius move to do the iPhone widgets thing
00:44:11
◼
►
because they are just like so many Mac apps are just not going to do this.
00:44:18
◼
►
Like they're just not going to do it, but their iPhone counterparts do have them.
00:44:22
◼
►
And so this is just like a genius way.
00:44:25
◼
►
Look at how many widgets John has compared to how many like interactive widgets, like
00:44:30
◼
►
new widget types I've got like on my iPhone, but like this new feature of macOS, like widgets
00:44:35
◼
►
on the desktop, you can just have all of them because you can just, it works right currently.
00:44:39
◼
►
So yeah, I think this is super, super cool.
00:44:42
◼
►
I'm very excited about this.
00:44:43
◼
►
These screenshots all have giant John energy, like so many widgets, so many things in the
00:44:49
◼
►
docs, so many things happening.
00:44:51
◼
►
And I don't even, you know, like I know some reviewers will like, they like, they will
00:44:56
◼
►
like pre-fill stuff.
00:44:57
◼
►
So like you can show all the features.
00:44:59
◼
►
Like I feel like in Jason's, he has like a similar screenshot where it's just like stuff
00:45:03
◼
►
all over the place to kind of show all the things that can happen.
00:45:06
◼
►
But I just feel like that's not faked for John's.
00:45:09
◼
►
Like that's just what John's preferred desktop is.
00:45:12
◼
►
John has actually been working on Sonoma since the very first beta at WWDC.
00:45:18
◼
►
Like he has two Macs, one for production for doing like audio hijack and podcast stuff.
00:45:22
◼
►
But otherwise he's doing too.
00:45:24
◼
►
He works on Sonoma like all day and it's his real setup.
00:45:30
◼
►
And it makes me really jealous because I really want to have those widgets there.
00:45:34
◼
►
I forgot to mention one thing about watchOS and I want to mention it in case I forget.
00:45:39
◼
►
So, you know, they're getting rid of the dock feature on the watch that lets you switch
00:45:46
◼
►
the dock from recent to your favorite apps, right?
00:45:51
◼
►
What are they changing it to?
00:45:52
◼
►
It's just going to be recent.
00:45:54
◼
►
The dock is...
00:45:56
◼
►
Why are you making it worse twice?
00:45:58
◼
►
Oh, hold on.
00:46:01
◼
►
I'm not the one to blame here.
00:46:03
◼
►
No, not you.
00:46:04
◼
►
I'm shouting at Apple.
00:46:05
◼
►
This is not directed at you.
00:46:06
◼
►
So Alex wrote this in the story.
00:46:07
◼
►
The dock is basically, it should be renamed to App Switcher because that's what it is.
00:46:13
◼
►
The dock is going to be an app switcher for recent apps.
00:46:16
◼
►
But I heard that if you have favorites in watchOS 9, in theory when you migrate to watchOS 10
00:46:29
◼
►
at some point, whether it's the beta season or in September, those favorites should become
00:46:37
◼
►
app icons at the top of the home screen.
00:46:42
◼
►
So you will get those favorites.
00:46:46
◼
►
They will be placed at the very top of the honeycomb sort of grid of apps.
00:46:54
◼
►
I gotta say, this didn't work for me.
00:46:56
◼
►
This transition, this migration didn't work for me with watchOS 10 beta 1.
00:47:01
◼
►
So I lost all of my favorites.
00:47:03
◼
►
But I heard that in theory, that's the way it should work.
00:47:06
◼
►
But there isn't a way to set new favorites?
00:47:09
◼
►
I guess you can manually...
00:47:11
◼
►
Well, the concept of favorites is gone, right?
00:47:17
◼
►
There's no way in settings to say these are my favorite apps.
00:47:24
◼
►
Like that's gone completely.
00:47:26
◼
►
But to sort of ease the transition, they're going to take your existing favorites and
00:47:33
◼
►
at the very least, they're going to put them at the top.
00:47:36
◼
►
But this is so strange to me because it's like what?
00:47:38
◼
►
You get a museum, like whatever your favorite apps were in 2023,
00:47:45
◼
►
they were your favorite apps forever in watchOS and you'll never be able to change them?
00:47:49
◼
►
That's very strange.
00:47:50
◼
►
Well, no, you can always...
00:47:53
◼
►
So maybe I'm not explaining myself well.
00:47:55
◼
►
You can still rearrange the grid of apps on the home screen of the watch, however you want.
00:48:00
◼
►
Oh, I see what you're saying.
00:48:02
◼
►
Yeah, no, that sucks.
00:48:03
◼
►
I know what you're saying, but that's just not a helpful thing.
00:48:07
◼
►
They are also tweaking how the grid of apps works.
00:48:12
◼
►
Now it always starts from the top and it scrolls on a single axis vertically.
00:48:20
◼
►
It no longer sort of zooms around on the horizontal axis.
00:48:26
◼
►
It's just a vertical grid and you spin the crown and just go up and down.
00:48:30
◼
►
Just use the list view.
00:48:32
◼
►
Yeah, this isn't great.
00:48:35
◼
►
Like, I know what you're saying, but this is just not a great solution.
00:48:40
◼
►
Realistically, for most people, for me, I only ever use four apps on my watch anyway,
00:48:45
◼
►
so it's not going to change, right?
00:48:49
◼
►
But still, anyway, as Steve Jobs once said, back to the Mac.
00:48:54
◼
►
We were saying the John screenshots...
00:48:59
◼
►
Yeah, John screenshots are just a wild thing.
00:49:01
◼
►
We will get to the best one in a minute.
00:49:04
◼
►
They're the best.
00:49:04
◼
►
But so I've been using Sonoma on a secondary machine, right?
00:49:08
◼
►
I got podcast record, so I can't put it on my primary.
00:49:10
◼
►
I don't like when it's on the desktop.
00:49:13
◼
►
I'm glad they're free of the tyranny of notification center, but dashboard was such a good idea.
00:49:21
◼
►
Like, I don't like having them visible all the time.
00:49:24
◼
►
And I know they fade out and they sort of color blend, but the visual complexity of it
00:49:30
◼
►
is more than I want on the Mac.
00:49:32
◼
►
And I wish there was a way they could just fly in like they used to.
00:49:35
◼
►
Just use stage manager.
00:49:37
◼
►
That's worse.
00:49:38
◼
►
Everything's flying around.
00:49:40
◼
►
No, because then you, instead of them flying in, you're landing onto them.
00:49:44
◼
►
You know, it's great.
00:49:45
◼
►
Anyway, that's my take.
00:49:47
◼
►
I'm glad they're there, but they're in the wrong place.
00:49:49
◼
►
Surely some enterprising developer will make some version of this, right?
00:49:56
◼
►
I don't know.
00:49:56
◼
►
It's much harder to change core system functionality than it used to be.
00:50:01
◼
►
Just edit a P-list.
00:50:03
◼
►
It's no problem.
00:50:03
◼
►
Not all things work.
00:50:05
◼
►
That is how it works.
00:50:06
◼
►
There's a P-list for everything and I'm sure somebody will figure it out.
00:50:10
◼
►
Just P-list.
00:50:12
◼
►
What else is new in Sonoma?
00:50:14
◼
►
I read John's story and I still, the only thing I remember is widgets.
00:50:17
◼
►
Oh, you can do the moves on FaceTime and it shows you the effects.
00:50:25
◼
►
This is the best screenshot in the article.
00:50:29
◼
►
So John is sitting there in front of fireworks and he says, you know what you get when you
00:50:34
◼
►
FaceTime with me?
00:50:40
◼
►
These video conferencing features look good though in general.
00:50:44
◼
►
Like the presenter overlay, the small screen sharing stuff that like they were just, you
00:50:49
◼
►
can use the little green stoplight button to share a screen very easily to share an app,
00:50:54
◼
►
I should say very easily.
00:50:56
◼
►
And then there's also that like menu bar video conferencing control thing where you can turn
00:51:01
◼
►
on and off those reactions.
00:51:02
◼
►
I really can't wait for the first article that's written about like someone getting
00:51:08
◼
►
fired and someone shows a thumbs up and then confetti explodes.
00:51:11
◼
►
Like that's going to be so great.
00:51:12
◼
►
I look forward to that happening and many articles being written about it.
00:51:18
◼
►
But they do look good though, these features.
00:51:20
◼
►
It's also, again, it's like that slow roll of COVID through these product features, like
00:51:26
◼
►
it's still happening.
00:51:28
◼
►
Like Apple and John mentioned some kind of like high bandwidth screen sharing thing that
00:51:35
◼
►
exists now, which I don't really understand what that is, but it's all this like weird
00:51:41
◼
►
little stuff that's existing in a, in a, in a like post there being a pandemic occurring
00:51:48
◼
►
Oh, the, this is also in our notes, Safari profiles.
00:51:52
◼
►
I'm very excited about Safari profiles because it's like, it's like the evolution of tab
00:51:58
◼
►
So there's also, as well as having tab groups, you can have this thing that sits on top of
00:52:03
◼
►
And so you can collect up, say different groups, say like personal work.
00:52:07
◼
►
But the thing that excites me about the profiles thing is you could be signed into different
00:52:12
◼
►
Just like in Chrome.
00:52:13
◼
►
So like I could be, yeah, so I could be on like Gmail in two different things, but I
00:52:21
◼
►
can't find profiles on my iPhone.
00:52:25
◼
►
So they are supposed to be there.
00:52:27
◼
►
I don't know if they are, but what Apple said is it they're tied to focus modes or you can't
00:52:32
◼
►
tie them to focus modes and they are supposed to be cross platform.
00:52:35
◼
►
So I don't know if there is not there yet, but what I read is that they are supposed
00:52:39
◼
►
to be on iPhone and iPad as well.
00:52:42
◼
►
Wait, how do you set up a mic is right.
00:52:44
◼
►
I can't find them on the iPhone at all.
00:52:46
◼
►
Oh, maybe it's not.
00:52:48
◼
►
Maybe it's not in the.
00:52:51
◼
►
Oh yeah, they are in settings.
00:52:54
◼
►
No, no, no, no.
00:52:54
◼
►
Go to settings, Safari, scroll a bit and you're going to find profiles and you can create
00:53:00
◼
►
a new profile.
00:53:02
◼
►
Why would you put them here?
00:53:03
◼
►
Why is it here?
00:53:04
◼
►
I don't know.
00:53:05
◼
►
All right, great.
00:53:08
◼
►
Jury's a little out for me on the way that you access tab groups on the iPhone now.
00:53:13
◼
►
That now it's like this scrolling list.
00:53:15
◼
►
Like I'm not sure yet.
00:53:17
◼
►
I'm not sure yet.
00:53:19
◼
►
I think it's much faster than before.
00:53:21
◼
►
Like that has grown on me a lot and even just switching between normal mode and private
00:53:29
◼
►
And just right now I have this garden tab group that I've been using for.
00:53:35
◼
►
We're going to talk about this very soon, but I did a, I built with Sylvia.
00:53:40
◼
►
We did it all ourselves, an irrigation system compatible with HomeKit and I am super proud
00:53:45
◼
►
of it and did a lot of research and I have a tab group for it.
00:53:49
◼
►
And now I think it's really cool how you can just swipe between them.
00:53:52
◼
►
I like the gesture, but I understand why it takes some time to get used to it.
00:53:57
◼
►
My overall kind of feeling on these betas in general is like, this is a good year.
00:54:03
◼
►
There's like a lot of really interesting stuff.
00:54:06
◼
►
And I'm very excited for when all of these, this is going to be one of those years where
00:54:12
◼
►
it is going to take the apps releasing, right?
00:54:17
◼
►
Like it's one of those years.
00:54:18
◼
►
It's like widget year all over again.
00:54:19
◼
►
You need to be able to experience a lot of different applications, even if you're on
00:54:23
◼
►
the beta to like really experience what like interactive widgets can be.
00:54:27
◼
►
And like all that kind of stuff.
00:54:30
◼
►
So, but it's, there's some very exciting stuff here.
00:54:32
◼
►
I think the one thing I wanted to mention, and again, please don't get upset at me in
00:54:38
◼
►
case you didn't know it, in case you didn't know this, but my understanding is that the
00:54:43
◼
►
stickers in Tab Back is not going to launch with 17.0, but it's coming in.
00:54:52
◼
►
The stickers in Tab Back is coming in an update.
00:54:55
◼
►
That's very weird.
00:54:58
◼
►
I wonder if they're using it like the emoji is like a way to get people to update.
00:55:03
◼
►
Or it's just not ready.
00:55:04
◼
►
I mean, or it's just not ready.
00:55:06
◼
►
I've been enjoying the stickers though.
00:55:07
◼
►
Like I've been enjoying making stickers.
00:55:09
◼
►
I really like the effects, like the puffy effect and the holographic effect.
00:55:12
◼
►
Like the puffy one is good.
00:55:14
◼
►
Like it's really good.
00:55:17
◼
►
I took a picture of my mom sleeping.
00:55:20
◼
►
Like she fell asleep on the couch and she was kind of snoring and I took a picture of
00:55:24
◼
►
her made a sticker.
00:55:28
◼
►
And I've been sending it to Sylvia for funsies.
00:55:32
◼
►
It's terrible.
00:55:34
◼
►
Terrible sound.
00:55:36
◼
►
Oh, I mean, I do this.
00:55:37
◼
►
Like, you know, I have like funny photos of Idina and a ton of stickers in Santa Ana.
00:55:41
◼
►
Yeah, exactly.
00:55:42
◼
►
See, that's what I meant.
00:55:45
◼
►
I think iOS as I mean, widgets is the story this year, right?
00:55:50
◼
►
Widgets, standby, custom stickers to an extent.
00:55:55
◼
►
Widgets is the main story everywhere, right?
00:55:59
◼
►
On the iPad for the lock screen, on the Mac for the desktop, on the watch.
00:56:02
◼
►
And then I guess the general feeling that I have, and maybe this is an idea that I need
00:56:07
◼
►
to develop further for my review.
00:56:09
◼
►
iOS 17 feels like a grab bag of features.
00:56:13
◼
►
All nice to have taken together, but really widgets is the story.
00:56:18
◼
►
And then there's every it's like it's widgets and then there's everything else.
00:56:23
◼
►
That's the way I look at it.
00:56:25
◼
►
This episode of Connected is brought to you by ZocDoc.
00:56:29
◼
►
Have you ever been on the hunt for a new doctor and you ask everyone you know for their recommendation?
00:56:33
◼
►
I mean, it makes sense.
00:56:34
◼
►
You want a doctor that actually gets you listens to you and makes you feel comfortable.
00:56:38
◼
►
And finally, after weeks of searching, you find the one they meet all your requirements.
00:56:43
◼
►
So you call their office and they have an appointment available.
00:56:45
◼
►
Then and only then do you find that they don't take your insurance?
00:56:50
◼
►
Well, don't worry, head on over to ZocDoc to find and book the doctor who is right for
00:56:54
◼
►
you and takes your insurance.
00:56:56
◼
►
ZocDoc is a free app where you can find amazing doctors and book appointments online.
00:57:01
◼
►
We're talking about booking appointments with thousands of top rated patient review doctors
00:57:07
◼
►
and specialists.
00:57:08
◼
►
You can filter for the ones who take your insurance or located near you and treat almost
00:57:14
◼
►
any condition you're searching for.
00:57:15
◼
►
These doctors all have verified reviews from actual real life patients, not bots.
00:57:21
◼
►
Bots don't need doctors, patients do.
00:57:23
◼
►
The average wait time to see a doctor booked with ZocDoc is between 24 and 48 hours.
00:57:29
◼
►
And you can even get same day appointments.
00:57:31
◼
►
Once you find the doctor you want, you can book them with just a few taps.
00:57:36
◼
►
So no more waiting awkwardly on hold with a receptionist.
00:57:38
◼
►
I think this is a fantastic tool.
00:57:41
◼
►
Finding a new doctor is really hard and time consuming.
00:57:44
◼
►
And ZocDoc makes it super easy and fast.
00:57:47
◼
►
If you're on the lookout for a new doctor, maybe you moved, maybe you just need to change
00:57:51
◼
►
something up, ZocDoc is the way to go.
00:57:53
◼
►
Head on over to ZocDoc.com/connected and download the app for free.
00:57:59
◼
►
Then find and book a top rated doctor today.
00:58:02
◼
►
That's Z-O-C-D-O-C.
00:58:04
◼
►
ZocDoc.com/connected.
00:58:07
◼
►
Our thanks to ZocDoc for their support of the show and Relay FM.
00:58:11
◼
►
We thread in.
00:58:13
◼
►
We thread in boys!
00:58:14
◼
►
We thread in.
00:58:15
◼
►
I want to get a vibe check from the two of you.
00:58:19
◼
►
Steven, I want to start with you actually.
00:58:21
◼
►
How are you feeling about threads?
00:58:23
◼
►
Pretty good.
00:58:26
◼
►
It's complicated, but overall pretty good.
00:58:30
◼
►
Buy check for threads.
00:58:38
◼
►
I still feel like personally conflicted a little about the company behind it.
00:58:44
◼
►
But like if you sort of isolate the product.
00:58:47
◼
►
We will use Instagram.
00:58:48
◼
►
Like we made our choices.
00:58:50
◼
►
So here's the thing.
00:58:51
◼
►
I feel like, I feel like.
00:58:53
◼
►
You know me, I've been a pretty vocal critic of Facebook and Meta over the years.
00:59:03
◼
►
I have to recognize that there are greater evils and idiots than Meta and Zoc.
00:59:14
◼
►
So like, you know.
00:59:18
◼
►
Sure, it hasn't been my favorite company ever.
00:59:21
◼
►
But they're not the worst anymore.
00:59:25
◼
►
That's sort of the way I look at it.
00:59:28
◼
►
And threads is very good.
00:59:32
◼
►
I mean it's fun.
00:59:33
◼
►
And it's like.
00:59:34
◼
►
The thing is people are there.
00:59:39
◼
►
But you know.
00:59:41
◼
►
That's one of the things that I'm a little conflicted about.
00:59:44
◼
►
I mean I echo everything you say about Meta.
00:59:47
◼
►
But it is perhaps the most shocking example to me of the mashup of people I know from
00:59:54
◼
►
the internet and people I know in real life.
00:59:57
◼
►
And those groups aren't always super compatible.
01:00:02
◼
►
And so I find it kind of.
01:00:04
◼
►
Kind of a strange mix, right?
01:00:06
◼
►
Like I can make a weird tech joke on Mastodon.
01:00:08
◼
►
Everyone gets it.
01:00:09
◼
►
But if I do it on threads, then my mother-in-law texts me wanting to know what my joke was
01:00:13
◼
►
And that's weird.
01:00:14
◼
►
But was that different to Twitter?
01:00:15
◼
►
Like these people want.
01:00:17
◼
►
Twitter had a little bit of it.
01:00:19
◼
►
It's not a big deal.
01:00:19
◼
►
I just have noticed it.
01:00:21
◼
►
And you know that's probably true for a lot of people.
01:00:24
◼
►
Like if you follow a bunch of like creators and influencers on Instagram, then they're
01:00:29
◼
►
like mixed in with your cousins and your in-laws.
01:00:32
◼
►
That's a bit weird.
01:00:34
◼
►
I can imagine why that's strange.
01:00:36
◼
►
From my perspective, I haven't noticed that because none of my real life friends can use
01:00:42
◼
►
threads at the moment.
01:00:48
◼
►
How did you do it Federico?
01:00:50
◼
►
Are you willing to divulge?
01:00:52
◼
►
My long investment into being, into having a fake US App Store account continues to pay
01:01:01
◼
►
off after 15 years that I started doing this.
01:01:06
◼
►
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
01:01:07
◼
►
So they're not locking you out.
01:01:11
◼
►
Like Meta's not locking you out.
01:01:12
◼
►
No, you just got to download the app and you're good to go.
01:01:15
◼
►
In fact, the few Italians I have seen on threads, they've done it two different ways.
01:01:22
◼
►
Either my method, which is you have a US App Store account, or there was a test flight
01:01:28
◼
►
link going around for a few days for a Threads test flight beta, which is no longer working,
01:01:34
◼
►
but it was around for a couple of days.
01:01:36
◼
►
And that's how I've seen a bunch of Italian blogs write about that using that link.
01:01:41
◼
►
So they signed up, as long as you have the app on your device, you're good to go.
01:01:45
◼
►
They don't lock you out.
01:01:46
◼
►
I just wanted to share what I thought was a funny thing, like about the launch, because
01:01:51
◼
►
I've heard people reference how like, oh, they were going to launch at such and such
01:01:55
◼
►
time and then they brought it up.
01:01:57
◼
►
No, they didn't.
01:01:58
◼
►
They did not.
01:01:59
◼
►
So I think the people at threads do not understand how iOS App Store pre-order works because
01:02:09
◼
►
they set the threads as a pre-order, right?
01:02:13
◼
►
And when you looked on, like they had that, remember that past thing that was in Instagram,
01:02:18
◼
►
like you could go and you could see your name, flick around and say like available, whatever.
01:02:22
◼
►
And for me, it was like I said, like available at 7 p.m. or something like that, because
01:02:27
◼
►
that was when they wanted to launch it.
01:02:29
◼
►
But they set it as a pre-order on the App Store, which means it was happening midnight
01:02:34
◼
►
And there was nothing they could do about that because that's how pre-ordering the App
01:02:38
◼
►
Store works.
01:02:39
◼
►
Like it just automatically downloads when the day ticks over.
01:02:42
◼
►
And then like at some point, they're like, hey, we decided to bring the launch forward.
01:02:46
◼
►
It's like, no, you haven't.
01:02:47
◼
►
Somebody realized that the app was going to be available in the United Kingdom and other
01:02:53
◼
►
places, I'm sure.
01:02:54
◼
►
Like because we were one of the earlier time zones where it was actually available.
01:02:58
◼
►
So I just thought it was like a funny thing that like the day was going to take over and
01:03:01
◼
►
then it's going to become available.
01:03:03
◼
►
And so they just moved the launch up.
01:03:04
◼
►
So everyone would get it at the same time.
01:03:06
◼
►
I thought it was very funny.
01:03:07
◼
►
That's how I assume this whole thing went down because they like I would have gotten
01:03:11
◼
►
the app at midnight, but they were saying it wasn't going to launch for like another
01:03:15
◼
►
seven hours.
01:03:15
◼
►
It's just like that's I don't think that's how that works.
01:03:18
◼
►
But that was fine.
01:03:19
◼
►
Well, I do think there's also there's also a competing story that Threads launch was
01:03:25
◼
►
brought up, but by weeks, not the weird App Store thing, but but also that they saw
01:03:30
◼
►
they were they they brought it up and they were going to launch it on the fourth of July
01:03:34
◼
►
Or whatever.
01:03:34
◼
►
Then they brought it forward like a day and then brought it forward apparently by like
01:03:38
◼
►
seven hours.
01:03:39
◼
►
But like those that last one with the hour change of in the same day, I think was because
01:03:43
◼
►
of the App Store.
01:03:45
◼
►
This is pointless.
01:03:46
◼
►
It's just something it's my little pet theory.
01:03:47
◼
►
But the way they launched I just think is awesome and savage.
01:03:52
◼
►
Like how they just saw the moment and just went for it.
01:03:56
◼
►
And I got a lot of respect for like how they just saw a moment and then just mobilized
01:04:02
◼
►
the company and just delivered it.
01:04:04
◼
►
And delivered it to a point where they can support 100 million people in five days, which
01:04:10
◼
►
is just like I don't even I don't understand how they were able to make that work and the
01:04:16
◼
►
app be so reliable.
01:04:18
◼
►
It's wild how they've scaled to the size that they have so quickly.
01:04:23
◼
►
It is wild, but it's also it's Facebook, you know, so like if there's a company that I
01:04:29
◼
►
mean, it's two companies that know infrastructure really well.
01:04:31
◼
►
I think Facebook and Google much more than Twitter, of course, and much more than Apple
01:04:35
◼
►
This is what they do, right?
01:04:37
◼
►
This is this is what they sell.
01:04:40
◼
►
It's the they make a living out of being available and they run WhatsApp.
01:04:44
◼
►
Probably the only tech company that could pull this off, I reckon.
01:04:48
◼
►
Probably, yes.
01:04:49
◼
►
Because I don't think anybody else is so tuned to dealing with this exact problem.
01:04:56
◼
►
Like I just I feel like maybe they're the only ones that could do this.
01:05:01
◼
►
Like for me, I'm really looking forward to this proposed following feed because I don't
01:05:06
◼
►
follow a ton of people.
01:05:08
◼
►
And so I'm seeing like quite a lot of like content that they want me to see.
01:05:15
◼
►
You know what I mean?
01:05:16
◼
►
Like I feel like I'm bumping into the algorithm quite frequently.
01:05:20
◼
►
Because my following count is pretty low.
01:05:22
◼
►
And so I get it.
01:05:24
◼
►
Like I get the idea of showing me stuff and I see stuff that's interesting to me.
01:05:29
◼
►
But I would also but like I feel like sometimes I'm not seeing the posts from people that
01:05:35
◼
►
follow because they're giving me too much algorithm content.
01:05:38
◼
►
And I feel like they still get it.
01:05:40
◼
►
They still get a tune to balance, I think.
01:05:41
◼
►
I think they have and it's been better.
01:05:45
◼
►
Like I'm seeing way less stuff that I'm like absolutely not or actively not interested
01:05:51
◼
►
You know what I mean?
01:05:51
◼
►
Like, yeah, like as a sucker, unlike I don't know why you're showing me this, but now I
01:05:55
◼
►
am seeing things that are related to my interests, but not my choice to follow them.
01:06:00
◼
►
Like I'm seeing a lot of Formula One content and I don't really follow a lot of Formula
01:06:05
◼
►
One content creators or accounts, but like Instagram knows enough about me.
01:06:09
◼
►
But they know that.
01:06:11
◼
►
But they know that about you.
01:06:12
◼
►
Which is fine.
01:06:14
◼
►
Do you get in the algorithmic feed, do you get those sort of lifestyle influencers on
01:06:24
◼
►
Yeah, I've got quite a few of those.
01:06:26
◼
►
And just like the general meme accounts.
01:06:28
◼
►
Here's the success to wealth.
01:06:30
◼
►
Wake up in the morning, like, why are you showing me these people?
01:06:33
◼
►
There is a lot of engagement thirst on threads in like a way I have not experienced on a
01:06:38
◼
►
social platform before.
01:06:39
◼
►
Like there's a lot of like, hey, share your thing with me, you know?
01:06:45
◼
►
Like what's your X, Y, Z?
01:06:47
◼
►
I've seen a bunch of posts where like, good morning, everyone on threads.
01:06:51
◼
►
What's everyone up to?
01:06:52
◼
►
It's like, have you used Twitter at all for the past 15 years?
01:06:57
◼
►
It's like, really?
01:06:59
◼
►
Federica, I think a lot of these people maybe have, haven't really.
01:07:02
◼
►
Maybe that's the thing.
01:07:03
◼
►
Maybe they haven't.
01:07:05
◼
►
But also though, you know what, like for me, I prefer that to like, oh my God, have you
01:07:12
◼
►
seen this news?
01:07:14
◼
►
But I mean, anything.
01:07:15
◼
►
I know what I would prefer to receive.
01:07:17
◼
►
Alright, alright.
01:07:17
◼
►
So anything is literally preferable to Nazis.
01:07:22
◼
►
On a social network, right?
01:07:24
◼
►
So it's a pretty low bar in terms of what kind of algorithmic feed you want to put together.
01:07:31
◼
►
I mean, and that's the one thing that I want to call out about threads is that, you know,
01:07:37
◼
►
at the very least, they have a proper content moderation policy in place and you cannot
01:07:45
◼
►
say certain things and you cannot show certain things.
01:07:49
◼
►
And they have an actual team of professionals that can handle this kind of stuff instead
01:07:55
◼
►
of just, you know, Elon Musk going on Twitter and being like, you know, saying cisgender
01:08:02
◼
►
Like it's a pretty stark difference in terms of the kind of policy that they have, these
01:08:07
◼
►
two networks.
01:08:08
◼
►
So, you know, that's I think what contributes to my feeling of being like, you know, this
01:08:17
◼
►
is kind of nice compared to Twitter because here's the thing.
01:08:20
◼
►
So I've read about this this morning.
01:08:22
◼
►
I love Mastodon, right?
01:08:25
◼
►
And I have an incredible audience of people there and I feel very lucky that we moved
01:08:31
◼
►
to Mastodon at exactly the right time with Mac stories, that we have our own instance
01:08:35
◼
►
that we control and that a lot of tech people are there.
01:08:41
◼
►
And I'm super happy about that as a creator.
01:08:46
◼
►
But as putting myself in the shoes of someone who wants to follow other people, none of
01:08:54
◼
►
the folks I used to follow on Twitter, music Twitter, video games, Twitter, Pokemon, Twitter,
01:09:00
◼
►
none of those people, none of those content creators ever moved from Twitter to Mastodon.
01:09:09
◼
►
And so in going to Mastodon, I feel like I pretty much built a following list that was
01:09:19
◼
►
sort of a single topic.
01:09:21
◼
►
I opened my Mastodon timeline and all I see is tech, Apple and Google stuff.
01:09:28
◼
►
And Threads feels refreshing because all the people I used to follow, music, blogs, artists,
01:09:37
◼
►
Pokemon, Twitter, video games, Twitter, video games, journalists, like all of those people
01:09:43
◼
►
are here and they're posting like they're using it.
01:09:46
◼
►
And I don't have to open Twitter anymore just to check on those folks.
01:09:51
◼
►
I don't have to see the ads that Twitter wants to show me.
01:09:57
◼
►
I don't have to like I opened Twitter a couple of weeks ago and I saw a recommended interview
01:10:05
◼
►
with Andrew Tate or some idiot of that kind.
01:10:09
◼
►
It's like, I don't, I just, it's upsetting.
01:10:13
◼
►
It's so bad.
01:10:15
◼
►
It's literally become the hellscape that we always knew it was going to be.
01:10:20
◼
►
And that's why I think Threads is like, it feels like a positive thing right now.
01:10:27
◼
►
Right now, they may ruin it very soon, but right now in this very moment, it feels like
01:10:33
◼
►
a nice thing to have because it's like, it's what Twitter used to be, but without Elon Musk.
01:10:38
◼
►
And, uh, yeah, you know, that's sort of how I would describe it.
01:10:44
◼
►
I hope that they're able to do what they are aiming to try and do, which is to set it apart
01:10:53
◼
►
a little bit.
01:10:54
◼
►
Like they're being very like open and clear about how news is not a focus for them.
01:11:02
◼
►
Where like for Twitter, it clearly always was right.
01:11:05
◼
►
Like the easiest way to get verified on Twitter at a certain point was to work for a news
01:11:11
◼
►
organization because Twitter would just ordain anybody who worked at a news organization
01:11:17
◼
►
with verification, right?
01:11:19
◼
►
You just had to work there and you'd get it.
01:11:20
◼
►
And like, and that I think pushed a lot of journalists to the platform of all kinds and
01:11:27
◼
►
just like really made Twitter like a thing for news and less about what it was, which
01:11:33
◼
►
was like, what's happening, you know, or like, what are you up to?
01:11:38
◼
►
What are you doing?
01:11:39
◼
►
Rather than like what news is going on in the world.
01:11:43
◼
►
And I think that there is a distinction there, which I think is pretty important.
01:11:47
◼
►
And so I do hope that like they're able to try and not wait so heavily to news.
01:11:55
◼
►
Like clearly news will be occurring and people will be able to share whatever they want.
01:12:01
◼
►
But I just think that there is like a mindset and approach difference, which I think is
01:12:06
◼
►
a better one.
01:12:07
◼
►
Like I think it's more important really for like people to connect with each other about
01:12:13
◼
►
things that they're interested in rather than having like another place for news organizations
01:12:19
◼
►
to just share their news all the time.
01:12:21
◼
►
Like we just go read the news when we want to get the news like that.
01:12:25
◼
►
That's very much my approach.
01:12:26
◼
►
I'm not saying that people have to be like shut off from the world, but like just go
01:12:32
◼
►
get the news when you want to get the news or like hear about the news because your friends
01:12:36
◼
►
spoke about it or like, you know, that kind of thing.
01:12:38
◼
►
I feel like that's better than like, oh, here's your for you tab of trending news and here's
01:12:45
◼
►
this news and you want some more news?
01:12:47
◼
►
Here's some news.
01:12:48
◼
►
Like I just I think that for me was what really wore me down on Twitter over time.
01:12:54
◼
►
And so I kind of hope that Threads is able to approach things differently, like not to
01:13:00
◼
►
not have it.
01:13:01
◼
►
And it's not like they're like, hey, journalists go away.
01:13:05
◼
►
Like they're not doing that.
01:13:07
◼
►
But it's I think it's just like a focus difference, which I think is nice, I think.
01:13:14
◼
►
Maybe I'm being too idealistic.
01:13:17
◼
►
Maybe I'm like I think they're being idealistic and maybe I'm just going along with them.
01:13:21
◼
►
But I just hope that they're able to do something like that.
01:13:23
◼
►
Yeah, I think ultimately any service that looks like Twitter will swing towards news
01:13:32
◼
►
and current events because the format is so good for that.
01:13:36
◼
►
Short form text images, short form video.
01:13:40
◼
►
And so I think that the march of news will happen kind of regardless of whether you want
01:13:45
◼
►
it or not. But I think at least the way Threads is structured so far, maybe it'll be easier
01:13:52
◼
►
Like they don't have a trending thing and maybe they will at some point.
01:13:56
◼
►
I'm sure Twitter algorithmically tailored itself to news.
01:14:01
◼
►
Like I'm not saying to anger.
01:14:02
◼
►
I know a lot of people say to anger and I'm not sure that they made that decision
01:14:06
◼
►
purposefully, but I think that the site just did it.
01:14:11
◼
►
But like I think that they waited news very heavily and maybe if you don't wait news as
01:14:17
◼
►
heavily, like obviously it still breaks in, but maybe it's not so prevalent.
01:14:22
◼
►
You know what I mean?
01:14:23
◼
►
Like that that's my hope.
01:14:25
◼
►
Whether it happens or not, who could tell?
01:14:28
◼
►
Time will tell.
01:14:29
◼
►
Because I do think this is going to eat Twitter.
01:14:32
◼
►
Like I think this is it.
01:14:33
◼
►
Obviously this is too soon to call, but if I was going to put my money down, this is
01:14:40
◼
►
Seems like it's going to be.
01:14:42
◼
►
And again, it goes back to the scale conversation.
01:14:45
◼
►
Like if anyone can do this currently, it's going to be meta.
01:14:49
◼
►
And building it a top, Instagram gave him such a head start.
01:14:52
◼
►
Like no one's going to no one's going to catch him.
01:14:56
◼
►
Oh, nobody catches this.
01:14:58
◼
►
Like it's not possible.
01:15:03
◼
►
Like who could launch a service that would be compelling enough?
01:15:06
◼
►
There's no one that can do this.
01:15:08
◼
►
Like to launch a service and it grow to this scale.
01:15:12
◼
►
Like really, if meta can't do this, then nobody will be able to do it.
01:15:17
◼
►
I feel like.
01:15:20
◼
►
Like who could launch a new company today in 2023 that's like Twitter and take over
01:15:29
◼
►
Twitter's user base and become the de facto standard.
01:15:31
◼
►
Like it's just.
01:15:32
◼
►
I can't imagine a new company doing it.
01:15:35
◼
►
What was it going to be?
01:15:37
◼
►
You know what I mean?
01:15:38
◼
►
Like no offense, but like it's not going to happen.
01:15:40
◼
►
Like like it's meta can do it because they have the social graph already.
01:15:46
◼
►
Like it already exists.
01:15:48
◼
►
And then they have the ability to tell everyone.
01:15:52
◼
►
Like I think I saw something where they were like, you know, they were super pleased about
01:15:56
◼
►
where they got to because they hadn't even started to promote it in the ways that they
01:15:59
◼
►
can promote it.
01:16:01
◼
►
Like Instagram and the Facebook app.
01:16:04
◼
►
I don't know about the Facebook app.
01:16:06
◼
►
I don't use it, but like Instagram is not very heavy on telling you to go like I don't
01:16:11
◼
►
think Instagram ever told me that threads existed.
01:16:14
◼
►
No, right and so like they haven't even done any of that yet, and so no one has this.
01:16:21
◼
►
What they have and I feel like the app is good enough.
01:16:24
◼
►
I feel like they will be able to build an app that is as good, if not better than the
01:16:27
◼
►
Twitter app right and then also if they do pull like go through with the activity pub
01:16:34
◼
►
thing like this is a slam dunk.
01:16:36
◼
►
Like I feel like it's no one can catch this and I feel like slowly Twitter is just gonna
01:16:42
◼
►
fade away to this.
01:16:44
◼
►
Maybe I'm like, you know, hit me back on this in a year, but that's kind of where I'm feeling
01:16:49
◼
►
Yeah, I agree with that.
01:16:51
◼
►
I think you're right.
01:16:53
◼
►
I think there was a there was an opportunity here and meta took it and they ran with it
01:16:58
◼
►
and they didn't even try actually.
01:16:59
◼
►
They just they sprinted with it.
01:17:02
◼
►
And and it's working and I honestly I feel like it the way I think this will go is this
01:17:10
◼
►
will hurt Twitter and Mosseri can say whatever they want about like we're not trying to do
01:17:17
◼
►
They will do news at some point and I will be shocked if the way this the way this will
01:17:24
◼
►
shake out in my mind is Instagram will continue to be the place for following your friends
01:17:32
◼
►
and you know celebrities and what they do with reels and stories.
01:17:36
◼
►
But on threads I think what they will do is they will incorporate the close friends feature
01:17:44
◼
►
so you will be able to post status updates for just your friends.
01:17:48
◼
►
But you also be able to post updates about like your interests or if you're if you have
01:17:55
◼
►
a website, you know more Twitter style news updates.
01:17:59
◼
►
So I think they will have to do that and they're not doing it now but I think once they realize
01:18:07
◼
►
so we kill Twitter.
01:18:08
◼
►
Well it's it's obvious right because it's what they always wanted right with all the
01:18:15
◼
►
different strategies they've tried with Facebook to sort of you know convince publishers to
01:18:21
◼
►
to have content on Facebook and I mean I can name two or three different things that tried
01:18:27
◼
►
over the years remember Facebook paper for example and now they have this massive opportunity
01:18:35
◼
►
because they own the network that journalists want to use and that press organizations wants
01:18:41
◼
►
to use and it's such a sweet sweet opportunity to pass it up.
01:18:45
◼
►
There is one issue with that which is governments now trying to convince Facebook to pay publishers
01:18:53
◼
►
and Facebook are saying we're not going to do that and so like I think that they don't
01:18:58
◼
►
want to be in the we're working with journalists business but I think that they will be happy
01:19:04
◼
►
to be in the we provide the pipes business right like right like I can't imagine them
01:19:10
◼
►
starting a news organization initiative again.
01:19:13
◼
►
I think they want to be the place where journalists hang out and like break news but they don't
01:19:21
◼
►
necessarily want to be a publishing platform for their finished work like that was kind
01:19:27
◼
►
of the beauty and I followed a lot of journalists on Twitter like political journalists space
01:19:30
◼
►
journalists obviously a lot of tech ones I had lists set up for these different groups
01:19:34
◼
►
and what was great about it is not only did you see like oh hey I have this little tidbit
01:19:38
◼
►
I'm going to share here and you know 20 minutes later okay here's the article I wrote you
01:19:43
◼
►
know on this website go check it out but you also got to see the conversations between
01:19:48
◼
►
the people in these fields and that's just gone currently I mean a lot of that's still
01:19:54
◼
►
on Twitter but for those of us who aren't you know we don't have a place to see that
01:19:56
◼
►
sort of thing so I think if Meta can walk that line with threads I think it'll be it'll
01:20:03
◼
►
be successful in that regard and like there's already a lot of those journalists who I used
01:20:07
◼
►
to follow on Twitter who have popped up and who are basically treating it like they did
01:20:12
◼
►
Twitter and that's that's exciting to see well I'm sure we will talk much more about
01:20:16
◼
►
threads over the coming weeks it's gonna evolve it's gonna it's gonna change it's gonna evolve
01:20:20
◼
►
yeah it's gonna evolve into a rich tapestry because it's like a thread oh I didn't get it
01:20:26
◼
►
didn't get it we were trying to avoid the thread puns and you just had to go there okay if you want
01:20:33
◼
►
to find a link to the stuff we spoke about including all the great coverage of the public
01:20:38
◼
►
betas on max stories and six colors check out the links in your podcast player they're also
01:20:43
◼
►
available on the web at relay.fm connected slash 458 there you can join and become a member to get
01:20:51
◼
►
connected pro which is a longer ad-free version of the show each and every week and you can also send
01:20:56
◼
►
feedback or follow up via a form on our website links to both are in the show notes you can find
01:21:02
◼
►
us all online mike is the host of a bunch of other great shows here on the relay fm network
01:21:08
◼
►
and he is the co-founder of cortex brand you can find federico's work at max stories dot net
01:21:15
◼
►
and he is on mastodon as vatichi at max stories dot net mike is also in mastodon no follow me on
01:21:22
◼
►
threads man i'm i mike on threads okay we're gonna do threads okay all right yeah i want to do
01:21:28
◼
►
threads now thread me mike is i mike at threads federico is at vatichi on threads i am at ismh
01:21:37
◼
►
86 we're gonna talk about that in the pro show i want to talk about that in the pro show what
01:21:42
◼
►
happened to your name there a bad thing happened at my name you can say follow us on threads you
01:21:48
◼
►
can find my writing at 512 pixels dot net and if you're listening to this when it comes out go
01:21:52
◼
►
check out the kickstarter link is in the show notes i'd like to thank our sponsors this week
01:21:57
◼
►
they are netsweet squarespace and zocdoc and until next time guys say goodbye cheerio bye y'all