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Connected

469: Stephen... Stephen... Buy Me...

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:08   Hello and welcome to Connected episode 469.

00:00:12   It's made possible this week by our sponsors Vitality, Squarespace, and Nom Nom.

00:00:17   My name is Steven Hackett and I have the pleasure of being joined by Mr. Mike Hurley.

00:00:21   Howdy.

00:00:22   Hey.

00:00:23   I just got back from the US of A. You did.

00:00:28   I did and I'm also joined by Mr. Federico Vichichi.

00:00:31   Ciao Federico.

00:00:32   Hello, welcome back to Europe.

00:00:34   Thank you, thank you.

00:00:35   I appreciate you guys pushing the episode back a day so I could be on it because I was

00:00:40   coming home, you know.

00:00:42   Came home.

00:00:43   I'm back home.

00:00:44   Federico did text me last night and said are you back in Europe, which I really appreciated

00:00:47   as a message, you know.

00:00:48   Oh yeah.

00:00:49   It was just nice.

00:00:50   It was just nice.

00:00:51   Nice for him to like recognize that I'm geographically in Europe.

00:00:54   Even if the rest of my, even if my government doesn't want me to be.

00:00:58   In speaking you may not be, but in our hearts and in our geography you are.

00:01:02   Yeah, yeah.

00:01:03   Yes.

00:01:04   We have some very important follow up from last week's episode Federico.

00:01:07   Okay.

00:01:08   So on the last episode we exposed Steven for his storage.

00:01:12   Oh you saw, you saw the truth.

00:01:14   You saw, you saw, okay tell me.

00:01:16   So later on in the evening we were going through to Steven's house, we were out in the pod

00:01:22   cabin and we went through to Steven's house and we were setting up an Xbox that we used

00:01:26   for the podcast-a-thon.

00:01:27   Okay.

00:01:28   And Steven opened the cabinet and there were more hard drives.

00:01:31   There were more hard drives inside the house.

00:01:34   They just fell off the cabinet?

00:01:37   I mean they were just there man, all stacked up, all nice and neat, but all stacked up

00:01:40   on top of each other.

00:01:41   Oh my God.

00:01:42   And I snapped a photo, which is not the photo in the show notes, which is of Steven being

00:01:49   caught in the act, but it's probably better to have this image that Steven took, which

00:01:53   is nice and neat.

00:01:54   But I do have, I have photographic evidence of Steven being caught with his, um.

00:02:00   This was talked about on an episode of Mac Power Users.

00:02:02   I'm just going to say that, that some, someone didn't listen.

00:02:06   No, no, because it's hard to, to, to understand the amount of storage that you have.

00:02:11   I cannot comprehend it, you know?

00:02:13   Well do you want me to walk you through this as well?

00:02:15   Yes.

00:02:16   Okay.

00:02:17   So this is my Plex slash iTunes slash time machine server.

00:02:22   It's an M1 Mac Mini.

00:02:23   No, no, no, slash iTunes.

00:02:25   I'll get there.

00:02:27   Just let me go through this.

00:02:28   iTunes server.

00:02:29   iTunes.

00:02:30   Okay.

00:02:31   No, please.

00:02:32   Sorry.

00:02:33   We purchased media for years and I want all that, all those movies and stuff.

00:02:36   So they're all downloaded.

00:02:37   Okay.

00:02:38   Okay.

00:02:39   Go ahead.

00:02:40   It's a, it's a base level M1 Mac Mini with 256 gigabytes of SSD.

00:02:43   This was a machine that Jim Metzendorf owned and I bought it off him a while ago, a while

00:02:48   back.

00:02:49   You know, now as you're saying this, I'm remembering this is a feedback episode, right?

00:02:52   I think so.

00:02:53   Yeah.

00:02:54   I remember, I remember you thanking Jim and then I also saw on the Slack, Jim say, you're

00:02:58   welcome, which is funny to get that like 360 experience.

00:03:02   Connected to it is the five port OWC Thunderbolt hub, which I'm a big fan of.

00:03:07   If you just need some like USB C and Thunderbolt stuff, this one's, this is pretty sweet and

00:03:14   it's 129 bucks.

00:03:15   It's about the cheapest thing out there that does this.

00:03:17   I will say the power brick is bigger than the hub, but that's pretty common with Thunderbolt

00:03:22   stuff.

00:03:23   Uh, off of that are a couple of four terabyte SSDs and a set of little aluminum enclosures

00:03:32   also from OWC.

00:03:34   One of them holds the Plex library.

00:03:36   The other one is the clone of the Plex library.

00:03:38   You said that again?

00:03:39   So there's a set of four terabyte drives here.

00:03:43   One of them holds the Plex library and one is its clone.

00:03:47   We live very different lives.

00:03:48   There is then another older OWC enclosure with another four terabyte SSD in it.

00:03:55   And that is for remote time machine for the kids' laptops.

00:04:00   So this is the only justifiable one.

00:04:03   They're never going to plug into time machine drive.

00:04:06   So it just happens automatically.

00:04:07   Sure.

00:04:08   Nobody should have to plug into time machine drives to be honest.

00:04:11   That's true.

00:04:12   And then lastly, there's a T7 SSD that is time machine for the Mac mini itself.

00:04:18   So the things on the Mac mini, which is not very much because it has a tiny little SSD

00:04:22   that gets backed up there.

00:04:23   So that is another, let's see, four, eight, 12, 12.75 terabytes, another 12.75 terabytes

00:04:33   of storage.

00:04:34   And that's SSD, all SSD.

00:04:36   All SSD.

00:04:37   There's no spinning drives anymore except the offsite backups.

00:04:40   And for what?

00:04:42   For a bunch of movies and what?

00:04:45   What are you worried about?

00:04:46   Apple's going to be like, "uh, can't download those movies anymore."

00:04:50   I mean, that's mostly historic.

00:04:52   Like I just, I set it to download things automatically like 15 years ago and it just stuck around.

00:04:56   But you have like, yeah, you say that, but 15 years ago you were not using these drives

00:05:02   were you?

00:05:03   So like you had to be like, I'm going to move this stuff.

00:05:06   Like I'm going to move this stuff.

00:05:08   I'm not just going to be like, oh, I'll get a new drive that's like four terabytes and

00:05:12   I'll just plug it in so I can download anything that I need from my library whenever I need

00:05:16   it.

00:05:17   Instead you were like, no, I will take the four weeks that it will take to transfer these

00:05:22   from a spinning drive to an SSD drive.

00:05:25   Like that's what I'm going to do.

00:05:27   And the Plex library is all like Apple and tech video stuff that used to be on my laptop,

00:05:35   but now is in Plex.

00:05:36   Right.

00:05:37   So this is like another reason why you don't need a hundred terabytes on your laptop.

00:05:43   You know, we said that and right now only have 4.19 terabytes free.

00:05:47   So I'm right at four terabytes again on the laptop.

00:05:51   So who knows?

00:05:52   But you did supposedly discover the second computer.

00:05:56   I wasn't hiding it from you.

00:05:58   It was roast.

00:05:59   You were roasting my setup.

00:06:00   The Mac Wendy's not part of my setup.

00:06:01   It's in the house under the TV.

00:06:04   This is more, this isn't a part of the roast.

00:06:06   This is more just like now we're now we've entered a different plane, right?

00:06:10   Like it started as like, let's roast like we did for me.

00:06:14   But then we just spoke about your storage for an hour.

00:06:16   And so like now we're in like just how much storage does Steven have, you know?

00:06:21   Yeah.

00:06:22   Well, this is all somewhere, right?

00:06:23   No, you definitely have more.

00:06:25   You definitely have like another four terabyte SSD in a backpack or something.

00:06:29   Yeah.

00:06:30   I will be shocked if you don't have at least four terabytes, like in your nightstand or

00:06:34   just like you just trip over them or something like, oh, there's the four terabytes.

00:06:39   That's another clone.

00:06:41   You know how on Breaking Bad, Walter White would hide cash like in the, in the, in the

00:06:47   ventilation spots of his house, you hide, you can hide hard drives instead of cash.

00:06:54   Just hide them all over the place.

00:06:57   If I had, if I didn't have the drives, I would have cash to hide.

00:07:00   Also true.

00:07:01   Also true.

00:07:02   What is the offsite backup of this media?

00:07:05   I can't tell you that.

00:07:07   You do have one though?

00:07:08   What?

00:07:09   No, none of this is offsite other than Backblaze.

00:07:12   So this is not part of my spinning drive.

00:07:14   This goes to Backblaze?

00:07:16   Yeah.

00:07:17   Very slowly.

00:07:18   I haven't.

00:07:19   What kind of plan do you pay for on Backblaze?

00:07:22   It's like $7 a computer a month or something.

00:07:25   Man, I feel sorry for Backblaze honestly.

00:07:27   Because this is so, I get this email all the time, like, why don't you just use a Synology?

00:07:32   Well, I do this because I'd much rather have a Mac as the server as opposed to a Synology

00:07:36   because you can do things like, I have all these drives plugged in, send them to Backblaze.

00:07:41   I don't have to jump through the hoops that people like Casey and others have to do.

00:07:45   Can't you install Backblaze on a Docker container and zip it all up to the disk drive?

00:07:51   Well it's got to go through two Raspberry Pis hooked up to my garage door and I get

00:07:58   an LED telling me the status of my backup.

00:08:01   Oh, that's so helpful.

00:08:02   Good.

00:08:03   Oh no, it's yellow.

00:08:04   What does that mean?

00:08:05   So you, but you...

00:08:06   Yes.

00:08:07   You do this, okay.

00:08:08   All right.

00:08:09   So I, so again...

00:08:10   But let me, but let me ask you Steven, if the power goes out...

00:08:17   Which it does.

00:08:18   How, okay, how many backup solutions for power do you have in your house?

00:08:26   And follow up question, how do you reboot all these things and make sure they're working?

00:08:33   I am halfway through the installation of a whole home generator.

00:08:40   Oh my God.

00:08:41   I've seen it.

00:08:42   Oh my God.

00:08:43   It's really cool.

00:08:44   Because, y'all know this, we've worked together for a long time.

00:08:48   My power just goes out and I got, I got a job to do.

00:08:51   So yeah.

00:08:52   Look, I agree with it.

00:08:54   You know I agree with it, I was encouraging you to get it, but it was just funny to me

00:08:58   that Federico was asking what I think was not a serious question, but you do have an

00:09:04   actual serious answer.

00:09:05   I do.

00:09:06   I was sort of expecting that.

00:09:10   So but what if the one generator you have breaks?

00:09:14   So the power goes out, generator one should kick in, but what if there's a fault in generator

00:09:20   one?

00:09:21   Yeah.

00:09:22   There are apparently multiple ways to power the generator.

00:09:25   The generator can be powered from natural gas or propane.

00:09:28   Okay.

00:09:29   So I got options there.

00:09:32   Not your kids on a bicycle or something?

00:09:34   That's the last one, right?

00:09:36   That's the last.

00:09:37   Line them all up.

00:09:38   Why else have three children if you can't come on bicycles to power the home?

00:09:46   I mean to be fair, they already ship calendars on your behalf.

00:09:49   So you know.

00:09:51   Okay.

00:09:52   Also, basically immediately after the episode was published, Apple started listing both

00:10:00   the M2 Ultra Apple Silicon Mac Pro and the 2023 M2 Mac Studio on the refurb store for

00:10:12   Steven with about 15% discounts on those.

00:10:16   Can you hear that sound Steven?

00:10:18   The computer is saying, Steven, Steven, buy me.

00:10:22   Think of all the storage you could put inside.

00:10:26   I'm just an empty box now.

00:10:31   There's nothing in here except space for storage.

00:10:42   Just think of how many SSDs you could get in there.

00:10:45   So many.

00:10:46   I know this because I used to have many SSDs in my Mac Pro.

00:10:49   But surely you can get more in there now.

00:10:51   Oh yeah.

00:10:52   Is there an iPhone inside it I think?

00:10:54   There's no GPUs anymore.

00:10:56   So fill it up with drives.

00:10:58   We have some exciting news.

00:11:00   Okay.

00:11:01   This is the final call for Relay FM for St. Jude 2023.

00:11:07   I don't think it is.

00:11:08   We're going to do one next week, but you know, September is trying to push people into it.

00:11:13   It's the final call in September, but next week will be mentioned.

00:11:16   Next week's like the cleanup.

00:11:17   Like, hey, if you haven't donated yet, really you're out of time.

00:11:20   Right.

00:11:21   Right.

00:11:22   Okay.

00:11:23   Look, I'm just trying to get people to go donate.

00:11:24   This is the final call part one.

00:11:27   Final call version one underscore A. Look, we've been talking about this all month, but

00:11:34   I want to tell you, I want to tell you what I did yesterday.

00:11:36   Can I do that?

00:11:37   I'm going to tell you about my day yesterday.

00:11:39   So I got invited to the opening of Domino's Village, and this is a new building, six story

00:11:47   building on St. Jude's campus, actually right across the street from St. Jude's campus.

00:11:51   And they built this cool like tunnel over the road.

00:11:54   I guess that's called a bridge, right?

00:11:56   But it's enclosed.

00:11:57   A floating tunnel.

00:11:59   An enclosed bridge.

00:12:01   A tunnel, suspended from the ground.

00:12:04   You can walk across the street, but stay inside the building.

00:12:07   It's magical.

00:12:08   Uh huh.

00:12:09   Domino's Village is super cool.

00:12:11   So St. Jude has long, since 1962, all along has had the mission to treat children with

00:12:17   cancer and other catastrophic diseases without regard for the family's ability to pay.

00:12:23   And in Danny Thomas's vision for that, not only did that include free treatment and medicine

00:12:29   and testing and all the great medical and scientific work that happens at St. Jude,

00:12:34   but they weren't going to have to worry about meals and they weren't going to have to worry

00:12:38   about housing because most of these families aren't from Memphis.

00:12:41   I am an outlier at St. Jude that I am from here.

00:12:47   Most people travel from all across the US and all around the world to have their kids

00:12:50   treated here.

00:12:52   And housing has always been a challenge and they have several housing options now, but

00:12:57   for larger families like mine with three kids, those options were pretty limited.

00:13:02   And so the Domino's Village was built to help address this.

00:13:05   It has 140 apartments in it.

00:13:07   They are one bedroom, two bedroom, and three bedroom options.

00:13:13   And some of these treatments, you're at St. Jude, you're in and out of the hospital for

00:13:18   years.

00:13:19   In the past, you maybe have to split up your family, like some kids stay at home or maybe

00:13:23   your spouse stays back at home.

00:13:25   And now there's more flexibility because of this building.

00:13:29   So I got to go to the grand opening and it was, this place is amazing.

00:13:34   All these apartments are incredibly nice, but they really thought through and talked

00:13:38   with the patient families.

00:13:40   So a lot of these kids have to do regular blood draws, right?

00:13:43   You want to check on your immune system and other numbers while you're on treatment.

00:13:48   And before this, they would have to get dressed, the parents have to get dressed and like go

00:13:52   to the hospital, depending on where their housing was.

00:13:55   Maybe that was on campus.

00:13:56   Maybe that was someplace else like the Target house and you have to get on a shuttle and

00:14:00   go to the hospital.

00:14:02   So to alleviate this, they built a clinic in the building.

00:14:06   And so if all you've got to do is go do blood work or you got to go have something checked,

00:14:11   you don't have to make the trek over to the hospital.

00:14:13   You can do it within the village complex.

00:14:17   There's playgrounds, there's a beach room, which it was like being at the beach.

00:14:22   It was wild.

00:14:23   I don't know how they did it, but there's all of these amazing rooms, these amazing

00:14:26   experiences.

00:14:28   And so now there's this communal place for families who are a little bit larger or who

00:14:33   are staying a longer time and they can kind of do life together in this new place.

00:14:38   And for me, like as a patient dad, it was amazing to walk through this and talk to people

00:14:44   who were involved because all of it was patient driven.

00:14:48   Like they're talking to patients or talking to their parents about what they want and

00:14:51   need.

00:14:52   And I absolutely love that about St. Jude.

00:14:55   If you watch the podcast-a-thon, and by the way, there's a link to a blog post that has

00:14:59   the videos embedded in it.

00:15:02   If you haven't watched it, go watch it.

00:15:04   I'm very proud of how it went.

00:15:05   I think we all are.

00:15:06   There's a section there where my wife and I spoke about the family commons, which is

00:15:10   an area in the hospital that used to be patient rooms.

00:15:14   And now it's like there's a music lab and a science lab and a chapel and you can rent

00:15:20   like nap pods and there's a place to like a, what's the word I'm looking for?

00:15:26   Like have your hair done like a, you know, a salon.

00:15:30   Yes, thank you.

00:15:32   And all of this is because they really listen to patients and their families and they want

00:15:36   to treat the whole family while they're there.

00:15:39   This is only possible through partnerships and donations.

00:15:43   So when you go to stjude.org/relay, you're helping fund all of this stuff.

00:15:48   All the stuff we've spoken about all month, St. Jude's global initiatives, St. Jude's

00:15:53   scientific research that takes place in Memphis and then is shared around the world.

00:15:57   They're sending chemotherapy to countries all around the world, but it also pays for

00:16:01   things that are much more everyday life.

00:16:05   Because when you hear that your child has cancer, everything in your life explodes and

00:16:09   you're not thinking in the moment about where are we going to live for the next three years.

00:16:13   But for a lot of families, that's a very real challenge.

00:16:15   And so St. Jude is working to meet that need too.

00:16:18   So it was super cool to be there.

00:16:19   It was a real honor to get to be at the opening.

00:16:23   But stjude.org/relay is where you want to go.

00:16:27   We're going to be running this for another week or so.

00:16:29   So go donate.

00:16:31   If you are a person who works at a company that does donation matching, and a lot of

00:16:37   companies do that, if you're not sure, you can go ask somebody at your company.

00:16:42   There's a process on the website to have that match accredited to the campaign.

00:16:48   And if you have any questions about that, you can email us at stjude@relay.fm.

00:16:52   Or if anything else has come up in the campaign you have questions about, send us an email.

00:16:56   But it's been super successful and super cool.

00:16:58   So if you have donated, thank you.

00:17:00   And if you haven't, time is running out to be part of this campaign.

00:17:04   So please, please go donate.

00:17:06   I also wanted to, on the podcast, recognize your crowning as co-founder champion.

00:17:12   So during the podcast-a-thon, Steven and I competed.

00:17:16   Steven won.

00:17:17   Dominated.

00:17:18   I wouldn't say you dominated.

00:17:20   He dominated you.

00:17:21   There was about ten points between us.

00:17:22   You said he dominated you.

00:17:23   It wasn't really a domination.

00:17:25   You did win.

00:17:26   I mean, I grant that you definitely beat me.

00:17:30   But dominate.

00:17:31   In physical challenges you dominated me.

00:17:33   But in everything else it wasn't so much.

00:17:35   Is what I'm going to say for the matter.

00:17:37   But I acknowledged you as co-founder champion.

00:17:40   And did so and handed you the co-founder championship belt.

00:17:44   We commissioned championship belts to be made.

00:17:48   There's a video in the show notes which we posted on Instagram.

00:17:52   And you can see it's an actual championship belt that we had custom made.

00:17:56   It's got our artwork on it.

00:17:59   And the logos are all over it.

00:18:00   Like the Relay FM co-founder champion.

00:18:03   Steven is now the holder.

00:18:06   This can be challenged at any time Steven can put the co-founder championship on the

00:18:09   line.

00:18:10   We never redeemed fit.

00:18:12   But otherwise it will be, I guess every September now we will duke it out for the championship.

00:18:19   But like, you know, if you're feeling particularly spicy during the Ricky's, it's all up to you

00:18:23   really.

00:18:25   This episode of Connected is brought to you by Vitaly.

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00:19:41   Schedule your call by visiting Vitaly, that's V I T A L L Y, Vitaly.io/Connected and get

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00:19:53   The link is in the show notes, Vitaly.io/Connected for a free pair of AirPods Pro when you schedule

00:19:59   a qualified meeting.

00:20:01   Our thanks to Vitaly for their support of the show and Relay FM.

00:20:05   So it's iOS 17.1.

00:20:07   It even needs to wait, you know, let's just get another beta out there.

00:20:12   iOS 17.1 is out now, beta one at least, and it has a bunch of changes.

00:20:16   I want to list through some of the stuff that seems interesting and then maybe Federico

00:20:20   you can touch on the things that intrigue you the most.

00:20:24   So now in Apple Music, there is the option to like what they're referring to as favorite

00:20:29   songs rather than like songs.

00:20:31   No, rather than loving songs.

00:20:32   Or love, I should say, yes, you know, favorite them.

00:20:35   And this is from 9to5Mac.

00:20:37   It says Apple says that Apple Music will automatically generate playlists of all of your favorite

00:20:42   songs and albums.

00:20:43   This feels very Spotify like.

00:20:44   Yeah.

00:20:45   So this is one of the features that was preannounced for Apple Music.

00:20:49   They said it was going to come later this year and it seems like 17.1 for other features

00:20:54   we'll talk about shortly will be the Apple Music release.

00:20:57   The ability to continue airdrop transfers over the internet is a thing now.

00:21:02   So you can start an airdrop and leave.

00:21:06   Let me send you these photos.

00:21:07   I'm running away.

00:21:08   In transferring phones, I'm getting...

00:21:10   Bye.

00:21:11   See ya!

00:21:13   In transferring phones, I'm getting annoyed about how often my phones are connecting to

00:21:18   each other and I don't really know what happens.

00:21:23   You know, like you just hold two phones and they actually say "connected!"

00:21:26   But like what though?

00:21:27   It's just celebrating our show.

00:21:28   It's a very weird thing.

00:21:30   What is it doing though when it says that they're connected to each other?

00:21:33   Like what are they doing?

00:21:34   I have talked to people who carry like a work phone and a personal phone and their phones

00:21:39   keep trying to airdrop their contact card to each other even though they're like the

00:21:44   same person.

00:21:45   I will also say that the fancy airdrop animation is amazing, but I know in the past week we've

00:21:51   been airdropping stuff to each other a lot and it's kind of busted.

00:21:55   Like sometimes it just doesn't work.

00:21:57   And so hopefully 17...

00:22:00   I keep calling this iOS 7.

00:22:02   I don't know why.

00:22:03   Hopefully iOS 17.1 makes the whole thing better.

00:22:09   Luckily you can pull up from that, right?

00:22:11   Like iOS 17, right?

00:22:13   You can pull up.

00:22:14   You know, as you're like barrowing towards the cliff face.

00:22:19   This is interesting.

00:22:20   So iOS 17.1 adds a feature where in the United Kingdom only you can see bank balances in

00:22:28   the wallet app.

00:22:29   So if you have a card for your bank and you make a payment inside the wallet app, it will

00:22:33   show you your available balance.

00:22:35   And this is based off of a technology, what we have here called open banking, where all

00:22:42   banks have like an API that they can read from and write to and that they actually legally

00:22:47   have to.

00:22:48   So for example, you can have one bank...

00:22:51   Well, say you have two banks with two different bank accounts.

00:22:54   It's possible to see the balances of both of them inside of one banking app if you want

00:22:59   to.

00:23:00   This is also generated a bunch of startups.

00:23:02   So like it's very easy here to create like a budgeting app because you can just log into

00:23:06   all of your banks and credit cards that you just... and it like passes an API token.

00:23:11   So now Apple is going to be taking advantage of this inside of the wallet app, which I

00:23:15   just think is a very cool feature.

00:23:17   Like why not, you know?

00:23:19   Weird, but go for it.

00:23:21   There's also when you turn on the flashlight, it shows in the dynamic island.

00:23:25   Best feature.

00:23:26   Best live activity.

00:23:28   Now you can tell that the flashlight is on because it's in the dynamic island.

00:23:34   There is no way to tell that the flashlight is on otherwise.

00:23:36   No, I mean, what other way there is?

00:23:38   Well, look at it.

00:23:39   Come on.

00:23:40   It's absolutely zero way.

00:23:42   Well, it's staring at the back of their phone, you wild.

00:23:45   And also if you are on iPadOS and you search for an app and press in spotlight and press

00:23:51   shift return on a keyboard, it will open in stage manager.

00:23:55   I just got to say what is going on now that... why is iPadOS stage manager so much better

00:24:01   than macOS stage manager?

00:24:03   Why can't they develop these technologies at the same time?

00:24:06   Why do they...

00:24:07   Go on Macstories.net, read what I want and ship it the following year.

00:24:15   I don't know.

00:24:16   Can you just sneak this stuff into a macOS review?

00:24:20   I guess John did.

00:24:21   I don't know.

00:24:22   For a price, I could.

00:24:23   For a price?

00:24:24   Yeah.

00:24:25   That's interesting.

00:24:26   Yeah.

00:24:27   Yeah.

00:24:28   Yeah.

00:24:29   Yeah.

00:24:30   Yeah.

00:24:31   Yeah.

00:24:32   What I think, in all seriousness, what I think happened was that... and I say this based

00:24:35   on my feel of this, not because somebody told me, but it feels like some people were really

00:24:44   convinced a specific version of stage manager last year and stage manager was shipped, the

00:24:53   feedback happened, they saw the complaints, they saw the stories and thankfully Apple

00:25:00   being Apple, sometimes they are really convinced, but they are also willing to listen.

00:25:06   Now all of this could have been avoided by listening last year instead of being stuck

00:25:11   on a certain idea.

00:25:12   Hey, at least we got these fixes in '17 and not in '18, in 2024.

00:25:20   So I think it's still a victory.

00:25:23   But yeah, shift or turn is actually very nice.

00:25:25   So you can just pull up Spotlight and without having to use the pointer, so your hands are

00:25:30   not leaving the keyboard, just press shift or turn or shift enter, depending on what

00:25:34   it's labeled on your keyboard, and you can add the...

00:25:38   I guess the way that it works is you add the most recent window for the selected app to

00:25:44   the current workspace.

00:25:46   So let's say that you have a bunch of Safari windows open and you search for Safari in

00:25:50   Spotlight and you press shift or turn.

00:25:54   The most recently active window from Safari is going to be the one that gets added to

00:25:59   the current workspace.

00:26:01   Assuming that you have, of course, space for those windows, Stage Manager is still limited

00:26:07   to four windows at once in the same workspace.

00:26:12   So if you have three windows, Safari will get added.

00:26:14   If you already are at four windows, you will be taken into a new workspace.

00:26:20   So that limitation is still in place, unfortunately.

00:26:24   And you said something else about music, though, right?

00:26:26   You think it's going to be the music release?

00:26:28   Yeah, so there's a couple other features that will be in 17.1.

00:26:32   So the rebrand of loved songs to favorites, which by the way, will carry over.

00:26:39   So all songs that I previously loved in Apple Music are now marked as favorites in my library.

00:26:46   They will automatically show up in this favorite songs playlist that is not in this beta, but

00:26:51   it will be at some point.

00:26:54   There is also another feature that was previously announced.

00:26:58   It was actually in the guides to iOS 17 that I had from Apple PR and it never shipped.

00:27:04   And now I know why, because it got delayed.

00:27:08   Apple makes some artwork templates for your playlists.

00:27:15   So now when you edit a playlist of your own that you made, when you choose the picture,

00:27:21   you can choose from a selection of templates made by Apple.

00:27:24   And there are not too many of them.

00:27:26   There's like, I would say about 10 different templates based on these like geometrical

00:27:32   patterns.

00:27:33   They're pretty cool looking and there's not a lot of choice.

00:27:37   I assume more templates will be released over time.

00:27:41   They still look pretty nice, I think.

00:27:42   I used to use a utility called Denim to make nice looking covers for my playlists in Apple

00:27:50   Music.

00:27:51   This is a built-in solution, but of course it depends on how many you will be able to

00:27:55   choose from.

00:27:56   Right now, not too many.

00:27:58   And there's also a feature that was straight up copied from Spotify.

00:28:02   As with most things these days, you know, Android copies iOS, iOS copies Android, Apple

00:28:07   Music copies Spotify and vice versa.

00:28:09   It's fine.

00:28:10   There's only so many features.

00:28:12   Exactly.

00:28:13   Song suggestions at the bottom of a playlist.

00:28:17   So this is a feature that Spotify has had for a few years at this point.

00:28:21   You scroll to the bottom of a playlist and Apple Music will suggest additional songs

00:28:26   that in theory should be a good fit for that playlist.

00:28:30   However, and there's a reload button of course if you want to get more recommendations.

00:28:35   However, these suggestions right now in this first beta of 17.1 are so bad in Apple Music.

00:28:42   They are so inferior to the Spotify recommendations.

00:28:50   For example, I have a playlist called Best of 2023 and it's all, I make this playlist

00:28:55   every year.

00:28:56   It's my favorite songs of the year.

00:28:58   And it's pretty easy to infer, I guess, if you are an algorithm that these are all songs

00:29:03   that were released in the current calendar year.

00:29:05   However, when I went in there and scroll to the bottom last night, I got a bunch of recommendations

00:29:11   from Oasis, from the Stone Roses, from Eminem, like, you know, songs that were first of all,

00:29:22   not matching the sort of tracks that I loved this year, but also not songs that came out

00:29:29   in 2023.

00:29:30   So, I mean, the Stone Roses literally made two albums in the early 90s.

00:29:35   I was going to say, it's been a minute.

00:29:38   It's been a while.

00:29:39   Apple Music is just hopeful.

00:29:41   That's right.

00:29:42   Bring them back.

00:29:43   Bring back the Stone Roses.

00:29:45   But yeah, so hopefully this will improve.

00:29:50   But yeah, we're looking at three, four Apple Music features already.

00:29:56   And I should also say, you can now mark a song as favorite from the Now Playing Control

00:30:05   on the lock screen and from the Dynamic Island.

00:30:09   So you can mark it as a favorite without having to open the music up.

00:30:14   It's not part of iOS 17.1, but I did want to follow up on something I talked about a

00:30:20   long time ago, that the timer live activity, when you tapped it would not take you to the

00:30:28   timer.

00:30:29   It would just stare at you on the lock screen.

00:30:32   And that has changed.

00:30:35   I guess it wasn't even there.

00:30:36   I don't think in the in like the release candidate for 17, but maybe 1701 or 02 added it.

00:30:42   So now if you have a timer, and it's a live activity on the lock screen, you tap it, it

00:30:47   takes you to the timer directly, which is the way it should have always been.

00:30:51   And I'm so glad they fixed it.

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00:32:43   Federico has changed the world.

00:32:44   Changed my world.

00:32:45   You've introduced multi button.

00:32:47   Multi button.

00:32:48   Federico, does the word multi have a different meaning in Italian?

00:32:53   I know it's used in I think some Latin based languages.

00:32:59   Yeah, it means multiple.

00:33:02   Yeah, no, I thought like people use the word multi as like, I don't know, nevermind.

00:33:09   No, no, it's when it's used in combination with something else, it's like multiple of

00:33:14   something.

00:33:15   Like I would say, I don't know, multi mic, if I had multiple mics at my disposal.

00:33:23   Multiple mic harleys, you know, like a little army of mics.

00:33:26   Yeah.

00:33:27   Yes.

00:33:28   So what do you want to know about multi button?

00:33:31   What is it?

00:33:32   Okay, so.

00:33:33   All the people.

00:33:34   All right, so I had this idea.

00:33:38   I was playing around with my FM 15 Pro Max.

00:33:40   We're going to talk about that in a minute.

00:33:44   And I was taking a look at all these shortcuts that people have been making for taking advantage

00:33:47   of the action button.

00:33:49   And one of the things that I knew was going to happen happened, which is people making

00:33:56   menus to pick a shortcut.

00:33:59   So when you press the action button, you get a list of additional shortcuts that you can

00:34:03   run.

00:34:04   And that menu in itself is a shortcut, right?

00:34:08   You make a list and you choose from a list.

00:34:11   But I started thinking about this and I started wondering, well, is there any way that I can

00:34:14   improve this?

00:34:17   And I had this thought after a few glasses of wine, what if I could figure out a way

00:34:23   to assign two shortcuts to the action button?

00:34:27   And so I started playing around with different ideas and I realized, well, one of the things

00:34:34   I would like the action button to do, I mean, beyond, you know, I would like to double press

00:34:38   or triple press the action button.

00:34:41   None of these gestures are supported and there's nothing I can do about that.

00:34:45   But I had this idea of toggling between two shortcuts.

00:34:50   And obviously the problem was how well, how do you toggle between two shortcuts?

00:34:55   Like how can you tell your iPhone now run shortcut A, now run shortcut B?

00:35:01   And so obviously we go back to our dear friend of the show, a JSON file.

00:35:07   And I had this idea of, well, what if whenever you run a shortcut, you store a little configuration

00:35:13   file that says at this time, you know, 6.02 PM and 10 seconds, you press the action button?

00:35:21   And what if when you pressed it again, shortcuts could say, well, I see that it's only been

00:35:27   five seconds since you last ran a shortcut from the action button.

00:35:31   I'm going to let you toggle to a different shortcut now.

00:35:34   So that's multi-button.

00:35:37   It's a way to have a default shortcut associated with your action button.

00:35:43   So when you press it, you can just run a shortcut and it can be whatever you want.

00:35:48   Toggling the flashlight, do not disturb, sending a message, whatever.

00:35:52   But if you press it again within a few seconds, it's going to run a different shortcut.

00:35:57   So you can assign two shortcuts to the same action button press.

00:36:01   The difference is that you toggle between them if it's been a few seconds.

00:36:05   The idea being if you press the action button, I assume you did what you wanted to get done.

00:36:13   And if it's been a few seconds, maybe now you want to do something else.

00:36:17   And it's actually very simple behind the scenes.

00:36:19   It's storing a timestamp in iCloud Drive and whenever you press the button, it does a little

00:36:26   calculation to say, well, has it been seven seconds since you last ran a shortcut from

00:36:31   the action button?

00:36:32   If it's less than seven seconds, it's going to run a different shortcut.

00:36:36   If it's more than seven seconds, which is, by the way, a number that you can customize,

00:36:41   it's going to run your default shortcut instead.

00:36:45   And I actually have a few ideas.

00:36:49   I'm already playing around with... because I figured I can extend multi-button in a way

00:36:56   that can become even more powerful in the future.

00:37:00   And I'm playing around with this idea of overrides.

00:37:03   So essentially making multi-button contextual.

00:37:09   I see all these shortcuts that people are making based on different conditions and all

00:37:15   these like if-then-else statements.

00:37:18   Like if I'm in a focus mode or if I'm on Wi-Fi and they need to create all these shortcuts

00:37:23   manually.

00:37:25   And I'm thinking about like what if I could make this into a system where it's like more

00:37:29   plug and play?

00:37:31   You don't need to do all that coding yourself, but there's only a few options that you can

00:37:37   configure.

00:37:39   And for example, imagine if multi-button knew if you were in focus mode or knew if you were

00:37:44   in Wi-Fi or knew if you, for example, you were using a specific app.

00:37:52   And that's something that I'm working on right now.

00:37:54   Because I've seen there's this, I think, a utility called actions or something that I've

00:37:59   seen people have been using to do stuff with.

00:38:02   But to me, like, you know, I want things done the Federico way, which is like Federico did

00:38:07   it and then I just get to install the shortcut.

00:38:10   That's what I like.

00:38:11   Exactly.

00:38:12   That's my favorite way.

00:38:13   Because typically, if I don't know what to do in my life, I text Federico and I say,

00:38:18   how does this work in shortcuts?

00:38:21   But not everybody has that access.

00:38:23   So it's nice when you build these things for us.

00:38:26   What if you created a shortcut, Mike, for your action button that just takes a screenshot

00:38:32   of shortcuts and sends it to Federico automatically?

00:38:35   Put that in your multi-button and smoke it, you know?

00:38:37   That's a really good, I'm going to make that my second action in the multi-button.

00:38:40   Now that I have the action button, I have, if you will, a public request for app developers.

00:38:48   I think now that we have the action button, you should, if you're a developer and you

00:38:52   have an app that deals with, I don't know, notes or tasks or documents, whatever, you

00:38:57   should consider actions in shortcuts that deal with the currently selected item.

00:39:05   Things by Culture Code does this, and that's the sort of template that I urge other developers

00:39:10   to follow.

00:39:12   Because before, on an iPhone, if you were using shortcuts on an iPhone, you couldn't

00:39:18   really run a shortcut based on what was currently selected in an app.

00:39:24   An app on an iPhone is full screen, and if it's full screen, it means you cannot open

00:39:28   shortcuts at the same time.

00:39:30   But now you have the action button.

00:39:33   And so one of the things you can do in Things, for example, is you have an action called

00:39:37   Get Currently Selected Item.

00:39:40   And so, for example, I was able to make a little shortcut that takes whatever I selected,

00:39:44   I press the action button, and it reschedules that task to a date that I chose beforehand.

00:39:51   So this idea of get the current selection via a shortcut's action on an iPhone is something

00:39:59   that I would like more developers to adopt in the future.

00:40:02   How do you have your multi-button do right now?

00:40:05   Mine, by default, it appends some text to a note, to my little dashboard note.

00:40:13   But if I press it again, it brings up a list of more shortcuts.

00:40:17   That's the thing that I--

00:40:18   Ah, so you have the menu, but here--

00:40:19   I do have the-- see, the thing is, I didn't want to always choose from a menu.

00:40:25   See, this is what I-- I think a lot of people was like, oh, I could put so many things here.

00:40:29   But I was also very resistant of that idea, because I thought if I do that, I'm not going

00:40:34   to use it.

00:40:35   Like, I know me, and if every time I got to choose from something else, I'm going to not

00:40:39   do that over time, because I'm just going to go do the thing.

00:40:42   Because otherwise, I will put 25 things behind that menu, and then it's just too many things,

00:40:47   and then I'm not going to use it effectively.

00:40:49   Exactly.

00:40:50   And it felt like a very natural interaction to me, like pressing the action button twice.

00:40:54   Like by default, it goes to your sort of default shortcut.

00:40:58   But if you press it again, it signals this intention of like, no, I want to have more

00:41:02   shortcuts.

00:41:03   And so that's why I put my menu as the secondary shortcut in multi-button.

00:41:09   I might do that, because I have mine set up right now, but I'm thinking of kind of adapting

00:41:14   it a bit, and I might make one of those menus for it.

00:41:16   So what I did initially-- so my first thing that I set on the action button was a shortcut

00:41:24   to add a task to To Do.

00:41:25   And this was based on something that you said, Federico.

00:41:29   I think it was on the show of like, there is no quick add for a Todoist on iPhone like

00:41:35   there is on the Mac.

00:41:37   And so now I just press my action button and add a task.

00:41:40   And let me tell you, I've been doing this so much.

00:41:44   So I'm really happy with my choice, because I've been doing it constantly.

00:41:49   And it's really great.

00:41:50   Like I set up a shortcut where it asks me, what's the task?

00:41:54   And then I tell it, and then it asks me what the due date is, and I type it in natural

00:41:57   language.

00:41:58   And then it pulls it through.

00:42:00   And I'm happy I did it this way, because I thought to myself, sometimes I don't want

00:42:04   to add things to Todoist.

00:42:05   I want to put them in due, because it's something I-- you know, like some like thing.

00:42:09   Like it's a simple task, but I want to make sure I remember it, like buy milk or whatever.

00:42:14   And that kind of stuff I put in due, because for me, it's like if I'm leaving the studio

00:42:19   and I need to pick up some groceries on the way home, I put it into due so it will keep

00:42:23   reminding me.

00:42:24   So I'm less likely to walk past the grocery store.

00:42:27   So now there's a toggle in this shortcut where I still put in the task title and the date,

00:42:35   and it says what app do you want it to go in.

00:42:36   Ah, that's perfect.

00:42:39   And let me ask you, when you save to Todoist on your phone, does it automatically sync

00:42:46   back to your other devices running Todoist?

00:42:49   Or do you need to open the iPhone app at some point?

00:42:52   I mean, I probably need to open the iPhone app, but I open the iPhone app all the time.

00:42:56   Like I actually don't know the answer to that question, because it's like this-- I just

00:42:59   don't think that would be something that would be a problem for me, because of just how often

00:43:03   I open Todoist anyway.

00:43:05   And so the second action on my multi-button that I had before I added this due thing was

00:43:12   to add something to a home project reminders list, which is something I'm trying to set

00:43:16   up.

00:43:17   And on the sidebar, the thing I was texting Federico about is, why can't you, in reminders,

00:43:24   in shortcuts, you cannot add a reminder to one of these new sections?

00:43:29   And I find that so annoying.

00:43:30   They've just added this whole new thing called sections, which shows itself in the Kanban,

00:43:34   right?

00:43:35   Like I know sections there before, but now it's like this whole big thing about column

00:43:38   view.

00:43:39   But if you want to add a reminder via shortcuts, it just goes into a list like randomly when

00:43:44   I want to say, put it in the section, but you can't.

00:43:46   But anyway, I might also put reminders as a third option into that first shortcut.

00:43:52   So I can choose from Todoist, due or reminders, and then have something else on the second

00:43:56   one.

00:43:57   Stephen, what do you have in your action button?

00:43:59   The camera.

00:44:00   Mm.

00:44:01   It's a to-do still.

00:44:02   I've been busy.

00:44:03   The camera one is nice, because if you do it as the camera, then if you keep pressing

00:44:07   the action button, it takes photos, which is not a thing that happens if you don't have

00:44:11   the camera.

00:44:12   Yeah, I just haven't gotten time to sit down to work on this.

00:44:16   Which I do think is something Apple should change, by the way.

00:44:19   I think even if you don't have the camera on your action button, I still think that

00:44:26   the action button should work as a camera shutter when you have the camera out.

00:44:33   There's no reason why it shouldn't, in my opinion.

00:44:35   I have a request, and it's time for Apple.

00:44:38   So if you work on the shortcuts team, and if you're listening to this, here's my pitch.

00:44:43   So later this year, in theory, Apple should release a new API for developers to use the

00:44:49   volume buttons on an iPhone to capture, to snap pictures, like in camera apps.

00:44:56   Here's my pitch.

00:44:58   Imagine a future iPhone with the action button, or future software update to iOS 17, where

00:45:06   you run a shortcut from the action button, and it brings up one of these lists.

00:45:11   So it brings up one of these menus.

00:45:14   Imagine if you could scroll, or navigate up and down, the items in a list with the volume

00:45:22   buttons, and confirm your selection by pressing the action button again.

00:45:29   And I'll give you one more.

00:45:32   Broadly speaking, if a shortcut comes up, and it's got a list or a text field, pressing

00:45:40   the action button again should confirm the action.

00:45:44   Like in a text field, there's like a blue button that says OK, or confirm.

00:45:49   Like I would like the action button to confirm a menu, or a dialogue, or whatever.

00:45:57   So more physical interactions for these shortcuts that bring up a UI would be lovely to have

00:46:04   in the future.

00:46:05   This episode of Connected is brought to you by Nom Nom.

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00:47:46   It's new hardware season.

00:47:47   Mike, I want to start with you because you have a new phone and a new watch.

00:47:52   Ooh.

00:47:53   How's that going?

00:47:55   This is the happiest I've been with a hardware update revision year in a very, very long

00:48:00   time.

00:48:01   Mike Wohle is a very, very happy boy.

00:48:03   Just having the combo of the 15 Pro Max and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has been so nice.

00:48:10   It solved some things that were bothering me and also given me some features that I

00:48:15   wasn't necessarily expecting.

00:48:17   So the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the biggest thing is the battery life.

00:48:23   For example, my Series 7, I was getting about 12 to 14 hours of battery life.

00:48:29   I would get like 12 hours passed through the day.

00:48:33   You know, I take my watch off at 8 or 9 o'clock and then at 8 or 9 o'clock in PM, it would

00:48:38   tell me I had like 10% left.

00:48:40   And it was very annoying.

00:48:42   I used to have to think way too much about the charging.

00:48:45   I just traveled home from America.

00:48:47   So I woke up in the morning into Memphis, traveled all the way home overnight on the

00:48:54   plane and I didn't need to charge my watch at all until today.

00:49:00   So I took my Ultra off charge and then 27 hours later, I had 50% battery life, which

00:49:07   was kind of incredible.

00:49:11   I was very, very happy about that.

00:49:14   It solved that issue completely for me.

00:49:15   I just don't have to think about the battery anymore.

00:49:18   I'm really enjoying the bigger, brighter screen as well.

00:49:23   It just looks nice and it's easier to use and it's just easier for me to do things on

00:49:27   my watch.

00:49:29   The Apple Watch Ultra is like the perfect pairing with watch OS X, right?

00:49:32   Like it's just like a really, really good pairing, the way that the UI looks and stuff

00:49:37   like that.

00:49:38   So I'm very happy there.

00:49:39   And then my 15 Pro Max, honestly, the biggest thing is like, I just find this phone a joy

00:49:46   to hold and use.

00:49:49   The weight difference is so noticeable in a way that I don't think I could have imagined.

00:49:56   Almost to me, I feel like it was even undersold by the people that got to try it, right?

00:50:01   Like it's just like, this is a massive difference.

00:50:03   I think it's a difference you can only really understand once you're using it in your normal

00:50:09   use cases, right?

00:50:10   Like just like every day, picking it up, using it for like 20 minutes without somebody hovering

00:50:14   over your shoulder or whatever.

00:50:17   This is just, it's so awesome.

00:50:19   It feels good too.

00:50:20   Like the rounding of the phone itself, like the edges, everything just feels nice.

00:50:25   The way I love the grip of the titanium.

00:50:30   If you are someone like me who doesn't use a case, the titanium PVD, the PVD coated titanium

00:50:35   is way nicer in the hand than the stainless steel ones.

00:50:39   The camera is impressive, but I haven't yet.

00:50:43   I mean, I haven't been using it for long enough to really understand the real use cases of

00:50:47   the 5X, but you know, I've been taking a bunch of sample photos and videos and I'm very impressed

00:50:52   by it.

00:50:53   The action button is just like, it is really like changing the way that I use my phone,

00:50:58   which is wild.

00:50:59   I would not have expected that.

00:51:01   And then the natural titanium colors, super good.

00:51:04   And I really liked that the two devices match for me as well.

00:51:07   I find the titanium, well, obviously I don't have an Apple watch ultra too, but I'm really

00:51:12   happy with my ultra first gen.

00:51:15   The natural titanium looks incredibly nice.

00:51:19   And I agree with you.

00:51:21   It feels so much better in the hand than the stainless steel.

00:51:24   I don't know what it is.

00:51:25   It feels warmer to me.

00:51:27   I'm sure that the more sort of contoured edges, they also help in like making it feel nicer

00:51:33   when you hold it.

00:51:34   But I'm currently going through this sort of, it kind of feels like a midlife crisis

00:51:41   in a way where this phone urges me to hold it without a case.

00:51:49   However, however, I, I've been using a case since the iPhone 4.

00:51:57   So it's been like what, 13 years that I've been using a case on my phone.

00:52:02   I mean, a phone without a case makes me feel anxious all the time.

00:52:06   Like I'm always obsessing over the fact that I might scratch it or ding it and that I may

00:52:12   break it and I got to ensure I got Apple care, but then I got to go to the Apple store, you

00:52:17   know, and it becomes a whole thing and I need to drive there.

00:52:21   And I don't know, sometimes I tend to be a bit of a clumsy person with my phone.

00:52:26   Like it's not like I throw it around, but like I place it on a table without thinking

00:52:30   about it much.

00:52:31   But now that I'm using it without a case, I'm thinking about it.

00:52:36   And I don't want to think about, you know, how I hold and use my phone.

00:52:41   However, when I do hold it, I think, well, but this is so nice though.

00:52:46   I bought a silicone case and I put it in the silicone case.

00:52:49   I'm like, yeah, this is fine.

00:52:51   But then I took it out of the case again and I thought, oh, this is so much nicer though.

00:52:55   So for the first time, like in previous years with the stainless steel, I was like, yeah,

00:53:00   it looks good.

00:53:01   I can see the color, whatever.

00:53:03   I'm just going to put it in a case.

00:53:04   Titanium and this texture, this color, the edges, everything about it makes me want to

00:53:11   hold it without a case.

00:53:12   However, my muscle memory and my history of using cases makes me worry about it all the

00:53:20   time.

00:53:21   Right now I don't have it in a case and I don't want to put it back, but I'm worried.

00:53:25   I understand that and I wish for you the freedom to not use a case on your phone because it

00:53:32   feels so excellent.

00:53:35   And also, don't know if you guys are aware, but like cases, am I right?

00:53:39   They're not great.

00:53:40   I've been hearing some stuff.

00:53:45   They're having a moment.

00:53:46   Cases are, oh boy, am I getting a lot of ads for cases on Instagram.

00:53:49   Yes.

00:53:50   Oh man.

00:53:51   Oh yeah.

00:53:52   Yeah.

00:53:53   They're spending some money.

00:53:54   I'm a newsmaker right now.

00:53:55   You just print that money, baby.

00:53:58   Let's just say it, right?

00:54:00   Apple, they really botched it with this fine woman case.

00:54:05   However good or bad it is, right?

00:54:08   It doesn't matter now because the story has become the case is bad.

00:54:14   It doesn't matter what you think about it.

00:54:17   The story is this case is bad.

00:54:19   I think the case is bad, but this is just where it is.

00:54:24   I heard a blogger from 512 Pixels, for example, stated that the case was bad.

00:54:29   A blogger from 512 Pixels noticed that the USB cutout on the fine woman case is misaligned

00:54:35   with the USB-C port.

00:54:36   And this blogger pointed out correctly how unless you get an Apple USB-C case, the connector

00:54:44   won't fit if you're using the fine woman case because of that misaligned USB cutout.

00:54:52   Stuff like that, I'm going to say something that I don't think is necessarily controversial.

00:54:57   Maybe some people will say that I hate the environment, which I don't.

00:55:02   But I feel like in this case, no pun intended.

00:55:06   What was that reaction?

00:55:08   I don't know.

00:55:11   Is it supposed to be a bell or something?

00:55:15   I feel like Apple maybe thought that the principle behind the case was more important than the

00:55:26   money it costs.

00:55:28   That for the sake of the good of the environment, they could sell people a subpar accessory

00:55:35   and they would be okay with it.

00:55:38   And as much as I think a lot of people, our generation of our age, we are worried about

00:55:44   the environment, about climate change, about the fact that we are destroying our planet.

00:55:52   We are worried about these things.

00:55:54   But at the end of the day, there is still an underlying truth that to buy these accessories,

00:55:59   you got to spend money.

00:56:01   And at some point, sure, there's the principle behind the case.

00:56:07   There's the thinking behind the case.

00:56:08   Oh, it makes me feel good to know that this accessory is carbon neutral and that it's

00:56:12   not made with real leather and they're not killing cows to make leather.

00:56:18   Yes, but also I got to take 60 euros out of my wallet and go buy a case that gets stained

00:56:26   or scratched or that doesn't let me use the USB-C cable I got.

00:56:31   And in that moment, a lot of people may say, you know what, those principles, I just spent

00:56:37   60 euros on this thing and it's not good enough.

00:56:40   Right?

00:56:42   And it sucks as a situation to be in.

00:56:44   Right?

00:56:45   It sucks because like you really want to use this thing.

00:56:47   I really wanted the fine woolen case to be great, but it's not.

00:56:52   And what concerns me the most is that Apple had this opportunity to drive folks away from

00:57:02   leather products with this case, which is a great initiative.

00:57:08   But by botching the execution of this case, they're going to send the wrong message for

00:57:13   years to come, which is, oh, you get the carbon neutral product.

00:57:17   It's not as nice as it used to be.

00:57:19   And so you know what people are going to do?

00:57:21   They're going to go buy a leather case from a third party manufacturer.

00:57:24   I would like to steer people towards the most recent episode of Upgrade where me and Jason

00:57:31   spoke about this case for about, I'm not kidding, like half an hour because we got into all

00:57:35   of the different potential avenues, like Jason was saying, like why he thinks this case was

00:57:41   made and it benefits the spreadsheet somewhere.

00:57:44   They had to have a replacement for the price point.

00:57:49   One team wants it to be carbon neutral, but the other team, the case team still need to

00:57:53   sell their cases.

00:57:55   And to kind of piggyback on what you were saying there, Federico, one of the things

00:57:58   that I'm thinking about, I'm not concerned about it, but I'm thinking about it is like,

00:58:02   I think that this kind of thing is just a place that we're going to have to get used

00:58:08   to over this next five or six years as Apple moves more towards carbon neutral is that

00:58:14   some products will take a step back for a bit while they have to try and make different

00:58:19   considerations and then they will learn how to do it better and better.

00:58:24   If they, and I hope they do stick with this fine woven idea and I am confident that they

00:58:31   will be able to improve the quality of this product and make it better and better over

00:58:36   time and actually make it more of a luxury item.

00:58:41   Because that's the thing about it, of like, you can say what you like about it, it does

00:58:44   not, my issue with this thing is it just doesn't feel like a luxury good.

00:58:49   It feels like a worse quality case in feel than the silicon case.

00:58:54   So you should just buy the silicon case, but I don't know what the environmental impact

00:58:58   of the silicon case is.

00:59:00   I'm assuming they've probably gotten that under control if they can get the watch bands

00:59:04   under control, like they're all some form of silicon.

00:59:08   But it just, this just doesn't, this just ain't it.

00:59:12   This one ain't it.

00:59:13   But I hope that they're able to do it, but I think we're just going to have to be in

00:59:17   for a little bit of a bumpy ride with some of this stuff as they work out new ways to

00:59:23   manufacture their existing product lines.

00:59:26   I don't know what they're going to have to do to make the iPhone carbon neutral.

00:59:31   I cannot conceive of this idea that feels like, honestly it feels insurmountable, but

00:59:38   obviously they don't believe so.

00:59:40   But I will be fascinated as we move through these next few years to see what they're going

00:59:46   to do about the iPhone.

00:59:47   But it's a nice iPhone this year.

00:59:49   Very good.

00:59:50   iPhone's very good.

00:59:51   Very nice iPhone.

00:59:52   USB-C right?

00:59:53   How nice was it to plug in a USB-C cable the first time?

00:59:55   Oh, I found it.

00:59:58   It was great, but kind of a weird feeling.

01:00:00   Like it just felt like wrong because like the cable connector was bigger.

01:00:03   I did have a thing last night where I was like going to bed and I'm like, oh, I can't

01:00:08   charge this phone.

01:00:09   I haven't got anything.

01:00:12   So I have had to, I'm having to rearrange all my cables because I've yet to mag safe

01:00:18   my nightstand.

01:00:19   Well, that will be happening this evening.

01:00:21   I will be mag safe in the nightstand.

01:00:24   But it was very funny.

01:00:25   Yeah.

01:00:26   I, I, I tried something and it worked.

01:00:29   Now that the iPhone has a USB-C cable and it supports USB-C connector and it supports

01:00:35   video out.

01:00:37   I theorized that this thing was going to work and it did.

01:00:42   I took a USB-C cable that supported data transfer and I connected the iPhone to an HDMI capture

01:00:53   card.

01:00:54   I have a cable that is USB-C on one end and HDMI on the other.

01:00:59   Connected the iPhone to a capture card and connected the capture card to the iPad Pro.

01:01:03   And so I was able to mirror my iPhone on the iPad screen.

01:01:08   It's kind of useless as a thing.

01:01:10   Maybe, maybe it could be useful for screencasts or stuff like that, but that's the sort of

01:01:14   freedom that having USB-C now allows for.

01:01:19   Your iPhone, and it goes beyond displays.

01:01:22   I mean, I'm sure there will be a narrative soon about using iPhones for console gaming.

01:01:30   You know, take, get an iPhone 15 Pro, play Resident Evil Village or Death Stranding,

01:01:36   connect a USB-C cable to a portable monitor or something, get a dual-sens controller,

01:01:40   and now you're playing a console game on your iPhone.

01:01:42   But like this freedom that USB-C allows for is so nice.

01:01:48   It's like moving beyond lightning.

01:01:53   And a thought that I had was some of us, some in our community, like John Gruber, for example,

01:01:59   was concerned before the Apple event that there was going to be this huge backlash about

01:02:05   USB-C. And in fact, as we, I believe we said this on the show, that just didn't happen

01:02:12   because everybody was just waiting for this moment to arrive.

01:02:16   And every single person I talked to in real life was like, oh, and finally it's got the

01:02:19   USB cable, right?

01:02:20   And I'm like, yeah, it does.

01:02:22   Everybody's just so happy that finally you can use the one cable for all of your electronic

01:02:27   devices.

01:02:28   I've heard it referenced more like a joke than like, like people were kind of like,

01:02:33   oh, and they finally put USB-C right?

01:02:35   I've been hearing that on podcasts, non-tech podcasts that I listen to where people, or

01:02:40   people were like, wait, they didn't already?

01:02:42   Like I've been hearing that more, like the cables have not been a thing, right?

01:02:48   Like if anything, we've got what the cases and I think I've been seeing a lot of headlines

01:02:52   about overheating, but I just don't understand because whatever phones get hot, like I actually

01:02:57   don't know if this is a real thing or not, but the cables definitely aren't the problem.

01:03:03   Yeah.

01:03:04   Um, and you know what I'm going to say?

01:03:07   Thank you, European Union for forcing their hand and making this happen because otherwise

01:03:12   we salute the European Union on this podcast.

01:03:15   Yes.

01:03:16   The alternative, what could have been like wait three, four years for iPhones to drop

01:03:23   a physical connector altogether and go wireless for data transfer even?

01:03:28   It's much better this way.

01:03:29   So sometimes, sometimes, sometimes you listen to the government and sometimes the government

01:03:35   makes you listen to them.

01:03:37   And in this case it was the latter and I'm glad, I'm glad this happened.

01:03:41   Well, I think that about does it for this week.

01:03:44   If you want to find links to the stuff we spoke about, head on over to the website,

01:03:47   relay.fm/connected/469.

01:03:48   The links are also in your podcast player.

01:03:53   The most important link is the first one to go donate to St. Jude Children's Research

01:03:57   Hospital.

01:03:58   Please go check that link out.

01:04:00   You can also become a member and get ad free longer versions of the show each and every

01:04:04   week and you can find us elsewhere on the internet.

01:04:07   Federico is the editor-in-chief of MacStories.net and he is on Mastodon as Vitici at MacStories.net.

01:04:14   You can find Mike on other shows here at relay.fm.

01:04:17   You can also find his work at Cortex Brand.

01:04:20   He is on Instagram and Threads as iMike and you can follow him on Mastodon as iMike at

01:04:27   Mike.social.

01:04:28   You can find me on MacPowerUsers each and every week here on relay.

01:04:32   You can also find my writing at 512pixels.net.

01:04:36   I'm on Mastodon as ismh@eworld.social and ismh86 on Threads.

01:04:42   I'd like to thank our sponsors this week, Vitality, Squarespace, and Nom Nom.

01:04:47   Until next week guys, say goodbye.

01:04:49   Adios e chirio.

01:04:50   Bye y'all.