469: Stephen... Stephen... Buy Me...
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Hello and welcome to Connected episode 469.
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It's made possible this week by our sponsors Vitality, Squarespace, and Nom Nom.
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My name is Steven Hackett and I have the pleasure of being joined by Mr. Mike Hurley.
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I just got back from the US of A. You did.
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I did and I'm also joined by Mr. Federico Vichichi.
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Ciao Federico.
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Hello, welcome back to Europe.
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Thank you, thank you.
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I appreciate you guys pushing the episode back a day so I could be on it because I was
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coming home, you know.
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I'm back home.
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Federico did text me last night and said are you back in Europe, which I really appreciated
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as a message, you know.
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It was just nice.
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It was just nice.
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Nice for him to like recognize that I'm geographically in Europe.
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Even if the rest of my, even if my government doesn't want me to be.
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In speaking you may not be, but in our hearts and in our geography you are.
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We have some very important follow up from last week's episode Federico.
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So on the last episode we exposed Steven for his storage.
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Oh you saw, you saw the truth.
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You saw, you saw, okay tell me.
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So later on in the evening we were going through to Steven's house, we were out in the pod
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cabin and we went through to Steven's house and we were setting up an Xbox that we used
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for the podcast-a-thon.
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And Steven opened the cabinet and there were more hard drives.
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There were more hard drives inside the house.
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They just fell off the cabinet?
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I mean they were just there man, all stacked up, all nice and neat, but all stacked up
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on top of each other.
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And I snapped a photo, which is not the photo in the show notes, which is of Steven being
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caught in the act, but it's probably better to have this image that Steven took, which
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is nice and neat.
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But I do have, I have photographic evidence of Steven being caught with his, um.
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This was talked about on an episode of Mac Power Users.
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I'm just going to say that, that some, someone didn't listen.
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No, no, because it's hard to, to, to understand the amount of storage that you have.
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I cannot comprehend it, you know?
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Well do you want me to walk you through this as well?
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So this is my Plex slash iTunes slash time machine server.
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It's an M1 Mac Mini.
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No, no, no, slash iTunes.
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I'll get there.
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Just let me go through this.
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iTunes server.
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We purchased media for years and I want all that, all those movies and stuff.
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So they're all downloaded.
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It's a, it's a base level M1 Mac Mini with 256 gigabytes of SSD.
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This was a machine that Jim Metzendorf owned and I bought it off him a while ago, a while
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You know, now as you're saying this, I'm remembering this is a feedback episode, right?
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I remember, I remember you thanking Jim and then I also saw on the Slack, Jim say, you're
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welcome, which is funny to get that like 360 experience.
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Connected to it is the five port OWC Thunderbolt hub, which I'm a big fan of.
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If you just need some like USB C and Thunderbolt stuff, this one's, this is pretty sweet and
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it's 129 bucks.
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It's about the cheapest thing out there that does this.
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I will say the power brick is bigger than the hub, but that's pretty common with Thunderbolt
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Uh, off of that are a couple of four terabyte SSDs and a set of little aluminum enclosures
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also from OWC.
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One of them holds the Plex library.
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The other one is the clone of the Plex library.
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You said that again?
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So there's a set of four terabyte drives here.
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One of them holds the Plex library and one is its clone.
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We live very different lives.
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There is then another older OWC enclosure with another four terabyte SSD in it.
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And that is for remote time machine for the kids' laptops.
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So this is the only justifiable one.
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They're never going to plug into time machine drive.
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So it just happens automatically.
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Nobody should have to plug into time machine drives to be honest.
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That's true.
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And then lastly, there's a T7 SSD that is time machine for the Mac mini itself.
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So the things on the Mac mini, which is not very much because it has a tiny little SSD
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that gets backed up there.
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So that is another, let's see, four, eight, 12, 12.75 terabytes, another 12.75 terabytes
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And that's SSD, all SSD.
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There's no spinning drives anymore except the offsite backups.
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And for what?
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For a bunch of movies and what?
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What are you worried about?
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Apple's going to be like, "uh, can't download those movies anymore."
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I mean, that's mostly historic.
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Like I just, I set it to download things automatically like 15 years ago and it just stuck around.
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But you have like, yeah, you say that, but 15 years ago you were not using these drives
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So like you had to be like, I'm going to move this stuff.
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Like I'm going to move this stuff.
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I'm not just going to be like, oh, I'll get a new drive that's like four terabytes and
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I'll just plug it in so I can download anything that I need from my library whenever I need
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Instead you were like, no, I will take the four weeks that it will take to transfer these
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from a spinning drive to an SSD drive.
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Like that's what I'm going to do.
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And the Plex library is all like Apple and tech video stuff that used to be on my laptop,
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but now is in Plex.
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So this is like another reason why you don't need a hundred terabytes on your laptop.
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You know, we said that and right now only have 4.19 terabytes free.
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So I'm right at four terabytes again on the laptop.
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So who knows?
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But you did supposedly discover the second computer.
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I wasn't hiding it from you.
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It was roast.
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You were roasting my setup.
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The Mac Wendy's not part of my setup.
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It's in the house under the TV.
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This is more, this isn't a part of the roast.
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This is more just like now we're now we've entered a different plane, right?
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Like it started as like, let's roast like we did for me.
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But then we just spoke about your storage for an hour.
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And so like now we're in like just how much storage does Steven have, you know?
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Well, this is all somewhere, right?
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No, you definitely have more.
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You definitely have like another four terabyte SSD in a backpack or something.
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I will be shocked if you don't have at least four terabytes, like in your nightstand or
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just like you just trip over them or something like, oh, there's the four terabytes.
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That's another clone.
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You know how on Breaking Bad, Walter White would hide cash like in the, in the, in the
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ventilation spots of his house, you hide, you can hide hard drives instead of cash.
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Just hide them all over the place.
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If I had, if I didn't have the drives, I would have cash to hide.
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What is the offsite backup of this media?
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I can't tell you that.
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You do have one though?
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No, none of this is offsite other than Backblaze.
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So this is not part of my spinning drive.
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This goes to Backblaze?
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Very slowly.
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What kind of plan do you pay for on Backblaze?
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It's like $7 a computer a month or something.
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Man, I feel sorry for Backblaze honestly.
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Because this is so, I get this email all the time, like, why don't you just use a Synology?
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Well, I do this because I'd much rather have a Mac as the server as opposed to a Synology
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because you can do things like, I have all these drives plugged in, send them to Backblaze.
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I don't have to jump through the hoops that people like Casey and others have to do.
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Can't you install Backblaze on a Docker container and zip it all up to the disk drive?
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Well it's got to go through two Raspberry Pis hooked up to my garage door and I get
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an LED telling me the status of my backup.
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Oh, that's so helpful.
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Oh no, it's yellow.
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What does that mean?
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So you, but you...
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You do this, okay.
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So I, so again...
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But let me, but let me ask you Steven, if the power goes out...
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Which it does.
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How, okay, how many backup solutions for power do you have in your house?
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And follow up question, how do you reboot all these things and make sure they're working?
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I am halfway through the installation of a whole home generator.
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I've seen it.
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It's really cool.
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Because, y'all know this, we've worked together for a long time.
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My power just goes out and I got, I got a job to do.
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Look, I agree with it.
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You know I agree with it, I was encouraging you to get it, but it was just funny to me
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that Federico was asking what I think was not a serious question, but you do have an
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actual serious answer.
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I was sort of expecting that.
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So but what if the one generator you have breaks?
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So the power goes out, generator one should kick in, but what if there's a fault in generator
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There are apparently multiple ways to power the generator.
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The generator can be powered from natural gas or propane.
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So I got options there.
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Not your kids on a bicycle or something?
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That's the last one, right?
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That's the last.
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Line them all up.
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Why else have three children if you can't come on bicycles to power the home?
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I mean to be fair, they already ship calendars on your behalf.
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So you know.
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Also, basically immediately after the episode was published, Apple started listing both
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the M2 Ultra Apple Silicon Mac Pro and the 2023 M2 Mac Studio on the refurb store for
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Steven with about 15% discounts on those.
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Can you hear that sound Steven?
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The computer is saying, Steven, Steven, buy me.
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Think of all the storage you could put inside.
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I'm just an empty box now.
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There's nothing in here except space for storage.
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Just think of how many SSDs you could get in there.
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I know this because I used to have many SSDs in my Mac Pro.
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But surely you can get more in there now.
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Is there an iPhone inside it I think?
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There's no GPUs anymore.
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So fill it up with drives.
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We have some exciting news.
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This is the final call for Relay FM for St. Jude 2023.
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I don't think it is.
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We're going to do one next week, but you know, September is trying to push people into it.
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It's the final call in September, but next week will be mentioned.
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Next week's like the cleanup.
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Like, hey, if you haven't donated yet, really you're out of time.
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Look, I'm just trying to get people to go donate.
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This is the final call part one.
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Final call version one underscore A. Look, we've been talking about this all month, but
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I want to tell you, I want to tell you what I did yesterday.
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Can I do that?
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I'm going to tell you about my day yesterday.
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So I got invited to the opening of Domino's Village, and this is a new building, six story
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building on St. Jude's campus, actually right across the street from St. Jude's campus.
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And they built this cool like tunnel over the road.
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I guess that's called a bridge, right?
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But it's enclosed.
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A floating tunnel.
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An enclosed bridge.
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A tunnel, suspended from the ground.
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You can walk across the street, but stay inside the building.
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It's magical.
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Domino's Village is super cool.
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So St. Jude has long, since 1962, all along has had the mission to treat children with
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cancer and other catastrophic diseases without regard for the family's ability to pay.
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And in Danny Thomas's vision for that, not only did that include free treatment and medicine
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and testing and all the great medical and scientific work that happens at St. Jude,
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but they weren't going to have to worry about meals and they weren't going to have to worry
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about housing because most of these families aren't from Memphis.
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I am an outlier at St. Jude that I am from here.
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Most people travel from all across the US and all around the world to have their kids
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treated here.
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And housing has always been a challenge and they have several housing options now, but
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for larger families like mine with three kids, those options were pretty limited.
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And so the Domino's Village was built to help address this.
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It has 140 apartments in it.
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They are one bedroom, two bedroom, and three bedroom options.
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And some of these treatments, you're at St. Jude, you're in and out of the hospital for
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In the past, you maybe have to split up your family, like some kids stay at home or maybe
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your spouse stays back at home.
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And now there's more flexibility because of this building.
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So I got to go to the grand opening and it was, this place is amazing.
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All these apartments are incredibly nice, but they really thought through and talked
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with the patient families.
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So a lot of these kids have to do regular blood draws, right?
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You want to check on your immune system and other numbers while you're on treatment.
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And before this, they would have to get dressed, the parents have to get dressed and like go
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to the hospital, depending on where their housing was.
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Maybe that was on campus.
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Maybe that was someplace else like the Target house and you have to get on a shuttle and
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go to the hospital.
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So to alleviate this, they built a clinic in the building.
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And so if all you've got to do is go do blood work or you got to go have something checked,
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you don't have to make the trek over to the hospital.
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You can do it within the village complex.
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There's playgrounds, there's a beach room, which it was like being at the beach.
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It was wild.
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I don't know how they did it, but there's all of these amazing rooms, these amazing
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experiences.
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And so now there's this communal place for families who are a little bit larger or who
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are staying a longer time and they can kind of do life together in this new place.
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And for me, like as a patient dad, it was amazing to walk through this and talk to people
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who were involved because all of it was patient driven.
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Like they're talking to patients or talking to their parents about what they want and
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And I absolutely love that about St. Jude.
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If you watch the podcast-a-thon, and by the way, there's a link to a blog post that has
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the videos embedded in it.
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If you haven't watched it, go watch it.
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I'm very proud of how it went.
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I think we all are.
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There's a section there where my wife and I spoke about the family commons, which is
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an area in the hospital that used to be patient rooms.
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And now it's like there's a music lab and a science lab and a chapel and you can rent
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like nap pods and there's a place to like a, what's the word I'm looking for?
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Like have your hair done like a, you know, a salon.
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Yes, thank you.
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And all of this is because they really listen to patients and their families and they want
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to treat the whole family while they're there.
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This is only possible through partnerships and donations.
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So when you go to stjude.org/relay, you're helping fund all of this stuff.
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All the stuff we've spoken about all month, St. Jude's global initiatives, St. Jude's
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scientific research that takes place in Memphis and then is shared around the world.
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They're sending chemotherapy to countries all around the world, but it also pays for
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things that are much more everyday life.
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Because when you hear that your child has cancer, everything in your life explodes and
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you're not thinking in the moment about where are we going to live for the next three years.
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But for a lot of families, that's a very real challenge.
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And so St. Jude is working to meet that need too.
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So it was super cool to be there.
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It was a real honor to get to be at the opening.
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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.
00:17:18
◼
►
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
00:18:10
◼
►
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
00:18:25
◼
►
This episode of Connected is brought to you by Vitaly.
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a qualified meeting.
00:20:01
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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.
00:20:45
◼
►
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...
00:21:13
◼
►
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
00:22:48
◼
►
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
00:23:00
◼
►
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.
00:23:40
◼
►
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?
00:24:25
◼
►
That's interesting.
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
00:27:33
◼
►
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
00:27:51
◼
►
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.
00:28:10
◼
►
There's only so many features.
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
00:28:56
◼
►
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
00:29:30
◼
►
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
00:30:29
◼
►
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.
00:30:53
◼
►
This episode of Connected is brought to you by Squarespace, the all in one platform for
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Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of connected and Relay FM.
00:32:43
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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
00:33:15
◼
►
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.
00:33:28
◼
►
So what do you want to know about multi button?
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
◼
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menus to pick a shortcut.
00:33:59
◼
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So when you press the action button, you get a list of additional shortcuts that you can
00:34:04
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And that menu in itself is a shortcut, right?
00:34:08
◼
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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
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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
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I would like the action button to do, I mean, beyond, you know, I would like to double press
00:34:38
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►
or triple press the action button.
00:34:41
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►
None of these gestures are supported and there's nothing I can do about that.
00:34:45
◼
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But I had this idea of toggling between two shortcuts.
00:34:50
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And obviously the problem was how well, how do you toggle between two shortcuts?
00:34:55
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Like how can you tell your iPhone now run shortcut A, now run shortcut B?
00:35:01
◼
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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
◼
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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
◼
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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
00:37:25
◼
►
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
00:37:39
◼
►
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.
00:38:12
◼
►
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
00:39:12
◼
►
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
00:40:35
◼
►
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.
00:40:50
◼
►
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
00:41:03
◼
►
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
00:41:58
◼
►
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
00:43:17
◼
►
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,
00:43:35
◼
►
Like I know sections there before, but now it's like this whole big thing about column
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
00:43:57
◼
►
Stephen, what do you have in your action button?
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
00:44:12
◼
►
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
◼
►
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00:47:46
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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.
00:47:53
◼
►
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
00:48:01
◼
►
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
00:49:29
◼
►
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
00:49:38
◼
►
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
00:50:53
◼
►
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
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►
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
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►
know, and it becomes a whole thing and I need to drive there.
00:52:21
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►
And I don't know, sometimes I tend to be a bit of a clumsy person with my phone.
00:52:26
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Like it's not like I throw it around, but like I place it on a table without thinking
00:52:30
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►
about it much.
00:52:31
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►
But now that I'm using it without a case, I'm thinking about it.
00:52:36
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►
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
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►
I bought a silicone case and I put it in the silicone case.
00:52:49
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►
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
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►
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
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►
I'm just going to put it in a case.
00:53:04
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►
Titanium and this texture, this color, the edges, everything about it makes me want to
00:53:11
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►
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
00:53:21
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►
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
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►
I understand that and I wish for you the freedom to not use a case on your phone because it
00:53:32
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►
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
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►
Cases are, oh boy, am I getting a lot of ads for cases on Instagram.
00:53:53
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►
They're spending some money.
00:53:54
◼
►
I'm a newsmaker right now.
00:53:55
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►
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.
00:56:42
◼
►
And it sucks as a situation to be in.
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.
00:59:50
◼
►
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.
01:00:26
◼
►
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
01:00:37
◼
►
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
01:00:54
◼
►
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
01:02:28
◼
►
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.
01:03:04
◼
►
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.
01:03:16
◼
►
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
01:03:58
◼
►
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.