Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► (energetic music)

00:00:02 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 479.

00:00:10 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you

00:00:13 ◼   ► by Fitbaud, ExpressVPN, and Notion.

00:00:16 ◼   ► My name is Mike Hurley, and I'm joined

00:00:17 ◼   ► by Federico Petitce.

00:00:19 ◼   ► Ciao Federico.

00:00:20 ◼   ► - Ciao Mike, welcome back.

00:00:21 ◼   ► - Thank you.

00:00:22 ◼   ► No Steven this week.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Just to let everybody know,

00:00:25 ◼   ► Steven's had the metal taken out of his foot,

00:00:28 ◼   ► he's doing good, but he's on painkillers,

00:00:30 ◼   ► so he's giving him a week off.

00:00:32 ◼   ► - What should people do to tell Steven that he's missed?

00:00:38 ◼   ► - Just send him anything feet related.

00:00:40 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:00:41 ◼   ► Well, don't say that on the internet.

00:00:44 ◼   ► - I've said it.

00:00:45 ◼   ► You send Steven anything you want related to feet.

00:00:48 ◼   ► He'll appreciate it.

00:00:49 ◼   ► - Okay, yeah, sure.

00:00:51 ◼   ► Do that however you want.

00:00:53 ◼   ► - Uh huh, exactly.

00:00:54 ◼   ► Whatever that means to you.

00:00:56 ◼   ► - I will say thank you for the lovely haikus.

00:00:59 ◼   ► I felt very loved last week receiving all these haikus.

00:01:04 ◼   ► - I am pleased that that was your reaction.

00:01:07 ◼   ► That was the goal.

00:01:08 ◼   ► Did you enjoy people's creativity with the haikus?

00:01:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, they were very good.

00:01:14 ◼   ► But the main thing was people were just being very nice

00:01:16 ◼   ► to me, which was lovely.

00:01:18 ◼   ► It was, you know, I was on Mastodon,

00:01:20 ◼   ► I was just like scrolling through,

00:01:22 ◼   ► and there was just loads of lovely haikus,

00:01:24 ◼   ► people telling me how much I was missed.

00:01:26 ◼   ► Which was wonderful.

00:01:28 ◼   ► So I really appreciated it.

00:01:30 ◼   ► But so next time Steven's away,

00:01:32 ◼   ► we'll do something nice for him.

00:01:33 ◼   ► But to be fair, maybe he'll like the feet related content.

00:01:36 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:01:37 ◼   ► - I was just, some people are into that.

00:01:40 ◼   ► - If you don't want to send him weird stuff,

00:01:41 ◼   ► just send him a foot emoji, you know?

00:01:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, that works.

00:01:44 ◼   ► - Yeah. - It works.

00:01:46 ◼   ► Or it can be weird stuff.

00:01:47 ◼   ► We're not judging.

00:01:49 ◼   ► - I got some weird haikus, so.

00:01:51 ◼   ► - Cool, yeah.

00:01:52 ◼   ► - Most of them were lovely.

00:01:53 ◼   ► Yeah, some of them are odd.

00:01:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, that's fine.

00:01:58 ◼   ► - We gotta give a shout out to Eric,

00:02:00 ◼   ► because Eric did the thing.

00:02:02 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:02:02 ◼   ► - That I don't know anybody has done before.

00:02:07 ◼   ► - I think someone else did it before, but I don't know.

00:02:11 ◼   ► - If you have done this, what we're about to say,

00:02:14 ◼   ► then you can write in and let us know,

00:02:16 ◼   ► and we will, and I will correct myself next week.

00:02:18 ◼   ► - Yes. - But Eric did the thing.

00:02:20 ◼   ► Eric took a trip to Frederico Christmas trees.

00:02:23 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:02:24 ◼   ► - Which I think we will refer to

00:02:25 ◼   ► as the connected pilgrimage.

00:02:27 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:02:29 ◼   ► - They went to Frederico Christmas.

00:02:30 ◼   ► I don't know if they said connected sent them.

00:02:33 ◼   ► I don't know if that happened.

00:02:34 ◼   ► I know that was a thing that you wanted people to do,

00:02:37 ◼   ► but I'll put the link to Eric's Mastodon post

00:02:41 ◼   ► in the show notes, and Eric even calls it a pilgrimage.

00:02:45 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Took the trip,

00:02:46 ◼   ► went to Frederico Christmas trees,

00:02:48 ◼   ► had very nice things to say

00:02:50 ◼   ► about Frederico's Christmas trees.

00:02:52 ◼   ► Eric said genuinely the nicest

00:02:55 ◼   ► Christmas trees I've ever seen.

00:02:57 ◼   ► - Yep. - That's because you know

00:02:58 ◼   ► they source them from Ohio and all the other places.

00:03:01 ◼   ► - Everyone knows.

00:03:02 ◼   ► - Everybody knows. - Everyone knows

00:03:03 ◼   ► about Ohio. - Top quality trees

00:03:05 ◼   ► at Frederico's Christmas trees.

00:03:07 ◼   ► So yeah, thank you, Eric.

00:03:09 ◼   ► And if you wanna end up on this program

00:03:12 ◼   ► with the link in the show notes

00:03:13 ◼   ► and a mention just like Eric,

00:03:15 ◼   ► you just gotta do the weird pilgrimage

00:03:18 ◼   ► to Frederico's Christmas tree somewhere in Utah.

00:03:21 ◼   ► I never recall the name of the town,

00:03:24 ◼   ► but yeah, that's how you do it.

00:03:26 ◼   ► Thank you, Eric.

00:03:27 ◼   ► - So on last week's show,

00:03:28 ◼   ► a listener, Jason, wrote in to talk about the fact

00:03:31 ◼   ► that they dropped a AirPod in a pool.

00:03:35 ◼   ► - Oh yeah. - And you two,

00:03:36 ◼   ► and I was definitely coming along for the ride on this one,

00:03:40 ◼   ► couldn't understand why it took three to four minutes

00:03:42 ◼   ► to find a net when surely there was a net

00:03:45 ◼   ► already in Jason's hand.

00:03:47 ◼   ► So Jason wrote in to say,

00:03:49 ◼   ► to clarify about why it took me three to four minutes

00:03:51 ◼   ► to get the AirPod out of the pool,

00:03:53 ◼   ► I did have a net and I was scooping leaves

00:03:55 ◼   ► from the surface of the pool,

00:03:57 ◼   ► but this was in the deep end

00:03:58 ◼   ► and the AirPod fell about seven feet deep

00:04:01 ◼   ► where it was harder to see among the leaves.

00:04:03 ◼   ► I tried to use the net,

00:04:04 ◼   ► but it was challenging to scoop it out

00:04:06 ◼   ► with the net at that depth,

00:04:07 ◼   ► which is why it took as long as it did.

00:04:09 ◼   ► Now, what Jason hasn't said here is did Jason go in?

00:04:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's what I was gonna add.

00:04:14 ◼   ► - This is the last piece of information.

00:04:16 ◼   ► So Jason, if you could write back in again.

00:04:18 ◼   ► - Jason, did you go in? - How did you get it then?

00:04:20 ◼   ► If it wasn't for that.

00:04:21 ◼   ► - Did you send someone else?

00:04:23 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:04:24 ◼   ► - A really tall, do you live with a basketball player?

00:04:28 ◼   ► Did you ask them to go down and get it for you?

00:04:30 ◼   ► These are the questions that need to be answered.

00:04:31 ◼   ► - Do you have a scuba diving dog?

00:04:34 ◼   ► Like what, you know, like how,

00:04:38 ◼   ► so if it was challenging to scoop it out,

00:04:41 ◼   ► then how did you do it?

00:04:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, we gotta know.

00:04:44 ◼   ► Maybe you took an epic dive into the pool yourself.

00:04:47 ◼   ► - Maybe, maybe.

00:04:48 ◼   ► Is there video evidence of this, Jason?

00:04:50 ◼   ► Like we need to know at this point.

00:04:52 ◼   ► So stay tuned for this continuing series of follow-up items

00:04:56 ◼   ► about listener Jason and an AirPod

00:04:59 ◼   ► that fell into a pool seven feet deep.

00:05:02 ◼   ► - Listener Jono wrote in and said,

00:05:04 ◼   ► "Guys, I think I found Japanese Federico on YouTube."

00:05:07 ◼   ► - Oh, okay.

00:05:08 ◼   ► - This guy has built a pretty big following in Japan

00:05:12 ◼   ► for the use of iPad as his daily driver.

00:05:15 ◼   ► Then this week he drops a video about the X-Real glasses.

00:05:18 ◼   ► - Ah, see, see all us iPad people were doing this now.

00:05:23 ◼   ► Yeah, look.

00:05:24 ◼   ► Oh, look at Hiroka Yuta doing the thing with the glasses.

00:05:29 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:05:30 ◼   ► - Is that how I look with the glasses?

00:05:33 ◼   ► - I'm gonna, here's what I'm gonna say Federico.

00:05:35 ◼   ► I'm gonna go, I'm just gonna say a thing.

00:05:36 ◼   ► You are very cool, very handsome, right?

00:05:39 ◼   ► - Thank you, thank you.

00:05:40 ◼   ► - I think, I think that Yuta-san is cooler than you.

00:05:47 ◼   ► Look at him, look how cool he looks, you know?

00:05:50 ◼   ► So.

00:05:53 ◼   ► - Yuta-san doesn't have tattoos, so.

00:05:56 ◼   ► - Well, how do you know?

00:05:58 ◼   ► - Well.

00:05:59 ◼   ► - You don't know.

00:06:00 ◼   ► - Not on his hand.

00:06:01 ◼   ► - That's part of your coolness, for sure.

00:06:06 ◼   ► But you see, he's wearing,

00:06:08 ◼   ► he's got like the Japanese style of clothing,

00:06:10 ◼   ► which I just think is super cool.

00:06:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, very minimal, but I love the office.

00:06:15 ◼   ► Like very Japanese, very minimal.

00:06:17 ◼   ► - Very nice.

00:06:18 ◼   ► - Love the accent colors,

00:06:19 ◼   ► the yellow and the green in the background.

00:06:21 ◼   ► - The video is shot very well too, like.

00:06:24 ◼   ► This guy is a very good YouTuber.

00:06:27 ◼   ► Well, I don't know what he's saying though,

00:06:30 ◼   ► but I'm sure it's good.

00:06:31 ◼   ► - No, I have no idea, I have no idea.

00:06:33 ◼   ► But, I mean, 378,000 subscribers.

00:06:39 ◼   ► Let's see, skimming through the channel.

00:06:43 ◼   ► - Here's something I'm gonna say too.

00:06:45 ◼   ► I already referenced this in the pro show,

00:06:47 ◼   ► but I'm a big fan of the Kinda Funny podcasts.

00:06:49 ◼   ► They're sponsored by X-Real right now.

00:06:51 ◼   ► And I'm like, come on.

00:06:53 ◼   ► Bring that money over here.

00:06:54 ◼   ► We have the number one spokesman on this show

00:06:58 ◼   ► for the X-Real glasses.

00:06:59 ◼   ► - I have gone, as you will hear later in the show,

00:07:04 ◼   ► I have gone to such great lengths.

00:07:07 ◼   ► - Greater lengths?

00:07:09 ◼   ► - Greater lengths.

00:07:09 ◼   ► - Oh my word, okay.

00:07:11 ◼   ► - To make sure that I can use my X-Real glasses

00:07:14 ◼   ► exactly how I want.

00:07:16 ◼   ► - So come on X-Real.

00:07:17 ◼   ► Throw the money at your favorite boys.

00:07:19 ◼   ► What are you doing?

00:07:20 ◼   ► Speaking of throwing money at the favorite boys.

00:07:24 ◼   ► - Speaking of money.

00:07:25 ◼   ► - Go to giverelay.com.

00:07:27 ◼   ► You can get 20% off an annual membership plan

00:07:32 ◼   ► until December 15th.

00:07:34 ◼   ► This can be, you know, if maybe you are an existing member

00:07:38 ◼   ► and you're hearing this,

00:07:38 ◼   ► I'm gonna keep it short because of that.

00:07:40 ◼   ► You can gift this to someone.

00:07:42 ◼   ► Maybe there's someone in your life.

00:07:43 ◼   ► You love the connected pro so much

00:07:45 ◼   ► that you wanna gift a connected pro annual plan to someone.

00:07:48 ◼   ► You can do that by going to giverelay.com

00:07:51 ◼   ► or maybe you are thinking to yourself,

00:07:53 ◼   ► man, I really wish I could listen to all this cool stuff

00:07:56 ◼   ► they talk about on connected pro

00:07:57 ◼   ► and not have to hear any ads.

00:07:59 ◼   ► Also go to giverelay.com,

00:08:00 ◼   ► 20% off an annual plan until December 15th.

00:08:04 ◼   ► So that's only like a week and a bit longer.

00:08:06 ◼   ► Do not miss out.

00:08:07 ◼   ► We only do this once a year.

00:08:09 ◼   ► So giverelay.com, 20% off an annual plan.

00:08:13 ◼   ► You can choose connected pro.

00:08:14 ◼   ► You can choose other shows too,

00:08:16 ◼   ► but you should choose connected pro 'cause it's good

00:08:18 ◼   ► and we're good and you love us.

00:08:19 ◼   ► So go to giverelay.com.

00:08:21 ◼   ► I have great news for you Federico.

00:08:24 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:08:25 ◼   ► - Threads comes to the EU in December.

00:08:30 ◼   ► - Well, it is December.

00:08:32 ◼   ► Where's Threads?

00:08:33 ◼   ► - So actually he's saying that I saw,

00:08:36 ◼   ► I got shared this via the algorithm

00:08:40 ◼   ► that there was an update yesterday to the Threads app

00:08:43 ◼   ► which includes localization strings

00:08:45 ◼   ► for lots of languages in like European languages.

00:08:48 ◼   ► So I think it's happening.

00:08:51 ◼   ► - It's happening.

00:08:52 ◼   ► So do I still have the app installed on my phone?

00:08:55 ◼   ► Let's see.

00:08:56 ◼   ► No, I do not.

00:08:59 ◼   ► I deleted it because it was too sad.

00:09:01 ◼   ► So this is, I mean, I'm pleased.

00:09:03 ◼   ► I feel like I've been sort of cut out from all this fun

00:09:06 ◼   ► that my friends are having on Threads.

00:09:09 ◼   ► And yeah, I will be back as soon as the law allows me

00:09:14 ◼   ► to be back.

00:09:16 ◼   ► So I can wait.

00:09:18 ◼   ► - I'm genuinely really keen to see what you think

00:09:23 ◼   ► of Threads coming into it cold effectively, right?

00:09:28 ◼   ► Because I mean, I've seen it change and expand.

00:09:33 ◼   ► - You've seen it change.

00:09:35 ◼   ► - Yeah, like it's gotten, it's very different now

00:09:37 ◼   ► from when it started, right?

00:09:39 ◼   ► - Like how so?

00:09:40 ◼   ► - Well, there's the algorithm, there's also the for you,

00:09:42 ◼   ► right, so like the for you and also like the following.

00:09:44 ◼   ► So you got that option.

00:09:46 ◼   ► Also the community has kind of solidified itself

00:09:49 ◼   ► a little bit more, grown a little bit more.

00:09:52 ◼   ► It's very different to master that in like,

00:09:57 ◼   ► at least for me, like the people that are there

00:09:59 ◼   ► and the type of content, it's very different.

00:10:03 ◼   ► And so I'm interested to see what you think of it

00:10:08 ◼   ► coming into it having not seen it change.

00:10:12 ◼   ► - Interesting, interesting.

00:10:14 ◼   ► Yeah, because I can, I'm seeing now that I can read

00:10:18 ◼   ► my timeline, but I can't do anything else.

00:10:21 ◼   ► - Oh, so that's changed.

00:10:22 ◼   ► - And I can switch between for you and following.

00:10:26 ◼   ► - So you weren't able to do that before, right?

00:10:28 ◼   ► So it's clearly had some--

00:10:29 ◼   ► - At some point I wasn't.

00:10:31 ◼   ► - Yeah, they can't.

00:10:32 ◼   ► - If I tap on a post, it still doesn't load the replies.

00:10:37 ◼   ► I can't see anything, but at least I can scroll my timeline.

00:10:41 ◼   ► This looks like from a quick scheme,

00:10:44 ◼   ► this looks a lot more like Twitter.

00:10:46 ◼   ► - Yes, it's the closest thing to a Twitter like experience

00:10:51 ◼   ► that I have seen, like kind of post my Twitter usage.

00:10:56 ◼   ► And I would say that is for good, but can also be for bad.

00:11:00 ◼   ► Like I get stuff served by the algorithm

00:11:03 ◼   ► that I don't necessarily want,

00:11:05 ◼   ► but I've kind of developed more of a sense of like,

00:11:08 ◼   ► if I see that stuff, I even mute those accounts

00:11:10 ◼   ► or block those accounts or just like close threads.

00:11:13 ◼   ► Like I get political stuff in there.

00:11:15 ◼   ► It's like, I don't want this.

00:11:16 ◼   ► Like this isn't what I want here, but yeah.

00:11:19 ◼   ► There is still a lot of interesting stuff though that I see

00:11:23 ◼   ► 'cause a lot of it is based off the Instagram algorithm.

00:11:26 ◼   ► And so I follow a lot of people on Instagram,

00:11:30 ◼   ► a lot of different interests that I have.

00:11:31 ◼   ► And so I see a lot of stuff on threads, which is like,

00:11:33 ◼   ► oh yeah, I can see where you serve this.

00:11:35 ◼   ► Like I get a lot of F1 news on threads,

00:11:37 ◼   ► even though I don't follow accounts, but that's good

00:11:39 ◼   ► 'cause that's what I want in the algorithm.

00:11:40 ◼   ► Like stuff I'm interested in,

00:11:41 ◼   ► but don't necessarily want all the time.

00:11:44 ◼   ► So I think it's good.

00:11:47 ◼   ► And I'm really intrigued to see what happens

00:11:50 ◼   ► when all of Europe joins threads as well.

00:11:53 ◼   ► - Nice, nice.

00:11:54 ◼   ► Well, we're coming threads.

00:11:57 ◼   ► - You better watch out.

00:11:58 ◼   ► - We're coming.

00:12:00 ◼   ► So, all right.

00:12:01 ◼   ► So what is it about this charger that you want?

00:12:05 ◼   ► Mic and chargers, like what's happening here?

00:12:07 ◼   ► Why do you wanna talk about a charger?

00:12:08 ◼   ► - So Dan wrote in to say,

00:12:10 ◼   ► how does mic like the Mophie three-in-one charger?

00:12:12 ◼   ► Which by the way, Dan, great memory.

00:12:14 ◼   ► 'Cause I said that I wanted a charger for travel.

00:12:18 ◼   ► I mentioned this a couple of months ago.

00:12:20 ◼   ► This is the first trip that I've taken

00:12:21 ◼   ► since buying this charger.

00:12:23 ◼   ► 'Cause I wanted post in my USB-C world

00:12:26 ◼   ► and in my MagSafe world,

00:12:27 ◼   ► I wanted a different charging solution

00:12:29 ◼   ► than what I was using before,

00:12:30 ◼   ► which is just like plugging in a bunch of cables.

00:12:33 ◼   ► I think that this Mophie three-in-one charger for me

00:12:35 ◼   ► is like basically perfect for travel.

00:12:38 ◼   ► It's a nice little like brick,

00:12:40 ◼   ► which kind of snaps together and you open it up

00:12:42 ◼   ► and you have Apple Watch, a MagSafe

00:12:45 ◼   ► and a little Qi spot for AirPods Pro.

00:12:48 ◼   ► And I will say since I bought it,

00:12:51 ◼   ► they've actually updated it.

00:12:52 ◼   ► It now has a 15 watt MagSafe and Apple Watch fast charger,

00:12:56 ◼   ► like in the new version, which I don't have.

00:12:59 ◼   ► But that wasn't, I thought,

00:13:01 ◼   ► oh, is this gonna be a problem?

00:13:02 ◼   ► But I didn't notice any issue with charging.

00:13:04 ◼   ► You know, I can charge them when I'm sleeping mostly.

00:13:06 ◼   ► And so it wasn't too much of a problem,

00:13:09 ◼   ► but it's cool that they did update it for this.

00:13:11 ◼   ► So yeah, I recommend this, like for a charging solution,

00:13:15 ◼   ► it folds down super small

00:13:16 ◼   ► and you just need like a USB-C cable and a brick.

00:13:21 ◼   ► It comes in a little pouch.

00:13:23 ◼   ► I didn't take all that stuff 'cause I use the,

00:13:26 ◼   ► I use the little multi-port travel charger

00:13:29 ◼   ► from the company's name I don't remember now,

00:13:31 ◼   ► but I'll find it and put it in the show notes.

00:13:34 ◼   ► That I'm really happy with that charger.

00:13:36 ◼   ► It was one that Gray found, Minit or something like that?

00:13:38 ◼   ► Minit charger?

00:13:39 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:13:40 ◼   ► I'll find it and I'll put it in the show notes.

00:13:42 ◼   ► But that paired with this is like,

00:13:46 ◼   ► it's pretty perfect for me for my needs.

00:13:48 ◼   ► I did notice that 12 South though,

00:13:50 ◼   ► have just released a very adorable

00:13:53 ◼   ► and nice looking travel charger.

00:13:55 ◼   ► But it's just Apple watch and MagSafe,

00:14:00 ◼   ► but that's probably enough.

00:14:01 ◼   ► Like I don't really feel like you need

00:14:03 ◼   ► an AirPods charger so much

00:14:04 ◼   ► 'cause it can charge on both of those things, right?

00:14:07 ◼   ► But I think this is really cool.

00:14:09 ◼   ► It's called the butterfly.

00:14:10 ◼   ► It's a very cool looking piece of hardware.

00:14:12 ◼   ► It's very small.

00:14:13 ◼   ► Yeah, I think it looks good.

00:14:15 ◼   ► - Very small and of course you gotta provide

00:14:18 ◼   ► your own USB-C power,

00:14:21 ◼   ► but as long as you have any of these,

00:14:23 ◼   ► like modern gun chargers that are really small

00:14:26 ◼   ► or even just a USB-C battery,

00:14:29 ◼   ► like you can just power this thing

00:14:30 ◼   ► and supply 15 Watts and you'll be good.

00:14:34 ◼   ► So yeah, this is the butterfly from 12 South.

00:14:38 ◼   ► It looks really nice.

00:14:40 ◼   ► I may consider it as a travel thing.

00:14:42 ◼   ► - But I do really like this one that I bought.

00:14:46 ◼   ► So like I'm not gonna change to this other one,

00:14:49 ◼   ► but like this is very good.

00:14:51 ◼   ► Like this looks really cool too.

00:14:52 ◼   ► I'll be intrigued.

00:14:53 ◼   ► If you get one, I'll be really intrigued

00:14:55 ◼   ► to see what you think about it.

00:14:56 ◼   ► But this feels like aesthetically it fits for you too,

00:15:01 ◼   ► this 12 South one.

00:15:02 ◼   ► I feel like this is like a Federico style kind of thing.

00:15:04 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:15:05 ◼   ► Oh, and actually it seems like it actually comes

00:15:07 ◼   ► with a braided USB-C cable and a bunch of travel adapters.

00:15:12 ◼   ► So there you go.

00:15:12 ◼   ► You don't even need to provide your own power.

00:15:14 ◼   ► This is perfect.

00:15:16 ◼   ► So yeah, I'm a big fan of 12 South products

00:15:18 ◼   ► and I think I may get this one actually.

00:15:21 ◼   ► - Looks really nice.

00:15:23 ◼   ► - It does look really nice actually.

00:15:25 ◼   ► Yeah, Minix is the thing.

00:15:27 ◼   ► I was M-I-N-I-X.

00:15:28 ◼   ► That's the turbo three port GAN wall charger.

00:15:32 ◼   ► That's my charger of choice.

00:15:34 ◼   ► There's two USB-C, one USB-A.

00:15:36 ◼   ► I actually really like this thing.

00:15:38 ◼   ► This is another top recommendation.

00:15:40 ◼   ► This one came from Gray.

00:15:41 ◼   ► I really like it.

00:15:43 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you in part

00:15:45 ◼   ► by our friends over at Fitbod.

00:15:48 ◼   ► When you're looking to change your fitness level,

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00:18:07 ◼   ► A thanks to Fitbod for their support of this show

00:18:10 ◼   ► and Relay FM.

00:18:11 ◼   ► Everyone's going wild on the internet for the Beeper Mini.

00:18:16 ◼   ► - Beeper. - Beeper Mini.

00:18:18 ◼   ► - I love the name, Beeper Mini.

00:18:20 ◼   ► - This is, I think in our part of the world,

00:18:23 ◼   ► has taken over, it's taken everybody by storm

00:18:27 ◼   ► in the last week or last, actually 24 hours or so.

00:18:31 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:18:32 ◼   ► - How familiar are you with this thing so far?

00:18:34 ◼   ► - I've tried Beeper, both Beeper and Texts,

00:18:39 ◼   ► which is a similar competing product

00:18:41 ◼   ► by the makers of WordPress.

00:18:43 ◼   ► A few weeks ago, I have both a Beeper and a Texts account.

00:18:48 ◼   ► These are both services that try to sort of consolidate

00:18:54 ◼   ► your messaging services into a single chat UI.

00:18:57 ◼   ► And I tried Beeper before,

00:19:00 ◼   ► but that's when they were using the Relay method

00:19:03 ◼   ► for accessing iMessage,

00:19:06 ◼   ► which essentially involved spinning up

00:19:09 ◼   ► a virtual Mac in the cloud and logging in with your Apple ID.

00:19:12 ◼   ► But this is a different thing.

00:19:14 ◼   ► Beeper Mini is an Android client for iMessage

00:19:18 ◼   ► that actually logs you into iMessage

00:19:21 ◼   ► without having a computer somewhere in the cloud

00:19:23 ◼   ► with your account.

00:19:25 ◼   ► And this is possible because Beeper Mini talks directly

00:19:28 ◼   ► to the iMessage API in the cloud,

00:19:32 ◼   ► since they were able to reverse engineer the whole thing.

00:19:36 ◼   ► - That is the key difference.

00:19:38 ◼   ► I really recommend a friend of the show,

00:19:41 ◼   ► Quinn Nelson made a really great video

00:19:43 ◼   ► kind of showing how this works

00:19:45 ◼   ► and then actually showing how it works in action.

00:19:47 ◼   ► Like he was talking to this system himself, right?

00:19:52 ◼   ► Like as well, like to kind of show,

00:19:54 ◼   ► 'cause it's all on, it's all open source,

00:19:56 ◼   ► like the way that this is being reverse engineered.

00:19:58 ◼   ► But if you wanna use it,

00:20:00 ◼   ► like actually on your Android phone,

00:20:03 ◼   ► Beeper Mini is the way to do it.

00:20:05 ◼   ► It is a monthly subscription of $2 a month

00:20:07 ◼   ► created by the founder of Pebble,

00:20:10 ◼   ► which is funny to me, the smartwatch.

00:20:12 ◼   ► He created the company Beeper

00:20:14 ◼   ► and then there was an engineer who I think is a student

00:20:19 ◼   ► who worked out this reverse engineering method.

00:20:22 ◼   ► And it effectively allows for iMessage on an Android phone

00:20:27 ◼   ► and supports like group messages

00:20:31 ◼   ► with the data that comes with them,

00:20:32 ◼   ► like names and photos and stuff,

00:20:34 ◼   ► sharing full rise media, typing indicators,

00:20:37 ◼   ► threads like the way that threading works in iMessage,

00:20:40 ◼   ► support stickers and gifts, tap backs, basically everything.

00:20:44 ◼   ► It's only missing stuff like message effects

00:20:46 ◼   ► and iMessage apps,

00:20:48 ◼   ► which it says they don't think they'll ever be able

00:20:50 ◼   ► to work out, which I think we're all good with that.

00:20:53 ◼   ► This is pretty wild.

00:20:55 ◼   ► Like essentially you're not creating a new,

00:20:59 ◼   ► you don't even need to create an iMessage account

00:21:02 ◼   ► like an Apple ID for this.

00:21:03 ◼   ► It just works with your Android phone number.

00:21:07 ◼   ► It's wild, it's absolutely wild.

00:21:10 ◼   ► And if you're Apple, you gotta believe that

00:21:13 ◼   ► they must be so upset that this is possible.

00:21:17 ◼   ► And I don't know if technically possible at all,

00:21:20 ◼   ► but I am pretty confident that they're trying,

00:21:24 ◼   ► all they can do to close whatever technique they used

00:21:28 ◼   ► to reverse engineer iMessage.

00:21:31 ◼   ► But it may be, if this is an actual like complete

00:21:34 ◼   ► reverse engineer of how iMessages are sent from an iPhone

00:21:39 ◼   ► to another Apple device, which seems to be the case.

00:21:43 ◼   ► It may be hard for Apple to close this loophole

00:21:46 ◼   ► because it's not technically a loophole.

00:21:49 ◼   ► If you are simulating and if you're saying,

00:21:52 ◼   ► I'm an iPhone, I'm an Apple device, I'm sending iMessages.

00:21:55 ◼   ► I don't wanna get too technical here,

00:21:58 ◼   ► but also because I cannot get this technical.

00:22:01 ◼   ► - I mean, I watch Quinn's video

00:22:03 ◼   ► and this is a little above my pay grade.

00:22:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I don't even know if it's possible

00:22:09 ◼   ► for Apple to close this,

00:22:11 ◼   ► but I have to believe that they're trying.

00:22:14 ◼   ► Because obviously--

00:22:16 ◼   ► - I don't know, I don't know.

00:22:18 ◼   ► - Like why not?

00:22:19 ◼   ► - They might want to, I'm very sure they will want to,

00:22:24 ◼   ► but it's awkward right now, right?

00:22:29 ◼   ► Because they're at the same time trying to say

00:22:32 ◼   ► they're not a gatekeeper.

00:22:34 ◼   ► But I feel like probably the way around this

00:22:37 ◼   ► is some element of it's breaking a term.

00:22:42 ◼   ► - Oops, we accidentally,

00:22:45 ◼   ► or they just could release an upgrade to iMessage

00:22:49 ◼   ► and in the process it breaks this third party integrations

00:22:54 ◼   ► and they'd be like, no, we just applied our regular updates

00:22:58 ◼   ► to the iMessage service.

00:22:59 ◼   ► - Realistically that could just happen anyway, right?

00:23:02 ◼   ► Like that could just happen as part of like

00:23:04 ◼   ► a course of business kind of thing.

00:23:06 ◼   ► But here's the thing,

00:23:09 ◼   ► if this happened two or three years ago,

00:23:12 ◼   ► I'd feel very confident they'd get it shut down.

00:23:15 ◼   ► But I think just the politics--

00:23:18 ◼   ► - Now they gotta tread lightly is what you're saying

00:23:21 ◼   ► because they are under the microscope of the EU.

00:23:26 ◼   ► - And we've seen documentation that has come out

00:23:30 ◼   ► in court cases where they're talking about the fact

00:23:33 ◼   ► that iMessage is a lock-in for the iOS ecosystem.

00:23:38 ◼   ► Like there are conversations where some exact,

00:23:41 ◼   ► I don't remember who it was,

00:23:42 ◼   ► I think someone mentioned to Phil Schiller

00:23:43 ◼   ► or Phil Schiller sent to someone

00:23:45 ◼   ► about should we put it on Android?

00:23:47 ◼   ► And it was like, no, we shouldn't do that.

00:23:48 ◼   ► So like it's a bad look to shut this down now.

00:23:53 ◼   ► Like realistically, like I know it's a big deal,

00:23:58 ◼   ► but like if you're gonna go to these lengths,

00:24:02 ◼   ► you're not switching to an iPhone.

00:24:04 ◼   ► Like anyway, I've got to believe like someone

00:24:06 ◼   ► who would pay $2 a month to be a blue bubble

00:24:10 ◼   ► rather than a green bubble is like,

00:24:12 ◼   ► they're pretty entrenched I'm sure, right at this point.

00:24:15 ◼   ► Like are you really gonna grab that customer?

00:24:17 ◼   ► I don't know, maybe I'm not fully understanding

00:24:20 ◼   ► the like psychology of someone making this decision,

00:24:25 ◼   ► but I just feel like it's kind of like, what's the point?

00:24:27 ◼   ► Like make these people dance, right?

00:24:31 ◼   ► Make their lives harder in some way or another

00:24:33 ◼   ► by making changes to the system

00:24:35 ◼   ► because you're gonna make changes to the system.

00:24:38 ◼   ► But I feel like they want,

00:24:40 ◼   ► but also they're a very litigious company.

00:24:42 ◼   ► Look, if they haven't sent a cease and desist,

00:24:49 ◼   ► I'd be very surprised, but cease and desists can be argued

00:24:53 ◼   ► and like without anybody ever knowing anything about it.

00:24:55 ◼   ► And so like you can go around and around on this one

00:25:00 ◼   ► and people might be able to get a good case together,

00:25:02 ◼   ► but I'm pretty confident that,

00:25:04 ◼   ► I'm pretty confident this is breaking

00:25:08 ◼   ► an end user license agreement,

00:25:09 ◼   ► but at the same time,

00:25:11 ◼   ► at the same time, if you're not signing up

00:25:13 ◼   ► for an Apple ID to do this,

00:25:14 ◼   ► are you breaking an end user license agreement?

00:25:19 ◼   ► I don't know, man.

00:25:19 ◼   ► - If I was Beeper, I would,

00:25:23 ◼   ► and if Apple came with a cease and desist

00:25:26 ◼   ► or like in any sort of litigious form,

00:25:29 ◼   ► I would seriously consider an acquisition

00:25:31 ◼   ► from a bigger company to have the resources to fight them.

00:25:35 ◼   ► - Oh yeah.

00:25:37 ◼   ► Take this to Samsung or?

00:25:39 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:25:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, but would Samsung want to touch it, right?

00:25:42 ◼   ► 'Cause that feels like,

00:25:44 ◼   ► I see what you're saying, but at the same time,

00:25:48 ◼   ► this is like something falling off the back of a truck.

00:25:53 ◼   ► These are like hot goods.

00:25:57 ◼   ► Like, I don't know, you want to go near this?

00:26:00 ◼   ► - I'll say this though,

00:26:01 ◼   ► what this opens up for us Apple users,

00:26:05 ◼   ► and I'm going to say this,

00:26:07 ◼   ► just something that came to my mind 20 seconds ago.

00:26:10 ◼   ► iMessage obviously has a pretty strong locking effect, right?

00:26:16 ◼   ► Our group chat is on iMessage.

00:26:19 ◼   ► My thread with Sylvia is on iMessage.

00:26:22 ◼   ► I got all my groups in there,

00:26:25 ◼   ► but now with this Beeper solution,

00:26:27 ◼   ► I could realistically consider

00:26:29 ◼   ► something like a foldable device

00:26:34 ◼   ► that I use as my reading, like as an e-reader,

00:26:37 ◼   ► like one of these Samsung or,

00:26:40 ◼   ► what's the other company that makes the cool foldable?

00:26:42 ◼   ► OnePlus, is it?

00:26:43 ◼   ► No, it's not OnePlus.

00:26:45 ◼   ► Who is it that makes another interesting foldable device?

00:26:48 ◼   ► - Oh, it is the, well, OnePlus is making one right now.

00:26:52 ◼   ► - OnePlus is making one.

00:26:53 ◼   ► - It's based on the Oppo.

00:26:54 ◼   ► - Oppo, yes, thank you.

00:26:56 ◼   ► - 'Cause they're the same company essentially.

00:26:58 ◼   ► - Whenever I tried Android devices as like consumption,

00:27:02 ◼   ► because Android devices,

00:27:03 ◼   ► especially the tablet form factor ones,

00:27:06 ◼   ► are great for reading, watching YouTube and emulators, right?

00:27:11 ◼   ► Because from the Google Play Store,

00:27:13 ◼   ► you can get all of these things.

00:27:15 ◼   ► But whenever I set up one of those Android devices,

00:27:19 ◼   ► I missed the fact that I couldn't text you guys, you know?

00:27:23 ◼   ► It's like, oh, I gotta grab my phone.

00:27:25 ◼   ► And you know, now with this, with Beeper Mini,

00:27:30 ◼   ► I could stay logged into iMessage,

00:27:33 ◼   ► but finally use one of these Android foldables

00:27:37 ◼   ► as my entertainment devices.

00:27:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, because we could just add your Android phone number

00:27:42 ◼   ► to the group chat for the time that you're-

00:27:45 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:27:46 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:27:47 ◼   ► Just $2 a month.

00:27:49 ◼   ► - Mm-hmm, $2 a month, Beeper Mini, until it lasts, I guess.

00:27:54 ◼   ► If it lasts.

00:27:56 ◼   ► - That is like, I could not,

00:27:58 ◼   ► if you tell me to put money on

00:28:00 ◼   ► whether Apple will try and get it taken down or not,

00:28:02 ◼   ► I feel like I couldn't, because this is very complicated.

00:28:05 ◼   ► Like, I can see that it's very difficult for them,

00:28:10 ◼   ► but they do a lot of things which I wouldn't do

00:28:13 ◼   ► if I was them, right?

00:28:14 ◼   ► Like, they still do them anyway.

00:28:16 ◼   ► And like, they make decisions around like, I don't know.

00:28:21 ◼   ► I don't know if this is a good idea, but they do it anyway.

00:28:23 ◼   ► So maybe they will like, lawyer up.

00:28:27 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:28:28 ◼   ► - I wanna know what John thinks about this.

00:28:31 ◼   ► - Oh, we'll be able to ask him soon.

00:28:35 ◼   ► - All right, 'cause he's gonna be on the show next week,

00:28:37 ◼   ► right?

00:28:38 ◼   ► Maybe we could talk about it if, well, I won't be around.

00:28:41 ◼   ► - Maybe in a week, Beeper Mini won't be around anymore.

00:28:43 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:28:44 ◼   ► - Maybe it won't even matter.

00:28:46 ◼   ► - Who knows?

00:28:47 ◼   ► - See what OCG thinks.

00:28:48 ◼   ► Here's the thing, I wanted to talk to you

00:28:49 ◼   ► about the IA writer AI thing.

00:28:53 ◼   ► I put it in the show notes today,

00:28:54 ◼   ► just when I saw the headline.

00:28:56 ◼   ► I then went and read about it

00:28:57 ◼   ► and I find it way less interesting,

00:28:59 ◼   ► but I don't wanna talk to you about it anyway.

00:29:01 ◼   ► So IA, the Information Architects

00:29:04 ◼   ► is the name of the company, right?

00:29:05 ◼   ► - Yes, that is correct.

00:29:06 ◼   ► - They have introduced a new tool in IA Writer

00:29:11 ◼   ► to allow you to have a greater view

00:29:16 ◼   ► over what text would look like

00:29:19 ◼   ► if you're using an AI assistant to help you.

00:29:22 ◼   ► Their whole focus with this update is

00:29:26 ◼   ► having AI help you write, but not write for you.

00:29:29 ◼   ► So the idea is you would be writing something

00:29:33 ◼   ► and then you want some help from Check GPT.

00:29:35 ◼   ► You go to Check GPT, you ask it to write something for you.

00:29:38 ◼   ► And when you copy and paste that text into IA Writer,

00:29:43 ◼   ► and you can choose to paste as it came from AI

00:29:46 ◼   ► and it changes the color of the text.

00:29:48 ◼   ► So your text that you write is in black,

00:29:51 ◼   ► the text that the AI writes is in gray,

00:29:53 ◼   ► the idea being that you would go as a good writer

00:29:56 ◼   ► and edit what the AI system gave you.

00:30:00 ◼   ► So then you can get a view of how much has been changed

00:30:03 ◼   ► before you publish that text or whatever.

00:30:05 ◼   ► This is interesting, but when I heard about it,

00:30:08 ◼   ► I thought that they'd integrated Check GPT into the system,

00:30:11 ◼   ► which I think would be much more compelling

00:30:14 ◼   ► as a way to deal with this,

00:30:15 ◼   ► that like you would call in an IA Writer,

00:30:19 ◼   ► you give it a prompt, like you can do in a bunch of apps

00:30:21 ◼   ► and it would write the text for you

00:30:23 ◼   ► and it would appear in a different color

00:30:24 ◼   ► and then you could edit it.

00:30:25 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, see that's something else

00:30:27 ◼   ► that I would also very much like, yes.

00:30:30 ◼   ► - This is what it should do, but instead,

00:30:32 ◼   ► it's just a fancy copy and paste.

00:30:34 ◼   ► But the formatting idea is very good

00:30:36 ◼   ► and they're actually trying to push this

00:30:38 ◼   ► as like to become a standard,

00:30:40 ◼   ► that like that you're very aware of what you,

00:30:42 ◼   ► once it's finished, what you wrote and what the AI wrote

00:30:45 ◼   ► and like you can take your own thought about that.

00:30:48 ◼   ► - And this is where,

00:30:49 ◼   ► I'm gonna say something potentially controversial

00:30:53 ◼   ► because I saw a lot of people loving this feature

00:30:58 ◼   ► and I'm very confused by it.

00:31:00 ◼   ► I love IA Writer, I think it's a really good app

00:31:03 ◼   ► and it's my text editor when I'm not using Obsidian.

00:31:06 ◼   ► If I wanna edit like a markdown file from someone else,

00:31:10 ◼   ► that's what I use.

00:31:10 ◼   ► I've been using IA Writer for a very long time.

00:31:13 ◼   ► But I don't get this feature.

00:31:15 ◼   ► It almost feels like, and I get this sort of vibe

00:31:19 ◼   ► from the announcement that, and maybe it's just me,

00:31:23 ◼   ► look, maybe it's just my perspective,

00:31:25 ◼   ► but I almost get the feeling

00:31:27 ◼   ► that they wanna make you feel bad

00:31:30 ◼   ► for using AI generated content,

00:31:32 ◼   ► like shaming you into making you feel like,

00:31:35 ◼   ► ha ha, you fool, look at this.

00:31:36 ◼   ► Chat GPT wrote this, not you.

00:31:38 ◼   ► Like I don't like that whole attitude of like,

00:31:42 ◼   ► who now computers and AI are gonna replace humans.

00:31:47 ◼   ► So now we're gonna give you a feature to make you feel bad

00:31:51 ◼   ► about the things that you did and write yourself.

00:31:53 ◼   ► And like, and I don't get it because like,

00:31:56 ◼   ► if I'm the writer and I'm using the application IA Writer,

00:32:00 ◼   ► and then I go to the Chat GPT website

00:32:02 ◼   ► and I ask Chat GPT for something,

00:32:04 ◼   ► and then I manually paste it back into IA Writer,

00:32:08 ◼   ► I know what I wrote and I know what it's not mine.

00:32:11 ◼   ► Like the whole point of being a writer

00:32:13 ◼   ► should be that you know what you wrote.

00:32:15 ◼   ► So why should I make myself feel bad

00:32:19 ◼   ► for getting a little help from another tool?

00:32:24 ◼   ► - I mean, this feels to me - I don't get it.

00:32:25 ◼   ► - like one of those features that like,

00:32:28 ◼   ► we're a writers writing app, you know?

00:32:31 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:32:32 ◼   ► - You know what I mean?

00:32:33 ◼   ► And so it's like, we would never, you know,

00:32:36 ◼   ► we're above this.

00:32:37 ◼   ► - Sure.

00:32:38 ◼   ► - I think that there's something interesting to that.

00:32:41 ◼   ► And I see, but I see where,

00:32:44 ◼   ► interesting to what they're doing,

00:32:45 ◼   ► but I see where you're coming from.

00:32:47 ◼   ► And it's like, maybe it just depends on somebody's,

00:32:49 ◼   ► the way that they approach it.

00:32:50 ◼   ► But I do feel though, like,

00:32:55 ◼   ► so like Kate in the chat has paused the idea,

00:32:58 ◼   ► but what if you wrote something, left for a week,

00:33:01 ◼   ► came back, would you still remember?

00:33:03 ◼   ► - Nope, I've been doing this for 15 years.

00:33:06 ◼   ► Let me tell you, I remember every single thing I wrote.

00:33:08 ◼   ► - Let's say you would,

00:33:09 ◼   ► but I can imagine where Kate is coming from,

00:33:11 ◼   ► that someone could forget.

00:33:12 ◼   ► But what I would say to that is--

00:33:15 ◼   ► - But someone who would forget

00:33:17 ◼   ► is someone who uses IE Writer?

00:33:18 ◼   ► - Maybe, but let's imagine this gets integrated

00:33:22 ◼   ► into every app, right?

00:33:23 ◼   ► But the point that I would make to Kate's point is,

00:33:26 ◼   ► if you forget, does it matter?

00:33:29 ◼   ► Like, if you use ChatGPT to help you write something,

00:33:35 ◼   ► and at the end of it, you don't know, does it matter?

00:33:40 ◼   ► - No, it does not matter.

00:33:41 ◼   ► That's what I'm saying.

00:33:42 ◼   ► Like, if you do it manually and intentionally,

00:33:47 ◼   ► and if you do this for a living,

00:33:51 ◼   ► you will remember what you wrote and what you didn't.

00:33:55 ◼   ► And if you're the kind of writer who doesn't remember,

00:33:58 ◼   ► and you use ChatGPT to help you create content,

00:34:01 ◼   ► it means you don't care what you wrote

00:34:03 ◼   ► and what ChatGPT wrote,

00:34:05 ◼   ► therefore the feature doesn't make a lot of sense,

00:34:07 ◼   ► because you don't care anyway.

00:34:09 ◼   ► - And then, so like Ryan says here,

00:34:11 ◼   ► this is a really interesting conversation.

00:34:13 ◼   ► Ryan says, "For a lot of professional work,

00:34:14 ◼   ► "directly copying from ChatGPT would not fly."

00:34:17 ◼   ► Yes, so don't do it, right?

00:34:20 ◼   ► Like, if you shouldn't do it, don't do it, right?

00:34:25 ◼   ► Like, that's why--

00:34:26 ◼   ► - Like, how can I help myself?

00:34:28 ◼   ► I just look at that ChatGPT website.

00:34:30 ◼   ► - I tripped and fell.

00:34:31 ◼   ► - I tripped and fell into the ChatGPT copy and paste box.

00:34:34 ◼   ► I don't know how.

00:34:35 ◼   ► - Because in a mode like that, use it,

00:34:37 ◼   ► but don't copy and paste from it, right?

00:34:39 ◼   ► Like, use it to help spark some thoughts for you,

00:34:43 ◼   ► but then write your own words.

00:34:44 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:34:45 ◼   ► - Like, I think that there is,

00:34:48 ◼   ► I think there is something interesting here,

00:34:50 ◼   ► but I see where you're coming from.

00:34:52 ◼   ► It's an interesting way of trying to address a problem,

00:34:55 ◼   ► but is the problem there?

00:34:57 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:34:58 ◼   ► - I guess a better way to frame my position would be

00:35:00 ◼   ► that as soon as I saw this announcement,

00:35:03 ◼   ► and I was on the beta and everything,

00:35:06 ◼   ► I felt this mismatch between the audience

00:35:10 ◼   ► of IA Writer and this feature.

00:35:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think you're right.

00:35:15 ◼   ► - Because I strongly feel like the audience,

00:35:18 ◼   ► the typical customer of IA Writer,

00:35:21 ◼   ► is not the kind of person who copies and pastes from ChatGPT.

00:35:26 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:35:28 ◼   ► - You know?

00:35:28 ◼   ► - Yep, I think you're right.

00:35:29 ◼   ► - And it's like, they made a feature for a person

00:35:34 ◼   ► who does not use ChatGPT.

00:35:36 ◼   ► And so it's like, why?

00:35:40 ◼   ► Anyway, IA Writer is pretty cool.

00:35:43 ◼   ► I will never use this feature, but they should,

00:35:45 ◼   ► like, I would totally use an integrated version of like,

00:35:48 ◼   ► hey, help me proofread this stuff.

00:35:50 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:35:51 ◼   ► - You know, but don't, you know,

00:35:52 ◼   ► if my personal opinion, if you are a writer for a living,

00:35:56 ◼   ► don't let ChatGPT write your stuff, you know?

00:36:01 ◼   ► - With me, for a lot of, like, for this stuff right now,

00:36:04 ◼   ► I use ChatGPT a lot for improving my grammar.

00:36:07 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:36:08 ◼   ► - Like, don't change what I wrote,

00:36:09 ◼   ► but make it better for people that read it and get annoyed.

00:36:13 ◼   ► - That's great.

00:36:14 ◼   ► - I will use it on the description of this episode.

00:36:16 ◼   ► Like, I will write a description for this episode,

00:36:18 ◼   ► I will paste it into ChatGPT,

00:36:20 ◼   ► and I will ask it to fix my grammar.

00:36:22 ◼   ► Because that is like my biggest use

00:36:25 ◼   ► of ChatGPT specifically.

00:36:26 ◼   ► I have also been using it for searching stuff recently,

00:36:29 ◼   ► and it has been better for me in some instances.

00:36:32 ◼   ► - Like, what kind of stuff?

00:36:33 ◼   ► What kind of stuff are you searching for?

00:36:36 ◼   ► - Let me actually, like--

00:36:38 ◼   ► - Well, I don't mean to pry in your--

00:36:40 ◼   ► - No, no, it's a good question.

00:36:41 ◼   ► - ChatGPT search history.

00:36:43 ◼   ► - I'm gonna look through my ChatGPT search history now.

00:36:46 ◼   ► Oh, okay, here's one.

00:36:49 ◼   ► So, we just did an update.

00:36:51 ◼   ► This is not intended to be promo, but here we go now.

00:36:55 ◼   ► We just did an update to the Sidekiq Notepad website.

00:36:57 ◼   ► Actually, we built the Sidekiq Notepad website.

00:36:59 ◼   ► We made a website for it.

00:37:01 ◼   ► And one of the things that I wanted

00:37:05 ◼   ► was to have quotes from people that have reviewed it.

00:37:08 ◼   ► And so, I asked ChatGPT to find quotes

00:37:12 ◼   ► from reviews of the Sidekiq Notepad

00:37:15 ◼   ► and give me the URLs that they came from.

00:37:17 ◼   ► And so, it could just go and search the entire internet

00:37:19 ◼   ► for me and pull out quotes.

00:37:22 ◼   ► So, I didn't even have to read the reviews again

00:37:24 ◼   ► to get the quotes.

00:37:26 ◼   ► Like, that is just a more efficient way to do a search

00:37:28 ◼   ► than me Google Sidekiq Notepad review

00:37:31 ◼   ► and then read through every article.

00:37:33 ◼   ► Like, I've read them before, but I didn't save the quotes.

00:37:36 ◼   ► So, I found that to be helpful.

00:37:38 ◼   ► What else?

00:37:39 ◼   ► - That's a good use case.

00:37:40 ◼   ► - When I was looking for budgeting apps,

00:37:45 ◼   ► I asked ChatGPT and it gave me a bunch of selections.

00:37:48 ◼   ► - Very nice.

00:37:52 ◼   ► - That's all I've got right now for you.

00:37:54 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:37:55 ◼   ► I use it a lot for proofreading and for, yeah,

00:37:59 ◼   ► more complex searches that wouldn't cut it on Google,

00:38:03 ◼   ► especially when your query is framed more like,

00:38:06 ◼   ► there's like multiple steps involved.

00:38:08 ◼   ► Like what you just mentioned,

00:38:09 ◼   ► "Hey, I need to find people who wrote a review

00:38:12 ◼   ► of this product and also give me the links to those."

00:38:14 ◼   ► Like, it's a multi-step query.

00:38:16 ◼   ► And I think that's exactly what ChatGPT is strong at,

00:38:20 ◼   ► which, by the way, as we were recording the show,

00:38:24 ◼   ► Google released finally the long anticipated Gemini model,

00:38:28 ◼   ► which is already integrated in Google BARD.

00:38:32 ◼   ► So, there's apparently three flavors of Gemini,

00:38:36 ◼   ► Gemini Nano Pro, which is what BARD is using.

00:38:40 ◼   ► And there's Gemini Ultra, which is coming out next year.

00:38:43 ◼   ► So, more companies doing the ultra moniker for products.

00:38:48 ◼   ► But yeah, so now-

00:38:51 ◼   ► - I'm interested to hear what that's all about, but-

00:38:54 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:38:54 ◼   ► - I don't really have a lot of hope for Google in this,

00:38:59 ◼   ► if I'm being completely honest.

00:39:03 ◼   ► I'll say some of the searches I remember that I'd done now,

00:39:07 ◼   ► but I just deleted them

00:39:08 ◼   ► 'cause they weren't important to have in my history.

00:39:09 ◼   ► Like when we were on holiday,

00:39:11 ◼   ► I was asking for restaurant recommendations.

00:39:14 ◼   ► 'Cause I could give it what I was looking for.

00:39:16 ◼   ► And it was just easier.

00:39:17 ◼   ► Like, I'm looking for this style of food in this area.

00:39:21 ◼   ► Could you recommend restaurants

00:39:23 ◼   ► that also have outside seating?

00:39:24 ◼   ► Like, that is so much easier to get results from

00:39:28 ◼   ► than Google, in my opinion.

00:39:30 ◼   ► Whether they're good results or not,

00:39:32 ◼   ► it's always a starting point.

00:39:34 ◼   ► But like that kind of query

00:39:35 ◼   ► is just better than Googling that query.

00:39:37 ◼   ► Although maybe I could use Google BARD now

00:39:39 ◼   ► to get that answer, I don't know.

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00:41:39 ◼   ► So I am aware of the fact

00:41:41 ◼   ► that there is some new hardware in your home.

00:41:44 ◼   ► When listeners last heard,

00:41:47 ◼   ► you had a Bridge Max keyboard,

00:41:50 ◼   ► Bridge Max Plus keyboard.

00:41:51 ◼   ► How was that fared?

00:41:54 ◼   ► - Lasted six hours.

00:41:55 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:41:56 ◼   ► - Well, to be fair,

00:41:58 ◼   ► that's six more hours that I was hoping for.

00:42:02 ◼   ► I thought it was gonna be totally broken

00:42:04 ◼   ► or that it wouldn't turn on.

00:42:05 ◼   ► It did turn on and I liked it quite a bit

00:42:09 ◼   ► for the first six hours.

00:42:11 ◼   ► And then the trackpad stopped working altogether.

00:42:14 ◼   ► And the worst part is there used to be

00:42:18 ◼   ► a Bridge Connect utility on the App Store

00:42:21 ◼   ► that you could download

00:42:22 ◼   ► to update the firmware of your keyboard.

00:42:25 ◼   ► But since the Bridge company went under

00:42:27 ◼   ► and then it was acquired again,

00:42:28 ◼   ► I read somewhere on Reddit

00:42:30 ◼   ► that the developer certificate of the app expired

00:42:33 ◼   ► and the new owners couldn't be bothered

00:42:35 ◼   ► to renew it.

00:42:36 ◼   ► So Bridge Connect is gone from the App Store.

00:42:39 ◼   ► I'm stuck on an older firmware for this keyboard.

00:42:42 ◼   ► And apparently the newer firmware,

00:42:44 ◼   ► like the latest version they released,

00:42:47 ◼   ► improved the trackpad reliability,

00:42:49 ◼   ► but there's no way for me to update the keyboard.

00:42:53 ◼   ► So the trackpad stopped working

00:42:55 ◼   ► and so did my hope for the Bridge keyboard.

00:43:00 ◼   ► It was nice.

00:43:02 ◼   ► And I can confirm that the new magnetic attachment mechanism

00:43:06 ◼   ► is so much better than the clips they had before.

00:43:09 ◼   ► The viewing angles were great,

00:43:12 ◼   ► but the trackpad was not.

00:43:15 ◼   ► - It's pretty important.

00:43:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, you know, it's like at some point,

00:43:19 ◼   ► like it just started acting totally randomly.

00:43:23 ◼   ► Like it's doing things it was not supposed to do.

00:43:26 ◼   ► So yeah, very unfortunate.

00:43:29 ◼   ► It's now in a drawer somewhere.

00:43:30 ◼   ► Hopefully at some point it will be possible

00:43:33 ◼   ► to update the firmware of a Bridge keyboard again.

00:43:35 ◼   ► We'll see.

00:43:36 ◼   ► But I have much bigger, let's say,

00:43:40 ◼   ► fish to fry, Mike, so to speak.

00:43:42 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:43:43 ◼   ► - The Dokko3 iPad keyboard.

00:43:46 ◼   ► - Oh, here we go.

00:43:47 ◼   ► This was the one that you had bought

00:43:50 ◼   ► and were waiting to arrive, right?

00:43:53 ◼   ► - This is, it took a long time.

00:43:55 ◼   ► Multiple carriers handed this keyboard

00:43:59 ◼   ► to each other and eventually to the Italian post office,

00:44:04 ◼   ► but I have it, it's with me, and I have thoughts.

00:44:08 ◼   ► So first off, build quality.

00:44:11 ◼   ► So I'll just say this.

00:44:16 ◼   ► The aluminum enclosure is great.

00:44:18 ◼   ► The sort of the flat back upon which you attach the iPad

00:44:23 ◼   ► is good enough.

00:44:26 ◼   ► It's got the same mechanism as the Magic keyboard.

00:44:30 ◼   ► The iPad is floating above the keyboard,

00:44:32 ◼   ► so it doesn't support as many viewing angles

00:44:35 ◼   ► as the Bridge one.

00:44:36 ◼   ► This has the same viewing angles of an Apple Magic keyboard.

00:44:40 ◼   ► But the keyboard is backlit and has a function row.

00:44:46 ◼   ► However, the keyboard is barely passable.

00:44:51 ◼   ► I don't love the travel of the keys.

00:44:55 ◼   ► I don't, they feel a bit flimsy to me.

00:44:59 ◼   ► Like they, you know when you have those keyboards

00:45:01 ◼   ► that make like a little plasticy noise when you,

00:45:03 ◼   ► I mean, Mike, you know about keyboards.

00:45:05 ◼   ► I don't love the sound.

00:45:08 ◼   ► I prefer the more muted approach of the Magic keyboard.

00:45:13 ◼   ► And yeah, I don't love, also I don't like how the letters

00:45:18 ◼   ► are not printed in the center of the key.

00:45:22 ◼   ► They're sort of printed in the bottom right corner

00:45:25 ◼   ► for some reason.

00:45:26 ◼   ► And this makes it feel like a retro keyboard to me.

00:45:29 ◼   ► I don't know why.

00:45:30 ◼   ► But yeah, it works and it's fine.

00:45:36 ◼   ► - Wait, the bottom right corner?

00:45:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, the letters are printed

00:45:42 ◼   ► on the bottom right corner of the key itself.

00:45:47 ◼   ► - Okay, I think that's going, that is a weird placement

00:45:50 ◼   ► to be that small too.

00:45:52 ◼   ► Like I'm looking on the website.

00:45:54 ◼   ► That is, they made a lot of decisions to get to that point.

00:45:59 ◼   ► And I feel like they were all wrong.

00:46:01 ◼   ► Like we're not gonna do it in the middle or the top left.

00:46:06 ◼   ► We're gonna do it in the bottom right.

00:46:08 ◼   ► - Bottom right.

00:46:09 ◼   ► - Are you gonna do it like the old Apple keyboards

00:46:12 ◼   ► where it was italicized?

00:46:13 ◼   ► No, we're not gonna do that.

00:46:14 ◼   ► Okay, what size are you gonna do the printing?

00:46:17 ◼   ► The smallest possible.

00:46:18 ◼   ► Okay.

00:46:21 ◼   ► That said, so the travel is not as nice

00:46:25 ◼   ► and as the magic keyboard, that's okay.

00:46:27 ◼   ► Now we get to the good stuff.

00:46:29 ◼   ► The build quality of the case is great.

00:46:31 ◼   ► It does feel like an Apple product.

00:46:34 ◼   ► It's sturdy, it's got chamfered edges, it's really nice.

00:46:38 ◼   ► The function keys.

00:46:40 ◼   ► So there was a lot of talk

00:46:43 ◼   ► when Apple announced the magic keyboard.

00:46:44 ◼   ► Oh, they couldn't do a function row

00:46:46 ◼   ► because then you wouldn't be able to access the function row

00:46:48 ◼   ► if the iPad is floating above it.

00:46:50 ◼   ► Let me tell you, you can access the function row just fine.

00:46:53 ◼   ► I was playing and pausing music, controlling my volume,

00:46:57 ◼   ► controlling brightness without having to use control center.

00:47:00 ◼   ► It's great.

00:47:01 ◼   ► I love having a function row there.

00:47:02 ◼   ► There's a button that simulates the old home button,

00:47:06 ◼   ► takes you back home.

00:47:07 ◼   ► They didn't do an escape key, which is a bummer.

00:47:11 ◼   ► I think I would have rather taken an escape key

00:47:14 ◼   ► than a home button or a home key

00:47:16 ◼   ► and there's no way to remap that button unfortunately.

00:47:19 ◼   ► So that's something worth keeping in mind.

00:47:22 ◼   ► But having a function row in there is great,

00:47:24 ◼   ► especially for quick music playback controls.

00:47:26 ◼   ► But the best part, Mike.

00:47:30 ◼   ► Actually, no, let me talk about the trackpad.

00:47:34 ◼   ► So the trackpad, it's not as nice as the Apple trackpad

00:47:39 ◼   ► and that is not a surprise.

00:47:41 ◼   ► But, but it is much better than the Brydge one.

00:47:47 ◼   ► So whatever this company, Dokomidi, is doing

00:47:51 ◼   ► to reverse engineer how a Bluetooth trackpad should work,

00:47:55 ◼   ► they have done a better job than Brydge so far.

00:48:00 ◼   ► I've been using this keyboard for the whole day.

00:48:03 ◼   ► I wrote in it, I've done email, I've done Mastodon,

00:48:07 ◼   ► I've used gestures for stage manager,

00:48:10 ◼   ► for just two finger gesture, three finger ones,

00:48:13 ◼   ► four finger ones, like they all worked.

00:48:17 ◼   ► The trackpad is not as perfect

00:48:20 ◼   ► as the Apple Magic trackpad, right?

00:48:23 ◼   ► Sometimes it lags for a fraction of a second.

00:48:27 ◼   ► I had to take the speed of the pointer up a notch in settings

00:48:35 ◼   ► because I found it too slow with the setting

00:48:39 ◼   ► that I normally use with my Magic keyboard.

00:48:42 ◼   ► Occasionally, when I hold down the Command key,

00:48:46 ◼   ► say that I'm in Google and I wanna hold down Command

00:48:49 ◼   ► and then click on a search result to open it in a new tab.

00:48:52 ◼   ► Sometimes when I hold down Command,

00:48:55 ◼   ► the pointer sort of lags behind for a fraction of a second

00:48:58 ◼   ► and then it catches up again.

00:49:00 ◼   ► But the thing is, I get the feeling

00:49:03 ◼   ► that they are obviously reverse engineering

00:49:05 ◼   ► how a trackpad should work

00:49:07 ◼   ► and they did it much better than Brydge.

00:49:12 ◼   ► I can use it.

00:49:13 ◼   ► I've been using this keyboard the whole day and it works.

00:49:17 ◼   ► But keep in mind that it's not as,

00:49:20 ◼   ► like if the Apple trackpad is 100% perfect,

00:49:24 ◼   ► this is like 75 to 80%,

00:49:27 ◼   ► the feeling of an Apple Magic trackpad.

00:49:29 ◼   ► It's a very close approximation, but still an approximation.

00:49:34 ◼   ► In fact, I would say that the worst part of the trackpad

00:49:36 ◼   ► is the build quality.

00:49:38 ◼   ► Just like the keyboard, it feels kind of flimsy

00:49:41 ◼   ► and I don't like the noise that it makes when you click it.

00:49:44 ◼   ► I don't know if you can make this out.

00:49:46 ◼   ► It's more clicky than a Magic trackpad.

00:49:51 ◼   ► - Is it like mechanical, the clicking?

00:49:55 ◼   ► Like can you click the entire trackpad and it still works

00:49:59 ◼   ► or is it like hinging?

00:50:00 ◼   ► - I can click the entire trackpad.

00:50:02 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:50:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, I clicked in the bottom left corner

00:50:04 ◼   ► and I opened an app on the home screen.

00:50:06 ◼   ► So yeah, it works.

00:50:07 ◼   ► The best part, of course, is the hub

00:50:10 ◼   ► in the back of the keyboard.

00:50:11 ◼   ► So in the back of the keyboard,

00:50:12 ◼   ► there's a full-on hub for USB-C, USB-A, and HDMI.

00:50:17 ◼   ► And here we get to the really good stuff.

00:50:22 ◼   ► The keyboard is provided with a short USB-C cable

00:50:28 ◼   ► that connects the iPad to the keyboard itself.

00:50:30 ◼   ► That's because the keyboard is also a hub,

00:50:33 ◼   ► so you gotta connect the iPad to the keyboard

00:50:37 ◼   ► via a USB-C cable.

00:50:39 ◼   ► You have this really short, it's like 15 centimeters,

00:50:41 ◼   ► USB-C cable.

00:50:43 ◼   ► You put it on the side of the iPad

00:50:45 ◼   ► when it's docked on the keyboard

00:50:46 ◼   ► and it doesn't bother me at all.

00:50:48 ◼   ► In the back, you have one USB-C port

00:50:51 ◼   ► for pass-through charging.

00:50:53 ◼   ► So when the iPad is connected to the keyboard

00:50:55 ◼   ► and you plug your main sort of USB-C source of power

00:50:59 ◼   ► in the back of the iPad into the USB-C port of the keyboard,

00:51:03 ◼   ► it works.

00:51:04 ◼   ► It fast charges your iPad.

00:51:06 ◼   ► So you have fast charging pass-through.

00:51:08 ◼   ► You have two USB-A ports for data,

00:51:12 ◼   ► and you have one HDMI,

00:51:13 ◼   ► then you have two SD and microSD slots.

00:51:18 ◼   ► I haven't tested the microSD slots yet,

00:51:21 ◼   ► but I have done some other tests today, Mike.

00:51:24 ◼   ► So I'm gonna talk about this shortly.

00:51:28 ◼   ► I also received my Sony Pulse earbuds

00:51:31 ◼   ► for the PlayStation 5.

00:51:33 ◼   ► And those earbuds,

00:51:35 ◼   ► they come with the PlayStation Link Adapter,

00:51:37 ◼   ► which is a small USB-A dongle that you plug into things

00:51:40 ◼   ► and allows you for faster connections than Bluetooth.

00:51:43 ◼   ► - It's USB-A?

00:51:44 ◼   ► - It's USB-A, yeah, it's USB-A.

00:51:46 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't know, it's USB-A.

00:51:49 ◼   ► Now, whatever DoCo MIDI did with this USB hub,

00:51:54 ◼   ► their USB-C, their USB ports,

00:51:58 ◼   ► both the USB-C1 and the USB-A ports,

00:52:02 ◼   ► they do not support audio pass-through, it seems.

00:52:06 ◼   ► I plugged my PS Link adapter

00:52:08 ◼   ► into the ports of the DoCo MIDI keyboard.

00:52:13 ◼   ► The PS Link was recognized by iPadOS,

00:52:17 ◼   ► but I couldn't hear any audio.

00:52:19 ◼   ► Then I plugged the PS Link adapter

00:52:22 ◼   ► into the iPad Pro directly, and it worked.

00:52:26 ◼   ► So there appears to be bugs with USB audio

00:52:30 ◼   ► with the DoCo MIDI keyboards.

00:52:32 ◼   ► Everything else, however, Mike, worked.

00:52:36 ◼   ► I tried my glasses, of course.

00:52:40 ◼   ► There's an HDMI out port, so I did an HDMI cable

00:52:44 ◼   ► connected to the HDMI adapter that I use already

00:52:48 ◼   ► for my Nintendo Switch, and then to my glasses,

00:52:52 ◼   ► and it worked out of the box.

00:52:54 ◼   ► So I can plug in my existing cable setup

00:52:57 ◼   ► for the Nintendo Switch in the back of the DoCo keyboard,

00:53:02 ◼   ► and it works, stage manager activated,

00:53:04 ◼   ► and I could use the iPad with my X-Ray or glasses.

00:53:09 ◼   ► Ethernet works.

00:53:12 ◼   ► I built an essential photos.

00:53:14 ◼   ► You can include these photos in the show notes.

00:53:16 ◼   ► I built this beautiful contraption of an Ethernet adapter.

00:53:20 ◼   ► See, I wanted to have an Ethernet to USB-C adapter

00:53:25 ◼   ► that didn't have, yeah, people in Discord can see.

00:53:33 ◼   ► I didn't wanna have the USB-C adapter sort of just, you know,

00:53:38 ◼   ► wobbling in the back of my iPad

00:53:42 ◼   ► or in the back of my Steam Deck.

00:53:45 ◼   ► We'll get to that in a few minutes.

00:53:46 ◼   ► So I created this monster that actually works.

00:53:51 ◼   ► It's an Ethernet patch cable

00:53:54 ◼   ► connected to a TP-Link Ethernet to USB-C adapter.

00:53:58 ◼   ► Then there's a USB-C female to USB-C female dongle in between

00:54:03 ◼   ► and lastly, the USB-C cable I actually wanna use.

00:54:09 ◼   ► I use this for my Steam Deck,

00:54:12 ◼   ► and I can use this for my iPad, and it works.

00:54:15 ◼   ► I get beautiful one gigabit Ethernet

00:54:20 ◼   ► on my iPad with the DoCo MIDI keyboard.

00:54:22 ◼   ► And lastly-

00:54:25 ◼   ► - You are still living in your own world.

00:54:27 ◼   ► No one's living in this world.

00:54:29 ◼   ► - Some people are.

00:54:30 ◼   ► - Well, there's actually this one person

00:54:32 ◼   ► who lives in this world, which is Hiroi Kayuta,

00:54:34 ◼   ► who we spoke about earlier on in the show.

00:54:36 ◼   ► I feel like the two of you are living

00:54:38 ◼   ► in your own plane of existence right now

00:54:40 ◼   ► with the things that you're up to, you know?

00:54:42 ◼   ► - So, maybe.

00:54:45 ◼   ► So the thing is, I'm going to keep using this keyboard

00:54:50 ◼   ► despite the many things I would change about it,

00:54:54 ◼   ► starting from how the letters are printed.

00:54:57 ◼   ► The convenience of the hub

00:55:01 ◼   ► and the convenience of the function row

00:55:06 ◼   ► makes it right now, at this point in time,

00:55:11 ◼   ► a preferable option to the Magic Keyboard

00:55:14 ◼   ► with a big asterisk.

00:55:16 ◼   ► And that asterisk being assuming

00:55:18 ◼   ► that the trackpad keeps working

00:55:21 ◼   ► and that the bugs don't start growing

00:55:24 ◼   ► or duplicating themselves over time.

00:55:27 ◼   ► Because I remain convinced that all these folks,

00:55:31 ◼   ► they are reverse engineering how a Magic Trackpad works,

00:55:35 ◼   ► and maybe something will break at some point.

00:55:38 ◼   ► - I'm pretty sure that when Bridge did this,

00:55:41 ◼   ► they said that that was what they were doing, right?

00:55:43 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:55:44 ◼   ► - That they reverse engineered it.

00:55:45 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:55:46 ◼   ► So right now it works,

00:55:47 ◼   ► and it's much better than a Bridge keyboard ever was.

00:55:52 ◼   ► I would love for Dokomidi

00:55:56 ◼   ► to make a fully adjustable version of this keyboard

00:56:01 ◼   ► with the same mechanism of the Bridge one.

00:56:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, 'cause again,

00:56:08 ◼   ► this one is closer to the Magic Keyboard, right?

00:56:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, the viewing angles are the same

00:56:12 ◼   ► as the Magic Keyboard really.

00:56:13 ◼   ► - It's cantilevering.

00:56:15 ◼   ► - Cantilevering over there, just floating above,

00:56:17 ◼   ► a function row, which is really useful to have.

00:56:20 ◼   ► Now, very quickly, Mike, before we talk,

00:56:23 ◼   ► I think you wanna, well,

00:56:25 ◼   ► I want to talk to you about my Steam Deck setup.

00:56:28 ◼   ► The Sony Pulse Earbuds.

00:56:31 ◼   ► These are the new sort of PlayStation 5 themed earbuds

00:56:36 ◼   ► that Sony is making.

00:56:38 ◼   ► I received them today, and I gotta tell you,

00:56:41 ◼   ► I was not expecting to love these earbuds,

00:56:43 ◼   ► but I do, for a very specific reason.

00:56:46 ◼   ► Not just because they look cool,

00:56:47 ◼   ► they look like a mini PS5,

00:56:49 ◼   ► but there actually is an earbuds case.

00:56:52 ◼   ► Finally, Mike, I have a single set of earbuds

00:56:57 ◼   ► that I can use with three separate handhelds.

00:57:01 ◼   ► - Okay.

00:57:03 ◼   ► - So, I said I believe on Unwind or App Stories

00:57:08 ◼   ► that I sold my PS portal.

00:57:10 ◼   ► I did not end up selling it.

00:57:13 ◼   ► The guy who bought it online didn't pay me,

00:57:16 ◼   ► so of course I didn't ship it.

00:57:18 ◼   ► - Good.

00:57:19 ◼   ► - And in doing that, out of curiosity,

00:57:23 ◼   ► I realized, well, now that I have an Eero

00:57:26 ◼   ► right next to me at night,

00:57:28 ◼   ► let me see if the portal improves

00:57:30 ◼   ► with stronger WiFi right next to it.

00:57:33 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:57:34 ◼   ► - And boy, did it improve.

00:57:35 ◼   ► It was much better with an Eero

00:57:38 ◼   ► sitting a meter away from it.

00:57:40 ◼   ► So yeah, I'm keeping it.

00:57:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, I bought one and returned it,

00:57:45 ◼   ► 'cause it was bad.

00:57:48 ◼   ► - The lag was really, really bad,

00:57:50 ◼   ► and I did not enjoy it, so I returned mine.

00:57:52 ◼   ► - These earbuds, they are incredible for me specifically,

00:57:57 ◼   ► because they do exactly what I wanted.

00:57:59 ◼   ► I can use them with my Steam Deck,

00:58:02 ◼   ► the PS portal, and the Nintendo Switch,

00:58:05 ◼   ► each with a different connection method.

00:58:08 ◼   ► And you just can toggle between them

00:58:10 ◼   ► with the click of a button on the earbuds.

00:58:14 ◼   ► On the PS portal, the PS portal has native PS Link support.

00:58:18 ◼   ► You press a button on the portal,

00:58:21 ◼   ► and it detects that there are Sony Pulse earbuds nearby,

00:58:24 ◼   ► and it connects to them.

00:58:26 ◼   ► In the Steam Deck, as we'll talk about in a few minutes,

00:58:29 ◼   ► I can plug in the PS Link adapter directly,

00:58:33 ◼   ► so that the Steam Deck sees the adapter,

00:58:37 ◼   ► routes the audio to the adapter,

00:58:38 ◼   ► and I can hear games music in my earbuds.

00:58:42 ◼   ► - Why don't you use Bluetooth for that?

00:58:45 ◼   ► - Hold on.

00:58:45 ◼   ► I'm using Bluetooth for the Nintendo Switch.

00:58:48 ◼   ► So the same earbuds are paired via Bluetooth

00:58:51 ◼   ► to my Nintendo Switch.

00:58:53 ◼   ► So when I'm playing on my Nintendo Switch,

00:58:55 ◼   ► I just press a button on the earbuds,

00:58:59 ◼   ► and they connect to my Nintendo.

00:59:00 ◼   ► So one set of--

00:59:01 ◼   ► - Aren't they Bluetooth 5.1?

00:59:03 ◼   ► Like, you compare it to multiple devices with Bluetooth.

00:59:07 ◼   ► - Well, but I just prefer, you know, I have the adapter,

00:59:09 ◼   ► and I have multiple USB ports on my Steam Deck,

00:59:12 ◼   ► so why not?

00:59:13 ◼   ► And again, we'll get to that in a few minutes.

00:59:15 ◼   ► You know?

00:59:16 ◼   ► And this way, and I tested this before,

00:59:17 ◼   ► I tested this today, it works.

00:59:22 ◼   ► So I just, you know, cycling through multiple consoles.

00:59:26 ◼   ► Like, and I'm never gonna do this in real life.

00:59:28 ◼   ► Like, it's not like, oh, now let me play on the Steam Deck.

00:59:31 ◼   ► Oh, now I wanna play on my Nintendo.

00:59:32 ◼   ► Actually, no, let me grab my portal now.

00:59:34 ◼   ► Like, I'm never gonna do that,

00:59:36 ◼   ► but I tested it, and it works.

00:59:38 ◼   ► So they sound great.

00:59:40 ◼   ► They work with the portal, they work with the Steam Deck.

00:59:44 ◼   ► I got rid of all the earbuds I was using.

00:59:47 ◼   ► Now I have one set of earbuds for three handouts.

00:59:51 ◼   ► Beautiful.

00:59:51 ◼   ► - That's pretty good, actually,

00:59:52 ◼   ► to have like DC or gaming headphones.

00:59:54 ◼   ► - Yes, finally.

00:59:56 ◼   ► Like, I just have one thing that I can use

00:59:58 ◼   ► for all my portable devices.

01:00:00 ◼   ► - How's the audio quality?

01:00:01 ◼   ► 'Cause these are plainer headphones, right?

01:00:03 ◼   ► - Yes, it's actually very good.

01:00:07 ◼   ► It's more biased.

01:00:08 ◼   ► I mean, being video game earbuds, it doesn't surprise me.

01:00:11 ◼   ► I'm gonna say something that you're gonna make fun of me.

01:00:15 ◼   ► For very biased towards trebles and highs.

01:00:20 ◼   ► Yeah, they sound good.

01:00:26 ◼   ► I wouldn't recommend it as music listening earbuds,

01:00:30 ◼   ► but they sound really good for what they do.

01:00:34 ◼   ► - How are the mids?

01:00:35 ◼   ► Are they crunchy?

01:00:38 ◼   ► - Yes, crunchy.

01:00:40 ◼   ► - Crunchy mids?

01:00:42 ◼   ► And the bass, is it a well-rounded sound stage?

01:00:44 ◼   ► - Crunchy mids, shimmering highs,

01:00:46 ◼   ► you know, all those adjectives are here, Mike, for you.

01:00:50 ◼   ► - Well-rounded.

01:00:53 ◼   ► Well-rounded, strong, crunchy mids and bass.

01:00:57 ◼   ► These do look cool though.

01:00:59 ◼   ► My thought was if I liked the Portal,

01:01:02 ◼   ► I was gonna get these because it's ridiculous

01:01:05 ◼   ► that the Portal doesn't have Bluetooth.

01:01:07 ◼   ► So you have to use wired headphones,

01:01:09 ◼   ► but I didn't like the Portal, so I didn't get these.

01:01:12 ◼   ► So if anything, I'm actually kind of happy

01:01:14 ◼   ► that they didn't release these at the same time,

01:01:16 ◼   ► which was ridiculous to me at first,

01:01:17 ◼   ► but then I didn't have to return two products.

01:01:21 ◼   ► So I'm happy about that.

01:01:24 ◼   ► But I have decided to take the money

01:01:30 ◼   ► that I got for my PlayStation Portal

01:01:33 ◼   ► and put it towards the consideration of a Steam Deck OLED.

01:01:37 ◼   ► - Oh, okay, let's do this.

01:01:38 ◼   ► Yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

01:01:40 ◼   ► - But before we get there,

01:01:41 ◼   ► let me take our final break of this week's episode

01:01:44 ◼   ► and thank our friends at Notion

01:01:45 ◼   ► for their support of this week's episode.

01:01:47 ◼   ► Notion combines your notes, your documents,

01:01:50 ◼   ► and projects all together in one beautiful space.

01:01:53 ◼   ► And navigating that space is easier than ever,

01:01:56 ◼   ► thanks to Notion's new feature, Q&A.

01:01:59 ◼   ► Q&A is an AI assistant that can answer questions

01:02:02 ◼   ► about the next quarter's roadmap,

01:02:03 ◼   ► find that marketing campaign proposal you're looking for,

01:02:06 ◼   ► or dig up a long-lost link all in seconds.

01:02:10 ◼   ► I am very deep into Notion now.

01:02:13 ◼   ► I have two spaces, I have one for me,

01:02:16 ◼   ► I have one for Cortex brand,

01:02:18 ◼   ► and I am living the life of living my life in Notion.

01:02:23 ◼   ► I put so much stuff in there,

01:02:24 ◼   ► I love that the data that I put into it

01:02:27 ◼   ► can be represented in different ways.

01:02:28 ◼   ► Maybe I want this to look like a Kanban board,

01:02:31 ◼   ► maybe I want this to look like a calendar.

01:02:32 ◼   ► You're able to use the same pieces of information

01:02:35 ◼   ► just with the right metadata,

01:02:36 ◼   ► represent it in a bunch of different ways.

01:02:38 ◼   ► It's really easy to share stuff with people,

01:02:40 ◼   ► to work in a collaborative space.

01:02:41 ◼   ► It's really easy to integrate loads of different services.

01:02:45 ◼   ► And I have been using Notion AI

01:02:47 ◼   ► for a bunch of different things.

01:02:48 ◼   ► My two favorite things that I've been doing so far,

01:02:50 ◼   ► I use Notion AI to help me summarize actions

01:02:54 ◼   ► from meeting notes, I'm taking notes during meetings,

01:02:56 ◼   ► I could say, give me the action items

01:02:58 ◼   ► and it will go through and give me them.

01:03:00 ◼   ► And I've used Notion Q&A a few times now,

01:03:02 ◼   ► I used it just yesterday to be like,

01:03:05 ◼   ► what was the order that we wanted to make

01:03:07 ◼   ► for such and such project next June?

01:03:10 ◼   ► And it went through and found that I would talk about that

01:03:13 ◼   ► in a previous meeting and Notion Q&A

01:03:15 ◼   ► gave me the answers to that question.

01:03:17 ◼   ► Really cool, I didn't have to go search for it

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01:04:19 ◼   ► So sell me on the Steam Deck OLED.

01:04:22 ◼   ► - Okay, to sell you on the Steam Deck OLED,

01:04:26 ◼   ► the first thing you gotta know

01:04:27 ◼   ► is that the display looks incredible

01:04:30 ◼   ► and it makes your games look better.

01:04:32 ◼   ► And it's very pleasant for the eyes

01:04:35 ◼   ► and you're gonna be happy just by looking at it.

01:04:39 ◼   ► So the reason you should get it

01:04:41 ◼   ► is that you love video games

01:04:43 ◼   ► and this display makes you love video games even more.

01:04:46 ◼   ► - I love to love video games.

01:04:48 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:04:49 ◼   ► And the reason,

01:04:50 ◼   ► I'm gonna talk about my version of the Steam Deck shortly,

01:04:57 ◼   ► but seriously, the weight reduction is really nice

01:05:02 ◼   ► and noticeable.

01:05:03 ◼   ► The fact that it comes with Wi-Fi 6,

01:05:08 ◼   ► 6E even, I wanna say, is remarkable.

01:05:12 ◼   ► You will see much faster downloads

01:05:15 ◼   ► when you download like chunky games,

01:05:17 ◼   ► like Cyberpunk, for example.

01:05:19 ◼   ► Cyberpunk looks really cool because it supports HDR

01:05:24 ◼   ► and this is OLED with HDR on this screen.

01:05:27 ◼   ► But seriously, it's not just like,

01:05:33 ◼   ► it really is remarkable how good this display looks.

01:05:41 ◼   ► I think it looks better than the Nintendo one, as a panel.

01:05:45 ◼   ► I think it looks better.

01:05:47 ◼   ► And playing any colorful game,

01:05:52 ◼   ► like I'm playing Sea of Stars at the moment,

01:05:55 ◼   ► and it looks just incredible.

01:05:57 ◼   ► Like it's so bright and vivid and it's nice.

01:06:01 ◼   ► It's a nice object, is all I can say.

01:06:03 ◼   ► My version of the Steam Deck I call the Tichi Deck.

01:06:08 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:06:10 ◼   ► - Tell me about the Tichi Deck.

01:06:13 ◼   ► - I have almost reached the final form of the Tichi Deck.

01:06:18 ◼   ► So this is something that started as an experiment

01:06:21 ◼   ► inspired by a Mac Stories reader,

01:06:23 ◼   ► who sent me a very nice email weeks ago.

01:06:27 ◼   ► So the idea is I mounted on the back of the Steam Deck,

01:06:31 ◼   ► a pluggable, slim Thunderbolt hub.

01:06:36 ◼   ► It's a five in one pluggable hub.

01:06:40 ◼   ► It's the smallest Thunderbolt hub in existence.

01:06:43 ◼   ► It's very, very slim.

01:06:45 ◼   ► And initially I mounted this with Velcro

01:06:49 ◼   ► to the back of the Steam Deck.

01:06:50 ◼   ► Now I'm using, for the moment,

01:06:53 ◼   ► an accessory called the Deckmate.

01:06:57 ◼   ► They also make a version for the ROG Ally

01:07:00 ◼   ► called the Allymate.

01:07:01 ◼   ► But I'm waiting for OTJ to ship me

01:07:06 ◼   ► a potentially better solution from Etsy

01:07:09 ◼   ► that was not available for shipping in Italy.

01:07:12 ◼   ► For now I'm using this mounting clip called the Deckmate.

01:07:18 ◼   ► And there's gonna be links in the show notes and pictures.

01:07:23 ◼   ► You will see this hub mounted to the back of the Steam Deck

01:07:27 ◼   ► and this short USB-C cable made by Satechi.

01:07:30 ◼   ► It's a flat USB-C cable that connects the Steam Deck

01:07:34 ◼   ► to the hub.

01:07:35 ◼   ► And I provide power to the hub

01:07:38 ◼   ► from any USB-C adapter or battery,

01:07:42 ◼   ► because I have a USB-C to DC converter cable.

01:07:46 ◼   ► The advantage here--

01:07:48 ◼   ► - I'm just so impressed.

01:07:49 ◼   ► I don't know how you do this.

01:07:50 ◼   ► I'm so impressed with you sometimes.

01:07:52 ◼   ► - Lots of research.

01:07:53 ◼   ► - But like that amount of research,

01:07:54 ◼   ► I just don't know if I have the ability to deal with it.

01:07:57 ◼   ► - I love modding things and coming up with solutions.

01:08:02 ◼   ► This way,

01:08:02 ◼   ► it's even better on the Steam Deck OLED,

01:08:06 ◼   ► because like I'm sort of,

01:08:08 ◼   ► before I could tell that I was adding

01:08:11 ◼   ► some weight to the Steam Deck.

01:08:14 ◼   ► But now because the Steam Deck OLED lost 30 grams,

01:08:18 ◼   ► it's even better.

01:08:18 ◼   ► It's much more balanced

01:08:20 ◼   ► and I don't mind playing games like this

01:08:23 ◼   ► with this thing mounted to the back of the console,

01:08:25 ◼   ► especially if I'm lying in bed

01:08:27 ◼   ► and so placing the console on my lap is not a problem.

01:08:30 ◼   ► Because now I get to plug multiple things in the Steam Deck,

01:08:35 ◼   ► including my glasses over USB-C.

01:08:39 ◼   ► And this is why I needed to get this hub,

01:08:42 ◼   ► because I gotta have fast USB data transfer,

01:08:46 ◼   ► not just any generic $30 USB hub.

01:08:50 ◼   ► I gotta provide video out over USB-C.

01:08:53 ◼   ► So this is why I got a USB 4, Thunderbolt 4 hub.

01:08:57 ◼   ► I can plug my glasses and play with my glasses,

01:09:00 ◼   ► as I feel like I'm bothering Sylvia

01:09:02 ◼   ► with a beautiful OLED display.

01:09:05 ◼   ► I can plug in my ethernet monster into this thing.

01:09:09 ◼   ► And I can stream PS5 games or,

01:09:13 ◼   ► and I'm gonna tell you this, Mike,

01:09:14 ◼   ► I can stream over ethernet PC games.

01:09:18 ◼   ► I can stream Cyberpunk 2077 at psycho settings

01:09:23 ◼   ► over my network with Moonlight on the Steam Deck.

01:09:28 ◼   ► I can plug in my audio adapter,

01:09:34 ◼   ► as you can see in the pictures,

01:09:36 ◼   ► there's the PS Link adapter plugged in.

01:09:39 ◼   ► I could also plug it into the top of the hub, I guess,

01:09:44 ◼   ► because there's a USB-A port at the top

01:09:46 ◼   ► that I totally forgot about.

01:09:48 ◼   ► So yeah, this is my teaching deck.

01:09:50 ◼   ► I'm still waiting for John to ship me.

01:09:53 ◼   ► I think he's getting it today, actually,

01:09:55 ◼   ► and then he will ship it to me.

01:09:56 ◼   ► The alternative mounted solution that we found on Etsy,

01:10:00 ◼   ► John has been assisting me in this research stage,

01:10:03 ◼   ► so thank you, John, as always.

01:10:05 ◼   ► But yeah, the Steam Deck for me

01:10:07 ◼   ► has become my ultimate sort of portable machine.

01:10:09 ◼   ► It does everything.

01:10:11 ◼   ► Indie games, streaming PC games from my gaming PC,

01:10:16 ◼   ► gaming PC, which incidentally,

01:10:18 ◼   ► it is an ROG Ally with a mobile eGPU,

01:10:21 ◼   ► but that's a different conversation.

01:10:22 ◼   ► Or I can play with my glasses,

01:10:25 ◼   ► or I can play with the OLED display.

01:10:28 ◼   ► I have options.

01:10:29 ◼   ► And if there's one thing I love in life,

01:10:30 ◼   ► it's having options and flexibility.

01:10:33 ◼   ► I love two things, modding stuff and having options.

01:10:36 ◼   ► And these two things that I love in life

01:10:39 ◼   ► are coming together in the Steam Deck,

01:10:41 ◼   ► which I absolutely adore.

01:10:43 ◼   ► - I'm very intrigued.

01:10:45 ◼   ► I think I'm gonna do it,

01:10:46 ◼   ► 'cause I think I can sell my old Steam Deck

01:10:49 ◼   ► to help fund this purchase.

01:10:51 ◼   ► - I sold it in like two days.

01:10:53 ◼   ► Like people want it.

01:10:54 ◼   ► - Okay. - People want the Steam Deck.

01:10:56 ◼   ► So I will recommend it, you know.

01:10:58 ◼   ► - What one do you have?

01:11:00 ◼   ► - Of the OLED one?

01:11:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, do you have the like?

01:11:03 ◼   ► - Don't get, my recommendation,

01:11:05 ◼   ► don't get the one terabyte model,

01:11:08 ◼   ► because it's got the etched display,

01:11:11 ◼   ► like get the mid model, get the 512 gig model,

01:11:15 ◼   ► because it comes with a glossy display.

01:11:17 ◼   ► Now, unless you plan on playing video games

01:11:20 ◼   ► with a light source reflecting above you at all times,

01:11:24 ◼   ► get the glossy one, because it makes the OLED pop even more.

01:11:28 ◼   ► - I'd thought that, I'd figured that the etched one

01:11:32 ◼   ► would maybe make it look a little duller,

01:11:34 ◼   ► like in the way that the Apple one does,

01:11:37 ◼   ► you know, like the Pro Display or whatever.

01:11:39 ◼   ► - Yep, yep.

01:11:41 ◼   ► If you can avoid playing with a light source

01:11:43 ◼   ► directly above the display of the Steam Deck,

01:11:46 ◼   ► get the glossy one, it looks incredible.

01:11:48 ◼   ► - I also don't need that.

01:11:49 ◼   ► Like I have like a big SD, like micro SD card,

01:11:52 ◼   ► which has got a lot of my games on it anyway.

01:11:54 ◼   ► And I would actually be easier

01:11:55 ◼   ► when moving from Steam Deck to Steam Deck, I assume.

01:11:59 ◼   ► Can you just pop an SD card out and put it in?

01:12:01 ◼   ► Will it work?

01:12:02 ◼   ► Like on the, I don't know.

01:12:02 ◼   ► - I didn't do it.

01:12:04 ◼   ► Also, I wanted to store fresh.

01:12:06 ◼   ► I had a lot of plugins on the old Steam Deck,

01:12:09 ◼   ► a lot of like junk.

01:12:10 ◼   ► I was like, you know what?

01:12:11 ◼   ► I'm just gonna wipe it.

01:12:13 ◼   ► I'm just gonna wipe it and re-download everything,

01:12:16 ◼   ► which I did.

01:12:17 ◼   ► And it took like an hour.

01:12:21 ◼   ► Now that I have fiber,

01:12:22 ◼   ► I don't care anymore about these things.

01:12:23 ◼   ► - Well, you have done what the chapter says.

01:12:27 ◼   ► You have sold me.

01:12:28 ◼   ► I am absolutely sold on this now.

01:12:30 ◼   ► 'Cause as well, I wanna play the new Cyberpunk.

01:12:35 ◼   ► So maybe I should wait.

01:12:36 ◼   ► 'Cause I played the first,

01:12:37 ◼   ► I played Cyberpunk on my Steam Deck completely.

01:12:40 ◼   ► So I wanna do Phantom of Liberty and I guess I should wait.

01:12:44 ◼   ► I bet it would look really, really, really good.

01:12:47 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think it will.

01:12:49 ◼   ► I think it will.

01:12:50 ◼   ► - All right.

01:12:51 ◼   ► Also the white thing, mentioning that.

01:12:53 ◼   ► I didn't really think about that.

01:12:54 ◼   ► I'd forgotten about that,

01:12:55 ◼   ► but like there being a way difference.

01:12:58 ◼   ► But yeah, I feel like with the money I save

01:12:59 ◼   ► from getting my return on the PS Portal

01:13:02 ◼   ► and the money that I would make for selling my Steam Deck,

01:13:04 ◼   ► I could probably fund the entire purchase of it.

01:13:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, for sure.

01:13:08 ◼   ► - And one last thing I wanna ask you about today.

01:13:10 ◼   ► The founders of Workflow that became Shortcuts left Apple.

01:13:15 ◼   ► And they have started a new company

01:13:20 ◼   ► along with Kim Beverett,

01:13:26 ◼   ► who was working at Apple for a long time in various,

01:13:29 ◼   ► I think was probably working with them

01:13:31 ◼   ► at Shortcuts or on the Siri team, I think.

01:13:33 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:13:34 ◼   ► - They have left to form a new company

01:13:37 ◼   ► with the greatest name ever,

01:13:39 ◼   ► Software Applications Incorporated.

01:13:41 ◼   ► - Really good name.

01:13:42 ◼   ► - They have a cool website.

01:13:44 ◼   ► The website is basically, it's just a Mac OS 8 emulation.

01:13:49 ◼   ► And they are working on bringing some form

01:13:51 ◼   ► of AI tools to the desktop.

01:13:54 ◼   ► We spoke about this a little bit on upgrade,

01:13:56 ◼   ► but I actually, if you have anything you wanted to mention

01:13:59 ◼   ► on that specifically, please do.

01:14:01 ◼   ► But I wanted to ask you some questions about Shortcuts.

01:14:03 ◼   ► Did you have anything you wanted to mention on this?

01:14:05 ◼   ► Like, I know you wrote a post about it on Mac stories.

01:14:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, it's exciting.

01:14:09 ◼   ► I think if there's a team of people

01:14:11 ◼   ► who can do this sort of thing,

01:14:12 ◼   ► like a large language model integrated

01:14:16 ◼   ► with your operating system, I think that's, you know,

01:14:19 ◼   ► these folks, they know how to do it.

01:14:21 ◼   ► - Yep.

01:14:22 ◼   ► Getting computers to do things, like,

01:14:24 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:14:25 ◼   ► - This is what they do, right?

01:14:26 ◼   ► - This is what they do.

01:14:27 ◼   ► - This is what they've done for a decade,

01:14:28 ◼   ► probably at this point.

01:14:28 ◼   ► - For more than a decade at this point, yeah.

01:14:30 ◼   ► I mean, but I don't have anything else to say

01:14:33 ◼   ► because there's nothing to see or try at this point.

01:14:36 ◼   ► - But my question to you is,

01:14:37 ◼   ► what do you think this means for Shortcuts?

01:14:40 ◼   ► - I don't think it means much

01:14:43 ◼   ► because obviously Shortcuts is continuing at Apple.

01:14:46 ◼   ► And if my theory is right, they are,

01:14:51 ◼   ► I feel like Shortcuts will become a key component

01:14:55 ◼   ► of the new Siri intelligence based

01:14:58 ◼   ► on a large language model.

01:14:59 ◼   ► Like the whole idea of, I have this theory

01:15:01 ◼   ► where the whole idea of like asking the new Siri

01:15:05 ◼   ► to do multiple things for you,

01:15:06 ◼   ► I think it'll be backed by Shortcuts.

01:15:10 ◼   ► I think there's a scenario in which Apple

01:15:12 ◼   ► is taking a large language model,

01:15:14 ◼   ► or maybe they're just gonna,

01:15:15 ◼   ► maybe they're just gonna keep things separate,

01:15:18 ◼   ► but I feel like you will be able,

01:15:21 ◼   ► whether it's presented as a Siri feature

01:15:23 ◼   ► or as a Shortcuts feature,

01:15:25 ◼   ► I think you will be able to build series of actions.

01:15:29 ◼   ► You will be able to build these workflows, these Shortcuts

01:15:32 ◼   ► using natural language in iOS 18.

01:15:35 ◼   ► So I don't think Apple is moving away from Shortcuts.

01:15:37 ◼   ► I think Apple is going even deeper on Shortcuts,

01:15:39 ◼   ► but not the kind of Shortcuts that we know and love.

01:15:43 ◼   ► So will that be a shock for power users?

01:15:47 ◼   ► Most likely.

01:15:48 ◼   ► We'll see, but I don't think Shortcuts

01:15:51 ◼   ► is done for at all at Apple.

01:15:55 ◼   ► - But it will be different, right?

01:15:57 ◼   ► - But it will be different.

01:15:59 ◼   ► To the point where I almost wonder

01:16:01 ◼   ► if there's a scenario in which the current Shortcuts editor,

01:16:06 ◼   ► the drag and drop one, inspired by Automator,

01:16:09 ◼   ► inspired by a long history of automation tools,

01:16:12 ◼   ► I wonder if there's a scenario in which that's referred to

01:16:15 ◼   ► as the legacy editor of Shortcuts at some point.

01:16:19 ◼   ► We'll see.

01:16:20 ◼   ► Because yeah, you could put together Shortcuts

01:16:23 ◼   ► with natural language,

01:16:24 ◼   ► but then you still gotta edit them, right?

01:16:27 ◼   ► You still gotta fine tune them.

01:16:29 ◼   ► We'll see, but I feel like I could see a point

01:16:33 ◼   ► in which Apple says, well, this visual thing

01:16:35 ◼   ► with the actions that you move around,

01:16:37 ◼   ► that's the legacy stuff.

01:16:38 ◼   ► Now our new editor looks like this,

01:16:41 ◼   ► and it's different.

01:16:42 ◼   ► Maybe it's more, I don't know.

01:16:45 ◼   ► But I feel like they will do something

01:16:48 ◼   ► where you start with a sentence and you go from there.

01:16:52 ◼   ► - I mean, really, I do wonder if in the future,

01:16:57 ◼   ► something like Shortcuts is even needed anymore.

01:17:00 ◼   ► Like if something like what software applications

01:17:03 ◼   ► incorporate wants to do,

01:17:04 ◼   ► like if Apple do something like that,

01:17:05 ◼   ► where it's just like you're just telling the computer

01:17:07 ◼   ► to do something, like, do you need Shortcuts?

01:17:10 ◼   ► Like if I could just tell the computer, like, do this,

01:17:13 ◼   ► but that's far into the future, I still think,

01:17:15 ◼   ► like to be reliable.

01:17:17 ◼   ► - So I was thinking about this yesterday

01:17:19 ◼   ► when I was walking the dogs,

01:17:20 ◼   ► because I was listening to you on upgrade.

01:17:23 ◼   ► That's what I do.

01:17:24 ◼   ► And so right now, Shortcuts is needed

01:17:29 ◼   ► because we have these silos, right?

01:17:34 ◼   ► There are the apps that we use.

01:17:37 ◼   ► And so a common sort of language is needed

01:17:42 ◼   ► to make these apps communicate with each other, right?

01:17:45 ◼   ► And so you have Shortcuts and you have the Shortcuts UI

01:17:48 ◼   ► and you have the Intents,

01:17:49 ◼   ► and you have these manual ways to string these automations

01:17:54 ◼   ► together.

01:17:55 ◼   ► And you do it because there's no underlying sort of,

01:18:01 ◼   ► I don't wanna keep referring to it as a language,

01:18:03 ◼   ► but like an underlying common layer,

01:18:07 ◼   ► which should be the intelligence of the computer to say,

01:18:11 ◼   ► I want this to be done in this order,

01:18:15 ◼   ► in these different places.

01:18:17 ◼   ► Like even the idea,

01:18:20 ◼   ► and now I'm projecting multiple years in the future,

01:18:24 ◼   ► but like if this AI stuff really takes off,

01:18:28 ◼   ► it could undermine the whole premise of an app.

01:18:32 ◼   ► So say, project yourself 10 years from now, right?

01:18:37 ◼   ► If you think about it,

01:18:39 ◼   ► you're really using apps as these visual containers of data.

01:18:43 ◼   ► But if you can just ask the computer,

01:18:48 ◼   ► and the computer has this underlying intelligence

01:18:51 ◼   ► that knows your content,

01:18:53 ◼   ► effectively an app is reduced to a visual container.

01:18:59 ◼   ► - It's a waste of time.

01:19:02 ◼   ► - It's a waste of time and it becomes like the app

01:19:05 ◼   ► that we know of today, a data container,

01:19:09 ◼   ► something that you interact with,

01:19:13 ◼   ► could become just a visual, like a theme.

01:19:18 ◼   ► Apps could become themes,

01:19:20 ◼   ► like little skins for your computer's intelligence.

01:19:23 ◼   ► Sort of like back in the day,

01:19:24 ◼   ► you used to install skins for Winamp on your PC,

01:19:28 ◼   ► running Windows XP.

01:19:29 ◼   ► Like that could become the future of apps

01:19:32 ◼   ► if AI takes off and your computer,

01:19:37 ◼   ► like he doesn't care that you're using Fantastical

01:19:39 ◼   ► or things or Safari anymore, right?

01:19:44 ◼   ► I'm projecting multiple years down the road.

01:19:46 ◼   ► But basically what I'm saying is-

01:19:48 ◼   ► - Is it though?

01:19:49 ◼   ► This is the thing that I keep feeling

01:19:50 ◼   ► I can get tripped up on it.

01:19:51 ◼   ► Like everything I think is far away,

01:19:54 ◼   ► it seems to be much closer than it originally appeared to be.

01:19:57 ◼   ► - It's a, thinking this way,

01:19:59 ◼   ► I think is a coping mechanism for us

01:20:02 ◼   ► to make us feel safer about our jobs,

01:20:05 ◼   ► because so much of our identity is tied up.

01:20:07 ◼   ► No, no, but hear me out.

01:20:08 ◼   ► So much of my identity at least is based on,

01:20:11 ◼   ► you know, reviewing apps and thinking of this silos,

01:20:14 ◼   ► like shortcuts.

01:20:15 ◼   ► There's an app here, there's an app there.

01:20:17 ◼   ► And this is how the, like this,

01:20:19 ◼   ► we are living in unprecedented times in terms of like,

01:20:23 ◼   ► the technology that we use is changes right under our feet

01:20:28 ◼   ► and it's scary.

01:20:28 ◼   ► And so we cope with that by saying,

01:20:30 ◼   ► well, now we are projecting, you know,

01:20:32 ◼   ► multiple years down the road will be fine,

01:20:33 ◼   ► but it's actually not multiple years down the road.

01:20:36 ◼   ► But we say it to make us feel better, I think.

01:20:40 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:20:41 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:20:42 ◼   ► - I don't disagree with you, but it's like,

01:20:43 ◼   ► it's a thing to think about, right?

01:20:48 ◼   ► - It's a thing to think about.

01:20:49 ◼   ► If your computer is powered by an underlying intelligence

01:20:52 ◼   ► that is really intelligent, right?

01:20:54 ◼   ► What even is an app anymore?

01:20:59 ◼   ► Is what I'm asking.

01:21:00 ◼   ► And I don't know.

01:21:02 ◼   ► Like,

01:21:02 ◼   ► fundamentally it comes down to even things like,

01:21:09 ◼   ► why should apps,

01:21:12 ◼   ► why should like things the task manager be separate

01:21:16 ◼   ► from to do is the task manager,

01:21:18 ◼   ► which is separate from OmniFocus, the task manager,

01:21:21 ◼   ► like they're all using three different data sets.

01:21:24 ◼   ► But if what I,

01:21:25 ◼   ► if my computer is like this sort of virtual being,

01:21:30 ◼   ► this intelligence that knows me,

01:21:34 ◼   ► why should I even use like a separate utility anymore?

01:21:37 ◼   ► I'm just gonna tell the computer,

01:21:39 ◼   ► hey, by the way, remind me that I gotta do this.

01:21:40 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:21:41 ◼   ► - You know, who knows, man?

01:21:44 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:21:45 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:21:46 ◼   ► So what were we even saying?

01:21:47 ◼   ► Oh yeah, sure.

01:21:48 ◼   ► - It sure comes, okay.

01:21:49 ◼   ► - I don't know.

01:21:51 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:21:52 ◼   ► Is it even needed anymore?

01:21:53 ◼   ► It depends because then there's the,

01:21:56 ◼   ► there's the financial aspect of it, right?

01:21:59 ◼   ► Apple makes money off of apps on the app store.

01:22:04 ◼   ► They have this all.

01:22:05 ◼   ► And if you're Apple,

01:22:06 ◼   ► you gotta be thinking about this, right?

01:22:08 ◼   ► You must be thinking about this.

01:22:09 ◼   ► Like, well, if apps become this like thing of the past,

01:22:13 ◼   ► it shakes up an entire industry,

01:22:16 ◼   ► an entire industry of developers, of apps,

01:22:19 ◼   ► of subscriptions, of everything.

01:22:20 ◼   ► And so, you know, entertainment services will be fine.

01:22:24 ◼   ► Netflix will be fine, you know,

01:22:26 ◼   ► but like this idea of like productivity apps and services,

01:22:32 ◼   ► it's very complex.

01:22:35 ◼   ► - Hey Federico,

01:22:36 ◼   ► maybe we're about to learn how much money Apple makes

01:22:38 ◼   ► from productivity apps.

01:22:39 ◼   ► Spoiler alert, not a lot.

01:22:41 ◼   ► Like realistically, it's games, right?

01:22:45 ◼   ► It's games.

01:22:46 ◼   ► - It's games.

01:22:47 ◼   ► - They're not going away

01:22:48 ◼   ► 'cause it's a form of entertainment.

01:22:50 ◼   ► So like, you know, like I understand what you're saying.

01:22:53 ◼   ► Like it's gonna change stuff.

01:22:55 ◼   ► From the economical standpoint,

01:22:57 ◼   ► I guess we'll find out like how much is it really?

01:23:01 ◼   ► - But like five years from now, five years from now,

01:23:04 ◼   ► what's stopping Apple from releasing a tool

01:23:07 ◼   ► that is like a Siri version, whatever.

01:23:10 ◼   ► And which is like, and again, hear me out,

01:23:12 ◼   ► and I promise you I'm not on drugs.

01:23:14 ◼   ► I don't do drugs.

01:23:15 ◼   ► I just have these thoughts.

01:23:16 ◼   ► Picture, okay, hypercard,

01:23:23 ◼   ► but with a large language model

01:23:24 ◼   ► in which you are effectively saying,

01:23:27 ◼   ► "Hey computer, I need an app that does this

01:23:31 ◼   ► and looks like this."

01:23:34 ◼   ► And here's the data.

01:23:36 ◼   ► And the interactions should be like this.

01:23:38 ◼   ► Like create software by text or by voice.

01:23:43 ◼   ► And if you can do that,

01:23:45 ◼   ► why would you even go on the App Store

01:23:47 ◼   ► and look for something?

01:23:48 ◼   ► - This isn't wild to me.

01:23:50 ◼   ► Like this, you know, this sounds like what OpenAI

01:23:53 ◼   ► is trying to do with their like custom GPTs.

01:23:55 ◼   ► Like it's this.

01:23:57 ◼   ► So like I could imagine Apple getting into that business,

01:23:59 ◼   ► which is like, we will sell you capabilities

01:24:03 ◼   ► that other people make.

01:24:04 ◼   ► - Yes. - Right?

01:24:04 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:24:05 ◼   ► - So like somebody has built their own custom app

01:24:08 ◼   ► and they have to sell it.

01:24:09 ◼   ► Like, so you could, you know.

01:24:11 ◼   ► Basically like imagine if you,

01:24:13 ◼   ► imagine if there was a shortcut store,

01:24:16 ◼   ► you would be a shortcuts developer, right?

01:24:21 ◼   ► So like, because you, I mean,

01:24:24 ◼   ► you kind of in a roundabout way already are, right?

01:24:27 ◼   ► Like in the sense of like,

01:24:28 ◼   ► you give access to Club Max Stories members.

01:24:33 ◼   ► - Yes.

01:24:33 ◼   ► - Certain shortcuts that are available for them.

01:24:36 ◼   ► But like this would be like.

01:24:37 ◼   ► - I should have called it the shortcut store.

01:24:39 ◼   ► - You should.

01:24:39 ◼   ► There's still time, you know?

01:24:41 ◼   ► But like you could have, would do that.

01:24:44 ◼   ► And so like somebody could do that with a GPT

01:24:48 ◼   ► that they've made and the best ones

01:24:51 ◼   ► will make the most money, I suppose.

01:24:53 ◼   ► - So much of this, I think it depends on the,

01:25:02 ◼   ► Apple as a company that wants to do this

01:25:06 ◼   ► from a product perspective

01:25:08 ◼   ► and Apple not doing this from a financial perspective

01:25:12 ◼   ► because it maybe disrupts the app store too much.

01:25:16 ◼   ► - There's the great question though of like,

01:25:18 ◼   ► well, if somebody makes a phone that does it and it ain't

01:25:22 ◼   ► Apple, is that not a bigger financial risk?

01:25:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, also that.

01:25:28 ◼   ► - Right?

01:25:29 ◼   ► - Also that.

01:25:31 ◼   ► - Hey, I wouldn't want to be making these decisions

01:25:32 ◼   ► right now, I'll tell you that.

01:25:34 ◼   ► - So yeah, best of luck to Ari Conrad and Kim.

01:25:41 ◼   ► - Can't wait to see what they're doing.

01:25:43 ◼   ► Cannot wait to see what they're doing.

01:25:45 ◼   ► If you want to catch the show notes for this week's episode

01:25:49 ◼   ► and read everything we spoke about,

01:25:51 ◼   ► you can look in your podcast app of choice.

01:25:53 ◼   ► It's where it should be.

01:25:54 ◼   ► But if it's not for some reason,

01:25:56 ◼   ► go to relay.fm/connected/479.

01:25:59 ◼   ► I would like to thank our sponsors for this episode.

01:26:02 ◼   ► That is Fitbud, ExpressVPN and Notion.

01:26:05 ◼   ► Thank you if you're a member and support the show.

01:26:07 ◼   ► Don't forget, you can go to giverelay.com

01:26:10 ◼   ► until December 15th and get 20% off an annual plan.

01:26:14 ◼   ► If you want to find Federico online,

01:26:16 ◼   ► he is the editor-in-chief of maxstories.net

01:26:18 ◼   ► and one of the hosts of the Max Stories

01:26:21 ◼   ► connected universe of podcasts.

01:26:23 ◼   ► You can go to maxstories.net to find him.

01:26:26 ◼   ► He is @fertigviticci on Mastodon.

01:26:29 ◼   ► Just do the thing and find him.

01:26:31 ◼   ► I'm sure you can find him.

01:26:32 ◼   ► At some time, he'd be on Threads

01:26:35 ◼   ► and you'd be able to find him there too.

01:26:37 ◼   ► Threads with an F.