478: Not So Bankrupt Anymore
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Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 478.
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It is made possible by our sponsor, Squarespace.
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My name is Stephen Hackett and I'm joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.
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Hello, Stephen. How are you?
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I am good. How are you?
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I'm doing fantastic. It's very early for you.
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We're recording this at a different schedule and it's like at 8 30 in the morning.
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Yeah, so if I sound... This is how I sound in the morning, basically.
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Deeper and worse, but what can you do?
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I had a couple weeks ago, I was already up and moving and one of my parents called me.
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They're like, "Did I wake you up?"
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I was like, "No, this is just how I sound."
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Like, I just sound like death until 10 a.m. or so.
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But we're here, Mike is on vacation.
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And I think Mike needs something from the listeners to know that he's missed.
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Yeah, so we've done emoji before, right?
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I think it's time we move past the emoji.
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And I think we should do something that Mike is not capable of doing.
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Mike, if I recall correctly, cannot write haikus.
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He has struggled with that in the past.
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The counting gets him, I think.
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Yes, so I think we should ask listeners to write Michael a haiku.
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And tell him he's missed.
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I absolutely love it.
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Okay, so feel free to get creative, write a haiku and tell Mike he's missed from the show.
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And the discord, whatever, he's missed.
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Yeah, you know, however you get to sound with us.
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Uh, get in touch with the UK embassy.
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If you imagine Mike gets home and like the military shows up at his door and like,
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uh, we've got all these letters for you.
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You need to come with us.
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We have some really important follow ups, Steven.
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Most of the show today is follow up.
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There's a lot of follow up, I think.
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It's basically so, so basically this episode, a couple of things happened, right?
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We're recording at an unusual time.
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Mike is gone.
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Nothing happens the week after American Thanksgiving.
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So this was me basically cleaning out our feedback inbox.
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That's basically what the whole episode is, is answering questions for people.
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We're going to help people today is what we're going to do with two tiny topics that are
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actually topics.
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But first, uh, big, some shopping advice, I guess.
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Some retail advice that are going to say that I needed a Christmas tree.
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Where would you suggest I go?
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Uh, I would suggest you go to 25 West center street Orem next to burger King at Federico
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Christmas trees, which is open for business.
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Again, I literally just read the address from their Instagram page.
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Um, Federico Christmas tree Christmas trees, uh, a business, uh, based in Ohio.
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Do I, did I get this right?
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Utah, uh, at the Orem at central street and state street next to the burger King next
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to the burger King.
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Um, they have a tree growers in Oregon and they have the lot in Orem, Utah.
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Um, I don't recall correctly how, how these, um, family run business, I want to say, came
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to be a recurring topic on the show.
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I think a listener sent it into us.
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We've been advertising for free with, they're not a sponsor of the show, but we have been
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mentioning Federico Christmas trees, um, for the past few years.
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And, uh, they're, they're back in full swing now.
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They're open for business again, they opened on November 22nd.
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And I guess if you need a Christmas tree and you are in Utah, uh, go check out for the
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ego Christmas trees and tell them connected sent you, they will have no idea what that
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means, but at least you will be, you will have the satisfaction of saying that in real
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Look, they're, they're a family business since 1988.
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And I really, I mean, I was born the year you were born.
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And honestly, I mean, you and I both run like small businesses, right?
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Like we know how hard it is out there.
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And these, uh, these fine people look really nice.
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I got to say their Instagram page is pretty good.
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Like lots of nice pictures.
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People look happy.
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It's, uh, it's great.
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They posted six days ago, a family photo, the first customers of the season.
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Um, they have hundreds of beautiful trees from Oregon and Washington.
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So go check them out.
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Uh, you know, the, the actually quite nice trees.
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I should say, I would say we should all follow them on Instagram.
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175 followers is not enough.
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You know what?
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You know what?
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I just clicked the follow button myself.
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And they are, unfortunately the name for the Rico is not spelled, uh, like my name.
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It's, it's got the extra R so it's F R at the Rico, Fred, the Rico.
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That's how my mom says your name by the way.
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Yeah, I know it's, it's how everybody in America says my name.
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So it's fine.
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I can't do it because I know how your name is pronounced, but Fred, Fred, Fred, Fred,
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the Rico Fred, Fred, the Rico.
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Uh, go check them out, follow them on Instagram.
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And if you happen to be nearby, uh, go buy a Christmas tree.
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Um, because why not?
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Listener Jason wrote in with a miracle and I just wanted to share this because we were
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speaking about what products we think should be more water resistant, I think is what we
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were talking about.
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And Jason wrote about a year and a half ago, I was cleaning leaves out of a pool and one
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of my AirPods pro fell out of my ear and into the pool.
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That's not good.
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They need better tips.
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They need your foam tip.
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The charging pro memory foam tips.
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That's what I would recommend.
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He scooped it out with a net as soon as I could, but it was submerged for at least three
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to four minutes.
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I guess he was looking for the net.
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I don't know.
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It took Jason three or four minutes to look for a net.
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I dried it off and it worked fine.
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In fact, I listened to the most recent connected episode on those same AirPods.
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That's incredible.
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That's incredible.
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Uh, well done to, I don't know.
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I mean, that's surprising because I would have thought that three or four minutes submerged
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I would have thought that those AirPods were done for.
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Also, if you're cleaning leaves out of a pool, are you not using a net to do that?
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Like I was thinking about the logistics of this.
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Like Jason mentions they were cleaning leaves out of a pool.
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And then Jason said, I scooped it out with a net as soon as I could.
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So how was Jason cleaning those leaves?
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With his hands?
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He's just like leaning out over the pool and like pulling them to his chest with his hands.
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I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I don't have a pool.
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I don't know how it works.
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I have no idea.
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Interesting.
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Interesting.
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Hey, Stephen, do you know if the, like, is it like a, like a myth, like a, like a urban
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The thing about, like, if you drop your phone or any electronics in water, you got to put
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them in a bag of rice or something.
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Like, is that, is there any actual scientific truth to the rice method?
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I think it, I mean, it can't hurt.
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But like what happens if you, if you put your phone in a, in a bag of pasta or something?
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I, so I fix it and I trust I fix it in these regards says, uh, when we put a phone in rice,
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it's the same thing as doing nothing.
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We're just pretty strong language.
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I would say follow what I fix.
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It says, and they basically say, uh, you want to displace the water.
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Uh, but then they're like open, you know, use rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush, open
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your device as soon as you can take out the battery.
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So, you know, that's not as feasible.
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I don't know.
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Put in rice.
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I can't hurt, but I don't know if it's like the miracle cure.
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Uh, we have some important real time follow up from the real FM, uh, historian, Kate and
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Kate says for the Rico's Christmas trees first came up in episode 161 at the time y'all were
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messing with each other's names in the intros and Frederico as an alternative to Federico
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came up and Kyle's shared the link in the chat in response to that discussion.
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There it is.
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That's some incredible context.
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Thank you, Kate.
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There's some amazing things in the links for this episode.
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Let's see episode 161.
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So first off, what year are we talking about?
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This is 2017.
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We've been referring to Frederico's Christmas trees for six years.
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Uh, the description of the episode is files on iOS 11 is taking shape.
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It's still in some, honestly, and some problems are emerging.
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That's still true.
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Federico gets sad listening to the others talk about their watches then slowly disappears
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as Steven talks about macOS High Sierra.
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That's a pretty good description.
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That's yeah.
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That's good.
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That's so yeah.
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There's iCloud family sharing in here.
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We were still raising money for St. Jude through the marathon before we were like official
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What a wild time.
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Apple watch series three.
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That feels like forever ago.
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Uh, Lloyd wrote in with a question for you, Federico.
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You were mentioning wanting a better case for the iPad.
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Lloyd wrote, I've recently been using the Logitech combo touch and I think it solves
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a lot of problems mentioned.
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So just wanted to throw it out there as an option.
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Have you played with this?
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Uh, see the problem with the combo touch, there's actually a couple of them.
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First, I don't like putting my iPad in a case like that the combo touch is the kind of like
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rugged case that's all around the iPad because the thing about the iPad for me is that sometimes
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I want to use it with the keyboard and other times I want to use it as a tablet.
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I want to take it, take it out of the magic keyboard and just want to use it quickly as
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a touch device.
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And with this combo touch and with other similar cases, it becomes a whole thing where you
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need to, you know, you gotta apply some pressure and take the iPad out.
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And essentially you end up in the situation where you are less incentivized to use the
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iPad as a tablet because it becomes a whole thing to take it out of the case and put it
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And so you're just like, you know what, I'm just going to use it as a case with the case
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and never take it out.
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Which is why ultimately I preferred the Magic Keyboard and I was not a huge fan of the old
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design of the bridge keyboards because the bridge keyboards with the, do you remember
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you needed to slide the iPad into those two sort of hinges like at the bottom?
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It felt bad because they had these rubber little inserts in there and if it got like
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folded under you were just scraping your iPad into like a, it was bad.
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And which is why I was very keen to try the new design of the not so bankrupt anymore
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bridge max plus keyboard, which unfortunately, and this is some follow up as recent as 30
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minutes ago, Steven, I unfortunately missed the delivery of that keyboard today because
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I was at Ikea 30 minutes ago and OTJ was able to get, do you know this whole story?
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No, I don't.
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So a reader on Mastodon got in touch with me saying, Hey, did you know that like the
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key, the bridge keyboard you mentioned, the one with the new design is like on sale on
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clearance on Best Buy for like 50 bucks in the US.
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I was like, wait, that can't be true.
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And I sent a link to John.
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I was like, John, can you confirm that you can get this on clearance for 50 bucks?
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And he's like, yeah, it's like $49.
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And so he got, he got one for me and shipped it to me.
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In fact, I paid more for the shipment than the keyboard itself.
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But, but, uh, uh, the new doorman, uh, you know, we, we, you know, we don't have Mario
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Did I tell you we don't have Mario the doorman anymore?
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And he was, it was, uh, it was let go.
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Anyway, we have Giovanni now.
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So we're going from, from stereotypical Italian name to stereotypical Italian name.
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Anyway, Giovanni was not here today.
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And so I missed the delivery of the keyboard.
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I'll get it tomorrow.
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But anyway, all this to say that keyboard, I am very intrigued because it's got the same
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idea of the magic keyboard.
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It's got a flat sort of back where you just snap the iPad and it doesn't go around the
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edges of the tablet.
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So that bridge keyboard should be as easy to take your iPad out and put it back on as
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the magic keyboard.
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This combo touch, it's got that.
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The first problem is the case.
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And the second is that kickstand in the back.
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Now, you know me, I like kickstands, but I think right now, um, I am more looking for
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a tie, a really like laptop like setup for my iPad pro.
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Where like, I don't need the extra support on my knees, on my legs to prop up the iPad.
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So either the magic keyboard or the bridge keyboard, like a proper laptop mechanism.
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I think that's what I'm looking for at the moment.
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There also, I also did something else.
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Speaking of keyboard, Steven.
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Now this may be a bad idea, but you know me, I got to do it for science.
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I am waiting for delivery.
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So, okay, so don't judge me.
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Promise you won't judge me?
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No judgment.
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So I saw this Instagram ad for an unknown brand of iPad keyboards.
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Unknown to you or like, this is one of those brands no one's heard of.
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So have you ever heard of Dokomidi?
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Okay, so there you go.
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So, but here's the thing.
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So I see this Instagram ad for this iPad keyboard, and I'm going to send you a link.
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This is all the collection of iPad cases that they make.
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Look at this thing that I got.
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So, and I'm posting this link in Discord.
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Look at this other one.
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Not the one with the swivel mechanism, the other one.
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That's essentially what if the Apple magic keyboard was mixed with the bridge keyboard?
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Which is pretty much what the rumors are saying in terms of what Apple is working on for next year.
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Like this is a magic keyboard with a fancy floating design, a magnetic attachment,
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but a proper keyboard that is backlit.
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And look in the back as is also a USB hub with ports.
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So this has USB-C, I guess for power, HDMI, two USB-A, SD card and micro SD or mini SD, whatever it is.
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This is sick.
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And they mentioned now the trackpad is responsive.
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Dude, you can put the iPad in vertically.
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Exactly, exactly.
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The only compromise, of course, is you gotta run the short USB-C cable from the iPad to the keyboard,
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because otherwise you're not gonna be able to use the hub.
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That's no big deal.
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Now, is this too good to be true?
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I guess we'll find out together.
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Because I am waiting...
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I don't know.
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They're using this Chinese Express delivery service that I never heard of before.
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So, we'll see.
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It's moving.
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The package is moving.
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That's good.
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So, I mean, this looks really good.
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And hopefully, hopefully the trackpad won't be terrible, I guess.
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The renders don't fill me with a ton of confidence.
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Just look at how the iPad changes in between these pictures.
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I know, I know.
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You know, sometimes, sometimes I've realized in recent years that there are so many relatively unknown to us,
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Chinese brands and accessory makers that are actually making really cool products.
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And maybe this is one of them, or maybe not.
00:18:03
◼
►
Because at the end of the day, it's still Bluetooth.
00:18:07
◼
►
I think they mentioned they're using Bluetooth 5.
00:18:09
◼
►
So at least there's hope, some hope there.
00:18:13
◼
►
But yeah, I'm waiting for the Dokomidi iPad keyboard.
00:18:19
◼
►
Let us know.
00:18:19
◼
►
Yeah, let us know.
00:18:21
◼
►
Having the hub built in is a super interesting idea.
00:18:25
◼
►
I know that there was like that...
00:18:26
◼
►
Over the years, there have been hubs and there was like that weird stand from Belkin?
00:18:32
◼
►
Or Logitech?
00:18:33
◼
►
You know what I'm talking about?
00:18:34
◼
►
It was like a big vertical stand and it had a bunch of ports on the back.
00:18:37
◼
►
But having it built into the keyboard case, this turns the iPad into a laptop.
00:18:43
◼
►
Fascinating.
00:18:45
◼
►
Yeah, and I really hope that Apple eventually does something like this.
00:18:49
◼
►
Because I mean, if you're making the keyboard thicker, and this is why I mentioned this a few weeks ago.
00:18:55
◼
►
You can keep making the simple Magic Keyboard.
00:18:59
◼
►
Make a Magic Keyboard Pro that is more expensive.
00:19:03
◼
►
Like I will...
00:19:04
◼
►
I'm gonna say something potentially controversial.
00:19:06
◼
►
I would give Apple $400 for a Magic Keyboard Pro that is this product, but better and done by Apple.
00:19:15
◼
►
You know, because I mean, I'm already spending $250 for the Magic Keyboard, right?
00:19:19
◼
►
I don't want to say that I would spend $500, but I would definitely spend more to have a Magic Keyboard Pro.
00:19:27
◼
►
That is really integrated with iPadOS.
00:19:30
◼
►
As I mean, the trackpads that Apple makes are always going to be the best ones.
00:19:36
◼
►
I don't know, we'll see.
00:19:38
◼
►
There's something else that I wanted to mention while we're on the topic of keyboards and trackpads.
00:19:43
◼
►
I was also sent this by a couple people.
00:19:46
◼
►
And I have no idea if this product is shipping or not.
00:19:51
◼
►
My understanding is that it's only available in the UK right now.
00:19:54
◼
►
So Logitech came out with this, they call a pop-up desk system.
00:20:00
◼
►
It's called the Logitech Casa pop-up desk.
00:20:05
◼
►
Now Casa means home in Italian, in case you're not familiar.
00:20:08
◼
►
So this is like, it looks like a little...
00:20:12
◼
►
It's like a lunchbox for your tech accessories.
00:20:15
◼
►
So it's a little like plastic trays that opens up and inside it's got a keyboard.
00:20:23
◼
►
A trackpad and the case itself becomes sort of like a prop-up thing for your laptop.
00:20:30
◼
►
Now, it's not every day that you come across a Bluetooth trackpad.
00:20:37
◼
►
And Logitech claims that this trackpad works with MacOS and iPadOS.
00:20:42
◼
►
Now if anybody has gotten their hands on this,
00:20:47
◼
►
I would love to know how that trackpad specifically works on Apple platforms.
00:20:54
◼
►
Does it support multi-touch gestures, for example?
00:20:56
◼
►
Because I mean, it looks like a smaller magic trackpad to me.
00:21:02
◼
►
I don't know, I'm really intrigued by this.
00:21:05
◼
►
Now I don't want to buy the whole thing.
00:21:08
◼
►
Like I don't want to buy the case and the keyboard and the full kit.
00:21:13
◼
►
It's a whole system.
00:21:15
◼
►
I just want to know about the trackpad.
00:21:17
◼
►
So if any listener has a Logitech Casa pop-up desk system,
00:21:22
◼
►
let me know how the trackpad is.
00:21:24
◼
►
It is cool that it all folds down to its own thing though.
00:21:30
◼
►
You just get your laptop, get your Casa kit and just work from anywhere, I guess.
00:21:38
◼
►
But it's only in the UK.
00:21:40
◼
►
I don't know what they're doing.
00:21:41
◼
►
I don't know.
00:21:42
◼
►
You need big buddy Hurley to mail it to you.
00:21:44
◼
►
I want to talk about RCS briefly,
00:21:49
◼
►
because Apple announced this is going to be coming to the iPhone in the future.
00:21:54
◼
►
That's old news at this point, but we had a listener right Ed
00:21:59
◼
►
wondering what you thought this would mean for WhatsApp.
00:22:03
◼
►
WhatsApp, of course, is not as big here as it is the rest of the world.
00:22:07
◼
►
So I'd love your input on if there's any...
00:22:10
◼
►
Is this going to change anything basically in that market?
00:22:14
◼
►
I am very skeptical that anything is going to change.
00:22:19
◼
►
In fact, not only do people here just want to use WhatsApp
00:22:24
◼
►
and it's become the default communication system with anybody of any age group,
00:22:30
◼
►
but over the past few years, and especially since the pandemic began,
00:22:35
◼
►
I've noticed that the number of businesses using WhatsApp has increased.
00:22:45
◼
►
Like it's become so common to use WhatsApp for personal communication,
00:22:50
◼
►
group communication.
00:22:51
◼
►
And for example, my doctor, I can text him on WhatsApp and get documents via WhatsApp.
00:23:00
◼
►
I can book appointments with my dermatologist on WhatsApp.
00:23:04
◼
►
I don't want to say it's as entrenched in our lives as something like WeChat in China, for example,
00:23:12
◼
►
but it's obviously they...
00:23:15
◼
►
Meta would love to have some of that business, right?
00:23:18
◼
►
Where everything you're doing happens without WhatsApp.
00:23:21
◼
►
I don't think at this time, even if the messages app on your phone got better,
00:23:28
◼
►
I don't think anybody would be incentivized to switch from WhatsApp to messages or SMS or RCS,
00:23:37
◼
►
in that case.
00:23:39
◼
►
I'm lumping them all together because they end up in the same messages app.
00:23:43
◼
►
I don't think anybody will be incentivized to make the switch
00:23:47
◼
►
because even though the technology may be better,
00:23:50
◼
►
it's still missing the key component, which is the social graph.
00:23:55
◼
►
If everybody you know is using WhatsApp and everybody's there, why would you switch?
00:24:01
◼
►
Most people don't have the technological curiosity that we have.
00:24:08
◼
►
Like I'm going to try RCS because it's my job and I'm curious
00:24:12
◼
►
and it's like more of a principle thing that it's now available.
00:24:17
◼
►
But why would I do it?
00:24:18
◼
►
Why would I do it if all my friends and neighbors and relatives and my doctor and my, you know,
00:24:25
◼
►
my hair salon is on WhatsApp, right?
00:24:30
◼
►
My video game store guy tells me stuff on WhatsApp
00:24:37
◼
►
and I can make reservations for it.
00:24:39
◼
►
Like I pre-ordered my PS5 Slim via WhatsApp.
00:24:45
◼
►
Like why would I use something else?
00:24:47
◼
►
Yeah, it's really hard to break that sort of hold on a market no matter what the market is.
00:24:54
◼
►
So I think it'll be, look, it'll be convenient, right?
00:24:59
◼
►
When you get the occasional text from somebody who's like,
00:25:04
◼
►
"I'm not sure if I can text them on WhatsApp."
00:25:10
◼
►
Because I noticed that that's also a social behavior that has changed.
00:25:15
◼
►
Like until a few years ago, say seven years ago, eight years ago,
00:25:18
◼
►
you wouldn't sort of cold message somebody that was not in your address book on WhatsApp.
00:25:26
◼
►
Because that felt like more like, "We're not close friends, right?
00:25:32
◼
►
I'm gonna send you an SMS instead."
00:25:35
◼
►
A little more sort of distant.
00:25:38
◼
►
WhatsApp was for your close friends.
00:25:40
◼
►
But now like sometimes I get texts from people on WhatsApp,
00:25:43
◼
►
be like, "Hey, I'm such and such person."
00:25:45
◼
►
And you know, for any kind of request.
00:25:48
◼
►
Now anybody just starts their first communication via WhatsApp.
00:25:52
◼
►
And it's fine.
00:25:55
◼
►
So that social barrier is not there anymore.
00:25:59
◼
►
Plus all the tools that they have launched.
00:26:02
◼
►
Look, I don't love WhatsApp as an experience, as an app.
00:26:08
◼
►
But what I like is that everybody I know is on it.
00:26:12
◼
►
And so, you know, groups, you can do polls.
00:26:17
◼
►
Sometimes with our friends we do polls for like picking a day to go out for dinner.
00:26:21
◼
►
That's something people in their 30s do, I realized.
00:26:26
◼
►
You know, you can mute people, you can archive conversation, see?
00:26:29
◼
►
It's pretty good.
00:26:31
◼
►
And everybody's using it, so why would you switch?
00:26:33
◼
►
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00:28:23
◼
►
I couldn't help but notice that y'all have a new feature over on a Mac Stories.
00:28:30
◼
►
You have a very fancy setup page where you and John
00:28:34
◼
►
tap pictures of your desks and what you're using.
00:28:37
◼
►
How did this come about and how in the world are you going to keep it updated?
00:28:42
◼
►
Yeah, so the second, to answer your second question,
00:28:47
◼
►
unless there are some major changes in the setup, I think our goal is to update this.
00:28:53
◼
►
John and I discussed twice a year.
00:28:56
◼
►
To sort of coincide with the typical time when we update and optimize our setups.
00:29:04
◼
►
That's before WWDC, the famous spring cleaning.
00:29:08
◼
►
And after review season.
00:29:13
◼
►
That's really when we have the time again to think about our setups.
00:29:19
◼
►
So I think the goal is to do it twice a year.
00:29:21
◼
►
Unless, like in two months, I lose my mind and I stop using the iPad Pro and I switch to Linux,
00:29:28
◼
►
then I will update my setup.
00:29:32
◼
►
I mean, you did switch to Windows secretly for a while.
00:29:36
◼
►
I'm just putting that out there.
00:29:38
◼
►
You know, you said like, "Oh, that would never happen."
00:29:40
◼
►
It's like, "Dude, dude, dude."
00:29:44
◼
►
And your first question.
00:29:47
◼
►
So I was inspired.
00:29:50
◼
►
So a few weeks ago, I started noticing that on Mastodon, a bunch of people were sharing
00:29:58
◼
►
their default apps.
00:30:00
◼
►
This is something that began on a podcast, I believe, called Hemispheric Views, I want to say.
00:30:11
◼
►
This is not a show I was familiar with before.
00:30:14
◼
►
And I've actually added it to my list since.
00:30:18
◼
►
So I did this episode about like picking your default apps and they have a point system.
00:30:25
◼
►
And after that episode, a bunch of people started sharing sort of as a follow up to the show,
00:30:29
◼
►
their default apps.
00:30:31
◼
►
And so I noticed that trend and I thought, "That's an interesting idea."
00:30:33
◼
►
Sort of like sharing a permanent list of the software you're using.
00:30:41
◼
►
And I thought, "Maybe we should do something similar on Mac Stories."
00:30:44
◼
►
But I sat on it for a couple of weeks and I started thinking, you know, this idea actually
00:30:51
◼
►
could be something a little broader, a little more fleshed out in the sense that people
00:30:58
◼
►
often ask us, "Hey, what's the microphone you mentioned that you're using?"
00:31:03
◼
►
Or like, "Hey, what's that HDMI adapter that you mentioned unconnected?"
00:31:09
◼
►
Like people ask me these sorts of questions every time, like every week.
00:31:12
◼
►
And I thought, you know, what if there was a page where people could go to like this
00:31:17
◼
►
idea of the default apps, but what if the idea was default apps and default hardware?
00:31:22
◼
►
And so I realized, well, that's a setup page.
00:31:25
◼
►
We are describing our setups.
00:31:27
◼
►
And so that's how it came together.
00:31:30
◼
►
Sort of like as a way for people to have a single place where they can go and see what's
00:31:36
◼
►
the weird cable that Federico is using or how many controllers does John have?
00:31:40
◼
►
Too many is the answer.
00:31:42
◼
►
But yeah, that was the idea.
00:31:43
◼
►
Yeah, and this has expanded, just going back to the app defaults on Hemispheric Views.
00:31:49
◼
►
Rob Knight has a page on their website of two, it's now currently 212 blog posts from
00:31:57
◼
►
people doing this, which is so, so cool.
00:32:01
◼
►
Yeah, it's very cool to see this old school blogging come together for the same thing.
00:32:11
◼
►
And every single website, of course, has an RSS feed, which is a beautiful site, obviously.
00:32:17
◼
►
As it should be.
00:32:18
◼
►
You do have a similar page, Steven.
00:32:22
◼
►
So five fill pixels dot net slash gear, and it's not as well organized as yours, but it's
00:32:28
◼
►
basically the same thing.
00:32:29
◼
►
It's like, this is my desk.
00:32:31
◼
►
This is my computer.
00:32:32
◼
►
This is some key software.
00:32:34
◼
►
This is how I record podcasts.
00:32:36
◼
►
It started as a page of like, what podcast gear should I buy?
00:32:40
◼
►
And I had like what I use and then what everyone else should buy because, you know, I've been
00:32:43
◼
►
doing this 10 years.
00:32:44
◼
►
I've built up my gear over time, but I've expanded it kind of slowly.
00:32:48
◼
►
And I do basically the same thing you do.
00:32:51
◼
►
Like I have a recurring thing, I think every six months.
00:32:54
◼
►
So it's like, just skim this and see if it's woefully out of date and I'll go in and tinker
00:33:00
◼
►
But it is a fun project to have.
00:33:06
◼
►
So we'll see.
00:33:06
◼
►
I can tell you that there are already some changes on my end.
00:33:09
◼
►
Very minimal.
00:33:10
◼
►
But yeah, we'll see how to keep it updated.
00:33:15
◼
►
Maybe there should be.
00:33:17
◼
►
I was actually thinking like, you know, what would be cool is to have a change log for
00:33:24
◼
►
That would be cool.
00:33:24
◼
►
Like on this day, this is something that I believe, and this is why something I love
00:33:31
◼
►
about my job is when you get creative and you can sort of get your inspiration from
00:33:42
◼
►
different sources, right?
00:33:44
◼
►
You can be influenced by different fields.
00:33:47
◼
►
And so like this idea came from a podcast.
00:33:50
◼
►
But then I was thinking like Kotaku, the video game website, they have every year, they do
00:33:57
◼
►
a running list of the best games of the year, parenthesis, so far.
00:34:02
◼
►
And throughout the year, they update the list.
00:34:05
◼
►
And in that list, there's a change log that says, I don't know, May 2023, removed, I don't
00:34:13
◼
►
know, God of War and replaced with Zelda.
00:34:16
◼
►
And like, that's a pretty cool idea, you know, but to apply it for Mac stories and for tech,
00:34:22
◼
►
like, I don't know, December 2023, I replaced these, you know, keyboard with something else.
00:34:30
◼
►
Like to keep a log over time would be interesting, I think.
00:34:36
◼
►
I did that when I had my Mac Pro.
00:34:39
◼
►
I just had just a page on 512 where I would go through and when I would do something with
00:34:45
◼
►
it or change something in the setup, I would just have a little addition to the page.
00:34:50
◼
►
And it is fun to do these sort of long term projects.
00:34:54
◼
►
I enjoy them.
00:34:56
◼
►
Blogging, it's not dead.
00:34:59
◼
►
Still very much alive.
00:35:03
◼
►
I want to wrap up today talking a little bit about some of Apple's content businesses,
00:35:10
◼
►
because they've had this big push over the last couple of days about the year in X.
00:35:16
◼
►
So the year in podcasts.
00:35:18
◼
►
Apple Books got a new year in review feature, which I think is actually pretty interesting.
00:35:23
◼
►
So I should try mine.
00:35:24
◼
►
I've read zero books.
00:35:25
◼
►
So you can go into Apple Books and not only do they have like, this was the most popular
00:35:32
◼
►
stuff for the year, but also personalized highlights and like insights and what you
00:35:38
◼
►
So I guess for you, Federico in particular, maybe not so interesting, but I think it's
00:35:43
◼
►
cool they added that to Apple Books.
00:35:45
◼
►
That's a very natural extension of this idea, I think.
00:35:48
◼
►
And if you read an Apple Books like, yeah, why not?
00:35:53
◼
►
But the one I want to talk to you about particular was Apple Music Replay, because this is back.
00:36:01
◼
►
It's still on the web.
00:36:03
◼
►
You have to go to what is it?
00:36:04
◼
►
Replay dot replay dot music dot apple dot com, which doesn't even sound like a real
00:36:12
◼
►
Yeah, it sounds like it's it sounds like a phishing domain.
00:36:16
◼
►
And then you have to sign in with your Apple ID, which is like not always the easiest thing
00:36:20
◼
►
to do on the web.
00:36:21
◼
►
Why is this still on the web?
00:36:24
◼
►
Like, I know they've made some changes to it, but why is this not in the music app?
00:36:29
◼
►
I don't know.
00:36:30
◼
►
And I can tell you that when I saw when I saw the the news yesterday, I clicked the
00:36:37
◼
►
link in in an article that I found.
00:36:39
◼
►
And of course, thanks to the weirdness of universal links, it took me to the music app.
00:36:46
◼
►
When I click that replay the music, the apple.com URL, it took me to the native music app, but
00:36:54
◼
►
into an error page because the music app didn't know what to do with that replay URL.
00:37:00
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So I had to go manually in Safari and do the thing.
00:37:03
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I don't know what they're doing on the web.
00:37:05
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The problem is.
00:37:07
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I I think they're still in that phase where they want to try and be as hip and creative
00:37:19
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as Spotify with this feature, but they just aren't.
00:37:23
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And I just saw today the Spotify wrapped.
00:37:27
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Launched today.
00:37:29
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And now they're doing the thing where I believe what's a new thing?
00:37:33
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What's a new gimmick this year?
00:37:34
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They assign you like a musical town or whatever.
00:37:38
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A sound town based on the sound town.
00:37:44
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So every year, I mean, that's already funny just just to say it.
00:37:48
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Spotify really knows how to capture sort of the cultural zeitgeist, even just for two
00:37:55
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days with this feature.
00:37:57
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And Apple's let alone the fact that it's like you got to go to a website, which is like,
00:38:01
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you know, what am I?
00:38:02
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My dad going to a website to get a report for my music.
00:38:07
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But it's just it's kind of bland and just uninspired, you know, it's like and I go in
00:38:15
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there and brief aside, Steven, once again, that cap for Cutie is my top listen artist.
00:38:24
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Yeah, there's a reason and there's a reason and this won't be the case next year.
00:38:30
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So I wouldn't I wouldn't say every night of a typical week, but maybe three nights a week,
00:38:39
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three or four nights a week.
00:38:40
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I like to fall asleep listening to either plans by that cup for Cutie, transatlanticism
00:38:48
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or narrow stairs.
00:38:51
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I just like to put on, you know, let me tell you, a big big canyon bridge while you're
00:38:58
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Top choice, really.
00:39:00
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It's not a very like sleepy song that bridge.
00:39:03
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No, but but it's got an atmosphere.
00:39:05
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Yeah, I like to listen to one of these three albums and that has completely skewed my Apple
00:39:13
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music report toward that cup for Cutie.
00:39:17
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It looks like, hey, look at this guy really loved listening to plans and transatlanticism
00:39:22
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in twenty twenty three.
00:39:23
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This won't be a problem next year because in seventeen point two, which is not out yet
00:39:30
◼
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in iOS seventeen point two, you will be able to make a filter that says when I'm in this
00:39:36
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focus mode, don't gather my music activity.
00:39:40
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That's smart.
00:39:42
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What I will do is as soon as the sleep focus comes on, do not collect my music listening
00:39:50
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habits because it means I will be listening to that cup for Cutie or other people may
00:39:54
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be listening to white noise playlists.
00:39:56
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That's the idea.
00:39:57
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So I think they're doing it on the web because my my idea is that.
00:40:03
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I don't know, Apple is focused on other things.
00:40:07
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Would be would be my explanation here.
00:40:11
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They're focused on lyrics, on having a better than Spotify native experience, and maybe
00:40:19
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they just don't have they just don't have a big enough team to take care of this stuff.
00:40:25
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Like you go to this page and call my top artists or that cup for Cutie, the main and Blink
00:40:30
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one eighty two.
00:40:31
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I listen to a lot of plans.
00:40:33
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I listen to the main and Boy Genius and my top genre is alternative and indie rock.
00:40:38
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That's pretty much it.
00:40:41
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►
It doesn't it doesn't have it doesn't have a lot of personality, you know, and if you
00:40:47
◼
►
want and actually I believe that John just published these on MaxTories today.
00:40:54
◼
►
If you want this kind of more, let's call it objective sort of report.
00:41:01
◼
►
And if you are this kind of music person, like I want to know stats about myself.
00:41:07
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►
That's a legitimate thing to do.
00:41:09
◼
►
But if you want to have this for music and you are really into music, just use last of
00:41:15
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►
You know, the last of them report, which you get monthly and you get a big one at the end
00:41:21
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►
of the year.
00:41:22
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►
Those are so much better and have a lot more data than these Apple ones.
00:41:26
◼
►
These Apple ones are this hybrid of like we're trying to be hip, but also just give you the
00:41:33
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And in the meantime, they're like.
00:41:34
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►
What would you say in English?
00:41:37
◼
►
They're neither fish nor fowl.
00:41:39
◼
►
Is that an expression?
00:41:41
◼
►
Yeah, they're that they're that in my opinion, they're just there, right?
00:41:44
◼
►
It's not they're just there.
00:41:46
◼
►
They're just doing something, but they're not as full featured as last of them and they're
00:41:51
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►
not as fun as Spotify.
00:41:53
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►
They are in the middle.
00:41:56
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►
Honestly, I think the Apple books one is more interesting than music because one thing they
00:42:00
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►
did is like the type of reader you are.
00:42:03
◼
►
It's like I'm a completionist.
00:42:04
◼
►
I'm this or that.
00:42:05
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►
And the artwork is really good.
00:42:07
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►
Like, yes, I would like to see more of that approach in Apple Music next year.
00:42:11
◼
►
Yeah, you give it some love.
00:42:14
◼
►
Give it some personality.
00:42:15
◼
►
Do something.
00:42:16
◼
►
Hey, you're you know, I wouldn't mind Apple telling me you are a sad emo person.
00:42:21
◼
►
Yeah, give me that.
00:42:22
◼
►
You know, I deserve it.
00:42:23
◼
►
Yeah, I deserve it.
00:42:25
◼
►
We'll get like a true emo.
00:42:26
◼
►
Yes, you're right.
00:42:30
◼
►
You're right.
00:42:30
◼
►
Apple Music.
00:42:31
◼
►
Hopefully they'll do something more fun next year.
00:42:34
◼
►
But in the meantime, Spotify wrapped is out there doing its thing like, you know, I'm
00:42:39
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►
looking at the screenshots now and like Spotify can tell you your your sound town is Mexico
00:42:46
◼
►
City or, you know, now they give you they give you these sort of these characters in
00:42:53
◼
►
Spotify wrapped like it says me in 2023, Luminary or Shapeshifter or Time Traveler like and
00:43:01
◼
►
it's got fancy artwork.
00:43:03
◼
►
Some of this looks AI generated, I should say, but maybe I'm wrong.
00:43:08
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►
Don't look at the hands.
00:43:10
◼
►
Don't look at the hands.
00:43:11
◼
►
But at least it's fun and colorful.
00:43:15
◼
►
And, you know, and speaking of these end of the year features, I want to give a shout
00:43:20
◼
►
out to Pocket Casts.
00:43:23
◼
►
Pocket Casts came out as of a couple of days ago with their best of like your year in podcasts.
00:43:30
◼
►
And it's really good, for example, scrolling through mine.
00:43:35
◼
►
You know what my what my most listened show of 2023 was, Stephen?
00:43:39
◼
►
Mac power users.
00:43:42
◼
►
No, I'm sorry.
00:43:44
◼
►
It was Upgrade Plus with 33 episodes for a total of two days and two hours.
00:43:51
◼
►
Second spot, The Besties, third place, TripleClick.
00:43:56
◼
►
Excellent video games podcasts.
00:43:59
◼
►
Number four, More Text and number five, Into the Aether, another excellent video game show.
00:44:04
◼
►
And yeah, I mean, why is there no end of the year report for Apple podcast?
00:44:10
◼
►
I don't know.
00:44:11
◼
►
But my take is if they want to do these features at the end of the year, and they should because
00:44:15
◼
►
they're fun and they're like put a nice bow at the end of the year for your digital life,
00:44:20
◼
►
they should do it.
00:44:21
◼
►
But if you do it, make it fun, make it colorful and make it informative.
00:44:25
◼
►
Right now, they're just kind of, you know, the dead version of whatever Spotify is doing.
00:44:31
◼
►
Spice it up.
00:44:33
◼
►
That's what we're saying.
00:44:34
◼
►
Make it weird.
00:44:35
◼
►
I think the weirder the better for these.
00:44:37
◼
►
Make it weird.
00:44:37
◼
►
I'll always, exactly like we'll always be on this program.
00:44:41
◼
►
We'll always be in favor of Apple making it weird.
00:44:43
◼
►
Like do it, you know, I have a little dance in Tim Cook when you open the page, whatever,
00:44:49
◼
►
Before we go, I want to remind everybody about the membership sale that's going on.
00:44:54
◼
►
You can go to give relay dot com and get 20 percent off all annual memberships across
00:45:00
◼
►
the network.
00:45:01
◼
►
This is running through December 15th.
00:45:03
◼
►
You can buy one for yourself.
00:45:05
◼
►
You can buy one as a gift for somebody else.
00:45:07
◼
►
You can send this to your aunt who never knows what to get you.
00:45:10
◼
►
And it's a great way to enjoy some membership content here.
00:45:15
◼
►
In connected, we do a longer ad free version of the show each week called connected pro.
00:45:20
◼
►
This week we spoke about play 2.0 and update to an excellent video management app.
00:45:25
◼
►
And I asked Federico if he would go to space.
00:45:28
◼
►
So you can enjoy that connected pro.
00:45:30
◼
►
In the meantime, you can follow us online.
00:45:34
◼
►
Federico is on Mastodon as Viticci at Macstories.net.
00:45:39
◼
►
And of course, you can find his writing at Macstories.net.
00:45:43
◼
►
You can find my writing at 512 pixels.
00:45:45
◼
►
And I co-host Mac power users here on relay each and every Sunday.
00:45:49
◼
►
And you can follow me on Mastodon as ismh@eworld.social.
00:45:53
◼
►
We'd like to wish our co-host a happy vacation.
00:45:57
◼
►
Again, go send him a haiku saying that he was missed from the show.
00:46:01
◼
►
I like to thank Squarespace, our sponsor this week.
00:46:04
◼
►
And until next time, Federico, say goodbye.
00:46:06
◼
►
Arrivederci.