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Connected

510: The Ticcilympics (2024)

 

00:00:00   (classical music)

00:00:02   Hello, and welcome to Connected, episode 510.

00:00:11   My name is, I didn't know what number it was.

00:00:14   I saw it was stalling while

00:00:15   I was looking at the top of the document.

00:00:16   It was good.

00:00:17   It's pretty good, right?

00:00:18   I'm your keynote chairman, Steven, that's me.

00:00:21   That means I'm really good at a very specific game we play.

00:00:24   It doesn't really matter.

00:00:25   I'm joined by Annual Chairman Mike.

00:00:27   He's very good at another game we play.

00:00:30   Yeah, I'm good at predicting the year, it would seem.

00:00:33   I just wanna let everybody know Federico is fine.

00:00:37   We have OTJ here.

00:00:39   Now, the reason I say this, hi, John, John Vois.

00:00:42   Hello, how are you?

00:00:44   Good to see you guys.

00:00:45   Because we have set the rules,

00:00:48   the triple J succession rules, right?

00:00:51   Right.

00:00:51   That if one of us dies, right?

00:00:55   Someone else will step in.

00:00:56   So every time, if Federico's not here, but John's here,

00:01:00   I feel like we have to make it clear

00:01:01   that Federico's not dead.

00:01:03   He's not dead.

00:01:04   Right?

00:01:04   He's not dead.

00:01:05   He's on a beach.

00:01:06   He's on a beach.

00:01:07   So John's here.

00:01:09   Thank you for joining us, Mr. One True John.

00:01:11   Well, thanks for having me, guys.

00:01:12   It's always good to be here and chat with you guys.

00:01:15   Yeah, gonna be good.

00:01:16   We got some good stuff planned today.

00:01:18   I should say, because I got derailed at the beginning,

00:01:21   this episode is made possible by Ecamm, Fitbot, ExpressVPN.

00:01:24   Thanks, guys.

00:01:26   And John, John made this episode possible.

00:01:29   Yeah, you guys wouldn't have a show

00:01:30   if it weren't for me, obviously.

00:01:32   I say that every week.

00:01:33   I say that every week.

00:01:33   Without the One True John, that'd be no show.

00:01:36   John's like the air we breathe.

00:01:39   The reason we get up in the morning.

00:01:41   So that's probably going a little too far, Steven.

00:01:43   Like, don't make it weird.

00:01:45   Follow up.

00:01:46   Phil Schiller can't keep a job.

00:01:49   Just eight days after it being announced

00:01:52   that Apple would be taking an,

00:01:54   what's the term, John, observatory role?

00:01:56   What's the name of the board seat?

00:01:58   Yeah, a board observer, really.

00:02:01   A board server, if you will.

00:02:04   Phil Schiller will not be taking that

00:02:06   because Apple and Microsoft both

00:02:08   have given up those board seats.

00:02:12   So remember, I think we talked about last time,

00:02:13   I know others did as well.

00:02:15   I don't think we spoke about this a lot.

00:02:17   I don't know.

00:02:18   People know about it.

00:02:19   It's out there.

00:02:20   Okay, it's just weird follow up,

00:02:22   where it's like, here's information

00:02:25   about a news story we didn't discuss.

00:02:27   It's follow up to the rest of the world, really.

00:02:29   That both Microsoft and Apple had these roles

00:02:34   because they both have partnerships,

00:02:35   although very different partnerships with open AI.

00:02:39   And both have given them up,

00:02:41   potentially because of regulatory concern

00:02:45   over big tech and AI and all of those things, who knows?

00:02:49   But yeah, it's over.

00:02:51   I wonder if he got to go to a meeting at all.

00:02:54   Good question, I don't know.

00:02:56   It's a weird story, right?

00:02:58   I'm not sure I buy the regulatory thing,

00:02:59   but this is not really that unusual in the corporate world,

00:03:03   and it's not like Phil Schiller would have a right to vote

00:03:07   on the board of open AI.

00:03:09   He'd just be there kinda hanging out, right?

00:03:11   And basically a babysitter for Sam Altman

00:03:14   is essentially what I would have considered that role.

00:03:16   But for whatever reason, they've decided

00:03:18   that that wasn't a good idea.

00:03:19   And companies generally don't like to do this kind of thing

00:03:22   because you're there, you're discussing your secrets,

00:03:24   and you don't wanna share that with the whole world.

00:03:27   If these people aren't part of your company,

00:03:29   why should they be there listening in

00:03:31   on all your secret plans?

00:03:32   So Phil doesn't get the dirt now.

00:03:36   - I don't understand how this is a regulatory concern.

00:03:38   - I don't either.

00:03:39   - Because shouldn't it be more of a regulatory concern

00:03:42   that Microsoft have invested tens of billions of dollars

00:03:45   into this company, essentially owning their technology?

00:03:49   Where Microsoft keeps doing,

00:03:51   I don't know, there isn't a term for this yet,

00:03:53   but this is happening so much more in Silicon Valley,

00:03:55   these secret acquisitions.

00:03:58   - Well, sure, but the FTC and the EU

00:04:02   are already looking into open-ized deals

00:04:05   with other companies.

00:04:06   So the regulatory stuff is already happening.

00:04:08   It's in the early stages.

00:04:10   - I don't think this fixes it though,

00:04:12   because this doesn't change the deals.

00:04:14   All this means is they're not gonna be in the room

00:04:16   with no vote.

00:04:18   - That's why it's odd to me.

00:04:19   - Look, Phil Schiller's very busy

00:04:21   making everyone in Europe angry.

00:04:22   And he just couldn't juggle it all.

00:04:25   - He just wants us to think about the children, Steven,

00:04:28   come on, let's all help the kids.

00:04:30   - I do.

00:04:31   So there you go.

00:04:32   Follow up to a topic that maybe we didn't actually talk about

00:04:36   but I thought we did.

00:04:37   We did talk about Bluetooth having a funny name.

00:04:40   And listener Matt wrote in talking about this.

00:04:45   And back in 1997, Intel employee Jim Kardesh,

00:04:50   I'm gonna pronounce that.

00:04:54   - Sure.

00:04:55   - Kardesh was working with a special interest group

00:04:59   which was forming a new wireless technology.

00:05:02   Didn't have a name and he suggested the name Bluetooth.

00:05:07   - Kardesh was inspired after speaking with Sven Matteson

00:05:10   who was also on the SIG, the special interest group.

00:05:13   Matteson was interested in Scandinavian history

00:05:16   and had read about Harald Bluetooth,

00:05:19   who was a king of Denmark and Norway in the ninth century.

00:05:23   - The guys thought his reign was a great analogy

00:05:25   for a technology that would unite devices

00:05:29   the way that ye olde Bluetooth united the tribes of Denmark

00:05:32   into a single kingdom.

00:05:33   - The Bluetooth logo is made up of his two initials

00:05:36   taken from the ancient runic alphabet in use at this time,

00:05:40   which is why it has that very particular look,

00:05:42   the Bluetooth logo.

00:05:43   - And we don't have time to open that can of worms today,

00:05:45   but yeah, runic alphabets are cool.

00:05:48   - Steven, did you just do an ingenious Trojan horse

00:05:50   inside of this episode?

00:05:51   - I did.

00:05:52   There's an ingenious slipped inside the envelope

00:05:54   of connected this week.

00:05:56   - Steven is very, Steven has gone pretty wild

00:05:58   with the show document today.

00:05:59   This is just part one of Steven's genius.

00:06:03   But yes, if you like to hear us talk

00:06:06   in that very specific way about weird things,

00:06:09   you should go check out "Ungenious"

00:06:10   which is a show that me and Steven do every two weeks

00:06:12   where we pick a weird Wikipedia thing

00:06:15   and share some information with you.

00:06:17   - People in the discord are like,

00:06:18   they're doing their ingenious voices,

00:06:20   which we definitely do when we read those scripts.

00:06:22   - I didn't know that and I don't like that that happens.

00:06:25   - Yeah, you do it, you do it for sure.

00:06:27   I think it's just the reading means we're faster.

00:06:30   - Reading voices, yeah, reading voices.

00:06:32   I think we have good reading voices,

00:06:34   but they're still reading voices, you know?

00:06:36   - Yeah.

00:06:38   - Ivory 2.0 is out, an update to the really lovely

00:06:43   Macedon client made from the folks behind

00:06:47   rest in peace tweet bot.

00:06:49   John, tell us a little bit about what's in Ivory 2.0.

00:06:52   - So there are a couple of things here.

00:06:54   There's a reworking of how the hashtags tab works.

00:06:59   It's gonna let you create lists that contain

00:07:01   up to four hashtags that you can follow, which is nice.

00:07:04   I mean, I'm not really a hashtag person.

00:07:06   I see that you have put some in here helpfully, Steven,

00:07:09   like Relay 10 and OTJ Day.

00:07:12   I didn't know there was such thing as OTJ Day,

00:07:14   but if there is gonna be one, it ought to be today

00:07:17   because here I am, right?

00:07:19   In all my OTJ glory.

00:07:24   So if you're a hashtag person, go for it, make your list.

00:07:29   - This is one, like, I don't know,

00:07:31   why did I think hashtags weren't even a thing in Macedon?

00:07:35   - Because they're not very well surfaced in a lot of apps.

00:07:38   And now they are, so maybe people,

00:07:40   since so many people use Ivory, maybe they'll catch on,

00:07:43   but it's probably not gonna catch on with me,

00:07:45   just kind of spoiler.

00:07:47   But the bigger feature here, I think,

00:07:51   is a reworking of the share sheet.

00:07:54   So it's just a lot nicer.

00:07:56   I mean, it's easy to get to the controls

00:07:59   for how public your post is gonna be,

00:08:02   to get to the language, to see a little preview

00:08:05   of the link that you're sharing,

00:08:06   if you're sharing a link, that sort of thing.

00:08:08   It's a very nice design and works really well

00:08:11   in my experience.

00:08:13   - What is, wait, what's the share sheet?

00:08:15   - So in the iOS share sheet, so if you're like on the web

00:08:20   and you decide you wanna share a link to a webpage

00:08:22   or something, for instance, on Macedon.

00:08:26   - When people say share sheet, I think of like

00:08:29   where you get all your apps and your people,

00:08:31   like the iOS system.

00:08:33   - Oh, I see what you're saying.

00:08:34   - You know what I mean?

00:08:35   Like I'm sharing a post inside of Ivory,

00:08:37   but no, this is like, okay, it's from the share sheet.

00:08:41   Like if I'm on a website-- - It's a share extension.

00:08:42   - Share extension, yeah. - It's a share extension

00:08:44   inside of other apps.

00:08:45   Right, right, right.

00:08:46   So that's been reworked, much better design now.

00:08:49   So I'll say again, this is another feature

00:08:52   that I don't use a lot.

00:08:53   For whatever reason, when I post something on Macedon,

00:08:56   like a link or something, I tend to copy it

00:08:58   and then just go into Ivory.

00:09:00   - Yeah, me too, I'm not sure if that makes us old,

00:09:02   but yeah, I feel like I wanna-- - Probably.

00:09:03   - I wanna be in the app, like doing the thing

00:09:06   and then posting it, you know what I mean?

00:09:07   - First, you gotta go to your Google and you know,

00:09:10   you gotta go to Google-- - Type in www.yahoo.com.

00:09:13   (laughing)

00:09:14   - Yes, exactly.

00:09:15   - See what Google gives me?

00:09:18   - Yeah.

00:09:19   - Get your Yahoo Finance link.

00:09:21   Yeah, that's how it works, Mike.

00:09:22   - John!

00:09:24   - You know, the other day, the other day,

00:09:28   I saw someone post a link or maybe it was in our group chat

00:09:30   or something and it was something Apple related,

00:09:35   but it was a Yahoo Finance page

00:09:37   that Reuters was embedded inside of.

00:09:40   - Oh, that's weird.

00:09:41   - I was like, what is going on?

00:09:44   It was a very strange, like how is that,

00:09:47   like there obviously is some content licensing deal,

00:09:50   but it was very weird, very strange.

00:09:55   - Yeah, that's really weird.

00:09:56   There is a bug in there. - It was you, John.

00:09:57   You sent it to me.

00:09:58   Here it is, I found it in my group chat.

00:10:00   It was the Apple OK's Epic Games Marketplace app in Europe.

00:10:05   And it is a finance.yahoo.com,

00:10:10   but it has the Reuters logo on the top.

00:10:13   Like very strange, like a very strange thing to exist.

00:10:16   So you are actually the person that goes in Yahoo Finance.

00:10:19   - I am at fault.

00:10:21   Yeah, I think I found that on Masterjohn in fact.

00:10:23   So I'll blame the Don on that one.

00:10:26   - Somebody used the share sheet straight from Yahoo Finance.

00:10:29   (laughing)

00:10:30   - Probably, probably.

00:10:32   There is one bug in Ivory worth noting,

00:10:35   which is right now you can't access the profiles

00:10:40   of people who are on subdomains.

00:10:42   So that means that the entire MacStories team

00:10:46   who are on our own subdomain for the MacStories server,

00:10:50   if you tap on, for instance, @MacStories

00:10:53   in a post in Ivory right now, you will not be taken

00:10:56   to the MacStories profile.

00:10:57   Or if you tap on my name or Federico's,

00:11:00   you won't get to us, but I think they're working

00:11:03   on a fix for that.

00:11:03   - That's odd. - We're not the only ones

00:11:06   who use a subdomain, that's a fairly common thing.

00:11:09   But it's not so common that it obviously slipped through

00:11:12   with the cracks on this one.

00:11:14   - A subdomain's different to like custom servers?

00:11:21   - Yeah, because ours is mastodon.macstories.net.

00:11:25   - Yeah.

00:11:26   - And so-- - You're safe.

00:11:29   - Yeah, I'm not sure how it differs.

00:11:30   Alex, you're okay. (laughing)

00:11:33   But 'cause you didn't have Alex set up your server for you.

00:11:37   - So Alex is the problem is what you're saying.

00:11:39   - Yes, yes, yes.

00:11:40   - If y'all had done mastodonstories.net

00:11:45   as your server name, you would have been fine.

00:11:48   - Yeah, we would have been fine.

00:11:48   - Or mic.social, just to pull one out

00:11:50   of the air.

00:11:51   - Just to know, a word to associate,

00:11:53   it's just that, just to, hey John, if you wanna come over,

00:11:57   I'll offer you, if you wanna be the second

00:11:59   and only person on mic.social, you just let me know, man.

00:12:01   - Ooh, boy, that'd be cozy.

00:12:03   That'd be really cozy, I'm looking forward to it, yeah.

00:12:05   - OTJ@mic.social, that username is just ready for you

00:12:09   whenever you want it.

00:12:10   You can share as many Yahoo Finance links as you like.

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00:14:39   and Relay FM.

00:14:42   - So iOS 18 Beta 3 is out.

00:14:46   I think all the Beta's are being revved,

00:14:48   but obviously iOS is the one where the most is happening.

00:14:52   And there are a couple of interesting features

00:14:55   that have been released.

00:14:57   I guess you guys, I'm assuming both of you guys

00:14:59   have updated, but there are a couple of things

00:15:01   I wanted to point out.

00:15:02   I'm not using iOS on any device.

00:15:05   I just have the Beta's on my iPad mini,

00:15:08   which is not a great device to test.

00:15:10   - No, it's not.

00:15:11   - Anything, everything is real.

00:15:13   I'm gonna tell you boys, it's getting real slow and hot

00:15:17   on that iPad mini.

00:15:17   Things are bad, it's a bad time.

00:15:19   And the battery is dying very quickly.

00:15:22   It's terrible, don't do it.

00:15:24   The thing that is most interesting to me

00:15:27   is Apple has made some tweaks and changes

00:15:29   to the way that icons are working in dark mode.

00:15:32   A thing that was previously seemed to be a bug,

00:15:34   which was that you could separate widgets and icons

00:15:37   from dark and light mode,

00:15:38   it seems to have become just the way the system works.

00:15:42   So you actually can't separate, which is kind of annoying.

00:15:45   So if you want dark widgets, you have to,

00:15:48   they're basically tied icons and widgets together

00:15:50   in light and dark mode, which I don't love.

00:15:53   But the thing that is of note is Apple is forcibly changing

00:15:58   the look of icons if you choose dark mode.

00:16:04   So developers will be able to supply to Apple

00:16:07   a dark mode icon, but if they don't,

00:16:10   Apple is doing something about it.

00:16:12   And what I would love to know,

00:16:15   and I don't know if anybody could tell us this,

00:16:18   it seems like some icons are being particularly changed.

00:16:24   Like somebody has made some decisions

00:16:27   about how an app icon could be changed.

00:16:31   And some just look like they're being darkened

00:16:33   or like inverted or something.

00:16:36   But like, for example, the Facebook icon, right?

00:16:39   Currently it's blue with a white F.

00:16:44   In dark mode, the background is black and the F is blue.

00:16:49   Now that's not an invert.

00:16:52   That feels like a decision that has been made to me, right?

00:16:56   About the way that that is going to be displayed.

00:16:59   And there are lots of instances of this.

00:17:01   I'll put a couple in the show notes so people can see,

00:17:04   but like some are simple, right?

00:17:06   Like Google Maps, they just take the white

00:17:08   that's in the background and change it black

00:17:10   and keep the colors on the little pin the same and stuff.

00:17:13   But to me, it feels like something's going on,

00:17:15   whether it's Apple intelligence

00:17:18   or a designer has made some choices, like I don't know.

00:17:21   And then icons that are like full color,

00:17:25   they have been dimmed a little bit.

00:17:27   It's kind of weird, but yeah, Apple's making some choices.

00:17:30   - Yeah, it's interesting.

00:17:32   It seems like the rule tends to be that

00:17:35   if it's a simple glyph with hard contrasting edges

00:17:40   like the F in Facebook or I don't know,

00:17:45   Slack's logo or something like that,

00:17:48   or threads for instance,

00:17:49   that those are being kind of inverted,

00:17:52   although it's not strictly an inversion at all.

00:17:55   It's pulling colors from the icon itself

00:17:59   and replacing white areas with those colors

00:18:02   and then darkening the other parts.

00:18:05   So that seems to be where the biggest action is.

00:18:08   And I got to imagine that's automatic

00:18:11   because there's just too many icons on the store,

00:18:13   except for maybe they're designing around

00:18:15   some of the really biggest apps,

00:18:17   like the top 100 or something.

00:18:18   - That is what I think.

00:18:20   I would love to understand the answer to this,

00:18:24   but just like the Facebook one specifically

00:18:26   really jumps out to me.

00:18:27   - Yeah, I agree.

00:18:28   - Because it's not an inversion.

00:18:31   It's weird.

00:18:32   So I could imagine that there are some apps

00:18:34   that they might be making some decisions on,

00:18:37   but ultimately developers should be providing these

00:18:40   to the system.

00:18:41   And I think Apple wants it to happen,

00:18:44   so they've now enacted this,

00:18:46   so it will happen, so you should probably do it yourself.

00:18:49   You know what I mean?

00:18:50   So I think it's a smart way to do it,

00:18:52   even though I think it's probably gonna upset some people.

00:18:54   - The more skeuomorphic and 3D looking the icon is,

00:18:58   the less likely it's going to change much.

00:19:00   That's where the dimming really happens, I think.

00:19:02   - Yeah, yeah.

00:19:04   - And developers still have the opportunity

00:19:05   to do their own thing and supply them to the system.

00:19:09   We're kind of talking about a couple of different things

00:19:11   where the system is making some decisions,

00:19:13   I think, in the absence of direct,

00:19:17   like this is what I want you to do from the developer.

00:19:20   So I'm not surprised there's like some hodgepodge,

00:19:23   like mixed up things right now.

00:19:25   Clearly, at least in beta one and two,

00:19:27   Apple didn't have this finished.

00:19:29   And I kind of suspect it's still not done,

00:19:32   so we may still see some more changes.

00:19:35   - It's definitely more polished now than it was in beta one,

00:19:38   but it does have a ways to go yet.

00:19:40   - Yeah, they did fix the bug

00:19:42   where if you switch back and forth,

00:19:44   sometimes just all of your icons would disappear

00:19:46   and become like the default white round erect.

00:19:49   It's like, well, all my icons are just white boxes.

00:19:52   They got that going for them.

00:19:54   - But the thing I'm maybe most excited about

00:19:57   is they've finally done it.

00:19:58   Stickers can be emoji.

00:20:00   - Yes.

00:20:01   - They like look like emoji and act like emoji

00:20:04   inside of messages, as well as in reactions and stuff.

00:20:08   Like this is the thing that they've wanted them to forever.

00:20:11   So now if you wanted, you could use me emoji,

00:20:16   emoji instead of the human emojis that exist.

00:20:20   So I think this is a very cool thing

00:20:23   that they've finally done.

00:20:25   - Yeah, I'm still not used to it.

00:20:26   It's odd to look at your recently used

00:20:29   or your most used emoji and see your stickers in there.

00:20:32   I mean, it's not that I dislike it.

00:20:34   I'm just, I'm a little surprised every time I see it.

00:20:36   - Yeah, and I think to do this though,

00:20:39   they have, I think, had a regression with the emoji picker

00:20:43   where they've made the emoji bigger

00:20:45   so you see less at the time.

00:20:48   And I think they're doing that

00:20:49   because obviously stickers tend to be more complicated.

00:20:52   And so you maybe need a little bit more visual

00:20:55   for seeing those.

00:20:56   But I will take that for this

00:20:59   because I think we could finally get

00:21:01   what I think people have wanted for a really long time,

00:21:04   which is maybe we're gonna get back

00:21:06   on the old sticker roundup, John.

00:21:08   Because this was the original promise

00:21:11   of stickers and messages.

00:21:14   Like people thought they were emoji, but they never were.

00:21:17   - Never were.

00:21:18   - But now you actually could use a Mickey Mouse emoji pack.

00:21:24   Or like a, I don't know, insert your favorite character here,

00:21:28   emoji pack.

00:21:29   Or like, you know, people have created like chef kiss emoji

00:21:32   and stuff like that.

00:21:33   - Right.

00:21:34   - And now you could have that.

00:21:35   I mean, let alone the fact that we can all look forward

00:21:37   to creating our own emoji with Genmoji.

00:21:40   So I guess I would expect that they are essentially,

00:21:43   what we can see here,

00:21:44   like the Genmoji are essentially stickers,

00:21:47   but they have now pushed the idea of stickers

00:21:49   to act like emoji.

00:21:50   And so they just decided to do it for everything.

00:21:52   - I would imagine that was the impetus for this.

00:21:55   Like, oh, we want to treat those as emoji.

00:21:57   And so stickers get to come along.

00:22:00   - Yeah.

00:22:01   - I agree with you.

00:22:01   The new layout is, the new visual layout is a little weird

00:22:06   being more spaced out,

00:22:08   but I kind of tend to think that may just be

00:22:10   like an adjustment period, but.

00:22:13   - Yeah, you get used to it.

00:22:14   - Yeah, but it is good.

00:22:15   Like you in particular, Mike,

00:22:17   have talked about this for a long time.

00:22:18   Like stickers are like, you know,

00:22:20   they go on top of text and I know Jason

00:22:23   has talked about this as well.

00:22:23   And like they go on top of text and they block text

00:22:26   and like, if I want to use something like this,

00:22:29   I kind of have to make some decisions about where it goes.

00:22:32   And sometimes that's fun.

00:22:33   And you know, all that stuff still exists,

00:22:35   but a lot of times I just want to inline

00:22:38   with what I'm typing.

00:22:38   And so I kind of felt like they finally done

00:22:40   what we all want,

00:22:42   even if it comes with some trade-offs

00:22:44   in terms of the density visually,

00:22:47   but I'm glad they're doing it.

00:22:49   - And hey, this is a very helpful feature

00:22:51   to add to iMessage when you add RCS to iMessage.

00:22:55   (laughing)

00:22:56   Right?

00:22:57   - Yeah. - Oh yeah.

00:22:58   - If people adopt this and really start using it,

00:23:01   then it increases the iMessage experience

00:23:04   and decreases the RCS experience.

00:23:06   So. - Yeah, good point.

00:23:08   - Which, you know, look, I'm not saying,

00:23:10   I don't believe that they did this for that,

00:23:12   but I bet when someone realized that they were like, great.

00:23:15   - Yeah, yeah.

00:23:16   - Like Apple's saying is they need to increase

00:23:18   the lock-in for iMessage.

00:23:19   Like I understand it.

00:23:20   Like I see what the point of that is.

00:23:22   Like iMessage is one of the most important features

00:23:26   on the iPhone for creating the Apple ecosystem.

00:23:29   And so anything that they,

00:23:30   it's why iMessage gets significant updates

00:23:32   every single year, right?

00:23:35   And so I think this is the thing

00:23:37   that they've just keep pushing on

00:23:39   to keep making iMessage better and better and better.

00:23:42   And I do think these features make it better.

00:23:46   - Anything you guys wanted to point out

00:23:48   from developer beta three at all?

00:23:50   Are you both using the betas on a lot of devices?

00:23:53   John, I'm sure you're probably

00:23:54   on everything everywhere, right?

00:23:55   - Yeah, everything except for my Apple TV.

00:23:58   So I have not tried the Insight yet thing,

00:24:00   the Insight feature yet that showed up

00:24:02   in this most recent beta,

00:24:03   because that's one of those things where it's like,

00:24:05   if I screw up my Apple TV

00:24:06   and Jennifer sits down to watch TV at night,

00:24:09   I'm gonna hear about it. - I think that it is

00:24:10   available on the iPhone too though.

00:24:12   - Yeah, I haven't, but I don't, yeah,

00:24:14   I haven't tried it yet. - Like if you watch

00:24:15   a show on your iPhone,

00:24:16   I think you can also get that feature.

00:24:18   But obviously it's just more natural to use on Apple TV.

00:24:22   - Yeah, makes sense, makes sense.

00:24:23   Yeah, I haven't tried it yet.

00:24:25   I do have betas on iPads, Apple Watch, iPhone, and Mac.

00:24:30   And as a result, I am recording on Mac hardware.

00:24:34   That's not my normal setup.

00:24:36   That's my, that's what I do in the summer.

00:24:38   I replace my keyboard with my MacBook Pro

00:24:40   and sit here looking at a MacBook Pro instead.

00:24:44   - One of my favorite things listening to App Stories Plus

00:24:47   around this time of the year is Federico

00:24:49   wanting to install Mac OS and you trying to stop him.

00:24:53   - Yes, thank you for that.

00:24:55   I was thinking of you guys and myself.

00:24:57   - For me, I'm kind of just like at this point,

00:25:01   let it fly because I don't have to worry about it,

00:25:04   but I know Stephen does.

00:25:05   And so I work for Stephen.

00:25:07   - It's all fun and games until we don't have a podcast.

00:25:09   - Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:25:11   - You just have to worry about it.

00:25:12   - Well, you know, I worry about my part.

00:25:15   - Yeah, you have to have a good backup plan.

00:25:19   And he's becoming kind of a minimalist

00:25:22   and it concerns me that he's not,

00:25:25   doesn't have a backup Mac really.

00:25:27   And that's why I put the brakes on him

00:25:29   this year a little bit.

00:25:30   Plus there's not that much.

00:25:31   - He doesn't even have a whole Mac, John.

00:25:33   He has half of a Mac.

00:25:34   - Yeah, he has half of a real Mac.

00:25:36   That is pretty minimal, right?

00:25:39   I have half of a computer.

00:25:41   Like that is about as minimal as you can get.

00:25:43   - That's pretty good.

00:25:44   - True.

00:25:45   - The only thing I'll add here is I suspect

00:25:47   that developer beta three will be public beta one next week.

00:25:51   It feels pretty solid at this point.

00:25:53   We're now basically halfway into July, you know,

00:25:57   here at the end of the week.

00:25:58   So I think we will see developer beta three

00:26:03   get graduated to the public beta.

00:26:05   And I would just say, you know,

00:26:06   I think we do this every year.

00:26:09   Just know what you're getting into.

00:26:10   I think listeners of shows like this

00:26:11   know what they're getting into,

00:26:12   that your battery life's gonna be terrible.

00:26:14   Some of your apps aren't gonna work right.

00:26:16   And things may change out from underneath you.

00:26:19   But if you live that exciting life, you know, go for it.

00:26:22   I'll put the public beta on my phone after London.

00:26:25   Right now it's on a secondary phone,

00:26:27   but I'll make the move after our trip, I'm sure.

00:26:30   - Yeah, one of the things that's interesting

00:26:32   is that we didn't get a Sequoia update this week for--

00:26:36   - It just came out.

00:26:37   It is out now.

00:26:37   - Oh, did it?

00:26:38   Okay, all right.

00:26:39   Look at that.

00:26:40   I do not feel right now any desire to put iOS 18 on my phone.

00:26:46   I just don't have it.

00:26:49   - Is it because the AI stuff's not there?

00:26:51   - It's not because the AI stuff isn't there.

00:26:54   It's because there isn't a lot of stuff there currently.

00:26:57   There's more of it, right?

00:26:58   That like the majority of stuff that Apple

00:27:01   is going to spend the most time talking about in iOS 18

00:27:04   will probably not be in 18.0, right?

00:27:07   And if they end up putting some intelligence features,

00:27:11   which we believe they will, into 18,

00:27:14   that's probably when I'll jump on

00:27:16   because I think it's gonna be the biggest thing.

00:27:18   But I'm looking forward to Control Center

00:27:22   and having these emojis.

00:27:25   But outside of that, there isn't really anything else

00:27:28   that I'm dying to use because I think

00:27:31   that the dark mode stuff is interesting,

00:27:34   but it's not what I want.

00:27:36   And I think right now it's gonna give me an experience

00:27:38   that I'm not looking for, like where I want dark widgets

00:27:43   and like dark UI elements

00:27:47   that dark mode currently gives me on 17,

00:27:50   but light icons, 'cause I don't like

00:27:52   the majority of Apple's dark icons.

00:27:54   I don't think that the colors are right

00:27:57   and they're still not changing them.

00:27:59   But if I choose light icons, all of the dark mode interface

00:28:04   on the home screen doesn't exist, right?

00:28:06   Like all of my widgets are brighter, my dock is brighter,

00:28:11   and so I'm not keen on that.

00:28:12   So I'm not super enthused to install the beta yet,

00:28:17   but I just don't have the thing that's pulling me.

00:28:19   - Yeah, there isn't much to it, I don't think,

00:28:21   at least right now.

00:28:22   I mean, I really do like the new Control Center

00:28:25   and I like the ability to put those control widgets

00:28:28   on my lock screen too.

00:28:29   That's been really handy.

00:28:31   But beyond that, not so much,

00:28:33   but it's even less so on the Mac.

00:28:35   The Mac is just, my day-to-day work on my Mac

00:28:39   has not changed at all hardly.

00:28:40   It's just like, it's really thin

00:28:42   without the Apple intelligence stuff on there yet.

00:28:44   - Is the iPhone mirroring in the Mac yet?

00:28:47   - It is, and it broke with the last developer beta

00:28:50   of iOS 18, although I'm assuming that today's Mac update

00:28:55   will probably fix that. - Probably fix today, yeah.

00:28:58   So I think it was interesting.

00:28:59   I had a call with a friend and we wanted to do

00:29:01   a persona call and it wouldn't work with them

00:29:04   'cause they weren't on the beta.

00:29:06   - Oh, interesting. - Which I thought

00:29:08   was really weird, but there you go.

00:29:10   - Our friend, the HomePod with display,

00:29:16   the DisplayPod is back in the news.

00:29:19   So this is a pair of stories, one from 9to5Mac,

00:29:22   one from MacRumors, that tvOS 18 beta three,

00:29:26   honestly, Mike, you should have brought this to the show

00:29:27   as the tvOS guy.

00:29:29   - No, I retired, no, sorry, I was fired

00:29:32   from that position, if you remember.

00:29:34   - Forced out.

00:29:35   - You're ousted.

00:29:36   - Yeah, you were part of the reason, John, don't come to me.

00:29:39   - I was part of the cabal that got rid of you.

00:29:41   - Yeah, there was--

00:29:42   - You gotta pull the same off and just come back in.

00:29:45   - You know what, I should do that,

00:29:47   but I don't know who I'm appealing to.

00:29:49   Who am I appealing to, you know?

00:29:51   - That's the masses.

00:29:53   The tvOS 18 beta three includes something called

00:29:57   plasterboard, springboard is basically the background task

00:30:01   that runs the home screen on the iPhone.

00:30:03   And I forget what it's called on watchOS,

00:30:05   but watchOS is a separate name for it, I think.

00:30:07   But anyways, plasterboard apparently is what it's called

00:30:10   here, and there's a touchscreen friendly UI,

00:30:14   like go look at this article,

00:30:16   it looks like an iPad unlocked screen.

00:30:18   It's very basic, very simple, but obviously tvOS

00:30:23   is not something that's touchscreen friendly,

00:30:26   and this kind of is on the back of the idea

00:30:29   that whatever a home pod with a display would be,

00:30:32   would be based on tvOS.

00:30:34   You know, that UI, sort of that stack of technology

00:30:37   would move over.

00:30:39   So this is showing up in beta three of tvOS 18,

00:30:42   and then Aaron over at MacRumors reports that

00:30:46   there is a product called home accessory 17,1

00:30:51   that Apple has been working on,

00:30:53   that's a string identifier that they have located,

00:30:56   and this would be similar to the audio accessory identifier

00:31:01   used by current home pods.

00:31:04   So a new name, new internal name

00:31:06   seems to kind of line up with this.

00:31:08   What's interesting is the 17,1 would be,

00:31:13   like 17, is gonna be used for the A18 chips

00:31:17   coming in the iPhone 16.

00:31:19   Yes, Apple's numbers and naming are out of control,

00:31:21   we just, it is what it is.

00:31:23   And so maybe this thing could be powered by something

00:31:26   much more powerful than, you know,

00:31:28   the Apple Watch chip found in something like

00:31:30   the home pod mini, could also mean something like this

00:31:33   could potentially pick up some Apple intelligence things,

00:31:37   who knows, but it seems like there's a lot of smoke

00:31:40   to this fire that Apple is working on something

00:31:44   that combines something like a home pod and an iPad mini,

00:31:48   and maybe we're beginning to see the pieces

00:31:51   of that come together.

00:31:53   The name in a smart plasterboard is used to make homes.

00:31:57   Yeah, true. Oh yeah.

00:32:00   I hadn't really thought about that.

00:32:01   I think in America it's called sheetrock,

00:32:03   but here we call it plasterboard.

00:32:04   Sheetrock board.

00:32:06   So like, you know, it is something that is used

00:32:10   to build homes, so obviously they love their board names,

00:32:13   right, like they've been doing forever.

00:32:16   And like Carter in the Discord is saying posterboard,

00:32:19   I remember this now, is the customizable lock screen

00:32:22   on iOS, right, that has its own name.

00:32:24   And so a home accessory being called plasterboard internally

00:32:29   that would make a lot of sense for how they would

00:32:31   call this UI.

00:32:32   This product makes so much sense, right, like I,

00:32:35   I believe it's coming because it's so logical as a product.

00:32:40   Where Apple already make all of the things

00:32:44   that you would need to make a product like this,

00:32:47   they just need to physically connect them together.

00:32:50   Put an iPod, you can put an iPod on it if you want to,

00:32:53   but I meant to say put an iPad on a HomePod,

00:32:56   you've done the thing, right, like you've done it.

00:32:59   And you know, there's also all these things where like

00:33:02   in the, I believe in the last Global Accessibility

00:33:05   Awareness Day, one of the iOS 18 features is like

00:33:08   an eye tracking feature for a iPad.

00:33:10   I'm convinced that they're gonna do something,

00:33:12   either eye or hand tracking based for controlling

00:33:16   a device like this because I think that would be brilliant.

00:33:19   Like I think all of the pieces are coming together

00:33:22   to create something really nice and really expensive.

00:33:25   Especially if it has the robot arm that Mark Gurman

00:33:30   keeps talking about.

00:33:31   - Right, that's what I was gonna say,

00:33:32   this is gonna be the entree into tabletop robots.

00:33:36   - Yes, yeah, he keeps talking about that, he loves it.

00:33:40   But look, we are in an Echo Show family.

00:33:45   - Echo. - I hate it.

00:33:48   I hate it, but my wife loves it and I want to replace it

00:33:53   and I think this could replace it.

00:33:56   - What does she use it for?

00:33:57   Is it for mostly photos or news or weather?

00:34:00   - She likes it for photos. - Okay.

00:34:02   - But she prefers to talk to the Echo

00:34:05   to control the smart home devices.

00:34:07   - Okay.

00:34:08   - We don't have any HomePods at home,

00:34:09   so those devices really are the best way

00:34:13   to communicate with things.

00:34:15   And so if we had one, this would do it,

00:34:17   but for me, there's no point just bringing a HomePod

00:34:21   and setting it up at home for this thing

00:34:22   because she's still gonna want to use the Echo.

00:34:25   - Sure. - And she likes the combo

00:34:28   of what the screen shows things to her

00:34:31   that she finds interesting.

00:34:32   - Yeah.

00:34:33   - Sometimes new stuff or whatever, which I hate, but.

00:34:35   (laughing)

00:34:37   It's just one of these things where I'm not,

00:34:39   I don't have something to replace this product with

00:34:42   that is better than this product

00:34:43   at all of the things that it does.

00:34:45   So I'm not gonna force it, there's no point.

00:34:47   It doesn't harm me,

00:34:48   but I would love to be able to do this right.

00:34:52   Because the photos, we have to manually upload

00:34:55   to Amazon photos, right?

00:34:57   So I would prefer how I have photos on standby,

00:35:00   which is just, it's just pulling from the library.

00:35:03   I don't have to do anything about it, right?

00:35:05   The same as calendars, right?

00:35:07   I can't connect our family calendar

00:35:10   to the Echo in a way that I'm happy.

00:35:13   But if it was an iOS device,

00:35:14   it could just pull the family calendar in

00:35:16   and show it to me on a widget, right?

00:35:17   Like it would be a fastly superior product

00:35:21   in a bunch of ways that I know that she would appreciate,

00:35:25   but right now there isn't anything.

00:35:27   So why pull the rug from under the way

00:35:30   that she's used to doing something?

00:35:31   I'm happy that she wants to use the smart home devices.

00:35:34   I don't wanna like.

00:35:35   - I don't wanna make her.

00:35:36   - Oh, the way you do this, you can't do it anymore.

00:35:38   Why?

00:35:39   - You're holding it wrong.

00:35:40   - Because I don't like this device, 'cause it's old.

00:35:42   Like there's like kind of nothing.

00:35:44   There's no reason.

00:35:45   - Yeah, I get it.

00:35:46   I get it.

00:35:46   Yeah, I'm trying to figure out whether there's a place

00:35:48   in my life for one of these type of devices.

00:35:50   I don't really know if there is.

00:35:51   I mean, a lot of that kind of stuff I use my phone for.

00:35:55   And the way our house kind of works now,

00:35:59   that we're on three floors,

00:36:00   most of the technology is concentrated on the first floor

00:36:03   where I work.

00:36:04   And then it gradually lessens as you go up the floors.

00:36:08   I was realizing this the other day.

00:36:08   - There's no power in the attic.

00:36:10   - No, right, well, so you go to the second floor,

00:36:13   which is like where our living space and kitchen is.

00:36:15   And yeah, there's some automatic lights there,

00:36:18   but not all of them are automatic.

00:36:19   And there's an Apple TV, but that's really about,

00:36:22   and there's the HomePods, which are connected to the TV,

00:36:24   but that's about it.

00:36:26   And then you go upstairs to the third floor

00:36:28   where the bedrooms are, and there's really nothing.

00:36:31   I mean, other than when you bring something up there,

00:36:34   whether it's a phone or whatever, iPad,

00:36:37   but that's kind of just how it is.

00:36:39   I also realized that I think my original HomePods,

00:36:41   which are still kicking and are still a stereo pair

00:36:44   with my television, are my first device that I've owned

00:36:48   until they've been declared obsolete by Apple.

00:36:53   I think that's the first Apple thing I ever had to do.

00:36:55   - I think that's the same for me too.

00:36:56   I'm still using my two original HomePods.

00:36:58   They were ones that I had at home,

00:37:00   and then I didn't know what to do with them for a while

00:37:02   when we moved, 'cause we went Sonos,

00:37:04   which I'm way happier with.

00:37:05   But now I have them as a stereo pair here at the studio

00:37:07   connected to my TV here at the studio.

00:37:10   Way too loud, just in general.

00:37:12   (laughing)

00:37:13   What's so loud?

00:37:14   They're just so loud.

00:37:15   There's no way to make them not loud, but I like them.

00:37:19   You know, they are good, but I would not recommend it.

00:37:22   I would not recommend HomePods as a stereo pair.

00:37:25   I just would not.

00:37:26   My recommendation now is Sonos for this stuff,

00:37:30   because it's just so much more flexible.

00:37:34   - I'm the opposite way.

00:37:35   - Why? - I really am.

00:37:37   I bought a Sonos portable speaker, and I was like,

00:37:41   I hate this, I don't like the Sonos app.

00:37:44   - But they made it so much better recently.

00:37:46   - Well, you know, but what I'm saying,

00:37:48   for connecting to your TV, you never use the app.

00:37:51   - Yeah, that's true, that's true.

00:37:53   - You connect it to the soundbar,

00:37:55   and then you can also connect

00:37:56   like left and right speakers in the app,

00:37:58   and then once you configure them, that's it.

00:37:59   And now like when we play Nintendo Switch, it uses Sonos.

00:38:03   When we play PlayStation, it uses Sonos.

00:38:05   - Yeah, that's nice.

00:38:06   - It doesn't matter, and that's what I like about it.

00:38:08   And I know that eARC exists.

00:38:10   I've tried it out, and it's okay, but it's still a pain.

00:38:14   Like it doesn't work reliably.

00:38:16   There's zero problems with the Sonos system.

00:38:19   - Yeah, eARC works for me.

00:38:20   The trouble that I've been having

00:38:22   for the last several months is with HDMI

00:38:26   and the TV just turning on all by itself,

00:38:29   which is really annoying throughout the day.

00:38:32   All of a sudden, I'll hear someone watching television

00:38:35   upstairs when no one's home except me,

00:38:37   and I have to go shut it off

00:38:38   or use my iPhone to shut it off.

00:38:39   So that's a fun thing.

00:38:41   That's some sort of conflict.

00:38:42   - When that happens, what is the TV showing?

00:38:45   - Whatever it was last on.

00:38:48   Sometimes it turns on, this is a new thing.

00:38:52   It used to turn on the Apple TV,

00:38:54   which would then trigger the TV.

00:38:56   That's really what was happening.

00:38:58   Though yesterday I went upstairs and just the TV was on,

00:39:01   and it was just like the LG screensaver or something.

00:39:04   So I don't know what in the world is going on at this point.

00:39:08   For a while, I thought it was because of the betas,

00:39:10   and every time I updated my phone or opened my phone

00:39:13   or did something, I guess, significant with my phone,

00:39:16   like opened the home app or something,

00:39:17   it would turn the television on by accident

00:39:20   'cause it was connecting to the home hub or something.

00:39:22   I'm not, because that Apple TV is our home hub.

00:39:25   I think I need to try to move the home hub

00:39:27   somewhere else in the house

00:39:28   and see if that makes a difference.

00:39:30   - I am so excited about the fact

00:39:32   that you'll be able to choose home hubs.

00:39:34   'Cause the Apple TV at the studio

00:39:38   causes me so many problems, and I don't know why.

00:39:40   It just does.

00:39:41   And it's very frequent, not very,

00:39:45   frequently enough, I'm away from the studio

00:39:47   and I get the, "Your home hub isn't responding."

00:39:50   And I open the home app,

00:39:51   and it's like all the home pods are connected,

00:39:52   but the TV is like, "No, it can't connect."

00:39:56   But it won't change to the,

00:39:58   like it won't move to the thing that is working.

00:40:01   It's just like, "Oh no, there's no way.

00:40:02   Like I'm dead now."

00:40:04   And so I will just move it to my home pod mini,

00:40:07   which is much more reliable for this stuff

00:40:10   than the Apple TV has been for me.

00:40:12   So I'm happy that they're adding that feature.

00:40:13   And I guess this is why,

00:40:15   because these devices can act weird.

00:40:18   And when you're, then like you've got your security camera

00:40:21   relying on this device being available on the network,

00:40:25   like that's a problem, you know?

00:40:26   - This episode of Connected is brought to you by Fitbaud.

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00:43:08   and Relay FM.

00:43:09   I had a brainwave the other day.

00:43:14   And I figured John's here, we should play a game.

00:43:19   And I've titled this game the Teach Olympics.

00:43:23   Yep, perfect.

00:43:24   Teach Olympics.

00:43:25   Very appropriate with the Olympics going on in Paris,

00:43:27   just around the corner.

00:43:29   Exactly.

00:43:30   We all know Federico's from Paris, so.

00:43:32   He's very French.

00:43:33   Makes sense.

00:43:33   He's a man of the French people, really.

00:43:38   He really is.

00:43:38   Long bread and windmills.

00:43:40   I don't know if I said it in French.

00:43:41   Long bread.

00:43:42   (laughing)

00:43:44   That's very French.

00:43:46   Yep, that was it.

00:43:47   So this is a new game brought to you by the minds

00:43:51   that brought you things like the Rickies

00:43:53   and the Jeremy's and the Uy's.

00:43:56   The Uy's and the Annie's.

00:43:59   Yes, and the Annie's.

00:44:00   We add today the Teach Olympics.

00:44:02   So we are going to make picks

00:44:04   on what sorts of technology experiments

00:44:07   our friend may undertake in the next 12 months.

00:44:11   And to avoid a space-time paradox,

00:44:14   Federico has been forbidden

00:44:16   from looking at our show planning document

00:44:19   and is not allowed to listen to this episode.

00:44:21   Federico, if you're listening, you gotta stop now.

00:44:26   Time to stop.

00:44:27   I will remind him in iMessage when this episode goes up

00:44:30   that he cannot listen to it.

00:44:31   'Cause if we make a pick and he hears it,

00:44:35   he can influence the outcome.

00:44:36   And we all know what happens--

00:44:37   We should disable his connective pro membership, Stephen.

00:44:39   You know, you should just shut him off for the week.

00:44:43   (laughing)

00:44:46   So we will each make three picks

00:44:48   and a correct prediction will earn one point

00:44:51   when graded in July of 2025.

00:44:55   We also have a set of passion picks.

00:44:57   They are ungraded and just for bragging rights.

00:45:02   Yeah, passion.

00:45:04   So we're gonna do this round robin style

00:45:08   because we don't have a precedent of who gets to go first.

00:45:10   There's no winners or losers yet.

00:45:11   So round robin it is.

00:45:14   John, kick us off on round one.

00:45:16   All right, I'm gonna go with what I think

00:45:18   is kind of a gimme for the next 12 months,

00:45:20   which is that Federico is going to find a way

00:45:23   to use Thunderbolt 5.

00:45:26   So Thunderbolt 5--

00:45:26   It's the only man in the world excited by Thunderbolt 5.

00:45:30   Yeah, right, right.

00:45:31   I mean, look, this is the guy who recently ordered

00:45:35   a 10 meter long USB 4 cable that was handmade

00:45:39   for him in China, all right?

00:45:40   That I think is not quite public knowledge yet,

00:45:44   but listen to NPC on Mac stories.

00:45:48   We'll be talking about it soon.

00:45:49   But he loves himself a good cable.

00:45:53   And Thunderbolt 5, I think it's 240 watts of power delivery

00:45:58   and something like 120 gigabits per second.

00:46:01   It's fast, delivers a lot of power.

00:46:03   It's perfect for things like eGPUs,

00:46:06   which is one of his favorite topics.

00:46:08   And I think this is where he's going.

00:46:11   Right now though, I mean, the problem is,

00:46:13   is that I think that was Sean Hollister at The Verge

00:46:15   who wrote about this cable that just was recently released,

00:46:18   is that there's really only one thing you can do

00:46:21   with it right now, which is you can connect

00:46:22   two $4,500 Razer gaming laptops together

00:46:26   and transfer files between them.

00:46:28   Because Razer is using a proprietary controller

00:46:33   for its Thunderbolt 5 ports because Intel hasn't released

00:46:39   these to the general, I don't know, OEMs yet.

00:46:43   And so it's gonna be a little while still, I think,

00:46:46   before we see true Thunderbolt 5 accessories.

00:46:49   But you know that the first person who is gonna get

00:46:52   one of those controllers shipped to him from somewhere

00:46:55   in China or wherever it comes from to Italy

00:46:59   is gonna be Federico because he's gonna put it inside

00:47:02   that eGPU of his and he's gonna find a way

00:47:05   to get the longest Thunderbolt 5 cable in the world.

00:47:07   I think that this is a lot like Thunderbolt 4

00:47:10   where you really can't get yourself past like a meter or so.

00:47:14   But where there's a will, there's a way.

00:47:16   He did it with USB 4.

00:47:17   I think he can do a Thunderbolt 5

00:47:19   and he'll have a use for it.

00:47:21   - Where there's an intelligent person in China,

00:47:23   there's a way.

00:47:25   Do you think he will spend a lot of time on Reddit

00:47:29   trying to find a circuit board that is capable,

00:47:33   that someone will make for him in a shed somewhere

00:47:37   in Memphis or something?

00:47:38   - Right, or like his friendly guy in Las Vegas

00:47:41   who printed his eGPU case and all that.

00:47:44   - Very friendly guy in Las Vegas.

00:47:46   You know, I will say, I'm just gonna say

00:47:49   for the record here, right?

00:47:50   I know of a tichy surprise.

00:47:54   I know you do know one that I don't know about yet.

00:47:57   - It's not in my picks.

00:47:58   - Okay.

00:47:59   - Right, so there is something I know that he's done

00:48:02   and I know there's something that he's doing

00:48:04   but I will not share it.

00:48:06   And so, you know, this is all above board here, okay?

00:48:09   - Okay.

00:48:11   - All right, my pick is actually somewhat related

00:48:14   to yours, John, which is Federico drills a hole in a wall

00:48:19   for running a cable to an external GPU.

00:48:21   (laughing)

00:48:23   So currently Federico is playing video games in bed

00:48:28   using an eGPU in another room.

00:48:35   So he turns on his eGPU and he runs the cable

00:48:39   through out of the hallway into the other room,

00:48:42   sometimes causes small fires.

00:48:45   Again, there's so much of this information available

00:48:48   on MPC you should listen to it.

00:48:49   Sometimes things catch fire in the middle of the night

00:48:51   and Federico has to go investigate them in the other room.

00:48:54   And I am convinced at some point he will run a cable

00:48:59   through the wall because he will find the perfect cable

00:49:02   like his Thunderbolt 5 cable,

00:49:04   it'll do everything he wants,

00:49:06   but it's like a meter too short.

00:49:07   And so he will have somebody come to the house,

00:49:11   probably when Sylvia's not there,

00:49:13   drill a hole through the wall, run a cable,

00:49:16   and pretend it never happened.

00:49:18   - Yeah, that was one of my first questions to him was,

00:49:21   is Sylvia okay with you unrolling this cable

00:49:24   down the hall every night?

00:49:26   Or is it there all day?

00:49:27   I mean, what's going on here?

00:49:28   He unrolls it every evening when he wants to play a game.

00:49:31   - I bet she became less happy when the fire broke out.

00:49:34   - Oh, she was not pleased about that, I can tell you that.

00:49:37   - Yeah, me and him were texted in that day

00:49:39   and it was the first thing I said to him

00:49:40   when he told me about it.

00:49:41   I was like, "Oh man, she's gonna be so mad at you."

00:49:44   And she was. (laughs)

00:49:46   - When he fixed it, when he fixed it,

00:49:48   she made him fix it outside on the balcony.

00:49:50   (laughing)

00:49:52   God bless her.

00:49:54   - I did also, for the record,

00:49:58   tell him to invest in a fire extinguisher.

00:50:01   - I did, I actually did.

00:50:01   - I think he's gotten to the point, he did, he did good.

00:50:04   I recommended a brand to him that I own.

00:50:08   I've never used, but I own.

00:50:10   - Yeah, I got one of this.

00:50:12   If it's the one from Cortex, I also have one in my office.

00:50:15   - The Firexo, I think, or Fire Joe is the brand.

00:50:20   Basically what I like about this company

00:50:22   is their fire extinguishers are all purpose,

00:50:25   which I think is one of the most insane things

00:50:28   about fire extinguishers, is that you have to know

00:50:31   that the one you're using is correct

00:50:33   for the fire that you have, which is just like,

00:50:35   "This is not a decision I wanna make

00:50:38   "at the point that the fire's broke out."

00:50:40   And that's their whole thing.

00:50:41   - I think, you know, I think Mike of the four of us,

00:50:44   he's the person who has to own this thing

00:50:46   more than anybody else. - Oh, definitely.

00:50:48   Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:50:49   I'm not worried about causing a fire, but I have it.

00:50:51   I'm worried he's gonna cause a fire,

00:50:53   'cause he already has, so he needs it.

00:50:55   I'm happy he's got it.

00:50:56   - So I have a pick, but I'm gonna leave it

00:51:02   to the two of you to see if it's still valid.

00:51:04   So my pick that I wrote many days ago

00:51:07   was Federico tries an e-ink phone

00:51:09   to help reduce distractions and get more into reading.

00:51:12   But then after I wrote it, but before we recorded,

00:51:16   he on Threads asked the question we all ask ourselves,

00:51:20   "Should I buy a Bux Palma?"

00:51:23   Which is like this e-ink Android phone

00:51:25   that's popular at the moment.

00:51:27   So I don't, I would like to keep this pick.

00:51:30   I feel like it's still okay,

00:51:31   because he also talked about Thunderbolt 5,

00:51:33   but I just wanted to double check with you all

00:51:35   that you were okay with this.

00:51:36   - I think you can keep it, but he has to say,

00:51:39   "I'm using this to get more into reading," and like, keep it.

00:51:42   - Okay. - Well, I will say this.

00:51:45   I was very surprised when I saw that post,

00:51:47   because I thought that he owned a Bux Palma,

00:51:50   that he just never told me. (laughing)

00:51:51   - No, I do, I do, but I don't think he does.

00:51:53   - I don't know, I could swear he told me that he owned one,

00:51:58   because I have one, and when I told him about it,

00:52:00   like, "Oh, surprise, I have this Bux Palma,"

00:52:02   he said, "Oh yeah, I've had one of those for six months

00:52:04   "and never use it."

00:52:05   Now, a Bux Palma is not an e-ink phone.

00:52:07   There are e-ink phones out there.

00:52:09   - No, it is an e-ink.

00:52:10   It's just straight up Android phone.

00:52:11   - It's like an e-ink iPod Touch.

00:52:14   - Yeah, it's like more for reading.

00:52:16   It's an Android device, but it doesn't have a SIM card in it,

00:52:19   is I guess what I'm saying.

00:52:21   - I still think this pick is fine.

00:52:23   Even if it was just a Bux Palma,

00:52:24   I think it would still be fine,

00:52:26   'cause like, you know, it's basically a phone,

00:52:28   because even if he owns one, he ain't talking about it.

00:52:32   So he needs to state, right?

00:52:35   He needs to state, "Oh, I got this thing,

00:52:37   "and I'm using it for reading," you know?

00:52:39   - Yeah, okay, yeah, no, I think that it's probably good,

00:52:41   'cause if it, you're right.

00:52:42   If he does have it, it's one of those many things

00:52:45   that he has in storage.

00:52:46   He has infinite storage.

00:52:48   It's like Fred Flintstone going into the closet,

00:52:51   and the Brock bowling ball falling down his head,

00:52:54   that's Federico's closet.

00:52:55   - But it's just an eGPU.

00:52:58   - It's an eGPU, and it books Palma.

00:53:00   - Yeah, okay, okay, so that's the end of round one.

00:53:04   Mike said another, oh, sorry.

00:53:07   John says Federico finds a useless Thunderbolt 5.

00:53:10   Mike says he drills a hole in the wall for running a cable

00:53:13   to an external GPU.

00:53:14   Now I say he tries an e-ink phone to reduce distractions

00:53:17   and get more into reading.

00:53:19   I feel pretty good about those.

00:53:21   - Yep.

00:53:21   - Mike, start us on round two.

00:53:23   - So my round two pick is that Federico

00:53:27   buys another Windows handheld and declares it to be the best,

00:53:31   then sells his Legion Go.

00:53:33   - I think that's a good pick.

00:53:36   I think that's pretty much a lot.

00:53:37   - This is the thing, he does this on an annual basis.

00:53:39   - Well, yeah, and these devices are coming out so fast

00:53:42   and furious these days that I'm sure there'll be

00:53:45   something better within the next six months.

00:53:47   - Yeah, I mean, do you know if he has any interest

00:53:51   in the ROG Ally X?

00:53:53   - Oh yeah, he definitely does.

00:53:55   Yeah, he definitely has his eye on it.

00:53:57   But I don't think, it's better in some ways,

00:54:01   but because the chipset is basically the same as the Go,

00:54:04   my guess is he won't go with the X,

00:54:06   but I think there'll be something else that kind of--

00:54:08   - There'll be something.

00:54:09   - Goes the next step beyond that.

00:54:11   - It could be from Xbox, honestly.

00:54:14   - Yeah, absolutely.

00:54:15   - But yeah, the key is for me,

00:54:18   because I know that this is so likely,

00:54:22   and it's not because of Federico,

00:54:23   because of the rate of improvement in these devices,

00:54:26   the key for me is that he sells the Legion Go.

00:54:30   That's when he's committed, you know?

00:54:33   And so that's what he's gonna have to do that.

00:54:36   - Yeah, and he has a reason to do it now,

00:54:37   a work reason now too with NBC.

00:54:39   So I mean, I think that this is kind of a lock personally.

00:54:41   - So all tax write-offs now, baby, you know?

00:54:43   - That's right.

00:54:44   It's not like it costs money if it's a tax write-off.

00:54:50   - It's just free, it's free.

00:54:52   You advise him on this, right John?

00:54:54   - Yeah, I'm an accountant, a tax attorney,

00:54:58   and all those things rolled into one.

00:54:59   - My second round pick.

00:55:02   Federico speaks before a government body

00:55:05   in an official capacity about AI training.

00:55:08   - Wow.

00:55:10   - So I have a couple of things feeding into this, right?

00:55:13   Y'all are, I think, rightfully so,

00:55:16   talking a lot about LLM training.

00:55:18   I missed last week's episode, but it was a great one.

00:55:22   You've written letters to your representatives,

00:55:25   both in the US and in Italy,

00:55:28   and Federico's been in the New York Times twice.

00:55:31   And so I feel like the next step is to speak

00:55:35   in front of, what do they have in Italy?

00:55:37   Parliament, I guess, something?

00:55:39   And, or maybe here, maybe, but something official, right?

00:55:43   Not just like sending a letter or an email,

00:55:45   but like an official something

00:55:49   in front of a government body on this topic.

00:55:51   - I think this is a long shot, but it's possible.

00:55:55   - We don't have risky picks in this game.

00:55:56   You know, the rules are set. - No, I know.

00:55:59   My next one's kind of a risky one too.

00:56:01   - Agreed. - But yeah,

00:56:02   I think it's definitely a possibility.

00:56:05   I mean, I think, I just can't wait for the content prospects

00:56:10   of going to Brussels with Federico and marching

00:56:14   into parliament or into a committee meeting

00:56:17   and talking about AI, but yeah, it could be possible.

00:56:20   I've heard back from at least one of the,

00:56:21   from one of the senators that we wrote to already, so.

00:56:23   - Awesome. - Oh yeah?

00:56:25   - Yeah, yeah, one of the ones from North Carolina.

00:56:27   I mean, you know, they, nothing committal in any kind of way

00:56:31   but I mean, they definitely got some attention

00:56:34   from a couple of people so far.

00:56:36   - They're kind of like, I guess they're kind of happy, right?

00:56:39   Like they want, they want you giving them,

00:56:41   like if, I don't know if this senator specifically

00:56:44   is like focused on AI legislation.

00:56:47   I think Federico mentioned

00:56:48   that you were targeting those people.

00:56:50   - Yes, although at the last minute,

00:56:52   I also sent it to both of the North Carolina US senators,

00:56:54   because one of the problem, I mean,

00:56:56   this is just a thing of American politics

00:56:58   is that me writing to a senator from another state,

00:57:01   they are more likely to throw that letter into the bin

00:57:03   just because I'm not one of the constituents.

00:57:06   So North Carolina has fairly conservative US senators

00:57:11   and this guy was not particularly,

00:57:14   he didn't strike me as particularly interested in AI

00:57:18   or in regulating startups.

00:57:20   - Anything? (laughs)

00:57:22   - Right, anything probably.

00:57:23   (laughing)

00:57:26   But I got a polite response back.

00:57:28   - There you go. - Hey, it's great, you know.

00:57:30   - Sometimes it's just nice to be noticed.

00:57:32   - It is. - Right.

00:57:34   - Two quick things, real-time follow-up,

00:57:35   Italy does have a parliament.

00:57:37   Thankfully, Federico never-- - Congratulations, Italy.

00:57:40   - Never hear me make that.

00:57:41   I put the Wikipedia page in the show notes,

00:57:43   you can go check it out.

00:57:45   They have sick logos for the Republican

00:57:47   and Senate of the Republican Chamber of the Deputies.

00:57:50   Very, very cool.

00:57:51   Secondly, I, not over AI, but in the past,

00:57:56   over other things have reached out to my Congress people.

00:58:00   And heard back, had good conversations.

00:58:04   They, in the end, disagreed with me

00:58:06   on the particular issue of some healthcare stuff.

00:58:10   But I will say, the people that you interact with

00:58:14   in congressional offices and stuff

00:58:16   generally are there to try to do a good job.

00:58:20   Yes, some of them are nutty

00:58:22   or may believe something that you don't,

00:58:23   including in my case, where we came at the end

00:58:25   to a disagreement, which I knew we were going to do,

00:58:28   I felt listened to and had good conversations.

00:58:30   And so it's an important thing to do.

00:58:32   - Yep, same thing here.

00:58:34   - In theory, and I do believe still in practice,

00:58:38   the majority of these people are professionals.

00:58:40   - Yeah.

00:58:42   Their bosses may be insane, but the people in--

00:58:45   - Even, I still think, not all,

00:58:48   but I still think that a lot of people

00:58:49   that appear crazy on the outside,

00:58:52   they just do it for show, but anyway.

00:58:56   - Maybe. - Not all.

00:58:57   I will state that for the record.

00:58:59   - You guys have some particularly nutty people.

00:59:02   - Including in my state.

00:59:04   - Yeah, yeah.

00:59:05   - But really what I mean,

00:59:08   like staff in congressional offices

00:59:10   and parliamentarian offices,

00:59:12   like people who are professional,

00:59:14   like, yeah, it's good.

00:59:16   - Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind

00:59:17   that the letter that I got said it was signed

00:59:20   by the senator, but it was written by somebody in his office.

00:59:23   But it was well done.

00:59:25   It was a thoughtful response,

00:59:26   even though it wasn't really in line

00:59:28   with my thinking on the issues,

00:59:30   but I appreciated hearing back from them.

00:59:33   - They're doing a better job

00:59:34   than Apple is with the feedback system.

00:59:35   At least you heard something back.

00:59:37   So, there you go. - There you go.

00:59:38   - Remember when we were gonna talk about that

00:59:40   a couple weeks ago?

00:59:41   Jam it in there.

00:59:42   Okay, John, your round two pick out of all of these

00:59:46   is the most wild to me, so please share it with the group.

00:59:49   - Well, I think Federico's gonna break down

00:59:52   and buy a 3D printer this year

00:59:53   because he has been buying endless little adapters

00:59:58   and other things from Etsy,

01:00:00   whether it's the comfort thing for the Vision Pro

01:00:05   or something to adapt his various game controllers

01:00:10   and consoles and things like that.

01:00:12   He's buying a lot of stuff on Etsy that's all 3D printed.

01:00:16   And although he doesn't live in an apartment

01:00:20   where I think particularly Silvia would like him

01:00:24   setting up a 3D printer in his office,

01:00:26   he does have some storage space in his garage

01:00:29   that I think he could use for this or out on the balcony.

01:00:32   I think he's gonna do it.

01:00:33   I think he's gonna start printing things up.

01:00:35   And I don't know.

01:00:36   I mean, I think it is a long shot,

01:00:38   but I do think there's a chance

01:00:39   that Federico will start 3D printing things this year.

01:00:43   - Federico needs a studio.

01:00:45   - Oh, he definitely does.

01:00:46   I've had this conversation with him

01:00:48   and said this exact thing to him.

01:00:49   It's like, why don't you just put it downstairs

01:00:51   in your garage area or whatever?

01:00:53   Like, if you have power down there.

01:00:55   I don't know if he has, but he does.

01:00:56   - He does. - He does have a camera.

01:00:58   - Yeah, he does.

01:00:59   He has, I think it's a little bit like a storage unit

01:01:01   that he's got this car parked there

01:01:03   and there's a little room that he has that has power.

01:01:06   So I think he could probably do it.

01:01:08   - 'Cause there's no way he's putting that.

01:01:09   And there's no way actually he should put it in the house.

01:01:12   'Cause I don't think the fumes of these things

01:01:15   are particularly good.

01:01:17   - It depends on what you're printing.

01:01:19   Mine is in my studio.

01:01:21   And if I'm printing--

01:01:22   - Yeah, but you're not there all the time

01:01:23   when it's running though.

01:01:24   - No, no.

01:01:25   Usually I run it overnight.

01:01:26   But it depends on the material you're running.

01:01:29   I have had the thought before of all these Etsy things.

01:01:32   I could design and print and ship a bunch of that stuff.

01:01:34   But I already have a full-time job.

01:01:36   I'm not gonna get into the Etsy world.

01:01:40   But it is helpful.

01:01:42   And it is a fun thing to have around.

01:01:44   Over on MPU, David Sparks and I have talked a lot about it

01:01:47   over the last year or so as we've gotten into it.

01:01:49   So you can make 10,000 smiley, happy sponge faces

01:01:54   for a podcast-a-thon, you know?

01:01:56   It's a business expense, Jon.

01:01:58   - It is, it is.

01:01:59   It's a tax write-off.

01:02:00   It's basically free.

01:02:01   - It's basically free.

01:02:02   (laughing)

01:02:04   - Remember everybody, Jon is alive.

01:02:06   - That basically is carrying a lot of weight in that sentence

01:02:08   the fact that it's basically free.

01:02:10   - Connected is not legal advice.

01:02:13   Nor has it ever been.

01:02:15   - And then if you think about it in the long term,

01:02:17   if you start spying things off of Etsy,

01:02:19   then he's like making money.

01:02:21   - It's paying for itself.

01:02:22   - It's paying for, and that was,

01:02:24   he already paid for itself.

01:02:25   Taxes did that, it's free.

01:02:26   So he's up.

01:02:27   - MaxStories is gonna compete with Etsy.

01:02:29   That's the next thing that's coming, I'm telling you.

01:02:31   It's our own little 3D shop.

01:02:33   - Yep, love it.

01:02:34   - Etsy stories. - Look forward to it.

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01:04:40   Round the third.

01:04:44   I will start with this.

01:04:47   Federico adds a water feature to his balcony.

01:04:50   - I like this one a lot.

01:04:53   - He's got lights. - Big balcony boy.

01:04:55   - He's got plants.

01:04:56   The other day, I sent us a photo where he was pulling up

01:04:59   the tile and running power under there.

01:05:03   It's just a matter of time before there's a fountain

01:05:06   or some sort of shooting water thing.

01:05:08   A water feature, it's coming.

01:05:12   - I think so, and I think, like you said,

01:05:14   he's got the lights.

01:05:15   He'll get the colored lights going on in the evening,

01:05:17   the water feature going, then he'll put on the Vision Pro,

01:05:21   dive into one of those meditation sessions,

01:05:24   and just, you know, that'll be how he unwinds.

01:05:26   I think you're absolutely right about this one.

01:05:27   - He's gonna become a man of Zen.

01:05:30   - Yeah, I think he's pretty close to that,

01:05:33   but it feels like this could push him over the edge.

01:05:35   Not of the balcony, gosh, not of the balcony.

01:05:37   - Yeah, he's got a lot of space out there,

01:05:39   so I think he could definitely fit it.

01:05:40   It's a huge balcony, and they've put a ton of plants

01:05:42   out there already.

01:05:43   - Yeah, it looks good.

01:05:45   - It does look good.

01:05:46   - I think he lives at a resort now.

01:05:47   That's what I told him.

01:05:48   I mean, it really is beautiful.

01:05:49   - It looks like a resort.

01:05:50   It just looks like a resort.

01:05:52   Like, it's kind of incredible.

01:05:53   - It's a beautiful building,

01:05:53   and there's so many nice amenities there,

01:05:55   a pool, and all kinds of things.

01:05:57   All right, so for my third round pick,

01:06:02   I think Federico is going to re-explore the world

01:06:06   of AR glasses to use as an external display,

01:06:10   because, as I'm sure listeners remember,

01:06:13   last summer, he and I both were using the X-Reel glasses,

01:06:18   and those fell by the wayside when the Vision Pro came out.

01:06:22   And I recently got mine back out,

01:06:24   and I think he did too, just to see how they worked

01:06:29   with things like an Android gaming device.

01:06:32   And it's really a pretty nice experience.

01:06:34   I mean, the resolution's not anything close

01:06:38   to the Vision Pro, but if you're playing pixelated

01:06:40   retro games and things, it's totally fine,

01:06:43   and it's actually quite nice.

01:06:45   I think that he's going to look at these,

01:06:48   and I think he's also had his eye on the Vitcher glasses,

01:06:52   which came out, I don't know, one or two months ago or so.

01:06:55   It's kind of like the X-Reels, but a little nicer.

01:06:59   And so, it's a whole category that continues

01:07:01   to evolve slowly over time, and it's only getting better.

01:07:05   And I think that for times when he doesn't want

01:07:08   to have a full-on Vision Pro helmet on,

01:07:11   he might go back to the glasses.

01:07:13   I mean, he's a glasses guy with the meta glasses now too.

01:07:17   So, I think it kind of fits with the whole vibe.

01:07:21   - Yeah, I think this is definitely something

01:07:23   that's going to happen, and I feel like he has given up

01:07:28   some of the flexibility he had with X-Reel, right?

01:07:30   'Cause you could use it on, couldn't he?

01:07:32   Was he using it with his iPad?

01:07:34   - Yeah, he was.

01:07:36   - Yeah, and you know, Vision Pro didn't have that, so.

01:07:38   - You can use it with anything, yeah, anything.

01:07:41   - That's good, that's good.

01:07:43   All right, Mike, you're up.

01:07:45   - My, so this is the final pick, right?

01:07:49   This is the final pick of all three rounds.

01:07:51   I've decided to do game inception,

01:07:54   and pick the Federico makes more than 10 Flexi picks

01:07:58   in one game of the Ricky's over the next year.

01:08:00   - Oh, wow.

01:08:01   - And I just, he just needs to be feeling

01:08:06   particularly confident, and I think he'll do it.

01:08:10   - I think so too.

01:08:12   - That's really good.

01:08:14   What's the record, seven or eight?

01:08:16   - I think he got up to 10 once.

01:08:18   - Maybe he did, maybe someone--

01:08:20   - There was that one where we all went really high,

01:08:22   you know, we all got a little bit excited,

01:08:25   and Federico got the most excited.

01:08:27   - Yeah, and the most wrong, I think, too.

01:08:30   - Yeah, so I mean, that's natural,

01:08:32   like that's just gonna happen, you know?

01:08:33   - It seems like he's done 12.

01:08:34   - That might be why he doesn't do it,

01:08:36   like, oh, he's done 12 before?

01:08:37   Yeah, see, this might be why he doesn't do it,

01:08:39   but I'm still thinking at some point he's gonna do it.

01:08:43   - We should also say, this has now come up in Discord,

01:08:51   that Federico can't listen to this episode

01:08:53   because we don't him shaping the future.

01:08:55   We also are taking a pledge

01:08:57   that we're not shaping the future, right?

01:08:58   We're not gonna subtly push him into like,

01:09:00   I'm not gonna be like, hey, look at this cool fountain

01:09:01   I found, it'd be sick on your balcony.

01:09:04   - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:09:05   - Yeah, so we all take the pledge.

01:09:08   - The pledge of the Teachy Olympics.

01:09:09   - That's right, yeah, yeah, no doping in the Teachy Olympics.

01:09:12   He has picked 12 two times in May 2024 and September 2022.

01:09:19   And he picked 10 at WWBC 21,

01:09:25   so this is a good pick, Mike, I like this.

01:09:27   - I will do my best, like, 'cause you've also got to,

01:09:31   I gotta remember this, right?

01:09:32   Like, you know what I mean?

01:09:35   Like, I've got to remember that I can't take him on,

01:09:37   but also, if I don't egg him on,

01:09:40   is that gonna be a problem?

01:09:42   So we'll have to just see,

01:09:43   we'll just have to see how we go on that one.

01:09:45   I can't make any promises at this stage.

01:09:47   - Just gotta play it as straight as you can, Mike.

01:09:49   - Yeah, I will do my best.

01:09:50   - All right, so those are the three rounds.

01:09:55   We are now moving into Passion picks.

01:09:57   These are ungraded just for the Passion.

01:10:00   Jon, you got a couple, Mike has three and I have one.

01:10:03   So Jon, what are your two?

01:10:05   - All right, my first one is I think a pretty,

01:10:07   pretty much a lock, which is he's gonna build something new

01:10:11   with magnets, Federico and magnets are just like, you know,

01:10:14   it's this thing. - Match made in Berlin.

01:10:16   - Yeah, he loves the magnets.

01:10:17   And there's always a good use,

01:10:18   there's always something you can stick

01:10:19   to the back of your phone, right?

01:10:21   So, or your MacBook or whatever it happens to be.

01:10:25   So I think he'll do something with the magnets.

01:10:27   But I also think, and this is one's maybe a little riskier,

01:10:31   I think he's finally gonna break down

01:10:33   and admit that his friends were right

01:10:35   and buy an Aionodent 2, which is that Android game device

01:10:40   that we talked about a little earlier in the show.

01:10:43   And I think there's a particular reason

01:10:44   why he hasn't done this yet.

01:10:46   And this is, you have to get into the mind of Titi

01:10:48   for this, which is, he wasn't the one

01:10:51   to come up with this idea.

01:10:52   All right, this goes right to, right?

01:10:57   This goes right to the humility and humbleness

01:11:00   of Mr. Vititi, which is, which is,

01:11:03   I bought one of these in late November

01:11:05   around Thanksgiving last year,

01:11:07   and I told him it was great.

01:11:09   And he's like, "Oh yeah, that looks really cool."

01:11:11   Then I kinda convinced Brendan Bigley to get one

01:11:14   because he saw me writing about it

01:11:15   and talking about it here and there.

01:11:17   And he got it and he goes, "Oh, this is amazing,

01:11:18   "this is great."

01:11:19   And Federico's like, "Hmm, I don't know,

01:11:21   "I think I'm gonna try this one,

01:11:22   "I'm gonna try this other one."

01:11:24   'Cause he has to be first, it's like bragging rights.

01:11:27   He wants to be the one that people follow

01:11:30   and not be the follower.

01:11:32   - That's incredible.

01:11:33   - Right, but I do think he's gonna get the Odin too

01:11:35   because I don't think they're gonna come out

01:11:37   with another Odin too soon.

01:11:39   They just came out with a Mini,

01:11:41   which is essentially the same device but thinner.

01:11:43   And I don't know, I think he's gonna do it.

01:11:46   I think he'll finally do it.

01:11:47   'Cause he does break down once in a while.

01:11:49   He just wants to be the person who discovers the thing.

01:11:51   And this is one of those where

01:11:53   he's not gonna be able to do that.

01:11:54   He's just gonna have to say, "Oh, Mike's got it,

01:11:57   "and John's got it, and Brendan's got it."

01:11:59   I guess I'll get it too. - Maybe what he does

01:12:00   is he gets the Mini and he's like,

01:12:03   "Oh guys, you don't even know, this one's way better."

01:12:06   - I know, I've thought about that.

01:12:08   - That's the way he'll do it?

01:12:10   - Yeah, Brendan already got the Mini,

01:12:11   so he can't be first with the Mini either.

01:12:14   - 'Cause he's buying that weird square one, right?

01:12:16   - Yeah, the cube one, which is really weird looking.

01:12:19   I mean, it looks pretty good,

01:12:21   but it's gotten pretty well reviewed,

01:12:22   but that's the Ambernic RG cube, as it's called.

01:12:26   - Yeah, 'cause that's Android, right, that one?

01:12:29   - Yeah, it is.

01:12:30   I think it's their first Android.

01:12:32   - I think it is, yeah.

01:12:32   - Well, maybe it's not their first.

01:12:33   They put out so much stuff, but it is Android, yeah.

01:12:37   - That's hilarious, oh my God, I love it.

01:12:41   All right, am I up?

01:12:43   - Yeah. - Yep, you're up.

01:12:44   - All right, Federico returns to WWDC

01:12:47   and tries a new food, and he doesn't like it.

01:12:49   (laughing)

01:12:51   - Yeah, it's good.

01:12:53   - Yes, I think he's gonna hire you, Mike.

01:12:55   I think he's gonna hire you as a taster next year

01:12:58   to make sure that his food hasn't been poisoned

01:13:00   because I'm convinced that he thinks I poisoned him

01:13:02   because the last thing that happened--

01:13:04   - I forgot about this until I read it in a document today.

01:13:07   - Right, the last thing that happened in 2022

01:13:11   before he went to the airport was he and I went off

01:13:13   and got a sandwich at some local sandwich shop.

01:13:16   We got different sandwiches.

01:13:18   He got food poisoning and was violently ill

01:13:21   all the way to Heathrow, and so I think that he--

01:13:24   - On the flight.

01:13:25   - On the flight. - Yeah, it was bad for him.

01:13:26   - Like barely able, I mean, really badly sick,

01:13:29   and I'm convinced he blames me for it

01:13:33   and that he's gonna worry that I'm gonna poison him.

01:13:36   Just like he's convinced that you stole

01:13:38   his heart rate monitor, he's gonna be convinced

01:13:40   that I tried to kill him.

01:13:41   - The thing that made that worse, I think, in a way

01:13:45   was I was trying to convince him to come to lunch

01:13:48   with me that day because he was super busy,

01:13:53   and I was worried that he wasn't gonna eat, right?

01:13:57   'Cause he had a bunch of meat, and so I'm like,

01:13:58   look, just, you know, instead of taking this time

01:14:01   to write something or whatever, come get lunch with me

01:14:03   and then you'll be good, and he was like, no, no, no,

01:14:05   like I'm gonna go with John, like fine.

01:14:07   'Cause yeah, it was bad.

01:14:10   - And it was a big rush.

01:14:11   We did this really quick sandwich right before

01:14:14   he went to the airport, and he basically,

01:14:16   we ate a sandwich, I said goodbye to him,

01:14:18   he went to the airport, and he started throwing up.

01:14:21   - Isn't that, it's kind of incredible

01:14:23   that the body can respond that fast.

01:14:25   - Right, yeah.

01:14:26   - Like that was something terribly wrong with that sandwich.

01:14:28   - Oh, it was something horrible wrong with that sandwich.

01:14:30   - It was a media, it was an immediate issue.

01:14:33   Oh man, do you remember what was in it?

01:14:36   - I, no, I don't. - Do you remember?

01:14:38   - I don't, it was like a sub shop that we went to

01:14:40   that was somewhere near campus,

01:14:41   but I don't remember what he had.

01:14:43   - I think it was like the sub shop with the,

01:14:47   it was like a cartoon mascot of a bald guy, right?

01:14:50   Or something? - Yeah, I think so.

01:14:51   I think so. - 'Cause I saw that shop

01:14:53   a few times and was confused by it.

01:14:55   - Yeah, I haven't gone back. - I think it is a small chain.

01:14:57   - Yeah, don't, don't go back.

01:14:58   (laughing)

01:15:00   - You won't be allowed to go back.

01:15:02   All right, my second passion pic is that Federico

01:15:05   creates another Frankenstein computer device.

01:15:07   I think he's not gonna stop doing this now.

01:15:09   He's gonna keep cutting up computers.

01:15:12   Like that's gonna happen.

01:15:13   And also Federico will discover a new kickstand technology.

01:15:18   - Okay, what does that mean?

01:15:20   - He'll find something from somewhere,

01:15:22   either like from a 3D printer on Alibaba or I don't know,

01:15:27   but he's gonna be like, guys, I've got a new kickstand.

01:15:29   And we'll all be excited for him.

01:15:32   - Maybe it's like a multi-angle

01:15:35   or has some sort of like friction lock.

01:15:38   There'll be something for sure.

01:15:39   - I gotta say, by the way,

01:15:42   I really want you to do this for me

01:15:46   the next time I'm off the show.

01:15:48   - Okay, yeah.

01:15:49   - Because I wanna hear what people think about me.

01:15:54   (laughing)

01:15:56   - You can't hear it, that's the thing.

01:15:57   You can't hear it.

01:15:58   - No, but he will hear it a year later.

01:16:00   - Eventually, yeah.

01:16:01   - Eventually I'll hear it.

01:16:03   - But like I really wanna know like what are my memes

01:16:06   that I may be unaware of.

01:16:09   So it's exciting, very fun.

01:16:12   All right, Steven, what's your passion pic?

01:16:14   - I just had one and it was Federico gets

01:16:18   a new technology related tattoo.

01:16:21   - That is a good one.

01:16:23   Maybe it gets kickstand tattoo.

01:16:25   - Oh my God, he should get like a kickstand on his ankle.

01:16:29   - That would be like the strangest tattoo to get.

01:16:31   What is that on your ankle Federico?

01:16:33   It's a kickstand.

01:16:34   Get out of my house.

01:16:36   - He should get a kickstand or a magnet.

01:16:38   He should get a tattoo of a magnet.

01:16:40   - Or like the costume magnet.

01:16:41   - Hang on, I'm putting a second one in there.

01:16:44   Federico considers,

01:16:48   Federico considers implanting a magnet into his body.

01:16:53   - Oh my God.

01:16:56   Oh my God.

01:16:58   - You know, to like unlock the door or do something.

01:17:01   I'm gonna say magnet and or NFC.

01:17:04   - Yeah, NFC chip.

01:17:04   - There's gonna be like,

01:17:06   there is the potential for great moments in the show here.

01:17:09   - Where like-- - Oh yeah, for sure.

01:17:11   - He just says it and me and Steven start screaming.

01:17:14   - You lose it.

01:17:15   (laughing)

01:17:18   - He said it, he said it.

01:17:20   He's gonna have no idea.

01:17:21   This is exciting.

01:17:22   - It's very good.

01:17:23   - What a great idea you had Steven.

01:17:25   This is so good.

01:17:26   - Yeah, this is brilliant.

01:17:27   It has come out so much better than I ever hoped.

01:17:29   So thank you for playing along.

01:17:31   And we'll see how this goes.

01:17:33   I have a thing to check in July of next year.

01:17:37   So we'll see what happens.

01:17:38   - Nice.

01:17:39   - And you know he's gonna take another vacation then too

01:17:41   so we can bring John back on.

01:17:42   - Exactly, it's perfect timing.

01:17:43   - He's always gone in July.

01:17:44   Yeah, this is perfect.

01:17:45   - Yeah, okay, so that's the Teach Olympics.

01:17:49   There we go.

01:17:50   If you wanna find links to the stuff

01:17:52   we spoke about this week, we have them in the show notes.

01:17:56   They're in your podcast player.

01:17:57   They're also on the web at relay.fm/connected/510.

01:18:02   You can become a member.

01:18:03   There's a link right in the show notes.

01:18:05   Members get connected pro,

01:18:06   which is a longer ad free version of the show

01:18:09   each and every week.

01:18:10   This week we spoke about the CMF phone one,

01:18:14   a new device from the folks over at nothing.

01:18:17   And Mike gave us a solo top iPad, Vision Pro update.

01:18:22   So all that's in there.

01:18:24   - I didn't know where you're going with that.

01:18:25   Honestly, like just pausing on solo.

01:18:28   I was like, what did I do?

01:18:30   (laughing)

01:18:31   But yeah, you can find out for yourself, I guess.

01:18:33   - Yeah, get connected pro.co.

01:18:36   - Co.

01:18:37   - It's in the show notes, that's the whole point.

01:18:39   You can also submit feedback or follow up.

01:18:42   We have a form online.

01:18:43   There's also a link to that in the show notes.

01:18:44   We'd love to hear from all of y'all.

01:18:46   And you can find us all online.

01:18:49   You can find Mike on Mastodon and Threads as iMike.

01:18:54   And he is the host of a bunch of other shows

01:18:57   here on relay.fm.

01:18:58   And of course does excellent work over at Cortex Brand.

01:19:02   You can find me as ismh86 on social media.

01:19:06   I write 512pixels.net and I co-host Mac Power Users.

01:19:09   It comes out each and every Sunday here on relay.

01:19:13   John, where can people find you?

01:19:15   - They can find me on macstories.net

01:19:17   and I am @JohnVoorhees on all the social media.

01:19:21   And I'm on three podcasts these days

01:19:23   or four podcasts actually.

01:19:24   Now I can't even keep track of them all.

01:19:26   There's App Stories, Mac Stories Unwind,

01:19:28   NPC, which is Next Portable Console,

01:19:31   and Ruminate all on Mac Stories.

01:19:34   - Awesome.

01:19:35   John, thank you for joining us today.

01:19:36   - Thanks for having me guys.

01:19:37   - This was a lot of fun.

01:19:39   I'd like to thank our sponsors this week,

01:19:40   Ecamm, Fitbaud and ExpressVPN.

01:19:44   And until next time guys, say goodbye.

01:19:46   - See you later.

01:19:49   - The problem was we wait for Federico,

01:19:55   but Federico's not here.

01:19:56   - I know.

01:19:57   - And I think John would necessarily assume

01:20:01   that he was going first.

01:20:02   - It was a long pause.

01:20:05   I had to fill the dead air.

01:20:06   - I didn't know who was gonna do it.

01:20:08   And it turned out it had to be you John.

01:20:10   - It went exactly the way I wanted it to.

01:20:12   - Ciao Mike.

01:20:15   - Ciao John.

01:20:16   - Bye y'all.