Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [music]

00:00:07 ◼   ► From Relay, this is Connected, episode 520.

00:00:11 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by Ecamm, ZokDok, Vitaly and Backblaze.

00:00:16 ◼   ► I am the returning Ricky Benchman, Mike Curley.

00:00:22 ◼   ► And I would like to introduce you to Federico Vatici.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Hi Federico. - I don't know, you could have gone longer.

00:00:27 ◼   ► Okay, Ricky Benchman! [singing]

00:00:34 ◼   ► He's struggling, he's struggling. [singing]

00:00:42 ◼   ► [laughing]

00:00:44 ◼   ► I'm in the hotel room, man. What do they think is going on in here?

00:00:47 ◼   ► Impressive vocal cord skills. - Thank you, thank you.

00:00:51 ◼   ► I'm gonna go pass out now. [laughing]

00:00:53 ◼   ► I wanted to ask you, how's your throat doing? - Fine.

00:00:58 ◼   ► Fine, okay, cool. - In general, doing fine.

00:01:02 ◼   ► Less now, probably, but fine before. - That's why you are a professional podcaster.

00:01:06 ◼   ► Thank you so much, I can hold a note.

00:01:09 ◼   ► We're also joined by Stephen. Hello, Stephen Hackett, how are you?

00:01:12 ◼   ► I'm good, how are you? - I suppose that your vocal cords,

00:01:15 ◼   ► you know, given everything, are not as impressive as Mike's?

00:01:19 ◼   ► No, I'm teetering on the edge of like, I got a bunch of water here.

00:01:23 ◼   ► Let's just say that. - What is everything?

00:01:26 ◼   ► Well, you know, the pro show. - Ohh.

00:01:29 ◼   ► You know, Stephen, come on, you know the context.

00:01:35 ◼   ► Vocal cords are barely staying attached together at this point, right?

00:01:40 ◼   ► Just like the rest of him, you know?

00:01:42 ◼   ► Just like this. [laughing]

00:01:47 ◼   ► That wasn't fair, but you know, you are old, so.

00:01:51 ◼   ► Yeah. - It's true.

00:01:54 ◼   ► Hey, guess what? - Yeah.

00:01:56 ◼   ► What? - Guess what?

00:01:57 ◼   ► What? - It's still September.

00:01:59 ◼   ► Hey! - Ahh.

00:02:01 ◼   ► You were just here in Memphis. - I was, yeah.

00:02:03 ◼   ► And we hosted the podcast-a-thon for 12 hours on Friday.

00:02:08 ◼   ► If you have not seen that, there's a link in the show notes to a YouTube video that,

00:02:12 ◼   ► you know, just call in sick tomorrow and watch it, that's what I say.

00:02:15 ◼   ► You could do that. - Or, you know, slowly, in chunks.

00:02:19 ◼   ► Or wait 'til the weekend. - Yeah, wait 'til the weekend.

00:02:22 ◼   ► But we are still raising money for St. Jude all month long.

00:02:25 ◼   ► As of me talking right now, we're at $852,000 for St. Jude on the month.

00:02:32 ◼   ► Let's go. - I know.

00:02:34 ◼   ► It's unbelievable. - That's incredible.

00:02:36 ◼   ► What was our previous record? - $776,000.

00:02:40 ◼   ► So we're like nearly a hundred grand over that. - Mm-hmm.

00:02:43 ◼   ► And we're staring, you know, like in a staring contest, kind of staring at $900. - I know.

00:02:50 ◼   ► I feel like we're just staring at it.

00:02:52 ◼   ► Connected listeners, stjude.org/relay, go type that in your browser, make a donation.

00:02:58 ◼   ► Any size donation is helpful.

00:02:59 ◼   ► It takes all of us to advance this mission.

00:03:03 ◼   ► So what does St. Jude do?

00:03:04 ◼   ► St. Jude is in the business of saving kids' lives.

00:03:08 ◼   ► They believe that no child should die at the dawn of life from cancer or other catastrophic disease.

00:03:13 ◼   ► And they have implemented a massive number of them, some of the smartest people on the planet to beat this thing.

00:03:21 ◼   ► Mike and I have been fortunate to meet different researchers and doctors over the years.

00:03:25 ◼   ► And to a person, not only are they way smarter than Mike and I, but they are all, to a person, committed to this no matter what.

00:03:32 ◼   ► They are doing their life's work at St. Jude.

00:03:36 ◼   ► And I don't want to paint the picture that St. Jude is just like this cold research institution because it's not.

00:03:40 ◼   ► Research and clinical care go hand in hand at St. Jude.

00:03:44 ◼   ► They are working on these cures for actual patients and not just the patients here in Memphis, but patients all around the world through St. Jude Global.

00:03:53 ◼   ► One thing we talked about during the podcastathon was like the St. Jude is unhappy that there are kids around the world who don't have access to things like chemotherapy.

00:04:03 ◼   ► And they are hard at work to change that, to get these medications and these protocols implemented around the world.

00:04:10 ◼   ► It's absolutely incredible and it's all possible because of people like me and you who donate what we can.

00:04:17 ◼   ► So go to stjude.org/relay.

00:04:20 ◼   ► We're already in what I've been calling uncharted territories in all capital letters as I text it around to people.

00:04:26 ◼   ► But we want to keep going. We have the rest of the month, so please go give now.

00:04:30 ◼   ► Yeah, stjude.org/relay.

00:04:33 ◼   ► A little P.S. for you, Mike.

00:04:35 ◼   ► Please.

00:04:36 ◼   ► A lot of people who have given probably have jobs and a lot of companies have matching, like a matching donation program.

00:04:45 ◼   ► So if you're in a company, go ask HR or somebody in, you know, in the company somewhere.

00:04:52 ◼   ► Ask the person that sits next to you. Maybe they know.

00:04:55 ◼   ► Maybe they know.

00:04:56 ◼   ► Maybe they know.

00:04:57 ◼   ► Just turn around right now and say to the person next to you, do they do, just say they, do they do corporate matching?

00:05:06 ◼   ► And just see what they say.

00:05:07 ◼   ► Do what they say.

00:05:08 ◼   ► So stjude.org/relay has a lot of information about that, but that's a great way for your money to go even further.

00:05:13 ◼   ► So if you've already given or if you're still planning to give, look into that.

00:05:17 ◼   ► A lot of companies offer this and basically you're, you know, sometimes doubling your money without any extra work.

00:05:23 ◼   ► So go check that out, too.

00:05:26 ◼   ► Follow up.

00:05:28 ◼   ► Follow up.

00:05:29 ◼   ► Follow up.

00:05:30 ◼   ► Andra wrote in.

00:05:31 ◼   ► Follow up.

00:05:33 ◼   ► Oh my God.

00:05:35 ◼   ► Andra wrote in during the introduction at the beginning of each episode,

00:05:42 ◼   ► the host that is not currently holding any chairmanship should be addressed as Mr to rub it in a bit more.

00:05:49 ◼   ► And of course, this should only be applicable when introduced by others, not by themselves.

00:05:55 ◼   ► So what I think we should do is we should try this on.

00:05:58 ◼   ► So let's try the introduction again.

00:06:00 ◼   ► And Mike, we'll use Mr and we'll see if that feels better or worse.

00:06:05 ◼   ► All right.

00:06:07 ◼   ► Hello, I'm the Ricky Benchman, Mike Hurley, and I would like to introduce Mr Federico Vittucci.

00:06:12 ◼   ► Yeah, that works.

00:06:13 ◼   ► I mean, it sounds fancy.

00:06:15 ◼   ► In fact, I would argue I sound better than anybody.

00:06:18 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't think that's doing what it's supposed to do.

00:06:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:06:21 ◼   ► You're doing me a favor.

00:06:23 ◼   ► Yeah, it feels like I'm giving him a title and the title is Mr.

00:06:27 ◼   ► Federico, introduce me as doctor.

00:06:29 ◼   ► Let's see how that sounds.

00:06:31 ◼   ► And we're also joined by Dr. Steven Hackett.

00:06:33 ◼   ► Oh, hello, boys.

00:06:36 ◼   ► Okay.

00:06:37 ◼   ► Boys, that's good.

00:06:39 ◼   ► I like that a lot.

00:06:39 ◼   ► But that's not what you get.

00:06:40 ◼   ► You don't get that.

00:06:41 ◼   ► You got to win that.

00:06:42 ◼   ► You got to win a doctorate.

00:06:43 ◼   ► All right.

00:06:44 ◼   ► That's how it works.

00:06:44 ◼   ► Hey, you got to win that.

00:06:46 ◼   ► Okay.

00:06:46 ◼   ► Well, I'm just speaking to my old journalism professors.

00:06:51 ◼   ► Hey, University of Memphis.

00:06:53 ◼   ► I would like to be an honorary doctorate in journalism.

00:06:58 ◼   ► Please can't touch Steven.

00:06:59 ◼   ► I really doubt if him.

00:07:01 ◼   ► Okay.

00:07:02 ◼   ► I've said this before.

00:07:03 ◼   ► I think on this show that I do believe you should be given

00:07:06 ◼   ► an honorary doctorate from the University of Memphis.

00:07:09 ◼   ► Yeah, come on.

00:07:10 ◼   ► Surely you are the most popular person who's ever come from Memphis.

00:07:14 ◼   ► I don't think there's anybody else.

00:07:16 ◼   ► But I mean, there was that guy, the singer, right?

00:07:18 ◼   ► No, Steven is more popular than him.

00:07:21 ◼   ► Also, Steven is alive.

00:07:22 ◼   ► So, you know, they're sad.

00:07:23 ◼   ► So is he.

00:07:25 ◼   ► Well played, well played, well played.

00:07:35 ◼   ► That was good.

00:07:36 ◼   ► Yes.

00:07:37 ◼   ► Where is he?

00:07:37 ◼   ► Do you think he's just hanging out?

00:07:39 ◼   ► So, Andra, thank you for your suggestion.

00:07:42 ◼   ► I think we're going to skip it.

00:07:43 ◼   ► Um, but Andra did close their message saying, hope somebody

00:07:46 ◼   ► makes your day the way you do for us.

00:07:48 ◼   ► And that, that felt pretty good.

00:07:49 ◼   ► Oh, it's nice.

00:07:50 ◼   ► You know what, though?

00:07:51 ◼   ► This makes my day though.

00:07:52 ◼   ► So it does.

00:07:53 ◼   ► You know, I don't think that's possible, though.

00:07:56 ◼   ► I don't think anybody can make my day the way we make other people's day.

00:07:59 ◼   ► Oh, OK.

00:08:01 ◼   ► That's a different energy than the one I took, but I appreciate it anyway.

00:08:05 ◼   ► Well, anyway, our energy is about to be ruined anyway.

00:08:09 ◼   ► It's all about to be destroyed.

00:08:10 ◼   ► Green Gate, Green Gate, Green Gate.

00:08:13 ◼   ► Why are we here again?

00:08:15 ◼   ► Why are we here again?

00:08:16 ◼   ► I'm sorry, because I played a role in this and I couldn't help myself.

00:08:20 ◼   ► I don't know, I was browsing Reddit, as I do every night at the end of the work day.

00:08:26 ◼   ► And I guess the algorithm got me because over the course of a few days, it suggested two

00:08:33 ◼   ► posts from two different users with two types of green related display issues.

00:08:41 ◼   ► You're green pilled.

00:08:43 ◼   ► I have been green pilled against my will, I suppose.

00:08:48 ◼   ► But yeah, Steven.

00:08:49 ◼   ► I don't I don't want to get into this, but the second link is just it's an all green

00:08:54 ◼   ► screen and the first comment is, is that a new MKBHD wallpaper?

00:08:59 ◼   ► Damn.

00:09:00 ◼   ► Pretty good.

00:09:05 ◼   ► That's pretty good.

00:09:06 ◼   ► I just saw the comment that is pretty good.

00:09:08 ◼   ► That's pretty good.

00:09:10 ◼   ► We'll just have these links in the show notes.

00:09:13 ◼   ► You can go explore it if you want to.

00:09:15 ◼   ► But Green Gate never dies.

00:09:18 ◼   ► I have a question about this.

00:09:20 ◼   ► That's not for you.

00:09:21 ◼   ► Maybe you know, but I would love somebody to let us know.

00:09:24 ◼   ► Why does this happen?

00:09:25 ◼   ► Why is green the color?

00:09:27 ◼   ► Why is green the color that these phones go when something goes wrong?

00:09:31 ◼   ► Like is it something to do with the screen like the G and the RGB?

00:09:34 ◼   ► Is it stronger or something like what is happening?

00:09:37 ◼   ► Why is it always green?

00:09:39 ◼   ► If anybody knows, connectconnect.com or Steven knows.

00:09:44 ◼   ► I have a theory.

00:09:46 ◼   ► So the OLED pixel arrangement that Apple uses is like a diamond layout and you have blue

00:09:53 ◼   ► at the center and then red at the corners and green on the sides.

00:09:58 ◼   ► And I think the way the green is like the green lines up vertically and the blue and

00:10:04 ◼   ► red don't.

00:10:05 ◼   ► They like pass through each other as you go.

00:10:07 ◼   ► So I think if you're going to have a vertical line, chances are it's going to be green.

00:10:14 ◼   ► Now I don't know one how you know that or if it's true, but I'm putting a link in Discord

00:10:20 ◼   ► right now.

00:10:21 ◼   ► Okay.

00:10:22 ◼   ► But like that was just really, that was very impressive.

00:10:25 ◼   ► If you looked up, if you looked this up, is that why?

00:10:27 ◼   ► I remembered that the OLED layout was, was a diamond and then I Googled it real quick

00:10:32 ◼   ► and discovered how it looks.

00:10:34 ◼   ► Shines bright like a diamond or green, shines green like a diamond.

00:10:38 ◼   ► I would like to give a public service announcement to listeners of this show because two or three

00:10:44 ◼   ► days ago I remembered that you can use stickers as tap backs now because they're essentially

00:10:51 ◼   ► emoji.

00:10:52 ◼   ► So it is possible now in a group thread to have custom emoji.

00:10:56 ◼   ► And what I think happens, correct me if I'm wrong on this, if in a group, if one person

00:11:02 ◼   ► sends that sticker as a tap back, it then shows for other people in the frequently used

00:11:08 ◼   ► ones.

00:11:09 ◼   ► So they can use it as well.

00:11:10 ◼   ► This is so good because you can make stickers of anything that you find and then you can

00:11:15 ◼   ► use them as tap backs so you can essentially have your own custom emoji in your chats,

00:11:21 ◼   ► which is wicked.

00:11:23 ◼   ► I love it.

00:11:24 ◼   ► And I haven't said wicked since 2004.

00:11:26 ◼   ► Wicked.

00:11:27 ◼   ► Wicked.

00:11:28 ◼   ► It's wicked.

00:11:29 ◼   ► There you go.

00:11:31 ◼   ► Well, speaking of wicked, iOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1, the current betas have enabled

00:11:42 ◼   ► drag and drop when using the iPhone mirroring feature.

00:11:47 ◼   ► Is it wicked?

00:11:48 ◼   ► It's sick.

00:11:49 ◼   ► It's wicked.

00:11:50 ◼   ► Wicked sick.

00:11:51 ◼   ► Wicked sick.

00:11:53 ◼   ► This is cool.

00:11:54 ◼   ► I've used the iPhone mirroring a few times because I installed Sonoma like a week or

00:12:00 ◼   ► two ago or whenever it came out.

00:12:02 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:12:03 ◼   ► I genuinely don't know how long I've been away from home at this point.

00:12:06 ◼   ► It feels like the longest trip I've ever taken, but I've found it really like today.

00:12:10 ◼   ► I wanted to get something from my phone and my phone was charging on the other side of

00:12:15 ◼   ► the hotel room and I just opened it up on my Mac instead.

00:12:18 ◼   ► What a great feature.

00:12:19 ◼   ► Just like a helpful little feature to have.

00:12:21 ◼   ► Very happy about it.

00:12:22 ◼   ► Maybe even better when I can drag and drop things.

00:12:26 ◼   ► I've been using it a bunch and just today I needed an image off of it and iCloud photo

00:12:31 ◼   ► library was like, just like, I don't know, there's no new photos here.

00:12:35 ◼   ► Don't worry about me.

00:12:36 ◼   ► And I was like, you know what?

00:12:37 ◼   ► Come on.

00:12:38 ◼   ► This would just be super simple.

00:12:39 ◼   ► So it's great.

00:12:40 ◼   ► And the iPhone mirroring feature is pretty awesome.

00:12:43 ◼   ► We went into it in a lot of detail on this upcoming MPU about how it works and some of

00:12:48 ◼   ► the security stuff.

00:12:49 ◼   ► But I have, I've really, it's been integrated into kind of how I work really pretty quickly.

00:12:54 ◼   ► Good.

00:12:55 ◼   ► I look forward to hearing it.

00:13:00 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by Ecamm.

00:13:03 ◼   ► Ecamm Live is the leading video production and live streaming studio built for the Mac.

00:13:08 ◼   ► Ecamm does all aspects of video, not just live streaming.

00:13:12 ◼   ► So it's perfect for simplifying a bunch of your workflows.

00:13:16 ◼   ► It's easy enough to get started quickly, but powerful enough that you can create just about

00:13:21 ◼   ► anything with video and you can do it all with the Ecamm app.

00:13:26 ◼   ► My favorite feature about Ecamm is that it is super native to the Mac.

00:13:29 ◼   ► It understands window layering and bringing in audio and video, and it just feels great

00:13:35 ◼   ► on Mac OS.

00:13:36 ◼   ► A lot of tools like this, quite frankly, they don't, they don't feel like they're built

00:13:41 ◼   ► by people who understand the Mac and Ecamm is.

00:13:44 ◼   ► So whether you're streaming, recording, podcasting, or presenting, everything's there in Ecamm,

00:13:49 ◼   ► including support for multiple cameras and screen sharing and a live camera switcher

00:13:54 ◼   ► that lets you direct the show in real time.

00:13:57 ◼   ► Stand out from the crowd with high quality video, add things like logos and titles, lower

00:14:02 ◼   ► thirds and graphics, or share your screen, drop in video clips, bring on interview guests,

00:14:07 ◼   ► use a green screen, and so much more.

00:14:10 ◼   ► Ecamm Live does it all.

00:14:11 ◼   ► And Ecamm for Zoom is now available for everyone at the pro level plan so you can automatically

00:14:18 ◼   ► send Ecamm's live audio and video output into a Zoom meeting, webinar, or event, and add

00:14:24 ◼   ► up to eight Zoom participants as camera sources in your broadcast or recording.

00:14:29 ◼   ► Plus you can automatically create individual participant audio and video recordings and

00:14:34 ◼   ► add Zoom chat messages to your broadcast or recording as text overlays.

00:14:39 ◼   ► Ecamm's members are entrepreneurs, marketing professionals, podcasters, educators, musicians,

00:14:45 ◼   ► church leaders, bloggers, and content creators of all kinds.

00:14:50 ◼   ► Get one month free today at ecamm.com/connected and using the code connected.

00:14:56 ◼   ► That's one whole month of Ecamm Live at Ecamm, E-C-A-M-M, ecamm.com/connected and use the

00:15:04 ◼   ► code connected.

00:15:05 ◼   ► Our thanks to Ecamm for the support of the show.

00:15:10 ◼   ► So we have new iPhones, the three of us collectively, we all have new phones.

00:15:17 ◼   ► Just as a recap, we went into this purchase season.

00:15:22 ◼   ► Mike, you were going to get the 16 Pro, Steven and I were going to get the 16 Pro Max.

00:15:28 ◼   ► We have had these phones for what, five days, I want to say.

00:15:34 ◼   ► And I just kind of wanted to go around and collect some first impressions, some thoughts.

00:15:42 ◼   ► And I wanted to start with Mike because it's been a lot, it's been what, a decade that

00:15:49 ◼   ► you haven't-

00:15:50 ◼   ► It's been a decade, yeah.

00:15:51 ◼   ► It's been a decade, like exactly 10 years that you haven't used a smaller iPhone than

00:15:57 ◼   ► the biggest model, right?

00:15:59 ◼   ► So you're using a 16 Pro.

00:16:00 ◼   ► How is it after 10 years of Plus/Max Club?

00:16:05 ◼   ► Honestly, I really like it.

00:16:08 ◼   ► I like it a lot.

00:16:11 ◼   ► It feels, this is weird, I can't tell you why, but this feels like a toy to me.

00:16:23 ◼   ► Being small is fun and like I'm using it differently.

00:16:27 ◼   ► It feels great in my hand.

00:16:29 ◼   ► It feels just like a great size.

00:16:33 ◼   ► The only downside that I've had so far is typing with two thumbs is a little clumsy

00:16:40 ◼   ► doing that because they're kind of like banging into each other a lot.

00:16:45 ◼   ► But one handed, fantastic.

00:16:47 ◼   ► I love it using the camera control because I can just very easily handle the phone in

00:16:52 ◼   ► one hand, taking my photos, and I don't feel like I don't have enough space to do things.

00:17:00 ◼   ► I feel like my text is too big, but I'm already on the lowest dynamic type.

00:17:05 ◼   ► I also noticed that on Sylvia's 16 Pro, that it seems like the text is too big.

00:17:15 ◼   ► And I don't know if maybe there's a different proportion between the smallest size on the

00:17:20 ◼   ► 16 Pro and the smallest size on the 16 Pro Max, but it's also something I noticed and

00:17:24 ◼   ► I don't know how to explain it.

00:17:27 ◼   ► So it's just weird.

00:17:28 ◼   ► I don't know if it's like a scaling thing or whatever, like I don't know if the Pro

00:17:31 ◼   ► Maxes have a different scaling.

00:17:33 ◼   ► I know that was a thing with the Pluses at one point, but yeah, I'm loving it.

00:17:39 ◼   ► I'm very happy with the decision.

00:17:40 ◼   ► I feel like I made it at just the right time, right, because this is the biggest the small

00:17:44 ◼   ► phone has ever been.

00:17:47 ◼   ► And also, Jason had review units of everything, and I do think the Pro Max is maybe too big

00:17:54 ◼   ► for me now.

00:17:55 ◼   ► Like I think it is bigger than I want, like it feels kind of wild, and so I'm very happy

00:18:03 ◼   ► with the decision that I've made.

00:18:05 ◼   ► I think I've got a real nice sweet spot for what I'm looking for.

00:18:08 ◼   ► Steven, how's the 16 Pro Max going?

00:18:12 ◼   ► Yeah, I think I'd echo basically everything Mike said.

00:18:15 ◼   ► I don't know, just clarification.

00:18:18 ◼   ► Steven has a 16 Pro as well, not a Pro Max.

00:18:20 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:18:21 ◼   ► Oh, 16 Pro, not Pro Max.

00:18:22 ◼   ► Okay.

00:18:23 ◼   ► Yeah, I went down a size as well.

00:18:24 ◼   ► I also have the desert color because I said I'd buy the brown one, and people reminded

00:18:29 ◼   ► me of that.

00:18:31 ◼   ► It's nice.

00:18:32 ◼   ► I mean, I had a 15 Pro as a development phone over the summer, so I was familiar with the

00:18:38 ◼   ► size, and it does take some getting used to, but it is remarkably more comfortable to like

00:18:49 ◼   ► manhandle one-handed than the Pro Max, which I could do, but it was kind of at the edge

00:18:55 ◼   ► of what I was comfortable with a lot of the time, and it takes up a lot less space like

00:19:00 ◼   ► in your pocket, or you got to stuff it somewhere in your car when you're driving, that sort

00:19:04 ◼   ► of thing.

00:19:05 ◼   ► So all in all, I've been happy with it, and I think I'm just about used to the size compared

00:19:11 ◼   ► to the bigger one.

00:19:12 ◼   ► I think a few more days, and it's going to feel like this is just what iPhones are.

00:19:18 ◼   ► So I got a 16 Pro Max, right?

00:19:21 ◼   ► And I used it for a few days, and so I'll cut to the chase.

00:19:28 ◼   ► Here we go.

00:19:29 ◼   ► I decided to go with the 16 Plus.

00:19:31 ◼   ► Oh.

00:19:32 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I'm doing the thing.

00:19:35 ◼   ► Oh.

00:19:36 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, I am not going to use the Pro anymore.

00:19:42 ◼   ► Why?

00:19:43 ◼   ► So a variety of reasons.

00:19:47 ◼   ► Most of it comes down to the joy of the different texture and the different color of the 16

00:19:55 ◼   ► Plus, but there are also other reasons.

00:19:57 ◼   ► So like you, Mike, I felt that the 16 Pro Max has maybe gotten too big and heavy.

00:20:06 ◼   ► Like there was a threshold for me, I guess, and I think that threshold was last year's

00:20:12 ◼   ► size.

00:20:14 ◼   ► Look, I love a big screen, but I feel like it's gotten past the tipping point for me,

00:20:23 ◼   ► and also like the weight of it.

00:20:25 ◼   ► I just had to check because in my mind I had just assumed the Plus was as big as the Pro

00:20:32 ◼   ► Max, but it isn't.

00:20:33 ◼   ► They diverged this year.

00:20:34 ◼   ► So the Plus is the same size as last year's Pro Max, and this one has got bigger.

00:20:40 ◼   ► Okay.

00:20:41 ◼   ► And it's also 30 grams lighter, which may not seem like a big deal, but actually for

00:20:46 ◼   ► a device that compact and dense, it is something that you can noticeably like feel.

00:20:52 ◼   ► Oh, yeah.

00:20:53 ◼   ► I mean, we had that last time, right, when they put the titanium in.

00:20:57 ◼   ► It didn't seem like it would be a lot of weight, but in your hand, it made a significant difference.

00:21:04 ◼   ► What color did you get?

00:21:06 ◼   ► Ultramarine.

00:21:07 ◼   ► Oh, sick.

00:21:08 ◼   ► Good choice.

00:21:09 ◼   ► So good.

00:21:10 ◼   ► It's so good.

00:21:11 ◼   ► No case.

00:21:12 ◼   ► No case.

00:21:13 ◼   ► Obviously.

00:21:14 ◼   ► I mean, if you're going to get a phone that looks like this, why would you put a case

00:21:15 ◼   ► on it?

00:21:16 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:21:17 ◼   ► I'll get to this in a minute.

00:21:18 ◼   ► But there's the bigger conversation.

00:21:19 ◼   ► There is also like something that we discussed a couple of weeks ago, that idea of now more

00:21:23 ◼   ► than ever, it feels like some features of the pro phones are actually for pro photographers

00:21:30 ◼   ► and video creators and the kind of category of user that I'm not.

00:21:36 ◼   ► Now, the only way that this was possible for me to even consider was the fact that the

00:21:46 ◼   ► action button and the camera control are on the base 16 models.

00:21:54 ◼   ► Because I felt like without those two buttons, I wouldn't have been able to do it.

00:21:59 ◼   ► Because I wanted to have those features and play around with them.

00:22:04 ◼   ► Even just like from a pure, like, I want to have a complete version of iOS that has these

00:22:10 ◼   ► two buttons.

00:22:11 ◼   ► So the fact that the camera control and the action button are not exclusive to the pro,

00:22:16 ◼   ► that was a big deciding factor for me.

00:22:20 ◼   ► Then like for a couple of days, I basically installed like my backup from the 16 Pro Max

00:22:26 ◼   ► on the 16 Plus, and I used them side by side.

00:22:30 ◼   ► And I noticed that I get more joy out of having this slightly smaller big phone and slightly

00:22:39 ◼   ► lighter and very colorful iPhone.

00:22:46 ◼   ► I get more joy out of that than I miss ProMotion always on display or the third lens in the

00:22:55 ◼   ► back.

00:22:57 ◼   ► I would say that the thing I'm going to miss most is the 5X lens.

00:23:03 ◼   ► I've never been like that huge on always on after all.

00:23:10 ◼   ► I've used this phone for a while and it's fine.

00:23:13 ◼   ► I can live without it.

00:23:16 ◼   ► I always wear an Apple Watch, I always have a way to tell the time, important notifications,

00:23:21 ◼   ► they will always get delivered to my Apple Watch anyway.

00:23:24 ◼   ► So I've never been a huge fan of always on widgets on the lock screen, like I have pretty

00:23:31 ◼   ► basic stuff there so it's fine.

00:23:34 ◼   ► And yeah, so basically the combination of it being in slightly smaller and in line with

00:23:40 ◼   ► last year, being lighter, being colorful, it's more fun.

00:23:46 ◼   ► And I think there's something about the fact that a lot of those Pro features on the phone,

00:23:51 ◼   ► I don't really need like 4K at 120, I'm never going to use that, like never really.

00:23:59 ◼   ► And I just prefer having a big phone that is more portable, that is more fun.

00:24:05 ◼   ► I love the aluminum texture, like I actually prefer the texture to the titanium personally.

00:24:13 ◼   ► And yeah, I don't know, there's something about it that makes me enjoy using the phone

00:24:21 ◼   ► more, I guess.

00:24:23 ◼   ► So I don't know.

00:24:26 ◼   ► It's kind of unexpected, I think.

00:24:30 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm going to be really interested to see how this goes for you over time, right?

00:24:35 ◼   ► Like it's the same as me and the same as Stephen, like we're all making big changes this year

00:24:39 ◼   ► and like they're fun and novel now because they're new and like how are we going to feel

00:24:44 ◼   ► as time progresses?

00:24:46 ◼   ► I think there's a part of me that is also getting ready for the fact that next year

00:24:53 ◼   ► I know I will want to get the iPhone 17 Air or whatever, Slim, whatever it's going to

00:25:00 ◼   ► be called.

00:25:01 ◼   ► And so this idea of accepting that it's okay not to have the high-end, top-of-the-line

00:25:11 ◼   ► Pro model, that it's okay for the kind of iPhone user that I am, and I've been thinking

00:25:16 ◼   ► about this a lot.

00:25:19 ◼   ► The computer that I consider my main computer, that I get my work done, where I need maximum

00:25:25 ◼   ► power, high-end, is the iPad.

00:25:28 ◼   ► And that's where I want to get an iPad Pro.

00:25:33 ◼   ► My job depends on having that computer and I love using it.

00:25:38 ◼   ► But just like when I used to be a Mac user, I was fine with the MacBook Air.

00:25:45 ◼   ► I think I can be fine as an iPhone user not having the equivalent of a MacBook Pro.

00:25:53 ◼   ► I can be fine just having a colorful iPhone that still is going to have an A18, it still

00:26:00 ◼   ► has incredible specs, but being okay with the idea that I don't have to be a Pro user

00:26:08 ◼   ► on the phone, I think that's been a big reveal for me over the past few days.

00:26:13 ◼   ► It's interesting there is also a rumor that next year the ProMotion display is across

00:26:18 ◼   ► the line.

00:26:19 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:26:20 ◼   ► Which, because of that new, weird model.

00:26:23 ◼   ► To continue that analogy, I also accepted that I prefer using regular AirPods instead

00:26:30 ◼   ► of AirPods Pro.

00:26:31 ◼   ► And I feel like as a consequence of my job over the past few years, I've sort of conditioned

00:26:41 ◼   ► myself into thinking, well, I'm an Apple blogger, I'm a podcaster, I do this for a living, I

00:26:47 ◼   ► always need to get the best version of everything.

00:26:51 ◼   ► But it turns out that sometimes maybe I was doing it more for the, this is going to sound

00:26:57 ◼   ► stupid, but I'm going to say it, sometimes I was doing it more for the reputation rather

00:27:01 ◼   ► than the actual enjoyment of the device.

00:27:03 ◼   ► And it turns out I'm totally fine with the base AirPods and I'm totally fine with the

00:27:08 ◼   ► base iPhone.

00:27:09 ◼   ► No, I think you're not representing yourself fairly enough.

00:27:14 ◼   ► I think you're doing your job, right?

00:27:17 ◼   ► You're testing out all these things, which is what we're doing now too.

00:27:19 ◼   ► No, but there is an element of, oh, surely you are going to get the Pro, right?

00:27:26 ◼   ► Like there is an element of that.

00:27:27 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:27:28 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:27:29 ◼   ► And it doesn't have to be true necessarily.

00:27:32 ◼   ► True.

00:27:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:27:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:27:35 ◼   ► Because what I'm saying is I'm doing the thing as a man of the people, I'm doing it.

00:27:42 ◼   ► I'm using the base iPhone model and it's so fun and in a way missing the 5X camera.

00:27:51 ◼   ► This is something that Brandon hinted on Mac stories with his blog post about this similar

00:27:57 ◼   ► idea.

00:27:58 ◼   ► He eventually, he ended up going iPhone 16 Pro.

00:28:02 ◼   ► Yeah, that was so funny to me, which last episode, amazing episode, but that was so

00:28:07 ◼   ► funny.

00:28:08 ◼   ► He wrote that whole thing and then was like, ah, no, I like the gold one.

00:28:11 ◼   ► But like this idea of like actually missing a camera can in a way sort of force you to

00:28:19 ◼   ► be more creative with the limitations that you have.

00:28:23 ◼   ► And I think it's something that I believe in.

00:28:26 ◼   ► Like I've noticed already, like I only have the 1X and the cropped 2X, I guess, on this

00:28:34 ◼   ► phone and I'm not going to get the same shots that I used to get before, but I can get a

00:28:39 ◼   ► little creative.

00:28:40 ◼   ► You know, maybe when I want to get close ups of my dogs, I'm going to actually physically

00:28:45 ◼   ► get closer to my dogs to get a good picture.

00:28:48 ◼   ► And it's fine.

00:28:49 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:28:50 ◼   ► It's different.

00:28:51 ◼   ► It's a fun experiment.

00:28:52 ◼   ► I love just looking at this phone because it's not boring.

00:28:55 ◼   ► So yeah, there's a, my small surprise, I guess.

00:28:59 ◼   ► Well, it's a plus surprise really.

00:29:02 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:29:03 ◼   ► You know, plus club lives again, right?

00:29:06 ◼   ► It does.

00:29:07 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

00:29:08 ◼   ► That's good.

00:29:09 ◼   ► I like that.

00:29:12 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by ZocDoc.

00:29:16 ◼   ► There are some things in life that are okay to be totally terrible, like trying a new

00:29:19 ◼   ► type of milk in your coffee or rolling the dice on a new workout app, or maybe mixing

00:29:24 ◼   ► it up with a new takeout spot.

00:29:26 ◼   ► But finding the right doctor, that shouldn't be risky.

00:29:30 ◼   ► And with ZocDoc, it's not because you've got more options than you know.

00:29:33 ◼   ► So ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality, in-network

00:29:39 ◼   ► doctors and choose the right one for your needs.

00:29:43 ◼   ► And then you click to instantly book an appointment.

00:29:46 ◼   ► We're talking about in-network appointments with more than a hundred thousand healthcare

00:29:49 ◼   ► providers across every specialty, from mental health to dental health, eye care, skincare,

00:29:55 ◼   ► and so much more.

00:29:57 ◼   ► Plus you can see their actual appointment openings, choose a time that works best for

00:30:02 ◼   ► you, and click to instantly book a visit.

00:30:05 ◼   ► Plus ZocDoc appointments happen quickly, typically within 24 to 72 hours of booking.

00:30:11 ◼   ► You can even score same day appointments.

00:30:14 ◼   ► So if you've moved or you have something new going on, or you're just looking for a change

00:30:17 ◼   ► in your healthcare, ZocDoc is a great place to start.

00:30:21 ◼   ► So stop putting off those appointments and go to ZocDoc.com/Connected to find and instantly

00:30:27 ◼   ► book a top rated doctor today at Z-O-C-D-O-C, ZocDoc.com/Connected.

00:30:36 ◼   ► Our thanks to ZocDoc for sponsoring the show and all of Relay.

00:30:41 ◼   ► Are we controlling our cameras?

00:30:48 ◼   ► Yes, kinda.

00:30:51 ◼   ► I will echo something that Jason mentioned on upgrade.

00:30:58 ◼   ► Great episode.

00:30:59 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:31:00 ◼   ► Actually both the last two episodes, both the anniversary one and the one about the

00:31:03 ◼   ► iPhone first impressions, excellent episodes.

00:31:07 ◼   ► Jason said something that the moment I heard it, I was like, yeah, that's it.

00:31:12 ◼   ► That's how I feel.

00:31:13 ◼   ► Like the touch bar vibes of the camera control.

00:31:18 ◼   ► The moment he said it, I was like, yup, that's how I've been feeling.

00:31:23 ◼   ► And I was lacking the words to express it, but this is how it makes me feel.

00:31:27 ◼   ► Like it's, I love the button for launching the camera and taking a picture.

00:31:34 ◼   ► I find everything else so fiddly and so over designed right now.

00:31:41 ◼   ► I hope that this camera control gets a better treatment over the years, over the next few

00:31:48 ◼   ► months ideally than the touch bar ever did.

00:31:51 ◼   ► Well, I think it will because it's on the iPhone, right?

00:31:55 ◼   ► So like that.

00:31:56 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:31:57 ◼   ► Yes.

00:31:58 ◼   ► They're not, they're not going to leave it be.

00:31:59 ◼   ► I will, I will echo the point that I made to Jason's point again, where I feel like

00:32:06 ◼   ► it is fiddly, but it most unlike the touch bar, like the touch bar is always there, right?

00:32:13 ◼   ► Like doing its thing is always there.

00:32:16 ◼   ► The settings of the camera control.

00:32:18 ◼   ► So like the light pressing and getting the settings and stuff, you very rarely need to

00:32:22 ◼   ► go into them.

00:32:23 ◼   ► And like for me, I have it set to allow me to change the camera that I'm using.

00:32:27 ◼   ► And like for that alone, it is useful, but I do appreciate it is the fiddliest thing

00:32:35 ◼   ► that I've used on an iPhone in a long time.

00:32:37 ◼   ► Like I think that they do need to kind of tidy up the amount of effort required to move

00:32:43 ◼   ► between options.

00:32:45 ◼   ► I also think that there's just some labeling that I, that is confusing to me.

00:32:49 ◼   ► Like I like the photographic styles thing in general, but like it's very confusing to

00:32:54 ◼   ► me that the camera control has two separate options and the editing system doesn't like

00:32:59 ◼   ► the camera control talks about tone as a specific thing that is separate to photographic styles.

00:33:04 ◼   ► But if you look at photographic styles in the UI, tone is part of the style.

00:33:10 ◼   ► So like that is like very confusing to me.

00:33:14 ◼   ► Photographic styles in general is confusing.

00:33:17 ◼   ► I love the feature, but the way that they are packaging it is peculiar.

00:33:22 ◼   ► Like you can go into the settings of the camera app and you can like do this little wizard

00:33:27 ◼   ► where it lets you pick a photographic style, but they only show you half of them, the undertones

00:33:32 ◼   ► ones, rather than the, I think they're called mood.

00:33:35 ◼   ► They don't show you those as options, which is like, so are they all photographic styles?

00:33:40 ◼   ► Like why does some of them get shown in this area?

00:33:42 ◼   ► It's confusing.

00:33:43 ◼   ► A lot of this is fiddly and complicated.

00:33:48 ◼   ► Maybe that's by design.

00:33:49 ◼   ► I do think they could do work on all of these things to tighten them up, but I'm happy it's

00:33:54 ◼   ► all there, but yeah, it could do some work.

00:33:57 ◼   ► And I'm also intrigued Federico, like if third party apps that integrate camera control might

00:34:03 ◼   ► do it in a way that feels better for you, which could be interesting.

00:34:06 ◼   ► No, I mean, if you ask me, I think this button should be in iOS 19, this button should be

00:34:15 ◼   ► repurposed for everything.

00:34:17 ◼   ► Like don't just let me use it as a camera control, let me use it as a general control

00:34:22 ◼   ► in all kinds of apps.

00:34:23 ◼   ► Like I want to be able to use the "camera control" button in ivory.

00:34:29 ◼   ► Like let me program this teeny tiny button that supports gestures in all kinds of apps.

00:34:36 ◼   ► I think going forward, limiting this button to just camera stuff will be a mistake.

00:34:41 ◼   ► I think there's a real opportunity here to turn this into the big brother to the action

00:34:49 ◼   ► button in a way.

00:34:52 ◼   ► But even if it stays limited to just camera control, I feel like Apple should go all the

00:34:59 ◼   ► way and allow...

00:35:02 ◼   ► There's a world in which I use camera control even just for exclusively camera stuff.

00:35:12 ◼   ► If Apple would let me just, for example, assign shortcuts instead of navigating a menu in

00:35:21 ◼   ► camera when you double click and then you got to scroll and the scrolling is weird and

00:35:25 ◼   ► fiddly.

00:35:26 ◼   ► Just personally, I would love to just say, OK, double click and I don't know, let me

00:35:31 ◼   ► toggle between 1x and ultrawide.

00:35:34 ◼   ► Like let me specifically assign things that I know I use on a regular basis because this

00:35:40 ◼   ► entire menu and nested menu navigation is just weird and clumsy and I might as well

00:35:49 ◼   ► use my finger, which is a more precise input method than carefully swiping on this thin

00:35:54 ◼   ► strip of a button.

00:35:57 ◼   ► So let me assign shortcuts to things that I frequently do in the camera.

00:36:01 ◼   ► And then at that point we can have a conversation.

00:36:04 ◼   ► And I want to use that version of camera control.

00:36:09 ◼   ► But more broadly speaking, iOS 19 or iOS 20.

00:36:13 ◼   ► And I cannot believe that I'm uttering these words like iOS 20.

00:36:17 ◼   ► It sounds ridiculous.

00:36:20 ◼   ► But here we are.

00:36:21 ◼   ► It's in theory, it's only a couple of years away.

00:36:25 ◼   ► And like this interface control system could be so much more.

00:36:31 ◼   ► On a device where so far the only input method has been touch, I feel like there is a fascinating

00:36:38 ◼   ► opportunity to use this element that can click and half click and scroll in a way that goes

00:36:45 ◼   ► beyond camera.

00:36:46 ◼   ► But for now, it's just camera.

00:36:48 ◼   ► But even just for the camera stuff, I think it should be more customizable.

00:36:52 ◼   ► So that's my take.

00:36:55 ◼   ► I think it's just too fiddly.

00:36:56 ◼   ► I mean, I wrote in my post event blog post that it felt overloaded and just like this

00:37:02 ◼   ► little thing and there's swipes and there's taps and like the half click thing is really

00:37:08 ◼   ► hard to do.

00:37:10 ◼   ► It's very strange.

00:37:11 ◼   ► I know you can change some of the accessibility stuff about the force needed.

00:37:16 ◼   ► But it just feels like it's like Apple had a bunch of ideas and no one said no to any

00:37:21 ◼   ► of them.

00:37:22 ◼   ► And that's not great.

00:37:25 ◼   ► Because I worry, like, I grew up at the heart of this.

00:37:30 ◼   ► I love clicking it to open the camera and taking a picture.

00:37:33 ◼   ► And yes, I almost wonder if that should have been the default.

00:37:38 ◼   ► And then if Hey, if you want to turn on these other things, this is how you go do that.

00:37:43 ◼   ► I worry that people are going to be confused.

00:37:46 ◼   ► I mean, playing with it this weekend, I was like, I don't like I'm in a I'm in a mode.

00:37:51 ◼   ► I don't know how to get out of it.

00:37:52 ◼   ► Or like, I thought I was doing this and this other thing happened.

00:37:56 ◼   ► I worry people are just going to bounce off of it.

00:37:58 ◼   ► And it's not going to get the use that it that it could get if it were simpler.

00:38:02 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:38:03 ◼   ► Yeah, I have yet to meet in real life.

00:38:08 ◼   ► Anybody that I show the 16 pro or the 16 plus two with camera control that understands how

00:38:13 ◼   ► to navigate those extra options or gets the the full click and half press right within

00:38:22 ◼   ► minutes.

00:38:23 ◼   ► Like it's just I think it's also like Stephen said, it's a problem of default.

00:38:28 ◼   ► And I feel like by default, it should have just been a shutter button and just, you know,

00:38:34 ◼   ► and the nerds like us could have gone into settings and enabled the additional gestures.

00:38:38 ◼   ► But having those enabled by default confuses the message and confuses confuses the interaction.

00:38:43 ◼   ► Right.

00:38:44 ◼   ► Because it makes it more difficult.

00:38:45 ◼   ► And you're like, ah, what am I supposed to do here?

00:38:47 ◼   ► Right.

00:38:48 ◼   ► It's just you sold me this as a camera button, but it's now showing me all these actual things.

00:38:52 ◼   ► And I don't know how to exit.

00:38:54 ◼   ► And it's not as intuitive as, you know, arguably the dynamic island, because it's also like

00:38:59 ◼   ► the menu in the camera is very tiny, right?

00:39:01 ◼   ► You have in this vertical menu along the bezel, like it's not as big and chunky as the dynamic

00:39:06 ◼   ► island.

00:39:07 ◼   ► So yeah, I don't know if like I it's the kind of thing where you look at it in screenshots

00:39:13 ◼   ► and you look at it in promo videos and it looks excellent.

00:39:16 ◼   ► Like it makes a great visual impression.

00:39:21 ◼   ► But in practice, I'm not even arguing about the placement of the button.

00:39:25 ◼   ► Like I've seen people on threads, people on social in general, like it's too high or somebody

00:39:31 ◼   ► say no, it's too low.

00:39:32 ◼   ► Like I think the placement of the button is fine.

00:39:35 ◼   ► I'm more concerned about the default interaction of it and all the other stuff I said about

00:39:41 ◼   ► customization.

00:39:42 ◼   ► Mm hmm.

00:39:43 ◼   ► Yeah, I think with the placement, they were trying to split the difference between horizontal

00:39:47 ◼   ► and vertical content capture.

00:39:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:39:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:39:51 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:39:52 ◼   ► I hope that I mean, there are signs of Apple iterating on this already, right?

00:39:58 ◼   ► In 18.1, you're going to have more settings for, you know, actually disabling the light

00:40:04 ◼   ► presses if you want to, you know, that's all that stuff is going to be available in accessibility.

00:40:09 ◼   ► I have all that off.

00:40:10 ◼   ► And so mine now is just open the camera and a shutter button.

00:40:14 ◼   ► Same.

00:40:15 ◼   ► And I love it.

00:40:16 ◼   ► And I love it for that.

00:40:17 ◼   ► Right.

00:40:18 ◼   ► I just I just feel bad knowing that there's more that it could do, but I don't like it.

00:40:22 ◼   ► It's my issue.

00:40:23 ◼   ► Like I know that there's all the other the other half of that interaction that unfortunately

00:40:29 ◼   ► right now it's not for me.

00:40:32 ◼   ► I love it as a shutter button.

00:40:33 ◼   ► I mean, I it the way this camera control has rewired my brain and my fingers in not reaching

00:40:41 ◼   ► for the bottom of the lock screen anymore and not even swiping on the lock screen to

00:40:45 ◼   ► open the camera, but just pressing the button is wild.

00:40:48 ◼   ► And it happened in just a few days.

00:40:50 ◼   ► So I love it as a shutter button, but it's everything else that.

00:40:54 ◼   ► So and so.

00:40:56 ◼   ► And also, there's going to be a selfie camera option in 18.1.

00:41:00 ◼   ► I'm excited.

00:41:01 ◼   ► Yeah, they are iterating on it and I hope they continue to do so.

00:41:06 ◼   ► And well, also at some point, I don't know if it'll be 18.1, but they're doing the thing

00:41:10 ◼   ► where you can set focus with the light press.

00:41:12 ◼   ► That is also something I'm looking forward to.

00:41:15 ◼   ► And yeah, hopefully, like I expect that at least in the iOS 18 cycle, we are going to

00:41:23 ◼   ► get more options to say, OK, maybe if you double light press, you never get the menu

00:41:30 ◼   ► again.

00:41:31 ◼   ► You can just assign a specific function, which is what I want.

00:41:34 ◼   ► It's a precedent for this, right?

00:41:36 ◼   ► Remember all the changes and options they had for always on display after it launched?

00:41:41 ◼   ► They kept coming up with new stuff.

00:41:42 ◼   ► So yeah, I mean, I think I am I like it more than you guys do, or at least I'm willing

00:41:48 ◼   ► to accept it more.

00:41:51 ◼   ► But I think I agree that there should be more options and I'm happy with the ones that they're

00:41:55 ◼   ► they're working on.

00:41:59 ◼   ► Quick styles update.

00:42:00 ◼   ► I want to know where you're all sitting with your photo styles.

00:42:03 ◼   ► Federico, what are you doing?

00:42:05 ◼   ► I am doing standard and tone between minus 0.5, 0.7 within that range.

00:42:14 ◼   ► What is that?

00:42:15 ◼   ► What is that benefiting for you?

00:42:16 ◼   ► The tone change?

00:42:17 ◼   ► I feel like it brings up the shadows a little bit more than the default.

00:42:22 ◼   ► I have come to really dislike the default look of iPhone photos.

00:42:27 ◼   ► And so it makes them it gives photos a little extra punch, you know, that they that a little

00:42:33 ◼   ► more contrasty, but not too much, because I also don't like, you know, I don't like

00:42:37 ◼   ► I've seen like people going full, full like negative tone to really bring up the I don't

00:42:44 ◼   ► like that look, but just somewhere half, you know, in between.

00:42:49 ◼   ► That makes me appreciate the look of my photos a bit more.

00:42:53 ◼   ► They're less flat is what I'm trying to say.

00:42:56 ◼   ► Steven, what about you?

00:42:58 ◼   ► I've been playing with the neutral photographic style.

00:43:03 ◼   ► Okay, just the one out of the box.

00:43:05 ◼   ► I haven't tinkered with it any more than that.

00:43:08 ◼   ► And I like it, it may be a touch cool for me, I feel like it does a good job with the

00:43:12 ◼   ► shadows.

00:43:13 ◼   ► But maybe I could do that with standard and like Federico said, bring the tone down.

00:43:18 ◼   ► So I feel very much like I'm still experimenting.

00:43:22 ◼   ► And and that's cool, because these things are editable.

00:43:25 ◼   ► So if I feel like if I oh, I really messed this up, it's not the end of the world, which

00:43:29 ◼   ► is which is nice.

00:43:30 ◼   ► Yeah, I've I was using vibrant, I've now settled on gold.

00:43:35 ◼   ► I just think in general, that does a good job of bringing the warmth into images, which

00:43:40 ◼   ► I really enjoy.

00:43:42 ◼   ► And I'm still tinkering too.

00:43:43 ◼   ► And I love that this is essentially like a very simplified version of quite a complex

00:43:49 ◼   ► photo editing system that they've built.

00:43:52 ◼   ► Like I think photographic styles as they are now is one of the most important things Apple

00:43:58 ◼   ► has done on the iPhone in a very long time, because they are addressing something like

00:44:04 ◼   ► a general feeling that people have, in a way that does not mean that they have to make

00:44:11 ◼   ► any particular statement about how images should look.

00:44:14 ◼   ► It's it's the most elegant, yes, well designed rendition of, I don't know, man, you do it.

00:44:21 ◼   ► Yeah, that Apple could make.

00:44:23 ◼   ► And like, actually, you can compare this, I think, quite nicely to the camera control,

00:44:29 ◼   ► where, as I said, I have some issues around some of the labeling of photographic styles,

00:44:34 ◼   ► but like the general way that you manage and deal with the photos once you're taking them,

00:44:38 ◼   ► it's incredible.

00:44:39 ◼   ► Like, the little touchpad that they have essentially to change the way an image looks is just fantastic.

00:44:46 ◼   ► Again, I would like to be able to save things, like the settings that I have, like save them

00:44:51 ◼   ► as kind of recipes and label them and I actually do believe that they will do that because

00:44:57 ◼   ► the old version of photographic styles kind of let you do that.

00:45:01 ◼   ► Like once you set something, it saved it as like a new version of it.

00:45:04 ◼   ► But yeah, I think this is truly fantastic and is going to, in general, I think really

00:45:11 ◼   ► change people's opinion of the iPhone camera, which I think is only a good thing.

00:45:18 ◼   ► Now hear me out, OK.

00:45:22 ◼   ► Photographic styles, presets, as you mentioned, tied to focus mods.

00:45:33 ◼   ► So when you're at work and you take your pictures, they look pretty standard, but then when you're

00:45:37 ◼   ► home and now your pictures are a rose gold, now they got some water in it because you

00:45:42 ◼   ► like being there.

00:45:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:44 ◼   ► Or like you go to your parents' house and it's black and white because they're old,

00:45:47 ◼   ► you know?

00:45:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:50 ◼   ► I like it.

00:45:51 ◼   ► Anything else camera-wise?

00:45:52 ◼   ► No, I don't think so.

00:45:54 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:45:56 ◼   ► I think all the camera stuff is good and I like in particular the much better ultrawide

00:46:04 ◼   ► going to that 48 megapixel sensor.

00:46:06 ◼   ► I feel like the...

00:46:07 ◼   ► Which I don't have anymore.

00:46:08 ◼   ► Which you don't have anymore, but you do have us do.

00:46:12 ◼   ► You'll get it.

00:46:13 ◼   ► You'll get it in a couple of years, I'm sure.

00:46:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:46:15 ◼   ► But it's nice when you do like the punch in for macro mode, it looks, it looks really good.

00:46:21 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by Vitaly.

00:46:25 ◼   ► Vitaly is bringing a new era of customer service productivity with their all-in-one platform.

00:46:31 ◼   ► Vitaly's collaborative workspace combines your customer data with all the capabilities

00:46:37 ◼   ► you expect from today's project management and work platforms.

00:46:40 ◼   ► And with Vitaly, you can measure the effectiveness of OKRs and operational strategies on customer

00:46:47 ◼   ► outcomes at scale, thanks to this really cool goals feature.

00:46:52 ◼   ► Goals allows you to track the progress of your accounts against target metrics, meaning

00:46:56 ◼   ► you can standardize goal setting across the board, so you know exactly how effective your

00:47:01 ◼   ► processes really are.

00:47:03 ◼   ► And best of all, it's designed for today's customer success team.

00:47:08 ◼   ► Vitaly operates with unparalleled efficiency, improves net revenue retention, and delivers

00:47:14 ◼   ► best in class customer experiences.

00:47:17 ◼   ► Vitaly is offering a free pair of AirPods Pro for every Connected listener who books

00:47:21 ◼   ► a qualified meeting.

00:47:23 ◼   ► So if you're a customer success decision maker, schedule your call by visiting Vitaly.io/Connected.

00:47:31 ◼   ► That's Vitaly, V-I-T-A-L-L-Y, Vitaly.io/Connected for a free pair of AirPods Pro when you schedule

00:47:40 ◼   ► a qualified meeting.

00:47:42 ◼   ► Our thanks to Vitaly for the support of the show and all of Relay.

00:47:47 ◼   ► We had a question from listener Sims.

00:47:51 ◼   ► Now that camera control is here, what are you doing with your action button?

00:47:56 ◼   ► I remember Federico's multi-button shortcut.

00:47:59 ◼   ► Is that still in use?

00:48:02 ◼   ► Excellent timing for this question, because just last night, I finally came up with what

00:48:09 ◼   ► I think is my new favorite use case for the action button.

00:48:13 ◼   ► I've been using my own multi-button shortcut for the past year, basically, and it's always

00:48:18 ◼   ► been tied through its initial different versions that I tested, but I settled eventually on

00:48:27 ◼   ► the first press triggers a shortcut to create a reminder, and the second press triggers

00:48:34 ◼   ► my Apple Frames shortcut, which I used, but not as much as I thought I would.

00:48:44 ◼   ► What I came up with last night, which I don't know, I've observed my behavior today with

00:48:49 ◼   ► the phone.

00:48:50 ◼   ► It's already sort of become second nature, which is usually a pretty good sign.

00:48:55 ◼   ► 18.1, the latest beta, 18.1 beta 5, which I think equals to 18.1 public beta 2, introduces

00:49:03 ◼   ► a new Show Control Center action in shortcuts.

00:49:08 ◼   ► Now this action you can modify so that it either shows, hides, or toggles Control Center,

00:49:20 ◼   ► which means it toggles the state.

00:49:23 ◼   ► Like if it's visible, it hides.

00:49:25 ◼   ► If it's not shown, it brings out Control Center.

00:49:28 ◼   ► So I have assigned this Toggle Control Center shortcut to the action button, and it's been

00:49:34 ◼   ► a game changer for me, because I don't need to swipe, I don't need to reach to the top

00:49:39 ◼   ► right corner of the screen anymore, I can just press the action button, it toggles Control

00:49:44 ◼   ► Center, and what I'm even considering now is actually placing my most used controls

00:49:54 ◼   ► like physically around the action button, right?

00:49:58 ◼   ► So that if I'm going there with my thumb anyway, I might as well also place my most used

00:50:04 ◼   ► controls around it.

00:50:05 ◼   ► So yeah, invoking Control Center with the action button is going to be possible with

00:50:10 ◼   ► 18.1, and that's what I'm using it for at the moment.

00:50:14 ◼   ► Very nice.

00:50:17 ◼   ► My action button is basically the same as it's always been since I set it up, which

00:50:21 ◼   ► was based on an idea that you gave me for Dorico.

00:50:24 ◼   ► It was before it launched and you said like, on the Mac I can set a keyboard shortcut to

00:50:30 ◼   ► add it to do, and so that completely locked in for me of something that I do want a lot,

00:50:37 ◼   ► like I'm in my email or whatever and I see something, I want to make a task.

00:50:41 ◼   ► So when I hit my action button, it runs a shortcut that I made, where there's a text

00:50:46 ◼   ► box that says watch your task, I type it in, it asks me a second text box, which is when

00:50:51 ◼   ► do you want this due, and then I format the date into a way that shortcuts can understand

00:50:57 ◼   ► in shortcuts because you can do the date formatting actions, then it asks me where do you want

00:51:01 ◼   ► to save this, Todoist or due, because they're different types of things for me, due is like

00:51:06 ◼   ► I want to remember to do something like take a pill in three hours or whatever, it's not

00:51:10 ◼   ► going to go in Todoist, and if I choose Todoist, it asks me the project and then it saves it,

00:51:14 ◼   ► and if it asks due, then it just saves it immediately.

00:51:17 ◼   ► So I love this, I use it multiple times a day, every single day.

00:51:20 ◼   ► I do have a question for you Federico.

00:51:23 ◼   ► So my Todoist action, they've made some changes recently, I've been working with the support

00:51:29 ◼   ► people because they broke some stuff in shortcuts and I'm very happy they fixed it, but there

00:51:34 ◼   ► used to be a show when run, like it would pop up a little thing when it was completed,

00:51:39 ◼   ► and the Todoist support team say that Apple removed that ability, which I don't think

00:51:43 ◼   ► is accurate.

00:51:44 ◼   ► Yeah, okay, cool.

00:51:45 ◼   ► I'm just checking, I thought that they didn't know what they unfortunately were talking

00:51:50 ◼   ► about, but their action no longer shows when run.

00:51:53 ◼   ► They used to have a checkbox that you could mark that on, so it would like show you that

00:51:57 ◼   ► you'd completed it and like give you the preview of the task you'd added.

00:52:01 ◼   ► It now doesn't do that, so I've just like cobbled together my own one with like show

00:52:05 ◼   ► me the title and the text and the date, so I get an idea of how everything was formatted

00:52:09 ◼   ► in the end.

00:52:10 ◼   ► But yeah, okay, cool.

00:52:12 ◼   ► It doesn't do that anymore.

00:52:13 ◼   ► They say that Apple removed that feature and I think that they're wrong, and so that's

00:52:17 ◼   ► cool.

00:52:18 ◼   ► I'll get an answer for that from the shortcuts man himself, but yeah, that's what I do.

00:52:21 ◼   ► I love it.

00:52:22 ◼   ► What do you do, Steven?

00:52:24 ◼   ► I was using a shortcut that just gave me a text field and put that into reminders in

00:52:30 ◼   ► the inbox due today, so I could just sort it out later, but after I saw Federico's post,

00:52:35 ◼   ► I changed it to control center and I kind of digging it, so I don't know what I'm going

00:52:40 ◼   ► to do.

00:52:41 ◼   ► I'm kind of in limbo now.

00:52:42 ◼   ► So you both really using control center, like you're like really using it?

00:52:46 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

00:52:47 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

00:52:48 ◼   ► I love it.

00:52:49 ◼   ► No, I haven't been running iOS 18 as long as you both have.

00:52:52 ◼   ► So control center is new for me still.

00:52:54 ◼   ► So I'm still kind of like settling in, but that's interesting.

00:52:58 ◼   ► I have put a couple of shortcuts in there, which I like it.

00:53:00 ◼   ► Some of them always use shortcuts and now in control center, I like that as a thing.

00:53:05 ◼   ► The big three, if you will, for me are...

00:53:11 ◼   ► Ray tracing?

00:53:12 ◼   ► For you?

00:53:13 ◼   ► Gamers!

00:53:14 ◼   ► It's a gamers joke!

00:53:17 ◼   ► Gamers rise!

00:53:19 ◼   ► No, like the three types of controls that really make it worthy for me are the now playing

00:53:26 ◼   ► control, especially when I'm like listening to something like a Discover Weekly on Spotify,

00:53:33 ◼   ► for example, and I want to skip tracks, like having that like right there in control center,

00:53:39 ◼   ► very useful, a control with two accessories, two specific lights that I frequently turn

00:53:47 ◼   ► on and off on a daily basis, and a shortcut to reopen my quick notes folder in the notes

00:53:55 ◼   ► app.

00:53:57 ◼   ► Just like, I don't know, and it's very fast, like having all of those controls there, especially

00:54:01 ◼   ► now with the action button, you just press shows, click, boom, done.

00:54:05 ◼   ► Like it's very quick and I like it.

00:54:09 ◼   ► Yeah, that makes sense.

00:54:11 ◼   ► Yeah, it's in a way like you can make a better multi-button, right?

00:54:19 ◼   ► You can just press it once and access like a bunch of things that you do all the time.

00:54:23 ◼   ► Like it actually shows you a bunch of shortcuts if you want to.

00:54:27 ◼   ► That's interesting.

00:54:29 ◼   ► Yeah, and even control center, like it's also getting much better in 18.1.

00:54:35 ◼   ► They are, they're going to provide more like individual controls for the wireless radio

00:54:42 ◼   ► stuff.

00:54:43 ◼   ► So like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, like it used to be all lumped together in a single

00:54:49 ◼   ► tile control.

00:54:51 ◼   ► In 18.1, they're going to be, if you want, there's going to be like individual controls,

00:54:55 ◼   ► like so just, just Wi-Fi or just Bluetooth, just cellular and so forth, which is also

00:55:00 ◼   ► nice.

00:55:01 ◼   ► But yeah, control center is very nice.

00:55:05 ◼   ► Pretty good.

00:55:07 ◼   ► What about lock screen buttons?

00:55:09 ◼   ► Have you done anything with that Federico?

00:55:12 ◼   ► Flashlight because I couldn't think of a better place for it.

00:55:17 ◼   ► So that one stayed.

00:55:19 ◼   ► I replaced the camera with a shortcut that is like a very simple thing to add a new quick

00:55:27 ◼   ► note to just like, like anything I want to save an idea, a number, whatever, like just

00:55:35 ◼   ► having that right there, press save a quick note.

00:55:39 ◼   ► That's it.

00:55:40 ◼   ► There isn't a quick note, like there's not a quick note control, which is I had to create

00:55:46 ◼   ► a shortcut with a single action that says add the quick note.

00:55:50 ◼   ► There is one in 18.1.

00:55:52 ◼   ► Wait.

00:55:53 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:55:54 ◼   ► Cause that's, that's, uh, one of the ones I've been playing with.

00:55:57 ◼   ► Oh, cool.

00:55:59 ◼   ► Even better.

00:56:00 ◼   ► So I don't have to use my shortcut anymore.

00:56:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:56:02 ◼   ► Look at that.

00:56:03 ◼   ► Who's the editor in chief now?

00:56:04 ◼   ► Oh, quick note.

00:56:06 ◼   ► Okay.

00:56:07 ◼   ► Weird.

00:56:08 ◼   ► I searched for this.

00:56:10 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

00:56:11 ◼   ► But it basically, it does the same thing, but cool.

00:56:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:56:15 ◼   ► It's got a better icon.

00:56:16 ◼   ► I found the search on the actions to be kind of hit or miss.

00:56:20 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:56:21 ◼   ► Uh, I have a music flashlight.

00:56:23 ◼   ► I just don't think I'm gonna, anyone should change that.

00:56:26 ◼   ► Like flashlight is great to have and it's great to have there and the UI goes so hard,

00:56:30 ◼   ► like why not?

00:56:31 ◼   ► Um, and I, the, my second one, I've replaced the camera with one of my most used shortcuts,

00:56:35 ◼   ► which is, uh, it's a, it's a time tracking shortcut where if I realize I've done a thing

00:56:41 ◼   ► and didn't track that time, it just basically says, how long have you been working on that

00:56:46 ◼   ► thing and which, which, where should it have gone to?

00:56:48 ◼   ► And then it just adds it in time.

00:56:51 ◼   ► The true power move is two flashlights.

00:56:54 ◼   ► So you can, you can just always, always be flashing.

00:56:57 ◼   ► Yes.

00:56:58 ◼   ► You never know when you're gonna need them.

00:56:59 ◼   ► Well, that's true.

00:57:00 ◼   ► That's true.

00:57:01 ◼   ► That was a good post, Stephen, by the way.

00:57:04 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:57:05 ◼   ► Uh, so let's, let's talk a little bit about, uh, Apple's definition of a photo.

00:57:12 ◼   ► Federico, you would link to this.

00:57:14 ◼   ► It's this quote from, uh, the verges iPhone review.

00:57:17 ◼   ► I think.

00:57:18 ◼   ► Uh, tell us about this.

00:57:20 ◼   ► So I was really impressed with this bit in Eli Patel's review of the iPhones.

00:57:25 ◼   ► Um, they were able to get a quote from John McCormack, uh, Apple's, uh, vice president

00:57:31 ◼   ► of camera software engineering.

00:57:34 ◼   ► And I'm just gonna quote this and because I want to talk about it.

00:57:37 ◼   ► Here's our view of what a photograph is.

00:57:39 ◼   ► The way we like to think of it is that it's a personal celebration of something that really

00:57:45 ◼   ► actually happened, whether that's a simple thing, like a fancy cup of coffee that's got

00:57:49 ◼   ► some cool design on it all the way through to my kids' first steps or my parents' last

00:57:54 ◼   ► breath.

00:57:55 ◼   ► It's something that really happened.

00:57:57 ◼   ► It's something that is a marker in my life and it's something that deserves to be celebrated.

00:58:02 ◼   ► I love this, uh, like, and there's more to the quote, but just like the essential part

00:58:06 ◼   ► that I want to discuss.

00:58:08 ◼   ► I love the way they're thinking about this.

00:58:13 ◼   ► And especially I like the idea of celebrating even the sad moments in, not the server, like

00:58:23 ◼   ► cheering for obviously someone's passing, but like celebrating, remembering a moment,

00:58:34 ◼   ► the good ones and the bad ones.

00:58:36 ◼   ► Apple is saying this is the role of photography in history, the good moments and the bad moments.

00:58:45 ◼   ► There are, you know, if I can add to that, there are dozens, hundreds of historic photographs

00:58:54 ◼   ► of terrible things that happened in human history.

00:58:57 ◼   ► Like the role of photography is to document, is to remember all those moments because you

00:59:04 ◼   ► don't, you don't get to, unfortunately in life, you don't get to cherry pick the type

00:59:09 ◼   ► of life where you only live great moments, right?

00:59:12 ◼   ► There's going to be good ones, there's going to be bad ones.

00:59:15 ◼   ► And the role of photography, the way I think of it, and I'm pleased to hear that Apple

00:59:19 ◼   ► is thinking along the same lines, is it's something that happened, whether it's good

00:59:24 ◼   ► or bad, and it's something that you can remember and that our camera can help you remember.

00:59:29 ◼   ► And it's in direct contrast to what companies like Samsung are saying, there are no real

00:59:37 ◼   ► pictures anymore, nothing is real.

00:59:39 ◼   ► And there's Google saying, well, it's actually more about how you remember something, it's

00:59:44 ◼   ► more about the memory rather than the actual fact than the actual moment.

00:59:49 ◼   ► So Google is taking the sort of relativistic approach, like, yeah, everybody's recollection

00:59:55 ◼   ► is different, so we don't particularly care about reality.

00:59:58 ◼   ► Yeah, it's like, like Google is saying, like, oh, we want you to create a memory and Apple's

01:00:03 ◼   ► like, we want you to capture our memory.

01:00:05 ◼   ► Exactly.

01:00:06 ◼   ► Yes.

01:00:07 ◼   ► So on paper, in theory, I look at this quote and I'm like, I'm very glad that I'm using

01:00:13 ◼   ► a phone because there's people at Apple that think these kind of thoughts that I agree

01:00:18 ◼   ► with.

01:00:20 ◼   ► On the other hand, I am curious to see how Apple, over time, will reconcile these thoughts

01:00:29 ◼   ► with the upcoming reality of Apple intelligence and the rollout of features that will alter

01:00:38 ◼   ► photography and moments for what they are.

01:00:42 ◼   ► There's going to be one immediately coming with the Teampoint 1, which is clean up, but

01:00:48 ◼   ► you know, there's going to be more like and I'm curious if Apple's rather beautiful stance

01:00:56 ◼   ► on this matter, how it will bump against the reality of Craig Federighi coming down from

01:01:04 ◼   ► the mountain saying, well, you got to do AI, you know, teams at Apple.

01:01:10 ◼   ► I don't care.

01:01:11 ◼   ► I think it's fun.

01:01:12 ◼   ► You got to do it.

01:01:13 ◼   ► So that'll be interesting to watch.

01:01:16 ◼   ► I love this quote and it is being rightly applauded, but I do look at it with a bit

01:01:21 ◼   ► of a side eye of like, is this going to remain forever?

01:01:29 ◼   ► What's image playgrounds?

01:01:31 ◼   ► What is that?

01:01:32 ◼   ► Obviously you're not making photos, but what is the thinking behind why you would create

01:01:37 ◼   ► a fake image of any kind?

01:01:42 ◼   ► Does that fit into any of this?

01:01:45 ◼   ► I would love someone similarly to define, to tell me why they are creating image playgrounds.

01:01:51 ◼   ► What role they imagine that to think it's fun, right?

01:01:56 ◼   ► So like, is it fun to add generative AI to regular photos?

01:02:03 ◼   ► Well we'll see.

01:02:04 ◼   ► I guess.

01:02:05 ◼   ► Right.

01:02:06 ◼   ► Google thinks so.

01:02:07 ◼   ► Right.

01:02:08 ◼   ► Google thinks so because they put it in a pixel.

01:02:09 ◼   ► Like, so I just, I just wonder if like, this is great.

01:02:13 ◼   ► I cannot be comfortable in believing that this is how they will always approach this.

01:02:17 ◼   ► I, I am going to say something.

01:02:22 ◼   ► I mean, you know me, I don't care about the consequences.

01:02:25 ◼   ► Well, to a degree.

01:02:27 ◼   ► But I think this one is pretty safe.

01:02:30 ◼   ► This quote and this very direct explanation is the most Steve Jobs quote I've read from

01:02:41 ◼   ► Apple in the post Steve Jobs era.

01:02:44 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:02:45 ◼   ► Yeah, I can see that.

01:02:48 ◼   ► This could be part of a quote in thoughts on photos or something, couldn't it, you know?

01:02:53 ◼   ► Like here's a view of what a photograph is.

01:02:54 ◼   ► Like here's the thing, like it's pretty much Apple saying, here's the thing.

01:02:58 ◼   ► We believe in this and whether you like it or not, this is what we believe in.

01:03:02 ◼   ► I love this attitude.

01:03:03 ◼   ► Like I, it's why this quote resonates because we have gotten so used to this very polished

01:03:11 ◼   ► image of Apple PR and Tim Cook, but obviously Apple PR in general.

01:03:16 ◼   ► And this is like, um, this is a quote that obviously comes from a, from a person in the

01:03:22 ◼   ► sense that no, it's not, it's not like Apple PR, not people, but like it's a very direct,

01:03:27 ◼   ► very humane quote.

01:03:30 ◼   ► I think it has emotion, it has emotion, which is, and it's complicated and like complex

01:03:37 ◼   ► and deep and there's a lot going on in there.

01:03:40 ◼   ► And so like, I love it.

01:03:41 ◼   ► I love it.

01:03:44 ◼   ► I want to believe it, but I'm not just going to straight believe it.

01:03:49 ◼   ► Like I almost wish that there was a way for me to sign up for a subscription that gets

01:03:58 ◼   ► me this version of Apple, give me more of these quotes and these opinions like, you

01:04:08 ◼   ► know, Apple one opinionated, I guess call it.

01:04:10 ◼   ► I don't, I don't care.

01:04:11 ◼   ► Like, but like this is the, this quote, it made me feel so good because like I was like,

01:04:17 ◼   ► yes, this is the company that I, this is like the attitude that I like.

01:04:22 ◼   ► What there is the problem that if this quote is truly Steve Jobsian, uh, they will just

01:04:28 ◼   ► go against it when they want to.

01:04:30 ◼   ► Right.

01:04:31 ◼   ► Cause he did do that.

01:04:32 ◼   ► Right.

01:04:33 ◼   ► Like he would make a lot of very strong statements until it was time for him to not believe that

01:04:37 ◼   ► anymore and then he would just go ahead and do that thing.

01:04:40 ◼   ► Sure.

01:04:41 ◼   ► Sure.

01:04:42 ◼   ► Maybe it will be a true job statement.

01:04:43 ◼   ► Uh, but it's a great quote.

01:04:45 ◼   ► It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a great way to think about the role of photography

01:04:51 ◼   ► in history.

01:04:53 ◼   ► We'll see how long it's, uh, we'll see if this quote can last as long as photography

01:05:02 ◼   ► did according to Apple.

01:05:04 ◼   ► I have my doubts.

01:05:08 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by our friends at Backblaze.

01:05:13 ◼   ► Backblaze are the folks looking after your digital data with their unlimited computer

01:05:16 ◼   ► backup for Mac OS and windows for just $99 a year.

01:05:21 ◼   ► You can protect all of your data automatically without ever having to think about it.

01:05:26 ◼   ► And it's not just for personal use either.

01:05:28 ◼   ► Backblaze is great for businesses.

01:05:30 ◼   ► You can protect the whole team's data through a centrally managed admin console, and it's

01:05:35 ◼   ► easy to deploy Backblaze across multiple workstations with silent and link-based deployment options.

01:05:42 ◼   ► And the enterprise control add-on includes granular access permissions, advanced single

01:05:47 ◼   ► sign-on options, group management controls, and compliance support.

01:05:52 ◼   ► You're in safe hands with Backblaze.

01:05:54 ◼   ► They really know their stuff.

01:05:56 ◼   ► They're recommended by the New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Macworld, PCworld, LifeWire,

01:06:01 ◼   ► Wired, Tom's Guide, 9to5Mac, and more.

01:06:05 ◼   ► And look, Backblaze is running in my Mac's menu bar right now.

01:06:09 ◼   ► With Backblaze, you can access your backed up data from anywhere in the world using their

01:06:13 ◼   ► web app or their iOS and Android apps.

01:06:16 ◼   ► That's super handy if you need to go fetch a file.

01:06:19 ◼   ► I've been using Backblaze for years and years.

01:06:23 ◼   ► I lost a bunch of data in college, and when that happened, I swore it would never happen

01:06:28 ◼   ► again.

01:06:30 ◼   ► Backblaze offers multiple restore options, including rapid recovery via USB hard drive

01:06:34 ◼   ► shipped to you in the event of data loss or ransomware.

01:06:37 ◼   ► You just pay a refundable fee and all your data will be sent to you directly.

01:06:43 ◼   ► So visit backblaze.com/connected so they know where you came from and continue their support.

01:06:49 ◼   ► Backblaze has restored over 55 billion files for their customers.

01:06:53 ◼   ► So don't be that person who forgot to backup their important documents, photos, and more.

01:06:59 ◼   ► Receive a fully featured no risk free trial at backblaze.com/connected.

01:07:05 ◼   ► Go there and start protecting yourself from a data disaster.

01:07:08 ◼   ► Our thanks to Backblaze for the support of the show and all of Relay.

01:07:15 ◼   ► Something else that I got, which I absolutely love and I have actually no notes here, is

01:07:22 ◼   ► the AirPods 4 with noise cancellation.

01:07:24 ◼   ► They're everything I was hoping for.

01:07:27 ◼   ► They obviously do not cancel as much external noise as the AirPods Pro with in-ear tips

01:07:33 ◼   ► do, but they cancel more than I was expecting, and I just feel like they did the thing.

01:07:40 ◼   ► They did exactly what people wanted, great balance of price and some of the features

01:07:48 ◼   ► of AirPods Pro in a device that doesn't require that you use in-ear tips.

01:07:53 ◼   ► I have already sold two people in my life on this, and actually I've seen one of my

01:08:00 ◼   ► friends today came up to me and was like, "I got them."

01:08:04 ◼   ► I think these are going to be a massive success with people, and I just loved using them.

01:08:09 ◼   ► Again, no notes, perfect update here for me and for the shape of my years.

01:08:18 ◼   ► Sure.

01:08:19 ◼   ► And that's always what these things come down to.

01:08:21 ◼   ► I had a chance to try them and they weren't comfortable, but man, I really love the tiny

01:08:26 ◼   ► case.

01:08:27 ◼   ► The little case is so good.

01:08:29 ◼   ► The tiny case is adorable and good and very portable, and I love it.

01:08:34 ◼   ► I got to try Jason's.

01:08:37 ◼   ► He got their units, I put them in and it immediately fell out of my left ear.

01:08:41 ◼   ► I've always had a problem in my left ear with headphones, and I was immediately reminded

01:08:46 ◼   ► of how AirPods would just fall out all the time.

01:08:49 ◼   ► Even my AirPods Pro, over time, they're going to work their way out of there.

01:08:55 ◼   ► This set just doesn't work for me, but I'm fine with that because I have the headphones

01:09:00 ◼   ► that I like, and I'm really happy that Apple is offering multiple products that do these

01:09:06 ◼   ► features.

01:09:07 ◼   ► I'm wearing some headphones right now that I really wish they added more features to

01:09:11 ◼   ► in the new edition, but they at least have a version of noise cancellation in all of

01:09:17 ◼   ► their AirPod line now, which I just think is good.

01:09:19 ◼   ► I think it's great that they have those options available for people who really can't suffer

01:09:25 ◼   ► the silicon tips, which I thought I was going to be one of those people, but Apple made

01:09:29 ◼   ► a version that works enough for me and I'm happy with it.

01:09:33 ◼   ► But yeah, I think it's great.

01:09:34 ◼   ► I would love to see them try to do something like the Beats ones now, the ones that go

01:09:38 ◼   ► like over your ears, you know, like they kind of clip on, what do they call it, the Powerbeats

01:09:44 ◼   ► or whatever.

01:09:45 ◼   ► Let's just make some AirPods too.

01:09:46 ◼   ► Let's just go crazy.

01:09:47 ◼   ► Yeah, Powerbeats Pro, I think those are the ones that my wife really likes because she

01:09:50 ◼   ► is doing a bunch of workouts and jumping around and kickboxing people in the air, and she's

01:09:56 ◼   ► always sworn by those.

01:09:58 ◼   ► In the air.

01:09:59 ◼   ► Wow.

01:10:00 ◼   ► Did you see the nothing open ear headphones?

01:10:03 ◼   ► Did you see these?

01:10:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:10:05 ◼   ► I saw those.

01:10:06 ◼   ► They look so good.

01:10:07 ◼   ► They look weird and cool.

01:10:08 ◼   ► Like, do you know what I mean?

01:10:09 ◼   ► Like make something like that too.

01:10:10 ◼   ► Let's just go, let's go wild with it.

01:10:12 ◼   ► I don't disagree.

01:10:14 ◼   ► It could be AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation and ear loop, you know, just keep adding modifiers.

01:10:22 ◼   ► Why not?

01:10:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:10:24 ◼   ► Why not?

01:10:25 ◼   ► Why not?

01:10:26 ◼   ► Why not?

01:10:27 ◼   ► Very strange earphones.

01:10:28 ◼   ► Really cool.

01:10:29 ◼   ► Shall we talk about Apple watch?

01:10:30 ◼   ► Because I also have, I have, I have brought, as you've seen, I've started this episode

01:10:36 ◼   ► with a menu of questions in the pre-show and then I have brought a full course of opinions

01:10:43 ◼   ► and thoughts.

01:10:44 ◼   ► We're on like a Federico tasting menu today.

01:10:48 ◼   ► I think of the three of us, you're the only one with the Series 10, right?

01:10:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:10:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:10:53 ◼   ► I think that's accurate.

01:10:55 ◼   ► Mixed feelings about it so far.

01:11:01 ◼   ► The slim profile is very nice.

01:11:04 ◼   ► I think it's lovely that it's so light, so much thinner than an Apple watch Ultra.

01:11:10 ◼   ► I, I really dig it visually speaking and like on my wrist, it feels very nice.

01:11:16 ◼   ► The speaker.

01:11:17 ◼   ► So I had high expectations for finding something I've been chasing, I guess this idea of an

01:11:28 ◼   ► always on wearable speaker, right?

01:11:35 ◼   ► It's the best part of the Meta Ray bands for me.

01:11:38 ◼   ► The fact that these are actually pretty decent speakers that I don't need to manage because

01:11:44 ◼   ► as long as I'm wearing my glasses, I also have speakers to listen to podcasts or music.

01:11:51 ◼   ► And I had high expectations for the Series 10 to sort of become an alternative to that,

01:11:57 ◼   ► to that use case.

01:11:59 ◼   ► And it's kinda halfway there and I think it mostly comes down to how audio playback is

01:12:06 ◼   ► managed on watchOS, but also the kinds of apps that I'm using.

01:12:13 ◼   ► Most apps, they still, they do not default to like playing audio via the Series 10 speakers.

01:12:21 ◼   ► So like there's always going to be like a menu that you need to go in and say, no, no,

01:12:26 ◼   ► I want to play via the Apple Watch speaker.

01:12:30 ◼   ► And I kind of wish there was a setting for me to say, not just, you know, if I tell you

01:12:34 ◼   ► so just default to the speakers.

01:12:36 ◼   ► Like don't ask me if I want to play on my phone, don't ask me if I want to wear AirPods,

01:12:40 ◼   ► just go straight to the speaker.

01:12:42 ◼   ► But more specifically, I'm using Spotify as my music and podcast app now and I have for

01:12:50 ◼   ► the past three weeks at this point and it's just the fact that the Spotify experience

01:12:55 ◼   ► on the watch kind of sucks.

01:12:56 ◼   ► And this is not Apple's fault, it's Spotify's fault, right?

01:13:00 ◼   ► Sometimes when I, when in Spotify, I manually switch from iPhone playback to Apple Watch

01:13:08 ◼   ► playback, it resets the position in an episode I'm listening to, so that's terrible.

01:13:15 ◼   ► But also the watch app of Spotify does not have playback speed controls.

01:13:21 ◼   ► I listen to all my shows at 1.3 or 1.4x and Spotify on the watch does not have playback

01:13:28 ◼   ► speed.

01:13:29 ◼   ► So all this to say, this is not Apple's fault, it's just the way that watch apps are designed

01:13:33 ◼   ► and the watch app that I specifically am using is not making me appreciate the built-in speaker

01:13:40 ◼   ► as much as I hoped it would.

01:13:45 ◼   ► The big issue that I'm having now is, well actually two, two big issues.

01:13:51 ◼   ► One, I'm pretty disappointed that despite the screen size being as big or even technically

01:13:58 ◼   ► bigger than an Apple Watch Ultra, I don't have the ultra modular, ultra watch face.

01:14:07 ◼   ► And it's silly because like it's literally the same.

01:14:10 ◼   ► It's actually one millimeter more, right, than the ultra because this is 46, the ultra

01:14:15 ◼   ► is 45, but I don't have that watch face.

01:14:19 ◼   ► And like the entire situation with watch faces on watchOS is so silly that they actually

01:14:28 ◼   ► removed some watch faces in watchOS 11.

01:14:31 ◼   ► And the fact that I have this big watch, but the ultra is 49, well, why was I convinced

01:14:39 ◼   ► that the ultra was 45?

01:14:41 ◼   ► Oh, the case size, but I mean the display is basically the same, right?

01:14:46 ◼   ► The display is bigger, it's really confusing.

01:14:50 ◼   ► The display on the Series 10 is larger than the display on the Apple Watch Ultra, but

01:14:54 ◼   ► the Apple Watch Ultra is physically bigger than the Series 10.

01:14:57 ◼   ► Yeah, but as long as I'm talking about software, like give me that, there's plenty of space

01:15:02 ◼   ► here, right, there's plenty of space on this display.

01:15:05 ◼   ► Let me use the ultra modular face.

01:15:07 ◼   ► Well, they won't let you do it because you don't have an Apple Watch Ultra, it's bananas.

01:15:11 ◼   ► Like I feel like once you've bought it, give me it everywhere.

01:15:15 ◼   ► Like why have I got to lock it in?

01:15:17 ◼   ► Like this is not the place to have opinions, like, you know.

01:15:22 ◼   ► The other problem though is once you get used to battery life on the ultra, man, going back

01:15:34 ◼   ► to a non ultra watch is rough.

01:15:39 ◼   ► I need to charge this thing every day, essentially, whereas with the ultra, you could do it every

01:15:46 ◼   ► couple of days.

01:15:47 ◼   ► And I've been using the Ultra 1, the first gen, for almost two years at this point because

01:15:54 ◼   ► I remember I got the Ultra 1 in December or January of two, sorry, it's almost two years

01:16:00 ◼   ► ago, and I've gotten so used to the idea of like, yeah, I can charge it quickly every

01:16:06 ◼   ► couple of days.

01:16:07 ◼   ► Here, I get to the end of the day because I also sleep with the watch, right, and I

01:16:11 ◼   ► get to the end of the day, I'm like, well, I got to charge it, it's an everyday thing

01:16:15 ◼   ► again, and I thought I was past it.

01:16:18 ◼   ► So the combination of these things, I don't think I will keep it, I think I will probably

01:16:26 ◼   ► go back to the ultra.

01:16:28 ◼   ► So you got that interesting contrast, right?

01:16:32 ◼   ► With the iPhone, I decided to sort of downsize and scale back to the regular model, but with

01:16:40 ◼   ► the watch, even though I'm not an extremely active person, I'm not into any of those types

01:16:47 ◼   ► of workout that the ultra is in theory designed for, but because of a different reason, I'm

01:16:54 ◼   ► actually thinking that the high-end model was better for me.

01:16:59 ◼   ► So I think it's an interesting contrast that I find myself facing this year, and right

01:17:06 ◼   ► now, despite the very nice design and the slim profile and everything, I am leaning

01:17:13 ◼   ► toward being an ultra boy again.

01:17:19 ◼   ► The battery life is my biggest concern because I've gotten so used to the fantastic battery

01:17:24 ◼   ► life on the ultra, but in the same way that I want to use the pro, I want all of the features

01:17:31 ◼   ► that I can have, and I feel like the ultra watch has a lot of features, but not necessarily

01:17:38 ◼   ► the ones that I want, and I'm concerned now with the way that they've updated it this

01:17:43 ◼   ► year that these watches are going to be off revision from each other, and the series watches

01:17:52 ◼   ► will probably get more of the features that I want and care about than the ultra watch

01:17:57 ◼   ► will, and the features the ultra watch will get are the things that are not so important

01:18:01 ◼   ► to me, like, oh, it can dive further.

01:18:08 ◼   ► Not really, not for me.

01:18:09 ◼   ► So I do think I'm going to jump to series 10.

01:18:12 ◼   ► I need to go do a try on.

01:18:15 ◼   ► My main issue, so I want the gold watch.

01:18:17 ◼   ► My main issue is the band selection right now.

01:18:20 ◼   ► Oh, yeah.

01:18:21 ◼   ► It's almost as bad as the watch features.

01:18:23 ◼   ► Yeah, because my favorite Apple watch band of all time is the magnetic leather link bracelet,

01:18:32 ◼   ► but now it's made of fine water rather than leather, and I saw one of those the other

01:18:37 ◼   ► day.

01:18:38 ◼   ► We went to the episode, I picked one up, and it just doesn't feel what I want it to feel

01:18:41 ◼   ► like.

01:18:42 ◼   ► I have one of the leather ones that's kind of new, but now I'm like, I don't want to

01:18:46 ◼   ► wear it because I'm like, I don't want to wreck it because I love this band so much.

01:18:51 ◼   ► And then so looking at the gold watch, the gold link bracelet, I love it.

01:18:56 ◼   ► No, it's look, that is a very specific product for a specific type of person.

01:19:01 ◼   ► I happen to be that person.

01:19:02 ◼   ► I don't know if I can pull it off, but I will want to wear it anyway.

01:19:06 ◼   ► The problem is it is expensive, not as expensive as I thought it would be, but it's expensive,

01:19:11 ◼   ► but it's just listed as unavailable.

01:19:14 ◼   ► Like what does that even mean?

01:19:16 ◼   ► Like there's no date on it at all.

01:19:18 ◼   ► It's just oh, it's unavailable.

01:19:19 ◼   ► So I guess, okay.

01:19:21 ◼   ► And I just feel like in general, the color choices in the bands, I don't like them this

01:19:25 ◼   ► season.

01:19:26 ◼   ► And what I want is the braided loop with a clasp.

01:19:31 ◼   ► I really like the way the braided loop looks, but I don't want a watch that I pull on and

01:19:36 ◼   ► off like that.

01:19:37 ◼   ► Like I want to take my watch off and put my watch on.

01:19:41 ◼   ► I don't want to like pull it over my hand like that is not, that's not something I want

01:19:47 ◼   ► to do.

01:19:48 ◼   ► So I don't know, what I'm considering doing, if I do go for this watch, I'm considering

01:19:55 ◼   ► doing something I've never done before, which is actually looking outside of Apple for watch

01:20:00 ◼   ► bands.

01:20:01 ◼   ► Okay.

01:20:02 ◼   ► Like there are so many companies that make them.

01:20:04 ◼   ► Right?

01:20:05 ◼   ► A lot of them are really good.

01:20:07 ◼   ► I'm sure they are.

01:20:08 ◼   ► And I've never really paid them much attention, but I think I might do that.

01:20:12 ◼   ► You know, like looking at what Nomad, Native Union, I think, but like I know Nomad make

01:20:16 ◼   ► lots of watch bands, so I might look at those too.

01:20:19 ◼   ► That might be an option for me.

01:20:21 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:20:22 ◼   ► Yeah, I dig it.

01:20:24 ◼   ► I went to the store and saw the black Ultra 2.

01:20:28 ◼   ► It looks really awesome.

01:20:29 ◼   ► Oh no, don't tell me this.

01:20:31 ◼   ► It's beautiful.

01:20:32 ◼   ► Oh my God.

01:20:33 ◼   ► It's so good looking.

01:20:34 ◼   ► No, no, no.

01:20:35 ◼   ► I didn't do anything.

01:20:36 ◼   ► I'm staying with my Ultra 1 and I'm, even though the battery life is not what it once

01:20:40 ◼   ► was, I can still get through about a day and a half.

01:20:42 ◼   ► And so I'm just being a little bit more selective with my charging, but I'm going to keep

01:20:46 ◼   ► the Ultra 1 and I did pick up the new bands in black.

01:20:52 ◼   ► So the Ocean band I'm wearing right now with the, and these bands, the new Ultra bands,

01:20:59 ◼   ► you can select if you want the hardware or the lugs, if they have metal lugs, to be the

01:21:04 ◼   ► natural titanium or the black.

01:21:06 ◼   ► So I got the natural Ocean band in black and I really like it.

01:21:10 ◼   ► And I'm going to keep this thing on my wrist for another year.

01:21:14 ◼   ► It's an awesome watch.

01:21:15 ◼   ► I have really, there's really no features of the Ultra 2 that I feel like I'm missing

01:21:20 ◼   ► out on.

01:21:21 ◼   ► And I get to keep blood oxygen because Apple for some reason has not resolved that issue.

01:21:27 ◼   ► So I'm staying put, but the black one, had there been an Ultra 3, I'd be wearing a black

01:21:32 ◼   ► one right now.

01:21:33 ◼   ► I didn't even think of that.

01:21:35 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:36 ◼   ► You'd lose the blood oxygen sensor, right?

01:21:37 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:38 ◼   ► So I got, I'm monitoring my, my blood oxygen.

01:21:40 ◼   ► Isn't it wild that they haven't resolved that?

01:21:43 ◼   ► That's mad that there's no solution to that yet.

01:21:46 ◼   ► It's just like, Oh, you just lose that.

01:21:48 ◼   ► It's like part of the vitals app just wouldn't work.

01:21:51 ◼   ► Right?

01:21:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:53 ◼   ► It's it's absolutely ridiculous.

01:21:54 ◼   ► Huh?

01:21:55 ◼   ► Apple should fix it.

01:21:56 ◼   ► Well, I think that does it for this week.

01:22:00 ◼   ► We've got a bunch of links for you to check out the most important one.

01:22:03 ◼   ► Of course, stju.org/relay, go donate, sign up to do your own fundraiser, sign up for

01:22:11 ◼   ► corporate matching, all sorts of fun stuff over there.

01:22:14 ◼   ► You can also send us feedback or follow up at relay.fm/connected.

01:22:20 ◼   ► There's also a link in the show notes to the feedback form.

01:22:23 ◼   ► And of course you can become a member, get connected pro, which is the longer ad free

01:22:27 ◼   ► version of the show each and every week.

01:22:30 ◼   ► This week, Federico and Mike quizzed me about my 20th high score union that I went to this

01:22:34 ◼   ► weekend.

01:22:35 ◼   ► And it was a good time had by all Federico had some fantastic questions that you do not

01:22:40 ◼   ► want to miss.

01:22:42 ◼   ► Really took me for a surprise.

01:22:45 ◼   ► This one question will leave you surprised, getconnectedpro.co.

01:22:51 ◼   ► That almost sounded like a, like an introduction to a game in a Nintendo Nintendo direct video.

01:22:59 ◼   ► The next game, the next question, the next question will leave you surprised.

01:23:10 ◼   ► You can find our work across the internet.

01:23:12 ◼   ► Federico is the editor in chief of max stories.net, and you can follow him on Mastodon and threads

01:23:17 ◼   ► as Vitici just search for him there.

01:23:20 ◼   ► Mike is the host of a bunch of other shows here on relay.

01:23:23 ◼   ► I will echo what Federico said the last couple of upgrades have been absolutely excellent.

01:23:28 ◼   ► And you can find him as I Mike across Mastodon and threads.

01:23:32 ◼   ► You can find me as ismh 86 and my writing at five 12 pixels.net.

01:23:38 ◼   ► And I said it earlier, but I'll say it again.

01:23:39 ◼   ► This coming Mac power users episode, talk about iPhone impressions.

01:23:43 ◼   ► We also get deep into Mac OS Sequoia iOS 18.

01:23:47 ◼   ► We didn't do that here this time due to timing and stuff, but go check out MPU on Sunday

01:23:51 ◼   ► when that comes out.

01:23:52 ◼   ► I'd like to thank our sponsors for making this episode possible.

01:23:56 ◼   ► Ecamm, Zocdoc, Vitaly, and Backblaze, and until next time guys, say goodbye.

01:24:01 ◼   ► I'll leave that to you.

01:24:03 ◼   ► Cheerio.

01:24:04 ◼   ► Bye y'all.

01:24:04 ◼   ► [BLANK_AUDIO]