Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:07 ◼   ► Front Relay, this is Connected, episode 529.

00:00:11 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by ZocDoc, Ecamm, Squarespace and Masterclass.

00:00:16 ◼   ► I am your Ricky Benchman, Mike Hurley, and I have the pleasure of introducing Federico Vittucci.

00:00:21 ◼   ► Ciao Federico.

00:00:22 ◼   ► Hello, Mike, and it's good to be back.

00:00:25 ◼   ► Welcome back Federico.

00:00:26 ◼   ► Thank you. Thank you.

00:00:28 ◼   ► And it's also my pleasure, since I'm back, to introduce Stephen Hackett.

00:00:33 ◼   ► Hello, Stephen.

00:00:34 ◼   ► Hello, Federico. Welcome back.

00:00:36 ◼   ► Hi. Thank you. How are you guys? You're doing good?

00:00:39 ◼   ► Yeah. Good.

00:00:40 ◼   ► Yeah?

00:00:41 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:00:41 ◼   ► Stephen, are you cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving?

00:00:45 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:00:47 ◼   ► There was such a good pause on that.

00:00:48 ◼   ► Let him cook.

00:00:49 ◼   ► Are you cooking? You better believe it. He's cooking up.

00:00:52 ◼   ► No, because some people buy them.

00:00:54 ◼   ► No.

00:00:55 ◼   ► Do you cook or do you buy?

00:00:57 ◼   ► So there's a more complicated answer to this.

00:01:00 ◼   ► I'm not cooking or buying a turkey.

00:01:02 ◼   ► We did buy a honey baked ham.

00:01:07 ◼   ► So we live in our hometown.

00:01:09 ◼   ► All of our parents and aunts and uncles are here.

00:01:12 ◼   ► And even as people in our late 30s, late, late, late 30s, we still...

00:01:20 ◼   ► I'm not really complaining because I don't want to do this,

00:01:23 ◼   ► but we are not the people who host the holidays.

00:01:26 ◼   ► We still go to our parents' houses.

00:01:29 ◼   ► You're still kids.

00:01:30 ◼   ► Still kids.

00:01:30 ◼   ► When it comes to the holidays.

00:01:31 ◼   ► And so we are bringing things to other people's Thanksgiving dinners.

00:01:36 ◼   ► I think we're going to four this year.

00:01:38 ◼   ► But it's...

00:01:39 ◼   ► Wait, wait, wait. Four?

00:01:42 ◼   ► So...

00:01:44 ◼   ► Oh, so it's more like a period. It's not like a single Thanksgiving day.

00:01:47 ◼   ► It's a Thanksgiving period. That's right.

00:01:50 ◼   ► It starts tonight.

00:01:51 ◼   ► A season of giving.

00:01:52 ◼   ► A season of Thanksgiving.

00:01:55 ◼   ► It starts tonight and runs through Saturday, I think is our last one.

00:01:59 ◼   ► But you know, we've got to go see my father-in-law's family.

00:02:02 ◼   ► And then we're going to go see my mother-in-law.

00:02:04 ◼   ► And then we're going to see my mom.

00:02:06 ◼   ► And then we're going to see somebody else.

00:02:07 ◼   ► Like it's just...

00:02:08 ◼   ► It's a lot.

00:02:10 ◼   ► OK.

00:02:11 ◼   ► I'm sure it's nice, but it's also rough.

00:02:13 ◼   ► Yeah, what are you bringing?

00:02:14 ◼   ► What are you bringing?

00:02:15 ◼   ► Mashed potatoes? What are you bringing?

00:02:16 ◼   ► Some salad stuff tonight, like a broccoli salad.

00:02:20 ◼   ► Mashed potatoes to one place.

00:02:22 ◼   ► OK.

00:02:23 ◼   ► That's better.

00:02:24 ◼   ► Yeah, I don't want to eat the broccoli salad.

00:02:26 ◼   ► It's just a thing.

00:02:27 ◼   ► You just take it to every one of the get-togethers because nobody eats it?

00:02:31 ◼   ► Nobody eats it.

00:02:33 ◼   ► Mary was making it yesterday.

00:02:36 ◼   ► And I came in and she was like dumping grated cheese into it.

00:02:39 ◼   ► I was like, "Oh no, I can't eat it."

00:02:41 ◼   ► You know, like, "What a bummer."

00:02:42 ◼   ► Oh no, terrible.

00:02:44 ◼   ► I was looking forward to it so much.

00:02:46 ◼   ► I know.

00:02:47 ◼   ► Yeah, so we're just, you know, we're be-bopping around.

00:02:51 ◼   ► My brother-in-law is going to come stay with us.

00:02:54 ◼   ► And it's going to be good.

00:02:55 ◼   ► It'll be a good time.

00:02:57 ◼   ► Very cool.

00:02:58 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:02:59 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:02:59 ◼   ► Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

00:03:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:01 ◼   ► We're going to do some giving of thanks at the end of the show today.

00:03:05 ◼   ► That's right.

00:03:06 ◼   ► But first, we have follow-up.

00:03:09 ◼   ► Federico, many, many, many people suggested LLM tools for you to cram your iOS and iPad OS

00:03:21 ◼   ► reviews into so then you could do like LLM things out of them.

00:03:26 ◼   ► Really, so you don't have to write one ever again.

00:03:28 ◼   ► You just tell it what you want next year.

00:03:30 ◼   ► Sure.

00:03:31 ◼   ► The top contender was Google's notebook, LLM, which lots of people wrote in and said it was perfect for.

00:03:39 ◼   ► This is the thing that makes the podcasts.

00:03:42 ◼   ► Yes.

00:03:43 ◼   ► Yes.

00:03:44 ◼   ► One of many things it does.

00:03:46 ◼   ► Yeah, but this is what I think people mostly know it for that, right?

00:03:50 ◼   ► Because that's the thing that kind of went viral.

00:03:52 ◼   ► Like it can make like the podcasts.

00:03:54 ◼   ► I mean, y'all haven't recorded an episode of analog in months.

00:03:56 ◼   ► It's just been notebook LLM.

00:03:57 ◼   ► It's just, well, here's the thing.

00:03:59 ◼   ► Multiple people have written into me to be like, "Hey, that sounds like gray," as if it's like a thing that is happening or I can do anything about.

00:04:08 ◼   ► But people think that one of the voices sounds like gray, which I can only hear in the sense of like just a slightly gravelly American.

00:04:17 ◼   ► It's like that's kind of as far as I hear it.

00:04:19 ◼   ► He is kind of gravelly.

00:04:21 ◼   ► Here's the thing though.

00:04:22 ◼   ► Let's just step back for a second.

00:04:24 ◼   ► So Gray's job is to read a bunch of stuff and write a script to make a video.

00:04:29 ◼   ► He's basically in LLM.

00:04:32 ◼   ► I'm not comfortable with where this conversation is going.

00:04:34 ◼   ► I'm just saying.

00:04:36 ◼   ► I don't want to be here while this conversation is happening.

00:04:40 ◼   ► Bye.

00:04:40 ◼   ► Other people suggested tools that support retrieval augmented generation or RNG.

00:04:49 ◼   ► I've seen that.

00:04:49 ◼   ► I never heard of that before.

00:04:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:04:51 ◼   ► I hear people say RAG a lot.

00:04:54 ◼   ► And this is the first time that I've heard the full acronym or whatever.

00:05:00 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:05:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:05:01 ◼   ► The reverse of it.

00:05:01 ◼   ► And so ChatDoc and PaperChat were two things that were suggested here.

00:05:06 ◼   ► ChatDoc.

00:05:08 ◼   ► And then you may have been actually pretty close with Claude.

00:05:12 ◼   ► On Claude Pro or Claude for Work, they have a projects feature that may also take care of this for you.

00:05:18 ◼   ► So lots of suggestions.

00:05:19 ◼   ► Let me let me offer some answers.

00:05:23 ◼   ► Okay.

00:05:24 ◼   ► Claude won't work.

00:05:26 ◼   ► That's what I already tried with projects.

00:05:28 ◼   ► You can call projects.

00:05:29 ◼   ► Did you try a Claude project?

00:05:30 ◼   ► Yeah, obviously.

00:05:31 ◼   ► I have my projects.

00:05:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:05:33 ◼   ► No, no, no.

00:05:34 ◼   ► You can.

00:05:36 ◼   ► The reviews.

00:05:37 ◼   ► If I go over three reviews, I go over the character limit for the...

00:05:42 ◼   ► Because these projects, the reference files, they're basically input tokens for the project.

00:05:48 ◼   ► So you're going over the limit and it's like it becomes a longer conversation and Claude cannot have it.

00:05:53 ◼   ► So that won't work.

00:05:55 ◼   ► However, I literally just tried, as Steven was talking, Notebook LM and it seems to be working.

00:06:06 ◼   ► I just fed it 10 iOS reviews, which are the 10 reviews I've published.

00:06:11 ◼   ► And it did a very quick scan.

00:06:14 ◼   ► And then I asked, when did widgets become interactive?

00:06:18 ◼   ► That's sort of my first question.

00:06:19 ◼   ► And it said interactive widgets were introduced to the home and lock screens in iOS 17.

00:06:26 ◼   ► And it's got...

00:06:29 ◼   ► Oh, this is actually very nice because it's got a reference that I can click and it takes me to the point

00:06:35 ◼   ► in one of the reviews where I mentioned this.

00:06:39 ◼   ► So it's linked to the source in a way that allows me to click and see my exact words.

00:06:45 ◼   ► It's called the source guide.

00:06:47 ◼   ► Let's see, do you guys have any question about the past of iOS that we can double check?

00:06:52 ◼   ► How many different versions of Control Center have there been?

00:06:59 ◼   ► How many different designs of Control Center have there been?

00:07:09 ◼   ► This is interesting because I just actually hit the same problem as you did.

00:07:12 ◼   ► So preparing for the yearly themes episode of Cortex.

00:07:15 ◼   ► And I wanted to just upload the transcripts of all of the episodes.

00:07:19 ◼   ► Because I always struggle with trying to very concisely explain yearly themes in audio.

00:07:25 ◼   ► I always feel like I could do a better job.

00:07:28 ◼   ► And so I wanted to get its help, but the transcripts were too long.

00:07:33 ◼   ► It was just like, Claude was just like, I can't do anything with this.

00:07:35 ◼   ► This is too much.

00:07:36 ◼   ► So I didn't bother in the end.

00:07:37 ◼   ► Let's see.

00:07:38 ◼   ► Control Center design through the years.

00:07:41 ◼   ► Four distinct designs, iOS 7, the debut of Control Center.

00:07:45 ◼   ► Is that right?

00:07:46 ◼   ► Was that iOS 7?

00:07:47 ◼   ► Yeah, 7.

00:07:48 ◼   ► iOS 9, this iteration featured friendlier, rounder buttons.

00:07:54 ◼   ► iOS 10, this was a radical shift that abandoned the single page design.

00:07:58 ◼   ► Yeah, this is accurate.

00:07:59 ◼   ► iOS 11, this redesign reverted to a single page layout.

00:08:03 ◼   ► iOS 18.

00:08:05 ◼   ► Okay, so this is funny.

00:08:07 ◼   ► So it got it right from iOS 7 to iOS 11.

00:08:13 ◼   ► I also fed it the iOS 18 review.

00:08:16 ◼   ► Let me double check.

00:08:18 ◼   ► I did feed it the iOS 18 review, right?

00:08:22 ◼   ► Yes, I did.

00:08:25 ◼   ► And it says at the very end, iOS 18, parentheses, not a real version, introduced a redesign

00:08:33 ◼   ► control center.

00:08:34 ◼   ► So what it's doing here is it is analyzing and quoting my iOS 18 review, but I'm betting

00:08:41 ◼   ► that because of a knowledge cutoff, it thinks that iOS 18 is fake.

00:08:45 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:08:46 ◼   ► iOS 18, not a real version.

00:08:49 ◼   ► Oh, I understand.

00:08:52 ◼   ► Because the system...

00:08:55 ◼   ► The system thinks that iOS...

00:08:56 ◼   ► ...doesn't know iOS 18 exists.

00:08:58 ◼   ► Oh, yeah.

00:09:00 ◼   ► This information is only found in the sources within the context of an iOS 18 review, which

00:09:04 ◼   ► does not exist as of October 26, 2023.

00:09:08 ◼   ► There you go.

00:09:09 ◼   ► Hilarious.

00:09:10 ◼   ► Incredible.

00:09:11 ◼   ► That's fantastic.

00:09:12 ◼   ► You could feed Gemini with like fake info now if you wanted to, maybe.

00:09:15 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:16 ◼   ► Or you could invent new versions of iOS, basically.

00:09:20 ◼   ► This is actually quite impressive for me.

00:09:22 ◼   ► I might try this too.

00:09:24 ◼   ► It's basically a search engine for my own reviews, which are...

00:09:28 ◼   ► We mentioned like it's over...

00:09:30 ◼   ► What was it?

00:09:31 ◼   ► Over half a million words?

00:09:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:35 ◼   ► Oh, this is great.

00:09:36 ◼   ► Oh my goodness, I like this idea.

00:09:37 ◼   ► Why is all of this free?

00:09:38 ◼   ► Why is this free?

00:09:40 ◼   ► Why...

00:09:41 ◼   ► Because...

00:09:42 ◼   ► Where's the catch?

00:09:43 ◼   ► Because everybody wants to charge money for these tools, but nobody knows if they can.

00:09:47 ◼   ► So everybody has to try a bunch of things to see if any people care about any of them.

00:09:52 ◼   ► And then as soon as you care about them, they can turn them into real products.

00:09:55 ◼   ► But right now it's absolutely unknown if anybody truly cares about these tools.

00:10:00 ◼   ► So here you go, have it for free.

00:10:02 ◼   ► Yeah, notebook.lam.

00:10:03 ◼   ► Well, this is going to be...

00:10:04 ◼   ► Especially the part about linking back to the exact paragraph where I say something,

00:10:10 ◼   ► that's perfect because it allows me to actually copy myself when necessary.

00:10:17 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:10:18 ◼   ► Cool.

00:10:19 ◼   ► I asked chatgpt4o, which I've been playing with.

00:10:22 ◼   ► And I did not feed it your reviews, obviously.

00:10:26 ◼   ► Yeah, and four, iOS 17, iOS 10, iOS 11, and iOS 18.

00:10:34 ◼   ► You are not amongst the sources.

00:10:36 ◼   ► Rough.

00:10:37 ◼   ► Sick.

00:10:38 ◼   ► Sick burn.

00:10:39 ◼   ► Good news, iPhone mirroring, it's pretty good.

00:10:46 ◼   ► Yeah, you're using this a lot, huh?

00:10:49 ◼   ► I am.

00:10:50 ◼   ► A ton.

00:10:51 ◼   ► Every day.

00:10:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:10:53 ◼   ► Okay.

00:10:54 ◼   ► What for?

00:10:55 ◼   ► Well, I wrote a blog post.

00:10:56 ◼   ► No, I know, but like...

00:10:57 ◼   ► You could feed into an LLM.

00:10:59 ◼   ► The blog posts, like, I don't really want to read them on the podcast, so like I kind

00:11:04 ◼   ► of use the blog post as a reason to like ask you a question.

00:11:06 ◼   ► Oh, I see.

00:11:07 ◼   ► It's like a typical podcasting like method of engaging in conversation.

00:11:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:11:12 ◼   ► It's the entire business model for upgrade, basically.

00:11:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:11:15 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:11:16 ◼   ► That's how it goes.

00:11:17 ◼   ► Yeah, that's how it goes.

00:11:18 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm using it a bunch.

00:11:19 ◼   ► I realized that it's something that has really made its way into sort of my daily work.

00:11:25 ◼   ► So you know, like everybody, I've got iOS apps that either don't run on the Mac or like

00:11:31 ◼   ► really janky on the Mac, and sometimes they're handy to get to.

00:11:36 ◼   ► Although the primary one is now available on the Mac, which we're going to talk about

00:11:39 ◼   ► a little bit later.

00:11:40 ◼   ► But my main use is running test flight builds of WidgetSmith and Ponomino++ and Sleep++,

00:11:47 ◼   ► like as David is working on them, I can, of course, I can build them in Xcode and run

00:11:52 ◼   ► them in the simulator.

00:11:53 ◼   ► And I do that.

00:11:54 ◼   ► But there are also times like it's just easier to have the test flight and or even if I'm

00:11:59 ◼   ► just like helping somebody with something or like looking something up, like being able

00:12:03 ◼   ► to open the app from my phone, but on the Mac and like just quickly do it.

00:12:09 ◼   ► It's pretty great.

00:12:10 ◼   ► The app itself, you know, there's a little, you know, there's some weirdness.

00:12:13 ◼   ► It definitely works better with a trackpad than a mouse.

00:12:16 ◼   ► Some of the gestures and stuff just don't really don't really work if you're on a mouse.

00:12:21 ◼   ► And there's no way to get to control center.

00:12:24 ◼   ► I do this by having a shortcut, but it's not easy.

00:12:30 ◼   ► They have keyboard shortcuts for like the home screen and the app switcher.

00:12:34 ◼   ► And so I hope that control center of which there have been four designs, apparently that

00:12:39 ◼   ► would be more easily done because they have keyboard shortcuts.

00:12:43 ◼   ► Command one is home screen.

00:12:44 ◼   ► Command two is app switch or command three is spotlight.

00:12:48 ◼   ► And you can make the sizes larger or smaller of the whole phone.

00:12:51 ◼   ► That was something I saw a lot in response to this blog post was, oh, it takes up too

00:12:55 ◼   ► much screen on my laptop or not enough.

00:12:58 ◼   ► I want it bigger.

00:12:59 ◼   ► You do have some control over that, but not a ton.

00:13:03 ◼   ► But I think the big thing that's missing right now is like easy access to control center.

00:13:08 ◼   ► How do you change the size?

00:13:11 ◼   ► Under if in-earring on the Mac under view, there's larger and smaller.

00:13:17 ◼   ► Man, I missed that.

00:13:19 ◼   ► This is like one of the reasons I haven't been using it because I'm like, I don't I

00:13:22 ◼   ► don't think it's big enough.

00:13:24 ◼   ► OK, this is good to know.

00:13:27 ◼   ► This is good to know.

00:13:29 ◼   ► Yeah, it is a feature.

00:13:30 ◼   ► It's like the one the reason I wanted to ask you about it is like it's a thing that I've

00:13:35 ◼   ► used and I'm like, this is really cool.

00:13:38 ◼   ► I just don't know what I would use it for.

00:13:42 ◼   ► For me, my iPhone is like there, you know, like one that use the way I use my iPhone.

00:13:48 ◼   ► So I love the feature.

00:13:50 ◼   ► I think it's a fantastic thing.

00:13:51 ◼   ► I just have yet to find like a really good use case for my own.

00:13:57 ◼   ► Yes.

00:13:58 ◼   ► So my question was going to be to Federico.

00:13:59 ◼   ► Like, do you think this could make an impact or has it already made an impact in your writing

00:14:04 ◼   ► like you're covering an iPhone app?

00:14:06 ◼   ► I guess you're not using a Mac.

00:14:07 ◼   ► Maybe this is a question for John.

00:14:09 ◼   ► John, let us know.

00:14:11 ◼   ► Yeah, I haven't touched my Mac in months.

00:14:16 ◼   ► So this I just made it larger and this is perfect.

00:14:19 ◼   ► This one is what I want.

00:14:21 ◼   ► Federico is your Mac still cut in half?

00:14:24 ◼   ► It still is.

00:14:25 ◼   ► Yes.

00:14:26 ◼   ► It's always it's still that Mac.

00:14:27 ◼   ► I just don't use it anymore.

00:14:29 ◼   ► Where's the screen?

00:14:33 ◼   ► In the trash?

00:14:34 ◼   ► You got rid of it?

00:14:35 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:14:36 ◼   ► I thought I was going to put it back together.

00:14:40 ◼   ► I thought maybe you were storing it.

00:14:42 ◼   ► No, man.

00:14:43 ◼   ► When it dies, it dies.

00:14:45 ◼   ► Whatever.

00:14:46 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:14:47 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:14:49 ◼   ► I think I missed that when we talked about this the first time.

00:14:52 ◼   ► No, no.

00:14:53 ◼   ► It might have been the first time you said that.

00:14:54 ◼   ► I kept it.

00:14:55 ◼   ► Yes, I kept it initially.

00:14:57 ◼   ► And then actually like a month ago, I was like, yeah, I'm never going to put it back

00:15:00 ◼   ► together.

00:15:01 ◼   ► I'm never going to do it.

00:15:02 ◼   ► Might as well recycle.

00:15:04 ◼   ► So I put it in the recycling thing and got rid of it.

00:15:09 ◼   ► Wow.

00:15:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:15:11 ◼   ► Okay.

00:15:12 ◼   ► I have a gamer follow up for gamers.

00:15:15 ◼   ► So it's time to rise up gamers.

00:15:17 ◼   ► Welcome in.

00:15:18 ◼   ► Taylor wrote in and connected 528 Steven.

00:15:21 ◼   ► He spelled it with a V, but I forgive you Taylor.

00:15:24 ◼   ► Mentioned that there's never been a successful app store that wasn't part of a platform.

00:15:29 ◼   ► I think Steam is the key counter example there.

00:15:33 ◼   ► It has been wildly successful and is very much not part of the Windows platform.

00:15:38 ◼   ► Valve's new foray into being a hardware platform owner with a Steam deck has been successful

00:15:43 ◼   ► because of Steam, not the other way around.

00:15:45 ◼   ► What do y'all think?

00:15:47 ◼   ► I agree.

00:15:48 ◼   ► And I think if anyone failed, it was me for not realizing this and pointing it out in

00:15:52 ◼   ► the episode.

00:15:53 ◼   ► Fake gamer.

00:15:54 ◼   ► Fake gamer.

00:15:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:15:56 ◼   ► Fake gamers rise up.

00:15:57 ◼   ► No, this is legit.

00:15:58 ◼   ► Like Steam have made, I mean, it's a software store, right?

00:16:03 ◼   ► It's not an app store.

00:16:05 ◼   ► But essentially that's the same thing.

00:16:08 ◼   ► And they have been incredibly successful.

00:16:09 ◼   ► And they're successful in multiple places.

00:16:13 ◼   ► Obviously their business model is different to Apple's, which is in that it's not only

00:16:18 ◼   ► first party, right?

00:16:19 ◼   ► Like the Steam, Steam does not only exist in the Steam deck, right?

00:16:23 ◼   ► It's on anything that can run it.

00:16:25 ◼   ► They will just put it there.

00:16:26 ◼   ► They don't care.

00:16:27 ◼   ► They'll put it on the Mac too.

00:16:28 ◼   ► Like they'll put it anywhere that they're allowed.

00:16:30 ◼   ► And if like PlayStation would let them, they put it on there too.

00:16:33 ◼   ► Like they will put it anywhere that they can.

00:16:36 ◼   ► But they have been very successful.

00:16:37 ◼   ► And even similarly, they are kind of an outlier too, where they're successful and there aren't

00:16:44 ◼   ► really anybody, a lot of the other game stores doing fine, but not to Steam's level.

00:16:51 ◼   ► I completely agree.

00:16:53 ◼   ► This is a very good exception.

00:16:57 ◼   ► Probably the only one.

00:16:58 ◼   ► Because I mean, we've seen, you know, Epic game store.

00:17:03 ◼   ► It's not really taken off.

00:17:05 ◼   ► So yeah, I don't know what else to say.

00:17:07 ◼   ► I wish I thought of it, but yeah, Taylor is right.

00:17:10 ◼   ► Good job, Taylor.

00:17:14 ◼   ► Good news.

00:17:15 ◼   ► The Relay membership sale continues.

00:17:18 ◼   ► You want to go to giverelay.com and you can get 20% off any annual plan across any show

00:17:28 ◼   ► on Relay.

00:17:29 ◼   ► But this is connected, right?

00:17:30 ◼   ► So I'm gonna tell you about Connected Pro.

00:17:32 ◼   ► Connected Pro is a longer ad-free version of the show.

00:17:36 ◼   ► We do each and every single week.

00:17:40 ◼   ► This week we spoke about holiday planning and the new Linkin Park album.

00:17:44 ◼   ► And at the end of the show, we picked titles.

00:17:46 ◼   ► That's also part of Connected Pro, but it's longer ad-free version.

00:17:50 ◼   ► It is normally $70 a year, but it's 20% off right now at giverelay.com.

00:17:56 ◼   ► But in addition to Connected Pro, you also get a bunch of other really cool perks.

00:18:00 ◼   ► You get access to the Relay members Discord, which is the best place on the internet, access

00:18:06 ◼   ► to a monthly newsletter and a couple of monthly members only podcasts.

00:18:11 ◼   ► Mike, do you want to tell people about those?

00:18:13 ◼   ► Yeah, so these are two different podcasts that are available for all Relay members.

00:18:19 ◼   ► One is called Spotlight and one is called Backstage.

00:18:21 ◼   ► On Backstage, it's a monthly show where me and Steven come together.

00:18:24 ◼   ► We talk about what's going on with us with Relay.

00:18:27 ◼   ► We talk about the behind the scenes stuff and we take questions from Discord members.

00:18:32 ◼   ► And then there's also Spotlight where Kathy Campbell interviews a Relay host and that

00:18:37 ◼   ► can be, again, and these questions are again also all taken from the Discord.

00:18:42 ◼   ► And these are monthly bonus content for every Relay member.

00:18:46 ◼   ► Yep, go check it out.

00:18:49 ◼   ► Giverelay.com.

00:18:50 ◼   ► This runs until December 18th.

00:18:53 ◼   ► So you got a little bit of time, but now is a great time.

00:18:55 ◼   ► So get it for yourself.

00:18:57 ◼   ► Get it for a nerdy friend.

00:18:58 ◼   ► I think you will enjoy it.

00:19:00 ◼   ► Yeah, it seems that you can buy these for yourself or you can send this to somebody

00:19:04 ◼   ► in your life, you know, who's looking to get you a stock and stuff and be like, oh, hey,

00:19:09 ◼   ► make me a cool person and get me a Relay membership.

00:19:11 ◼   ► Yep.

00:19:12 ◼   ► You can put the three of us in a stocking for somebody.

00:19:16 ◼   ► And who wouldn't want that?

00:19:17 ◼   ► You know, they'd be like, Merry Christmas, because we'd be really small, right?

00:19:22 ◼   ► So like we'd be tiny like that.

00:19:23 ◼   ► So that's how it was.

00:19:24 ◼   ► I was picturing a giant stocking to be honest.

00:19:26 ◼   ► Nope.

00:19:27 ◼   ► Regular stocking.

00:19:28 ◼   ► Regular stocking.

00:19:29 ◼   ► Tiny podcasters.

00:19:30 ◼   ► Merry Christmas.

00:19:31 ◼   ► Follow out.

00:19:32 ◼   ► What's up with this, Federico?

00:19:34 ◼   ► Oh, yes.

00:19:35 ◼   ► Yes, yes, yes.

00:19:36 ◼   ► I was listening to Upgrade, you know.

00:19:40 ◼   ► Upgrade, you know, as I do every week.

00:19:43 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:19:44 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:19:45 ◼   ► I've been listening to you and Jason, Mike, at 1.5x.

00:19:48 ◼   ► I've gotten used to it now.

00:19:49 ◼   ► I progressively worked my way through starting with 1.2, 1.3.

00:19:54 ◼   ► For a long time, I stayed at 1.4 because I was struggling with Jason.

00:19:58 ◼   ► Not so much with you, Mike.

00:19:59 ◼   ► You're more of a slow talker than Jason.

00:20:02 ◼   ► But now I've gotten used to 1.5.

00:20:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:20:05 ◼   ► And anyway, Jason had-

00:20:07 ◼   ► People always say, right?

00:20:08 ◼   ► Like, we hit a sort of time, you meet people and they're like, "Oh, you talk slower than

00:20:13 ◼   ► I thought."

00:20:14 ◼   ► Because they're used to listening to us.

00:20:15 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:20:16 ◼   ► Isn't that a problem?

00:20:17 ◼   ► Because you actually, like, we're doing this right now.

00:20:18 ◼   ► Is this not- am I not like really boring for you right now?

00:20:20 ◼   ► Like, I'm too slow for you?

00:20:22 ◼   ► No, because when we're live, you know, there's the excitement, there's the adrenaline of

00:20:26 ◼   ► being live.

00:20:27 ◼   ► The adrenaline at the moment speeds up life.

00:20:29 ◼   ► The adrenaline of Zoom, you know, in the moment.

00:20:32 ◼   ► Like, this is happening now.

00:20:34 ◼   ► But then when you're listening to a podcast later, when it's async, as they say-

00:20:38 ◼   ► Whoa.

00:20:39 ◼   ► In Silicon Valley, then that's when I speed you up.

00:20:43 ◼   ► Anyway, Jason had this really good story and it's really good segment on the show about

00:20:48 ◼   ► the fact that the Mac is the model for app distribution that Apple should follow and

00:20:56 ◼   ► that the App Store era should end.

00:20:58 ◼   ► Go read that story and go listen to that segment.

00:21:01 ◼   ► I don't want to rehash all of it here.

00:21:04 ◼   ► But I agree with Jason.

00:21:06 ◼   ► And I was thinking, I had this thought.

00:21:07 ◼   ► I don't think it's a coincidence, given that old story with the App Store, the gatekeeping,

00:21:15 ◼   ► the regulations in Europe and other places.

00:21:18 ◼   ► I don't think it's a coincidence that by far the biggest innovation in tech in recent years,

00:21:27 ◼   ► large language models and chatbots.

00:21:30 ◼   ► I don't think it's a coincidence that it's coming from the web and from web apps.

00:21:35 ◼   ► I think there's a whole generation of new builders, right?

00:21:42 ◼   ► Whether it's programmers or designers or people who just want to build stuff.

00:21:46 ◼   ► And they're doing that on the web.

00:21:48 ◼   ► They're doing that with web app and web services and web APIs.

00:21:51 ◼   ► I think there is a line that you can draw from the App Store and our phones and our

00:21:57 ◼   ► tablets being unwelcoming places for coders and programmers to this new generation of kids.

00:22:06 ◼   ► And now 20-something-year-olds funding startups or getting hired by startups, building and

00:22:13 ◼   ► going to the web as the de facto place where they can just build with no control, with

00:22:20 ◼   ► no gatekeeping.

00:22:21 ◼   ► They can do it.

00:22:22 ◼   ► They can progress their ideas safely.

00:22:27 ◼   ► And it's actually like, I really like this point of view.

00:22:32 ◼   ► Because it's building on something that we were talking about on the show, right?

00:22:36 ◼   ► Which is like the ideas that never happened, right?

00:22:40 ◼   ► There have been ideas in technology that have never come to pass because they were ultimately

00:22:46 ◼   ► going to have an app that somebody knew Apple wouldn't allow.

00:22:50 ◼   ► And this situation, it makes it easy to not have to worry about this stuff.

00:22:58 ◼   ► You can have an idea for these new forms of technology.

00:23:01 ◼   ► And as you say, really it's all happening on servers.

00:23:04 ◼   ► And you can just have it happen on the web.

00:23:06 ◼   ► And maybe there can be an app, but it also doesn't need one.

00:23:09 ◼   ► And yeah, I think you're right.

00:23:14 ◼   ► I would feel confident saying that that is not a coincidence.

00:23:18 ◼   ► So very good point.

00:23:20 ◼   ► I went to go get that Mac world link for the show notes.

00:23:22 ◼   ► And I just, I realized, and I read this article and I linked to it.

00:23:26 ◼   ► I didn't notice.

00:23:27 ◼   ► I've seen this image so many times.

00:23:29 ◼   ► The top photo, I was just from Foundry, whatever that is, is a desk with an iMac.

00:23:35 ◼   ► So you have the keyboard and the mouse, but the iMac is turned around.

00:23:39 ◼   ► So if you were sitting here, you're looking at the back of the screen.

00:23:43 ◼   ► Very confusing.

00:23:44 ◼   ► But the keyboard and mouse is in front of it.

00:23:46 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:23:47 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:23:48 ◼   ► So two books with Mac world on the cover?

00:23:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:23:53 ◼   ► Why?

00:23:54 ◼   ► So I think I know what those are.

00:23:56 ◼   ► When I worked at the college paper, we had these.

00:23:59 ◼   ► It was every year we had all of the newspapers bound into a book for archival purposes.

00:24:06 ◼   ► So I would guess that those are archival magazines and I would love to scan them.

00:24:11 ◼   ► So someone send them to me, please.

00:24:13 ◼   ► I mean, look, it's obviously a good image because the Mac looks good, right?

00:24:18 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:24:19 ◼   ► If you turn it around, but it's still a very funny thing to see.

00:24:23 ◼   ► It's like, oh, I got to get some work done, but I don't want to see it.

00:24:28 ◼   ► Considering Federico was very kind in bringing a upgrade for follow out, I also wanted to

00:24:33 ◼   ► follow out to two other podcasts.

00:24:36 ◼   ► One is to Mac Power Users episode 772, which is one half of the State of the Platform series

00:24:42 ◼   ► that Stephen and David do every year, right?

00:24:46 ◼   ► You do it every year.

00:24:47 ◼   ► We do.

00:24:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:24:49 ◼   ► And it's basically looking at every device platform and operating system, going through

00:24:53 ◼   ► them and giving your overall thoughts on them for the year.

00:24:56 ◼   ► And I thought it was really good.

00:24:58 ◼   ► And obviously the second part of that I assume is coming this weekend.

00:25:01 ◼   ► It is Sunday afternoon, part two.

00:25:04 ◼   ► And then the most recent episode of App Stories, Federico, you weren't on it, which is a shame,

00:25:10 ◼   ► but I also really enjoyed it.

00:25:13 ◼   ► Not because of that, but just like in addition to maybe is the word I'm looking for.

00:25:17 ◼   ► But basically I enjoyed App Stories.

00:25:20 ◼   ► One True John had Brendan Bigley on the show.

00:25:22 ◼   ► And again, just like Brendan's really cool.

00:25:25 ◼   ► Like Brendan is just like so cool.

00:25:27 ◼   ► Yes, we have established that you think Brendan is cool and I am not cool anymore.

00:25:33 ◼   ► You are cool, but Brendan is also cool.

00:25:37 ◼   ► Not as much as Brendan.

00:25:38 ◼   ► But also, I don't know Brendan, right?

00:25:41 ◼   ► So that makes him cooler.

00:25:43 ◼   ► Oh, so that's fascinating for you.

00:25:45 ◼   ► I see.

00:25:46 ◼   ► Because it's like this aura of mystery around Brendan.

00:25:50 ◼   ► Yes.

00:25:51 ◼   ► Okay.

00:25:52 ◼   ► I would like a personal relationship with Brendan, but I don't have one.

00:25:55 ◼   ► Right.

00:25:56 ◼   ► So he is both cool and unattainable to me.

00:26:00 ◼   ► So that makes him even cooler.

00:26:02 ◼   ► You know, he's just out there being cool and taking like cool photos and going to Paris.

00:26:08 ◼   ► So it's a yes.

00:26:09 ◼   ► Yes.

00:26:10 ◼   ► And I can't get to him.

00:26:11 ◼   ► So cool.

00:26:12 ◼   ► I bet he's taller than you are.

00:26:13 ◼   ► Do you think he's taller than you are?

00:26:16 ◼   ► No, I think Mike is taller.

00:26:18 ◼   ► Yeah, but I think he is though.

00:26:20 ◼   ► You gave me the like my initial instinct.

00:26:23 ◼   ► Giving you tall vibes.

00:26:25 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:26:26 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:26:27 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:26:28 ◼   ► I don't know if the tall thing, the tall thing and cool don't go together.

00:26:32 ◼   ► It's like tall and like, oh, can you be cool?

00:26:34 ◼   ► I think this person is smarter than me.

00:26:37 ◼   ► Can you be cool in a small package?

00:26:38 ◼   ► Yeah, you can be cool in small.

00:26:41 ◼   ► Okay.

00:26:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:26:43 ◼   ► Small is cool.

00:26:44 ◼   ► Okay.

00:26:45 ◼   ► I see.

00:26:47 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by ZocDoc.

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00:28:18 ◼   ► Our thanks to ZocDoc for sponsoring the show and for supporting Relay.

00:28:24 ◼   ► So we live in the age of social media for good and bad.

00:28:27 ◼   ► It's back and no one can stop it.

00:28:28 ◼   ► No one can stop it.

00:28:29 ◼   ► Here we are.

00:28:30 ◼   ► I want to talk a little bit about Blue Sky next week, which I didn't once call Blueski,

00:28:34 ◼   ► which I did want to do and I don't know if anybody's done yet.

00:28:40 ◼   ► Like how I call Mastodon the Don, I think we should call this one Blueski because I

00:28:44 ◼   ► just think that that's funnier.

00:28:47 ◼   ► And is it one word?

00:28:48 ◼   ► It is.

00:28:50 ◼   ► It's not camel cased.

00:28:52 ◼   ► It's just Blue Sky with all lower case after.

00:28:55 ◼   ► I've been camel casing it because that makes the most sense to me.

00:28:59 ◼   ► Okay, so Blueski, I wanted to get Federico, me and Steven gave our like early thoughts

00:29:05 ◼   ► on Blueski and I have some more.

00:29:07 ◼   ► I do have some continued thoughts because I've been using it more of the week, but I

00:29:13 ◼   ► wanted to get your thoughts, your initial thoughts on it too Federico.

00:29:16 ◼   ► What are you thinking about Blue Sky?

00:29:17 ◼   ► I like it.

00:29:18 ◼   ► It gives me so far at least a very early Twitter vibes like that era of like 2010, 2011.

00:29:26 ◼   ► Just last night I saw the developers of Halide and Kino put together a giveaway for indie

00:29:37 ◼   ► developers like, yes, this is exactly Twitter 15 years ago.

00:29:41 ◼   ► What is it?

00:29:42 ◼   ► Mac Heist?

00:29:43 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

00:29:44 ◼   ► That's, I also used to organize those giveaways.

00:29:47 ◼   ► So it's like, yes, that is, that is excellent.

00:29:50 ◼   ► It's exactly that type of vibe.

00:29:53 ◼   ► I like it.

00:29:54 ◼   ► I think it's the kind of Twitter like product that I've been missing so much.

00:29:59 ◼   ► Not just because I dislike Mastodon.

00:30:02 ◼   ► I really like Mastodon and I'm really grateful to have quite an audience there.

00:30:08 ◼   ► But I was missing this type of thing.

00:30:10 ◼   ► Obviously I don't want to post anything on X, but I was missing the shorter posts which

00:30:19 ◼   ► require me once again to exercise that muscle in my brain because I got so used to the longer

00:30:24 ◼   ► character limit on Mastodon.

00:30:25 ◼   ► I was very surprised at how often I was hitting the character limit.

00:30:30 ◼   ► I'm like, what are you talking about?

00:30:32 ◼   ► How dare you?

00:30:34 ◼   ► How dare you?

00:30:35 ◼   ► And I think I'm liking it so far because it's that mix of, oh, there's the nerds, but there's

00:30:42 ◼   ► also like people who are interested in art, entertainment.

00:30:46 ◼   ► There's the, you know, there's a wider mix of people instead of like, just like everybody

00:30:52 ◼   ► being sort of adjacent to me.

00:30:55 ◼   ► So that's what I appreciate.

00:30:57 ◼   ► It's obviously very early.

00:30:58 ◼   ► It's missing a lot of features.

00:31:00 ◼   ► The fact that there's no replies view is wild.

00:31:05 ◼   ► I appreciate the better moderation tools.

00:31:08 ◼   ► The sort of that I've been, I can say that I've been thought through better, you know,

00:31:16 ◼   ► as a post Twitter product, like being able to detach a post from a quote post because

00:31:22 ◼   ► people are dunking on you.

00:31:24 ◼   ► Being able to subscribe to a block list and block all the accounts in that block list.

00:31:29 ◼   ► Like all those things, they make me more optimistic about Blue Sky compared to other products.

00:31:38 ◼   ► They have a lot of work to do.

00:31:41 ◼   ► There's no iPad app.

00:31:43 ◼   ► And sort of the backdrop in all this is that for me, Threads, and I know you're going to

00:31:52 ◼   ► disagree with me strongly, Mike.

00:31:54 ◼   ► Threads has really gone off the rails for me.

00:31:57 ◼   ► I ain't disagreeing.

00:31:58 ◼   ► I ain't disagreeing now.

00:31:59 ◼   ► I think, I think Blue Sky has shown what Threads should have been.

00:32:04 ◼   ► Yes, yes.

00:32:05 ◼   ► It's the, I don't know.

00:32:07 ◼   ► I don't think I've done anything wrong with my Google searches in a way that could potentially

00:32:13 ◼   ► influence the algorithm on Threads.

00:32:15 ◼   ► But I don't know.

00:32:16 ◼   ► It's almost like after the US elections, they flipped the switch and it became this, the

00:32:23 ◼   ► main feed became this weird mix of like pure engagement, baity stuff and people complaining

00:32:30 ◼   ► or praising Trump.

00:32:33 ◼   ► Oh, it's like, I don't want to see any of this.

00:32:38 ◼   ► Can I ask how recent has this been?

00:32:41 ◼   ► Because they, we're going to talk about it, but like they just made some changes to the

00:32:45 ◼   ► main feed.

00:32:46 ◼   ► Even yesterday.

00:32:47 ◼   ► Even yesterday.

00:32:48 ◼   ► Okay.

00:32:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:32:50 ◼   ► Something's poisoned your algorithm.

00:32:51 ◼   ► Something has, something has.

00:32:52 ◼   ► And I think, I look at Blue Sky and I look at Threads.

00:32:56 ◼   ► So I'm always going to keep Mastodon there on the side.

00:32:59 ◼   ► That's where the nerds hang out.

00:33:01 ◼   ► That's the equivalent of going to, it's basically the equivalent of going to a meetup for your

00:33:05 ◼   ► favorite tech podcast.

00:33:07 ◼   ► It's your people are there.

00:33:10 ◼   ► But when I look at Threads and Blue Sky as the other possibly wider social space, Blue

00:33:18 ◼   ► Sky right now has the momentum and none of the engagement baity stuff that Threads has.

00:33:25 ◼   ► Will it last?

00:33:26 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:33:27 ◼   ► But you asked me for my opinion right now and that's my opinion right now.

00:33:31 ◼   ► Like the engagement bait exists on the platform, but you just not following the people, right?

00:33:37 ◼   ► Which is like, that's the idea.

00:33:39 ◼   ► It's also not heavily recommended to me.

00:33:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:33:43 ◼   ► Like you can go find it, but like you gotta, you gotta choose to go there.

00:33:47 ◼   ► Right.

00:33:48 ◼   ► To go find it.

00:33:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:33:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:33:51 ◼   ► So it's fun.

00:33:52 ◼   ► I'm, you know, I'm posting there and you know, even the silly stuff that wouldn't necessarily

00:33:59 ◼   ► be appreciated.

00:34:01 ◼   ► Like yesterday, for example, I posted a stupid thing about Drake suing Apple because Drake

00:34:06 ◼   ► thinks that Siri recommended Kendrick Lamar songs over his songs.

00:34:12 ◼   ► Yes.

00:34:13 ◼   ► I saw that and it is gold.

00:34:16 ◼   ► Like that post wouldn't have gone well on Mastodon.

00:34:18 ◼   ► I would have gotten a guy on Mastodon on me like, ah, so do you agree with Drizz?

00:34:25 ◼   ► You know, the type of reply you would have gotten on Mastodon.

00:34:28 ◼   ► Um, no, I just think it's silly.

00:34:30 ◼   ► I just think it's silly, you know?

00:34:32 ◼   ► And that's the guy.

00:34:33 ◼   ► That guy would be like, Oh, do you know Drake?

00:34:39 ◼   ► You know, something about politics or whatever.

00:34:43 ◼   ► Um, and instead of blue sky, you can just, you can be a poster without caring about it.

00:34:49 ◼   ► So that's what I, that's what I was missing.

00:34:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:34:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:34:53 ◼   ► I would say the vibe remains good.

00:34:57 ◼   ► I'll start another week.

00:34:58 ◼   ► I think my vibe, the vibes are good.

00:35:00 ◼   ► But again, like you've said it Federico and everyone's saying it, but I'm going to say

00:35:04 ◼   ► it as well.

00:35:05 ◼   ► It does really feel to me like when I enjoyed Twitter, it felt like this, um, of like the,

00:35:13 ◼   ► the type of content that I'm seeing.

00:35:15 ◼   ► Um, do you know what, honestly, I think I might've just hit what it was in my mind.

00:35:21 ◼   ► Like for me, cause I use the official Twitter app.

00:35:23 ◼   ► Right.

00:35:24 ◼   ► And I think you did too Federico, right?

00:35:25 ◼   ► Or at least you moved in and out of it.

00:35:27 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:35:28 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:35:29 ◼   ► I mean, like, and I didn't really use the for you feed, but you're, even if you didn't

00:35:35 ◼   ► use it, there was still like an element of like people playing to the algorithm, I guess

00:35:41 ◼   ► where blue sky is not really like that as you say.

00:35:45 ◼   ► And so maybe that is what, what made Twitter bad was people playing to the algorithm and

00:35:50 ◼   ► like it, like a lot of these services, it's just that kind of content isn't for me.

00:35:56 ◼   ► Um, it surprises me some of the features that they don't have.

00:36:02 ◼   ► Like that's, that's the thing that I've noticed in the past week of having used it more, the

00:36:06 ◼   ► ability to not turn off reposts from people.

00:36:10 ◼   ► That is a significant issue for me because I try my best to see as little politics, uh,

00:36:18 ◼   ► as possible in these feeds.

00:36:19 ◼   ► And like, so I want the, I want that gone.

00:36:21 ◼   ► Like there are people who I want to follow, but I don't want their opinions on everything.

00:36:27 ◼   ► And that includes like the, the things that they reshare.

00:36:31 ◼   ► And so like the fact that I can't turn that off is like wild to me.

00:36:34 ◼   ► And also I cannot believe that they don't have editing.

00:36:37 ◼   ► There's no editing.

00:36:38 ◼   ► Like what year is it?

00:36:39 ◼   ► You know, I can't edit posts.

00:36:41 ◼   ► Like what is happening?

00:36:42 ◼   ► Um, but yeah, so there's some, there's some creakiness I think to the, to it, but overall,

00:36:49 ◼   ► uh, I like it.

00:36:50 ◼   ► And like the main thing for me is that like, there are people that I want to see that aren't

00:36:54 ◼   ► there.

00:36:55 ◼   ► I actually think I'm going to get into that more in a minute.

00:36:56 ◼   ► So, uh, Steven, what are you feeling?

00:37:00 ◼   ► I think my feelings basically mirror yours.

00:37:03 ◼   ► The more time I've spent on it, the more I'm sort of frustrated by some of the lack of

00:37:07 ◼   ► what we consider, you know, basically like needed features at this point.

00:37:13 ◼   ► Um, but also like I don't envy their position of like, you've been working on this thing

00:37:18 ◼   ► for a while and you're having these, this big wave of growth right now.

00:37:22 ◼   ► Like, I'm sure that's stressful and like there have been times where like, it just doesn't

00:37:27 ◼   ► work.

00:37:28 ◼   ► And you know, I think they're scrambling to shore up the, the base of what they have before

00:37:33 ◼   ► they can work on new features.

00:37:35 ◼   ► And that's, uh, that's just part of this.

00:37:37 ◼   ► I think.

00:37:38 ◼   ► Um, one thing I'm really, I really like, and I did one, so we set up a relay account and

00:37:44 ◼   ► I set up a starter pack on that with all of our like hosts and like moderators that kind

00:37:49 ◼   ► of relay people who are on blue sky.

00:37:52 ◼   ► But I think that's a really cool feature because it's, it's like a list, but it's more interesting

00:37:58 ◼   ► than that.

00:37:59 ◼   ► You can kind of talk about, you know, why this exists.

00:38:02 ◼   ► And like, I know y'all did the same thing over on max stories, Federico, but in it there's

00:38:08 ◼   ► like even that's kind of buggy.

00:38:10 ◼   ► So like Kathy Campbell, our community manager is on blue sky.

00:38:13 ◼   ► I follow her.

00:38:14 ◼   ► I cannot add her to the starter pack.

00:38:16 ◼   ► Like it does not find her searching for her from the starter pack user interface.

00:38:22 ◼   ► Maybe Kathy blocked you.

00:38:24 ◼   ► Maybe Kathy blocked me.

00:38:25 ◼   ► Have you thought about that?

00:38:26 ◼   ► Or blocked.

00:38:27 ◼   ► This is how I find out.

00:38:30 ◼   ► And so, you know, again, I, that's not a problem.

00:38:32 ◼   ► I think it's a growing pains.

00:38:33 ◼   ► And again, like I'm sure they have people working bananas hours right now to keep things

00:38:38 ◼   ► moving and I definitely don't envy that.

00:38:40 ◼   ► Um, the thing I'm really struck by every time I log in is they just ripped off Twitter's

00:38:45 ◼   ► UI.

00:38:46 ◼   ► Like it looks like Twitter.

00:38:48 ◼   ► If you, if you did like the Pepsi challenge between these two user interfaces, I'm not

00:38:52 ◼   ► sure you could tell the difference.

00:38:53 ◼   ► Well, didn't it start as a Twitter spinoff years ago with Jack Dorsey there and Jack

00:39:00 ◼   ► Dorsey is gone.

00:39:01 ◼   ► You know, it's, it's different leadership and I get it like Twitter for better, for

00:39:06 ◼   ► worse.

00:39:07 ◼   ► I've been able to, you know, work on that UI for a long time and I guess standing on

00:39:11 ◼   ► their shoulders is fine, but like threads is I think an example of like how it can be

00:39:16 ◼   ► really different.

00:39:17 ◼   ► Like threads doesn't look like Twitter or blue sky in terms of where things are.

00:39:21 ◼   ► And uh, I just, every time I log in, I'm like, Oh yeah, like you're, you're actually really

00:39:26 ◼   ► kind of similar UI wise.

00:39:27 ◼   ► But I agree the vibes were good.

00:39:29 ◼   ► How long that last beats me.

00:39:30 ◼   ► I'm not optimistic longterm about any of these things, but for now it's fun.

00:39:36 ◼   ► And threads threads has been running scared in the last seven days.

00:39:40 ◼   ► It's incredible.

00:39:41 ◼   ► It's absolutely incredible to see.

00:39:43 ◼   ► So this is what's happened in the last week.

00:39:46 ◼   ► They first tuned the algorithm to make it show more of the people you follow.

00:39:50 ◼   ► So like on the algorithm page and I saw mine change immediately and like there are people

00:39:57 ◼   ► I'm like, Oh yeah, I follow you.

00:39:58 ◼   ► Like I'd complete, I hadn't seen these people's posts in ages.

00:40:01 ◼   ► Uh, then they enabled a, their version of a custom feeds feature.

00:40:05 ◼   ► So there are hashtags on threads and you can make any hashtag like a custom feed that you

00:40:11 ◼   ► were, you just see content about that hashtag, which is whatever.

00:40:16 ◼   ► They then announced a test.

00:40:19 ◼   ► They let you set any of these feeds as a default, which would include the following feed.

00:40:23 ◼   ► So you will basically be able to have a default at the following feed.

00:40:27 ◼   ► And then today I think that's so Stephen just put this in the notes.

00:40:31 ◼   ► Uh, they're going to make, they're also doing starter packs too.

00:40:33 ◼   ► So yeah.

00:40:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:40:35 ◼   ► I respect it.

00:40:36 ◼   ► They are.

00:40:37 ◼   ► I respect it, man.

00:40:38 ◼   ► Just like go for it.

00:40:39 ◼   ► You know, like just do it.

00:40:40 ◼   ► Like people are telling you they want these features, do them.

00:40:43 ◼   ► You should have done them when people are asking or other than when you just had competition.

00:40:47 ◼   ► But like, why not just do it?

00:40:50 ◼   ► I saw, I saw that because Casey Newton, uh, on blue sky wrote blue sky is truly having

00:40:55 ◼   ► an incredible run as threads head of product.

00:41:01 ◼   ► I love Casey Newton.

00:41:02 ◼   ► So good.

00:41:03 ◼   ► Um, and you know, that's, you know, Matt has done that for years and just, they're kind

00:41:09 ◼   ► of there kind of their M.O.

00:41:11 ◼   ► Um, I, my guy also noticed the threads difference.

00:41:14 ◼   ► Um, on desktop I have for you and then following set up side by side.

00:41:19 ◼   ► And um, and I think on iOS, like setting the default, like I, I don't know if they're rolling

00:41:25 ◼   ► that out or it's AB testing.

00:41:26 ◼   ► Currently I can set a custom list as my like home, but I cannot set following like that's

00:41:33 ◼   ► in a different part of the UI.

00:41:35 ◼   ► Maybe that's coming or maybe we all misunderstood what Mark said on, on threads, but you know

00:41:39 ◼   ► what they're like, they're slow.

00:41:41 ◼   ► They just roll this stuff out.

00:41:43 ◼   ► They AB test things to the nth degree.

00:41:45 ◼   ► Like they, they, they just, they're, they're doing this.

00:41:48 ◼   ► This is something that they wanted to announce like because they started testing it because

00:41:53 ◼   ► then it kind of gets the heat off them.

00:41:55 ◼   ► I guess.

00:41:56 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:41:57 ◼   ► But they are, I mean definitely, uh, I think feeling the heat from blue sky, which I believe

00:42:01 ◼   ► is much smaller than they are, but threads has had the juice for a while now and they,

00:42:06 ◼   ► they don't want to give that up.

00:42:07 ◼   ► So yeah.

00:42:08 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:42:09 ◼   ► But when they start, when they start, when anytime meta starts, usually Facebook now

00:42:14 ◼   ► meta starts copying stuff from their competitors.

00:42:18 ◼   ► They don't seem to understand that's when they stopped being cool.

00:42:22 ◼   ► Like it's always been this way.

00:42:23 ◼   ► Was this way with Facebook?

00:42:24 ◼   ► It was this way with Instagram.

00:42:26 ◼   ► Like it's, well, I mean one of those things, the stories though.

00:42:30 ◼   ► And like, yeah, but like, I don't know as, I don't know.

00:42:35 ◼   ► It just, it just seems desperate.

00:42:37 ◼   ► But do they care about being cool?

00:42:39 ◼   ► I don't think they care.

00:42:40 ◼   ► I mean, Zuck currently cares about being cool, but the company, this is what they do.

00:42:45 ◼   ► They either buy or copy.

00:42:46 ◼   ► Like they've always done this and it works out for them.

00:42:49 ◼   ► I agree with you.

00:42:51 ◼   ► It doesn't make it fun.

00:42:52 ◼   ► I guess it seemed like, here's why I don't like it because it seemed like for a moment

00:42:59 ◼   ► for like the past year, it seemed that meta could build a successor to Twitter without

00:43:05 ◼   ► having to copy anyone.

00:43:08 ◼   ► And now they're back to the copying and that makes them look just, you know, old and weak.

00:43:17 ◼   ► Yeah, it looks weak because now they've been made fun of.

00:43:20 ◼   ► Right?

00:43:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:43:22 ◼   ► Like they would, they were, I mean, this is what started good guys Zuck, right?

00:43:26 ◼   ► Was threads.

00:43:27 ◼   ► People were excited about something that he was building and then that kind of like changed

00:43:33 ◼   ► his public perception.

00:43:34 ◼   ► But yeah, they, they did a bunch of stuff and it didn't really continue it.

00:43:39 ◼   ► Like they, they, they slowed down.

00:43:42 ◼   ► Some of these things, if they would have just done them on their own when the users were

00:43:45 ◼   ► asking would have been fine.

00:43:47 ◼   ► Some of this stuff, if they would have like borrowed from blue sky would have been fine.

00:43:52 ◼   ► Like say like starter packs or whatever, in my opinion.

00:43:54 ◼   ► Because some of this stuff like tweaking the algorithm, uh, doing the choosing your own

00:43:59 ◼   ► default feet, this is stuff they should have just done because people were asking for it.

00:44:02 ◼   ► People weren't asking for starter packs before blue sky started doing them.

00:44:06 ◼   ► And so like, you know, like whatever, but yeah, there's some stuff in here which is

00:44:09 ◼   ► just like, people have been asking you for this for ages.

00:44:13 ◼   ► So if you felt like there wasn't a good reason to do it, then you shouldn't be doing it now

00:44:18 ◼   ► either.

00:44:19 ◼   ► Right?

00:44:20 ◼   ► Because now it's now it just looks like, why are you like, it's kind of like, why are you

00:44:25 ◼   ► doing this?

00:44:26 ◼   ► You obviously had a reason you, or I assume you would say, would say you had a reason

00:44:30 ◼   ► why you didn't want to do these features.

00:44:32 ◼   ► So why are you now doing them?

00:44:33 ◼   ► Like that's where the, that's where the weakness comes in.

00:44:36 ◼   ► Right?

00:44:37 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:44:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:44:39 ◼   ► Uh, an anonymous, uh, user wrote in and said, so the blue sky thing, why Mastodon, why Mastodon

00:44:46 ◼   ► has your audience and it has proper client apps.

00:44:48 ◼   ► Blue sky will be Twitter in no time.

00:44:50 ◼   ► And before you know it, you're playing the social media game again, posting things to

00:44:54 ◼   ► gain traction and tying up your worth in it, et cetera.

00:44:56 ◼   ► Plus the creator is still just a tech bro.

00:44:58 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:44:59 ◼   ► Why are you doing it?

00:45:01 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:45:02 ◼   ► Well, for me at least, like I said, it's nice to see people join from outside of our tech

00:45:11 ◼   ► bubble.

00:45:12 ◼   ► I've been able to follow again, people from Pokemon, Twitter, for example, people from

00:45:22 ◼   ► gaming Twitter, like people who never bothered to join Mastodon because of many, many different

00:45:28 ◼   ► reasons.

00:45:29 ◼   ► You know, it can be daunting.

00:45:31 ◼   ► It can be a little strange or what's a Mastodon instance.

00:45:34 ◼   ► Like most people are.

00:45:36 ◼   ► So also here's a, here's an opinion.

00:45:40 ◼   ► In social media, most people don't care about Federation.

00:45:47 ◼   ► We appreciate a good protocol when we see one because it tingles our senses.

00:45:55 ◼   ► You know, it's like, it's like all the things we love.

00:45:57 ◼   ► Ah yes.

00:45:58 ◼   ► RSS, APIs, all the things we love.

00:46:02 ◼   ► Most people, my mom doesn't care.

00:46:04 ◼   ► My mom and people like, people like, I don't know, not even my friends in real life, they

00:46:09 ◼   ► don't care.

00:46:10 ◼   ► They want fun.

00:46:11 ◼   ► They want instant gratification.

00:46:12 ◼   ► They want to sign up for the thing, post, get five likes, follow their favorite TV celebrities

00:46:19 ◼   ► and be done with it.

00:46:21 ◼   ► People don't care about the Federation.

00:46:23 ◼   ► And so me, someone who tries all the things, anonymous, me, an intellectual who tries all

00:46:35 ◼   ► the things, they're anonymous, it's fun that I get to follow people that don't always talk

00:46:44 ◼   ► about WWDC or Apple intelligence or Swift UI.

00:46:49 ◼   ► They just talk about Pikachu and the Steam Deck and all my other hobbies because I don't

00:46:56 ◼   ► find them on Mastodon.

00:46:58 ◼   ► And if you don't understand this part, I don't know.

00:47:05 ◼   ► This is exactly it for me, right?

00:47:06 ◼   ► With Blue Sky.

00:47:07 ◼   ► Is that there were a bunch of people that I really enjoyed following who I have not

00:47:12 ◼   ► seen anything that they've had to say since I left Twitter because they either didn't

00:47:17 ◼   ► join Mastodon or they joined Threads and weren't willing to go all in and just stayed on Twitter.

00:47:23 ◼   ► And this is a lot of tech reporters and a lot of people in gaming, like both reporters

00:47:28 ◼   ► and creators.

00:47:29 ◼   ► And these are people who I really enjoy their work and I get it in other places.

00:47:33 ◼   ► I listen to their podcasts, I read their newsletters, but I also want everything that that person

00:47:38 ◼   ► might say if I can.

00:47:39 ◼   ► I want to have access to it.

00:47:41 ◼   ► And so that's, I think when I keep talking about the Twitter thing, it's because, oh,

00:47:45 ◼   ► I'm seeing those people.

00:47:46 ◼   ► I'm seeing what those people have to say again.

00:47:48 ◼   ► I have not seen what those people have had to say in this way in two years because they

00:47:54 ◼   ► didn't go all in on one of these services.

00:47:57 ◼   ► But Twitter, so Blue Sky has enough Twitter in it that it is pulling these people in.

00:48:03 ◼   ► Like they're actually willing to do it and to try where they haven't been willing to

00:48:08 ◼   ► go all in.

00:48:09 ◼   ► So like that's why I'm using it.

00:48:12 ◼   ► Like for me as a creator, I don't think I'm really like, I don't know what I'm doing anymore.

00:48:18 ◼   ► I genuinely now I have no idea what I'm doing anymore.

00:48:21 ◼   ► I don't know what service to be on.

00:48:22 ◼   ► I don't know what to post anywhere.

00:48:24 ◼   ► It's way too confusing.

00:48:26 ◼   ► I have absolutely no answers for you, but I just know that as a consumer of content,

00:48:35 ◼   ► I'm enjoying what Blue Sky has to offer for me.

00:48:38 ◼   ► But like I got out of the game of trying to post things for engagement a long time ago.

00:48:44 ◼   ► Like it never really suited me.

00:48:48 ◼   ► And I was never good at it.

00:48:52 ◼   ► I do want to say one thing about this anonymous feedback.

00:48:57 ◼   ► It was created and spun out of Twitter, but Jack Dorsey, who I think is the quote unquote

00:49:02 ◼   ► bro you're talking about anonymous, has been gone since May.

00:49:07 ◼   ► But to be fair, and this came out, I was talking with a friend of mine earlier today.

00:49:12 ◼   ► Blue Sky has raised a lot of VC money as recently as like a month ago.

00:49:19 ◼   ► And I think some of the players in that are worth keeping an eye on.

00:49:26 ◼   ► It was led by blockchain capital and some others.

00:49:30 ◼   ► Just keep an eye on it.

00:49:31 ◼   ► I mean, I saw people say about this, but I mean, I haven't looked into their VC too much.

00:49:35 ◼   ► Like I saw someone saying today, like, oh, the VCs are very into blockchain and AI.

00:49:41 ◼   ► All venture capital's companies are investing in these areas now.

00:49:45 ◼   ► These are the areas that are being invested in.

00:49:49 ◼   ► And I will just say, like, not only is the person in charge of Blue Sky not Jack Dorsey,

00:49:58 ◼   ► it's also a woman, not a bro.

00:50:02 ◼   ► And so I think that that is something just worth knowing.

00:50:05 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:08 ◼   ► Oh, and it's, oh, there's a funny thing.

00:50:11 ◼   ► So this person's name, they go by Jay Graber, but their full name is, I'm going to say,

00:50:16 ◼   ► Lan Shan Jay Graber and that name L-A-N-T-I-N means blue sky in Mandarin Chinese, which

00:50:24 ◼   ► is a pure coincidence.

00:50:25 ◼   ► Isn't that incredible?

00:50:26 ◼   ► No, that can be right.

00:50:29 ◼   ► That's what he said.

00:50:30 ◼   ► Really?

00:50:31 ◼   ► Yep.

00:50:32 ◼   ► Yep.

00:50:33 ◼   ► That is perfect.

00:50:34 ◼   ► Isn't that incredible?

00:50:35 ◼   ► I'll put the Wikipedia page in the charts.

00:50:37 ◼   ► I saw that the other day and it's on the Wikipedia page, so it must be true.

00:50:41 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:42 ◼   ► I mean, we all know those are accurate.

00:50:43 ◼   ► Isn't that like beautiful?

00:50:45 ◼   ► Isn't that a beautiful coincidence?

00:50:47 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:48 ◼   ► Benjamin.

00:50:49 ◼   ► Breaking news, breaking news.

00:50:51 ◼   ► Breaking news.

00:50:52 ◼   ► Breaking news.

00:50:53 ◼   ► I am launching a social media network.

00:50:55 ◼   ► Oh.

00:50:56 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:57 ◼   ► What is it?

00:50:58 ◼   ► It's called Michael.

00:50:59 ◼   ► That's my middle name.

00:51:00 ◼   ► Okay.

00:51:01 ◼   ► What a coincidence.

00:51:02 ◼   ► And it's only for people who have Michael in their name.

00:51:06 ◼   ► So sorry, Federico.

00:51:07 ◼   ► So me and you?

00:51:08 ◼   ► Me and you.

00:51:09 ◼   ► How do you feel about me being on your social network?

00:51:12 ◼   ► Are you happy about that or sad about that?

00:51:13 ◼   ► I mean, it's, you know, terms of service, you know, have to be followed.

00:51:16 ◼   ► Steven, that's it.

00:51:17 ◼   ► You know me, I'm always breaking the terms of service.

00:51:19 ◼   ► You can't help me down.

00:51:21 ◼   ► It's called iMessage.

00:51:22 ◼   ► I got things to say.

00:51:23 ◼   ► I got things to say.

00:51:25 ◼   ► And I'm going to say them on Michael.

00:51:27 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:51:28 ◼   ► It does, you know, we're going to have some problems with that, but I mean, we'll figure

00:51:31 ◼   ► it out.

00:51:32 ◼   ► The VCs will figure it out.

00:51:33 ◼   ► Growing pains.

00:51:34 ◼   ► Growing pains.

00:51:35 ◼   ► Growing pains, yeah.

00:51:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:51:37 ◼   ► You're going to need to submit a, you know, some form of identification.

00:51:40 ◼   ► Okay.

00:51:41 ◼   ► So yeah, it's very exclusive and just loaded with terrible ideas.

00:51:45 ◼   ► Great.

00:51:46 ◼   ► Jim, cut all that.

00:51:47 ◼   ► Oh no, Benjamin also wrote in and said, "I find it interesting that when you talk about

00:51:51 ◼   ► the different social media platforms you're on, you usually omit Discord.

00:51:55 ◼   ► Besides the promotional aspects of these other social media sites, what are they giving you

00:51:59 ◼   ► that Discord doesn't?"

00:52:01 ◼   ► So I'll start off and say, "I don't think Discord is social media."

00:52:04 ◼   ► Ding, ding, ding.

00:52:05 ◼   ► It isn't.

00:52:06 ◼   ► It isn't social media.

00:52:07 ◼   ► It's a community discussion app.

00:52:09 ◼   ► It's closed in a way.

00:52:11 ◼   ► I know there are open Discords, but you still have to go into the Discord to see what's

00:52:16 ◼   ► said in the Discord.

00:52:17 ◼   ► It's not like this stuff is posted broadcast to the world.

00:52:23 ◼   ► And also, it goes back to the same thing, which is the biggest thing for me with social

00:52:28 ◼   ► media is being able to see the things that people say that I wouldn't be in a group chat

00:52:33 ◼   ► or Discord with, right?

00:52:35 ◼   ► Like I want to see what people I respect, people that are taller than me, what they

00:52:39 ◼   ► have to say.

00:52:40 ◼   ► And I don't get that in every Discord that I'm in.

00:52:44 ◼   ► Like I can't get everybody that I enjoy in gaming to like join a Discord with me to just

00:52:49 ◼   ► tell me what they think all the time.

00:52:52 ◼   ► They're different.

00:52:53 ◼   ► They're different types of things.

00:52:54 ◼   ► There, I will agree, there is an overlap to a point of like being in a community and talking,

00:52:59 ◼   ► but it's Discord is closer to forums than it is to social media.

00:53:03 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:53:04 ◼   ► I feel the same way and I'm willing to admit that that's our use of Discord.

00:53:09 ◼   ► I'm not in any big public servers with billions of people.

00:53:12 ◼   ► Yeah, but it's still not the same even if it's a public server.

00:53:15 ◼   ► It's chatting.

00:53:16 ◼   ► Like you're chatting, right?

00:53:18 ◼   ► You're not like posting.

00:53:21 ◼   ► I do think that there is a distinction there.

00:53:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:53:24 ◼   ► Yeah, I think that's fair.

00:53:26 ◼   ► If you are confused by all the cross-posting business, we have good news.

00:53:30 ◼   ► Our friends behind Croissant have released an update today actually that brings their

00:53:35 ◼   ► cross-posting app from the iPhone to the Mac and iPad as well.

00:53:41 ◼   ► This was one of my uses for iPhone mirroring and now it's just a Mac app I can launch.

00:53:46 ◼   ► It looks great.

00:53:48 ◼   ► I think they did a really nice job bringing it to the larger screen sizes and go check

00:53:55 ◼   ► it out.

00:53:56 ◼   ► It's in the App Store.

00:53:58 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is brought to you by Ecamm.

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00:56:17 ◼   ► So Apple revealed their, once again, their App and Game finalists for the annual App

00:56:25 ◼   ► Store awards.

00:56:26 ◼   ► These are 45 apps and games.

00:56:31 ◼   ► There's a full list on the Apple newsroom.

00:56:34 ◼   ► It's organized with the same categories as last year.

00:56:36 ◼   ► There's the App of the Year, Game of the Year, and a separate category for Apple Arcade,

00:56:43 ◼   ► Mac App, Mac Game, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro also included this year.

00:56:48 ◼   ► That last one got me.

00:56:49 ◼   ► It's like, man, anyone who wrote a Vision Pro app is eligible.

00:56:53 ◼   ► Yeah, we're giving you an award.

00:56:56 ◼   ► I think it's nice that there's possibly a healthier mix of like really popular titles

00:57:05 ◼   ► and some indie picks like Kino, for example, has been nominated for iPhone App of the Year,

00:57:15 ◼   ► Tripsy, which is excellent.

00:57:16 ◼   ► Do you want me to run through them?

00:57:17 ◼   ► We can talk about them?

00:57:18 ◼   ► Yeah, sure.

00:57:19 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:57:20 ◼   ► So iPhone App of the Year, Kino, which is the cinematic recording app, Runner, which

00:57:26 ◼   ► I've not heard of, but is a running app, and Tripsy, which is a trip planning app, which

00:57:30 ◼   ► actually got a big redesign.

00:57:34 ◼   ► I think that's really good.

00:57:35 ◼   ► I think it's like two, I mean, maybe three, two indie apps that I know about.

00:57:38 ◼   ► I don't know who makes Runner, but that's pretty cool, right?

00:57:43 ◼   ► Yeah, definitely.

00:57:44 ◼   ► And then we have iPhone Game of the Year, AFK Journey, The Wear Cleaner, and Zenless

00:57:54 ◼   ► Zone Zero.

00:57:55 ◼   ► I only have heard of Zenless Zone Zero.

00:57:58 ◼   ► I think it was on PC where you were like Apple's latest friend, you know, like they, but Hoyaverse,

00:58:03 ◼   ► they always have the Hoyaverse games, but good reason though.

00:58:07 ◼   ► Like these games are absolutely massive.

00:58:10 ◼   ► So it kind of makes sense.

00:58:12 ◼   ► Have you heard of the other games Federico?

00:58:13 ◼   ► Do you know about these?

00:58:15 ◼   ► Nope.

00:58:16 ◼   ► First time I'm seeing them.

00:58:17 ◼   ► Maybe worth trying.

00:58:18 ◼   ► iPad App of the Year, Bluie Let's Play, Moises, which is an AI powered music practicing tool,

00:58:27 ◼   ► and Procreate Dreams, which is their animation app from Procreate.

00:58:32 ◼   ► Procreate is iPad's best friend.

00:58:34 ◼   ► Always.

00:58:35 ◼   ► Yes.

00:58:36 ◼   ► Always.

00:58:37 ◼   ► We used to podcast with somebody named Moises.

00:58:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:58:39 ◼   ► Now he's an app.

00:58:40 ◼   ► They're still out there.

00:58:41 ◼   ► True.

00:58:42 ◼   ► They've been sucked into the app.

00:58:44 ◼   ► That's rough.

00:58:45 ◼   ► iPad Game of the Year, Assassin's Creed Mirage.

00:58:48 ◼   ► Oh, this is Apple's newest brand also.

00:58:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:58:52 ◼   ► Ubisoft at the moment is doing it.

00:58:54 ◼   ► Federico is so funny.

00:58:55 ◼   ► So CD Projekt had their earnings call a couple of days ago and they were talking about how

00:59:01 ◼   ► successful Cyberpunk has been for them.

00:59:04 ◼   ► I think they sold 30 million copies or something.

00:59:08 ◼   ► And in the earnings call, they referenced how they're really excited about the progress

00:59:12 ◼   ► on Cyberpunk and its sales and they're really looking forward to when they launch on Apple

00:59:17 ◼   ► Silicon next year.

00:59:18 ◼   ► The power of Apple Silicon.

00:59:19 ◼   ► They're launching on the Mac.

00:59:21 ◼   ► And it is if to suggest it's going to be a big boost for them from an earnings perspective,

00:59:27 ◼   ► which I thought was very funny.

00:59:29 ◼   ► But I found it really interesting that specifically calling out Apple Silicon, there is question

00:59:35 ◼   ► about is Apple paying these companies to do this?

00:59:39 ◼   ► Are they paying Ubisoft?

00:59:42 ◼   ► Are they paying Kojima?

00:59:44 ◼   ► And the way in which the CFO specifically called out Apple Silicon, it sounded like

00:59:52 ◼   ► a line he'd been given to say.

00:59:55 ◼   ► It was weird to me.

00:59:57 ◼   ► This is pure conspiracy time, but it stuck out to me as a weird thing to say, an unnatural

01:00:04 ◼   ► thing that somebody would just say.

01:00:06 ◼   ► Assassin's Creed Mirage, Disney Speed, Storm and Squad Busters are the iPad Game of the

01:00:11 ◼   ► Year finalists.

01:00:14 ◼   ► Apple Arcade Game of the Year finalists, Bellatro Plus, Outlanders 2 and Sonic Dream Team.

01:00:21 ◼   ► If Bellatro does not win this, I do not know what is going on over there.

01:00:25 ◼   ► That is the game of the year, not just Apple Arcade Game of the Year.

01:00:31 ◼   ► Mac App of the Year, you ready for this, Steven?

01:00:34 ◼   ► Adobe Lightroom, OmniFocus 4, Shapr3D.

01:00:40 ◼   ► The classics.

01:00:44 ◼   ► Mac Game of the Year, Frostpunk 2, Stray, and thank goodness you're here.

01:00:49 ◼   ► Great games actually, like actual legit good games in Mac Game of the Year.

01:00:53 ◼   ► Stray, isn't it, from like two years ago?

01:00:55 ◼   ► It was a PlayStation exclusive.

01:01:00 ◼   ► It came out on the Mac I think around the same time that it won another platform.

01:01:04 ◼   ► So basically the Mac Game Awards, or like the Game Awards with a two year delay.

01:01:09 ◼   ► Well Thank Goodness You're Here came out this year and Frostpunk 2 came out this year, so

01:01:12 ◼   ► you know, I'm being kind to the Mac.

01:01:14 ◼   ► Making progress.

01:01:15 ◼   ► They're making progress.

01:01:17 ◼   ► Thank Goodness You're Here, by the way, is really good fun and it's like a game anyone

01:01:21 ◼   ► could play is a very weird game with a lot of strange humor, but it's basically a point

01:01:25 ◼   ► and click adventure game.

01:01:26 ◼   ► I recommend it.

01:01:27 ◼   ► It's good fun.

01:01:29 ◼   ► Apple Watch App of the Year, Look Up, Lumi, Watch to 5K.

01:01:35 ◼   ► Very cool.

01:01:37 ◼   ► Look Up got a redesign this year, I think, and it's really solid.

01:01:42 ◼   ► Well, congratulations, Vidit.

01:01:44 ◼   ► That's very happy for them.

01:01:46 ◼   ► And Apple Vision Pro App of the Year, JigSpace.

01:01:50 ◼   ► This is where you can look at the Formula One car, NBA and What If, an immersive story.

01:01:55 ◼   ► I find it interesting, there's also a game of the year, which is Luna Thrasher Vacation

01:02:00 ◼   ► Simulator for Vision Pro.

01:02:02 ◼   ► And I find it interesting that they put What If in the App of the Year, not the game of

01:02:05 ◼   ► the year.

01:02:06 ◼   ► I mean, it's kind of entertainment, so it probably fits more in App than games, but

01:02:10 ◼   ► that was interesting to me.

01:02:11 ◼   ► And then Apple TV App of the Year, Dropout, F1 TV and Zoom.

01:02:17 ◼   ► Zoom.

01:02:18 ◼   ► Zoom should win.

01:02:19 ◼   ► Zoom, let's go.

01:02:21 ◼   ► And then Cultural Impact Finalists, there's a lot of these, give me a second.

01:02:25 ◼   ► Arco, The Bear, Better Sleep, Brawl Stars, Daily Art, Do You Really Want to Know Too,

01:02:30 ◼   ► EF Hello, NYT Games, Oko, Part the Fall, Pinterest and The Wreck.

01:02:35 ◼   ► And this category brought users powerful stories and helped them bring out their best selves

01:02:42 ◼   ► to create a lasting impact.

01:02:45 ◼   ► Very broad in nominations for this this year, I think.

01:02:50 ◼   ► There's a game like Arco and then also like New York Times Games and Pinterest.

01:02:55 ◼   ► You know, it's like a very, very broad category.

01:02:57 ◼   ► But there have been some years where I'm like, we're all like, this is what is happening.

01:03:02 ◼   ► Like, what are these?

01:03:03 ◼   ► And this year, I wouldn't say that.

01:03:04 ◼   ► I think there's some great stuff in here.

01:03:06 ◼   ► Of course, these awards are fine, but they're not MacStory Selects or the Upgradies.

01:03:13 ◼   ► That's what I'll say.

01:03:15 ◼   ► Sure.

01:03:16 ◼   ► That's what I'll say.

01:03:17 ◼   ► Is MacStory Selects coming soon, Federico?

01:03:19 ◼   ► Yeah, how's that going?

01:03:21 ◼   ► They are coming soon.

01:03:22 ◼   ► The awards have been finalized, they've been sent for production.

01:03:28 ◼   ► And I really like the list that we have this year.

01:03:33 ◼   ► And they will be published in the very near future.

01:03:36 ◼   ► Also, you've like, the winners are chosen.

01:03:39 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:03:40 ◼   ► I voted in the User's Choice Award.

01:03:43 ◼   ► Yes.

01:03:44 ◼   ► Can I say what I voted for?

01:03:45 ◼   ► Or is that breaking rules, like election rules?

01:03:48 ◼   ► No, you can.

01:03:49 ◼   ► You can.

01:03:50 ◼   ► I voted for TGTabs.

01:03:51 ◼   ► And if TGTabs does not win, I'll be so mad.

01:03:54 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:03:55 ◼   ► TGTabs should win the award.

01:03:56 ◼   ► And if they don't, I'll be very disappointed.

01:03:58 ◼   ► I just want everyone to know that.

01:03:59 ◼   ► It's too late now, because the vote is closed.

01:04:01 ◼   ► But I just want everyone to know I'll be disappointed.

01:04:05 ◼   ► And what about the Upgradies?

01:04:06 ◼   ► Are they in process?

01:04:08 ◼   ► Yeah, you can vote now.

01:04:09 ◼   ► We're doing well, but you can not vote.

01:04:11 ◼   ► We do nominations.

01:04:12 ◼   ► You can go to Upgradies.vote.

01:04:13 ◼   ► You can put in your nominations.

01:04:15 ◼   ► That closes on December 13th and we're recording on December the 30th.

01:04:19 ◼   ► I will say, I will say, yeah, connected won in 2022.

01:04:28 ◼   ► And it won, we won back in 2018.

01:04:34 ◼   ► So we are sure we are one away from a Lifetime Achievement Award.

01:04:39 ◼   ► And so I'm just saying, favorite podcasts, connected people go.

01:04:45 ◼   ► It's difficult for connected to win that because I'm never going to put my own show forward.

01:04:49 ◼   ► So like it has to win the Upgradie.vote and Jason has to be feeling it.

01:04:53 ◼   ► That's the only way it's going to happen.

01:04:55 ◼   ► Downstream has won.

01:04:56 ◼   ► Maybe you can start pressuring Jason.

01:04:58 ◼   ► Okay.

01:04:59 ◼   ► Yeah, but like that, when that happened, that was me putting it forward.

01:05:02 ◼   ► And maybe Jason doesn't have the same ethical rules as me.

01:05:04 ◼   ► I don't remember.

01:05:05 ◼   ► But I just can't in good faith say that I should win an award that I will give to myself.

01:05:12 ◼   ► It's like the meme of Obama putting the medal around himself.

01:05:15 ◼   ► Like that's what it's like, like, oh yeah, my podcast should win this.

01:05:18 ◼   ► But as I've said many times, I'm always genuinely surprised that Upgrade isn't at the top of

01:05:25 ◼   ► the nomination list.

01:05:28 ◼   ► It's always like, I get why I get it.

01:05:31 ◼   ► But also it's like, come on, like, we're here.

01:05:33 ◼   ► What do you want from us?

01:05:34 ◼   ► But yeah, it doesn't work out.

01:05:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:05:37 ◼   ► What are you saying to let that fall?

01:05:40 ◼   ► I would like to be a lifetime achievement winner.

01:05:42 ◼   ► Sure.

01:05:43 ◼   ► You know, look, it would honestly, we've had a great year.

01:05:48 ◼   ► Company turned 10.

01:05:50 ◼   ► You and I were awarded creator of the year from St. Jude.

01:05:55 ◼   ► This would be like, this is the E god of podcasting, you know.

01:05:58 ◼   ► Interesting.

01:05:59 ◼   ► Interesting.

01:06:00 ◼   ► Upgradies.

01:06:01 ◼   ► Are you willing to say this is what you truly want?

01:06:03 ◼   ► I feel like that's a reference I'm not getting, but sure.

01:06:08 ◼   ► No, I'm just like, you know, we've had a lot of things happen that have been great this

01:06:11 ◼   ► year, but is this what you, like, are you willing to say?

01:06:14 ◼   ► I'm just saying it would be the cherry on top, you know, it's just the little extra

01:06:18 ◼   ► that would really make this year just really shine.

01:06:23 ◼   ► So now here's the thing, like, obviously Jason will listen to this.

01:06:26 ◼   ► I wonder if you saying this will make him more or less likely.

01:06:30 ◼   ► That is an interesting question.

01:06:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:06:33 ◼   ► Is he going to be more or less likely to want to give it?

01:06:36 ◼   ► Well, we'll see, because it's all up to the, I do genuinely believe this one is up to the

01:06:40 ◼   ► up gradients to put their votes where they want to put them.

01:06:43 ◼   ► I already have like a long short list of my favorite podcasts of the year to put in, so

01:06:49 ◼   ► I'm not going to help, unfortunately.

01:06:50 ◼   ► A long, long short list.

01:06:52 ◼   ► Mm-hmm.

01:06:53 ◼   ► Well, Connected's a pretty good show.

01:06:55 ◼   ► I like it.

01:06:56 ◼   ► It's fine.

01:06:57 ◼   ► I'm biased.

01:06:58 ◼   ► It's fine.

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01:09:14 ◼   ► Federico, you have been on a journey with Apple Frames version 3.3 was released this

01:09:21 ◼   ► week and I read the blog post and I know talking to you that this really, you really got thrown

01:09:28 ◼   ► a curve ball with this.

01:09:30 ◼   ► Tell us what's the deal with display P3 and sRGB and screenshots.

01:09:37 ◼   ► Yeah, so I have been working on this shortcut for months because I wanted to update it.

01:09:43 ◼   ► Initially with just the M4 iPad Pros and in the summer when I started testing it in June,

01:09:51 ◼   ► I had the beta of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 installed and I quickly put together a version with

01:09:58 ◼   ► the new frames for the new iPads and it didn't work in the sense that when the shortcut overlaid

01:10:04 ◼   ► the screenshot on top of the device frame, the device frames, they always have a little

01:10:11 ◼   ► bit of transparency around them.

01:10:13 ◼   ► They are transparent PNGs.

01:10:16 ◼   ► But when I overlaid the image, the transparency would become a solid black border around the

01:10:22 ◼   ► image.

01:10:23 ◼   ► And I thought, well, that's weird.

01:10:25 ◼   ► That's wrong.

01:10:26 ◼   ► It doesn't have to do that.

01:10:29 ◼   ► And I just assumed that it was going to be a temporary iOS 18 beta one setback.

01:10:38 ◼   ► It continued for months.

01:10:39 ◼   ► The shortcuts has this action called overlay image and it stayed broken in that state for

01:10:47 ◼   ► months.

01:10:48 ◼   ► Obviously, it all got worse in September when the new iPhones and Apple watches came out

01:10:54 ◼   ► and a bunch of people, like a lot of people use this shortcut and a lot of people have

01:10:59 ◼   ► been sending me emails and replies on Mastodon and Threads being like, hey, why isn't this

01:11:06 ◼   ► working with my iPhone 16?

01:11:08 ◼   ► Well, because it doesn't support the iPhone 16 because I cannot add support for it because

01:11:13 ◼   ► I'm waiting for a bug fix.

01:11:15 ◼   ► But this bug fix never came.

01:11:17 ◼   ► I submitted the feedback.

01:11:18 ◼   ► I talked to some shortcuts people privately.

01:11:21 ◼   ► Nothing.

01:11:23 ◼   ► Until last week, I thought, well, let's try the last thing that I can try.

01:11:30 ◼   ► Going public about it.

01:11:31 ◼   ► There's this new space on Blue Sky.

01:11:34 ◼   ► Let's take it as an opportunity.

01:11:36 ◼   ► People are paying attention here now.

01:11:38 ◼   ► Let's bring this up on Blue Sky.

01:11:40 ◼   ► And sure enough, within 24 hours, I got a reply and an email from two different people

01:11:46 ◼   ► sort of coming to the same conclusion that something was going on with color profiles

01:11:53 ◼   ► in shortcuts.

01:11:54 ◼   ► Specifically, reader and listener, I believe, Douglas, found out that on their Mac, some

01:12:04 ◼   ► screenshots were being captured instead of sRGB 8-bit as display p3 16-bit.

01:12:14 ◼   ► Oh, man.

01:12:16 ◼   ► That's my favorite one.

01:12:17 ◼   ► And the behavior was inconsistent.

01:12:20 ◼   ► Like some screenshots were 8-bit with one color profile.

01:12:24 ◼   ► Other screenshots were not.

01:12:25 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:12:26 ◼   ► I was going to ask about that.

01:12:27 ◼   ► I mean, my understanding is you could not find a pattern as to why the system did this.

01:12:34 ◼   ► My personal theory is that, slash conspiracy theory, is that I've done a bunch of tests.

01:12:43 ◼   ► It seems like every single time I take a screenshot of Siri, like the new Siri with the fancy

01:12:49 ◼   ► colors and the fancy animation, it's always in 16-bit p3.

01:12:55 ◼   ► So like Siri, they make it look better in screenshots.

01:12:59 ◼   ► But like it's wildly inconsistent.

01:13:02 ◼   ► Like most of the time, plain white UIs are captured in the old format.

01:13:08 ◼   ► So 8-bits sRGB.

01:13:11 ◼   ► Whereas sometimes, but not always, but sometimes images with more colors, like more colorful

01:13:18 ◼   ► screenshots are in the wider color gamut.

01:13:23 ◼   ► My expectation would be like the system is doing something to determine if it should

01:13:29 ◼   ► be in higher color or not, right?

01:13:30 ◼   ► I think so, too.

01:13:31 ◼   ► I think so, too.

01:13:32 ◼   ► They're just like, oh, this one, it will look better if it's in 16, so it's just in 16.

01:13:39 ◼   ► And like whatever.

01:13:40 ◼   ► Now, what was the issue?

01:13:41 ◼   ► The issue is that this is not communicated anywhere.

01:13:44 ◼   ► And the overlay image action seemingly has no awareness of this mismatch when you're

01:13:52 ◼   ► trying to overlay an image in 8-bit or in 16-bit on top of another image that is in

01:13:59 ◼   ► a different color profile with a different bit depth.

01:14:03 ◼   ► The overlay image doesn't say anything.

01:14:06 ◼   ► It just quietly fails and removes the alpha channel from the underlying PNG.

01:14:15 ◼   ► And I wish I thought of this sooner.

01:14:18 ◼   ► I wish I thought of checking for the color profile myself.

01:14:24 ◼   ► But basically, that put me on a path to figure out a solution.

01:14:30 ◼   ► On Blue Sky, fellow shortcuts creator Antonio Bueno, they proposed a way to use a JavaScript-based

01:14:41 ◼   ► workaround inside shortcuts to re-encode a screenshot in a different color profile.

01:14:49 ◼   ► That method worked, but it added a lot of memory consumption to the shortcut to the

01:14:56 ◼   ► point where if I tried to frame more than two or three screenshots, the shortcut would

01:15:03 ◼   ► crash every single time because it was doing a lot of JavaScript for every screenshot.

01:15:10 ◼   ► And that's very memory intensive in shortcuts.

01:15:15 ◼   ► So I thought I was stuck again, and then I realized, well, maybe I'm thinking about this

01:15:22 ◼   ► the wrong way.

01:15:23 ◼   ► Maybe the solution is not to alter what screenshots look like.

01:15:30 ◼   ► Maybe I got to try the opposite approach.

01:15:32 ◼   ► Maybe I need to change the frames instead.

01:15:36 ◼   ► So my theory was, OK, so the 8-bit sRGB frames, they cause these issues.

01:15:44 ◼   ► What if I upgraded the frames to 16-bit?

01:15:49 ◼   ► What happens if on a 16-bit frame I overlay an 8-bit or 16-bit image?

01:15:58 ◼   ► And that worked.

01:16:00 ◼   ► Upgrading the frames to 16-bit made sure that regardless of whether I'm overlaying an 8-bit

01:16:08 ◼   ► image or a 16-bit one, the alpha transparency stays the same around the frame.

01:16:14 ◼   ► So I got some help from John to re-encode all of the images with a terminal command.

01:16:22 ◼   ► There's a script, part of an open source project called ImageMagick.

01:16:27 ◼   ► You can run it on the terminal on macOS, and he basically re-encoded the images without

01:16:32 ◼   ► altering the colors, without altering the sizes.

01:16:35 ◼   ► In 16-bit sRGB, and it doesn't matter that the frame is sRGB and maybe a screenshot is

01:16:42 ◼   ► in DisplayP3, what matters is the bit depth of those images, and that did the trick.

01:16:48 ◼   ► So I was able to basically create a new folder of frames with a different bit depth, and

01:16:58 ◼   ► that fixed all the problems.

01:17:00 ◼   ► Now finally I was able to release Apple Frames 3.3, but I want to leave you with a bit of

01:17:07 ◼   ► a teaser.

01:17:09 ◼   ► Because a couple of nights ago, as I was thinking about Apple Frames, Apple Frames has been

01:17:13 ◼   ► on my mind a lot this week, and I was thinking like how cumbersome it had become to scroll

01:17:21 ◼   ► that screenshot to add new features or to double check a specific portion of the screenshot.

01:17:28 ◼   ► And I had a bit of an epiphany for a different approach altogether that I could use for the

01:17:38 ◼   ► internal logic of Apple Frames that checks what type of screenshot are you dealing with,

01:17:45 ◼   ► what type of resolution is it.

01:17:48 ◼   ► I had this epiphany that I will actually go a little much more in depth on the upcoming

01:17:55 ◼   ► episode of App Stories, where I deleted 509 actions from Apple Frames.

01:18:04 ◼   ► 509 actions deleted, and all that logic is now contained in a single JSON file.

01:18:13 ◼   ► That gives me much more room for adding new features, which I've already done, and fixing

01:18:22 ◼   ► bugs, which I've already done, and making Apple Frames even more flexible than before,

01:18:28 ◼   ► which is what people have been requesting.

01:18:30 ◼   ► So to sum up, I think Apple Frames 4 completely rebuilt and with more options than before,

01:18:39 ◼   ► I think I can release it before the end of the year.

01:18:43 ◼   ► That's awesome.

01:18:44 ◼   ► I think a shortcut like that is just like terrifying to me.

01:18:50 ◼   ► I couldn't even imagine scrolling, because what if you accidentally moved something?

01:18:55 ◼   ► How would you ever know?

01:18:56 ◼   ► I create backups of the shortcut, but yeah.

01:19:00 ◼   ► Even then, man, that's so terrifying to me.

01:19:03 ◼   ► Do you have a shortcut that makes a backup of the shortcut?

01:19:05 ◼   ► Please tell me you do.

01:19:06 ◼   ► Yeah, I do.

01:19:07 ◼   ► I do.

01:19:08 ◼   ► Love that.

01:19:09 ◼   ► Love it.

01:19:10 ◼   ► Oh, I love that.

01:19:11 ◼   ► Every time you run it, just make a backup.

01:19:15 ◼   ► Keep doing it forever.

01:19:17 ◼   ► But the thing is, this shortcut is used by a lot of developers and a lot of designers.

01:19:21 ◼   ► A lot of people use it for production work, and I know that they've been asking for more

01:19:28 ◼   ► options.

01:19:29 ◼   ► Like, for example, why is Apple Frames 3.3 defaulting to an iPhone 6 Plus in ultramarine?

01:19:39 ◼   ► Because that's what I picked.

01:19:40 ◼   ► But what if you could pick what kind of iPhone you wanted to use?

01:19:46 ◼   ► So we're now running into the issue of some Apple devices sharing the same resolutions.

01:19:53 ◼   ► So for example, in Apple Frames 3.3, I had to make a decision.

01:19:58 ◼   ► At the same resolution point, both the iPhone 16 Plus and the iPhone 15 Pro Max coexist.

01:20:06 ◼   ► They have the same resolution.

01:20:08 ◼   ► So when I give you a screenshot, it could be either one of those.

01:20:12 ◼   ► And with the old Apple Frames, I had to make a decision and be like, "Okay, I'm going to

01:20:16 ◼   ► default to the most recent iPhone."

01:20:18 ◼   ► But then I get replies from people saying, "Why is it that when I capture and try to

01:20:22 ◼   ► frame a screenshot from my iPhone 15 Pro Max, it comes out looking as an iPhone 16 Plus

01:20:28 ◼   ► in ultramarine?"

01:20:29 ◼   ► Right?

01:20:30 ◼   ► And so I have been able to fix that problem.

01:20:33 ◼   ► That is also one of the things coming in Apple Frames 4.

01:20:36 ◼   ► Very cool.

01:20:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:20:39 ◼   ► Ooh, it's been a bit of a journey, yeah.

01:20:42 ◼   ► Yeah, I know this one has been a bit of a downer for you, really.

01:20:45 ◼   ► Like, that's always frustrating.

01:20:48 ◼   ► Especially with this new system, I feel very energized about it.

01:20:53 ◼   ► It's actually pretty awesome.

01:20:54 ◼   ► No, that's good.

01:20:55 ◼   ► That makes me feel good.

01:20:56 ◼   ► Because it's like frustrating, right?

01:20:59 ◼   ► Where you have zero control, zero say over what happens in the system, and you're trying

01:21:06 ◼   ► to build on top of it.

01:21:09 ◼   ► I would find that really demoralizing to just kind of be banging your head against the wall,

01:21:13 ◼   ► trying to work out how to make it work.

01:21:16 ◼   ► So I'm really happy that you're able to fix it, and I'm actually really happy that you're

01:21:20 ◼   ► able to fix it in the way that you did, by putting it out into the world and you've got

01:21:24 ◼   ► people that can help you.

01:21:25 ◼   ► That's the nicest thing that can happen.

01:21:27 ◼   ► It's lovely.

01:21:28 ◼   ► I agree.

01:21:29 ◼   ► I've been battling my own mystery here recently.

01:21:38 ◼   ► Steven Frames.

01:21:39 ◼   ► Steven Frames.

01:21:43 ◼   ► I've got an original launch day Apple Watch Ultra, and my phone's running the iOS 18.2

01:21:51 ◼   ► beta, whatever the most up-to-date one is, but my watch is on the public release of watchOS

01:21:57 ◼   ► 11.1, whatever the current one is.

01:22:01 ◼   ► As a rule, don't run watchOS betas.

01:22:03 ◼   ► On my main watch, I have a development watch that gets sacrificed to the beta each summer.

01:22:11 ◼   ► And that's been fine.

01:22:12 ◼   ► For years, I've done this where my phone's on betas, watch isn't, and it's been fine.

01:22:19 ◼   ► But in the last couple of weeks, I have noticed that my Ultra, the battery life is really

01:22:25 ◼   ► fading.

01:22:26 ◼   ► And I've even said it on a couple of shows, like this watch is entering its third year,

01:22:29 ◼   ► and it's starting to really kind of feel it.

01:22:33 ◼   ► The health reports at 88% battery capacity.

01:22:38 ◼   ► So it's taken a hit, but not that bad.

01:22:43 ◼   ► But I have noticed that in addition to like some days, before I'm in bed, I'm hitting

01:22:48 ◼   ► the low battery thing, which on an Ultra just has never happened before.

01:22:54 ◼   ► For years, I've worn it all day, slept, sleep tracked, slept tracked it with it.

01:23:01 ◼   ► Slop trucked it.

01:23:02 ◼   ► Slop trucked it, and then charge it when I'm getting ready for the day, and it's basically

01:23:07 ◼   ► good to go again.

01:23:09 ◼   ► So that rhythm has been broken, which is annoying.

01:23:12 ◼   ► But the final straw is that over the weekend, I've noticed a couple of things happening.

01:23:18 ◼   ► One, it would show me the red phone with a slash through it, like it wasn't connected

01:23:23 ◼   ► to my phone, even though my phone was with me.

01:23:26 ◼   ► So I would notice it like, oh, the calendar hasn't updated or carat weather is just like,

01:23:31 ◼   ► it's just spinning if I tap the complication.

01:23:33 ◼   ► But then Monday, it detected or collected no activity information.

01:23:41 ◼   ► So no stand hours, no movement, nothing.

01:23:45 ◼   ► That's not good.

01:23:46 ◼   ► That's not good.

01:23:47 ◼   ► Not good.

01:23:48 ◼   ► So my watch on Monday thinks that I just stayed in bed all day.

01:23:52 ◼   ► I did not.

01:23:53 ◼   ► I went to work.

01:23:54 ◼   ► I was like, okay, like something's clearly wrong here.

01:23:59 ◼   ► So I like, well, let me, you know, erase the watch and set it back up.

01:24:05 ◼   ► Like you know, mate, like this could be a hardware issue.

01:24:08 ◼   ► Like I was afraid.

01:24:09 ◼   ► Oh, gosh, the watch has like a hardware failure, like the Wi Fi or something.

01:24:12 ◼   ► And the watch is dying.

01:24:15 ◼   ► Restarting when it when it fixes sometimes it would fix it for a little while, but like

01:24:18 ◼   ► clearly something's going on here.

01:24:20 ◼   ► It's out of Apple care.

01:24:22 ◼   ► So let me restore it and like, just hope that it's a software issue.

01:24:26 ◼   ► I went to go reset the watch from the companion iPhone app, and it wouldn't do it.

01:24:33 ◼   ► So I took a screenshot of this error.

01:24:35 ◼   ► And it's on it's in the Mastodon post.

01:24:37 ◼   ► It's in the show notes.

01:24:38 ◼   ► But what it read was, could not could not connect to Apple watch, make sure your Apple

01:24:43 ◼   ► watch is nearby, powered on and not in airplane mode.

01:24:47 ◼   ► So it's at this point sitting charging on my nightstand, I'm sitting on the edge of

01:24:51 ◼   ► my bed, I hit erase Apple watch content settings.

01:24:55 ◼   ► And it shows me this.

01:24:56 ◼   ► So at this point, like, well, is it so broken that I can't restore it, which would be real

01:25:03 ◼   ► bad.

01:25:04 ◼   ► But then someone on Mastodon posted out that you can also reset the watch from the watch

01:25:10 ◼   ► itself.

01:25:11 ◼   ► So it's in the Settings app, you dig down far enough, and there's reset Apple watch

01:25:14 ◼   ► content settings.

01:25:16 ◼   ► So I did that.

01:25:17 ◼   ► And it, it erased itself, it came back.

01:25:21 ◼   ► And it came back up as a new watch like great, it restored it seemed to restore fine, like

01:25:28 ◼   ► it was slow, but that it's always slow when you restore an Apple watch.

01:25:33 ◼   ► And I restored my backup to it.

01:25:37 ◼   ► And two days later, it seems like it's okay.

01:25:41 ◼   ► But definitely like a, like a looking into the abyss because I do not want to buy an

01:25:46 ◼   ► Apple watch Ultra 2 because it's a year old.

01:25:49 ◼   ► Like, what would I do?

01:25:50 ◼   ► You know, I don't know.

01:25:51 ◼   ► So hopefully it, it continues to be okay.

01:25:54 ◼   ► I did.

01:25:55 ◼   ► Before I erased it, I did file feedback.

01:26:00 ◼   ► Feedback 15962368 about my poor battery life, all the logs when associated with that.

01:26:06 ◼   ► So if you work on the Apple watch, and we go dig into that, like, please do.

01:26:11 ◼   ► But so far, so good.

01:26:14 ◼   ► This is when it gets weird.

01:26:15 ◼   ► Okay.

01:26:16 ◼   ► Oh, oh, we've taken another turn.

01:26:18 ◼   ► Yeah, so far annoying, but like, you know, got it fixed.

01:26:22 ◼   ► So I'm telling Mary about this.

01:26:24 ◼   ► Mary has a launch day series eight.

01:26:26 ◼   ► So we updated our watches at the same time, you know, a little over two years ago.

01:26:33 ◼   ► Mary has the small size series eight, and she's always worn the small Apple watch.

01:26:39 ◼   ► And I've just known that that means that she's going to get three years out of an Apple watch

01:26:43 ◼   ► before it needs a battery.

01:26:46 ◼   ► And so she's on basically a three year update cycle.

01:26:49 ◼   ► And it's like, well, that's weird.

01:26:52 ◼   ► Too soon for that to be the case.

01:26:55 ◼   ► She her battery's also at 88% battery capacity, just out of weird coincidence.

01:27:03 ◼   ► But she's had a couple of cases where her watch is doing the same thing.

01:27:07 ◼   ► Like Oh, no dying in the middle of the day.

01:27:10 ◼   ► So earlier than a small watch normally dies, like just being she's like, be at work and

01:27:14 ◼   ► like 1pm or watch like finger like I'm dying.

01:27:18 ◼   ► Goodbye.

01:27:19 ◼   ► And she's noticed that it drops connection to her phone.

01:27:23 ◼   ► Now the way she discovered this is that Siri was not working on her watch.

01:27:28 ◼   ► And she uses Siri on her watch a lot more than I do on mine.

01:27:33 ◼   ► And so her her watch is exhibiting similar symptoms to mine.

01:27:37 ◼   ► To my knowledge, it has not dropped a day of activity tracking.

01:27:40 ◼   ► Like she works out basically every day like she would she would tell me like, hey, I worked

01:27:45 ◼   ► out nothing happened or she's very in tune with her rings and filling them.

01:27:49 ◼   ► And so that is not taking place on her watch yet.

01:27:53 ◼   ► Like, well, that's weird.

01:27:55 ◼   ► Like maybe they're both maybe it's just like older watches.

01:28:00 ◼   ► And she's not on any betas, right?

01:28:01 ◼   ► She's on watchOS 11.1 and iOS 18.1 fully up to date on the public release.

01:28:07 ◼   ► Even if like you were trying to diagnose that and she's like, oh, yeah, I'm on like, point

01:28:12 ◼   ► two.

01:28:13 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:28:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:28:15 ◼   ► Her phone is not capable of Apple intelligence.

01:28:18 ◼   ► So like, there's no reason to put her on the beta.

01:28:22 ◼   ► And she thinks AI is terrible.

01:28:23 ◼   ► So she wouldn't turn it on even if she could.

01:28:24 ◼   ► In fact, she got a notification on her Mac about turning on Apple intelligence.

01:28:27 ◼   ► She was so mad.

01:28:28 ◼   ► She's like, get out of here.

01:28:29 ◼   ► I don't want this.

01:28:30 ◼   ► Blames you like, why have you done this?

01:28:33 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:28:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:28:35 ◼   ► I'm just trying to get a brainwave.

01:28:39 ◼   ► About two weeks ago.

01:28:41 ◼   ► Okay, so about three weeks ago, I swapped to a fast charger on my side of the bed.

01:28:48 ◼   ► I was using like the standard Apple watch puck that I got probably honestly years and

01:28:53 ◼   ► years ago.

01:28:55 ◼   ► And I was like, you know what, it would be nice to fast charge my watch.

01:28:59 ◼   ► And the USB like multi charger thing I had like powering my nightstand.

01:29:03 ◼   ► I needed to replace it anyways because I needed one more USB C port.

01:29:07 ◼   ► I was like, well, let me get a modern one and I'll get a new Apple watch charging puck

01:29:11 ◼   ► and I'll fast charge, which is really nice.

01:29:14 ◼   ► Especially if you sleep tracker, you drop it on.

01:29:16 ◼   ► It's very fast.

01:29:18 ◼   ► And if you wear an Apple watch ultra, you will know that it's very slow to charge on

01:29:22 ◼   ► a normal Apple watch charger because the battery is so much bigger.

01:29:27 ◼   ► And so I was like, I'm enjoying this.

01:29:30 ◼   ► And Mary is like getting into some sleep tracking.

01:29:32 ◼   ► I was like, oh, you would really benefit from with the small watch plus sleep tracking.

01:29:37 ◼   ► You would really also benefit from fast charging.

01:29:40 ◼   ► So I did the same thing on her side of the bed.

01:29:43 ◼   ► Her multi USB thing was newer.

01:29:45 ◼   ► And so she actually had capacity for fast charging.

01:29:48 ◼   ► So I went to the store, got her a fast charging Apple watch puck, put it in her studio, neat

01:29:53 ◼   ► nightstand thing she uses.

01:29:55 ◼   ► And it was after this that both of our watches started doing weird things.

01:30:01 ◼   ► And I'm not saying fast charging is an issue or that it caused it or that like, but it's

01:30:10 ◼   ► weird.

01:30:11 ◼   ► You're not not saying that.

01:30:12 ◼   ► I'm not not saying it.

01:30:14 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:30:15 ◼   ► And so I'm going to see how my watch does.

01:30:17 ◼   ► I'm going to restore hers, I think over Thanksgiving at some point, just like borrow it for a little

01:30:21 ◼   ► while and I put her back up back on.

01:30:23 ◼   ► It was all the same, but weird.

01:30:27 ◼   ► Right?

01:30:28 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:30:29 ◼   ► So this is absolutely not the same thing.

01:30:31 ◼   ► But I have like a weird thing happen with charging on my Apple watch to where sometimes

01:30:35 ◼   ► I get the thing and say, hi, your your watch is dead.

01:30:40 ◼   ► How could this happen?

01:30:41 ◼   ► And then I go home and I put my watch on my charger and it doesn't charge like it just

01:30:48 ◼   ► won't charge.

01:30:49 ◼   ► But if I disconnect the Apple watch charger from the brick and plug it back in again,

01:30:55 ◼   ► then it works.

01:30:56 ◼   ► It's like every few months I have to unplug it and plug it back in again.

01:30:59 ◼   ► This isn't the same thing.

01:31:01 ◼   ► But like, I don't understand why that's happening.

01:31:03 ◼   ► I will say my charger is very old.

01:31:05 ◼   ► It is a USB-A Apple watch charger.

01:31:07 ◼   ► Yeah, it may just be time for a new.

01:31:09 ◼   ► I think I need a new one.

01:31:10 ◼   ► But it's like then I also have to buy a new power brick.

01:31:12 ◼   ► It's like you.

01:31:13 ◼   ► It's like I've kind of just like procrastinating on it because I just don't really want to

01:31:17 ◼   ► have to just like, because I have to like, I have to like, I have to like unwire everything.

01:31:22 ◼   ► I need to like, do the whole thing.

01:31:24 ◼   ► So like, I'm really procrastinating on it to the point where I guess it doesn't work

01:31:28 ◼   ► anymore.

01:31:29 ◼   ► But anyway, but that's very strange.

01:31:33 ◼   ► Very strange.

01:31:35 ◼   ► Obviously, I can't think of any logical reason why charging would do this.

01:31:42 ◼   ► But why else is it happening to both of you?

01:31:46 ◼   ► That's odd.

01:31:47 ◼   ► When she told me she was having trouble with it, like, my mouth like fell open.

01:31:51 ◼   ► I was like, what?

01:31:53 ◼   ► Did you get the immediate instinct to make a YouTube video?

01:31:57 ◼   ► I did not.

01:31:58 ◼   ► Chargegate?

01:31:59 ◼   ► No, there's no hissing.

01:32:01 ◼   ► You know, there's no there's no hook.

01:32:05 ◼   ► And she was like, you know, because she has had the smaller watch for years and like,

01:32:09 ◼   ► she's like, oh, like, you know, is it is do I just need to like consider an upgrade?

01:32:14 ◼   ► It's like, you know, I don't think so.

01:32:16 ◼   ► Like I don't think it's time for that.

01:32:19 ◼   ► But it's definitely weird.

01:32:22 ◼   ► And I don't like it.

01:32:23 ◼   ► No.

01:32:24 ◼   ► So I don't know.

01:32:27 ◼   ► I'll keep you all posted, I guess, and see what else the what else the watches may do.

01:32:32 ◼   ► But hopefully, hopefully they're OK after restores.

01:32:35 ◼   ► But it's definitely concerning because she would just get a series 10 like an aluminum.

01:32:40 ◼   ► She always gets the silver aluminum like small like I could buy her a watch on autopilot

01:32:45 ◼   ► at this point.

01:32:46 ◼   ► But I don't know what I would do because I really don't want an ultra to like if it needed

01:32:52 ◼   ► a battery, I think I'd pay to have the battery replaced.

01:32:55 ◼   ► You want the black one, though?

01:32:56 ◼   ► You know, I thought that and I saw it in person.

01:32:58 ◼   ► I don't like it in person.

01:33:01 ◼   ► So it's very like smudgy and fingerprinting and like not dark enough.

01:33:05 ◼   ► So I don't know what I would do.

01:33:11 ◼   ► This episode of connected is brought to you by Master Class.

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01:34:21 ◼   ► Look, a lot of us who are into nerdy things, we're pretty specific.

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01:35:01 ◼   ► Link is in the show notes.

01:35:03 ◼   ► Our thanks to Master Class for their support of the show.

01:35:08 ◼   ► So it's Thanksgiving week in America, which I think has become Thanksgiving around the

01:35:14 ◼   ► world.

01:35:15 ◼   ► It's like because we have Black Friday.

01:35:18 ◼   ► I don't know if you guys have seen this year, I really don't like this.

01:35:22 ◼   ► I've seen both the use of Black Week and Black Month instead of just Black Friday.

01:35:28 ◼   ► I really don't like that.

01:35:29 ◼   ► I don't think it sounds good.

01:35:31 ◼   ► And I also just am tired of the sales.

01:35:34 ◼   ► Let me give you a little quick pet peeve for you both.

01:35:37 ◼   ► You know we're running a month long sale on membership.

01:35:40 ◼   ► Yeah, but we're just calling it a membership sale.

01:35:43 ◼   ► We're not calling it the Black Month sale, are we?

01:35:47 ◼   ► I don't care about people offering discounts.

01:35:50 ◼   ► Anyway, do Black Friday on Black Friday.

01:35:54 ◼   ► Other than that, you're doing a holiday sale.

01:35:56 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

01:35:57 ◼   ► Respect the sanctity of Black Friday is what you're saying.

01:36:00 ◼   ► Exactly.

01:36:01 ◼   ► But also just Black Friday outside of America is madness anyway.

01:36:05 ◼   ► You know what?

01:36:06 ◼   ► Put the Friday back in Black Friday.

01:36:09 ◼   ► You know?

01:36:10 ◼   ► Oh, Steven.

01:36:12 ◼   ► That's what I'm saying.

01:36:13 ◼   ► Yes, I love it.

01:36:14 ◼   ► You should make a t-shirt.

01:36:15 ◼   ► You should.

01:36:16 ◼   ► You know?

01:36:17 ◼   ► You should.

01:36:18 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:36:19 ◼   ► The war on Black Friday.

01:36:22 ◼   ► That's what we're doing over here.

01:36:25 ◼   ► I have another pet peeve that I would like to share with you real quick about Black Friday.

01:36:28 ◼   ► I thought we were giving thanks, not giving complaints.

01:36:30 ◼   ► We are, but now I'm in it now.

01:36:33 ◼   ► I find it really annoying when brands have this whole thing about why they're not doing

01:36:40 ◼   ► Black Friday.

01:36:42 ◼   ► Or we're doing it, but it's not what you think.

01:36:48 ◼   ► If I just do it or don't do it, it doesn't need to be your moment.

01:36:54 ◼   ► We would never do a sale.

01:36:56 ◼   ► They just do it.

01:36:57 ◼   ► Either do it or don't do it.

01:36:59 ◼   ► That's my pet peeve.

01:37:00 ◼   ► But anyway, because it is Thanksgiving season, it is the season of giving thanks, and I thought

01:37:05 ◼   ► that we could all share something in technology that we are thankful for right now.

01:37:11 ◼   ► I would like to know what you all...

01:37:13 ◼   ► I can start if you would like some time to think.

01:37:17 ◼   ► Would you like me to start?

01:37:19 ◼   ► Please.

01:37:21 ◼   ► So I was trying to think of something that was new.

01:37:23 ◼   ► New to me, rather than something that I've had.

01:37:27 ◼   ► And I think genuinely the thing that I am most thankful for in technology this year

01:37:33 ◼   ► is large language modeled, powered search engines.

01:37:36 ◼   ► This was also going to be on my list.

01:37:39 ◼   ► Because I really, I mean I've spoken about it a bunch already, but I think that it is

01:37:44 ◼   ► helping me navigate the web better than I have in years for finding helpful and interesting

01:37:52 ◼   ► answers to questions.

01:37:55 ◼   ► I feel like I'm able to get to what I want with less work.

01:38:02 ◼   ► Today I was Googling, like I was just Googling something.

01:38:05 ◼   ► And the sentence that I put into Google was absolute gibberish, because I'm trying to

01:38:12 ◼   ► get what I want.

01:38:14 ◼   ► Because I was in my web browser, so I opened a new tab to type it in.

01:38:17 ◼   ► And I'm like, I don't even remember what it was, but it was something like Safari, no

01:38:23 ◼   ► work, replace, you know what I mean?

01:38:26 ◼   ► It's just like talking and it's a truly unhinged way to try and get what you want out of Google.

01:38:33 ◼   ► The good thing about, I like ChatGPT Search the most, is that you can just be like, I'm

01:38:39 ◼   ► looking for this thing and I'm wondering about this thing and it can give you results and

01:38:43 ◼   ► maybe you don't like them, so you kind of say, no, give me more of this or give me more

01:38:48 ◼   ► of that.

01:38:49 ◼   ► You're actually having a back and forth in trying to refine what you're looking for in

01:38:52 ◼   ► English, in actual just natural English, which is I like it.

01:38:57 ◼   ► And then also, because of what these services are, I don't just blindly trust what they

01:39:04 ◼   ► say.

01:39:05 ◼   ► Now, the thing is, I should never have trusted Google this way either, but I did.

01:39:11 ◼   ► But I'm more likely to check sources.

01:39:14 ◼   ► I was looking for some restaurants a couple of days ago and it wasn't really giving me

01:39:18 ◼   ► what I wanted, but there was one interesting article and it had a link and I clicked through

01:39:22 ◼   ► on the link and then just browsed the website for like 20 minutes.

01:39:26 ◼   ► Because it took me to what looked like a website that would have more answers for me to just

01:39:30 ◼   ► click around on.

01:39:31 ◼   ► But the problem is, and what I like about it is it gets to the heart of what the SEO

01:39:38 ◼   ► industry is trying to make hard for me.

01:39:41 ◼   ► It can search tons of lists and tons of websites and cut out a lot of the stuff that is trying

01:39:49 ◼   ► to just get my eye.

01:39:52 ◼   ► It can cut out the 20 paragraphs of description before a recipe or whatever.

01:39:58 ◼   ► And so I feel like this stuff is especially good for things like products you're looking

01:40:04 ◼   ► to buy, restaurants you want recommendations for, because it really just does such a broad

01:40:10 ◼   ► search and can correlate and collate answers that appear in a bunch of places.

01:40:15 ◼   ► So I found this to be really good at, I think, making me better at searching.

01:40:21 ◼   ► Because I'm not just blindly trusting the first response or whatever the snippet is,

01:40:26 ◼   ► which is how I trusted Google.

01:40:27 ◼   ► And I feel like I'm getting more information, I can refine it in a way that is natural and

01:40:32 ◼   ► then also use the sourcing.

01:40:34 ◼   ► And it does a way better job of sourcing than Google does, I believe, ChatGPT does.

01:40:39 ◼   ► And I could just kind of click through and then go to the websites and get what I want.

01:40:43 ◼   ► So I really like it.

01:40:44 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:40:45 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:40:46 ◼   ► I also largely replaced Google search with ChatGPT search, and I have noticed the same

01:40:54 ◼   ► behavior in myself.

01:40:55 ◼   ► Like I'm actually clicking through the sources more.

01:40:58 ◼   ► And I don't know, maybe it's a byproduct of the fact that I don't necessarily blindly

01:41:03 ◼   ► trust the AI not to hallucinate some kind of web results.

01:41:08 ◼   ► But the thing is, the reality is I'm clicking through to websites more than I did with Google,

01:41:13 ◼   ► by Google, by extracting a little snippet, it sort of prevents you from having to click

01:41:18 ◼   ► through in the first place.

01:41:20 ◼   ► So it's making me rethink a little.

01:41:26 ◼   ► If this is a better tool for people to find results and actually open those results, how

01:41:33 ◼   ► should we approach this as Mac stories, as a company?

01:41:37 ◼   ► As a user, I found the next car I want to buy thanks to it because I did a lot of research

01:41:45 ◼   ► in natural language, like being able to compare, like being able to explain what is it that

01:41:49 ◼   ► I actually want.

01:41:51 ◼   ► And it brought up a bunch of different models and we were able to pick up, like it was honestly

01:41:59 ◼   ► a great experience.

01:42:01 ◼   ► Thankfully you didn't use Grok for that or you would end up with a Cybertruck.

01:42:05 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

01:42:06 ◼   ► It doesn't matter what you ask for.

01:42:10 ◼   ► I would like to buy a moped.

01:42:11 ◼   ► Have you considered a Cybertruck?

01:42:14 ◼   ► I want to buy a boat.

01:42:15 ◼   ► Have you considered Cybertruck?

01:42:17 ◼   ► Just down the street from me I could go unplug it.

01:42:20 ◼   ► You could go put a floppy disk in and load some good results up there.

01:42:24 ◼   ► It's good.

01:42:25 ◼   ► I'm going to mention two things.

01:42:29 ◼   ► The first one is the Steam Deck.

01:42:31 ◼   ► I am really thankful for this handheld that can do everything without a lot of power.

01:42:44 ◼   ► For a long time I prioritized more powerful handhelds, something like the Legion Go or

01:42:51 ◼   ► the ROG Ally, to have a handheld with just a bit more specs.

01:42:57 ◼   ► Ultimately I always go back to the Steam Deck as sort of the baseline that is a bit of a

01:43:02 ◼   ► jack of all trades.

01:43:05 ◼   ► But in doing that and in having SteamOS with the native suspended resume, the friendly

01:43:14 ◼   ► UI, the stability of the actual native SteamOS instead of like a fork like Bazite, for example,

01:43:23 ◼   ► have really created a beautiful balanced device with the Steam Deck that I've been playing

01:43:31 ◼   ► Dragon Age.

01:43:32 ◼   ► And sure, I've got to play Dragon Age at low to medium settings, but I can play Dragon

01:43:36 ◼   ► Age and put it to sleep whenever I want and pick it up two days later and I'm still there.

01:43:41 ◼   ► So there's something to that.

01:43:43 ◼   ► You have the store, right?

01:43:44 ◼   ► We were talking about earlier, right?

01:43:45 ◼   ► Like it's just built right.

01:43:46 ◼   ► And you have the OLED one, right?

01:43:48 ◼   ► I do.

01:43:49 ◼   ► I do.

01:43:50 ◼   ► Question for you.

01:43:52 ◼   ► Sometimes things are so bright on that screen I have to close my eyes.

01:43:56 ◼   ► Do you ever have this?

01:43:57 ◼   ► Like a game flashes to what?

01:43:59 ◼   ► Like in Dragon Age or whatever.

01:44:01 ◼   ► Like sometimes you go to a memory, it's like, oh God, I have to close my eyes.

01:44:04 ◼   ► It's so bright.

01:44:05 ◼   ► It's amazing.

01:44:06 ◼   ► It's very bright.

01:44:07 ◼   ► It's an incredible display.

01:44:09 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:44:10 ◼   ► I'm also going to pick an AI thing.

01:44:15 ◼   ► I've been on this kick for assistive AI products.

01:44:19 ◼   ► I think I mentioned this on the show before.

01:44:21 ◼   ► It's Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

01:44:25 ◼   ► I've been using it a lot for like research and helping me with coding for Apple frames

01:44:34 ◼   ► too.

01:44:35 ◼   ► Again, lots more details in the next app stories.

01:44:38 ◼   ► But yeah, I've been using it for a lot of like me uploading a lot of like reference

01:44:45 ◼   ► files that's usually like my content or some of my files that I use for shortcuts and being

01:44:53 ◼   ► able to ask Claude questions in terms of like, how would you do these things?

01:45:00 ◼   ► When did I mention this thing in this story?

01:45:02 ◼   ► Like being able to work with my data and to have a natural language conversation.

01:45:10 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:45:11 ◼   ► It makes me feel really empowered.

01:45:15 ◼   ► And it doesn't make me feel uncomfortable about the fact that I'm using AI for these

01:45:20 ◼   ► tasks.

01:45:21 ◼   ► I also appreciate Claude and the principles that Anthropica has sort of established for

01:45:28 ◼   ► the kind of AI that they want to make.

01:45:30 ◼   ► It doesn't produce images.

01:45:32 ◼   ► It doesn't produce music.

01:45:34 ◼   ► It doesn't produce videos.

01:45:36 ◼   ► And it doesn't have access to the Internet, which can be a bit of a downside.

01:45:41 ◼   ► But that's why you can use multiple tools for different things.

01:45:45 ◼   ► But yeah, Claude for sort of referencing my own projects, my own files, and also as an

01:45:55 ◼   ► aid for coding, I can tell you like it's for my tests, it's been way better than chat GPT

01:46:04 ◼   ► to the point where chat GPT was actually fading.

01:46:06 ◼   ► It was like producing multiple errors and Claude just didn't care.

01:46:12 ◼   ► So yeah, it's been just another tool in my toolbox and a really good one at that.

01:46:20 ◼   ► Assistive over generative.

01:46:22 ◼   ► Yes.

01:46:23 ◼   ► Yes.

01:46:24 ◼   ► Big, big time.

01:46:25 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:46:26 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:46:27 ◼   ► So for me, I mean, it's fresh in my mind, but I'm really enjoying my new networking

01:46:36 ◼   ► at home.

01:46:37 ◼   ► The ubiquitous have I put in.

01:46:39 ◼   ► I had several people ask me and I thought I said what I had installed, but a bunch of

01:46:45 ◼   ► people were like, Hey, what'd you install?

01:46:47 ◼   ► So I guess I didn't say it.

01:46:49 ◼   ► So I am running as my router, the cloud gateway ultra as my router.

01:47:04 ◼   ► I've got two switches, the USW ultra 210 watt.

01:47:08 ◼   ► I've got one of those in the house and one in the office.

01:47:12 ◼   ► And then my wireless access points are the U7 Pro wall.

01:47:17 ◼   ► So the ones that are wall mounted, not ceiling mounted.

01:47:19 ◼   ► And I got several of those.