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Connected

525: Daddy Come Back Please Daddy!

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:07   Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 525.

00:00:12   I'm Jon Voorhees, and with me is Mr. Ricky Benchman himself, none other than Michael Hurley.

00:00:20   Hey Mike.

00:00:20   Hi Jon, thank you for joining us OTJ.

00:00:23   I would like to say this episode is brought to you by Squarespace and Fanfare,

00:00:25   and it is my pleasure as Ricky Benchman to introduce Mr. Federico Vittucci. Hello Federico.

00:00:30   Hello, hi.

00:00:32   I feel like I'm inside of App Stories right now.

00:00:35   Or, I don't know, Jon is unconnected.

00:00:39   It could be either or, we'll see how the show goes.

00:00:40   Or, or, Mike, or you're joining an episode of Unwind, which is also a vibe.

00:00:47   Sure, but you've left out the show that I really want to be on.

00:00:51   Oh, you want to be on MPC?

00:00:53   My favorite podcast.

00:00:54   Well, there's going to be Brendan on it though.

00:00:57   Yeah, I know, Brendan's cooler than me. I get it, all right.

00:01:00   I get it, everybody knows it, we can all see it, all right.

00:01:03   I wouldn't say cooler, but he's definitely taller than you.

00:01:06   No, he's cooler.

00:01:07   No, he's cooler.

00:01:08   It's fine, we can all admit it, he's cooler than all of us.

00:01:12   Oh, he's certainly cooler than me, that's for sure.

00:01:14   Probably not me.

00:01:17   No, Federico, I love you, he's cooler than you.

00:01:19   Nah, nah.

00:01:20   Yeah, he is.

00:01:21   Federico, you've lost your cool edge.

00:01:23   No, no, Federico's still cool, right?

00:01:25   What? What?

00:01:27   Federico, you are cool.

00:01:29   You take that back immediately, John.

00:01:30   I take it back, I take it back.

00:01:32   You could bring this to the show, take this MPC.

00:01:36   I will not stand for this energy at the beginning of this episode.

00:01:39   You know what it is Federico, I'm just upset because I was promised Ricky's and I didn't

00:01:44   get them and I feel like there's been collusion.

00:01:46   There's been collusion, somebody has plotted against me.

00:01:48   That is really true.

00:01:49   Collusion with what exactly?

00:01:52   I don't know.

00:01:53   Who colluded?

00:01:54   You think I colluded with Tim Cook?

00:01:55   You and Mike, you and Mike, maybe Steven too.

00:01:57   Maybe we asked John Turnas when we saw him a few months ago to do it this way.

00:02:02   We are personal acquaintances of future Apple CEO John Turnas.

00:02:07   He did say to you, I know you, he did say that.

00:02:11   He did say that.

00:02:12   He did say that to me, which is good for two reasons.

00:02:15   Because one, maybe he doesn't know me and the things that I say about him or he does

00:02:21   and decided he didn't want to bring that energy.

00:02:24   No, you keep that in mind.

00:02:26   You keep that in mind when you say that I'm not cool anymore.

00:02:28   The future CEO of Apple said, I know you.

00:02:32   He probably also said, you're the cool one, aren't you?

00:02:35   Well, I would just like to state for the record, if we're talking about coolness, I in this

00:02:39   year have met the current and potential future CEO of Apple.

00:02:43   So, I mean, that's pretty cool.

00:02:46   You got that going for you.

00:02:47   Yeah, that was pretty cool.

00:02:48   You met a 65 year old man.

00:02:51   He's a nice guy.

00:02:52   Tim Cook's a nice guy.

00:02:54   And he, oh, a bit of, we should do some follow up.

00:02:57   Follow up number one, which is Steven has renamed our group chat to roommates in honor

00:03:02   of Tim Cook.

00:03:03   Yes.

00:03:04   I had no idea what that was all about.

00:03:06   It was very funny to see like what is going on.

00:03:08   I don't know what's going on.

00:03:10   I was behind in my reading and I had no idea what that was all about.

00:03:15   Very confusing for OTJ for obvious reasons, but we have, we do have some other follow

00:03:21   up.

00:03:22   iOS 8.1, 18.8, iOS 8.1.

00:03:25   Now that would be fun.

00:03:27   iOS 18.1 is now available, which brings of it the first round of Apple intelligence features.

00:03:34   John, I know that you wrote about that and Millian wrote about it, Mac stories.

00:03:40   We've been talking about this for a while.

00:03:42   They're out now.

00:03:43   A funny thing, I was kind of talking to my wife about the Apple intelligence stuff.

00:03:49   Just kind of, you know, I'm sure we all do this.

00:03:51   We all talk to our partners cause we care about this stuff so much.

00:03:53   And she was like, oh yeah, I'm interested in seeing what this stuff is about.

00:03:57   Right.

00:03:58   Um, but I ended up urging her to just wait for 18.2 cause I just don't think it's worth

00:04:04   for her like changing her language settings because, and I actually recommend this to

00:04:08   most people.

00:04:09   Like if you're not in the US, I would, I think you would be fine to wait for 18.2.

00:04:17   Um, if your language is going to be added, cause I really feel like 18.2 is the better

00:04:25   overall package if you're interested in this stuff.

00:04:28   But I did do that.

00:04:30   I did do the language change thing and realistically it didn't really affect me at all, especially

00:04:35   when at one point in the beta process they made it that you didn't need to have your,

00:04:41   like your language, like your language for text, the keyboard, like your keyboard language,

00:04:47   sorry, as a US English.

00:04:49   So I could have my like language phone language as American English is very confusing.

00:04:55   My region could stay UK.

00:04:57   My phone language had to be US English, but my keyboard could be UK English.

00:05:03   It's like, I don't wish that on anyone having to work out how to set that up.

00:05:07   Yeah.

00:05:08   I wish I were in the meeting where they decided how to split up all these features because

00:05:13   I can see why they did it the way they did.

00:05:16   On the other hand, and I think it's because 18.0 felt, felt pretty light and 18.1 if those

00:05:25   things had been in 18, it would have felt like a more like a normal update, I think.

00:05:30   Yeah.

00:05:31   Right.

00:05:32   But, but they were still so far off of having the image stuff ready that I guess they decided

00:05:37   to drop some stuff in between.

00:05:39   I feel like as well, because I was just, as you were talking, I was thinking like, Oh,

00:05:43   what would have been the harm in just waiting and just doing it all in December, right?

00:05:47   Like if you're promoting it in September and it's not coming out in October, why not wait

00:05:51   for December?

00:05:52   You know?

00:05:53   But then I was thinking, I do still think that Genmoji is going to be popular, especially

00:06:00   with the way that Apple have implemented it in the keyboard.

00:06:03   So I think that there is something to be said about like staging it a little bit, like not

00:06:07   having that be in the first Apple intelligence release maybe.

00:06:11   Yeah.

00:06:12   Well they needed more time to test out the image stuff too.

00:06:14   I mean, it's, we'll talk about that, but.

00:06:16   I want to see if you two have some details on this, where Apple have said that the Apple

00:06:23   intelligence is coming to the EU in April.

00:06:25   Like this is in a, basically the footer terms and conditions, secret legal notes at the

00:06:31   bottom of a newsroom post.

00:06:32   Do you know what, like, this seems weird that they would announce it this way.

00:06:36   It also seems weird that there has not at least been a public acknowledgement from anyone

00:06:43   or the EU haven't said, like, it seems like this couldn't launch in the EU.

00:06:47   So how are they doing it?

00:06:48   I think that there are ongoing conversations between the EU and Apple.

00:06:52   So I think that that, my guess is that when they say April, they've struck a deal.

00:06:57   They just, no one's going to talk about it being a deal though.

00:07:00   Yeah.

00:07:01   I mean, but it is what it is, right?

00:07:03   They've said they were having conversations with regulators in Europe and they seem confident

00:07:09   that by April they will be able to release Apple intelligence in the EU.

00:07:13   I do think it's a little strange that you find out about this via a footnote or apparently

00:07:21   if you want to know everything about, like, if you want to have all of the EU asterisks

00:07:26   in Apple's press releases, you just got to sign up for the Irish newsroom.

00:07:31   So the Irish Apple newsroom is my new best friend because apparently if you're in Ireland,

00:07:36   you get all the fancy details about the European Union that you don't get on the other newsrooms.

00:07:41   So yeah, go Irish newsroom, I guess.

00:07:44   But yeah, they have most certainly, you know, struck a deal with the EU.

00:07:53   And so realistically, I think we're looking at iOS 18.3 or 18.4 coming out in April and

00:08:03   that's going to be it.

00:08:04   So yeah, the language is a little bit hedged too, I think if I remember right.

00:08:08   It's something to the effect that most of the features will be coming to the EU or something

00:08:12   along those lines.

00:08:14   Actually, it's just weird.

00:08:16   It's just weird because like at first it was like, oh, but the data rules to the DMA, like

00:08:21   it's not going to work, like because of the way it's written.

00:08:23   So like who's changed something, you know, or was that misunderstood from the beginning,

00:08:30   right?

00:08:31   Like it's just, it's a confusing thing to me at least.

00:08:34   Maybe people just got carried away.

00:08:35   Yeah.

00:08:36   The way I look at it, it feels like to me that Apple has had ongoing continual conversations

00:08:42   with the regulators in Europe ever since the very beginning.

00:08:47   And the last thing you want to do is like haul that out into the public and make somebody

00:08:50   look bad when you're having sensitive negotiations.

00:08:53   So they've gotten, Apple has gotten comfortable enough with what they're hearing from the

00:08:57   EU to be able to at least say that this stuff is coming in the spring.

00:09:01   But my guess is like the details have not been totally worked out, which is why there's

00:09:06   still time to go and why it's hedged a little bit.

00:09:09   I will go one step further and I will say that the deal that they have cut with the

00:09:18   EU is that by the time Apple intelligence launches in Europe, it's going to support

00:09:25   multiple AI sources in addition to chat GPT.

00:09:28   All right.

00:09:29   So here's one I'm going to read to you from the, uh, from the, the, the actual footnote

00:09:34   that was in the Irish newsletter this April, Apple intelligence features will start to

00:09:38   roll out to iPhone and iPad users in the EU.

00:09:41   This will include many of the core features of Apple intelligence, including writing tools,

00:09:45   gem Moji, a redesigned Siri with richer language, understanding, chat, GPT integration, and

00:09:50   more.

00:09:51   My bet on this is that they will not have support for personal context because that

00:09:57   was the issue, right?

00:09:58   It was like using somebody's data and that's what context does.

00:10:04   Who knows?

00:10:05   But here are a couple of potential things, right?

00:10:07   Because like that's when Gemini's coming on board or they, they're basically cutting it

00:10:12   off there because these are just like, these features are just, they're like degenerative

00:10:17   AI stuff that already exists.

00:10:18   But the idea of to using somebody's data for an AI system, like I think if memory serves,

00:10:24   that was what people were suggesting was the reason that they might struggle.

00:10:28   Yeah.

00:10:29   Uh, if I remember right too, when the press release talked about the visual thing where

00:10:34   you press the, you know, the camera control and you can point it at something that there

00:10:38   was some language in there about later there will be third party tools available.

00:10:43   And that to me, I think that that means other AI tools, not like third party developers.

00:10:48   I think it means other services that are available, AI type services.

00:10:52   So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if we see more.

00:10:54   I mean, that would make sense because that visual intelligence thing, I don't understand

00:10:59   what I'm supposed to do with it.

00:11:00   Like it's really weird.

00:11:04   It told me I had a cozy coffee mug on my desk.

00:11:06   It sure did.

00:11:07   It's an odd feature that where it's like, that feels like something that we know how

00:11:11   that should act because we've seen products attempt to do this or like products say they

00:11:16   can do this, but like at least visual intelligence right now, I don't, I don't really understand

00:11:22   what it's doing.

00:11:23   Anyway, let's move on from this.

00:11:24   We're going to come back to it.

00:11:25   We're going to, we're going to have an AI sandwich for today's episode.

00:11:28   My favorite, everyone's favorite tasty delectable treat.

00:11:32   I actually want to talk about something which is just genuinely heartwarming and was a really

00:11:35   interesting story, which was John, can you talk about your experience with the AirPods

00:11:40   Pro 2 hearing features?

00:11:41   Oh yeah.

00:11:42   So I figured, you know, this is a new feature that I've read about a lot and having read

00:11:46   about it even, you know, there's a great story on the verge by Chris Walsh about it and Chris

00:11:52   talked about how he was a little hesitant, how it was kind of stressful taking it.

00:11:56   And so I was just very curious about what the process was like because going into it,

00:12:01   I didn't really know what to expect.

00:12:02   And I know just because of my age and my past, I have some hearing loss and my wife certainly

00:12:08   reminds me of it frequently.

00:12:11   And so I thought, well, can we talk about that for a second?

00:12:17   Sure, sure.

00:12:18   Poor Jennifer.

00:12:19   Like how?

00:12:20   Like how?

00:12:21   Like that, that, that I, well, that I don't listen to her.

00:12:24   Yeah.

00:12:25   I tune her out or I can't hear her.

00:12:26   So yeah.

00:12:27   Or the TV's too loud.

00:12:28   Are you sure you're not using this, um, physical limitation as an excuse?

00:12:34   Well, I guess I was glad to find out that I had a little hearing loss because otherwise

00:12:39   I certified John as your legal counsel.

00:12:42   I recommend you plead the fifth on this one.

00:12:46   Absolutely.

00:12:47   Um, but yeah, you know, everything's for the content, right?

00:12:51   So I decided it's time to take this hearing test.

00:12:54   Wow.

00:12:55   Some dedication.

00:12:59   This is like me and Federico doing eye tests in our living rooms, right?

00:13:02   Oh yeah.

00:13:03   It's not too.

00:13:04   Yeah, absolutely.

00:13:05   Look, I mean, I'm not trying to be cynical, but, uh, I thought it would make for a good

00:13:10   story depending on how it turned out.

00:13:12   Were you at any point to be like, boy, I really hope I do have some hearing loss.

00:13:18   So Federico, my concern was that it would tell me that my hearing loss was too high.

00:13:25   It was so bad that I needed to go see a doctor.

00:13:27   That's what I didn't want to have to.

00:13:30   And fortunately it did not.

00:13:32   I did find out that I have mild hearing loss in one of my two ears.

00:13:38   So not, not really a particularly big deal, but what was neat was, well, there are a couple

00:13:42   of things about this.

00:13:43   First of all, the process of doing the hearing test is super, super well done.

00:13:50   You can tell that a lot of thought went into it.

00:13:52   The design is really good.

00:13:54   It kind of puts your, if you're, if you're anxious about it all, it kind of puts your,

00:13:58   you know, your nerves at ease.

00:13:59   Cause I felt like by the time I was actually taking the test that I was ready for it in

00:14:04   a way.

00:14:05   And it was, you know, just a lot of intro screens.

00:14:07   I was able to like listen to a tone before I actually took the test.

00:14:11   So I knew what I was listening for, which was kind of nice.

00:14:14   And then I went through it and it, it steps you through first checking your surroundings

00:14:18   to make sure that your room that you're in is quiet enough.

00:14:22   And mine was, and then it checks whether your AirPods are in your ears with a good seal

00:14:28   because it needs that.

00:14:29   And then you start taking the test one ear at a time.

00:14:32   And the first time I did it, it failed because I was sitting at my kitchen table and a truck

00:14:36   went by and it was enough noise, even though it wasn't super loud that I had to redo it.

00:14:42   So I retreated to my bedroom, which is a little further away from the street and quieter.

00:14:48   And I was able to get through the test and it showed me that I had the hearing loss.

00:14:52   And then once you do that and you set up the hearing assistance, the hearing aid part of

00:14:57   it, all it really is is tapping a button because it's, you know, boosting some of the signals

00:15:01   in whatever range of frequencies you're having difficulty with.

00:15:06   And I thought, well, here I am, I'm working at home by myself.

00:15:09   I'm not going to really be able to test this until Jennifer gets home and I have somebody

00:15:12   to talk to.

00:15:14   And I stood up and walked across the floor and I was like, wow.

00:15:17   I was immediately floored by the fact that I could hear my footsteps across the floor

00:15:23   much more clearly than I did before I took the test.

00:15:26   And then I was making lunch and I could hear, you know, the rustle of the packaging as I

00:15:30   pulled food out of the refrigerator.

00:15:32   And then I went to my office and started typing and I could hear the keys like I hadn't heard

00:15:37   before.

00:15:38   It was all really kind of, it was really surprising.

00:15:41   And it just does, I mean, it does what you would expect it does.

00:15:44   It pulls out those frequencies you have trouble with, makes everything more defined.

00:15:51   I kind of finished up my story by talking about how I walked down.

00:15:54   I kind of wrote up the story right away because I wanted to have it fresh in my mind what

00:15:57   it was like.

00:15:59   And then I walked down to a local coffee shop to finish up the draft and I left my AirPods

00:16:05   in while I was ordering a drink and while I was sitting outside and it was noticeable

00:16:09   being able to talk to the person who took my order, hearing people at the tables nearby

00:16:15   despite there being like a park right next door and a lot of kids running around and

00:16:18   making noise.

00:16:19   It was amazing to me.

00:16:22   I mean, it really is kind of cool.

00:16:24   The novelty of it has worn off pretty quickly.

00:16:27   Like I notice it less today than I did yesterday, two days ago.

00:16:31   That's like when you get a new pair of glasses though, right?

00:16:33   Yeah, exactly.

00:16:34   It's very much like that.

00:16:35   Yeah.

00:16:36   I mean, I encourage anybody who thinks they might even potentially have some hearing loss

00:16:41   to give it a try because it only takes like five minutes and it can really improve your

00:16:46   hearing.

00:16:47   Yeah, I think it's just because I love you and care for you, but I felt quite emotional

00:16:54   reading that article.

00:16:55   I also just think you did a good job with it.

00:16:58   You can tell in the way that you're writing it, which it was just kind of, I get the impression

00:17:03   of how much you were taken aback by the difference.

00:17:07   Right.

00:17:08   Yeah.

00:17:09   And that's why I wanted to write it right away because it was like, I stood up and I

00:17:13   just took a couple of steps and I was like, whoa, what's going on?

00:17:18   I can hear the future.

00:17:22   I can hear my socks on the wood floor like never before.

00:17:25   You were like, is this what I sound like when I walk?

00:17:28   It's like the glory of my socks against wood was fantastic.

00:17:32   It's almost like a scene from a superhero movie, right?

00:17:36   Where like now you've woken up after being bit by the radioactive spider and now you've

00:17:41   got like extra cool senses, I suppose.

00:17:44   Yeah, it is a little bit like that.

00:17:46   And I like going forward, my hearing loss isn't so bad that I'm going to be walking

00:17:50   around with AirPods in my ears all day.

00:17:53   But I do feel like today I walked into town again for another reason, just to run an errand

00:18:00   and I was wearing my AirPods and listening to a podcast and it's like little things like

00:18:04   the podcast volume level is lower than it was before, which is probably good for my

00:18:08   hearing longterm too.

00:18:10   And the fact that as I was walking down the street, a lot of these things are already

00:18:16   kind of built into AirPods with the transparency mode where it's lowering the traffic noises

00:18:22   and kind of pulling out other noises a little bit more.

00:18:25   And what I noticed was it's those sounds that you want to hear, like people talking that

00:18:31   are better defined and pulled out against the backdrop of what's going on on the street

00:18:36   around you.

00:18:37   And that, you know, I'll definitely wear them for things like that, I suppose, which I tend

00:18:42   to be anyway.

00:18:43   Like if I'm walking around doing errands, I'm going to have my AirPods in anyway, probably.

00:18:47   Or if you're like in a loud restaurant maybe or at a concert or something like that, I

00:18:53   could definitely see doing it.

00:18:54   I would just say for the record, because I feel like I hear a lot of people say, right?

00:18:59   Like, and you even kind of hinted towards it of like it being weird that you would go

00:19:02   into a coffee shop and speak to somebody of AirPods in.

00:19:06   I don't think this is weird at all.

00:19:08   I don't know why people think this is weird.

00:19:10   Like if I have my AirPods in and I'm talking to you, you can probably assume I can hear

00:19:15   like I'm not listening to something.

00:19:17   Like, I don't, I think we need to get over this idea that like I have to take one earbud

00:19:24   out to be able to speak to you.

00:19:26   Like, it should be contextual, right?

00:19:30   You know I'm talking to you because I'm talking to you.

00:19:32   If I say, oh, wait, sorry, what?

00:19:34   I can't hear you.

00:19:35   You know what I mean?

00:19:36   Then I'm listening to something.

00:19:38   I'm not sure that I fully understand that why this is like a social, like a bad social

00:19:45   cue.

00:19:46   Like it doesn't make sense to me.

00:19:47   Yeah, I agree.

00:19:48   But I think it happens to be for some people.

00:19:50   And I think it'll take a while to kind of become normalized really.

00:19:54   But then I must be upsetting people all the time.

00:19:57   It was, it had become a habit for me where I would like when I would walk down to the

00:20:02   shop to get a coffee, I just naturally would pull my AirPods out as I approached the door

00:20:06   and drop them in the case and order my coffee, then put them back in as I go find a seat,

00:20:12   you know, even when I'm by myself.

00:20:14   But I didn't.

00:20:16   And it actually was better because it's pretty loud place and the woman behind the counter

00:20:21   was was pretty quiet spoken.

00:20:23   So it did help.

00:20:25   Very cool.

00:20:26   Do you think you're going to do you think this is actually going to change your AirPods

00:20:31   usage?

00:20:32   Like, do you imagine now that you would like, so you mentioned a restaurant, let's say you

00:20:37   and Jennifer are going to dinner and you're in a loud restaurant, would you be more likely

00:20:41   to put your AirPods in so you could hear about her?

00:20:44   I don't think so.

00:20:45   I'm not sure.

00:20:46   I'm not really sure because I haven't been in that situation yet.

00:20:49   But I will say that like last night, she came home from work, and I was making dinner and

00:20:53   I was making noise in the kitchen.

00:20:54   And she was like on the couch facing away from me.

00:20:57   And she was talking to me.

00:20:58   And I happen to have my AirPods in because I was listening to a podcast when she got

00:21:02   home.

00:21:03   I paused it when she got home.

00:21:05   And as she was speaking to me from the couch, I could hear her better.

00:21:07   So I definitely, you know, would leave them in in a situation like that more likely than

00:21:13   not.

00:21:14   And in the future going to, you know, into town to run errands and things, leave them

00:21:19   in when I go to the pharmacy to pick something up or, you know, talk to somebody at a restaurant

00:21:25   or a shop or whatever it happens to be.

00:21:27   I can definitely see it in those circumstances.

00:21:29   I haven't really thought.

00:21:30   We'll have to see.

00:21:31   I mean, jury's still out whether I would do it if we were out to dinner together or something.

00:21:36   Federico, do you think it's rude?

00:21:38   I don't think it is.

00:21:39   Okay.

00:21:40   It's pretty normal by now.

00:21:42   I mean, it's been what, eight years since AirPods?

00:21:45   And yeah, I just, I don't care about it anymore.

00:21:48   And I, I don't know, anecdotally speaking, I think people have gotten used to the idea

00:21:53   of the other person can hear you even if you're wearing AirPods.

00:21:58   So yeah, I think we are past this.

00:22:01   Yeah.

00:22:02   I look forward to the follow up.

00:22:05   Yeah, I'll definitely let you know.

00:22:08   I think it's a generational thing.

00:22:10   I think this is a generational thing to think about AirPods to a degree, but you know, we'll

00:22:16   see.

00:22:17   We'll see how, how people react.

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00:24:57   So it has been new Mac week.

00:25:00   We were wondering how this was going to go down and basically it went down thusly.

00:25:05   There have been press releases and videos, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week showing

00:25:11   off a variety of different Macs.

00:25:14   All these videos were kind of emceed by John Turnus.

00:25:17   John Turnus really playing the Tim Cook role in these presentations, right?

00:25:21   He sets up the thing, sends it away to people, comes back to him, goes to someone else, comes

00:25:26   back to him to wrap up.

00:25:28   Turnus is fantastic.

00:25:30   I know I love him.

00:25:32   But part of that...

00:25:33   Oh really?

00:25:34   Yeah.

00:25:35   But genuinely though, like I have a lot of respect for Tim Cook.

00:25:39   John Turnus is better at this kind of stuff.

00:25:42   I think he's more, I think he has more of the personality.

00:25:48   He's got more energy.

00:25:49   He's closer to Federighi, right?

00:25:51   He's not that good, but like he's closer to Federighi.

00:25:55   Like he's funny.

00:25:56   Like, and he can do funny things, right?

00:25:58   Like the Mac mini when he leans down, right?

00:26:00   It's very memorable.

00:26:01   Like when he opens the Mac and it does like the his master's voice thing, right?

00:26:05   He can do funny faces.

00:26:06   Yeah.

00:26:07   Yeah.

00:26:08   Yeah.

00:26:09   And it's like he, I think he's good at that.

00:26:10   Um, but overall, like just kind of top level, this is an interesting but like weird way

00:26:16   to do this where they basically had a keynote and they just cut it into three pieces.

00:26:21   Yeah.

00:26:22   Like I don't, I don't know why they didn't just do this, but maybe they wanted to try

00:26:26   this out and I would say it's been pretty successful, right?

00:26:30   Like they got to show off Apple intelligence three separate times, right?

00:26:36   Like I think that is definitely part of the reason.

00:26:40   And they showed some cool features, stuff we can't use, right?

00:26:43   Like that I would like to have.

00:26:44   Like there's that one demo where she's like, um, is Allegra Tepper who is going to be,

00:26:52   I think we're going to see her a lot.

00:26:53   I mean, they used her three times this week, right?

00:26:55   Like and Tim Millet as well, who I love that they always reference is Tim Millet.

00:27:00   Like everybody else gets a first name, but you can't say in his Tim.

00:27:04   Right.

00:27:05   Right.

00:27:06   Oh, that's true.

00:27:07   So they always go in and here's Tim Millet who's friend of upgrade.

00:27:09   We've had Tim on the show a bunch of times.

00:27:12   He's a great guy, but like that, that is a very funny, like I noticed that like everybody

00:27:16   else is like, here's Allegra, you know, it's like, oh, back to John.

00:27:20   It's like, and here's Tim Millet.

00:27:23   But like they, it's interesting to see these, like they're, they're building new figures

00:27:27   kind of thing, right?

00:27:28   Like these are the people responsible for this thing and like Allegra was in all of

00:27:33   them and she did a great job.

00:27:34   So I think we're going to see her more and more, but like, I think that's part of why

00:27:37   they did this maybe was like, we can show off these features.

00:27:41   But yeah, the, the, the drivers, the passport thing on the, like the website, like where

00:27:46   they're filling in the travel information, being able to just say like, can you put my

00:27:51   passport number in here?

00:27:52   That's cool.

00:27:53   I would love to use that.

00:27:54   I have no idea when I'm going to be able to get to do that.

00:27:57   Like I was thinking about that.

00:28:00   The idea of Siri filling information in a web form.

00:28:07   I don't think that was shown off at WWDC.

00:28:11   Because if that's like, there has to be a new shortcuts intent, like, right.

00:28:16   I mean, it's not something that, well, could it be combined with onscreen awareness?

00:28:22   Like could maybe onscreen awareness take action on the screen stuff?

00:28:25   It's either like a new Siri combined with Safari thing, or it's a new type of shortcuts

00:28:31   integration where a shortcut action can modify the contents of a webpage.

00:28:38   But maybe it's just like a Safari exclusive thing.

00:28:41   But here's the question.

00:28:44   Where did that come from?

00:28:45   Like, I'm not trying to nitpick this, but it's interesting.

00:28:47   Like where in Mac OS, iOS would I save my passport information?

00:28:54   Like where was that?

00:28:56   You can't, because the passwords app doesn't support things like driver's license numbers.

00:29:01   Sure.

00:29:02   No, but it could also be something that, the idea is that it could be something that you

00:29:06   have in Notes or that you have in Photos.

00:29:08   Or one password.

00:29:09   And Apple Intelligence, yeah.

00:29:10   Right.

00:29:11   And in theory, Apple Intelligence with its semantic index knows, oh, this item is a passport.

00:29:17   And it's the person's passport because it matches their face.

00:29:20   You know, all these signals.

00:29:21   Possibly, right?

00:29:22   But it's interesting.

00:29:23   Which is interesting.

00:29:24   Like, but where?

00:29:26   Like this is, this is the, this has been the question the whole time, right?

00:29:30   Like this is interesting, but how?

00:29:32   Right.

00:29:33   And I like to see more practical use cases because that is one which would be great,

00:29:40   right?

00:29:41   For me.

00:29:42   Like, I like put my address in here.

00:29:44   You know, like that's better than autofill, right?

00:29:47   Like I'll just fill out this form for me.

00:29:48   Like, and it's just, it's just my name, my address, my billing address, my shipping address,

00:29:52   my credit card, my phone number, right?

00:29:54   Like, it should be able to do all of that, right?

00:29:57   And that would be great if you could just say like, fill this out.

00:30:02   Mentioning about we haven't seen this before, what I find interesting is, did you see what

00:30:07   Anthropica are doing?

00:30:08   Like they showed off a demo of like filling in a form.

00:30:11   And it's like, maybe it's like, oh, okay.

00:30:13   We think like, we know we can do stuff like that.

00:30:16   Maybe we should show it now.

00:30:17   I don't know.

00:30:19   Anyway, let's talk about the products.

00:30:21   I want to rank these by the ones that I find the most interesting.

00:30:23   So we'll start with the Mac Mini.

00:30:26   This is the thing though, right?

00:30:27   Like the other stuff is like much, much of what we expected, you know, like as easy to

00:30:33   kind of expect, but the Mac Mini is like, are they actually going to do this?

00:30:37   They did it.

00:30:38   It's a five by five inch cube, like square, sorry.

00:30:41   That's kind of like the dimensions of it looking down.

00:30:44   Still has a bunch of IO, ethernet, HDMI, three thunderbolts on the back, two USB-C on the

00:30:49   front, headphone jack, power button on the bottom.

00:30:52   We'll come back to that.

00:30:53   I'm just going to run through some specs, right?

00:30:54   First carbon neutral Mac, 85% less aluminum is part of the ways they did this.

00:30:59   Features M4, M4 Pro, essentially faster and more in all cases.

00:31:04   And the M4 Pro has the quote world's fastest CPU core.

00:31:09   The M4 Pro is 75% faster memory bandwidth than I guess M3 or M2 Pro or whatever.

00:31:16   Good for AI.

00:31:17   Better ray tracing, faster neural engine.

00:31:19   M4 Pro has Thunderbolt 5.

00:31:22   The M4 has Thunderbolt 4.

00:31:24   16 gigabytes of memory is standard.

00:31:27   Still starting at $599.

00:31:30   I'm going to say, does anybody have anything they want to talk about?

00:31:32   But I will just say, Federico, do you want to talk about Thunderbolt 5?

00:31:35   I don't know.

00:31:36   It's really exciting.

00:31:37   There are no, basically no accessories at this point.

00:31:41   I believe like a couple of companies announced literally a couple of cables and a couple

00:31:48   of external SSDs.

00:31:49   I'm sure now that Apple is doing this, I'm sure that CES will be an exciting time for

00:31:58   Thunderbolt peripherals, like Thunderbolt 5 peripherals.

00:32:01   I think we will see a, how would you say, a deluge of Thunderbolt 5 accessories.

00:32:10   Yeah.

00:32:11   I've tracked this stuff more than me.

00:32:12   Is it weird for a computer company to support this before there's the accessories?

00:32:17   Like I kind of feel like usually it's like, hey, we're making this thing.

00:32:21   Not really, because it's a bit of a situation, like it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem,

00:32:25   because if you don't have the computers with support for the standard, why would you even

00:32:30   make the accessories?

00:32:31   Right.

00:32:32   So it has to come, like a couple of things needed to happen.

00:32:35   Apple needed to add support for Thunderbolt 5 to their computers and on the Windows side,

00:32:43   Intel needs to, Intel or, you know, Qualcomm, whoever is in charge now, AMD, like they need

00:32:48   to introduce their desktop and laptop controllers for Thunderbolt 5 in their CPUs.

00:32:57   So that's most likely going to be the next step in Windows land.

00:33:00   In Windows land, that's also going to open the door for things like Thunderbolt 5 eGPUs,

00:33:06   for example.

00:33:07   And that will be a really interesting comparison between USB 4 version 2 and Thunderbolt 5.

00:33:11   But yeah, everybody was basically waiting for Apple to come up with their own, with

00:33:15   their computers and with their Thunderbolt 5 passive cable, which is also something that

00:33:21   we have now.

00:33:22   We don't have an active cable, meaning we are limited right now to a one meter Thunderbolt

00:33:28   5 cable.

00:33:29   I am looking forward to the Thunderbolt 5 three meter active cable that's most likely

00:33:36   going to show up at some point within the next year.

00:33:39   What does that mean?

00:33:40   Why stop at three meters Federico?

00:33:43   You should keep going.

00:33:44   Go, you know, like...

00:33:45   Don't limit yourself.

00:33:46   Well, Thunderbolt is really hard to do at long distances.

00:33:51   It's like any love relationship.

00:33:54   It's really hard to do long distance with Thunderbolt.

00:33:57   It is.

00:33:58   Yeah.

00:33:59   It means, Mike, that basically...

00:34:02   I'm going to try my...

00:34:04   Like, I don't know the proper words personally to describe this, but basically an active

00:34:08   cable is actively sending an electric signal throughout the entire cable to make sure that

00:34:15   there's no data loss in the three meters of the cable.

00:34:19   Yeah.

00:34:20   I think that there's an amplifier in it essentially to sustain over longer distances.

00:34:24   Yeah.

00:34:25   Yeah.

00:34:26   Whereas this passive cable, it's just one meter, so it's short.

00:34:28   There's no data loss.

00:34:29   There's no data degradation as it moves through the cable because it's short.

00:34:33   Yeah.

00:34:34   John, what are your feelings about the Mac Mini?

00:34:37   Oh, I love the Mac Mini.

00:34:38   I mean, if this computer had been out at the time I bought my Mac Studio, I would have

00:34:45   bought a high-end Mac Mini instead because that's effectively what my M1 Mac Studio is

00:34:51   because I've got a four terabyte SSD in it and 64 gigs of memory.

00:34:58   And that is essentially the high end of the Mini.

00:35:02   The Mini actually can go up to eight terabytes of storage, but it caps out at 64 gigabytes

00:35:06   of memory.

00:35:08   And that's plenty fine for me.

00:35:09   I mean, that's great for even the most taxing things I do, which tend to be like audio editing

00:35:15   and a little video editing here and there.

00:35:16   So I'd be really happy with this little thing.

00:35:19   I think what we're seeing is something that I'm sure is near and dear to Federico's heart,

00:35:24   which is we're seeing really the most modular of Macs ever.

00:35:27   I mean, you could easily take this thing, put it in a little case and carry it on out

00:35:32   to your coffee shop with a portable display and a keyboard and trackpad.

00:35:38   It's really going to fit into, I think, a lot more contexts than even the small Mini

00:35:43   did before.

00:35:44   >> Yeah, I mean, if I were a Mac user, I would be totally over this.

00:35:51   This is the computer I would buy.

00:35:52   >> Yeah.

00:35:53   >> Super modular.

00:35:54   >> This will be my next one for sure.

00:35:55   >> Yeah, super modular Mac Mini that is so basically a tall Apple TV.

00:36:01   I mean, it's lovely.

00:36:02   Yeah.

00:36:03   >> You mentioned the Mac Studio though, right?

00:36:05   And I think the thing about this machine, it starts at $599.

00:36:11   You add anything to that.

00:36:13   >> Oh, yeah.

00:36:14   >> Base configuration and you're getting up towards Mac Studio.

00:36:19   The configuration that I want, now all I'm doing is increasing the RAM and the storage.

00:36:26   It's 2,399 pounds.

00:36:27   >> Yeah, I price a lot of it.

00:36:28   >> How on earth, right?

00:36:29   It's M4 Pro, right?

00:36:30   So I've got M4 Pro, right?

00:36:31   So I've gone up from the base.

00:36:32   So I want an M4 Pro.

00:36:33   >> Yeah.

00:36:34   >> I want a little bit more RAM.

00:36:35   I want a little bit more storage than what that starting base is and we're up to 2,400.

00:36:43   Like it's a big old jump.

00:36:50   But this computer is like, I mean, I've been waiting on this for a while.

00:36:54   I'm using an M1 Max because I didn't know what I was buying.

00:37:00   I have an M1 Max MacBook Pro that I use for recording, editing, all my production work.

00:37:07   It stays here at the studio and in my daily computer is a MacBook Air, right?

00:37:10   And that comes backwards and forwards from me, like that's my main machine.

00:37:14   And I've been wanting to get a Max Studio for a while and was deciding I would wait

00:37:18   until they upgraded the Max Studio.

00:37:20   And now it's like, this will be my next computer.

00:37:22   I'm just not sure when I'm going to buy it.

00:37:23   And I think I was just a little bit surprised at that price jump, right?

00:37:31   Like I thought this was going to be maximum 1,999 to get what I wanted.

00:37:38   You know, it is much more money than I would have expected considering where it starts

00:37:44   and considering basically that really then it's a couple of hundred pounds more to get

00:37:51   a Max Studio with basically the same specs.

00:37:54   And I know that when I get the new Max Studio, I know it will obviously be more expensive,

00:37:59   but like it still is just a surprise to me anyway.

00:38:01   Yeah.

00:38:02   I mean, you could definitely get into the, you know, over $4,000 for a Mac Mini now,

00:38:05   which is really, really something.

00:38:07   I mean, that's wild.

00:38:08   But at the same token, by the same token, you can spec this out to be comparable to

00:38:14   a Max Studio, at least a certain range of the Max Studio that's out there today.

00:38:19   Now of course, Apple's going to rev the Max Studio and it's going to leap forward, I suppose.

00:38:24   I do wonder though a little bit like how does the top end of the Mac Mini relate to the

00:38:30   Max Studio, which then relates to the Mac Pro?

00:38:33   And is there, you know, is there going to be overlap?

00:38:37   Is there really room for all three of those things, you know, from the very high end Mini?

00:38:43   You've got to get rid of the Mac Pro, right?

00:38:47   You would think that that's where this is going because I would think that now that

00:38:50   the Mac Mini is encroaching on the bottom end of the Max Studio, you'd push the Studio

00:38:55   up to where the Pro is now essentially.

00:38:58   Well, I mean, they are.

00:38:59   Like power wise, they're at the same level, right?

00:39:03   Yeah.

00:39:04   Now, but then you lose expansion though.

00:39:06   That's the thing.

00:39:07   You lose expansion if you get rid of the Pro.

00:39:09   That's the biggest thing.

00:39:10   Can anyone tell me what you can actually expand in a Mac Pro now?

00:39:14   Whether you just put SSDs inside?

00:39:16   Like they don't have slots anymore.

00:39:18   They have to be a Pro, Mike.

00:39:20   We're not pros.

00:39:21   We're not pro enough.

00:39:22   We need Steven, you know.

00:39:24   But like I just, I feel like, I mean, I've been banging this John for a while that the

00:39:27   Mac Pro is kind of just like, to me it just was kind of pointless now because they don't

00:39:31   have the support for external GPU's and stuff like that.

00:39:34   The Mac Pro is more, the way I look at it.

00:39:36   The Mac Pro is a very expensive statement for people who really want one.

00:39:41   Because like, I mean, yeah, for a lot of us in this industry, I'm not talking about 3D

00:39:47   artists.

00:39:48   I'm not talking about like academics doing DNA research or like for a lot of people listening

00:39:54   to this show, it's more of a like, you know, it's the equivalent of, I don't know.

00:40:00   Actually I'm going to say it because I'm part of the problem in another industry.

00:40:03   It's like the equivalent of getting really fancy headphones.

00:40:06   Because like, oh, I can tell the difference.

00:40:09   It's for the computer file.

00:40:14   Who wants those crunchy heads?

00:40:15   It's for the computer file.

00:40:18   Looking for the base.

00:40:19   Really the open expansion inside of the Mac Pro provides good resonance for the CPU wine.

00:40:26   So I'd really like to have that.

00:40:28   I mean, at this point, like most of those pro use, like the top, top end pro use cases,

00:40:34   the Mac studio can handle them.

00:40:36   Like, and it is an edge, edge, edge case now, I'm sure for the Mac Pro.

00:40:41   And I just, I wonder if the people in that bucket, if they're still best served by the

00:40:45   Mac.

00:40:46   Like I just don't, I'm not really sure that I can kind of get my head around it anymore.

00:40:50   I think the Intel Mac Pro made so much more sense because it had the ability to use cards.

00:40:59   You could, yeah, actual cards that you could put in that thing.

00:41:03   Imagine that.

00:41:04   But this doesn't, it still has the ability to do that, but Apple doesn't support most

00:41:08   of the stuff that people would want to put in there.

00:41:11   So anyway, I don't want to talk about the Mac Pro anymore.

00:41:15   There are other podcasts that will do this.

00:41:18   There are, there is a problem in a way I think that Apple faces though, is that the M4 is

00:41:22   so powerful that, that I don't, I think people are going to start to realize they can get

00:41:27   by with a lot less computer than they might've thought they otherwise would have needed in

00:41:31   the past.

00:41:32   I mean, you can certainly use an iPad Pro with an M4 in it and do final cut editing

00:41:36   in it and all that kind of stuff.

00:41:38   I mean, the software holds it back compared to the Mac to a degree, but you know, you

00:41:42   look at somebody like Chris Lawley, he does all of his YouTube editing on an iPad and

00:41:47   it's totally doable.

00:41:49   Anyway, the Mac mini looks sick.

00:41:54   I think this thing is so cool.

00:41:56   I love that they've got, they've got a bunch of ports on it, which I'm happy about.

00:42:01   Even on the, just the standard M4 version, they've got a bunch of ports, which is great.

00:42:06   The power button on the bottom, don't care.

00:42:10   I don't, I don't care about this at all.

00:42:12   I know that some people care about this.

00:42:14   I just put my Mac to sleep every night.

00:42:16   I used to turn my Mac off, but no, I just put my Mac to sleep.

00:42:21   I guess if, you know, I guess what I would say is like, if it's a big problem for you,

00:42:26   I don't know, put it upside down.

00:42:27   I don't know what to tell you, right?

00:42:30   Would there be any harm in putting it upside down?

00:42:32   Like just put it upside down.

00:42:33   It's so little in light.

00:42:35   It's not going to be that hard to get your finger under there and press the button if

00:42:37   you need to do it.

00:42:38   I mean, I'm like you, I don't turn my, I don't turn my Mac on or off almost ever.

00:42:42   So it's not, not really an issue for me.

00:42:45   I love that it's just kind of right in between the size of the old Mac mini and an Apple

00:42:50   TV.

00:42:51   It's, you know, five inches is nothing.

00:42:53   It's two inches tall.

00:42:54   Mm hmm.

00:42:55   I love it.

00:42:56   I think it's amazing.

00:42:57   Something I thought you would like Federico's digging through the tech specs.

00:43:00   The M4 chip supports displays that have up to 8K 120 hours.

00:43:07   Wasn't that a mistake?

00:43:09   Like some people debunked that last night.

00:43:12   Well, I mean, it's, it's, it's on all the pages still.

00:43:15   So if it's been debunked, I don't understand what that would mean.

00:43:17   Cause like, I think I saw something on Mastodon last night.

00:43:21   Well the MacBook Pro tech specs page that they published today.

00:43:24   Oh, maybe it was the iMac.

00:43:27   The problem.

00:43:28   Um, maybe, but the Mac mini, the MacBook Pro and I's found us on the iMac page yesterday.

00:43:35   Um, they support displays that are significantly higher powered than what Apple's currently

00:43:40   saying, which is exciting.

00:43:41   Uh, they do 8K 120 on the M4.

00:43:46   The Pro will do 4K 240 as well.

00:43:49   And it also has display port 2.15 on the bottom five.

00:43:51   Yeah.

00:43:52   It was the, the mistake on Apple's website was on the iMac.

00:43:56   I'm looking at a Mac rumors article.

00:43:58   Uh, it says updated, uh, hours after it was published, Apple updated the tech specs for

00:44:02   the new iMac to confirm that the 10 core M4 chip configuration does not support, uh, 8K

00:44:09   up to 120 Hertz.

00:44:11   But instead 60 Hertz.

00:44:12   All right.

00:44:13   Well the M4 range does do that because it just depends on the computer, just not the

00:44:17   iMac.

00:44:18   Um, but the, the M4 Mac mini will do one display of up to 5K at 60 Hertz over Thunderbolt,

00:44:26   one display of up to 8K at 60 Hertz or 4K over 240.

00:44:30   And then if you go for the M4 Pro, you can do more and more and more.

00:44:34   I just think that is exciting.

00:44:37   I mean, I, I really want them to make a like studio display pro.

00:44:43   That's what I want.

00:44:44   I want promotion on a 27 inch display.

00:44:48   You need it for your, for when you play a cyberpunk in February.

00:44:51   Yeah, I can't wait.

00:44:52   It's going to be amazing.

00:44:54   Uh, so Mac book pro that was released today.

00:44:57   Um, the Mac book pro comes in M4, M4 pro and M4 max options.

00:45:03   The M4 max, I guess it's just like a monster of a computer.

00:45:06   I'm, I'm really, again, like all we really get is what Apple shows us.

00:45:10   I'm very intrigued for the speed tests and stuff like that of this one and all of the

00:45:16   benchmarking and it can be interesting.

00:45:17   Uh, the Mac book pro now has three Thunderbolt ports.

00:45:21   So it's one more than before.

00:45:23   Um, and that is, I think that's on the base one, I think has three now.

00:45:29   I think that's right.

00:45:30   Which I think was part of that Russian thing.

00:45:33   Like where there was Max's showing up in Russia.

00:45:35   I think they had an extra Thunderbolt port.

00:45:37   But anyway, so three Thunderbolt ports, they go up to a Thunderbolt five on the pro and

00:45:42   the max version.

00:45:43   Uh, it's on the four on the regular, the sub gen, I mean, cyberpunk is coming to the Mac.

00:45:50   Can't wait up to 24 hours of battery life.

00:45:51   The screen is brighter and they offer a nano texture option on the Mac book pro now.

00:45:55   12 megapixels center stage camera, 16 gigabytes of memory standard, which is the same on

00:46:00   the Mac mini that's on the 14 inch.

00:46:03   You get 24 gigabytes of standard on the 16 inch starting prices remain the same.

00:46:08   Cool.

00:46:09   Yeah.

00:46:10   I mean, that's a great, I've been using an M three Mac book pro for about a year now

00:46:14   and it's a fantastic computer.

00:46:16   I mean, that's, it's a bit chunky.

00:46:18   It's a little heavy if you, I mean, I think I personally prefer an air and I'm kind of

00:46:23   waiting for an M four M five air before, before I upgrade.

00:46:27   But I do like the pro.

00:46:28   I mean, the pro is it's for the longest time now it's been the fastest computer I've been

00:46:33   using, but uh, but now it's the, the iPad pro is actually the fastest computer I'm using.

00:46:39   I love my MacBook so much.

00:46:41   I have an M two MacBook Air.

00:46:43   I love that computer.

00:46:44   I can imagine using it for years, you know, like I'm not pushing them to, um, for anything,

00:46:51   which is, you know, I love that computer, but Macbook pro is very popular.

00:46:55   Um, and also I think it is a, of all of the machines that Apple make, I think that the

00:47:01   Mac pro is the one that is most likely to see the year over year upgrades, right?

00:47:08   Like if you're building an X code, right?

00:47:11   If you can get any percent faster, that's better, right?

00:47:15   Yeah, I think you're right.

00:47:17   I think you're absolutely right.

00:47:18   I mean, that's, it's the one that makes the most sense.

00:47:21   And those are the people who are most likely to upgrade on a more frequent basis than an

00:47:25   air or anything else.

00:47:26   I think.

00:47:27   Yeah.

00:47:28   So super cool.

00:47:29   Um, I don't know if there's a ton to say that the MacBook Air also now is 16 gigabytes of

00:47:33   Ram, um, which is the same as the iMac, which is the first of the week, which is now an

00:47:39   M four 16 gigabytes of Ram standard can go up to 32 gigabytes.

00:47:43   They have new shades of colors.

00:47:45   They're keeping the same options, but in new versions they have a nano display texture

00:47:49   option, 12 megapixel camera.

00:47:51   All four USB-C ports on the MacBook on the iMac now are Thunderbolt four and also the

00:47:56   same starting price.

00:47:58   This is a very healthy, good week of Mac announcements, I think.

00:48:03   Yeah.

00:48:04   Yeah, it was good.

00:48:05   I mean, these are a lot of things that people wanted for a long time.

00:48:07   I think it's worth noting with the camera that this is a center stage camera, which

00:48:11   these max didn't have before.

00:48:13   They were, it's still 10 ADP, but it's a better sensor with a wired wider field of view that

00:48:19   allows center stage to work.

00:48:20   Good point.

00:48:21   I didn't think about that when they were calling them center stage cameras.

00:48:24   I was just, I was, it just kind of washed over me, but yeah, that makes, that's cool.

00:48:29   Yeah.

00:48:30   It's just the same, same resolution, different, different angle, which allows that feed that

00:48:34   software feature to, to work.

00:48:35   I guess I was thinking today when I was looking over this and looking at our notes and looking

00:48:40   at Apple's web pages and stuff like that, I think that right now the Mac lineup is Apple's

00:48:47   best product lineup.

00:48:49   Like there are good options in basically every category that they sell.

00:48:55   The options are clear.

00:48:56   It's easy to know what you want when you go into it.

00:48:59   You kind of like, do I want my computer to have a screen?

00:49:01   Do I want it to be a laptop?

00:49:03   Right?

00:49:04   Like these are like very simple questions you can ask yourself.

00:49:06   And then from there, it's, I think very easy to understand what you're looking for.

00:49:10   And I think that you have the luxury of making choices about huge sacrifices because all

00:49:14   of the base models of everything are good and like, especially even better now, thanks

00:49:20   to Apple intelligence, like they've all got good Ram in them now.

00:49:23   Like I think at the moment they just have a very strong lineup of products.

00:49:29   I think it because like, you know, you compare it to the iPhone, you compare it to the iPad

00:49:35   and you can compare it to the Apple watch.

00:49:38   All of these product lineups, I think there is at least one product with pretty significant

00:49:43   caveat.

00:49:45   And I, and I don't really feel that way for the Mac except for the Mac pro, but nobody's

00:49:48   thinking about that.

00:49:49   I think I, even the Mac studio today, you buy that Mac studio now that is an incredible

00:49:54   computer even though it's older, but like it's very powerful and has a ton of like internal

00:50:00   IO.

00:50:01   And if that's what you want, great, right.

00:50:02   You're going to be able to get that.

00:50:04   So I just think, I don't know what you guys think about that statement, but I think like

00:50:07   overall right now the Mac lineup is just very healthy, I think.

00:50:13   Yeah, I agree.

00:50:14   I think it's easy to pick because like I look at all these Macs and I know exactly what

00:50:18   I'd get if I were in the market to buy one today and I can't say the same as easily with

00:50:23   other things.

00:50:24   Kind of the same for the iPhone.

00:50:25   Look, look at the amount of questions there have been this year.

00:50:27   Look at Federico, right?

00:50:28   Like that, that should, you know, you'd think the iPhone was the slam dunk, right?

00:50:33   Like everybody knows exactly what iPhone they want.

00:50:36   But this year it seems like the main topic of conversation around the iPhone 16 line

00:50:40   is which one shall I buy?

00:50:43   And maybe I'm good with a different one than usual, right?

00:50:45   Like that is, that's potentially showing that your lineup isn't as strong and as clear where

00:50:51   like for the Mac you can do, the iPad is to a point like this, but I think that the iPad

00:50:56   has a lot of inconsistencies and also where like I don't, every Mac lineup is I think

00:51:03   being put to its full potential, the iPad is not, right?

00:51:08   Like you, whatever Mac you buy, you can very easily use it to its fullest extent.

00:51:15   But that is not the case with the iPad, right?

00:51:17   Like this is the question that we every year, right?

00:51:19   Federico is like, Oh yeah, I probably powerful.

00:51:22   Shame.

00:51:23   I can't do a lot with it.

00:51:24   Like I can't, I can't push it is not do a lot of it, but I can't push it to that level.

00:51:28   Right?

00:51:29   Like the, the, the Mac book pro with them for it's the same chip, right?

00:51:35   Yep.

00:51:36   Yep.

00:51:37   Absolutely.

00:51:38   Kind of.

00:51:39   It's like, yeah, it's, I would say it's probably still a bit more powerful than the M four

00:51:44   in the iPad, but it's, yeah, it's the same family.

00:51:46   It's, yeah, it's the same.

00:51:48   It's essentially the same thing.

00:51:49   That's actually the same.

00:51:50   Yeah.

00:51:51   What you can do with it.

00:51:52   Yeah.

00:51:53   So I just think right now I think Apple's there's, there's sitting pretty on this Mac

00:51:58   lineup and uh, I hope that they sell a lot of them because they deserve it.

00:52:02   I would say they're, they're telling a very compelling story right now with the Mac lineup

00:52:06   and with the AirPods lineup.

00:52:08   Yeah.

00:52:09   Well yeah, except for the AirPods max, but we forget about those.

00:52:13   They're a fashion statement though.

00:52:15   The AirPods max are the Mac pro of that lineup.

00:52:18   That's a great, that's a great point.

00:52:20   Although I don't know if the Mac pro is as fashionable as the AirPods max.

00:52:25   And also they're way more popular than the Mac pro.

00:52:28   Yeah.

00:52:29   Little cheaper.

00:52:30   Do you think, I bet this, I wonder if this is true saying about popular, do you think

00:52:35   Apple make more money each year from the AirPods max than they do from the Mac pro?

00:52:41   Oh yeah.

00:52:42   100%.

00:52:43   Yeah, I think so too.

00:52:44   Yes.

00:52:45   That is a horrifically wild thing to consider.

00:52:47   Like, cause what you'd have to sell like 10 pairs of AirPods max for one Mac pro.

00:52:55   Yeah.

00:52:56   You know what?

00:52:57   Yeah.

00:52:58   Easily.

00:52:59   They're doing that.

00:53:00   They're doing that.

00:53:01   They're doing that easy.

00:53:02   John, do you have any big picture thoughts about the Mac lineup?

00:53:05   No, not really.

00:53:07   Not that beyond what we've already said.

00:53:08   I mean, I think I'm really happy with the way this week turned out.

00:53:12   It's a, I think it's a great lineup and really puts Apple in a good place going into the

00:53:17   new year with a nice lineup that, you know, this, this week was strategically, I think

00:53:23   for the company, a smart one cause they've got an earnings call tomorrow.

00:53:26   And so they can go in having told the world not only about their great new Macs, but also

00:53:31   Apple intelligence three times before they go talk to the analysts about it.

00:53:35   And you know, from a, from a business standpoint, that's important.

00:53:39   And I think they, they did a good job kind of, I think pitching this indirectly to wall

00:53:43   street.

00:53:44   This is a bad week to be John Voorhees or Jason Snell.

00:53:48   Oh, I know.

00:53:51   I dread tomorrow because I've had a busy week already.

00:53:54   Like three separate Mac announcements.

00:53:59   Then the earnings call.

00:54:00   Boy, you two should commiserate on Friday.

00:54:04   We will.

00:54:05   Federico, do you want to talk to us about peripherals?

00:54:08   Um, well yes.

00:54:10   And I come with a twist.

00:54:12   Oh, I mean, of course you do.

00:54:14   Well, it's not what you think.

00:54:18   Of course not.

00:54:19   So I thought, well, um, there's now USB-C magic keyboard and USB-C magic track pads.

00:54:25   Let me try those again.

00:54:26   Uh, lately I've just been working with the iPad pro in its magic keyboard at my desk

00:54:32   so that I see both the iPads on display and my internal, my external display.

00:54:40   I use both at the same time.

00:54:41   I keep usually something like ivory on the iPad's display and then all the other windows.

00:54:47   Like for example, right now I'm recording.

00:54:50   I have ivory on the iPad and I have Safari, Discord, Notion and Messages on the external

00:54:56   display.

00:54:57   But I thought, well, um, let me try again with those USB-C peripherals.

00:55:01   I can take advantage of a little workaround that I wrote on Mac stories, I think it was

00:55:07   last year, uh, to sort of fake your way around having clamshell mode on an iPad.

00:55:14   It's not really clamshell mode.

00:55:15   You're basically just telling the iPad not to lock itself when you close the cover of

00:55:21   the magic keyboard.

00:55:22   It's really not clamshell mode and it comes with a whole bunch of limitations.

00:55:26   Like for example, what if you have to use face ID?

00:55:29   The iPad thinks it's unlocked and tries to find your face, but it can't.

00:55:34   So anyway, I thought I'm going to try fake clamshell mode again, uh, with the new peripherals.

00:55:41   They arrived today and, um, much to my surprise.

00:55:46   So I don't know if I got a faulty unit or I don't know if it's because I have iPad,

00:55:51   uh, my iPad pro running iPad OS 18.2 beta.

00:55:56   The magic trackpad doesn't work.

00:55:59   Um, none of the multitasking gestures are recognized, actually, none of the multi-touch

00:56:05   gestures are recognized.

00:56:06   I cannot even scroll with two fingers with this magic trackpad.

00:56:11   Yes.

00:56:12   Now, could it be that the iPad OS 18.2 beta doesn't have the necessary driver for the

00:56:19   brand new USB-C magic trackpad?

00:56:22   Most likely.

00:56:23   I would bet that's what's happening here.

00:56:25   I have the latest beta, this accessory just came out.

00:56:31   Um, this trackpad is not working, but I don't know.

00:56:37   Maybe it's a sign that I shouldn't keep it.

00:56:40   You know, maybe it's, I don't know because once again, I was already stretching it with

00:56:47   my fake clamshell mode.

00:56:50   And maybe this trackpad not working is a sign from the universe telling me no, teach you

00:56:54   just return these accessories and keep using your iPad with the magic keyboard even when

00:56:59   you're working at your desk.

00:57:01   So it was nice charging them though with USB-C.

00:57:05   That was cool.

00:57:06   That's all I will say.

00:57:09   It's a shame, right?

00:57:10   Like it's a shame.

00:57:11   I mean, I feel like when, when we spoke with Jason about the peripherals and we drafted

00:57:16   what we would like to see, uh, that it is, was very unlikely that we would get any of

00:57:22   the things that we wanted, but it is also just sad to have gotten nothing other than

00:57:27   USB-C.

00:57:28   Very interesting that, um, and I don't want to start a new gate here, but interesting

00:57:34   that people in Discord are saying that somebody else on Discord, on the relay Discord was

00:57:39   having similar issues where their Mac, not even an iPad, their Mac was picking up the

00:57:45   new magic trackpad as a mouse.

00:57:47   Therefore no multi-touch gestures were being properly recognized.

00:57:52   I wonder if this is a, uh, there might be an update, right?

00:57:55   Like there might be something where it's just not being recognized fully yet or something.

00:58:00   Maybe if you're on a beta or something, it could be an issue.

00:58:03   But if you were a gate, could we please call it magic gate?

00:58:06   Yeah.

00:58:07   Okay.

00:58:08   Yeah, call it magic gate and do a little quick video, put it on YouTube and see if you get

00:58:11   on Good Morning America.

00:58:13   Come on, you can do it.

00:58:15   You can beat Steven.

00:58:16   Not only I could learn from the master right now, but Sensei is not here.

00:58:21   You know, talking about, I was, I was thinking about this the other day.

00:58:25   I was using my iPad pro and I was on my home screen and was, uh, I was tapping days on

00:58:33   the fantastic account widget to see what was going on.

00:58:36   And every time I tapped a day, I could hear the processor in my, in my iPad pro.

00:58:41   I tap a day and I could hear it, like I could hear the whine just for a second.

00:58:46   You're like, "Shh."

00:58:47   Oh wow.

00:58:48   Really?

00:58:49   Yeah.

00:58:50   Nothing else on my iPad was doing it.

00:58:52   But if I...

00:58:53   Because that's a pretty loud whine.

00:58:54   It's pretty loud.

00:58:55   Yeah.

00:58:56   Yeah.

00:58:57   Every time I was just...

00:58:58   I don't have that problem.

00:58:59   I wouldn't have been able to hear it, so I'd be fine.

00:59:00   Put your AirPods in and you'll be hearing everything, isn't it you?

00:59:05   Yeah, absolutely.

00:59:06   I hate to hear all this about the peripherals because that's the only thing I bought this

00:59:09   week and mine are coming tomorrow.

00:59:11   I'm surprised you got them already, Federico.

00:59:13   Well, yeah.

00:59:14   I mean, what can I say?

00:59:16   You know, UPS in Italy really works.

00:59:18   Yeah, I guess so.

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01:00:20   So Federico, you have had access to image playgrounds for a few days.

01:00:25   Oh boy.

01:00:26   I actually got access to image playgrounds today.

01:00:31   Do you want to talk about your experience over the last few days?

01:00:34   Yes.

01:00:35   I will say that you just mentioned landing on Good Morning America.

01:00:42   I would say that if I went ahead and shared on social media some of the images that I've

01:00:49   been able to create with image playgrounds in this beta, I think it would be a pretty

01:00:57   big deal in the sense that I've been able to create.

01:01:00   And you guys have seen them.

01:01:01   So I'm not suggesting anything without evidence.

01:01:07   I've been able to create some really deeply concerning images by using a specific prompt

01:01:16   that I don't want to share, but you guys can read it in the show notes.

01:01:22   And that's been unsurprising, but still concerning.

01:01:28   Because I know that you can trick the systems, if you're using just the right words.

01:01:34   And maybe we were thinking how Apple must have built an incredibly sandboxed, safe environment.

01:01:40   But I can tell you, it's not.

01:01:44   Especially in this first beta of 18.2.

01:01:48   I've been able to create some really awful things.

01:01:52   None of them involve nudity.

01:01:55   So at the very least, it does seem like none of Apple's models were trained on that sort

01:02:03   of adult content.

01:02:06   But yeah, being able to create some really disturbing images otherwise, especially from

01:02:12   a political and historical perspective.

01:02:16   That's what I will say.

01:02:17   Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it, right?

01:02:19   Because I think it is important to state that.

01:02:22   Because the wording that you're using, I think, is correct.

01:02:26   I mean, it's even just one of these things of like, in the context of disturbing political

01:02:33   historical things, right?

01:02:35   That's the context that we're describing here.

01:02:38   That these images aren't like, they're not like in and of itself bad.

01:02:43   The problem is...

01:02:44   They're not graphic is the way I would say it.

01:02:46   They're not graphic.

01:02:47   No, they're not graphic.

01:02:48   The problem is, it's like, if you're effectively god railing, these are the obvious things

01:02:53   you god rail out.

01:02:54   Yeah, yeah.

01:02:55   The thing I found most surprising was the prompt accepted something that in that context

01:03:04   of, for example, say a location that I was requesting.

01:03:11   And for example, requesting laughing at that specific location or smiling at that specific

01:03:17   location or having a chuckle at a specific moment in time.

01:03:23   All those were instructions that I used.

01:03:26   It should have been god railed and it wasn't.

01:03:29   Right.

01:03:30   Yeah.

01:03:31   That maybe you don't necessarily want to exclude some of these things, but there are words

01:03:35   that you would use around them that wouldn't...

01:03:37   But anyway, that is one thing.

01:03:41   That is one thing.

01:03:42   And so all that set aside, like I said, I don't want to share these images.

01:03:45   If Apple is listening, you want to get in touch, I will probably...

01:03:49   And maybe I should submit this as feedback at some point.

01:03:51   But yeah, I think you should.

01:03:53   I think you should.

01:03:54   And I think there are tools that make that very easy to do.

01:03:58   But all that aside, I will say that...

01:04:02   I was just looking at the most recent one.

01:04:06   So I've also been having fun creating images of my friends and sharing them with my friends.

01:04:13   And by fun, I mean cringing really at those images for how bad they are.

01:04:21   They're terrible.

01:04:24   Just today...

01:04:25   Let's see what I created today.

01:04:27   There's no good imagery, right?

01:04:30   I asked for John as a raccoon and sure enough, it created its own version of John.

01:04:38   I'm just playing around with this.

01:04:40   It will not accept John as a dog.

01:04:42   Oh, interesting.

01:04:43   As a dog won't allow you to do that.

01:04:46   John as a raccoon added an extra pair of ears.

01:04:51   Very big ears.

01:04:52   There's like raccoon ears on top of the human ears.

01:04:55   I asked for Mike as a gondolier.

01:04:58   And you can see that is, sure enough, Mike wearing a gondolier hat with some gondolas,

01:05:04   you know, typical from Venice, Italy in the background.

01:05:07   Mike's expression is horrific, but at least it understood the prompt.

01:05:14   I believe last night I asked for Stephen as a swole police officer.

01:05:20   He did look exactly like that.

01:05:22   You're right.

01:05:23   And also as a distressed fisherman.

01:05:25   I mean, look, here's the thing, because there's not...

01:05:29   We can keep going into this, but I'm not going to show you this in the show notes because

01:05:32   I just think it's just not worth it.

01:05:34   I mean, essentially the overall description is you can create something that kind of looks

01:05:39   like someone, kind of, sometimes better than others, which is weird.

01:05:42   You can use the same image as like completely different people.

01:05:46   Kind of looks like someone, the quality of the imagery, like the actual resolution of

01:05:51   the imagery, terrible.

01:05:53   Like you zoom in at all on anything and it's a disaster.

01:05:58   My overall feeling on this, looking at this stuff, the image playground stuff, how could

01:06:07   you be proud of this?

01:06:10   That's what I'm coming back to.

01:06:11   And I feel like, I've been getting people have been sending me feedback.

01:06:14   I think I'm going too hard on this.

01:06:15   I don't.

01:06:16   This is my feelings on this.

01:06:17   If you don't like it, then you know, that's it.

01:06:21   I just don't understand how you could be proud of this output because it's not good.

01:06:27   Here's my take.

01:06:28   Here's my take.

01:06:29   And I have a post-scriptum at the end.

01:06:33   Right now with this image playground, Apple is in its Will Smith eating spaghetti, AI

01:06:41   generated video.

01:06:43   It's like they're basically mid journey three years ago.

01:06:47   So when I, after trying this, when I see those reports that Apple feels they are at least

01:06:52   two years behind, I believe those reports and I believe they are correct because this

01:06:57   is like, this is exactly the typical output of mid journey from two, three years ago.

01:07:04   At the same time, I think you can potentially save Genmoji.

01:07:11   I think Genmoji probably because they train, Genmoji is good enough because they've trained

01:07:17   it on their own emoji, which are my opinion, the best in the biz.

01:07:23   And so Genmoji is good enough.

01:07:26   Genmoji is fun and good enough.

01:07:28   Image playgrounds.

01:07:30   And I haven't tested there.

01:07:31   I don't even know.

01:07:32   Is the image wand available in notes?

01:07:34   I haven't.

01:07:35   It is, but like I haven't even tested it yet either.

01:07:38   It's kind of, it's not, I don't know.

01:07:41   I'm not really that particularly interested in that feature.

01:07:44   You know, like kind of being realistic that I'm interested in Genmoji because I actually

01:07:49   think it's a good idea.

01:07:51   I'm interested in image playgrounds because I think it's a disaster and it's fun to talk

01:07:55   about.

01:07:56   It's best to be essentially.

01:07:57   I think magic wand, magic wand seems more like a party trick to me in a lot of ways.

01:08:01   I don't know why someone would actually use that.

01:08:04   Maybe there's a use for it.

01:08:05   Yeah.

01:08:06   I looking at these, I mean, one of my favorites is Stephen Hackett smoking a cigarette where

01:08:09   the cigarette is floating in mid air.

01:08:12   Right.

01:08:13   So there's, just to give you an idea and then you like Mike zooms in on his eyes and they're

01:08:17   pointing in different directions.

01:08:19   Yeah.

01:08:20   The eyes are so bad.

01:08:21   Like everybody's eyes are so bad.

01:08:23   They're like these weird swirls.

01:08:26   It's like basically it's, you've seen this style of image and the main reason you've

01:08:31   seen this style of image is everyone was sharing them a lot a year and a half ago because people

01:08:35   were using different tools to do this.

01:08:37   And like image playgrounds in and of itself, whatever.

01:08:44   Right.

01:08:45   Like make me an image of a sunny day with a mountain and a bunch of trees, like whatever.

01:08:53   Yeah.

01:08:54   The reason this is a problem is like, like I cannot, like I went into image playgrounds

01:09:01   today and it shows me the ability to create images of my two year old niece.

01:09:08   Now that ain't right.

01:09:10   Like come on.

01:09:11   Right.

01:09:12   I shouldn't be doing this.

01:09:14   I will not do that.

01:09:16   Like I shouldn't be able to do this at all.

01:09:18   Like Jeff's fault is someone in my photo library.

01:09:20   Like at the moment we're all being menaces to each other because we're good friends.

01:09:24   Right.

01:09:25   Jason's griefing me.

01:09:26   I'm griefing Jason.

01:09:27   Federico's griefing me.

01:09:29   I'm griefing him.

01:09:30   Right.

01:09:31   But like you could, and this, you can make images of me and people are gonna like, you

01:09:37   know, cause why, why can't all I need is one photo of you.

01:09:42   I thought you would need like loads, but you just need one photo of someone and you can,

01:09:46   you can use that.

01:09:47   And I just.

01:09:48   Let's just, let's just say that I, to test this out, I downloaded from Wikipedia, the

01:10:00   photo of a past dictator and loaded it up in image playgrounds.

01:10:05   Federico, you're really having a time.

01:10:08   And he couldn't, thankfully in this case, couldn't figure out the, the facial hair is

01:10:18   what I'm going to say.

01:10:19   Right.

01:10:20   But you were able to make an, you were able to make.

01:10:22   Oh yeah.

01:10:23   Oh yeah.

01:10:24   It did make a version of that person.

01:10:25   Yes.

01:10:26   Yeah.

01:10:27   Yeah.

01:10:28   Yeah.

01:10:29   Absolutely.

01:10:30   Yeah.

01:10:31   I mean, by the way, do some, this is, this is a clean show.

01:10:34   Do some image recognition, you know, for God's sake, do some image recognition and be like,

01:10:38   Hey, we don't want to create an image.

01:10:40   No, but you just shouldn't be able to make, make images of people.

01:10:43   Yeah.

01:10:44   Right.

01:10:45   You just shouldn't be able to do that.

01:10:46   You know, it's what you're able to make, but it's also the quality because you know, the

01:10:52   first thing I asked Federico to do is to ask it to make a hand and it made a hand with

01:10:56   six fingers, which you know, it's, it's so cliched at this point for AI to do that, but

01:11:04   that just shows where Apple is at with this stuff.

01:11:06   And I, I, I, yeah, I'm kind of with you guys on this.

01:11:09   I don't like it at all.

01:11:10   I don't have it yet because I was doing my 18 one review and didn't want to pollute my

01:11:16   screenshot so I didn't install it until over the weekend.

01:11:20   And so I don't have it yet, but believe me, I've seen plenty of it and I don't like it.

01:11:24   Yeah.

01:11:25   But again, it's like, it's a shame because gemmoji is, is a great feature.

01:11:31   And I think Apple implemented it well, right?

01:11:33   That like you search for an emoji and if the emoji you're looking for isn't there, they'll

01:11:37   like make one.

01:11:38   And it's like, yeah, that is good.

01:11:40   That's a good idea, right?

01:11:42   Like here is a legitimate good idea of a thing Apple can do.

01:11:46   And it makes sense because it shows an emoji like in messages and as tap backs and all

01:11:54   that kind of stuff.

01:11:55   And it's like, that's great.

01:11:57   But like the image playground, it's like, that's not very good.

01:12:01   Like there are thousands of free apps on the app store that do a better job than this.

01:12:06   Now what are they doing with that imagery?

01:12:08   Right.

01:12:09   It's a whole different thing.

01:12:10   It's still like a thing people can do.

01:12:12   I just, it's just like a weird, is a weird feature to me.

01:12:15   And I just, I just struggle to get my head around it.

01:12:18   Like this feels like it feels like they're, it's like a separate company.

01:12:22   It just doesn't feel like a company with who, who, who I know have great taste because this

01:12:27   is app is tastes.

01:12:28   It's tasteless.

01:12:29   It's part of, it's part of what the conclusion of my review of 18 one was all about was,

01:12:34   you know, shouldn't we expect more out of the biggest company in the world with the

01:12:38   heritage of Apple of, of, um, you know, championing creators and culture not to do this kind of

01:12:45   stuff.

01:12:46   I don't know.

01:12:47   I think it's a little much.

01:12:48   I think that there are there, we don't know what the lines are.

01:12:51   Right.

01:12:52   Like, and I think this is when I think everybody's finding their own lines and it depends on

01:12:57   their own contexts.

01:12:58   Like, but I, I, you know, I, between the three of us, we have very different lines, right?

01:13:04   Like I use the writing tools.

01:13:07   I know you two would never, right?

01:13:09   Like we all have our own lines.

01:13:11   I genuinely struggle to imagine the person who wants to create imagery of their friends

01:13:18   and family.

01:13:19   Like I don't, if you want to do this, please write in like, tell me why.

01:13:25   Like, and I'm not trying to say that you're wrong, right?

01:13:29   I just saying, I can't get my head around it.

01:13:32   Like if you have used this feature or you would like this feature, like please go to

01:13:38   connect to feedback.com, write in and tell me why.

01:13:41   I just want to understand.

01:13:42   Yeah.

01:13:43   I think what Apple's going for and not doing a very good job at is maybe making this similar

01:13:48   to the, the gift button in messages that, you know, you're going to send some kind of

01:13:53   cute funny thing clip to somebody, but it's different in nature than that kind of thing,

01:13:59   obviously.

01:14:00   I think that that's, that's at least how they're trying to pitch it is, you know, then that's

01:14:04   why it's cartoony too, right?

01:14:05   They're trying to make it like a lighthearted in some way.

01:14:09   And that's certainly how Craig Federighi sees it when he talks about it in interviews and

01:14:13   in videos.

01:14:14   But they're horrifying though.

01:14:16   I agree.

01:14:17   Federico has been tormenting me for like five days now.

01:14:23   Like why not, why not just make all of these Memoji, right?

01:14:27   Like why, why isn't it just Memoji?

01:14:29   And like, that's a thing too, right?

01:14:32   Where that superhero mom image, that was Memoji, right?

01:14:41   It looked like Memoji, like a horrifying version of Memoji.

01:14:45   None of these images look like that.

01:14:47   No.

01:14:48   They look like weird humans.

01:14:50   They're like a really bad Pixar image in a way.

01:14:52   It's like, if you told somebody to make the worst possible imitation of Pixar, you could

01:14:56   in a way.

01:14:57   Yeah, it's like we have Pixar at home.

01:15:03   The thing that is particular of why I'm mentioning that one is like that image of the superhero

01:15:08   mom and like all of the eyes are really large, right?

01:15:13   I have not seen big eyes like that in any imagery that I like.

01:15:21   I don't think these images are made on what is in my phone.

01:15:30   There is potentially they're going to make it better, but like I haven't seen anybody

01:15:35   produce an image that to me looked like this.

01:15:38   Maybe they're out there, right?

01:15:39   And like, and I just haven't seen them.

01:15:42   But yeah.

01:15:43   If anything, yeah, if anything, some of the images that we've been sharing, the eyes are

01:15:46   too small.

01:15:47   Yeah, that's actually part of the problem of why they look weird.

01:15:51   The gondola one of you, Mike.

01:15:52   I mean, you have these beady little eyes that are too close together.

01:15:56   Like they should be more cartoonish, right?

01:16:00   Like they're trying to make me look like a person, like an actual person.

01:16:07   And I think that's part of the problem.

01:16:11   I don't know.

01:16:12   I don't want to keep being mad about this stuff, you know?

01:16:16   Yeah.

01:16:17   I think we're just gonna, I think we will within the next few months when all of this

01:16:22   is passed, like people will just start ignoring this stuff.

01:16:27   Yeah.

01:16:28   It'll have its moment.

01:16:29   It'll have its moment.

01:16:31   You know, we're going to have some fun.

01:16:33   You know, at some point they're going to get canceled because some controversy, like the

01:16:38   one that I'm not going to share is going to pop up because like this system is not perfect.

01:16:44   And we'll just move on.

01:16:45   Because honestly, this is like the least exciting feature of Apple intelligence, the most boring

01:16:50   one, and the one that's been honestly the one with the worst, most useless results.

01:16:57   So like a cool Craig Federighi really likes to make pictures of his dog.

01:17:01   I think within the next three months, the rest of the world won't care anymore.

01:17:06   So good luck.

01:17:08   You know?

01:17:09   Yeah.

01:17:10   I don't know.

01:17:11   That photo.

01:17:12   No.

01:17:13   I'm just, I just, I made one here.

01:17:18   I'm going to put it in the show notes.

01:17:20   Like, it's just something I just made of me wearing a beanie hat in a rainforest.

01:17:24   Like sure.

01:17:26   This is everything that's right.

01:17:27   It's like one.

01:17:28   It's not a beanie.

01:17:29   Why do a lot of these images put on people the weird Mr Beast smile?

01:17:40   Yeah.

01:17:41   Like, why is like my skin like speckled like that?

01:17:47   And like what is going on with the beard texture?

01:17:50   You're blushing man.

01:17:51   Because in the rainforest.

01:17:52   Yeah.

01:17:53   It does a thing.

01:17:54   It does it with a lot where it has like really rosy cheeks.

01:17:55   I've noticed that too.

01:17:57   Yeah.

01:17:58   Very strange.

01:17:59   Very, very strange.

01:18:01   But that's where we are for now.

01:18:03   Again, I'll just say it again.

01:18:04   I love, I love gemmoji as an idea.

01:18:06   I'm looking forward to playing around with it a little bit more.

01:18:08   I think like, yeah, let me make like weird little emojis.

01:18:11   And it's like, my expectation is like, it's that feels like it's done in the right way.

01:18:16   Right?

01:18:17   Like Apple have, cause they look like Apple's emoji.

01:18:20   So the trainings data is Apple's emoji.

01:18:22   Right?

01:18:23   So Apple made their own training data.

01:18:25   They trained us and L.M. on their own data.

01:18:28   And then I'm able to make things that look like emoji and send them to my friends.

01:18:31   Like that's like that.

01:18:33   Yes, you did it.

01:18:34   Whoever came up with that idea had a great idea.

01:18:37   I really liked that feature.

01:18:39   Ah, John, thank you for joining us.

01:18:43   Thank you, John.

01:18:44   It's been a real mix back today.

01:18:47   Great Max.

01:18:48   Terrible images.

01:18:49   Uh, if you want to find John online, who's John Voorhees at maxstories.net or Mastodon,

01:18:54   uh, J-O-H-N V-O-O-R H-W-E-S.

01:18:57   It's the same on threads.

01:18:59   It's a fun, I just know that, right?

01:19:01   I just know it from hearing you say it.

01:19:02   I know how to say it in your way.

01:19:03   J-O-H-N.

01:19:04   I've been saying it a lot.

01:19:05   V-O-O-R H-W-E-S.

01:19:06   Goodbye Federico.

01:19:07   What do you say?

01:19:08   Talk to you next week Federico.

01:19:09   Ciao John.

01:19:10   Ciao John.

01:19:11   No, we're not done yet.

01:19:12   Federico is at maxstories.net or Mastodon.

01:19:14   He's at Fiteechi V-I-T-I-C-C-I.

01:19:15   Incredible.

01:19:16   I'm I-M-Y-K-E.

01:19:17   Uh, thanks so much for listening.

01:19:18   Thank you to Vanturm Squarespace for the support of this show.

01:19:19   We've had a good time in October, but let me tell you, I'm ready for Steven to be back.

01:19:20   No offense, John.

01:19:21   No offense Federico.

01:19:22   I'm just ready to be back.

01:19:23   I'm just ready to be back.

01:19:24   I'm just ready to be back.

01:19:25   I'm just ready to be back.

01:19:26   I'm just ready to be back.

01:19:27   I'm just ready to be back.

01:19:36   Daddy, come back, Daddy.

01:19:41   Daddy, please, Daddy.

01:19:42   We missed you.

01:19:43   Daddy, come back.

01:19:44   He's never coming back.

01:19:46   Uh, my hope for next week's episode, like I'm not, I'm not going to put this to Steven

01:19:52   directly and Steven, if you're listening to this, don't take this as a thing, but if you

01:19:55   want to do this, like we, me and Federico could just have no idea.

01:19:59   And you're just coming back with all the things that you've been wanting to talk about.

01:20:02   That is my hope for the episode.

01:20:04   Like Steven has like three topics.

01:20:06   We don't know what they are.

01:20:07   And it's like, Steven's been away for a month and he has things to say.

01:20:11   That's been my assumption for AOB.

01:20:14   I was saying to him, like, I was talking to him, like, I imagined it.

01:20:16   I think it was the case.

01:20:17   Like, this has been the hardest week, I'm sure.

01:20:20   Right.

01:20:21   Because like there's actual max stuff to talk about.

01:20:22   He nearly got away with it, but we nearly got to the end.

01:20:26   Uh, thanks for listening to this episode of connected.

01:20:29   We'll be back next time.

01:20:31   Talk to you next week, Federico.

01:20:33   Ciao Mike.

01:20:36   (laughing)