Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:07 ◼   ► From Relay, this is Connected episode 534.

00:00:12 ◼   ► It is the annual Rickies. Happy New Year.

00:00:15 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you by Ecamm and ZocDoc.

00:00:18 ◼   ► I am the Ricky Benchman, Mike Hurley, and it is my pleasure to introduce Federico Vittucci.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Hello and happy new year, Mike. How are you?

00:00:26 ◼   ► Oh, I'm good. How are you?

00:00:28 ◼   ► I'm doing fantastic and I'm very happy to also be joined by Mr. Steven Hackett. Hello, Steven.

00:00:34 ◼   ► Hello, Federico.

00:00:36 ◼   ► How are you, Steven?

00:00:37 ◼   ► Uh, sick.

00:00:39 ◼   ► Okay.

00:00:40 ◼   ► Me and Steven have been doing too much kissing and that's why we sound like this.

00:00:43 ◼   ► Oh, interesting.

00:00:45 ◼   ► That's the problem.

00:00:46 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:00:46 ◼   ► So that's why we both sound like this.

00:00:49 ◼   ► We have a busy episode today.

00:00:53 ◼   ► Lots of pics and predictions to get to, but I believe before we get to that, we have some news to share.

00:01:01 ◼   ► Um, yeah, people, people can now find Connected on YouTube.

00:01:05 ◼   ► Well,

00:01:06 ◼   ► sort of.

00:01:08 ◼   ► Kind of.

00:01:08 ◼   ► Immersive video.

00:01:10 ◼   ► Immersive video?

00:01:11 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what we're doing.

00:01:13 ◼   ► I've mounted cameras to your offices.

00:01:16 ◼   ► Oh, cool.

00:01:17 ◼   ► Uh, and they're pointing at your faces.

00:01:19 ◼   ► No, it's just audio.

00:01:20 ◼   ► It's just audio.

00:01:21 ◼   ► Steven, why are we doing this?

00:01:22 ◼   ► Uh, because we had a lot of feedback over the holidays.

00:01:25 ◼   ► I think something changed.

00:01:27 ◼   ► Anyways, people want to listen on YouTube.

00:01:29 ◼   ► So we're doing the thing where it pipes in the RSS feed.

00:01:32 ◼   ► It's not a video version of the show.

00:01:33 ◼   ► We're still just doing audio.

00:01:36 ◼   ► Uh, as of this recording, uh, it has 428 episodes left to ingest.

00:01:43 ◼   ► So the links in the show notes, but nothing's there yet.

00:01:47 ◼   ► Hopefully next week.

00:01:49 ◼   ► Uh, but we, we are doing what the people want.

00:01:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:01:53 ◼   ► People just listen to podcasts on YouTube now.

00:01:55 ◼   ► Like that's just, that's just it.

00:01:56 ◼   ► And so people wanted it.

00:01:58 ◼   ► We've given it to the people.

00:01:59 ◼   ► Given it to the people, but the pro the initial process is slow where it crawls, crawls the whole RSS feed.

00:02:07 ◼   ► After that it's on YouTube within an hour or two of the episode coming out, which is pretty good.

00:02:15 ◼   ► Well, that being said, um, we're going to do two things on the show today.

00:02:20 ◼   ► We are, obviously we are playing the annual Ricky's, uh, and we'll get to that in a minute.

00:02:26 ◼   ► Um, but we also need to judge the 2024 Ricky's the predictions that we made for Apple and what's going to happen in the year 2024.

00:02:36 ◼   ► The predictions that we made at the beginning of last year.

00:02:40 ◼   ► Now, 12 months have passed and we need to grade those predictions.

00:02:44 ◼   ► Now we have a bit of a, a bit of a, a bit of a thing to resolve here in the sense that we are going to play the 2025 Ricky's later with a new set of rules.

00:02:58 ◼   ► That was with the amended set of rules.

00:03:00 ◼   ► With the, um, in late 2024.

00:03:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:07 ◼   ► Now this 2024 annual Ricky's were obviously made with the old set of rules.

00:03:15 ◼   ► Um, we decided that we are not going to read the rules twice.

00:03:19 ◼   ► We're not going to read the older version of the rules now and the new version of the rules later.

00:03:24 ◼   ► We're just going to read the new rules for 2025.

00:03:27 ◼   ► I think most connected listeners will remember how the old rules used to work.

00:03:33 ◼   ► And so we're just going to get through these and later we're going to play the new game with the updated rules that we will read on the show.

00:03:39 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:40 ◼   ► And look, the rules, there is like, there are change logs of the rules that exist.

00:03:43 ◼   ► So if we need to refer to the rules during the scoring of this game today, we can do that.

00:03:47 ◼   ► But I think we will probably be okay.

00:03:49 ◼   ► Yeah, I think so.

00:03:52 ◼   ► So, uh, let's just begin with round one and I begin and I, and I believe that Mike goes first.

00:03:59 ◼   ► Yes, cause I am raiding, defending annual Ricky's champion is what that means.

00:04:04 ◼   ► That means I think I won in 23 and 24 if I went first.

00:04:08 ◼   ► That's what that says.

00:04:09 ◼   ► So hello, it's me, the Ricky Benjamin.

00:04:11 ◼   ► And my first pick for 2024 was that the first OLED iPad was introduced.

00:04:17 ◼   ► Ding.

00:04:19 ◼   ► How do we do that again?

00:04:20 ◼   ► We don't do it anymore.

00:04:23 ◼   ► I don't think we do it anymore.

00:04:24 ◼   ► We don't hum anymore.

00:04:25 ◼   ► I'm going to ding myself anyway.

00:04:27 ◼   ► Ding.

00:04:28 ◼   ► Um, not only was it OLED, it was tandem OLED.

00:04:31 ◼   ► I had that thought today.

00:04:32 ◼   ► It was like, Oh, there's two OLEDs in there.

00:04:34 ◼   ► You know, double OLED all the way.

00:04:36 ◼   ► Mm hmm.

00:04:37 ◼   ► Nice.

00:04:37 ◼   ► Great screen.

00:04:38 ◼   ► Oh my God.

00:04:38 ◼   ► It's a good screen.

00:04:39 ◼   ► Oh boy.

00:04:40 ◼   ► Steven, do you have one of these iPad pros?

00:04:42 ◼   ► Um, I have an iPad mini.

00:04:45 ◼   ► Yeah, no, I knew that.

00:04:46 ◼   ► It's pretty good.

00:04:47 ◼   ► I wondered if you had an iPad pro.

00:04:48 ◼   ► There's one of these in the house.

00:04:50 ◼   ► No, Mary has one now.

00:04:51 ◼   ► That was one of those like typical Steven answers, right?

00:04:53 ◼   ► Where it was like, because he thought about it.

00:04:55 ◼   ► I could tell from a--

00:04:58 ◼   ► Which wasn't yes or no, was it?

00:04:59 ◼   ► It was like a different answer.

00:05:01 ◼   ► I had to think.

00:05:02 ◼   ► Yeah, Mary's using one and you're right.

00:05:05 ◼   ► The screen is incredible.

00:05:08 ◼   ► It's very good.

00:05:10 ◼   ► Very good screen.

00:05:11 ◼   ► OK, my round one pick.

00:05:14 ◼   ► Apple Watch 10 brings an updated design

00:05:17 ◼   ► inspired by the Apple Watch Ultra in some way.

00:05:21 ◼   ► Ungraded action button, flat glass, or crown guard.

00:05:26 ◼   ► It's bigger, but it's basically the same design.

00:05:29 ◼   ► So I don't think I get this.

00:05:31 ◼   ► Yeah, they didn't do any of that.

00:05:32 ◼   ► They didn't do any of this.

00:05:32 ◼   ► But when you read that, it's like, oh, that seems like a thing

00:05:34 ◼   ► they would have done, but no, they didn't do any of it.

00:05:36 ◼   ► It's just bigger.

00:05:38 ◼   ► And thinner.

00:05:39 ◼   ► And thinner.

00:05:40 ◼   ► Yeah, which is not at all anything like Apple Watch Ultra.

00:05:44 ◼   ► It's not ultra-y in really any way.

00:05:47 ◼   ► So it's a bummer.

00:05:51 ◼   ► Now, for an example on how to get a pick right,

00:05:53 ◼   ► here's what I said.

00:05:55 ◼   ► The keyboard for iPad Pro is substantially redesigned

00:05:59 ◼   ► for the first time since its introduction in 2020.

00:06:02 ◼   ► Ungraded function row, backlighting, aluminum,

00:06:05 ◼   ► multiple USB ports, and more viewing angles.

00:06:09 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:06:10 ◼   ► Ding.

00:06:10 ◼   ► Remind me, because I don't use one of these,

00:06:14 ◼   ► so I'm not too fresh on it now, because I haven't thought

00:06:17 ◼   ► about it in a long time.

00:06:18 ◼   ► How many of those ungraded things were correct?

00:06:21 ◼   ► Function row, aluminum, more viewing angles.

00:06:27 ◼   ► It's backlit, right?

00:06:28 ◼   ► Well, didn't the old one also--

00:06:30 ◼   ► Yeah, the old one apparently had it too,

00:06:32 ◼   ► and I never remembered and got it wrong on many podcasts.

00:06:34 ◼   ► I think the viewing angles are a little more forgiving

00:06:37 ◼   ► than before, I want to say.

00:06:40 ◼   ► Especially on the--

00:06:40 ◼   ► But it still has the cantilever ring, doesn't it?

00:06:42 ◼   ► It's still kind of like follows and--

00:06:43 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:06:44 ◼   ► But especially on the 11 inch, which is what I'm using,

00:06:46 ◼   ► it's way more forgiving than it used to be.

00:06:49 ◼   ► OK.

00:06:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:06:52 ◼   ► All right.

00:06:53 ◼   ► So the end of round one, you each have a point,

00:06:57 ◼   ► and I have zero.

00:06:59 ◼   ► No points.

00:07:00 ◼   ► No points.

00:07:00 ◼   ► Nilpois.

00:07:01 ◼   ► No.

00:07:01 ◼   ► No.

00:07:04 ◼   ► Round two, my first pick was, there

00:07:06 ◼   ► is a new, larger, non-pro iPad.

00:07:10 ◼   ► Ding, which is the thing I forget all the time.

00:07:14 ◼   ► I constantly forget that there is a big iPad Air.

00:07:18 ◼   ► Like, it happened.

00:07:19 ◼   ► I'm pleased that it happened.

00:07:21 ◼   ► And then that information left my brain forever.

00:07:25 ◼   ► Serious question, do we know anybody

00:07:28 ◼   ► who bought the 13 inch iPad Air?

00:07:31 ◼   ► No.

00:07:32 ◼   ► No, I don't.

00:07:33 ◼   ► Not that I know of.

00:07:34 ◼   ► Stephen, did you?

00:07:35 ◼   ► No, let me think.

00:07:36 ◼   ► You never know.

00:07:36 ◼   ► No, no, no, no.

00:07:37 ◼   ► You never know.

00:07:38 ◼   ► OK.

00:07:40 ◼   ► It's good that it exists, but I don't know who it's for.

00:07:48 ◼   ► I guess people just want a big screen, but don't want to pay

00:07:51 ◼   ► $1,000 million, which makes sense, right?

00:07:54 ◼   ► It's the same thing for the big MacBook Air, right?

00:07:56 ◼   ► It's kind of the same type of user.

00:07:58 ◼   ► In my brain, the fact that I keep

00:08:00 ◼   ► forgetting about the existence of this iPad Air--

00:08:03 ◼   ► I keep trying to say pro.

00:08:04 ◼   ► It's not the iPad Pro.

00:08:06 ◼   ► But it sort of triggers the same neurons

00:08:08 ◼   ► in my brain of something else that I always also forget,

00:08:13 ◼   ► which is why-- which is Mozilla owns Pocket.

00:08:17 ◼   ► And in my brain, it's like these two pieces of information

00:08:21 ◼   ► that I keep forgetting.

00:08:22 ◼   ► And every time I'm like, oh, yeah, they do.

00:08:25 ◼   ► And it's like this iPad Air, and it's like, oh, yeah,

00:08:27 ◼   ► they did a 13 inch iPad Air, but nobody cares.

00:08:31 ◼   ► I just took a look, because I see why it exists now,

00:08:33 ◼   ► because I just went to the page.

00:08:35 ◼   ► And the 13 inch iPad Air starts at $799,

00:08:39 ◼   ► and the 13 inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299.

00:08:42 ◼   ► It's like $500 difference.

00:08:44 ◼   ► Look, it's also-- it's a good iPad, even.

00:08:46 ◼   ► It's a good iPad.

00:08:47 ◼   ► But I mean, that is a great reason for it to exist.

00:08:49 ◼   ► I remember now the reasons we're saying it.

00:08:51 ◼   ► First, if you have two iPad Airs in both sizes,

00:08:54 ◼   ► it means you can go bananas bonkers with the iPad Pro,

00:08:58 ◼   ► which is what you want from that,

00:09:00 ◼   ► a lot of people want from that.

00:09:02 ◼   ► And then we end up with two OLED screens inside.

00:09:04 ◼   ► Like, you need to charge a lot of money-- well,

00:09:08 ◼   ► Apple are going to charge a lot of money

00:09:10 ◼   ► to give all of these features.

00:09:11 ◼   ► If you care about these features, great.

00:09:13 ◼   ► If you don't, there is a fantastic iPad

00:09:16 ◼   ► called the iPad Air just sitting there waiting for you.

00:09:19 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:19 ◼   ► I said that there will be no second generation

00:09:26 ◼   ► Vision Pro announced.

00:09:29 ◼   ► Ding.

00:09:31 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:32 ◼   ► So the first one.

00:09:33 ◼   ► I would love to cast my mind back to that point and think--

00:09:40 ◼   ► and did we really think that that was a thing?

00:09:42 ◼   ► Because bear in mind, it wasn't available yet.

00:09:47 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:09:47 ◼   ► Yeah, it shipped in February, right?

00:09:49 ◼   ► Yeah, I think I saw someone post today that it was a year ago--

00:09:54 ◼   ► I think today or yesterday--

00:09:57 ◼   ► that the availability was announced.

00:10:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:10:02 ◼   ► I think it was-- yeah, either today or yesterday.

00:10:04 ◼   ► Yes.

00:10:05 ◼   ► Yes.

00:10:05 ◼   ► I saw somebody posting about it.

00:10:09 ◼   ► They just dropped that press release and like, oh, yeah,

00:10:11 ◼   ► we'll be out in a couple of weeks.

00:10:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:10:13 ◼   ► Man, remember how excited we were.

00:10:16 ◼   ► It was a great time.

00:10:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:10:17 ◼   ► It was fantastic.

00:10:18 ◼   ► It was a good time.

00:10:19 ◼   ► It was a good feeling.

00:10:20 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:10:23 ◼   ► I said in round two, iOS 18 will bring new AI features

00:10:28 ◼   ► based on large language models with some generative

00:10:31 ◼   ► capabilities.

00:10:33 ◼   ► Ding.

00:10:34 ◼   ► Yes, they sure did.

00:10:37 ◼   ► Writing tools, image playground, whatever,

00:10:39 ◼   ► the emoji, all the things.

00:10:42 ◼   ► Yep.

00:10:43 ◼   ► Some would say too many things.

00:10:45 ◼   ► Arguably.

00:10:46 ◼   ► Especially if you work for the BBC.

00:10:48 ◼   ► If you work for the BBC, you don't want those features.

00:10:52 ◼   ► They don't like them.

00:10:53 ◼   ► They do not like them.

00:10:54 ◼   ► They do not.

00:10:56 ◼   ► At the end of round two, Mike and I, we have two points.

00:11:01 ◼   ► Steven has one point.

00:11:04 ◼   ► The game is not decided yet.

00:11:06 ◼   ► Everything can still happen with the old rules,

00:11:08 ◼   ► with the old point system.

00:11:09 ◼   ► So yeah.

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00:13:24 ◼   ► OK, risky pick time.

00:13:26 ◼   ► I'm so sad about mine.

00:13:29 ◼   ► A game made by a studio owned by Meta is released on Vision Pro.

00:13:34 ◼   ► Man.

00:13:35 ◼   ► I really thought I had this one.

00:13:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:13:37 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:13:38 ◼   ► It didn't happen.

00:13:40 ◼   ► I have-- in the last two weeks, I have been--

00:13:44 ◼   ► I have been googling like a madman,

00:13:47 ◼   ► trying to find some way in which this was possible.

00:13:51 ◼   ► For as much as I can see, it did not happen.

00:13:56 ◼   ► I think there is a company owned by Google that released a Vision

00:14:04 ◼   ► Pro game, but no Meta.

00:14:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:14:08 ◼   ► I'm sorry, buddy.

00:14:09 ◼   ► I think the thing that I couldn't have anticipated-- well,

00:14:11 ◼   ► the thing I didn't anticipate--

00:14:14 ◼   ► maybe I could have, but I didn't--

00:14:16 ◼   ► is that Meta did not want to get involved in this.

00:14:21 ◼   ► Like, they wanted to use this as an opportunity

00:14:23 ◼   ► to say that their thing was better.

00:14:25 ◼   ► Like, I think that was the thing that I didn't anticipate,

00:14:27 ◼   ► and that was what they did.

00:14:28 ◼   ► OK, mine is a bit complicated, I think.

00:14:36 ◼   ► Mine is Apple CEO succession plan leaks.

00:14:41 ◼   ► And we did have reporting on this, a pretty big piece

00:14:46 ◼   ► in Bloomberg back in May about John Turnus, the head of hardware

00:14:52 ◼   ► engineering, is emerging as a potential successor

00:14:55 ◼   ► to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

00:14:58 ◼   ► And honestly, I leave this to y'all.

00:15:00 ◼   ► Like, I could see it going both ways,

00:15:02 ◼   ► so I put myself at your mercy.

00:15:05 ◼   ► Similarly--

00:15:09 ◼   ► [COUGHING]

00:15:10 ◼   ► Oh, god.

00:15:11 ◼   ► OK, Troy.

00:15:12 ◼   ► Sorry, sorry.

00:15:13 ◼   ► I similarly have been doing research.

00:15:16 ◼   ► I've been reading the transcripts, thanks

00:15:17 ◼   ► to Apple Podcast, of two separate episodes of this show

00:15:22 ◼   ► to try and work out if we gave literally any parameters

00:15:25 ◼   ► to this, and we did not.

00:15:27 ◼   ► At any point in conversation of this,

00:15:30 ◼   ► it was just like, succession plan will leak,

00:15:32 ◼   ► and it was like, OK, moving on.

00:15:34 ◼   ► Like, I really would have loved something, because--

00:15:39 ◼   ► the Mark Gurman reporting is not a quote unquote "succession

00:15:42 ◼   ► plan," right?

00:15:43 ◼   ► No.

00:15:44 ◼   ► Like, we haven't gotten a document or anything

00:15:48 ◼   ► that says, like, if this, then that.

00:15:51 ◼   ► What this is is, like, he spoke to people

00:15:54 ◼   ► who said that John Turnus is emerging,

00:15:58 ◼   ► but Jeff Williams would most likely step into the shoes

00:16:02 ◼   ► if something happened to Tim.

00:16:04 ◼   ► So I don't know.

00:16:05 ◼   ► Like, this is discussion of succession.

00:16:13 ◼   ► Federico, what do you think?

00:16:15 ◼   ► I can believe that we accepted the risky peak that

00:16:18 ◼   ► was so generic in--

00:16:20 ◼   ► Well, see, this is the thing of, like--

00:16:22 ◼   ► so what is risky, which I agree with,

00:16:28 ◼   ► is if an entire succession plan leaked, right?

00:16:30 ◼   ► But, like, the problem is that it's the way

00:16:34 ◼   ► that this peak is phrased.

00:16:35 ◼   ► Like, what were we expecting?

00:16:37 ◼   ► For somebody to publish a PDF with a text on the front page

00:16:42 ◼   ► Apple Succession Plan--

00:16:43 ◼   ► Well, sometimes the only person that can make that claim

00:16:47 ◼   ► is the picky.

00:16:48 ◼   ► So picky, what were you expecting?

00:16:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:16:52 ◼   ► I expected something in detail with names.

00:16:55 ◼   ► I don't think I had in mind, like, a PowerPoint

00:16:57 ◼   ► presentation getting leaked.

00:16:59 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:17:01 ◼   ► Do you think you got something in detail with names?

00:17:04 ◼   ► Yes.

00:17:05 ◼   ► Now, it is worth noting that Mark Gorman had reported

00:17:08 ◼   ► something very similar to this prior to that.

00:17:11 ◼   ► Like, there is another article that he wrote a while ago

00:17:15 ◼   ► talking about similar things.

00:17:17 ◼   ► Yeah, well, you should have stopped at my risky pick.

00:17:19 ◼   ► No, no.

00:17:20 ◼   ► No, because that wasn't a leaking of a succession plan.

00:17:22 ◼   ► It was like a similar thing of, like, here

00:17:25 ◼   ► are all of the people at Apple which could potentially

00:17:27 ◼   ► be CEO one day.

00:17:28 ◼   ► Right.

00:17:29 ◼   ► And he just kind of listed that.

00:17:30 ◼   ► I mean, rereading this other piece,

00:17:32 ◼   ► it definitely feels more solid than the first.

00:17:37 ◼   ► I mean, I think I've got it, but I

00:17:38 ◼   ► think it's by the skin of my teeth.

00:17:40 ◼   ► Again, it's not mine to choose.

00:17:41 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:17:42 ◼   ► I feel like-- I don't know, guys.

00:17:44 ◼   ► I'm going to say it.

00:17:44 ◼   ► I feel like we need an external adjudicator.

00:17:48 ◼   ► Uh-oh.

00:17:49 ◼   ► Did the rules-- I need to go check the old rules.

00:17:52 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm looking at the old rules.

00:17:54 ◼   ► Because aren't the old rules specifically

00:17:56 ◼   ► that we don't have adjudicators?

00:17:58 ◼   ► Oh my god, really?

00:17:59 ◼   ► Well, because that was the whole point about agreeing to the pick

00:18:02 ◼   ► in advance, right?

00:18:04 ◼   ► There's nothing in here about adjudication either way

00:18:07 ◼   ► in the 2024 document.

00:18:11 ◼   ► My main problem is that I cannot decide if that article is

00:18:16 ◼   ► a succession plan that has leaked.

00:18:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:18:22 ◼   ► Well, do you want me to just call Jason?

00:18:25 ◼   ► You can call him.

00:18:27 ◼   ► Here's the thing that I will say, right?

00:18:30 ◼   ► In my opinion, this is not a leaked succession plan.

00:18:33 ◼   ► But--

00:18:35 ◼   ► But it's very close.

00:18:37 ◼   ► But the thing is, this isn't a planned document.

00:18:42 ◼   ► There isn't a document that we can see.

00:18:45 ◼   ► But who's to say this isn't the succession plan?

00:18:47 ◼   ► That's the problem, right?

00:18:49 ◼   ► This is Pandora's succession plan.

00:18:51 ◼   ► Jason's calling.

00:18:52 ◼   ► OK.

00:18:53 ◼   ► Jason's calling.

00:18:54 ◼   ► OK.

00:18:54 ◼   ► Hello, Jason.

00:18:56 ◼   ► Hey, Susan.

00:18:57 ◼   ► I don't get it.

00:18:58 ◼   ► I think it's too close to the original Mark Borman report.

00:19:01 ◼   ► Wow.

00:19:02 ◼   ► Is Jason walking?

00:19:04 ◼   ► Is he coming?

00:19:05 ◼   ► Is he coming from a phone?

00:19:06 ◼   ► Yeah, so you're listening live, I guess.

00:19:09 ◼   ► Are you driving?

00:19:11 ◼   ► I'm walking the dog, actually.

00:19:12 ◼   ► Walking the dog.

00:19:13 ◼   ► Oh, my god.

00:19:15 ◼   ► I know Jason's walking voice, I guess.

00:19:16 ◼   ► OK, yeah.

00:19:17 ◼   ► We know your walking voice.

00:19:18 ◼   ► OK.

00:19:19 ◼   ► So Jason says I don't get it, so I don't get it.

00:19:22 ◼   ► All right.

00:19:23 ◼   ► All right.

00:19:23 ◼   ► Thank you, Jason.

00:19:24 ◼   ► Thank you, Jason.

00:19:25 ◼   ► Oh, you're welcome.

00:19:26 ◼   ► All right, love you.

00:19:27 ◼   ► He hung up.

00:19:28 ◼   ► Steven, I think you kind of screwed yourself

00:19:30 ◼   ► in asking for adjudication.

00:19:31 ◼   ► Maybe.

00:19:32 ◼   ► All right, so I'm marking it red in the document,

00:19:35 ◼   ► going from yellow to red.

00:19:37 ◼   ► That's a minus one point for me.

00:19:39 ◼   ► OK.

00:19:40 ◼   ► Now, my risky pick is heartbreaking,

00:19:45 ◼   ► because with the new rules, you'll see.

00:19:50 ◼   ► I said a new iPad Pro will feature ellipses,

00:19:56 ◼   ► a front-facing camera on the landscape side,

00:19:59 ◼   ► higher than 27-watt fast charging,

00:20:03 ◼   ► and eventually support more than four windows in the same stage

00:20:06 ◼   ► manager workspace.

00:20:10 ◼   ► So as you can see in our document, Mike and Steven,

00:20:14 ◼   ► some of the pick is colored green,

00:20:18 ◼   ► and the final part of the pick is red.

00:20:21 ◼   ► Yeah, so there was a new iPad Pro.

00:20:23 ◼   ► It did have front-facing camera on landscape.

00:20:27 ◼   ► How fast does it charge?

00:20:28 ◼   ► Does it do 45?

00:20:31 ◼   ► I think it's 45.

00:20:32 ◼   ► 27.

00:20:33 ◼   ► But I actually think, unbelievably, you cannot have

00:20:38 ◼   ► more than four windows in the same stage manager workspace.

00:20:41 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:20:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:20:43 ◼   ► So--

00:20:44 ◼   ► Rough.

00:20:44 ◼   ► So you don't get it?

00:20:46 ◼   ► Well, with the old rules, I don't.

00:20:48 ◼   ► Yeah, the old rules, he doesn't get it.

00:20:50 ◼   ► Because everything has to be correct.

00:20:52 ◼   ► Everything has to be correct.

00:20:53 ◼   ► This is one of the reasons we have the new rules.

00:20:55 ◼   ► OK.

00:20:56 ◼   ► I'm sorry, Federico.

00:20:58 ◼   ► That leaves us with a tie.

00:21:02 ◼   ► Unbelievably.

00:21:03 ◼   ► With a tie.

00:21:03 ◼   ► Can you imagine?

00:21:04 ◼   ► Unbelievably, yes.

00:21:05 ◼   ► Unbelievably.

00:21:06 ◼   ► Unbelievably with a tie.

00:21:08 ◼   ► Well, no.

00:21:10 ◼   ► Do we have a tie?

00:21:11 ◼   ► No, we don't.

00:21:12 ◼   ► Steven, is Steven--

00:21:14 ◼   ► No, I lost.

00:21:15 ◼   ► Yeah, me and you were tied.

00:21:16 ◼   ► Yeah, the two of you were tied.

00:21:17 ◼   ► Yeah, of course.

00:21:18 ◼   ► And I'm going to lose again.

00:21:19 ◼   ► Because that's what I do.

00:21:20 ◼   ► At least there's not a three-way tie.

00:21:22 ◼   ► The three-way ties are the worst ties.

00:21:24 ◼   ► Sorry, Steven.

00:21:24 ◼   ► It's true.

00:21:26 ◼   ► So we got to do a coin flip.

00:21:29 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, Mike is going to win.

00:21:30 ◼   ► Because I am cursed.

00:21:31 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:21:32 ◼   ► I have a curse.

00:21:33 ◼   ► I have a curse.

00:21:34 ◼   ► No, it's not.

00:21:35 ◼   ► It's more like 70.

00:21:37 ◼   ► You want to pick heads or tails?

00:21:38 ◼   ► No.

00:21:39 ◼   ► I am unable to pick.

00:21:44 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:21:45 ◼   ► This could be fun.

00:21:45 ◼   ► Steven, you assign it.

00:21:48 ◼   ► Federico is heads.

00:21:50 ◼   ► OK.

00:21:50 ◼   ► OK.

00:21:51 ◼   ► I like it.

00:21:52 ◼   ► Heads.

00:21:56 ◼   ► Oh my god.

00:21:57 ◼   ► You win.

00:21:57 ◼   ► Steven.

00:21:58 ◼   ► Congratulations.

00:21:59 ◼   ► You are my default coin flipper--

00:22:03 ◼   ► Collusion.

00:22:04 ◼   ► --collar in the future.

00:22:05 ◼   ► Yes.

00:22:06 ◼   ► How is it collusion?

00:22:06 ◼   ► I didn't get anything.

00:22:07 ◼   ► It just is.

00:22:08 ◼   ► I couldn't be Benjamin forever, I guess.

00:22:10 ◼   ► Oh my god.

00:22:12 ◼   ► I am the annual chairman.

00:22:14 ◼   ► You are.

00:22:15 ◼   ► You got it the whole year now.

00:22:16 ◼   ► Oh my god.

00:22:17 ◼   ► OK.

00:22:18 ◼   ► Consolidation starts now.

00:22:20 ◼   ► Wow.

00:22:21 ◼   ► I mean, it just ended, Federico.

00:22:24 ◼   ► Consolidation just ended.

00:22:27 ◼   ► We've had it for quite a while.

00:22:28 ◼   ► And this is a better flavor of it.

00:22:30 ◼   ► You know?

00:22:30 ◼   ► Oh, interesting.

00:22:31 ◼   ► Everybody likes Italian.

00:22:33 ◼   ► You know that.

00:22:33 ◼   ► So--

00:22:35 ◼   ► Wait.

00:22:37 ◼   ► What are you trying to say?

00:22:38 ◼   ► That's not fair.

00:22:40 ◼   ► What did I do?

00:22:43 ◼   ► We have some flexes.

00:22:44 ◼   ► We do.

00:22:44 ◼   ► Oh, gosh.

00:22:45 ◼   ► Yes, we do, don't we?

00:22:46 ◼   ► We do.

00:22:47 ◼   ► Evaluate.

00:22:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:22:48 ◼   ► So, all right.

00:22:49 ◼   ► I'm first.

00:22:50 ◼   ► Yes, you are first in the 2024 flexes, Steven.

00:22:54 ◼   ► The M1 MacBook Air is still on sale at the end of the year?

00:22:58 ◼   ► Yes.

00:23:01 ◼   ► The ninth generation iPad is taken off the market

00:23:04 ◼   ► by the end of the year?

00:23:05 ◼   ► Just to check, the M1 MacBook Air,

00:23:07 ◼   ► you can only get that on Walmart, right?

00:23:08 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:23:09 ◼   ► For like $800 or something?

00:23:10 ◼   ► On sale?

00:23:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:23:13 ◼   ► No, I'm not saying he's wrong.

00:23:14 ◼   ► I'm not saying he's wrong.

00:23:15 ◼   ► I was just asking.

00:23:18 ◼   ► OK.

00:23:18 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:23:20 ◼   ► Number three, an updated iPad Air

00:23:23 ◼   ► comes in at least one new color.

00:23:26 ◼   ► So at the time of the pick, the colors

00:23:28 ◼   ► were space gray, starlight, pink, purple, and blue.

00:23:33 ◼   ► Now, after the update, it is space gray, starlight, purple,

00:23:38 ◼   ► and blue.

00:23:39 ◼   ► So they dropped pink, but the blue and purple

00:23:41 ◼   ► are slightly different.

00:23:44 ◼   ► Nice try.

00:23:44 ◼   ► No.

00:23:45 ◼   ► But I don't think it's new colors.

00:23:46 ◼   ► Nice try.

00:23:47 ◼   ► I like that one new color, there's one less color.

00:23:50 ◼   ► That's the exact opposite of what you said.

00:23:52 ◼   ► One fewer color.

00:23:55 ◼   ► Apple launches immersive video content using TV+ IP.

00:24:00 ◼   ► Somehow, they did not.

00:24:03 ◼   ► Well, you say somehow.

00:24:05 ◼   ► They didn't really--

00:24:06 ◼   ► They didn't do anything.

00:24:07 ◼   ► They haven't really done any of it.

00:24:08 ◼   ► And then number five, AirPods Pro 3 launched

00:24:14 ◼   ► with lossless support.

00:24:17 ◼   ► Nice pick, but they didn't launch.

00:24:20 ◼   ► So I am two for five.

00:24:23 ◼   ► I updated my trophy.

00:24:25 ◼   ► You're jumping the gun.

00:24:28 ◼   ► With the closing ceremony, schmoozing ceremonies,

00:24:32 ◼   ► I've updated my trophy.

00:24:33 ◼   ► So we've got the Federico.

00:24:36 ◼   ► You'll know it now.

00:24:37 ◼   ► All right, Federico, your flexis.

00:24:39 ◼   ► I did extremely bad.

00:24:41 ◼   ► So one, as a result of allowing sideloading on iPhone

00:24:45 ◼   ► in certain countries, a major controversy about security

00:24:48 ◼   ► and/or malware on iOS happens.

00:24:51 ◼   ► I haven't seen it.

00:24:53 ◼   ► I don't mean either.

00:24:54 ◼   ► We do have sideloading, but I haven't seen the controversy.

00:24:58 ◼   ► Number two, Vision Pro will not be available in Italy in 2024.

00:25:02 ◼   ► Ding, yes, it's still not available for purchase here.

00:25:06 ◼   ► Wild.

00:25:07 ◼   ► In 2025.

00:25:08 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:25:09 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:25:10 ◼   ► I mean, did you guys see the report

00:25:14 ◼   ► that Apple stopped producing the Vision Pro?

00:25:18 ◼   ► Yeah, those reports are a little bit-

00:25:20 ◼   ► Yeah, I wanted to ask you, is it legit?

00:25:23 ◼   ► Because it seemed strange to me.

00:25:25 ◼   ► The original report was from the information

00:25:28 ◼   ► where some time ago they said Apple would stop producing it

00:25:32 ◼   ► X time.

00:25:33 ◼   ► That time has now happened.

00:25:35 ◼   ► So I don't think there's any new reporting

00:25:37 ◼   ► that suggests it has happened.

00:25:39 ◼   ► You know, there was just people talking about the fact

00:25:43 ◼   ► that there was this old report that said they would stop.

00:25:46 ◼   ► So it's kind of like, if we believe that original report,

00:25:49 ◼   ► which maybe we do, then fine.

00:25:50 ◼   ► But the reporting that has been in the last week or so

00:25:52 ◼   ► is just referencing that previous report.

00:25:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:25:56 ◼   ► Number three, I love the wishful thinking here.

00:25:59 ◼   ► A Vision Pro will be used on the International Space Station.

00:26:03 ◼   ► Buddy, it's not being used on Earth, let alone on the ISS.

00:26:07 ◼   ► Number four.

00:26:09 ◼   ► Wow.

00:26:10 ◼   ► That's so mean.

00:26:12 ◼   ► Number four, you will be able to create shortcuts

00:26:16 ◼   ► with the new large language model-infused Siri in iOS 18.

00:26:20 ◼   ► I wish, still a good idea, still think it's gonna happen.

00:26:25 ◼   ► Not.

00:26:26 ◼   ► Do you remember there was that report a long time ago

00:26:30 ◼   ► about the Vision Pro before it existed?

00:26:33 ◼   ► Yes.

00:26:34 ◼   ► That like you would be able to just speak apps

00:26:36 ◼   ► into existence?

00:26:37 ◼   ► Speak apps.

00:26:40 ◼   ► Maybe, you know.

00:26:42 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, the damn thing can even set a timer sometimes.

00:26:46 ◼   ► So imagine creating apps.

00:26:50 ◼   ► Number five,

00:26:52 ◼   ► iPadOS 18 will feature new controls

00:26:55 ◼   ► for audio input and output.

00:26:56 ◼   ► No.

00:26:59 ◼   ► So, yeah.

00:27:00 ◼   ► That's one out of five, a 20% correct ratio for my flexes.

00:27:10 ◼   ► Kinda sad.

00:27:10 ◼   ► I'm up.

00:27:13 ◼   ► The saddest flexy, new AirPods Max.

00:27:17 ◼   ► Technically correct.

00:27:19 ◼   ► Technically correct.

00:27:20 ◼   ► But boy oh boy.

00:27:21 ◼   ► I have them, I use them, I like them.

00:27:24 ◼   ► So I realize at this point now,

00:27:26 ◼   ► they only did this so they could continue

00:27:28 ◼   ► selling them in Europe.

00:27:30 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:27:31 ◼   ► That's why they did this,

00:27:32 ◼   ► but it wasn't clear to us at that point

00:27:34 ◼   ► that they needed to do that.

00:27:35 ◼   ► Because there was, everybody misunderstood that.

00:27:39 ◼   ► EU ruling it seemed, except Apple I guess.

00:27:42 ◼   ► 'Cause now they don't sell any new stuff with Lightning.

00:27:45 ◼   ► Like I don't even think you can buy a keyboard

00:27:48 ◼   ► at Apple Store right now, I'm not sure, but anyway.

00:27:51 ◼   ► We will be able to watch Avatar The Way of Water

00:27:54 ◼   ► in 3D on Vision Pro.

00:27:55 ◼   ► I still haven't, but I should.

00:27:58 ◼   ► It's reminded me that I wanted to do that

00:28:00 ◼   ► and I have not done that.

00:28:02 ◼   ► But you can do that.

00:28:03 ◼   ► You could do it holding your baby one night.

00:28:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:28:07 ◼   ► Fall over out of the chair.

00:28:08 ◼   ► I'm sure that will be a great experience as a dad,

00:28:12 ◼   ► to just be watching an immersive 3D video.

00:28:15 ◼   ► Really engaged in the parenting.

00:28:18 ◼   ► Number three, Apple adds another sport to TV+.

00:28:23 ◼   ► They did not do that.

00:28:25 ◼   ► Third party Apple watch faces are introduced.

00:28:29 ◼   ► I mean, it's gonna happen at some point.

00:28:32 ◼   ► You just keep picking it forever and maybe it will happen.

00:28:36 ◼   ► Maybe.

00:28:37 ◼   ► Five, Apple introduces a home pod with a screen.

00:28:40 ◼   ► Not yet.

00:28:42 ◼   ► Maybe a year early on that one, buddy.

00:28:44 ◼   ► I think that'll prove to be ahead of its time.

00:28:46 ◼   ► And Vision OS receives updates at WWDC

00:28:51 ◼   ► that ship later in 2024.

00:28:53 ◼   ► Yes, they did.

00:28:54 ◼   ► So I got the most right and I picked the most.

00:28:59 ◼   ► I had six flexies.

00:29:01 ◼   ► Which makes you the Duke of Lexington.

00:29:05 ◼   ► Oh, it does, doesn't it?

00:29:07 ◼   ► Wait, is that what I get?

00:29:08 ◼   ► Is there a different one for the year?

00:29:10 ◼   ► See, this is why I made the rules.

00:29:11 ◼   ► It's not, it's the same title.

00:29:15 ◼   ► You're the annual Duke.

00:29:16 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm the annual Duke of Lexington.

00:29:18 ◼   ► Oh, I love that.

00:29:19 ◼   ► But Federico does need to make a donation.

00:29:22 ◼   ► I need to make a donation.

00:29:24 ◼   ► And I choose, right?

00:29:26 ◼   ► Of Mike's choice, yes.

00:29:28 ◼   ► Federico, I would like you to donate

00:29:30 ◼   ► to a charity called Mermaids.

00:29:32 ◼   ► It's a British charity and I'll send you the URL.

00:29:35 ◼   ► They support trans, non-binary, and gender diverse children

00:29:38 ◼   ► and their families and young people.

00:29:40 ◼   ► And they've been around in the UK since the 90s.

00:29:42 ◼   ► I like it.

00:29:43 ◼   ► I believe I have donated to this charity before.

00:29:46 ◼   ► Maybe I asked you or maybe you just did it

00:29:49 ◼   ► out of the goodness of your heart

00:29:50 ◼   ► 'cause you're that kind of guy.

00:29:51 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:29:52 ◼   ► It's $25 per wrong pick, so you owe 100.

00:29:56 ◼   ► 100, nice.

00:29:57 ◼   ► Isn't that just a wonderful name for that charity?

00:30:00 ◼   ► I'm just gonna do 100 euros because it's easier.

00:30:03 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:30:04 ◼   ► First name, last name.

00:30:07 ◼   ► Yeah, okay.

00:30:09 ◼   ► Cool, thank you.

00:30:10 ◼   ► Thank you.

00:30:13 ◼   ► So I lose my benchmanship,

00:30:14 ◼   ► but I gain my flexibility, I guess.

00:30:16 ◼   ► When I do King Lexington.

00:30:19 ◼   ► Congratulations to everyone but me.

00:30:23 ◼   ► Yes, you are the real loser in this case.

00:30:25 ◼   ► Yeah, big loser.

00:30:26 ◼   ► Yeah, no, it's no good.

00:30:30 ◼   ► At least you didn't have to give the money.

00:30:32 ◼   ► That's true.

00:30:33 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm right in the middle.

00:30:33 ◼   ► That would have been the most losing

00:30:35 ◼   ► you could have done, you know?

00:30:37 ◼   ► But it's not really losing

00:30:37 ◼   ► if you're helping a good cause, you know?

00:30:40 ◼   ► Yeah, if you think about it,

00:30:41 ◼   ► I'm the winner of the flexes from a certain perspective.

00:30:44 ◼   ► You definitely lost money though.

00:30:45 ◼   ► Like there is money that you had that you no longer have,

00:30:48 ◼   ► even though you went to a good place.

00:30:49 ◼   ► But I made the world a better place though.

00:30:52 ◼   ► So.

00:30:53 ◼   ► Yeah, you really did.

00:30:53 ◼   ► You actually did do that.

00:30:55 ◼   ► So, I was the loser.

00:30:57 ◼   ► How bad can it be?

00:30:58 ◼   ► (silence)

00:31:00 ◼   ► This episode of Connected is made possible by ZocDoc.

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00:32:34 ◼   ► That's ZocDoc, Z-O-C-D-O-C.

00:32:38 ◼   ► ZocDoc.com/connected.

00:32:41 ◼   ► All right, thanks to ZocDoc for their support of the show.

00:32:43 ◼   ► - All right, it is time for the 2025 Annual Ricky's.

00:32:50 ◼   ► The Ricky's is a game connected hosts play

00:32:53 ◼   ► before Apple Keynotes and the beginning of a new year,

00:32:56 ◼   ► trying to predict future events.

00:32:58 ◼   ► It is made up of three rounds.

00:33:00 ◼   ► Each host makes two regular picks, followed by a risky pick.

00:33:05 ◼   ► There are two types of Ricky's,

00:33:06 ◼   ► Annual Ricky's and Keynote Ricky's.

00:33:09 ◼   ► The winner of the Annual Ricky's is named

00:33:12 ◼   ► the Annual Chairman.

00:33:13 ◼   ► The position is awarded every January.

00:33:16 ◼   ► Hosts should be introduced at the top of each episode

00:33:19 ◼   ► according to their current titles.

00:33:21 ◼   ► In the event that a host has both positions,

00:33:24 ◼   ► they shall be introduced as the Ricky Benchman.

00:33:29 ◼   ► After the Ricky's, the hosts then play a game

00:33:31 ◼   ► called the Flexis.

00:33:33 ◼   ► These two games are separate, but related.

00:33:36 ◼   ► Please stand for the reading of the rules.

00:33:40 ◼   ► I'm gonna do it this time.

00:33:42 ◼   ► So I'm kind of emotional about this.

00:33:46 ◼   ► - It's a big moment.

00:33:48 ◼   ► - It's a big moment for me.

00:33:49 ◼   ► It's like the first time I spoke in public.

00:33:51 ◼   ► Each host gets to make two regular picks.

00:34:01 ◼   ► Hosts can be granted a bonus regular pick

00:34:05 ◼   ► for any previously incorrect pick that has now come true

00:34:10 ◼   ► from the last three corresponding games.

00:34:13 ◼   ► - Oh, whoops.

00:34:14 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:34:15 ◼   ► - Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

00:34:18 ◼   ► - I forgot about that.

00:34:19 ◼   ► - Uh-huh.

00:34:21 ◼   ► A previously incorrect pick may be used only once.

00:34:26 ◼   ► So let's keep this in mind because I think we forgot.

00:34:32 ◼   ► I will continue.

00:34:34 ◼   ► Correct regular picks are awarded one point.

00:34:38 ◼   ► The language used for regular picks must be finalized

00:34:41 ◼   ► and agreed upon during recording,

00:34:42 ◼   ► and no partial points may be awarded.

00:34:45 ◼   ► Risky picks have a more complex scoring system.

00:34:49 ◼   ► Each host must make a pick comprising three conditions.

00:34:53 ◼   ► If you get all three conditions correct,

00:34:55 ◼   ► you earn two points.

00:34:57 ◼   ► If you get two conditions correct, you earn one point.

00:35:01 ◼   ► If you get one condition correct, you earn zero points.

00:35:04 ◼   ► If you get all three conditions wrong, you lose one point.

00:35:08 ◼   ► Picks must have been approved as risky

00:35:12 ◼   ► by the two other hosts before the start of the game.

00:35:15 ◼   ► Picks made for keynote rickies cannot be reused

00:35:17 ◼   ► by the host who made them for the next keynote.

00:35:19 ◼   ► The annual rickies have their own subset of rules.

00:35:22 ◼   ► Pay attention.

00:35:23 ◼   ► Once a host chooses something as an annual pick,

00:35:26 ◼   ► they cannot reuse it in the calendar year.

00:35:30 ◼   ► Additionally, picks may not be used

00:35:33 ◼   ► in back-to-back annual rickies by the same host.

00:35:36 ◼   ► All hosts are allowed to reuse picks

00:35:42 ◼   ► previously made by others.

00:35:44 ◼   ► Scoring is completed during recording

00:35:46 ◼   ► and cannot be modified once an episode is complete.

00:35:49 ◼   ► We don't care about this because we just did the scoring.

00:35:53 ◼   ► I think we can skip this entire part, right?

00:35:56 ◼   ► Because we did the scoring.

00:35:58 ◼   ► Do I need to read these rules for the scoring?

00:36:00 ◼   ► - You have to read them, sorry.

00:36:01 ◼   ► - Scoring is completed during recording

00:36:03 ◼   ► and cannot be modified once an episode is complete.

00:36:05 ◼   ► In the event of a tie, dice by pick outcome

00:36:07 ◼   ► must be used in relay mode to pick a winner.

00:36:10 ◼   ► In the case of a three-way tie,

00:36:12 ◼   ► hosts all make their calls at the same time,

00:36:14 ◼   ► with flipping continuing until a winner is named.

00:36:17 ◼   ► Jason Snell has a lifetime ban

00:36:20 ◼   ► on flipping any coins in relation to the rickies.

00:36:22 ◼   ► Coin flips by Jason and other podcasts are allowed,

00:36:26 ◼   ► but are frowned upon and are subject to public shaming.

00:36:30 ◼   ► The order of picks is set by previous performance.

00:36:34 ◼   ► The winner of the previous associated game goes first,

00:36:37 ◼   ► the previous loser goes last.

00:36:39 ◼   ► Winners will be recognized during the closing ceremonies.

00:36:42 ◼   ► As a reminder, Federico, that's me,

00:36:45 ◼   ► is the current annual chairman,

00:36:47 ◼   ► and Mike is the current keynote chairman.

00:36:49 ◼   ► Past results can be seen at rickies.co and rickies.net.

00:36:53 ◼   ► These sites also have pages

00:36:54 ◼   ► about managing your own scorekeeping at home.

00:36:59 ◼   ► You may be seated.

00:37:01 ◼   ► (soft music)

00:37:03 ◼   ► All right, so I completely forgot about the bonus pick thing

00:37:13 ◼   ► and I don't know how it works for annuals.

00:37:16 ◼   ► So I guess it's the last three years in the annual games?

00:37:20 ◼   ► - I think it's just the previous year.

00:37:22 ◼   ► - Well, that's not what it says in the rules.

00:37:23 ◼   ► The rules don't state it.

00:37:25 ◼   ► It just says that has now come true

00:37:27 ◼   ► from the last three corresponding games.

00:37:30 ◼   ► - Oh my God, we need to go back three years?

00:37:32 ◼   ► - Well, we don't need to because we have wonderful people

00:37:35 ◼   ► who keep this data for us.

00:37:36 ◼   ► So rickies.net has a thing about this

00:37:45 ◼   ► and it appears that both Steven and I

00:37:50 ◼   ► have the opportunity to use a bonus pick.

00:37:54 ◼   ► - Wait, where are you seeing this?

00:37:57 ◼   ► - So if you go, there's a page on rickies.net,

00:38:00 ◼   ► bonus regular pick candidates.

00:38:02 ◼   ► You go all the way down to annual games.

00:38:05 ◼   ► Wikipedia has identified the following picks

00:38:07 ◼   ► as ahead of their time

00:38:08 ◼   ► but the hosts make the ultimate judgment.

00:38:09 ◼   ► There's one of those for me and one of those for Steven.

00:38:12 ◼   ► - I see everything in red.

00:38:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't know.

00:38:17 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't know what it means.

00:38:20 ◼   ► I'm just looking at the thing.

00:38:21 ◼   ► Wikipedia has identified the following picks

00:38:23 ◼   ► as ahead of their time

00:38:24 ◼   ► but the hosts make the ultimate judgment.

00:38:25 ◼   ► So I think that's why we need to.

00:38:27 ◼   ► - Okay, so I see the section.

00:38:30 ◼   ► - So Steven's one that has been,

00:38:33 ◼   ► that Jason of Wikipedia has identified

00:38:35 ◼   ► is Apple has Apple Silicon versions

00:38:38 ◼   ► of all of its Intel Macs on sale by the end of 2021.

00:38:41 ◼   ► - Was that true?

00:38:43 ◼   ► I guess it was.

00:38:46 ◼   ► Let's see.

00:38:48 ◼   ► - Well, no, not by the end of 2021.

00:38:51 ◼   ► Otherwise you would have got it.

00:38:52 ◼   ► - It happened, well, here's the thing.

00:38:54 ◼   ► With this kind of pick, he said at the end of 2021,

00:38:57 ◼   ► let's say that it happened in 2022 or 2023.

00:39:00 ◼   ► He said at the end of 2021.

00:39:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's right.

00:39:03 ◼   ► - So he doesn't get that.

00:39:03 ◼   ► - You cannot retroactively say,

00:39:05 ◼   ► well, no, it was 2022 eventually.

00:39:07 ◼   ► - But I said in 2021,

00:39:10 ◼   ► Apple announces a new Mac Pro powered by Apple Silicon.

00:39:13 ◼   ► - Now this qualifies.

00:39:16 ◼   ► - So I get a bonus pick.

00:39:17 ◼   ► - You do.

00:39:18 ◼   ► - Interesting.

00:39:20 ◼   ► Whoopsie.

00:39:24 ◼   ► - You made this worse.

00:39:25 ◼   ► - No, no, here's the thing.

00:39:28 ◼   ► It's good if we remember.

00:39:29 ◼   ► We didn't remember.

00:39:31 ◼   ► Now we can check it beforehand

00:39:33 ◼   ► and we can have our picks ready, right?

00:39:34 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:39:36 ◼   ► So you get a second pick.

00:39:38 ◼   ► - Yeah, I know what it is.

00:39:39 ◼   ► I'm just gonna elevate one of my flexes.

00:39:42 ◼   ► - Okay, that's fair.

00:39:43 ◼   ► Boy, so I think we're ready to move forward now.

00:39:49 ◼   ► And if something is wrong, we will deal with it.

00:39:52 ◼   ► - I'm sorry.

00:39:53 ◼   ► Before we do, I would like to address one other thing.

00:39:56 ◼   ► - Okay. - Okay.

00:39:57 ◼   ► - I know that everybody gets upset when I talk about this.

00:40:02 ◼   ► But this is my brain and I need help, all right?

00:40:06 ◼   ► Each host must make a pick comprising three conditions.

00:40:13 ◼   ► - Oh my God.

00:40:14 ◼   ► - That language does not make sense to me.

00:40:16 ◼   ► Like, why do we have to,

00:40:18 ◼   ► can we please just say each host must make a pick

00:40:22 ◼   ► that then has three conditions or something?

00:40:26 ◼   ► - You don't like the verb comprising.

00:40:28 ◼   ► - No, I can't.

00:40:29 ◼   ► 'Cause to me, comprising,

00:40:31 ◼   ► it's just there are just three things.

00:40:32 ◼   ► And I know that's not what it means.

00:40:34 ◼   ► And everyone keeps telling me that's not what it means.

00:40:35 ◼   ► - So it's a pick with three supporting details.

00:40:39 ◼   ► - That is a beautiful way of putting it.

00:40:40 ◼   ► - Okay. - Okay.

00:40:42 ◼   ► - So let me go into Notion, Bill of Rickeys.

00:40:45 ◼   ► - Because also, the only thing we score on

00:40:47 ◼   ► is the details, right?

00:40:49 ◼   ► Like the pick gets us nothing, correct?

00:40:52 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:40:53 ◼   ► - So like we make a pick, that's fine.

00:40:56 ◼   ► We're only scored on the details.

00:40:58 ◼   ► So if the pick that we have comes true,

00:41:00 ◼   ► but all the details are wrong, we don't get anything.

00:41:03 ◼   ► In fact, we lose a point, correct?

00:41:04 ◼   ► - If you get all three conditions wrong, you lose one point.

00:41:10 ◼   ► - Yeah, but my point is, let's say I make a pick

00:41:12 ◼   ► and my pick is, Stephen is on stage during a keynote.

00:41:16 ◼   ► He wears blue shoes, he has a green shirt,

00:41:18 ◼   ► and he has red trousers.

00:41:19 ◼   ► If you're on stage, but you have none of those clothes on,

00:41:23 ◼   ► I don't get anything, right?

00:41:24 ◼   ► - No, you don't.

00:41:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, so that's why I wanna just like,

00:41:27 ◼   ► just get that like out there, right?

00:41:31 ◼   ► - So if the main pick is correct.

00:41:34 ◼   ► - Just say like, the scoring is only on the conditions

00:41:38 ◼   ► or in the details.

00:41:39 ◼   ► Like, you know. - Okay.

00:41:40 ◼   ► - The reason this is,

00:41:43 ◼   ► 'cause when I originally wrote my risky pick,

00:41:45 ◼   ► I wrote it wrong again.

00:41:46 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:41:47 ◼   ► I did it wrong again.

00:41:49 ◼   ► So I know I need the help,

00:41:51 ◼   ► and so I'm thankful for the help.

00:41:54 ◼   ► - Okay, so each host must make a pick

00:41:59 ◼   ► with three supporting details.

00:42:01 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:42:01 ◼   ► - If you get all three correct, you earn two points.

00:42:04 ◼   ► If you get all two correct,

00:42:05 ◼   ► if you get two correct, you earn one point.

00:42:08 ◼   ► If you get one correct, you earn zero.

00:42:10 ◼   ► If you get three, you lose one.

00:42:14 ◼   ► Points are only awarded based on the number of points.

00:42:19 ◼   ► On details.

00:42:20 ◼   ► - The details.

00:42:21 ◼   ► - Not the overall pick.

00:42:24 ◼   ► - Beautiful, thank you.

00:42:26 ◼   ► - Okay, all right, if you run a risky related website

00:42:29 ◼   ► and you have access to the Snoshen page,

00:42:31 ◼   ► these are highlighted in pink.

00:42:34 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:42:37 ◼   ► - How many can they be?

00:42:38 ◼   ► More than you think.

00:42:39 ◼   ► - More than you think.

00:42:40 ◼   ► - All right.

00:42:41 ◼   ► So I think we're ready to play.

00:42:43 ◼   ► So Federico gets to go first.

00:42:46 ◼   ► - I get to go first.

00:42:48 ◼   ► My round one pick is a new quote unquote iPhone SE

00:42:53 ◼   ► is introduced with the new design.

00:42:56 ◼   ► Now I said iPhone SE because that's what so far

00:43:01 ◼   ► this product has been called.

00:43:03 ◼   ► I just wanted to ask you guys,

00:43:05 ◼   ► how should I phrase this pick?

00:43:07 ◼   ► Like we know what this phone is gonna be, right?

00:43:10 ◼   ► But how should I phrase this pick

00:43:11 ◼   ► in the event that this phone gets renamed?

00:43:14 ◼   ► - A new iPhone at the base price tier.

00:43:17 ◼   ► - Or a new iPhone cheaper than the,

00:43:21 ◼   ► like, you know, I don't know how to say it.

00:43:23 ◼   ► - A cheaper iPhone.

00:43:25 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:43:26 ◼   ► - A cheaper iPhone is introduced with a new design.

00:43:31 ◼   ► So yeah, we're basically expecting

00:43:33 ◼   ► the new generation iPhone SE to have,

00:43:35 ◼   ► to finally get rid of the home button,

00:43:37 ◼   ► finally have, you know, face ID, the old notch design.

00:43:40 ◼   ► That seems what Apple is gonna do

00:43:43 ◼   ► in the next couple of months even.

00:43:45 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:43:46 ◼   ► - So yeah, that's what we are expecting.

00:43:48 ◼   ► And so once again, the pick would be a cheaper iPhone

00:43:52 ◼   ► is introduced with the new design.

00:43:54 ◼   ► - I have added context for your pick.

00:43:56 ◼   ► - Ungraded context? - Which will help us

00:43:57 ◼   ► later on.

00:43:58 ◼   ► No, but it's what he's saying.

00:43:59 ◼   ► It's the SE or something in its place.

00:44:01 ◼   ► - Okay. - So we just know

00:44:02 ◼   ► what that means, right?

00:44:03 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Yeah.

00:44:04 ◼   ► - Is that fair, Federico?

00:44:05 ◼   ► - Yes, yes. - Okay.

00:44:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's good.

00:44:08 ◼   ► I mean, rumors say as early as April now, so.

00:44:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, 'cause there is a bunch of places in the world

00:44:13 ◼   ► where they're not selling an iPhone SE anymore.

00:44:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, this could be the first,

00:44:17 ◼   ► I make a prediction, this is the first one

00:44:19 ◼   ► that turns green this year.

00:44:21 ◼   ► - Oh, okay.

00:44:24 ◼   ► - It's a side bet.

00:44:25 ◼   ► All right, Mike.

00:44:28 ◼   ► - My round one pick, I'm reading it,

00:44:32 ◼   ► and I'm like, why did I make this my pick?

00:44:34 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:44:35 ◼   ► I don't know why I did this.

00:44:37 ◼   ► But I guess I'm gonna go for it anyway,

00:44:41 ◼   ► 'cause I got an extra one to burn, so.

00:44:44 ◼   ► understand that Apple introduces its own large language model to power theory.

00:44:49 ◼   ► Its own LLM. Yeah. Yeah, you're not you're not gonna get this? No, they're gonna do this,

00:45:00 ◼   ► but it's if they do it this year or next year. It's just about whether it's this year or next

00:45:04 ◼   ► year.

00:45:05 ◼   ► They will introduce it.

00:45:06 ◼   ► Mm. Oh, sick! Okay, I'm getting it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting it. I'm getting it.

00:45:13 ◼   ► Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's funny. That is like I read it and I'm like, why did

00:45:19 ◼   ► I pick this? Now I remember when I picked this because I've had my picks done since

00:45:23 ◼   ► the end of December. Yeah, like I've done for a few weeks. This was these were the big

00:45:27 ◼   ► rumors. But yeah, I think that they they are going to do this, whether they do it or not.

00:45:31 ◼   ► But yes, thank you for that reminder Federico.

00:45:33 ◼   ► Yeah, that's also that is also why later in another pick, I use the verb announces because

00:45:40 ◼   ► I think Apple is now going to announce a bunch of things. Now, if they ship like 12 months

00:45:45 ◼   ► later, that's not my problem.

00:45:47 ◼   ► Because as Jason reminded me on Monday, there's still a bunch of stuff. Oh yeah. It's 18.

00:45:53 ◼   ► We're into 2025 now. And it's January and there we don't even have betas of the other

00:46:01 ◼   ► features.

00:46:02 ◼   ► I have an 18.3 developer beta 2 that came out yesterday. It has, to my knowledge, nothing

00:46:10 ◼   ► new in it.

00:46:12 ◼   ► So I have a theory about this. I think point point three will include a new feature. They're

00:46:18 ◼   ► just not making it available to people yet.

00:46:20 ◼   ► Why did they keep releasing beta versions of it?

00:46:22 ◼   ► Because they're also you do is and they're also doing bug fixes, right?

00:46:27 ◼   ► I have a fun bug right now. Where in my iMessage keyboard, you know, like the stickers area

00:46:34 ◼   ► where like stickers and UJ emoji go, it's just blank. Cool. It's just completely blank.

00:46:40 ◼   ► And I can't get it to not be blank.

00:46:41 ◼   ► So you should put a you should put a thing point three with those bug fixes on it.

00:46:47 ◼   ► This is on 18.3. Oh, cool. Yeah.

00:46:50 ◼   ► To be fair, I'm not on beta 2. So maybe that will fix it.

00:46:55 ◼   ► Check back in for 18.4. Yeah.

00:47:01 ◼   ► My round one pick is that Apple ships the Apple watch ultra three.

00:47:05 ◼   ► Nice. Yeah. I hope you're right because this is the watch I want to buy.

00:47:11 ◼   ► Yeah. I'm not buying the two. I'm not doing it. Not at this point.

00:47:16 ◼   ► How old is the ultra one? The one that I have a year and a half.

00:47:21 ◼   ► Did it come out in 2022 or 2023? The ultra one? Three.

00:47:26 ◼   ► 2023? Yeah.

00:47:28 ◼   ► Are you sure? Pretty sure.

00:47:32 ◼   ► OK. Apple watch ultra introduced Apple newsroom.

00:47:37 ◼   ► Oh, no. 2022.

00:47:40 ◼   ► I knew it. Yeah. Because they did. They did the weird ultra two in 2023.

00:47:47 ◼   ► Which I have. Yes. And last year they did the ultra two in black.

00:47:52 ◼   ► That's right. Gosh, time flies when you wear a forgotten product.

00:47:58 ◼   ► Also when you live through a pandemic. Yes.

00:48:02 ◼   ► I would like to give Federico some being right points.

00:48:06 ◼   ► About what? So something that I said I wouldn't do, but I did do.

00:48:09 ◼   ► I have on my bedside, I have my whole like charging thing.

00:48:13 ◼   ► I've upgraded all of the charging things to be fast charging now. I have a fast charging Apple watch cable and I have a fast charging MagSafe.

00:48:21 ◼   ► Remember when you used to be afraid of electricity?

00:48:24 ◼   ► I still think that wireless charging is not good technology. That's how I feel.

00:48:29 ◼   ► I think it is not good technology. But nevertheless, we have it now.

00:48:33 ◼   ► Yes. Nice. Nice. Good job. Good job.

00:48:35 ◼   ► It's good. So that's round one.

00:48:39 ◼   ► I think we have a nice collection of iPhone, Siri and Apple Watch picks.

00:48:44 ◼   ► Let's see what we pick in round two.

00:48:47 ◼   ► And I am going to go first with another Apple product.

00:48:51 ◼   ► My pick is a new AirTag is introduced with better tracking capabilities.

00:48:58 ◼   ► The original AirTag, isn't it? I think it's like four years old at this point.

00:49:05 ◼   ► We have a bunch. We like them.

00:49:07 ◼   ► There's rumors that a future model may be using the next generation ultra wideband chip that Apple has created in the meantime.

00:49:16 ◼   ► And I wouldn't mind, you know, an even better AirTag that maybe has better tracking and better power consumption.

00:49:22 ◼   ► This is just my speculation. It's not the pick.

00:49:25 ◼   ► But yeah, I think it's about time. It's been I am pretty sure it's it's been four years since the version one of the AirTags.

00:49:34 ◼   ► And I think it's due for an update and it seems like it's something that's going to happen at some point in 2025.

00:49:39 ◼   ► So a new AirTag is introduced with better tracking capabilities.

00:49:44 ◼   ► Yep. I like that. AirTag is great.

00:49:47 ◼   ► Yeah, it's good. We all love the AirTag.

00:49:50 ◼   ► My second round pick. Apple introduces its thinnest iPhone ever.

00:49:56 ◼   ► OK. OK. I'm leaving the door very open for this pick.

00:50:00 ◼   ► Yeah, I double down on it later.

00:50:02 ◼   ► Which iPhone could it be? Like for me, like maybe it's just the iPhone 17 and it's just like 0.1 millimeters thinner than you know.

00:50:12 ◼   ► But I think I think this is this is going to do something with the iPhone this year and maybe it turns out to be the thinnest one.

00:50:19 ◼   ► OK. OK.

00:50:22 ◼   ► I return to the M1 MacBook Air with this pick and I say that it is not for sale at the end of 2025.

00:50:28 ◼   ► Oh, come on. What has Walmart done to you?

00:50:31 ◼   ► Why? That's pretty bold, actually.

00:50:33 ◼   ► Well, I'm a man of action.

00:50:35 ◼   ► OK. Always have been.

00:50:37 ◼   ► We'll see if Apple is too. I'm not sure about this one, you know, because I don't imagine the M2 falling into that price.

00:50:47 ◼   ► We will see.

00:50:47 ◼   ► We don't mean to change your mind, Steven. Unless you know something that we don't, because you sound oddly confident about this.

00:50:55 ◼   ► Do you work for Walmart now?

00:50:56 ◼   ► I'm a man of confidence.

00:50:58 ◼   ► Sure. You're a man of many things, it seems.

00:51:01 ◼   ► Now, this may seem like the end of round two, and it technically is, except for the first time ever on the Ricky's, we have a bonus round.

00:51:13 ◼   ► Bonus round.

00:51:14 ◼   ► That was wow.

00:51:16 ◼   ► So loud. I got very close to the microphone.

00:51:18 ◼   ► And sorry, Jim, I just exploded.

00:51:21 ◼   ► Mike has a subwoofer built into his throat today.

00:51:27 ◼   ► It will never sound that good again.

00:51:30 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:51:31 ◼   ► Mike, what's your bonus pick?

00:51:33 ◼   ► The Mac studio is updated of a new chip.

00:51:36 ◼   ► OK.

00:51:38 ◼   ► That was a flexing.

00:51:40 ◼   ► It's not really anything.

00:51:41 ◼   ► It's like, what kind of chip?

00:51:44 ◼   ► Whatever one you like, you know, it could be anything.

00:51:47 ◼   ► You could put a modem in there.

00:51:48 ◼   ► OK.

00:51:50 ◼   ► Anything.

00:51:51 ◼   ► There's just a new chip and I'll have to find it.

00:51:53 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:51:54 ◼   ► I'll have to find it.

00:51:55 ◼   ► You'll have to find it.

00:51:55 ◼   ► I've been working on my six colors report card answers and was just working on my Mac answers.

00:52:03 ◼   ► Like it is weird.

00:52:04 ◼   ► The studio and the pro are stranded on the M2 right now.

00:52:08 ◼   ► I mean, clearly the M3, like we now know, was kind of a dead end process and Apple wanted

00:52:13 ◼   ► to move off of it really quickly, but it's a bummer.

00:52:16 ◼   ► Can I ask you what I think is, in my mind, a very simple question, but what knowing you

00:52:22 ◼   ► it probably isn't, can you just give me like right now with all these different models,

00:52:29 ◼   ► can you just give me the best Mac to buy for a nerd and the best Mac to buy for a regular

00:52:35 ◼   ► person?

00:52:36 ◼   ► A regular person is an M2 MacBook Air.

00:52:40 ◼   ► OK.

00:52:41 ◼   ► And somebody like me.

00:52:43 ◼   ► And for a nerd, I think an M4 or M4 Pro MacBook Pro.

00:52:51 ◼   ► OK.

00:52:51 ◼   ► What about the Mac Mini?

00:52:52 ◼   ► Yeah, see, that's that's what I was expecting.

00:52:54 ◼   ► I just assumed notebook, you know, if you want a desktop, yeah, Mac Mini for sure.

00:52:58 ◼   ► OK.

00:52:59 ◼   ► But all right.

00:52:59 ◼   ► Not not because I'm in the market.

00:53:02 ◼   ► I just wanted to I just wanted to hear you.

00:53:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:53:04 ◼   ► You can't cut a Mac Mini in half.

00:53:05 ◼   ► You know, well, right.

00:53:07 ◼   ► I shouldn't say that.

00:53:08 ◼   ► It's an easy way to get to the power button.

00:53:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:53:11 ◼   ► Wow.

00:53:11 ◼   ► Right through it.

00:53:14 ◼   ► Can I just say something super weird about, so I got the Mac Mini, I have the M4 Mac Mini

00:53:19 ◼   ► now and there was something that I was doing during the the setup process.

00:53:26 ◼   ► I don't remember what it was now where I had to double press the power button.

00:53:31 ◼   ► It's touch ID on the keyboard.

00:53:33 ◼   ► You have to like confirm it to you.

00:53:34 ◼   ► What?

00:53:35 ◼   ► It told me to do it.

00:53:36 ◼   ► I was like, there's no way.

00:53:37 ◼   ► I had it on the Mac Studio.

00:53:39 ◼   ► It was it's weird.

00:53:40 ◼   ► It's a truly wild thing to do.

00:53:44 ◼   ► But yeah, I had to do that.

00:53:45 ◼   ► Give us like a two or three seconds run down of your Mac Mini ownership so far.

00:53:50 ◼   ► It's a great computer and it's incredibly simple.

00:53:53 ◼   ► Like I did the transfer was very quick and it was actually very painless.

00:53:59 ◼   ► Like I did the migration as I always do.

00:54:02 ◼   ► And I don't really feel like I'm running into problems, although as is normal with a migration.

00:54:06 ◼   ► At some point there will be a problem and I just don't know what it is yet.

00:54:11 ◼   ► The best thing is that it now sits next to my CalDigit dock on my little shelf thing I have.

00:54:17 ◼   ► That's cool.

00:54:17 ◼   ► The computer is unfathomably small.

00:54:19 ◼   ► I was gonna say the dock's probably bigger, right?

00:54:21 ◼   ► Or very similar.

00:54:22 ◼   ► The dock is wider.

00:54:24 ◼   ► The Mac Mini is taller.

00:54:26 ◼   ► Okay.

00:54:26 ◼   ► But yeah, it's incredible.

00:54:29 ◼   ► I can't believe that I am using a machine that is more powerful than the one that I had.

00:54:35 ◼   ► And it's this small.

00:54:35 ◼   ► It's really cool.

00:54:37 ◼   ► This computer is gonna last for a very, very, very long time for me.

00:54:41 ◼   ► Yeah, it's really cool.

00:54:43 ◼   ► I wish I had space for one.

00:54:46 ◼   ► Like, I mean, they're really small.

00:54:48 ◼   ► I mean, I have the space.

00:54:49 ◼   ► I wish I had.

00:54:50 ◼   ► I wish I needed one, you know?

00:54:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:54:52 ◼   ► That's the official end of round two and the bonus round for Mike.

00:54:59 ◼   ► It is now time for the risky picks.

00:55:02 ◼   ► And once again, I am going to go first.

00:55:05 ◼   ► And I thought about this for a few days and I decided, despite everything,

00:55:12 ◼   ► I am going all in on AI for my risky pick.

00:55:16 ◼   ► So here it goes.

00:55:17 ◼   ► Apple announces a new standalone "Siri app" based on a new large language model that will...

00:55:26 ◼   ► Here come the details.

00:55:29 ◼   ► Oh boy.

00:55:29 ◼   ► Number one.

00:55:30 ◼   ► Be multilingual and support multiple languages.

00:55:34 ◼   ► Multiple languages at the same time.

00:55:36 ◼   ► Number two.

00:55:37 ◼   ► Support multiple modalities.

00:55:40 ◼   ► For example, text input, voice input, and image attachments in the same conversation.

00:55:45 ◼   ► Number three.

00:55:46 ◼   ► Display content from third-party apps in line based on a new developer framework.

00:55:53 ◼   ► So let me explain my idea.

00:55:57 ◼   ► Yes, you can make your joke.

00:55:58 ◼   ► Is it deep and open?

00:55:59 ◼   ► Yeah, go ahead.

00:56:01 ◼   ► Say the thing.

00:56:02 ◼   ► Okay.

00:56:03 ◼   ► So my idea is that...

00:56:04 ◼   ► Yes, Steven, thank you.

00:56:08 ◼   ► I wrote this last month.

00:56:12 ◼   ► The idea that they need to have a more persistent large language model experience with Siri

00:56:21 ◼   ► that is comparable to Chai GPT or Gemini or Claude, right?

00:56:25 ◼   ► Instead of just like these ephemeral interactions that you have with Siri.

00:56:30 ◼   ► So assuming that Apple is going to in fact have a new large language model with Siri,

00:56:34 ◼   ► which is also Mike's regular pick, I would expect that they are going to have a standalone Siri app.

00:56:41 ◼   ► I believe Gherman sort of hinted at this, but I just wanted to add more details.

00:56:48 ◼   ► So multilingual support.

00:56:50 ◼   ► This is one of the biggest Siri limitations by far.

00:56:54 ◼   ► Everything else is pretty much multilingual now.

00:56:58 ◼   ► Gemini, Chai GPT, Claude, like most of these large language models,

00:57:04 ◼   ► because it's what they do, they ingest multiple languages,

00:57:08 ◼   ► they can switch back and forth between multiple languages in the same request,

00:57:13 ◼   ► in the same conversation.

00:57:15 ◼   ► I would expect Siri with a large language model to be able to do the same.

00:57:18 ◼   ► Modalities.

00:57:20 ◼   ► I just wanted to slightly rephrase my pick, because as I was reading, I thought of something.

00:57:26 ◼   ► So I said support multiple modalities, for example, text input, voice input,

00:57:30 ◼   ► and I said and image attachments in the same conversation.

00:57:34 ◼   ► I want to say or.

00:57:36 ◼   ► Yeah, it's totally fine.

00:57:36 ◼   ► Image attachments in the same conversation.

00:57:39 ◼   ► So this is also what Chai GPT and others can do.

00:57:42 ◼   ► You can type, you can talk, or you can attach stuff.

00:57:46 ◼   ► And finally, display content from third-party apps in line based on a new developer framework.

00:57:52 ◼   ► Now, this is I think the riskiest in my opinion.

00:57:56 ◼   ► I think if you pay attention to this space,

00:58:01 ◼   ► again, I wrote about this in my article last month for 18.2.

00:58:06 ◼   ► The biggest advantage that Apple has compared to these other companies is the fact that they own

00:58:12 ◼   ► the ecosystem of the phone that you use, the tablet or the Mac that you use, and the apps that run on

00:58:18 ◼   ► it.

00:58:19 ◼   ► If you're taking a look at these integrations that Chai GPT has, they're very limited.

00:58:26 ◼   ► They're pretty much discontinued at this point, because I haven't seen OpenAI release any new

00:58:31 ◼   ► features for the custom GPTs in several months.

00:58:36 ◼   ► Gemini has only a couple so far.

00:58:40 ◼   ► Apple has this huge advantage, potential advantage of the App Store and the integration between

00:58:47 ◼   ► all the different components.

00:58:49 ◼   ► Of the operating system with third-party apps, you look at widgets, shortcuts, Siri, Control

00:58:55 ◼   ► Center, the lock screen, all these things.

00:58:57 ◼   ► Apple can integrate with third-party apps.

00:58:59 ◼   ► Now, in the 18 cycle, we are going to see those preannounced app intents that in theory

00:59:10 ◼   ► will let you perform multiple actions with Siri and Apple intelligence.

00:59:15 ◼   ► I think the next step would be to visually integrate those things in a standalone Siri

00:59:23 ◼   ► app UI so that maybe you will be able to chat with Siri and, I don't know, pull up your

00:59:31 ◼   ► to-do list tasks, for example, or, you know, have a preview of the emails in your Spark

00:59:38 ◼   ► inbox or whatever.

00:59:40 ◼   ► I feel like if Apple is going to do a standalone Siri UI, which, I mean, this entire pick is

00:59:46 ◼   ► predicated upon that assumption.

00:59:48 ◼   ► So if that doesn't occur, well, I'm screwed.

00:59:51 ◼   ► But if it does happen, I think judging what Apple has done over the past year especially,

00:59:59 ◼   ► they are going to have a third-party developer story.

01:00:03 ◼   ► And I think they will show it off.

01:00:05 ◼   ► They will happily show it off at WWDC.

01:00:07 ◼   ► So that's the pick.

01:00:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:00:12 ◼   ► One thing that I really want from this is the ability to set an alternative icon for

01:00:19 ◼   ► this app and use the different Siri artwork over the years.

01:00:22 ◼   ► Like the brushed metal one with like the purple microphone in the middle.

01:00:26 ◼   ► The little mic, the original, like when it was a third-party app.

01:00:29 ◼   ► Yeah, that'd be sick.

01:00:30 ◼   ► I do.

01:00:32 ◼   ► I love this.

01:00:35 ◼   ► It's bold.

01:00:36 ◼   ► It's like Federico written all over it.

01:00:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:00:38 ◼   ► I do have a concern about the scoring here.

01:00:41 ◼   ► Could we go back to the scoring for a second?

01:00:43 ◼   ► I'd love to.

01:00:45 ◼   ► Because, and just thinking about this more right now, what we said earlier, and if you

01:00:51 ◼   ► don't like real talk, just like skip forward a minute and a half and overcast.

01:00:54 ◼   ► Picks are only awarded based on details, not the overall pick.

01:00:59 ◼   ► So just to clarify what that means.

01:01:02 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:01:04 ◼   ► If Apple doesn't ship this app, you obviously don't get any points.

01:01:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:01:10 ◼   ► And you would actually lose a point because all the details would be wrong because it

01:01:14 ◼   ► didn't happen.

01:01:14 ◼   ► Right?

01:01:17 ◼   ► Like, yeah.

01:01:18 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:01:18 ◼   ► Okay.

01:01:19 ◼   ► Okay.

01:01:19 ◼   ► I just want to clarify.

01:01:20 ◼   ► No, it's a good, it's a good question.

01:01:22 ◼   ► Cause like it's, uh, I think, I think that the original pick is risky on its own, let

01:01:29 ◼   ► alone add in the conditions to it.

01:01:31 ◼   ► Okay.

01:01:32 ◼   ► Okay.

01:01:33 ◼   ► I just wanted to like.

01:01:34 ◼   ► I'm I'm I'm saying that's, I think I, I applaud your passion Federico.

01:01:39 ◼   ► I do too.

01:01:39 ◼   ► I mean, you've got to do it.

01:01:41 ◼   ► And what I like about this is that I think most people think about AI as an app they

01:01:49 ◼   ► talk to, right?

01:01:50 ◼   ► You open the chat GBT app, you open the Gemini app, you open Claude on the web, whatever

01:01:54 ◼   ► it is.

01:01:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:01:56 ◼   ► And Apple intelligence isn't that way.

01:01:59 ◼   ► And like, yes, you can type to Siri, but it's ephemeral, right?

01:02:02 ◼   ► It's like, you got to hit it in the menu bar or like, God forbid you double tap the

01:02:06 ◼   ► home indicator on the iPad, which I have turned off by the way.

01:02:09 ◼   ► Cause I hit it all the time.

01:02:10 ◼   ► And I think Siri should remain in all of those places.

01:02:14 ◼   ► I think it should continue to be sort of just in the air around you.

01:02:18 ◼   ► But I think there also should be a place where you go and deal with Siri directly.

01:02:24 ◼   ► And I would love for there to be a section in an app like this that shows me like my

01:02:29 ◼   ► history, like the Alexa app does this really well.

01:02:31 ◼   ► It's like, Oh, you asked to turn these lights on two hours ago.

01:02:34 ◼   ► Like it should keep a record of what's happened.

01:02:37 ◼   ► Chat GBT, all these others do this.

01:02:38 ◼   ► And I think that's what people expect from an air quotes, AI app.

01:02:43 ◼   ► And so even the type to Siri interface doesn't do a good job of showing me the things I just

01:02:48 ◼   ► asked it.

01:02:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:02:50 ◼   ► All of that stuff should be better.

01:02:52 ◼   ► I see that some people in this court are saying that I like this is like I'm adding way too

01:02:59 ◼   ► many conditions or this is too risky.

01:03:02 ◼   ► I think this is so obvious in my mind.

01:03:05 ◼   ► Like if you spend like any amount of time just using for a while, Chat GBT, Gemini,

01:03:11 ◼   ► Claude, whatever, Llama.

01:03:14 ◼   ► Like it's so obvious that people gravitate toward a standalone AI app on their phones

01:03:20 ◼   ► with an icon they can tap.

01:03:22 ◼   ► Like you have no idea how many friends in real life I have seen, including today, just

01:03:28 ◼   ► using Chat GBT for free without an account.

01:03:31 ◼   ► I can tell because it's got a different background when they're not logged in on their home

01:03:36 ◼   ► screens.

01:03:37 ◼   ► Like just because they have a thing they can tap and they go there and they type and they

01:03:42 ◼   ► have a conversation and a back and forth.

01:03:44 ◼   ► This is what hundreds of millions of people expect today from this sort of interaction,

01:03:51 ◼   ► not invoking Siri and not typing to Siri.

01:03:55 ◼   ► Those things should exist, but then all of those should also be saved in the Siri app.

01:04:00 ◼   ► Right?

01:04:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:02 ◼   ► And image playgrounds goes in the Siri app.

01:04:04 ◼   ► Like it all could just for a sense can just go in the Siri app.

01:04:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:07 ◼   ► Like that's where you go and that's where you deal with all of your questions to the

01:04:12 ◼   ► assistant.

01:04:13 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:13 ◼   ► I agree with it that it should exist.

01:04:15 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:04:15 ◼   ► I have warmed up on this greatly through our conversation.

01:04:21 ◼   ► My risky pick, Apple introduces a new smart home product that features a screen.

01:04:27 ◼   ► Three details are as follows.

01:04:29 ◼   ► It will be in the HomePod line of products.

01:04:32 ◼   ► It will feature eye or hand tracking as a way to control the interface without needing

01:04:38 ◼   ► to touch the screen.

01:04:39 ◼   ► And it will feature support for third-party apps to run on the device.

01:04:45 ◼   ► Now, I wanted to add a bunch of context to this one to say what I am saying and what

01:04:50 ◼   ► I'm not saying.

01:04:51 ◼   ► With the third-party apps part, right?

01:04:53 ◼   ► So this is my context.

01:04:55 ◼   ► The apps may not necessarily come from a dedicated app store.

01:04:58 ◼   ► They may be more like CarPlay or some form of mirroring.

01:05:03 ◼   ► Widgets or live activities will not count.

01:05:05 ◼   ► There has to be UI that you interact with.

01:05:07 ◼   ► Okay.

01:05:09 ◼   ► That is my pick.

01:05:12 ◼   ► I think this will bode well for you.

01:05:13 ◼   ► Yeah, but I feel like it's not a gimme, right?

01:05:18 ◼   ► No.

01:05:18 ◼   ► No.

01:05:21 ◼   ► I don't think anything Apple in the home is a gimme.

01:05:24 ◼   ► You know, there's so many obvious things that could do.

01:05:26 ◼   ► Yeah, because they might even call this a HomePod.

01:05:28 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:05:29 ◼   ► I like it though.

01:05:31 ◼   ► And I want this.

01:05:32 ◼   ► This is something I want in my house.

01:05:34 ◼   ► Yeah, I can't imagine a scenario where it's only Apple apps on this thing.

01:05:37 ◼   ► But I can imagine a scenario where they don't have its own app store.

01:05:40 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:05:41 ◼   ► And so like, then how do you get to the middle of it?

01:05:43 ◼   ► And I thought to myself, well, CarPlay is like this, right?

01:05:46 ◼   ► Where CarPlay has apps that you interact with, but they're not on the car.

01:05:50 ◼   ► Like they're not in your car.

01:05:52 ◼   ► It's beaming from something else.

01:05:54 ◼   ► And I think that that might be an interesting way to do this,

01:05:58 ◼   ► or to build on their mirroring that they've been doing.

01:06:01 ◼   ► But like there is UI on the device that you're interacting with.

01:06:05 ◼   ► It's not like Chromecast or it's, you know,

01:06:08 ◼   ► it's not just like bringing in live activities from your phone or your watch.

01:06:12 ◼   ► You have to actually do stuff on this HomePod thing.

01:06:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:06:19 ◼   ► Can we go back for a second to the second condition?

01:06:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:06:22 ◼   ► It will feature eye/hand tracking.

01:06:25 ◼   ► Is that and or?

01:06:28 ◼   ► Or.

01:06:28 ◼   ► Or.

01:06:30 ◼   ► Can you say or?

01:06:30 ◼   ► Can you spell it out?

01:06:31 ◼   ► Yes.

01:06:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:06:32 ◼   ► Eye or hand tracking as a way to control the interface.

01:06:35 ◼   ► Okay.

01:06:36 ◼   ► Okay.

01:06:36 ◼   ► I have one more question.

01:06:38 ◼   ► Not for the gray, just like I've been thinking a lot about this as a potential product.

01:06:43 ◼   ► The HomePod has multi-user support.

01:06:47 ◼   ► It's weird to set up, but if you have it, then it's like, I can tell my HomePod,

01:06:52 ◼   ► "Hey, send a text to Mike," and it knows it's me, so it sends it from me.

01:06:56 ◼   ► And if my wife says it, sends it from her.

01:06:58 ◼   ► I've had pretty mixed luck with that.

01:07:01 ◼   ► I ended up turning it off.

01:07:02 ◼   ► So we don't have any personal requests on our HomePods anymore,

01:07:06 ◼   ► because it was just kind of buggy.

01:07:08 ◼   ► But that's something that has to work with this, right?

01:07:10 ◼   ► Like if this isn't a home, is it something that,

01:07:15 ◼   ► I guess the question is, do they need that for something in the home?

01:07:18 ◼   ► Like maybe they do, or maybe if it's all just HomeKit stuff.

01:07:21 ◼   ► No, I think they need it.

01:07:23 ◼   ► Because like you will ask questions to this device, right?

01:07:26 ◼   ► In theory, it's the same as a HomePod.

01:07:28 ◼   ► Like that you would say to this thing, text Federico,

01:07:32 ◼   ► and it should know it's you and send it from your iCloud account.

01:07:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:07:36 ◼   ► Like that's what it should do.

01:07:37 ◼   ► Like whether it will do that or not, I don't know.

01:07:41 ◼   ► But like in theory, Apple say they already can do that.

01:07:45 ◼   ► So I think it's a similar thing.

01:07:46 ◼   ► And I think it's similar that you would ask it,

01:07:48 ◼   ► hey, da da da da, and the app that it would bring up

01:07:52 ◼   ► would be with your information in,

01:07:54 ◼   ► because it's bringing it up for you.

01:07:55 ◼   ► Okay.

01:07:57 ◼   ► That makes sense.

01:07:58 ◼   ► Whether that works, I don't know.

01:08:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:08:02 ◼   ► Or it might be that like to start with,

01:08:06 ◼   ► like it is a one user experience,

01:08:09 ◼   ► but that would be a shame, wouldn't it?

01:08:11 ◼   ► Mm hmm.

01:08:12 ◼   ► All right.

01:08:16 ◼   ► My pick.

01:08:17 ◼   ► Okay.

01:08:18 ◼   ► Apple replaces the plus iPhone with an all new model.

01:08:23 ◼   ► Okay.

01:08:24 ◼   ► Three details.

01:08:26 ◼   ► Really, I've done like four.

01:08:30 ◼   ► That's okay.

01:08:30 ◼   ► Yeah, you have done four, but it's fine.

01:08:31 ◼   ► It's the thinnest iPhone ever, but is made of titanium to remain strong.

01:08:37 ◼   ► Okay.

01:08:40 ◼   ► It has no camera control and or action button.

01:08:44 ◼   ► Okay.

01:08:46 ◼   ► It does not offer an always on display.

01:08:49 ◼   ► True mad lab behavior.

01:08:51 ◼   ► Just absolute top to bottom mad lab behavior.

01:08:54 ◼   ► Wild pick.

01:08:55 ◼   ► I don't know why you've decided to do this to yourself.

01:08:57 ◼   ► Feature wise, I think this is kind of in between the regular phone and the pro phone.

01:09:02 ◼   ► And if it replaces the plus, that I think kind of makes sense.

01:09:05 ◼   ► But I think about the thinness, like battery life is going to be an issue on this device.

01:09:11 ◼   ► Getting the always on display, like not doing that.

01:09:14 ◼   ► Potentially could save some battery life and just thinking about the thinness again,

01:09:19 ◼   ► like can the camera control, like look at the side of your phone.

01:09:22 ◼   ► The camera control is pretty thick.

01:09:24 ◼   ► Like it's, it's a good bit of the sort of Z axis of your phone.

01:09:28 ◼   ► Maybe the app and where the action button's gone.

01:09:32 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:09:33 ◼   ► This phone will have compromises and it's just a matter of picking the right ones.

01:09:38 ◼   ► But I will tell you now I'm extremely interested in this phone.

01:09:42 ◼   ► Like I'm more excited about the possibility of this phone than I've been about a phone.

01:09:47 ◼   ► Maybe since the 10, like I think this is super interesting and a different playbook than

01:09:53 ◼   ► what we've seen before of like, I just do a small one, just do a big one.

01:09:56 ◼   ► Like this phone would be distinctly different if this comes true than, than all of its siblings

01:10:02 ◼   ► and like count me in, like, let's get weird.

01:10:04 ◼   ► You know, we've all said it's time to get weird.

01:10:05 ◼   ► Let's let's get weird.

01:10:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:10:08 ◼   ► I mean, there's just positive that are interesting to me.

01:10:09 ◼   ► Like I know what you're saying about the buttons, but it would be weird.

01:10:12 ◼   ► Like the capture button, camera control.

01:10:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:10:18 ◼   ► So close.

01:10:19 ◼   ► The camera control button, in theory, that is an important button, right?

01:10:22 ◼   ► If visual intelligence is to be believed as a thing that people would use.

01:10:27 ◼   ► So that would be gone.

01:10:28 ◼   ► I mean, the action button, like was it as no action button or mute switch on this device?

01:10:33 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:10:34 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:10:34 ◼   ► And also like, like, I don't know.

01:10:36 ◼   ► Like the rumors are suggested aluminium for this phone.

01:10:40 ◼   ► So we will see.

01:10:43 ◼   ► I respect you.

01:10:45 ◼   ► We'll see.

01:10:45 ◼   ► I respect you.

01:10:46 ◼   ► I can get it all wrong, but I can tell you, like, depending on the camera situation on

01:10:51 ◼   ► this phone, this could be my next phone.

01:10:53 ◼   ► Like I just, I'm curious to try something different after.

01:10:56 ◼   ► What does camera situation mean to you?

01:10:58 ◼   ► You know, like, does it have just one camera?

01:11:00 ◼   ► Does it have two?

01:11:01 ◼   ► What's the zoom like?

01:11:02 ◼   ► Are there obvious quality issues with it?

01:11:04 ◼   ► We'll see.

01:11:06 ◼   ► Well, cause I think that is going to be the big compromise.

01:11:08 ◼   ► Probably.

01:11:09 ◼   ► No, but I couldn't narrow that down in a way that y'all liked.

01:11:13 ◼   ► So I went with these.

01:11:15 ◼   ► So we'll see.

01:11:15 ◼   ► Well, I think that does it for the regular game.

01:11:23 ◼   ► It is now time for the flexes.

01:11:26 ◼   ► I have more rules to read.

01:11:29 ◼   ► Yes.

01:11:30 ◼   ► And please notice you lie down in the middle.

01:11:33 ◼   ► It's in, it's in the, you do the preamble, then they lie down.

01:11:36 ◼   ► Then you do the rules.

01:11:37 ◼   ► Yes.

01:11:38 ◼   ► But I see that.

01:11:38 ◼   ► No, no, don't worry about the possible changes.

01:11:42 ◼   ► We're not doing that today.

01:11:43 ◼   ► Okay.

01:11:44 ◼   ► Jason had weird ideas about things.

01:11:46 ◼   ► All right.

01:11:48 ◼   ► So the flexes is a game held after each edition of the Ricky's.

01:11:53 ◼   ► It consists of a series of additional picks in relation to the upcoming Apple event or

01:11:58 ◼   ► year.

01:11:58 ◼   ► Scoring is completed separately from the main game, but like the Ricky's, the order of picks

01:12:04 ◼   ► is set by the results of the previous game.

01:12:07 ◼   ► A ties and ties will be broken by using dice by peacock.

01:12:11 ◼   ► Please lie down as the rules are read.

01:12:13 ◼   ► I got comfy.

01:12:21 ◼   ► Yes, we got some more rules.

01:12:23 ◼   ► Hosts must make a minimum of five flexy picks.

01:12:26 ◼   ► Each correct pick is awarded one point.

01:12:29 ◼   ► Wrong picks do not remove any points and no partial points may be awarded.

01:12:34 ◼   ► The winner is determined by comparing the percentage of correct flexes made by each

01:12:38 ◼   ► host.

01:12:39 ◼   ► The winner can use their chosen title as long as they are the winner.

01:12:44 ◼   ► Federico shall be named Prince Flexy and is known as King Flexy when having won both the

01:12:50 ◼   ► keynote and annual games. Mike has chosen Duke of Flexington and uses the name Archduke

01:12:58 ◼   ► Flexington when applicable.

01:13:00 ◼   ► Steven is the Attorney General of Flexy and uses the title Secretary of the Flex when

01:13:06 ◼   ► necessary.

01:13:07 ◼   ► Loser of the flexes must compensate the winner of the flexes by donating to a charity of

01:13:12 ◼   ► the winner's choice.

01:13:13 ◼   ► The amount of the donation is $25 USD.

01:13:17 ◼   ► A pair of wrong flexes made by the loser.

01:13:20 ◼   ► The money must be donated on air.

01:13:22 ◼   ► Federico is the current winner of keynote flexes and Mike is the winner of the annual

01:13:28 ◼   ► flexes.

01:13:29 ◼   ► If someone holds all four titles, they are allowed to choose their own nickname.

01:13:35 ◼   ► You may be seated.

01:13:37 ◼   ► All right, I'm up first.

01:13:42 ◼   ► Yes.

01:13:44 ◼   ► HomePod Touch is the name of the smart device.

01:13:47 ◼   ► Okay, because you touch it.

01:13:50 ◼   ► Somebody recommended someone wrote into Upgrading suggested this and I really like it.

01:13:54 ◼   ► I can't remember who it was and I've now stolen their suggestion.

01:13:57 ◼   ► This is in there on it.

01:13:58 ◼   ► Number two, the Mac Pro does not get updated.

01:14:02 ◼   ► Okay, yeah.

01:14:05 ◼   ► Number three, no new vision hardware.

01:14:09 ◼   ► No announcement, no like what do you mean no?

01:14:13 ◼   ► No new vision hardware announced.

01:14:17 ◼   ► Okay.

01:14:18 ◼   ► Number four, AirPods Pro get hardware changes to support new health features.

01:14:24 ◼   ► Okay, number five, another person on the Apple leadership page retires in 2025.

01:14:32 ◼   ► Okay.

01:14:32 ◼   ► Six, there will be only three Apple events in 2025.

01:14:38 ◼   ► Whoa.

01:14:39 ◼   ► Wait, WWC September?

01:14:43 ◼   ► And then one other.

01:14:44 ◼   ► One other.

01:14:46 ◼   ► Yeah, that's what it is in 24.

01:14:48 ◼   ► Hold on, when you say events.

01:14:50 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

01:14:50 ◼   ► They have to be classed on the page.

01:14:52 ◼   ► So you go to Apple's events page and they have to be there.

01:14:56 ◼   ► Okay, okay.

01:14:58 ◼   ► Who's it gonna be that's gonna leave Apple in 2025 and why is it Phil Schiller?

01:15:04 ◼   ► I mean, I don't know.

01:15:05 ◼   ► The EU took him.

01:15:07 ◼   ► You know what I'm gonna say because the retirement thing changes.

01:15:12 ◼   ► I'm gonna say because like Luca has not actually retired yet.

01:15:16 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:15:18 ◼   ► I'm gonna say another person on the Apple leadership page changes their role.

01:15:25 ◼   ► A person has taken off the page?

01:15:27 ◼   ► No, because Luca's still there.

01:15:29 ◼   ► They've changed titles.

01:15:30 ◼   ► Yeah, so I'm just gonna say it changes their role, changes their title in 2025.

01:15:34 ◼   ► And I have screenshots in the notion of the pages that exist today.

01:15:38 ◼   ► So we have reference.

01:15:39 ◼   ► Thank you, thank you.

01:15:41 ◼   ► You're welcome.

01:15:41 ◼   ► But that's more what I'm saying is like things are changing.

01:15:44 ◼   ► Like there's clearly a thing under Tim's time that when someone wants to retire,

01:15:49 ◼   ► they can't leave immediately.

01:15:51 ◼   ► Like that is clearly a thing that happens because that's been the case basically of everyone.

01:15:55 ◼   ► And so like Luca's still there even though he's not CFO anymore.

01:15:59 ◼   ► He is vice president of corporate services which means I'm expecting he goes to some meetings

01:16:04 ◼   ► sometimes but like that's it.

01:16:06 ◼   ► Do you think he got a worse office because of that?

01:16:10 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

01:16:11 ◼   ► I don't think they kick anyone out of the office.

01:16:13 ◼   ► I think they just have to find a new one for the new person.

01:16:17 ◼   ► Yeah, his name is right here and I want to read it because I think that's fair to them.

01:16:20 ◼   ► Although Notion's not helping me.

01:16:22 ◼   ► Hold on.

01:16:22 ◼   ► Kavan Parak.

01:16:27 ◼   ► I had to like go real close to my monitor to read this.

01:16:29 ◼   ► Senior vice president and chief financial officer.

01:16:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:16:35 ◼   ► Okay.

01:16:35 ◼   ► My flexes, I have five.

01:16:41 ◼   ► A second generation vision pro is rumored to feature an M4.

01:16:45 ◼   ► Wait, what?

01:16:49 ◼   ► What is this pic?

01:16:50 ◼   ► That's a wild flex.

01:16:52 ◼   ► I mean you can choose whatever you want but I don't think we've ever had rumors.

01:16:56 ◼   ► What should I clarify but doesn't launch?

01:17:01 ◼   ► Is this pic saying that like at some point somebody will create a blog post saying.

01:17:07 ◼   ► Like hasn't that already happened?

01:17:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:17:11 ◼   ► I mean you can go on Reddit and find somebody saying oh I think.

01:17:21 ◼   ► Macrumors, Apple vision pro, M4.

01:17:24 ◼   ► I don't see any.

01:17:33 ◼   ► I mean you can keep it because I don't think that it will happen.

01:17:35 ◼   ► I think if there's any rumor the rumor isn't that it has an M4 in it.

01:17:39 ◼   ► Anyway, so I mean look you have to be able to prove this you know.

01:17:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:17:42 ◼   ► No, no keep it.

01:17:44 ◼   ► Yeah okay.

01:17:44 ◼   ► Let's see what happens.

01:17:45 ◼   ► But doesn't launch in 2025.

01:17:47 ◼   ► Okay.

01:17:48 ◼   ► So it's building on top of mics.

01:17:50 ◼   ► The Mac Pro is updated to use an M4 system on a chip but is otherwise unchanged from the M2 model.

01:17:58 ◼   ► How did you feel about my pic that it wasn't going to get updated?

01:18:01 ◼   ► Sad.

01:18:02 ◼   ► But also maybe it deserves it.

01:18:05 ◼   ► It's hard to tell.

01:18:06 ◼   ► I think they shuffle it away.

01:18:08 ◼   ► Like I just think it doesn't make any sense to me to exist.

01:18:11 ◼   ► Maybe.

01:18:11 ◼   ► Number three, Mac OS 16 includes a controversial change.

01:18:16 ◼   ► I'm loving this energy that you're bringing.

01:18:19 ◼   ► These are just weird.

01:18:20 ◼   ► What is?

01:18:21 ◼   ► I mean the entire AI thing is a controversial thing.

01:18:24 ◼   ► But like this year it was the screen recording deal.

01:18:30 ◼   ► Oh.

01:18:31 ◼   ► This is a little bit of know it when you see it but.

01:18:34 ◼   ► Well what is it going to be?

01:18:35 ◼   ► What is it going to be next year?

01:18:36 ◼   ► Is it going to be a Trump wallpaper?

01:18:39 ◼   ► Yeah maybe.

01:18:40 ◼   ► Make Finder great again.

01:18:43 ◼   ► Paid a million dollars and all I got was this wallpaper.

01:18:47 ◼   ► Number four.

01:18:47 ◼   ► That was a different Tim Cook it turns out.

01:18:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:18:51 ◼   ► Boy am I glad I missed that new cycle.

01:18:54 ◼   ► Number four, iOS 19 brings agreements with new LLM partners beyond open AI.

01:19:02 ◼   ► So Google or Clawed or somebody be built in.

01:19:05 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:19:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:19:06 ◼   ► And then number five which I just added because one of the other ones is taken by Mike and

01:19:11 ◼   ► he got to go first.

01:19:12 ◼   ► Apple services see a price increase.

01:19:15 ◼   ► I'll say in the US that's the easiest one to track.

01:19:20 ◼   ► Apple services see a price increase in the US.

01:19:24 ◼   ► More like Apple one or something?

01:19:27 ◼   ► Yeah or like Apple music was this but now it's this.

01:19:30 ◼   ► I mean.

01:19:30 ◼   ► Interesting.

01:19:31 ◼   ► There could be this could show up in different ways.

01:19:33 ◼   ► But.

01:19:33 ◼   ► This is interesting.

01:19:34 ◼   ► They've not done that right?

01:19:36 ◼   ► They know there was an increase.

01:19:38 ◼   ► It was yes.

01:19:41 ◼   ► Apple TV plus I think went up.

01:19:43 ◼   ► Yes.

01:19:44 ◼   ► Yes.

01:19:44 ◼   ► I mean it's it'll happen at some point so.

01:19:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:19:48 ◼   ► T.G. bring us home.

01:19:51 ◼   ► All right I have five flexes.

01:19:55 ◼   ► I didn't overdo it.

01:19:56 ◼   ► Did you have like 16 one year?

01:19:59 ◼   ► Yeah kind of maybe 11.

01:20:01 ◼   ► Number one.

01:20:05 ◼   ► The new iPhone SE is called iPhone 16E.

01:20:08 ◼   ► Oh.

01:20:10 ◼   ► I saw this.

01:20:11 ◼   ► Did Samsung have an iPhone?

01:20:12 ◼   ► I saw this rumor.

01:20:15 ◼   ► It instantly made sense in my opinion.

01:20:17 ◼   ► And I like it.

01:20:19 ◼   ► I don't think they would put that number on it.

01:20:21 ◼   ► Well.

01:20:23 ◼   ► Because they're not going to update it every year right?

01:20:26 ◼   ► And so then we've got to like iPhone 19 and still iPhone 16E.

01:20:32 ◼   ► But like at the same time though like.

01:20:35 ◼   ► The fact that it's an iPhone like when you see on the web page oh it's still an iPhone 16.

01:20:41 ◼   ► So I know it's relatively modern.

01:20:44 ◼   ► You know.

01:20:44 ◼   ► I don't know.

01:20:46 ◼   ► We'll see.

01:20:46 ◼   ► Number two.

01:20:48 ◼   ► The HomePod mini is updated.

01:20:50 ◼   ► I think we're going to see something.

01:20:53 ◼   ► No.

01:20:53 ◼   ► Does just a color change count?

01:20:56 ◼   ► The HomePod mini is updated.

01:20:59 ◼   ► That would be an update.

01:21:00 ◼   ► That would be an update.

01:21:00 ◼   ► That would be an update.

01:21:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:02 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:02 ◼   ► Flower power.

01:21:04 ◼   ► Let's go.

01:21:04 ◼   ► So I went from lightning to USB-C and I go to flexi.

01:21:09 ◼   ► So we're good.

01:21:10 ◼   ► Number three.

01:21:11 ◼   ► This is interesting.

01:21:13 ◼   ► Apple does something with pixelmator beyond keeping it on the app store.

01:21:19 ◼   ► Something.

01:21:20 ◼   ► Something.

01:21:21 ◼   ► You know.

01:21:22 ◼   ► You will know it when we see it.

01:21:24 ◼   ► They do something with it beyond.

01:21:26 ◼   ► Hey.

01:21:27 ◼   ► If they take it off the app store.

01:21:29 ◼   ► That is also beyond keeping it.

01:21:35 ◼   ► So they do something.

01:21:37 ◼   ► They do something with it.

01:21:38 ◼   ► I love it.

01:21:39 ◼   ► Draw the line updating the privacy policy though.

01:21:41 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:42 ◼   ► It's got to be more than that.

01:21:43 ◼   ► Sure.

01:21:44 ◼   ► Sure.

01:21:44 ◼   ► Sure.

01:21:45 ◼   ► Please add the context.

01:21:48 ◼   ► So no, I will actually rephrase it.

01:21:50 ◼   ► Apple does something with pixelmator beyond keeping it on the app store or.

01:21:54 ◼   ► Or updating the privacy policy.

01:21:56 ◼   ► Updating its privacy.

01:21:59 ◼   ► Policy.

01:22:00 ◼   ► Sure.

01:22:01 ◼   ► Thank you.

01:22:01 ◼   ► Number four.

01:22:03 ◼   ► Apple showcases building shortcuts with natural language.

01:22:07 ◼   ► The old pig is back as a flexi.

01:22:09 ◼   ► I still think they're gonna do it.

01:22:11 ◼   ► I still think they're gonna show it off.

01:22:13 ◼   ► They're gonna show off a bunch of things that will launch in 2026.

01:22:17 ◼   ► So why not?

01:22:19 ◼   ► They're behind and they gotta catch up.

01:22:22 ◼   ► So lastly, number five.

01:22:24 ◼   ► Apple Music gets natural language playlist creation.

01:22:28 ◼   ► I think this is something that obviously Spotify is playing around with.

01:22:32 ◼   ► It's something that we have seen a bunch of third-party companies build on top of

01:22:38 ◼   ► chat GPT and the Spotify API.

01:22:40 ◼   ► I think Apple will just love to show off the grand return of the old sentence feature from

01:22:46 ◼   ► Beats Music, but done with Apple Intelligence.

01:22:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:22:50 ◼   ► Just make me a playlist when I'm driving around Las Vegas with OTJ and I want to listen to emo music.

01:22:57 ◼   ► Why not?

01:22:58 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:22:58 ◼   ► I will say the natural language stuff in Apple Photos to create a memory, I think is the

01:23:05 ◼   ► best part of Apple Intelligence and that would be sick in Apple Music.

01:23:10 ◼   ► It'd be so good.

01:23:11 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:23:12 ◼   ► So that's five flexes.

01:23:14 ◼   ► I didn't overdo it.

01:23:16 ◼   ► And that concludes our annual predictions for the year of 2025.

01:23:23 ◼   ► Wow.

01:23:23 ◼   ► How do you guys feel?

01:23:25 ◼   ► It's been a quarter of a century since the year 2000s.

01:23:30 ◼   ► You know?

01:23:30 ◼   ► I hate that.

01:23:31 ◼   ► Just asking me like in general how I feel about that.

01:23:34 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:23:35 ◼   ► Can you give me an adjective that sums up a quarter of a century for you?

01:23:41 ◼   ► Old.

01:23:42 ◼   ► Tired.

01:23:43 ◼   ► Okay.

01:23:44 ◼   ► What would you say?

01:23:46 ◼   ► Well, I would say international would be mine.

01:23:55 ◼   ► Well, because, because like I have gone international.

01:23:59 ◼   ► I have a lot of international friends.

01:24:01 ◼   ► You've gone worldwide.

01:24:02 ◼   ► Well, always on.

01:24:04 ◼   ► Always on.

01:24:05 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:24:06 ◼   ► You know, 25 years is a long time.

01:24:08 ◼   ► We all thought we were going to die with the Y2K.

01:24:12 ◼   ► We didn't.

01:24:12 ◼   ► I didn't.

01:24:13 ◼   ► Well, I was convinced.

01:24:15 ◼   ► In any case, this is the end of the show.

01:24:19 ◼   ► And do you want me, Steven, to do the end of the show?

01:24:23 ◼   ► Please.

01:24:25 ◼   ► Please.

01:24:25 ◼   ► Well, you have listened to episode 534 of connected on relay.

01:24:33 ◼   ► It was January 8, 2025.

01:24:36 ◼   ► Just going to do the show backwards.

01:24:39 ◼   ► This is the way that I do it.

01:24:40 ◼   ► Okay.

01:24:41 ◼   ► This episode, we talked about our annual predictions and you will hear the results in 12 months.

01:24:51 ◼   ► We will be back in about a week's time with another episode of connected.

01:24:55 ◼   ► This episode was hosted, as always, by me, Federico Vittucci.

01:25:00 ◼   ► You can find me on Macstories.net.

01:25:03 ◼   ► By Mike Hurley.

01:25:04 ◼   ► You can find him on many other shows on relay.

01:25:06 ◼   ► And also you can check out his work at Cortex brand.

01:25:08 ◼   ► And by Steven Hackett.

01:25:10 ◼   ► He runs Five Dog Pixels, excellent website.

01:25:14 ◼   ► And also he's the co-host of MacPower users here on relay.

01:25:18 ◼   ► We need to thank our three sponsors, our two sponsors for this episode.

01:25:22 ◼   ► Ecamm and Zoptoc.

01:25:25 ◼   ► And lastly, I will say, if you so happen to have more free time in your day,

01:25:32 ◼   ► after having listened to this episode and having read our websites and having shopped at Cortex

01:25:39 ◼   ► brand, that you feel like you also want to somehow find us on social media.

01:25:44 ◼   ► You will find us in all the places.

01:25:47 ◼   ► If you if you are so inclined, we will be there, I guess.

01:25:52 ◼   ► This is the episode.

01:25:55 ◼   ► Thank you for listening.

01:25:57 ◼   ► And guys, you should say goodbye.

01:25:59 ◼   ► You stop.

01:26:03 ◼   ► Well, no, I go last.

01:26:06 ◼   ► Okay.

01:26:08 ◼   ► Cheerio.

01:26:09 ◼   ► Bye y'all.

01:26:11 ◼   ► Arrivederci.