00:00:00 ◼ ► from relay this is upgrade episode 597 for january 5th 2026 happy new year from us this episode is
00:00:18 ◼ ► brought to you by century fit bod square space in fact my name is mike hurley i'm joined by jason
00:00:24 ◼ ► snell happy new year jason happy new year mike hurley good to be back back on the swing of things i think
00:00:30 ◼ ► everybody you could you could justify a bleak all last week and the week before weird weeks because
00:00:34 ◼ ► there were holidays in them but it's over now this is just a week just we're back in an old way we're
00:00:39 ◼ ► back in today today's episode is like what if we just do all of the stuff that happens and that's
00:00:45 ◼ ► where we are but i have a snow talk question for you that comes from jim and jim wants to know jason
00:00:50 ◼ ► how do you fill the list of books that you want to read and how do you decide what you want to read
00:00:55 ◼ ► next oh man that's a good question um listener jim um so one way we do it people who listen to the
00:01:05 ◼ ► incomparable know this we have a book club where we read all of the nominated like shortlisted books
00:01:11 ◼ ► on the hugo and nebula award list so that's fantasy and science fiction best novels of the year
00:01:17 ◼ ► and so um when those come out that's my reading done for a while and i actually i read all the
00:01:23 ◼ ► shorter fiction too the novellas and and the short stories uh and so that that will generate a long
00:01:29 ◼ ► list uh with lots of podcast homework and we end up doing like a bunch of episodes each of which
00:01:35 ◼ ► contains three books or two or three books like it's a lot it's the highest homework to podcast ratio of
00:01:41 ◼ ► the year too because you have to read three books in order to do one podcast but that's what we do
00:01:44 ◼ ► i've been doing that for years it means that i'm very well read in the genre and i know like
00:01:49 ◼ ► all of the ones that people are talking about and that's great when that's not happening i i sort of
00:01:55 ◼ ► part of me feels adrift because i don't have somebody assign a mean person assigning me things i'm the mean
00:02:00 ◼ ► person and i also uh they'll have a queue of things that people have recommended or that you know things
00:02:07 ◼ ► i've heard about end of year lists are really great um and what i the other thing i do in addition to
00:02:13 ◼ ► like the series and authors and stuff that i follow where i'm just going to read their new thing whenever
00:02:17 ◼ ► it comes out and i often pre-order those things is when i hear about a book that people like what i do
00:02:23 ◼ ► is i use libby and i add it to my library queue and so a lot of those books you know they get on the
00:02:30 ◼ ► best science fiction books or even the best books of the year lists and i add them it's very funny
00:02:38 ◼ ► the new york times does their best books of the year list and there's a book on there that i'm interested
00:02:41 ◼ ► in and i add it and it says oh well this is available at the san francisco public library and
00:02:46 ◼ ► implied is because it's been on a new york times bestseller list or best books of the year list
00:02:51 ◼ ► you are 98th in line or 145th in line but you know what i like it i actually kind of like the vibe
00:03:00 ◼ ► of i get a recommendation from somewhere a best of list uh you know people a friend says they liked it
00:03:06 ◼ ► or whatever i put it in the library hold queue and then that's like a popcorn machine like they're all
00:03:14 ◼ ► bouncing around in there and then one will just fly out and be like hey this book is ready i'll be like
00:03:19 ◼ ► great and i do that a lot how long do you have to read it when it gives you the record like says oh
00:03:24 ◼ ► your time libby it's generally 21 days okay okay so there's plenty of time and you can and if you and
00:03:30 ◼ ► if it offers to you and you're not ready you can just uh you can say defer and it goes to the next
00:03:35 ◼ ► person and you stay at the top of the line so you can manage it pretty well do a little bit of juggling
00:03:40 ◼ ► um and keep those going so it's good um and so i do that a lot and that that helps manage my queue
00:03:47 ◼ ► i also have like eight books on my kobo right now so i finished i just finished a book the other night
00:03:53 ◼ ► um it's great i've read two books i finished two books this year already and they're both bangers
00:03:59 ◼ ► they're both five stars on goodreads for me so i love it i love it non-stop bangers this year mike
00:04:05 ◼ ► well stop bangers so uh but then i had that moment of like what am i going to read next and it's very
00:04:11 ◼ ► interesting because in this e-reader era i'm basically looking at what's on my e-reader being
00:04:16 ◼ ► like what's next what's next what do i have what do i want to go and i've got like whatever five eight of
00:04:21 ◼ ► these books sitting there it's like what what strikes my fancy and then you know i pick one and then i go
00:04:26 ◼ ► so that some of it is that too like man a mood for something sometimes i mean i'm in a particular mood
00:04:31 ◼ ► for a particular genre um there's a long-running mystery series that i really like that i've recommended
00:04:37 ◼ ► a bunch and i'm on book 12 or something of that and like i've got it sitting there i always make
00:04:42 ◼ ► sure that the next one is sitting there and sort of like if i'm in a moment where i'm like you know
00:04:46 ◼ ► what i think it's time to go back and i'm not going to try to blast through that series but i'll be like
00:04:49 ◼ ► oh i'm in the mood to go back and do that so that it's it's really kind of like this whole big
00:04:55 ◼ ► compilation of them but you got to do all that because in the end i read 93 books or whatever last
00:05:00 ◼ ► year so they come from all over but the library is a help because it creates a little stack
00:05:04 ◼ ► that is randomly going to offer me a book and it's that leads to very funny experiences where
00:05:10 ◼ ► i will say to myself why did i what book is this and why did i put it in and sometimes it's like i
00:05:16 ◼ ► don't know i mean obviously i put it in there so there was a reason for it and uh that happens and
00:05:21 ◼ ► it's kind of delightful sometimes too i put a link in the show notes to your good reads list if people
00:05:26 ◼ ► want to see what you're see what you're reading and what you think is good if you'd like to send in
00:05:31 ◼ ► a question to help us open a future episode of upgrade please go to upgradefeedback.com and send
00:05:36 ◼ ► in your own snow talk question we have some follow-up from the last couple of episodes the first piece
00:05:42 ◼ ► comes from craig who says mike in regards to your comments in episode 595 about what the finder icon
00:05:48 ◼ ► represents i have always understood it to be you smiling at your computer and your computer smiling back
00:05:55 ◼ ► at you the light blue slash white face is you smiling at your computer while the the dark blue
00:06:02 ◼ ► half face together make the screen of your computer so you know your computer's there is the dark part
00:06:07 ◼ ► and you're there is the light part which is in your computer is smiling back at you the mac is friendly
00:06:12 ◼ ► and easy to use and as a result you are left with a smile on your face whenever you use it simple as
00:06:16 ◼ ► that my response craig is that is ridiculous in the year 2025 honestly i think what are we doing uh this
00:06:24 ◼ ► is not like a simple thing this doesn't make any sense computers don't look like that nobody looks at
00:06:31 ◼ ► their computer from a side angle it's ridiculous i don't care honestly about the reason uh it shouldn't
00:06:38 ◼ ► look like that it should just be a blue folder and it should just look the finder's icon i stand by
00:06:42 ◼ ► wow you you you've you've drained all joy out of it i do actually think it's funny they um so this
00:06:50 ◼ ► icon came about in i want to say mac os 8 uh or 7 era where it was john saracuse is yelling at me right
00:06:59 ◼ ► now uh as he listens to this um they need to create a logo to represent mac os because mac os uh licensing
00:07:08 ◼ ► happened and they needed something other than the mac intosh they needed something to do mac os because
00:07:13 ◼ ► there were going to be computers that were not from apple that ran mac os they created and and it has
00:07:18 ◼ ► remained like it got repurposed it was kind of beloved and recognizable and it's cute and so it has
00:07:24 ◼ ► remained and it turned into a uh representation ultimately of the finder icon at part of the mac intosh
00:07:31 ◼ ► i'm i'm i'm i like it set from a sentimental point of view but what i would say is it's kind of a riff
00:07:41 ◼ ► on the happy mac the susan care happy mac just as the face id icon and you know when you do a face id
00:07:49 ◼ ► unlock the face id animation is a riff on the susan care happy mac icon as well it makes sense to me in the face id
00:07:57 ◼ ► by the way because it's like you just scanned my face so show me my face there are no faces in the
00:08:03 ◼ ► finder given the state of the tahoe icon design as we went through in our tier list i'm reluctant to
00:08:10 ◼ ► say this but i will say i think somebody could probably come up with a representative representative
00:08:15 ◼ ► icon that was whimsical that could be used and references apple history and mac history that is
00:08:22 ◼ ► more than just the files icon um but it it doesn't have to be this icon that's been with us since the
00:08:30 ◼ ► 90s i'm not sure it it does uh but yeah people would scream bloody murder if they just replace the finder
00:08:36 ◼ ► icon with the files icon and rename the finder icon to files i mean look at how some people reacted when
00:08:43 ◼ ► they changed the finder colors you know what i'm saying jason yeah i know some people who will remain
00:08:48 ◼ ► nameless some people really took that one to heart so i i wanted to i would have mentioned so we were
00:08:54 ◼ ► talking about this in in discord yeah and if you're a a relay member you can be uh in our discord and i
00:09:01 ◼ ► realized that the uh so there's the hug emoji which i generally don't like terrible emoji i i looked up
00:09:10 ◼ ► apple's one today like while we were prepping for the show i i really think people should just look at
00:09:15 ◼ ► the apple emoji for hug because it the hug that they have it looks threatening it looks like the
00:09:21 ◼ ► person who is giving that that hug it's like in a in like some kind of telenovela kind of thing where
00:09:27 ◼ ► like they're having a look over the shoulder you know and it's like ha ha ha i've got him that's how
00:09:32 ◼ ► it looks we've got we got to get our friend jeremy uh in involved uh former retired emoji uh historian
00:09:40 ◼ ► i i so first off i hate the hug emoji because it's not like any other emojis in that it's uh mostly
00:09:48 ◼ ► monochrome silhouette of two heads and kind of like a body torso area and like there's and the apple one
00:09:56 ◼ ► there's like they're slightly embossed so that there's way too many arms i know it's the correct
00:10:02 ◼ ► amount of arms but there's too many arms i wanted to be and i'm sure emojipedia details why it's this
00:10:07 ◼ ► way but like i hate it i hate it because emoji are a it's a cartoon show yeah about a series of emoji
00:10:16 ◼ ► people yeah and these aren't them this is like is this is like the bathroom symbol this is like if
00:10:24 ◼ ► there's a room at the airport where you can get a hug it's got this symbol on it right and it's like
00:10:29 ◼ ► i just no no no no no no no i think it's a mistake i think it should be emoji people giving
00:10:36 ◼ ► a hug in a cartoonish way not whatever this orthopedic hug diagram is trying to get across
00:10:43 ◼ ► it's a disaster but but i mentioned this because unlike apple which created these two embossed figures
00:10:50 ◼ ► and and i could tell just from the way they did it that whoever was put in charge of this one is like
00:10:54 ◼ ► whoa this is a stinker what am i gonna do to make this scan at all because it's so bad discord did
00:11:02 ◼ ► it differently because discord uses a different emoji set and the discord emoji is a darker blue
00:11:08 ◼ ► person hugging a lighter blue person and while it is again very hard to scan from a distance which
00:11:14 ◼ ► makes it i think a failure it is better than apple's icon which i don't generally say about the discord
00:11:19 ◼ ► emojis because it is more cartoonish and because there is some contrast between them however as i
00:11:25 ◼ ► stared at it because somebody emoji reacted in discord the more i realized that with the dark blue person
00:11:31 ◼ ► hugging the light blue person it's literally just the reversed angle of the finder icon it's hugger
00:11:36 ◼ ► right it's like well yeah the finder icon is just the other side like the camera just turns around and
00:11:42 ◼ ► these these two faces are embracing so anyway what i'm saying is uh the finder icon doesn't make sense
00:11:48 ◼ ► but it is kind of cute uh i'm glad that they didn't just rip all the fun out of the finder which is the
00:11:54 ◼ ► most fun app on the mac by the way and uh because who doesn't like clicking on icons and looking in
00:12:00 ◼ ► folders uh and the discord uh and and the hug emoji is bad uh i'm not a crackpot thank you for listening to
00:12:07 ◼ ► my ted talk uh thank you for your attention how about that david wants to know jason where can we
00:12:13 ◼ ► get the recipe for your cinnamon rolls the famous cinnamon the answer is the show notes of this
00:12:18 ◼ ► episode of upgrade or you can just search for alton brown overnight cinnamon rolls because it is from
00:12:25 ◼ ► the tv show good eats alton brown still has it on his website the food network still has it on their
00:12:37 ◼ ► uh and also you had some follow-up to your e-reader the xte ink what is it do gently do not go into
00:12:47 ◼ ► the good night or whatever it's the xt ink so uh this came up last time that i was disappointed with
00:12:54 ◼ ► this e-reader because everybody was like oh you should look at it and it's cheap and uh it doesn't
00:12:58 ◼ ► have a backlight which i don't love and the software was really bad and one of the things i actually
00:13:02 ◼ ► specifically didn't mention but then of course everybody asked me about it is um one of the
00:13:09 ◼ ► things that i've discovered is that there are community what they call community firmware where
00:13:15 ◼ ► basically so it's like an esp32 this is a this is much less sophisticated device uh with very little
00:13:22 ◼ ► capability and very little ram than even like any android based or whatever based e-reader it's super
00:13:28 ◼ ► like that's why it's cheap that's why it's small so somebody out there built a an alternate firmware
00:13:37 ◼ ► for it and i think i didn't mention it because my product review brain says if it ships bad it's bad
00:13:46 ◼ ► and if it's so bad that the community has to fix it that open source you know randos on github
00:13:53 ◼ ► are going to make a better version of the software that the product's a failure and i can't here's the
00:14:00 ◼ ► thing and i can't recommend it to people because i don't feel like i can recommend a product where i
00:14:04 ◼ ► have to say well the product is it ships is terrible but if you download some hacked together firmware from
00:14:11 ◼ ► a github page it's not as bad and it also doesn't change the fact that's got too many buttons and they're
00:14:16 ◼ ► very confusing and all that that all said uh dan morin um sent me a link to this firmware called
00:14:24 ◼ ► crosspoint reader for this this e-reader it's a github page the thing and link to from the github page
00:14:29 ◼ ► this is the part that blows me away is you can do serial access from a web browser so you can literally
00:14:35 ◼ ► go to a page and and plug your xt ink reader into your mac and and open the page in like chrome
00:14:41 ◼ ► and click a button and it just installs this firmware this this third party wow open source
00:14:48 ◼ ► firmware it up a little a little thing comes up and says oh serial port access to this e-reader that's
00:14:55 ◼ ► connected to your mac do you want to grant it and you go yes and it goes great and it updates the
00:14:58 ◼ ► firmware and it reboots and and that's it and now it's running uh firmware that is i have to admit
00:15:04 ◼ ► much better because there are so many buttons on this thing it actually puts the interface actually
00:15:09 ◼ ► puts like little labels down at the bottom of the screen telling you which button does what which
00:15:14 ◼ ► is really necessary because it's two different rocker buttons so it's really four buttons down
00:15:19 ◼ ► at the bottom that look like two buttons plus buttons on the side it's crazy anyway i wanted to mention
00:15:24 ◼ ► if you've got this xt ink reader or if you are um as dad pointed out to me somebody who's just having
00:15:30 ◼ ► fun with a gadget um check out the crosspoint reader we'll put a link in the show notes because
00:15:35 ◼ ► it's vastly better than whatever garbage the the xt ink uh software is and um it's more readable and
00:15:44 ◼ ► more usable uh it's still not great lots of issues with it but um it's it's more functional as a gadget
00:15:51 ◼ ► um but i like the idea of of small e-readers small cheap e-readers and i want there to be more of them
00:15:56 ◼ ► and also it's just a trend as i mentioned last time where uh there are these chinese manufacturers that
00:16:02 ◼ ► are like um we can assemble from parts interesting products like e-readers and the challenge is always
00:16:08 ◼ ► that they're not very good at software this happens a lot in uh like handheld gaming consoles and stuff
00:16:15 ◼ ► yeah basically the impression i get from uh the npc podcast they're always talking about like
00:16:19 ◼ ► third party hard uh third party os's the handheld the retro handheld that i bought the first thing i did
00:16:27 ◼ ► is flash onion os i think it's called which is yes a third party thing and then it works great and i
00:16:32 ◼ ► bought that thing knowing i was going to flash it with onion os i just again as somebody who talks
00:16:36 ◼ ► about this on a podcast and writes about it on a website i'm reluctant to recommend anything that
00:16:41 ◼ ► is so bad that you have to replace its software with someone else's software um but in this case it
00:16:47 ◼ ► was actually first off amazing that you could do it with one click from your web browser that's
00:16:51 ◼ ► incredible yeah that's pretty great right that like that that's real nice it was a good it was
00:16:55 ◼ ► a good update and i like the idea again i like the idea of companies especially in china who have access
00:17:00 ◼ ► to all these parts and are like this is interesting we can reach a smaller audience but we could do it
00:17:05 ◼ ► with pieces that are just like the chaff of smartphone world right like it's just like the extras
00:17:13 ◼ ► and they're like but we could put them together in a different way and it would be interesting and
00:17:17 ◼ ► this is what uh books has done like they've got the palma which is like a phone but it's
00:17:21 ◼ ► an e-reader like i love that and what i've seen with books is the first thing they sent to me was
00:17:27 ◼ ► the hardware was perfectly fine and the software was just a nightmare it was a weird weird modified
00:17:33 ◼ ► version of android and like they're still doing a modified version of android but it's like night and
00:17:37 ◼ ► day between what it was like and what it's like now it's closer to just android now with some stuff
00:17:42 ◼ ► right it's closer to android with some stuff and you got to do some modifications to apps
00:17:46 ◼ ► uh in order to get them to behave well on e-ink but like you you don't want them to scroll you want
00:17:51 ◼ ► them to page but over time they've gotten better at it and that's why although i think the st xc
00:17:56 ◼ ► reader was kind of like overhyped because it looks so cute and it's so cheap the magsafe too is a big
00:18:01 ◼ ► thing and the magsafe which doesn't fit on any modern iphone i'm sorry uh it's too big so but that but
00:18:08 ◼ ► i like the idea of this stuff it's just we're not and i love the idea that that there is somebody out
00:18:14 ◼ ► there who is making better firmware for it that's awesome would it fit if your phone had a case or is
00:18:19 ◼ ► it just it overlaps i think the challenge is that if the if the um the iconic plateau on the back is
00:18:26 ◼ ► too big and too low down then the xt ink won't be able to get fully on your phone because it's too tall
00:18:33 ◼ ► but it's a nice idea this episode is brought to you by our friends over at century i am a lover of
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00:20:31 ◼ ► up clunk clunk clunk there's been a lot of movement uh over the holiday break in the world of alternate
00:20:39 ◼ ► app marketplaces in that there what a world so apple has announced place on earth that they will be
00:20:46 ◼ ► complying with the mobile safety competition act the msca is another acronym for us to learn which is
00:20:53 ◼ ► japan's offering uh this is the japan kind of bill uh and apple is going to have a suite of changes to
00:21:00 ◼ ► how the app store works um base a lot of this you've heard before some of it is actually new so
00:21:05 ◼ ► they're gonna offer alternative app marketplaces like alt store in fact alt store have already
00:21:10 ◼ ► announced that they're in japan they're now available in japan alt store are ready for this
00:21:14 ◼ ► i mean they were talking about this a couple of uh weeks ago that you know they expect a bunch of
00:21:19 ◼ ► countries to have this available this year and they're going to be ready in all of them
00:21:23 ◼ ► but in japan there will be no web side loading that is not a part of this bill so you won't be able
00:21:29 ◼ ► to just download an app from the web like in theory you can in the eu there will be new payment
00:21:34 ◼ ► options so alternative payment processes in app for digital goods but it must be offered alongside
00:21:40 ◼ ► apple's in-app purchase method and there will also be links to pay outside of the app available to
00:21:45 ◼ ► developers there are some commission changes if you want to do anything outside of apple systems so
00:21:51 ◼ ► it's a 10 percent base commission for the various programs that exist small business mini apps that
00:21:58 ◼ ► kind of thing and first year of subscriptions are at 10 percent it's 21 for digital goods and services
00:22:05 ◼ ► otherwise then it's 15 percent is paid if for purchases made when linking out so they're the kind
00:22:12 ◼ ► of the three things so if you're doing stuff inside of the new new terms and you want to offer
00:22:17 ◼ ► different things it's 10 if that's your base if that's what you do 21 for digital goods and services
00:22:24 ◼ ► otherwise and then 15 if it's for anything where you're linking somebody outside of the store and
00:22:29 ◼ ► that's going to be that whole thing where you have to keep your own books and report them to apple and
00:22:32 ◼ ► they may audit you at any time plus the core technology commission of five percent on all sales
00:22:42 ◼ ► there are also some ios changes requested as part of this alternate browser engines is one that we've
00:22:50 ◼ ► seen before the ability to swap the side button for voice assistants so you could use a different voice
00:22:57 ◼ ► assistant instead of siri and also interoperability requests where you can say to apple you know we
00:23:03 ◼ ► make a smart watch and we would like to have access to this or that you can make those there'll be a
00:23:07 ◼ ► formalized process for it also in the msca is a bunch of rules about how this applies to children
00:23:13 ◼ ► so apps in the kids category cannot offer links to pay outside of the app store for purchases
00:23:21 ◼ ► any app that has in-app payments from a third party must add a way for parents to approve purchases
00:23:29 ◼ ► so if somebody is i believe it's under 18 uh they see if it's 16 or 18 they have to have the you know
00:23:36 ◼ ► with apple system they're in a family group right and it's like i want to buy this and then the parent
00:23:40 ◼ ► get a notification and they say yes so even if you're using a third party this has to be implemented
00:23:46 ◼ ► apple is apparently working on tools to make this work for third party payment providers
00:23:58 ◼ ► for instance similar regulatory changes in europe have enabled types of apps that were previously
00:24:05 ◼ ► unavailable on ios including including pornography apps this quote comes from uh transmitter at nine
00:24:10 ◼ ► to five mac i do find this point kind of strange because what do you think the eu would have a problem
00:24:17 ◼ ► if apple said like we can have these kids things i think one of the things they are talking about is the
00:24:27 ◼ ► do some because because there was that one pornography app that was in an alternative app store
00:24:37 ◼ ► based on their interpretation of the rules they can't do this in the eu because this is a control they're not allowed
00:24:48 ◼ ► you could you could totally do that my feeling is assumed we would not you feel like you can only do
00:24:54 ◼ ► things via your interpretation of the rules which i think has absolutely been apple's uh modus operandi
00:24:59 ◼ ► so far with the dma hence why they've had to completely overhaul their offering three two or three times
00:25:05 ◼ ► at this point but i just you know i've had it frustrating uh john gruber points out that in his
00:25:10 ◼ ► communication with apple they seem to better respect the decisions here in japan and feel that it more
00:25:15 ◼ ► closely aligns with some of the elements that they feel are important stuff like child protection
00:25:19 ◼ ► privacy and security and getting apple paid for their intellectual property um gruber notes that
00:25:26 ◼ ► there is no announcement of features being withheld for japanese users like they are in the eu with the
00:25:31 ◼ ► dma right and he's saying that like oh you know we're not withholding anything i do wonder i mean
00:25:36 ◼ ► i don't know if he's had specific conversations about this but well there aren't any new features yet
00:25:41 ◼ ► right like this happened after ios 26 what if we see what happens if ios 27 but this does feel much
00:25:49 ◼ ► more focused what japan is wanting to do is much more focused on the store with a couple of extra
00:25:55 ◼ ► things where the dma is more wide it i also think i mean i i i agree with john that it it seems like apple is
00:26:04 ◼ ► less less less adversarial with japan yeah but when you detailed what is going on here japan is asking
00:26:11 ◼ ► a lot less of apple yes i feel like if apple were to roll its own international open standard rule set
00:26:18 ◼ ► it would look like this yeah it would be alternative app marketplaces without side loading which i think
00:26:26 ◼ ► is consumer hostile and backward because what it's saying is apple so believes in the idea of monolithic
00:26:33 ◼ ► app stores that control everything and that have a stranglehold on what the users want to do that the
00:26:39 ◼ ► only way you can get software outside the app store is from a different monolithic app store that somebody
00:26:44 ◼ ► controls and that apple can then lean on remind me i i don't know if you remember this but you know
00:26:50 ◼ ► how these things are apps that are that are side loaded are they not notarized they are notarized
00:26:57 ◼ ► okay then i don't understand on the mac they're notarized and and i believe if it's that allowed
00:27:03 ◼ ► in the eu now that they are um that they they follow that same system but this is anyway i i'm gonna we're
00:27:09 ◼ ► talking about this in a later segment but i'm just gonna say again i actually find it kind of offensive
00:27:14 ◼ ► the idea that the solution to one monolithic controlled choke point app marketplace is more
00:27:21 ◼ ► of them more of them yeah yeah instead of letting people install software on their device from wherever
00:27:27 ◼ ► like you do on a computer i i hate it i i hate it i hate the idea that it's like oh great they're free
00:27:34 ◼ ► in the in the eu now except you've got to get riley tested to approve your app instead of apple it's like
00:27:40 ◼ ► okay riley's more likely to approve my app than apple but like why do i need riley's well and also
00:27:45 ◼ ► apple do still need to approve it anyway right like they still have to do that anyway like there is
00:27:50 ◼ ► still a let we've seen it i can say to say time and time again at this point that they are rejecting
00:27:56 ◼ ► there's still a process there's still a process there but but you know this is what i'm saying is
00:28:00 ◼ ► that i i hate that i hate that um you're just replacing in to use a phrase that steve jobs liked a lot
00:28:05 ◼ ► you're just replacing one orifice for another and the whole idea is freedom instead so i hate that
00:28:11 ◼ ► but like yeah you talk about the commission charges of course apple likes this because apple's recouping
00:28:15 ◼ ► almost all the money getting in the guys in the guise of freedom their tax just moves around and is the
00:28:21 ◼ ► same and in fact judge yvonne gonzalez rogers would not allow this right like this is this is this is not
00:28:28 ◼ ► what she would consider reasonable she considered these levels basically contempt so of course apple is more
00:28:34 ◼ ► happy with what japan is doing here because this feels like japan felt like there was a need to do
00:28:38 ◼ ► something to appear like they were being consumer friendly but ultimately probably with even
00:28:44 ◼ ► consultation with apple came to a set of rules that are not strict at all this is the don't throw me
00:28:52 ◼ ► in the briar patch version of apple being regulated which is like oh no we can oh no we have to allow
00:28:59 ◼ ► payments on the outside but we tax them at the same rate that we take i mean like it's just
00:29:03 ◼ ► this is real gentle folks real gentle i forgot the five percent payment processing fee for apple's in
00:29:10 ◼ ► app purchase as well which is also a higher number than they've quoted in other places again would be
00:29:16 ◼ ► considered contempt in the u.s but uh so no wonder apple is like who dodged a bullet there in japan
00:29:22 ◼ ► well it's happening in brazil now too so there are also going to be alternative app marketplaces and
00:29:28 ◼ ► payment options um in brazil the commissions will apparently be 25 for digital goods and services
00:29:35 ◼ ► if not in one of the 10 schemes then a five percent fee for payments so getting you back to 30 percent
00:29:40 ◼ ► uh or a 15 fee for payments outside of the app and a five percent core technology commission if you do
00:29:47 ◼ ► uh alternate that marketplace stuff so basically uh these numbers are what apple wanted with the dma
00:29:56 ◼ ► right like these are these were the ideal numbers got you all the way back up to 30 um and similar what
00:30:01 ◼ ► they wanted um with the epic stuff i don't know man i don't know i uh i it's great things are happening
00:30:11 ◼ ► in brazil i'll just say that there's a great movie that is the uh i think it's basically a documentary
00:30:15 ◼ ► about the uh app store process it's called brazil by terry gilliam so just check that out it's uh it'll
00:30:22 ◼ ► tell you all about the very normal way that apps are approved and rejected by apple that's a joke but
00:30:29 ◼ ► of course you'll watch it it's a good movie rumor round up time yeah over the past week jason i don't
00:30:36 ◼ ► if you've been seeing this but lots of people have been 3d printing a mock-up of what the iphone fold
00:30:40 ◼ ► could look like so this came from a 3d model designer sub z on make a world who created this model based on
00:30:47 ◼ ► rumors of screen sizes and overall specs of the device from some allegedly leaked cad drawings
00:30:53 ◼ ► the front screen of the iphone fold based on this would be 5.4 inches which is about the size of the iphone
00:31:00 ◼ ► mini so it's small the inside screen will be 7.6 inches which is smaller than the ipad mini but bigger
00:31:07 ◼ ► than any iphone and it'll have a 4.3 aspect ratio so a lot of people have been talking about and i was
00:31:13 ◼ ► struggling to get my head around this wider than it is tall this is a phrase that was being used a lot
00:31:19 ◼ ► to describe the iphone fold and i was really kind of in my brains like i don't i don't think i understand
00:31:24 ◼ ► what that means and then seeing these images i'll put some links in the show notes mac rumors had an
00:31:29 ◼ ► article and they'll submit a video about it um it makes it look like a strange phone when it's closed
00:31:35 ◼ ► like a weird little passport phone uh but much more of a tablet when it's opened like a little mini
00:31:41 ◼ ► notebook yes yeah like a squat little mini little mini notebook yeah yeah not not not a computer like
00:31:47 ◼ ► a paper notebook sorry a small paper notebook small paper notebook um basically this is essentially
00:31:57 ◼ ► appearing to prioritize the open part yeah rather than the closed part so it's not going to be a big
00:32:04 ◼ ► phone like the pixel fold or the galaxy fold that you can unfold to an even bigger phone it is more
00:32:09 ◼ ► like a little phone that you can unfold to a big phone or mini tablet it is 4x3 which is
00:32:16 ◼ ► that is helpful in hoping that potentially it's ipad os or something closer to ipad os on the inside
00:32:23 ◼ ► because the ipad uh historically was a 4x3 device yeah so it's sort of in that ballpark
00:32:29 ◼ ► so but i still don't know i don't know where i land on what the operating system is going to be
00:32:36 ◼ ► um i think i want it to be ipad os but i feel like it might not be but then what is it like
00:32:43 ◼ ► i think they'll call it ios and it'll have some of the multitasking features of ipad os but they'll
00:32:48 ◼ ► call it ios because ios is just ipad os anyway that's a great point if you think about it it's
00:32:54 ◼ ► really ipad os is just ios with certain features enabled on certain kinds of hardware and that's
00:32:59 ◼ ► just i imagine it will be like that some features will be enabled on this hardware and maybe there'll
00:33:05 ◼ ► be some special things or maybe it will be very similar to ipad os but i think this is interesting
00:33:10 ◼ ► because i look at this and i kind of dig it because it's this i think the shape is kind of interesting
00:33:17 ◼ ► it does not it is not shaped like an iphone right when it's closed and so so many i know this from
00:33:25 ◼ ► using the iphone mini there are so many apps that just make assumptions about the size and shape of your
00:33:33 ◼ ► iphone and that even for the mini you would run into apps that just don't understand that your
00:33:39 ◼ ► screen is that small this happened back in the day when i was using the 11 inch um 11 inch uh macbook air
00:33:46 ◼ ► that there would be mac apps it'd be like surely your your screen is not that small and it's like
00:33:53 ◼ ► it is this is a computer apple sells so i wonder about like apps being appropriately sized for that
00:34:02 ◼ ► closed screen that's so short um but as somebody who had an iphone mini i don't i don't mind that
00:34:08 ◼ ► idea um i also this this honestly this demo makes me a little more skeptical about how successful this
00:34:17 ◼ ► product will be yeah it's gonna look weird isn't it yeah i mean it's gonna look different but i i think
00:34:24 ◼ ► i get the idea here which is apple saying if this is all true apple is saying well the reason you buy
00:34:32 ◼ ► this phone is because you can open it up and it's an ipad and therefore what's important and again
00:34:39 ◼ ► intellectually i can see this what's important is not what it is when it's closed because if you just
00:34:45 ◼ ► want to worry about it closed and prioritize that buy a different iphone what's important about this
00:34:50 ◼ ► is that it's usable when it's closed and when it's open it's got a huge screen yeah that's like an ipad
00:34:56 ◼ ► um i do wonder though given the track record of phone sales which always is favoring you know these bigger
00:35:04 ◼ ► taller phones if people are just not going to be interested in something this squat even if it opens
00:35:11 ◼ ► up into a big ipad mini kind of shape yes i'm intrigued by it but i'm a little more nervous about
00:35:18 ◼ ► it in that regard of like is this going to end up being what people want and like are we going to end
00:35:28 ◼ ► up with an iphone air again right where it's like this is so impressive but nobody's buying it maybe
00:35:33 ◼ ► we'll come back to the fold regardless of how good or bad it is it's going to be because it's going to
00:35:38 ◼ ► be expensive and it's going to be weird people are gonna it will like i've said this before it will
00:35:44 ◼ ► simultaneously be the best-selling folding phone ever and will be like the least selling iphone because
00:35:51 ◼ ► iphone right um and maybe it picks up speed over time but the more weird it is i don't know maybe
00:35:59 ◼ ► maybe it doesn't matter maybe i'm sure apple will have an interesting story to tell and i like i said i can
00:36:05 ◼ ► see from an argument standpoint the idea that having it be a really great device when it's unfolded is the
00:36:12 ◼ ► most important thing otherwise why would you buy a folding phone at all but i do wonder if people will be
00:36:17 ◼ ► turned off by the fact that when it's closed it doesn't it doesn't seem right in terms of how
00:36:25 ◼ ► uh samsung there are reports that samsung will be looking to release a quote wide fold of their own
00:36:33 ◼ ► in september of this year with the same screen sizes yeah samsung's making the screens so
00:36:38 ◼ ► samsung's making the screen so they're like and it kind of is like well this is their prerogative
00:36:43 ◼ ► for doing the work it's like all right well we'll do one then yeah so there you go yep and
00:36:49 ◼ ► ming chi quo is reporting that the iphone fold could initially be limited due to challenges in
00:36:55 ◼ ► production development is a little behind where they would want it to be so it may be into 2027 before
00:37:00 ◼ ► it's easy to buy this to me feels like the very standard way that a new iphone launches like
00:37:06 ◼ ► i can't think of like a new design like like a radical new design where this wasn't a talking point
00:37:11 ◼ ► i would not be surprised if they announced this in september and say that the pros are available in
00:37:17 ◼ ► a week to order and ship in two weeks and that uh the fold will be available to order in october and
00:37:25 ◼ ► will ship later this year yeah right it would not surprise me at all if that's what they say
00:37:30 ◼ ► and even if they make it available they may sell out very quickly this is one of those products where
00:37:36 ◼ ► i would it's not really well i wouldn't say it's not cannibalizing anything but it's like it's it's
00:37:42 ◼ ► not like um you know if they were to to announce like the iphone pro and then it doesn't ship for
00:37:48 ◼ ► like three months it's like well that's a problem for iphone pro sales but maybe people that were going
00:37:52 ◼ ► to buy the iphone fold like you kind of got them anyway i don't know it's it's odd it is odd because
00:37:58 ◼ ► it's kind of not an iphone but it is an iphone it's weird it depends on how they um how they view
00:38:04 ◼ ► it too because they could they could make it available and then it'll just sell out and those dates
00:38:10 ◼ ► will just drift immediately far back which i think they're fine with it is probably fine too so something
00:38:18 ◼ ► to watch for sure taiwanese research firm trendforce is expecting apple to release the a18 pro powered
00:38:25 ◼ ► macbook in the spring of this year they are also expecting competitive pricing on this model and a
00:38:31 ◼ ► 12.9 inch display great so more stuff out of the supply chain maybe yep more on this later but yes
00:38:37 ◼ ► great and nine to five mac is reporting on rumors that suggest apple is still working on adding infrared
00:38:44 ◼ ► cameras to the airpods pro and may ship a model of the airpods pro 3 so the current model this year
00:38:50 ◼ ► that has this feature so mark german had previously reported that these cameras would use apple intelligence
00:38:55 ◼ ► to help provide more information to you and the world around you but now instant rumor like leak i think
00:39:01 ◼ ► it's a weibo account it's digital is reporting that with this feature apple would look to remove the
00:39:06 ◼ ► pressure sensitive buttons on the airpods pro 3 in lieu of hand gestures for controlling airpods pro
00:39:12 ◼ ► don't know how i feel about that one i don't know if i believe it yeah but two i also don't think i
00:39:19 ◼ ► want it uh but i wanted to bring it up because i thought this was a weird uh weird rumor it is weird
00:39:26 ◼ ► but like there is precedent for doing this so um sure they've done slipstream they they did the usb case
00:39:34 ◼ ► and there were some internal changes too because they had the the different audio for vision pro and that
00:39:40 ◼ ► was all in pro 2 so they could do a slipstream pro 3 and still call it pro 3 they do the noise
00:39:46 ◼ ► cancellation and non-noise cancellation versions of the regular airpods right so like they have you
00:39:51 ◼ ► know you could imagine airpods pro 3 vision or something like that or whatever they would call it
00:39:56 ◼ ► yeah or whatever just with a different a different set airpods pro 3 with apple intelligence is actually
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00:42:26 ◼ ► for the support of this show and relay so it is a new year i want to talk about what we want from apple
00:42:34 ◼ ► in 2026 this was inspired by a blog post that you wrote which will be one of the things that we get to
00:42:40 ◼ ► in a little bit um but let's go back to talking i'll kick this off and we'll start talking about
00:42:44 ◼ ► the folding iphone so okay i am really excited this year to get something completely new from apple
00:42:53 ◼ ► yeah in regards to the folding phone so like the iphone this year's so last year's iphone lineup
00:43:00 ◼ ► brilliant like top to bottom excellent there was a new iphone that new iphone is great the iphone air
00:43:05 ◼ ► is a wonderful device super interesting super weird it potentially is a harbinger of things to come
00:43:13 ◼ ► or not hard to tell at this point but really just a really interesting cool phone with a cool story to it
00:43:21 ◼ ► this thing we're on a whole new level like it's gonna be really interesting to have another year
00:43:29 ◼ ► where i have to make a choice about what phone i want to be using every day because the folding iphone
00:43:35 ◼ ► is going to be really intriguing but it is just looking at the information that we think we know
00:43:40 ◼ ► about this device it is absolutely not going to be an easy call i think right two cameras instead of
00:43:46 ◼ ► three cameras and who knows how good those cameras are going to be that tiny screen on the front i'm
00:43:53 ◼ ► probably going to be using my phone mostly that way am i going to like that like what software am i
00:43:58 ◼ ► going to be able to use on the inside they're going to make developers kind of have to redo some stuff
00:44:02 ◼ ► which means that a bunch of apps aren't going to work and then the biggest thing honestly one of the
00:44:06 ◼ ► biggest things for me is the touch id thing i think that's not going to be nice to use all the time like
00:44:12 ◼ ► i'm really used to using face id and i think it is it would feel very weird to take a step back
00:44:27 ◼ ► is what apple will able to produce how impressive is it or not right like is there no crease is there
00:44:36 ◼ ► a crease like what are the other details about this device that make it interesting one way or another
00:44:43 ◼ ► i'm this is great to do this segment here in the first show of 2026 because i'm just going to say now
00:44:50 ◼ ► you're going to hear us say a lot of this stuff again and again over the next 52 weeks right like this
00:44:56 ◼ ► is going to happen um but i'll say it now one of the things that's going to be really interesting
00:45:01 ◼ ► about this product which is all about the new hardware is the software yeah because apple has
00:45:08 ◼ ► the ability and i know like google does it google has a folding phone and google does android and samsung
00:45:13 ◼ ► does some tweaks with their stuff too but like apple has the ability to differentiate how this phone
00:45:20 ◼ ► works to make decisions about how this phone works differently than every other iphone or ipad
00:45:26 ◼ ► they make they can they can make feature by feature decisions about this so when we look at that
00:45:33 ◼ ► 3d printed model in the in the hands of the of the the guy in the mac rumors video let's say
00:45:39 ◼ ► you get that visceral like oh it's different it's shaped different but what we don't see is because
00:45:45 ◼ ► it's a slab of plastic is what's on that screen and like apple can make decisions about the lock screen
00:45:51 ◼ ► about how the home screen works uh about gestures about what happens on the inside about uh what
00:45:59 ◼ ► happens when you've got an app open on the outside and then you open it and where does it go on the
00:46:03 ◼ ► inside and what's the window is there windowing or tiling um does it feel like an ipad like there are so
00:46:09 ◼ ► many decisions they have to make because this product is basically a tweener it is neither an iphone nor an ipad
00:46:15 ◼ ► but also kind of both so what are those decisions i'm excited to see because we look at a 3d printed
00:46:22 ◼ ► model and we're like oh look at that but like apple has had this thing inside for you know more than a
00:46:28 ◼ ► year at least probably and their designers and developers the whole os group like they've been
00:46:37 ◼ ► able to think about what this thing how this thing should work and and get creative about it and i would
00:46:45 ◼ ► i would actually honestly be disappointed if it's just a bog standard iphone on the outside and then
00:46:50 ◼ ► you open it up and it's a bog standard ipad mini like they that and that's not what they do they
00:46:55 ◼ ► they try to integrate the software experience and the hardware experience at what it's made what makes
00:47:00 ◼ ► apple what it is so that's what i really want to look at here is not just yes how is this invisible
00:47:07 ◼ ► perfect hinge whatever that they apparently say that they have cracked and all of that and how how to make
00:47:12 ◼ ► those claims but also like they this is a unique time for them to define how ios and ipad os features
00:47:22 ◼ ► behave on a device class like this yeah and that's going to be really interesting there's also like a
00:47:27 ◼ ► question i want them to answer which i don't know they'll have an answer for which is why are you
00:47:33 ◼ ► making this phone yeah like yeah why like what is the reason this is since what we want what i'll say
00:47:39 ◼ ► is what i want out of this product is i want apple to say the ipad is the best tablet and it's not even
00:47:47 ◼ ► close yeah they'll say the iphone is the best smartphone it's not even close one of the things
00:47:53 ◼ ► is the ipad is so great and yet um more people a lot of iphone users don't understand that or don't
00:48:01 ◼ ► use an ipad as much some some version of basically we think this is amazing because it's it's an iphone
00:48:08 ◼ ► that turns into an ipad when you want and that um the the world opens up essentially just like so
00:48:16 ◼ ► much opportunity opens up when you open up this device and have the bigger screen and i believe
00:48:22 ◼ ► that because i'm an ipad user i love my ipad and i look at this device and i think could i could this
00:48:29 ◼ ► become my primary device because i use the ipad more than my phone but the phone is obligatory is there a
00:48:34 ◼ ► world in which i no longer have to have a phone that i also put in my pocket when i leave the
00:48:39 ◼ ► house but mostly i use the ipad could this be that product it is my ipad and it's my iphone
00:48:44 ◼ ► you know at once so if they can make a case like that that it's like this is also the ipad i would love
00:48:50 ◼ ► to see that what's first up for you um and this is not a draft we should say we collaborated we're just
00:48:59 ◼ ► we're round robin and then we're we're um we we collaborated beforehand on what these are
00:49:08 ◼ ► tim doesn't have to quit as ceo this year although i think it's greater than 50 percent that he will
00:49:20 ◼ ► yeah because and why do i say that i say that mostly because of that ft story i don't think that
00:49:26 ◼ ► ft story exists if he's not going to retire in 26 um which is a year that we're in by the way i'm so
00:49:34 ◼ ► used to saying 26 is the future yeah it's the year that we're in this year i think it's greater than 50
00:49:39 ◼ ► because of that ft report but at the very least what i want is he needs to become chairman if he's going
00:49:45 ◼ ► to do that he needs to send a clear signal that transition planning is going on he probably needs
00:49:50 ◼ ► to say this is this is where we're going and you know and and they're going to be more changes but
00:49:55 ◼ ► we have a plan and we're instituting it and and whether he names uh a replacement this year or in
00:50:02 ◼ ► advance or whatever it is like i don't need all of the boxes to be checked in 2026 but i want the list
00:50:11 ◼ ► and i want the boxes to begin being checked so succession plan is how i i phrase i know that we
00:50:17 ◼ ► were beforehand when we were collaborating on this yours was more specifically like give me a new ceo
00:50:22 ◼ ► yeah i'm like i i i can i can see that i i backed off of it a little to just say look i just want the
00:50:27 ◼ ► plan that leads to a new ceo i don't necessarily personally need the new ceo this year although i think
00:50:32 ◼ ► it probably makes sense not to linger but um but i i certainly want to see that list uh to see movement
00:50:39 ◼ ► and know that we're going in a direction where tim is going to either leave or elevate or whatever
00:50:44 ◼ ► no i think it's time like i i think it's overdue time for change at the top for apple i think at this
00:50:53 ◼ ► point um i i think that the company has maybe gotten stuck in some spots and some shuffling could change
00:51:02 ◼ ► like i would hope that bringing in someone with a fresh outlook could make some different
00:51:07 ◼ ► structural changes different priorities like if it's going to be who we think it is john turnus like i
00:51:14 ◼ ► would hope that this would refocus the company to continue advancing in hardware like a making that
00:51:19 ◼ ► like a priority like there's been there's something going on which means that they're able to
00:51:25 ◼ ► last year this year and i think next year and the year after like completely new iphone designs
00:51:31 ◼ ► like why is that like why now can we do that like why can we keep doing really interesting iphone
00:51:38 ◼ ► designs year after year why can't we always do that would it be like that if you had someone who
00:51:44 ◼ ► really cared about hardware as the ceo like is that what it would look like and it not just so
00:51:56 ◼ ► every ceo is informed by their background yeah because they can't be every everything and
00:52:05 ◼ ► everywhere and they have to rely on people but they are reformed or informed by their background so that
00:52:09 ◼ ► matters that it's not an ops guy it's a hardware guy if it's john turnus but it's a different person
00:52:14 ◼ ► and then two and we've talked about this quite a bit is it's the excuse for change that if you're
00:52:21 ◼ ► if you're a person x and you've been in the job forever and there's like a whole bunch of little
00:52:26 ◼ ► things that maybe you could do different but like this is the way you do it you just do it that way
00:52:30 ◼ ► and it's hard i'm not saying that's right i always am asking myself like could i do things
00:52:35 ◼ ► differently but i think it's human nature to be like i just do it this way this is the way it is
00:52:38 ◼ ► and then when you get the new person in there they're like oh i don't want to do it that way
00:52:42 ◼ ► that was always a thing that i thought we should do differently and now i'm going to do it because
00:52:46 ◼ ► i'm in charge and you know the example that i gave is the the employee matching from tim cook like tim
00:52:51 ◼ ► cook revered steve jobs and on day one he said yeah if you give charitable donations we'll match you
00:52:55 ◼ ► which is like i mean what he's essentially saying there is i don't know why steve didn't like that and
00:53:00 ◼ ► he was kind of a jerk but we're going to change that because it's the right thing to do
00:53:04 ◼ ► and and because i'm the new guy i have the i give myself permission to be different and i think
00:53:09 ◼ ► you'll see some of that regardless of who it is that just the fact that it's not tim anymore means
00:53:15 ◼ ► not that even tim would be opposed to it it's just like it was just not on tim's radar or whatever and
00:53:20 ◼ ► the new person gets to say yeah i'm going to do this because this is a thing we should do and at that
00:53:24 ◼ ► point tim cook doesn't get to say no so yeah i think that also like if you're a executive middle
00:53:29 ◼ ► manager that kind of thing ultimately you're trying to please the boss right like that that's
00:53:35 ◼ ► what you're doing that's what a lot of people are doing not everybody but a lot of people are doing
00:53:39 ◼ ► in their job they want to get on they want to they want to please the ceo so it is better to bring to
00:53:45 ◼ ► the ops charts ceo something that's going to increase his charts like he's going to be most excited
00:53:51 ◼ ► when you say this new idea i have for services is going to increase the rep you know like that is
00:53:57 ◼ ► what they're going to want to see maybe somebody with different priorities you would you would bring
00:54:02 ◼ ► to john turnus this really cool idea that you have for hardware i mean i don't know that he is like
00:54:08 ◼ ► this i'm just assuming right he's just making a million assumptions here you come to him and be
00:54:12 ◼ ► like i have this idea it's not necessarily going to make us the most money but i think it will be
00:54:18 ◼ ► really cool and it would make it think something we could lead on and he's like you know what go for it
00:54:23 ◼ ► right and and that might be the like basically i just i will i think it's the other thing is
00:54:30 ◼ ► selfishly the main reason i want this to happen is i would love to be able to talk about something like
00:54:37 ◼ ► this on the show like i've never had the chance to cover this right like i wasn't doing this when tim
00:54:42 ◼ ► cook took over the idea of apple having a new ceo is like it's tantalizing to me because also it feels
00:54:50 ◼ ► like it's so close like it's going to happen in my professional career and i want to talk about that
00:54:56 ◼ ► also i would say it will be interesting to see not that apple because it's a big ship it would take a
00:55:04 ◼ ► lot of time to change it even if they wanted to change the direction it would take time but i would
00:55:08 ◼ ► say emphasis will be an interesting thing to watch too because i think i feel like a lot of times
00:55:13 ◼ ► coverage of apple talks about um about design and about the synthesis of software and hardware and
00:55:20 ◼ ► and services and then there's also this kind of narrative about apple's um operations ability that
00:55:25 ◼ ► they ship so many of these and all of that um i i feel like the apple could lean more into the
00:55:30 ◼ ► narrative that nobody makes the hardware like apple does that apple is a leader in silicon and they
00:55:35 ◼ ► they talk about it right but like does if you have a ceo who's more oriented on hardware
00:55:41 ◼ ► not to say he's going to give short shrift to software but like do you re-emphasize the fact that
00:55:48 ◼ ► apple has all of these advantages because they are so good at making hardware not that it changes the
00:55:55 ◼ ► strategy but just that it's a thing that comes out a little bit more in the narrative they could choose
00:56:00 ◼ ► that or not and it's not just it's not just ceo right if they change um you know greg joss we act
00:56:06 ◼ ► has been at apple for a billion years too if he is no longer there if he retires in the next year or two
00:56:11 ◼ ► um what happens and again i don't know i i mean i've i guess i've sort of known jaws for ages now but
00:56:18 ◼ ► what i would say is um generally you get used to having one boss and now you've got a different boss
00:56:25 ◼ ► it's a good time to step off the treadmill and if that happens then the people making marketing
00:56:30 ◼ ► decisions change and that is interesting because that's all about emphasis and how how products get
00:56:35 ◼ ► marketed um so marketing and pr change as well as just the from the top emphasis so a lot i mean
00:56:43 ◼ ► again i don't think either of us is saying we're bored uh with apple being you know what it is let's
00:56:50 ◼ ► see change but the fact is that change is coming and change will be interesting and i am interested
00:56:55 ◼ ► to see how a company as successful as apple that has had such a run deals with change yeah right
00:57:02 ◼ ► unavoidable change because human beings don't stay right so what happens next it is also like for you
00:57:10 ◼ ► know i would say for like a maybe the majority of people that work at the company they have only
00:57:18 ◼ ► worked for this guy yeah right and like what is that going to be like what is that going to feel
00:57:23 ◼ ► like um again it's going to be fascinating and i and i would love the opportunity to talk about it and
00:57:28 ◼ ► i hope that this year is the year that it happens okay here's another thing prove me wrong on apple
00:57:35 ◼ ► intelligence and a good siri like i want it i just don't have faith that it can be done or it will be
00:57:42 ◼ ► done this year um just a basic point like i was thinking about this yesterday morning where i was
00:57:52 ◼ ► trying to make a coffee and the baby is crawling now i don't know if i mentioned this on the show so my
00:57:56 ◼ ► life has been turned upside down and she was crawling towards me so i had to deal with that and something
00:58:03 ◼ ► popped into my head about like something i wanted to do and i thought i would love to be able to just
00:58:09 ◼ ► in plain english just talk to my phone i remember what it was i use the app dew a lot and i'm a big
00:58:14 ◼ ► fan of it and it reminds it was reminding me about something i think it was to to do some like wash her
00:58:20 ◼ ► bottles or whatever before i left for uh the office and i wanted to be able to just say to my phone
00:58:30 ◼ ► snooze that notification for 30 minutes which is just not a thing that i can do right now
00:58:46 ◼ ► if i asked chat gpt that it would understand it and would do it right like if i had some kind of
00:58:58 ◼ ► i feel like it would understand it well enough to be able to execute on that command right yeah
00:59:04 ◼ ► my iphone can't do that can i want to give you i want to give you and i i don't know if apple watch
00:59:11 ◼ ► is where this is going to happen but you know for a while but i'm gonna i'm gonna give you an example
00:59:15 ◼ ► that i think talks about the expectation regular people have yeah about this stuff and why we just
00:59:19 ◼ ► want it to be good or at least better um my prediction that i made on a podcast recently was
00:59:27 ◼ ► i think by the end of this year siri will be better but we will still be dissatisfied with it yeah right
00:59:33 ◼ ► i'm a very typical jason kind of prediction which is like it will be better and you'll still be
00:59:37 ◼ ► unsatisfied which i think is probably the most likely scenario right they will not not try to make
00:59:42 ◼ ► it better but they will also probably not totally succeed where everybody's like yay siri's the best now
00:59:47 ◼ ► like that that seems very unlikely just because of human beings not just because of apple
00:59:51 ◼ ► anyway my example is we have had loads of rain here and um it's also astronomically the king tides the
00:59:59 ◼ ► highest tides and what happens is the water flows down from where the rain has been coming out of the
01:00:04 ◼ ► mountains and it pours into creeks and drainage areas and all of that and meanwhile the tide gets
01:00:10 ◼ ► really high and is pushing the other way and what happens there's flooding we get a lot of flooding
01:00:15 ◼ ► here mostly it's in places where floods happen like we we know where the flooded areas are there's an
01:00:20 ◼ ► underpass near my house where people there's a parking lot and a bus stop down there and like
01:00:26 ◼ ► everybody knows you don't park there if it's gonna rain because it's gonna flood like you don't park
01:00:31 ◼ ► there um there's an exit off the freeway uh north of us that is always flooded when it rains
01:00:37 ◼ ► and it's high tide especially like it happens you know about it this was worse um lauren ended up
01:00:45 ◼ ► getting caught in about a foot of of water on the road when she was trying to take julian to the
01:00:50 ◼ ► airport and had to come back she actually came back through san francisco instead uh of our usual path
01:00:55 ◼ ► to the oakland airport because uh they closed the the freeway down so that's a big deal but it's all
01:01:15 ◼ ► and it said here are some websites that will tell you how where high tide when high tide is which is
01:01:23 ◼ ► i asked chat gpt this and it actually said um you need to tell me where you are which is funny because
01:01:30 ◼ ► like your device knows where you are yeah i could share that with you you could ask me for it
01:01:34 ◼ ► but you didn't so that's frustrating but here's the thing that stopped me i was thinking about it
01:01:43 ◼ ► there's a tides app on apple watch and i scroll i take her apple watch and i like scroll down and
01:01:54 ◼ ► like there's tides and you open it up tides geolocated it's like oh this is the closest rodeo
01:02:01 ◼ ► beach is the closest to you tap beautiful interface showing the tides and i did not know this app was
01:02:07 ◼ ► like wow surprise well i mean unless you're like surfing or boating or whatever you maybe don't care
01:02:13 ◼ ► about the tides app but it's there it's there when they made everything waterproof and they did the
01:02:17 ◼ ► ultra and diving and all that there's a tides app why in the world would a question for siri on an
01:02:24 ◼ ► apple watch about tides not open the tides app why but it doesn't just a failure it would be a great
01:02:35 ◼ ► actually lauren would have discovered talk about discoverability lauren would have discovered that the
01:02:40 ◼ ► tides app existed maybe the apple watch also doesn't know that the that there's a tides app you
01:02:46 ◼ ► know like it's that's what's why like siri just doesn't know about it but this is the problem right
01:02:50 ◼ ► is like is like the person should not a regular random person should not even know that the tides
01:02:54 ◼ ► app is there but if you ask about tides it should be like oh let me tell you you need to look i'm
01:03:00 ◼ ► opening the tides app yeah did you know and it'll tell you and that would have been and then she would
01:03:05 ◼ ► have been like oh i didn't even know there was a tides app but instead i had to tell her because i
01:03:10 ◼ ► am a person who writes and talks about computers and know that there's a tides app um so yeah what
01:03:16 ◼ ► are they doing anyway hmm could be better yeah i just i i want i i want to get the things that
01:03:25 ◼ ► they showed me but i don't think i'm going to get them and i want them to come and be good
01:03:28 ◼ ► and like and i just i just don't have a lot of faith for it to happen this year yeah i feel like
01:03:33 ◼ ► there is uh there's so much this is why i predict what i predict there's so much room for them to
01:03:38 ◼ ► catch up yeah to just be better yeah and and i don't need them i i appreciate that what you want
01:03:45 ◼ ► is them to solve this problem i actually don't need them to solve the whole problem i want i want to see
01:03:49 ◼ ► them make a lot of progress i want to see them headed in the right direction because the problem is
01:03:55 ◼ ► that siri has been lingering for so long and it's still just sitting there yeah and and like
01:04:03 ◼ ► i just want forward motion i want to know that you get it and this is a this is a problem with apple
01:04:10 ◼ ► as a company is that apple never wants to admit that something is bad they never do that and
01:04:21 ◼ ► i get why there's no pr benefit in talking about the mac pro until you have something to say about it
01:04:29 ◼ ► but like it sits on the or the or the um pro display xdr but you have these products that sit on the
01:04:34 ◼ ► price list forever and their prices never go down and they're outmoded but they're still being sold
01:04:38 ◼ ► and i think it's kind of offensive that they exist and that they don't really even acknowledge that
01:04:43 ◼ ► that's the case um but this is a great example where like a little humility maybe like the only
01:04:50 ◼ ► humility they've shown here is that they made a promise they couldn't keep like that's not the
01:04:53 ◼ ► a little humility about how siri isn't good and like i would like some of that like we we have made it
01:05:03 ◼ ► better we know it needs to be even better but at the very least throw me a bone here make it better
01:05:09 ◼ ► i i i will i don't need the whole thing but i need to know that you're on the case and they can tell us
01:05:16 ◼ ► we're on the case but i don't care i want to see it i want it to be better even if it's not great
01:05:21 ◼ ► please just make it better why don't you tell me about the thing that that started this whole topic
01:05:27 ◼ ► yeah um a better display strategy i want in 2026 to see apple to understand apple's display strategy
01:05:35 ◼ ► a little bit better so i mentioned the pro display xdr it's been years uh that product should not be
01:05:41 ◼ ► for sale anymore yep um the really the studio display should probably not be for sale anymore
01:05:47 ◼ ► they are old tech very old tech that should be replaced by new tech if you're going to do displays
01:05:54 ◼ ► you need to actually do them every so often and it's been too long that both of those products have sat
01:05:59 ◼ ► so i want them to update those products i want them to use modern technology could they be higher
01:06:05 ◼ ► frame rate could they be properly hdr on the studio display could it be um maybe oled whatever but like
01:06:13 ◼ ► a more modern competitive to other displays on the market today display solution they need to talk
01:06:21 ◼ ► about it and say here here are our products and ideally commit to doing a better there's a you know i know
01:06:28 ◼ ► apple's got a lot going on but like if you're going to be in a category you need to be in that category
01:06:34 ◼ ► and this feels very 2010s to me apple 2010s apple right where it's like maybe it'll come back maybe it
01:06:40 ◼ ► won't like that's got to stop that stuff's got to stop if you're in a category be in it otherwise get out
01:06:46 ◼ ► and i don't want them to get out of displays no but i want them to be in it and this this kind of
01:06:52 ◼ ► i'm not really in it we make a product that's really old and shouldn't be sold anymore but we're
01:06:57 ◼ ► still there and so it shows we care it doesn't show you care it shows you don't care you don't care
01:07:02 ◼ ► enough to you anytime you leave a product lingering this long you don't care about it so i want them to
01:07:08 ◼ ► care and i want them to be responsible as a company that participates in the display ecosystem
01:07:13 ◼ ► to ship displays and if they can't quite frankly i remember how bad it is when there isn't an apple
01:07:20 ◼ ► display out there for people to buy but quite frankly if they can't do that they should get the
01:07:25 ◼ ► hell out of this business because what are they doing why are they in this why are they making
01:07:30 ◼ ► displays and then just letting them sit there for years it's stupid it's bad business it's bad strategy
01:07:36 ◼ ► get out because you could make more money if you made more displays if you refresh the displays
01:07:43 ◼ ► people will buy new displays how many people would buy a new one to replace their studio display yes or
01:07:48 ◼ ► their pro display xdr if you made another one that would still be overpriced compared to the column
01:07:52 ◼ ► competition etc etc but people still buy it because it's nice and it's apple and yet it sits there yes
01:07:57 ◼ ► there is an opportunity cost going on there um but i just i hate that they like let's be clear that when
01:08:03 ◼ ► the studio display shipped it's basically using the display from the maybe second generation 5k
01:08:09 ◼ ► imac it's ancient it's like 10 9 year old tech now yeah it needs to be updated yep okay and while i'm
01:08:16 ◼ ► yelling i'm going to say related to that on the display front there's that rumor that they might do a
01:08:21 ◼ ► larger imac whether it's an imac pro or whatever and of course the imac is is sitting out there yep
01:08:36 ◼ ► they really kind of couldn't implement it it was it was hacked together to do 5k on an internal display
01:08:43 ◼ ► and they were not at the point where they were willing to do something like that but the time has
01:08:48 ◼ ► moved on and thunderbolt exists and you can i'm driving a 5k display right now via thunderbolt cable right
01:08:53 ◼ ► yeah studio display yeah um they gotta they gotta bring back that feature because computers with
01:09:02 ◼ ► embedded displays or embedded displays with computers i guess um the computer doesn't last as long as the
01:09:09 ◼ ► display that's the bottom line yeah my i have a i have an imac pro behind me that display is perfectly
01:09:16 ◼ ► good you see youtubers who gut these things and put in these weird third-party uh controller boards so
01:09:22 ◼ ► they can still use their retina imac as an external display it makes a perfectly good studio display
01:09:27 ◼ ► right also the studio display is run by apple silicon it is running a version of ios inside of it there is
01:09:34 ◼ ► no technical reason i'm sorry there's no technical reason why you couldn't make a version of that
01:09:39 ◼ ► essentially that runs on whatever the existing software is on an imac that you can just put it in
01:09:45 ◼ ► that mode and it becomes a studio display at whatever range and the reason i say this and i know a lot of
01:09:50 ◼ ► people will say well yeah but this way they can sell more whatever's like okay but i'll say the
01:09:55 ◼ ► other part of this which is apple claims to be a company that cares about the environment and bottom
01:10:01 ◼ ► line if you're a company that claims that claims to care about the environment and e-waste etc etc
01:10:07 ◼ ► making a disposable display that could long outlive the computer that's in it but refusing to make it
01:10:16 ◼ ► work that way completely invalidates your claim that you care about the environment and about e-waste
01:10:24 ◼ ► because you should be able to take an imac a 24 inch imac and buy and your customer should be able to buy
01:10:32 ◼ ► a mac mini and attach it to it in display mode and use it as a studio display instead of buying a whole
01:10:40 ◼ ► other imac and taking that imac to the recycler yeah and and and so you know i'm getting the this this
01:10:49 ◼ ► whole category is apple at its worst basically like apple apple at its best is in categories it
01:10:56 ◼ ► cares about but what when i said they should they should do this do it right or get out what i really
01:11:00 ◼ ► mean is if you can't live up to your standards in a category don't do it right and and abandoning
01:11:07 ◼ ► like it just makes me so mad abandoning target display mode target display mode was really weird
01:11:12 ◼ ► and and you know for a lot of reasons but like once you've got apple silicon inside your displays
01:11:17 ◼ ► i i refuse to believe that you couldn't put an apple silicon computer in a mode where it just
01:11:22 ◼ ► emulated a studio display and sat there and if there's some engineering you would need to do to
01:11:26 ◼ ► make it happen what i'm saying is do the engineering to make it happen or because because otherwise i
01:11:32 ◼ ► don't believe you every imac apple silicon imac that's been sold is basically an affront to apple's
01:11:38 ◼ ► environmental policies because they're disposable computers at a time when they should be better than
01:11:42 ◼ ► that yep yep i absolutely agree and about that like you know if you're going to be in a market do it
01:11:52 ◼ ► i absolutely agree with that like you've proven in the past that you're willing to let it go and then
01:11:58 ◼ ► you're like oh i want to come back to it and i think there's another product we're going to talk
01:12:00 ◼ ► about later on which is the same thing uh either be in it or don't be in it when you leave your foot
01:12:06 ◼ ► like half in it you're not helping yourself you're not helping your customers right because a lot of
01:12:11 ◼ ► your your happiest customers you know people who are going to buy the mac studio right they want an
01:12:17 ◼ ► apple display to hook it up to they do if you're not going to give them one stop pretending so then
01:12:25 ◼ ► they can look at other options yeah right yeah because you're not you're not helping them out if
01:12:29 ◼ ► you're not going to commit to it now i believe that they will but the studio display has lived for too
01:12:34 ◼ ► long way too long way too long and the other problem is apple is a giant and apple's presence
01:12:45 ◼ ► being half in and half out means that if you're a consumer who cares about that category
01:12:53 ◼ ► you're you're kind of wrecked you're you're in trouble because apple's thing is you know half
01:13:01 ◼ ► baked and other companies are like we can't even compete with apple so we're not going to we're not
01:13:06 ◼ ► going to make a product in that category and this goes for software and it goes for hardware like get in or
01:13:11 ◼ ► get out but if you're in you have a responsibility to actually be in especially if you're a company as
01:13:16 ◼ ► giant as apple so i hope that on some of these fronts in 2026 apple shows that it is going to
01:13:23 ◼ ► embrace displays but when i say i want a better display strategy admitting that you aren't going
01:13:31 ◼ ► to do it and getting out would still be a better display strategy yeah what their current strategy is
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01:15:25 ◼ ► like i'll tell you what i want i want a good looking photo frame that pulls my images from apple photos that i can operate home kit things from and get good answers to questions is that too much to ask i don't think it is
01:15:38 ◼ ► yeah set up a visual timer or something like i mean yes i i this is one of those categories it's fun i like talking about this category because there are a lot of categories where i think
01:15:46 ◼ ► the implication here is we're in the apple ecosystem yeah and so we want apple to do something because we're in the apple ecosystem and we would prefer it
01:15:55 ◼ ► yes and that people could say well you know they make this and they make that and our answer is oh yes i know they make that but it's not in the apple ecosystem
01:16:03 ◼ ► as somebody who has used the other products in this category i can say it's not just because we're in the
01:16:09 ◼ ► apple ecosystem it's because all the other products in this category are terrible terrible terrible i have had echo shows i have a google home
01:16:18 ◼ ► they're they're they're not good for lots of different reasons and so for apple to do something where i can have that
01:16:26 ◼ ► because i i you know about the only thing the google home gets used for anymore is that it's cycling through
01:16:32 ◼ ► a photo library i created in google photos for it and i see those and they're still nice although i don't
01:16:39 ◼ ► update them because i would have to remember where that photo library lives um but so yes i would like
01:16:46 ◼ ► a nice screen to show things from my photo library or other widgets and to maybe maybe display visually
01:16:54 ◼ ► what my timers are and uh let me control home things and i mean like i i'm actually i think we're not asking for a lot
01:17:02 ◼ ► um it's like i i want something from apple in this category because i've already done all the work
01:17:07 ◼ ► right like i've used products from other companies and the problem is i have to do the work right so
01:17:13 ◼ ► like i had an echo product for a while but then as i changed my home automation system and did the work
01:17:19 ◼ ► that i needed on my iphone i then needed to do it on the amazon system as well and it's like i have a
01:17:24 ◼ ► new light we're now going to add it in three places it's just like this is i don't want to do this i mean
01:17:29 ◼ ► it's true it's right i think i think both of these things are true that it would be nice if you're in
01:17:32 ◼ ► the apple ecosystem to just be able to be in the apple ecosystem it would also be really nice uh to
01:17:38 ◼ ► have a product that's decent in this category because the what the other guys have is not great full of
01:17:43 ◼ ► ads like amazon's full of ads terrible i it's so bad so um i will i will make a corollary to this which
01:17:51 ◼ ► is i would like a visible home strategy with real products so this is one of them but you know are
01:17:59 ◼ ► are they doing a doorbell are they doing cameras let's get it going and again to come back to my
01:18:05 ◼ ► previous point you're gonna do this if you're gonna have a smart home strategy you're one of the key
01:18:11 ◼ ► vendors in the tech space you have let your home strategy just sort of sit there dan morin and i have
01:18:17 ◼ ► been writing articles about how apple needs to embrace home tech and build more home products
01:18:22 ◼ ► for like a decade now and they just sat there and it's only i think because the wearables home and
01:18:28 ◼ ► accessories category has stalled out that there's finally been some corporate movement to actually try
01:18:32 ◼ ► to get in here and yet it still hasn't happened so i guess what i'm saying is let's get it going
01:18:36 ◼ ► let's let's go um as my kids would say because i like get again get in or get out if you're gonna
01:18:45 ◼ ► do this if you care about the home get in there do something resembling anything yeah thank you
01:18:53 ◼ ► yeah absolutely and if you're gonna do it similar to the displays thing actually do it or don't
01:18:59 ◼ ► like here's where it got cameras now one camera it's 2k and one camera gets updated for you know
01:19:06 ◼ ► not not updated for five years come on um yeah i mean even honestly i think that i think there may
01:19:13 ◼ ► be there's a a a cultural problem at apple because the home pods are a great example of this i know the
01:19:18 ◼ ► home pods don't sell incredibly well but like if you're gonna have them you got to update them you
01:19:23 ◼ ► got to put some effort into them and and i think what happens is like let's do it and they do it and
01:19:27 ◼ ► then they look at the numbers and they're like oh they didn't sell that well they did okay we just
01:19:31 ◼ ► won't update them for a long time it's like no no no no no no you're in it you're in it you update
01:19:36 ◼ ► them you maybe don't update them every year but you gotta you gotta update them the apple tv is the
01:19:41 ◼ ► same way like if you're gonna make this product and you're gonna commit to making it you have to be a
01:19:46 ◼ ► responsible company and update that product like the i don't i hope there's nobody at apple who looks
01:19:52 ◼ ► at the pace of home pod development and says it's fine yeah home pods are fine they're doing fine
01:19:57 ◼ ► they're not doing fine no and if they don't sell up to your standards fix the product and keep
01:20:02 ◼ ► shipping it and show your commitment to the category because you showing your commitment
01:20:06 ◼ ► can help that category grow for you but if you if if they're kind of they ship them and then forget
01:20:11 ◼ ► them for years this is a this is a problem out a lot of products that are outside the focus
01:20:17 ◼ ► the spotlight uh of of apple they're in this weird place where we're like how final cut on the
01:20:27 ◼ ► ipad doesn't support the background api or the uh what is it the iwork icons iwork hasn't been updated
01:20:35 ◼ ► i think for 26 doesn't have the dark icons and stuff like again they're just a little outside and they
01:20:41 ◼ ► just kind of like hang there and like if you're gonna do them do them and home is a great example
01:20:46 ◼ ► of that if you're gonna embrace this category put people in charge of it and embrace it and have them
01:20:51 ◼ ► care about the category because uh i know cat apple is all about like oh well we don't do we don't have
01:20:56 ◼ ► a home division and all that but it's like this is the downside of that kind of corporate structure
01:21:00 ◼ ► is there doesn't seem to be a corporate will to be uh good at this category just to be present in it
01:21:07 ◼ ► and that's i would argue contrary to apple's corporate ethos if you're going to be in it try to
01:21:11 ◼ ► be the best and try to win it and i don't see that so i hope they will get there you know i feel like
01:21:18 ◼ ► this is a very uh lucy pulling the football away from charlie brown thing was like oh this year for
01:21:23 ◼ ► the home strategy but but this is a wish list not a predictions list i wouldn't i don't want to
01:21:27 ◼ ► predict it but i'm gonna wish it hey jason speaking about category being in categories yeah i mean
01:21:33 ◼ ► i didn't realize this was the theme of this but it really is so yeah my my wish list next wish list
01:21:38 ◼ ► item is i would like a resolution of the apple silicon mac pro saga it feels to me like the mac pro is dead
01:21:46 ◼ ► but it's still available for sale as an m2 released three years ago talking about old products that have
01:21:55 ◼ ► been sitting around now i would argue that the mac pro doesn't make sense in the apple silicon era that
01:21:59 ◼ ► the way apple silicon is engineered with uh just with gpus that are integrated and shared memory that
01:22:06 ◼ ► the idea that you would have this big expansion case to do things like load it up with ram and all of
01:22:11 ◼ ► that has kind of fallen by the wayside and when i ask people what the mac pro case is for because
01:22:16 ◼ ► it's really just about the case now they say well expansion i say what expansion they're like well
01:22:19 ◼ ► you can put some hard drives in it like you can put hard drives attached to a mac studio well you
01:22:24 ◼ ► can put a card in it well there's most cards don't work with it because most cards are graphics cards
01:22:28 ◼ ► so it's like other cards that you can put in it's like well okay at that point there should just be
01:22:32 ◼ ► a box and there they do make breakout boxes that use thunderbolt and then you can put the card in
01:22:36 ◼ ► there but you probably that's almost nobody at that point who's doing that or like oh it needs to be
01:22:40 ◼ ► rack mountable well you know make a mac studio rack mount adapter they already have them i i just don't
01:22:46 ◼ ► see why this product makes sense uh the mac studio does everything people need the the speedy
01:22:50 ◼ ► thunderbolt connectivity on it is enough uh releasing a whole uh mac product and keeping it up to date which
01:22:56 ◼ ► they aren't doing just because some people want their hard drives on the inside instead of the
01:23:01 ◼ ► outside is ridiculous and should not happen anymore but that all said mike if apple is going to keep
01:23:07 ◼ ► doing the mac pro do it yeah don't just let it sit there for three years being at least one ultra
01:23:17 ◼ ► generation back yep kill it or fix it tell us what you think the mac pro is for because the last time
01:23:24 ◼ ► they updated this they released it simultaneously with the mac studio which had the same specs
01:23:28 ◼ ► and they did a very poor job of explaining why the mac pro existed when the mac studio was right there
01:23:34 ◼ ► they tried they didn't do a good job and i would argue that's because they did the best they could
01:23:40 ◼ ► there's no expectation so either give me a i'm open to this give me a strategy for the mac pro that
01:23:47 ◼ ► makes sense embrace tell us tell us oh you know what we're actually doing a new chip for the mac pro
01:23:53 ◼ ► and it's going to be different and it's going to embrace the high end in a way that the mac studio can't
01:23:58 ◼ ► and that's why the mac pro exists great give me a reason for the mac pro to exist and if you can't
01:24:05 ◼ ► i i think listeners of the show know how i feel about the mac pro at this point like i just i just don't
01:24:13 ◼ ► think it needs to exist anymore i don't think we're in that world anymore i think that the mac studio is
01:24:18 ◼ ► is a fantastic computer and so the mac pro right like your headline a mac pro in your backpack right
01:24:30 ◼ ► the the needs that have have shrunk so much for that computer and also so many of the needs
01:24:39 ◼ ► are handled by thunderbolt so why are we still doing this with this computer costs so much money
01:24:45 ◼ ► what are we doing and yeah i think it's time to get rid of it now i don't necessarily think we
01:24:52 ◼ ► should put pro chips in imax it's like something else that we should do but we'll we'll see i guess
01:24:59 ◼ ► speaking of pro max i would like an amazing macbook pro update that is light enough that i'm willing to
01:25:09 ◼ ► swap out my air because i would love a touchscreen mac pro that's maybe something we're going to get this
01:25:15 ◼ ► and i think i think i think i love my macbook air i have an m2 macbook air it's my favorite computer
01:25:23 ◼ ► i've ever owned it is unbelievable it's getting a bit long in the tooth now i i'm having some ram issues
01:25:31 ◼ ► i 24 gigs of ram in it i have as much ram as i could have put in it when i bought it and
01:25:35 ◼ ► it's been struggling one of the apps i think hilariously one of the apps that is a problem for
01:25:43 ◼ ► me is safari safari is using too much ram which i don't think it's supposed to do and everybody says
01:25:51 ◼ ► chrome is the problem but safari is a problem for me uh like i'm just having some ram constraints and
01:25:57 ◼ ► i think a computer with a bit more power would would i could use it for much longer because i
01:26:03 ◼ ► i absolutely do not want to replace this laptop but i think i could only get like another year out of it
01:26:10 ◼ ► like it is at the point where like command tabbing apps is visibly lagging like i'm watching the apps
01:26:20 ◼ ► kind of like judder in and like i'm just nice that menu is trying to work out what's going on so i found
01:26:23 ◼ ► safari was a ram problem so i can now only have one safari window open if i want my mac to to work
01:26:30 ◼ ► well because i'd have like multiple safari windows open i'm a safari profiles user i liked having
01:26:34 ◼ ► uh one window of each of my three profiles so i could just tab between them but now i can't do that
01:26:38 ◼ ► anymore because my mac gets too slow um but i would only want to move to a macbook pro if it was a bit
01:26:46 ◼ ► lighter than the current macbook pro is because i love how thin and light my macbook air is and the reason i am
01:26:53 ◼ ► at least hopeful i might get this is one of the rumors suggested that the macbook pro may also
01:26:59 ◼ ► get a little thinner and lighter as part of a big redesign now that'd be amazing people people freak
01:27:04 ◼ ► out because they're like no no no no no the macbook air is for thinner and lighter the macbook pro should
01:27:08 ◼ ► not be thinner and lighter what i would say to that is over time everything gets thinner and lighter yeah
01:27:12 ◼ ► because technology advances also the way apple designs their hardware is they're designing around
01:27:17 ◼ ► the thermal envelope that's required for their chip roadmap for the next few years right that's that's
01:27:25 ◼ ► the thing that they got caught out on with the trash can macbook uh mac pro they're they're mindful of
01:27:31 ◼ ► that so chips are getting more efficient chip cooling methods are getting better so you can get a thinner
01:27:41 ◼ ► and lighter macbook pro and what we're talking about here is also like the enclosure because it's a new
01:27:46 ◼ ► enclosure with the with the m6 presumably if they're thinking about what chips they're going to put in that
01:27:53 ◼ ► over the next few years and again a thinner and lighter macbook pro is good it just can't be so thin and
01:28:01 ◼ ► so light that it's not pro anymore right that's the line they have to walk but they can make it like
01:28:07 ◼ ► today's macbook pro is more like the macbook air than you know a powerbook was it back in the day
01:28:13 ◼ ► right like it is thinner and lighter it obviously got thinner and lighter and so uh that's what that
01:28:18 ◼ ► they gotta walk the line there and they don't want to mess it up but i think i have faith in them now
01:28:21 ◼ ► that they they know because they've they've made the right decisions with the laptops i feel like
01:28:26 ◼ ► especially i think they know i think they know that like if you want this new macbook pro to be
01:28:32 ◼ ► like the the start of the next edition of the macbook pro you can't you can't screw that kind
01:28:40 ◼ ► of thing up because this is supposed to be what you put all your r&d budget in and then make it back
01:28:45 ◼ ► over the next 10 years or whatever right like or five 10 years or whatever it will be like don't
01:28:51 ◼ ► don't take all the ports away but like you know they're saying that an oleb make you may have you
01:28:56 ◼ ► may be able to get over a small battery and you know like there's some it'd be interesting to see
01:29:01 ◼ ► what they do there but i just i'm intrigued about this computer because it might be able to get me
01:29:07 ◼ ► even more of what i want in a in an interesting form factor interesting package so we'll see
01:29:13 ◼ ► okay i'm going to keep rolling with the laptops and say i want to see this year the cheapest mac laptop
01:29:25 ◼ ► of all time yeah i am a believer that they're going to do an a chip version of a laptop of a macbook
01:29:33 ◼ ► that's going to be below the macbook air on the price list the macbook air is 999 now it is sold as low
01:29:40 ◼ ► as 749 in some configurations in some places on sale and as a result what i'm talking about the
01:29:49 ◼ ► cheapest mac laptop of all time is one the list price will be lower than any mac standard retail
01:29:54 ◼ ► list price right which is not the price that you see on a sale it's the standard price so currently 999
01:30:01 ◼ ► um and then it will be discounted from there just as the macbook air is discounted from there and the
01:30:08 ◼ ► things that it will be discounted that will also be the cheapest mac laptop ever now what about the
01:30:13 ◼ ► wall the walmart macbook air well i mean it's kind of an old laptop being sold in a weird channel so
01:30:17 ◼ ► maybe or maybe not it will be the same price as that but what i'm saying is there's going to be a street
01:30:22 ◼ ► price that's going to be the lowest that a current mac laptop has ever been we've done the math you can
01:30:28 ◼ ► make a an a series chip that in single processor performance is faster than the m1 and that in all the
01:30:35 ◼ ► other cases is basically the same as an m1 and apple silicon makes it possible for apple to reach this
01:30:40 ◼ ► price point with a product that still has apple product quality and that means that they can reach
01:30:47 ◼ ► an audience that for whom apple products seemed like bad buys because they're too expensive and still have
01:30:54 ◼ ► it be a good product not a cheap plastic i mean the competition in this area is kind of lousy pc laptops
01:31:01 ◼ ► and chromebooks and apple apple being present there will reach people who i believe don't otherwise buy
01:31:10 ◼ ► apple laptops so i think it's a really great way for apple to you know apple apple doesn't compete at
01:31:16 ◼ ► lower end product product levels because they think it's contrary to their what do they call it the
01:31:21 ◼ ► quality bar i mean contrary to their brand but apple silicon makes it not contrary to their brand to be
01:31:26 ◼ ► down there and the m1 macbook air proves that so you know apple's quality will shine through at that
01:31:31 ◼ ► price point even if all of us who are tech nerds turn our noses up at that product because it's going to
01:31:36 ◼ ► be slow and limited and probably not you know configurable in any way because if you want to do
01:31:42 ◼ ► that you should just get a macbook air but like i i want to see it i want to believe it i would love to
01:31:48 ◼ ► see apple make a much more affordable laptop what is the warm-up macbook air at right now
01:31:55 ◼ ► trying to look 549 maybe this is options from 409 i don't know what that means oh wow look at that
01:32:02 ◼ ► oh i think that might be like a refurb one it's hard oh yeah that's a restored yeah 599 i think it
01:32:11 ◼ ► is right now the new one is is 599 and then they're offering restored for like 400 bucks yeah
01:32:17 ◼ ► so what do you think it's going to cost if the m1 is 599 i mean look the the air is 999 so i think a
01:32:26 ◼ ► list of 699 and then discounted that's 300 less than the base air right 300 less so it might even be
01:32:35 ◼ ► 799 but i i like the idea of it being 699 do you think that 699 fulfills what you're looking for though
01:32:45 ◼ ► no but if they discounted like they've been discounting the 999 air then it's not 699 right
01:32:53 ◼ ► it's 459 or you know 499 or something at which point it is the right price i just don't know if
01:32:59 ◼ ► they will the question is like what game do they want to play if they're selling this on apple.com
01:33:02 ◼ ► they'll probably sell it for 799 just like they sell the macbook air on apple.com for 999 but then
01:33:08 ◼ ► if you know where to go and you go to walmart or amazon or whatever and you can get a deal and
01:33:12 ◼ ► it's on sale or best buy or wherever you get these things when they they pop up on sale and it'll be
01:33:18 ◼ ► much more affordable there so it's more affordable by 300 than any other laptop on apple.com and at
01:33:25 ◼ ► costco or walmart or wherever it'll be discounted from that if it if it's always 699 then it is kind of
01:33:32 ◼ ► disappointment because they're currently selling a new macbook air for 749 in some places at some times
01:33:37 ◼ ► but i don't think that's what we're talking about here we're talking about it being 300 less than the
01:33:42 ◼ ► macbook air including maybe 250 less than it is at its list price of of 699 right so you know that that's
01:33:53 ◼ ► to to be down there at 449 499 as a commonly viewed price i i think that's the i think the cheapest mac
01:34:04 ◼ ► ever was the was the mac original mac mini at 499 um that was a list price but that was also the price
01:34:12 ◼ ► uh i would love to see it before 99 gosh wouldn't that be amazing i just don't know i genuinely don't
01:34:19 ◼ ► know if that's even possible anymore i just i think i think that they're honestly i think their
01:34:23 ◼ ► partners in this space their retail partners want to put it on sale so you set the price at 699 and
01:34:28 ◼ ► then you let them put it on sale at 599 or 540 it also lets them test the prices right you put it at
01:34:33 ◼ ► 699 on apple.com walmart can say okay it the sales really go up at 549 and apple's like great let's do
01:34:43 ◼ ► that and they're like well we're going to trial it at 499 it's like great let's see what happens like
01:34:47 ◼ ► you it allows lots of experimentation among the retailers to find out what people want to pay for
01:34:54 ◼ ► that product while because again the macbook air is 999 but you do not need to get it for 999 if you
01:35:02 ◼ ► find a deal at a retailer for a new version of it like they're for sale for a lot less than that
01:35:07 ◼ ► and they're on sale and and so you got to think of it that way zoe also mentions the education discount
01:35:12 ◼ ► which would be a big thing of course which is 100 down right it's that yes the 999 air is 899 for
01:35:17 ◼ ► education so he's 699 would be 599 for education but if you're thinking about like this is your
01:35:23 ◼ ► first mac kind of thing you're going to school like 599 brand new from apple is like apple that's a
01:35:37 ◼ ► well i just i think so i i think we could get we could run away with this and the rule of apple
01:35:44 ◼ ► pricing applies which is always it's always a higher price than you want it to be but then there are
01:35:50 ◼ ► discounts so i think it'll be seen i think it'll come out for a disappointing price of something like
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01:38:30 ◼ ► so i also want apple to do more with health this is something i spoke about in the upgrade is it's one
01:38:40 ◼ ► of the reasons i love the athletic app i want them to take the data that i have in the health app and
01:38:46 ◼ ► just show me things that i should be focused on and also let me talk to the health app and ask it
01:38:52 ◼ ► questions you have all this information surely you have the knowledge and the skills to build a pretty
01:38:58 ◼ ► decent foundational model with this stuff let me talk to the health app and say what should i be
01:39:04 ◼ ► focusing on what does this mean right like you show me trends you're like oh look at this it's
01:39:12 ◼ ► trending i'm like is that good like i don't know yeah i don't know what it means like i just want to be
01:39:17 ◼ ► able to ask basic questions of the app which isn't currently giving me that information so like
01:39:24 ◼ ► say like how okay great i'm not doing good right now how was i doing three years ago you know like is it
01:39:32 ◼ ► better like what do you think about this i would like to be able to have a dialogue with my computer
01:39:37 ◼ ► i will say one of the things that large language models have taught me is the pleasure in being able
01:39:45 ◼ ► to have a dialogue with the computer to ask the computer questions this works for me as a person
01:39:51 ◼ ► to be like no but what about this yeah okay but what about that like to to have this kind of natural
01:39:56 ◼ ► conversation with the computer is something i enjoy and and it it helps me get things done it helps me
01:40:05 ◼ ► understand things in a way that i find to be more understandable like it just it helps me be able to get to
01:40:13 ◼ ► what i want i would like to have this kind of dialogue with the health app i i can't disagree
01:40:18 ◼ ► yeah yeah what else have you got make some worldwide policy changes that ease the tension
01:40:26 ◼ ► right like can we lower if if you're apple can you lower the temperature this is a thing that we've
01:40:33 ◼ ► talked about a lot lower the temperature by making some worldwide policy changes that make it less
01:40:40 ◼ ► likely and make other other regions and governments less interested in regulating you yep and this is
01:40:48 ◼ ► this is us saying apple needs to be strategic about being proactive about understanding the general we now
01:40:55 ◼ ► have a really good idea of generally what regulators want in terms of modifying apple's behavior
01:41:02 ◼ ► so why don't you roll out instead of being angry and rolling out specific policies in specific countries
01:41:10 ◼ ► why don't you roll out some worldwide policy changes they've done this with a couple little things but like
01:41:16 ◼ ► roll out worldwide policy changes that just take the edge off this whole situation and ease tension
01:41:23 ◼ ► change the rules everywhere for external purchases and what what percentage you take and linking and if there's some
01:41:32 ◼ ► categories some companies where countries where you can't do that some regions where you can't do that
01:41:36 ◼ ► so be it but like everywhere else you're like this is these are the new rules ideally they'd be similar to rules that
01:41:42 ◼ ► already exist in some countries but like make make new rules that that diffuse some of this now some of this has already
01:41:49 ◼ ► happened do more of it everywhere not just region by region i would like to suggest as i mentioned earlier
01:41:58 ◼ ► one way you could release a lot of pressure in a few ways is and i'm going to do my mac as the model thing here allow notarized
01:42:09 ◼ ► individual apps not alternative app stores worldwide using the mac model and the reason i i know this is hard but first off
01:42:22 ◼ ► you don't want to say i want everybody in the world to set up their own app store i i like i said i think
01:42:28 ◼ ► it's actually a bad model i i don't like it do what the mac does i mean you can have an app store you can
01:42:35 ◼ ► sideload an alternative app store that happens on the mac that's fine but just let that happen not just because
01:42:42 ◼ ► that will i think release a lot of the tension of freedom and the app store forces me to do this and all that
01:42:48 ◼ ► but also because it it eliminates the tension or at least reduces the tension of things like
01:42:56 ◼ ► a government coming to you and saying i don't like this app why don't you get rid of it
01:43:01 ◼ ► you know they could still say we don't like this app and they're a registered developer they're a
01:43:08 ◼ ► notarized you notarized it stop that yeah but it's a lot easier to say well you know legally you know you need
01:43:17 ◼ ► to go to them not us uh they're following our guidelines etc etc they could still be forced to
01:43:22 ◼ ► do it but it puts it puts that it moves that to a different place than right now which is if there's
01:43:27 ◼ ► only an app store in the u.s let's say and the u.s government says take that app off the app store
01:43:32 ◼ ► um and they say okay we'll do it that app is gone and can never ever ever come back now i would like it
01:43:41 ◼ ► if you could jump through a few security hoops and install anything as you can on the mac because
01:43:47 ◼ ► then apple can really say look we can we can put up barriers here but if somebody wants to install
01:43:52 ◼ ► software on on their iphone where they that's their decision not ours i think that's incredibly
01:43:57 ◼ ► beneficial to apple as well as users and most users don't do this very few users are installing
01:44:10 ◼ ► the hoops you have to jump through are much worse than it ever used to be but you can do it
01:44:28 ◼ ► it's like yeah you're they say that in a positive way you know as yeah it's like i just want one
01:44:32 ◼ ► throat just there's a business term yeah i want one throat to choke on this which is basically like i
01:44:37 ◼ ► want one person to be responsible it's like no choking please are you darth vader surely different
01:44:41 ◼ ► surely there's surely there is a better metaphor than anyway that the has this is if if darth
01:44:47 ◼ ► vader comes to you and says you know i find your lack of app store control disturbing you need to be
01:44:53 ◼ ► able to say they're not in the app store there's nothing we could do about it so i i think some
01:44:58 ◼ ► changes there that are proactive worldwide that are like look you could do this and and we'll let
01:45:05 ◼ ► you and we don't care might actually lower the temperature in a bunch of different places yeah i i
01:45:12 ◼ ► just want it i want to stop the piecemeal approach that we're having that we already mentioned at the top
01:45:17 ◼ ► right because this is going to keep happening why don't we just just deal with it just make it the
01:45:26 ◼ ► worldwide policy because it's making everyone's lives harder doing this so much development time
01:45:33 ◼ ► inside of apple has been lost to this right and continues to be lost to this what are the things that
01:45:40 ◼ ► we as users are not getting because ios development is having to implement alternative app marketplaces
01:45:47 ◼ ► right like and have to keep tweaking and tweaking and tweaking because they're trying their best to get
01:45:55 ◼ ► just just within the rules right so like instead of just opening it up or making it like obvious and clear
01:46:03 ◼ ► and simple they're like you know oh but what if we do what about no just making everyone's lives harder
01:46:11 ◼ ► more complicated it's going to keep doing it they're going to keep like having to shut off and shut down
01:46:16 ◼ ► different countries and doing all kinds of nonsense and then you're going to end up with these scenarios
01:46:21 ◼ ► that you do in the eu where it's like yeah but we can't offer that feature now we don't want to offer
01:46:26 ◼ ► this feature now because we want to make people feel bad and like and now here we are i just don't
01:46:32 ◼ ► want to be i just i just don't want it right like i just don't want this anymore it's one of the things
01:46:37 ◼ ► that i hope a new ceo would change like my hope would be a new ceo is like i don't want to deal with this
01:46:44 ◼ ► like i am not this is not what i want to do i do not want the company to be here i don't want to go
01:46:50 ◼ ► to court over this like let's just change i don't yeah i don't know what the the result is of it like
01:46:59 ◼ ► and i don't and like mate you know if somebody if somebody would tell me right they will lose 20
01:47:06 ◼ ► billion dollars a year if they do this all right like i understand why you're doing it but i just
01:47:11 ◼ ► don't think that's going to be the case like i just don't think that's the case like i think that
01:47:16 ◼ ► they are holding on so tight to something that isn't as big a problem as they think it might be
01:47:27 ◼ ► but maybe they know better than me i don't know but yes i just don't want to keep doing this anymore
01:47:31 ◼ ► right like i want it to be simpler and i want it to be fairer it's not fair in my opinion it's just
01:47:38 ◼ ► not fair the way that the app still works i've been saying this for years it's not fair to developers
01:47:42 ◼ ► apple takes way too much and they give too little in return my last thing jason is i want some action
01:47:50 ◼ ► in wearables so got two things here some kind of smart glasses product really just focused at least
01:48:01 ◼ ► around cameras and audio and that's got in my opinion that has to happen in 2026 because my word
01:48:07 ◼ ► they're going to be behind if they can't start getting this stuff together if they care about it
01:48:12 ◼ ► and i think they do care about it um and an apple watch redesign i want the apple watch to look
01:48:21 ◼ ► different like i think that the apple watch is not good looking it's a good looking smart watch it's
01:48:28 ◼ ► not a good looking watch i want a round one but i don't think i'm ever going to get it but i would
01:48:33 ◼ ► like something that i would like something visually different in the apple watch lineup i thought it
01:48:40 ◼ ► was really cool when they made it much thinner that was nice but it's still got the same silhouette
01:48:44 ◼ ► and i would like that silhouette to change i mean the apple watch is now over 10 years old and it has
01:48:52 ◼ ► essentially had the same design language that entire time like if you look at a series one and a series
01:48:59 ◼ ► 11 next to each other it's like yeah that's essentially the same thing pretty much the same
01:49:03 ◼ ► like it's gotten a little bit bigger and thinner but like that's the that's the same thing and and i
01:49:11 ◼ ► just i did you know i don't know if that is what we should say we're doing at this point i feel like we
01:49:17 ◼ ► could do something we could do something like even the ultra right like it just it looks like the apple
01:49:23 ◼ ► watch just got a big thing on the side of it the crown god but it still just looks like the apple
01:49:28 ◼ ► watch and i want something different there i made a case in a in a macro column last year that um
01:49:37 ◼ ► apple could do another apple watch that has a different look and still sell the apple watch with
01:49:41 ◼ ► the classic look they can have more than one product right yeah yeah the iphone has many many
01:49:45 ◼ ► products now they can make another apple watch that has a totally different style yeah and still
01:49:49 ◼ ► also sell the other apple watches new bands if you have to do it forever like yeah just do it like
01:49:55 ◼ ► you sell different call it different and continue to sell series and ultra and then have a new one
01:50:00 ◼ ► that's got a different look and give it a different name and it's part of the apple watch family i think
01:50:05 ◼ ► that there's nothing wrong with that and then on the wearables um or the smart glasses like yes this is
01:50:10 ◼ ► the thing last year where i said you know if i were at apple i would just say we got to ship something
01:50:14 ◼ ► like the meta ray bands by the end of the year and that didn't happen but they better do it by this
01:50:18 ◼ ► year because they're going to be i mean they're way behind because as has been well documented they
01:50:23 ◼ ► decided that they would go from the top down with vision pro and poo-pooed the bottom up approach and
01:50:30 ◼ ► they need to do both and i don't think it's really getting a lot of attention because i don't know how
01:50:35 ◼ ► good a product it is really but meta is currently shipping shipping to customers a product that has a
01:50:41 ◼ ► display in it the glasses have a display in them like yeah and it's very limited right like it's
01:50:47 ◼ ► very limited to meta services and that's fine like whatever like they're not walking around saying it's
01:50:51 ◼ ► the best thing ever i don't think but they are already shipping a product that has a projected display
01:50:57 ◼ ► inside of it yeah so so apple just needs to get on the on the on the train and and start doing this i
01:51:03 ◼ ► have they they have all the pieces they just need to put them together in a compelling way and i will
01:51:08 ◼ ► just say every time i see an ad for a meta product and they're like it's so cool i can say things to
01:51:17 ◼ ► my glasses and i say hey meta this thing and i think wow i dislike that company because i hear the phrase
01:51:24 ◼ ► hey meta and i'm just like no i never want to talk to that company i never want them to hear me i never
01:51:30 ◼ ► want to use that that product at all and i know i've got a i've got a quest that i will use but i'm still
01:51:37 ◼ ► never like i'm not happy about it like i and that's the danger is like they make a product so
01:51:42 ◼ ► compelling that you're willing to forego your feelings about how they treat your information
01:51:47 ◼ ► and society and everything else because oh well you know i this is what i have to do to do this cool
01:51:53 ◼ ► thing like and and that the frustrating thing really is that apple has all the pieces for this they just
01:51:58 ◼ ► didn't think it was a thing and now by all accounts wild because they do the vision pro
01:52:04 ◼ ► was clearly the beginning to try and get to ar glasses but why did they not want to go from the bottom
01:52:09 ◼ ► they just only want to go from the top i mean i would love to hear somebody inside tell me that but my
01:52:15 ◼ ► guess is um airpods exist and they thought well airpods are good enough and you know and do we want glasses
01:52:22 ◼ ► that are not as good as you know people are much less likely to be forced to wear glasses than they
01:52:27 ◼ ► are to just pop in air buds you know or you know the these these airpods and and that gets you most of
01:52:33 ◼ ► it and you've got a camera in your pocket with your iphone and do you need a camera on your glasses and
01:52:38 ◼ ► and i get it i get it but at the same so i think that was what it was there was a we've already got
01:52:43 ◼ ► products that are in this category that do these things why would anybody want this thing and they
01:52:47 ◼ ► pooh-poohed it and then it turns out some people are like actually it's kind of cool to have this
01:52:50 ◼ ► so they should have been experimenting with that and my guess is they were experimenting with it right
01:52:55 ◼ ► internally and and i think that there were some senior people like this doesn't this category
01:52:59 ◼ ► doesn't make sense and i'll tell you meta pushing the category probably fed into that argument right
01:53:06 ◼ ► it's like this is just meta they suck they're doing this thing out of desperation it's no good
01:53:10 ◼ ► whatever yeah and i think they got a little a little too prideful and a little too dismissive
01:53:14 ◼ ► yeah because it's not like they couldn't it really drives me crazy when i see people talk
01:53:19 ◼ ► about this story and they're like oh apple totally missed the boat on this it's like well they missed
01:53:23 ◼ ► the boat but like sometimes i see the analysis it's like apple is behind and it's like honestly if you
01:53:29 ◼ ► look at all the stuff that apple's doing in this category technologically apple is ahead they just
01:53:35 ◼ ► refuse to ship a product and that's vision that right that's a tactical mistake like the airpods are
01:53:42 ◼ ► so good and so far ahead in so many different ways and their ability to miniaturize cameras
01:53:48 ◼ ► and devices like they've got all the pieces they just chose not to go there i think out of some
01:53:53 ◼ ► weird kind of like why would we confuse our other products it's it's a real innovators dilemma kind
01:53:59 ◼ ► of thing in a way which is like the airpods are so good that this is like adjacent enough to it that
01:54:05 ◼ ► we think maybe they're in conflict and why would we want to do that when we've got this other great
01:54:09 ◼ ► thing so we talk up our great thing so much that we decide to to disparage this thing and it's from
01:54:14 ◼ ► a competitor we don't like so we disparage it further and so we can't possibly make that product
01:54:18 ◼ ► instead of thinking why don't we try that and i'm sure somebody at apple made this argument was shot down
01:54:24 ◼ ► and you know that that was a mistake yeah i could imagine that there there was that like institutional
01:54:30 ◼ ► thing of like oh meta's making this no one's going to want this and they just kind of ignored it and
01:54:36 ◼ ► didn't expect that it would become and i don't think anyone expected including meta actually expected it
01:54:41 ◼ ► to become a popular product but they ended up finding some interesting things that it could do and it's
01:54:45 ◼ ► become a popular product and i think now they're moving forward on this because it's actually somewhere
01:54:50 ◼ ► where they people seem interested in something that they're making in a hardware perspective which is
01:54:57 ◼ ► something that they've not really had before and so they're moving down that world but now it's left
01:55:01 ◼ ► apple in a situation where if ar glasses are the thing meta is clearly closer and do they want to be in
01:55:10 ◼ ► that position that there is a world where they could say yes they're fine being in that position
01:55:14 ◼ ► um but i don't think that they do want to be in that position right because i think they tim has spoken
01:55:22 ◼ ► for a long time about ar and apple has been putting ar in everything for years and there has not really
01:55:27 ◼ ► been anything to show for it and the expectation was always because one day we'll be wearing on our faces
01:55:32 ◼ ► and right now meta is actually shipping a product that has some of the stuff built into it is it what you
01:55:37 ◼ ► want is it got everything no but you can actually walk around in the streets and get directions
01:55:42 ◼ ► from a mapping service that they built which is like that is like the thing that you show off of
01:55:48 ◼ ► ar right like you could walk down the street and you could say like turn left it's like wow look at
01:55:53 ◼ ► this and you're at your you can do that today with the meta just view display or whatever it's called
01:55:58 ◼ ► meta ray-bans display there's a product that you're shipping apple doesn't have anything and it's most
01:56:02 ◼ ► likely based on reports if we do get something this year is cameras and airpods which is nice but
01:56:08 ◼ ► that's still not enough i think but so they got to do it this year they're going to do anything
01:56:17 ◼ ► and i would quite like that again i would like that i would like my uh my sunglasses to be apple
01:56:24 ◼ ► glasses rather than meta glasses i would prefer that personally just because of where everything
01:56:31 ◼ ► sits for me and how the choices and decisions that i've made yep yep yep i'm not sure i would even
01:56:37 ◼ ► want this product although i do i mean i wear sunglasses every time i go outside right yeah
01:56:41 ◼ ► and airpods i definitely wouldn't want it for my vision glasses but for sunglasses i would i would
01:56:47 ◼ ► consider it yeah yeah something like that yeah i think that's it let's do an ask upgrade question
01:56:54 ◼ ► to finish out today's show though because we're otherwise going to skip it but i want to do one
01:56:59 ◼ ► mark asks sorry please please yeah one laser that's it that's all you great mark asks how long do you
01:57:05 ◼ ► leave your christmas decorations up for okay for me generally it's the end of the weekend after new year's
01:57:14 ◼ ► day so the so yesterday we moved the tree outside it will go out to the curb on our trash day we you
01:57:26 ◼ ► know took all the lights off took all the ornaments off put everything in the big plastic bin that
01:57:30 ◼ ► contains our christmas stuff christmas stuff hanukkah stuff thanksgiving stuff it's all in the same box
01:57:35 ◼ ► and uh and that's it um the only exception to that is um lauren really likes putting the
01:57:43 ◼ ► holiday cards we get up on the hall door and we leave those up i i demand that they be removed once
01:57:53 ◼ ► it's february right not until then um i would have liked to have had our christmas decorations all put
01:58:03 ◼ ► away by the end of the day yesterday as it stands right now i have no idea when our christmas tree will be
01:58:13 ◼ ► put down uh maybe next weekend let's see look you're on baby time yeah time is different baby time is
01:58:21 ◼ ► different but i'll say like our daughter went back hi jamie um our son went back everything is like
01:58:30 ◼ ► reverting and honestly that that's another thing so julian went back on saturday on saturday and and it was
01:58:36 ◼ ► like well like i mean the house is it was full and now it's empty so it seemed like a time to reset the
01:58:45 ◼ ► house to its prior condition right it's pre-thanksgiving condition essentially and although i miss having the
01:58:52 ◼ ► decorations up and all of that uh i also like having my house back to the way it usually is like we have to
01:58:58 ◼ ► move stuff around i have to move move a bookshelf and a bunch of chairs and to fit the to make space
01:59:04 ◼ ► for the tree where the tree goes like all of that so it's kind of nice that we we you know lauren and
01:59:09 ◼ ► i shot into action yesterday in the late morning and we did all of this and then vacuumed and got all the
01:59:15 ◼ ► needles out and all of that and suddenly it's like oh yeah it's our house we got our house back yeah so
01:59:20 ◼ ► that's kind of nice too even though i do like i i love i mean we get a tree every year i love
01:59:26 ◼ ► having the christmas tree and the christmas decorations and all of that but i am enjoying it
01:59:30 ◼ ► i am enjoying special but i've got to take it down but getting rid of it is is part of making it special
01:59:35 ◼ ► is that it's only for a certain time of year and then it goes if you'd like to send in a question for
01:59:40 ◼ ► us to answer on a future episode of the show it's very easy to do that please send in your ask
01:59:45 ◼ ► upgrade questions by going to upgrade feedback.com this today again just too long of an episode to
01:59:51 ◼ ► do more ask upgrade questions uh thank you to our members who support us with upgrade plus you can go
01:59:56 ◼ ► to getupgradeplus.com and you can sign up to become a member you can find us on youtube by searching for
02:00:02 ◼ ► upgrade podcasts on youtube and you i would like to thank our sponsors of this episode that is factor