00:00:00 ◼ ► From Relay, this is Connected, episode 597. It's almost 600, folks. It's going to be a big one.
00:00:14 ◼ ► I am your keynote chairman, Federico Vittici. Today's show is brought to you by our sponsors,
00:00:18 ◼ ► Sentry and Squarespace. And along with our sponsors, I also want to introduce my esteemed
00:00:31 ◼ ► How's the chair of the chairman? It's good. Still comfortable? We had some feedback about
00:00:37 ◼ ► nations run by two people. We can't get into that today, but we are a good example of it,
00:00:43 ◼ ► I think. Okay. And, of course, leaders need followers, and so we're also joined by Mike.
00:00:51 ◼ ► Is that like when there's a president and then a prime minister or whatever? Some countries have
00:01:05 ◼ ► I mean, we have a king and a prime minister. That's not too bad. I actually quite like it. It's nice.
00:01:21 ◼ ► So we need to set the scene. I got a box in the mail yesterday that I opened, and I was very confused by
00:01:40 ◼ ► Dr. Matt Van Ormer, which is going to come up in a second. But first, we're going to play a clip
00:01:48 ◼ ► If you want to send me an ice letter, though, it's P.O. Box 241714, Memphis, Tennessee 38124.
00:02:26 ◼ ► At the time, someone sent me a lovely 3D printed swan that looked like an ice sculpture.
00:03:15 ◼ ► Like, I cut open the top of it, and then there's a box inside the box, and I open it, and it's got dry ice in it.
00:03:38 ◼ ► The dry ice is inside a styrofoam thing inside the box, and nestled in the center of the dry ice, and yet another package is this frozen, regular ice Macintosh that Matt made me.
00:03:56 ◼ ► Now, can I ask, and just give me an honest answer, did you understand who this was from before you started the opening process?
00:04:13 ◼ ► I'm pleased he did that, because I think we've spoken about anthrax on this show before.
00:04:46 ◼ ► And so, Matt linked me to something he wrote in Discord in 2023 when the ice letter thing happened.
00:07:28 ◼ ► I'm putting in the show notes from the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 49, Subtitle B, Chapter 1, Subchapter C, Part 173, Subpart E, 173.217, which is what you need to do to ship something with solid dry ice.
00:09:45 ◼ ► We spoke on a previous pro show about our file storage, both locally and in the cloud, and what we're doing to back it up, that sort of thing.
00:09:52 ◼ ► So, anonymous wrote, I was dismayed to recently learn that Backblaze quite released an update that now excludes cloud storage from backups, as of version 9.2.2.878.
00:10:08 ◼ ► Reading from that document, recent macOS versions can mount cloud storage, for example, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox, in local paths, causing the backup client to mistakenly back them up.
00:10:20 ◼ ► These cloud-mounted folders are now detected and excluded to avoid performance issues, excessive data usage, and restore complications.
00:10:40 ◼ ► But anyway, I store all my files in Dropbox and felt happy about the fact that I was backing up my Dropbox to Backblaze.
00:10:47 ◼ ► I logged into my Backblaze account today, and all of my Dropbox files are not in my Backblaze backup anymore.
00:11:05 ◼ ► The reason is, I do not have all of my Dropbox files stored locally on my computer because my Dropbox account is too large.
00:11:14 ◼ ► And so, I don't feel comfortable about only having them on Dropbox, and so I liked the idea of also having them in Backblaze as well because I would download them at some point, and then they would get backed up to Backblaze.
00:11:28 ◼ ► So, now I figure what I have to do is I have to have something that I can download my entire Dropbox.
00:11:38 ◼ ► Every time I start thinking out loud what I'm going to do about this, I then realize it's not going to work.
00:12:28 ◼ ► So do that, sign Dropbox into that machine, and have it all locally, and then back them
00:12:43 ◼ ► I think Backblaze is making a policy decision here because they don't want to take my Dropbox
00:12:53 ◼ ► Like, I'm very, very, very frustrated about this because I feel like this breaks the promise
00:13:00 ◼ ► between me and Backblaze because they have removed things from my backup without ever telling
00:13:07 ◼ ► I'm really very frustrated about this as a long-time Backblaze customer to the point that
00:13:12 ◼ ► I'm not willing to recommend them to people anymore because I find it to be really rough.
00:13:28 ◼ ► It's like, I understand if you don't want to do this, but like, I feel like you need to
00:13:53 ◼ ► I have like a terabyte of stuff locally that's from my Dropbox and it was be like on my
00:14:01 ◼ ► That was all being backed up because I used to be able to go into my Backblaze account on
00:17:39 ◼ ► The one of them about the ring light is fantastic because you see Lil' Findy making a FaceTime call,
00:17:52 ◼ ► On Macedon, I was like, what if people who go to WBC get one of these, like in the thank you bag?
00:19:10 ◼ ► And I know how big of a difference smooth data collection, it makes all the difference, right?
00:19:22 ◼ ► And if your logs and your session data, all these things are scattered across multiple tools,
00:19:37 ◼ ► And it means that our freelance developer can get in, see what the issue is, and get working
00:19:50 ◼ ► They've got logs, but they make them usable because they're trace-connected and structured
00:20:00 ◼ ► And because Sentry services the context right where you're debugging, the trace, relevant
00:20:11 ◼ ► So, you're not like looking for a timestamp and then tool hopping into something else and
00:20:16 ◼ ► Frontend, mobile, backend, whatever you're debugging, Sentry gives you the context you need so you
00:20:24 ◼ ► More than 4.5 million developers are using it, including Teams and Anthropic and Disney+,
00:20:41 ◼ ► They have a free dev plan and listeners of Connected can use the code CONNECTED26 to get $100 in
00:22:02 ◼ ► So, I came to realize, looking at today's show notes, like, I feel like I've, internally,
00:22:10 ◼ ► Because I feel like in recent years, I've been very much in the camp of kill the Mac Pro.
00:22:19 ◼ ► And now I realize, I think the reason I feel this way is because we spent a lot of money
00:22:27 ◼ ► I had the 2013 Trashcam Mac Pro, which we bought using some of our, the first money we made
00:22:38 ◼ ► But the problem was, very often, I'd be recording a podcast, and I think it was the GPU was the
00:23:05 ◼ ► And so this is when I actually switched from recording in MP3 to recording in WAV, because
00:23:13 ◼ ► We didn't know this for a long time, so I had to end up, I mean, for a while, I was, with
00:23:20 ◼ ► Where I had to kind of, like, pull audio backups out of Wirecast, and I had to, like, take
00:23:29 ◼ ► Jason's file, and I had to do this trick with an app called Sound Studio to invert Jason's
00:23:36 ◼ ► audio file, replace it over the top of the mixed track of the both of us, so I could get an
00:23:50 ◼ ► I think this machine, which I can't believe I sold to someone and they wanted it, like,
00:23:56 ◼ ► they were, like, I think, like a visual effects house, and so, you know, it ended up going
00:24:01 ◼ ► And I replaced it with an iMac Pro, which is, like, you go from the worst to the best, you
00:24:06 ◼ ► And I was very happy with the iMac Pro, but man, that trash can Mac Pro, just terrible.
00:24:49 ◼ ► gift on stage, um, and I was all the way, it was at the Hammer, I was all the way upstairs
00:24:53 ◼ ► in the sound booth, and they, like, hey, come down here, and it, it, I, I've never been more
00:25:31 ◼ ► I was at WWC when it was announced, uh, Sparks and I had the product manager for it on Mac
00:25:39 ◼ ► Um, so I really felt, like, connected to that machine, and I bought one when they came out,
00:25:55 ◼ ► the story of the 19 Mac Pro is that it shipped, and then Apple Silicon was announced literally
00:26:01 ◼ ► seven months later, and shipped nine months later, and the, uh, the value of that thing
00:26:07 ◼ ► was plummeting, and I was like, well, I own this as a business, like, I can't just watch
00:26:17 ◼ ► It was expensive, of course, and overkill, of course, but it was so solid, and I loved having
00:26:28 ◼ ► Uh, it was a very fun thing to own, but, uh, even then, right, the writing was on the wall,
00:26:35 ◼ ► I think, that the Mac, in general, was becoming less and less PC-like, uh, in, in particular
00:26:47 ◼ ► Like, oh, all this is integrated, you're not gonna break these things out anymore, um, but
00:26:53 ◼ ► really over the, I guess, 20 years the Mac Pro existed, like, all Apple did was whittle down
00:26:59 ◼ ► its customer base by making poor product decisions, like, the 2013 Mac Pro got rid of internal
00:27:05 ◼ ► expansion and was generally a bad computer, and then the 2019 came out and brought expansion
00:27:12 ◼ ► back, but then in 2022, when they put the M2 Ultra in it, expansion was gone again, at least
00:27:17 ◼ ► certain types of expansion, and I think the Pro market, for the most part, just got tired
00:27:23 ◼ ► of getting jerked around by Apple with the Mac Pro and moved on to other things, um, and it
00:27:28 ◼ ► is a bummer for, like, the handful of people that rely on those slots for audio capture
00:27:34 ◼ ► or big, fast storage or whatever it might be, um, but that market was getting smaller and
00:27:39 ◼ ► smaller, and it's no surprise that it's gone, it's no surprise that the Mac Studio is the
00:27:43 ◼ ► way forward, but it is, uh, it's a weird time, because it's really, I mean, the Mac Pro is
00:27:49 ◼ ► 20 years old, but it was the successor to all the towers that Apple ever made, but computing
00:28:03 ◼ ► You said you, you, you, you're thinking that maybe the, the, a lot of the Pro customers
00:28:10 ◼ ► I understand that sentiment, but I think that there is a lot of Pro customers that just moved
00:28:14 ◼ ► to a machine that was better suited to them. Like, people had the Mac Pro because it was
00:28:19 ◼ ► the most powerful computer, so it didn't wear the most powerful computer. But then, like,
00:28:32 ◼ ► even when the Mac Pro came out in 06, the, or 07, whenever it was, the, um, uh, you know,
00:28:43 ◼ ► it was the last machine to go Intel, and it was, even then, like, noticeably faster and more
00:28:49 ◼ ► powerful than the MacBook Pro with the Core 2 Duo in it. But over time, notebooks caught up,
00:29:01 ◼ ► you can get it in a studio. But if you need, like, the Macs or the Pro version of the chip,
00:29:11 ◼ ► And so, yeah, it got, it got whittled away in, like, lots of ways. The marketing, the market
00:29:16 ◼ ► aspect of it, the power aspect of it, the cost, right? Uh, notebooks used to be really expensive,
00:29:21 ◼ ► expensive, and now you can get a very performant notebook for less and less money over time.
00:29:49 ◼ ► including you, who, and including John Syracuse, who own Mac Pro's because they were the biggest
00:29:58 ◼ ► And I think that over time, all of that stuff has made its way into different formats, and it just
00:30:06 ◼ ► ends up of, like, oh, you just want a Mac Pro because you want one. Like, the Mac Studio is more
00:30:11 ◼ ► powerful, right? And you can just basically everything, a regular person, and even a regular Mac Pro
00:30:27 ◼ ► You do. It is up to now, like, as it was in, in 13, it is up to these third-party companies to,
00:30:36 ◼ ► like, okay, if you've built an audio card and you've only made an internal version of it,
00:30:40 ◼ ► now we either need to find, like, a really good Thunderbolt, you know, PCI card expansion dock,
00:30:47 ◼ ► and there are some out there, um, or the whole device is going to move to Thunderbolt. Like,
00:30:52 ◼ ► the market will have to respond to this, um, just as they did in 13, um, or didn't do in 13.
00:30:59 ◼ ► And, uh, it'll be, it'll be fascinating to see that. But yeah, those use cases have become more
00:31:04 ◼ ► and more niche over the years. And, you know, if you're OWC or, you know, I don't know, Belkin or
00:31:13 ◼ ► Av, you know, one of these companies, like, are you really going to take the time and, like,
00:31:17 ◼ ► really make a nice Thunderbolt enclosure for people to put cards in? Like, maybe, but the use case for
00:31:22 ◼ ► that was already so small. Um, but you're right. Like, it used to be, like, I'm thinking about,
00:31:28 ◼ ► like, uh, my wife's uncle, uh, did like professional audio engineering for decades. Um, and he, in his
00:31:36 ◼ ► studio had a Mac Pro, I think it was the 2012, was the last one before the trash can. I remember that
00:31:42 ◼ ► because we bought it for him. Like, you know, we, we specced it after the trash can was announced and
00:31:49 ◼ ► you could still get your hands on a 2012 and like, okay, no, no, I want the one with the cards. And he
00:31:55 ◼ ► had lots of stuff in there. Right. Um, a lot of it was like hardware that was, he had to have for
00:32:01 ◼ ► certain plugins and that sort of thing. But even then in 2012, those needs were getting smaller
00:32:08 ◼ ► and he's, he's now retired and out of that business. But, um, you know, it's just, those needs have
00:32:17 ◼ ► gotten less over time. And so, cause I think the, the reception and reaction to the announcement of,
00:32:24 ◼ ► and then the subsequent life of the trash can Mac Pro was very negative, right? People were very upset
00:32:31 ◼ ► about that computer. And I would say that the death of the Apple Silicon Mac Pro is a joke, right?
00:32:39 ◼ ► Yeah. Like, and I think that that tells the difference of people's needs over time. Like
00:32:45 ◼ ► that by and large, the sentiment to the Mac Pro now being gone is it's like a, like a curiosity or it's
00:32:54 ◼ ► like, we make fun of the person who has one, mostly John Syracuse, right? Like what's John
00:32:59 ◼ ► going to do? Um, any, they had a good conversation about an ATP, which was nowhere near as long as I
00:33:05 ◼ ► thought it was going to be. I know. Yeah. Um, I was actually quite disappointed. I wanted more. Um,
00:33:10 ◼ ► yeah, but I don't think that, but I think that that is like emblematic of there just isn't that much
00:33:14 ◼ ► to say about it anymore. Like John had already made his decision about what he was going to do
00:33:18 ◼ ► because everybody knew this was going to happen because it's just a computer that doesn't,
00:33:24 ◼ ► it doesn't have a place now in a way that we all know Apple would or would not make it. Like
00:33:30 ◼ ► it just doesn't exist. People can build their own PCs and it makes a lot of sense for the way that
00:33:36 ◼ ► will work. No one's expecting Apple to produce a product like the heyday of the Mac Pro again,
00:33:42 ◼ ► because mostly they don't need to because the rest of what they can do with Apple Silicon is like
00:33:47 ◼ ► more than enough for like 99% of their customers, probably more than that. Yeah. I mean, it was more
00:33:53 ◼ ► than I needed in, you know, 19 and 20. Part of it was I'd always, I'd always aspire to one,
00:34:00 ◼ ► right? Not necessarily the trash can, although the trash can a little bit in the beginning.
00:34:07 ◼ ► Bad computer. Um, I'd always aspire to one and I was in a position where I could do it and it was a
00:34:15 ◼ ► good fit. I mean, it was overkill, but like it, it worked with what I was doing. And so I was able to,
00:34:20 ◼ ► to do it. I enjoyed that time. It was incredibly expensive. Uh, and I definitely lost money on it,
00:34:26 ◼ ► but it was, it was something special for me to have in that time. And the, you know, I was never
00:34:40 ◼ ► Well, that product just was less interesting, right? Yeah. Like we put in the show notes,
00:34:46 ◼ ► your like kind of running log that you had for the Mac Pro. Most of the stuff that you did here,
00:34:52 ◼ ► you just wouldn't do to that one. Cause it just didn't make any sense. No, it wasn't. It wasn't
00:34:58 ◼ ► as expandable. And so it just, it just wasn't as fun anymore. Yeah. I look forward to buying one
00:35:05 ◼ ► though. And 15 years from the dirt cheap. You put a question in our document here that I just,
00:35:11 ◼ ► you didn't mention. I just wanted to talk about where, you know, like the, the, the trash can Mac Pro
00:35:16 ◼ ► was a product that then resulted in the Mac round table, which we first then learned about
00:35:24 ◼ ► the iMac Pro and Apple's commitment to making an expandable Mac Pro again. And you asked the
00:35:30 ◼ ► question, was this a mistake? Like having the Mac round table, what, what is your thinking for that
00:35:37 ◼ ► question? Uh, my thinking is at the time it wasn't, um, because there was a lot of pushback
00:35:45 ◼ ► and clearly Apple felt like they needed to do what would become the 19 Mac Pro to meet,
00:35:52 ◼ ► to meet that feedback. Um, and of course the iMac Pro was like the alternative future and the iMac
00:35:57 ◼ ► Pro was a great machine. Again, you and I both, did you have an iMac Pro? You did, didn't you?
00:36:02 ◼ ► I did. Jason did like it, it was incredible. The iMac Pro was so good. Um, but clearly they felt like
00:36:09 ◼ ► there was a need to, to have something more expandable. I think, I think the, if there is a
00:36:16 ◼ ► mistake in that, I think it's that the Mac Pro didn't come out until 19. Like if they had, if they
00:36:22 ◼ ► had the Mac Pro ready to go at the round table, which was in 17, I think maybe that would have been
00:36:27 ◼ ► different. Yeah. April, 2017. Um, maybe that would have been different, but the, the hard part is it was
00:36:35 ◼ ► released and Apple Silicon was so close to it. Yeah. It was an apology. It was the, the 2019 Mac
00:36:43 ◼ ► Pro was an apology. So like, I, I don't think it was a mistake. I don't even think it was a mistake
00:36:47 ◼ ► knowing everything we know now. Like the, the Mac round table was supposed to make us all happy again.
00:36:52 ◼ ► And it did that. And so, and then Apple was like, Hey, you know what guys, we've got this now too.
00:36:57 ◼ ► And we're like Apple Silicon. Yeah. And then we all forget about the Mac Pro. So it's way better.
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00:39:06 ◼ ► Well, okay. So guys, you know me, I'm a man of my word, right? Um, I say things and I do things.
00:39:12 ◼ ► That, yeah. I often, that's how I describe it to people, people. You know, Federico says things.
00:39:18 ◼ ► My ethos, so to speak. I say things and I do those things and then I say more things and I do more.
00:39:23 ◼ ► Uh, I told you I was interested in trying a shorter phone and I've been using the iPhone 17 Pro for the
00:39:30 ◼ ► past week. Uh, that's, you know, jumping right into it. Okay. Okay. So from the air to the pro.
00:39:36 ◼ ► From the air to the pro. And I have thoughts. Um, so get ready gang. It's time for an iPhone 17 Pro
00:39:43 ◼ ► review. Here we go. Well, find you a blogger who's actually spent six months with the iPhone air and now
00:39:50 ◼ ► it's going to spend six months with the iPhone 17 Pro. Um, so, um, first of who? Me. You're not a blogger.
00:40:03 ◼ ► Whoa. Wow. Okay. Carry on with your story. Um, also you're a writer occasionally. Sure. Sure. Sure. Um,
00:40:16 ◼ ► anyway, so first thought it is more comfortable. It is nicer to have a slightly shorter phone. Like
00:40:23 ◼ ► my thumb is pretty happy about that. Um, so being able to, to swipe for notification and control center
00:40:30 ◼ ► is nice. Um, the first shock was obviously the thickness and the weight that there's no way around
00:40:38 ◼ ► it. Uh, it kind of sucks whenever I pick it up or I feel it in my pocket. Like when I, when I was dual
00:40:46 ◼ ► carrying the iPhone air and the Z Fold 7, both in my pocket, I could instantly tell without looking in
00:40:53 ◼ ► my pocket, which one was the iPhone air. Right. Uh, now, uh, occasionally I pull out the wrong phone
00:41:00 ◼ ► because this thing is thicker and it's not immediately recognizable to the touch that I'm
00:41:07 ◼ ► picking up a thinner phone. Right. Compared to my Z Fold 7. Um, so, uh, and it's heavy. So like
00:41:15 ◼ ► when I'm reading in bed at night, using read wise reader or watching some YouTube videos, like my wrist
00:41:22 ◼ ► fills it after a while, especially if you're using it one handed, like the iPhone air, how thin it is,
00:41:29 ◼ ► how light it is continues to be just a champion of a, of a device. Um, I have been surprised not in a
00:41:40 ◼ ► great way by the battery. I was expecting more. I, and maybe, maybe what I was expecting was the iPhone
00:41:51 ◼ ► 17 Pro Max, but I was expecting to see a noticeable improvement compared to coming from the iPhone
00:41:58 ◼ ► air. And I didn't see that noticeable improvement. I still, if I really start using my phone in the
00:42:06 ◼ ► morning, like I wake up, I have breakfast and then I start doing things like email, catching up on social
00:42:10 ◼ ► media, RSS on my phone. This phone does not last me until late evening. Like I need to top it off at
00:42:17 ◼ ► some point. Like I need to put it on my MagSafe charger on the desk. I thought that I could avoid
00:42:22 ◼ ► that with the 17 Pro and that's not the case. Also, I have a theory that these phones on iOS 26 are too
00:42:30 ◼ ► power hungry. Like I find it so strange that an iPhone 17 Pro, which has a bigger battery than an
00:42:38 ◼ ► iPhone air, not as big as a 17 Pro Max, but I find it quite strange that it doesn't last me through the
00:42:44 ◼ ► whole day. And I hope that if the rumors are true that Apple is working on, you know, improving the
00:42:51 ◼ ► performance of 27, I really hope that we do see a jump in, in battery life over the course of a,
00:42:58 ◼ ► of a single day. I am using the same settings, adaptive power, all of those things. I was expecting a bit
00:43:04 ◼ ► more, uh, because everybody was saying, ah, the iPhone air, the battery is terrible. It is kind of terrible.
00:43:09 ◼ ► And I was expecting to go to the 17 Pro and be like, ah, the battery is great now. And I, and I
00:43:16 ◼ ► didn't have that reaction yet. So, and I thought, oh, maybe the first few days it's optimizing, it's
00:43:22 ◼ ► indexing things. No, hasn't changed. I still need to charge it up a little bit in the afternoon if I want
00:43:29 ◼ ► to not charge it in the evening, which is convenient because I'm on the couch. I don't want to have a
00:43:34 ◼ ► battery. I don't want to have a power cable on the couch and all those things. Yeah. My, my phone only
00:43:38 ◼ ► gets to like, stays to like 50% on day, like at the end of the day in days where I know I'm not using
00:43:44 ◼ ► it. You know what I mean? Like if I'm using my phone, then I will have to top it up at some point in the
00:43:49 ◼ ► day or I'll get to the end of the day and it's like, we're in the red now. Yeah. Yeah. So I was expecting
00:43:55 ◼ ► a bit more and, and, but, but looking at, you know, Sylvia as a 17 Pro Max, I think that's, uh, that's the, the
00:44:04 ◼ ► ideal battery for me, I guess, but I don't want to use a phone that big right now. Yeah. I think if
00:44:09 ◼ ► you're, you're right. Like if you're looking, if battery is what you care about the most, you always
00:44:13 ◼ ► have to just get the best one. Yeah. In the end, I, I cared more about the size right now. So, um,
00:44:20 ◼ ► obviously the thing that I love the most is the camera and, uh, coming from the iPhone air, the, the
00:44:34 ◼ ► telephoto pictures that I've taken of my dogs in the past 10 days or so, I don't want to say that
00:44:42 ◼ ► they make up for the past six months, but I've been having so much fun and I complained about
00:44:48 ◼ ► photo quality on iPhones. And I really spent some time researching this. I, you know, I, you know,
00:44:55 ◼ ► pulled up my body clod and perplexity over the past week and be like, Hey, help me figure out how can I
00:45:01 ◼ ► make iPhone photos as vibrant as the ones that I take on my Samsung by default? Like, I don't believe
00:45:08 ◼ ► that I cannot achieve the photo quality that I want on an iPhone. And sure enough, I switched to
00:45:15 ◼ ► the new bright photographic style with some tweaks and I really like it. That's sort of what you're
00:45:23 ◼ ► saying is photographic styles are good. If you have an LLM, no, I am saying that I have found the one
00:45:33 ◼ ► photographic style that doesn't suck, which is different from being good. Yeah. Wow. Okay. You're
00:45:38 ◼ ► really, I also know, I also know words in the English language. So I know how to describe things in
00:45:44 ◼ ► addition to saying things and doing things. I know how to describe things. Um, so, uh, bright doesn't
00:45:51 ◼ ► suck. And, uh, with some adjustments, I gotta, I gotta say, I I'm looking at the photos from the past
00:45:57 ◼ ► last week and I like them and yeah, having the telephoto and the, the zoom, the zoom level is
00:46:04 ◼ ► intense. Like when you go to the eight X, like you guys should have told me, you know, I mean,
00:46:13 ◼ ► I guess you did tell me I wasn't ready to listen. Um, but yeah, the eight X thing is wild. And I really
00:46:20 ◼ ► like the preview on the, on the, on the, in the viewfinder that you see the preview of the, the
00:46:25 ◼ ► picture, the whole picture where you're actually zooming in the upper right corner, really nicely
00:46:30 ◼ ► done. And, um, what else I've been using this with my MCON controller, really nice combo. I got it in
00:46:39 ◼ ► silver because I'm a boring tech guy. And I feel like I, you know, it was matching my silver and white
00:46:48 ◼ ► Apple accessory aesthetic. And, um, the plan right now is to use this phone instead of the air for the
00:46:56 ◼ ► next six months and, uh, try and find whatever balance I want to find before the iPhone fold.
00:47:04 ◼ ► And by that time I will be selling my iPhone air, I will be selling the 17 pro and I will just finally
00:47:11 ◼ ► get a folding phone from Apple. Hmm. I mean, I've done the same thing, right? I started with the air
00:47:17 ◼ ► and ended up on the pro and for all the same reasons. Uh, I also have found the battery life
00:47:22 ◼ ► surprisingly lacking at times. Um, but yeah, the camera is such a big improvement. And I was even
00:47:31 ◼ ► thinking about this in terms of like the regular 17, cause that's a spectacular phone. Um, but I would
00:47:38 ◼ ► much rather have the telephoto than the wide angle. And so, uh, pushes me to the pro. Um, what about you,
00:47:45 ◼ ► Mike, do you have a, like, if you can only have two camera lenses, which one would you ditch ultra
00:47:50 ◼ ► wide or telephoto? I'll get rid of the ultra wide. Well, the problem is then you can't take phone
00:47:55 ◼ ► photos of things that are super close to you. Right. Yeah. Cause it uses that for the, um,
00:48:00 ◼ ► macro mode, which is still not as good quality as I would want. I just don't think that's ever going
00:48:05 ◼ ► to be something I'm ever going to get. Cause I think every time they make the regular camera better,
00:48:09 ◼ ► the ultra wide will be behind. Um, but like for, for what I tend to choose to use, I would want the
00:48:28 ◼ ► Please, please go first. No, no, honestly, no. Like I, I don't like, um, not big on birthdays and
00:48:38 ◼ ► anniversaries myself. I especially don't like the looking back. Uh, that's just me. We haven't done
00:48:46 ◼ ► really anything on Mac stories for Apple at 50. I appreciate and respect everyone who did. I just
00:48:51 ◼ ► find personally, um, the content, uh, to introspective to sort of a, like a celebratory and not really
00:49:01 ◼ ► useful. Like, uh, and I understand why otherwise other people are really into this. Uh, not really
00:49:08 ◼ ► for me. I, uh, especially dislike corporate anniversaries. And then again, that's just me.
00:49:16 ◼ ► So, uh, but I mean, I am going to read the David Pogue book. So there's that. Like I do appreciate
00:49:24 ◼ ► a book about Apple history, but just doing multiple things to celebrate it. Not for me.
00:49:31 ◼ ► I did enjoy the episode of upgrade. So I enjoy other people doing it. I just don't like doing it myself
00:49:40 ◼ ► on the opposite side of the spectrum. I've loved this past week. Uh, and, and I, I still
00:49:46 ◼ ► have a bunch of stuff that I want to go through. Like I've, I'm only about a third of the way
00:49:50 ◼ ► through all of the Verge articles. The Verge has done such an incredible job, like in, in a way
00:49:55 ◼ ► that I was surprised about, um, like just how much stuff they've done, including their ranking
00:50:01 ◼ ► of the 50 best Apple products, which I'm, uh, I think it's done now. Actually, I just looked
00:50:16 ◼ ► There's some ageism I think going on in that, in that poll. Number three is the original Mac
00:50:22 ◼ ► Intosh. Oh, come on. Yeah. But I mean, number one, that's going to be no, no, the iPhone has
00:50:26 ◼ ► to be number one, Steven. Yeah. The iPhone has to be. I'm not arguing with that. I'm just
00:50:29 ◼ ► like, you go further down. I don't know. I have some problems with, uh, also some of the
00:50:41 ◼ ► have time today. What we should have done was a tier list of all the Apple at 50 anniversary
00:50:47 ◼ ► celebrations across different websites. Wow. I would, I would S tier the verge. I think
00:51:02 ◼ ► if anything, I would have S tiered Jason Snell. Yeah. Well, I didn't want to do that. Cause
00:51:06 ◼ ► I'm part of it, but like, yeah, Jason is, he is S tiered and the verge of S tiered because
00:51:11 ◼ ► Jason's obviously done a lot of stuff in other places as well. Um, including, uh, reviewing
00:51:17 ◼ ► David Pote's book for the Wall Street Channel, which is just very funny. Wild. Uh, but I,
00:51:22 ◼ ► no, I've really enjoyed this stuff. Um, and I'm, I think, well, I've enjoyed it so much
00:51:28 ◼ ► that like, we're, we, we're doing like a whole month of stuff on upgrade. Like we have other
00:51:32 ◼ ► episode things that we want to do. Um, different, different upgrading things that we want to do
00:51:38 ◼ ► over the month. Uh, cause I, I, I've liked it. I mean, you know, I think it was a couple of
00:51:43 ◼ ► weeks ago. I was, I was begging the internet to try and have fun, uh, this week. And I think
00:51:47 ◼ ► people have, and, and I'm, I'm really pleased about that. And I'm also pleased about how Apple
00:51:53 ◼ ► have treated it by and large. There's, there's a really, I would say a somewhat interesting
00:51:57 ◼ ► video. And I don't say this because it's, you know, it's Tim Cook at the end of the day,
00:52:00 ◼ ► right? On the Wall Street Journal where they're showing off some prototypes of devices, which
00:52:05 ◼ ► is real, like, it's just like fun to see. Like, and also just Tim to say like, he didn't even
00:52:11 ◼ ► know that stuff existed, which is also funny to me. It's like, they've, they've been pretty
00:52:17 ◼ ► open, um, as much as they can be. And that they are celebrating it, which is good because
00:52:23 ◼ ► I think it's what, I think it's something worth celebrating. I don't want them to celebrate
00:52:27 ◼ ► their 60th, right? In the same way. And I wouldn't have cared about them celebrating their 40th
00:52:32 ◼ ► either, but 50 feels like a good number to celebrate. And I've had a good time with it.
00:52:36 ◼ ► And yeah, Federica, thank you for mentioning it. I just want to say, I'm so proud of the episode of
00:52:40 ◼ ► Upgrade that we put out last week. It's great. Uh, this week. And, uh, I really hope that people
00:52:48 ◼ ► I've also enjoyed it probably unsurprisingly. Um, I did find it difficult to like decide on,
00:52:55 ◼ ► on what to do. Um, and I have not, I've enjoyed the writing. I have skipped some of the podcast
00:53:02 ◼ ► was like, I think cause I know this stuff so well, like people just getting things wrong
00:53:07 ◼ ► or very blatantly just like retelling stories out of the poke book kind of, kind of bugs me,
00:53:32 ◼ ► You know, like I figure there's probably a name for this format, right? Where you're like,
00:53:41 ◼ ► There's one blog post. Uh, and do you, I just wanted to read something. You said the eight,
00:53:47 ◼ ► the 18 pro just beneath the keyboard of the Mac book Neo I'm typing on. So it was just like,
00:53:57 ◼ ► Look, I'm just going to say a thing. You just, just be honest with me. Are you trying to turn
00:54:17 ◼ ► It is. No, I wrote it. I've shared this before. I feel like I am the most, like I do my best writing,
00:54:28 ◼ ► like in the evenings, which is incompatible with the rest of my life. Uh, so I did write this
00:54:33 ◼ ► downstairs so I could be downstairs like around as after the kids went to bed. Um, so I did write
00:54:41 ◼ ► it on the, on the Neo, but yeah, I just, I was just thinking, I was like, I don't like, I figured
00:54:46 ◼ ► a lot of people are going to do like what the verge did, right? Like hit the highlights. I thought
00:54:51 ◼ ► Jason's thing about how the Apple two was like so important for song was really good and really
00:54:54 ◼ ► insightful, but I just didn't know like where I would fit in with that. And so I decided, uh, and
00:55:01 ◼ ► like in all of this, like, yes, I'm glad it was celebrated, but also like, it's okay that things are
00:55:06 ◼ ► really complicated right now. And, um, that it can be hard to feel all good or all bad about anything
00:55:13 ◼ ► anymore. And so I also wanted to address that, but also like why it's important to me. So that's
00:55:19 ◼ ► how that piece kind of came together. I am very happy with how it came out, but it took me a long
00:55:23 ◼ ► time to kind of figure out what it was going to be. I don't know. Like, um, you, it was
00:55:29 ◼ ► really good. I liked it. I just, I was expecting more from the Apple history guy. Like I thought
00:55:37 ◼ ► He's happy. Federico doesn't want more things to read. I just, I just wondered, did you not
00:55:44 ◼ ► like, you know, like you've got your screenshot libraries and stuff, right? Like you have been
00:55:58 ◼ ► I think it was mostly eluding me that I just didn't know what, um, because 50 years is a
00:56:06 ◼ ► really long time. I've covered a lot. I mean, I've covered all the highlights of all like the
00:56:10 ◼ ► products, right? I mean, even to perform a month. And so it felt weird to like retrod product
00:56:18 ◼ ► stuff. I did think, I was like, well, I picked like my favorite 50 things. We're like, that's
00:56:22 ◼ ► going to be, uh, uh, a article type that lots of people do. Um, and so I was like, you know,
00:56:29 ◼ ► let's just, just like write how I feel about it. And so that, that's where I landed. Okay.
00:56:35 ◼ ► Happy birthday, Apple. Can't believe Tim Cook is turning 50. Is that how it works? You know?
00:56:42 ◼ ► Well, I think that does it, uh, for this week. Happy anniversary to the end of this episode.
00:56:51 ◼ ► It is. I mean, you did say at the beginning of the show that 600 was coming up and it was
00:56:59 ◼ ► Yeah. Because we're going to do new content. Not because we're going to do like a clip show
00:57:03 ◼ ► of the best moments of 600 episodes of connected. Okay. Yeah. Good. Who, who likes a clip show?
00:57:09 ◼ ► No one. Okay. Thank you. If, uh, if you like fresh content though, like we did this week,
00:57:16 ◼ ► like we do every week, uh, you can leave us some feedback about it. Connectedfeedback.com.
00:57:21 ◼ ► There's also a link in the show notes. If you really like content that we make here and you want
00:57:27 ◼ ► more of it with fewer, actually no ads at all, and also access to a bunch of cool stuff from Relay,
00:57:33 ◼ ► uh, join getconnectedpro.co seven bucks a month. You get longer ad free episodes each week,
00:57:41 ◼ ► discord access, some cool wallpapers, members only podcasts, including one that, that, that Mike and
00:57:47 ◼ ► I do each month. Uh, it's awesome. It's the best deal going. So go check that out. You can also find
00:57:52 ◼ ► all of us online. You can find Prince Flexi Federico at max stories.net where he's the editor
00:57:58 ◼ ► in chief. You can find Mike across a bunch of shows here at Relay and his, um, so-called blog at the,
00:58:05 ◼ ► the enthusiast.net. Not my words, Federico's words. Really? No, no. I said it's a blog.
00:58:10 ◼ ► He's not a blogger. That's what you said. I, Mike is not a blogger primarily. He's a writer,
00:58:18 ◼ ► writer. A blogger is like, you know, there's the daily grind. Yeah. Whereas the enthusiast is more
00:58:24 ◼ ► of a, I don't know how to describe it, but you know what I mean. It's a, it's a, I don't know what
00:58:31 ◼ ► you mean. I don't know what you mean. I need you to explain it more. So I feel like you're not under
00:58:47 ◼ ► Is max stories? Well, we try to, right? Especially when you have sponsors and you got to keep the,
00:58:55 ◼ ► you got to keep the machine running. That's what I mean. Like you have a place to write,
00:59:01 ◼ ► but you're not, and it's a blog, but do you consider yourself a blogger when you introduce yourself to
00:59:28 ◼ ► Show, you know, I'm the eternal, I'm the eternal, I'm the attorney general flexy. Someone did write
00:59:38 ◼ ► in saying that I seem uncomfortable with my title. I do. And so I love it. That makes me really,
00:59:43 ◼ ► really happy. He doesn't like saying it. At least I'm not secretary of deflects right now. That's,
00:59:49 ◼ ► you know, or, or flexy of war flex, which I guess secretary of war flex. Anyways, you can find my
00:59:57 ◼ ► writing because I am a blogger at 512pixels.net. And you consider yourself a blogger? Yes.
01:00:02 ◼ ► My, we've talked about this. My conception of myself is that I'm a writer, that I happen to do
01:00:10 ◼ ► other things that pay the bills because writing certainly doesn't pay the bills, but right.
01:00:23 ◼ ► How do you find Mastodon? You know what I mean? Oh yeah. It's a, it's a federated. It's really
01:00:30 ◼ ► everywhere. You, you consider yourself an iPod sock and power PC enthusiast, apparently. So
01:00:39 ◼ ► yes. You don't even, you don't even consider yourself a blogger. But it would be like father,
01:00:43 ◼ ► husband, blogger, podcaster, project manager. Whoa. So you consider yourself a, what was it? Father
01:00:54 ◼ ► first? I'm writing these down. I'm going to, I'm going to change it everywhere. Uh, so what'd I say?
01:01:00 ◼ ► The great thing is you will change it to this and like, husband, that seems funny to you right now,
01:01:05 ◼ ► but like people are going to see that and they're going to, it's going to think you're one of those
01:01:08 ◼ ► people, you know, but like, that's how they describe themselves. It's this collection of words.
01:01:14 ◼ ► Father, husband, lover, what'd I say? Blogger, podcaster, project manager, project manager,
01:01:23 ◼ ► man. Yeah. Really, really, really like making it sexy at the end there, you know? I know. Hey,
01:01:29 ◼ ► look, every little kid needs a project. People are excited about space right now, which they should