713: I Have Medium Hopes
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So with that in mind, I think we're going to issue iskew no let
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me reboot that because I realized I don't know how to pronounce that properly.
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Oh you got it right the first time.
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No, you had it.
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We're gonna try it again and few because I just need to do that.
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So Marco You can just pick a different word too.
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No, that no, we're gonna reboot it, but I need to swear so east
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chew follow up.
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Uh I needed to swear so Marco wouldn't use it.
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Then then that's not a challenge.
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Not a challenge.
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Not a challenge.
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Yeah, that's true.
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Not a challenge.
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All right, let me reboot that whole damn thing.
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Hello and goodbye, future marker.
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I'm totally using that.
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Alright, with that in mind, we we are going to issue follow up for
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this episode.
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Uh we will keep it askew if you will.
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Uh, but we're gonna go straight into the not event event and we're gonna
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talk about Apple's new home products.
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And uh we're gonna start with Homeview, which is a name that doesn't offend
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me but doesn't really rev my engine either.
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What do we think about the name?
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Uh it was like home home pod with uh with screen is what we've
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been calling it for years, right?
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Because that the rumors from years and years ago, it's like a home pod,
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but it has a screen and you know, that's this distinguishing characteristic.
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As the date approached to like when you know this was supposedly gonna be
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announced, I started to see more people saying home pad.
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Which makes some amount of sense.
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But if you're like, they would never call it HomePad because they already have
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HomePod and who would make two products with such confusingly similar names?
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Well, if you're new to Apple, they used to have a product call the
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And then at some point in the future they were gonna make a tablet.
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And everyone's like, what are they gonna call the tablet?
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Certainly they're not gonna call it iPad.
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Uh they called it iPad.
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So they made the iPod and they made the iPad.
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They made the home pod.
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They did not make the home pad.
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Uh they called it home view, which you know it's got a screen, so
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you view it.
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Makes sense.
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Uh Apple's really not uh, you know, if you think you know what Apple's
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gonna do with names, they usually zig when you think they're gonna zag.
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I think HomeView is better than HomePad, but it's not a great name.
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I think the one of the challenges with HomeView is that it doesn't have
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any unique or interesting words.
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Like Apple's product strategy for product naming strategy for a long time has been
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just putting Apple in front of a generic word.
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Apple Watch.
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Apple music.
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Apple Music.
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You know, Apple was the brand but these were all like pretty boringly named.
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And they for a little while could have like a little bit more of
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like a trademark unique name.
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You know, like b I mean, obviously back when everything was i something, like
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y those all kind of had those.
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You know, iPod and that led to HomePod.
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We still like still using pod as like the you know, the unique Apple
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version of this.
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It's like generic word, but pod.
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So you know that helped.
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iPad, you know, again, like the pad was kind of and the i mean,
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both of those.
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But I feel like HomeView, it's like no part of this name is interesting
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or unique to Apple.
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It's just like when you're filing a trademark, uh forgive me, I'm not a
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trademark lawyer, but I filed a bunch of them and so I know that
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the gist of it basically is like if it's too too if you're if
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what you're filing is too descriptive and not like unique enough, if it just
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describes what the product is, you generally can't get a strong trademark on it
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or even maybe maybe any trademark on it.
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Um and I feel like home view is like it's Almost that boring.
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Like it's not quite to that to that level.
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Like I'm sure they got I'm sure they secured the trademark, but it's just
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describing with two boring words glued together what this is.
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Like, okay, it's fine.
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I I do wish there was a little bit more personality in the name,
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but what the hell?
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It's it's not a bad name.
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It's a name that we, even as tet as Apple nerds, are going to
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almost immediately have trouble remembering and civilians aren't gonna stand a chance.
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Ask anyone who's not an Apple nerd what this product is called in six
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Nobody will know, I guarantee it.
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That's the interesting thing about Home Pod, because like Pod exists because of the
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iPod and the iPod was very popular at the time and people latched onto
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it pretty well.
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And I feel like the only reason HomePod makes any kind of sense with
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consumers is because the iPod existed and they're like, Yeah, whatever, Apple makes pods.
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And you know, I I wonder how many people call the home pod an
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iPod just because, you know, pod is in the name.
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But practically speaking, what is pod about the home pod?
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It is is it pod shaped?
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I mean, like a lot of things Apple makes are arguably pod shaped.
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What is a pod shape?
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And it's a home pod?
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I mean it doesn't even have anything having to do with sound in there.
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Like it is a big speaker, but there's to do with audio sound.
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Like nothing in that vein is in there.
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It's like they said, we made the iPod, people know we made the iPod.
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It was really popular.
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Stick home in front of that.
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At least this one says view and home.
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So it's like a thing for your home and you look at it, which
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But I I do think it actually makes more sense than home pod, but
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it is a worse name for the reasons you just said, Marco, is like
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home is not a thing that Apple owns in any particular way.
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And View is definitely not a thing that Apple owns.
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So when you stick them together, it doesn't really say Apple.
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But like all these names, like I hated MacBook and still don't really particularly
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But eventually you just get used to it.
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Even iPad was uh ridiculed when it first came out because people were so
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attached with slate and all their other rumors that were going around that that
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when they called it pad everyone's like ug but you just get used to
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You do, but like I I do kind of I hope that Apple starts
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adding more terms that it kind of say Apple.
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Like they kind of I think Neo and Duo are small steps in that
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Not like you know, they're not super strong 'cause they're not super unique.
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Neo, I think better than Duo.
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Well I mean duo is is it's got two screens, so it makes perfect
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And Neo, I cause it's new?
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I don't know.
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Yeah, I I think again, I think Neo is a better step in that
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Duo is a step in that direction.
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So maybe this is just like a boring name product That we know hopeful
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hopefully this is the anomaly.
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But hopefully new products get like a little more interesting names.
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Either way, um we should talk about what the heck this is.
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So this is a $300, which I'm gonna come back to that in a
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A $300 A three hundred dollar thing that vaguely looks like the w how
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would you describe that I Mac John?
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The one that ha that was on like a cantilever.
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Yeah, yeah, the the I Mac G four and all the rumors, all the
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rumored uh this product's been rumored for so long.
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Supposedly the hardware has been done for so long.
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Um, but it didn't actually this hardware didn't actually leak like picture wise.
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It everyone knew, oh, it's a square screen, it's got a dome on top,
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like it looks like the the iMac G four when you say I Mac
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I Mac G four, people don't know what the hell was the G four
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it's the one with the arm and the flat screen was on an adjustable
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arm and the base of it was a hemisphere, right?
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And it sat on the desk.
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And so every single like fake rendering based on text rumor descriptions, they're like,
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okay I can draw a square screen, I bet it's gonna have rounded corners.
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I'm gonna put it on a little arm and I'm gonna put it on
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a hemispherical base.
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Because you know, all the rumors were like, oh, it's kinda like that that
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flat screen iMac that had the thing on the arm.
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Uh every drawing I saw of this, every rendering, every everything looked like that.
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That's not what the product looks like.
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The product looks like that sitting on top of a cylinder.
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Yeah, and I would almost say, and and I say this, I say this
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not as an insult.
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It looks like what an AI rendering of an imagined Apple product would look
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Like in the sense that like it just looks kind of like modern Apple
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kind of low priority product, you know?
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And I think it looks decent.
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Like I s you know from at least from from the pictures and from
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the couple of reviews that I saw, like couple of video reviews I saw,
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or you know, video captures from the the hands-on stuff.
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It looks decent.
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It looks nice.
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And I think it's what it needs to look like because as we'll get
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to in a second, like there's two versions.
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There's one with the base and there's one that just wall mounts.
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And again this is this has all been rumored for a while, so we're
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kind of not too surprised.
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Um but I you know the wall mount one, you want that to be
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as minimal as possible and I think it is.
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And the base seems like it's, you know, to put on your counter or
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And it looks good for that.
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It looks like it's gonna be, you know, it's proportionally, it looks like it's
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gonna be stable and nice and heavy with that big base woofer on the
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Um, I think it's gonna look nice and normal on a countertop or on
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a side table or something.
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So I I think it is a successful design, if not a little unsurprising,
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but it's only unsurprising because we expect Apple products to look good and made
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out of silver, space gray, pink, and beige aluminum and have holes in them
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for sound to come out of.
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And like that's exactly what it looks like.
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Well here's the thing that surprised me.
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Maybe it's because I s seen so many of those images for so long.
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I was really, really surprised at how tall and uh skinny the base was.
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The fact that it wasn't a hemisphere, the fact that it is essentially an
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R2D2 or a top of a rounded trash can, it is a cylinder with
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a hemisphere stuck on it.
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And it is way taller than I thought it would be.
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Now looking at the product, I'm like, okay, it doesn't actually have an like
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an arm, adjustable arm like the the the flat panel IMAC did.
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It instead has a basically a solid piece of metal that hinges up and
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down in one dimension, as far as I can tell.
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So it's not an arm, because the arm had like uh the arm had
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like joints on both ends and you could, you know, move around.
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This is not that.
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And remember, there's rumors surrounding this product as well about a version of this
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with a robotic arm or that rotates by itself to face people and so
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on and so forth.
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That's not this product, but you can see how a product like that could
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be made from these pieces, differently assembled with a different kind of arm and
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so on and so forth.
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Um the base is tall, like again, when I look at the product, like,
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okay, I see why it's tall now.
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Because when you look at it from the front, you don't want the square
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screen to be like touching the table.
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You want it to be elevated a little bit.
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Um, so you have the the stand has to be taller, you know otherwise
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you like to try to slowly increase the height of a hemisphere, you end
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up having to increase the base by a lot.
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Uh there's probably some ratio for those two things that you could figure out.
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Anyway, um so it ends it's so it's an R2D2 head.
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It's a half of R2 D2 with the screen sticking out of it.
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And it looks a little bit more ungainly from the back and the sides
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than all the the renderings did.
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And the arm is less an arm and more of just like this is
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how the thing attaches.
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But uh in the end, like you said, Marco, it does look like an
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Apple product.
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And the rumors about this one are wild.
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I can't wait until people start getting these things because like the rumor is
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that this thing was done so long ago.
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Uh and let's rewind slightly to the first thing Casey said.
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I have to admit, that is way less than I thought this thing would
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And we'll not agree more.
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Could not agree.
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We'll get to pricing stuff in a little bit.
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But I look at it and I'm like, is this $300 because they built
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them all in 2024?
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When things were cheap, you know what I mean?
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When RAM was cheap, when the like when every aspect of this was cheaper
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is that why it's $300?
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Because they built literally like millions of them and they're sitting in a warehouse
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waiting for, you know, uh iOS 27.2 to finally be out?
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I don't know, but why?
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This is like the bargain of the century if you consider that this thing
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includes a screen and has well we'll get to the the specs in a
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second, but like it's got a lot of metal, it's got a lot of
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It does like it's just mind-bogglingly inexpensive.
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I haven't heard anyone complain about the price of this thing.
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Well I I think one thing that helps the price angle a lot is
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like what is expensive right now.
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It's not metal and speakers, it's not even screens.
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What's expensive right now is high end chips.
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And this doesn't really appear to have any of those in it.
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It's five nanometer, right?
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Like uh maybe.
00:11:34
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But like it's i isn't it just an A eighteen?
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Like it it seems like it is like it like yeah, there's not much
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in there, presumably there's not a huge amount of storage, presumably there's this this
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the stock amount of RAM the A eighteen comes with, which I didn't look
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But like still just Apple doesn't sell you anything made of anything for $300.
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Like let alone something something with this when has Apple sold you something with
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a screen for $300?
00:11:55
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Like it's hard to get Apple watches for that much.
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And they have much wimpier SOCs.
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Much everything about the Apple Watch is like the screen is smaller.
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I mean I guess they're OLED, but the screen is smaller, the SoC is
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smaller, the battery is smaller.
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Granted, this has no battery.
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There's just less there's literally less aluminum in the watch, less everything in the
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Three hundred dollars.
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I this is not a terrible deal, I'm gonna say.
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Well but I I think also like they have they are entering into a
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market that like, you know, obviously we're all gonna probably buy one because we're
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Apple nerds and we're stupid with money.
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But I think Oh, really?
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Casey's allergic to this product category.
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Oh we'll get there, okay.
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But I will but I will say like if you look at this product
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category from other makers, namely you know, a Amazon probably is the most you
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know, the biggest player in this category.
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Yeah, Google has a thing too.
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And and like I think this is more than both of those.
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Um yeah, well they're they're like two seventy, right?
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Or like two fifty.
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So it's stillpark.
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And of course the Apple one's gonna be more expensive.
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But normally the Apple one is hilariously more expensive.
00:12:49
◼
►
Not just like, oh it's thirty bucks more than the Amazon one.
00:12:51
◼
►
Like thirty bucks more than the Amazon one is a price area that Apple
00:12:54
◼
►
never touches.
00:12:55
◼
►
Well, but I think like it like sometimes they do, um, just usually not,
00:12:59
◼
►
and usually only their lowest end products.
00:13:01
◼
►
So for instance, I think well before today, the home pod mini was actually
00:13:07
◼
►
a pretty good deal for what it was.
00:13:08
◼
►
It was a before today.
00:13:09
◼
►
It was a hundred dollars, we'll get to that later.
00:13:11
◼
►
But it was a hundred dollars and it was kind of like between like
00:13:15
◼
►
the the cheap echo dots and the full size echoes in terms of sound
00:13:19
◼
►
Um but it was also between them in price and and I think for
00:13:23
◼
►
for its size especially and secondarily for its price, I think the Home Pod
00:13:27
◼
►
Mini was a fantastic deal, uh, for what you get for a hundred bucks.
00:13:32
◼
►
Although again, not anymore.
00:13:33
◼
►
But um and then the full size home pod, Apple always struggled to move
00:13:39
◼
►
And I think a huge reason was the price.
00:13:41
◼
►
That the full size home pod, you know, Apple thought they were competing with
00:13:44
◼
►
Sonos and they priced it as such and they they kind of aren't competing
00:13:50
◼
►
Like the full size home pod I think was competing a little more with
00:13:52
◼
►
just like higher end, you know, Amazon.
00:13:57
◼
►
Yeah, which are usually like, you know, a hundred and eighty, two hundred bucks,
00:13:59
◼
►
something like that.
00:13:59
◼
►
You know, so so I think you know the the three hundred dollar full
00:14:02
◼
►
size home pod, uh or three fifty at first, um, I think it just
00:14:06
◼
►
it was always well well above that market.
00:14:09
◼
►
So I think maybe Apple has learned from that a little bit.
00:14:12
◼
►
And maybe they've learned like, hey, we really can't push this too high because
00:14:17
◼
►
this is not like a must-have product for a lot of people, and all
00:14:21
◼
►
the other options out there are gonna be cheaper than it.
00:14:24
◼
►
So it can't be too excessive.
00:14:26
◼
►
And I think if the way they do that is by basically offloading all
00:14:32
◼
►
of the expensive operations to your expensive iPhone in your pocket, which just seems
00:14:36
◼
►
like that's what they're doing, that's a good strategy for them.
00:14:39
◼
►
Because then they can they can still sell this hardware at what is probably
00:14:42
◼
►
pretty healthy margins uh and and still be within the realm of what people
00:14:47
◼
►
might consider for their homes.
00:14:49
◼
►
Yeah we need to move on from price.
00:14:50
◼
►
But um with that said, I think the thing that's striking to me about
00:14:53
◼
►
this is whenever I see a screen and I I and I I think
00:14:57
◼
►
I conceptually understand that the screen is smaller than I think it is.
00:15:00
◼
►
It looks to me to be like ten plus inches and it's not.
00:15:03
◼
►
But I see a screen and I just assume, oh, that's especially with an
00:15:07
◼
►
Apple screen, because generally speaking, Apple devices have really nice screens.
00:15:11
◼
►
And and so I assume, oh, this is like a five hundred dollar plus
00:15:14
◼
►
And then I see the price of three hundred dollars.
00:15:16
◼
►
And the two explanations that make the most sense sense to me genuinely is
00:15:20
◼
►
that hey, this probably doesn't RAM.
00:15:23
◼
►
And a lot of the things that are the actual costs these days because
00:15:26
◼
►
yes, screens used to be the problem, but now arguably they're not.
00:15:30
◼
►
And actually, John, I really think you're onto something.
00:15:32
◼
►
I really think these these may have been manufactured I mean I still think
00:15:36
◼
►
the screen is probably the most expensive component in this.
00:15:38
◼
►
Maybe the case.
00:15:39
◼
►
I don't like but it's it's a it's like a six inch by six
00:15:41
◼
►
inch square screen, or at least the that's the how the outside of it.
00:15:43
◼
►
What do they call it?
00:15:44
◼
►
They have a diagonal measure.
00:15:45
◼
►
Well you'll get to it when you read specs.
00:15:46
◼
►
But um I'm trying to look up how much RAM the A18 had in
00:15:49
◼
►
But I'm sure it has the amount of RAM that the A18 eighteen had
00:15:51
◼
►
when it was in a phone because I don't think they would you know
00:15:54
◼
►
they're not gonna make a test on one of these for their for that
00:15:56
◼
►
So anyway, in an in any case let's keep three nanometer.
00:16:00
◼
►
The eight eighteen is three nanometer wow.
00:16:02
◼
►
Oh is it really?
00:16:03
◼
►
Uh so they released a couple of videos.
00:16:05
◼
►
Um I'm gonna talk about there's a there's one that's the new Apple Home
00:16:09
◼
►
View that's basically just a standard TV ad.
00:16:11
◼
►
It's like 90 seconds or something like that.
00:16:13
◼
►
That one was fine.
00:16:14
◼
►
It's exactly what you expect.
00:16:15
◼
►
They released a different one that I think was like three and a half
00:16:17
◼
►
minutes, and it's called Welcome Apple Home View Designed for Life at Home.
00:16:22
◼
►
I get the vibe that I might be standing alone on this.
00:16:26
◼
►
I thought this was a great video.
00:16:28
◼
►
I really enjoyed it.
00:16:29
◼
►
I agree with you.
00:16:30
◼
►
I could not believe how many people were slamming this.
00:16:32
◼
►
Because it tr it here's here's the pitch if you haven't seen it, which
00:16:35
◼
►
you should watch in the show notes, it's short.
00:16:36
◼
►
It's a family getting ready to leave in the morning.
00:16:39
◼
►
It's like a brother and a sister and a mom and a dad in
00:16:41
◼
►
the hectic morning of getting out of the way, and they're trying to show
00:16:43
◼
►
the how the home view fits into these people's lives.
00:16:46
◼
►
Um and it's very difficult to do this without embarrassing yourself.
00:16:51
◼
►
Like it's difficult to make an ad of like, oh, busy family at home.
00:16:55
◼
►
Like all right, it's it's an ad for the the product, like the the
00:16:58
◼
►
Like you're supposed to see everyone in the family using the product and how
00:17:00
◼
►
it fits into their life, but you're also supposed to show the family interacting
00:17:03
◼
►
with each other in a realistic way.
00:17:05
◼
►
That is a really high degree of difficulty because it's so easy to be
00:17:08
◼
►
like embarrassingly corny or unrealistic or whatever.
00:17:12
◼
►
And in the end, we all know there is artifice.
00:17:14
◼
►
We're not, I don't think this is like no real family is like this.
00:17:17
◼
►
Everyone is too well spoken.
00:17:19
◼
►
The timings are too perfect.
00:17:20
◼
►
It is clearly a script piece piece of narrative fiction.
00:17:23
◼
►
But once you're willing to accept that, the goal of this is to show
00:17:28
◼
►
how semi-realistic archetypes Of mom, dad, kid, and a brother and sister would use
00:17:34
◼
►
this product to fit into their life.
00:17:36
◼
►
And I thought they did not embarrass themselves with the script writing.
00:17:39
◼
►
So whoever wrote this script, you did not embarrass yourself.
00:17:42
◼
►
Now, did you write something amazing?
00:17:43
◼
►
Like it's not there's no groundbreaking stuff here.
00:17:47
◼
►
It's not like oh it brought a tear to my eye, emotional.
00:17:50
◼
►
It's the think different ad campaign inspiring the masses.
00:17:53
◼
►
It's just a little tiny family skit to advertise a product.
00:17:57
◼
►
But I was shocked by how little I was cringing while watching this.
00:18:01
◼
►
And I've heard a lot of other people talk about this and say, only
00:18:04
◼
►
parents understand this thing, like that it speaks to parents, but if you're not
00:18:09
◼
►
a parent, it just seems like some dumb, corny family sitcom that you don't
00:18:12
◼
►
want to watch because it's an infomercial for a product.
00:18:14
◼
►
Like I get it.
00:18:15
◼
►
And I'm not saying it was like a tear jerker or attaching to my
00:18:18
◼
►
emotions because I'm parent and I ne didn't see this ad when I wasn't
00:18:21
◼
►
So I don't know.
00:18:22
◼
►
But I think there is something to that because I have seen a lot
00:18:24
◼
►
a lot of people looking at this and saying that it's just the most
00:18:27
◼
►
embarrassing they've ever seen.
00:18:29
◼
►
And I'm also with Casey.
00:18:30
◼
►
I didn't think it was that embarrassing.
00:18:32
◼
►
But it is supposed to tell you this is how the product fits into
00:18:35
◼
►
And boy, this was the first thing I watched.
00:18:38
◼
►
This immediately raised tons of questions to me.
00:18:41
◼
►
The second the ad starts, it's like a family in a kitchen, um, and
00:18:45
◼
►
there's a big kitchen island, and the the family is rotating around the kitchen
00:18:48
◼
►
island dealing with their day of like they have to get off to school
00:18:50
◼
►
and what they can make for breakfast and they have to look up a
00:18:52
◼
►
recipe on the homebot.
00:18:53
◼
►
Mom can't find her keys.
00:18:55
◼
►
And the the brothers being a jerk and the sisters walk into school with
00:18:58
◼
►
a guy who might be her boyfriend.
00:19:00
◼
►
Like it's a whole little skit they fit into this thing here.
00:19:02
◼
►
And there's the home view in the center of the kitchen island.
00:19:06
◼
►
And it's Immediately I said, okay, I what I know about this product is
00:19:10
◼
►
that it's not battery powered.
00:19:12
◼
►
Like there is no battery inside it.
00:19:14
◼
►
You must be plugged in for it to be used.
00:19:16
◼
►
Where is that thing plugged in?
00:19:18
◼
►
Because you know in an Apple ad, they're not going to show a core
00:19:21
◼
►
cord snaking from the center of the kitchen island, draping over the edge of
00:19:25
◼
►
the kitchen island and plugging into a plug that's probably against code in lots
00:19:28
◼
►
of regions now on the side of their kitchen island.
00:19:31
◼
►
So they drilled a hole in the middle of their kitchen island and snaked
00:19:35
◼
►
the USB C cord through the hole that they drilled in the center of
00:19:39
◼
►
the kitchen island so they could be like a Sony ed where once whenever
00:19:42
◼
►
Sony shows their televisions on their website, there's never any cords attached to them.
00:19:45
◼
►
You're like, well, that's a great if you just want to look at the
00:19:47
◼
►
the TV in the turned-off state, but if you ever wanted to turn on,
00:19:49
◼
►
you can have to plug it in and maybe connect it to a video
00:19:53
◼
►
Uh but yeah, that's just like, okay.
00:19:55
◼
►
I'm I'm mostly willing to give that a pass because like, oh, it's an
00:19:59
◼
►
ad and you know, in realistically, it would be shoved into a nook somewhere,
00:20:02
◼
►
but that does factor into their pitch for the product, which is that at
00:20:07
◼
►
one point they show someone like you can rotate it.
00:20:09
◼
►
So now the screen's facing me.
00:20:10
◼
►
Now the screen's facing you.
00:20:11
◼
►
That's that's why it's on a little R2D2.
00:20:13
◼
►
That's why it's circular.
00:20:14
◼
►
That's why it has a little arm.
00:20:16
◼
►
To be clear, the the thing doesn't.
00:20:18
◼
►
R2 D2's head does not turn.
00:20:19
◼
►
R2 D2 is a continuous cylinder.
00:20:21
◼
►
He does not have a separate head section that turns.
00:20:23
◼
►
But you can rotate the entire thing because it's a cylinder and it's
00:20:28
◼
►
or whatever.
00:20:28
◼
►
And that's why it's center of the island.
00:20:30
◼
►
But no actual family can ever put this in the center of an aisle
00:20:34
◼
►
unless they already have a hole there for snaking the USB C cord through.
00:20:38
◼
►
So that was a immediate ding for me.
00:20:42
◼
►
Um the second bit is uh they show you know, uh I I was
00:20:47
◼
►
very curious about this when I saw this in the ad and we'll get
00:20:49
◼
►
to it in in a bit.
00:20:49
◼
►
They show people using it.
00:20:50
◼
►
It's oh when you look at it, you see your junk and when dad
00:20:52
◼
►
looks at it, he see his junk and and when the the daughter looks
00:20:55
◼
►
at it, she sees her text messages, right?
00:20:56
◼
►
So oh it's like it's recognizing you and it shows you your stuff.
00:20:59
◼
►
Isn't clever.
00:21:02
◼
►
and they show a sequence where uh the brother tries to to s peek
00:21:06
◼
►
and see what the sister was seeing in her text, but he can't because
00:21:09
◼
►
when he looks at it, it's like sorry, you're not you know the sister,
00:21:12
◼
►
we won't show you the text, and he shows that he's appointed as they're
00:21:15
◼
►
showing the security thing about it.
00:21:18
◼
►
And that brings me to the final and I feel like most important question
00:21:21
◼
►
and the thing I heard everyone bring up about this video, which is wouldn't
00:21:24
◼
►
every person in this video be doing all this stuff on their phone?
00:21:27
◼
►
Certainly the kids would.
00:21:29
◼
►
That is the question HomeView has to answer.
00:21:31
◼
►
Why should I use this and not my phone?
00:21:33
◼
►
Because if this was not an ad for HomeView, you can bet the girl
00:21:36
◼
►
would be texting her potential boyfriend on her phone not on the communal home
00:21:41
◼
►
pot in the middle of the island, regardless of the security features and don't
00:21:45
◼
►
let her brother see it.
00:21:46
◼
►
He could just shoulder surf that crap.
00:21:47
◼
►
She's gonna do that on her phone, one hundred percent.
00:21:50
◼
►
Is the dad gonna do it on the island for the recipe?
00:21:52
◼
►
Maybe, but then if someone comes and yanks the the home view and starts
00:21:55
◼
►
doing their thing, it's like, hey, I was looking at the recipe.
00:21:58
◼
►
I don't think the Zimbo Marshall answered that question.
00:22:00
◼
►
And everybody I saw looked at this ad was like, uh what the reason
00:22:03
◼
►
why it was unrealistic depiction of a family is that there was no one
00:22:06
◼
►
on their phone.
00:22:07
◼
►
And that's a problem for this product.
00:22:10
◼
►
And and I think that's like phones have gotten so good now that many
00:22:16
◼
►
people don't even use countertop speakers anymore.
00:22:19
◼
►
They just play crap out of their phone speakers like as they go around
00:22:22
◼
►
the house doing stuff.
00:22:24
◼
►
Many people use their phone for the timers.
00:22:26
◼
►
Especially like, you know, young kids are gonna use their phone, like teenagers are
00:22:29
◼
►
gonna use their phone for all of these tasks.
00:22:32
◼
►
Teenagers care even less about sound quality and big screens and you're like teenagers
00:22:36
◼
►
care way more about privacy and and the whole family not seeing what they're
00:22:40
◼
►
Yeah, but I I I think this is I I think it's going to
00:22:44
◼
►
have a reasonably small market.
00:22:46
◼
►
I don't think it's gonna be no market.
00:22:48
◼
►
Like I think it will sell.
00:22:49
◼
►
It's gonna I mean I mean I think it's gonna sell better than some
00:22:52
◼
►
other platforms Apple might have launched in the last few years.
00:22:54
◼
►
Uh but I think it's going to be
00:22:59
◼
►
probably about the same size as the market for the home pod, which is
00:23:05
◼
►
It it's not nothing, and it's not a bad product.
00:23:08
◼
►
It's just not a big market.
00:23:10
◼
►
And that's okay.
00:23:12
◼
►
And I think that's this is kind of leading into like you know, we'll
00:23:14
◼
►
we'll the larger view later on about like, you know, what they're doing with
00:23:18
◼
►
with you know th this new push in into home kit and home devices
00:23:21
◼
►
But I think this is like a flagship device for people who are already
00:23:27
◼
►
in that Apple home ecosystem already, I don't think this is gonna bring that
00:23:32
◼
►
many new people into it.
00:23:33
◼
►
But for those of us who are in it, this is probably gonna be
00:23:36
◼
►
pretty nice.
00:23:37
◼
►
I do wonder if it's live and die based on its audio quality, because
00:23:41
◼
►
the main appeal I can see for this is like I've seen a lot
00:23:44
◼
►
of people who bounce off um home home smart speakers because you have to
00:23:49
◼
►
talk to them and people find that uncomfortable and they don't know how to
00:23:52
◼
►
do it and it's we all know that it's can be unreliable and weird.
00:23:55
◼
►
Whereas if you basically got a speaker with a little screen on it, people
00:23:59
◼
►
are a little bit more comfortable interacting with that, even if they're just mostly
00:24:02
◼
►
doing it from their phone, just to be able that shows that they're doing
00:24:06
◼
►
Like there's being able to see, like visibility into what the thing is doing
00:24:10
◼
►
and a thing that you can touch, I think that makes people feel more
00:24:12
◼
►
comfortable.
00:24:12
◼
►
So I'm still thinking of this kind of as the home pod with a
00:24:16
◼
►
screen for most people and that like so maybe you didn't want a home
00:24:20
◼
►
pod mini because you're or a big home pod certainly because you're like, well
00:24:23
◼
►
I like the idea of a speaker, but I'd rather just have a dumb
00:24:25
◼
►
Bluetooth speaker.
00:24:26
◼
►
Like I don't need any smarts in it because I dumb Bluetooth speaker looks
00:24:28
◼
►
I know I know how to connect to my phone and play stuff and
00:24:30
◼
►
that's that.
00:24:31
◼
►
But for like young people setting up their first apartment or home and they
00:24:35
◼
►
want to have some sound, maybe they bounce off the mini because they're like,
00:24:38
◼
►
I don't want to talk to a thing, but if it has a screen,
00:24:40
◼
►
I can just, you know, pull up a playlist and hit like it.
00:24:42
◼
►
Whatever they think they can do with this.
00:24:44
◼
►
Remains to be seen whether they'll be able to do with it by touching
00:24:46
◼
►
the screen, but whatever they think they can do with it, they're like, I'll
00:24:49
◼
►
just be able to pull it up there and use a touch screen and
00:24:50
◼
►
start playing stuff as sort of like a modern young person small compact apartment
00:24:56
◼
►
or dorm room stereo.
00:24:57
◼
►
And that really depends on well how how good is that speaker.
00:24:59
◼
►
The only thing I've heard from the people who are there in person, like
00:25:01
◼
►
the YouTubers who said that so a couple people say that it it wasn't
00:25:05
◼
►
as loud as they thought it would be.
00:25:07
◼
►
Uh and that is maybe a problem.
00:25:08
◼
►
Maybe it's a little bit too small to do that.
00:25:10
◼
►
Maybe it's actually not even as loud as a HomePod Mini.
00:25:13
◼
►
But you know, at 300 bucks, I can see this as a splurge purchase
00:25:17
◼
►
for your first apartment on your own as a way to have sound and
00:25:22
◼
►
maybe also some other aspects of like, you know, FaceTime or whatever.
00:25:26
◼
►
How many people getting their first apartment on their own have the money for
00:25:29
◼
►
Oh, like again, it's at three hundred bucks, like I said, I did say
00:25:32
◼
►
it's a splurge purchase.
00:25:33
◼
►
Like it's better than like, oh I want, you know, I want to buy
00:25:35
◼
►
a stereo from a new apartment.
00:25:36
◼
►
Well no, no one buys stereos anymore.
00:25:38
◼
►
Like Again, they're just they're just gonna play it on their phone.
00:25:41
◼
►
What if you wanna level up a little bit from that?
00:25:42
◼
►
What if you wanna s if you're interested in music and you want some
00:25:45
◼
►
kind of sound system for like casual gatherings and par parties at your apartment
00:25:49
◼
►
that also maybe doubles as the thing you can FaceTime your parents from and
00:25:52
◼
►
Like I I can see a way to advert advertise this as that product.
00:25:55
◼
►
Again at 300 bucks, I feel like it's in reach because it is within
00:25:58
◼
►
it's less than a hundred dollars within its competitors.
00:26:01
◼
►
So we liked well Marco, what did you think of the com of the
00:26:05
◼
►
I thought it was Fine.
00:26:08
◼
►
I wasn't put off by it.
00:26:09
◼
►
I think it was a little long.
00:26:11
◼
►
I mean it is an infomercial.
00:26:13
◼
►
And I think I think like it they they can get a little too
00:26:17
◼
►
cute, you know, but like it's fine.
00:26:19
◼
►
It was exactly what it needed to be.
00:26:21
◼
►
Yeah Ever everyone was a little bit too well spoken and clever, and they
00:26:24
◼
►
you know, and it in the end they're demonstrating features of a product, so
00:26:28
◼
►
there's no getting around that.
00:26:29
◼
►
I think the only thing that turned me off, personally the only thing that
00:26:32
◼
►
turned me off about it, other than yeah, where are all the phones, but
00:26:34
◼
►
of course it's contrived.
00:26:36
◼
►
But this is a tangent I really don't want to go down.
00:26:39
◼
►
So please do not engage, gentlemen.
00:26:41
◼
►
But I actually don't think New Siri is that great.
00:26:44
◼
►
And it's certainly not as fast as they showed in this commercial.
00:26:48
◼
►
I noticed that immediately.
00:26:49
◼
►
That brings up the final point that a lot of people were pointing out.
00:26:51
◼
►
Like, oh we were we were lauding them for showing Siri AI in real
00:26:55
◼
►
time when it was first rolled out.
00:26:56
◼
►
Like you know, making up for the twenty twenty four WWE C right?
00:26:59
◼
►
And people were like, well this doesn't do that.
00:27:01
◼
►
This doesn't show anything in real time.
00:27:03
◼
►
Not even in real time.
00:27:03
◼
►
Someone asked.
00:27:04
◼
►
Did they have a sequence shortened text at the bottom?
00:27:07
◼
►
You ever see that?
00:27:07
◼
►
They did sequences shortened to show that they're not lying about a product.
00:27:10
◼
►
And my take on this is that they don't need to do that because
00:27:16
◼
►
this is clearly narrative fiction with edits.
00:27:19
◼
►
And every time there's
00:27:21
◼
►
well be infinite potential time between the edits.
00:27:25
◼
►
Like it's an under st a media understanding of when we see something edited
00:27:28
◼
►
If there's a cut, we're not saying that this happened and then immediately that
00:27:33
◼
►
There could be any amount of time between those cuts.
00:27:35
◼
►
And so I don't think they have to say, you know, professional driver, close
00:27:39
◼
►
course, sequences shortened.
00:27:40
◼
►
Because it's not one continuous shot.
00:27:42
◼
►
They put that in there when they when it's like a TV ed where
00:27:44
◼
►
they're showing a phone and they hear someone tapping and tapping on the phone
00:27:46
◼
►
and they never cut away and things happen way too fast.
00:27:48
◼
►
You need sequences shortened on that.
00:27:50
◼
►
Again, I'm a lawyer, I don't know.
00:27:52
◼
►
For this one, they always seem to cut.
00:27:54
◼
►
And the cuts did make it seem like Siri AI is way way faster
00:27:59
◼
►
than we all know it to be.
00:28:00
◼
►
And I agree with you, Casey.
00:28:01
◼
►
Like I mean, Siri AI is j is is only uh such a relief
00:28:05
◼
►
after the non AI Siri, but compared to other competing products that are more
00:28:10
◼
►
mature and have always been more responsive, they still are.
00:28:14
◼
►
So there is the tabletop one, which is mostly what we've been talking about.
00:28:17
◼
►
There's also a wall-mounted one, which I think John mentioned in passing earlier.
00:28:22
◼
►
Um the tabletop one has, I believe, a downward facing subwoofer, if I'm not
00:28:27
◼
►
Uh downward facing dog.
00:28:28
◼
►
Uh no, it isn't.
00:28:29
◼
►
We'll get to the the specs of the two things, but for now it's
00:28:32
◼
►
suffice it to say that the wall map one is the non-wall mat one
00:28:36
◼
►
without the R2D2 in the arm.
00:28:39
◼
►
And you may be thinking, well what the hell's in the R2D2 in the
00:28:42
◼
►
Apparently you don't need any of that stuff because you can put it on
00:28:44
◼
►
Apparently the whole thing is in the screen.
00:28:46
◼
►
Well the R2D2, the ARM obviously connects it to the R2D2 and the R2D2
00:28:50
◼
►
contains Speakers.
00:28:53
◼
►
But the Walmart one does does also have speakers, and Apple has made a
00:28:57
◼
►
point in the releases that they've made, the the the you know newsroom stuff,
00:29:02
◼
►
um, that they have tuned the speakers for the Walmount version to accommodate for
00:29:08
◼
►
the fact that it's mounted against a wall.
00:29:09
◼
►
And obviously the Walmount speakers will be worse because they are tiny like iPad
00:29:14
◼
►
And we'll come back to the Walmount stuff in minutes.
00:29:17
◼
►
But uh like we said earlier the display with bezel is a little less
00:29:21
◼
►
than six inches across.
00:29:22
◼
►
Um I forget what they're calling it corner to corner, but it it's fine.
00:29:26
◼
►
Uh the colors for the R2T R2D2 version are silver, starlight, rose, pink, and
00:29:32
◼
►
space gray, which I would describe as gray, gold, pink, and darker gray.
00:29:36
◼
►
Uh for the wall mount one, you get gray or darker gray.
00:29:39
◼
►
And I think that's smart because anything you're going to mount on your wall
00:29:42
◼
►
you want to be neutral.
00:29:43
◼
►
I know people are complaining about this.
00:29:44
◼
►
Why can't I get the pink one on my wall?
00:29:45
◼
►
You probably don't want the pink one on your wall.
00:29:48
◼
►
Fair enough.
00:29:49
◼
►
Uh so yeah, the it's an A18, which we've already covered.
00:29:52
◼
►
The screen is eight gigs of RAM by the way in the A18.
00:29:55
◼
►
Oh, thank you.
00:29:55
◼
►
The screen is a seven-inch diagonal IPS L C D.
00:29:59
◼
►
It's 1088 by 1088 at 220 points per inch.
00:30:02
◼
►
It is true tone.
00:30:03
◼
►
It goes as as bright as 500 knits, but interestingly as dark as three
00:30:08
◼
►
tenths of a knit.
00:30:09
◼
►
Uh this is the lowest minimum brightness ever.
00:30:12
◼
►
The previous low was one knit.
00:30:13
◼
►
Uh John, uh what could we get any lower?
00:30:16
◼
►
Well, so here when I look at this screen, like people were lauding the
00:30:19
◼
►
fact that it can get down to 0.3 nits because like if what if
00:30:22
◼
►
it's in a home and you want the home to be dark?
00:30:23
◼
►
It's really annoying like to have a dark room and like this bright screen
00:30:26
◼
►
So getting really, really dim is useful.
00:30:29
◼
►
Like imagine if you want to put this in a bedroom or use it
00:30:30
◼
►
as like your alarm clock or whatever.
00:30:32
◼
►
Who knows what people use this for?
00:30:33
◼
►
It's nice that it goes down.
00:30:35
◼
►
But here's the thing, it drives me up a wall about all these devices.
00:30:38
◼
►
Like my for example, my Ecubie thermostat, which is similar.
00:30:41
◼
►
It's a wall, it's got a screen on it.
00:30:43
◼
►
Sometimes that room is dark.
00:30:45
◼
►
Uh L C Ds emit light when they're quote unquote black.
00:30:49
◼
►
Uh because the I spent these are these don't have dynamic backlights.
00:30:53
◼
►
The backlight is on all the time.
00:30:54
◼
►
They close the liquid crystals, trying not to let any light out.
00:30:57
◼
►
But guess what?
00:30:58
◼
►
Some light gets through, which means in a dark room, your LCD screen, even
00:31:03
◼
►
when the screen is entirely quote unquote black, is glowing.
00:31:07
◼
►
You know it doesn't do that?
00:31:09
◼
►
Self-emissive technologies like OLED.
00:31:11
◼
►
I know OLED would have made this super expensive, but like for my EcoBee
00:31:14
◼
►
where the screen is like the size of an Apple Watch.
00:31:16
◼
►
Oh my god, I would pay like a hundred dollars extra for an OLED
00:31:19
◼
►
screen on my Ecoby.
00:31:21
◼
►
Just so the black can be black, cause most of the time it's black
00:31:23
◼
►
with like some white numerals showing the temperature or whatever.
00:31:26
◼
►
OLED is perfect for home devices because the black parts of the screen you
00:31:31
◼
►
always want to be actually black and only self-emissive stuff per pixel self-admissive stuff
00:31:36
◼
►
like OLED can do that.
00:31:39
◼
►
So this thing, it's great that it gets dim.
00:31:42
◼
►
It's not so great that even when the screen is quote unquote black with
00:31:45
◼
►
white letters on it, even though the white part can get down to 0.3
00:31:49
◼
►
knits, I wonder if the black part will be 0.03 nits.
00:31:54
◼
►
So yeah, I'm not I'm not arguing for like, oh, this should have been
00:31:56
◼
►
only because it's a $300 device or whatever.
00:31:59
◼
►
I'm just saying like the sooner s Self emissive per pixel lighting can reduce
00:32:04
◼
►
in price enough that it's in home devices, the better because that is the
00:32:07
◼
►
ideal application.
00:32:09
◼
►
Well also I I mean it wouldn't um image retention be a pretty significant
00:32:12
◼
►
concern on this one, on this kind of device?
00:32:13
◼
►
I mean they gotta solve that problem too, it's true.
00:32:16
◼
►
Like uh you get image retention on L C D's as well, as we've
00:32:19
◼
►
all seen by looking at like a big uh old L C D flat
00:32:21
◼
►
screen TV as a menu in some like restaurant, right?
00:32:24
◼
►
That these are problems to be solved.
00:32:26
◼
►
I'm just saying, like for home devices in particular, since we're talking about getting
00:32:29
◼
►
dim, any screen in a black room, you're gonna know the technology.
00:32:33
◼
►
You're like, is that an L C D or not?
00:32:36
◼
►
Uh so yeah, the camera is 12 megapixel center stage camera, F2.4 aperture.
00:32:42
◼
►
It is in the bezel.
00:32:43
◼
►
There's no notch or dynamic island.
00:32:45
◼
►
For the regular and and the wall-mounted versions, there are two custom full-range driver
00:32:51
◼
►
For the uh R2T2 version only, there's a custom downfiring woofer and dual force
00:32:56
◼
►
canceling Marco, passive radiators.
00:32:59
◼
►
Interesting.
00:32:59
◼
►
Yeah, so they s shove a lot of speakers in that in that dome.
00:33:02
◼
►
Yeah, I mean so the the a passive radiator in this case, um they've
00:33:05
◼
►
been doing those recently in a bunch of their devices.
00:33:08
◼
►
That the passive radiator is the only kind of base sort of driver um
00:33:13
◼
►
that the home pod mini has.
00:33:14
◼
►
Uh and I think they even put them in some of the laptops recently,
00:33:17
◼
►
or at least maybe the IMAX.
00:33:19
◼
►
I forget, but um it it it actually helps somewhat with base response.
00:33:24
◼
►
Like it's not as good as having a real driver.
00:33:26
◼
►
But it's good.
00:33:26
◼
►
Um now in this case, they're g they have both.
00:33:29
◼
►
They have a r you know what sounds like probably it's probably gonna be
00:33:32
◼
►
like a big downward-facing woofer, which is how home pods have always been built.
00:33:37
◼
►
Um it looks like the that's kind of what the base mainly is.
00:33:41
◼
►
The good thing is those tend to be really frickin' heavy.
00:33:43
◼
►
So it kind of you know gives you what you want in a base
00:33:46
◼
►
like this, which is, you know, a a nice f you know stable footing
00:33:50
◼
►
for the whole thing, and probably pretty good sound, at least in the bass
00:33:54
◼
►
I do want wonder a little bit how the mid-range and upper frequencies are
00:34:00
◼
►
gonna be represented very well by what appears to be only the screen um
00:34:04
◼
►
and only the top and bottom edges, or maybe even only the bottom edge.
00:34:09
◼
►
I forgot is it are there holes in the top?
00:34:11
◼
►
So on the on the left and right sides it appears to just be
00:34:13
◼
►
microphones.
00:34:14
◼
►
Yeah, I can't tell where the where the speakers are.
00:34:16
◼
►
I haven't seen one uh cut one of these open yet.
00:34:17
◼
►
Yeah I think it might just be the bottom for the for the mid
00:34:21
◼
►
So that that like the so the bottom of the screen, like that little
00:34:25
◼
►
You you'd assume on that one it's bouncing off a hard surface, like that
00:34:27
◼
►
would be incorporated into it, kind of like how the IMAX used to have
00:34:30
◼
►
down firing things.
00:34:31
◼
►
And and it will, but like that's that's a tough design to make sound
00:34:34
◼
►
good if you don't need to.
00:34:36
◼
►
Um so uh we'll see how it sounds.
00:34:39
◼
►
Full Full-sized home pods, which this seems to be basically replacing, um, sound pretty
00:34:45
◼
►
So I don't know.
00:34:46
◼
►
I'm a little skeptical of that this will sound as good as they do,
00:34:48
◼
►
but uh we'll see.
00:34:49
◼
►
Oh, it's gonna sound as good as a home s full-size home pod.
00:34:51
◼
►
And by the way, rumors are that they are going to eventually make a
00:34:53
◼
►
new full size home pod.
00:34:55
◼
►
But yeah, this is not close to the sound quality of a full size
00:34:57
◼
►
home pot, I would bet.
00:34:58
◼
►
Also rumors are always that they will eventually make a new full size home
00:35:01
◼
►
And they did.
00:35:02
◼
►
They can't they canceled the entire product and they still made a new one.
00:35:04
◼
►
So it's hard to kill that sucker.
00:35:06
◼
►
Like they stopped making the old one for a while.
00:35:09
◼
►
Yeah, we'll see.
00:35:10
◼
►
Oh and uh rewinding slightly for the the the camera and we're gonna talk
00:35:14
◼
►
more about the camera in a little bit.
00:35:16
◼
►
Thank God that they put a camera back in the bezel.
00:35:19
◼
►
Like I'm so sick of nachos and dynamic islands.
00:35:21
◼
►
And I was like, like is could could they have done this with a
00:35:24
◼
►
nachos or dynamic island?
00:35:25
◼
►
Yeah, they could have.
00:35:26
◼
►
You would like, Oh, we don't like any bezels on our screen.
00:35:28
◼
►
'Cause we don't like them.
00:35:29
◼
►
We just don't so we're not gonna have them.
00:35:31
◼
►
Like, I mean there's a million arguments for them.
00:35:33
◼
►
It's like oh well, it's so you can grab the screen and move it.
00:35:35
◼
►
Yeah, that applies to iPads too.
00:35:36
◼
►
We used to have to grab those by a giant one inch rim around
00:35:38
◼
►
the outside, and they just shrunk that up until it was totally gone, and
00:35:41
◼
►
now we get notches in the dynamic islands and stuff.
00:35:43
◼
►
Love a screen without a notch or a dynamic island.
00:35:46
◼
►
Just put a bezel on it.
00:35:48
◼
►
It still looks nice.
00:35:50
◼
►
Yeah, I actually think these proportions of the screen, be bezel and all.
00:35:55
◼
►
I think it looks really good for this type of thing.
00:35:57
◼
►
Yeah, it looks like a home product.
00:35:58
◼
►
Yeah, exactly.
00:35:59
◼
►
I I it is totally fine and I think it's actually screen-wise, it looks
00:36:03
◼
►
like a pretty attractive design to me.
00:36:05
◼
►
Continuing on with sound, uh Apple says it's powered by Apple Silicon and real-time
00:36:09
◼
►
system sensors.
00:36:10
◼
►
Advanced computational audio cont continuously optimizes loudness and bass response at any volume.
00:36:15
◼
►
It does have spatial audio with Dolby Atmos for music and video, uh computational
00:36:20
◼
►
audio for real-time tuning and for microphone design for far field S IRI, and
00:36:25
◼
►
sound recognition for smoke and carbon monoxide alarm sounds.
00:36:29
◼
►
So throwing a lot of computation at uh in the end, like as Marco
00:36:32
◼
►
was saying, there's no getting around the fact of like what are your drivers
00:36:34
◼
►
and where are they positioned, but they'll throw the computers at it to try
00:36:37
◼
►
to make it all sound better.
00:36:38
◼
►
And I do like the fact that like most of their home speaker products
00:36:42
◼
►
is trying to like wherever you put me, I'll try to figure out how
00:36:45
◼
►
to not sound terrible in this position.
00:36:47
◼
►
You know, I'm sure if that's the same inertial sensors as the big home
00:36:50
◼
►
pods of knowing when to do that or whatever, but I give them the
00:36:52
◼
►
benefit of the doubt that they're gonna do as much sound processing as they
00:36:55
◼
►
possibly can to make this sound better.
00:36:57
◼
►
For wireless, it's uh Wi-Fi 6E, simultaneous dual band, uh peer-to-peer discovery for easy
00:37:03
◼
►
guest access, Bluetooth 6 and thread.
00:37:05
◼
►
It has ambient light sensors, temperature and humidity sensors and an accelerometer.
00:37:10
◼
►
Uh where things get a little bit dodgy though is power.
00:37:13
◼
►
So I believe it requires 20 watts.
00:37:16
◼
►
Um there is a 30-watt adapter with a meter and a half long cable
00:37:21
◼
►
For the R2D2 version, you get nothing if you get the wall-mounted version.
00:37:26
◼
►
Uh but interestingly, and in the defense of Apple, there's like three or four
00:37:30
◼
►
different um options for wall mounts.
00:37:32
◼
►
And I f forgot to put them in our internal show notes, so don't
00:37:35
◼
►
have them in front of me.
00:37:35
◼
►
But interestingly they're they're in there.
00:37:37
◼
►
You're looking at them right now.
00:37:39
◼
►
Uh that's what I totally said.
00:37:42
◼
►
three prices at the bottom.
00:37:44
◼
►
Yes, I'm sorry.
00:37:44
◼
►
That's totally said.
00:37:46
◼
►
We're gonna leave it in.
00:37:47
◼
►
Uh there's a USB C Wall Mount for sixty dollars, an AC Walmount for
00:37:50
◼
►
$80, and interestingly, and I really do, no snark, I commend Apple for this.
00:37:56
◼
►
Uh Schneider Home is apparently going to do a POE wall mount, which is
00:38:01
◼
►
I genuinely mean that.
00:38:02
◼
►
I think that's awesome that for power over Ethernet people, which if you're a
00:38:05
◼
►
ubiquity person, you kind of implicitly become a power over Ethernet person.
00:38:09
◼
►
I'm genuinely happy that they're doing something with PoE.
00:38:13
◼
►
Now, I suspect that it's not actually getting a network connection over PoE.
00:38:17
◼
►
In fact, I would probably assume that this is just a PoE to USB
00:38:21
◼
►
Nevertheless, I still appreciate that it's
00:38:24
◼
►
from a press release from Schneider, it says Schneider Holmes power mount designed exclusively
00:38:28
◼
►
for Apple's HomeView, wall-mounted.
00:38:31
◼
►
Uh Power Mount's design is purpose-built for Apple Home View and offering an elegant
00:38:34
◼
►
wall-mounted installation in three configurations: USB C wall connector, AC wired, and power over
00:38:38
◼
►
Ethernet wired.
00:38:39
◼
►
All three Power Mounts feature precision magnets to securely hold Apple HomeView against the
00:38:43
◼
►
wall to stay powered.
00:38:44
◼
►
For a seamless professional installation with no visible wires, the AC powered wall mount
00:38:47
◼
►
connects to electrical wiring through a single wall box and the POE wired wall
00:38:50
◼
►
mount receives power and data.
00:38:51
◼
►
Oh, I'm wrong.
00:38:52
◼
►
I should have read that further.
00:38:53
◼
►
And data through a standard Ethernet cable hidden in the wall.
00:38:55
◼
►
Again, I really, really dig this until you look at the price.
00:38:59
◼
►
The PoE Walmart is one hundred and twenty-nine dollars and ninety-five cents, which if
00:39:04
◼
►
you do a little bit of mathematics, is forty-three percent of the purchase price
00:39:10
◼
►
of the entire effing home view.
00:39:12
◼
►
Astonishing.
00:39:13
◼
►
And wait, it get it gets better.
00:39:15
◼
►
Remember that the Walmount home view is the regular home view with the R2D2
00:39:21
◼
►
part chopped off.
00:39:23
◼
►
But it's the same price as that other one.
00:39:26
◼
►
So they took a piece a piece of the other product.
00:39:29
◼
►
Granted, probably the most expensive piece because it's the screen and has the SOC
00:39:33
◼
►
in it, clearly or whatever.
00:39:34
◼
►
But they removed all like the downfiring woofer, that aluminum case, the passive radiators,
00:39:40
◼
►
the arm, all that is gone.
00:39:41
◼
►
Is it cheaper than the non-wall mountain?
00:39:43
◼
►
No, exactly the same price.
00:39:45
◼
►
And then insult to injury is oh, and if you want to connect it
00:39:48
◼
►
to power or over Ethernet, take your thing that doesn't R2D tube across the
00:39:52
◼
►
same price as one that does, and had forty-three percent of the price for
00:39:55
◼
►
Now the good the good thing about that is look, these are as in
00:39:59
◼
►
the end, these are like it's a physical problem.
00:40:01
◼
►
How do you mount this thing to the wall?
00:40:03
◼
►
Third parties are gonna be all over this with like I mean, you could
00:40:07
◼
►
three D print something or go to do this, like in the end, you
00:40:10
◼
►
just have to get some way to get a USB C cable into the
00:40:14
◼
►
Uh or some kind of, you know, whatever you have to do.
00:40:16
◼
►
It is a physical problem, not a computer problem.
00:40:20
◼
►
Uh if you don't want to pay $130 for a power over Ethernet thing,
00:40:23
◼
►
I'm sure you could take a power over Ethernet to USB C thing or
00:40:28
◼
►
Maybe you won't get data through it.
00:40:29
◼
►
Like I don't know what the details of that are.
00:40:30
◼
►
Maybe that's why it's 130 bucks, but like these are solvable problems for people.
00:40:35
◼
►
Maybe you're not gonna have the precision magnets, maybe, although you can 3D print
00:40:38
◼
►
Not the magnets, but the places where the magnets go.
00:40:40
◼
►
Um you can buy magics on Amazon that fit into 3D printed things really
00:40:44
◼
►
Yeah, this is this is like
00:40:47
◼
►
the the the wall mount one is clearly like look if you're gonna wall
00:40:51
◼
►
mount this you're the kind of person who is putting smart things in your
00:40:54
◼
►
walls and so we're gonna charge you more money for it, I guess.
00:40:56
◼
►
But like it really does feel a little bit punitive to me to make
00:40:59
◼
►
the Walmart one not be cheaper than the regular one.
00:41:01
◼
►
Because let's let's face it, it can't cost it it costs less for them
00:41:05
◼
►
It just does.
00:41:06
◼
►
Yeah I mean what this What the Walmart product is, or at least what
00:41:11
◼
►
they're hoping it will be, is there's this whole market, uh first of all,
00:41:17
◼
►
businesses will, you know, if for for some reason a business wants to install
00:41:21
◼
►
one of these.
00:41:22
◼
►
Now, I don't know what kind of business that would be that would want
00:41:25
◼
►
Yeah why would they do it?
00:41:26
◼
►
Six person company?
00:41:27
◼
►
But where I think what this is really for is custom installers doing high
00:41:32
◼
►
end installs for nice houses and rich people.
00:41:34
◼
►
Um there's this whole world out there um of you know the pe the
00:41:38
◼
►
same people who walm out TVs, you know, and and you know, a lot
00:41:41
◼
►
of times like people will have like centralized audio systems that like play through
00:41:46
◼
►
ceiling speakers all over the house, and they'll like a closet full of Sonos
00:41:49
◼
►
amps and a rack.
00:41:50
◼
►
Like it's that market.
00:41:51
◼
►
Cut Custom installed nice things for high end houses.
00:41:55
◼
►
That is what this is for.
00:41:56
◼
►
And that market, it's like when you sell to the enterprise or to people
00:42:01
◼
►
having weddings.
00:42:02
◼
►
These are just words that you can put in front of things that make
00:42:05
◼
►
the prices go up.
00:42:06
◼
►
Because they can.
00:42:08
◼
►
And because those customers will usually pay the premium because they can.
00:42:12
◼
►
So it's not like it is it like
00:42:16
◼
►
I don't like when people use the term money grab.
00:42:20
◼
►
Uh to when they accuse developers of software of money grabs for things like
00:42:26
◼
►
charging money for anything.
00:42:29
◼
►
However, that's kind of what this type of product like when you have like
00:42:34
◼
►
the version of it that comes with less stuff and costs more, that's just
00:42:38
◼
►
market segmentation.
00:42:40
◼
►
They're selling to a market that will pay more and they will happily make
00:42:44
◼
►
them pay more.
00:42:44
◼
►
That's all it is.
00:42:47
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00:44:43
◼
►
Uh let's talk apps.
00:44:44
◼
►
They're built-in apps, alarms, calendar, FaceTime, find my home, intercom, messages, music, podcast, reminders,
00:44:50
◼
►
safari settings uh timers, weather, and world clock.
00:44:54
◼
►
There are apps also available from iPhone, which is audiobooks, classical music, news, and
00:44:59
◼
►
Then it uh apparently quote supported it will also have supported third party audio
00:45:06
◼
►
and video apps, quote.
00:45:07
◼
►
Uh this requires iOS and iPad OS twenty-seven point two.
00:45:10
◼
►
There were there there has been a lot of confusion to which I don't
00:45:14
◼
►
think I can bring final answers, but there's been a lot of confusion with
00:45:17
◼
►
regard to okay, how does third party stuff work?
00:45:20
◼
►
Uh Ju J Julian Chakatu at Wired says it doesn't have an app store.
00:45:25
◼
►
Instead, Apple has a curated selection of apps, including FaceTime Messengers and Safari.
00:45:28
◼
►
A handful of third party media apps like Spotify are available and developers can
00:45:32
◼
►
bring over existing CarPlay apps.
00:45:35
◼
►
Hey, it's on boats.
00:45:36
◼
►
It's on boats.
00:45:38
◼
►
It's not on Rivians, but it's on boats.
00:45:40
◼
►
Uh a handful of third-party media apps like Spotify are available and developers can
00:45:43
◼
►
bring over existing CarPlay apps.
00:45:45
◼
►
If your iPhone already has one of these CarPlay apps installed, it can automatically
00:45:48
◼
►
appear on the HomeView after setup.
00:45:50
◼
►
Julian continues, there are no video streaming apps like YouTube, Netflix or Disney, but
00:45:55
◼
►
if those companies choose to make their apps available on the CarPlay framework, they
00:45:58
◼
►
will show up in HomeView.
00:46:00
◼
►
For now, you'll have to consume videos by using the Safari browser, which raises
00:46:04
◼
►
something that John beat me to and put in our internal show notes, which
00:46:07
◼
►
we will also put in your show notes.
00:46:09
◼
►
There was something about this at WWDC this year which I immediately thought of
00:46:13
◼
►
and apparently so did John.
00:46:14
◼
►
John, what is what is this?
00:46:15
◼
►
Yeah, at CarPlay, uh WC2026, they were like, Hey, now we support video apps
00:46:21
◼
►
for CarPlay.
00:46:21
◼
►
And they were very cautious saying, Oh, you should watch them when you're parked,
00:46:24
◼
►
maybe you're charging your EV.
00:46:26
◼
►
It's good to like, this is not for when you're driving, but you know,
00:46:28
◼
►
just so you know, we now have support for video apps for CarPlay.
00:46:31
◼
►
And it's like, all right, sure, I guess.
00:46:33
◼
►
Secret uh preparing for a product that was already done by then.
00:46:37
◼
►
Hey, why would you make a CarPlay video app?
00:46:40
◼
►
Well, now if you did make a CarPlay video app, boom, automatically works on
00:46:44
◼
►
the home view.
00:46:44
◼
►
Yeah, it was it turns out it wasn't just for when you're charging your
00:46:48
◼
►
I mean it is for that, like that is a valid place for it,
00:46:51
◼
►
but also for this.
00:46:52
◼
►
But again, people who were parked charging their EVs usually use their phones or
00:46:57
◼
►
go into the travel plaza?
00:46:59
◼
►
You know, but anyway, yeah.
00:47:02
◼
►
Teslas do it.
00:47:03
◼
►
A lot of them have a way where when you are stationary in your
00:47:05
◼
►
car and it's charging that you can watch video content on the dashboard.
00:47:09
◼
►
How many people use it?
00:47:10
◼
►
I bet it doesn't get a lot of use for exactly the reason you
00:47:11
◼
►
said, but a lot of people do it.
00:47:13
◼
►
So when Apple did it, no one really raised an eyebrow.
00:47:15
◼
►
They're okay, other people do it.
00:47:16
◼
►
Apple will too.
00:47:17
◼
►
Continuing, uh, we'll quote from Apple's latest developer agreement, which just came out, I
00:47:23
◼
►
think, earlier today as we record 6.4.1, iOS application widgets on CarPlay and Apple
00:47:28
◼
►
You agree that your iOS application widget may be available on CarPlay and Apple
00:47:33
◼
►
6.4.2, availability of iOS applications for CarPlay on Apple HomeView.
00:47:37
◼
►
If your application includes a CarPlay entitlement profile in a category identified by Apple
00:47:42
◼
►
in the documentation, you agree Apple may provide access to such application on Apple
00:47:46
◼
►
Home View while it is running on a paired iOS device.
00:47:48
◼
►
So it's not like Vision OS where you can opt in and opt out.
00:47:51
◼
►
It's iPad uh apps on macOS where you can opt in and opt out
00:47:54
◼
►
they're like look if you made a CarPlay thing you now agree we can
00:47:58
◼
►
make that appear on this device like you're you are opted into it and
00:48:02
◼
►
you have no choice and which is probably fine but it's just it is
00:48:05
◼
►
a change in attitude towards Apple's things.
00:48:08
◼
►
And again, we'll get more into this with the next item, but like, is
00:48:11
◼
►
this really a platform?
00:48:12
◼
►
But uh just FYI.
00:48:13
◼
►
It seems like Marco Overcast will be on this device and you have no
00:48:17
◼
►
I mean, first of all, like good?
00:48:19
◼
►
Like I I I want Overcast to be on this device.
00:48:22
◼
►
And you don't do more work because you already have a CarPlay version, right?
00:48:25
◼
►
So my my one wish for this, this is totally unrelated to the home
00:48:31
◼
►
I I I had to think about that name for a second.
00:48:34
◼
►
CarPlay, the APIs to to write CarPlay interfaces are very old style like create
00:48:43
◼
►
CP template row, set properties, you know, when things update, you have to go
00:48:48
◼
►
find the instance of the C P update row and update its properties or
00:48:51
◼
►
like, you know, generate a new one and then it makes the whole screen
00:48:54
◼
►
blink and it like there's so many it's so cumbersome.
00:48:57
◼
►
Is it like Watch Kit where it's entirely data driven where you're just sending
00:49:00
◼
►
like uh data over the wire and then the data rehydrates into a thing?
00:49:04
◼
►
Sort of, except that I'm pretty sure the phone is rendering the whole UI
00:49:08
◼
►
and just sending it over like a like a video airplay kind of link.
00:49:11
◼
►
But um but like if for what the what the apps see is you
00:49:14
◼
►
just create like CarPlay list template, CarPlay Row, CarPlay Media Row.
00:49:18
◼
►
And you say this is this one is now playing.
00:49:20
◼
►
This one's title is this, this one's description description is this.
00:49:22
◼
►
You know, put this at index one or whatever.
00:49:24
◼
►
You know, like that's what you're doing.
00:49:26
◼
►
It is so difficult to make anything good using that.
00:49:31
◼
►
Because it's first of all, it's full of bugs.
00:49:33
◼
►
Second of all, like it's so cumbersome to go you you basically have to
00:49:36
◼
►
like manually diff and update your data model into the interface.
00:49:41
◼
►
Swift UI has this amazing power where like you know the the declarative structure
00:49:45
◼
►
of it is like you basically declare the interface using these wonderful result builders,
00:49:50
◼
►
and you know, you you kind of bind your data to various parts of
00:49:53
◼
►
it such that when your data updates, the UI updates for you.
00:49:56
◼
►
It does its own diffing.
00:49:57
◼
►
It kind of does like efficient updates to only updating what it needs to
00:50:02
◼
►
I really, really hope that a every day, every year WDC, what I hope
00:50:07
◼
►
Apple releases is a Swift UI style declarative result builder based interface for CarPlay
00:50:14
◼
►
apps to use.
00:50:15
◼
►
They haven't yet done it.
00:50:17
◼
►
I'm hoping maybe this will help push them to do that sooner rather than
00:50:22
◼
►
Maybe next year W D C maybe there's a chance of something like that.
00:50:25
◼
►
Like some kind of redo of the CarPlay APIs, because it's it's not for
00:50:31
◼
►
like six apps anymore.
00:50:32
◼
►
There's there's a lot of CarPlay apps out there, as we always talk about
00:50:34
◼
►
whenever we talk about Ruby and but um there's a lot of CarPlay apps
00:50:37
◼
►
out there and writing them is so unbelievably cumbersome.
00:50:42
◼
►
And they have this amazing data diffing system with Swift UI.
00:50:48
◼
►
Just use that, make that like it's w it's one of my projects like
00:50:51
◼
►
I c I fantasize sometimes about like I wonder if I could make AI
00:50:54
◼
►
build me a shim that does that.
00:50:56
◼
►
Like just build me that layer so that I never have to use the
00:51:00
◼
►
ancient CarPlay APIs again.
00:51:01
◼
►
'Cause it's again it's just it's so difficult to to write a CarPlay UI
00:51:06
◼
►
that is correct, efficient, and good.
00:51:10
◼
►
And a result builder one would do that so much more easily.
00:51:14
◼
►
Uh I think uh we may get email from Swift UI experts saying that
00:51:17
◼
►
Swift UI does not actually do React style tree diffing.
00:51:21
◼
►
Uh but we get conceptually what you're saying.
00:51:25
◼
►
Uh with regard to the name, Joe Joe Rosignal at MacRumors writes Mac Rumors
00:51:30
◼
►
was the first to reveal the name HomeView last week after discovering a trademark
00:51:33
◼
►
fil filing from a secretive shell company that we correctly suspected was linked to
00:51:38
◼
►
Apple was likely behind a Home OS trademark filing as well, but the company
00:51:42
◼
►
ultimately decided to stick with generic home view software naming, just like it refers
00:51:46
◼
►
to HomePod's operating system as HomePod Software.
00:51:49
◼
►
For example, the device will ship with HomeView Software version twenty seven point two.
00:51:54
◼
►
So this does actually lean it's yeah yeah explain and uh what Apple's stance
00:52:00
◼
►
Uh is it a platform or is it not?
00:52:02
◼
►
Apple's platforms have names like T V OS and iOS and iPad OS and
00:52:07
◼
►
Mac OS and so on and so forth.
00:52:09
◼
►
Apple's platforms that aren't really platforms don't have names.
00:52:13
◼
►
The home pod runs, I believe, currently Audio OS, but nobody knows that name
00:52:18
◼
►
who's not a developer because it's not a platform that you develop for.
00:52:21
◼
►
It is just simply what the operating system is called under the covers because
00:52:24
◼
►
it's got to have a name, right?
00:52:26
◼
►
Home OS would have been publicized if there was, for example, an app store
00:52:30
◼
►
for HomeView, but there's not.
00:52:32
◼
►
So instead, it's like the when it was like iPhone software, iPhone firmware before
00:52:36
◼
►
it was christened uh iOS or whatever.
00:52:39
◼
►
It's just the software for your home view.
00:52:42
◼
►
Home view software version 27.2.
00:52:44
◼
►
It's nice that they sync the version of this totally unbranded, nameless.
00:52:47
◼
►
Don't call it an operating system, operating system with everybody else.
00:52:51
◼
►
So it is also 27.2.
00:52:52
◼
►
What is 27.82?
00:52:54
◼
►
Home view software.
00:52:55
◼
►
And under the covers, maybe it is call home OS.
00:52:57
◼
►
When someone cracks one of these opens and and looks at what you name
00:53:00
◼
►
pulls out or whatever, it probably is actually called Home OS or maybe what
00:53:03
◼
►
the code name was like Vision uh what do you call the the Vision
00:53:06
◼
►
Pro is still called XROS under the cover, I believe.
00:53:08
◼
►
Um but yeah they didn't brand it as a platform because it's not.
00:53:14
◼
►
I've heard some people refer to it and we'll talk about like the UI
00:53:16
◼
►
in a little bit, like it's like a big Apple Watch, kind of, but
00:53:20
◼
►
also kind of like a big CarPlay screen, but also its own thing.
00:53:23
◼
►
It is a weird hybrid because you can project stuff onto it because CarPlay,
00:53:27
◼
►
that's what CarPlay does.
00:53:28
◼
►
Uh and it can delegate stuff to your phone, which is more powerful and
00:53:32
◼
►
has all your data.
00:53:32
◼
►
And we'll that in a minute too.
00:53:34
◼
►
But also it seems like it has things that run directly on it too,
00:53:38
◼
►
like you know, the home pod has stuff that runs directly on it as
00:53:42
◼
►
But this has a screen and everything.
00:53:43
◼
►
So this is in a weird middle place, but it's clear that Apple is
00:53:46
◼
►
starting this cautiously and not trying to say, kind of like they did with
00:53:51
◼
►
uh uh TVOS of like this is just an all-new platform.
00:53:54
◼
►
Like everything we make is a platform, and everything has an app store.
00:53:57
◼
►
And that's and like the watch.
00:53:58
◼
►
Watch has its own app store and its own apps.
00:54:00
◼
►
And it's like some things lend themselves better to that approach than others.
00:54:03
◼
►
This one they're not even trying.
00:54:05
◼
►
They're saying this is fits into our ecosystem, but it is not yet a
00:54:08
◼
►
platform you develop for.
00:54:09
◼
►
I just had someone ask me on uh Mastodon earlier who's like, ca is
00:54:12
◼
►
this a deploy deployable target in X code?
00:54:14
◼
►
I don't think it is.
00:54:15
◼
►
I don't the answer to this, but I don't think it is.
00:54:17
◼
►
Like you don't you can't like write apps for it and target it and
00:54:20
◼
►
deploy it on it.
00:54:21
◼
►
I think you add CarPlay support for your app and you use the CarPlay
00:54:25
◼
►
video player APIs if you want to do that and so on and so
00:54:27
◼
►
But I think that's it.
00:54:29
◼
►
Like I we'll find out more in in the coming days.
00:54:31
◼
►
But yeah, it may be running Home OS under the covers, but it is
00:54:34
◼
►
not a new platform, at least not yet.
00:54:36
◼
►
Yeah, it definitely seems like from a developer point of view, it's basically like
00:54:41
◼
►
CarPlan widgets.
00:54:42
◼
►
Like it almost like standby mode on the phone where like you can offer
00:54:46
◼
►
And the user can put it there.
00:54:48
◼
►
It's probably gonna be very similar to that.
00:54:50
◼
►
Um and you y you know, we don't make home view os whatever we
00:54:57
◼
►
don't we don't make yeah, we don't make home OS apps.
00:54:59
◼
►
We make iOS apps that can optionally project something onto the home view.
00:55:04
◼
►
There are some requirements if you want to use this.
00:55:07
◼
►
Uh Julian at Wired writes to get the most out of home view, you
00:55:10
◼
►
need an iPhone with Apple Intelligence support, which is an iPhone 15 Pro or
00:55:14
◼
►
You can't set it up with an iPad.
00:55:15
◼
►
Apple says you can still set it up with an older iPhone and access
00:55:18
◼
►
some of Siri AI's smarts, like broad world knowledge, but smarter app actions and
00:55:23
◼
►
personal context queries require an iPhone with Apple intelligence.
00:55:26
◼
►
I mean that makes sense because like it's just doing them on your phone.
00:55:28
◼
►
So if your phone doesn't support personal context, then Apple Serie AI, you can't
00:55:32
◼
►
delegate it to like that stuff's not going to happen on the home view.
00:55:35
◼
►
It happens on your phone.
00:55:37
◼
►
That's right.
00:55:37
◼
►
And again, Julian writes, you can add up to six iCloud accounts.
00:55:41
◼
►
John has made a couple of mentions to that earlier, and the user interface
00:55:44
◼
►
will adapt to each person.
00:55:46
◼
►
Uh John, I believe you would like to take a moment to climb up
00:55:49
◼
►
on your high horse.
00:55:50
◼
►
My my immediate snark about this was I wonder if it will cancel your
00:55:53
◼
►
Apple Care One plan every time a different person uses it.
00:55:58
◼
►
Because historically speaking, products that are in your home that can be used by
00:56:03
◼
►
more than one Apple account simultaneously, all in or an alternation, will in fact
00:56:08
◼
►
cancel your Apple Care.
00:56:09
◼
►
And I'm speaking of course about a Mac with multiple accounts.
00:56:12
◼
►
If anybody signs into an account on that Mac with an Apple account that
00:56:17
◼
►
is not part of your Apple family, yoink, off your Apple Care One family
00:56:21
◼
►
plan it goes.
00:56:21
◼
►
And by the way, I did confirm this with a long uh phone call
00:56:24
◼
►
with uh Apple support the other day.
00:56:27
◼
►
Um I think I mentioned in the last episode, but I'll just reiterate it
00:56:30
◼
►
Apple Care One Family, what they told me is if you do that, even
00:56:33
◼
►
if you have Apple Care One Family, if you use any Apple account that's
00:56:36
◼
►
not part of your Apple Care One family, even if you're still logged into
00:56:39
◼
►
that Mac with one of your Apple Kit Apple family accounts, doesn't matter.
00:56:42
◼
►
They will yank it off Apple Care One family.
00:56:44
◼
►
So that sucks, but don't worry about it because as far as I can
00:56:49
◼
►
tell, this is not like Mac OS, where it's like there are multiple users
00:56:53
◼
►
on the system and they have accounts and it switches accounts.
00:56:56
◼
►
That's not what this is doing, as far as I can tell.
00:56:58
◼
►
We'll find out when we get closer.
00:56:59
◼
►
This is all speculation, but I would bet a substantial amount of money that
00:57:03
◼
►
what this is actually doing is always running one big monolithic application that simply
00:57:09
◼
►
does different things depending on who the current authenticated user is.
00:57:15
◼
►
Oh, it's running as a different user.
00:57:17
◼
►
It's switching to a different account.
00:57:18
◼
►
It's none of that.
00:57:19
◼
►
It's it's always running as I don't know if it's always running as root,
00:57:22
◼
►
but anyway, it's always running as the same user.
00:57:23
◼
►
It's single monolithic application.
00:57:25
◼
►
And it's just multiplexing whose phone it's talking to.
00:57:28
◼
►
Uh and in that way, yes, six people can use it at the same
00:57:32
◼
►
Because that's that's that's the problem of any kind of like thing in a
00:57:34
◼
►
home with a screen.
00:57:35
◼
►
If you're not living alone with it and multiple people people want to use
00:57:38
◼
►
it, it has to be useful to all of them.
00:57:40
◼
►
So yeah, I guess you could put a family calendar on a shared thing
00:57:42
◼
►
or whatever, but ideally when you are using it, it will tell you your
00:57:46
◼
►
Like, um, well, we'll get to it in a bit, but I have a
00:57:49
◼
►
Google device that is similar and I can figure out who's talking to it
00:57:51
◼
►
and and show them their stuff in response to that.
00:57:54
◼
►
So to be a registered user of the HomeView, you need an iPhone, an
00:57:57
◼
►
Apple account, and you need to be a member of the home that the
00:57:59
◼
►
HomeView is a part of.
00:58:01
◼
►
That's an interesting list of requirements because first of all, hey kid, are you
00:58:04
◼
►
a little kid and you don't iPhone?
00:58:08
◼
►
You don't get any customization for the home view.
00:58:10
◼
►
It doesn't show you your stuff.
00:58:12
◼
►
Uh it doesn't know who you are.
00:58:13
◼
►
It doesn't care.
00:58:14
◼
►
If you don't have you're not a person.
00:58:15
◼
►
Uh second, you need an Apple account, which that makes sense.
00:58:18
◼
►
And then being member of the home, that's different than being a member of
00:58:22
◼
►
the Apple family thing, I think.
00:58:24
◼
►
Cause I think you can add anyone to your home, like your Apple home.
00:58:27
◼
►
It's who do you want to be a member of this home?
00:58:29
◼
►
But uh most people, it's it's probably the same thing like they're a member
00:58:32
◼
►
of your Apple family, they're a member of your Apple Home, but it it
00:58:34
◼
►
doesn't require you to be a member of Apple family.
00:58:37
◼
►
In any case, uh HomeView does not have face ID.
00:58:42
◼
►
Uh recognition just uses the camera.
00:58:44
◼
►
There's no like depth sensors or anything like that.
00:58:46
◼
►
You will only be recognized by home view if your iPhone is at home
00:58:49
◼
►
on the same Wi-Fi and has been recently unlocked.
00:58:53
◼
►
Apple Watch is not enough to serve as your I'm home personal device.
00:58:57
◼
►
There is no IR, so you know there's limited to no functionality in the
00:59:01
◼
►
dark, and there's no voice recognition.
00:59:03
◼
►
We don't think.
00:59:04
◼
►
Yeah, so I they didn't say anything about it, but like the my Google
00:59:07
◼
►
home does voice recognition.
00:59:08
◼
►
When I talk to it, it knows that it's me because my voice sounds
00:59:10
◼
►
different than my wife.
00:59:11
◼
►
Um, all this, this is of another fascinating part of the multi-user thing aspect
00:59:16
◼
►
So it doesn't have face ID.
00:59:18
◼
►
I don't quite know why because it's plenty thick, but again, 300 bucks, whatever.
00:59:21
◼
►
That's fine.
00:59:22
◼
►
Um it just uses cameras, but as we all know, all I can just
00:59:25
◼
►
print out a picture of your face and hold it up.
00:59:27
◼
►
But that's there's more that is required.
00:59:29
◼
►
The other things that you read.
00:59:30
◼
►
You have to be on the you have to have your iPhone, it has
00:59:32
◼
►
to be on the home Wi Fi, and you have to have recently unlocked
00:59:34
◼
►
it, and that iPhone has to be signed in with the Apple account that
00:59:37
◼
►
it thinks is you.
00:59:37
◼
►
So you could still do this, like if I'm sitting on the couch and
00:59:41
◼
►
I've unlocked my iPhone and you walk over to HomeView and hold up a
00:59:43
◼
►
printout of my face, you're in.
00:59:45
◼
►
So it's not super duper security, but remember, when I say you're in, it's
00:59:49
◼
►
like you suddenly have access to my phone on the home view.
00:59:52
◼
►
You just can see, I guess, my events for the day and you could
00:59:54
◼
►
ask it questions that would go to my phone and get personal con it
00:59:57
◼
►
is still like it is still potentially a side door security hole because this
01:00:01
◼
►
is probably the weakest security Apple has ever had in modern times for accessing
01:00:07
◼
►
someone's personal information.
01:00:09
◼
►
But from what I've heard of people who are there in person asking Apple
01:00:12
◼
►
these questions, Apple's basically saying that like we are considering your home to be
01:00:18
◼
►
a security domain that like if someone's inside your home and and you don't
01:00:21
◼
►
want them to be, you know, um there's a follow-up item that we'll probably
01:00:24
◼
►
have in the thing next week saying, you know, for a lot of people
01:00:28
◼
►
Being in the same home doesn't necessarily mean that everyone who's in that home
01:00:32
◼
►
is a safe person, right?
01:00:33
◼
►
So keep this in mind when you are considering this product, because I feel
01:00:37
◼
►
like it does give people in your home one of the easiest possible ways
01:00:43
◼
►
to get at your stuff without being you.
01:00:46
◼
►
I mean obviously they can just wait till your shower and steal your phone
01:00:48
◼
►
or whatever, but like a lot of people are in in home situations where
01:00:51
◼
►
they can't trust everyone who's with them.
01:00:53
◼
►
This product is designed in a way that you mostly trust the people who
01:00:57
◼
►
you're in the house with.
01:00:57
◼
►
Now, the stinky little brother trying to see his sister's text, he could print
01:01:01
◼
►
out a picture of her face and do that because you know she's gonna
01:01:03
◼
►
be nearby with her phone and you know she's gonna have unlocked it recently
01:01:06
◼
►
and you know she's gonna be on the home Wi-Fi and a picture will
01:01:09
◼
►
fool the camera.
01:01:10
◼
►
So I do wonder how this is gonna play out.
01:01:12
◼
►
But in the end, if you don't put a face ID sensor on this
01:01:15
◼
►
thing, this is basically your only choice to make it a useful product for
01:01:19
◼
►
multiple people.
01:01:20
◼
►
Um arguably Google's voice recognition is weaker because you can just make a deep
01:01:24
◼
►
voice and it'll probably think you're me or whatever.
01:01:27
◼
►
Um but I do I do worry about this aspect of the product.
01:01:30
◼
►
I'm I'm not quite sure what they could have done otherwise.
01:01:32
◼
►
Again, because if you want to sell for three hundred bucks, maybe you can't
01:01:34
◼
►
put face ID, but it it does worry me a bit.
01:01:37
◼
►
You know, I could have sworn during the commercial, the three minute commercial, not
01:01:41
◼
►
the one and a half minute commercial, I could have sworn they implied that
01:01:45
◼
►
there was voice recognition.
01:01:46
◼
►
So we might have that wrong.
01:01:48
◼
►
Yeah, there there might be, but again, voice recognition is also Like you just
01:01:51
◼
►
record the person's voice and in my voice is my passport.
01:01:54
◼
►
Like we know that's not
01:01:56
◼
►
Marco gets it now.
01:02:00
◼
►
Also, John, you have a question in the show notes, which I concur with.
01:02:03
◼
►
Why doesn't iPhone Duo, which also does not have face ID, do something similar
01:02:07
◼
►
where the home location is like a second factor?
01:02:10
◼
►
I mean so I think that's the reason why it doesn't like the the
01:02:13
◼
►
the duo doesn't have face ID because it's not thick enough, okay?
01:02:15
◼
►
Um but it has cameras, why doesn't just use them just like the home
01:02:19
◼
►
Well, I hopefully I explained that with the home view thing of like that
01:02:21
◼
►
is incredibly less secure than face ID, like up because you can just hold
01:02:24
◼
►
up a picture of yourself.
01:02:25
◼
►
And you could say, Well why doesn't the foo uh the iPhone duo just
01:02:28
◼
►
do that when I'm at home?
01:02:29
◼
►
Maybe that's arguable, but I do feel like getting like unlocking your phone is
01:02:34
◼
►
still uh more invasive access than unlocking a home view, which can talk to
01:02:41
◼
►
You know what I mean?
01:02:42
◼
►
Like the the phone is where all your stuff is once you've unlocked it
01:02:45
◼
►
So I wouldn't want to say even like a dual mode of like oh
01:02:48
◼
►
geofenced when you're only at your home location, you can unlock your iPhone dual
01:02:51
◼
►
with just your face and no face ID.
01:02:52
◼
►
Like I don't think Apple would do that because the phone for everybody is
01:02:55
◼
►
like that's the keys to the kingdom at this point for people in terms
01:02:58
◼
►
of security.
01:02:58
◼
►
Whereas I feel like the home view is not.
01:03:01
◼
►
Depending on how much access you have to people's personal data from HomeView, maybe
01:03:04
◼
►
via Sear AI, we'll again we'll see when people get this, because I'm sure
01:03:07
◼
►
somebody will try the experiment.
01:03:09
◼
►
What if I hold up a picture of you, unlock home view?
01:03:11
◼
►
How much stuff can I exfiltrate from home view while you sit on the
01:03:14
◼
►
couch without you knowing it.
01:03:15
◼
►
By asking CRAI questions like what did they say to this person or show
01:03:19
◼
►
me this message this conversation or or you know, what is the password to
01:03:22
◼
►
this website?
01:03:23
◼
►
Something like that.
01:03:24
◼
►
So we'll see how that goes.
01:03:25
◼
►
I wonder if it'll like, you know, tap the phone of the person like
01:03:29
◼
►
as it's responding or like somehow use the phone to notify you like, hey,
01:03:32
◼
►
I'm talking about you.
01:03:33
◼
►
For some reason you're not using me.
01:03:37
◼
►
Or like, I mean, I don't it I don't know.
01:03:39
◼
►
It's this would have been good if we were like, does it use ultra
01:03:42
◼
►
wideband to do like you have to be next to the thing?
01:03:44
◼
►
I don't think they said that, but like, yeah, we'll we'll see when people
01:03:47
◼
►
get this and start trying to break it what the actual security barriers are.
01:03:50
◼
►
But um again with the follow up item that hopefully next week, there is
01:03:54
◼
►
always a trade-off between convenience and security.
01:03:56
◼
►
And you have to try to figure out where that bounces.
01:03:58
◼
►
And for products like this, it's really difficult, especially when you're confined to a
01:04:01
◼
►
size and a price that doesn't all you to pull out all the security
01:04:04
◼
►
stops that you have for your fancier devices.
01:04:07
◼
►
With regard to AI, as we mentioned, personal context requests require a paired Apple
01:04:12
◼
►
intelligence enabled iPhone or iPad running the latest software version with Siri AI turned
01:04:16
◼
►
on and set to this to a supported language.
01:04:18
◼
►
For installation, uh they've said uh particularly for the Walmart mount stuff, that you
01:04:23
◼
►
can have ADT, which is an American like alarm company, uh do professional installation.
01:04:29
◼
►
You can receive more information and self service support content with your order confirmation,
01:04:34
◼
►
I I really would love to know how much this is gonna cost.
01:04:36
◼
►
Again, it may be more than double the price of the thing that you
01:04:39
◼
►
buy, but yeah, someone will come to your house and help you install it
01:04:42
◼
►
for a lot of money, I'm sure.
01:04:44
◼
►
Uh finally, availability.
01:04:45
◼
►
You can pre-order right now.
01:04:47
◼
►
It is in store on the thirteenth of November.
01:04:49
◼
►
Uh Apple says homeview is not available for s for sale in the European
01:04:52
◼
►
Union as Siri AI is currently unavailable in IOS in the EU.
01:04:56
◼
►
Apple's working constructively with the EU in an attempt to find a path forward.
01:05:01
◼
►
Steve Drown Smith was uh uh cranking online today saying that you know, uh
01:05:05
◼
►
that Europe didn't get the home pod either until like uh a long time
01:05:08
◼
►
after it was released, and even then it was only in five countries.
01:05:11
◼
►
So a lot of the a lot of these home products
01:05:16
◼
►
Apparently not going to Europe even before the the whole series.
01:05:21
◼
►
Um software is a hold up on a lot of these.
01:05:23
◼
►
Also people asking, like, why do we have to wait till November 13th to
01:05:26
◼
►
You said they were manufactured in twenty twenty four.
01:05:28
◼
►
It's been um done forever.
01:05:29
◼
►
I think it needs like the 27.2 OS to be out everywhere.
01:05:32
◼
►
So this product is still waiting on software.
01:05:34
◼
►
Even at this late date, even though they've announced it, you still have to
01:05:37
◼
►
wait to I assume 27.2 to be out everywhere.
01:05:41
◼
►
Anything else for home view?
01:05:42
◼
►
Actually, let me let me finish this up perhaps by asking, have either of
01:05:46
◼
►
you ordered one?
01:05:49
◼
►
Um I didn't think Marco was gonna get one because he's been so down
01:05:52
◼
►
on home pods.
01:05:53
◼
►
Well, I'm down on home pods, but I still have them all over my
01:05:57
◼
►
Um the only the only person I've ever seen who has more home pods
01:06:00
◼
►
in their house is John Gruber.
01:06:02
◼
►
Like his house, he bas they might as well be like, you know, holding
01:06:05
◼
►
up benches and stuff.
01:06:06
◼
►
Like they're just everywhere.
01:06:07
◼
►
Um but no, I I have a lot of home pods because they are
01:06:12
◼
►
very good at certain things and they're just really crappy in lots of other
01:06:17
◼
►
Um like in almost every workout we do, it's at some point the home
01:06:22
◼
►
pod in TIF Studio says, hm
01:06:25
◼
►
like it's they're just so mediocre in so many ways.
01:06:29
◼
►
It's like having little little uh little pets around that talk to you sometimes.
01:06:32
◼
►
Right, that that always think they're being talked to and say, hmm?
01:06:36
◼
►
Um anyway, uh but I also use one like to play music while I'm
01:06:40
◼
►
in the shower every day.
01:06:42
◼
►
So like I do I do like home pods sometimes in some cases.
01:06:47
◼
►
They're very good sometimes.
01:06:48
◼
►
And I think this if it is good, and if it holds up to
01:06:53
◼
►
the promises and if it is anything like the commercial they made for it,
01:06:58
◼
►
that will actually be really useful in our kitchen.
01:07:01
◼
►
Not necessarily because of all the like you know, family asking about their text
01:07:05
◼
►
from their boyfriends, much more about just it being a nice speaker with a
01:07:11
◼
►
screen to show timers and the time and the weather and stuff.
01:07:15
◼
►
All that other stuff like, I don't think we're actually we would actually use
01:07:18
◼
►
that stuff that much, but just being what this was rumored to be, a
01:07:23
◼
►
home pod with a screen.
01:07:25
◼
►
That's actually pretty interesting and pretty compelling.
01:07:29
◼
►
If it works.
01:07:30
◼
►
But here's the problem with that.
01:07:34
◼
►
The home pod doesn't work that well at a lot of this stuff.
01:07:38
◼
►
It never has.
01:07:41
◼
►
Siri, as Casey breezed by earlier,
01:07:45
◼
►
it has gotten better.
01:07:46
◼
►
It's Siri AI now is a totally different beast than old Siri.
01:07:51
◼
►
It is way more capable.
01:07:53
◼
►
It can do way more stuff.
01:07:54
◼
►
It is significantly improved in most ways.
01:07:59
◼
►
However, it is slow.
01:08:02
◼
►
It's really slow.
01:08:05
◼
►
When I was developing Unforgetful over over the, you know, the spring and, you
01:08:08
◼
►
know, I thought it was it was you know, I I thought I had
01:08:11
◼
►
one thing in mind for it.
01:08:12
◼
►
Um and then when I started using the the iOS twenty seven betas in
01:08:17
◼
►
the summer and macOS twenty seven betas, but especially iOS, I started using, you
01:08:22
◼
►
know, Siri AI and beta, and I noticed how incredibly slow and cumbersome it
01:08:28
◼
►
was to create reminders with Siri.
01:08:31
◼
►
And at first I thought, crap, here I am making an app that's all
01:08:36
◼
►
about how useful it is to capture reminders from Siri.
01:08:40
◼
►
And I and I was relying on this thing that was fine for a
01:08:45
◼
►
And this summer I think it got way, way worse.
01:08:48
◼
►
Because there's two huge problems with using Siri with using Siri AI for reminders.
01:08:53
◼
►
Number one, it's very, very, very slow.
01:08:56
◼
►
Number two, it constantly asks, like, you know, you buy milk.
01:09:01
◼
►
Did you say try silk or buy I said buy milk.
01:09:05
◼
►
Did you say try silk or no, I said buy milk.
01:09:09
◼
►
Did you say ah and then you eventually just give up and do something
01:09:12
◼
►
I remember it also asked you which app you want to use.
01:09:14
◼
►
Yes, well it apparently it will eventually learn and and stop asking.
01:09:19
◼
►
I don't know.
01:09:20
◼
►
I don't know why.
01:09:21
◼
►
I always give the same answer.
01:09:22
◼
►
And God forbid there be a UI somewhere to just let you pick.
01:09:25
◼
►
You know, but I just think it's always gonna be reminders.
01:09:28
◼
►
It th you know they're they're very conservative with their settings screen and the
01:09:31
◼
►
settings app, John.
01:09:32
◼
►
They don't like to stag me kinda uh uh you know, I think it's
01:09:35
◼
►
over fifty percent of the time it asks me now.
01:09:36
◼
►
It's madness.
01:09:37
◼
►
Anyway, uh so what I turn that into a a positive for Unforgettable because
01:09:42
◼
►
I'm like, well Now I'm gonna build in fast dictation.
01:09:45
◼
►
And that's why like Unforgetful didn't have dictation until like July.
01:09:50
◼
►
The reason I added that like almost at the last minute was because I'm
01:09:53
◼
►
like, this is there's an opportunity here because Siri in 27 is gonna be
01:09:57
◼
►
so incredibly slow for everyone.
01:10:00
◼
►
Dictating into Unforgettable with its little microphone buttons that I let you put all
01:10:03
◼
►
over your system, you know, lock screen, control center, widgets, everything.
01:10:07
◼
►
It's so much faster.
01:10:08
◼
►
And what that's what I've been doing.
01:10:09
◼
►
Like all summer, whenever Siri would frustrate me and ask me over and over
01:10:13
◼
►
and over again, with huge long delays between each one, what I actually meant
01:10:18
◼
►
by a phrase that I said all the time that worked fine before Siri
01:10:21
◼
►
Um I just go tap the unforgetful thing and I say, you know, tomorrow
01:10:25
◼
►
And it's so fast.
01:10:27
◼
►
It create like I saw that as a huge opportunity for me.
01:10:29
◼
►
The rest of the world, I don't think, has discovered Unforgetful's wonderfulness in this
01:10:33
◼
►
But I I assure I assure you.
01:10:36
◼
►
the home view I'm getting there.
01:10:40
◼
►
The home view is going to have that same problem in that it's relying
01:10:46
◼
►
on Siri AI, which is very capable most of the time, and it does
01:10:52
◼
►
have a lot more that it can tell you eventually.
01:10:57
◼
►
And it it can take more actions and apps, and it is very impressive
01:11:03
◼
►
But it's so slow.
01:11:05
◼
►
And this has always been the problem that the home pod had.
01:11:07
◼
►
You know, the the original home pod with you know original Siri and you
01:11:10
◼
►
know and the version two and everything.
01:11:12
◼
►
Siri has always been like able to do things that are fairly impressive for
01:11:19
◼
►
its time, but it just never did them quickly or reliably.
01:11:23
◼
►
Will this be any different?
01:11:26
◼
►
Is this also going to be slow and unreliable?
01:11:30
◼
►
I don't think we can really say for with confidence that this is gonna
01:11:35
◼
►
blow us away in that regard.
01:11:37
◼
►
And will it consistently do it?
01:11:40
◼
►
And then also, Apple has a history of making home products, like you know,
01:11:47
◼
►
both home kit and the home app itself, and also home pods.
01:11:52
◼
►
Both of those Apple kinda puts something out there and then neglects it for
01:11:57
◼
►
It just withers and dies of neglect because Apple just can't be bothered to
01:12:02
◼
►
do anything to improve it.
01:12:04
◼
►
Why would this be any different?
01:12:05
◼
►
This is HomeKit and a HomePod combined.
01:12:10
◼
►
So this product, the way it looks in the video, the way it is
01:12:14
◼
►
sold on Apple's website, the way like the promise of this product is strong.
01:12:19
◼
►
I think if this product works well and Apple keeps supporting it, And it
01:12:26
◼
►
actually doesn't a lot of bugs.
01:12:28
◼
►
And Siri gets fast and is responsive and has a high success rate with
01:12:33
◼
►
what you ask it.
01:12:34
◼
►
This could be really great.
01:12:36
◼
►
But Apple has not shown a strong track record in any of those areas.
01:12:41
◼
►
So I have a really hard time believing in it long term.
01:12:45
◼
►
I think the uh the slowness is actually slightly more tolerable for a thing
01:12:49
◼
►
that you're not like taking out of your pocket or your phone, like because
01:12:52
◼
►
it's ambient, you can just kind of shout it and if it takes a
01:12:55
◼
►
little while, as long as I hear the confirm I mean, I do this
01:12:57
◼
►
with my like Google Home thing.
01:12:58
◼
►
As long as I hear the confirmation says, Okay, timer is set for twenty
01:13:01
◼
►
minutes starting now.
01:13:02
◼
►
Like as long as I hear that within a few seconds, I yeah it
01:13:06
◼
►
is slow, but I'm it.
01:13:07
◼
►
Whereas when I do it on my phone and I'm watching those stupid little
01:13:10
◼
►
white, little leafy things rotate in a circle, I'm like come on, come on,
01:13:13
◼
►
So maybe the speed will be more tolerable.
01:13:15
◼
►
And in terms of speed, like what does the what does the big home
01:13:19
◼
►
It has some like ancient watch chip in it or something?
01:13:21
◼
►
Um, I think it has like an like yeah, like an S seven or
01:13:23
◼
►
something or I mean this has got an A eighteen in it, which it
01:13:26
◼
►
should be a big step up from the other things that we use to
01:13:30
◼
►
talk to, the home pod mini and the big home pod, which are just
01:13:33
◼
►
massively underpowered.
01:13:34
◼
►
I mean eight gigs isn't a lot, but still an A eighteen gives me
01:13:36
◼
►
some hope that this will approach the speed of your phone, which again to
01:13:39
◼
►
your point, Marco, the phone is slower now.
01:13:41
◼
►
So if if if my iPhone eighteen pro is slow when I talk to
01:13:43
◼
►
it, this thing sure as hell isn't gonna be faster.
01:13:45
◼
►
But I do feel like my tolerance for slowness, as long as it eventually
01:13:50
◼
►
gets the job done, is higher for a thing that is not my phone
01:13:53
◼
►
that's in my hand now, because I can do it as I wander around.
01:13:57
◼
►
Um as for getting one of these, uh yeah, I got one.
01:14:00
◼
►
Uh I mean if it wasn't three if it was like five ninety nine,
01:14:04
◼
►
I wouldn't have got one.
01:14:05
◼
►
Um but at three hundred bucks, definitely.
01:14:07
◼
►
It was like I have a place for this to go where my other
01:14:09
◼
►
things where the where the my other little robots are or my other little
01:14:12
◼
►
R2 D2 things.
01:14:13
◼
►
I have a an Amazon Echo thing, I have a Google Home thing, and
01:14:17
◼
►
this is gonna be right next to it.
01:14:18
◼
►
It's the only one with a screen because I heard from everybody's horror stories
01:14:21
◼
►
about buying the Amazon Echo and I was just festooned with ads and it's
01:14:25
◼
►
And uh my home is not, I don't have a home automation stuff, so
01:14:29
◼
►
I didn't really want to get a Google home one that has a screen
01:14:31
◼
►
on it or whatever.
01:14:32
◼
►
But this thing, yeah, I'm gonna give it a try.
01:14:34
◼
►
Like everyone in my house has an Apple account, I'll put them all on
01:14:37
◼
►
the thing, they all have iPhones.
01:14:38
◼
►
You know what I mean?
01:14:39
◼
►
I have a place where it's gonna go.
01:14:41
◼
►
Uh yeah, I have uh I mean I have medium hopes for this product.
01:14:46
◼
►
Um What color did you get, by the way, Marco?
01:14:49
◼
►
I got pink because where I'm going to put it in our kitchen, pink
01:14:53
◼
►
would be the best color to fit in with our kitchen decor.
01:14:56
◼
►
But and honestly I I kind of do wish they would have had like
01:14:59
◼
►
a little bit better colors like you know the sp silver, space gray, pink
01:15:04
◼
►
and beige are Apple's like most old, boring default aluminum like those are that's
01:15:10
◼
►
at this point, that's the penalty colors for like a low-end crappy product in
01:15:14
◼
►
Apple's lineup.
01:15:15
◼
►
That's like, you know, if the Apple Watch SE gets an update, that's a
01:15:19
◼
►
low-end iPad, that's what you'd expect.
01:15:21
◼
►
Like it's that's like that's Apple's low-end colors.
01:15:23
◼
►
So I I was kind of disappointed by those.
01:15:25
◼
►
Well, I mean I just th I think this thing is just physically larger.
01:15:28
◼
►
Like I know they do really bold colors in the in the home pod
01:15:30
◼
►
mini as like a fashion type thing but that is I feel like that's
01:15:33
◼
►
less physically imposing than this thing with the its upright nature in the screen.
01:15:38
◼
►
So like I kind of understand why they went with you know various dim
01:15:42
◼
►
shades of silver for this.
01:15:43
◼
►
But like why not use like like more of an IMAC treatment on it?
01:15:45
◼
►
Like the IMAX look decent.
01:15:47
◼
►
I mean it might stand out too much.
01:15:48
◼
►
I I just got the space gray one because or I I don't even
01:15:51
◼
►
I either got the silver or the space gray.
01:15:52
◼
►
I got one of those two to fit in with neutral stuff.
01:15:56
◼
►
Uh Casey you continue to uh uh be boycotting this uh entire product category.
01:16:00
◼
►
I guess you're just so so wed to Sonos that like Sonos is my
01:16:03
◼
►
thing around the house that makes sound that I talk to and you don't
01:16:06
◼
►
have a place for anything else like that in your life.
01:16:08
◼
►
I think it's yeah, it's a little bit of both.
01:16:10
◼
►
Um I I'm not I I I'm anti home pod because that does things
01:16:17
◼
►
or I'm trying to say like seven different things.
01:16:19
◼
►
It conflicts with the Sono stuff.
01:16:20
◼
►
It conflicts with the Sono stuff because I generally play things using the Sono.
01:16:25
◼
►
Obviously I could airplay and I could mix and match, you know, Sonos and
01:16:29
◼
►
HomePods, but I just I don't personally really get anything out of the home
01:16:34
◼
►
Like they don't really do anything for me.
01:16:36
◼
►
And I really like my Sonos.
01:16:37
◼
►
My Sono stuff.
01:16:38
◼
►
Um, with regard to home view, I have never, ever, ever had a screen
01:16:43
◼
►
thing in the kitchen.
01:16:45
◼
►
I just haven't and it's just not something I feel like our family needs
01:16:50
◼
►
Um, At $300, I consider this within the realm of not an impulse purchase.
01:16:55
◼
►
That's dramatic, but like something I could give it a whirl, and it would
01:16:59
◼
►
not be financially ruinous to do so.
01:17:01
◼
►
But I I literally do not know where I would physically put this in
01:17:06
◼
►
My house That's the big thing about these products.
01:17:08
◼
►
Like I did actually think about that before I just immediately ordered this.
01:17:11
◼
►
Like, do I have a place to put this?
01:17:12
◼
►
Because you do need that.
01:17:13
◼
►
Otherwise, like what are you gonna do?
01:17:16
◼
►
Right, exactly.
01:17:17
◼
►
And I mean, I'm sure we could stick it on like the edge of
01:17:19
◼
►
the kitchen counter, but in in my house, I think by square footage
01:17:23
◼
►
by square footage I think is a bit bigger than John's, but it's not
01:17:26
◼
►
a particularly large house.
01:17:28
◼
►
And I I I just don't feel like we have extra space for this,
01:17:32
◼
►
nor do we have a particular need for it.
01:17:34
◼
►
I'm not opposed to it.
01:17:35
◼
►
I think it's a cool product.
01:17:37
◼
►
It looks neat.
01:17:38
◼
►
I can see how one would enjoy it, but it's I don't think it's
01:17:41
◼
►
And I think you'd be more likely to get one of these if you
01:17:44
◼
►
ever like went all in on home kit and then you'd get the wall
01:17:46
◼
►
mounted one.
01:17:47
◼
►
Potentially.
01:17:48
◼
►
And I did think about that because with home assistance Ooh, you could have
01:17:50
◼
►
Stephen Hackett wired into your wall for you.
01:17:54
◼
►
Right, right, right.
01:17:55
◼
►
Uh no, I've uh I uh I have all pretty much everything that's in
01:18:00
◼
►
Home Assistant, um uh not echoed, but like presented in HomeKit as well.
01:18:05
◼
►
And I actually I would say me personally, 5050, I you know, half the
01:18:09
◼
►
time I'm home assistant to control things and half the time I'm using um
01:18:13
◼
►
the home app for Erin or occasionally the children, it's the home app.
01:18:19
◼
►
Um so it is potentially useful.
01:18:21
◼
►
Um, but I don't I just I I I do have a space in
01:18:24
◼
►
the kitchen actually just above and slightly to the left, annoyingly, of my status
01:18:29
◼
►
Uh where I could hypothetically put this.
01:18:32
◼
►
We have a not used RJ11 telephone socket uh box in the wall.
01:18:37
◼
►
It's not centered on the wall annoyingly.
01:18:39
◼
►
So that would be a little weird.
01:18:41
◼
►
Um, but I I just I I I don't personally feel like there this
01:18:46
◼
►
is something I need.
01:18:47
◼
►
And with regard to audio, our kitchen kind of blends in with the living
01:18:52
◼
►
Again, don't it I'm making this sound like we have some freaking mansion.
01:18:55
◼
►
It's not, it's like two twenty two hundred square foot house.
01:18:57
◼
►
It's really unremarkable.
01:18:58
◼
►
But anyways, the the Sonos Arc Ultra that's in the living room is plenty
01:19:02
◼
►
of oomph to get music into the kitchen.
01:19:04
◼
►
So I don't feel like I need an additional speaker there.
01:19:07
◼
►
I would get a Sono speaker anyway.
01:19:09
◼
►
So it's just, it's not something for me.
01:19:12
◼
►
I'm not saying it's a bad product.
01:19:13
◼
►
I think it's very clever product.
01:19:15
◼
►
And I think it is very appealing and very cute looking, be it wall-mounted
01:19:19
◼
►
Um, there's a lot to like about it.
01:19:21
◼
►
I just don't feel like I have a place for it in my life.
01:19:23
◼
►
Yeah, I think for for audio purposes, one of the I think one of
01:19:28
◼
►
the biggest uh downsides of this for audio is that if you are filling
01:19:32
◼
►
even a modestly sized room, like i look if you if it's going in
01:19:35
◼
►
your bathroom, put whatever.
01:19:37
◼
►
But this is not a bathroom product.
01:19:38
◼
►
Um although it would be nice to see the times.
01:19:41
◼
►
Anyway, uh I don't think it's waterproof.
01:19:42
◼
►
Don't don't put in your bathroom.
01:19:44
◼
►
Well, none of them are waterproof, but um If you're f if you're filling
01:19:48
◼
►
like a a modestly sized or large room,
01:19:51
◼
►
historically with the home pods, you really want a stereo pair.
01:19:55
◼
►
Even with even if you just get two minis, that's still way better than
01:19:59
◼
►
one of of anything.
01:20:01
◼
►
Um and you know, you put space them out a little bit on the
01:20:03
◼
►
countertop or on a table or whatever.
01:20:04
◼
►
Like a stereo pair is very, very good for any of these speakers.
01:20:10
◼
►
The I don't think this can do that.
01:20:12
◼
►
Did they say anywhere?
01:20:13
◼
►
Um I I don't think it would make sense to have like you know
01:20:16
◼
►
a left a left screen and a right screen.
01:20:19
◼
►
Yeah, right.
01:20:20
◼
►
Um so I think for straight up for audio purposes, this is probably wrong.
01:20:24
◼
►
But also I think for audio purposes like that's more like a living room
01:20:29
◼
►
Whereas this seems really like a kitchen device.
01:20:32
◼
►
This is like i this this should go on your kitchen counter, like or
01:20:36
◼
►
wherever like whatever is like the hub of your house.
01:20:39
◼
►
Maybe it's like, you know, your entryway if you have like a like You
01:20:42
◼
►
know, a hallway that everyone comes and goes through.
01:20:44
◼
►
I don't know.
01:20:45
◼
►
But um I this to me this is a kitchen device.
01:20:49
◼
►
We are sponsored this week by Tailscale.
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Maybe you have a node in Richmond, maybe you have a something at Linode
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Sorry, Marco.
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Anyway, you can connect to all of these devices as long as they're on
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Further, Tailscale has a whole plethora of other neat tools that you can try.
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If you have a node in that country, then you can use what Tailscale
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Hey, what if you don't use IP addresses to actually To access all of
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What if you want to, I don't know, log into your parents' computer remotely
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via VNC or something like that, that to help troubleshoot?
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Well, just drop a node at their house and use subnet routers to do
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Thank you to Tailscale for sponsoring the show.
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All right, let's move on and let's talk about the actual star of the
01:23:00
◼
►
show, the Apple TV 4K generation four, I think, something like that.
01:23:08
◼
►
Um this is a brand new Apple TV, and I want to get this
01:23:14
◼
►
out of the way and be done with it so we can talk about
01:23:17
◼
►
happy things.
01:23:19
◼
►
How the f is this thing $300?
01:23:22
◼
►
I mean, it makes perfect sense, but it is it is such an amazing
01:23:25
◼
►
We just got done talking about a product with exactly the same price.
01:23:28
◼
►
And we're like, wow, look how affordable this is.
01:23:30
◼
►
It's much less than we thought it was going to be.
01:23:31
◼
►
Now we're going to go to another product.
01:23:33
◼
►
Same exact price.
01:23:34
◼
►
Everyone hates it.
01:23:35
◼
►
And now here's the thing.
01:23:36
◼
►
I had to look this up because I hadn't been keeping up with Apple
01:23:39
◼
►
I was waiting for the new one just like Casey.
01:23:42
◼
►
But the previous Apple TB4K, it is annoying they all have the same name,
01:23:45
◼
►
but they do have that generation and whatever in parentheses.
01:23:47
◼
►
The previous Apple TB4K had been increased in price to 200 bucks for the
01:23:52
◼
►
one with 64 gigs in Wi-Fi and 250 for the one twenty eight gig
01:23:57
◼
►
and Wi Fi plus Ethernet.
01:23:58
◼
►
So already, while I was not paying attention because of, you know, the world
01:24:02
◼
►
and AI absorbing everything, all RAM and inflation and whatever, the the the biggest
01:24:07
◼
►
Apple TV was already 250 bucks.
01:24:10
◼
►
And so now when this one is 300, it's like, how is this 300
01:24:13
◼
►
It was already 250.
01:24:15
◼
►
Now people are complaining because like, well, no one buys that one.
01:24:17
◼
►
Why would only stupid people will buy that one?
01:24:19
◼
►
Who needs Ethernet on their Apple TV?
01:24:20
◼
►
And who the hell needs storage?
01:24:21
◼
►
What the hell is it even used for?
01:24:22
◼
►
Every Everyone buys this cheaper one, and the cheaper one was a hundred bucks
01:24:26
◼
►
Like I get that.
01:24:28
◼
►
But how is this 300 bucks?
01:24:30
◼
►
Because, as we'll see in a second, they decided to only make one, and
01:24:35
◼
►
it's the big one, and it's Wi-Fi and Ethernet at 128 gigs.
01:24:39
◼
►
And so that's what they've done.
01:24:40
◼
►
Like they're clearly choosing their market for this.
01:24:43
◼
►
Hey, are you in the market for an affordable streaming box?
01:24:46
◼
►
Apple TV was never it, and now it's really not it.
01:24:49
◼
►
Remember, like you do you want a a uh you know an affordable thing
01:24:53
◼
►
that you can stream on your TV?
01:24:55
◼
►
Don't come into the store.
01:24:56
◼
►
We have nothing for you.
01:24:57
◼
►
This is not the product for you.
01:24:59
◼
►
On the flip side of that, did they make it into like a modern
01:25:02
◼
►
replacement for the NVIDIA shield?
01:25:04
◼
►
No they did not.
01:25:06
◼
►
It is not a super massive, powerful thing that does high frame rate and
01:25:09
◼
►
has all these amazing features and has audio pass-through.
01:25:11
◼
►
That is also not this.
01:25:13
◼
►
So everyone is pissed.
01:25:14
◼
►
The high-end people are pissed, not because it's 300 bucks, but because it doesn't
01:25:17
◼
►
have features befitting a 300 bucks streaming box and everyone else is pissed because
01:25:21
◼
►
like I never would buy an Apple TV for 300 bucks.
01:25:24
◼
►
Who the hell buys an Apple TV for 300 bucks?
01:25:26
◼
►
And so yeah, much sadness about the price from all sides.
01:25:30
◼
►
It's it's real bad.
01:25:31
◼
►
Like I I bought one I'll
01:25:33
◼
►
I bought one too.
01:25:34
◼
►
That's the thing about the price.
01:25:35
◼
►
I said it the last time we talked about this.
01:25:37
◼
►
As as overpriced as the Apple TV is, because it is the way I
01:25:42
◼
►
watch like I would sadly I would pay hundreds more to avoid having to
01:25:47
◼
►
use a Fire TV stick or a Google TV stick or any of those
01:25:50
◼
►
because they're worse.
01:25:52
◼
►
It doesn't make this one any better, to be clear.
01:25:54
◼
►
I'm saying, oh, it's worth it, but this one is so good.
01:25:56
◼
►
It just happens to be the best of a very bad bunch.
01:26:00
◼
►
And if they ever stop making this product, like what would we all do?
01:26:03
◼
►
Would we go try to find the most expensive Google TV thing filled with
01:26:06
◼
►
ads and crap?
01:26:07
◼
►
Like and to be clear, Apple's TV flu pr product is also becoming filled
01:26:12
◼
►
The other day I paused something on my Apple TV and it put an
01:26:14
◼
►
ad up on the pause screen.
01:26:16
◼
►
So Apple is getting worse here too.
01:26:18
◼
►
But still, among all the players, Apple TV is still, with the possible exception
01:26:24
◼
►
of the ancient what seven-year-old Nvidia Shield, which is like an NVIDIA stringing box
01:26:28
◼
►
they made back in the day that has a ton of features.
01:26:31
◼
►
I'm glad they're still making this.
01:26:33
◼
►
And I bought one even though it's 300 bucks.
01:26:35
◼
►
I don't like the price, but I'm But I would still rather have this
01:26:39
◼
►
than any other product.
01:26:40
◼
►
And so I I think Apple kinda knows they have us over a barrel
01:26:43
◼
►
because it's like if you appreciate the few remaining good things about this product
01:26:46
◼
►
as we continue to put ads all over it, it's three hundred bucks now.
01:26:50
◼
►
Yeah, it's it's ridiculous.
01:26:52
◼
►
Uh I I really hate how expensive it is.
01:26:56
◼
►
In in part because I'm comparing it to all of the like forty dollar
01:27:01
◼
►
devices, which is unfair.
01:27:02
◼
►
Or free with your TV.
01:27:03
◼
►
Or free with your TV.
01:27:05
◼
►
It's just not I don't know.
01:27:07
◼
►
It's just not a good choice, but I get that, you know, if you're
01:27:11
◼
►
gonna have 128 gigs of storage, which I'm not really clear why we need
01:27:14
◼
►
all that, but if you need it.
01:27:15
◼
►
No, they did they said there's gonna be one and it's gonna be the
01:27:17
◼
►
high-end one.
01:27:18
◼
►
So there you have it.
01:27:19
◼
►
Yeah, I mean, I suppose, but one way or another.
01:27:21
◼
►
Um, I do like, uh genuinely, I do like that there's only one of
01:27:26
◼
►
It always seemed arbitrary last generation that there was like the 64 gig Wi
01:27:31
◼
►
Fi only and then the 128 gig Wi Fi on Ethernet.
01:27:34
◼
►
That seems silly to me.
01:27:35
◼
►
I get that almost nobody uses Ethernet but John and I anymore, but I
01:27:38
◼
►
don't know it still seems dumb to have two of them, so I'm glad
01:27:41
◼
►
we're down to one.
01:27:42
◼
►
But woof three hundred bones, my goodness.
01:27:47
◼
►
I think it's fine, by the way.
01:27:48
◼
►
Like I I I I think for for what the Apple T V is,
01:27:52
◼
►
it has never been price competitive with anything else in its market.
01:27:56
◼
►
The Apple T V is not a mass market device.
01:27:59
◼
►
It never has been a mass market device.
01:28:01
◼
►
The mass market device now is just the built-in apps on everyone's TVs that
01:28:07
◼
►
The you know the mass market device before TVs have all had the apps
01:28:10
◼
►
were cheap, you know, Roku sticks and Amazon Fire sticks.
01:28:13
◼
►
This is not a mass market device.
01:28:15
◼
►
This this is like, you know, it's the sonos of set top boxes.
01:28:19
◼
►
Like this is for yeah, the Apple TV is for people who value a
01:28:23
◼
►
high quality experience and are willing to pay a premium for it.
01:28:27
◼
►
You know, that sucks for those of us who, you know, balk at this
01:28:31
◼
►
price, like that sucks.
01:28:32
◼
►
But that's what this product is.
01:28:34
◼
►
And it is, as you're saying, it is a premium experience.
01:28:37
◼
►
The other options are really mediocre.
01:28:40
◼
►
Uh they're full of paper cuts.
01:28:42
◼
►
And most people don't care or tolerate it because it's cheap.
01:28:45
◼
►
Uh but we do care and we have money and Apple's happy to take
01:28:49
◼
►
that money and here's one way they do it.
01:28:50
◼
►
Like that's what this product is.
01:28:52
◼
►
I am happy they updated the Apple TV.
01:28:55
◼
►
I also recognize that in this environment of component cost, there was no way
01:29:00
◼
►
it wasn't gonna go up.
01:29:01
◼
►
Because you know, you think about like, you know, we were just saying the
01:29:03
◼
►
home view, we were surprised that it wasn't more expensive, but it also doesn't
01:29:07
◼
►
have significant computation, memory, or storage.
01:29:09
◼
►
The Apple T V has no display, no speakers, but significant computation, memory, and
01:29:17
◼
►
It's just got one higher number.
01:29:18
◼
►
It's got an A nineteen instead of an A eighteen.
01:29:20
◼
►
I mean, granted, the storage hundred hundred twenty-eight gigs versus whatever the heck the
01:29:24
◼
►
home view has, which I imagine is piddling.
01:29:26
◼
►
But you know, it wouldn't surprise me if the home view had sixty-four.
01:29:28
◼
►
We'll see what it ends up having.
01:29:30
◼
►
But yeah, like it is that's the other thing is because you look at
01:29:33
◼
►
this and it's like this featureless black box that it's been for many years
01:29:37
◼
►
No no down firing subwoofers, no passive radiators, no tweeters, no camera, no screen,
01:29:42
◼
►
no arm, no nothing.
01:29:44
◼
►
Three hundred bucks.
01:29:45
◼
►
It is kind of bananas.
01:29:47
◼
►
But at least at least there's no longer two different versions of it, weirdly.
01:29:51
◼
►
Yeah like I'm people wish that but people wish that that there was one
01:29:54
◼
►
version of it and it was two hundred bucks and it had sixty four
01:29:56
◼
►
gigs and only Wi-Fi 'cause like like Casey said, nobody cares about Ethernet but
01:29:59
◼
►
Like I'm glad that it has Ethernet, don't get me wrong, but like most
01:30:02
◼
►
people don't Yeah, fair.
01:30:04
◼
►
But I I I'm glad they I'm glad they simplified because that was always
01:30:09
◼
►
a weird decision.
01:30:10
◼
►
Um and you know, look, it it's fine.
01:30:14
◼
►
Like I I think this is it's like we wanted a new Apple TV
01:30:18
◼
►
for a long time.
01:30:19
◼
►
They gave us one.
01:30:20
◼
►
And it's exactly what you would expect out of a twenty twenty-six hardware release.
01:30:24
◼
►
And we bought it.
01:30:25
◼
►
And I'll I will point out though, as for the premium experience, in addition
01:30:28
◼
►
to me complaining about the fact that ads appear when I hit p hit
01:30:30
◼
►
pause on a thing, which is just like really over a line for me
01:30:33
◼
►
and I'm very upset about it.
01:30:34
◼
►
Another aspect of a premium experience I feel like is just basic reliability.
01:30:39
◼
►
And I believe twice in the last five days I've had this experience while
01:30:44
◼
►
watching uh television show on Apple TV uh with my wife.
01:30:48
◼
►
You know, hit play.
01:30:49
◼
►
Episode we're watching Ted Lasso, so it's an Apple show and Apple's app.
01:30:52
◼
►
Like it's Apple Apple Apple.
01:30:54
◼
►
On my Apple TV.
01:30:55
◼
►
It's the latest before this one, Apple TV 4K.
01:30:59
◼
►
Episode starts playing.
01:31:00
◼
►
Oh, she wants to go and get a snack.
01:31:01
◼
►
I hit pause.
01:31:01
◼
►
She comes back into the room.
01:31:03
◼
►
She sits back down.
01:31:03
◼
►
She's ready for the show to start again.
01:31:05
◼
►
I hit the button and the video does not resume playing.
01:31:09
◼
►
Nothing I can do.
01:31:10
◼
►
Hit the button again, again, nothing happens.
01:31:12
◼
►
I have to force quit the app, relaunch it, and then resume from where
01:31:16
◼
►
Two times in five days.
01:31:18
◼
►
That's not a premium experience.
01:31:19
◼
►
How many times has my TiVo ever done that where I hit pause?
01:31:22
◼
►
Oh, here we go.
01:31:23
◼
►
Got hit pause, got up to get something, came back in, hit unpause, and
01:31:26
◼
►
the video did not resume playing.
01:31:28
◼
►
I don't know what the problem is.
01:31:29
◼
►
I don't care what the problem is.
01:31:31
◼
►
This is like a straight up the middle watching an Apple show on an
01:31:34
◼
►
Apple TV 4K, latest everything, everything's working, hardware is not broken.
01:31:38
◼
►
I'm sure it's some stupid software problem, but this to me is unacceptable.
01:31:42
◼
►
And it's gonna hurt much worse when my three hundred dollar box does the
01:31:47
◼
►
Uh for the record, by the way, as per the Macromerse buyer's guide, 1456
01:31:52
◼
►
days since the last update, which was October 2022.
01:31:56
◼
►
Absolutely bananas.
01:31:58
◼
►
So yeah, so like we said, just one model A19, 128 gig storage, Wi
01:32:03
◼
►
Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, thread.
01:32:05
◼
►
The physical form factor is almost identical except that the light is now in
01:32:11
◼
►
Not an improvement in my opinion, but fine.
01:32:13
◼
►
I don't think I care one way or the other, to be honest.
01:32:15
◼
►
The remote is basically the same, but there's some important exceptions there.
01:32:18
◼
►
We'll get there in a second.
01:32:19
◼
►
Uh again, HDMI 2.1 and gigabit Ethernet.
01:32:23
◼
►
Here's where things get a little bit interesting.
01:32:26
◼
►
The actual box itself has built-in far-field microphones.
01:32:30
◼
►
There's a three-microphone array with voice isolation, and it's on the box itself.
01:32:35
◼
►
Additionally, for output, you can pair Apple TV 4K with four home pod speakers
01:32:40
◼
►
for three-dimensional sound.
01:32:41
◼
►
So you'd have two fronts and two rears.
01:32:43
◼
►
There was a I think marketing photo somewhere that showed two full-size home pods
01:32:49
◼
►
near the TV, if I recall correctly, and two minis behind the couch uh
01:32:53
◼
►
as rears, which I thought was very interesting.
01:32:56
◼
►
On this feature, by the way, this the two things you just read are,
01:32:59
◼
►
as we'll get to in a little bit, the only things besides the A19
01:33:03
◼
►
that distinguish this Apple TV from its predecessors.
01:33:07
◼
►
It's got an A19, microphones on the box, four home pods.
01:33:12
◼
►
Everything else about this is available in some number of previous iterations of this
01:33:18
◼
►
product, including the remote, as we'll get to.
01:33:20
◼
►
Um so that's worth considering.
01:33:21
◼
►
The other thing is they just say, Oh, now you can pair four horn
01:33:25
◼
►
pods with it.
01:33:25
◼
►
Well, the market for many, many, many years has been filled with various products
01:33:31
◼
►
that let you pair some number of speakers more than two with your television,
01:33:35
◼
►
not pair, but like connect some number of speakers more than two to your
01:33:38
◼
►
television and have something somewhere figure out how to make sound come out of
01:33:43
◼
►
those more than two speakers in a way that provides some kind of experience
01:33:47
◼
►
based on programs that are may or may not be mastered for multiple speakers,
01:33:51
◼
►
blah blah blah blah blah.
01:33:52
◼
►
Lots of products do this.
01:33:53
◼
►
It is essentially it's it's it's computational audio.
01:33:56
◼
►
Uh Sony makes sort of like medium to high-end prosumer models that do this
01:34:01
◼
►
of various things.
01:34:02
◼
►
I forget what the old one was called.
01:34:03
◼
►
The new one I think is called the Sony Quad.
01:34:05
◼
►
I forget the name.
01:34:06
◼
►
So they they sell a bunch of these products that will like, hey, just
01:34:09
◼
►
put these speakers wherever in your room.
01:34:10
◼
►
We give you a bunch of them, just put them around, and then our
01:34:13
◼
►
computers will figure out uh where did you put them?
01:34:15
◼
►
How can we make these this these speakers sound good in this room?
01:34:18
◼
►
When I was talking about my awkward room arrangement, everyone's like, You should get
01:34:21
◼
►
one of those.
01:34:22
◼
►
Instead, I went with components or whatever, you know.
01:34:24
◼
►
But anyway, um, those systems are always kind of a compromise.
01:34:28
◼
►
It's like, do you want cool home theater, but don't want to have a
01:34:31
◼
►
an A V receiver and individual speakers from some expensive speaker company where each
01:34:35
◼
►
speaker costs five grand or whatever.
01:34:37
◼
►
Do you just want like I just want to buy it's like a stereo
01:34:39
◼
►
in a box stuff, but now with computational stuff.
01:34:41
◼
►
In the old days, you get the you'd get like the uh Dolby or
01:34:44
◼
►
no, the Bose ster stereo in a box thing with those little Bose speakers
01:34:47
◼
►
and the big self-word, and it's like, well, home theater.
01:34:49
◼
►
But like it had no idea where you put the speakers.
01:34:51
◼
►
It just put the same sound out of all of them and good luck
01:34:53
◼
►
having that sound good if your room isn't, right?
01:34:56
◼
►
The computational ones are like, it's user friendly.
01:34:58
◼
►
Put them somewhere, and we'll figure out where they are and we'll use our
01:35:03
◼
►
computer maths to make it sound good from where we think you're sitting.
01:35:07
◼
►
Apple doesn't say anything about this, right, in in their literature, but presumably they've
01:35:12
◼
►
got to be doing something like that.
01:35:16
◼
►
But the state of the art in this is like again like the Sony
01:35:18
◼
►
systems where they they will do amazing things.
01:35:21
◼
►
You can put the speakers at different heights in weird positions behind a plant,
01:35:24
◼
►
like wherever you put them.
01:35:26
◼
►
That Sony system will and it's really expensive, like three grand.
01:35:29
◼
►
But anyway, that Sony system of like, don't worry about it.
01:35:31
◼
►
Don't worry about shape of your room.
01:35:32
◼
►
Don't worry about where your stuff is.
01:35:34
◼
►
We will figure out how to provide an actual five point one, seven point
01:35:38
◼
►
one, five point two, whatever mix the the the content you're watching is.
01:35:43
◼
►
Don't worry if that matches the number of speakers you have.
01:35:45
◼
►
We will figure it out because our speakers have drivers that point up, that
01:35:48
◼
►
point left, that point right, that point forward, and we'll drive them all.
01:35:51
◼
►
They're like, it's a really complicated thing.
01:35:54
◼
►
And they've gotten actually pretty good, like with the advances in computation with computation
01:35:58
◼
►
getting cheaper, where those systems can do amazing things in non-ideal situations.
01:36:03
◼
►
My impression of what Apple's offering is we'll play sound out of all four
01:36:07
◼
►
of the speakers.
01:36:07
◼
►
Maybe the back ones will play different than the front ones, but like I
01:36:11
◼
►
get the impression that they are not doing anything close to the state of
01:36:14
◼
►
the art and consumer will figure out your room and make cool surround sounds.
01:36:17
◼
►
So I have extremely low hopes for the audio quality and fidelity of a
01:36:23
◼
►
four home pod setup that's That said, it will be fantastically better than A,
01:36:28
◼
►
a setup with no speakers behind you, or B, your stupid built-in TV speakers.
01:36:33
◼
►
So I'm pooing this, but I am saying that I'm with the other people,
01:36:37
◼
►
other sort of like medium to high end TV people who are disappointed that
01:36:40
◼
►
Apple doesn't want to seem to want to pursue that because here they have
01:36:43
◼
►
huge amounts of computation in that A19.
01:36:46
◼
►
They could do almost anything.
01:36:48
◼
►
And there I bet they're my speculation is that they are not going to
01:36:52
◼
►
have stellar sound from four home pods.
01:36:55
◼
►
The remote does look the same and it has the same external uh buttons
01:37:01
◼
►
and whatnot.
01:37:02
◼
►
However, it does have find my with precision finding and it can make sounds.
01:37:09
◼
►
You can also buy it separately for 60 bucks.
01:37:11
◼
►
It works with every model of Apple TV, going back to the Apple TV
01:37:14
◼
►
HD, but according to Stevie Bonifeld Bonifield at the verge.
01:37:20
◼
►
If you want to see exactly how far away the new series remote is
01:37:24
◼
►
on your phone with details like 20 feet, rather than simply far or near,
01:37:27
◼
►
you need to have an iPhone Duo, iPhone Air, or any iPhone 17 or
01:37:30
◼
►
Those are the only models that include its new N1 networking chip with support
01:37:34
◼
►
for Bluetooth channel sounding, which enables air tag-like precision tracking, but without the ultra
01:37:39
◼
►
wideband chip.
01:37:41
◼
►
And I think what they're saying is the what they're saying is the remote
01:37:44
◼
►
doesn't ultra wideband chip.
01:37:46
◼
►
'cause like the phones do, right?
01:37:47
◼
►
But there's like that's why you need the phones with the N one.
01:37:50
◼
►
So I mean it shouldn't matter.
01:37:51
◼
►
Like the thing can make a noise and near and far is probably enough,
01:37:53
◼
►
but just FYI, you need a very new phone, Duo Air seventeen or later,
01:37:58
◼
►
to be able to get the distance because apparently the you need the N
01:38:03
◼
►
And I guess like the the r one of the reasons the remote is
01:38:05
◼
►
the same and works all the other ones is the remote doesn't have radically
01:38:08
◼
►
different innards inside it, with possible exception of the added speaker.
01:38:13
◼
►
Uh we're going for distance and we're going for speed, John.
01:38:15
◼
►
That's a reference.
01:38:16
◼
►
Wait, from the cake song?
01:38:18
◼
►
Hey, all right.
01:38:19
◼
►
Look at us, all three of us, look at us go.
01:38:22
◼
►
Uh with Siri AI, um you do have conversational search.
01:38:26
◼
►
So Apple says users can simply ask Siri what Apple TV shows won at
01:38:30
◼
►
the Emmy Awards this year.
01:38:32
◼
►
Weird flex, but okay.
01:38:33
◼
►
While watching, users can ask Siri AI follow-up questions and tap into Siri AI's
01:38:38
◼
►
broad world knowledge to go deeper into a show, asking things like, where was
01:38:42
◼
►
Pleurabus filmed?
01:38:43
◼
►
Or is this appropriate for a 15-year-old?
01:38:45
◼
►
Responses appear in a compact, subtle overlay.
01:38:48
◼
►
With an Apple Intelligence enabled iPhone, Siri AI on Apple TV 4K can now
01:38:52
◼
►
tap into a user's personal context to answer questions like, or excuse me, requests
01:38:56
◼
►
like play the show Alinda recommended.
01:38:59
◼
►
Yeah, I've heard uh some people saying that like this is kind of silly
01:39:02
◼
►
in that like uh in fact it was uh a friend of ours saying
01:39:05
◼
►
that why don't you this is why I just use call sheet because I
01:39:07
◼
►
don't want crap over my screen, especially if I'm
01:39:10
◼
►
People like a family.
01:39:11
◼
►
Uh if I want to know what that person is from, I'm much more
01:39:14
◼
►
likely to pull out my phone and pull out call sheet and find out
01:39:16
◼
►
where they're from because that doesn't put anything up on the screen.
01:39:19
◼
►
Uh but my argument is, okay, I do that too, right, for the same
01:39:24
◼
►
But I still think a device like this and an operating system like TVOS
01:39:28
◼
►
should support the on screen thing.
01:39:30
◼
►
That's why I'm very supportive of the speakers in the box, even though I'm
01:39:33
◼
►
probably always going to use the remote.
01:39:36
◼
►
It should be there.
01:39:37
◼
►
I feel like it's base functionality.
01:39:39
◼
►
You should be able to shout at the screen and say, what is that
01:39:41
◼
►
person from or whatever, right?
01:39:42
◼
►
Maybe not everybody wants to do that.
01:39:44
◼
►
Maybe most people are gonna do it on their phone, but the capability should
01:39:47
◼
►
I feel like it is table stakes for especially for a $300 box that
01:39:51
◼
►
it should be able to do that.
01:39:53
◼
►
Now you can choose never to use that feature.
01:39:54
◼
►
You can use to look it up on your phone.
01:39:56
◼
►
That works great too.
01:39:57
◼
►
But I definitely think it should be there.
01:39:59
◼
►
And I do think with Siri AI, it will be less um.
01:40:04
◼
►
I was gonna say, I don't know less uh less pig headed about it.
01:40:08
◼
►
Like I should be able to talk to it conversationally and have it actually
01:40:10
◼
►
figure out what I mean.
01:40:11
◼
►
Like I'm used to doing this with both the Amazon and the Google products
01:40:14
◼
►
when I ask questions at the table of like what movie was this person
01:40:16
◼
►
in or whatever, to answer you know, things that we're wondering without looking it
01:40:20
◼
►
up on your phone we're eating dinner so we don't have to pull out
01:40:22
◼
►
our phones, right?
01:40:23
◼
►
Um I would I'm happy to have that same experience on the Apple TV.
01:40:27
◼
►
And especially if like I we'll see how it works out.
01:40:29
◼
►
Like if once I have the capability and if it works at all, maybe
01:40:32
◼
►
I will pause the show and ask it because very often it's my wife
01:40:35
◼
►
saying, Go look, where is that person from?
01:40:36
◼
►
Go look it up.
01:40:37
◼
►
Go look but she never has her phone with her.
01:40:38
◼
►
She wants me to look it up, right?
01:40:39
◼
►
So then I pull out my phone and I look it up on call
01:40:42
◼
►
I would I might be able to just pause the show, assuming it will
01:40:44
◼
►
play again when I hit the pa play pause button.
01:40:46
◼
►
Pause Pause the show and say, Hey Dingus, what was this person in before?
01:40:50
◼
►
We'll see how it works, but I'm uh looking forward to uh trying that.
01:40:54
◼
►
And again, these are this these this feature, Siri AI, not exclusive to this
01:40:58
◼
►
new Apple T V hardware, to be clear.
01:41:00
◼
►
It is part of the whatever twenty seven point whatever OS that has this
01:41:04
◼
►
I'm sorry, can we go back a step?
01:41:06
◼
►
Tina never has her phone with her.
01:41:08
◼
►
She doesn't even know where it is.
01:41:10
◼
►
But she has six phones with her anytime she leaves the house.
01:41:13
◼
►
That's maybe that's part of the problem.
01:41:14
◼
►
She's always like she th the person who is most likely to use the
01:41:17
◼
►
thing that makes your phone make a sound in our house is her.
01:41:20
◼
►
Cause the kids know where their phone is, but she has no idea and
01:41:24
◼
►
is very often wandering around looking for it.
01:41:26
◼
►
And whenever she wants to look something up a call, she she never has
01:41:28
◼
►
her phone, so I'm always the one doing it.
01:41:32
◼
►
Uh some of the older Apple TV 4Ks do get this serie AI stuff
01:41:36
◼
►
The Apple TV 4K second or third gen, which is, I believe, the two
01:41:40
◼
►
prior generations, uh, with TV OS 27.2 uh availability.
01:41:44
◼
►
You can already pre-order in store on the 13th of November, just like Home
01:41:49
◼
►
Uh like I said, I'm in for one.
01:41:51
◼
►
Uh if you recall, I have, I believe, a Gen 3 in the living
01:41:55
◼
►
I have a Gen 2 in the bedroom, which we very rarely use, to
01:41:59
◼
►
be completely honest with you.
01:42:00
◼
►
And I think it's 4K Gen 1, maybe, or it might be the last
01:42:04
◼
►
of the 1080s.
01:42:05
◼
►
Um, that is our tailgate tub/slash travel TV, uh Apple TV, and that is
01:42:11
◼
►
very long in the tooth.
01:42:12
◼
►
I think that one is like nine years old or something like that.
01:42:16
◼
►
So it is a testament to Apple that it still works and reasonably well,
01:42:21
◼
►
but it's quite slow.
01:42:23
◼
►
And I am very excited to retire that one.
01:42:26
◼
►
So there will be a trickle down uh starting uh on November 13th.
01:42:30
◼
►
John, you said you're in for one.
01:42:31
◼
►
Are you doing a similar trickle-down?
01:42:34
◼
►
I'm gonna replace the previous generation Apple TV 4K on my main TV, then
01:42:38
◼
►
that one will move up to my bedroom and the bedroom will become the
01:42:40
◼
►
travel apple TV and the travel apple TV will retire to a box in
01:42:44
◼
►
Marco, what did you do?
01:42:46
◼
►
I did not buy anything yet.
01:42:48
◼
►
Uh all of my Apple TVs are fine.
01:42:51
◼
►
And so when one dies I'll replace it.
01:42:55
◼
►
Or when if if something you know, if there's some big software update down
01:42:58
◼
►
the road and it gets really bad, um or something, then I'll buy the
01:43:02
◼
►
new I'll buy whatever the newest one is then.
01:43:04
◼
►
But so far all of our Apple TVs are fine.
01:43:08
◼
►
And that's part of the fallout of this having only those two exclusive features,
01:43:13
◼
►
which is do you want to talk to your Apple TV box with the
01:43:16
◼
►
microphones on it?
01:43:17
◼
►
And do you want to hook up four home pods?
01:43:19
◼
►
Marco does not want to hook up four home pods to his TV because
01:43:21
◼
►
he's already got TV speakers and it sounds like you don't talking to the
01:43:23
◼
►
box, so you're happy to talk to the remote.
01:43:25
◼
►
And by the way, if you're a trouble trouble finding your remote, you can
01:43:28
◼
►
just buy the sixty dollar remote and replace your current remote with it.
01:43:31
◼
►
So it's uh as far as I can see, there's nothing in in this
01:43:35
◼
►
Apple T V that really makes me motivated to replace one that already works.
01:43:39
◼
►
Yeah, the only other thing would be let's say you're a big Apple T
01:43:42
◼
►
V gamer, the A nineteen is gonna be much better for games, but like
01:43:46
◼
►
when I'm not sure.
01:43:47
◼
►
Are there any of those people left?
01:43:48
◼
►
Yeah, people laugh because it's what that like, you know.
01:43:51
◼
►
You're the one.
01:43:52
◼
►
It's part of the whole thing with this product.
01:43:53
◼
►
Like Apple has not Apple has continues to pursue the same strategy.
01:43:58
◼
►
They're not turning into a serious games machine.
01:44:01
◼
►
They're not turning it into a like the thing that all of the TV
01:44:05
◼
►
Like everyone is screaming about the fact that it still doesn't have audio pass
01:44:08
◼
►
through, although they can add that with a with a software update if they
01:44:10
◼
►
really wanted to.
01:44:11
◼
►
It still doesn't do more than 60 frames per second.
01:44:13
◼
►
So if you're gonna like try to stream PC games through it or whatever,
01:44:16
◼
►
like it's just it is what it has always been.
01:44:19
◼
►
It is just the latest version of that.
01:44:21
◼
►
And the price is up because the price of everything is up and because
01:44:24
◼
►
it's got an A19 in it.
01:44:26
◼
►
As Jason Snell has been pointing out, you know they're gonna sell this same
01:44:29
◼
►
damn box for the same price for the next four years.
01:44:32
◼
►
So this is both the most powerful it will ever be relative to everything
01:44:36
◼
►
else, and also they need to make sure that the guts are in it
01:44:39
◼
►
that are in it will not be too embarrassing a thousand change days from
01:44:45
◼
►
We are sponsored this week by Quince.
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So it's time for weather to change all over the planet, and it's
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a really good time to take stock of your wardrobe and think, uh, I
01:44:56
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should probably get rid of this stuff.
01:44:57
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And ooh, I really have a bit of a void here.
01:44:59
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And if you have that sort of a situation, you should check out Quince.
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Furthermore, Quince does a lot more than just clothes.
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Further, everything at Quince is priced fifty to eighty percent less than similar brands.
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They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middle people, so you're
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Quince has been kind enough to give me some gift cards to use for
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various things at their site.
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And my favorite, I think, might be the Comfort Stretch Traveler five pocket pants.
01:45:56
◼
►
These fit in this kind of interesting and awesome, in between, between something as
01:46:01
◼
►
casual as jeans and as formal as slacks, they're kind of in this In
01:46:05
◼
►
the middle section, but I mean that in the best possible way.
01:46:07
◼
►
And I gotta tell you, these work in just about any context.
01:46:11
◼
►
It's really, really nice, and they're super comfortable too.
01:46:13
◼
►
And of course, they look great.
01:46:15
◼
►
So find your next fall favorites at Quince.
01:46:18
◼
►
Down the Quince app for Apple app exclusive offers or to go to quince.com.
01:46:22
◼
►
That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com.
01:46:24
◼
►
Get free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five day returns.
01:46:28
◼
►
Quince is now available in Canada and the UK too, and when Quince asks
01:46:31
◼
►
where you heard about them, let them know it was Accidental Tech Podcast.
01:46:34
◼
►
It's the best way to support the show again, q-u-in-c e.com.
01:46:38
◼
►
Thank you to Quince for supporting ATP.
01:46:44
◼
►
And then I believe rounding out.
01:46:46
◼
►
Oh no, not rounding out.
01:46:48
◼
►
We have two more steps to go.
01:46:49
◼
►
Uh first of all, there's a new home pod mini two.
01:46:52
◼
►
That's a thing that exists.
01:46:54
◼
►
Uh there is a home collection.
01:46:56
◼
►
Wait, uh the home pod mini two.
01:46:58
◼
►
You can't move on from that because for fifty more dollars they added more
01:47:01
◼
►
lights on top.
01:47:03
◼
►
That are that are synced with album art.
01:47:05
◼
►
I had to also look up what the old price of this one is.
01:47:07
◼
►
I was surprised that it was only $100, but yeah, it's $150 now instead
01:47:10
◼
►
of a hundred dollars.
01:47:12
◼
►
I couldn't find what the SOC is.
01:47:13
◼
►
Do you did any find that anywhere?
01:47:15
◼
►
I had no idea.
01:47:16
◼
►
I mean, yeah, it was a w it was one of the watch ships
01:47:18
◼
►
I the home pod mini has oh as as I said earlier, it's always
01:47:22
◼
►
been a really good value for a hundred dollars.
01:47:25
◼
►
At a hundred and fifty, it's less of a good value.
01:47:27
◼
►
Uh it's still like if you want the best and most sound out of
01:47:33
◼
►
the smallest one of these speakers you can get, it's HomePod Mini.
01:47:37
◼
►
It it gives you way better and bigger sound out of that tiny little
01:47:41
◼
►
ball than anything Amazon or Google makes.
01:47:44
◼
►
Um, but it at $150, you know, you you're starting to push people's boundaries
01:47:48
◼
►
of like value for for what that is.
01:47:51
◼
►
Um, I still think it is overall an okay value.
01:47:54
◼
►
Before it was a great value.
01:47:56
◼
►
Uh as for the lights on top, who cares?
01:48:00
◼
►
I I mean most of the places that I've put home pods in my
01:48:03
◼
►
house, I either can't see the top, if it's like on a shelf or
01:48:07
◼
►
something, or i I'm not looking at the top very often because like it's
01:48:12
◼
►
not that far below eye level or I'm not staring at it while listening
01:48:16
◼
►
to it or whatever.
01:48:17
◼
►
Like that's a nice little gimmick, but you know, that's that's fine.
01:48:20
◼
►
Mainly it's a price raise.
01:48:21
◼
►
Yeah, it definitely seems like a kind of feature where they were like the
01:48:23
◼
►
the team was challenged, like, look, you can't really add any costs or change
01:48:28
◼
►
this product in any way.
01:48:29
◼
►
What can you add to the hardware within those constraints?
01:48:32
◼
►
It's like, well, we can put different lights under it, or if those lights
01:48:36
◼
►
were already there, we can drive them based on software.
01:48:38
◼
►
You know, it's it's a kind of like sort of a thing you can
01:48:40
◼
►
do without changing the product too much.
01:48:42
◼
►
Uh they changed the colors, I think.
01:48:43
◼
►
It's green, pink, blue, midnight, and white now.
01:48:46
◼
►
I don't remember what the old colors were, but I a lot of people
01:48:48
◼
►
like the old like orange color and stuff and those are gone now.
01:48:51
◼
►
Same size and shape as far as I can tell, including the quote unquote
01:48:56
◼
►
non-removable power cord.
01:48:58
◼
►
I think it's similar to the power cord on the big home pod, and
01:49:01
◼
►
the the power cord of the big home pod is technically not removable, but
01:49:05
◼
►
it actually is removable if you yank on it real hard and don't break
01:49:08
◼
►
Like it's what I'm saying is it's not a connector.
01:49:10
◼
►
It's a USB-C connector.
01:49:12
◼
►
It's not any kind of one of the power plugs.
01:49:14
◼
►
It is the the wires attached and people complain about that because like, oh
01:49:17
◼
►
if my cat chews through the wire do I have to get an entirely
01:49:19
◼
►
new HomePod mini?
01:49:21
◼
►
I don't know what it looks like inside there.
01:49:22
◼
►
I know on the big one you can physically remove because I've yanked my
01:49:25
◼
►
own cord out of my big home pod.
01:49:27
◼
►
I it's hard to do but you can do it and you can also
01:49:29
◼
►
snap it back in.
01:49:30
◼
►
Like it goes out and it goes in.
01:49:31
◼
►
It's it is possible.
01:49:32
◼
►
I don't know what's on the inside of one of these minis, but I
01:49:35
◼
►
feel like this does tie into the thing that we haven't mentioned any uh
01:49:38
◼
►
any of these products.
01:49:38
◼
►
So like Apple's continuing, like at the bottom of every one of these product
01:49:41
◼
►
pages, they list like here's our progress towards Apple's carbon neutral twenty thirty goals.
01:49:46
◼
►
And they keep their listing stuff.
01:49:48
◼
►
They're like, we're doing better.
01:49:48
◼
►
Here's how this broadcasts, or whatever.
01:49:50
◼
►
Part of their carbon neutral twenty thirty goals should be update the whole mud.
01:49:56
◼
►
Mini to have uh a USB-C jack on it, let's say a removable cord.
01:50:00
◼
►
Because we all know like the little battery bases that they have for these.
01:50:02
◼
►
You always have to do something with the cord because you can't get rid
01:50:04
◼
►
of it and you can't replace it with like a little like a short
01:50:06
◼
►
USB-C connector.
01:50:07
◼
►
So that I feel like is an environmental thing that they need to do.
01:50:10
◼
►
Now the the reason they're doing it is not because Apple is mean and
01:50:13
◼
►
hates the environment, it's because Apple does not update these products frequently.
01:50:16
◼
►
Like this has not been redesigned.
01:50:18
◼
►
It is the same as it has ever been.
01:50:19
◼
►
They don't design them frequently because they're just not updated frequently.
01:50:23
◼
►
When they do redesign this in three to five years, I really hope that
01:50:27
◼
►
it will have a USB C port on it.
01:50:29
◼
►
And then when your cat chews through the cable, you can just get a
01:50:32
◼
►
Uh let's see.
01:50:34
◼
►
With regard to audio, the only real change that we know about is the
01:50:36
◼
►
surround sound thing.
01:50:38
◼
►
Um we're not sure if this is new.
01:50:40
◼
►
I think this is new, but again, I don't really care about home pods.
01:50:44
◼
►
Um, you can make the home pod mini two or I believe a stereo
01:50:47
◼
►
pair thereof as the the they they can be the default speaker for Max
01:50:52
◼
►
Maybe that was already a thing but I didn't know.
01:50:54
◼
►
Yeah, that might have already been there.
01:50:55
◼
►
But like here's when Apple the Apple was advertising, I guess they're just saying
01:50:58
◼
►
just to remind you what this product does.
01:51:00
◼
►
I don't someone will write in and tell us whether it's new.
01:51:02
◼
►
But either way, the problem with using home pods as speakers for Macs has
01:51:06
◼
►
always been lag, because you can't connect them to your Mac directly.
01:51:10
◼
►
It's all, you know, Bluetooth, Wi Fi, whatever.
01:51:13
◼
►
And if they were really serious about advertising these as speakers for your Mac,
01:51:17
◼
►
I would hope they would say, and now with, you know, lower lag or
01:51:20
◼
►
they just didn't say they just don't care.
01:51:22
◼
►
It's like it's a thing you can do if you feel like it, it
01:51:24
◼
►
looks real nice.
01:51:24
◼
►
They're never gonna say that.
01:51:26
◼
►
I just I d I don't know.
01:51:28
◼
►
Like uh Marco, you tried this I think with big home pods once.
01:51:32
◼
►
And was it was it was it awful?
01:51:34
◼
►
Um and it was awful for two reasons.
01:51:36
◼
►
The lag was w only one of them.
01:51:38
◼
►
The other one is that it was just unreliable.
01:51:41
◼
►
Like they would drop the link, it you'd have to like reconnect it.
01:51:44
◼
►
Um at at that time, music would like the music app would actually treat
01:51:49
◼
►
them a little bit differently than using them as system audio.
01:51:51
◼
►
Like it was a mess.
01:51:52
◼
►
And I I later tried the same thing with um Sonos era three hundreds
01:51:57
◼
►
uh, which were significantly better 'cause I just use like a line in kind
01:52:01
◼
►
of setup, significantly better than trying to like, you know, airplate a home pods
01:52:05
◼
►
Um, but still had lag as as a fairly annoying factor.
01:52:09
◼
►
Um now they're saying you know this requires a certain Wi-Fi standard and everything,
01:52:13
◼
►
so maybe they are gonna take advantage of some like you know nice low
01:52:17
◼
►
latency Wi-Fi thing so it's not you know just like going over the regular
01:52:20
◼
►
network, maybe it'll like send some kind of peer-to-peer direct.
01:52:23
◼
►
Um maybe they can make that very low latency.
01:52:26
◼
►
I mean, as I was saying earlier, CarPlay seems to be you know, a
01:52:31
◼
►
video stream between the phone and the car at short range, peer-to-peer.
01:52:36
◼
►
And while we've had issues, with CarPlay audio, because that is kind of sort
01:52:40
◼
►
of over Bluetooth and you know it it's kind of complicated, CarPlay video is
01:52:45
◼
►
fairly responsive.
01:52:47
◼
►
You know, you figure you're touching the car's touch screen, that has to go
01:52:50
◼
►
over a local Wi-Fi network from the CarPlay, you know, head unit or car
01:52:55
◼
►
computer, whatever, over Wi-Fi to the phone.
01:52:57
◼
►
The phone interprets the touch, updates the interface, sends it back over that same
01:53:00
◼
►
link a second time and updates the UI.
01:53:02
◼
►
It seems pretty responsive.
01:53:04
◼
►
So I th I'm guessing they have a way that if you have peer-to-peer
01:53:09
◼
►
Wi-Fi over short distances with you know known quantities of hardware on both sides
01:53:14
◼
►
and nothing else is congesting the link in that area and everything else.
01:53:18
◼
►
Maybe they can set the latency and the buffers very, very low on these
01:53:22
◼
►
things to make it much more responsive and less noticeable.
01:53:25
◼
►
So if that's the kind of thing they're doing to achieve this, that could
01:53:29
◼
►
actually work.
01:53:31
◼
►
Or again, if and when they ever redesign these things, everyone is screaming for
01:53:35
◼
►
this forever for every one of Apple speaker products.
01:53:38
◼
►
Put a damn line in, Jack.
01:53:39
◼
►
Put a USB C like pick one.
01:53:41
◼
►
You don't have to have a thousand ports.
01:53:42
◼
►
It doesn't be like the back of third party speakers that have a thousand
01:53:44
◼
►
ways to connect them.
01:53:45
◼
►
We just want one.
01:53:46
◼
►
One way to connect it with a wire directly to a Mac.
01:53:49
◼
►
So you have uh a basically, you know, low latency, lower latency than wireless
01:53:54
◼
►
USB audio would be perfectly fine.
01:53:56
◼
►
Analog audio with a three point five millimeter jack also be perfectly fine.
01:54:00
◼
►
Probably Apple won't do that one.
01:54:01
◼
►
But like the current situation where it's a sphere and it's got a permanently
01:54:04
◼
►
attached cord that bring brings it power, everything else is wireless, even if you
01:54:08
◼
►
want to use it on your desk next to your Mac where it's never
01:54:12
◼
►
Why does that have to be wireless?
01:54:15
◼
►
And then we briefly mentioned SoundGlow.
01:54:18
◼
►
Apple writes with SoundGlow, the top of HomePod Mini transforms into a visual canvas
01:54:22
◼
►
that glows and pulses in sync with the music reacting in real time to
01:54:25
◼
►
bass and treble.
01:54:27
◼
►
The song's album artwork from Now Playing generates a color matched light experience that's
01:54:31
◼
►
unique to every song, and users can pick a soundscape like rain to trigger
01:54:34
◼
►
bespoke animations for a soothing atmosphere.
01:54:36
◼
►
I snark, but I mean that's kinda neat.
01:54:38
◼
►
But you'll never look at it.
01:54:40
◼
►
And it's not like it's a screen.
01:54:42
◼
►
Like it's not like the cars, the all the car interiors that have like
01:54:45
◼
►
these moody things.
01:54:46
◼
►
Those are actual screens.
01:54:47
◼
►
This is just like vague RGB lights under a frosty piece of whatever.
01:54:50
◼
►
Like a successfully added a feature to a product without having to redesign it.
01:54:57
◼
►
Then finally, for real, for real this time, home collection.
01:55:03
◼
►
writing says, designed in collaboration with Apple and Select brands, Apple Home Collection accessories,
01:55:08
◼
►
including smart cameras, thermostats, and a door lock, are simple to set up, easy
01:55:11
◼
►
to use, and private with data that's end to end in Apple Home.
01:55:15
◼
►
There's two primary manufacturers that are associated there's LG and Snyder home, which we
01:55:20
◼
►
briefly mentioned earlier.
01:55:21
◼
►
Uh for LG, you get a floodlight cam, or what you don't get, you
01:55:25
◼
►
could get a floodlight cam that's 400 bucks, an indoor camera that's 200 bucks,
01:55:29
◼
►
an outdoor camera that's 350 bucks, a smart deadbolt lock, which is 350 bucks,
01:55:33
◼
►
a smart thermostat that's 200 bucks, a temperature sensor that's 40 bucks, or a
01:55:37
◼
►
video doorbell that's 250 dollars.
01:55:40
◼
►
For Schneider Home, they have their own smart thermostat that is also $200.
01:55:44
◼
►
They have a smart thermostat room sensor, which I think is basically basically a
01:55:47
◼
►
temperature sensor, also forty dollars.
01:55:48
◼
►
And we discussed the power mount earlier at a hundred and thirty freaking dollars.
01:55:53
◼
►
For the power power Ethernet one.
01:55:54
◼
►
They also make the that's A C one and the USB C one.
01:55:57
◼
►
They're those are all Schneider home products.
01:55:59
◼
►
It seems like as far as I could tell, Apple doesn't make a mount
01:56:02
◼
►
for the which is weird.
01:56:03
◼
►
Like they'll sell you a wall mount thing, but they won't mount it.
01:56:06
◼
►
But they're partnering with Schneider Home for that.
01:56:08
◼
►
And I'm sure a million companies will have third-party things.
01:56:10
◼
►
And I went to these the I think there's more products than you just
01:56:13
◼
►
These are the ones I found like from Mac Rumors article and like in
01:56:15
◼
►
Apple's press releases.
01:56:16
◼
►
But if you go to their websites, you'll find all sorts of other little
01:56:19
◼
►
doohickies and accessories.
01:56:20
◼
►
The part I should have put in here from the notes, uh, that I
01:56:22
◼
►
thought I had, but apparently I don't is some of Apple's, I don't know,
01:56:27
◼
►
I don't know how to describe this.
01:56:29
◼
►
Like, the new home kit or the new deal that Apple is making with
01:56:33
◼
►
manufacturers for home kit products or whatever.
01:56:35
◼
►
I and you can correct me if I'm wrong because I don't have it
01:56:37
◼
►
in the notes.
01:56:38
◼
►
My my recollection is they said something about the fact that all these products
01:56:41
◼
►
that you just listed uh do not have their own account system and can't
01:56:48
◼
►
have their own account system or their own apps.
01:56:51
◼
►
Is that is that correct?
01:56:53
◼
►
I believe that Apple specifically on the marketing site, which is Apple.com slash home
01:56:57
◼
►
slash slash accessories.
01:56:59
◼
►
I believe somewhere on there it specifically says that you don't have to install
01:57:05
◼
►
I'm trying to vamp and find where it said that Yeah, like it seem
01:57:08
◼
►
seemed to me from again, I think I saw it in Apple's marketing literature
01:57:11
◼
►
that what they were trying to say is, Hey, I know home products suck
01:57:14
◼
►
'cause like you get the thing out of the box, you gotta set up,
01:57:16
◼
►
you gotta install their damn app, you gotta make an account on their thing,
01:57:18
◼
►
you gotta do all this stuff, and then you just wanted to add it
01:57:20
◼
►
to HomeKit and it's like, why the hell did I do all that other
01:57:22
◼
►
stuff and now I have I can view it in the app, but it's
01:57:25
◼
►
home kit and yada yada.
01:57:26
◼
►
It seems like with these partners, what they're trying to do is say, hey
01:57:31
◼
►
partners, we want you to make home kit products.
01:57:34
◼
►
And they're probably using the matter standard or whatever.
01:57:36
◼
►
But the point is you can't have your own app.
01:57:38
◼
►
You can't have your own account system.
01:57:39
◼
►
You can't make the people sign up for an LG floodlight account or an
01:57:43
◼
►
LG smart home with their five hundred megabyte app that I have that tells
01:57:47
◼
►
me my laundry is finished for my LG washing machine.
01:57:50
◼
►
Like you can't do that anymore if you want to be part of this
01:57:53
◼
►
I don't know if it's a requirement for all home kit things going forward.
01:57:55
◼
►
I don't know if it's just a deal with the LG things, but that
01:57:58
◼
►
is part of the pitch of this.
01:57:59
◼
►
That and the easy setup.
01:58:00
◼
►
And it's part of the easy setup.
01:58:02
◼
►
And like just bring your phone near it.
01:58:03
◼
►
I mean you know, home kit products that have QR codes on them for
01:58:06
◼
►
a long time and also the thing where you bring the phone close and
01:58:08
◼
►
it sets it up.
01:58:09
◼
►
But the point is there's no other part of that.
01:58:11
◼
►
There's not also, and by the way, go to the app store and download
01:58:15
◼
►
It's just it's a home kit accessory.
01:58:17
◼
►
You bring your phone near it, it Gets into HomeKit, you use Apple's home
01:58:21
◼
►
app to encrow it, and that's it.
01:58:23
◼
►
And that I do find appealing.
01:58:25
◼
►
If only I had any faith that HomeKit didn't.
01:58:27
◼
►
So I found it.
01:58:28
◼
►
It's in the press release.
01:58:30
◼
►
These new accessories are simple to set up, starting with one tap with iPhone
01:58:33
◼
►
and everything is managed through the Apple Home app.
01:58:36
◼
►
No separate app or account required.
01:58:38
◼
►
Yeah, again, it's clear if that's uh that's like they're they're gonna demand that
01:58:41
◼
►
from all of their partners or if you need it as part of a
01:58:43
◼
►
qualification for home kit compatibility or if it's just for these particular ones, but
01:58:47
◼
►
I endorse that approach because it has always been annoying that that has not
01:58:51
◼
►
been the case.
01:58:52
◼
►
Now, I think it's also the case that these accessories can also be visible
01:58:57
◼
►
to other home things.
01:58:58
◼
►
Like if you buy one of these, you're like well what if I also
01:59:00
◼
►
have a Google home setup?
01:59:01
◼
►
Can I use like the camera and doorbell on that?
01:59:03
◼
►
Some of them I believe that is the case that it's not like it's
01:59:06
◼
►
tied to Apple things.
01:59:08
◼
►
They also speak may again maybe they're doing it through maybe they just speak
01:59:11
◼
►
the other protocols that you will also be able to put this very same
01:59:13
◼
►
device into Google Home.
01:59:15
◼
►
Like and that is that's been the case, you know, forever.
01:59:18
◼
►
Like pretty much every I have very limited number of smart home devices in
01:59:22
◼
►
my house, but they are all in Amazon's home thing, Google.
01:59:26
◼
►
Google's home thing and in HomeKit.
01:59:29
◼
►
Pretty much all of them.
01:59:30
◼
►
I think my cameras are only are not in HomeKit, but only because I
01:59:33
◼
►
haven't done the home assistant thing or anything.
01:59:36
◼
►
And I think most of these are similar that they they are a multi-ecosystem,
01:59:39
◼
►
which is important for like a doorlock a door lock or something, like if
01:59:42
◼
►
someone in your home has an Android phone while they can't get in your
01:59:44
◼
►
house anymore.
01:59:45
◼
►
Um but the ease of setup in the Apple Apple ecosystem is nice and
01:59:48
◼
►
the products look vaguely Apple-y, but I'm still not sold on HomeKit as a
01:59:54
◼
►
platform, period, even though the new one is in theory going to be better,
01:59:58
◼
►
but we'll see.
01:59:59
◼
►
I mean this is actually extremely similar to HomeKit Secure Video and the camera
02:00:06
◼
►
that Logitech made for that years ago.
02:00:09
◼
►
The one that I bought four of and three of them died within a
02:00:13
◼
►
Um it it it's exactly the same playbook again.
02:00:17
◼
►
Partnering out to these companies.
02:00:19
◼
►
Literally this was the one of the same companies, uh making a very similar
02:00:23
◼
►
type of camera um that also had no app and no login and no
02:00:29
◼
►
separate thing.
02:00:29
◼
►
It was just, you know, natively paired to Home Kit.
02:00:32
◼
►
Like it's exactly that playbook Again.
02:00:35
◼
►
It didn't work that well last time.
02:00:38
◼
►
Why would we believe that it was work that it would work that well
02:00:41
◼
►
Isn't that supposed to be?
02:00:43
◼
►
I don't know if it's they didn't change the they changed the architecture of
02:00:46
◼
►
screen time.
02:00:46
◼
►
I'm getting confused.
02:00:47
◼
►
They changed the architecture of screen.
02:00:48
◼
►
They used they changed the architecture home time home kit a while back and
02:00:51
◼
►
you had to convert your old home over to a
02:00:54
◼
►
but in theory every time there's a new OS release, in theory the home
02:00:57
◼
►
app could be better.
02:00:58
◼
►
The the software stack on these devices could be better.
02:01:01
◼
►
So there's always the promise that even though this is not an overhaul like
02:01:04
◼
►
the old home kit conversion was, that it is a new version of all
02:01:08
◼
►
the OSs, and these are new products, so maybe it's better.
02:01:11
◼
►
And that's I mean, that's that's certainly Apple's pitch.
02:01:13
◼
►
These are products, they look sleek, they work well, and you trust us this
02:01:17
◼
►
time, it won't Marco's old Logitech cameras.
02:01:20
◼
►
Yeah, but that's that's the thing.
02:01:21
◼
►
Like are would you commit, you know, a grand worth of home equipment to
02:01:26
◼
►
There's a re there's a reason I don't that I have Google cameras and
02:01:29
◼
►
not uh well for Formerly Nest cameras, which have been serving me faithfully for
02:01:33
◼
►
years and years, and there's no way I would buy this Apple one.
02:01:36
◼
►
Or LG one, sorry.
02:01:37
◼
►
Yeah, 'cause like it they've literally done exactly the same thing before and it
02:01:41
◼
►
it was pretty mediocre.
02:01:43
◼
►
Um and it didn't again it was one of those things where like they
02:01:45
◼
►
put a bunch of stuff out there, they didn't want to re release it
02:01:48
◼
►
themselves, so they relied on third parties and partnerships.
02:01:51
◼
►
No one bought them, which made two things happen.
02:01:54
◼
►
It made Apple not, you know, put any wood behind the arrow.
02:01:58
◼
►
And the companies that made them, it made them not really want to update
02:02:03
◼
►
them or do much for them either.
02:02:05
◼
►
So they put out products that no one loved.
02:02:07
◼
►
The company didn't, Apple didn't love them, and customers couldn't love them because it
02:02:11
◼
►
didn't work that well.
02:02:13
◼
►
So I don't again, like what's gonna be different here?
02:02:16
◼
►
I don't know.
02:02:18
◼
►
I mean, I feel like a part of the the the um the message
02:02:20
◼
►
of this whole it's not we it's not really an event, but whatever The
02:02:24
◼
►
the products they announced at uh at a certain time while inviting a bunch
02:02:27
◼
►
of famous YouTubers to see them in person.
02:02:29
◼
►
Let's call that an event.
02:02:31
◼
►
This was their home thing.
02:02:33
◼
►
And what they came out with was, I think, their most sophisticated and feature
02:02:37
◼
►
capable home device ever, which is the HomeView.
02:02:40
◼
►
Uh and they trivially updated a bunch of their other home stuff, including the
02:02:45
◼
►
Apple TV, which was super old.
02:02:46
◼
►
And they announced some partnership deals.
02:02:49
◼
►
And so again, we'll talk about in future episodes this topic that has been
02:02:52
◼
►
pushed down forever, but like
02:02:55
◼
►
is Apple making a new push into home?
02:03:00
◼
►
Are they gonna do what they did before and just let these products all
02:03:02
◼
►
sit there for a year and neglect them or have they had a change
02:03:05
◼
►
of heart under a new CEO and they're actually going to pay more attention
02:03:08
◼
►
to this product caregit?
02:03:10
◼
►
Remains to be seen.
02:03:10
◼
►
Apple's message is we're gonna get even more serious about the home and we've
02:03:14
◼
►
got all this great stuff.
02:03:15
◼
►
And they've backed it up again by the home view, I feel like is
02:03:18
◼
►
the strongest signal that like we're we're not giving up on this segment.
02:03:21
◼
►
We are doing more than we have ever done hardware and software wise in
02:03:25
◼
►
this segment, even though we're still essentially playing catch up with everybody else, because
02:03:29
◼
►
they totally are.
02:03:29
◼
►
Like everyone else is so far ahead and all this stuff.
02:03:32
◼
►
But But they're not going the opposite direction.
02:03:34
◼
►
It's not like the uh Division Pro where you're like, are they even gonna
02:03:37
◼
►
do this at all anymore?
02:03:38
◼
►
They are like the trend line is upward and it is upward at a
02:03:41
◼
►
steeper slope than it has ever been before, but that's not saying much.
02:03:45
◼
►
So I you know it's like prove it to me, but all the potential
02:03:50
◼
►
rumors and whatever about Apple, you know, putting the gas down on product categories
02:03:55
◼
►
that they had let uh uh you know lie fallow for a long time.
02:04:00
◼
►
But like that's I feel like it's the the the very low key message
02:04:03
◼
►
of this event is like maybe Apple won't neglect all these things forever.
02:04:07
◼
►
Like Apple hasn't been particularly adamant about it, but you know, I'm again like
02:04:13
◼
►
s Not optimistic, but I'm I'm not pessimistic about this category.
02:04:17
◼
►
Previously I was pessimistic about it.
02:04:19
◼
►
Now that I see the product roll out, I'm just like, I'm neutral.
02:04:22
◼
►
I don't I don't trust that it's gonna be wonderful, but I will continue
02:04:25
◼
►
to watch it and I think they're moving in the right direction, albeit slowly.
02:04:28
◼
►
No, I agree with that wholeheartedly.
02:04:29
◼
►
Uh one product that I wanted to call attention to is the indoor camera
02:04:34
◼
►
If you imagine a letter L, a capital letter L, and then off the
02:04:38
◼
►
top of the L is the camera.
02:04:40
◼
►
Well apparently it can uh at least tilt up and down.
02:04:44
◼
►
I don't know if
02:04:46
◼
►
not, but one way or another it'll it can tilt up and down.
02:04:48
◼
►
And apparently what it does is once Apple Home realizes that there's at least
02:04:52
◼
►
one person inside the house, you can configure this to tilt, I believe, downward
02:04:56
◼
►
downwards so that it's basically pointing at its own base and can't see anything
02:05:00
◼
►
and thus isn't recording anything useful.
02:05:02
◼
►
And then once when the last person leaves the house, it'll pop itself back
02:05:06
◼
►
up so that it'll be s it'll start recording again.
02:05:08
◼
►
I thought that was a very clever feature.
02:05:10
◼
►
Uh this is the sort of thing you could presumably automate in Home Assistant.
02:05:13
◼
►
I'm saying, I'm sorry, I'm that guy.
02:05:16
◼
►
But nevertheless, to have this in Apple Home, I think is very, very cool.
02:05:19
◼
►
Yeah, my cameras do this too, but they don't
02:05:22
◼
►
like the uh presence awareness, so they'll turn off when you're and then turn
02:05:25
◼
►
back on when everybody leaves.
02:05:27
◼
►
But the key feature of this one is that physical motion because there's always
02:05:30
◼
►
the question with cameras like, oh don't worry, the little green light will always
02:05:34
◼
►
be on when it's on.
02:05:36
◼
►
Um this there is less doubt because it ro like you said it rotates
02:05:41
◼
►
so the camera is like two millimeters from the base.
02:05:43
◼
►
So that camera is just seeing the its own base.
02:05:45
◼
►
And you can glance at that and say with your eyeballs, clearly that camera
02:05:50
◼
►
is not looking at me right now because it's literally not looking at you.
02:05:54
◼
►
Like I don't care if it's on, it's gonna see nothing, it's gonna see
02:05:56
◼
►
its white base that's five millimeters from the thing, right?
02:05:59
◼
►
So that I think is a reassurance and is a um it's an improvement
02:06:04
◼
►
on this thing, but the cost is now the camera is bigger and bulkier
02:06:08
◼
►
and has moving parts in it.
02:06:09
◼
►
So I'm not even sure that's a wonderful trade-off, but I do think it
02:06:12
◼
►
is a useful innovation in the space.
02:06:14
◼
►
I'm sure other cameras have done similar things, but like I think I think
02:06:16
◼
►
that is useful.
02:06:17
◼
►
Like living in a house.
02:06:18
◼
►
With kids who never want to be on camera when they're like, you know,
02:06:21
◼
►
you know, are early teens and being left home alone.
02:06:23
◼
►
They're like, But don't look at me on the cameras, you know, like blah
02:06:26
◼
►
They always thought the cameras would be on, even if we showed them that
02:06:28
◼
►
they were off because they didn't trust the little light.
02:06:31
◼
►
Uh if we had this camera, they would see that it's down They say,
02:06:33
◼
►
see, we're not looking at you.
02:06:35
◼
►
Oh, I forgot to mention actually uh these ship in twenty twenty seven you
02:06:38
◼
►
can order in December.
02:06:40
◼
►
So we don't know when in twenty twenty seven, could be December of twenty
02:06:43
◼
►
twenty seven, but sometime in twenty seven you can you can receive some of
02:06:46
◼
►
these and again you can order allegedly in a couple of months.
02:06:49
◼
►
I'm I would wait for the Amazon reviews on these.
02:06:52
◼
►
Like are is anybody pre ordering these?
02:06:55
◼
►
Like I don't know.
02:06:56
◼
►
Yeah no that seems like a high risk and a low excitement product.
02:07:00
◼
►
Again, if you have a full home kit kit, I think like uh Stephen
02:07:03
◼
►
Robles is probably gonna get a bunch of these things.
02:07:04
◼
►
So we'll we'll definitely see how they are from uh based on his experience.
02:07:08
◼
►
Thank you to our sponsors this episode, Quince, Factor, and Tail Scale.
02:07:13
◼
►
And thanks to our members who support us directly, you can join us at
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◼
►
ATP.fm slash join.
02:07:17
◼
►
One of the many perks of membership is ATP overtime, our weekly bonus topic.
02:07:23
◼
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This week in overtime we're gonna be talking we're gonna about the um the
02:07:26
◼
►
Pass Keys Are a Trap blog post that's been going around recently.
02:07:29
◼
►
Uh you can join or listen to our opinions on that at atp.fm slash
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join, and you get all sorts of other membership perks as well.
02:07:35
◼
►
Thank you everybody for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.
02:07:41
◼
►
Now the show is over.
02:07:44
◼
►
They didn't even mean to begin.
02:07:46
◼
►
Cause it was accidental.
02:07:49
◼
►
Oh, it was accidental.
02:07:52
◼
►
John didn't do any research.
02:07:54
◼
►
Marco and Casey wouldn't let him Cause it was accidental Accidental It was accidental
02:08:01
◼
►
Accidental And you can find the show notes at ATP died
02:08:08
◼
►
And if you're into Mastodon, you can follow them at C-A-S-E-Y-L I-S-S- So that's
02:08:17
◼
►
K C Lis M-A-R-C-O A-R-M-N-T-Marco Armin S-I-R-A-C U S A C recusa.
02:08:28
◼
►
It's accidental.
02:08:32
◼
►
They didn't mean to accidental, accidental, check our cast so long.
02:08:42
◼
►
Got a new toy like a month ago and I'd finally had the uh
02:08:45
◼
►
opportunity to use it a little bit uh because I'm turning into that guy
02:08:50
◼
►
in part because of Marco and largely because of Stephen Hackett.
02:08:53
◼
►
Um I a while ago, like I don't know, six months ago or something
02:08:56
◼
►
like that, I got a U Unify UTR, which is a Unify travel router.
02:09:00
◼
►
So I got a unify unify travel router.
02:09:02
◼
►
You know what I mean.
02:09:03
◼
►
It's an ATM machine.
02:09:06
◼
►
You put your personal pin number into.
02:09:08
◼
►
That I put my my personal identification PIN number in.
02:09:11
◼
►
Uh anyhow, uh I got a new version of this.
02:09:14
◼
►
Uh they still sell the original, but they now have the UTR-LR or the
02:09:19
◼
►
Unify Travel Router long range.
02:09:22
◼
►
And this is almost identical to the original one.
02:09:26
◼
►
Except now it has a little flappy thing that you can pick up and
02:09:30
◼
►
I presume that's the antenna and allegedly it works a lot further away.
02:09:35
◼
►
And I gotta tell you what is the range?
02:09:38
◼
►
What range are you talking about?
02:09:39
◼
►
Is it the range that your devices can see the Wi-Fi signal emitted by
02:09:43
◼
►
the travel router.
02:09:43
◼
►
That's right.
02:09:44
◼
►
That's certainly my understanding anyway.
02:09:46
◼
►
Um the original Unify travel router is roughly the size of an iPhone battery
02:09:52
◼
►
pack, you know, the one from several years ago that still has a lightning
02:09:54
◼
►
connector, not the one from the iPhone.
02:09:56
◼
►
I'm saying the original one.
02:09:57
◼
►
It's almost identical to that size.
02:10:00
◼
►
It's not exactly, but that that's a really good thing to envision.
02:10:03
◼
►
So now envision another like third of that that can flip up, and that's
02:10:08
◼
►
the antenna.
02:10:09
◼
►
Uh i i I I think I've talked about the original UTR in the
02:10:12
◼
►
past, but it has two Ethernet jacks and the thing is so thin that
02:10:16
◼
►
it has like PCMCIA style uh flaps that you lift up in order to
02:10:21
◼
►
make the space for an Ethernet cord to plug plug-in.
02:10:24
◼
►
Uh this is in contrast to a lot of the uh GLI net.
02:10:28
◼
►
We talked about GLINET I think it was last episode, maybe the one before.
02:10:30
◼
►
Uh talked about their KVMs, but they originally became a part of my world
02:10:35
◼
►
on account of their travel routers, which are very good.
02:10:38
◼
►
Uh, this is physically quite, quite a bit smaller than their travel routers.
02:10:43
◼
►
Now, the chat room is already grumbling that it's only Wi-Fi 5.
02:10:47
◼
►
Um, GLINET has Wi-Fi 7 travel routers.
02:10:51
◼
►
Um, this is not as advanced, but I love these things.
02:10:56
◼
►
And I gotta tell you, the the Unify Travel Router, the original one, when
02:11:00
◼
►
we would travel and we would go over the summer to like a couple
02:11:04
◼
►
of standalone homes, the one in Cape Charles and one on a different beach
02:11:07
◼
►
that we go to.
02:11:08
◼
►
And in those standalone homes, which I would guess are roughly two thousand square
02:11:11
◼
►
feet, um, the unified travel router, the original one, would work sufficiently, but I
02:11:18
◼
►
would not say it was spectacular.
02:11:20
◼
►
And on the far edges of the house, it would typically be really spotty
02:11:25
◼
►
Wi-Fi coverage.
02:11:26
◼
►
I haven't had this long enough to go to one of these homes over
02:11:28
◼
►
the summer, but we did do a little bit of traveling and went to
02:11:31
◼
►
a uh hotel, a home to suites hotel uh in Charlottesville to meet up
02:11:35
◼
►
with some friends.
02:11:37
◼
►
And this thing worked great in there.
02:11:40
◼
►
And I suspect it would work pretty darn well in most average sized vacation
02:11:45
◼
►
Um I I really, really like these things.
02:11:48
◼
►
And especially by Unify standards, they're astonishingly cheap.
02:11:52
◼
►
The original UniFi travel router was 80 bucks.
02:11:54
◼
►
This unified travel router long range, a hundred bucks.
02:11:57
◼
►
Really not bad.
02:11:58
◼
►
I think they are still doing a tariff surcharge.
02:12:00
◼
►
I d I don't recall off the top of my head.
02:12:02
◼
►
And shipping is annoyingly expensive, despite it all coming from Memphis and going via
02:12:07
◼
►
FedEx, if I'm not mistaken.
02:12:09
◼
►
But that being said, I love how freaking small this is.
02:12:13
◼
►
And I like how it has that has that it has a little display
02:12:15
◼
►
on it that shows like how many uh clients you have connected and so
02:12:19
◼
►
on and so forth.
02:12:20
◼
►
And if you recall, one of the perks of this if when paired with
02:12:22
◼
►
Unify setup at home is first of all, you can just tell it mimic
02:12:27
◼
►
the home Wi-Fi and it will use the same SSID and same password that
02:12:30
◼
►
you have at home.
02:12:31
◼
►
And the reason that a travel router is exciting and useful is if you
02:12:37
◼
►
travel with multiple devices, or perhaps you've you have multiple people in your family,
02:12:41
◼
►
or gasp, you have multiple people in your family with multiple devices per person,
02:12:46
◼
►
then you only have to get on, let's say, the hotel Wi-Fi or maybe
02:12:50
◼
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hotel Ethernet once and then everything else is connected, including if you're an absolute
02:12:56
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lunatic like I am, a sono speaker, because as far as the speaker is
02:13:00
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concerned, it's still at home.
02:13:02
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And that's also true of like an Apple TV.
02:13:04
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And again, this does have an Ethernet port for a local area network.
02:13:08
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It has a WAN Ether WAN Ethernet port and a LAN Ethernet port.
02:13:12
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Unfortunately, there's only one of them.
02:13:14
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So you could pair this with like a flex mini which is one of
02:13:17
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their uh very, very physically small and very affordable uh gigabit switches.
02:13:23
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Um and you can also interestingly, if you use teleport, which is their um
02:13:28
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VPN solution that's WireGuard based, similar to Tailscale, but not the same.
02:13:32
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Uh, if you use their teleport thing, then you can actually have a camera
02:13:38
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attached to this via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
02:13:41
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Uh not PoE, I guess.
02:13:43
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So I guess would have to be a Wi-Fi camera.
02:13:44
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Um, but anyways, you could have a camera connected to this then via teleport
02:13:50
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VPN'd into your home and storing all the footage on your home like UNAS
02:13:55
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or uh what's the what's N VR?
02:13:58
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Is that what it is, Marco?
02:13:59
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The the video recorder?
02:14:00
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What am I thinking of?
02:14:01
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Yeah there's other there's multiple ones now, but yeah.
02:14:04
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Um so anyway, so you can have a remote camera if you want.
02:14:07
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Why would you want this?
02:14:08
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I don't know.
02:14:09
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But can you do it?
02:14:10
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And I think that's neat.
02:14:11
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Uh and additionally, you know, it has a second the all of this is
02:14:14
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true of the original one.
02:14:15
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It also has a second um uh USB port so you can tether.
02:14:19
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It's really, really slick.
02:14:21
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And if you are a unify person, which maybe you're not, but if you
02:14:24
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are, this thing is so cool.
02:14:26
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And I really, really appreciate the fact that it is longer range and seems
02:14:30
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to work in bigger spaces a lot better.
02:14:33
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I don't know.
02:14:35
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Four, four, four.