ATP

00:00:00 ◼   ► All right fine. Well you just go go ahead keep being smug. I'm not being smug

00:00:05 ◼   ► I take no pleasure in being right all the time, Gizzy. Oh

00:00:08 ◼   ► God

00:00:10 ◼   ► Please tell me you could hear my eyes rolling

00:00:12 ◼   ► We got a few pieces of feedback about

00:00:16 ◼   ► Some phrasing. Yeah, this is when we were talking. What was the topic?

00:00:21 ◼   ► We were talking about we'll get to it later in the fall

00:00:22 ◼   ► But in fact that yeah, it's just a touch thing anyway

00:00:24 ◼   ► And I kept referring to I was trying to refer to the region on the map that I'm visualizing in my head that includes not just

00:00:31 ◼   ► China I didn't want to always say China because it's like yeah, it's big and it takes up a lot of room in that region

00:00:34 ◼   ► But it's not the only country there

00:00:35 ◼   ► It also encompasses all the other countries that are sort of around China and I kept saying the Far East which is apparently a

00:00:42 ◼   ► very Eurocentric and not favored and slightly insulting term because it just you know

00:00:46 ◼   ► You're deciding like east of what east of like where people who get to name things are or whatever

00:00:51 ◼   ► So anyway Far East will be excised from my vocabulary to the best of my abilities and we'll go with many suggestions people's at East Asia

00:00:59 ◼   ► Which I mean, I guess Asia is the landmass and it's not the eastern part of it. You can just say Asia

00:01:04 ◼   ► But I'm gonna try not to say Far East and if I slip up just tell me again

00:01:08 ◼   ► Live in real time and Marco wetted it out

00:01:11 ◼   ► But there you go fair enough we need to talk about our friendly wager

00:01:17 ◼   ► There's some confusion in the ranks and I am also confused.

00:01:21 ◼   ► Well, it's not time for any money to change hands.

00:01:24 ◼   ► We'll just start by saying that.

00:01:25 ◼   ► Yes.

00:01:26 ◼   ► I would concur.

00:01:27 ◼   ► Luke Brewster called this to our attention earlier today in the 10.1 Beta, which was

00:01:31 ◼   ► released as we record just a few hours ago.

00:01:33 ◼   ► In accessibility, in the reduced motion section, there is now autoplay message effects, which,

00:01:41 ◼   ► To Jon's credit, at first glance appears to be a sub-setting, which I told him would never

00:01:47 ◼   ► happen with regard to messages.

00:01:52 ◼   ► That was so long ago.

00:01:53 ◼   ► That was practically a week ago, so, you know.

00:01:55 ◼   ► You don't have to be so smug, Jon, although I would be if I were you.

00:01:58 ◼   ► I'm just saying I gave myself until iOS 11.

00:02:01 ◼   ► That's called adding padding.

00:02:04 ◼   ► Oh, God.

00:02:07 ◼   ► AutoPlay Message Effects is its own setting.

00:02:09 ◼   ► Some have said, and I don't have a link handy,

00:02:13 ◼   ► but we'll put in the show notes.

00:02:14 ◼   ► Some have said that it's not quite so simple

00:02:17 ◼   ► and that it doesn't appear to give you any sort of lasers.

00:02:22 ◼   ► It just messes with some of the simpler ones

00:02:25 ◼   ► like whisper maybe?

00:02:27 ◼   ► I haven't tried this.

00:02:28 ◼   ► I'm not on the beta, so.

00:02:29 ◼   ► - So I don't have this installed yet.

00:02:31 ◼   ► - I do.

00:02:32 ◼   ► - But for reports from people who haven't installed

00:02:33 ◼   ► and Marco will give a report as well.

00:02:34 ◼   ► The reports I've heard so far is that it does nothing.

00:02:37 ◼   ► That the setting appears and the setting only appears

00:02:39 ◼   ► when you turn reduce motion on.

00:02:41 ◼   ► So if reduce motion is off,

00:02:42 ◼   ► you don't even see the setting.

00:02:43 ◼   ► Only when reduce motion is on,

00:02:44 ◼   ► do you get the second setting.

00:02:46 ◼   ► And then no matter what you put that second setting at,

00:02:48 ◼   ► it appears to do nothing.

00:02:49 ◼   ► Do you have experiments that contradict this, Marco?

00:02:53 ◼   ► - That has been my experience exactly.

00:02:55 ◼   ► Where I just installed it an hour ago,

00:02:58 ◼   ► just trying to get it done before the show

00:02:59 ◼   ► so I could try it out.

00:03:00 ◼   ► And we didn't try all the effects,

00:03:04 ◼   ► but I did try the full screen lasers and stuff.

00:03:07 ◼   ► and they will say sent with lasers,

00:03:09 ◼   ► but they don't allow you to send them.

00:03:11 ◼   ► Like you can't 3D push the up arrow thing,

00:03:13 ◼   ► it doesn't do anything, which I believe is the same

00:03:15 ◼   ► as whenever you have any reduced motion turned on, right?

00:03:18 ◼   ► And I had Tiff send me lasers,

00:03:20 ◼   ► and it still says sent with lasers,

00:03:22 ◼   ► but it does not do any of the animation.

00:03:24 ◼   ► As far as I could tell, it really appears to do nothing.

00:03:27 ◼   ► - So that thing is like not hooked up

00:03:29 ◼   ► an interface builder, as they say.

00:03:31 ◼   ► - Basically somebody forgot to like if def it out

00:03:33 ◼   ► for the release, like they were working on it

00:03:34 ◼   ► and didn't finish it in time,

00:03:35 ◼   ► and somebody just forgot to comment it out basically.

00:03:38 ◼   ► So anyway.

00:03:39 ◼   ► - And this is not one of the public facing betas

00:03:41 ◼   ► by the way I think.

00:03:42 ◼   ► If you are, I'm not sure, but if you're on the public beta

00:03:44 ◼   ► would you get this one or no?

00:03:46 ◼   ► - There is no public beta yet for this version.

00:03:48 ◼   ► I think Panzerino said it was gonna come out on Friday.

00:03:52 ◼   ► But I don't know if that's for sure.

00:03:54 ◼   ► - I wonder if that one will be different.

00:03:55 ◼   ► But anyway, that's motion on the front of the $1 wager

00:04:00 ◼   ► from the last episode.

00:04:02 ◼   ► But no decision yet because obviously,

00:04:04 ◼   ► this is not a shipping version of the operating system, so it doesn't really matter what's in it,

00:04:07 ◼   ► and B, what's in it is a switch that does nothing. And so on the topic, on this broader topic,

00:04:12 ◼   ► we got a lot of feedback about it, as you would imagine, based on the tail end of the last show.

00:04:16 ◼   ► I was not tallying the feedback, but I wasn't either. But I mean, impression-wise, I think

00:04:22 ◼   ► we will all agree that there were, most of the feedback we heard was from people who agreed with

00:04:29 ◼   ► me. That doesn't mean anything because it's a self-selecting group. Well, you don't agree with

00:04:34 ◼   ► that. I'm saying most, like it's more than 50%. I agree with you with caveats. I mean

00:04:39 ◼   ► certainly more than 50% of the words agreed with you. I agree with you by and large. I

00:04:46 ◼   ► will say that early on for the first couple of days it seemed like it was pretty darn

00:04:53 ◼   ► close. You were probably in the lead but it was close. And then after that initial wave

00:04:58 ◼   ► of people who listen in the first like 48 hours, then you just ran away with it. And

00:05:03 ◼   ► as always...

00:05:04 ◼   ► You're also not seeing the feedback that's sent directly to me.

00:05:07 ◼   ► Well, why would people tell you that you're right?

00:05:10 ◼   ► That's like a Trump claim, like, "Well, I'm hearing from lots of people."

00:05:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:05:13 ◼   ► They email just me, because my email address is on the web, or they @mention just me and

00:05:17 ◼   ► don't @mention the show, and I get a lot of that. I also don't see the people who are

00:05:20 ◼   ► just @mentioning you or emailing you. So there is that still, that dark matter. But the ratios

00:05:26 ◼   ► for the people who emailed "just me" seemed about the same as the public one.

00:05:31 ◼   ► You know, anyway, this is not a democracy. The only role I think that the feedback plays,

00:05:38 ◼   ► aside from curiosity and audience participation, is the only data points we have to measure the

00:05:46 ◼   ► idea that there could perhaps, for example, be people out there who use reduced motion for

00:05:53 ◼   ► a reason that KC decides is legitimate and also want to send lasers, right? And we had several

00:06:01 ◼   ► people like that write in to say, "I am that person. I need to reduce motion for what I believe

00:06:07 ◼   ► is a legitimate reason, but I want to send lasers." And the question might have been, "Maybe there's

00:06:11 ◼   ► nobody like that or maybe, you know, whatever." So people chimed in with that opinion to at least

00:06:16 ◼   ► give a few data points to those people out there. And again, that doesn't mean anything about whether

00:06:20 ◼   ► Apple should add another option.

00:06:22 ◼   ► And by the way, I suggest that they add this option

00:06:24 ◼   ► to Messages because Messages has settings too,

00:06:27 ◼   ► or if it doesn't, it can have them, right?

00:06:29 ◼   ► Because if you try to add the settings

00:06:30 ◼   ► in Accessibility itself, what are you gonna do?

00:06:32 ◼   ► Add a number of like a little options

00:06:34 ◼   ► for every single application that wants to have Tweak?

00:06:36 ◼   ► Like there's a place for those settings

00:06:38 ◼   ► and it's in Messages.

00:06:39 ◼   ► Now I feel like Apple gets kind of a pass

00:06:41 ◼   ► if they're gonna put it in the general section

00:06:44 ◼   ► of the Accessibility section,

00:06:45 ◼   ► because Messages is like, well, is that really an app

00:06:47 ◼   ► or is it part of the OS or whatever?

00:06:50 ◼   ► But this is not a scalable solution to UI.

00:06:52 ◼   ► And my original suggestion was, put the setting in messages.

00:06:54 ◼   ► Because if you make an application

00:06:56 ◼   ► and it has behaviors or whatever that you think

00:06:59 ◼   ► you should hide if reduced motion is on, but some of them

00:07:02 ◼   ► are borderline, make the default to hide them

00:07:04 ◼   ► because that's a safe default. But if you feel like you're

00:07:07 ◼   ► taking away too much or that there

00:07:09 ◼   ► may be a substantial portion of your audience

00:07:10 ◼   ► that wants to modify that behavior,

00:07:12 ◼   ► that's the perfect opportunity to add

00:07:13 ◼   ► a setting to your settings, to your settings

00:07:15 ◼   ► for your application that when reduced motion is on,

00:07:18 ◼   ► I also want to XYZ, be able to use the rocket launcher

00:07:21 ◼   ► or whatever.

00:07:22 ◼   ► So we'll see how this turns out.

00:07:23 ◼   ► - Yeah, it was interesting reading the feedback

00:07:24 ◼   ► because there were a couple of people

00:07:25 ◼   ► that seemed like they genuinely had an accessibility issue

00:07:30 ◼   ► and some of them weighed in my favor, some in yours.

00:07:33 ◼   ► The thing that struck me so funny was so many people

00:07:35 ◼   ► who were just passionately opposed to the zoom animation,

00:07:40 ◼   ► oftentimes with no ailment associated,

00:07:43 ◼   ► they just freaking hate it.

00:07:44 ◼   ► and then somehow think that it's okay for that to be off,

00:07:49 ◼   ► but balloons or lasers to be on,

00:07:51 ◼   ► like they're entitled to have the exact perfect thing.

00:07:54 ◼   ► - It's not about entitled.

00:07:55 ◼   ► Here's the problem with this whole angle,

00:07:57 ◼   ► which no one really said in the feedback,

00:07:58 ◼   ► and I was hoping someone would bring it up, but they didn't.

00:08:00 ◼   ► The problem with your stance is that it hinges on someone,

00:08:05 ◼   ► you perhaps in this case, being the decider

00:08:09 ◼   ► about what is and isn't a quote unquote legitimate use

00:08:12 ◼   ► of accessibility feature.

00:08:14 ◼   ► Like, some things you think are clear-cut.

00:08:16 ◼   ► You're like, "Oh, well, there's legitimate and there's illegitimate."

00:08:17 ◼   ► You see that you need it or you don't need it.

00:08:19 ◼   ► But once you have anointed yourself the official authority on what is and isn't what you consider

00:08:26 ◼   ► to be a, air quotes, "legitimate accessibility issue," you're binning people.

00:08:32 ◼   ► And it's like, there is a gray area in the middle.

00:08:35 ◼   ► Maybe we can all agree on the end points, but there is a gray area, right?

00:08:38 ◼   ► So I think that's just not a tenable standpoint.

00:08:40 ◼   ► I obviously think that who cares what that spectrum is if people want to use the feature they want to use the feature and

00:08:45 ◼   ► Totally removing a major feature of iOS 10 is a bad idea

00:08:49 ◼   ► But anyway, listen to that rant you can hear all this stuff again

00:08:51 ◼   ► The few points that we did that I didn't really hammer on that much

00:08:54 ◼   ► But that a lot of people said in the feedback is a lot of people are very mad that they can't send the effects

00:08:58 ◼   ► Right if you have so fine reduced motion is on for you

00:09:01 ◼   ► But you can't even send them to your friends like it's a feature is totally gone

00:09:04 ◼   ► In case people aren't clear about this

00:09:05 ◼   ► You can't send somebody lasers

00:09:07 ◼   ► Forget about whether you can see them like say you have reduced motion on because you can't have motion on your screen not being able

00:09:12 ◼   ► To send them feels punitive, right?

00:09:14 ◼   ► Because there's no legit reason for that right and you know and whatever like this that that's the first version the operating system

00:09:21 ◼   ► It was a point 0.1 or whatever they could change that but that's that's why I feel like it

00:09:25 ◼   ► You know, it can't stand and the other thing is about you can't use small text

00:09:28 ◼   ► I mean, that's not a motion thing at all

00:09:29 ◼   ► So there are certain things that you can make arguments against regardless of this debate

00:09:34 ◼   ► we're having about whether you need this extra setting. But anyway, that's a brief rehash

00:09:38 ◼   ► of last episode with hopefully less yelling. But either way, I think at this point, we're

00:09:46 ◼   ► all just sitting back and waiting. And I don't feel particularly compelled by the feedback

00:09:52 ◼   ► that the world is on my side or anything like that. Because like I said, it's a self-selecting

00:09:58 ◼   ► group. The people who are going to write in are going to be the people who are all worked

00:10:02 ◼   ► up like I was, right? So it's not a representative sample of anything. And I'm assuming most

00:10:06 ◼   ► of the people who listen to our show are nerds, and nerds are the ones who like to have these

00:10:09 ◼   ► features and so on and so forth. So I probably agree with you, Casey, that a lot of the people

00:10:13 ◼   ► really are like, "Look, I want settings for everything and so on and so forth, and I understand

00:10:17 ◼   ► how that's not going to work." But in this specific case, I think this passes muster

00:10:22 ◼   ► as a case where Apple will actually add a switch. And I'm hoping these little hints

00:10:28 ◼   ► that a potential switch that might do something someday mean that I'm right. And by the way,

00:10:33 ◼   ► final bit on this, I did file a radar on it. I filed an enhancement request because this is not

00:10:37 ◼   ► a bug. There's nothing worse than people who file bug requests and they list it as like severe bug.

00:10:42 ◼   ► This is not a bug. You're asking for an additional feature that doesn't exist. It's an enhancement

00:10:45 ◼   ► request. There's a choice for it right there. Anyway, I filed an enhancement request asking

00:10:50 ◼   ► for the specific functionality. It was close as dupe. So I feel like I have done my official,

00:10:56 ◼   ► you know, good platform citizen duty, and I have done the thing and now I just wait.

00:11:01 ◼   ► Can we get like "I filed" stickers made? Like the "I voted" stickers?

00:11:04 ◼   ► Yeah, I should. For radar, people should. I didn't think to encourage people to do it,

00:11:07 ◼   ► because obviously it's not a, it's a thankless process most of the time.

00:11:10 ◼   ► Is there some way that you could send me that radar number so I can file a radar that says

00:11:16 ◼   ► "Ignore John's ridiculous radar about how he wants to have his cake and eat it too"?

00:11:20 ◼   ► You can do that. Go ahead. If anyone wants to file a radar, it's a, you can, anyone can file

00:11:23 ◼   ► There's a feedback form on Apple site somewhere,

00:11:26 ◼   ► but developer accounts, like you can get whatever you need,

00:11:29 ◼   ► whatever like free developer account

00:11:31 ◼   ► without giving Apple any money or anything.

00:11:32 ◼   ► I think if you just have an Apple ID,

00:11:34 ◼   ► you can get to the point where you can file a radar.

00:11:36 ◼   ► - (sighs)

00:11:38 ◼   ► As long as that soup is just right, Jon.

00:11:40 ◼   ► Not too hot, not too cold, not too motiony,

00:11:43 ◼   ► not too little motion, just right.

00:11:45 ◼   ► All right, so a lot of people in East Asia

00:11:49 ◼   ► have written in to tell us about whether or not

00:11:51 ◼   ► the assistive touch thing versus the physical home button is real.

00:11:56 ◼   ► To recap, we had said that we had heard or read some reports that people in East Asia

00:12:02 ◼   ► use the assistive touch feature even if they are fully able-bodied because of various different

00:12:09 ◼   ► reasons, but the most common one was not wanting to damage a home button that is considered

00:12:16 ◼   ► to be fragile, whether or not that's actually true.

00:12:19 ◼   ► We had a lot of people write in, and I would say the overwhelming majority of people that

00:12:25 ◼   ► live in East Asia or have spent significant time in East Asia have written in to say,

00:12:30 ◼   ► "Yes, this is a thing," and generally speaking, it's either about keeping something

00:12:33 ◼   ► very expensive in good tip-top shape or because there is a phobia of breaking your home button

00:12:40 ◼   ► in the same way that Americans seem to be convinced that force-quitting apps is helpful.

00:12:44 ◼   ► Just an overwhelming majority, I would say.

00:12:47 ◼   ► I think we didn't get a single piece of feedback that contradicted what we said.

00:12:53 ◼   ► The only thing that varied were the percentages.

00:12:56 ◼   ► Some people said, "It's 90 percent.

00:12:57 ◼   ► I see it all the time," or it's like 20 percent, but nobody said, "Hey, those articles you

00:13:01 ◼   ► read were totally not representative, not a single person."

00:13:03 ◼   ► So I'm going to put a confirmed stamp on this one and say, "According to the people who

00:13:10 ◼   ► who report to live there, who send email and tweets

00:13:13 ◼   ► to our podcast.

00:13:15 ◼   ► That article is a real thing.

00:13:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, and there were some really good reasons for it.

00:13:19 ◼   ► I mean, as you mentioned Casey, a lot of times,

00:13:22 ◼   ► it's because these devices, these are expensive devices,

00:13:25 ◼   ► and depending on where you live,

00:13:26 ◼   ► it could be relatively more or less expensive

00:13:28 ◼   ► compared to typical life expenses there.

00:13:31 ◼   ► And so it really is a thing where people want to protect

00:13:35 ◼   ► this thing that they've heard wears out,

00:13:37 ◼   ► or that they had an iPhone before and it did wear out,

00:13:39 ◼   ► and they had to get an expensive service,

00:13:42 ◼   ► 'cause not everyone can just walk into an Apple store

00:13:44 ◼   ► everywhere they are and get a replacement for free.

00:13:46 ◼   ► A lot of times there's more involved processes.

00:13:49 ◼   ► A lot of these places there are no Apple stores nearby

00:13:51 ◼   ► and you have to mail it somewhere

00:13:53 ◼   ► and that might be expensive and very time consuming.

00:13:56 ◼   ► There were lots of good reasons why basically

00:14:00 ◼   ► for a lot of people getting an iPhone

00:14:02 ◼   ► with a failed part serviced is a big ordeal

00:14:07 ◼   ► or expense or both.

00:14:09 ◼   ► And so there were a number of iPhones,

00:14:13 ◼   ► I would say at least the 4 and 4S and maybe even the 5,

00:14:17 ◼   ► where the home buttons did wear out for a lot of people.

00:14:20 ◼   ► It was a widespread problem.

00:14:21 ◼   ► And so there is basis for this.

00:14:25 ◼   ► Like there is a very good reason why people have this.

00:14:27 ◼   ► What I thought was very interesting

00:14:28 ◼   ► about this feedback also is that many people said

00:14:33 ◼   ► that turning on AssistiveTouch is like the routine thing

00:14:38 ◼   ► for the phone salespeople to do

00:14:40 ◼   ► as they set up your phone with you

00:14:41 ◼   ► before you even go home with it.

00:14:42 ◼   ► So you're walking out of the cell phone store

00:14:44 ◼   ► with it already enabled because the person there

00:14:47 ◼   ► either did it for you and didn't even mention it

00:14:49 ◼   ► or explained to you why you should always use this thing

00:14:51 ◼   ► and then turned it on for you.

00:14:52 ◼   ► - Yeah, I thought that was fascinating.

00:14:55 ◼   ► - And for the people who are sighted those reasons,

00:14:57 ◼   ► by the way, we had variations in the feedback.

00:14:59 ◼   ► I think we had some objections to the idea

00:15:00 ◼   ► that it was about resale value,

00:15:02 ◼   ► that it wasn't as mercenary as that,

00:15:03 ◼   ► that it's just like they don't want a broken thing.

00:15:05 ◼   ► And like Margo said, they don't want a broken thing

00:15:06 ◼   ► because it's a pain for them to get it fixed.

00:15:08 ◼   ► either it's expensive or it's just more of a pain, right?

00:15:11 ◼   ► So it wasn't like people like,

00:15:13 ◼   ► I'm never gonna sell my phone, but I still do this.

00:15:15 ◼   ► It's really, really common.

00:15:16 ◼   ► Now to most of these people,

00:15:18 ◼   ► like this is another example of humans being bad

00:15:20 ◼   ► at risk assessment and good at pattern matching,

00:15:23 ◼   ► gone awry a little bit,

00:15:24 ◼   ► because if you're never going to resell your phone

00:15:28 ◼   ► and if you're never gonna touch the home button,

00:15:30 ◼   ► it doesn't matter if it's broken.

00:15:32 ◼   ► You know what I mean?

00:15:33 ◼   ► Like logically speaking,

00:15:35 ◼   ► if you're never gonna use the home button

00:15:37 ◼   ► and you're never gonna give it to anybody

00:15:38 ◼   ► who uses the home button,

00:15:39 ◼   ► then why are you worried about wearing out the home button

00:15:41 ◼   ► because no one's ever gonna touch the home button?

00:15:43 ◼   ► Use it until it breaks and then use assistive touch.

00:15:46 ◼   ► And the reason I suggest this for the most part

00:15:48 ◼   ► is because I think having assistive touch all the time

00:15:52 ◼   ► is a little bit of a burden.

00:15:54 ◼   ► That's what I would think about it,

00:15:56 ◼   ► because you have this thing that's on the screen

00:15:57 ◼   ► and you're always moving it around to get out of the way

00:15:59 ◼   ► 'cause it's always on top.

00:16:00 ◼   ► Now, to counter that, many people wrote in to say,

00:16:03 ◼   ► actually, assistive touch is awesome.

00:16:06 ◼   ► It's an advantage.

00:16:07 ◼   ► It's not a burden that I have to move it out of the way,

00:16:09 ◼   ► or rather that burden is counteracted by the abilities

00:16:12 ◼   ► that I have with assistive touch

00:16:13 ◼   ► that I don't have without it.

00:16:14 ◼   ► I had never even heard of these things,

00:16:16 ◼   ► but apparently people love the idea

00:16:18 ◼   ► that they can sort of use features

00:16:21 ◼   ► that would be harder to access

00:16:22 ◼   ► if they didn't have assistive touch,

00:16:23 ◼   ► because assistive touch is always on top,

00:16:25 ◼   ► and you can do all sorts of stuff from it,

00:16:27 ◼   ► sometimes that you can't do it all.

00:16:28 ◼   ► One person was saying that you can turn off the shutter sound

00:16:30 ◼   ► for the camera, that apparently you can't do it all

00:16:33 ◼   ► without this feature, but just having quick access

00:16:35 ◼   ► the functions that it revealed under it, makes it worth having on the screen all the time.

00:16:40 ◼   ► Well that apparently it's a lot faster once you get good at it. People were saying just

00:16:45 ◼   ► having it right where your thumb is rather than having to reach, and I know people are

00:16:49 ◼   ► starting to roll their eyes, but I'm being serious, rather than having to reach down

00:16:53 ◼   ► to the bottom of the phone to hit the home button, having that little white orb just

00:16:57 ◼   ► hanging out right there is in many cases faster. And I'm just as we're recording looking at

00:17:03 ◼   ► the AssistiveTouch setup, so it's general accessibility, or if you're John Syracuse,

00:17:08 ◼   ► just random customizations you'd like to make, AssistiveTouch, and then you can turn it on,

00:17:13 ◼   ► you can customize the things that are there.

00:17:14 ◼   ► So the defaults on my phone are Notification Center, Device, whatever that means, Control

00:17:19 ◼   ► Center, Home, and Siri, but you can add or remove the number of icons, I presume I can,

00:17:24 ◼   ► yeah, tap an icon to change, and there's all sorts of different things you can do, including

00:17:28 ◼   ► take a screenshot, for example.

00:17:30 ◼   ► So it is pretty cool what's available.

00:17:32 ◼   ► I still find this to be an annoyance for me

00:17:36 ◼   ► because I'm lucky enough to be able-bodied

00:17:38 ◼   ► and not have to have it.

00:17:40 ◼   ► But I can see why someone who is perhaps used to it

00:17:42 ◼   ► or just assumes like this is the way it's supposed to be.

00:17:45 ◼   ► I can see how it would be kind of convenient

00:17:47 ◼   ► and neat to have it around.

00:17:48 ◼   ► - Yeah, orientation lock is the one

00:17:50 ◼   ► that kind of turned my head.

00:17:50 ◼   ► I'm like, yeah, I wish I missed the orientation lock

00:17:52 ◼   ► on the iPads, you know?

00:17:53 ◼   ► - Yes, amen. - And like having orientation,

00:17:55 ◼   ► even though it's just in control center

00:17:56 ◼   ► and you know, it's not that far away,

00:17:58 ◼   ► but you know, some apps have to do the double flick

00:18:00 ◼   ► to get it up.

00:18:00 ◼   ► Anyway, if it was always available, like if you get,

00:18:04 ◼   ► what I'm saying is that if you get used to having it there,

00:18:06 ◼   ► if it's like, if it's the cultural thing to do,

00:18:07 ◼   ► 'cause that's what this is,

00:18:08 ◼   ► this is not a technical thing,

00:18:09 ◼   ► and this is not even a preference thing.

00:18:12 ◼   ► At the point where the person you buy your phone from

00:18:14 ◼   ► is setting it up for you,

00:18:15 ◼   ► it's a cultural thing at that point.

00:18:17 ◼   ► There's no longer anything to do with personal preference,

00:18:19 ◼   ► let alone accessibility.

00:18:20 ◼   ► So fine, it's a cultural thing to have this thing on.

00:18:22 ◼   ► Hopefully there are some advantages, and there are.

00:18:26 ◼   ► Like it's breeding a set of users

00:18:29 ◼   ► who are good at flicking that little puck around the screen

00:18:31 ◼   ► and who each person customizes it to do the features

00:18:34 ◼   ► that they want to have quickly accessible,

00:18:36 ◼   ► the cost is that they're flicking this little thing

00:18:38 ◼   ► around the screen that's on top.

00:18:39 ◼   ► Now I would say to the people who care,

00:18:41 ◼   ► because maybe you don't, maybe you're happy,

00:18:43 ◼   ► you're like, this is the way we do it all here

00:18:44 ◼   ► and this is just how you use a phone,

00:18:45 ◼   ► I don't care what you say about it, that's fine.

00:18:46 ◼   ► But I would say, try it without assistive touch.

00:18:50 ◼   ► Use the home button until it breaks.

00:18:52 ◼   ► Once it breaks, go back to assistive touch.

00:18:54 ◼   ► If you're not reselling your phone,

00:18:56 ◼   ► I feel like that may give you a glimpse at how,

00:19:00 ◼   ► all I can speak over is the US,

00:19:01 ◼   ► but how I think most people in the US are using iOS.

00:19:04 ◼   ► And I guess the US side is maybe try assistive touch,

00:19:09 ◼   ► see what everyone else is doing,

00:19:10 ◼   ► smushing that little puck around the screen

00:19:12 ◼   ► to get it out of the way of the stuff they're trying to read

00:19:14 ◼   ► and see if you think it's an advantage.

00:19:15 ◼   ► Maybe you get into a habit of leaving it right

00:19:17 ◼   ► near your thumb, you know,

00:19:18 ◼   ► whatever grip you have on your phone,

00:19:20 ◼   ► that could be a good thing.

00:19:21 ◼   ► But it's hard for me to get away from the notion

00:19:25 ◼   ► that people are badly, badly misassessing the risk

00:19:29 ◼   ► of breaking home buttons on the current iPhones,

00:19:31 ◼   ► even on the 4, I would say,

00:19:33 ◼   ► universally using AssistiveTouch

00:19:34 ◼   ► for fear of home button breakage

00:19:36 ◼   ► is a terrible decision rationality-wise,

00:19:40 ◼   ► but if you set that aside and say,

00:19:43 ◼   ► "Whatever, let's just pretend they're doing this,"

00:19:46 ◼   ► there can be advantages.

00:19:47 ◼   ► And I think it's something that Apple will have to,

00:19:52 ◼   ► I mean, maybe they already are,

00:19:53 ◼   ► that's why we talked about it last time.

00:19:54 ◼   ► Maybe they're looking at this and that's why they made the home button that doesn't move.

00:19:57 ◼   ► But that Apple will have to think about if they're ever going towards this mythical home

00:20:02 ◼   ► button that we've discussed where like the whole iPhone is screen and you just put your

00:20:05 ◼   ► fingers somewhere on the screen for touch ID and the home button is on the screen.

00:20:09 ◼   ► Like the fully screened iPhone.

00:20:11 ◼   ► Maybe that's not going to be next year's.

00:20:12 ◼   ► Maybe next year is just going to bring in the margins on the phone.

00:20:15 ◼   ► But everyone has been talking about it for years and years.

00:20:18 ◼   ► What if it was all just screen and the home button was a screen.

00:20:21 ◼   ► Remember in the early days of the iPhone, it was basically religion amongst the Apple

00:20:25 ◼   ► nerds, like, "No, don't you understand the genius of the one physical button?"

00:20:29 ◼   ► And it's true, that was genius, but things evolve.

00:20:31 ◼   ► Yeah, we also said that was the one best screen size that we would always use.

00:20:35 ◼   ► Well, speak for yourself.

00:20:37 ◼   ► I'm saying the Apple nerds were all wrong.

00:20:39 ◼   ► It's obvious I don't include myself in that group.

00:20:42 ◼   ► But yeah, things had their time and place, right?

00:20:46 ◼   ► Things evolved.

00:20:47 ◼   ► a good example of that is even Apple had to eventually concede to the notion of

00:20:50 ◼   ► right-click. Like they don't put two buttons on their mice but you can

00:20:53 ◼   ► right-click on them, right? So things do evolve and it's best not to be stubborn

00:20:57 ◼   ► like Apple is by not putting a legit right-click button on their mice and

00:21:00 ◼   ► making you lift your other finger which is annoying. Anyway, things do evolve and

00:21:05 ◼   ► it could be that the phones eventually evolve to the point where they're all

00:21:07 ◼   ► screen and if they do evolve to the point where they're all screen, guess what

00:21:10 ◼   ► entire section of the globe has been practicing for years and years using a

00:21:13 ◼   ► phone entirely touching the screen without touching the home button. Yeah

00:21:16 ◼   ► And so maybe they can learn something from the use of assisted touch over there to influence

00:21:21 ◼   ► How not to screw this up when they finally take away the home button entirely and mark it was ballistic

00:21:25 ◼   ► I'll be fine. I mean the current the one of the seven already is mediocre. So it's fine

00:21:31 ◼   ► Easing you into it. There's small degrees of anger. Yeah, same thing, you know with the headphone jack

00:21:36 ◼   ► It's like yeah, okay now like here's what the way here's what they're gonna do

00:21:38 ◼   ► They're gonna start leaking to the Wall Street Journal in Bloomberg in February

00:21:43 ◼   ► that the next iPhone is not gonna have a home button at all

00:21:46 ◼   ► and it'll be all screen

00:21:48 ◼   ► and then we'll all get mad about it over the summer

00:21:51 ◼   ► and then by the time the fall comes around,

00:21:53 ◼   ► everyone will be like duh, it has no home button,

00:21:55 ◼   ► that's old news.

00:21:56 ◼   ► - I think you've got a while to go on that

00:21:58 ◼   ► 'cause I think my, based on nothing,

00:22:01 ◼   ► my impression is that we're not there yet for the Touch ID

00:22:04 ◼   ► like to go through the screen.

00:22:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, there was a patent about it a few years back

00:22:08 ◼   ► but that's a whole different thing

00:22:09 ◼   ► from being able to ship a billion of those.

00:22:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, especially since next year's iPhone is OLED, right?

00:22:14 ◼   ► So I think next year is all about OLED and the screen

00:22:17 ◼   ► and getting everything tucked in there.

00:22:18 ◼   ► I think they can't do OLED at the same time

00:22:20 ◼   ► as they figure out some magical technology

00:22:22 ◼   ► to bury Touch ID under it.

00:22:23 ◼   ► So I'm gonna guess, based on nothing,

00:22:26 ◼   ► next year's OLED but Touch ID will not be on the screen.

00:22:29 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, and in all fairness,

00:22:31 ◼   ► pretty much every other manufacturer

00:22:32 ◼   ► has figured out how to put touch sensors

00:22:34 ◼   ► on the back of the phone,

00:22:35 ◼   ► and I always assumed that would be bad and weird,

00:22:38 ◼   ► but from people who actually use them,

00:22:39 ◼   ► they seem to be okay with it.

00:22:40 ◼   ► So that could be another solution.

00:22:42 ◼   ► - The whole back of the phone's supposed to be a camera,

00:22:43 ◼   ► not a touch sensor.

00:22:44 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:22:46 ◼   ► Right now, the whole back of the phone is a fingerprint,

00:22:48 ◼   ► what do you call it, like the things at the police station

00:22:50 ◼   ► where they take your fingerprints?

00:22:51 ◼   ► - Right, exactly, that's why it's perfect.

00:22:53 ◼   ► If it's already gonna be covered in fingerprints,

00:22:54 ◼   ► might as well use it for touch ID.

00:22:56 ◼   ► - Right, but you won't even need your finger there.

00:22:57 ◼   ► They'll unlock automatically

00:22:58 ◼   ► just from your leftover finger grease.

00:23:00 ◼   ► (laughing)

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00:24:02 ◼   ► Betterment, investing made better.

00:24:07 ◼   ► Moving on, Scott O'Reilly, who is creator of The Dash, a prior sponsor of the show,

00:24:12 ◼   ► he made a discovery a few days back.

00:24:15 ◼   ► He was, I guess, listening to regular headphones with the Lightning to headphone adapter and

00:24:21 ◼   ► had paused his headphones, or paused, I should say paused the phone and whatever it was playing.

00:24:26 ◼   ► He came back after five minutes and he couldn't use the little bulbous dongly thing on his

00:24:33 ◼   ► headphones in order to restart audio.

00:24:36 ◼   ► So he dug into this a little bit and eventually made a truly wonderful demonstration video,

00:24:42 ◼   ► which we'll link in the show notes, where he left a recording for some total of like

00:24:47 ◼   ► six or seven minutes, but basically played a little bit, I believe, of our show, paused

00:24:51 ◼   ► it by way of the headphones, and then let it sit for five minutes, came back, and sure

00:24:56 ◼   ► enough when he tried via the headphones to unpause it, it didn't work.

00:25:00 ◼   ► And so this was quite the brouhaha because when a new phone comes out, that's what everyone

00:25:06 ◼   ► that someone goes looking for.

00:25:07 ◼   ► And somewhere, although I don't have a link handy

00:25:10 ◼   ► at the moment, and we'll put something in the show notes,

00:25:11 ◼   ► we'll find it later, apparently Apple has said

00:25:13 ◼   ► to someone some way, somehow, that yeah,

00:25:15 ◼   ► this is a bug, we're gonna fix it.

00:25:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, and ATP Tipster said earlier in the chat,

00:25:19 ◼   ► for whatever it's worth, that we should probably expect

00:25:22 ◼   ► a 10.02 update, roughly in a week or two,

00:25:25 ◼   ► but I think he said next week, that will fix that bug,

00:25:29 ◼   ► along with the microphone cutting out bug

00:25:33 ◼   ► that has hit both me and Tiff during phone calls,

00:25:36 ◼   ► and I puncture out the little bugs.

00:25:37 ◼   ► So hopefully this will be fixed quickly.

00:25:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's good to get that feedback too,

00:25:41 ◼   ► because especially with the lighting headphones,

00:25:42 ◼   ► where we're like, we don't know what the rules are

00:25:44 ◼   ► of this new lighting. - Right.

00:25:45 ◼   ► - This headphone portless future,

00:25:46 ◼   ► we're like, is this to say,

00:25:48 ◼   ► people are like, is this to say battery,

00:25:50 ◼   ► or is this a feature that's supposed to be there?

00:25:52 ◼   ► But I was like, it was so nice to hear very quickly

00:25:54 ◼   ► from Apple sources through whatever means they have,

00:25:56 ◼   ► like, no, it's just, it's not supposed to work that way,

00:25:58 ◼   ► they'll fix it.

00:25:59 ◼   ► Hopefully they will actually fix it,

00:26:00 ◼   ► because if this ends up being like,

00:26:02 ◼   ► oh, we'll try to fix it again, every point release,

00:26:04 ◼   ► and it keeps being wonky, that's gonna be bad.

00:26:07 ◼   ► But anyway, they're not supposed to work like this.

00:26:10 ◼   ► It's not a feature that's like,

00:26:12 ◼   ► "Well, now that you've given up the headphone port,

00:26:13 ◼   ► "I'm sorry, you paused too long and it's gone."

00:26:16 ◼   ► - I love the idea of ATP Tipster

00:26:17 ◼   ► as like a PR outlet for Apple.

00:26:19 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:26:21 ◼   ► - Wow.

00:26:22 ◼   ► - And to be fair, ATP Tipster just provided us a link

00:26:26 ◼   ► to 9to5Mac where the headline is,

00:26:28 ◼   ► "Apple says a fix is coming for lightning headphones bug

00:26:30 ◼   ► "that causes playback controls to stop working."

00:26:33 ◼   ► Apparently they made the statement originally though

00:26:35 ◼   ► to Business Insider.

00:26:36 ◼   ► And as much as it pains me, I will,

00:26:38 ◼   ► yes, as much as it pains me, I'll put that link in the show notes.

00:26:40 ◼   ► - Isn't there any other site they talk to?

00:26:42 ◼   ► Like should they talk to iMore or Dalrymple?

00:26:44 ◼   ► Doesn't anybody else?

00:26:45 ◼   ► - I don't think so.

00:26:46 ◼   ► - Everyone else reported on the Business Insider article.

00:26:48 ◼   ► I hate when that happens.

00:26:50 ◼   ► - It's the worst.

00:26:51 ◼   ► All right, moving on.

00:26:54 ◼   ► But that was a very interesting find by Scott O'Reilly.

00:26:56 ◼   ► And I was really pleased to see that demo video.

00:26:59 ◼   ► And it wasn't sensational.

00:27:01 ◼   ► wasn't look at me talking for 20 minutes about how awful this is it was just very plain as day

00:27:06 ◼   ► I'm going to show you what happens make of it what you will so well done Scott O'Reilly

00:27:09 ◼   ► It's very failure to communicate in tweets though because that was the problem like I remember he

00:27:13 ◼   ► originally tweeted yeah people were like I tried to do it that doesn't happen for me it was like it

00:27:17 ◼   ► was reading comprehension and and difficulty of fitting a thought into 140 characters or whatever

00:27:23 ◼   ► it is with the new limit rules because it was like it doesn't happen to me and like wait are

00:27:27 ◼   ► Are you playing the song and then it cuts out after five minutes?

00:27:30 ◼   ► Or are you like, people didn't understand what was going on in a video was just the

00:27:33 ◼   ► most straightforward way to say, this is what I'm doing.

00:27:35 ◼   ► Look, here it is.

00:27:36 ◼   ► And then, then everyone finally understood what he was talking about and then everyone

00:27:41 ◼   ► could see that this is a real thing that happens.

00:27:43 ◼   ► Yeah, I didn't understand either.

00:27:44 ◼   ► And I thought he meant with any sort of headphones and I tried it with my lightning ones and

00:27:48 ◼   ► I was like, oh, this works great.

00:27:49 ◼   ► What are you talking about?

00:27:50 ◼   ► And then it turns out it was the adapter that was the problem.

00:27:52 ◼   ► So fair enough.

00:27:54 ◼   ► Speaking of, this isn't in the show notes here,

00:27:56 ◼   ► but we should probably talk about it.

00:27:58 ◼   ► Apparently a teardown has been done

00:28:01 ◼   ► and there is a digital and analog converter

00:28:03 ◼   ► in the Lightning to 3.5 millimeter headphone adapter.

00:28:08 ◼   ► - Yep, it's basically exactly what we speculated last time,

00:28:11 ◼   ► which was, yes, there's probably a little tiny DAC amp

00:28:14 ◼   ► in the headphone adapter because that's just easier

00:28:16 ◼   ► and they're really cheap.

00:28:17 ◼   ► And it's probably at the lightning end of the cable.

00:28:21 ◼   ► And sure enough, yeah, the teardown verifies

00:28:23 ◼   ► all that is exactly the case. Nothing really exciting here.

00:28:26 ◼   ► You're still confused about this. Last show I was talking specifically about the Lightning

00:28:30 ◼   ► earphones. Obviously it's in the Lightning end on the adapter, but just the plain old

00:28:34 ◼   ► earphones that don't have an adapter, the ones that come in the box, that's the strangely

00:28:38 ◼   ► funny part is the promise of digital audio is that the digital signal will get a couple

00:28:43 ◼   ► of millimeters out of your phone before it gets converted. Obviously it's going to get

00:28:45 ◼   ► converted by the adapter, but even the headphones it looks like, which makes sense because they're

00:28:49 ◼   ► going to use the same little lightning connector end.

00:28:53 ◼   ► The headphones, the audio returns analog as soon as it hits the adapter, and then it's

00:28:57 ◼   ► just plain old dirty analog signals going over those wires to your earpods, which apparently

00:29:02 ◼   ► don't have any little dacs in them.

00:29:04 ◼   ► Although looking at the size of these chips, it seems like they could have fit in the earpods

00:29:06 ◼   ► if they wanted to, but then why get two when you can just have one?

00:29:09 ◼   ► Why improve the quality over the wire to those terrible little earpods?

00:29:13 ◼   ► Yeah, I know.

00:29:14 ◼   ► It doesn't make a difference.

00:29:15 ◼   ► It was just, you know.

00:29:16 ◼   ► So from what I understand, I've read conflicting reviews

00:29:19 ◼   ► on this from people who have tested out the new AirPods,

00:29:22 ◼   ► but most, I read a couple reviews that said

00:29:24 ◼   ► they sound exactly like just a wireless version

00:29:27 ◼   ► of the wired ones that we've had for years,

00:29:29 ◼   ► which would be pretty disappointing

00:29:30 ◼   ► 'cause the wired ones sound terrible.

00:29:32 ◼   ► But most of the reviews have said

00:29:33 ◼   ► they sound noticeably better.

00:29:35 ◼   ► So I am actually now curious about them.

00:29:37 ◼   ► I have my doubts on whether they will fit me at all,

00:29:42 ◼   ► whether I'll be able to wear them comfortably,

00:29:44 ◼   ► but some people have said that they could never comfortably

00:29:46 ◼   ► wear the other ones, but these are now comfortable to them.

00:29:49 ◼   ► So I'm interested.

00:29:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, I've read that as well too,

00:29:52 ◼   ► and I don't understand that, because every picture,

00:29:56 ◼   ► like they look the same.

00:29:57 ◼   ► Is there a scale thing on the picture,

00:29:59 ◼   ► or is there a perspective thing?

00:30:00 ◼   ► - Well part of it could be like, if the weight of the wire--

00:30:03 ◼   ► - Oh, the wire.

00:30:04 ◼   ► The wire's not pulling on it.

00:30:05 ◼   ► - If that, yeah, like that could affect

00:30:06 ◼   ► how it fits for you in practice, but I don't know.

00:30:09 ◼   ► I think it's unlikely I will end up liking them,

00:30:12 ◼   ► and if I hate them, I'll just give them to Tiff,

00:30:13 ◼   ► but, 'cause she wears those ear pods sometimes,

00:30:16 ◼   ► so that's fine.

00:30:17 ◼   ► I should probably test all the Bluetooth headphones

00:30:19 ◼   ► that exist in the world anyway for my big headphone review.

00:30:22 ◼   ► But yeah, basically, I'm curious about them.

00:30:24 ◼   ► Everyone says they work really well.

00:30:26 ◼   ► I'm pretty happy with my Bluetooth headphones,

00:30:28 ◼   ► my little Sennheiser Bluetooth things.

00:30:30 ◼   ► But, you know, if worse comes to worse,

00:30:33 ◼   ► I guess I'll get something to review.

00:30:35 ◼   ► My one reservation on AirPods,

00:30:39 ◼   ► which I think every review has pointed out so far,

00:30:41 ◼   ► and many people on Twitter have pointed out as well

00:30:43 ◼   ► who are speculating about it,

00:30:45 ◼   ► I do think that it will be annoying

00:30:47 ◼   ► to not have any kind of meaningful remote control ability

00:30:50 ◼   ► on them except either Siri or Play Pause.

00:30:53 ◼   ► Like to not have an easy volume control.

00:30:55 ◼   ► - Or your watch.

00:30:56 ◼   ► - But that's still not as fast as reaching

00:30:59 ◼   ► through the clicker and hitting a button.

00:31:00 ◼   ► And yeah, not my watch.

00:31:01 ◼   ► - No, that's the bad you made yourself.

00:31:04 ◼   ► - Even with the Apple Watch.

00:31:06 ◼   ► By the way, on my watch, telling the time 100 times a day

00:31:09 ◼   ► is way faster than telling the time on your Apple Watch.

00:31:12 ◼   ► It also doesn't need to be charged ever.

00:31:14 ◼   ► But anyway, that's the bet you make Casey.

00:31:15 ◼   ► - You just need to buy a winder for it.

00:31:18 ◼   ► - It wasn't for the ones I was wearing.

00:31:21 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's the thing, that's the best part

00:31:22 ◼   ► is that that's really a thing.

00:31:23 ◼   ► You can get your watch case with an automatic winder.

00:31:25 ◼   ► - It's totally optional.

00:31:27 ◼   ► - Totally barbaric.

00:31:28 ◼   ► - You can also hire a man named Jeeves to wind them for you.

00:31:31 ◼   ► - That sounds amazing.

00:31:31 ◼   ► - Can you ask him stuff too?

00:31:33 ◼   ► Anantech, or NonTech, or however you pronounce this,

00:31:36 ◼   ► reports on a Chipworks report that says

00:31:39 ◼   ► there's three audio amps in the phone.

00:31:41 ◼   ► And so they say, this is a non-Tech, AnandTech, however you pronounce it,

00:31:45 ◼   ► "One interesting aspect of the Chipworks report is that they unexpectedly found a third audio amplifier.

00:31:50 ◼   ► Chipworks was expecting to find two, one for each of the speakers, but came up with a third.

00:31:54 ◼   ► The firm believes that the third amp may be for headphones, which in turn would mean that Apple significantly revised the lightning port specification for the iPhone 7.

00:32:07 ◼   ► Previously, lightning has only carried digital audio, which doesn't require an amp in the phone itself.

00:32:11 ◼   ► In the initial iPhone 7 announcement, I had speculated that Apple put the DAC and AMP

00:32:16 ◼   ► inside their 3.5mm adapter, which we now know is true, which would be consistent with how

00:32:20 ◼   ► Lightning has worked for over the last four years, but this cast doubt on that area, or

00:32:23 ◼   ► on that idea.

00:32:24 ◼   ► So now, this was written before this teardown that we were just speaking of.

00:32:28 ◼   ► So why the third AMP then?

00:32:31 ◼   ► Obviously, it's because it's easier to put that in there and then you can make a go/no

00:32:36 ◼   ► go on the headphone port removal at any time.

00:32:38 ◼   ► That's my guess.

00:32:39 ◼   ► There's three in there, but there's three in the 6S, right?

00:32:43 ◼   ► Or there would be one for the headphone, not three, because there's only one speaker.

00:32:46 ◼   ► But anyway, you know what I mean.

00:32:48 ◼   ► It's there for the headphone jack that's not there.

00:32:50 ◼   ► That's totally a thing.

00:32:51 ◼   ► I mean, do you remember, what was it?

00:32:53 ◼   ► I think it was an iPod Touch or something that if you took it apart, you saw there was

00:32:57 ◼   ► a hole for where the thing was supposed to be.

00:32:59 ◼   ► This is just part of hardware manufacturing.

00:33:01 ◼   ► You recover your bets.

00:33:02 ◼   ► Those little chips cost nothing.

00:33:03 ◼   ► If they have the space for it, they're going to put it there.

00:33:05 ◼   ► so then they have the option once they finalize the spec

00:33:08 ◼   ► and all the electrical, you know, blah, blah, blah.

00:33:10 ◼   ► That's my guess, unless they were just totally wrong

00:33:12 ◼   ► and misidentify the chip,

00:33:13 ◼   ► unless it's used for some other purpose,

00:33:14 ◼   ► someone in Apple hardware can tell us,

00:33:16 ◼   ► but it's totally plausible to me

00:33:18 ◼   ► that that's just a thing that they put there

00:33:19 ◼   ► that they didn't happen to use.

00:33:20 ◼   ► - I mean, it's also possible,

00:33:21 ◼   ► like the second one could be used for the second speaker.

00:33:24 ◼   ► Like they might not be running one amp

00:33:26 ◼   ► to drive two speakers,

00:33:27 ◼   ► maybe they have one in each of them

00:33:28 ◼   ► for various electrical convenience reasons

00:33:31 ◼   ► or better cable routing or less power.

00:33:34 ◼   ► - That's what I said, but there's three of them though.

00:33:36 ◼   ► - Right, well, one for each speaker and one for,

00:33:39 ◼   ► oh yeah, I guess.

00:33:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, math is hard.

00:33:42 ◼   ► - Well, it could be for the microphone.

00:33:43 ◼   ► I mean, these things are so cheap,

00:33:45 ◼   ► and like, anytime you're running analog audio traces

00:33:48 ◼   ► on a circuit board in a digital device

00:33:50 ◼   ► full of various, you know, interference sources,

00:33:53 ◼   ► you have to be pretty careful where you can run those

00:33:55 ◼   ► without picking up noise and other problems

00:33:57 ◼   ► on the analog signals.

00:33:59 ◼   ► And because these little DAC amp chips are so tiny

00:34:02 ◼   ► and so dirt cheap, you can basically put them

00:34:05 ◼   ► wherever you feel like, wherever it's convenient

00:34:06 ◼   ► for the rest of your needs.

00:34:08 ◼   ► So if it's most convenient to have another one

00:34:11 ◼   ► for the microphone and not use the same one

00:34:13 ◼   ► that is used by the bottom speaker,

00:34:16 ◼   ► then they can do that, it's really no big deal.

00:34:18 ◼   ► These chips are tiny and cost nothing.

00:34:20 ◼   ► - Anyway, if the goal was to figure out

00:34:23 ◼   ► whether the adapters use a DAC,

00:34:25 ◼   ► the best way to do it was to open up the DACs

00:34:26 ◼   ► and that's what people did.

00:34:27 ◼   ► Although, people have opened them up

00:34:29 ◼   ► and melted off all the plastic

00:34:31 ◼   ► and seeing the little number on the chips.

00:34:34 ◼   ► But because Apple uses so many custom things and everything,

00:34:37 ◼   ► I don't know if anyone has tracked that number down

00:34:39 ◼   ► and said definitively that this is a DAC amp thing,

00:34:41 ◼   ► but that's what everyone believes it to be,

00:34:43 ◼   ► and it totally makes sense.

00:34:44 ◼   ► So I would consider this matter settled

00:34:47 ◼   ► until somebody says, "Wait, wait, wait,

00:34:48 ◼   ► that chip actually isn't doing what you think it is."

00:34:51 ◼   ► - All right, so John, you seem to be claiming

00:34:54 ◼   ► by way of the show notes and links to Twitter

00:34:56 ◼   ► that you are semi-clearvoyant.

00:34:58 ◼   ► Would you like to talk about this?

00:34:59 ◼   ► No, I was just thinking about the Jet Black phone,

00:35:03 ◼   ► because I'm still in the deciding mode

00:35:06 ◼   ► of whether I'm going to get Jet Black or not,

00:35:07 ◼   ► and whether I'm going to use it without a case.

00:35:09 ◼   ► And anyway, like I said, I got to see it in person,

00:35:11 ◼   ► and so on and so forth.

00:35:12 ◼   ► But we're at the phase now where people

00:35:13 ◼   ► have their Jet Black iPhones,

00:35:15 ◼   ► and are posting pictures of their various scratches,

00:35:17 ◼   ► or in the case of Christina Warren,

00:35:18 ◼   ► their gigantic dents, and saying,

00:35:21 ◼   ► "This is what a Jet Black iPhone's going to look like,

00:35:23 ◼   ► either fingerprint-wise, or the scratches, or whatever."

00:35:25 ◼   ► And I have to decide whether that's worth it to me,

00:35:28 ◼   ► and so on and so forth.

00:35:29 ◼   ► And it made me think again about a topic that I have visited in past podcasts.

00:35:34 ◼   ► And I tried to do some research.

00:35:36 ◼   ► So I was like, isn't there an episode where I talked about this?

00:35:39 ◼   ► And in doing my research, I found out there's like 900 episodes

00:35:42 ◼   ► where I talked about this.

00:35:42 ◼   ► I talked about all the time for like cumulatively hours.

00:35:47 ◼   ► So, you know, it's good that I don't remember my past that well.

00:35:49 ◼   ► But anyway, because I did all the research, I'm not going

00:35:51 ◼   ► to bore you all with it now.

00:35:53 ◼   ► We'll put a bunch of links in the show notes to me talking about the issue of

00:35:58 ◼   ► electronics and how they wear as you use them. As they get older, do they look crappier and

00:36:04 ◼   ► you like them less, or do they develop a patina or become familiar and you love them more

00:36:11 ◼   ► as they age and they become worn in? That dichotomy has been discussed by many people

00:36:17 ◼   ► on the web. In fact, these early episodes of Hypercritical where I talk about this,

00:36:20 ◼   ► I'm just citing a blog post that themselves comes from years earlier. I think the last

00:36:25 ◼   ► Last time it came up in our little circle in a big way was with the iPhone 5, with the

00:36:30 ◼   ► original black back on the iPhone 5 where the black would scratch off and you'd see

00:36:33 ◼   ► the aluminum color and everything.

00:36:35 ◼   ► That was the jet black of the day where I was complaining about the scratches.

00:36:40 ◼   ► And at that time, this was 2012, I tweeted that an iPhone with three scratches may look

00:36:44 ◼   ► awful but best case an iPhone with 5,000 scratches would look like the Millennium Falcon.

00:36:49 ◼   ► And that was me trying to give my view of like, "Alright, so one or two scratches is

00:36:53 ◼   ► "Oh no, my beautiful, perfect iPhone 5 is now scratched."

00:36:57 ◼   ► With a thousand scratches,

00:36:58 ◼   ► everyone loves the Millennium Falcon, man.

00:36:59 ◼   ► It looks like a hunk of junk,

00:37:00 ◼   ► but it's got it where it counts.

00:37:02 ◼   ► Like, you love the Millennium Falcon

00:37:04 ◼   ► because it looks worn and lived in and everything.

00:37:07 ◼   ► So that's what I was trying to get at.

00:37:09 ◼   ► I don't know if the Jet Black iPhone qualifies for that.

00:37:11 ◼   ► I don't know if any of Apple's current products do,

00:37:12 ◼   ► but God, I talked about it so much on these podcasts.

00:37:14 ◼   ► So we'll put links to these blog posts,

00:37:17 ◼   ► some of them by Koi Vinh,

00:37:19 ◼   ► someone who had that original iPhone

00:37:21 ◼   ► that was really worn down.

00:37:22 ◼   ► It looks super awesome.

00:37:23 ◼   ► And the links will have timestamps in them

00:37:26 ◼   ► using Marco's cool overcast timestamp jumping feature

00:37:29 ◼   ► that works really well with CBR audio.

00:37:31 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:37:33 ◼   ► So you can jump directly to the timestamp

00:37:36 ◼   ► and listen to me talk about this for a long time

00:37:38 ◼   ► and I'll spare you from it now.

00:37:40 ◼   ► - Ed Ryan writes in to say the Bluetooth stack

00:37:42 ◼   ► almost certainly doesn't bitstream

00:37:44 ◼   ► without decoding to PCM first,

00:37:46 ◼   ► you'd have no volume control.

00:37:47 ◼   ► Marco, you wanna kinda translate that

00:37:49 ◼   ► into regular human for me?

00:37:51 ◼   ► - Sure, so last episode we were talking about

00:37:53 ◼   ► Casey or audio file friends, they had a concern that in order for audio to be transmitted

00:37:58 ◼   ► to Bluetooth headphones, it was generally being recompressed as in some other kind of

00:38:02 ◼   ► lossy format depending on the headphones and the phone and you know, that could be used

00:38:06 ◼   ► different codecs whether it was the old ATDP SBC thing or whether it was something more

00:38:11 ◼   ► advanced like AptX or AAC. Basically, any audio sent to Bluetooth headphones is being

00:38:20 ◼   ► encoded in some kind of lossy format

00:38:23 ◼   ► in order to make that transmission happen

00:38:24 ◼   ► in a practical way.

00:38:25 ◼   ► And so one of the options that John, you had asked about,

00:38:29 ◼   ► was what if, if you have an AAC audio source

00:38:34 ◼   ► and you have headphones and a phone

00:38:36 ◼   ► that can transmit over Bluetooth in the AAC format,

00:38:39 ◼   ► would there be some kind of intelligence there

00:38:41 ◼   ► that it could just like pass it through untouched

00:38:44 ◼   ► so it wouldn't be decoding it and then re-encoding it

00:38:46 ◼   ► and possibly incurring a quality loss there.

00:38:49 ◼   ► And Ed Rine's pointing out here that basically

00:38:53 ◼   ► if you don't decode it and then re-encode it

00:38:56 ◼   ► back to the headphones, if you don't do that,

00:38:58 ◼   ► you generally can't adjust the volume.

00:39:01 ◼   ► And that's technically not entirely true.

00:39:04 ◼   ► There are, like in the way the files are represented,

00:39:07 ◼   ► in the way audio's represented in these lossy forms,

00:39:10 ◼   ► it is actually possible in many cases,

00:39:13 ◼   ► depending on the format, to adjust the volume

00:39:16 ◼   ► without transcoding it, basically.

00:39:18 ◼   ► to actually modify the encoded compressed data,

00:39:21 ◼   ► because a lot of times it's represented as frequency,

00:39:24 ◼   ► volume, frequency, volume,

00:39:25 ◼   ► and so you can just drop those volume values.

00:39:28 ◼   ► Now, it doesn't know, you can't always do it,

00:39:30 ◼   ► depending on the exact encoding,

00:39:32 ◼   ► but it is technically possible to do that in some cases.

00:39:36 ◼   ► However, that's a lot of complexity

00:39:38 ◼   ► in addition to all the other complexity

00:39:39 ◼   ► that would be involved in passing this bitstream

00:39:41 ◼   ► through unmodified or minimally modified

00:39:43 ◼   ► without decoding to regular samples first.

00:39:46 ◼   ► So basically this isn't happening.

00:39:48 ◼   ► And I should also point out a friend of the show,

00:39:51 ◼   ► Mark Edwards, from Bijango Software,

00:39:53 ◼   ► makers of the amazing iStat Menus app,

00:39:56 ◼   ► which everyone here except John uses.

00:39:59 ◼   ► - True story.

00:40:00 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:40:00 ◼   ► - He's an audiophile, and one of the good ones.

00:40:03 ◼   ► And he and I had a Twitter exchange earlier.

00:40:06 ◼   ► Basically, my position last episode

00:40:09 ◼   ► on whether Bluetooth lossy codecs matter,

00:40:13 ◼   ► My position is basically Bluetooth headphones

00:40:16 ◼   ► have such mediocre headphone drivers,

00:40:19 ◼   ► like the actual speaker parts of the headphones,

00:40:21 ◼   ► they're so mediocre on almost everything that's out there

00:40:24 ◼   ► that whatever quality loss you might incur

00:40:29 ◼   ► by effectively double encoding your music

00:40:31 ◼   ► would be undetectable compared to the poor quality

00:40:34 ◼   ► of the headphones themselves.

00:40:35 ◼   ► You'd need better quality headphones

00:40:38 ◼   ► to really hear that difference.

00:40:40 ◼   ► And so Mark took me to task for that,

00:40:43 ◼   ► Understandably, he's right.

00:40:45 ◼   ► You know, that is kind of a separate issue.

00:40:47 ◼   ► Like, Bluetooth headphones could get better.

00:40:50 ◼   ► Maybe the reason they don't have better drivers

00:40:52 ◼   ► is because when you put better drivers

00:40:53 ◼   ► in Bluetooth headphones, maybe they sound crap

00:40:55 ◼   ► because of the double encoding.

00:40:57 ◼   ► So that is totally a valid counterargument

00:40:59 ◼   ► to what I was saying, which I didn't really consider.

00:41:01 ◼   ► But thanks to Mark Edwards for pointing that out.

00:41:04 ◼   ► He's right.

00:41:05 ◼   ► It is possible this is audible,

00:41:07 ◼   ► and maybe we'll do some experiments and try.

00:41:11 ◼   ► But the bigger problem right now is that Bluetooth headphones

00:41:13 ◼   ► are generally pretty mediocre sounding.

00:41:16 ◼   ► So if this is a problem, we can't tell.

00:41:19 ◼   ► - One more thing on the bitstreaming.

00:41:21 ◼   ► The solution to that, if they wanted to bitstream,

00:41:23 ◼   ► is you gotta put the volume control on the headphones.

00:41:25 ◼   ► And obviously that's not gonna work on little tiny ear pods,

00:41:27 ◼   ► but if you had big honking headphones,

00:41:29 ◼   ► you can bitstream to them,

00:41:30 ◼   ► and the DAC would be in the headphones,

00:41:32 ◼   ► and the volume control could also be there in theory.

00:41:35 ◼   ► Not that I think they're gonna do that, but.

00:41:37 ◼   ► - Many Bluetooth headphones have volume control built in.

00:41:39 ◼   ► And it's kind of like one of the ways that they differ

00:41:42 ◼   ► is like some of them, when you push the volume buttons

00:41:45 ◼   ► on the headphone, it just controls the source devices

00:41:48 ◼   ► logical volume for that headphone.

00:41:50 ◼   ► So like basically you'd have one unified volume control

00:41:53 ◼   ► and if you push the button on the headphone,

00:41:55 ◼   ► it's not like doing that reduction in the headphone,

00:41:58 ◼   ► it's sending the command to the phone saying,

00:42:00 ◼   ► hey drop your volume by one increment or whatever.

00:42:02 ◼   ► So some headphones do that and some,

00:42:04 ◼   ► especially older ones, maintain their own volume control

00:42:07 ◼   ► in addition to the phone's volume control

00:42:09 ◼   ► which is, it allows more control,

00:42:11 ◼   ► but it's also kind of annoying.

00:42:12 ◼   ► Like if the phone is set really low

00:42:13 ◼   ► and you keep pushing up on the headphone,

00:42:15 ◼   ► it's like maxed out and you can't tell why it's too quiet.

00:42:18 ◼   ► So it's kind of annoying there.

00:42:19 ◼   ► But anyway, usually having one unified volume control

00:42:24 ◼   ► being, you know, the headphone controls

00:42:27 ◼   ► are actually telling the phone what to do,

00:42:28 ◼   ► that is generally better, which would have this problem.

00:42:31 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

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00:43:57 ◼   ► You can do a lot with that.

00:43:59 ◼   ► Now go to linode.com/atp to see for yourself.

00:44:03 ◼   ► You get a $10 credit by using promo code

00:44:05 ◼   ► Accidental Podcast 10.

00:44:07 ◼   ► Once again, go to linode.com/atp for my favorite web host.

00:44:11 ◼   ► $10 credit using promo code ACCIDENTALPODCAST10.

00:44:13 ◼   ► Thank you very much to Linode for sponsoring our show.

00:44:16 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

00:44:19 ◼   ► - So we should talk about what phones we have

00:44:23 ◼   ► and the process by which we retrieve them.

00:44:25 ◼   ► And since I got so angry at Jon last episode

00:44:29 ◼   ► about his preposterous claim that accessibility

00:44:31 ◼   ► is also his personal private stereo set if you will.

00:44:34 ◼   ► Not my claim.

00:44:35 ◼   ► Do you want to tell me again that I think the default should be different?

00:44:42 ◼   ► Because you seem to be stuck on that one for a while, too.

00:44:44 ◼   ► No, I'm just—I'm just poking.

00:44:47 ◼   ► So I think this is the time when Marco and I get angry at each other, but we need to

00:44:51 ◼   ► meander to that.

00:44:53 ◼   ► What did you end up getting, Marco?

00:44:56 ◼   ► And why were you on the news, exactly?

00:44:58 ◼   ► Okay.

00:44:59 ◼   ► So I was on my—we went to go.

00:45:03 ◼   ► We did an in-store pickup to get Tiff's phone.

00:45:05 ◼   ► As I mentioned last week, I had some order trouble

00:45:08 ◼   ► and then some waffling and then some order trouble

00:45:10 ◼   ► with the waffling order and so basically I was unable

00:45:13 ◼   ► to make an online order for what I ended up ordering

00:45:17 ◼   ► which was a jet black regular size seven.

00:45:19 ◼   ► Anyway, so we went to go pick up Tiff's on day one.

00:45:21 ◼   ► Mine wasn't gonna be ready on day one.

00:45:22 ◼   ► It was gonna be like mid-October or something.

00:45:24 ◼   ► And it just so happened that while we were waiting online,

00:45:27 ◼   ► a local news anchor wanted to do a segment

00:45:30 ◼   ► on the incredibly long lines at Apple stores.

00:45:32 ◼   ► Meanwhile, the line wasn't long at all,

00:45:33 ◼   ► but that's beside the point.

00:45:34 ◼   ► Obviously, it's the news.

00:45:35 ◼   ► They're gonna do whatever they want anyway,

00:45:37 ◼   ► regardless of the truth.

00:45:38 ◼   ► So, the news anchor just asked the people

00:45:40 ◼   ► who were right in front of her,

00:45:41 ◼   ► which happened to be me and this other guy,

00:45:42 ◼   ► she just asked us, "Hey, would we be willing

00:45:44 ◼   ► "to go on camera live for the local news

00:45:46 ◼   ► "and tell why we're waiting on line,

00:45:48 ◼   ► "what our favorite features of the new iPhone are,

00:45:51 ◼   ► "and whatever else?"

00:45:52 ◼   ► And we said, "Sure."

00:45:53 ◼   ► And there were no questions asked besides that.

00:45:55 ◼   ► She didn't ask what we were gonna say.

00:45:56 ◼   ► Well, she did, but then I lied.

00:45:58 ◼   ► I said I was talking about the camera

00:45:59 ◼   ► and how great it was.

00:46:01 ◼   ► 'cause that's what she wanted.

00:46:02 ◼   ► - Look, however your story changes.

00:46:05 ◼   ► She didn't ask what we were gonna say,

00:46:06 ◼   ► well, she did ask what we were gonna say.

00:46:08 ◼   ► - Yes, she kind of did.

00:46:09 ◼   ► - She kind of prompted us with what she wanted us to say

00:46:12 ◼   ► in the journalist standard of implying,

00:46:14 ◼   ► here's what I wanna hear.

00:46:16 ◼   ► And she didn't ask who we were or anything.

00:46:18 ◼   ► She didn't know that I was an Apple person in some capacity.

00:46:21 ◼   ► She had no idea.

00:46:22 ◼   ► It didn't matter.

00:46:23 ◼   ► It didn't come up, so fine.

00:46:24 ◼   ► So yeah, turns the camera on,

00:46:26 ◼   ► and I give a more sarcastic answer

00:46:29 ◼   ► than I think everybody was expecting, and it was fun.

00:46:33 ◼   ► So we could pick up Tisphone, it was fun.

00:46:35 ◼   ► It's fine, we could get it back, whatever.

00:46:37 ◼   ► So I, in the meantime-- - Well, slow down, slow down.

00:46:38 ◼   ► So what did Tiff end up with, which model?

00:46:41 ◼   ► - Regular size gold.

00:46:43 ◼   ► Meanwhile, here I am, when I went into the store,

00:46:45 ◼   ► I was able to finally see and pick up

00:46:48 ◼   ► and feel both of the black models,

00:46:51 ◼   ► and I decided right then, oh my god,

00:46:53 ◼   ► I have to have the jet black,

00:46:54 ◼   ► because the way it feels, it is so,

00:46:59 ◼   ► If, like me, you have been out there

00:47:02 ◼   ► unhappy with the 6 and 6S because they are slippery

00:47:06 ◼   ► and they're hard to hold without a case,

00:47:08 ◼   ► you want the Jet Black iPhone 7.

00:47:10 ◼   ► Because it feels like,

00:47:13 ◼   ► the back of it feels even more grippy than the screen.

00:47:18 ◼   ► Like if you put your hand on glass

00:47:19 ◼   ► and you feel the glass screen, that is grippier.

00:47:22 ◼   ► Like your hand sticks to it better

00:47:24 ◼   ► than it does to the slippery aluminum back of the phone.

00:47:27 ◼   ► On the Jet Black, it's the opposite.

00:47:28 ◼   ► The jet black, the phone is even grippier than the screen.

00:47:30 ◼   ► It is so, it feels about as grippy

00:47:33 ◼   ► as the old plastic phones did, or the iPhone 5C,

00:47:37 ◼   ► the only kind of newish one.

00:47:39 ◼   ► Very, very grippy, very easy to hold.

00:47:42 ◼   ► The fact that it looks really cool from most angles

00:47:45 ◼   ► and in most conditions, that to me is secondary.

00:47:48 ◼   ► I don't care how the back of the phone looks really.

00:47:50 ◼   ► I mean, I've lived with an ugly backed phone

00:47:53 ◼   ► for the last two years.

00:47:54 ◼   ► I think the 6 and 6S design looked hideous from the back.

00:47:57 ◼   ► And for the 6S, I ended up using one of these

00:47:59 ◼   ► dbrand vinyl skins for the second half of my ownership of it

00:48:02 ◼   ► to cover up half the back just to give it a little more grip.

00:48:05 ◼   ► The jet black 7 is even grippier

00:48:08 ◼   ► than that dbrand vinyl skin was.

00:48:09 ◼   ► Like it's so nice and grippy.

00:48:11 ◼   ► So I immediately thought,

00:48:13 ◼   ► I don't care how quickly this thing scratches,

00:48:15 ◼   ► how bad it looks, I don't look at the back of my phone

00:48:17 ◼   ► when I'm using it, but I'm always feeling

00:48:19 ◼   ► the back of my phone when I'm using it.

00:48:21 ◼   ► So grip matters more to me than looks.

00:48:23 ◼   ► So of course I go home and try to get a jet black phone

00:48:25 ◼   ► and I'm going through eBay and everything

00:48:28 ◼   ► and it's just a disaster.

00:48:30 ◼   ► Trying to buy anything ever on eBay,

00:48:33 ◼   ► or sell it for that matter, is always a bit of a disaster.

00:48:36 ◼   ► eBay is just a horrible place full of horrible people

00:48:38 ◼   ► trying to scam each other,

00:48:40 ◼   ► with eBay being one of those people

00:48:41 ◼   ► trying to scam the sellers.

00:48:43 ◼   ► Anyway, it's wonderful.

00:48:45 ◼   ► So, it was a mess trying to get it on eBay.

00:48:49 ◼   ► I did try, I bid on a few, but they were,

00:48:52 ◼   ► the phone I wanted retailed for after tax

00:48:54 ◼   ► about $800 and they were going on eBay for like $1200 and up. So I was like, "I don't

00:48:59 ◼   ► really want to spend like $400 extra just for the privilege of getting it a little bit

00:49:03 ◼   ► sooner."

00:49:04 ◼   ► I started talking about it on Twitter and I was contacted by a guy named Chris Ries

00:49:09 ◼   ► Hansen. He's the author of DoveNote Software. So I should give him a plug. He really went

00:49:14 ◼   ► above and beyond here. DoveNote, like the bird, dovenote.com/pace is his main app. It's

00:49:21 ◼   ► an app called Pace that lets you take breaks on the Mac

00:49:24 ◼   ► while you're working, it's pretty cool.

00:49:25 ◼   ► Chris from Dove Notes Software contacted me on Twitter

00:49:28 ◼   ► and he said, "Hey, I have a JetBlack one that I just opened.

00:49:30 ◼   ► "I decided I didn't want that color,

00:49:32 ◼   ► "so I'm gonna return it,

00:49:33 ◼   ► "but if you wanna sell it to you at cost."

00:49:35 ◼   ► - Wow. - So this is pretty cool.

00:49:36 ◼   ► - That is super cool.

00:49:37 ◼   ► - If he would've just sold it on eBay,

00:49:39 ◼   ► he could've made 400 bucks, right?

00:49:41 ◼   ► But he didn't, he was a fan of the show,

00:49:42 ◼   ► he wanted, you know, help me out, awesome.

00:49:45 ◼   ► And the box comes, I'm signing forward with my UPS driver

00:49:50 ◼   ► and I'm like, this is really light.

00:49:52 ◼   ► This box seems like, is there really a phone in here?

00:49:55 ◼   ► Like did he like not, did he like just send

00:49:57 ◼   ► like the phone itself and not the packaging maybe?

00:49:59 ◼   ► Like not, like it feels really light.

00:50:02 ◼   ► And even the UPS driver's like, yeah,

00:50:03 ◼   ► there's no phone in here, it's way too light.

00:50:05 ◼   ► I'm like, okay.

00:50:07 ◼   ► So I go inside, open it up and kind of fish through it

00:50:13 ◼   ► and it's full of packing peanuts and only packing peanuts.

00:50:18 ◼   ► - Oh no.

00:50:19 ◼   ► the packing slip with the phone, the Apple packing slip,

00:50:22 ◼   ► and a little card from Chris saying,

00:50:24 ◼   ► "Hey, hope you enjoy it," he's a nice guy,

00:50:26 ◼   ► and the plastic wrap to an iPhone box,

00:50:30 ◼   ► which you can identify by the little green pull tab arrow

00:50:32 ◼   ► on one side. - Oh, no.

00:50:35 ◼   ► - You know, Chris, we had some common friends,

00:50:38 ◼   ► so I was pretty sure he wasn't the scammer here,

00:50:40 ◼   ► so I contacted him and I'm like,

00:50:42 ◼   ► "Hey, we have a problem here,"

00:50:45 ◼   ► and he was super great about it,

00:50:47 ◼   ► So it turns out he drops it off at the store.

00:50:51 ◼   ► He has a receipt at the store saying it weighed seven pounds

00:50:54 ◼   ► when it left the store.

00:50:55 ◼   ► - Oh goodness.

00:50:56 ◼   ► - And it arrives with me weighing nothing

00:50:58 ◼   ► and being filled with packing peanuts.

00:50:59 ◼   ► - Seven pounds you say?

00:51:02 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:51:02 ◼   ► - Go on, go on, just keep going.

00:51:04 ◼   ► Just plow bravely ahead.

00:51:06 ◼   ► - All right.

00:51:07 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:51:08 ◼   ► So he immediately refunds my money.

00:51:10 ◼   ► And if you're the buyer in this situation,

00:51:12 ◼   ► if you use PayPal and you pay the goods rate,

00:51:15 ◼   ► not like the sending people cash rate

00:51:17 ◼   ► which eliminates the fee,

00:51:18 ◼   ► look, there's a reason you pay those fees.

00:51:19 ◼   ► Those fees cover you as the buyer.

00:51:21 ◼   ► And when you're buying things,

00:51:22 ◼   ► you should always do that option of the goods rate

00:51:25 ◼   ► where there is a fee,

00:51:27 ◼   ► even if the seller makes you pay the fee,

00:51:28 ◼   ► which is actually, I think,

00:51:29 ◼   ► against PayPal's terms of service to ask you to do that.

00:51:31 ◼   ► But regardless, even if the seller makes you pay the fee,

00:51:34 ◼   ► you need to do it that way

00:51:35 ◼   ► because that protects you in situations like this.

00:51:37 ◼   ► So anyway, I didn't have to file a claim

00:51:40 ◼   ► 'cause he's a nice guy

00:51:41 ◼   ► and he immediately refunded the money.

00:51:43 ◼   ► He's like, "I'll deal with it," 'cause it was insured.

00:51:45 ◼   ► So he goes and deals with UPS

00:51:46 ◼   ► and it's still in process, but he's working with them.

00:51:50 ◼   ► I feel so bad for this guy,

00:51:51 ◼   ► because here he was doing me this favor.

00:51:54 ◼   ► - Yeah, he's trying to do you a solid.

00:51:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, so now we've learned,

00:51:57 ◼   ► don't send an iPhone right during iPhone mania time,

00:52:01 ◼   ► and it's obviously an iPhone box,

00:52:04 ◼   ► because people who work for UPS

00:52:07 ◼   ► have seen a billion of these boxes over the last few days,

00:52:10 ◼   ► and he sent it in the same box.

00:52:11 ◼   ► That's the perfect opportunity if you're like,

00:52:14 ◼   ► Anyway, so it was stolen.

00:52:17 ◼   ► Now Chris is like stuck dealing with all this insurance

00:52:20 ◼   ► crap with UPS and I feel really bad for him.

00:52:21 ◼   ► So please look at his app, PACE, by DevNote Software.

00:52:24 ◼   ► Making me feel a little bit better.

00:52:26 ◼   ► - Oh, that sucks so much.

00:52:28 ◼   ► - So then I was like, you know what, screw this.

00:52:30 ◼   ► I am not gonna try to buy another phone on the internet.

00:52:34 ◼   ► Like, I'll just get it through Apple.

00:52:37 ◼   ► However long it takes, I don't care.

00:52:40 ◼   ► I'll just, and this, I have bought so many things

00:52:44 ◼   ► online, eBay, Amazon, everywhere else, individual sellers, people on forums. I've bought and

00:52:49 ◼   ► sold so many things online. This is the first time I've ever had something stolen. So I

00:52:55 ◼   ► emailed my business rep at the, or the Apple retail business rep at my two local stores

00:53:03 ◼   ► on Monday morning just basically saying, you know, right after this whole whole happened,

00:53:06 ◼   ► basically saying like, "Hey, if there's any kind of waiting list you can put me on

00:53:10 ◼   ► on anything, please, you know, I could really use one.

00:53:13 ◼   ► One of the stores said, sorry, we can't really do it,

00:53:16 ◼   ► we don't know what we're gonna have.

00:53:17 ◼   ► The other store said, yeah, I got two right here,

00:53:19 ◼   ► you wanna come pick it up right now, you need both?

00:53:21 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:53:24 ◼   ► So I, Monday, I went on Monday around lunch

00:53:29 ◼   ► and picked up my brand new jet black iPhone 7,

00:53:33 ◼   ► 128 gig T-Mobile unlocked.

00:53:35 ◼   ► I finally have it through a regular means

00:53:38 ◼   ► And hopefully everybody buys Pace by DevNote Software

00:53:41 ◼   ► so that Chris is less put out by this whole ordeal.

00:53:43 ◼   ► And everything is fine now.

00:53:46 ◼   ► - And you like it?

00:53:47 ◼   ► - I think I love it.

00:53:49 ◼   ► So here's the thing.

00:53:50 ◼   ► As I said, the Jet Black finish is amazing.

00:53:54 ◼   ► Like if you have any chance to,

00:53:57 ◼   ► if you don't have one of these yet,

00:53:58 ◼   ► if you have any chance to go handle one in a store,

00:54:01 ◼   ► I strongly suggest you do it.

00:54:02 ◼   ► If you're on the fence about whether you want Jet Black,

00:54:05 ◼   ► really, really go try them.

00:54:06 ◼   ► If you really value the grip of your phone,

00:54:09 ◼   ► I'd say just order it blind.

00:54:10 ◼   ► Just get it because it really does make a big difference.

00:54:14 ◼   ► Mine is, of course, already has some minor

00:54:17 ◼   ► micro abrasions on it, but I don't care.

00:54:20 ◼   ► You can only see them in certain lighting.

00:54:21 ◼   ► It's very much like, I would compare it to

00:54:26 ◼   ► clear coat scratches on a black car,

00:54:28 ◼   ► where the black layer itself does not appear to be scratched

00:54:32 ◼   ► but if you move it around in the light

00:54:34 ◼   ► and catch the glare of the light,

00:54:36 ◼   ► you will see a little fine scratches here and there,

00:54:38 ◼   ► mostly around the edges.

00:54:39 ◼   ► And it's fine, I don't care.

00:54:41 ◼   ► It's amazing.

00:54:42 ◼   ► And if this ends up looking like the Millennium Falcon,

00:54:46 ◼   ► cool.

00:54:47 ◼   ► If it ends up just looking like a scratched up

00:54:48 ◼   ► old classic iPod with the steel back,

00:54:50 ◼   ► I don't really care about that either.

00:54:52 ◼   ► As long as it continues to feel anything like it feels,

00:54:54 ◼   ► I couldn't care less how much the back scratched

00:54:56 ◼   ► because it feels so incredibly good.

00:54:59 ◼   ► And if I didn't have it feel that good,

00:55:01 ◼   ► if it was as slippery as the other ones,

00:55:03 ◼   ► I would put some ugly case or vinyl decal over it anyway.

00:55:08 ◼   ► So either way, I'm not seeing the perfectly clear

00:55:10 ◼   ► back of the phone.

00:55:11 ◼   ► I would also point out on the fingerprint issue

00:55:14 ◼   ► that the ones I saw in the store for the matte black model,

00:55:18 ◼   ► it seems that the matte black one is actually pretty bad

00:55:21 ◼   ► about fingerprints too.

00:55:22 ◼   ► The difference is they're harder to wipe off.

00:55:25 ◼   ► The Jet Black has, I've heard from a couple people

00:55:28 ◼   ► who have Apple PR connections that apparently

00:55:29 ◼   ► the Jet Black does have the oleophobic coating

00:55:32 ◼   ► on the whole backside of it.

00:55:34 ◼   ► So it does wipe off easily, just like the screen basically,

00:55:38 ◼   ► if you rub it on your jeans or whatever.

00:55:40 ◼   ► So getting fingerprints off of it is fine

00:55:42 ◼   ► if you actually care.

00:55:42 ◼   ► Honestly, I don't care because I don't look at the back.

00:55:44 ◼   ► But if you're concerned about fingerprints,

00:55:46 ◼   ► the matte black, I would say, is really no better

00:55:50 ◼   ► because the fingerprints show up just as much on it

00:55:53 ◼   ► and they don't come off as easily.

00:55:54 ◼   ► They kind of just dull or smear if you try to wipe them off.

00:55:57 ◼   ► So anyway, that's my thoughts on the case

00:56:01 ◼   ► and the color so far.

00:56:02 ◼   ► The home button I am kind of mixed on.

00:56:05 ◼   ► I don't hate it as much as I thought I would.

00:56:08 ◼   ► I don't love it.

00:56:09 ◼   ► Some people love it, that's fine.

00:56:11 ◼   ► I started out on the setting number one, the weakest.

00:56:13 ◼   ► I have now since moved to setting number three

00:56:16 ◼   ► based on Mike Hurley's urging on upgrade

00:56:19 ◼   ► that that is the one true setting.

00:56:21 ◼   ► That seems okay so far.

00:56:22 ◼   ► It's a little loud for me, honestly, but oh well.

00:56:25 ◼   ► And yeah, that's about it.

00:56:26 ◼   ► So far so good.

00:56:27 ◼   ► I haven't used the headphone jack yet

00:56:29 ◼   ► because I hardly ever use wired headphones.

00:56:30 ◼   ► And that's it.

00:56:32 ◼   ► - I have so many thoughts.

00:56:34 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:56:35 ◼   ► - Before you have your thoughts,

00:56:36 ◼   ► can I ask Marco a quick question?

00:56:37 ◼   ► - Yeah, of course. - About the Jet Black

00:56:38 ◼   ► as a potential purchaser?

00:56:40 ◼   ► Couple people asked you this,

00:56:41 ◼   ► but I didn't see your answer.

00:56:43 ◼   ► What about wetness combined with the surface?

00:56:46 ◼   ► It's very tacky because it's very smooth,

00:56:48 ◼   ► but if your hand is slightly wet,

00:56:49 ◼   ► does it suddenly become a slippery little pill?

00:56:53 ◼   ► - If your hand is just slightly sweaty,

00:56:55 ◼   ► it'll actually be really grippy.

00:56:56 ◼   ► It'll be better that way.

00:56:58 ◼   ► If your hand is soaked,

00:57:00 ◼   ► then I think picking up any phone is gonna be a problem.

00:57:02 ◼   ► - Well, this one is waterproof, that's why I asked,

00:57:04 ◼   ► 'cause it's waterproof, you could use it in the rain,

00:57:06 ◼   ► like in the Apple ads, or you could drop it in the water.

00:57:09 ◼   ► I don't know, it just seems like it's a confluence

00:57:12 ◼   ► of events here, this is the first phone

00:57:13 ◼   ► where you can actually get wet without terror

00:57:16 ◼   ► that you're gonna destroy your phone,

00:57:17 ◼   ► and it also seems like the one

00:57:19 ◼   ► that might be the slipperiest with water.

00:57:20 ◼   ► What I'm asking for you to do is get your phone wet,

00:57:22 ◼   ► Travis. - No, it's not gonna happen.

00:57:23 ◼   ► If your hands are frequently dripping wet,

00:57:26 ◼   ► you just submerged your hands in water,

00:57:28 ◼   ► and then you have to handle your phone.

00:57:30 ◼   ► or the blood of your enemies, you know, whatever.

00:57:31 ◼   ► - Sure, then maybe choose a different one.

00:57:34 ◼   ► But for everyday regular use in most conditions,

00:57:38 ◼   ► the grip of this is incredible.

00:57:40 ◼   ► - I'm gonna have to bring a wet sponge to the Apple Store,

00:57:43 ◼   ► aren't I, 'cause you're not gonna do this, that's for me.

00:57:44 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:57:45 ◼   ► - Honestly, I think it would have to be really wet

00:57:48 ◼   ► to make that, to really tell.

00:57:50 ◼   ► - You've seen all the videos,

00:57:51 ◼   ► people are dropping these things in the water,

00:57:52 ◼   ► taking pictures underwater with them,

00:57:54 ◼   ► like it's gonna get, you know, it potentially can get wet.

00:57:57 ◼   ► I just, you know, 'cause that's the thing,

00:57:58 ◼   ► Like if the grip is entirely based on, you know,

00:58:02 ◼   ► it being super smooth and grippy like that,

00:58:03 ◼   ► if it suddenly becomes very slippery,

00:58:05 ◼   ► that's something I wanna know about.

00:58:06 ◼   ► Not that I plan on using it in the rain,

00:58:08 ◼   ► but it's conceivable that I just wash my hands

00:58:11 ◼   ► and I'm in a hurry and walk into the other room

00:58:12 ◼   ► and grab the thing, and if it squirts out of my hand,

00:58:14 ◼   ► I'm gonna be sad because it may be waterproof,

00:58:16 ◼   ► but it's still not quite drop-proof.

00:58:18 ◼   ► - I think the estimation by, I think it was Jason Snell,

00:58:23 ◼   ► or no, it was Gruber who said this on this week's talk show.

00:58:26 ◼   ► Basically, if you're a person with extremely dry hands

00:58:31 ◼   ► all the time, then maybe you might wanna go feel one

00:58:34 ◼   ► in the store to see if it's gonna be a problem for you.

00:58:36 ◼   ► I don't have that problem.

00:58:37 ◼   ► My hands are always warm and not sweaty,

00:58:41 ◼   ► but slightly moistened, I guess.

00:58:44 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:58:44 ◼   ► Sorry if we're grossing everybody out.

00:58:46 ◼   ► So for me, it's perfect,

00:58:47 ◼   ► because it is really incredibly grippy

00:58:50 ◼   ► if your hands have any normal level of moisture, really.

00:58:54 ◼   ► I think it's only if your hands are extremely dry,

00:58:56 ◼   ► like in the middle of winter,

00:58:57 ◼   ► and you have to cover them in lotion

00:58:59 ◼   ► in order for them not to fall apart,

00:59:01 ◼   ► maybe before you've lotioned for the day,

00:59:02 ◼   ► it might be a bit dry,

00:59:04 ◼   ► or if your hands are literally in water,

00:59:07 ◼   ► then it might be a little more slippery.

00:59:09 ◼   ► But I don't think those are common occurrences

00:59:12 ◼   ► for most people who are gonna be buying it.

00:59:13 ◼   ► - It rubs the lotion on its iPhone.

00:59:16 ◼   ► - Oh, or else it gets the hose again.

00:59:18 ◼   ► - Hey, you got a reference.

00:59:20 ◼   ► Look at you.

00:59:21 ◼   ► - That got aggressive.

00:59:24 ◼   ► Anyway, I put it in link in the show to the seven pounds just to save you guys. Okay. I've never heard the flophouse

00:59:29 ◼   ► I know I know, you know, I heard that you can just jump right in anytime and you'll be fine

00:59:33 ◼   ► I went to the office store today and this was my first time seeing or handling a jet black iPhone. I

00:59:40 ◼   ► Went to buy a

00:59:44 ◼   ► extra headphone adapter too because I know myself enough to know that it's just wise to

00:59:49 ◼   ► sprinkle these little things all over the place rather than rely on myself to

00:59:54 ◼   ► Remember to take it with me when I might need it

00:59:56 ◼   ► So for example Aaron's car we play our iPhones by way of a cassette adapter

01:00:01 ◼   ► Because her car was built like one of the last years that cassettes were sort of a thing

01:00:05 ◼   ► So I'm going to just leave one of these little adapters in her car and the advantage of it being only nine dollars is that?

01:00:11 ◼   ► You know nine dollars is not free, but it is not an exorbitant amount of money

01:00:15 ◼   ► So I just grabbed a couple while I was there. I looked at the jet black iPhone

01:00:19 ◼   ► I picked it up. The first thing I noticed was holy God

01:00:21 ◼   ► I need to dip my hands in Clorox because I've just touched a thousand fingerprints and

01:00:25 ◼   ► That I did not really like I am holding my matte black iPhone in my hand and admittedly at a couple of angles

01:00:34 ◼   ► You can see some fingerprints on it

01:00:36 ◼   ► But generally speaking the only thing I see is all the fingerprints on the Apple logo

01:00:40 ◼   ► Which looks to me to be more of a jet black ask

01:00:43 ◼   ► material slash color I

01:00:47 ◼   ► I did not notice when I was holding the jet black phone,

01:00:50 ◼   ► which I held for a grand total of maybe 15 seconds.

01:00:53 ◼   ► - And probably very gingerly.

01:00:55 ◼   ► - Yeah, I did not notice that it was tackier.

01:00:59 ◼   ► But I can't tell if that means that in my estimation,

01:01:04 ◼   ► Marco was wrong and that it's not tackier

01:01:07 ◼   ► or the fact that it wasn't slippery made nothing registered.

01:01:12 ◼   ► Does that make you know what I mean?

01:01:14 ◼   ► So like, I didn't think to myself,

01:01:15 ◼   ► oh, this is super slippery.

01:01:16 ◼   ► So maybe that means it was tackier.

01:01:18 ◼   ► Now I deeply regret not having thought to like,

01:01:21 ◼   ► examine the two of them side by side.

01:01:23 ◼   ► I was kind of in a rush and I had Declan with me.

01:01:26 ◼   ► And so I didn't want to just stand there for an hour

01:01:29 ◼   ► playing with these things while he's looking at me like,

01:01:31 ◼   ► "Dad, are you serious right now?"

01:01:32 ◼   ► But I'd like to go back and try it again.

01:01:36 ◼   ► But I do not see a lot of fingerprints on my Jet Black 1.

01:01:39 ◼   ► And having seen, excuse me, on my Map Black 1,

01:01:42 ◼   ► And having seen the Jet Black 1 in the store, to my eyes, I actually think the matte black

01:01:48 ◼   ► looks better.

01:01:49 ◼   ► Hand on heart, I really do.

01:01:50 ◼   ► And I was scared to look at the Jet Black 1 because I expected to think to myself, "Oh,

01:01:54 ◼   ► God, I've made a terrible mistake."

01:01:57 ◼   ► But I really think the matte black looks better.

01:01:59 ◼   ► And it's what it occurred to me just a day or so ago.

01:02:02 ◼   ► I think what this is, is my unbelievable unbridled love for the black book, the black polycarbonate

01:02:10 ◼   ► MacBook from years ago.

01:02:11 ◼   ► I wanted one of those so hard and it was like 70 or 150 bucks more than the equivalent white

01:02:17 ◼   ► one.

01:02:18 ◼   ► And so I didn't do it when I bought my initial Mac.

01:02:20 ◼   ► And I missed having the black MacBook.

01:02:25 ◼   ► I thought it looked so good.

01:02:26 ◼   ► And this to me is the black book of iPhones.

01:02:30 ◼   ► And I just love the look of it.

01:02:31 ◼   ► And that doesn't make Marco wrong.

01:02:33 ◼   ► But I love the look of this matte black one, which I know Jon is not helping you because

01:02:37 ◼   ► I know Marco was really effusive about his jet flag.

01:02:39 ◼   ► I'm really effusive about this one.

01:02:41 ◼   ► I think this one looks so much better

01:02:43 ◼   ► than the jet black to my eyes.

01:02:45 ◼   ► I definitely feel for me, I made the right choice.

01:02:48 ◼   ► - Well, and I think we largely agree

01:02:51 ◼   ► on the relative benefits of them.

01:02:54 ◼   ► The question is just priorities, really.

01:02:56 ◼   ► It's like, what gives you more joy,

01:02:59 ◼   ► or what is more functional to you

01:03:01 ◼   ► when you're choosing your phone's color and finish, basically?

01:03:05 ◼   ► Normally, we don't even have these kind of choices

01:03:07 ◼   ► that make any difference at all.

01:03:08 ◼   ► This time, we actually do have a choice.

01:03:10 ◼   ► So basically the question is like,

01:03:12 ◼   ► would you want one that looks kind of fingerprinty

01:03:15 ◼   ► a lot of the time and is gonna be scratched up pretty fast

01:03:18 ◼   ► but feels this particular way?

01:03:20 ◼   ► Or would you want one that, you know,

01:03:23 ◼   ► like the one you have, the matte black one,

01:03:24 ◼   ► that looks more consistent over time?

01:03:28 ◼   ► And generally, you know, a lot of people

01:03:30 ◼   ► really do find it very attractive.

01:03:31 ◼   ► I find, honestly, I find the black one

01:03:33 ◼   ► a little bit boring and a little bit dated looking

01:03:35 ◼   ► because like for years, so much nerd stuff

01:03:37 ◼   ► had just been available in black

01:03:39 ◼   ► And I know not necessarily iPhones,

01:03:41 ◼   ► but it's personal preference, I guess.

01:03:46 ◼   ► I find it kind of boring looking to be just flat black.

01:03:50 ◼   ► And honestly, the jet black one,

01:03:53 ◼   ► it just so happens that I like the way it looks,

01:03:55 ◼   ► but I really don't care how it looks

01:03:57 ◼   ► because it feels so good.

01:03:59 ◼   ► That's why I'm willing to ignore the scratches.

01:04:00 ◼   ► So basically it comes down to, John,

01:04:03 ◼   ► first of all, with your type of hand,

01:04:05 ◼   ► do you find it a lot grippier?

01:04:07 ◼   ► Do you care?

01:04:09 ◼   ► And then if the answer to those things are yes,

01:04:11 ◼   ► then basically, which do you prefer?

01:04:13 ◼   ► Having a phone that you love the way it looks

01:04:16 ◼   ► or having a phone that feels this particular way?

01:04:18 ◼   ► - Well, the other thing that's in the mix for me is cases

01:04:20 ◼   ► because I always had cases on my iPod Touches

01:04:24 ◼   ► and I have a case on my first iPhone.

01:04:27 ◼   ► And the Jet Black, because my first iPhone was a six,

01:04:29 ◼   ► which as we all know is way too slippery.

01:04:31 ◼   ► With the Jet Black, the question for me is,

01:04:35 ◼   ► can I go caseless?

01:04:36 ◼   ► Can I, if this is grippy enough,

01:04:38 ◼   ► can I go caseless with it?

01:04:39 ◼   ► And for me, the equation is, all right,

01:04:41 ◼   ► so if I decide that it's grippy enough to go caseless,

01:04:44 ◼   ► can I tolerate then the disaster

01:04:47 ◼   ► that will be in the back of that phone from the scratches?

01:04:49 ◼   ► And I have to sort of get to Marco's place

01:04:50 ◼   ► where it's like, look, just who cares how it looks?

01:04:52 ◼   ► Or I gotta believe it's gonna look good

01:04:54 ◼   ► when it's all scratched up.

01:04:55 ◼   ► So far, all the pictures that I've seen on Twitter

01:04:57 ◼   ► of scratched up ones do not look good to me.

01:04:59 ◼   ► And I would just have to sort of resign myself to say,

01:05:01 ◼   ► well, you know, just don't worry about it.

01:05:02 ◼   ► Like in exchange, you're getting a smaller, lighter phone

01:05:05 ◼   ► because you don't have a case on it or whatever.

01:05:08 ◼   ► But on the other side of this is,

01:05:09 ◼   ► if I go to the store and it's like a toss up

01:05:12 ◼   ► or I can't quite decide or whatever,

01:05:15 ◼   ► but I decide that like the jet black is grippy as it may be,

01:05:18 ◼   ► is not as grippy as like my leather case or whatever,

01:05:20 ◼   ► I just decided like the leather one for whatever,

01:05:23 ◼   ► I may I'm getting a jet black one

01:05:25 ◼   ► just so I can ensconce it in leather and preserve it

01:05:28 ◼   ► so it actually is perfect

01:05:29 ◼   ► because it's never actually seen the light of day

01:05:31 ◼   ► because from the day,

01:05:31 ◼   ► the second I took it out of the box, I put a case on it.

01:05:34 ◼   ► And so that it will be perfect under there

01:05:36 ◼   ► and I could see the perfectness peeking out on the bottom

01:05:38 ◼   ► or the speakers are and just know in my heart of hearts

01:05:40 ◼   ► that there is an unblemished perfect jet plaque

01:05:43 ◼   ► back on this thing.

01:05:44 ◼   ► So that's a factor.

01:05:45 ◼   ► And then the final factor is,

01:05:45 ◼   ► first of all, it won't by the way.

01:05:47 ◼   ► Yeah, I really like matte black.

01:05:48 ◼   ► Yeah, that's the question.

01:05:49 ◼   ► You get a little piece of grit in there,

01:05:50 ◼   ► but I'll try really hard.

01:05:52 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:05:53 ◼   ► The matte black I really like,

01:05:54 ◼   ► as I was thinking the same thing,

01:05:56 ◼   ► like the main function of this matte black

01:05:57 ◼   ► is just to make us all wish

01:05:58 ◼   ► that Apple had had this technology

01:05:59 ◼   ► because the black book did not stay pristine

01:06:01 ◼   ► because it was made of plastic

01:06:02 ◼   ► and it wasn't, you know, didn't hold up

01:06:04 ◼   ► and showed fingerprints like crazy.

01:06:07 ◼   ► - I mean, you're saying the matte black one does too,

01:06:08 ◼   ► but I see the pictures of the matte black,

01:06:10 ◼   ► and it's a look that I like.

01:06:11 ◼   ► If jet black didn't exist, I'd be like,

01:06:12 ◼   ► "Boy, that matte black, isn't that great, guys?

01:06:14 ◼   ► "No more space gray, like matte black."

01:06:16 ◼   ► I like the matte black.

01:06:18 ◼   ► - No, no, I'm talking about the black book,

01:06:20 ◼   ► the black plastic matte,

01:06:21 ◼   ► 'cause that showed fingerprints like crazy.

01:06:23 ◼   ► - But you're saying the matte black phone

01:06:24 ◼   ► in the store also showed fingerprints.

01:06:26 ◼   ► - Not as much as the jet black, obviously,

01:06:27 ◼   ► but I'm saying it shows way more fingerprints

01:06:30 ◼   ► than the old space gray ones.

01:06:31 ◼   ► - Yeah, so, I mean, but mine have always been a case.

01:06:34 ◼   ► So anyway, I've got some research to do

01:06:36 ◼   ► and I gotta go to the store.

01:06:37 ◼   ► The other thing I was thinking about,

01:06:38 ◼   ► two things on this topic.

01:06:39 ◼   ► One, the jet black finish with it being grippier

01:06:42 ◼   ► and everything, they can make that in colors.

01:06:45 ◼   ► They could, you know, you can imagine

01:06:47 ◼   ► if they keep this finish, right?

01:06:49 ◼   ► If this becomes sort of like a signature finish of iPhones,

01:06:51 ◼   ► maybe the super duper cool glass one,

01:06:54 ◼   ► the back of all of them are that super glossy,

01:06:56 ◼   ► highly polished aluminum.

01:06:58 ◼   ► It just so happens they don't all come in black.

01:07:00 ◼   ► Can you imagine, you know, life savers colors

01:07:03 ◼   ► like the old iMacs, but with this super glossy thing.

01:07:05 ◼   ► And by the way, this is a neat thing

01:07:06 ◼   ► that we left out of the show last time.

01:07:08 ◼   ► Someone had noticed that the, what is it,

01:07:09 ◼   ► like the wallpapers they give you

01:07:11 ◼   ► with this weird blob of gel exactly matches the color

01:07:14 ◼   ► of some of the Lifesaver iMacs plus the original one,

01:07:17 ◼   ► which I thought was neat.

01:07:18 ◼   ► But I can imagine this finish,

01:07:21 ◼   ► if it ends up being successful,

01:07:22 ◼   ► being a signature of the iPhone going forward.

01:07:24 ◼   ► But as I said to Marco on Twitter today

01:07:26 ◼   ► when he was talking about what are the things

01:07:27 ◼   ► that we're gonna look back on about the iPhone 7

01:07:30 ◼   ► and think those didn't quite work out

01:07:32 ◼   ► those complaints were legit and he was saying the home button and a few other things. My

01:07:35 ◼   ► suggestion was that probably the finish on the back of the iPhone 7 will not be an ongoing

01:07:42 ◼   ► thing. Not the aesthetic look, but I feel like if they're going to make another version

01:07:46 ◼   ► of that finish, if they decide to do that, they'll work a little bit harder on the scratch

01:07:49 ◼   ► thing, right? Like that I feel like this is not where they wanted it to get. They love

01:07:52 ◼   ► how it looks, they had to put in a little warning about scratching. If they have the

01:07:55 ◼   ► technology to say, like the 6s being slightly less slippery than the 6, they could say,

01:08:00 ◼   ► "Oh, it's got the same awesome finish that you love from the 7, but now it is more scratch resistant."

01:08:04 ◼   ► Not perfect, you know, it's not going to be like the stainless steel DLC thing because that apparently is not a process that you can do aluminum

01:08:09 ◼   ► and they're not going to make it out of steel because the foam will weigh a ton.

01:08:12 ◼   ► But I can imagine this shiny glossy finish being a thing because it looks cool, right?

01:08:19 ◼   ► And if you could make it less scratchy, that would be cool.

01:08:22 ◼   ► And if you could do it in different colors, that would also be cool.

01:08:25 ◼   ► I see potentially a future in that or this would just be like a one-off thing where this was the glossy black one and they

01:08:30 ◼   ► Go on to whatever they've already had in mind for the age

01:08:32 ◼   ► But anyway, I'm not any closer to decision gotta see these things in person

01:08:35 ◼   ► And hopefully by the time I get all the weird bugs with like the headphone connectors and everything will all be worked out

01:08:40 ◼   ► So thanks for dealing with that guys. They'll also have the the option for reduced motion and messages

01:08:46 ◼   ► All right, so just a couple of minor follow-ups to what you just said first of all

01:08:54 ◼   ► Your potential option of buy the jet black anyway

01:08:58 ◼   ► and just put it in a case and keep it pristine forever,

01:09:00 ◼   ► it won't actually work.

01:09:01 ◼   ► 'Cause first of all, as you mentioned,

01:09:02 ◼   ► yeah, a little piece of grit might get back there

01:09:04 ◼   ► or whatever and scratch it.

01:09:05 ◼   ► - I'm really careful.

01:09:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, so am I.

01:09:08 ◼   ► And I've had this phone for two days

01:09:09 ◼   ► and it's already scratches on it.

01:09:11 ◼   ► - It wasn't in a case, it was never in a case.

01:09:13 ◼   ► - And some of them are along the bottom edge

01:09:15 ◼   ► where the speakers turn into the back.

01:09:17 ◼   ► - I know, I said the speaker,

01:09:18 ◼   ► that I said the speaker grill would be poking out,

01:09:20 ◼   ► I understood that would be exposed.

01:09:22 ◼   ► - So yeah, I mean, it's just like,

01:09:23 ◼   ► just handling this, having it in a pocket with lint in it.

01:09:26 ◼   ► I mean, this thing, like, I am very careful with my stuff.

01:09:30 ◼   ► Most of my electronics that I own and use,

01:09:33 ◼   ► after I'm done using them, look brand new.

01:09:35 ◼   ► They look totally unused,

01:09:37 ◼   ► they have no wear on them whatsoever.

01:09:39 ◼   ► This phone I've had for two days

01:09:40 ◼   ► and it already has scratched.

01:09:41 ◼   ► So I will say, if you are the kind of person who thinks,

01:09:44 ◼   ► you know what, I can get a Jet Black

01:09:45 ◼   ► and just be really careful with it,

01:09:46 ◼   ► no, that's not going to happen.

01:09:48 ◼   ► So you have, really, you have to be okay with it scratching

01:09:51 ◼   ► if you're going to get it.

01:09:53 ◼   ► And if, like me, if you are so enamored by the feel of it

01:09:58 ◼   ► that you don't care, then it might be right for you.

01:10:02 ◼   ► And I also would say, I do think that you are probably right

01:10:05 ◼   ► this is probably gonna be a one-off.

01:10:07 ◼   ► I don't expect this color to return in future years

01:10:10 ◼   ► simply because I think it is probably very expensive

01:10:14 ◼   ► and more complex for them to do.

01:10:16 ◼   ► And also I think the way it ages

01:10:20 ◼   ► is not going to be received well.

01:10:21 ◼   ► I think people are gonna look back on it

01:10:22 ◼   ► kind of like the scratchy iPod Nanos

01:10:24 ◼   ► and old classic iPod with the steel backs as like--

01:10:27 ◼   ► - It won't be that bad

01:10:28 ◼   ► 'cause the scratchy iPod Nano was on the front.

01:10:29 ◼   ► - That's true.

01:10:30 ◼   ► - So that was a problem.

01:10:31 ◼   ► But like, even if they can improve it,

01:10:34 ◼   ► 'cause that's the wild card, like I said,

01:10:35 ◼   ► like I really don't feel like they're gonna do

01:10:37 ◼   ► this exact back again,

01:10:38 ◼   ► but this aesthetic I think has legs, right?

01:10:40 ◼   ► And so if they can improve the process somehow,

01:10:43 ◼   ► like come up with some super hard clear coat

01:10:45 ◼   ► that resists scratching and doesn't look like a disaster.

01:10:48 ◼   ► - Like ceramic.

01:10:49 ◼   ► - I think aesthetically, it would be really nice.

01:10:52 ◼   ► I mean, obviously it's probably also expensive

01:10:54 ◼   ► and you know, so and so.

01:10:54 ◼   ► But can you imagine, like, if they had like,

01:10:56 ◼   ► bright candy colors under that kind of gloss,

01:10:59 ◼   ► that's a good looking phone.

01:11:00 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, I would even say like, a white one.

01:11:02 ◼   ► - What?

01:11:03 ◼   ► Let's not go crazy.

01:11:04 ◼   ► White on the back and black on the front.

01:11:06 ◼   ► There we go.

01:11:07 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Exactly.

01:11:08 ◼   ► - Business in front, party in the back.

01:11:09 ◼   ► - Oh my gosh.

01:11:10 ◼   ► - If they had, if they had like a white glossy finish,

01:11:13 ◼   ► I don't know much about,

01:11:14 ◼   ► I don't know anything about this process.

01:11:16 ◼   ► I don't know whether it's possible to do it

01:11:17 ◼   ► in different colors or whether this can only be done

01:11:20 ◼   ► in black because of some component that's used in it.

01:11:22 ◼   ► But if it could be done,

01:11:23 ◼   ► if the same finish could be done in white,

01:11:26 ◼   ► I bet the scratches would be very hard to see.

01:11:29 ◼   ► - So you heard it here first, kids.

01:11:30 ◼   ► John Sirkusa would like a mullet foam.

01:11:33 ◼   ► - Would like, I was just identifying

01:11:35 ◼   ► as the thing that could be made.

01:11:36 ◼   ► - I'm just messing around.

01:11:38 ◼   ► The home button, #mikewaswrong.

01:11:41 ◼   ► The correct setting is the middle setting.

01:11:44 ◼   ► Additionally, I hated, hated this home button

01:11:49 ◼   ► for six hours and now I freaking love it.

01:11:52 ◼   ► I don't know why I love it,

01:11:56 ◼   ► to be completely honest with you,

01:11:58 ◼   ► but it just feels so much more crisp

01:12:01 ◼   ► than the home button on my iPad or even my 6S,

01:12:05 ◼   ► which I still have for at least a little while.

01:12:07 ◼   ► I grab the iPad or if I just pick up the 6S

01:12:11 ◼   ► for whatever reason,

01:12:12 ◼   ► those feel just positively mushy by comparison.

01:12:17 ◼   ► I don't care for it all at all. I feel like

01:12:20 ◼   ► like double

01:12:23 ◼   ► Clicking for lack of a better word the home button to bring up multitasking. I feel like I can do it quicker and it's

01:12:29 ◼   ► more reliable on

01:12:31 ◼   ► the new phone I have

01:12:33 ◼   ► Guided access enabled so if I

01:12:37 ◼   ► Really need a break for a minute if Declan's in the car or something like that because he hates the car

01:12:44 ◼   ► And I want to give him like Plex to look at and look at Daniel Tiger or Sesame Street or what have you I've got

01:12:49 ◼   ► It access ready and waiting to be enabled so he doesn't you know and navigate away from the app

01:12:55 ◼   ► I want him to use so a triple tap oftentimes or a triple click. I would oftentimes fire that accidentally

01:13:01 ◼   ► No, maybe not often, but definitely regularly fire a triple

01:13:06 ◼   ► Click by accident with physical home buttons. I've yet to do that on this one

01:13:11 ◼   ► And you know what as stupid as it sounds and I'll be the first to say it's stupid

01:13:14 ◼   ► I just kind of like being on the home screen and mashing away at this home button and feeling the taptic engine

01:13:19 ◼   ► I really think it feels better and crisper. You got an $850 fidget cube. I do it's great

01:13:26 ◼   ► I love this thing

01:13:28 ◼   ► Click in your pen caps and uh, yep your home button. Yep. That's right. No, I really do love this thing

01:13:33 ◼   ► I think one is too gentle. I think three is just overbearing. I think two is just right

01:13:39 ◼   ► It was weird at first because it is very

01:13:42 ◼   ► clearly not the same feel as

01:13:46 ◼   ► A physical button as many people have said particularly those who had review units

01:13:51 ◼   ► It's not the same as the trackpad which despite what Marco believes does feel like an actual click it is

01:13:56 ◼   ► You cannot discern the difference unless your mark. Oh, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait

01:14:01 ◼   ► I never said the fourth trackpad doesn't feel like a click

01:14:04 ◼   ► I said it feels like a bad button and the old one was a good button and you can totally tell and you can totally

01:14:08 ◼   ► totally tell the difference. Don't tell me you can't tell.

01:14:10 ◼   ► Yeah, it's a pretty apparent difference.

01:14:12 ◼   ► The force touch might be good enough

01:14:14 ◼   ► for lots of people, but that doesn't mean

01:14:16 ◼   ► it's not worse. It's definitely much

01:14:18 ◼   ► more convincing than the reports say, because

01:14:20 ◼   ► like you said last time, if you didn't tell

01:14:22 ◼   ► someone, especially someone who's not Marco,

01:14:24 ◼   ► this wasn't a button, they wouldn't figure it

01:14:26 ◼   ► out, but once you tell them, they're like, "Oh yeah, I can see that."

01:14:28 ◼   ► And like I said, the trackpad

01:14:30 ◼   ► does move. I wonder if the home button moves.

01:14:32 ◼   ► Has anyone gone in macro on that and seen does the home button

01:14:34 ◼   ► move? Because the trackpad moves just because it's a big thing

01:14:36 ◼   ► and it flexes, but I wonder if the home button moves at all.

01:14:38 ◼   ► - I don't think it does.

01:14:40 ◼   ► - And I will say too, I actually find

01:14:42 ◼   ► the Force Touch home button on the 7 less crappy

01:14:46 ◼   ► than the Force Touch track pads.

01:14:48 ◼   ► I actually, I think, given, give me another couple days,

01:14:52 ◼   ► I'll probably even like this.

01:14:54 ◼   ► However, I've been using a Force Touch Magic Track Pad

01:14:56 ◼   ► for a while now and I still don't like its click.

01:14:59 ◼   ► The Force Touch on the track pads, I think, stays mediocre.

01:15:02 ◼   ► But the one on the phone, I think,

01:15:04 ◼   ► you can use it pretty fast.

01:15:05 ◼   ► I just I really don't mind and in fact like the track there but be that as it may

01:15:09 ◼   ► Really like the home button setting number two is the right setting the best way to describe it

01:15:14 ◼   ► Which I'm stealing from either panzerino or snell or somebody is that it feels like the whole bottom of the phone not that it's

01:15:21 ◼   ► being depressed but it's the whole bottom of the phone that's reacting and that's very unnatural as

01:15:28 ◼   ► Compared to a physical button and that's why I think I hated it so much at first

01:15:32 ◼   ► Because it's as though the whole bottom of the phone

01:15:35 ◼   ► is

01:15:36 ◼   ► Not really depressing but like I said a second ago reacting

01:15:39 ◼   ► But I've come to really like it and it's it almost feels more obvious even at setting to that

01:15:47 ◼   ► Yes, I have engaged the home button

01:15:49 ◼   ► So I freaking love this thing the one downside that I found which I almost never run into but it is

01:15:56 ◼   ► striking the difference is if you have the phone sitting on say a table or something like that and then press the home button is

01:16:04 ◼   ► it feels very, very weird.

01:16:08 ◼   ► Either you don't feel it at all, or...

01:16:10 ◼   ► This is particularly on like a hard surface.

01:16:13 ◼   ► So like, I have a glass desk, so putting it on my mouse pad,

01:16:17 ◼   ► which I have to use like an animal,

01:16:18 ◼   ► that feels about the same, but on the glass,

01:16:21 ◼   ► you can barely feel the darn thing moving at all.

01:16:23 ◼   ► - Ooh, that sucks. - Which is super, super weird.

01:16:26 ◼   ► And I don't care for that at all,

01:16:28 ◼   ► but it's so rare that I have the thing sitting

01:16:30 ◼   ► on a flat surface like that and pressing the home button

01:16:33 ◼   ► that that doesn't really bother me.

01:16:35 ◼   ► But that is something worth noting.

01:16:37 ◼   ► And as a friend of the show, Mike Hurley, had also noted, the ring that kind of enables

01:16:43 ◼   ► Touch ID is the same thing that enables listening, for lack of a better word, that you're pressing

01:16:48 ◼   ► the home button.

01:16:49 ◼   ► So if you don't have the right kind of capacitive gloves, or if you like put your shirt between

01:16:54 ◼   ► your thumb and the home button, you can no longer tap or press the home button, which

01:16:59 ◼   ► to me isn't a problem at all, but it is very peculiar,

01:17:02 ◼   ► and it makes you realize that this is all just

01:17:04 ◼   ► software and hardware trickery.

01:17:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, I actually hit this, like, in the,

01:17:08 ◼   ► like I have next to my bed, I have an iPhone dock,

01:17:11 ◼   ► and I've gotten in the habit of, like,

01:17:12 ◼   ► when I wake up in the morning to check the time,

01:17:14 ◼   ► I will just, like, kinda push my pinky

01:17:16 ◼   ► into the home button to just make sure

01:17:17 ◼   ► it doesn't unlock the whole phone and everything,

01:17:18 ◼   ► I just wanna see the clock on the phone.

01:17:20 ◼   ► And so, now I kinda can't, it doesn't work very well anymore

01:17:24 ◼   ► because I've gotten in the habit of only pushing

01:17:26 ◼   ► this little tiny bit of the home button with my pinky,

01:17:28 ◼   ► and you kinda have to activate that touch ID ring

01:17:31 ◼   ► to make it work at all now.

01:17:33 ◼   ► - If you had a mechanical clock back next to your bed,

01:17:35 ◼   ► as soon as you looked over it would tell you the time.

01:17:37 ◼   ► - No, but it wouldn't be lit up.

01:17:39 ◼   ► Whereas the Apple Watch,

01:17:40 ◼   ► when it's close to the time you're supposed to wake up,

01:17:42 ◼   ► automatically lights up for you.

01:17:43 ◼   ► It's the future.

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01:20:01 ◼   ► (upbeat music)

01:20:03 ◼   ► - Speakers, the speakers on the new phones

01:20:07 ◼   ► are indeed louder.

01:20:09 ◼   ► They are in stereo, which I haven't watched very much

01:20:12 ◼   ► on my new phone in terms of like video or what have you,

01:20:15 ◼   ► but I have had it playing some podcasts from time to time.

01:20:19 ◼   ► And oh man, these speakers are so much louder

01:20:21 ◼   ► and I love it.

01:20:23 ◼   ► Have you used yours much, Marco?

01:20:25 ◼   ► - Not a ton, but I have used them

01:20:28 ◼   ► and tested them here and there,

01:20:28 ◼   ► and yeah, it's better.

01:20:29 ◼   ► I wouldn't say it's twice as loud perceptually,

01:20:36 ◼   ► and maybe in certain conditions it might be,

01:20:38 ◼   ► that their claim of it being twice as loud

01:20:41 ◼   ► might have been a decibel level measurement,

01:20:43 ◼   ► where it can be funky.

01:20:46 ◼   ► But anyway, it is definitely noticeably louder

01:20:49 ◼   ► and of better quality, and that's what's important.

01:20:51 ◼   ► I'm pleasantly surprised that I thought,

01:20:55 ◼   ► because the speaker, there isn't one

01:20:57 ◼   ► that fires out the top edge,

01:20:59 ◼   ► it's just the earpiece that speaks during phone calls.

01:21:03 ◼   ► That thing is now just loud enough to be a speaker.

01:21:06 ◼   ► And so you have that one firing straight ahead,

01:21:10 ◼   ► and then you have the one on the bottom

01:21:11 ◼   ► where it's always been firing kind of down,

01:21:13 ◼   ► like away from the phone.

01:21:15 ◼   ► So these are firing at two different angles.

01:21:18 ◼   ► And so I thought it would sound weird,

01:21:20 ◼   ► But it doesn't really.

01:21:21 ◼   ► It just sounds like the whole phone is making

01:21:25 ◼   ► one loud sound output, which is exactly what you want.

01:21:29 ◼   ► So I'm actually very pleasantly surprised by it.

01:21:31 ◼   ► I expected it to be useful from a utility point of view

01:21:35 ◼   ► of just getting more sound out of the phone,

01:21:38 ◼   ► but it actually is better quality than I expected.

01:21:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, completely agree.

01:21:43 ◼   ► Two thumbs up.

01:21:44 ◼   ► The AirPods, obviously none of us have them yet.

01:21:48 ◼   ► When they were first announced, I thought, "Eh, that's clever. Looks cool, but eh."

01:21:54 ◼   ► But a few different things have happened over the last few days that have made me think,

01:21:59 ◼   ► "You know, I think I do want those," very much in the watch style.

01:22:03 ◼   ► First of all, I've been using the Lightning Earbuds from time to time,

01:22:08 ◼   ► and I really think that having the cables come off of them really does pull on them enough to

01:22:17 ◼   ► try to pull them out of my ears. And I really think not having the weight of the cables

01:22:21 ◼   ► would make a huge difference. Additionally, there's been a handful of times that I've,

01:22:26 ◼   ► or even perhaps most of the time, I've only had one of the earbuds in because I want to

01:22:31 ◼   ► be able to hear Declan or, you know, maybe I'm, uh, he's asleep and Aaron's out and I

01:22:36 ◼   ► just need to make sure that I can hear the monitor or what have you. For whatever reason,

01:22:40 ◼   ► I've only had one in and not having the the phone or perhaps it's the earbuds whatever

01:22:47 ◼   ► Force mono when only one of them is in I can't say I've noticed it but I can just think to myself man

01:22:54 ◼   ► It would be nice if I knew that everything that I could hear I was hearing through just one of the air pods

01:22:59 ◼   ► and additionally

01:23:00 ◼   ► there's been a handful of times when I'll like go with go for a walk with Declan where

01:23:03 ◼   ► It would be kind of nice to be able to just not have wires or maybe even leave my phone at home

01:23:09 ◼   ► and just use my watch and have these things

01:23:12 ◼   ► just magically transfer from the phone to the watch

01:23:15 ◼   ► would be really nice.

01:23:16 ◼   ► So at first I thought, yeah, I don't want any interest,

01:23:19 ◼   ► I don't really have any interest in the AirPods,

01:23:21 ◼   ► but within just a few days I've convinced myself

01:23:23 ◼   ► that's going on the Christmas and Hanukkah list this year.

01:23:26 ◼   ► - Even if the sound quality ends up being

01:23:29 ◼   ► not meaningfully better than the regular AirPods,

01:23:33 ◼   ► the wired ones, which means not very good,

01:23:35 ◼   ► I think a lot of people are going to buy

01:23:37 ◼   ► and use these things and like them

01:23:39 ◼   ► just for the utility factor.

01:23:41 ◼   ► I mean, that's the thing with Bluetooth audio.

01:23:42 ◼   ► Like, in many ways, as we've discussed,

01:23:45 ◼   ► in many ways, Bluetooth headphones are worse

01:23:48 ◼   ► than wired headphones, or at least more complicated

01:23:50 ◼   ► at best, but it really is a lot more convenient

01:23:53 ◼   ► in a number of big ways in practice,

01:23:56 ◼   ► and that's why my walking headphones

01:23:59 ◼   ► are these terrible sounding little, tiny,

01:24:02 ◼   ► relatively inexpensive Sennheiser Bluetooth ones,

01:24:04 ◼   ► because I'm listening to podcasts,

01:24:06 ◼   ► so the quality doesn't matter very much,

01:24:07 ◼   ► and it's just so much more convenient

01:24:10 ◼   ► with Bluetooth headphones that have no wire

01:24:13 ◼   ► and have nice big button controls on the ear cup.

01:24:16 ◼   ► And so I think people are gonna feel similarly

01:24:18 ◼   ► about the AirPods, where if you really want big,

01:24:21 ◼   ► thumpin' bass and everything for music,

01:24:23 ◼   ► you're probably gonna go with Beats

01:24:25 ◼   ► or some other headphone that's more for that purpose

01:24:28 ◼   ► and tuned for that, but if you just want

01:24:30 ◼   ► like basically headphones as a utilitarian object

01:24:35 ◼   ► that are primarily serving a functional role for you

01:24:39 ◼   ► and you don't really care as much about the quality,

01:24:42 ◼   ► then I think they're gonna be really great.

01:24:43 ◼   ► Again, my only reservation about them is

01:24:45 ◼   ► how inconvenient will it really be in practice

01:24:48 ◼   ► to not have a lot of remote control options,

01:24:51 ◼   ► to not have the volume control,

01:24:52 ◼   ► to not have the seek buttons.

01:24:54 ◼   ► And in practice, I think most people won't care

01:24:58 ◼   ► because most people could only ever use

01:25:01 ◼   ► the volume control in Play/Pause.

01:25:03 ◼   ► Most people never even knew

01:25:05 ◼   ► that you could double click or triple click

01:25:07 ◼   ► or click and hold that middle button to do other things,

01:25:10 ◼   ► like the seeking and stuff.

01:25:11 ◼   ► So that might end up not mattering at all

01:25:15 ◼   ► to most buyers of it, but to geeks like us,

01:25:17 ◼   ► I think people who were aware

01:25:19 ◼   ► of the remote control gestures,

01:25:20 ◼   ► I think it's gonna be a notable omission.

01:25:22 ◼   ► But otherwise, they do seem like

01:25:23 ◼   ► they're gonna be pretty compelling.

01:25:25 ◼   ► And I might get a pair, just as I said,

01:25:26 ◼   ► just to see can I get away with this,