0:00:00[Music]
0:00:10From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, and of course these are the Upgradey Awards for 2019.
0:00:16Today's show is brought to you by PDF-Pen from SMILE, Linode, Kensington, and Ethos.
0:00:22We'll be talking about our sponsors of this fine prestigious awards event as we go through the proceedings of the evening.
0:00:28My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by my co-chair in the Upgradey's Award Committee, Mr. Jason Snell. Hi, Jason Snell.
0:00:36Does that mean we have to like share a single chair? Is that how that works?
0:00:40One very big chair. It's like a love seat.
0:00:42Okay, that's good. That's good. It's the sixth, Myke, sixth annual Upgradey's. How about that?
0:00:48I'm pleased you said that because I can't.
0:00:49Very quickly before we begin, thank you to everybody for the kind words about our last episode.
0:00:53I'm really pleased that people enjoyed the holiday special as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
0:00:58Both me and Jason worked very hard on that one, I think, and I'm really pleased that people liked it because you're never sure how people are going to react, right?
0:01:05Yeah, I didn't know because it's like it starts out and it's kind of real, but then it becomes ludicrous as it goes and that's great.
0:01:14Also, my condolences to the people who thought, "Oh, I much prefer this format. I'm glad that Upgradey is now just going to be serial every week," because it's not.
0:01:24But thank you.
0:01:25Who knows? Maybe in the future. We'll see.
0:01:27I definitely know it's not going to be the case, but who knows? Maybe there'll be another one. We'll see.
0:01:31But these are the Upgradey Awards. Let me explain to you some of the proceedings that we have going on today.
0:01:37This is our sixth year in a row that we are doing the Upgradey's, which is a wonderful thing to think about and I'm very excited that we're here today because I enjoy the Upgradey's immensely.
0:01:48If you want to see both the information about all of the previous winners and runner-ups in every category and links to the winners and runner-ups of this year's Upgradey's, go to Upgradey's.com. There'll be a link in the show notes for that.
0:02:03We'll not be putting anything else in the show notes to avoid category spoilers.
0:02:07Spoilers. Oh, yes. Yes. You wouldn't want to spoil your own podcast. That would be terrible.
0:02:11Be wild. We will just at this point mention that there are two award winners that are in the Hall of Fame, both the Accidental Tech Podcast as the favorite tech podcast and the Flop House as the favorite non-tech podcast.
0:02:26When an individual or company or podcast wins three total Upgradey's, they are put into the Hall of Fame so they can no longer win in that category.
0:02:37This is to stop certain shows or items winning every single year forever.
0:02:42And to help us with that, we now have been for the last few years opening up the Upgradey Awards to you, the Upgradients, so we can have more variety in our voting.
0:02:54This was to stop, for example, there were certain categories that either me or Jason couldn't pick a different winner in, which keep picking the same thing all the time, or couldn't come up with many nominations for.
0:03:03And there'll be some of those throughout the night where both me or Jason cannot think of something that we particularly would want to award because of reasons that we'll get to.
0:03:12This is the third time that we've been taking nominations from the Upgradients and Jason, over 1,500 Upgradients responded this year, which is more than double last year, which is incredible.
0:03:25So thank you to everybody that put their nominations in. I worked on this for many hours over the holiday break to bring together all of those nominations into some charts and then we could bring out some percentages.
0:03:37So as we go through, we'll be doing a few things in every category.
0:03:41So for each category, both me and Jason make a nomination and we look at the top three winners as denoted from the Upgradients votes.
0:03:49We then use all of this information to discuss and choose a winner together.
0:03:54You get to hear the discussions that are usually kind of held behind closed doors of award ceremony panels.
0:04:00And just like if you listen to this show live and you see voting in the chat room where we'd vote for the titles of every episode, this is not a democracy around here.
0:04:08We choose the winner based on what we think is right as opposed to necessarily what received the most votes.
0:04:16So I guess without further ado, Jason, should we get into our very first category of the evening?
0:04:20I think so. I did want to mention the Hall of Fame.
0:04:23You went past that and dangled out there that if you get an upgrade three times, you're inducted into the Hall of Fame so we can stop picking you.
0:04:30There are a few selections that could potentially be made this time that would put things in the Hall of Fame.
0:04:38So it's very exciting because we don't know what's going to happen.
0:04:41We have our choices, but we have to work it all out here.
0:04:45That's happening live on the podcast.
0:04:48But it's possible we could have some Hall of Fame inductees today, which is exciting too.
0:04:53Although I do feel like it's basically a punishment for us for stop picking that.
0:04:58We know you like it. Stop picking it.
0:04:59Which I think is good.
0:05:00Yeah.
0:05:01The Hall of Fame, by the way, if you want to find it, if you go to the Upgrades Hall of Fame and you select to view by year at Upgrades.com, there is a lifetime achievement, which is put at the top there.
0:05:12The reason it says lifetime achievement is because we very frequently flip between both phrases, both lifetime achievement and Hall of Fame.
0:05:19So there you go.
0:05:20Maybe we could change it to Hall of Fame, but it doesn't matter.
0:05:23And if you want to visit the physical Hall of Fame, it doesn't exist.
0:05:26Exactly.
0:05:26Maybe one day.
0:05:27Maybe one day.
0:05:28Maybe one day.
0:05:28It's a Stephen Hackett's house maybe.
0:05:30Lifetime achievement is actually the better phrase and is the phrase that we will now use from here on out in the episode.
0:05:34Lifetime achievement award winners, which are ATP and the Flop House.
0:05:38Okay, so the very first category today is for the best iOS app.
0:05:45So Jason, would you like to hear what the Upgradients entered as the best iOS apps of the year?
0:05:51I would.
0:05:52At 4.6% of the overall vote is Things.
0:05:56I guess Things 3, which is the current version of the GTD focused application, 4.6% of the vote.
0:06:02At 9.6% of the vote is Apollo, the Reddit client for iOS.
0:06:08And at a huge 27.4%, I believe this is the single largest percentage of any award winner of the Upgradies, like voted for by the Upgradients this year.
0:06:22Yes, I just checked.
0:06:23Yeah, so 27.4% is Overcast, the podcast application that many people are probably listening to this episode in.
0:06:31And that is one of the reasons why I think Overcast is so heavily picked by listeners.
0:06:38So what you're saying is that podcast listeners like podcast apps.
0:06:41Correct, that is what I think.
0:06:43Interesting.
0:06:43So that is 27.4% for Overcast.
0:06:46And I will note, so you were saying about Lifetime Achievement Award winners, if Overcast is to win this category today, it will become a Lifetime Achievement Award winner,
0:06:59as it won in both 2014 and 2013.
0:07:04And last year, sorry, in 2018, my apologies, 2018 and 2014.
0:07:08So that would put Marco Amat's Overcast as a Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
0:07:13But we have many things to discuss before then, including your pick, Jason, for the best iOS app of the year.
0:07:19Yeah, this I always struggle with this because there are, you know, there's so many iOS apps.
0:07:25It's a very wide category.
0:07:28And I use a bunch of them, but they're very personal.
0:07:31And I try to think more broadly.
0:07:33And I also try to not pick Overcast because I also use it all the time to listen to podcasts.
0:07:41And it had some really nice upgrades this year that made it way better, that were really innovative.
0:07:48The clip sharing feature that Marco introduced this year has gotten people to share podcast audio way more than they used to,
0:07:56which is great for podcasts in general.
0:07:58Other apps have picked up the concept.
0:08:00So there's a lot to be said for it.
0:08:03But I kept saying to myself, no, no, no, no, no, don't pick Overcast.
0:08:06Come on, you gotta get something, you gotta find something else.
0:08:09So in the course of writing my book about photos, which is available now, I guess, take control of photos,
0:08:21the app, the iOS app that I kept coming back to, that it works.
0:08:28It's exactly what I want on my iPad when I'm doing photo stuff, because although photos for iOS is good and getting better,
0:08:40there are things that it is unable to do that are just perplexing.
0:08:45And also there's this frustration about using third party apps for photos on iOS, where you end up,
0:08:54in the past what it's been is you sort of end up with duplicates of everything.
0:08:57So you can you can export a photo and then edit it somewhere else to get around the fact that it doesn't have good editing tools,
0:09:02or it doesn't have some editing tools that you want.
0:09:04But then you put it back in photos and it's just like a new photo at the end of the library,
0:09:09nowhere near the other stuff and a duplicate.
0:09:12Well, Apple did some changes to iOS to make it capable for third party apps to overwrite photos in the photo library.
0:09:20So that's good.
0:09:21And one app that I discovered does that and has a really good, really easy to use touch-up tool,
0:09:32where basically if you have a blemish on a person or there's a beautiful background and there's some random person walking across it,
0:09:41you literally open this app up and move your finger over that thing you want to remove and it's gone.
0:09:49Plus there's machine learning driven auto adjust and so many other things.
0:09:53So my nomination is going to be Pixelmator Photo for iPad as best iOS app,
0:09:58because it lets me make my photos way better in my photo library on my iPad.
0:10:06And when I started using it, I just could not believe.
0:10:11It was one of those things where I'm looking around like, do people know about this?
0:10:14And I looked and it's like, some people knew about it, a lot of people didn't know about it.
0:10:17It's really amazing and does some stuff that the photos app just doesn't do,
0:10:23but then saves the photos back in to the photo library, really good app.
0:10:28So Pixelmator Photo is my nomination.
0:10:30I like that pic.
0:10:31It's a little bit out of left field, right?
0:10:34I don't think it's something that everybody would use a lot or even the people that
0:10:38do own it probably don't use it a ton, but I have saved photos using this application.
0:10:43Oh yeah.
0:10:44Right?
0:10:44Oh yeah.
0:10:45Photos that I really like, but would otherwise be ruined by something.
0:10:49And I have done some wild things with the machine.
0:10:52Like the machine learning to remove things in an image are so, so good.
0:10:57It is very, very shocking how well it does.
0:11:01And it's very good with the Apple pencil, like to draw over an element of the image
0:11:06and watch it be deleted.
0:11:07It's very, very cool.
0:11:08So it's a great pic, Jason.
0:11:10Yeah.
0:11:11It's the one that blew me away was I had a picture of my wife and my daughter from our
0:11:18trip to Hawaii this summer.
0:11:19And they're in front of a waterfall at this little pond.
0:11:24And there's like, you know, three or four random people at various points in the pond.
0:11:30And I, in, you know, a minute with my finger, turned that into, um, them and just them at
0:11:39a secluded pond with the, and it's like, that is so cool.
0:11:43And I didn't, I mean, really, it was just like tracing over the people who I wanted
0:11:48to remove and then they're gone.
0:11:49So it's, it's pretty remarkable and yes, you can salvage photos that would otherwise
0:11:53be unusual usable.
0:11:54It's pretty amazing.
0:11:55So why these features aren't in photos is a question for another time, but I'm so glad
0:12:00that Pixelmator Photo exists.
0:12:01My favorite iOS app of this year should be of no surprise to people who follow my work
0:12:09in various places online.
0:12:11It is the time tracking app called Timery.
0:12:13So this is an iOS app for both iPad and iPad OS, I guess, and iOS.
0:12:20We're keeping that by the way, iPad OS and iOS, it will still contained in this one category
0:12:26because that just, I don't think aren't necessarily enough distinct applications.
0:12:31Right.
0:12:32But Timery is an application that works with the time tracking software or the time tracking
0:12:37service, I should say toggle.
0:12:38It's been in development.
0:12:40It was in development for quite a while and it came out earlier this year.
0:12:42It has just a very great design and it's very iOS-y.
0:12:48It supports, you know, all the things that you would want your third party app to support.
0:12:52Like, you know, when I say third party, like that community of like good third party apps.
0:12:55So it has lots of themes and dark and like a great dark mode support and app icon choices
0:13:00and all that kind of stuff.
0:13:01The widget is fantastic.
0:13:03It's this is how I mostly interact with Timery is by the widget.
0:13:07You can set up a bunch of saved timers, you know, so like, for example, I have like recording,
0:13:13upgrade, editing, upgrade.
0:13:15Those are like saved in my Timery widget so I can just hit those with a button and it
0:13:18starts straight away.
0:13:19And the widget itself has a counter for your current timer so you can see that ticking
0:13:24away.
0:13:25The application also has fantastic shortcut support.
0:13:29So all of my shortcuts that I have that integrate with time tracking in some way.
0:13:34So when I work on anything, I have to keep my time tracked so I know where so I can have
0:13:37like accurate representations of what I'm doing.
0:13:39It's important to me with the way that I work.
0:13:41But I replaced all of my shortcuts that integrate with time tracking anyway with shortcuts created
0:13:47by Timery.
0:13:48And I've been able to build some more powerful than I was able to before using shortcuts
0:13:53and its support because it's so well done.
0:13:56And it's been an application in really great consistent development throughout the entire
0:14:01year.
0:14:02The developer, Joe, does a wonderful job of integrating feedback from users and advancing
0:14:08the application in a bunch of ways.
0:14:10It's a subscription app.
0:14:12It's very well priced and is an application that I use all day, every day.
0:14:17When I'm working, Timery is running.
0:14:19It's absolutely fantastic and I love it.
0:14:22Like right now.
0:14:23Right now I've got my podcast recording upgrade timer has been running for 25 minutes and
0:14:29three seconds because that's how long we've been on the call today.
0:14:31So now do you know, do you have it on the do you do stuff on the Mac with with toggle
0:14:38too and use something different there or are you using iOS for all your control of toggle
0:14:42on the Mac?
0:14:43I have the toggle app, which is terrible.
0:14:48But most of the time I will be firing off my timer on my iPhone using a shortcut that
0:14:55I built, which it's I'm pretty proud of the shortcut.
0:14:58It looks at my calendar and grabs the name of the show I'm recording and adds that in
0:15:03as a tag in Timery with the Timery shortcuts and puts my phone on do not disturb.
0:15:09So I'm still using Timery but via shortcuts as well as just the Timery app itself, because
0:15:16that's the kind of power this app has.
0:15:17It has the what are the new shortcuts in conversational shortcuts?
0:15:22Is that it where you can you can add in loads of information into a shortcut with variables
0:15:26and stuff that supports all of that.
0:15:28It's really just just fantastic.
0:15:29I love this app.
0:15:30So we send an impasse, I guess, anything similar.
0:15:35So I will say on overcast, I was thinking about like overcast being the upgrade ends
0:15:41winner this year.
0:15:42And I was thinking about the application myself.
0:15:44Of course, it is my app of choice when it comes to podcasts.
0:15:48One of the things that I thought about which really kind of solidifies overcast having
0:15:52a good year, like a very good year this year is the clip sharing feature, which you mentioned
0:15:56earlier.
0:15:57Like that was a very, very clever feature implemented very well that I've now seen used
0:16:03in a bunch of other podcast apps, which is like, you know, that's one of the key things
0:16:07to show that you had a good feature is it starts to become a standard that you expect.
0:16:11And what I would say is for that, like it was everywhere when the when this feature
0:16:17debuted in the application.
0:16:18And whilst the I would say the current amount of times the current usage I see of this feature
0:16:25sort of sharing little clips and videos, it isn't as much as I would love it to be still
0:16:30being used, but it's way more than I thought would still be used.
0:16:33Does that make sense?
0:16:34Like I'm still seeing them all the time.
0:16:36I wish I saw them even more, but I'm still seeing them all the time.
0:16:41So I will throw my hat in the ring for Overcast, because I do think that that feature this
0:16:47year is very deserving of accolade.
0:16:51Well, if we pick Overcast here, too, we have the advantage of putting it in the lifetime
0:16:55achievement category, which would make Marco Arment the first ever two time lifetime achievement
0:17:01award winner, which is also just an interesting thing because he is part of the Accidental
0:17:06Tech podcast.
0:17:06Yeah, that's true.
0:17:08That's true.
0:17:09Oh, boy.
0:17:10Now we get the best part of the podcast where we have to decide things.
0:17:14We got unfortunately, this is our last category, right?
0:17:17I think it would be fine given that clip sharing feature and how important it is, I think,
0:17:29to making podcasts more shareable.
0:17:30And I use it all the time and I see people using it.
0:17:33And it's a real innovation that benefited what we do and that we use ourselves.
0:17:43And it lets us never pick Overcast in this category again.
0:17:48Let's do it.
0:17:49Yeah, I think it's good for if we have something that keeps coming up consistently to put it,
0:17:54to award it, right?
0:17:55Like people love it, we love it.
0:17:57But now it opens the gate a bit more for other apps in the future to win this category.
0:18:02So the 2019 Upgrady Award winner for best iOS app is Overcast.
0:18:09Congratulations to Marco for a second lifetime achievement win.
0:18:13I guess Marco has to keep working on more and more new things now to get into other categories,
0:18:18maybe the Mac app.
0:18:18And Overcast will now be placed at the Hall of Fame in Steven Hackett's house, might be
0:18:26inside Steven Hackett's Mac Pro.
0:18:27And Myke, I feel like for next year, something to aspire to is when we decide the winner
0:18:32– I think we need like a gong or something.
0:18:35Can you work on that?
0:18:36Can you get a gong?
0:18:37Like, you know, and the winner is Brong Overcast, right?
0:18:42I mean, I can not only, I can get a real gong if you want to.
0:18:46I can also add gongs in post.
0:18:48Okay.
0:18:50Do you want a gong in post?
0:18:51I'll leave it to your discretion.
0:18:54I mean, if you do, we could just do it again, say it again now, and then there'll be a
0:18:58gong.
0:18:58Because if I put the gong in before, it won't make any sense, right?
0:19:01Well, no, I mean, this is all great stuff.
0:19:03So why don't we just say, I'm going to say it now.
0:19:06Yeah, and then I'll put the gong in.
0:19:08And we'll see if there's a gong there.
0:19:10And the winner for best iOS app, Overcast.
0:19:13Ooh.
0:19:15It's good, right?
0:19:16Yeah.
0:19:17Thank you.
0:19:17That's what I want.
0:19:18It's just, it's very, it feels very formal to have a gong.
0:19:21You know I like as much pomp and circumstance as possible in these episodes.
0:19:27So, congratulations to Overcast.
0:19:30All right, let's talk about the best newcomer iOS app.
0:19:34So the best new iOS app of the year.
0:19:36The Upgradients with 5.9% voted for Flighty, which is the flight tracking application.
0:19:426.2%, my love, Timery.
0:19:46And 7%, Disney+.
0:19:48What have you got for the best newcomer iOS app of the year?
0:19:52Disney+ was a surprise to me.
0:19:54Yeah.
0:19:54Because it's not, my understanding is it's not a great app, but people are a fan of the
0:19:58service, I guess.
0:20:00Yeah, it runs on iOS.
0:20:02And I am going to, I feel like I'm just pulling up in my car and firing off an air horn here
0:20:08just to bother everybody.
0:20:09But I do that sometimes when I nominate things for the Upgradies.
0:20:12I like to occasionally be provocative.
0:20:15And we waited for it, and we waited for it, and we waited for it.
0:20:19A new iOS app for a year, for more than a year, we waited for it.
0:20:24And then it arrived.
0:20:27And you know, it's pretty good.
0:20:28It's got a lot of work to do, but it's actually pretty good, and it's nice that it's here.
0:20:32It's Photoshop.
0:20:34It's Adobe Photoshop.
0:20:35Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it.
0:20:38I'm saying it.
0:20:39I made a dumb Photoshopped image on my iPad sitting on my couch with layers and stuff,
0:20:47and it all worked.
0:20:48And I'm glad that it's there, and I'm glad that Adobe's building it.
0:20:52And I think it's a big deal that they have embraced the iPad as a real platform for their
0:20:58users instead of making these weird toy apps, phone apps, that they were making before.
0:21:02So yeah, there it is.
0:21:04It's Photoshop.
0:21:05It's full Photoshop, not actually full.
0:21:07I don't really know what to say about this, because like, the application itself, I get
0:21:17it, right?
0:21:18I get your point, right?
0:21:18Like, it exists now and is kind of good, but it has been marred in controversy of not being
0:21:25good enough, right?
0:21:26Like, that's the interesting thing about this application.
0:21:28But this isn't...
0:21:31But it's new.
0:21:33It's all new.
0:21:34It's new, isn't it?
0:21:34It's the best new.
0:21:35I have a couple of apps here that I am thinking about.
0:21:39So of course, I will put Timery in again, right?
0:21:42I thought Timery was the best iOS app of the year, and it was new this year.
0:21:46So that's definitely in there.
0:21:48But I also wanted to throw in for contention an application that I really enjoy called
0:21:51Tripsee, which is like a trip itinerary application. It's very iOS-y. It's built of iOS 13.
0:22:00It looks beautiful and has that kind of design to it.
0:22:02And it's a very nice application to help you plan out trips that you're going on.
0:22:06You can also forward itinerary information to it.
0:22:09So like hotels and flights, you can forward them by email, and it will put them into the
0:22:14itineraries that you set up in the app.
0:22:16So for every trip that you do, you can have its own little section, and you can add in
0:22:19documents and PDFs and stuff of maybe receipts that you've got, boarding cards.
0:22:25You can add -- it also has like an inbuilt directory of places and events.
0:22:30So you can say like, "Oh, I want to go to this place when I go to this country," or
0:22:34whatever.
0:22:34So it's a very nice application, and I like it a lot.
0:22:37But it doesn't beat Timery for me as my favorite newcomer iOS app of the year.
0:22:44So that's where I am.
0:22:46I have no opinion on Disney+ because I can't use it, which makes me very hesitant to want
0:22:52to award it, even though it was the Upgrading's pick.
0:22:55I really want to pull for Timery on this one, Jason.
0:22:59>> I was going to say I have no opinion about Timery because I don't track my time, or perhaps
0:23:05because I live outside of your concept of space and time.
0:23:09>> Exactly.
0:23:09>> But suffice to say, it was second place in the Upgrading's vote, and it was your
0:23:15choice, and it sounds great, and it's new, and I love it.
0:23:18So that's enough for me.
0:23:20>> Hooray!
0:23:20>> Please, I've done my job in nominating Photoshop.
0:23:24>> So I will run through these.
0:23:26The runners up for the best newcomer iOS app are Disney+ and Photoshop, with the winner
0:23:33of the best newcomer iOS app of 2019 being Timery.
0:23:37I'm very pleased about that one.
0:23:38I did realize, you know, I was looking at the Upgrading's.
0:23:41This is obviously one of the categories you could never be -- there can never be a lifetime
0:23:45achievement winner in, which is kind of fun.
0:23:47So we now move into the category that spawned the entire creation of having the Upgrading's
0:23:55assist us in voting.
0:23:56That is the best Mac app, because there was a year when neither of us could think of one,
0:24:01or the best -- both the best Mac app and best newcomer Mac app.
0:24:05We needed the help from our Upgrading's, so the Upgrading's voted thusly for the best
0:24:10Mac app currently available.
0:24:12OmniFocus, 4% of the vote.
0:24:154.1% of the vote is 1 password, and 4.8% of the vote is things.
0:24:21Very close.
0:24:22There were lots and lots.
0:24:23This is one of the categories that had the most, like, individual nominations, which
0:24:29is not surprising, because there are lots and lots of Mac apps available.
0:24:33I will say at this point, Jason, I have no real feeling of picking a winner in this category.
0:24:40I don't really have a nomination of my own.
0:24:42This year, I don't really feel any great affinity for any application itself.
0:24:49And so I want to go to you on this one.
0:24:54What is your favorite Mac app this year?
0:24:57So I decided, again, to not nominate the same old things.
0:25:02My own little hall of fame, right?
0:25:03My own little lifetime achievement awards, where I'm like, you know, I'm not going to
0:25:07pick Logic or Final Cut or BB Editor.
0:25:10This was my thing.
0:25:11All of the apps that I was coming to, I've picked too much, like Logic or Audio Hijack.
0:25:15Exactly.
0:25:16I just feel like I'm playing the hits, you know?
0:25:20Exactly.
0:25:21Which there's nothing wrong with having a strong song book, but I want to do something new.
0:25:26So this year, when I do incomparable t-shirts and some of the artwork, I occasionally need
0:25:35to use Adobe Illustrator because I have outlines that, you know, they're vector files with
0:25:42art, the show art and the show logos.
0:25:45And I don't do it that much, and I'm not creating my own art.
0:25:49I'm really using it to kind of like remove layers and move things around and export files
0:25:53in certain sizes and certain formats.
0:25:56And Catalina came out this year.
0:26:00And I don't use Illustrator enough to pay a large amount of money to Adobe in order to
0:26:10use it twice a year.
0:26:11Right, because your version was the non-Creative Cloud version.
0:26:15So I had CS5, which I got like a very long time ago and just kept laying around because
0:26:23I only ever needed it once or twice a year for Illustrator.
0:26:27And I do pay for Creative Cloud, but just for Photoshop and Illustrator just doesn't
0:26:32make sense to pay for it.
0:26:34And this year Catalina comes out and I think, oh no, it's not going to work anymore.
0:26:40Illustrator CS5 is not going to work anymore.
0:26:42I tried to put it in a virtual machine.
0:26:43It's like, oh, it sort of doesn't want to open files and it's really slow and it's really
0:26:49weird and I'm running a whole virtual machine just to run this.
0:26:53And my friend, Antony Johnston, who is an Illustrator user from way back this year was
0:27:00telling me how he has now switched to the Affinity apps from Serif.
0:27:06And that if I really wanted to do this right, I would just go and buy Affinity Designer,
0:27:15which is a, you know, it's like a one-time purchase for, I want to say $50?
0:27:22Yeah, yeah, that seems about right.
0:27:24And then I will have that for, yeah, it's for $50 and it might've been on sale when
0:27:30I bought it, but then I'll have a native modern app that does everything that Illustrator
0:27:36did that I needed to do.
0:27:37And then I can keep that because that is not a subscription and that app is going to presumably
0:27:43work for quite a while and $50 once as opposed to spending, you know, a hundred or more,
0:27:50$200 a year for a thing I only need twice.
0:27:53And it's great.
0:27:54And those Affinity apps are all really good and it really does.
0:27:58Adobe, I want to say it puts Adobe to shame.
0:28:01That's not quite right because Adobe's business is very different and Adobe's, it's a little
0:28:05like Microsoft, right?
0:28:06Where Microsoft has the burden of having so many customers that the decisions they make
0:28:11are kind of ponderous and careful because they have to be.
0:28:14Whereas Affinity is actually a little like Apple was back in the day, whereas they're
0:28:18the upstart and they can just make their decisions to do it.
0:28:22But regardless, Affinity Designer really impressed me this year, which is why I'm going to nominate
0:28:26it because it took me out of an app that I've been using occasionally for a very long time.
0:28:31And that's on a subscription model now where it's not relevant for me anymore.
0:28:36And this is a great replacement for it.
0:28:37So I was super impressed with Affinity Designer and Affinity stuff in general from Sarah.
0:28:41- I am 100% on board of giving that the win. - Okay, let's do it.
0:28:48- So here's the thing.
0:28:48Things, 1Password and OmniFocus.
0:28:50- Well, OmniFocus 3 was new in either very, very, very late 2018 or very, very, very early
0:28:562019.
0:28:57So I could see an argument for OmniFocus 3, even though I don't use it because again,
0:29:02- I think it's 4?
0:29:02- I exist outside of-
0:29:04- No, you're right.
0:29:05Sorry, OmniFocus 3 and Things 3.
0:29:07But here's my thing on this, Jason.
0:29:10Those applications, they come up all the time, right?
0:29:17Things and OmniFocus in the category.
0:29:18- And OmniFocus actually 3 was in 2018 and they did some updates this year, but yeah.
0:29:22- Yeah.
0:29:23They come up constantly, right?
0:29:24- Yes.
0:29:25- I will admit, obviously, neither OmniFocus or Things have won.
0:29:29But the reason that I feel this way is I think that Affinity are a very cool, new,
0:29:39exciting company who also do a great job of making really powerful iPad software as well,
0:29:46that complement these applications.
0:29:48And they have a whole suite of products.
0:29:51And I think that they are a cool company that I think I would like to give an award to.
0:29:58That's my thinking.
0:30:00I love OmniFocus.
0:30:02I love Things.
0:30:04Those applications are really well made, but they've been around for a while.
0:30:08And there's just something about it to me where Affinity Designer is a cool application
0:30:13that's building on a trend that exists now.
0:30:15And I think it would be really great to give them the win.
0:30:18- Yeah, let's do it.
0:30:20- All right.
0:30:20So Affinity Designer wins the best Mac app in 2019 with Things being the runner-up there.
0:30:28We should give them one runner-up because I didn't have a pick.
0:30:31So we're now moving to another application category that I'm afraid, Jason, I have even
0:30:37less picks for, which is the best newcomer Mac app.
0:30:41Now, I was interested this year to wonder if we were gonna see any Catalyst apps in this
0:30:49category.
0:30:50We will see.
0:30:51The Upgradients voted for Affinity Publisher at 5.9% of the vote.
0:30:56What is Affinity Publisher?
0:30:59- That's basically InDesign or QuarkXPress.
0:31:01It's a page layout app.
0:31:03- Right.
0:31:03And that was in denu.
0:31:048.3% is for NetNewswire, which is an application that I believe is not available public.
0:31:10It's a beta, right?
0:31:11- No, it's final.
0:31:12- It's final?
0:31:13- Mac is final.
0:31:14The beta is for iOS.
0:31:15- iOS.
0:31:15Okay.
0:31:16NetNewswire at 8.3% of the vote and Drafts at 16.2% of the vote, which is a classic iOS
0:31:23app new for the Mac this year, which funnily enough, I will just state, which is a kind
0:31:29of a peculiar thing for what I just mentioned a moment ago, Drafts 5 won the best newcomer
0:31:34Mac app upgrade in 2018 because it was in beta.
0:31:38- Ah, yes.
0:31:39- So it is technically still eligible because it is now an available application, but would
0:31:45be super weird for it to win this category.
0:31:47- You can't win the newcomer award twice.
0:31:50You can't do it.
0:31:51- That is where we are, but let's talk about your pick for this category.
0:31:55- I struggled because there aren't a lot of new Mac apps.
0:32:01That's part of the problem.
0:32:03- In a year when there should have been lots would be the thinking.
0:32:07- Part of the problem the catalyst was supposed to solve.
0:32:09I do have a couple of catalyst apps that I'd like to nominate, but first I'm also going
0:32:13to mention NetNewswire.
0:32:15NetNewswire has a long history.
0:32:17You know, Brent Simmons wrote NetNewswire.
0:32:19You know, he went and worked at Newsgator for a while.
0:32:25The app got sold to BlackPixel.
0:32:29And then I want to say in 2018, the source code and the rights to the name were given
0:32:37back to Brent and he decided to start NetNewswire 5, I think, again, as an open source project.
0:32:45So open source and he's managing the project, but other people can and are contributing.
0:32:50And he wrote actually a really good blog post about how open source doesn't mean that they
0:32:56don't have standards and that you can just sort of do whatever.
0:32:59Like he's running the show and he is nobody I would get other than maybe Dave Weiner,
0:33:05nobody has thought more for longer about RSS and RSS apps than Brent.
0:33:12Like it is part of his soul.
0:33:15And that new NetNewswire app for the Mac that is now out and yes, it's free.
0:33:22It's open source.
0:33:23It's really good.
0:33:26There are other RSS readers.
0:33:27It's not as full feature to some of the other RSS readers like Reader that are out there,
0:33:32but it's really good.
0:33:33There's now an iOS version too.
0:33:34And I think there's something to be said for Brent's commitment to making great apps
0:33:41and great Mac apps to NetNewswire, to bringing it back, to building it in this new way of
0:33:46having it be an open source project that he's running instead of it being what it was before,
0:33:50which is a commercial app, essentially traditional commercial app.
0:33:53So I think it's worth considering that NetNewswire strongly because although it's not new,
0:33:58it's also new, completely new, but old name, old app, but new app, new code.
0:34:07I have two others that I'm going to mention.
0:34:10One not as seriously and one more seriously that are catalyst apps.
0:34:14A friend of the show, James Thompson wrote a stupid, brilliant, sorry, I didn't mean
0:34:22stupid, well, I did, but also I meant brilliant.
0:34:24He stupidly wrote a brilliant app.
0:34:26How about that?
0:34:27Aha.
0:34:28Because we played Dungeons and Dragons with him this year and we're asking, we're saying
0:34:31why isn't there a Dice app?
0:34:33And James got that glint in his eye like he used to about the About box in Peacock where
0:34:39he wrote a complete like multi-level game and Dice by Peacock was born and it shipped
0:34:46and it is a catalyst app.
0:34:47So it works on the Mac, even though he wrote it initially for iOS, it was his test of
0:34:52catalyst and it is a beautiful 3D rendered dice rolling app with things you can customize
0:34:59and it is, is it inconsequential because it's just a dice rolling up?
0:35:02Yes.
0:35:02Is it really well done and shows you a long time Mac developer trying to figure out how
0:35:08catalyst works and how you can make it work better as a Mac app?
0:35:14Yes.
0:35:14So it's as silly as that app is.
0:35:16One, we were involved in its creation, which is great.
0:35:19And I think it's a great example.
0:35:21So Dice by Peacock I want to nominate.
0:35:24And more seriously, there's an app called Lookup, which is a dictionary app that is
0:35:30a catalyst app.
0:35:31It was an iOS app before.
0:35:32And it is one of the best implemented catalyst apps.
0:35:38The developer has taken, um, squircle apps.
0:35:43They have taken great care in trying to make it feel like, uh, not just kind of an iOS
0:35:50app in a window, but have, uh, you know, menus and other behaviors that, that feel very Mac
0:35:56like and it's yes, it's just a dictionary app, but, um, it's really well done.
0:36:01So those are, those are sort of my nominees.
0:36:03I think.
0:36:03I want to just say that Dice by Peacock is a runner up just because I want to do that.
0:36:10So there we go.
0:36:11And so I guess for winner looking at what we've got here, I think we'll go with net
0:36:17newswire, right?
0:36:18I think so.
0:36:19I think that's the right thing to do.
0:36:20I agree that we can't, we shouldn't award drafts again in the newcomer category, but
0:36:25that it doesn't make sense.
0:36:26Goes to the heart of, um, our process, right?
0:36:30Like the, the, the whole, um, the integrity of the upgrade.
0:36:35These would be questioned if some app wins best newcomer twice.
0:36:38Make any sense.
0:36:38So the runner up for the best newcomer Mac app of 2019 is Dice by Peacock and the winner
0:36:45is net news wire five.
0:36:46Congratulations to Brent.
0:36:48And open source people, right?
0:36:50Oh yeah.
0:36:50And contributors.
0:36:51Yeah.
0:36:52And good point.
0:36:53Good point.
0:36:53Good point.
0:36:53So that concludes all of the app awards that we have.
0:36:58Um, we're going to be moving into talking about media next, but before we do, I want
0:37:03to thank the first sponsor of the upgrade is a 2019 and that is PDF pen from smile.
0:37:08PDF pen is the 11 is the ultimate tool for editing PDFs on the Mac PDF pen at 11.2 lets
0:37:15you easily edit the content in table cells in a PDF.
0:37:19You can change typeface font size and other text formatting with PDF pens, font bar as
0:37:25well.
0:37:25This is a wild application.
0:37:26The things that you are able to do to PDF documents using PDF pen.
0:37:29It blows my mind all the time.
0:37:31You can add, edit or remove images from your documents at PDF pen.
0:37:34You can add headers, footers and watermarks and PDF pen for Mac supports Catalina and
0:37:39PDF pen for iPad and iPhone is iOS 13 ready.
0:37:43I use PDF pen on my iOS devices constantly for signing contracts or making amends to
0:37:48them and such big, big fans.
0:37:49This application, you can learn more about PDF pen and PDF pen pro@smilesoftware.com
0:37:55slash podcast.
0:37:56If you do any work of PDFs, you will need and use PDF pen.
0:38:00Trust me on that one.
0:38:00Go check it out for yourself right now at smile software.com/podcast.
0:38:05Our thanks to PDF pen for their support of this show, relay FM and the 2019 upgrade awards.
0:38:12So Jason, let's talk about the best game of the year.
0:38:18The upgrade ends voted thusly with 4.9% of the award winning with the Legend of Zelda
0:38:27Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch at 9.4% is Pokemon Sword and Shield and the 12.5%
0:38:34is Untitled Goose Game, which makes a lot of sense.
0:38:39Untitled Goose Game is a very, very fun game, but also is published by Panic, who are well
0:38:45revered in the Apple community.
0:38:47So I guess Untitled Goose Game was a surprise winner to me when I saw it.
0:38:51But the more I thought about it, I was like, oh, I guess that makes sense to me why the
0:38:55upgrade ends voted this way.
0:38:57Now, as is typical with this category, best game typically means console PC game.
0:39:03But Jason is a non console PC game player.
0:39:06Yes.
0:39:06You will usually go in the iOS category, which is perfectly valid.
0:39:10Have you done so for 2019?
0:39:12Yes, I have.
0:39:12This is going to give away my best iOS game nomination, but I'm going to throw it in here.
0:39:17And this is what happens every year, Myke.
0:39:19It's a great upgrade tradition.
0:39:21I nominate something that is not appropriate.
0:39:26You choose the winner and we move on with our lives.
0:39:29Okay.
0:39:29What is your, you know what I'll say?
0:39:31Don't give too much at the moment.
0:39:33What is your game of the year?
0:39:35I say much to my own surprise.
0:39:39It's what the golf.
0:39:40Okay.
0:39:41Let's pause on what the golf for the moment.
0:39:44Yes.
0:39:44Spoiler alert.
0:39:45It's it's also my iOS game.
0:39:47Whoa.
0:39:48Crazy.
0:39:49My game of the year is Pokemon sword and shield.
0:39:51It is a game with a lot of controversy around it, which I'm not going to get into right now.
0:39:56But it is, I think just a fantastic entrance into the series,
0:40:03especially for the first ever home console version of Pokemon brings a lot of interesting
0:40:09developments to the series.
0:40:11And I think is a great starting point for Pokemon going into the future as thought about
0:40:17as a different kind of game, which isn't necessarily going to be handheld first anymore as it has
0:40:21been for the last 20 years.
0:40:24So Pokemon sword and shield is my favorite game of the year.
0:40:28It was second in the upgrade ends.
0:40:30So it's going to take the victory of Pokemon sword and shield, which is good.
0:40:34I love it because Pokemon won last year as well with Pokemon.
0:40:37Let's go.
0:40:38So Pokemon sword and shield is the upgraded winner for 2019 with untitled goose game and
0:40:44what the golf as the runners up sounds fine to me.
0:40:48So Jason, let's talk about our favorite iOS games of the year.
0:40:55Oh, tell me more.
0:40:56Now this is interesting to me because all of the upgrade ends votes were Apple arcade
0:41:01games.
0:41:02Sayonara wild hearts, 8.7%, 8.8% for many motorways and 15.9% for what the golf.
0:41:13Oh, what the golf.
0:41:15Well, the, the upgrade ends are with me in loving what the golf, what the golf is like
0:41:22when they announced Apple arcade and they said, oh, and there's this golf game.
0:41:25I was like, oh boy.
0:41:26Yeah.
0:41:26Well golf game.
0:41:27Great.
0:41:28It's amazing.
0:41:30That's the bottom line is I, I don't care about golf games.
0:41:34I have played good golf games.
0:41:35Desert golfing is good.
0:41:36The whole noodle cake super stick man golf game is hilarious and good.
0:41:42There are three of them now, but you know, it's, it feels a little tired as a genre and
0:41:51I've seen a lot of it, but that's the whole point of what the golf is that it's essentially
0:41:54a satire of golf games.
0:41:57And then very quickly becomes a satire of every other kind of game you can think of.
0:42:02And part of the joy of playing it is realizing what this level wants you to do and how it's
0:42:07like some other games.
0:42:08So there are, there are references to so many different games within what the golf, um,
0:42:14plus the, um, plus it's a fun game and it is incredibly rare for me to not just play
0:42:20a game through, but then to try and go back a hundred percent.
0:42:23And I, I failed, but I did try.
0:42:26I think I got to like 98%, uh, with what the golf, it is hilarious and challenging and
0:42:33fun and dumb and funny.
0:42:35And, uh, I, much to my surprise when I expected that the Apple arcade launch game that I would
0:42:42like the most was mini motorways, the sequel to, uh, to mini Metro.
0:42:47In fact, it was what the golf.
0:42:49So, uh, I'm with the upgradians in praising what the golf.
0:42:52And I'm with everybody.
0:42:54It is the best, uh, Apple arcade game that I played this year.
0:42:57And the most of the iOS games that I played this year are Apple arcade games.
0:43:01And I've enjoyed many and we've spoken about them on the show, but what the golf is the
0:43:05most surprising and most fun, uh, of all of the titles that I've played so far.
0:43:11So we are in all complete agreement, which means no runners up the winner of the best
0:43:16iOS game of the year is what the golf, what the golf, what the golf.
0:43:23What the golf movie, favorite movie.
0:43:26Now this is a weird one this year.
0:43:29We'll get to it.
0:43:29So upgradians voted at 1.2% of the vote.
0:43:32Once upon a time in Hollywood at 1.4% of the vote knives out 6% of the vote Avengers end
0:43:39game.
0:43:40So a few interesting things that happened here.
0:43:42Uh, not, there was lots of options, no huge winner.
0:43:47Um, star Wars did not rank very highly.
0:43:53It's an interesting thing where typically like, you know, the star Wars movies come
0:43:57out very close to the upgrade ease, but people still get the votes in and loved so much.
0:44:02Usually that they will get up there, but this year that did not happen for, I think some
0:44:06interesting reasons and things that maybe we don't need to get into right now.
0:44:09Um, but that, that's kinda where we are with the movies.
0:44:13I don't think that this year, like looking back at previous years was as strong a year
0:44:20for movies as previous upgradey award-winning years has been.
0:44:24You are someone who's much more plugged into this world.
0:44:26Do you agree with that?
0:44:27Yeah, I do.
0:44:28I, I didn't see that many movies this year.
0:44:30And you could take that as an indictment of the movies that there was nothing out there.
0:44:34There were not a lot, a lot of things that prompted me to get out there.
0:44:36It's also an indictment of me for being a bad movie goer.
0:44:39I don't go out and see movies that often.
0:44:41Um, I just don't, there's logistics of like, do I want to go see, I can go see a movie
0:44:45whenever I want, but if it's a movie that I want to see and, you know, I probably want
0:44:50to see it with my family or with my wife.
0:44:53And, uh, and so then it's like, well, let's just wait until, and then we never have a
0:44:58time that we can do it.
0:44:59It would be much different if like, literally the rest of my family said, we never want
0:45:03to see a movie.
0:45:04It could be like, all right, well, I'm going to go see this movie, but that's not the case.
0:45:07And so it's this ironic kind of like, uh, thing where I'm, um, I'm because I want to
0:45:16see it, but I want to see it with my family.
0:45:18I don't see it.
0:45:19And maybe I see it later when it comes out.
0:45:21This is pretty much my exact problem too.
0:45:23I haven't seen, like, I've really wanted to see Knives Out and have not been able to see
0:45:27it yet.
0:45:27We all agree that we should go see it and it just hasn't happened.
0:45:31Um, that said, I'm going, uh, we, we tend to pick, uh, very, uh, big, uh, crowd-pleasing,
0:45:42this is not a serious movie review podcast award.
0:45:44This is a crowd-pleasing nerd, usually movie award.
0:45:49And I actually, in that context of the fact that we've picked star Wars movies and Marvel
0:45:54movies in the past for this award, like exclusively, I'm actually going to pick Avengers Endgame
0:46:01and I'm going to do it because, and this is, if you read this as me taking a little bit
0:46:05of a shot at the new star Wars movie, it is, I don't hate the new star Wars movie.
0:46:09Um, there's a whole podcast where we talked about for two and a half hours, you can go
0:46:12listen to the incomparable.
0:46:13Um, but it has issues, some serious issues and if you enjoy it great.
0:46:19And if you didn't enjoy it, I understand.
0:46:21Um, I'm kind of neither of those.
0:46:26Um, but this is not about star Wars.
0:46:28My point here is endings are hard.
0:46:31Star Wars trying to do an ending is very hard because they're trying to wrap up, you know,
0:46:35all these movies over the course of decades and everybody's childhood and, and all of
0:46:38those things that all said.
0:46:40Avengers Endgame has to wrap up the storylines of 20 plus Marvel movies.
0:46:46And although in some ways that was an easier task because of the space that it takes in
0:46:51our brains to something like star Wars, um, I, it's so easy to just kind of brush it off
0:46:58and be like, Oh yeah, it's a Marvel movie and it made billions of dollars and whatever.
0:47:02It's like, no, Avengers Endgame actually really worked.
0:47:06And coming out of the, the end of infinity war, which was a cliffhanger essentially,
0:47:11and also kind of a downer, they have to pick up the ball and they have to get the band
0:47:16back together and they have to tell a, an emotionally fulfilling and exciting story
0:47:20that resolves the storyline of a lot of characters and do it in, in this case in three hours,
0:47:26which, you know, the fact was it was an entertaining movie at three hours.
0:47:30I think it is worth recognizing Avengers Endgame for successfully landing more or less an enormous
0:47:38franchise movie in a way that was not soul crushing and was actually kind of emotionally
0:47:42fulfilling.
0:47:43I think it's a, I think it's a real achievement, sort of the same kind of achievement the original
0:47:47Avengers movie was in feeling like a corporate cash grab that turned out to actually be a
0:47:52good movie, despite like no possibility that that was the case.
0:47:56So I think it's worth as it recedes into the rear view a little bit, giving a nod to
0:48:01Avengers Endgame.
0:48:02This is the kind of movie that we give these awards to and, and they nailed it.
0:48:07So my, my winner is Avengers Endgame too.
0:48:13I think Avengers Endgame did a better job of being Star Wars than Star Wars did this
0:48:18year.
0:48:18It was faced with all of the same challenges that the Star Wars movie was faced with.
0:48:23Like, like all the things you've mentioned, right?
0:48:26Wrapping up a huge franchise with a ton of baggage and loose ends to tie up, or at least
0:48:31to try the best to tie up and also to bounce back from a movie that wasn't as enjoyed by
0:48:37a lot of the fandom because it was like a real downer, as you mentioned, right?
0:48:42And Avengers nailed it.
0:48:44Like the way I felt in that Avengers movie is how I should have felt watching Rise of
0:48:49the Skywalker and didn't like, I cried for like three hours watching the Avengers movie.
0:48:54Like I was just crying constantly.
0:48:56Like that film hit me.
0:48:58It made me realize that the Avengers movies for me are more like the way that you and
0:49:06some of our friends feel about Star Wars.
0:49:08Because I grew up with the Avengers movies, right?
0:49:12Like for the time that they've been going on, I've been watching them all as they've
0:49:16been coming out.
0:49:17Like I came to Star Wars as a kid, but afterwards, right?
0:49:21Like my first time I saw Star Wars was when they released the special editions on VHS.
0:49:27Like they were the first Star Wars movies that I saw, because that was when I could
0:49:32have seen them.
0:49:33When else would I have seen them, right?
0:49:36So that was when-
0:49:36Time machine.
0:49:36Time machine.
0:49:38That's a good point.
0:49:38There's no time travel in Star Wars, actually.
0:49:41That's one place they haven't gone.
0:49:42Yeah.
0:49:43But let me just say, like kind of like my overall, kind of spoken about having the chance
0:49:47to speak about this.
0:49:48I'm kind of pleased we didn't set a mic at the movies because my kind of feeling on the
0:49:54Star Wars movie this year was kind of like, okay, like it was a fine movie, but it did
0:50:00not give me what I was looking for in a like big conclusion.
0:50:04Kind of just like, like it washed over me a bit, right?
0:50:09Or it's just like, that was a nice movie, but that's not what I want out of a Star Wars
0:50:15movie.
0:50:15Because the last two succeeded for me more in being these big emotional, cathartic things.
0:50:23And I feel like this movie was just like two hours of fan service that didn't connect with
0:50:30me.
0:50:30But it was a fine movie.
0:50:33Like I don't think it was bad, but it just didn't give me the kick that I wanted.
0:50:40But Avengers Endgame did.
0:50:41I loved that movie.
0:50:43So Avengers Endgame will win the upgrade for this year.
0:50:48So again, unanimous decision.
0:50:52Am I completely off base about Star Wars?
0:50:53I haven't listened to the incomparable yet, so I'm excited to kind of hear what you have
0:50:58to say.
0:50:58No, you're not.
0:51:00Although, you know, we get complaints because people have opinions and they disagree and
0:51:06then they're outraged that we don't agree with them.
0:51:08Well, of course.
0:51:08That's fine.
0:51:09I would say our take is a measured take, too.
0:51:11Some people really liked it.
0:51:13Some people didn't like it as much.
0:51:15I'm on the "didn't like it as much" side.
0:51:16I think it's, without again going too far into it, I think as a movie, it kind of doesn't
0:51:22work.
0:51:22I think as a series of check boxes to finish a franchise, it does the job.
0:51:30But I actually sat...
0:51:33One of the reasons that I appreciate Avengers Endgame more now is they took three hours
0:51:38and they gave it some space to have a lot of emotional weight and a lot of character
0:51:44moments as well as the action stuff.
0:51:47And the Star Wars movie is two hours and 20 or something and doesn't stop for those moments
0:51:56as much as it should.
0:51:57And I thought to myself, this should have either been two movies or part one and two,
0:52:03or it should have been three hours long and done what Endgame did.
0:52:08And it didn't do either.
0:52:09And I think it's the worst for it.
0:52:10So some people hate it.
0:52:12Some people like it.
0:52:14And I'm satisfying no one.
0:52:17I'm sort of with you, which is...
0:52:18- I think you are allowed to hate this movie.
0:52:21You're allowed to love this movie.
0:52:23And that is awesome.
0:52:24- You are.
0:52:24- You do your own thing.
0:52:26I just felt bang in the middle on it.
0:52:27- Yep.
0:52:28You're allowed to feel bang in the middle about it.
0:52:32That's the thing is the people who hate it often don't think that anyone else is allowed
0:52:36to have a different opinion on it or to be in between on it.
0:52:39It's like you're allowed to be in between on it.
0:52:40It makes total sense.
0:52:41- I would also say that for a lot of people that love it, they think you're not allowed
0:52:44to have another opinion on it either.
0:52:45- Yes, that is also true.
0:52:47- I don't think it's just for hate.
0:52:47- No, it's...
0:52:47Well, people who are full of hate in their hearts are gonna be more annoying about it
0:52:53than people who are full of love in their hearts.
0:52:55But yes, you're right.
0:52:56Extreme opinions don't like non-extreme opinions.
0:52:59- You either have...
0:53:00It's like the Star Wars universe.
0:53:02You have the dark side and the light side, but you also have the regular people.
0:53:05And we're just regular people in the Star Wars universe.
0:53:07- We're in the gray zone here.
0:53:09Yeah.
0:53:09Let's talk about TV, Myke.
0:53:11- Oh, TV.
0:53:12Let's do this.
0:53:13I'm excited about this category because it's been a fantastic year for television.
0:53:18The Upgradians voted thusly in the television category at 8.4% for all mankind, 12.1% Watchmen,
0:53:26and 14.2% The Mandalorian.
0:53:28Similarly to Disney Plus, I can't talk about The Mandalorian.
0:53:32I don't want to talk about The Mandalorian because I can't watch it until March.
0:53:35- It's real good.
0:53:37And I didn't put it on my top 10 list, but I might've revised it and put it on after
0:53:44the last couple of episodes because I think it finished very, very strongly.
0:53:47- Very excited to see that show though.
0:53:49Jason, do you wanna tell me what your favorite television show of the year is?
0:53:52Like I don't already know.
0:53:53- Yeah.
0:53:54Number...
0:53:54It was number one on my list.
0:53:55And while I really enjoyed The Mandalorian and I had For All Mankind in my top 10,
0:54:00and there's an episode of TV Talk Machine where I listed my top 10 shows of the year
0:54:04and forgot The Magicians, which probably should have been on there.
0:54:06Number one is Watchmen on HBO, Damon Lindelof's sequel to the classic comic book series by Alan
0:54:15Moore and Dave Gibbons that was set in the '80s.
0:54:17This is set in the present day, nine episodes, manages to do individual episodes that are
0:54:25spectacular and ongoing storyline that is very meaningful in terms of its themes.
0:54:29It has a point of view as the original did.
0:54:33It is actually very strongly political in certain ways as the original was.
0:54:39It's structured similarly to the original as well.
0:54:44It's got sort of like a second storyline that's happening in parallel.
0:54:47It's got a big slam bang ending that is very sci-fi after a sort of gritty noirish
0:54:54mystery beginning.
0:54:55You know, I see what you're doing there.
0:54:59And it's a spectacular magic trick.
0:55:02I could never have imagined that it would have been as successful as it was when it
0:55:06was announced.
0:55:07I thought, "What are they doing?
0:55:08Present day and new characters and it's in Oklahoma and what's going on?"
0:55:12No, they nailed it.
0:55:13It's amazing.
0:55:13Will it have a second season?
0:55:15Nobody knows.
0:55:17It may not.
0:55:17It doesn't need one.
0:55:18If they have a great idea to do another season of it, great.
0:55:22But this one was perfect.
0:55:24Yeah.
0:55:26I absolutely adore Watchmen.
0:55:29It's on my list.
0:55:30My list is large and I want to talk about all other things on my list and we'll come
0:55:35back to Watchmen in a minute.
0:55:36I discovered Terrace House in 2019 and I absolutely adore this television show.
0:55:42It is a Japanese reality show.
0:55:44It is heartwarming and fascinating and wonderful.
0:55:49It's on Netflix.
0:55:50Netflix revived the show.
0:55:52It was a Japanese television show that I think had been cancelled and Netflix brought it
0:55:57back and it's now worldwide on Netflix, not just in Japan.
0:56:00It's not like one of these shows that they bring from another network and revive it.
0:56:07They completely revived it and it's now a Netflix original.
0:56:11And I don't really know how to describe it.
0:56:15It's unlike any other reality television show that you've seen before.
0:56:19It is pretty much romance based, but I don't want to say it's like a dating reality show
0:56:23because it's more than that.
0:56:24But it is a beautiful slice into the average life of a young person in Japan.
0:56:30It's a house where six people live together, but they can come and go.
0:56:34They're not locked into the house.
0:56:36There are no confessionals.
0:56:38They're just living their lives.
0:56:39The cameras are on pretty much all the time, but you don't get to see everything.
0:56:43There are not cameras everywhere in the house either.
0:56:46So they're able to have moments that occur in the show that are referenced by the characters,
0:56:51but you never get to see them like conversations that may have happened.
0:56:54And that can add to some additional interesting drama through the show.
0:56:58And there is also my favorite thing.
0:57:01There is a kind of a group of observers, like presenters of the show who are watching along
0:57:07and they take breaks three times during the episode for them to comment on what they have
0:57:11seen.
0:57:11It's a fascinating way of doing it.
0:57:14I absolutely love this TV show.
0:57:16If that at all seems interesting to you in any way, go back and watch the first commit
0:57:23yourself to like three episodes of the first season on Netflix, which is called Boys and
0:57:29Girls in the City.
0:57:30Just it's all in Japanese subtitles.
0:57:34You can get used to that.
0:57:35I got used to it.
0:57:36Just give it a go.
0:57:37Absolutely love this show.
0:57:38My favorite show from Apple this year was for all mankind.
0:57:43Yeah, that's the one that made my top 10 list, too.
0:57:46Although I'm still going through the morning show and it's good.
0:57:50But for all mankind is the one that I think they did a really great job in their first
0:57:55season.
0:57:55I would say whatever they do next.
0:57:57Both shows and there are no spoilers here, but like both shows, both for all mankind
0:58:02and the morning show are very good and they both get rocket strapped to them.
0:58:06Metaphorical ones at the end of the shows.
0:58:08Yeah, well, literally in the case of for all mankind.
0:58:11But yeah.
0:58:12And so I really, really love the end of like I love the way that the morning show ended.
0:58:17And I also it's it can be difficult in places, but for all mankind has a really fascinating
0:58:22and fantastic ending.
0:58:23It's very dramatic to show dramatic in ways I wasn't expecting.
0:58:27I was expecting the morning show to be the high drama one, but I think for all mankind
0:58:30succeeds in that.
0:58:31It's really, really well done.
0:58:33It is definitely Apple's crown jewel.
0:58:35And I'm surprised isn't the show that was getting nominations like Golden Globes.
0:58:40Nominations seem to be all in the pocket of of the morning show, but not for all mankind.
0:58:48The Bon Appetit YouTube channel.
0:58:49It's just amazing.
0:58:51OK.
0:58:51It is the the the food magazine Bon Appetit.
0:58:55They have a wonderful YouTube channel with two crowning achievement shows for me.
0:58:59A show called It's Alive and a show called Gourmet Makes.
0:59:03It's Alive with Brad Leone is if you were to say what is the show?
0:59:09It is a show about fermenting food.
0:59:11But like ignore that.
0:59:13It is hilarious.
0:59:14Bradley only is just this wonderful, bumbling human who just says and does hilarious things.
0:59:20The editing is fantastic.
0:59:21Just try it.
0:59:23It's wonderful.
0:59:24Gourmet Makes hosted by Claire Safetz.
0:59:26She is a pastry chef who takes a popular candy or food item and tries to recreate it in a
0:59:31gourmet way.
0:59:32These two shows are full of heart, full of just really just wholesome, wonderful content.
0:59:38Just just they are both these two seasons.
0:59:40The entire channel is fantastic and there's a lot more content on it.
0:59:43But these two shows are absolute powerhouses, like multiple millions of views per episode
0:59:49kind of powerhouses for things that can sometimes be 45 minutes.
0:59:53They have like I've read I've read a bunch of stuff about it and it's totally true.
0:59:56Like Bon Appetit are the success story of the pivot to video like Bon Appetit the magazine
1:00:04to pivot to video along with every other New York media company.
1:00:07And it mostly didn't work for a lot of companies.
1:00:09It 100% worked for Bon Appetit and has actually propelled the magazine to new places.
1:00:13So wonderful.
1:00:15But my favorite television show of the year is Watchmen.
1:00:17I was expecting great things.
1:00:19I heard great things.
1:00:20It blew my mind.
1:00:21Just unbelievable television show.
1:00:31ere's a great show.
1:00:42Chernobyl on HBO.
1:00:43Spectacularly good.
1:00:44Sex Education on Netflix.
1:00:47So great.
1:00:49If the title puts you off, if the premise puts you off, give it a shot.
1:00:53It's incredibly good.
1:00:58What I keep saying about it is it has empathy for every character in it.
1:01:01And that is rare.
1:01:03And what we do in the shadows, the vampire comedy on FX.
1:01:09It is hilarious.
1:01:11But Watchmen wins.
1:01:13Yay.
1:01:13Yeah, it's got to right.
1:01:15The winner of this category is definitely Watchmen.
1:01:19Just really cool, superb, nicely done television show.
1:01:24So there we go.
1:01:27Shall we talk about or let's talk about what was the runner up of the category for all
1:01:33mankind in the Mandalorian.
1:01:34Does that work for you?
1:01:35Sure.
1:01:37Yeah, let's go with that.
1:01:38Favorite book.
1:01:40My favorite category.
1:01:42I get to pick because Myke doesn't read books.
1:01:45I don't read books, but the upgradians voted thusly.
1:01:48Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey with 2% of the vote.
1:01:53Permanent Record series.
1:01:54Yeah, that's from the Expanse.
1:01:55Yes.
1:01:56Thank you.
1:01:56Permanent Record by Edward Snowden, which I assume is a memoir at 4.2%.
1:02:00And by Relay FM host Dan Morin, The Bayan Agenda with 6.8% of the vote.
1:02:09It's the sequel to a upgradey winner of the Caledonian gambit.
1:02:13Yep.
1:02:14Dan won in 2017.
1:02:16What I'm saying is if you're a novelist, you should get to know us.
1:02:20Yeah.
1:02:21You may win awards.
1:02:24Yeah, I had, I sort of listed five here.
1:02:29Tiamat's Wrath I put on that.
1:02:31That's actually a return to form for that series.
1:02:32I thought the last book was a little bit weird, but book eight of nine was very good.
1:02:38The Bayan Agenda, of course, has to be on my short list.
1:02:42Becoming Superman by J. Michael Straczynski, which is a memoir.
1:02:47It is an amazing story about a terrible childhood that he had and to become a successful Hollywood
1:02:55screenwriter after the life that he led as a child is amazing.
1:03:00The MVP Machine, which is a really great view into how modern sports science is changing,
1:03:07in this case, baseball, but I think it's applicable to a lot of different sports and how sports is
1:03:12really radically changing at a fundamental level now about how they treat the athletes and
1:03:17analyze them and train them.
1:03:18It was really an interesting book.
1:03:21And another novel, The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham, which I could not have enjoyed
1:03:27more.
1:03:27It's a widescreen space opera with a bunch of different characters and a threat from
1:03:32the outside and ancient evil returns.
1:03:37And the only person who can stop it is a crusty old prospector, basically, on the town on
1:03:43the planet.
1:03:44A lot of fun.
1:03:45I don't know what to do to pick a winner here.
1:03:48What did we pick last year?
1:03:53- Last year was the calculating stars.
1:03:56- So I'm gonna pick my...
1:03:58So with all of those as nominees, I think I'm gonna go...
1:04:04Well, should we give it to Dan again?
1:04:06Is Dan gonna expect it?
1:04:09Are we gonna have to put Dan in the Hall of Fame if we just pick his book every time?
1:04:13I'm gonna go with the best discovery I made because I view this as kind of a, here's a
1:04:18book, here's a novel you might enjoy award.
1:04:20And so I'm going to choose Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, which is book one.
1:04:29It was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards.
1:04:31I really enjoyed it.
1:04:32Book one in a series that is starting, but it's a great standalone novel.
1:04:37The series is called The Sixth World, but Trail of Lightning.
1:04:43That's the one, if you're looking for a novel to read, that's Jason's annual novel suggestion,
1:04:47Trail of Lightning.
1:04:48It is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, except she's Navajo and it's after a global warming-caused
1:04:56apocalypse that has made most of the modern world fall apart, but the Navajo nation is
1:05:01on the upswing.
1:05:02Unfortunately, the apocalypse seems to have also opened the gateway to the return of powerful
1:05:10beings from mythology, but it's about a teenage girl who's a monster hunter and doesn't love
1:05:20it, but it's her job and it's great.
1:05:22So the winner is Trail of Lightning with the nominee, The Byron Agenda.
1:05:28The Byron Agenda, yeah.
1:05:30Dan Morin, go buy it at bookstores now.
1:05:34Bookstores now.
1:05:35All right, this episode, well, I should say this episode is also brought to you by
1:05:39Kensington.
1:05:40We're about to move into the hardware, some of the hardware picks, tech-focused picks.
1:05:45We are out of the woods of media until we get to podcasting later on.
1:05:49That's this whole other section, but let's take a moment to thank Kensington, the people
1:05:54who make universal docking stations that are designed to increase productivity.
1:05:58It's super easy to use these products and you get access to more ports to make your
1:06:02sleek MacBook, Chromebook or other laptop as powerful as a desktop.
1:06:06Kensington devices are plug and play with no drivers, so you can enjoy up to dual 4K
1:06:11displays of HDMI and DisplayLink video connectors, plus USB 3, USB C and Thunderbolt 3 with power
1:06:18delivery available as well.
1:06:20The Kensington engineering team has three decades of experience in high volume manufacturing
1:06:24of hardware IT products with rigorous test cycles and quality control, meaning that all
1:06:29of their products are tested above industry standards.
1:06:32If you're an IT decision maker looking to find the right docking solutions for your
1:06:35organisation, check Kensington's ProConcierge program out and test drive a docking solution
1:06:41today.
1:06:42Visit Kensington.com/upgrade right now to check out Kensington's line of products.
1:06:47That's Kensington.com/upgrade to learn more.
1:06:50Our thanks to Kensington for their support of this show, Relay FM and the Upgrading Awards.
1:06:55And we move into Jason talking about the favourite Apple product of the year.
1:07:02Interesting one this year.
1:07:03Oh yeah, here we go.
1:07:03So the Upgradients at 14.7% of the vote went with the iPhone 11 Pro at 17.1% of the vote,
1:07:14unsurprisingly, is the 16 inch MacBook Pro with of course the non butterfly keyboard
1:07:20and at a huge 29.
1:07:23I actually, you know, I'm wrong in what I said earlier.
1:07:25This is the single highest percentage win bumping out overcast from the Upgradients
1:07:30at nearly a third, 29%, 29.8% in fact of the vote for the favourite Apple product of the
1:07:38year is AirPods Pro.
1:07:40Jason, what was your favourite Apple product this year?
1:07:45AirPods Pro gets my vote again.
1:07:48I'm surprised as I was with the original, like the people who make this product within
1:07:54Apple, they are killing it.
1:07:56They're doing a great job.
1:07:57It is, I was skeptical in-ear headphones with noise cancelling.
1:08:01How's that going to work?
1:08:02And I've been using them since they came out and they're great.
1:08:07And I wouldn't want to go back to the original AirPods.
1:08:10I loved the original AirPods, but I like these even more.
1:08:12I think it's, you know, an easy choice.
1:08:16The MacBook Pro 16 is not really my cup of tea.
1:08:20It's great that they replaced the keyboard, but also they could have made it.
1:08:23It's rectifying a mistake from three years ago after three years of it sitting out there.
1:08:28And the iPhones are all great.
1:08:30It's a nice cycle for them, but it is an upgrade cycle.
1:08:35None of them is new.
1:08:35And for me, AirPods Pro is my choice for sure.
1:08:41But what did you want, Myke?
1:08:42Well, you're not going to get any argument from me about how incredible AirPods Pro are,
1:08:47but I'm actually putting the iPhone 11 Pro as my vote this year
1:08:51because I am genuinely surprised how much of an improvement this phone is in a couple of key areas.
1:09:02So these are the things that we've been talking about the whole time
1:09:05since the phone was first debuted.
1:09:06What makes this phone different?
1:09:08The camera improvements and the battery life.
1:09:10But just how much of an improvement they are for me is so significantly more than previous years
1:09:20that they've made.
1:09:20I mean, these are the things they want to improve all the time, right?
1:09:23Camera performance and battery life.
1:09:24But they are so good.
1:09:28The camera and battery on this phone is so freaking good.
1:09:32Like I just went away for the holidays and I was able to use my phone like on travel days,
1:09:40like getting on planes and like big heavy usage days.
1:09:44I didn't charge my phone at all.
1:09:46And this has never been the case before that I've been able to get through
1:09:50like a heavy usage travel day without needing to charge my phone.
1:09:54Like, you know, I can see it in screen time.
1:09:56I'm talking like eight to nine plus hours of phone usage in a day without charging.
1:10:04Like that is bonkers good.
1:10:07I am so, so happy with the performance of this phone.
1:10:13And I am just totally in love with the camera.
1:10:15Like it is so good.
1:10:17Like having the choice of the three lenses, but then also just like all of the processing
1:10:22that Apple's doing on the chips.
1:10:23Like I absolutely love the iPhone 11 Pro like way more than I would have expected.
1:10:28But I am not going to fight for it to be the winner of the AirPods Pro because that is
1:10:34a superb product.
1:10:36Wise choice.
1:10:37So the runner up for the favorite Apple product of the year is the iPhone 11 Pro with the
1:10:42winner being the AirPods Pro.
1:10:46So now we move into the best non-Apple product.
1:10:50So the best product as used by Upgradients and me and Jason not made by Apple this year.
1:10:56The Upgradients voted at 2.2% for the bridge keyboard.
1:10:58We have an entry here that I will mention, but will not be included, which is at 2.3%
1:11:04is the Motorola Razr.
1:11:05Nobody's used this because it's not out yet, but it is a really cool looking thing.
1:11:09We'll talk about this at some point in the future probably.
1:11:12At 2.6% is the Tesla Cybertruck, which kind of makes me a little bit upset, I think.
1:11:17Similar reasons.
1:11:18Nobody's used it, but we'll keep going moving on.
1:11:21And the Nintendo Switch Lite at 5.2% of the vote.
1:11:25This is the new Nintendo Switch introduced this year, which is purely portable and is
1:11:30a smaller design, doesn't connect to a TV, that kind of thing.
1:11:33Jason, what is your favorite non-Apple product of the year?
1:11:37I kind of struggled with this one.
1:11:38It is a difficult category.
1:11:41Because I mean, really it's a non-Apple product.
1:11:43Who cares about it?
1:11:44Oh, Jason.
1:11:44Well, look, look at what was nominated by the Upgradients.
1:11:52I asked you.
1:11:52The Nintendo Switch Lite is a cool product and the bridge keyboard is really cool.
1:11:55The two in the middle I'm a little bit frustrated about because nobody's used either of these
1:11:59things, but such is life.
1:12:00So this time last year, I got a new product in my life that was not made by Apple.
1:12:07New piece of hardware.
1:12:09It has, uh, it has proven over the year to be useful throughout my house, except for
1:12:17rooms that I don't let it go into.
1:12:18It is, it's a product that, that, um, moves.
1:12:25Well, it doesn't move me.
1:12:26It literally moves itself.
1:12:27It is, uh, it keeps its heart close to the ground because it's a vacuum cleaner.
1:12:33I nominate for best non-Apple product, my Roomba.
1:12:37Okay.
1:12:38Now can I just confirm here?
1:12:40Are we nominate your own personal Roomba or the Roomba line that you purchased?
1:12:45Let's, let's say the, we'll just say the Roomba in general.
1:12:49Roomba, yeah.
1:12:50Robot, yeah.
1:12:51Robot vacuum cleaners.
1:12:52Cause I have one and I have seen the light.
1:12:54I want to say Roomba.
1:12:55We're going with Roomba cause we are also in the Roomba family.
1:12:58So I don't want to give it to all robot vacuum cleaners because this is like one of those
1:13:02holy war things.
1:13:02So people tell you why you should buy the Xiaomi one instead.
1:13:05So I want to go completely with Roomba, which I'm totally happy with because I love my Roomba.
1:13:10His name's Robbie and we love Roomba.
1:13:12Jason, shouldn't be a surprise to you or anybody else for my favorite non-Apple product this year.
1:13:18Don't do it.
1:13:19It is the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
1:13:21Now I have more to say about the Galaxy Fold later on in this episode today.
1:13:26I have a very distinct point that I need to make.
1:13:29Worst gadget is coming up and tech screw up is coming up.
1:13:32So there's lots of good categories for the Galaxy Fold.
1:13:35You quiet your mouth.
1:13:37The Samsung Galaxy Fold is a fantastic technology product.
1:13:42It, for me, feels like the future, whether people want it or not.
1:13:47It is such a fascinating thing to use.
1:13:50I love it.
1:13:51It's it.
1:13:52People won't believe me when I say this, but it is an incredibly well-made thing.
1:13:57It feels significant.
1:13:59It is beautifully put together.
1:14:02I love my Galaxy Fold and I think that it is a super exciting product,
1:14:06but I'm not going to bother explaining any more to people that don't want to listen.
1:14:10So I think we're going to go with the runners up being the Nintendo Switch Lite,
1:14:15the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Roomba.
1:14:18Let's hear it for the Roomba.
1:14:19Good work Roomba.
1:14:21And yeah, and now what I want to do is I want to cut to the Roomba.
1:14:25Like now with the acceptance speech, here's the Roomba.
1:14:27And it just makes up that whining noise that it makes.
1:14:29Oh no, it could make the little doo doo doo doo noise, you know.
1:14:33Yeah, please charge Roomba.
1:14:35Oh no, Roomba is stuck.
1:14:37Okay, let's move into our next category, which is for worst gadget or most disappointing technology of 2019.
1:14:465.7% of the vote is iOS 13.
1:14:519% of the vote is Google Pixel 4.
1:14:56And I combined both the Samsung Galaxy Fold and foldables in general to 19% of the vote.
1:15:04Now Jason, I would like to address something here because I'm frustrated at this
1:15:10and I'm frustrated at the upgradience.
1:15:11Oh, are you turning the chair around?
1:15:13Are you having a serious talk with the upgradience now?
1:15:15Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:15:15I've turned my hats going backwards and the chair's gone around and I'm sitting on the chair.
1:15:20You gotta wrap with us a little bit, okay.
1:15:21Now look, this is the wrong category for this vote.
1:15:25Because these 19% of people, have they used these devices?
1:15:30Because I think to be disappointed or to call something the worst gadget,
1:15:35you have to have had some kind of experience with it, in my opinion.
1:15:38And I genuinely believe that if you have used these devices,
1:15:43you would not say that they are incredibly disappointing.
1:15:46Now if we want to talk about favorite tech screw up for the Galaxy Fold, which you probably will,
1:15:50like I am open to have that discussion because there's something really interesting to talk about in there.
1:15:55But I won't accept the Galaxy Fold as the most disappointing technology this year.
1:16:00I just won't accept it.
1:16:02So that is the point that I'm making.
1:16:03We can maybe come back to that in a little bit.
1:16:06But I've now turned the chair back around again.
1:16:08And Jason, do you want to tell me your nominations?
1:16:10Wow, now that Dad has forbidden the choice of the upgradience.
1:16:14I haven't forbidden it.
1:16:15Dad has just told you that he's unhappy.
1:16:18Okay.
1:16:19I have two nominees because this is worst gadget slash most disappointing tech.
1:16:25And I'm going to nominate one in each of those.
1:16:28Okay.
1:16:30Worst gadget.
1:16:31And it doesn't make it better that there are now ads with the Muppets trying to get you to buy one.
1:16:40Facebook makes a thing you stick in your house that has a camera and a microphone
1:16:45so that you can talk to other people using Facebook.
1:16:49It is called the Facebook port portal.
1:16:52It is the worst gadget.
1:16:53Do not allow hardware from Facebook in your house.
1:16:56You already own a device that lets you do this.
1:16:59Yes.
1:17:00If you really want to talk to people, video chat, Facebook messenger, just use the Facebook
1:17:04messenger app.
1:17:05Like what, what does anybody need this hardware device for?
1:17:08It's wild.
1:17:09And to come from the least trustworthy company in the world.
1:17:13Facebook.
1:17:14Don't do it.
1:17:16So that's worst gadget.
1:17:17It might be, it might be, I don't know about the build quality.
1:17:21I don't know about the video quality.
1:17:22I don't care.
1:17:22It's the worst gadget.
1:17:23You should never buy it.
1:17:25Most disappointing tech.
1:17:26I'm going to say Mac catalyst because not necessarily entirely its own fault.
1:17:32Although I think that we're all disappointed that it didn't seem to progress very much
1:17:36from what Steve trout and Smith figured out about the one that was in Mojave.
1:17:40Didn't seem to progress a lot.
1:17:43Didn't get helped by the Rocky iOS 13 transition to mention one of the upgrading nominees.
1:17:50That, uh, you know, we have, there are a lot fewer Mac catalyst apps than we thought there
1:17:56would be.
1:17:56I think part of that is because developers ended up spending a lot of time, uh, fixing,
1:18:01addressing all the bugs in iOS 13, and then having to address the new features in iOS
1:18:0513 and catalyst is sort of like out there.
1:18:08But I really thought that we would see a whole bunch of iOS apps embracing catalyst and going
1:18:13to the Mac this fall.
1:18:15And while there were some, there were not that many.
1:18:18And I would say that is about as disappointing as, uh, as you could get.
1:18:23My vote is for iOS 13 this year.
1:18:28It was a nightmare.
1:18:30It was just a nightmare disaster of an iOS release in new and interesting ways, right?
1:18:35Like the iPhone comes out of iOS 13 on it, but it's not really available for all the
1:18:41devices that should have iOS 13.
1:18:43And if you update it to it, some terrible things may have happened to you.
1:18:46So many features were pushed to later in the year and of what they shipped.
1:18:52It was full of bugs and full of problems like iOS 13.
1:18:56Still, we are at this point in the year where there are still features that have yet to
1:18:59be released that were shown off in June.
1:19:02It has been a very bad iOS release.
1:19:06I am.
1:19:06Yep.
1:19:07And so like I'll say for the Google Pixel 4 is an interesting one for the worst gadget,
1:19:13or most disappointing because it was a disappointing product.
1:19:16Like it did not ship with a lot of the features people would have wanted to see.
1:19:19Facebook portal, which was a runner up in 2018, but there have been new versions of it
1:19:26this year.
1:19:26It doesn't really matter.
1:19:27It continues to be the worst gadget.
1:19:29It continues to be very bad.
1:19:30Don't buy it.
1:19:31As long as it's being sold, don't buy it.
1:19:33Yeah.
1:19:33We could like, you know, the worst gadget award brought to you by Facebook portal.
1:19:37Uh huh.
1:19:38We just need a muppet.
1:19:39I'm a little conflicted on this one, right?
1:19:41Because I obviously I believe iOS 13 to be very disappointing, but I will also say that
1:19:47Mac Catalyst is a really good nomination in this because it should have been so much more.
1:19:52And, you know, I think the fault lies on Apple with this one, but I think they basically
1:19:58torpedoed it themselves with the announcement of Swift UI, which even makes it even more
1:20:03disappointing.
1:20:04So where do you want to go with this one, Jason?
1:20:06Um, well, I, I just, as we were getting here, I realized I should have Mac Catalyst in this
1:20:12list and I got to say as much as I enjoy kicking Facebook, um, and I agree that iOS 13 had
1:20:21problems.
1:20:21I feel like there is not a better, you will not find a better example of a disappointment
1:20:26this year technologically than Mac Catalyst.
1:20:29So I think we should give it to Mac Catalyst.
1:20:31The runners up for the worst gadget on most disappointing technology of 2019 is two time
1:20:37runner up Facebook portal, iOS 13 and the winner of the most disappointing technology
1:20:43this year is Mac Catalyst.
1:20:45I think it makes, it's a very good pick and like you, I'm surprised I didn't think of
1:20:50it, but maybe that's the point, right?
1:20:52We didn't even think of it because Catalyst kind of whimpered its way through the year.
1:20:58Like, yeah, it was set up to be big and then both in its implementation and in the fact
1:21:04that Apple took all of the attention and put it on Swift UI, um, thereby making us all
1:21:09wonder kind of like what the point is of Mac Catalyst and if it's really something that
1:21:15factors in their, uh, in, in their future plans.
1:21:18It's, it's weird and disappointing.
1:21:21All right.
1:21:22So that comes to some, the end of some disappointments.
1:21:25But we have some technology stories that we're going to be talking about in our next kind
1:21:31of round of categories.
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1:23:10Ready to move on, Jason?
1:23:14Yes.
1:23:15All right, so we now get into our favorite tech story of the year and the Upgradians
1:23:21voted thusly with 7.2% of the vote is the Cybertruck.
1:23:27And this includes not just its announcement, but also kind of some of the hilarious things
1:23:31that happened during its introduction.
1:23:33Made it a favorite tech story of many people.
1:23:347.4% of the vote was the introduction of the 16 inch MacBook Pro and 13.2% of the vote
1:23:43of favorite tech story of the year amongst the Upgradians is the introduction of the
1:23:48Mac Pro, the Macintosh professional machine.
1:23:51Jason, what is your vote of the most interesting or your favorite tech story this year?
1:23:57I'm getting a little conceptual here, but my favorite tech story of the year is the
1:24:03increase in mainstream understanding that privacy issues involving technology, especially
1:24:10the privacy, personalized information that leaks from your smartphone, that becoming
1:24:17mainstream.
1:24:17Mainstream understanding, you saw presidential candidates talk about it.
1:24:22There have been a bunch of stories in the mainstream press about trying to educate people
1:24:26on just how leaky a smartphone can be in terms of your location and being able to plot you
1:24:32and identify you and where you are on a map and what you do and tying it all together.
1:24:39There's recently there was a New York Times opinion piece about it.
1:24:43There was a New York Times investigation piece earlier.
1:24:46We've seen with the GDPR stuff and with the new laws that are coming into effect for California,
1:24:51a lot of ideas about who owns the data and data privacy and all of that.
1:24:56This seems to be unlike something like net neutrality, which basically has always been
1:25:03this esoteric thing that people don't really understand and it's hard to explain.
1:25:07I feel like this is a tech issue that has finally hit the mainstream to a certain extent
1:25:14and people are starting to wake up and hopefully be concerned about how their data is being
1:25:21used.
1:25:22And that's encouraging because if people don't care about it, nothing will ever happen.
1:25:27And it is a big issue.
1:25:28So I'm encouraged by that.
1:25:30So that for me, just a broader understanding of all the privacy issues that are out there
1:25:35is my story of the year.
1:25:37My story of the year is the rise of foldable or dual screen phones.
1:25:44Oh boy, yeah.
1:25:46Galaxy Fold, Motorola, Razer, Surface Duo and Neo.
1:25:50These are some of my favorite things to talk about this year because I think this is really
1:25:54cool technology.
1:25:55And I think that as the year has gone on, we've seen lots of unique ways of having stuff
1:26:02like this.
1:26:02I mean, this also comes into the fact that there has been controversy around these devices,
1:26:06right?
1:26:06Like I really enjoyed the Samsung Galaxy Folds all going kaput when they were first shown
1:26:13out to reviewers.
1:26:14I think it's been a really interesting trend of this year of watching how multiple companies
1:26:18have been approaching this, including the Microsoft devices, the Duo and Neo, which
1:26:22I'm also really excited about.
1:26:24That is just another way of doing this type of idea.
1:26:29It's slightly different, right?
1:26:30They're not foldables in that way.
1:26:31They're dual screens.
1:26:32But the idea of taking a device and doing something to it to give you more or less screen
1:26:38real estate, I think is a really interesting thing that's happened this year.
1:26:41So we have three very different options here.
1:26:45Yeah.
1:26:46So we have the Mac Pro, understanding of privacy and foldable phones.
1:26:51I like your pick quite a lot.
1:26:59I think that it is an important thing and it has definitely been something that's been
1:27:03building over the last couple of years.
1:27:05But again, it's like a fever pitch type stuff this year, right?
1:27:10Like people are getting it more, you're seeing it more.
1:27:12And hopefully will be the beginning of people thinking about their privacy more.
1:27:18So I'm totally happy to give the idea of mainstream privacy issues.
1:27:24The technology stuff is the winner of this category.
1:27:28Do you agree?
1:27:29Yeah.
1:27:30Great.
1:27:31Thank you.
1:27:31So the winner of the favorite tech story of 2019 is the understanding of technology privacy.
1:27:38I think we'll call it that.
1:27:39How does that sound?
1:27:39Okay.
1:27:40Sounds great.
1:27:41This is a big picture.
1:27:41This winner is usually that, right?
1:27:44Yes.
1:27:44It's usually something like that.
1:27:45It should be a trend.
1:27:47If not, there's like some very specific thing which could have happened.
1:27:52Last year's was Apple spoiling the September bad URLs.
1:27:57But like, which is great.
1:27:59But the year before that was overreaching smartphones, like the essential phone and
1:28:03the red hydrogen one, which history proved you right on.
1:28:06Both of those phones are now dead because it just didn't work.
1:28:10Yeah.
1:28:11They're bad ideas.
1:28:13One of my favorite categories is the favorite tech screw up of the year.
1:28:188.2% of the gradients votes is just the word Facebook.
1:28:23Well.
1:28:27They continue to screw up.
1:28:28Nothing specific.
1:28:29Last year's winner, by the way, Facebook.
1:28:32Yep.
1:28:32Actually last year's winner was AirPower, wasn't it?
1:28:37No, AirPower won the most disappointing tech worst gadget category.
1:28:41Ah, yes.
1:28:42Tech screw up was Facebook privacy scandals.
1:28:44That was more specific last time.
1:28:47This year is just Facebook.
1:28:49Facebook.
1:28:498.2%.
1:28:5016.2% was when the windows smashed during the Cybertruck presentation.
1:28:57Which was a terrible screw up.
1:28:59It's a classic moment.
1:29:00But the obvious winner of the upgradings vote at 24.9% is the Samsung Galaxy Fold,
1:29:07when all of the phones broke that were given out to press reviews.
1:29:12Yeah.
1:29:12So this is my nomination as well.
1:29:14So I'm in line with the upgradings here.
1:29:16The press rollout.
1:29:18So now you have a Samsung Galaxy Fold.
1:29:21You nominated it for best not ample product.
1:29:26I am going to be specific here because I haven't used it and say my favorite text group of the
1:29:31year was the press rollout for the Samsung Galaxy Fold where Samsung had a product that was brand
1:29:37new and all eyes are on them.
1:29:39Yep.
1:29:39And it was not ready.
1:29:43It was an absolute failure in a myriad of different ways.
1:29:46It seems to have not been properly tested,
1:29:50but instead just shipped to professional technology reviewers who immediately broke it for lots
1:29:58of reasons that are not acceptable, like using it and it broke.
1:30:04And you have to ask yourself, why did they not test that?
1:30:07How did they fail to test it?
1:30:09And why would you send something you hadn't tested out to the press to the point where
1:30:13press is writing all the stories about how it breaks.
1:30:15They have to take it back.
1:30:16It gets pulled off sale.
1:30:17It's not, it's no longer going to be sold.
1:30:20There's no date.
1:30:21They have to redesign parts of the phone and then put it back out there.
1:30:25And the phone that you've got is actually redesigned from what the reviewers got because
1:30:30it wasn't ready.
1:30:32And how do you do that?
1:30:34Just, it is a spectacular screw up.
1:30:37And I don't know, you know, the combination, a truly unique combination of arrogance and
1:30:44cluelessness that has to go into something like that happening.
1:30:47It was spectacular.
1:30:48Breathtaking.
1:30:49Yeah.
1:30:49It was purely because I think they were trying to rush to beat Huawei, but Samsung was so
1:30:55stupid in doing that because the Huawei phone has still yet to come out outside of China
1:31:00because it is plagued with so many more potentials to break because the screen folds on the outside.
1:31:07So it's way more likely to get damaged.
1:31:10Mountain fold?
1:31:11Is that right?
1:31:12That was the mountain fold.
1:31:13Yes.
1:31:13Congratulations, Jason.
1:31:14You remember.
1:31:15Not the valley fold.
1:31:16Not the valley fold.
1:31:16I am going to say that my favorite technology screw up was AirPower because this was the
1:31:25year that AirPower was committed to being dead.
1:31:28Officially killed.
1:31:29And I just think that this was just stupid of Apple.
1:31:34They just really messed this one up big time.
1:31:36I think it was just a...
1:31:38They never should have announced it and then they shouldn't have left it just being this
1:31:43thing that would be referenced.
1:31:44And then it was like people digging through, "Ah, but it's referenced in this guide printed
1:31:48in this phone."
1:31:49Obviously they were holding out hope that they were going to be able to turn it around
1:31:52until they finally killed it.
1:31:53What they should have done was announced it and never spoke about it until they killed
1:31:57it.
1:31:57But not only did they announce it way too soon, they kept referencing it all over the
1:32:01place thinking that it was definitely coming out.
1:32:03And then they had to just say, "Oh no, sorry.
1:32:06Not only do we not have this product, there's nothing like it."
1:32:09And buy this one from Mophie, I guess.
1:32:12But the best text grow up this year is the Samsung Galaxy Fold press rollout.
1:32:17It was an absolute nightmare.
1:32:19So I am totally happy to give that as the winner of the favorite text grow up of the
1:32:26year is the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
1:32:28With the, I'm going to say, runner up of AirPower.
1:32:32All right, Jason, moving on to our most life-changing hardware purchase that has entered our life
1:32:41this year.
1:32:42The Upgradients voted thusly.
1:32:447.5% is for AirPods.
1:32:4711.5% is for the Apple Watch.
1:32:50And at 12.6% is for AirPods Pro.
1:32:53Pretty good.
1:32:56Yeah, basically for this one, it was like Apple Watch people were voting like series
1:33:03four, series five.
1:33:04I just lumped them all in together.
1:33:05That's the right thing to do.
1:33:06That made the most sense because I don't think really for you to have your life changed by
1:33:10an Apple Watch, it doesn't necessarily have to be one model or another, right?
1:33:14Like it is kind of just the idea of what this product can do for you.
1:33:17But of course, we now have two AirPods in the nominations here.
1:33:23What did you go for?
1:33:25I, my most life-changing hardware of the year, I decided, not the Roomba.
1:33:33We already said we love the Roomba.
1:33:37The smart lock, the Yale Assure smart lock that I installed earlier this year.
1:33:40I was a real smart lock skeptic.
1:33:44Like seriously, like why would you get one?
1:33:47And then I got one for some very particular reasons and it's great.
1:33:53It's not perfect, but by replacing the deadbolt with a smart lock, not only do I have a keypad
1:33:59that you can just enter in a code and come and go and it's perfectly reasonable, but,
1:34:05you know, it is a smart, so yeah, it can be tied into my home automation.
1:34:09Mostly the feature that I use is not quite a homekit feature.
1:34:13It's a Bluetooth proximity feature where I'm walking up to my door and it recognizes that
1:34:19my phone is back.
1:34:20It has been gone and now it's back and it unlocks the door.
1:34:23And that's pretty cool when you've got, you know, your, your arms are full of groceries
1:34:27and you walk up to the door and it automatically unlocks for you.
1:34:30That's really nice too.
1:34:32So that has been a pleasant, uh, positive life-changing experience.
1:34:37I am going to nominate the AirPods Pro in this because being able to control outside
1:34:45outside noise at my whim, right?
1:34:48When in environments where maybe I want to hear less noise, like on a plane, being able
1:34:52to do that with something that's so small and just sits in my ears and is comfortable
1:34:56for me, uh, it's really made a huge difference on my life over the last few months.
1:35:00And I absolutely love this product for that reason.
1:35:03Well, it sounds like that's, we've got our winner.
1:35:06Yeah, we will put Jason's smart, uh, smart lock, uh, as the runner up.
1:35:12Yeah.
1:35:12And I'm going to call this, we will officially call this Jason's smart lock because, uh,
1:35:17the, because I think it's fun to refer back to what is one of my favorite nominations,
1:35:24which in 2014, the winner of this category was just Jason's daughter's iPhone, which
1:35:29I think is just hilarious, right?
1:35:31Like it was just like very specific.
1:35:33So we will call this Jason's smart lock as the runner up for most life changing hardware.
1:35:37But the AirPods Pro is the winner of this category because they are really just a fantastic,
1:35:43fantastic product.
1:35:44So what about that, Jason?
1:35:46The AirPods Pro has won two categories.
1:35:49Well, that seems, seems about right.
1:35:52They are really great.
1:35:53Like they are really great, but that might be the first time that's ever happened in
1:35:57the upgrade is though that something has won two categories in the same year, two separate
1:36:03categories.
1:36:03It's kind of quite impressive.
1:36:04All right.
1:36:06We're going to move into the final round of winners, which I think for a lot of people
1:36:13is like the favorite categories, which is the podcast related categories, favorite tech
1:36:18podcast, favorite non-tech podcast and favorite podcast newcomer to round out the 2019
1:36:25upgrade is awards.
1:36:26But before we do that, let me thank our final sponsor of this episode.
1:36:30And that is Ethos.
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1:37:54Are you ready, Jason, to get into our final set here?
1:37:57How can one ever be ready, truly?
1:38:01By having your picks in advance, which we all did.
1:38:05So the Upgradians for the favorite tech podcast of the year voted thusly with 9.9% of the
1:38:13vote.
1:38:14The talk show with Jon Gruber.
1:38:1515.4% of the vote is this very show, Upgrade.
1:38:20I still maintain that, of course, everybody, every Upgradient would vote for Upgrade, but
1:38:24they may be, well, they know we wouldn't give the Upgradient award to ourselves.
1:38:27I hope so.
1:38:28Otherwise, it's really sad that our listeners don't pick us.
1:38:31But it would be 100% of the vote, Jason, I'm sure of it.
1:38:34And with 23.4% of the vote, last year's winner, Connected, which is a show that I do here
1:38:40on Relay FM.
1:38:41And we should note at this point, of course, the Accidental Tech podcast is the Lifetime
1:38:45Achievement Award winner of this category.
1:38:47I do not have a vote in this category for two reasons.
1:38:52One, ATP is my favorite tech show and all of the other tech shows that I listen to are
1:38:56on Relay FM.
1:38:57And I don't feel right nominating a Relay FM show.
1:38:59It just doesn't feel fair.
1:39:00So I don't do it.
1:39:02Jason, do you have any nominations this year?
1:39:04I do.
1:39:05I am going to nominate two shows that are, one of them is tech, one of them is arguably
1:39:14tech, and I'm going to try to sneak it in.
1:39:15So first off on Relay FM, Automators, which is a nice show with Rosemary and David about
1:39:25automating things on computers.
1:39:27I like it.
1:39:30It's on Relay.
1:39:30I like it a lot too.
1:39:31Have you heard about it?
1:39:32Very, just like it's a very specific focus in a show, but is executed well.
1:39:37They have loads of like additional material that they publish of every episode as well
1:39:42to help make it easy for you to adopt the automations that they're talking about.
1:39:46It's really well made.
1:39:47It's a great show on Relay FM.
1:39:49Yeah.
1:39:49And from the BBC, maybe you've heard of it.
1:39:53It's 13 Minutes to the Moon, which was their documentary series about Apollo 11 and focusing,
1:40:02because this was the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 for the moon landing.
1:40:06And it focused on the 13 minutes of power descent from orbit to the lunar surface.
1:40:16That was the concept, which as somebody who has a space podcast and tried to figure out
1:40:20how to cover Apollo 11, I was very impressed with the angle that they came up with here.
1:40:24And this is why I actually call it a technology podcast because so much of what's going on
1:40:28in that 13 minutes, it's amazing from a human perspective, who's in the room, how they got
1:40:34there, what their history is, how young so many of them are.
1:40:37But for me, it's also a technology podcast because it really is about how that thing
1:40:44was put together, how information got relayed, how the computer worked, which is if you've
1:40:50ever read or heard anything about the Apollo computer, it's bananas how that thing was
1:40:58made and how it worked and what the interface was.
1:41:02And there's in fact, a whole episode, I believe about the Apollo guidance computer.
1:41:06That's a fantastic episode.
1:41:08So those are my nominees, 13 minutes to the moon and automators.
1:41:12So what do we do with this whole category here?
1:41:16I don't know.
1:41:18I mean, I've given you a non-relay slightly out of our category.
1:41:25Well, so here's the thing, Jason.
1:41:26I won't vote for a relay FM show, but I would also love a relay FM show to win, especially
1:41:32one that I'm on just saying, but I'm not going to be the person to commit that victory.
1:41:37To put it over the top?
1:41:39Boy, if we chose connected, it wouldn't be the lifetime winner, would it?
1:41:43No.
1:41:44So, you know, it would be two years in a row.
1:41:46The, well, I'm serious.
1:41:52I think the BBC podcast was fantastic.
1:41:55If you think that that's a reasonable tech podcast, or if I'm messing that up, you tell
1:42:00me.
1:42:01I think we have not specified what a tech podcast is, but I think that when we talk
1:42:11about what we mean by tech podcast, I think we all mean this type of show that you were
1:42:18doing right now.
1:42:19Right?
1:42:21Like, I think that's the kind of thing we're thinking about.
1:42:25I haven't listened to 13 Minutes to the Moon, but I expect it is not like our show.
1:42:30It is not like our show.
1:42:31Like a couple of individuals talking about something to do with technology.
1:42:35Definitely not.
1:42:35And I consider myself a purist in what I think a technology podcast to be and would feel
1:42:47strange not giving it to one of the other four shows mentioned here.
1:42:53All right.
1:42:55And while Zach mentions that Welcome to Macintosh is not a show like ours, which I agree with,
1:43:01but focuses on things so specific to the stuff that we talk about, I feel like it's maybe
1:43:08the furthest we would take that step outside.
1:43:10Right?
1:43:11Like still talking about Macintosh computers, still has people like Jason Snell on episodes.
1:43:16Right?
1:43:16Like feels like it is a stretch outside where 13 Minutes to the Moon could be argued maybe
1:43:23is like a history technology podcast, which is maybe a slightly different thing would
1:43:27maybe fit really well.
1:43:29And it is definitely okay.
1:43:30So like basically I feel like we're at a point here where we're kind of like maybe as usual
1:43:35on this show, potentially redefining what we think of in the category.
1:43:39But I feel like the previous winners in this category fit a type of show.
1:43:45That we make.
1:43:48Right.
1:43:49But if we go on long enough with those definitions, then we're just going to very slowly induct
1:43:54every show from relay or by people we know to the Hall of Fame.
1:43:57Exactly.
1:43:58Which is why I'm saying like we can I'm just saying like when I approach this category,
1:44:03that's what I'm thinking of, but it doesn't mean it has to stay that way.
1:44:05But then we know that we're opening it up a little bit more, which is also fine.
1:44:12I would be okay opening it up a little bit more.
1:44:15Then let's do it.
1:44:15Okay.
1:44:1713 minutes to the moon is the winner of the favorite tech podcast.
1:44:19Congratulations to that gritty up and coming producer.
1:44:23Oh don't because you're going to make me change my mind if you finish that sentence because
1:44:26you know I don't like that's making it worse for me to be like, oh, what's the best tech
1:44:30podcast of the year?
1:44:31It was the BBC.
1:44:32I'm changing my mind on this one because this kind of thing annoys me.
1:44:35Actually, do you know what, Jason?
1:44:37We're tearing up the book because I have a problem with this now.
1:44:41We have now like the as I finish that sentence because we're like approaching the end of the
1:44:46decade, right?
1:44:46So all these articles are being written and people are talking about like what's the best
1:44:51technology podcast of the year and like the most probably some of the most popular technology
1:44:56podcasts are ignored because they're not made by a big company potentially based in New
1:45:01York City or is the BBC based in New York City?
1:45:05I had no idea.
1:45:06I am being very specific about what I'm talking about.
1:45:08Anyway, congratulations to the automators.
1:45:11We're going to give it to automators and 30 minutes to the moon is a great runner up,
1:45:17but I cannot do it.
1:45:19I can't bring myself to do it because I am a purist connected will take the other running
1:45:26up position.
1:45:27So automators, congratulations.
1:45:29You are the favorite tech podcast of the year.
1:45:32Do you get where I'm coming from with that though?
1:45:36I do.
1:45:37Okay.
1:45:39Let's talk about our favorite non tech podcast of the year.
1:45:41The Upgrading is voted as such with 3.4% of the vote is reconcilable differences with
1:45:477% of the vote is hello internet and 18.1% of the vote goes to Dubai Friday.
1:45:54What have you got Jason?
1:45:56Dubai Friday, by the way, last year's winner in this category sound like one of those one
1:45:59of those people who talks while the people are coming up up to the stage on the Oscars.
1:46:03That's what that sounded like to me.
1:46:04Dubai Friday is a previous nominee in this category.
1:46:07Yep.
1:46:08The flophouse is a lifetime achievement winner.
1:46:10Well, you know, I know how you don't like the optics of awarding podcasts made by giant
1:46:19media entities.
1:46:20And that's why my favorite non tech podcast of the year was HBO's Chernobyl podcast.
1:46:27I don't care about that in general.
1:46:29It's purely tech podcast.
1:46:31We're talking about favorite non tech podcast last year.
1:46:33The good was it?
1:46:34No, the good place podcast was a runner up right in last year.
1:46:37Yeah.
1:46:38And it was the newcomer.
1:46:39It was the newcomer winner, but yes.
1:46:40It's a newcomer award.
1:46:41Yeah.
1:46:42Yeah.
1:46:42Yeah.
1:46:43So I don't think it's going to win, but it was probably my favorite new favorite non tech
1:46:51podcast this year.
1:46:52I for those who haven't.
1:46:54So it was on my list Chernobyl, one of my top shows of the year as a mini series.
1:46:58And the Chernobyl podcast was Peter Sagal from NPR talking to Craig Mazin, who's the co-host
1:47:04of the script notes podcast with John August.
1:47:06So you may have known him from that.
1:47:08He wrote Chernobyl.
1:47:09All of it was the executive producer of it.
1:47:12And they went through episode by episode and talked about sort of the process and what
1:47:16went into making it and what went into writing it.
1:47:18And it was like the good place podcast.
1:47:21It was a really interesting drill down.
1:47:25It was not a marketing vehicle.
1:47:28And I really appreciate that.
1:47:29And it was, that's a kind of show with the, the trying to depict a historical event that
1:47:34getting the understanding of why it was made the way it was, is, uh, it was really rewarding.
1:47:40So I thought they did a great job with that one.
1:47:42I didn't see the show, didn't listen to the podcast.
1:47:45So I don't really have anything to say on this one.
1:47:48That's okay.
1:47:49Cause you're going to agree with the upgradians.
1:47:50Aren't you?
1:47:51Well, I am because yeah, Dubai Friday, like it's my favorite show.
1:47:54So I love Dubai Friday.
1:47:57It's hilarious.
1:47:58And I learned things about American politics from it.
1:48:02So, uh, I really enjoy it.
1:48:04It's very well made and they do a lot of things to Dubai fried.
1:48:09I get a similar feeling about stick me on this one about Dubai Friday as I get about
1:48:15our show, because one of the things I love about Dubai Friday, you have to stick me on
1:48:19this one of the things I love about Dubai Friday is they are very creative in the production.
1:48:26Is this a backdoor way of announcing that our co-host for 2020 is Alexandra Elizabeth
1:48:31Cox? No, cause that would be a surprise to me.
1:48:33It would be a surprise to everyone.
1:48:35Love Alex, but this is our show.
1:48:37But okay.
1:48:38But what I love about Dubai Friday is they very frequently go outside of what you expect
1:48:44them to do and do something weird and fun.
1:48:46And I think we do that a lot.
1:48:48Right?
1:48:48So like, I think one of the reasons I love Dubai Friday is because it is a show that
1:48:54is very creative and they take lots of twists and turns when making the show.
1:48:58And I think we do that.
1:48:59Like the last two episodes of the year, right?
1:49:02Like the entire summer and the drafts, right?
1:49:05Like I think we do lots of weird and wonderful creative things, which is why I love this
1:49:09show.
1:49:10And it's one of the things I love about Dubai Friday as well.
1:49:13So upgrade is the winner of favorite non tech.
1:49:15No, no, no.
1:49:17That's not what I'm saying.
1:49:18So I have no skin in the game when it comes to the Chernobyl podcast.
1:49:23No, Dubai Friday is, uh, it's going to be a two time winner and that's, uh, that's exciting
1:49:29because it's on the verge of being kicked out of the category for being too good.
1:49:32It might not be a bad thing to try and get it kicked out because the Dubai Friday audience
1:49:38mobilize.
1:49:39Uh, I had to like kick them into gear a little bit.
1:49:42Jason's.
1:49:43This is some of the stuff that we maybe don't know about.
1:49:45Do you want to hear some, some salacious information about this year?
1:49:49I do.
1:49:49The Dubai Friday discord is the thing that exists for patrons and they mobilize to vote
1:49:55for Dubai Friday.
1:49:56And I had to come in and establish some rules with the Dubai Friday audience because I thought
1:50:02you were going to say Dubai Friday ins and that was going to be great.
1:50:05That would be a great word.
1:50:06The Dubai audience.
1:50:07And I had to go in and basically said to them that they needed to, uh, effectively they
1:50:12voted for Dubai Friday in every category.
1:50:15Which I wasn't happy with because it doesn't make any sense and causes more work for me
1:50:22because I have to remove the votes.
1:50:25Right.
1:50:25Yes.
1:50:26When going through.
1:50:27So I had to go in there and say, okay, Dubai Friday ins, feel free to vote for Dubai Friday
1:50:33as the favorite non tech podcast, but either just vote that or vote in every category as
1:50:38well.
1:50:39They listened to me.
1:50:39I removed the incorrect votes and they started over and they did their thing.
1:50:45And then they, they made the correct voting for Dubai Friday.
1:50:48So I love this show.
1:50:50The audience are very, uh, they're very engaged in the upgrade is, uh, because they want their
1:50:55favorite show to win, which I can, I can definitely attest to.
1:50:58And I'm pleased that they listened to me.
1:51:00So that we are now.
1:51:03So if we didn't already say, you know, podcast is a runner up and Dubai Friday is the winner
1:51:08of the favorite non tech podcast of the year, making it two time winner, uh, in this category.
1:51:15But Jason, a three time winner overall as one of the favorite podcast, newcomer in 2016.
1:51:22So may make it Dubai Friday might end up with like the most wins of any property.
1:51:27If it wins next year, cause it will have four total awards and three and will become lifetime
1:51:33achievement.
1:51:33There wouldn't that be an interesting factoid.
1:51:35So Dubai Friday ins know what they need to do.
1:51:37I guess, I guess so.
1:51:38Final category of the evening is for the favorite podcast, newcomer, the upgrade ins voted as
1:51:46as such with 6.5% is adapt from relay FM 9.9% is waveform, which is the MKBHD podcast.
1:51:57And 17.7% is the podcast two headed goal hosted by Alex and Matt Cox.
1:52:03You may understand what happened here as one of the reasons that this show is a 17.7%.
1:52:11You know, we can talk about that.
1:52:14Jason, would you like to tell me what your favorite podcast newcomer of the year is?
1:52:17Well, everybody can just listen to what I said, uh, in the previous category, because
1:52:21my favorite podcast newcomer was the Chernobyl podcast, which only existed, uh, in 2019.
1:52:27So my, uh, I have two that I want to talk about and they are the top two winners for
1:52:32the, uh, from the upgrade ins.
1:52:34So waveform is MKBHD new tech show.
1:52:36I think the show is still finding its place a little bit, which is why I didn't vote for
1:52:40it as my favorite tech podcast.
1:52:42Cause it isn't yet, but it's one of my favorite shows that came out in the last year.
1:52:46I enjoy every episode, but they had a bit of a rocky start, uh, from kind of, they,
1:52:51they had some tech issues, like funnily enough, they had to some like audio issues and they
1:52:56were kind of like the, the hosts.
1:52:58So it's MKBHD.
1:52:59So Marques Brownlee and, uh, guy works with him, Andrew Magnolani, who is like helps him
1:53:05with a bunch of, like, I think it's like, like basically he's right hand man in his
1:53:09production of YouTube videos.
1:53:12Uh, it has a really good mixture of tech topics.
1:53:14They focus on a lot of stuff that like, that are not focused on, on the other shows that
1:53:18I listened to because they're not solely Apple focused, but they also talk about technology
1:53:22in many other areas.
1:53:24And I really like it.
1:53:25It branches out into some interesting places.
1:53:27I've listened to every episode.
1:53:28I've enjoyed every episode.
1:53:29It is one of my favorite new shows of this year.
1:53:31The other show that I really enjoy is Two-Headed Girl, uh, which is the show, which is voted
1:53:37for by the upgrade ins.
1:53:39So this is a show in which Alex and Matt Cox talk about a bunch of issues, but it's centered
1:53:44around gender transition, um, from the, what is called FTM, female to male gender transition,
1:53:51which Matt Cox has been going through over the last couple of years.
1:53:53It is a very well produced show using, they've been recording for this show for like two
1:54:00years, but it started this year.
1:54:02So they have like all of these recordings that they've done over time, which is amazing,
1:54:07especially in this one episode where they're talking about testosterone and how it can
1:54:11change your voice.
1:54:12And they have clips of Matt's voice over the years and how it's changed, which is just
1:54:17a beautiful, like use of the medium.
1:54:20Um, the theme of this show, the, the whole reason for this show existing, and it also
1:54:26touches on other areas like mental health, but it's mostly focused around, uh, gender.
1:54:33It is important to me because I, as a person want to better understand some of the struggles
1:54:38that people in the LGBTQ community go through.
1:54:41So I am able to be a person who can better empathize and not be stuck in the past.
1:54:47And this show helps me with that.
1:54:49Like this is something which is becoming more and more important today for good reason.
1:54:53And I want to make sure that I can do my best to understand it.
1:54:57And this show helps me with that.
1:54:59And it's also very funny and heartwarming because it can be really interesting to hear
1:55:04a married couple be tough on each other and kind of fight and also be cute together.
1:55:09It is a really sometimes challenging, but sometimes heartwarming show, which is helping
1:55:15me learn something.
1:55:16And I think make me a better person, which is why it also gets the nomination from me,
1:55:21Jason.
1:55:21Sounds good.
1:55:22Well, it's you and the Upgradients slash Dubai Fridays.
1:55:25So that sounds like our winner.
1:55:28So Two-Headed Girl is the winner of the 2019 favorite podcast newcomer with the Chernobyl
1:55:34podcast always being the bridesmaid.
1:55:36That's fine.
1:55:37Into back to back.
1:55:38This makes Alex Cox a formidable Upgradian, upgradey winner here.
1:55:45Four.
1:55:46Upgradier?
1:55:48Upgradiest?
1:55:50This is interesting, right?
1:55:51Like, so Alex has taken home now four awards in total.
1:55:56So I guess Alex is coming for Marco, right?
1:55:59Because I guess Marco has six total, right?
1:56:04With three ATP, three overcast.
1:56:06And now Alex has four total for Two-Headed Girl, two for Dubai, and three total for Dubai
1:56:13Friday, but in different categories.
1:56:15So many statistics.
1:56:18I know.
1:56:20And the upgradey awards.
1:56:21But that's what happens when you have been doing something for six years.
1:56:25That's right.
1:56:25That's right.
1:56:26That's why you were so excited with the first annual.
1:56:28Because it kept going.
1:56:29Also, shout out to our departed categories.
1:56:34We retired favorite mic at the movies.
1:56:37Because we only did one this year, so it didn't make any sense to do.
1:56:41And I'm always amused that our first year we did a best vertical category.
1:56:46Because that was the thing, right?
1:56:48That was a joke that we made in the first 40 episodes of the show was the verticals.
1:56:52But the verticals became segments and now they are like real things.
1:56:55Yeah, I know.
1:56:56Right.
1:56:57So anyway, congratulations to Ahoy Telephone, the one and only winner of best vertical.
1:57:00What was your best holiday gift this year?
1:57:03Oh no, you're putting me on the spot.
1:57:06Socks.
1:57:09Okay, I got a really nice chef's knife.
1:57:11Oh, that's nice.
1:57:13Yeah.
1:57:14The reason we removed the best holiday gift is because the recording time kept changing.
1:57:19Like, so sometimes we recorded it before the holidays.
1:57:21So it's like, how can we award this?
1:57:23So great.
1:57:24Yeah.
1:57:25So I also want to give a thanks and shout out to Zach Knox, who puts together upgradeys.com,
1:57:30which is where you can go and find Zach.
1:57:33Also, you may be familiar with all the interactive scorecards for the drafts that we do every year.
1:57:38So you can go.
1:57:39I should also congratulate Jason Snell for winning the draft competition again.
1:57:44Oh, thank you.
1:57:44Yes, we're officially done now.
1:57:46The board is cleared.
1:57:47There can be no more drafts.
1:57:49That's right.
1:57:49So good work on winning yet again.
1:57:52One year, Jason, I'm going to take that home.
1:57:54We're going to keep doing upgrade until I win.
1:57:56That doesn't mean the show will end, but I'm going to keep making you do it.
1:58:00Oh, man.
1:58:01No pressure.
1:58:01If you ever want to retire, you have to throw the draft.
1:58:04Oh, no.
1:58:04Well, that's when I lose the draft, you'll know something's up.
1:58:08Then I need to be the one who worries.
1:58:10So thanks so much to listening.
1:58:13Happy new year to you all out there as we're ending the upgradeys with the end of this year.
1:58:19Going into 2020.
1:58:21Thanks so much to the upgradeians for listening to this show throughout the entire year.
1:58:25And also for submitting their votes.
1:58:29So many of you submitted your votes this year, which is an amazing thing.
1:58:33Congratulations to all of our winners of the sixth annual upgradey awards.
1:58:39And we'll be back next time in 2020.
1:58:41I have so many things that I need to talk to you about in the next episode.
1:58:44I know.
1:58:45I know.
1:58:45We've not recorded a regular episode in what feels like a very, very long time at this point.
1:58:51Uh, so, and thanks again to our sponsors as well.
1:58:53Smile, Kensington, Ethos, and Linode.
1:58:57Again, if you want to find links to the nominees and winners of every category, go to upgradeys.com.
1:59:04But we'll be back next time.
1:59:05Until then, say goodbye, Jason Snell.
1:59:08Happy new year, everybody.
1:59:09[Music]