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Upgrade

274: More Clunky!

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:08   From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, episode 274, and today's show is brought to you by Squarespace,

00:00:15   FreshBooks, and TextExpander from Smile.

00:00:18   My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Jason Snell.

00:00:21   Hello, Jason Snell.

00:00:22   Hello, Myke Hurley.

00:00:23   How are you?

00:00:24   I'm very well, my friend.

00:00:25   Happy Thanksgiving.

00:00:26   I hope you had a happy one.

00:00:27   Oh, thank you.

00:00:28   Yes, it was delightful.

00:00:29   It was great.

00:00:30   Good having a four-day weekend.

00:00:31   Love it.

00:00:32   How is Thanksgiving in England?

00:00:33   It's great because I get special time off because everyone I work with is not working.

00:00:38   So that's lovely for me.

00:00:40   Well, nobody wants to hear about that.

00:00:42   Nobody especially wants to hear about what Thanksgiving is like in England.

00:00:45   So let's go to our #SnellTalk question.

00:00:47   It comes from Joel.

00:00:48   Joel wants to know, "Do you let someone touch or take your phone when scanning a ticket,

00:00:53   boarding pass, or coupon?"

00:00:57   My precious.

00:00:58   You cannot have my precious.

00:01:00   Yeah, you know what?

00:01:03   I prefer to just scan it myself.

00:01:07   Like I go to the airport and I get to the security and I just lay it down on the little

00:01:11   scanner and I hold it out and have it kind of like get the, when I'm boarding the plane.

00:01:15   I prefer to do that myself.

00:01:17   If they want to take the phone and scan it because I'm not getting the angle right or

00:01:23   whatever, I'm fine with it.

00:01:25   It's fine.

00:01:26   I don't care.

00:01:27   I'm just like, "Oh, don't touch, touch, not my iPhone."

00:01:30   I don't care.

00:01:32   My thing with this is my typical thing, like in airports, which is in airports, you lose

00:01:40   all of your ability to do anything, right?

00:01:43   You lose your dignity, your individualism because you want to get on the plane and airport

00:01:50   situations are such that it feels like at any moment someone could deny you to get on

00:01:55   the plane.

00:01:56   So if somebody reaches their hand out to take my phone, my phone goes into their hand.

00:02:01   Like it's just a little house.

00:02:02   Thank you, sir, may I have another?

00:02:04   Yes.

00:02:05   I don't want to give them my phone, but I feel like I have to because I don't want to

00:02:09   be seen as causing trouble.

00:02:11   Airport's the worst.

00:02:14   Thanks Joel for that #snowtalk question.

00:02:16   If you would like to help us open an episode of the show, just send out a tweet with the

00:02:19   hashtag #snowtalk and it may be kept for a future episode.

00:02:23   Last time, last warning.

00:02:25   Maybe isn't right, but dongletown merch at upgradeyourwardrobe.com.

00:02:31   It is basically available for one more day after you hear this.

00:02:35   Today is the 2nd of December.

00:02:37   Tomorrow is the 3rd of December and it will go off sale at like midnight, I think UK time.

00:02:43   So if you're hearing this and you haven't yet gone to upgradeyourwardrobe.com to get

00:02:47   one of our dongletown t-shirts, you need to do it now because we don't know when or if

00:02:52   ever they will be back on sale.

00:02:54   So upgradeyourwardrobe.com.

00:02:55   Yeah it's 5pm Pacific, so 8pm Eastern on Tuesday December 3rd, that's when it ends.

00:03:03   So do not wait.

00:03:04   Do not wait at all.

00:03:06   Do it now or regret it forever.

00:03:08   Or at least until next year.

00:03:10   Forever.

00:03:11   Mhm.

00:03:12   So, on ATP, Marco took our follow out and followed out back to us.

00:03:18   So they were talking-

00:03:19   You reversed the streams!

00:03:21   No!

00:03:22   Marco spoke a couple of weeks ago about Jon preparing the way.

00:03:25   You then spoke about preparing your way.

00:03:28   Marco then thought he would talk about lamps.

00:03:30   So let's close the loop.

00:03:31   What is the lighting situation like in our offices?

00:03:34   Oh it's lamp talk.

00:03:36   Hashtag lamp talk.

00:03:37   Excellent.

00:03:38   Excellent.

00:03:39   Well I don't know about you, but I thought it was funny because it's just, all this conversation

00:03:45   was going on and I was listening to ATP on the first kind of like really dark and rainy

00:03:50   day here in California.

00:03:53   And I'm listening to Marco talk about how he doesn't think his office has enough light

00:03:59   while sitting in a garage with a single floor lamp thinking, "Wow it's really dark in here.

00:04:04   I need more light."

00:04:05   And it wasn't that Marco influenced me, it was more like I noticed and then I listened

00:04:09   to Marco and I laughed because he was describing the situation I had just recognized about

00:04:14   my new office that I got set up that we talked about last week.

00:04:16   I mean, new office.

00:04:18   The wall is orange, the shade of orange is in the show notes.

00:04:21   But the lighting thing, it's totally true.

00:04:24   I need more light in here.

00:04:26   There are, especially for like darker days, like it can get really dark and cave-like

00:04:31   in here.

00:04:33   And so I'm trying to figure out what that is going to be and I'm not quite sure.

00:04:37   I don't have a ceiling per se, I have some beams and then I have like insulation in this

00:04:43   garage.

00:04:44   So I'm not quite sure.

00:04:45   I can actually mount things on the beams fairly easily.

00:04:47   I actually have a video light up there, which is more for me than to light the room so people

00:04:52   can see me when I do video stuff.

00:04:54   But I am thinking about like I need another light either hanging from the ceiling or maybe

00:05:00   aimed at the orange wall to give me a pleasant kind of glow from the orange wall.

00:05:04   Right now I actually have a hue strip, light strip that I had on the back of a piece of

00:05:11   furniture in my office.

00:05:12   I've actually got it kind of like hanging over along the wall.

00:05:19   And that is more for demonstration purposes of like what would it be like if it was well

00:05:23   lit over here.

00:05:24   And the answer is I like it and I definitely need more light over there.

00:05:27   But having the kind of randomly snaking hue strip is probably not a long-term solution.

00:05:33   It's super ugly.

00:05:35   But the light it puts out is quite pleasant.

00:05:37   So I'm thinking now maybe I do want something that's kind of high up and pointed at the

00:05:42   wall so it can kind of bounce off the wall.

00:05:44   But anyway, so that's my lighting story is that I'm with Marco.

00:05:47   I actually do need more light in my office so I don't feel like I'm in the winter especially

00:05:53   like working in a cave.

00:05:54   It's not great.

00:05:55   It's fine when it's the sunny summery time and the sun is shining in my big window.

00:06:01   But this time of year that doesn't happen.

00:06:04   I'm a big fan of the Philips Hue stuff.

00:06:07   I like those.

00:06:08   We have them dotted around the house in some lamps.

00:06:11   We have a lot of ceiling lighting which is just the whatever random ceiling lighting

00:06:15   we have.

00:06:16   Sure.

00:06:17   In my office I have just a kind of a bulb hanging from the ceiling with a BB8 lampshade

00:06:24   around it which is fun.

00:06:26   It's just a paper lampshade and it looks like BB8.

00:06:29   And I've forgotten that that existed until I just looked up at my light because it's just

00:06:33   a part of the room and has been for a long time.

00:06:36   But I have that.

00:06:37   And then I have, just to say we have multiple hue products.

00:06:40   I have a couple in the office.

00:06:41   I have one of those light strips stuck to the outside edge of my desk which is just a fun

00:06:47   thing so it can light up the wall that's in front of me because my desk is against the

00:06:50   wall.

00:06:51   And I also have one of those lamps as well so whenever I do video stuff like just the

00:06:56   little kind of like half ball lamps that they do.

00:07:00   I can't even remember what they're called now but it looks like a ball that they've

00:07:03   cut in half effectively and you can just move it around and it has a battery in it so you

00:07:07   can unplug it.

00:07:09   I have one of those as well which is just used for if I'm ever doing video stuff.

00:07:14   So I like the hue stuff.

00:07:15   I like being able to talk to it.

00:07:16   I like that it can change colors.

00:07:18   It's not the brightest but I don't need more than what it gives.

00:07:21   Tim Cynova Yeah I definitely need more lighting in here.

00:07:25   I do have everything on a smart something or other.

00:07:27   My floor lamp which is, this floor lamp was in our house when I was a kid.

00:07:35   Like it's an old floor lamp.

00:07:36   I don't know where it came from.

00:07:37   I don't know when we got it.

00:07:38   It's very old but it's the floor lamp that was in our living room.

00:07:42   My wife reminded me the other day that we put overhead lights in our living room when

00:07:51   we did our kitchen remodel.

00:07:53   We also put lights in the living room and the reason for that was that we had no lights

00:07:58   in the living room except this little floor lamp that I've got in here now and it wasn't

00:08:01   enough light.

00:08:03   And so when I commented that it wasn't enough light for the garage she said we already learned

00:08:07   this lesson that it's not enough so I'm going to have to deal with that.

00:08:11   But what's nice about it is that I have a smart switch.

00:08:14   I've actually a Philips one of their push button switches that has no battery.

00:08:20   I have one of those at the door so I can turn on my floor lamp because it's on a smart switch

00:08:26   when I'm walking in and I have to walk over to the lamp and flip it around and turn it

00:08:30   to the brightest setting or anything.

00:08:32   It's just on that.

00:08:34   And then the other smart lights are also on that so if I want to turn on the the the hue

00:08:39   strip if I want to turn on the lava lamp that I that my daughter got rid of that I was like

00:08:44   I would like a lot of lamp sometimes it's fun.

00:08:47   Those are all on those buttons which is great.

00:08:50   So whatever I get to to amplify the light in here will either be a smart fixture or

00:08:57   it'll be plugged in to an outlet and controlled that way.

00:09:02   So there you go.

00:09:03   Are we done now?

00:09:04   Do you think we've wrapped around enough?

00:09:06   Lighting bendy straw reverse super double reverse follow out side follow.

00:09:13   So thanks.

00:09:14   It's now next up.

00:09:17   I don't know what maybe Casey can talk about his garage door opener.

00:09:20   That's well we'll see where this goes.

00:09:22   I don't have a garage or a door to open.

00:09:24   Yeah it's pronounced carriage.

00:09:31   If you would like to hear more about Tim Cook and Donald Trump then you should listen to

00:09:36   episode 270 of the talk show features Matthew Iglesias as the special guest.

00:09:42   Very very good episode very good conversation.

00:09:46   If you did enjoy our discussion last week and or just want to know more about this from

00:09:51   somebody who is much more much deeper into the political side of things like Matthew

00:09:56   Iglesias who works for Vox.

00:09:58   I thoroughly recommend this episode it's a very very very good discussion.

00:10:03   I'm surprised that we we touched the third rail a little bit last week and didn't really

00:10:09   get any complaints which is because I think that we did a great job not to our own horn

00:10:13   but I think we did a really great job of only touching on the things that we should.

00:10:19   We didn't go too far in any direction.

00:10:20   I think we kept it pretty fair and I was I was really happy with how the conversation

00:10:24   came out.

00:10:25   Yeah.

00:10:26   So well done us basically is what I'm saying.

00:10:30   Okay.

00:10:31   All right.

00:10:32   Well done us.

00:10:33   All right.

00:10:34   Uh Johnny is gone-y.

00:10:35   He's gone.

00:10:36   Johnny's gone.

00:10:37   So that's that's that's Sir Gani.

00:10:40   Sir Gani.

00:10:41   He's gone.

00:10:42   Johnny's gone.

00:10:43   If you go to the this happened over the Thanksgiving weekend which is the perfect time to do something

00:10:48   like this I guess.

00:10:50   Sir Johnny Ive was removed from Apple's executive leadership page so he just doesn't exist there

00:10:56   anymore.

00:10:57   There were no other changes Evans Hankey and Alan Dye have not been added as vice presidents

00:11:03   to the page.

00:11:05   Alan Dye was actually previously on this page when they did that big reshuffle and Johnny

00:11:12   kind of like moved to a more over like overseeing role and they split design into like user

00:11:18   experience user interface.

00:11:20   I think that was it was like UI and hardware.

00:11:23   Alan Dye appeared on the leadership page but then got removed when they kind of reshuffled

00:11:28   that again but there is no design leadership role on this page.

00:11:33   I said in our document for the first time in a very long time Jason had a note says

00:11:37   since the pages existed which is a even better point.

00:11:41   Yeah right like this page hasn't existed for as long as Johnny Ive has been a senior leader

00:11:46   at Apple so it goes back way further than that and I don't actually know.

00:11:53   I mean he's been there so long so long before Jobs came back.

00:11:58   Yes I mean yeah there was he designed he had a hand at least in designing the E-Mate which

00:12:03   was the Newton laptop right.

00:12:08   It had translucent plastic and stuff it was him experimenting with some of the materials

00:12:12   that would end up becoming a big hit in the iMac so he's been there a long time and this

00:12:16   is a big a big change.

00:12:17   It goes beyond like it predates there being web pages for Apple for stuff like this.

00:12:25   Yeah which is kind of wild right.

00:12:27   Yeah.

00:12:28   But so you know he's gone he's not listed there in any capacity that that's it.

00:12:33   I was going to say the final shoe dropped but there have been so many shoes I don't know

00:12:37   the shoes are all the shoes are all on the ground now and the laces are on the ground

00:12:41   and they've had time to settle and it's like the last final move of his departure the long

00:12:49   slow fade has has faded all the way out now I guess.

00:12:52   It's fine it's been happening a long time it's good to get to the end of it.

00:12:58   According to podcasting industry newsletter Inside Podcasting Apple have hired National

00:13:03   Geographic's former director of podcasting Emily Ochsenslager.

00:13:08   That's the name I'm going with I think you might have nailed it.

00:13:11   Yeah maybe we'll see.

00:13:13   Ochsenslager had previously worked at NPR in both reporter and producer roles apparently

00:13:18   this is the first of quote many content hires in the coming weeks.

00:13:23   So we spoke about this a while ago the idea that Apple could be breaking into the original

00:13:27   podcasts game it was previously a report from Bloomberg they are now hiring in a way that

00:13:33   would suggest that yes they are most definitely doing that.

00:13:36   Yeah.

00:13:37   So I think it we don't know is the form that this might take because there are some very

00:13:42   simple ways that this could take where Apple has decided as a leader in the podcast medium

00:13:46   to produce some podcasts perhaps even related to other stuff it's doing.

00:13:51   For example what about producing a run of podcasts for all of its Apple TV+ programming.

00:14:00   Right like that's a the Chernobyl podcast was really great HBO has now decided they

00:14:07   are going to do podcasts for everything because it was so well received.

00:14:11   The Good Place podcast is really great like podcasts to you know get people even more

00:14:17   engaged with your with your programming is a good idea.

00:14:20   So there's that right who would do that Apple would do that I mean they might not work in

00:14:24   house they don't wouldn't necessarily have to but you'd need in-house people involved

00:14:28   in somehow and Apple having you know control issues let's say it wouldn't be surprising

00:14:33   if they built it like that.

00:14:34   They could be building premium stuff that is like the Spotify stuff that's like if you're

00:14:39   not an Apple TV or Apple music subscriber you don't get it.

00:14:43   It's possible that they're doing something like that.

00:14:45   I also kept thinking about like other ways that they could do this they could make things

00:14:52   podcast app only which seems really weird but they could do that to reward people in

00:14:56   the podcast app.

00:14:57   If anybody out there listening to the show has any say in this you don't have to publicize

00:15:04   it you don't have to make a big thing out of it but just make these things available

00:15:08   in other applications.

00:15:09   Yeah well I think that this is the one of the big questions is does Apple build Apple

00:15:15   is such a leader in podcasting that you could make the argument that Apple wants to make

00:15:20   some of its own podcasts and that's the point of it and it's not to like wall it off inside

00:15:26   something although I did think about like I don't know could there be like an Apple

00:15:29   News Plus podcast right that something something that's journalism related or a couple of those

00:15:34   things like the New York Times is daily that come out of the Apple News editorial organization

00:15:41   because there is one and would that be a thing that they would use to promote Apple News

00:15:45   Plus and giveaway for free or would that be a thing for Apple News Plus subscribers because

00:15:51   I could see it either way.

00:15:53   I mean I could argue given and we're going to talk about what's going on with Apple News

00:15:56   Plus in a little bit like using it to promote Apple News Plus might be a better use of that

00:16:01   than to wall it off but there are so there are I guess what I'm saying is there are a

00:16:05   lot of different ways they could go here and we don't know which way they're going to go

00:16:09   but it sounds like they're one way or another Apple is hiring people to make podcasts public

00:16:16   podcasts for Apple and what form it takes you know it remains to be seen it's kind of

00:16:22   a fascinating question.

00:16:25   And Adobe have shared a roadmap of features coming to Photoshop for iPad.

00:16:30   There's a list of stuff here that I don't really understand enough because I'm not a

00:16:34   Photoshop user but basically they've published some blog posts talking about the features

00:16:39   that they want to add going from 2019 into 2020.

00:16:44   I think it's really great to see them be in public right like Adobe has faced criticism

00:16:48   for Photoshop for iPad for not being complete enough and people are like oh you lied you're

00:16:52   not doing a real version.

00:16:54   And Adobe is saying no no we really are but this is just the start.

00:16:57   So I think sharing the roadmap of the features that they are going to be adding only helps

00:17:03   to signify to people like we are working on this we are continuing to expand this.

00:17:10   Right they they definitely communicated their priorities in going into the 1.0 version like

00:17:16   here here the reason we did those features first and then they're like by the end of

00:17:19   the year this and then next year we're planning on doing these features and it's not like

00:17:23   a feature it's like a section of Photoshop that they're going to be bringing over and

00:17:29   yeah that needs to be communicated because they need to have their users understand where

00:17:34   they're going and the rate of improvement that they're planning on on the iPad version

00:17:38   of Photoshop.

00:17:39   I did use Photoshop on the iPad for the first time at length on the weekend basically doing

00:17:45   a dumb Photoshop to reply to a thread from Joe Steele and Todd Vizzieri just to say say

00:17:52   like this is a thing that I could Photoshop very quickly on my Mac but I was sitting on

00:17:58   the couch watching a college football game and had my iPad and my office was very cold

00:18:03   because I didn't have the heater turned on I thought I'm not going to go out there and

00:18:07   leave the leave the warm confines of my couch in order to do this stupid joke in Photoshop.

00:18:12   I've got Photoshop on the iPad let's see if I can make it work and the answer was I could

00:18:15   make it work more or less as I went I figured out what the tools the analogs of my Mac tools

00:18:22   were and I was able to do a you know passable job with a dumb Photoshop thing and could

00:18:29   I use another iPad tool sure but I thought let's let's try this and would this work and

00:18:33   the answer was yes I can confirm really dumb bad Photoshop stuff can be done on the iPad

00:18:39   so hooray for that and we'll see where it goes from here.

00:18:44   Don't forget you can cast your votes for the Upgradies go to Upgradies.vote and there's

00:18:49   a form that you can fill in please fill it in with your nominations for our categories

00:18:55   in the Upgradies the sixth annual Upgradies and if you want to get some inspiration see

00:19:00   maybe who has won in the past you can always go to Upgradies.com for previous winners of

00:19:06   the Upgradies but Upgradies.vote is the place to go.

00:19:11   6th. 6th. Did I get it right that time? 6th? No not really. One day. It's fine. One day.

00:19:19   One day. Should we take a break Jason Snow? I think we should. Alright let's thank our

00:19:26   first sponsor for this week and that is our friends over at Squarespace. Big fan of Squarespace

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00:20:45   next website.

00:20:48   So yesterday evening there was a press release and I saw a bunch of tweets coming from a

00:20:54   bunch of different places about a thing that affects me personally which I'm very excited

00:20:59   about there is a feature in Apple Pay on the iPhone and on the Apple Watch called Express

00:21:06   Mode this was previously used I believe only in Japan on their transit service so it basically

00:21:14   allowed for you to use Apple Pay so you would use whatever device without needing to authenticate

00:21:21   with either touch ID or face ID so it works basically like a debit or credit card because

00:21:26   you don't do any authentication for those you just tap it and go and yesterday evening

00:21:32   it was enabled for the TfL transport for London service in the UK so wherever we use the Oyster

00:21:37   card or wherever it was previously using Apple Pay we can now use the Express Mode so what

00:21:43   this means is now I tried this out today I took a bus today to go somewhere and I just

00:21:49   tapped my phone on the reader and that was it it was faster because there was I don't

00:21:54   know exactly what it is that makes it quicker but it was as fast as if I put a credit card

00:21:58   down which was not the case before even after the authentication it always took an extra

00:22:02   second or so for the transaction to be authorized so there's absolutely no delay and it works

00:22:08   and I think it's fantastic one of the really cool features people keep pointing out is

00:22:14   that this feature will work even if your battery is dead on your device which is wild yeah

00:22:20   so it must and I don't know a lot about NFC but I feel like it's writing a the NFC thing

00:22:27   must be like a programmable radio tag where you can you can basically say here is the

00:22:36   tag and then turn and then turn it off and even turn off the phone and at that point

00:22:40   until you rewrite that tag that tag is just going to sit there so it doesn't actually

00:22:44   have to use any power and it will be read just like the chip in your card would be right

00:22:49   I'm keen to understand how exactly it works because I think it's taking a little bit of

00:22:54   power because it will only work for five hours yeah keep traveling up to five hours so there's

00:22:58   well there's enough enough power to hold it or whatever but they're not like even if the

00:23:02   battery dies so you're you're you're out late at night your phone dies you've got five hours

00:23:06   where the card still works which is great which is just it's just a nice thing to have

00:23:11   right that like knowing that you still have that extra even if somehow your battery dies

00:23:15   so it's just like a nice little feature but the real win here is that you don't have to

00:23:18   do like face ID and then tap or any like you don't have to do any authentication like that

00:23:23   you can just tap your phone and and go because I've said this a bunch of times my biggest

00:23:28   downside for face ID over touch ID is needing to authenticate in that very in like specific

00:23:36   way when on public transport because with touch ID you never had to look at your phone

00:23:41   you could just write take your phone out your pocket you're already holding the home button

00:23:45   you double press the home button and it will work right because you're already authenticated

00:23:49   with face ID you always have to bring your phone or look at your phone and I've always

00:23:53   found that kind of frustrating because it was a it was a much clunkier way of authenticating

00:24:00   but now I don't need to do that I could just have my phone tap it on and go and I just

00:24:04   think this is a very nice like quality of life feature and I'm very very happy to see

00:24:08   that this is making its way out to different places this is used in a few other transit

00:24:13   areas and it's not just in London I mean I think when it started it was just in one place

00:24:18   but now it's it's really it kind of stretched out a bit more but I just think it's super

00:24:22   awesome and I'm very pleased that I have it now yeah also face ID not an issue but it

00:24:28   works on Apple watch as well so you don't have to double tap on an Apple watch and then

00:24:31   tap which is what I do mostly when I'm doing Apple pay stuff so you can actually just do

00:24:38   a quick tap and that's it it's it's done that's pretty great and yeah I like that it's not

00:24:44   what you say more clunky or more clunky yeah mclunky exactly mclunky that's what he was

00:24:53   saying is that this is a more clunky way of dealing the safety on a Star Wars blaster

00:24:59   is more clunky mclunky I will I will kill you before you kill me because your blaster

00:25:04   is much monkey talking about clunky let's talk about news oh boom more specifically

00:25:13   Apple news plus this is the Apple services segment is yeah it is we're going to talk

00:25:17   about some services stuff today yeah okay few weeks ago CNBC reported that Apple news

00:25:22   plus is struggle to grow its subscriber base I think to nobody's surprise so during the

00:25:26   first 48 hours of launch which was last March Apple was apparently able to attract around

00:25:32   200,000 customers for the free to the free trial period but it is basically flatline

00:25:37   since then so my assumption they don't go into detail about this my assumption is they

00:25:41   got like 200,000 people to sign up a bunch said no and then a bunch more people have

00:25:45   signed up since but they haven't really broken that initial figure of 200,000 that's the

00:25:50   read that I take from that article and as a reminder Apple news plus is $9.99 a month

00:25:57   I always forget this and that's just seems like so much money compared to other services

00:26:02   that Apple have for that $9.99 a month you get access to over 300 publications which

00:26:07   include magazines newspapers and some online only subscriptions Apple takes 50% of the

00:26:13   revenue from each subscriber then the other 50% is shared amongst publishers based on

00:26:18   engagement time so the more time you spend reading a publication the more money they

00:26:24   will get one publisher told CNBC they receive 20 to 30 thousand dollars a month which is

00:26:30   far less than expected and is a very small amount of money for a large company right

00:26:36   like that is not a lot of money for us from a service like this but I feel yes would you

00:26:41   agree with that I would agree with that it's not a lot at all another publisher said their

00:26:46   revenue has been climbing consistently and bringing them a new demographic of reader

00:26:52   but it's slowly it's a slower growth than they had anticipated financially this seems

00:26:58   like not good for anyone well I just I feel like the model that works successfully for

00:27:05   these for the major publications is a direct subscription model it's what I pay I mean

00:27:11   I have a bunch and I'm happy to pay the athletic and New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle

00:27:16   and you know what the Washington Post and the San Jose Mercury News and like there are

00:27:21   you can pay them directly and you get access to all their content without the without getting

00:27:26   annoyed or there being a paywall or something like that and you can pay for Wall Street

00:27:30   Journal or Bloomberg or whatever so then you look at Apple News Plus and you think okay

00:27:35   well it's a great deal because instead of paying for one I can get a whole bunch for

00:27:39   ten dollars a month that's that's great except that's that's not a great price for many of

00:27:46   these new services that actually will give you a year for a much lower price than that

00:27:52   but even if that is a decent price like you're only getting you're not getting the ones that

00:27:56   you want necessarily unless you you're just getting kind of a spread of other ones and

00:28:01   the last time I visited Apple News Plus which was in the trial period because I canceled

00:28:07   my trial the the big problem with it is that the interface was atrocious that what Apple

00:28:13   wants to do is take Apple News Plus articles and then kind of like float them in along

00:28:18   with your regular Apple News articles and I don't use Apple News and that's part of

00:28:22   the problem I understand but I don't particularly like Apple News and its interface and then

00:28:27   this thing kind of sprinkles more in there I think it's actually a similar problem to

00:28:31   the problem that you and I spoke about a few weeks ago about the TV app interface where

00:28:35   Apple is trying to do two things at once it's trying to be an aggregator of content from

00:28:40   other people as well as a pusher of a premium product that's got content inside it and that's

00:28:47   also in the case of Apple News from other people but it's wrapped in Apple service and

00:28:53   that's difficult from a user experience standpoint because sometimes you want to mix them all

00:28:58   together but you also want to kind of highlight out what are you paying for and here's what

00:29:03   you're gonna get and it's not not just kind of marketing it is literally like I want to

00:29:07   see the stuff that I paid for I want to see the stuff that I get because I'm a subscriber

00:29:12   and Apple News is still you know it's to my last last time I checked anyway it's it's

00:29:17   just kind of a mess and if you're a publisher you're not you're getting a fraction of what

00:29:20   you would get for direct so all the publishers that think that they're gonna have a successful

00:29:25   direct subscription system are not gonna want to be a part of it I don't know I don't know

00:29:31   where they go from here I think I think this is a tough product to make work.

00:29:37   I pay for access to the Wall Street Journal and to Bloomberg because they are two websites

00:29:45   where like they publish stuff behind a paywall that I want to be able to read for myself

00:29:48   because it's a lot of really good tech coverage.

00:29:51   And you pay for them directly?

00:29:52   I pay for them directly and I don't know like can I don't even know can I get that through

00:29:58   Apple News Plus I don't even know.

00:30:00   My understanding is that the Wall Street Journal I don't know about Bloomberg Wall Street Journal

00:30:04   you can get in there but they float up only certain articles although my understanding

00:30:09   is that you can search and find other articles and it's a way that they're putting up a barrier

00:30:14   so that it's better for you to pay them directly rather than be a part of Apple News Plus.

00:30:20   And this is it right like so Bloomberg I can get Bloomberg Businessweek but does that will

00:30:25   that get me all of Mark Gorman's articles when he publishes them?

00:30:27   I don't think so.

00:30:28   And so this is so it's like I don't it's not clear enough to me as a user as to whether

00:30:33   I would be getting the content that I actually want to pay for out of it but so that's why

00:30:40   it's just like I've never even bothered because I don't I don't care for everything else like

00:30:44   I don't feel the great I don't feel a great requirement requirement to read X or Y magazine

00:30:50   I just I wouldn't so it would be a waste of money for me and I think honestly I think

00:30:55   like $9.99 is too much money especially if Apple's taking 50% of it which just seems

00:31:01   like way too much.

00:31:03   I feel like the way this works for publishers is if it means they don't need to spend money

00:31:10   but the thing is too late they all did this already spend money to make and then update

00:31:14   their individual apps and major publishers are going to want complete control but I could

00:31:20   see small publishers saying you know what this is a lot of money we're spending on development

00:31:25   what if instead we just tell people that if they want access they sign up for Apple News

00:31:30   Plus and they'll get it there and it'll be super easy in fact I wonder I wonder if Apple's

00:31:34   doing this behind the scenes one of the things that if I were Apple I would build is an API

00:31:40   for news authentication so that if somebody so basically you can read Apple News on the

00:31:46   web but you can also log in to a participating company media company's website with your

00:31:53   ID like a single sign on because what that would yeah because what that would do is allow

00:32:01   smaller publishers to just walk away from maintaining their own stuff for this and say

00:32:07   if you want you know but they need to be able to have it be on the web too and have it be

00:32:12   related to that so that they could get people who aren't using Apple devices but that would

00:32:15   be a way that Apple could maybe make it appealing to them and in saying like look Apple's just

00:32:19   going to handle all of this pay content stuff for you and you can kind of walk away is that

00:32:25   scary because Apple's in charge of your your strategy well sure but if you don't have the

00:32:29   money to build the technology to compete with Apple's app then maybe you could do that but

00:32:37   but from an Apple News Plus product perspective you are you know you're talking about the

00:32:45   third tier stuff being in your in your service which is not great right so I don't know I

00:32:52   don't know this is this is perplexing to me this entire thing and it doesn't mean that

00:32:56   people who don't like it aren't getting something out of it I think the more perplexing things

00:32:59   are why the app isn't better and also what the business model is for publishers but I

00:33:05   don't know I I joked about it last year but I'll say it again part of me wonders why Apple

00:33:10   isn't doing something as outlandish but maybe necessary as buying some of these flailing

00:33:20   often hedge fund purchased falling apart newspapers and building its own sort of news network

00:33:27   out of existing regional newspapers in the US maybe Apple doesn't want to be in the news

00:33:33   business but Apple's in the media business and that would be one way to turn this around

00:33:37   is to say Apple's going to save local news and it's going to pour it all into Apple News

00:33:40   Plus and have that be this amazing journalism engine but instead they're just sort of like

00:33:47   laying back and saying here's a service we made we take half of the money give it a try

00:33:51   and it's just I don't I just I don't I don't see a path forward here that makes sense to

00:33:55   me.

00:33:56   So a few days after the CNBC report the Koch media conference Roger Lynch who is the CEO

00:34:03   of Conde Nast who became CEO after Conde Nast had entered into their agreement with Apple

00:34:09   News Plus he didn't arrange it.

00:34:12   Lynch said that the jury is out on whether News Plus will be a success for them Lynch

00:34:16   also says that Apple News Plus did not hurt their own paywall subscription so people aren't

00:34:21   switching to it and leaving them behind.

00:34:24   Yeah that's not that doesn't surprise me actually.

00:34:27   Oh and also for the Black Friday weekend Apple is offering a three-month trial instead of

00:34:32   a one-month trial to US and Canadian subscribers so that's good.

00:34:37   Is that oh it's Cyber Monday as we're recording this my favorite holiday that includes the

00:34:40   word cyber I don't know if it's continuing to be offered or not but yeah it is interesting

00:34:47   regardless it is it is interesting that they are doing a three-month trial right.

00:34:54   Just like please sign up like we'd love it if you would.

00:34:59   Do you think that this is something that can realistically be turned into something better?

00:35:07   Because at this point I really feel like it is just waiting to be bundled.

00:35:12   Yeah well I think I think bundling it will make it better because it'll make it a better

00:35:16   value I don't know if that'll work for the publishers though right.

00:35:21   I would say.

00:35:23   You'd hope that in a bundle situation that Apple would cut their own cut.

00:35:27   You would you would hope so I think that there's probably something Apple could do here that

00:35:33   would work I'm not 100% sure about that I don't even want to say probably there might

00:35:38   be a system here where Apple makes a service that works for publishers and it works for

00:35:43   Apple I am afraid that the current structure of this is designed to work for Apple and

00:35:49   I just don't I feel like if Apple wants to be in this business it that's great it can

00:35:54   it can throw off a little bit of revenue for them and also make the experience of using

00:35:59   an Apple device better potentially than the competition they've got that potentially going

00:36:04   for it but I feel like it's going to require at this point it's going to require somebody

00:36:10   at Apple to admit that this is just broken and doesn't work and that the initial connect

00:36:14   conception was a failure and that they need to go back to the drawing board and who would

00:36:18   that be because who came up with this idea and who instituted it and who is going to

00:36:24   is Eddy Cue going to say wow I really screwed this up we need to start again I hope so because

00:36:30   I think one of the big problems with companies in general not just Apple but including Apple

00:36:36   is this reluctance to accept that something is just a failure and to move on from it and

00:36:44   a little bit too much pride and you know this Apple news plus I'm not quite ready to call

00:36:49   it the butterfly keyboard of services but it's close like I don't think it's gonna work

00:36:55   I don't think it's gonna work for anyone in the long term I it doesn't work for customers

00:36:59   it doesn't work for publishers maybe it works for Apple although it seems like not well

00:37:02   enough for them to not do some free trial extended free trials to get people into it

00:37:08   I just I I think they could I think tweaking it is not gonna work I guess that's the way

00:37:15   I'll put it as I think this needs to be broken and reconceived and I doubt they're gonna

00:37:21   do that so can it work maybe it will it work I'm doubtful because I think it would require

00:37:29   Apple to admit that it that they made some big mistakes up front with it and that that

00:37:35   didn't work and that they need to try again and I don't know who that would be and how

00:37:39   they would do that but it just seems broken to me.

00:37:41   So, talking about services that I think well I think this one is in the complete opposition

00:37:48   to Apple news and that it was a surprise that the quality that we have gotten is Apple Arcade.

00:37:53   So Apple Arcade has been around for a few months now and you said to me why don't we

00:37:58   talk about some of the games we've been playing because you were maybe looking for some recommendations

00:38:02   as well so right I want to give you some of the games that I've been playing some that

00:38:06   I still want to play and then we could talk about maybe our overall thoughts sure so I've

00:38:11   only I've only been really diving into a small handful of games and I really want to get

00:38:16   into more I just I haven't had time to put into Apple Arcade games because there's been

00:38:21   some console games that I've been wanting to play recently but the games that I've spent

00:38:26   the most time with is Grindstone which is a matching puzzle game with some action elements

00:38:32   it's a fun little game it's made by Cappy Games who are a pretty cool game developer

00:38:37   so you know these games where you like you have to like match up a bunch of colors you

00:38:42   know in like a grid you get like a I don't know I'm trying to think of something that

00:38:46   it's like not like but kind of like Bejeweled I guess in that idea you know it's like that

00:38:51   but it's got some action kind of elements to it and RPG like elements it's kind of fun

00:38:56   Cards of Darkness is another one it's a card based strategy game which is I think even

00:39:01   more difficult to explain but was made by Zach Gage who's made many of my favorite iOS

00:39:07   games of all time.

00:39:08   Yeah, Cards of Darkness is great I have played it I love it it is a complicated concept although

00:39:15   it starts you off fairly slowly I hit a roadblock in terms of gameplay and stopped so I was

00:39:23   really enjoying it for a couple of weeks and then the difficulty level ramped up very quickly

00:39:28   for me to the point where I would I hit some levels that I simply couldn't beat and so

00:39:32   if my the complex I appreciate the complexity of it I feel like it gets too complicated

00:39:38   too fast and I feel like the roles that the various cards have are complicated and not

00:39:47   entirely obvious like I completely didn't understand I still don't entirely understand

00:39:53   some aspects of the way some of the cards work and it got me it was just was at some

00:40:00   point I just hit the wall and was so frustrated and I gave up and it's a shame and I feel

00:40:04   like there could be something there that there's something there that is is missing that it

00:40:08   could be better because I really got into it until I hit the wall and I think I hit

00:40:13   the wall because I'm misunderstanding some aspects of the game but when I try to figure

00:40:18   out what I'm misunderstanding and what it means and I will admit I didn't go on a Google

00:40:23   search although the little side note by the way one of the challenges of a lot of these

00:40:28   Apple arcade games is because they are of limited appeal because they're mostly just

00:40:34   on Apple arcade not always but a bunch of them are primarily Apple arcade games and

00:40:38   nothing else what I found is that a lot of the resources that you find for games on the

00:40:43   internet aren't there for these games a lot of these games because they're new and they're

00:40:49   only for people who are doing Apple arcade or that's the primary audience for them so

00:40:54   I didn't look up how I could figure out what is wrong with my conceptions of Cards of Darkness

00:41:00   and maybe there's stuff there now that wasn't there a month ago but it's too bad because

00:41:05   like I literally I was I was playing it all the time and then I hit the brick wall and

00:41:10   I just that was it and I haven't played it since.

00:41:14   I wouldn't say I've hit the brick wall but I do find it difficult but I enjoy playing

00:41:19   it when I have a lot of time but it is a game that on the surface to me it kind of looks

00:41:25   like oh just jump in and play a level whenever you want but I can't play it like that I have

00:41:29   to really devote time to it to actually really work out what I'm doing like I have to be

00:41:35   in a situation where I'm getting into a groove if I'm not getting into a groove then I

00:41:40   can't I can't focus on the game well enough you know what I'm saying?

00:41:45   It takes a lot more thought for me than I had initially expected when I saw it kind

00:41:49   of like on the surface.

00:41:52   What the Golf which is a game that I actually don't really want to spend a ton a ton of

00:41:57   time explaining because explaining it can spoil it it is a golf game but is nothing

00:42:02   like any golf game you would expect or ever play before it is absolutely hilarious and

00:42:08   fantastic and is one of my very favorites actually.

00:42:11   I will go further and say much to my surprise what the golf is my favorite Apple Arcade

00:42:15   game I completed the entire linear storyline and went back and completed I ended up getting

00:42:23   to like 98% Wow basically there are like three holes that I can't get through at the highest

00:42:34   difficulty because I just can't like they're the three of them like I don't even know

00:42:38   how I would would win this level and I gave up so I didn't I didn't 100% it but I came

00:42:43   very close and if you know me I am not a go back and do 100% person I just I'm not I'm

00:42:49   not but it just every level every permutation of every level hilarious loved it and I'm

00:42:55   not a golf game person but it's not a golf game but it's not really a golf game in

00:43:00   fact I would say it's a it is a satire and not just of golf games but of all games and

00:43:06   yet also a great game so cannot recommend what the golf highly enough.

00:43:10   I like that it really has a like show your friends mode which is just genius because

00:43:15   sometimes I want to show it to people and like I opened the game up because I was going

00:43:19   to show Adina and it was like right there it said show your friends and I was like did

00:43:24   you video game you a genius because you know this is a game that you have to show people

00:43:29   for them to understand it right and to have it so you can play through some of the weird

00:43:33   levels just there it's very very clever it's very very clever.

00:43:38   What else have we got on this list so Sayonara Wild Hearts rhythm based action game this

00:43:45   one probably got like the most critical acclaim from the original lineup you know people really

00:43:51   going wild for this game and it's on a bunch of different platforms it's really great

00:43:54   to play on iOS it is it's much more comfortable with a controller but it is not necessary

00:44:01   but it is better to play I have found that if you struggle with the touch controls you

00:44:07   can change the sensitivity of what swiping will do in the game like swiping left to right

00:44:13   you can change the sensitivity of that I found that that helped but it is better to play

00:44:18   over control this is a good one to play on the Apple TV.

00:44:21   Yeah so this is my story here is that I found it unplayable on my iPad and so I put it on

00:44:27   the Apple TV and I got a I got a controller and I paired it and I played it and it was

00:44:33   much more playable and enjoyable and I played a couple of levels and I have never gone back

00:44:37   to play it on the Apple TV because the truth is I don't do a lot of turning on the TV

00:44:43   when it's just me and I can play video games yeah I know more often happens on on my iPad

00:44:49   that my iPad is my primary gaming device and I had a very very very hard time playing I

00:44:55   just wasn't enjoying it so it looks great it sounds great there's a lot to be said for

00:45:00   it but I have kind of just never gotten over the hump with Sayonara Wild Hearts.

00:45:07   In a similar vein for me iOS gaming happens on my iPhone like 90% of the time I'm playing

00:45:14   games on my iPhone if I'm ever playing a game on iOS so the games that are more optimized

00:45:18   for larger screens like Sayonara Wild Hearts are the ones that I'm not playing as often

00:45:23   because it's not as good on the phone and I'm more likely to play games on my phone

00:45:28   so the Pinball Wizard is another one it is a pinball game but also like a dungeon crawling

00:45:34   game it's super fun like there are these little levels and you have pinball mechanics to defeat

00:45:39   enemies and you go from level to level it's a very very clever kind of like subversion

00:45:44   on the pinball genre so I actually really like this because I enjoy pinball games a

00:45:49   lot too especially on iOS so this one's good so I recommend that.

00:45:52   I didn't love it it's you know it's based on a really dumb joke that it then takes literally

00:45:58   and I thought it was okay but I played it very briefly and then I was just like yeah

00:46:03   and I passed it by.

00:46:05   I have a list of games I still want to play I haven't yet.

00:46:08   Mini Motorways which is the sequel to Mini Metro which I'm assuming you have put time

00:46:12   into this.

00:46:14   I have I like it a lot but I it's it could be better it's I hope it gets an update I

00:46:21   hope they consider some of their gameplay this is the question with a lot of games I

00:46:24   have is like Cards of Darkness like is there something they could do to alter this to make

00:46:30   it better and and make players like me not get frustrated and will they like or they're

00:46:36   like no it's fine it's fine the way it is and I feel the same way from about Mini Motorways

00:46:40   which is good but like Mini Metro first off it could it could stand to have an endless

00:46:47   game where you just keep on adding roads and it keeps on adding houses and you just kind

00:46:52   of keep going and and you can't fail because it's it is not just a game it is what they

00:47:00   used to call I think this came from the from Will Wright the creator of SimCity back in

00:47:04   the day a software toy it's a toy you can just keep playing with it and it's soothing

00:47:09   and fun and it's not about winning or losing it's just kind of drawing out the map and

00:47:14   seeing what happens also I think there's some fundamental like problems with the gameplay

00:47:21   stuff gets placed in weird places that make it that are not realistic for a city simulator

00:47:27   and I think if you're going to pretend that this is you're making it a city having a giant

00:47:35   giant like big box store open where it's only entrance is on the water away from all the

00:47:42   roads it's like why would you do that like no nobody would do that and it's just because

00:47:47   I think they didn't program in any intelligence nor did they make the rule that you could

00:47:51   connect at once at any point and that that would be where we build from like it's little

00:47:56   stuff like that where I feel like it just it makes it feel it makes the game feel unfair

00:48:02   in a way and less real and I think that that when you're playing it that takes some of

00:48:07   the joy out of it and it is supposed to be a game that is is joyful to play I don't know

00:48:12   it's it's a it's not I don't like it as much as mini metro but it's got a lot of potential

00:48:17   I think it could potentially be better than mini metro but they need to do more work on

00:48:21   it and I'm not sure they ever will so yeah that's kind of like the the real thing about

00:48:29   these types of games with these games on Apple arcade I should say what is gonna happen like

00:48:36   I mean my our assumption is they have a deal with Apple like does Apple give them a revenue

00:48:42   cut if they do that incentivizes upgrading but if Apple just gave them an amount of money

00:48:47   up front and the agreement was make sure the game doesn't break then maybe there aren't

00:48:53   gonna be new features I think it really depends on what that looks like because if it was

00:48:57   an upfront payment why would you keep going in and fixing it if there's no more money

00:49:03   but we don't know we don't know what these deals were like so that I guess just like

00:49:07   an interesting thing to keep an eye on as time goes on like will Apple arcade games

00:49:11   get updated with more levels I don't know I have none of the games that I've played

00:49:16   that has happened to yet so I'm keen to see what happens there exit the gungeon is a game

00:49:22   that I've been having my eye on it is difficult to explain but it's like a riff on a pretty

00:49:29   much like a sequel to another game it's effectively a second dungeon calling games you go from

00:49:38   level to level you I see going up you like trying to get out of a dungeon and it's called

00:49:42   was like a bullet hell game just like firing tons and tons of bullets at lots and lots

00:49:47   of monsters it looks fun it's it's it's a game that I've had my arm for a while because

00:49:52   it comes from a great publisher so that's one that I've had my eye on so I have a special

00:49:58   guest review of it which is that this is a game that my son has been playing for a while

00:50:04   on on console let's enter the gungeon oh this is oh this is like a sequel it's a sequel

00:50:12   oh interesting well I will say for enter the gungeon he thinks it's great yeah that's why

00:50:17   because like I I have a winner to the gungeon but I know people love it so I've been wanting

00:50:22   to play exit the gungeon because it's like a sequel to it basically which is like built

00:50:26   for iOS where enter the gungeon was built for the platforms and really the biggest appeal

00:50:31   of it is that it is a retro style game the graphics are all pixel art and it's it's adorable

00:50:41   overland is a game that I have known about for a long time it is a post-apocalyptic mystery

00:50:48   point-and-click type game it's just very beautiful and I've wanted to play this one for a while

00:50:54   again still haven't been able to okay possessions which is a puzzle like game in what is like

00:51:01   referred to as a zen style I've played a few games like this where you're like exploring

00:51:06   a room exploring an object to solve a puzzle this one just looks very cute and it's published

00:51:12   by noodle cake who published Super Stickman golf yeah I started playing this and kind

00:51:20   of got bored okay I can see that because I think it's kind of like a very chill right

00:51:25   so it's like a very chill game Guildlings this is probably the next game that I'm gonna

00:51:30   get into it is an adventure game like an RPG game which has been developed by one of the

00:51:38   individuals was the person who created my favorite iOS game of all time threes nothing

00:51:44   like threes it is more of like an RPG point-and-click type game but I've heard very very good things

00:51:51   about this game from like friends and family members so I really really want to get into

00:51:56   this next that this is probably the next one on my list and then Outlanders as well which

00:52:01   is a you mentioned like SimCity earlier it is like a town building sim game with like

00:52:07   it's like a little village like a little farming town I like games like this a lot this is

00:52:11   a genre that I enjoy on iOS like kind of like a SimCity or whatever but for years these

00:52:17   games have been full of in-app purchases right pay to speed up this and pay to upgrade this

00:52:23   so I'm keen to see what a game on Apple Arcade that has this type of mechanic would look

00:52:29   like so there's some of the games that we've been playing and that I've had my eye on I

00:52:34   think we would both love recommendations from the upgradients for stuff that we may have

00:52:38   missed that's worth playing so you should tweet those to us but I think that honestly

00:52:44   like for five dollars a month five pounds a month or whatever it is this is just a fantastic

00:52:48   deal Apple Arcade there is so much good stuff and they're adding new games like every week

00:52:52   nearly I think that this has turned out to be a great service because you know I found

00:52:58   five six games that I've liked out of it I mean I would have paid each of those you know

00:53:03   I would have given a few dollars to each of them so I feel like I'm getting my money's

00:53:07   worth from it yeah I'm I'm a little more negative than that I'd say I'm on the fence about it

00:53:13   I think the launch apps were great and I found a bunch that I really enjoyed and I I was

00:53:19   able to just sort of luxuriate in playing all those and there were so many of them and

00:53:24   I kind of moved my way through them and if there was one like a good example of possessions

00:53:28   one where I just sort of didn't grab me I was like all right moving on I'm gonna go

00:53:32   to the next one because there were so many however since launch I've always felt like

00:53:39   the the big question was gonna be after launch what's it like what what are the new games

00:53:47   going to be that that are rolling out and how are they going to maintain and I think

00:53:51   the truth is I have yet to find a post launch game that interested me so it's early yet

00:54:00   and the launch titles were really really strong and there were lots of them and there were

00:54:05   lots of them but I'm that's where I am is I I so if people have recommendations I'd

00:54:15   love to hear them I think given where you and I are I'm I'm tempted to say that we should

00:54:20   revisit this every so often and maybe even dare I say can you do a podcast where you

00:54:25   challenge your co-host to do to do something I don't think so not without horrific trademark

00:54:30   infringement oh I see well because I was thinking maybe we could challenge each other to like

00:54:34   play a specific game and then talk about it we challenge ourselves maybe maybe we could

00:54:38   we could do that but this is my challenge right now is is finding is make making Apple

00:54:44   Arcade worth it because for me post launch I have not been impressed and some of that

00:54:49   may be the way that Apple's marketing it like they do have a new this week area but for

00:54:55   whatever reason I go there and I'm like yeah and then I kind of move on so sometimes you

00:54:59   need you need the personal recommendation so tweet at JSNL at I'm like I am YK if you

00:55:05   have games that we have not mentioned that you have put time into and you really enjoy

00:55:11   it will be great if you can to say very quickly what you like about that game rather than

00:55:16   just tweeting the game and it's let us know and then we can maybe follow up on some games

00:55:20   that we found that maybe otherwise have gone a little under the radar oh yeah that's a

00:55:25   good idea and if we really want to play a game then you and I can agree on a game and

00:55:29   then we'll we'll play by Monday yes we'll do that it's just an idea we just call the

00:55:33   segment something something like that a weekly Apple Arcade challenge I don't know whatever

00:55:37   work on it yeah this episode is also brought to you by FreshBooks FreshBooks can help you

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00:57:11   trial no credit card required by going to freshbooks.com/upgrade and if you sign up please

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00:57:21   for their support of this show and Relay FM that's freshbooks.com/upgrade to check it out

00:57:26   and sign up for your free trial. A few weeks ago Jason you said you had some thoughts on

00:57:32   CarPlay and I wanted to get a check in from you about those I thought I would also because

00:57:39   as somebody who does not have a car and as somebody who's only ever seen CarPlay in use

00:57:44   once I kind of forgot a lot about what CarPlay did it is effectively a service that can be

00:57:51   wireless or you can plug in and you get access to a bunch of features from your iPhone so

00:57:57   this can be like text messages and maps and calls and all that kind of stuff iOS 13 added

00:58:03   a bunch more features like for example the ability to see multiple things on the screen

00:58:08   at once it's called the multifunction dashboard this is something that didn't do before so

00:58:13   it lets you see a map what's playing and also turn by turn information on one screen rather

00:58:19   than just like just looking at the map or just looking at your podcast app or whatever

00:58:23   that seems like a pretty good upgrade. Yeah I think that's the the biggest thing about

00:58:28   iOS 13 CarPlay so to back up Myke the way CarPlay works is you attach it to a car and

00:58:34   then the car's screen becomes and then it will play your like iPhone kind of and then

00:58:43   there's also Android Auto which will do that on Android phones and it means that you don't

00:58:46   have to rely on the terrible mostly don't have to rely on the terrible software that

00:58:49   is in the entertainment system of whatever car you're in and I have I spent the last

00:58:56   the reason I mentioned this a while ago is that I have spent some time in rental cars

00:59:01   with CarPlay and then I also have a CarPlay system now in in the car that my daughter

00:59:08   often drives but since she's been a college I've been driving so I've spent a lot more

00:59:12   time with CarPlay and iOS 13 so I've been able to spend more time with it than I think

00:59:19   I have ever done before like all of my previous CarPlay time put together would not match

00:59:24   even close to match the CarPlay time in the last three months that I've had so the dashboard

00:59:31   thing is huge right like the dashboard thing instead of having one app you can have this

00:59:35   very I find it very pleasant dashboard view where you've got your now playing essentially

00:59:41   of whatever audio is playing you've got a navigation window is showing you the map and

00:59:47   then it's got like another tile that will be showing you it could be like a series suggestion

00:59:51   or it can be turn by turn of like what your next turn is and it's really nice to have

00:59:57   the the now playing and the map on the same screen I like it a lot could they do more

01:00:03   of course they could do more but it's like a good it's a huge upgrade from what was there

01:00:09   before which was very much like you're just in this app and then you're in this other

01:00:14   app and like literally because it the way it used to be is that when you switched apps

01:00:17   and CarPlay it would switch apps on your phone which means you couldn't have the passenger

01:00:23   looking through your phone while you were using CarPlay as the driver because every

01:00:28   time they move to a different app the CarPlay would change and every time you tap something

01:00:32   on CarPlay the app would change and it was very bad and in iOS 13 that's gone as well

01:00:37   it's completely independent CarPlay is happening on the screen and and then you can use the

01:00:42   phone if you're a passenger in any way you want so that is great the dashboard stuff

01:00:49   is great I really like it and not a new feature but I really like the toggle there's a quick

01:00:56   one tap toggle between ETA and or turn by turn and non ETA or non turn by turn modes

01:01:04   which is really great because of course what you want is if I'm going someplace that I

01:01:10   don't know how to get there at the at the far end but I'm leaving my house like I know

01:01:15   how to get to the freeway from my house right I know how to go across a bridge from my house

01:01:20   I'm well aware it's late in the game where I start to have those questions like now where

01:01:25   do I get off the freeway where do I turn and so with that with that toggle you you go and

01:01:32   it'll tell you your ETA and it'll tell you like where you're where you're where you're

01:01:36   going in general and that's helpful to have like you know you're on the path and it's

01:01:40   going to take now you're going to get there at 138 now you're going to get there at 129

01:01:45   right that's all good but it's not talking to you and telling you things you already

01:01:49   know and then when you get closer if you need first off it makes it nice you can just do

01:01:54   that even though you don't need directions just so you can see the ETA that's very convenient

01:01:59   but if you tap it then it jumps into turn by turn and I found that very useful that's

01:02:04   likewise likewise the other direction if I'm someplace and I need to get home I can say

01:02:08   take me home and it will get me home but at some point along the way I will have reached

01:02:15   the point where like I know how to get home from here and then you tap it and it stops

01:02:18   talking to you so not a new feature but like something that I've really gotten into using

01:02:24   since using CarPlay and that I like a lot because it gives you like the benefits of

01:02:27   having an onboard map computer thingy without it interrupting you to tell you to like make

01:02:33   that right at the light next to your house to get home that's this is an Apple maps only

01:02:38   that's that's well that I think it's a map feature so I do I use Apple maps because I

01:02:44   live in California where Apple maps is good I don't know if Google Maps has that feature

01:02:48   it may well have that feature but it definitely is an Apple maps and that's where I'm using

01:02:52   it but you can actually choose can't you on CarPlay if you want Apple maps and Google

01:02:56   maps you can use Google Maps on CarPlay yeah for sure and you can use their different audio

01:03:01   apps that you can use now I mean I mostly am just using Overcast music and Apple maps

01:03:07   though that's pretty much all I'm using in in CarPlay and during baseball season I was

01:03:13   using the MLB app but it didn't get really updated for iOS 13 and didn't work quite right

01:03:18   which was unfortunate and I think could be a lot better that's that's one of the things

01:03:22   that I don't know how much of the limitation is CarPlay and how much of the limitation

01:03:27   is just app implementation like Overcast doesn't do chapter markers in CarPlay and I don't

01:03:34   know whether it can I should ask Marco but my guess is that it can't because that's a

01:03:41   sort of a standard now playing thing but it's one of those things where I would really like

01:03:46   it to show me the chapters and for Major League Baseball I know that there are Apple wants

01:03:51   safety in cars so I know Apple doesn't want to put like too much data on the screen that

01:03:56   said the Major League Baseball app should really show the score and the inning of the

01:04:01   game you're listening to and it doesn't and it's really frustrating even my satellite

01:04:06   radio in my nine-year-old minivan shows me the score of the game I'm listening to so

01:04:13   I would like you know the apps could be better but I think some of that may be limited by

01:04:16   CarPlay and some of it is just limited by the interest in the app developer to update

01:04:21   CarPlay but but still it's pretty good there's oh also new in 13 there's a light mode which

01:04:26   I turned on and then immediately turned off because it was very bright and I didn't want

01:04:30   it but there's a light mode it always ran in dark mode so they added a light mode and

01:04:34   then they added the option to run in sort of light in the day and dark in the night

01:04:38   if you wanted to do it that way but I kind of like the dark mode in the in the car all

01:04:42   the time there's calendar in there now which can be useful and it's kind of it's also tied

01:04:47   in with the like the Siri suggestion stuff so you can see what's on your schedule and

01:04:51   it's going to recommend things for you and that's and also get directions to an event

01:04:54   which is clever yeah right it's like when I saw it I was like why would you want a calendar

01:04:58   in the car it's like oh because you may have like this is the location and the easiest

01:05:02   way for you to get that is just to tap locate like to go there from the event right yeah

01:05:07   ideally you would I mean yeah you can do that I've also found that Siri suggestions is actually

01:05:12   pretty good and even in the maps app I think of saying I think this is where you are going

01:05:16   next and then you can just tap and it's in there because of course if you're in CarPlay

01:05:20   mode adding a location is a pain the best thing to do is probably to to trigger voice

01:05:27   and say where you want to go because you're not going to want to type it or whatever so

01:05:32   but it'll look in your calendars and say I think this may be where you want to go but

01:05:37   you can also open the calendar and say that's that's my that's my next event and yeah it's

01:05:43   it's just it shows that they are they have made some good progress I think with this

01:05:47   from it being kind of a halfway version to having it be having it be a lot better than

01:05:55   that do you think CarPlay is important to Apple I I think it is because I think honestly

01:06:05   I think we've reached the point now where having your phone be able to drive the entertainment

01:06:11   system in your car is almost table stakes like even on the best not every car has CarPlay

01:06:18   and Android Auto but like even on the best cars I think the entertainment systems aren't

01:06:24   very good and there's an argument to be made that by the makers of the entertainment system

01:06:29   sort of saying look we're not going to get in the way we know all of your music all of

01:06:33   your podcasts we you know your your GPS navigation and all your favorites and your calendar all

01:06:39   of that's on your phone we're we're not going to even bother we just are going to talk let

01:06:43   your phone handle it all of that stuff and and maybe we'll overlay all the car controls

01:06:49   although even there I would say that there seems to be a movement to have more and more

01:06:54   kind of like support in the between car controls and these operating systems so that they can

01:07:01   they can sense that this car has this certain control and can use it in the UI and there's

01:07:05   also weird shaped like different screens that are like in the car presumably like heads-up

01:07:10   displays will go in this direction to like I feel like this is a trend is that car makers

01:07:15   know that people have all their stuff on their phones and so they're I think over time what's

01:07:22   not going to have happened is car makers reasserting that they want complete control and they want

01:07:27   to block out your phone I think they're going to build around the fact that you're going

01:07:31   to connect your phone to your car and including interface stuff like this that's richer than

01:07:37   just like a USB you know music library collection and so I think at that point like Apple has

01:07:44   to do this because this is the world we live in now and I also Apple wants to take control

01:07:49   of that experience as much as it can so yeah I think I think it's here to stay just because

01:07:54   I don't think this this concept is going to go away yeah I think that it's at this point

01:07:59   they have to keep doing it because Android do it too right like you you get certain situations

01:08:05   you find yourself in and it's almost like an arms race right it's like well they have

01:08:09   to keep it going now even if they didn't want to and I think it's yeah table stakes is the

01:08:13   way I put it but it's like yes Android is going to do it Apple is going to do it the

01:08:17   car makers know they're going to do it and it feels like we've reached that status quo

01:08:20   now where it's really more like the car makers are going to innovate where they want but

01:08:25   they're also going to know that the phone is there and either in I think we saw some

01:08:30   indication with some of the updates in iOS 13 to CarPlay that Apple is building some

01:08:36   features into CarPlay specifically because car makers have said this would be a thing

01:08:41   that we want and the like the weirdly shaped screens is a good example of that which is

01:08:46   you know we've got a screen that's a different shape and we want to put a CarPlay interface

01:08:49   in it so what do we do and Apple built that feature so that you can do that you know weird

01:08:54   shaped screens multiple screens you know I think all of that is on the table and that

01:09:00   if I'm running CarPlay or Android Auto that's like top part of my job is just talking to

01:09:07   the car makers and and like you're all you literally you are all partners in this because

01:09:13   you are you know CarPlay doesn't exist without a car but the car makers know that people

01:09:17   have their phones and they're not going to be going into their cars without their phones

01:09:21   so what I'm saying Myke is that it's nice to have CarPlay I never had it I had a I had

01:09:26   a CarPlay box that I wired into a plug that could sit on my desk which is really not the

01:09:32   same because it doesn't go anywhere so it's nice to have in Jamie's car to have the to

01:09:37   have that now so I've seen it in a few cars with friends and it does seem like yeah okay

01:09:42   this is probably the experience that I would want because the applications that I would

01:09:46   most likely use are there right because it is worth knowing right it's not an open platform

01:09:50   there are third-party apps but they're under much more strict controls from Apple about

01:09:54   the approval and stuff which I actually agree with it I wouldn't want it to be an open system

01:10:00   it just seems wild to me it's just too many yeah you have to have these things really

01:10:04   well reviewed for safety concerns you don't want distracting stuff on the screen and all

01:10:08   that kind of for sure yeah you don't want some random like video app to play video which

01:10:12   is like illegal like because there's legal reasons why that said I think sometimes it's

01:10:17   taken too far the MLB app is a good example of that we're like I think they could probably

01:10:22   put more data on the screen about the game you're currently listening to and let's not

01:10:26   forget car place not just for the driver it's for the passenger and as a passenger in a

01:10:32   car with carplay you know I would especially like more data on my screen not video or anything

01:10:38   like that but like for a baseball game to have like a line score and a little bit of

01:10:43   information I think that would be okay and and and you do have to draw a line somewhere

01:10:48   because you don't want to be distracting the driver that said you have a big touchscreen

01:10:52   with a bunch of buttons where you're saying you know forward and previous and pause and

01:10:56   there's a menu button like it is inherently distracting and I'm not sure you couldn't

01:11:00   put a little more data on some of these apps without it becoming a huge distraction

01:11:05   Alright it's time for some #AskUpgrade but today we will thank our friends over at smile

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01:12:08   type things consistently actually just before this show today I made a change to a snippet

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01:12:19   the next time an invoice is sent out the information that I need to be updated will be updated

01:12:23   without me needing to tell anybody about it because when the snippet is fired it will

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01:13:02   show and relay FM let's do some hashtag ask upgrade questions and the first one this week

01:13:10   comes from Eric this is relevant to cyber monday Eric wants to know two home pods or

01:13:18   a sonos play bar for home theater use what do you think? I use two home pods for my TV

01:13:26   all the time but you can only use it with Apple TV for the home pods that are up to

01:13:31   work and it doesn't work with all apps it doesn't work with YouTube for example and

01:13:35   it's very frustrating because if you have it set up like we do so we watch I don't know

01:13:40   say we're watching something from the Apple TV app or we watch something from the Netflix

01:13:45   app or whatever we can set it in kind of the settings and little control center menu that

01:13:50   they now have on Apple TV we can set the audio output to be the home pods and it sounds fantastic

01:13:55   it's like a great way to get a kind of like pseudo surround sound like room filling system

01:14:00   it I love it right like it works great for us I don't want to put a 5.1 arrangement in

01:14:04   my home I just don't want to do that but the home pods work great but then if I then want

01:14:11   to watch a YouTube video the audio will come out of the television and the volume will

01:14:17   be changing the volume for my home pods if I turn the volume up and down yep so so yeah

01:14:23   this is this is what I was going to say is home pod is great if you are entirely all

01:14:29   in on the Apple TV lifestyle and apparently don't use YouTube on the Apple TV because

01:14:36   that's weird why is it not outputting properly don't know man it seems like a bug that seems

01:14:40   like a bug it's been that way for as long as I've had two home pods which is so weird

01:14:45   so that is a very narrow and Myke has made it even narrower I'd say I'd say it's not

01:14:51   really a good replacement for for something like a play bar or some other sound bar like

01:14:57   it's not because unless you literally have no other devices hooked up to your TV than

01:15:02   an Apple TV and then then every other every other instance of this it doesn't work it

01:15:09   all falls apart so don't is what I'm saying I think I wrote an article about this I would

01:15:14   love to see Apple use home pod tech to make a sound bar because I think that would be

01:15:18   really good and then it could consume input from other devices and you know that would

01:15:24   be really nice but that doesn't exist so for now you want something like the play bar or

01:15:29   a different sound bar or some other kind of audio system attached to your TV I would it's

01:15:33   funny our friend Alex Cox was saying how their speakers are shot on their TV and so they're

01:15:42   in a market the market for a new TV and I thought to myself this is the speakers on

01:15:47   their TV I haven't used the speakers on my TV in so long and I don't really recommend

01:15:54   it there are better speakers than whatever TV you're using the speakers aren't very good

01:15:59   that's the that's my message to you so get something but probably don't get home pods

01:16:03   yeah my kind of kind of rule like ruling on the home pod things for the TV is they're

01:16:09   good if you already have two home pods do not buy two home pods for this we didn't buy

01:16:15   our home pods for this I bought the home pods so just did music would sound better but you

01:16:19   get a bonus which is you can make your sound better sort of manually if you want to yeah

01:16:23   but don't buy it back to the TV speakers yeah it's a good bonus but it's not like like video

01:16:29   games you can't play video games with this system right like you can't play PlayStation

01:16:34   games you can't even play Apple Arcade games I don't think with this it just because of

01:16:38   the latency I've tried yeah that's right because what's happening is that there's latency in

01:16:42   even in AirPlay 2 there's latency which is why you ideally don't want that yep Jeffrey

01:16:47   asks I'm a fellow weather geeker just like Jason how many Jason how many weather stations

01:16:51   do you have in your home and what do you find is the most accurate weather app so I asked

01:16:56   Jeffrey on Twitter what he meant by this and he didn't answer me I only have one weather

01:17:00   station and I keep it outside where the weather is so if he is asking how many weather like

01:17:06   things do I have in my house so oh I guess there's technically two weathers okay here

01:17:10   let me tell you I've got maybe Jeffrey wins I have a Davis Vantage Pro weather station

01:17:18   in it's attached to the side of my roof I have had it since 2004 and I changed a couple

01:17:24   of parts out this summer but it it uh it still works which is amazing and then so that transmits

01:17:33   to a console that's on the inside of my house that's a Davis little console that's got all

01:17:38   those readouts of all the all the data it has a an ethernet port on it that's a did

01:17:44   not exist when I bought it but they have since made a an ethernet adapter for it that you

01:17:50   plug in and then it it can relay all that data to the cloud I also have a piece of software

01:17:56   called weather cat that runs on my Mac that can talk directly to the to the console the

01:18:01   ethernet based console and get the data directly from there before it even goes to the cloud

01:18:05   it's it pings that and gets that data out that's generating a web page that I can check

01:18:12   from my computer I just went to the weather cat website this is software of a time it

01:18:18   is software of a time but you know weather weather stations are not all the hot cool

01:18:24   modern weather station software is generally being done by app developers who have who

01:18:29   are going to sell you a weather station which is not what I have I have an existing weather

01:18:34   station from a time of 2004 and in fact that shipped with a Java app on the Mac that was

01:18:40   terrible so when I found weather cat it was very very very very good because it's actually

01:18:45   a Mac app that has a huge amount of data I like the weather cat website is using the

01:18:51   leopard or snow leopard wallpaper as its back on the website showing you exactly when the

01:18:58   software don't even use their templates I actually use a PHP template that I wrote myself

01:19:03   like 10 years ago yeah so it's really of a time itself but anyway it also outputs a text

01:19:10   file with a lot of data in it and that I've got a thing in my menu bar using a little

01:19:17   tool called bit bar that just reads that data file every minute and updates and parses it

01:19:22   and then puts my the temperature and in this case how much rain we've had today in my menu

01:19:27   bar I have a cool gadget called a lemetric time Stephen's got one and it and I actually

01:19:36   first saw it at at twit they've they've got one there and it's like this little square

01:19:40   that they say it's like a music player and stuff but it's really it's a clock but it's

01:19:44   a programmable clock that's on the internet and so I wrote a you know a one-line app for

01:19:52   it that basically queries my weather station data and puts it on the screen so I have right

01:19:56   below my TV there's a little black box with the current time and temperature and then

01:20:03   beyond that I have I bought a little plastic gadget from ambient weather which is like

01:20:10   put batteries in it and stick it outside because I wanted the temperature in more places and

01:20:15   I didn't really want a sophisticated internet-based weather station display system everywhere

01:20:22   in my house and for like 30 bucks or something on Amazon I'll get you the link I got these

01:20:27   little ambient weather things that are basically on the inside of the house you get two or

01:20:31   three there are little plastic things that show the current temperature and the current

01:20:34   temperature outside and then there's a little plastic thing that you stick outside that

01:20:39   measures the temperature and that that means that like because Lauren was saying I don't

01:20:44   you know I can't see all the way over to the little black box by the TV when I'm in the

01:20:48   kitchen and I just put a little one of these things in the kitchen and so you can look

01:20:52   and say is it cold outside how cold is it and that's it I love how much you care about

01:20:56   the weather so there you go I've got and the and our friend a friend of the show Kieran

01:21:01   Healy actually discovered that I have all this data historical data on my weather station

01:21:06   and he made a bunch of because he is a data visualization professional wrote a book about

01:21:13   it and he made a bunch of graphs about my historical weather data it's the best it's

01:21:20   amazing so thank you Kieran. What about the app though? Jeffrey wants to know about the

01:21:24   app was the most accurate weather app? Where I live relying on on weather apps it doesn't

01:21:33   work because of the microclimates in the Bay Area they are frequently deeply inaccurate

01:21:39   because they're either measuring Sausalito or they're measuring San Rafael or they're

01:21:43   measuring someplace that's not right where I live so the most accurate weather app for

01:21:48   me is Carrot Weather with the premium subscription that allows me to point it at a weather station

01:21:55   which is my weather station. That's how you would get the most accurate like in my mind

01:22:01   is you need to have an application that will allow you to refine the source to the most

01:22:08   accurate source. That's right right and so so that's what I use is I use Carrot Weather

01:22:11   and their subscription and then I pick my weather station from the weather station list

01:22:16   and then the temperature the forecast is obviously coming from their forecast sources but the

01:22:20   current temperature on my Apple watch on my phone is the current temperature at my house.

01:22:26   Love Carrot Weather it's one of my favorite iOS apps. Yep. Really solid application. So

01:22:32   there you go Jeffrey showed you. I got to talk about it thank you weather nerd or what

01:22:38   weather geeker Jeffrey for letting me talk about the weather. Well and ask upgrade question

01:22:45   picker Myke for picking it putting it. Thank you question picker Myke. Got to throw your

01:22:50   weather every now and then I know you love it. It's been raining so it's a perfect time

01:22:55   we actually have some here. Jim asks since I since upgrading to iOS 13 my series 0 Apple

01:23:01   watch will go flat most days prior to iOS 13 it was fine what would you suggest for

01:23:06   my situation the series 3 seems outdated already so should I update to a series 5 wait for

01:23:11   a series 6 it does seem that the series 5 has reported battery life issues too so I

01:23:16   would say I feel pretty safe in guaranteeing you will get better battery performance from

01:23:21   a series 5 than your current series 0 even if the series 5 has battery issues I would

01:23:27   say is also I think the battery life on a series 5 is fine but I hadn't used an Apple

01:23:32   watch in a long time right but I get all their battery life I recommend taking a look around

01:23:38   for good deals across the holiday period now because you could probably get a good discount

01:23:43   on Apple watches even the series 5 one somewhere I wouldn't recommend necessarily waiting for

01:23:48   a series 6 if you're using it every day and I bet from a series 0 to a series 5 you're

01:23:54   gonna be very happy right with the advancements in that surely yeah definitely I also don't

01:24:01   really have issues with the battery I don't know quite what the story is with that but

01:24:06   I feel like that's been mostly cleared up now yeah I think so but there were I mean

01:24:11   yeah were some people having battery life problems but I think the battery life inverted

01:24:16   comma problem that they were having is they were now getting what Apple said they were

01:24:20   gonna get in most instances rather than what they were getting before which was much longer

01:24:25   than what Apple quoted right the 18 hour battery life period it seemed that there were some

01:24:30   people that were having problems but I think that that mostly got mostly got cleared up

01:24:36   by this point I think like 13 one had some fixes for battery life problems with the Apple

01:24:41   watch so I recommend that you go ahead and just look at Jim go and look ahead at getting

01:24:48   a new Apple watch I think that you'll be very happy I like my Apple watch I use it in the

01:24:55   most stupid way anyone's ever used an Apple watch by basically leaving in do not disturb

01:24:59   mode all the time but I like it I think it's a pretty watch and I enjoy wearing it but

01:25:05   I don't really use it like an Apple watch but it's okay there are many different ways

01:25:14   to to use a watch it's doing things right like you know I'm getting data I can get data

01:25:20   if I need it I can be notified if I want to but most of the time when I'm wearing it I

01:25:23   am wearing it because I like the fashion of my of the white one Kent asks is it safe to

01:25:29   upgrade to iOS 13 or Mac OS Catalina I think at this point 13 is is as good as it's gonna

01:25:36   gonna be like it's it's fine yeah and then Catalina is it safe sure like I don't I'm

01:25:43   not experiencing any major Catalina bugs I don't think but unless you need to update

01:25:52   like you need it need it need it you can also wait and you the number one thing as we said

01:25:56   when it came out is one thing they're not gonna fix is that it doesn't run 32-bit apps

01:26:02   anymore so if you have software that's old and is not compatible with Catalina and may

01:26:06   never be like you it's not safe right and you need to start planning if you eventually

01:26:12   will have to upgrade to Catalina or beyond when you get a new Mac and so you can buy

01:26:17   you can do what Myke did and buy a Mac that's currently shipping that was shipping before

01:26:22   Catalina was announced or before Catalina was released final which means any Mac shipping

01:26:28   today other than the 16-inch MacBook Pro those will run Mojave so you could do that but eventually

01:26:35   time will March on and then that will die and you're gonna be in a position where you

01:26:40   need to update and your software that you're relying on will not come with you unless you

01:26:46   put it in a virtual machine or unless you start now finding alternatives to it that

01:26:51   you can upgrade to now and that will then run on your Mac when you upgrade it so it's

01:26:55   a it's a process and that's the story with Catalina is straight-up update if all your

01:27:00   software is current it's fine.

01:27:03   Patrick asked I like this question this is a weird question I like my questions Patrick

01:27:09   asks am I overly paranoid for not using hotel USB ports to charge my iPhone or iPad?

01:27:18   I mean it's a good it's okay it's good to be cautious always good to be cautious I like

01:27:25   when hotels have USB ports because it means I don't have to use a bunch of adapters when

01:27:29   I'm in other countries the phone should be asking you if any data is trying to be accessed

01:27:37   right it's like do you want to trust this computer or whatever you trust or don't trust

01:27:41   it you still gain power from it but I understand the cautiousness I just plug them in anyway

01:27:49   because I want the power but what do you do?

01:27:53   I well I don't travel I travel with a charger so I generally don't do this but I think that

01:28:00   while there are security exploits that are out there in the world Apple has Apple has

01:28:06   hardened iOS from a lot of them right like you have to like trust a USB charger in order

01:28:14   to if it's trying to connect via data like it will let you do dumb power without a problem

01:28:20   but if it's more than that you actually need to say yes I trust this thing and don't trust

01:28:24   it don't do that but yeah I've noticed that like sometimes when I've been on a plane and

01:28:30   you've got like the USB port and that in the like the headrest is seen in front of you

01:28:34   and I plug the inner thing you want to trust this computer like no no don't know it shouldn't

01:28:38   be a computer well it once I think it wants to some of those they're like they want to

01:28:43   read your music library and like make it available using the entertainment system or whatever

01:28:47   but what why would I do that I just know I have my own headphones if I want to do that

01:28:52   so yeah so what I would say is it's probably not that big a deal unless you're in a place

01:28:58   like if it's if it's I would say if it's sketchy if it's like I don't know if I trust this

01:29:03   place and this random USB port that's here yeah sure but I think overly paranoid probably

01:29:10   all right that wraps it up for Ask Upgrade and therefore this episode so if you would

01:29:17   like to send in a tweet with a question for us to answer on the show just tweet with the

01:29:21   hashtag #askupgrade and it may be included for future episodes #snelltalk to help us

01:29:28   open an episode if you want to vote in the upgrade ease go to upgrade ease dot vote and

01:29:34   submit your votes for the upgrades we had hundreds of responses already which I'm very

01:29:37   very excited about so make sure you get those in we don't have a closing date yet but we

01:29:42   will announce that with some time to spare and I'm going to be working on that over the

01:29:47   next few weeks because it's very complicated to to amass the nominations because people

01:29:53   write them in plain text it makes it a tricky tricky thing to do but I've worked out a

01:29:57   system by this point but yeah upgrade ease dot vote and if you're still in time upgrade

01:30:02   your wardrobe dot com to pick up some merch we have all the great URLs over here on the

01:30:06   upgrade podcast don't we Jason Snell?

01:30:08   All the great links to weather hardware are in the show notes this week Myke.

01:30:13   Oh yeah all the great all the great links there too go to sixcolors.com for Jason's

01:30:18   work he is @jsnell on twitter I am @imikeyke we'll be back next time thank you so much

01:30:25   to Squarespace fresh books and smile for sponsoring say goodbye Jason Snell goodbye Myke Hurley

01:30:31   you're welcome.

01:30:36   [Music]