0:00:00[Intro]
0:00:07From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, episode 207.
0:00:11The Summer of Fun continues, and today's show is brought to you by
0:00:14Squarespace, Pingdom, and Inboard Technology.
0:00:17I am beach lovin', surfin' turfin', Myke Hurley,
0:00:21and I'm joined by the master of vibes, Jason Snell.
0:00:26Hey, dude!
0:00:30California freewheelin', Jason Snell.
0:00:34I, uh, when I was a kid and I was on like bulletin board
0:00:38computer stuff with people from all over the country, I had people,
0:00:42there were these guys in North Dakota who I knew, and they're in Fargo, North Dakota, and they're
0:00:46like, "Oh, how often do you go to the beach?" And I'm like, "I got bad news for you." I'm like,
0:00:51"More than 100 miles from the ocean." They were really sad, because as far as they were concerned,
0:00:55every single person in California was, "Hey, dude!" And I'm like, "Mmm, radical." Yeah, but
0:01:01anyway, that's totally what we are. We're standing, this is live from a beach, we're standing under a
0:01:05palm tree. Fun fact, when the Beach Boys formed, they didn't know how to surf. None of them knew.
0:01:12This week's #SnellTalk question comes from Will. That is a fun fact. Will wants to know,
0:01:18Will says, I should say, "I was listening to The Flophouse, and a smart audience member asked them,
0:01:24'What is the movie that you would like to see a sequel from that there has never been a sequel to?'"
0:01:29Jason, what is your answer? This is a great question by whoever asked this in that episode
0:01:34of The Flophouse that was released this weekend. And my answer, I think I'm going to go with the
0:01:41most obvious answer possible, which is Real Genius, one of my very favorite movies. And I would love
0:01:46to have seen the further hijinks of the Real Genius people in the '80s. I don't think I want to see a
0:01:54sequel now, although there was rumors that there was going to be a sequel with Val Kilmer as like a
0:02:00professor mentoring a new group of young nerds. Maybe, but that's one of my favorite movies. And
0:02:07it was never made into a sequel because almost everything now is a sequel or a franchise or all
0:02:12that. But there are lots of classic movies that we love that we might wish there had been a sequel
0:02:17and there never were. I think that was the premise of the person whose last name was withheld on The
0:02:22Flophouse this weekend. What about you, Myke? Oh, I don't know. I don't really think I have a good
0:02:28answer for this. I think maybe not so much of a sequel, but another movie to help flesh out the
0:02:36story would be Scott Pilgrim. I love Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim. In fact, relay FM members are going
0:02:42to hear me and Casey talk about it on an upcoming membership episode, bonus episode in a couple of
0:02:48weeks. But there was so much more to that story that had to be removed and I would love to see it
0:02:55continue or be fleshed out. I think Edgar Wright did an incredible job with that movie
0:03:00and the source material. But I feel like it wasn't complete. It didn't have everything it could have
0:03:05had, even though it's a good chunky two-hour movie, but it doesn't have everything I wanted.
0:03:12So that's probably where I'll go with less exciting than Raw Genius, I think.
0:03:15Maybe they should have done a Say Anything sequel where they're in Europe.
0:03:20Oh man, what a great movie. I need to watch that again. I feel like it's been long enough now since
0:03:25we did Say Anything. I really want to see that movie again. I loved it so much. I want to see if
0:03:29it stands up to me on a second viewing. That was very good. I'm incarcerated, Lloyd.
0:03:38I'm going to put in the show notes, I'll put the incomparable cut of the movie.
0:03:44Yeah, the mic of the movies.
0:03:45That will be in our show notes. So if you would like to ask a question for a future episode,
0:03:53just send in a tweet with the hashtag #SnellTalk and that will help us when it comes to asking
0:03:58something nice and random to begin our show every week as we do. And we would like to continue
0:04:03today's episode by moving into some follow-up. This was from a couple of weeks ago, but I thought
0:04:08it was an interesting question. It came from Josh. While you were discussing how Apple could spend
0:04:13its money in episode 205, neither of you mentioned a company with smart home products like cameras
0:04:19and light switches and smart plugs. Do you think that this should be an area that Apple is in,
0:04:24even though it's a separate brand, something like Beats? What do you think?
0:04:27I think it's not a surprise and not a mistake that we didn't mention it. I could see Apple doing it,
0:04:38but it feels like this is so... What could Apple do to really differentiate this category? I feel
0:04:44like Apple enters categories like this because they see kind of a huge opportunity for them
0:04:50to take over. Now, Beats is an interesting example, but maybe an outlier. I think sometimes
0:04:57Apple enters markets because they feel like the stuff out there isn't good enough. And although
0:05:01the smart home stuff kind of isn't good enough in a lot of cases, I feel like it's getting better.
0:05:06And I think that... What can Apple contribute to this? And Apple may actually look at
0:05:12the whole smart home market as a bag of hurt a little bit and trying to just focus on working
0:05:18with partners. I like that about Apple that with this, they're like, "No, no, no. We're going to
0:05:23work with partners. We're going to set out our rules for HomeKit and security and stuff." And
0:05:27some of those went and some of those they had to kind of back off of a little bit in terms of
0:05:30software versus hardware. So I don't know. They could, but I'm kind of okay that they didn't.
0:05:38And I didn't even think of it because I don't feel like Apple needs to be Belkin or something
0:05:43like that. I don't think... Which got bought by somebody, but that kind of thing. I don't see how
0:05:50that's a must for them, nor do I see that it's necessarily a gigantic market. I could sort of see
0:05:57maybe something like Ecobee or something like that, where there's a specific company that's
0:06:03very kind of Apple-like and does a product that's good that is in a particular category. But I don't
0:06:09know, maybe Google is the lesson here. Google bought Nest and that does not seem to have gone
0:06:13really well. I think they have problems at Nest. I think Nest would just seem to be a problematic
0:06:18company. I think that there is definitely merit to Josh's suggestion because I think HomeKit
0:06:25would be much more successful, I think, if Apple were leading the way and showing the products they
0:06:31wanted to make and there would be more HomeKit products available. So it'd be kind of interesting
0:06:35in the way that they bought Beats, right? The way now they have a wider selection, but it does feel
0:06:40like a distraction more than Beats does. I think Apple doesn't want to be, broadly, and I know
0:06:47there are exceptions to this, but I don't think Apple wants to broadly be in the accessory
0:06:52business. I think if they are exiting Wi-Fi, right, they're exiting the airport,
0:06:58this feels like products that are even less substantial than that, a smart light switch,
0:07:05a home video camera, that like, how many of these products are they going to need to make? Now,
0:07:10the argument, the counter-argument would be that this is why you buy a company and you take their,
0:07:16you know, you integrate them and you create a new kind of home product division and there's a way to
0:07:20make money there. But if I'm Apple, I think maybe it's better to have a whole bunch of different
0:07:25companies competing with each other to make good stuff that integrates with Apple stuff.
0:07:30And if we assume that Apple's looking at everything as through the lens of how does this kind of
0:07:37accumulate to our ecosystem and grow our services revenue and grow our device revenue, do these,
0:07:46does having an Apple-owned one of these really do that? Like if Apple was losing, if Apple
0:07:52had no compatibility with most smart home things, it would be a different story. But today,
0:08:00everybody is going to fall over themselves to make sure that they work on the iPhone,
0:08:03not just on Android. So the market's kind of working for Apple right now. So that's why,
0:08:09and that's why I think they got out of the Wi-Fi business too, is the same thing. Like,
0:08:14they don't need to be there. It isn't contributing enough to the huge picture of Apple now. Because
0:08:20it's not like in the old days where like literally, yeah, could Apple buy any company and make a
0:08:25product that makes a little bit of profit and have it accrue to Apple's profits? Yes, but like Apple
0:08:32is so huge now and the game it's playing is so large that some of these small products, it's just,
0:08:37it's like, is it worth their attention at all? Is it worth their marketing time at all? Or are
0:08:42they better off just letting smaller companies out there fight amongst themselves to make better
0:08:49products and they're all trying to make them compatible with the iPhone? I think that,
0:08:53I think in a market like this, that's probably the right approach.
0:08:55Thank you to everyone who has become a Relay FM member. We have had a really wonderful outpouring
0:09:04of support, both in new members supporting this show and just in what people have been saying
0:09:10about how much they enjoyed our special episode Space Station, where we play a text adventure with
0:09:15CGP Grey with Jason Snell as the computer, the Snellatron. There is a, this was something that
0:09:22wasn't available when we spoke about the show last week. It went up when the episode went up on
0:09:26Friday. There is a trailer that Grey have made, which is incredible, which gives you a taste for
0:09:32what Space Station is all about. I put a link in the show notes so you can go and watch that on
0:09:36YouTube if you still haven't become a member and you're interested in kind of getting a flavor
0:09:40for what our text adventure episodes are like. You can still sign up and get this along with all of
0:09:45the other bonus content and special perks that we have for Relay FM members. Membership start-off,
0:09:51they have $5 a month. There is a link in the show notes for this show, which you can find on our
0:09:55website and you can also find in your podcast app of choice. You can tap that and just support the
0:10:00show very easily. It's just a couple of clicks and you can sign up or you can go to relay.fm/membership
0:10:05and learn more. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Huge, just thank you so much to everyone that has
0:10:11become a Relay FM member and I really, really hope that all of the bonus content that you get is
0:10:18what makes it worth it for you because we try very hard to do that. So I hope that it
0:10:23that it makes it worth it. I was enjoying some membership content just the other day.
0:10:28Some special though, the special there's a special reconcilable differences. That's great. Very good.
0:10:33We have a download clockwise combo that is super wacky about Apple products that either should be
0:10:40killed or were killed. Oh my gosh. That is coming out this week that is also pretty amazing with me
0:10:47and Steven and Micah and Dan. I also have this, I got an email from Jared Sorensen who is the author
0:10:53of the text adventure that we played and his comment is to me, he says, "You are way too
0:10:59forgiving for you and Grey. I should have been much meaner to you." And also it's hilarious they
0:11:06keep referring to the spaceship when the game is called Space Station. Oh whatever, you know.
0:11:13Yeah well that sums it up. Whatever. I will say that the book is wonderful. I have the PDF
0:11:20that I backed the Kickstarter campaign. It's really, really good. So I'll put a link in the
0:11:27show notes to that if you want to go and see it. It's really wonderful. Yeah these are great
0:11:31party games. If you've got a group of people, these text adventures, you buy Jared's book and
0:11:36there's like 10 different games in there and you can play them where you get everybody in an order
0:11:42and they all kind of shout commands at the parser and it's actually really hilarious. It's great for
0:11:48large groups and small groups obviously all the way down to just the two people so people should
0:11:52definitely check it out. It's fun. I own the book and I think I'm getting, I bought the physical
0:11:55book too but I can never look in them. No you can't. You can look at the art. You can look at
0:12:00Space Station now and see the art and see where you went and all of those things and you know you
0:12:05can look at Spooky Manor. Having seen the instructions you had, I am in even more awe of
0:12:11your ability to navigate us through that than ever. It's kind of wonderful because that I don't know
0:12:18how you make it work the way you do but you do. So yeah thank you if you can remember. Please I hope
0:12:23you enjoy it. That's awesome. Let's do some follow-out. There is a podcast created by The
0:12:30Midroll which is the kind of advertising podcast advertising giant and I think they own Stitcher
0:12:37and they produce some content and stuff like that. Yeah they're Earwolf podcast network and Stitcher
0:12:42and then they do Stitcher Premium and they also sell ads as The Midroll. They have a show about
0:12:47the business of podcasting which we've both been on before. It's called The Wharf Den and it's
0:12:52mostly hosted by a friend of the show, Lex Friedman. He just did an episode with Marco
0:12:58Arment, creator of Overcast and host of Accent Attack podcast etc etc and they spoke a lot about
0:13:03the real intricacies, some of the challenges and ways that the podcast industry is changing
0:13:11right now as quite interestingly a corporate ad company and a hesitant to corporations but
0:13:21app developer right who has a pretty large market share with Overcast. So it was really interesting
0:13:27to hear them debate a lot of these really intricate things about the industry. It tickles your fancy.
0:13:32I think it is a very interesting listen. I also just wanted to mention because it was very nice
0:13:36Marco picked upgrade for the question of the podcast he is jealous of and I thought that was
0:13:41really cool so thank you Marco. Yes that was I was listening to that podcast because I wanted to hear
0:13:47those guys who have such different takes on it talking about it. I thought it was pretty good.
0:13:52I thought it was a really reasonable conversation. I thought there was a lot of actually self
0:13:56reflection on Marco's part about sort of like yeah that really made me angry but like looking at it
0:14:02in the long view it's probably not that big a deal. I like that he said like people grow and I
0:14:07like burst out laughing. It's like yeah I guess they do. That was yeah it's a good conversation
0:14:12if you care about the nitty-gritty of like how podcasting works and that's something we talk
0:14:17about here and we've gotten positive feedback about from some people. So if you're one of those
0:14:21people check out that episode because it's great and I love those guys and it was fun to hear them
0:14:26kind of joust back and forth a little bit. They refer to each other as like frenemies at the end
0:14:31and it's very funny and good stuff and very kind. I kind of was not expecting upgrade to be Marco's
0:14:39choice of podcasts he was jealous of and that was that was an extra delightful thing. Yeah I
0:14:46learned some stuff. Should we do some quick upstream? Let's have some headlines for you
0:14:50mostly. Just a little bit. Facebook have bought more football/soccer. They've signed a three-year
0:14:55deal to show every La Liga game in India. La Liga is the Spanish football league so that's just
0:15:02another deal that Facebook have done. They're going to be exclusive in India. They seem to be
0:15:06doing this right now. It really feels like a test right? They're buying live sports stuff and showing
0:15:11them to markets that are large but probably aren't the main market right? So the biggest market for
0:15:18La Liga is in Spain right? They're not going for that or the biggest market for the Premier League
0:15:24is in the UK but they're showing it in some other like far-flung countries. So it's just interesting
0:15:31to see them going down this road. Yeah and Disney on ESPN Plus their streaming service just signed
0:15:37up Serie A the Italian soccer league and a similar kind of thing where it's just like let's experiment
0:15:44with live sports and see on streaming and buying the rights there. A lot of times the rights that
0:15:49get bought like you said are not the like the super expensive rights. They are often the you know
0:15:55kind of there's an interesting middle ground where it's not the super expensive because it's popular
0:16:01and there's also these super expensive for consumers because it's not at all popular.
0:16:06It becomes a niche. The example I can give you is like cricket in the US. Like if you want to watch
0:16:11cricket in the US you have to pay a lot of money and that's because almost nobody is going to watch
0:16:16cricket in the US. They know the people who are going to watch are people who are desperate for
0:16:20cricket and so they can charge them pay-per-view prices basically. It's very expensive but in the
0:16:25middle you get something like this which is you know there's a growing market for soccer in the
0:16:30US. There's a growing appetite for it. Fox has the Bundesliga I think the German league. NBC has the
0:16:38premier league and so Disney has signed up for the Italian league and put it on their streaming
0:16:44service and so just more of this experimentation. NBC I mentioned a few months back that they used
0:16:51to show all the games on their channels or streaming and now they've moved all of the
0:16:57premiership games that they're not showing on standard channels to their premium streaming
0:17:03service. So it's another example of like can we get people to pay for our streaming service in
0:17:08order to get this live sports. So it's a we talk a lot about scripted here but sports is another
0:17:15example where all of these media giants are experimenting to see what the appetite for this
0:17:21stuff is and if there's how solid the market is and what they should be spending for the rights
0:17:25and all of those things it's definitely happening. YouTube's upcoming movie Viper Club is going to be
0:17:29getting a theatrical release. Google clearly thinks and I guess wants their Susan Sarandon
0:17:35starred movie to pick up some awards. I guess this is maybe their most serious production so they
0:17:42want to get it to be considered in you know the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, that kind of
0:17:46thing. Yeah for the Academy Awards you got to run like a week in New York and a week in LA or
0:17:50something like that in a theater there are these very specific rules that are to be a legitimate
0:17:55awards contender. So it's going to be getting a limited run in theaters in the US as well as being
0:17:59available on YouTube Premium at the same time. It's made for YouTube Premium you know what used
0:18:04to be called YouTube Red but they want to they want to get some awards they want to pick up the
0:18:08awards like Amazon and Netflix have been doing. Mostly Amazon right? Amazon seems to be yeah.
0:18:13Amazon has a straightforward policy where they're like releasing the movies in theaters as a real
0:18:18theatrical release and then they send it to Prime Video later so like Manchester by the Sea was an
0:18:24example of that and that was an Oscar-nominated film. Netflix is not so sure they ever ever want
0:18:31to do that right but they I'm sure they want to win Academy Awards if they could but they seem to
0:18:36be pretty committed to just premiering their movies on their service and not worry. Yeah
0:18:39they're taking the route of fighting publicly with the Academy I suppose. And the Cannes Film
0:18:45Festival and all the rest yeah. And finally Apple have joined the Alliance for Open Media.
0:18:52This is a group of technology companies currently working on a compression format known as AV1
0:18:58which is a codec that can compress files to be 25 to 35 percent smaller video files than H.265 or
0:19:05Google's VP9. Other companies in this alliance include Amazon, Facebook, Hulu, VLC and Google.
0:19:12So maybe this is how sometime in the future Apple would plan to support 4k for more providers
0:19:18because they're joining this this open standard alliance. Thank you to Dayton for sending this in.
0:19:24Yeah this is really interesting I was glad Dayton sent this in. This is maybe how you defuse the
0:19:29VP9 versus HEVC impasse of Google and Apple which is come up agree on a next generation codec that
0:19:40everybody supports and use that instead. And then Google can say well we're moving on from VP9 to AV1
0:19:47and Apple can say we just added support for AV1 which is awesome and it's over at that point. And
0:19:53maybe that's the best way forward is just to to get everybody on the same page. It's annoying in
0:19:57the meantime but it's a good it's a good sign for the long term for for customers for regular people
0:20:03who just want to watch a pretty pretty 4k video on their computers and TVs and all the rest.
0:20:08It is fun to note that the alliance of open media have since removed Apple from the page.
0:20:15I'm expecting that because it hit the news Apple were like uh-uh take us off. But I am of the
0:20:22belief that they are a part of this. I believe that they are because I think it just makes a lot
0:20:27of sense because literally every other provider is a part of this alliance. So yeah so it is a
0:20:34little mysterious but it may be that they haven't signed it or maybe they will join but they don't
0:20:38want to be discussed. They can be a silent partner. Apple does that a lot more than you would think
0:20:43where Apple joins things and sometimes it's just to be present and to steer it behind the scenes
0:20:51a little bit and to know what's going on and I would not be surprised if that's what's going on
0:20:57here. But it does open the possibility that everybody will get together and agree on a on
0:21:03a standard that Apple will support too. All right let's take our first break and thank our friends
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0:22:20pingdom.com/relayfm and then the code upgrade for 30% off. Our thanks to Pingdom for their support
0:22:26of this show and Relay FM. So a Chinese news outlet by the name of the Economic Daily News
0:22:37is reporting that... Hey it's translated come on. It's reporting... I mean Wall Street Journal is a
0:22:42ludicrous name too. Wall Street? Which is it? Who's writing in a journal? The Economist right?
0:22:48Like they're all funny. He must be very old now The Economist. He's been around a long time.
0:22:55Like the New York Times. It doesn't write up just about New York. When you start to like take these
0:22:59names out of context they don't make any sense. But anyway the Economic Daily News is reporting
0:23:04that the OLED funds debuting this year will adopt Apple Pencil support. They are stating that the
0:23:11Taiwanese chip supplier Elan has been apparently tasked with the project. They currently produce
0:23:17chips for Wacom Stylus's styli. This also echoes an analyst report from earlier in the week. A
0:23:24report from a company called Trend Force that states that this is one of the ways Apple will
0:23:29look to increase ASP on the iPhone line as well as having three storage tiers available 64 gigabytes
0:23:35256 and 512. I will say that like I saw the analyst report and I wasn't going to include it
0:23:41because analyst reports are conjecture. They're not proof of anything right? It's just like
0:23:46sometimes there's whispers but most of the times like this is what we believe will happen for these
0:23:50reasons and the reasons can make sense but a lot of the time it's just people saying stuff to be
0:23:55right. It was when it was followed up by this kind of supply chain thing that I thought we would talk
0:24:01about it today. Yeah I think I wrote a piece a week ago maybe from Tom's Guide. It was one of my
0:24:09Tom's Guide every other week iPhone stories. They wanted me to kind of jump off of the Galaxy Note 9
0:24:15and one of the things that and essentially what I talked about is the iPhone 10 plus this thing
0:24:20that we've been talking about like that larger iPhone and what it is and what it could do and
0:24:23how it compares to what Samsung just announced and all of that. One of the big parts of that I think
0:24:31is Samsung for a long time now has had the S Pen with the Galaxy Note. They've got the little thing
0:24:35you can you know slide it in and pop it out and all of that. What I said in the article is and I
0:24:42really believe this I don't just write these things and not believe them I believe them.
0:24:45If there was going to be a time when Apple added pencil support to the iPhone don't you think that
0:24:51iPhone 10 plus would be like the right time? It's a big 6.5 inch phone huge top of the line you know
0:24:59and then at that point like the OS already has pencil stuff built into it right. It's already
0:25:05got the thing where if you tap on the locked screen it brings up a note and lets you let's
0:25:11you write on it on the iPad right. It's already got that. It's already got all this stuff. There
0:25:15was an article that I read at an outlet I will not name that was like oh Apple needs to really
0:25:21follow the Samsung example and one of the examples was like writing with a pencil and stuff like that
0:25:28and I was like yeah they have it all. They have all the pieces and they could add a few more
0:25:34that might be phone centric. I feel like the question is like what would the hardware support
0:25:37be? Will you be expected to kind of like carry it around in your pocket or something because
0:25:42the current Apple pencil is so long that it's not really a pocketable device. It's a folio kind of
0:25:49thing for iPads so like that's the part that stumps me a little bit is like you kind of need
0:25:53to create a new like Apple mini pencil or iPhone pencil or something like that but otherwise I
0:25:59think it would be great. I think they've laid all the foundation to do pencil support on an iPhone
0:26:05and that this big rumored big iPhone 10 plus is the perfect place to do it. I know you love the
0:26:11pencil. What do you think about and you love big phones like is this the perfect mic sweet spot or
0:26:15what? So I've been predicting like you know in predictions shows I've been predicting this for
0:26:21like two years now right that like the Apple pencils are bought on the iPhone because it
0:26:26feels like a logical next step especially when if you say they have all the technology there
0:26:32an Apple's biggest competitor is doing it and people like it right like the the stylus the
0:26:40S pen I think was a joke at first where a lot of people was like oh look it's a stylus because we
0:26:44were in that world of like you're the stylus you blew it right but then that all went away when the
0:26:48Apple pencil came out because because after the meme died away but now like people buy the note
0:26:57because of the stylus because the Galaxy S9 or whatever the S9 plus is basically the same size
0:27:03they're very close in size but then the note has this whole other suite of things that it can do
0:27:08we spoke about it on last week's episode like I was excited about the fact that has bluetooth now so
0:27:13you can program the buttons and stuff like that so I think that yes the iPhone the big iPhone should
0:27:20have Apple pencil support I believe that I'm interested about if this this report is true
0:27:27that it will be on both of the OLED phones because as we spoke about in the past right the LCD phone
0:27:33is actually bigger than the smallest OLED phone so there's like this weird stuff here about kind of
0:27:38like what does size mean but I am sure we will get into that a lot in September right about like the
0:27:44the lineup and what size means and how it gets spread yeah but do I think Apple's gonna do it
0:27:54this time around I don't know like I know I want it and it feels logical right but there are a lot
0:28:01of things that make me question it yeah even if this is the most likely scenario we've ever seen
0:28:08it doesn't mean it's likely right I feel like this is like a 33 chance 40 chance something like that
0:28:15it's still not I think more I think it's more likely that they don't do it than that they do
0:28:19but it does feel like this is an opportunity for them to do it if they choose this seems like a
0:28:27good time where they've got a lot of the pieces in place to do it because the thing is this is the
0:28:35thing okay they have to create a new Apple pencil you can't that's it yeah use the current Apple
0:28:44pencil on a phone because that is ludicrous that is absolutely ludicrous so it has to be smaller in
0:28:50size if it is will it be stored in the phone that is the most logical thing but it goes against
0:28:55literally everything Apple seems to believe about how they built their phones right having this big
0:29:01hole in the phone yeah I have a hard time seeing them use internal iPhone space on a pop-out pencil
0:29:07kind of thing I'll throw another piece in the mix here which is that when the iPad the the you know
0:29:13no name iPad was announced in Chicago right it came with this new Logitech crayon support yeah
0:29:21which they worked with Apple on and it uses wireless tech that is not the Bluetooth tech that
0:29:26is in the Apple pencil and you don't have to like pair it you just it's proximity based and it writes
0:29:33on it and that's really interesting because that that makes you at least ask is that a new
0:29:40technology that Apple is intending to spread to other devices like they did exactly like they put
0:29:46new wireless capabilities in this iPad just for Logitech just for schools like they went through
0:29:54all this work like it seems like an awful lot of work to do for a very niche use like if they were
0:30:01selling the Logitech crayon to everyone I would understand it more but it really does feel like
0:30:06oh we've been used we've been developing this technology for Apple pencil support on the iPhone
0:30:11so we'll put it into this iPad as well or like right we've been going down this route and we're
0:30:17not going to use this exact thing but we developed it so maybe we should put it here because I agree
0:30:21it seems like they really went through a lot right to to to make this particular link with this
0:30:27product when in theory Logitech could have just created something that worked the same way the
0:30:33Apple pencil does they didn't need to create a whole new way of connecting the devices there is
0:30:40the one the one reason that it happened and that they made it happen is I think there was a concern
0:30:46for schools one that they wanted a lower cost stylus which is I think why they made the crayon
0:30:52with Logitech but two this idea of having to pair the devices and in a classroom you might be writing
0:30:59on different people's iPads and stuff right and the idea with this thing is unlike the Apple
0:31:03pencil which this does not work you can't take your Apple pencil that's paired with your iPad and
0:31:08then and then just sort of turn to the person on your right who has an iPad pro and right on their
0:31:13screen too it doesn't work but with the crayon it does right so there is there is a little bit there
0:31:19but I agree with you like seems like a long way to go just just for that and not to feel like there's
0:31:27something else going on we talked about this for the last couple years a lot of times you look at
0:31:30the things that Apple's doing and it they're like little things but then you look at the bigger
0:31:35picture and you're like I think they're headed in a direction like with removing the home screen or
0:31:40the home button you know introducing gestural stuff like that was all leading somewhere and
0:31:47changing how multitasking works it was all leading somewhere this feels like it's leading somewhere
0:31:51now maybe that's wishful thinking but it does feel like it and and that's why I wanted to ask you like
0:31:56you seem to be potentially the prime audience for this sort of thing is that you know is that what
0:32:04you're thinking is like you would really love to have a new Apple pencil and a giant iPhone to
0:32:10scribble things down on or you know or is your enthusiasm tempered I'm just kind of curious
0:32:14because this is much more a product development for you than it is for me yeah let's park to the
0:32:20side the Apple pencil as it currently is because you know I said a bunch of times like I want the
0:32:23one on the iPad to be different I want more advancements to it but just looking at the phone
0:32:28I 100% want this for many reasons you know the same ergonomic reasons that I have for the iPad
0:32:34to find it more comfortable to to use something in a pen form factor instead of tapping and using
0:32:40my hands all the time it's just more comfortable for me and I would get a lot of utility out of
0:32:47being able to scribble things down quickly right like and the idea of being able to have that
0:32:53as a support in my iPhone seems really interesting but there are so many details about this which
0:33:01seem kind of unclear and I'm interested about right like will it have any technology in it
0:33:07really maybe not right maybe it's just as simple as the current Apple pencil is you know like it's
0:33:12not that buttons or whatever or that crayon right like maybe it's that simple or the crayon yeah
0:33:17which you know is interesting right and then like how do you charge it and all that kind of stuff
0:33:21but the biggest thing is how big is it what's the form factor and where does it go my expectation is
0:33:27it will go in like some kind of folio case but I don't want to use a folio case right so there's
0:33:30like they have to if that's how it's going to be presented to us then there has to be some really
0:33:36compelling things for why you would want to use the pencil on the iPhone and I would expect like
0:33:43all the iPad stuff is great but there should be more right like there's some really cool stuff
0:33:49that you can do with the note and I would love to see Apple try and maybe find their own things you
0:33:55know like what I really love with the note is when you're scribbling something down I really like the
0:34:02way that you just do it on the black screen because they're all lit phones right like it
0:34:05doesn't actually open a note in their notes app you just write something on the screen and it's like
0:34:10the the you know it's just I find that quite a delightful interaction so you know I don't really
0:34:15know what it would be but I feel like if it's not going to be in the phone which I don't believe that
0:34:20they will do that I really don't think they will do it I think it will be external they have to
0:34:24give people some really good use cases for why they would want to buy it because Apple will 100
0:34:30sell it to you they won't include it and I want to see like a really good use case for why they
0:34:37think that it is the right time to add something like this to the phone I think your folio case
0:34:41idea which they've announced the first Apple phone folio case last year I think and I wonder there if
0:34:50that maybe is also a strange sign of things to come where they might offer a folio case
0:34:56with a pen holder for something like this and it's interesting you're right a lot of people
0:35:03will be like yeah but then you're buying the the case which costs 120 in the pencil or pen or
0:35:09whatever they call it or something yeah exactly right and but that's Apple right and and then
0:35:14there will be third-party opportunities where there'll be a thing you stick on that's like a
0:35:18little loop or there's like a little magnet adapter or you have whatever I agree it's one
0:35:23of the problems that I think prevents Apple from doing this is not the hardware of the iPhone and
0:35:28it's not the software because they've done that on the iPad Pro it's the ergonomics of a pen
0:35:37with a phone because I think you're right I don't see them making a pop-out stylus like the note
0:35:46and so then what right then it gets all fiddly and maybe their argument's going to be this is
0:35:51why you get the notebook case which is a folio with a pen holder and it automatically wakes and
0:35:57sleeps the device and all those things and now you're carrying around a little notebook that's
0:36:01also your phone because here's the thing right at that level who needs an iPad mini anymore
0:36:05oh certainly it's a huge screen this phone is an iPad mini at that point it's like an inch
0:36:13in difference it has the smart cover right like it becomes an infinitely more compelling device
0:36:21to certain people like it's an iPad nano at that point and that is a very interesting product
0:36:26and when you you know you're saying about like you gotta buy the case and you gotta buy the pencil
0:36:31you kind of go out looking back at what the trend force uh folk were saying they're doing this to
0:36:36increase the ASP because that helps them in their earnings and stuff now and of course like you're
0:36:42turning a 1000 phone into a 1500 phone close to right by the time you've got the size you want
0:36:49then all of the accessories this is one of the ways that they ended up turning the ASP up on the
0:36:55iPad was by creating these expensive accessories that are really good right you got the smart
0:37:01keyboard and the apple pencil and it pushed up the ASP on the iPad line and this is a great way to
0:37:08push up the iPhone on the top end in the pro level is by having a bunch of really good technically
0:37:15like savvy accessories yeah and that means not only is the ASP of the iPhone line going up but
0:37:20the ASP of you know of total revenue from a customer goes up because now they're buying
0:37:25a pencil now they're buying a case now they're doing all those things not everybody will buy
0:37:28the case you know everybody we know the usual suspects will come out with other ways of holding
0:37:34or attaching such a thing but apple will have their official story way of doing it and i don't
0:37:42know i mean i i feel like again we're back to it i feel like this is something they absolutely could
0:37:47do and i think it'll be good again not a part of the product i think that's actually leaving the
0:37:54space inside the iPhone that's filled with battery aside making it part of the product makes it
0:38:01mandatory in a way that i think apple doesn't want to make leaving aside that they can get another
0:38:06hundred dollars out of you plus maybe a case i think apple doesn't want to say this is the
0:38:11iPhone that needs a pencil like it doesn't want to do that so it's not going to be i think a part of
0:38:16it for all of these reasons but i think about people who carry little uh you know little
0:38:22notebooks little field notes notebooks and pens around with them right all the time and i think
0:38:28now you don't you know now the pitch is you don't need to do that anymore you can carry around one
0:38:33of these little apple pens or pencils and your iPhone and your iPhone is your notebook and if
0:38:38you want to jot something down you literally can just pick it up and start writing and jot it down
0:38:42and it works and like that is pretty cool and the dream of the Newton is finally realized
0:38:47only took 25 years 30 years something like that yeah something like that all right today's show
0:38:54is also brought to you by our friends over inboard technology the genius is behind the motorized m1
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0:41:10of this show emery lay fm so it is still the summer of fun summer of fun but there's there's
0:41:17been a casualty of the summer of fun jason oh no ask what do we do i feel like we have not oh yeah
0:41:23we've been skipping some ask upgrades recently we've not been doing as many because we've been
0:41:27running out of time so today we're going to do an ask upgrade double feature double the ask upgrade
0:41:33double the fun double the fun because what is more fun mike than answering questions from listeners
0:41:39nothing nothing nothing there is nothing more fun and we start with david david says jason do you
0:41:45use plaques if so why not just rip your 4k blu-ray discs and play it there david is talking about when
0:41:51we were talking about your 4k issues and having to use like voodoo and all that kind of stuff
0:41:56and then buying an xbox so that i can play those hdr 4k discs and all of that um xbox is going
0:42:02great by the way my son really is loving it we're playing uh he's playing no man's sky which has
0:42:06been updated for 4k as well and uh it's really great and his and his best friend who moved away
0:42:11um also has it on xbox so they can actually adventure together and play together now
0:42:16that's awesome yeah what a great game for them to try out like you know to have that kind of
0:42:20experience and it's it's already a beautiful game but it's like on that 4k tv it's even more
0:42:24beautiful to answer david's question so first off 4k blu-rays aren't blu-rays they're they're
0:42:31like next generation blu-rays which means that existing blu-ray hardware won't play them including
0:42:35my blu-ray disc that i've got the usb drive that i've got so i would need to buy a new 4k blu-ray
0:42:42drive compatible thing and the other thing is uh ripping discs is it requires uh breaking drm and
0:42:52as you might expect the 4k uhd discs have new a new drm scheme that after they are slowly figuring
0:43:00out how to break it but you have to break it not that you would ever you know this is just like in
0:43:05theory no no no i mean i am in favor if you if you bought the disc if you bought the disc and want to
0:43:11copy the bits off of it for your own personal use of you but you know you should be able to do that
0:43:15give you the option to jump out of that if you if you want to no no i am entirely in favor of people
0:43:21breaking drm in order for their own personal use because i like the power is evil yeah i mean it's
0:43:26if i bought your disc i'm not pirating stuff i'm buying your disc but if i want to buy your blu-ray
0:43:32disc and put on my plex server for my own use then um and with the bit rates of of hd stuff
0:43:39it's seriously only for my own use in my house because i'd pity the person who would try to
0:43:43stream it um so if i do all that and i get it working well then there's the next case which is
0:43:49i also have to rely on the my my home network and the device i'm streaming to being strong enough
0:43:56and then honestly the the size of these files is enormous the size of the regular hd movies is
0:44:03enormous let alone the 4k which is why i tend to use um don melton's scripts to re-encode them
0:44:09so i'm not like john sierakusa and leaving them at the original bitrate because the files are too
0:44:13large and those are just the 1080 versions the uhd versions are going to be massive and at that point
0:44:18i decided you know what this is so many different barriers when i can just get a movie that i really
0:44:24want to see in 4k and i can get the disc and i can leave it around and i can stick it in if i want to
0:44:29watch black panther over the weekend it's beautiful looked so good and that's fine that's fine maybe
0:44:35i'll feel different if i have hundreds of them but at that point maybe my hard drive will be so huge
0:44:39that i can fit that stuff on there but for now the point of these things is max bit rate and a max
0:44:46bit rate file on my even on my drobo server is gonna it's gonna just eat a hard drive with one
0:44:51thing and at that point i might as well just keep the little optical disc around so i'm gonna these
0:44:56are my reasons there are many but in the end any one of them would be enough to stop me is max bit
0:45:02rate max headroom's friend max bit rate will be a supporting player on my reboot of max headroom
0:45:09which i'm ready to do as soon as somebody from hollywood comes to me just call me call me the max
0:45:15headroom i would do that in a heartbeat andreas in the chat room has recommended the media station 16
0:45:20times desktop bd xl blu-ray writer as uh by buffalo as a potential option for you jason so i'll put
0:45:28that it's huge is it huge i don't know if it's i can't tell i mean we need a banana for scale
0:45:33it's huge compared to the little one that i have now but it's that's nice i one day maybe but i
0:45:39i'm skeptical that i will ever go down there because again the file sizes are just enormous
0:45:43and at this point i don't think i can barely justify putting blu-rays on there for convenience
0:45:48sake i i definitely can't do it with 4k blu-rays josh has written him with the ipads home button
0:45:54rumored to be going away where will siri be mapped we pressing and holding on the side buttons makes
0:46:00sense on the iphone but using the ipads top button might feel weird could we see a software button to
0:46:06launch siri in the future what do you think i think it's all um there will probably be a hardware
0:46:15button match including it probably will be that on off button but i think apple's going to really
0:46:20lean into um just using your voice to trigger it yep like always on triggering and that'll be the
0:46:28preferred method i think that that would be their argument today is that pressing a physical button
0:46:32to trigger siri is silly you should just be able to save a words and have it happen yeah there will
0:46:40be there i believe it will be mapped to a probably larger button right like they will put a bigger
0:46:45button on it like they have on the iphone 10 but they will be like oh you should use a high
0:46:50telephone instead right like that that should be the way that you interact with this thing
0:46:54um and that you know i think that that's probably the way that they're going to end up doing it
0:46:58uh there's been andreas has put another uh blu-ray writer which is smaller it is smaller for you i
0:47:05appreciate this nobody else needs to send me any blu-ray suggestions obviously there are some
0:47:10smaller ones out there that i could use if i want to completely eat up all my disk space which i
0:47:14don't but thank you so yeah i think software button no they will just say you should just
0:47:20use the voice command or you could use the physical button for accessibility reasons
0:47:24dave has asked do you think that disney will bundle their marvel unlimited comic subscription
0:47:31service into their upcoming streaming offering like dc is planning with theirs so news to me
0:47:37that dc was working on something didn't know that yeah yeah their their video streaming services
0:47:43actually encompasses some other stuff including the first time they've added subscription access
0:47:49to dc certain dc comics do you think that this one makes sense for disney and two that disney would
0:47:56do it uh the way i understand how marvel is structured marvel comics is a separate division
0:48:04only recently did they allow marvel studios to go off and report directly to a high-ranking
0:48:11disney executive marvel tv and the comics all go through um a the guy who basically brought
0:48:19bought out or bought bought marvel and brought it back from bankruptcy and that's and then sold it
0:48:24off and that's ike pearlmutter um who is kind of infamous he sounds like an unpleasant person to
0:48:30work with and he's cheap and um he's strangely not integrated into the rest of disney um in in the
0:48:37way that dc is dc is just part of warner media group basically at this point they are completely
0:48:44integrated marvel comics is not um i suspect that has something to do with ike pearlmutter's contract
0:48:51or something about the conditions of him selling marvel to disney um so i think not just because
0:48:58of that like the fact that that marvel tv is currently under his auspices under his command
0:49:05instead of like somebody else at abc or some other part of disney entertainment or of kevin fiegie
0:49:11at marvel studios suggests that it's hard to to get these uh groups to coordinate inside of disney
0:49:17so my guess is no my guess is that marvel wants its revenue from marvel unlimited and that uh the
0:49:25streaming service is going to be over in some other part of the company and they're not going
0:49:29to interact it's possible but if i had to bet i'd bet no okay um they may offer some sort of mega
0:49:38marvel subscription which they're already kind of doing where you get some stuff so there may be like
0:49:43a mega subscription superfan subscription that gets you both but i'm skeptical that they would
0:49:48essentially just say if you sign up for our streaming service you get marvel unlimited for
0:49:52free like there could be a bundle but it won't be bundled for everyone it won't be thousands and
0:49:59thousands of comics that you can get by paying marvel 70 a year or whatever it is yeah but you
0:50:04could maybe like if you bought both of them you might get it for 50 right like yeah yeah and they
0:50:09do have like i said marvel has this sort of superfan subscription that i don't subscribe
0:50:13to because you get like a figurine and i mean it's almost like i'm not interested in any of that but
0:50:18i could see that where there's a superfan that bundle that gets you both but um and they may also
0:50:24yeah they may bundle a small collection of comics with the streaming service but it you know this is
0:50:31a disney streaming service not a marvel streaming service so i think it's most likely that they
0:50:36won't because it will just confuse the product and same vein uh similar vein nate has asked
0:50:43all the talks of the upcoming streaming service from disney where do you see it being announced
0:50:47maybe an apple keynote at their own media event what do you think so um i read an interview with
0:50:54i think bob eiger from disney but it was a story about this where oh no it was he was doing their
0:50:59results yeah and one of the things he said is that they would be announcing more details of it
0:51:04in the near future so where that is i don't know it would be great if they announced details on
0:51:09stage at an apple keynote there would certainly be a great uh great uh audience for that they
0:51:15my guess is that they will do their own event uh that they like they do for some of their kind of
0:51:20other things they do they have like disney events where fans come and stuff like that it maybe it's
0:51:26something like that it's disney event star wars event i don't know but i do think that it we're
0:51:32getting close to them offering more details probably including the name and a sense of
0:51:37their run-up to it they've said late 2019 is when they're launching so they've got a year
0:51:42to prepare for this but i do think we're going to get more details about this uh streaming service
0:51:48soon i should mention if somebody's a uh stratechery member ben thompson wrote a nice piece
0:51:54today august 20th uh for members that is about disney and where their business is going both
0:52:01in terms of live sports like espn stuff and in terms of the streaming service and it's a very
0:52:06interesting read about how disney you know they're they're really trying to find a way through this
0:52:11thicket of people dropping cable but some of them picking up um over the top tv services like youtube
0:52:18tv and hulu and then uh also trying to build their own streaming services out and it's a tough job
0:52:26because they're trying to like keep the company running while transitioning from a one media
0:52:31world to a very different one and it's a good piece by ben thompson as they almost all are there is a
0:52:36there's a very good quote um from bob eiger that i really liked i liked the kind of uh the way he
0:52:43sees the company he's like with where we are right now when we're planning to launch which is sometime
0:52:47in 2019 we know everyone's going to pass us by right like we're being left behind by everybody
0:52:54but our content is content everybody wants so it doesn't matter right like it doesn't matter that
0:53:02we're late to this game because if you want star wars and marvel and he didn't say it but you know
0:53:07all the other stuff they're buying uh pixar pixar yeah pixar and then you know all the other stuff
0:53:12from from fox like if you want that this is going to be the only place you're going to get it so
0:53:17they don't care that they're going to be late it seems like what i actually quite like is they're
0:53:21waiting until they have this right before they launch it because they know that their stuff is
0:53:26desirable so it doesn't matter and i really like that that kind of view on the position from the
0:53:33ceo and that he's not really sugarcoating it so i like it's a very disney view of their content
0:53:37which is disney he was always confident to do things like withhold their products from the
0:53:41market in order to build up demand with their on home video for example of disney movies and things
0:53:45like that so they're definitely going there he said you know that they're going to play a quality
0:53:51game and not a volume game which he said i don't mean to say that netflix isn't playing a quality
0:53:55game but they're also playing a volume game and he's basically saying we're not going to make
0:53:59a new show or two and a movie every week that's not going to happen but they are going to make
0:54:05sure that they have good stuff and they've got a good catalog and they do own all of this content
0:54:10now especially with the purchase i mean disney streaming service is being built with an eye
0:54:14toward disney products now they're going to start when the fox deal closes like there's going to be
0:54:20a whole second way where they start taking all the fox properties and seeing what could they do with
0:54:24some of those and you might think well a lot of the fox stuff is more adult and won't fit on a
0:54:29disney streaming service some of that might be true but i think some of that stuff that fox has
0:54:36in their library will also have value to disney whether it's something like firefly the x files
0:54:42there's a bunch of stuff in there that is part of the fox collection that they're going to be able
0:54:46to use and uh and so watch for that too there's a lot going a lot lot of sort of like second wave
0:54:52from the disney streaming service that got way more interesting now because they're going to
0:54:55have that extra stuff this episode of upgrade brought to you by squarespace make your next move
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0:56:30make your next move make your next website so the uh hashtag ask upgrade train rolls on
0:56:36ask upgrade train has lasers that was very impressive fransois asks i found myself being
0:56:47annoyed lately at some ios release notes updates companies seem to trying to be too cute now as
0:56:54like a backlash from just being boring for example a recent youtube update said bug fixes stability
0:57:01improvements and repairs to the space time continuum jason what is your view on this
0:57:07i don't love bug fixes and stability improvements i also don't love it when they try to cutesy it
0:57:14up and say we love our users so much that we are always making improvements and think fixing bugs
0:57:19and thank you so much like i think there is a discontinuity here where you know apple sort of
0:57:27views this i think as a way to let developers detail what's changed and uh but a lot of people
0:57:36a lot of companies view it as kind of a marketing opportunity and there is a real question like what
0:57:42who who is using this and why are they using this um i would prefer it if companies said
0:57:50big picture here's what we did and then here are the details um i think it's against some companies
0:57:56culture to admit that they are fixing specific bugs and i guess there are arguments pro and con
0:58:08i always prefer to get a big juicy list that says we fixed even it doesn't have to be detailed it
0:58:13doesn't have to list every single bug fix but to say we fixed a problem where the ipad with with
0:58:18you know loading in portrait just portrait mode on an ipad pro just to make up an example right like
0:58:26that's like oh yeah okay great um but i know that a lot of companies view it as like a litany of
0:58:31failure to like all these things that were broken but now we're fixed and it's very negative so they
0:58:36just stay positive but you know i would prefer that and and improvements are also like tell me
0:58:43about your improvements but um i don't know i guess it's every developer's decision to about
0:58:51what they want to disclose and a lot of developers just don't want to do it but i would um cuteness
0:58:57like i don't love it um because that feels like not a place to do that and that's just trying to
0:59:02be kind of like meta about the fact that everything is bug fixes and stability improvements but you
0:59:08know i don't know i don't i don't need any more whimsy in my uh app release notes i guess i would
0:59:13say but i don't like the lack of disclosure anyway in those app release notes i don't like it when
0:59:18they just say bug fixes and stability improvements because the point is that you should be able to
0:59:23say something about what's changed and um i wish they would be a little more uh open with their
0:59:30disclosure i feel like some i mean so i would say the bug fixes and performance improvements thing
0:59:35doesn't really annoy me that much purely because like it doesn't work for companies to list
0:59:41everything all the time because sometimes there isn't anything particular right like it's right
0:59:45they might be um because this happens a lot right an update comes out to an app and there's a new
0:59:49feature that's hidden and they announce it a couple of days later and it rolls out right because
0:59:55it is unrealistic to to sometimes to announce an update to your application if people have an
1:00:01update yeah like you i'm sure developers know like how long does it take people to update to
1:00:05to to a new version or whatever so they want to hold it right and there's there could be security
1:00:09issues that you don't want to disclose and that's absolutely true and a lot of stuff is really
1:00:13esoteric like we had this issue that affected you know 10 people and caused this crash and we fixed
1:00:18it it's like does anybody care about that so i get i don't think that there's a lot like a lot of big
1:00:23companies like google and facebook and stuff it seems like they are on a um release cadence
1:00:29right that they will have a release for their apps every two weeks and i would expect sometimes
1:00:34there's just stuff that's not done yet but it's there right like because they're just pushing out
1:00:38whatever the code is at a stable point and they keep you know that they just commit it and then
1:00:42they upload it to the app store and then that will continue to be worked on so i guess there is kind
1:00:47of probably isn't always stuff that's worth calling out so i understand why it annoys people but at
1:00:52the same time i feel like i understand the practicalities of these these big corporations
1:00:57to the point where like sometimes it's just not worth it for whatever reason to disclose literally
1:01:02every change i think for francoise purpose here like they're trying to do something when they
1:01:07can't do anything else so they're trying to distract you or make it amusing and it's very meta
1:01:11and i get how that would be annoying too because i find it kind of annoying but the larger issue is
1:01:16that they don't have anything to say they literally have nothing to say other than we fix some bugs
1:01:21yeah so they just say something fun which i mostly don't like it feels unprofessional to me in most
1:01:26instances phillips written in my wife recently dropped her series 2 apple watch it's being
1:01:31repaired but might need replacing if it needs to be replaced it will cost us 290 pounds does it make
1:01:39sense to get a new series 3 right now or is the series 4 likely to be out in the autumn don't don't
1:01:47don't don't buy it because there will be a new apple watch i mean just today there was a report
1:01:53about uh some regulatory approvals for six new apple watch models don't do it i broke my ipad
1:01:59right like and i'm just forging ahead with my broken screen still going strong though
1:02:03cracks are getting worse but that thing's still going strong because i'm not going to pay 490
1:02:09pounds when i'm probably going to be paying a thousand pounds in four weeks or five weeks or
1:02:13something so if you can get by don't do it it would be my would be my advice right now um
1:02:21because it's too it's just far too soon right now it's far far too soon and you may not want the
1:02:26series 4 but it means you'll get a series 3 for cheaper so hopefully yeah don't don't do it i was
1:02:31i have a cracked screen story which is i was at a restaurant on friday in san jose i was in san jose
1:02:38visiting some friends because there was a convention there uh it was fun it was like uh
1:02:42celebrating the two-month anniversary of wwc which is a little bit weird but like
1:02:46the way fewer people by the way apple uh developer conference between a conference and then all of
1:02:52the like people who are there not going to the conference we really kind of shut down and ruined
1:02:57downtown san jose it was way it was fascinating to see it it's a little like going to comic-con
1:03:01going to san diego outside of comic-con after having been to comic-con you're like well wait
1:03:05are the where are the giant crowds and the long lines it's like they were gone that was really nice
1:03:10anyway we went to a brewery that's just around the corner from the convention center which was
1:03:14really great i'm gonna definitely try to go back there um next time there's a brewery around the
1:03:20corner from the convention center yeah why did nobody know about this well i don't i don't know
1:03:27i don't know the story you've got the keys to everybody to know that there's something
1:03:31interesting to go to yeah there's a there's a nice little uh nice little brewery it's kind of like a
1:03:37block away from the uh the theater the it's the uproar brewing company interesting it's on it's
1:03:43on uh sense alvador and first um anyway uh they have it's all an ipad checkout system so they've
1:03:51got an ipad kiosk and then they also have for the dinner rush which we were there you know five to
1:03:55eight or whatever um drinking beer and then people came and then we had dinner and it was it was busy
1:04:00they have another ipad that they that they bring out and i can see why they only bring this one out
1:04:05for the dinner rush because it has a cracked screen which you know i get it you don't want
1:04:11to pay to fix your ipad whatever but it's one of those things where you know they run your card
1:04:17and then you need to sign on the screen and i'm signing on the screen over the cracked glass and
1:04:25i can feel the cracked glass as i'm signing and i think to myself i don't like this this is not
1:04:31you should not be having your customers run their fingers over cracked glass that may throw a shard
1:04:38into their finger at any moment seems like a mistake so that's my cracked screen story which
1:04:43is like you want to do it yourself that's fine but to inflict on your customers moving your finger
1:04:50over that's i don't want to do that i don't want to move my finger over that crack there because it
1:04:54could could uh you know put glass in my finger and i use my finger because i have to type things some
1:04:59cracks are fine you know you can sometimes you your ipad screen if it's your own ipad if it's
1:05:04your own ipad you choose to take the risk if you want i agree for it for a point of sale ipad that
1:05:10you should replace seems like a bad idea seems like a bad idea mihir asks will you be upgrading to
1:05:17presuming they're announced the new ipad pro the new iphones and the apple watch series 4 just 2
1:05:23or 3 what is your plan right now sight unseen okay the problem with this is that in reality we are
1:05:34people who write about this stuff and talk about this stuff and therefore i would be i need to try
1:05:41all the stuff hopefully i can get review units of all the stuff i will but but that said the stuff
1:05:49that i buy i buy because i want it to be mine and i want to use it for a long time like i'm still
1:05:57using the ipad pro first generation 12.9 because i bought that one and i got the second generation
1:06:04review unit i had that but that's not what i use the one i use is what i bought so with that
1:06:09disclaimer that i hope to have all four of these at least at some point the one that i will certainly
1:06:14buy is the ipad pro certainly 100 i absolutely will buy a new ipad pro yeah because you're you're
1:06:21a couple of variations behind at that point right so you're going to get a nice big big jump yeah
1:06:25yeah and the new you know if it's best of list and all of that like i'm very excited about what
1:06:30a new ipad pro i use my ipad so much the other ones you know i um i love my iphone 10 i'm
1:06:40okay i'm okay with it like i'm okay with it so i would not choose for myself to buy
1:06:47a revised iphone 10 if there is one um that that one is probably not on my agenda um apple watch i
1:06:55have the series 3 with cellular and i'm very happy with happy with it so i probably would not
1:07:03buy a new one of that and um yeah so that's for me that's that's it is that i'm really targeted
1:07:10on the ipad pro what about you i will 100 be buying both ipad pros because i love them and i
1:07:20want the newness of all of them they're very important to me a bigger iphone 100 of course
1:07:26right i'm going down that road bigger iphone definitely apple watch i don't want one because
1:07:33i don't wear it anymore yeah i don't wear the apple watch i haven't worn my apple watch since
1:07:37may if you are interested in hearing about that because it's too much to get into right now
1:07:43i direct you to episode 71 of cortex where i explain in detail kind of why i have given up
1:07:49on the apple watch and why i'm not interested in what i do what i'm doing instead there is a world
1:07:55in which they could create an interesting enough product that i would want to buy it for the review
1:08:01purposes or whatever right so i can talk about it but if it is just a jump like they've been doing
1:08:08probably not right like i'm not going to need it other people having it will will suffice but i'm
1:08:14not really interested in wearing an apple watch anymore at least for the time being um there has
1:08:21to be some big changes to the apple watch i don't even know what they would be right for me to want
1:08:25to go back to it because i am now in the mechanical watch camp so i i like my dumb beautiful watch
1:08:34yeah you got you got reasons i i i'm not i i wore a mechanical watch for a long time but i don't
1:08:39know i like my apple watch i enjoy i'm i'm enjoying i did uh this is big for me i closed
1:08:45all three rings very early on on was it saturday sometime last week i was like oh boy this is big
1:08:52but then you get in that moment where like i i put on my watch late in the day like 11 o'clock
1:08:58one morning and i was like oh man i'm never gonna do it now and i did have a moment where i like
1:09:02stood up and wandered around because i was trying to get credit pro apple watch tip by the way get up
1:09:07at about 55 after the hour and walk around for 10 minutes and you get credit for two hours of
1:09:12standing so i think that's a anyway i i enjoyed my apple watch uh watching my wife who's using
1:09:17a series zero apple watch she'll definitely be getting a new apple watch this fall and i see
1:09:23somebody on twitter was saying this too how um how much faster the current apple watch is than
1:09:30the original um there are a lot of people who like try the original apple watch and they're like this
1:09:34is so frustrating my wife is frustrated with it and now i'm just sort of like just hold on new
1:09:39one's way better because you know it's just all these pauses like why can't i tap on this thing
1:09:44now she was trying to get an offy code and she's like tap tap tap tap tap tap and it couldn't get
1:09:50it to come up and i'm like oh yeah that works fine on the modern watches so we'll see one thing that
1:09:55i might do if i'm like moderately interested but don't want one for myself i'll buy it for
1:10:00adina she's still using series zero like the original original um and she wears it and uses
1:10:06it every day and has absolutely no complaints or problems with it she would be really happy with
1:10:11a new one but you know i don't think she uses it very very much like she for her it's just like
1:10:15it's my watch and it tells me the time do you know what i mean like and it gives me notifications
1:10:19she's not really like digging into it very deeply but that would i've just thought that will be a
1:10:24pretty nice way for me to get to see the new one and she would get a benefit from it because she
1:10:28wears it every day all right that's i think we're gonna wrap it up there thank you so much to
1:10:33everyone who has sent in some questions we Jason i still have a lot more but i always want more
1:10:37ask upgrade questions so you can always tweet to us with the hashtag ask upgrade to for us to
1:10:42answer a question from you at the end of the show thanks to everyone that's done that so if you
1:10:46haven't heard us answer your question i have lots we're going through a big big backlog so maybe
1:10:51we'll dip in and out of trying to do some more over the next few weeks i always think it's really
1:10:55interesting to see what people want to hear us talk about there's always some interesting insights
1:10:59that come out of hashtag ask upgrade which is why you've heard this technology uh in use in some of
1:11:05your favorite technology podcasts around right this is why this is uh permeated across the
1:11:10ecosphere because it's a it's a great way to get feedback and to understand what people want you
1:11:14to talk about so that's why we love doing it and why it has been a mainstay on this show for years
1:11:20we are actually fast approaching our fourth anniversary on the show and since it's true which
1:11:25i'm very excited about so thank you to everybody who has tuned in especially those of you who've
1:11:30been around for a very long time and especially especially to those of you who became relayfm
1:11:34members over the last week or two or if you've been for for a long time thank you so much relay.fm
1:11:39membership to find out more about that you can become a supporting member of upgrade by clicking
1:11:45the link in the show notes you can find jason over at twitter he is at jasonl i am at imike
1:11:51i m y k e go to sixcolors.com and the incomparable.com for more of jason's work outside of relayfm but he
1:11:58like i host many shows at relayfm go to relay.fm/shows and i'm sure you'll be able to pick up
1:12:03something new for your podcast listening pleasure thank you so much to pingdom inboard technology
1:12:10and squarespace for their support of this week's episode and we'll be back next time until then
1:12:15jason you're gonna ride off surf off into the sunset say goodbye see you later dude
1:12:23you
1:12:23you
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