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0:00:08>> From Relay FM, this is Upgrade.
0:00:10It's episode 178, and today's show is brought to you by Pingdom,
0:00:14PDF pen from Smile and Simple Contacts.
0:00:16My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined by Mr. Jason Snow.
0:00:19Hi, Jason Snow.
0:00:20>> Hi, Myke Hurley.
0:00:21It's good to be back, and I hope you had a good weekend.
0:00:24And how you doing?
0:00:27>> Good, it is my birthday week.
0:00:29But I just want to let everybody know that I turn 30 on Wednesday.
0:00:33Just so you know, you know, in case you feel like you need to wish me a happy
0:00:35birthday, you can do that on Wednesday the 31st.
0:00:37I turned 30 years old.
0:00:39Everybody should care about that.
0:00:40I think everybody does care about that.
0:00:42But anyway, we're going to talk about our hashtag snail talk question.
0:00:45And this one comes from Leonardo.
0:00:47Leonardo wants to know, Jason, what is the feature that you missed
0:00:51most when you use the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement?
0:00:54So what is the thing you're sitting there of your your lovely iPad
0:00:57in your keyboard and you're typing away and you're like, "Oh, this is really great."
0:01:01But…
0:01:02First, I just want to say it's really great to get a question from one of the Ninja Turtles.
0:01:10And I'm sorry, I had to do that.
0:01:14You've just given Leonardo the thing that he has had for the last 20 years of his life
0:01:18and he thinks he's finally escaped it as an adult, but no.
0:01:21No.
0:01:22No.
0:01:23No, and of course I could have gone the other way with a titan of the art world, but I didn't.
0:01:30This is a tough one for me. I was thinking about this before the show, and I've got a lot of little
0:01:38things where I wish the iPad Pro was better. Like iOS with Bluetooth keyboard still like,
0:01:46if you command tab to different apps,
0:01:49sometimes it thinks the command key
0:01:52is still being held down when it isn't,
0:01:55and then you type something and it,
0:01:56instead of putting the letter,
0:01:57it like issues a command and stuff.
0:01:59There's occasionally I have that,
0:02:01and that's across Bluetooth keyboard.
0:02:02That's not one keyboard.
0:02:03Like I see that happen a lot.
0:02:05And that's frustrating when that happens
0:02:08'cause my Mac is rock solid when it comes to that stuff.
0:02:10There's a lot of little stuff like that, file imports,
0:02:12there are these things that I miss a little bit,
0:02:14but I think this is,
0:02:16I know this is weird, but since I edit text a lot,
0:02:18'cause I'm writing a lot on my iPad Pro,
0:02:21I gotta say, I kinda miss having a track pad.
0:02:26Like I kinda miss being able to select large chunks of text
0:02:30and move them around.
0:02:31And I know I can put my fingers on the screen
0:02:35and do kind of like, sort of like a track pad,
0:02:38but it's not quite the same as having a physical track pad.
0:02:43And if iOS supported Bluetooth pointing devices
0:02:48for you moving that text editing cursor around,
0:02:52I would get one because I miss that
0:02:55when I'm writing and editing stuff.
0:02:57- Today, I was putting our document together
0:03:01and it required today a lot of copy and pasting
0:03:05where it typically doesn't.
0:03:05Like I was copying and pasting quotes out of some web pages
0:03:10And just text selection on iOS can get so fiddly sometimes, and, you know, like I'm
0:03:16dragging the little anchors and then I let go of one and it just pings back to one character
0:03:20as opposed to an entire sentence for a reason I can't understand.
0:03:24And I wished for a mouse pointer at that moment.
0:03:27Just at that one moment, I really wanted one.
0:03:29The ability to be able to use a trackpad or something every now and then would be kind
0:03:34of nice.
0:03:35The moment that crystallized this for me is last year, my family and I went to Hawaii
0:03:42and over New Year's. And I was working on the Apple report card story where I talked
0:03:47to a whole lot of people, and we're going to talk about this year's today, and that
0:03:51has lots of text from people who write in their thoughts. And then I trim it, cut it
0:03:56down a lot. And I was doing that on my iPad using a Bluetooth keyboard, using the bridge
0:04:01And I kept thinking, oh my God, this is so like, you know,
0:04:06I can hold down the shift key and the arrows
0:04:08and move it around.
0:04:09But I just thought this is something that the iPad
0:04:11is still just not good enough at.
0:04:13Is this like a whole lot of text selection
0:04:16and pinpoint cursor kind of stuff.
0:04:19And it's, I feel like, you know,
0:04:23if it's just purely a tablet,
0:04:24you can kind of get by with the approach that, you know,
0:04:28of using two fingers or standard kind of text selection stuff.
0:04:32It's when you get, like with a keyboard,
0:04:36and then it gets frustrating
0:04:37'cause I've got to reach up to the screen to move it around.
0:04:39And I just, again, I don't really understand
0:04:42why Apple hasn't thrown Bluetooth pointer support in
0:04:45to the OS because it would be super limited
0:04:50and really a niche thing,
0:04:53but it would work for text selection
0:04:55and it would work for anyone who's using
0:04:58like a screen sharing app.
0:05:00You'd just be able to use those
0:05:01instead of having to buy like a special mouse
0:05:03that only works with a certain app or something.
0:05:04- The Citrix X1 mouse,
0:05:05which we spoke about a long time ago.
0:05:07- So I kinda don't know why they haven't done it
0:05:10just 'cause it would be like to throw a bone
0:05:11at people who are like pros,
0:05:13in a particular area using iOS
0:05:15and like the cursor's already there,
0:05:18the movement's already there.
0:05:19They don't have to,
0:05:20they don't have to,
0:05:22'cause the argument that I always get
0:05:23when I talk about this is somebody says,
0:05:25well, but if they did that, they would need to have
0:05:27a whole, you know, paradigm for selecting items
0:05:30in all apps using a pointing device.
0:05:32And my response is, no, they don't.
0:05:34Like, they really don't.
0:05:36They could, if they wanted, say, you know,
0:05:39bullet point in iOS 11.4,
0:05:42added support for Bluetooth pointing devices
0:05:45in for text insertion only.
0:05:47Done, like done.
0:05:49And they haven't.
0:05:51So anyway, that's the one,
0:05:52that's actually the one that I miss
0:05:54because I work with words a lot.
0:05:55There are a lot of little details that I wish were more refined, like they are on the Mac,
0:06:01but that's the one I think that I would say, when I'm traveling and doing remote recording,
0:06:06it's the file access thing.
0:06:08But day to day, when I'm using my iPad, it's text selection.
0:06:14Thank you to Leonardo for suggesting the question.
0:06:16I hope that was a good answer.
0:06:18If you would like to submit a question for us to answer at the beginning of the show,
0:06:23just send us a tweet with the hashtag SnellTalk and we'll pick it for a future episode.
0:06:27Jason, I don't want to do this follow-up item but you are very insistent on it so I will
0:06:35explain something here. So many people may have noticed this, many people didn't report
0:06:41it because why would they? When you were listening to the Hamilton chapter last week in, if you
0:06:47use Overcast, you may have noticed that during that part of the show, the Overcast app became
0:06:54rather unresponsive whenever the audio was playing. So it would judder or you couldn't
0:06:59scroll very comfortably and stuff like that. Turns out I discovered a peculiar kind of
0:07:05edge case bug in Overcast and Forecast, Marco's application, which was that I needed to make
0:07:15the file small. I needed to make it as small as it could possibly be because there is a
0:07:20limit to how much you really want to make a show's download bigger because of images.
0:07:25You don't want to make it too big. So I try and keep them to like, I don't know, 100,
0:07:29150 kilobytes or something, which you can do and you can crunch the heck out of those
0:07:34images because really they're never that big. So most of our chapter art is crunched down
0:07:38to like 100 kilobytes because of this. And typically what I use is I just open these
0:07:44images in preview and it's really easy like preview will just let you export it
0:07:47drag the slider down and it's done like I don't need to mess around it's like a
0:07:50super simple process but for whatever reason this image I couldn't get it that
0:07:56small as a JPEG so I clicked and one of the options I had in preview is to
0:08:01export it as JPEG 2000 I don't know what that is. Sounds really advanced. Yeah it's like it's the year 2000.
0:08:07I didn't really know what JPEG 2000 is I still don't know but I could make
0:08:12the image smaller with JPEG 2000 so I just did it. Turns out JPEG 2000 breaks basically everything
0:08:21ever in the world so never do that. In fact to the point that to stop this from happening again
0:08:27Marco has added something into forecast which will now convert images to JPEGs or pings I think
0:08:36if they're not. So that's what happened. I felt stupid and it's done.
0:08:41- So what I'm saying is you're a hero.
0:08:43- I don't know about that.
0:08:44- You didn't find one bug, you found two bugs.
0:08:45You found a bug in forecast,
0:08:47which should probably have converted that file.
0:08:50And I think Marco may have updated forecast now that,
0:08:53so it does some file image size compression on the fly
0:08:58in order to solve this problem
0:08:59so you wouldn't even need to do this.
0:09:00And then a bug in overcast
0:09:02where certain chapter marker file formats freak it out.
0:09:07And I believe that's gonna be fixed in an upcoming version
0:09:09and is already fixed in a beta.
0:09:11So you're a hero for finding bugs
0:09:13and exposing them to the world.
0:09:16And I believe we replaced that file, right?
0:09:19So if you download it after we discovered this, then--
0:09:21- Yeah, unfortunately I had to just strip the image out
0:09:24because there just wasn't an easy way.
0:09:27I tried a bunch of things and there just wasn't an easy way
0:09:28for me to crunch that file down to a small enough size.
0:09:32So it was gone forever.
0:09:34It was just a picture.
0:09:35I'll put it in the show notes
0:09:37'cause it was from my Instagram.
0:09:39It was a nice picture of me taking a picture of the Hamilton logo.
0:09:43And so that was that.
0:09:44And yeah, I'm sorry everybody.
0:09:46I'm sorry for the hassle for developers across the world and for listeners for what I did.
0:09:53You found it, you know, I don't know, that's like, I think it's a great accomplishment
0:09:56to, after all of this time of podcast app development, to find something that chokes
0:10:00the podcast app is pretty impressive.
0:10:01Anyway, my point is, just wait for JPEG 3000.
0:10:05It'll be way better.
0:10:06Yeah, then I'll get, then I'll really get what I need.
0:10:08JPEG 3000, it's coming any day now.
0:10:11All right, we have an action packed show today.
0:10:14I guess first we should say surprise,
0:10:16the HomePod has arrived.
0:10:17So on the last episode we predicted that the HomePod
0:10:21would come late because of AirPlay 2.
0:10:23Well, Apple did something very surprising
0:10:26in that AirPlay 2 is delayed as we were told, right?
0:10:30And we're correct about that,
0:10:31that AirPlay 2 is not ready.
0:10:33But Apple decided to just release the HomePod anyway.
0:10:36Pre-orders are available.
0:10:37stereo pairing, no multi room stuff.
0:10:40None of that is there at launch.
0:10:41- A lot of the really big features have just been
0:10:43just been pulled out until later
0:10:44to an undefined period of time.
0:10:47Pre-orders went available last Friday
0:10:49and they're available for delivery and pickup
0:10:51on February 9th in the US, the UK and Australia.
0:10:56It's coming, it's expanding a little bit wider
0:10:58to France and Germany later on this year.
0:11:01I assume you bought one.
0:11:04- I did buy one.
0:11:07I mean, I'm gonna write about it,
0:11:09so I kind of have to have one,
0:11:11but I'm interested in it.
0:11:13I think there might be a place,
0:11:14I'm an Apple Music subscriber,
0:11:16so I think there might be a place for it in my life,
0:11:19somewhere in my living room.
0:11:21That is, 'cause right now,
0:11:22I've got Sonos connected up to my speakers,
0:11:25but to get that on, you gotta like turn on the receiver
0:11:29and then open an app and play something.
0:11:31And if I've got a HomePod lurking somewhere
0:11:34in my living room, that might be a better experience.
0:11:37but I probably wouldn't have bought it right away
0:11:41if I was just a civilian,
0:11:45but since I also wanna be knowledgeable about it
0:11:47and talk about it and write about it, I need to have it.
0:11:50So yeah.
0:11:51- I had no and still have no real interest
0:11:57in having a home pot in my life,
0:11:59and I decided I wasn't gonna buy one,
0:12:01but I have ordered one.
0:12:04(laughing)
0:12:05The reason I have ordered one--
0:12:06I took a twist.
0:12:07The reason I have ordered one, and I fully expect that I will be returning this product.
0:12:12The reason I have ordered this product is because of the last four or five days where
0:12:18Apple has announced that a product is going to be available and have basically not really
0:12:25given any information about it.
0:12:28They've been doing these weird demos again, but still not letting people control the product
0:12:33to the way that they want to.
0:12:35So Serenity Caldwell, who is a host of query and relay FM and writes at iMore, she had
0:12:40some hands on time with the HomePod and there was an episode of query, episode 23, where
0:12:44her and Steven talk about her experiences in detail.
0:12:47And the way that it was being presented and the way that Rem was explaining it, it was
0:12:51still in a controlled environment with select songs and some of the actions were just being
0:12:58done by the person who was demoing it for her.
0:13:03I feel like this is a weird product that could potentially be a very bad product that Apple
0:13:10is maybe trying to skirt around.
0:13:13That's kind of my take on some of this.
0:13:15It's weird.
0:13:16What they're doing right now with the whole launch of this product is very strange and
0:13:21it's compelled me to get one to see what the situation is.
0:13:26Would you agree?
0:13:27Like it's all very peculiar the way that they're doing this?
0:13:29- Yeah, I mean, who knows exactly what happened
0:13:34behind the scenes?
0:13:35I mean, who knows?
0:13:36People at Inside Apple know, we have to speculate.
0:13:39I think it's clear that this product rollout
0:13:42is not happening the way Apple would have wanted, right?
0:13:46They delayed it, they dropped features out of it.
0:13:49There was a long gap between when they announced it
0:13:52and when it was even supposedly shipping.
0:13:55- Nobody has reviewed one.
0:13:56It seems like nobody has got one.
0:13:58Like it seems very peculiar.
0:14:00- Right, they did another listing party
0:14:02and Serenity went to another one of these secluded grottos,
0:14:05like at WWDC, where they could talk to it
0:14:09and look at it this time.
0:14:09They didn't have to just avert their eyes and listen.
0:14:13Still using some of the same demo music,
0:14:14which I find funny.
0:14:15Somebody at Apple really likes that live version
0:14:17of Hotel California,
0:14:18'cause apparently they're still playing that,
0:14:20'cause I got that and Serenity got that too.
0:14:22So some of that Closet Eagles fan in there,
0:14:25oh yeah, I know, right?
0:14:26- That's not closet adjacent,
0:14:27they're making everybody listen to it. No, I guess they're pretty far out there if they're like,
0:14:31"You will keep the eagles in the demo, okay?" Can you imagine the pitch session for that, Myke?
0:14:39Myke, okay, here's what happens in the HomePod room. On a dark desert highway, nope, nope,
0:14:45we're not gonna do a dramatic reading of whoever you are, unnamed Apple executive,
0:14:50go back in your corner, we'll play the Hotel California live, just, you know,
0:14:56You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. We got it, we got it, we got it.
0:14:59I can feel like I can never leave this meeting. Stop talking about it. Anyway,
0:15:03so it is, it's weird. It's just, it's weird. And I think some of it is, the question is,
0:15:10how weird is it from our perspective and how weird is it inside of Apple? Because like,
0:15:14if this is Apple going off the playbook and forcing things that they're not ready for and
0:15:18all of that, I guess that's a little bit worrying. At the same time, a lot of stuff seems troubled
0:15:25and from the outside and in fact it might be kind of like complicated and troubled on the inside.
0:15:32That doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. It just means that there were issues.
0:15:35It really could just be poorly communicated.
0:15:37Yeah.
0:15:39Because I just feel like there are lots of questions that are taking a very long time to
0:15:43answer. Like, I feel like the last five days has been a constant battle from journalists to
0:15:48understand if you have to be an Apple Music subscriber to use this product. It turns out now
0:15:54that it looks like, again, no one's 100% sure that you can use iTunes match with iCloud Music Library
0:16:02and it's fine. You don't have to subscribe to Apple Music. Yeah, that is exciting. That is a really
0:16:08nice thing that we didn't know for sure. That if all you've got is a lot of music in iTunes,
0:16:14iTunes like, Music Library, Cloud Music Library, you should be able to access that even if you're
0:16:20you're not an Apple Music person. But it still feels like everyone's like we were
0:16:26like 90% sure this is the case you know what I mean? It doesn't feel like anyone
0:16:30can really be like "this is happening." It sounds like Wren got that today maybe got that
0:16:34confirmation I think she's gotten it now and it makes sense right it's basically
0:16:38like it seems to me that there is one way that iTunes and the music app look
0:16:45into the cloud and say what music do I have and it's it's kind of the same
0:16:50for Apple Music and for iTunes in the cloud,
0:16:53or at least it's very similar.
0:16:54And so it makes sense that they would do that.
0:16:57There's still questions about like,
0:16:58if it's a track that you uploaded,
0:17:00how good is the access gonna be via voice?
0:17:03Is that stuff all indexed and understandable?
0:17:06On download last week, Kirk McElhern brought up,
0:17:10like he has a lot of classical music.
0:17:12So how does he give Siri a command
0:17:14to play a particular classical piece
0:17:17from a particular orchestra or album or whatever,
0:17:21and will that do the right thing
0:17:24or will it get really confused?
0:17:25And these are open questions
0:17:28about how that's all going to work when we get this thing.
0:17:31But I'm really interested.
0:17:33By all accounts, it sounds great.
0:17:34And I mean, it sounded great when I heard it too.
0:17:36So I'm kind of looking forward to see
0:17:37how the secret sauce of Apple processing the audio
0:17:42and then throwing it out to those seven different tweeters
0:17:45and trying to create kind of a directional sound
0:17:48and throwing things off of walls and stuff like that.
0:17:50Like how much work did they put in that?
0:17:53How good does it sound?
0:17:54'Cause in the end, I think this product kind of succeeds
0:17:59or fails based mostly on if it's a really good speaker
0:18:02for that price, because if they can't do that
0:18:06for that price, I mean, that's a price
0:18:08of a good sounding speaker, not a rudimentary speaker
0:18:11with a really fun voice assistant around it.
0:18:14So it's gonna live or die based on that one.
0:18:16And then, you know, the fact is they can,
0:18:18the rest of it they can fix
0:18:19with software and service updates.
0:18:21So if they can get it out there and it sounds good,
0:18:24and it doesn't have to be a huge hit,
0:18:26something that we all have to keep in mind
0:18:29is everybody wants a brand new Apple product
0:18:32to be a huge hit right out of the gate.
0:18:33And it isn't always.
0:18:34Like, you know, the Apple Watch has really grown and changed
0:18:37in the last couple of years.
0:18:38And the iPod took a couple of years to get right
0:18:41because they had to update it and make it work on Windows and figure it all out.
0:18:46The slow build is fine, so HomePod is a good place to start.
0:18:49Yeah, so I'm keen to see what this product actually turns out to be like.
0:18:53I want to see what it's like if I connect it to my Apple TV and that experience is like...
0:18:57Yeah, I've become keen to see what it looks like.
0:19:01I still don't think I particularly want it.
0:19:05And honestly, I think that it might just be something that I spend a week with and return.
0:19:11I just don't think I will want to replace my echoes with it, but I want to see because
0:19:17there is a shroud of mystery around it, which is intriguing me, so.
0:19:22Right? We have some Hamilton follow-up. First off, it sounds like you got more—did you
0:19:27buy more Hamilton tickets, Myke?
0:19:29Yeah, I bought more Hamilton tickets today. We're going again in September.
0:19:32Okay, good. That's good. I had a couple people who wrote in to tell me something that is
0:19:37absolutely true. I was talking about how Lin-Manuel Miranda talks about how Hamilton is an immigrant
0:19:42story and one of his sources of inspiration is his dad who moved from Puerto Rico to New
0:19:46York and I had several people point out Puerto Rico is part of the United States, which it
0:19:51absolutely is. I wish there were a word for that was not immigration but was something
0:19:59different for coming a very long way from a very different cultural location to another
0:20:03place but it's still part of the same country because that's really the story of Lin-Manuel
0:20:09Miranda's dad. It's also I think the story of Alexander Hamilton because I believe that
0:20:13the Caribbean island he was on was a British possession just like the US was when he came
0:20:19to America so he wasn't you know really technically immigrating to a new country immigrating,
0:20:27immigrating depending on your perspective but anyway the point is and it's something
0:20:32that every American should know already after what happened with the hurricane. Puerto Rico
0:20:36is part of the United States. They're U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico. They are not some
0:20:42foreign country that's sending their people into the U.S. They're actually Americans.
0:20:46And that was worth mentioning again. You know, despite the fact that, you know, that movement
0:20:52of people from Puerto Rico to New York City especially is deep in Lin-Manuel Miranda's
0:20:59mind and his family history and was on his mind when he was writing about Hamilton. So,
0:21:05but thanks to the people for pointing that out and it's worth saying again because not
0:21:08enough people actually know that Puerto Rico is the United States. So there it is.
0:21:13Good clarification. Last piece of follow up today. Messages in iCloud has returned in
0:21:19the 11.3 beta, but it is not being promoted by Apple in their press release. So there
0:21:25was a press release for 11.3 last week, which added more ARKit stuff, some Animoji stuff,
0:21:30some health record stuff. 11.3 will also have the battery.
0:21:35By the way, we talked about this last time. I love that Apple's doing this, because this
0:21:39is... So Apple releases these betas, and all the sites that cover Apple write about them
0:21:45and what's in them. They tear them apart and they say, "Oh, it does this, it does this."
0:21:48I know I said this last time, but I'm going to say it again. This is one of those things
0:21:52where there was this old kind of like pretend agreement, which was this a secret and Apple
0:21:58would pretend like it wasn't happening and everybody would report it anyway. Yeah. And
0:22:03somebody at Apple has decided, why are we letting, you know, macrumors.com break stories
0:22:12about what's in our new software? Why are we not doing that ourselves? Why, why do we
0:22:19not control this story?" And, oh god, I mean they should have done this a long time ago,
0:22:24but I'm so happy that somebody did that. So now when they're coming out with a new developer
0:22:27beta with a bunch of new features in it, they put out a press release and say "new animoji!"
0:22:33and this other thing is happening and this other thing is happening. So big thumbs up
0:22:38for that. What's interesting about the messages in the cloud stuff is that that's absolutely
0:22:44being pitched as like "it's not in the press release" and it's like "we're returning this
0:22:50to testing" and it goes back to our conversations a while ago about like "you don't want to
0:22:55screw this up" right? You don't want to turn on messages in the cloud to every iOS user
0:23:00and discover that it's destroyed people's messages archive, right? You don't want to
0:23:04do that. So they tested it in the iOS 11 beta and then they're like "okay it's not ready"
0:23:10they took it out and I think by not putting it in the press release what
0:23:14they're saying is no no seriously we've brought it back for testing we're not
0:23:19committing to release it with 11.3 let's see how it goes but try it out and I
0:23:27think that's I think that's really smart so I like I like this whole this whole
0:23:31story here I like that they're not promoting it because there's clearly a
0:23:35lack of confidence in it being you know they already made this mistake of saying
0:23:39iOS 11 and then maybe not. Why do that again? If you're unsure but they're still using the
0:23:45beta process to try it out and see if they can get it locked down before they release
0:23:50it to everyone else because that would be really bad if it didn't work right. So yeah,
0:23:56I think it's cool. And I think it's cool that they're new Animoji too. I think that's a
0:24:01complaint that we had a lot about the iOS 10 messages improvements and came up with
0:24:06iOS 11, which is one of the ways for them to keep people interested in their
0:24:11updates and interested in these features, is to continue doing, it's almost like
0:24:15DLC for games, it's like content releases, like adding new emoji, which they can't
0:24:20control, they're kind of up to what is going on with the emoji subcommittee of
0:24:25Unicode, but they can still do some of that, but the Animoji stuff, they
0:24:29completely control, like, you know, little carrot to get people to update is,
0:24:33why can't I send a lion message or a skull or whatever and the answer is well
0:24:38just go to 11.3 and you'll be able to do that it's smart. Yeah so that's a bunch
0:24:43of stuff coming and messages in iCloud is back in back in testing again which
0:24:48is a good sign. Testing! experimental! Again it's like and I think Apple's doing the
0:24:52right thing they couldn't get it right for the original release maybe they
0:24:57still won't so that's why they're not promoting it as the thing but yeah the
0:25:0111.3 also has the battery stuff in it, but that isn't in the developer beta or the public
0:25:05beta right now.
0:25:06I think that's going to be coming in a future iteration of this beta period.
0:25:10Alright, today's show is brought to you in part by Simple Contacts.
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0:27:36show. All right so upstream time uh chapter artwork is still coming we're hoping to have
0:27:42have that set by next week so there will be a beautiful new chapter artwork for you.
0:27:46But I have a selection, a plethora of media related news.
0:27:51So if you remember when we were talking about Fox and Disney, there was a question kind
0:27:56of outstanding about the fact that Rupert Murdoch was going to be buying Sky Television
0:28:03in the UK.
0:28:05But regulators in this country have blocked this purchase, believing that it would give
0:28:10the Murdoch family too much control over news outlets.
0:28:21If this regulator is able to completely stop the sale, this would also mean that Disney
0:28:29won't pick up Sky when they make their purchase.
0:28:32The regulators are considering that Disney are involved in this, but they're still not
0:28:37very happy about the fact that the Murdoch family will get it in case the Disney deal
0:28:41doesn't go through. And then they're allowing it to happen because, oh, Disney will have
0:28:45it, it's not the Murdochs, but then the Disney deal doesn't go through and then the Murdochs
0:28:48have got it and they don't want that. So this isn't over yet, but it's not looking very
0:28:52likely that Sky will be able to fall under Disney in the future.
0:28:57Right. It's interesting. There's going to be regulatory scrutiny of this deal all over
0:29:03the place and so the details I don't think this is gonna change like break
0:29:07the deal but it will change permutations of the deal it seems in Europe it is not
0:29:11it's not unheard of like we a couple years ago a bunch of the mobile phone
0:29:16networks were buying each other and one of the big ones was company called three
0:29:20buying company called Oh - and the regulator stopped it wouldn't let it
0:29:24happen like it was basically a done deal and they were just ended up would it
0:29:28have been like 05? 302 I think is what they were going for. But no they weren't really
0:29:33they were just going to keep it all. It was all going to be rebranded to three. But yeah
0:29:37the regulators they stepped in and they were like no it reduces too much choice and they
0:29:41killed the deal so we'll see. You never know.
0:29:44Damien Chazelle. You may not know that name but Damien was the writer and director of
0:29:49La La Land which was a very popular movie last year. Damien is the most recent individual
0:29:56to sell a series to Apple. It is a drama series and the subject matter is being kept a secret
0:30:02for now, which is peculiar. Chazelle will be joining up with a couple of executive producers
0:30:08from La La Land on a new project. It is interesting because Chazelle also has already landed a
0:30:14deal with Netflix to produce a musical TV drama series called The Eddie. So that is
0:30:20two series orders happening in two different companies.
0:30:22Remember, there was a time when movie and TV didn't cross over, but this is an example
0:30:28where this guy gets this Oscar-nominated/winning film and he's like, "All right, TV money."
0:30:38Now, which is interesting.
0:30:39Now I need to know where the real money is.
0:30:41It's weird, isn't it?
0:30:42And the nature of his deals is fascinating.
0:30:43So he makes this deal with Netflix, which is he's going to create and produce a musical
0:30:47TV drama series The Eddie, so the upgrade he cannot be far behind, and he's gonna write
0:30:53and direct the first two episodes I think is a part of that deal. The Apple deal, where
0:30:59we don't know anything about it, but that deal he's going to write and direct every
0:31:04episode. So if I'm Netflix I'm like, "Oh, oh." So you know like he's got a better deal,
0:31:12but he's also got this deal, so he's now dealing with these two competitors. It's really interesting,
0:31:17But it is another one we were talking about, like, Apple being interested in the J.J. Abrams
0:31:21sci-fi series, which we haven't heard any more about, and being worried that there was
0:31:25going to be, like, it's a little too much sci-fi and you want to get a little more content
0:31:28diversity in your offering, here's an example of their going--unless the writer and director
0:31:34of La La Land is creating a science fiction series.
0:31:37That seems unlikely.
0:31:39Maybe it's a musical science fiction series.
0:31:41Musical drama sci-fi, it's all they want.
0:31:43Just sci-fi, sci-fi, sci-fi.
0:31:45Oh no.
0:31:46It would be terrible if that Apple executive came into the room and said, "How about Hotel
0:31:49California?"
0:31:50I have a great song for you.
0:31:53No, no, let's get out of that.
0:31:54Get out back to your HomePod room.
0:31:56Anyway, so this is presumably adding another piece to the Apple content library that's
0:32:07in another area because you just want to have, and I'm not saying they have slots or anything
0:32:11because it's going to be what the projects are that come by them that they're interested
0:32:14in but I think having things with different appeal to different groups so that the service
0:32:19as a whole has broader appeal, that there's going to be one or two things in it that you're
0:32:22going to be interested in, that's part of what they're putting together. So this is
0:32:26another piece of that.
0:32:29And finally, YouTube megastar and filmmaker Casey Neistat has left CNN. Neistat created
0:32:36a company called Beam which was purchased by CNN in 2016. Beam was an app and technology
0:32:41company but they were going to CNN to also create content and Nice That was going to
0:32:46be creating a news show with CNN. They created a YouTube channel and it was getting on its
0:32:51way but now that has all been shut down. The deal in 2016 was reportedly worth $25 million.
0:32:57It's not really known about the breakup of that, like how that was, whether it was stock
0:33:01or cash or whatever. Beam, the app and the technology and the YouTube channel it seems
0:33:09is all going to be shutting down with a portion of the team and their technology being absorbed
0:33:13into CNN. For now, Neistat is going to be focusing primarily on his YouTube channel
0:33:18and a quote from Casey Neistat to Buzzfeed News. I really like this quote actually. He
0:33:23says "I don't think I'm giving CNN what I want to give them and I don't think they're
0:33:27getting value from me." And that's why he left. It just wasn't the right fit for anybody.
0:33:33So he's stepping away and he's going to be pursuing other projects. So it's interesting.
0:33:38Does he take his $25 million with him or was that one of the questions I always had?
0:33:44No, there is nothing said about that. My expectation from how these deals are done is whatever money he had, he won't get.
0:33:53Because these contracts are usually written that you have to stay there for a certain period of time to get your payout.
0:34:00Yeah, or there's an initial payout and then there's further payouts over time.
0:34:07over time. So we don't know the details, but it's possible that there was like an option
0:34:11point here where, you know, he may have just said, look, I don't want you to pay me anymore.
0:34:16I'm we let's stop this. It's also possible that CNN went to them, went to him and it's
0:34:20like, you know, we really, this is not working, but either way. Yeah. Like $25 million deal.
0:34:26But for his year, plus how, how much did Casey Neistat walk away from? We don't know. It
0:34:32is possible. They had a break point because a nice that had a co-founder. His name was
0:34:36Matt Hackett and he also left. So they're both gone. So it may have been, who knows
0:34:43what, why or how, but it's done. They've moved the one, they've moved them. So I'm interested,
0:34:50I mean, I'm a big fan of Casey Neistat. I think that his work is incredible. I wasn't
0:34:56particularly blown, like really like involved in the beam stuff that they were making, like the
0:35:01the news stories, it just wasn't really my cup of tea.
0:35:04And at least the YouTube numbers would suggest that that may have been the problem for a
0:35:07lot of people, so this may have been one issue, that they just weren't seeing the results.
0:35:12CNN took a gamble, then it doesn't look like it really paid off for them.
0:35:16Okay, so that's upstream.
0:35:19We're now going to talk about something that is becoming a yearly tradition because you
0:35:23do it every year, which means I want to talk to you about it every year, which is the Six
0:35:27Colors report card.
0:35:29Jason, what is the Six Colors Report Card?
0:35:32>> Six Colors Report Card.
0:35:35So three years ago, Koi Vinh, the web designer, or designer, I should say, came to me and
0:35:44said, "I have this idea and I'm not going to do it, but I think somebody should do it,"
0:35:49which is do a poll, do a survey of a bunch of people who follow Apple and about like
0:35:56a report card of how Apple did the previous year,
0:35:58like an end of the year kind of survey.
0:36:00And I said, that sounds like a good idea.
0:36:02He actually came to me like the middle of the year
0:36:05or something and said this, and I was like,
0:36:06"Eh, let me think about it,
0:36:08and I'll get back to you in December or January."
0:36:11And so I decided I would do it.
0:36:13And so I've done that for the last three years.
0:36:16So this is the third one.
0:36:17And I went this year to about 75 different people
0:36:22in the Apple observing world writers, podcasters, developers,
0:36:27and asked them to fill out a survey
0:36:32with a bunch of different categories
0:36:34and rate Apple's year 2017 one to five,
0:36:38and also put in comments about each category
0:36:42that I was asking them about.
0:36:44And that's the Six Colors Report Card.
0:36:46I don't vote in it.
0:36:48I just let them get their say out.
0:36:51And so I think it's useful in the sense of getting
0:36:54a broad sense of what the, you know,
0:36:56kind of what the vibe is in terms of how people
0:36:59who observe Apple are feeling about Apple
0:37:02and seeing now how that feeling has changed year to year,
0:37:06because I've left the categories the same
0:37:09for all three years.
0:37:10So you can actually track sort of the changes
0:37:13in attitude over time.
0:37:15And I'm not saying that it's like definitive in any way.
0:37:18It really is a measure of how Apple observers are feeling about Apple.
0:37:23I think there's something to be gleaned from that, even though I think you could argue
0:37:28that there aren't going to be a lot of surprises because you've spent a year picking up on
0:37:33everybody's comments about what's going on at Apple, right?
0:37:38And if that's the feeling for the year, then an assessment of sentiment at the end of it
0:37:43is going to reflect it, and it certainly did this year.
0:37:46Yeah, whilst there aren't surprises as such, there are interesting things where the comments
0:37:51in some categories seem much harsher than the grade, and I want to get into some of
0:37:56that with you to try and work out why some of that has happened.
0:37:59Well, you know, some people give something a 5 and other people give something a 1, and
0:38:04what I didn't do is pull out, like, "This is what they scored, this category," which
0:38:08I thought about doing, but that was kind of a lot of work and I didn't want to do it, so
0:38:11I thought about it, though.
0:38:13So it's like Rob Griffiths gave this a 2 and this is why he's grumpy, but I didn't do that.
0:38:18Okay, so I submitted grades.
0:38:21You have my grades because I've forgotten what grades I gave, so you can tell me as
0:38:25we go through.
0:38:26I didn't submit any comments because I saved those for now with you.
0:38:34But I also want to, as we go through each of these categories, I would like to know
0:38:38what you would grade, like what your score would be if you were filling it out, like
0:38:42just to try and get a feel for your personal feeling in each of these categories.
0:38:46And then I wanted to pull out some of the interesting comments that I found in the article
0:38:52that you posted and we can talk a little bit about each of these categories.
0:38:56So it starts with probably the most contentious, which is the Mac.
0:39:02So this year in 2017, so in the 2017 report card, the Mac graded with C with the average
0:39:10score of 2.9.
0:39:11This is up from a C- last year. Where would you score the Mac for 2017?
0:39:19It's a tough one. I probably would answer something like 3. That I think was the most
0:39:24common score and it's about what the average score is. 2016 was a tougher year for the
0:39:34the Mac. 2017 though, we got promise of a better future and a lot of the people who
0:39:41filled out the survey filled it out when the iMac Pro hadn't started shipping yet because
0:39:45it was sort of fielding, the survey was fielding in mid-December to early January and so a
0:39:50lot of them filled it out right away and were like, "Well, we haven't seen the iMac Pro
0:39:53yet," and then we saw the iMac Pro and I got an iMac Pro before the end of the year and
0:39:57I was like, "Yay! Hooray!" That made the Mac kind of brighter for me the year in the Mac,
0:40:02there's a lot of questions about the Mac's future and there's a lot of
0:40:05commitments from Apple but we haven't seen all the results of those
0:40:10commitments so I think that in looking at all the comments that came in I think
0:40:14there's a feeling like they're not gonna they're not gonna rate Apple up for
0:40:18saying that they're going to change that they want to see the changes they want
0:40:22to see the Mac Pro ship they want to see products get updated before they kind of
0:40:27of upgrade the scores there. So I think that's going on. And yeah, so you know, it was a
0:40:35I guess there's a lot of keyboard angst to laptop keyboard and that is definitely a part
0:40:39of it too.
0:40:40That's a little bit more specific later on like when we talk about hardware in general.
0:40:45What was my score? What did I grade? You gave it a three? Yeah. So that's that was that
0:40:51That is unsurprising from past Myke.
0:40:53I think that a three is good.
0:40:56I think I would have given it way less last year.
0:41:00Like I understand that the product releases
0:41:03haven't been incredible, you know, for the most of the year.
0:41:06You know, the iMac Pro was great, but on the whole,
0:41:08people were kind of upset about a,
0:41:12not an amazing revision again with the MacBook Pro.
0:41:14People were hoping for more fixes
0:41:16and the keyboard was revised,
0:41:18but didn't really seem to do much.
0:41:20I was interested in seeing in the article that whilst there were most people were unhappy,
0:41:26there were varying levels of unhappiness and the most unhappy person is Rob Griffiths,
0:41:32who is a former colleague of yours at Macworld.
0:41:34This is generally the case. Rob is grumpy.
0:41:37Okay. Rob said, "Tim can say whatever he wants, but the evidence to date is that Apple
0:41:42doesn't care about the Mac very much at all." Which is a very strong statement. I found
0:41:48some hope from John Siracusa who said Apple's apologetic recommitment to Pro Max in April
0:41:55is a big step in the right direction. And this is the thing for me where I am really
0:42:00hanging on with believing that things are going to get better because this isn't something
0:42:06that Apple do. They don't come out and apologise for a commitment to a product line. This was
0:42:13was
0:42:31people were very, very happy with that machine. And that's what happens when you push and
0:42:37make it a real thing. So I think that they made a real commitment, a real change, and
0:42:42being very open about that. I think that's been great.
0:42:45Yeah, and it's weird because, you know, I don't have any rules for this. It's like literally
0:42:49share your feelings. I think it's the right decision to say, "I'm glad that, as John said,
0:42:59know it's a step in the right direction it's an apologetic recommitment I think
0:43:05it's right to say that's good but I want to see them walk the walk before I you
0:43:11know truly elevate the the score here I think there's a lot of anticipation
0:43:15where people want to score the Mac higher because they feel like maybe
0:43:18Apple's attitude here has really changed and they did that unusual recommitment
0:43:24but that they're not all the way there yet. The highest scoring product or
0:43:32category was the iPhone. The iPhone was graded an A with an average score of 4.4.
0:43:39Last year was hovering between a B+ and an A- so there has been improvement
0:43:44in the iPhone. I would say that for me it's it's funny I feel like there
0:43:50should be a bigger improvement shown in the numbers than there actually is
0:43:54because the jump year on year has been more significant than like a B+ to an A.
0:44:02Yeah well I mean it's a straight A from like a B+ A- so it is I mean the
0:44:07scores the scores definitely did go up you gave this a 5 yeah I would give this
0:44:12a 5 the iPhone 10 is great and the iPhone 8 is pretty good too yeah so it's
0:44:19pretty good year for the iPhone like they're there they didn't update the
0:44:21iPhone SE and and I'm wanting to do that soon but like they they managed to ship
0:44:27two three really top-of-the-line models this year and you know push the old line
0:44:38forward a bit and then also came out with this completely new device that
0:44:41they were able to ship in quantity and that is really good and face ID works
0:44:44all of these things, it's a pretty good, I mean, if you're not gonna give the iPhone
0:44:50a 5 in 2017, I don't know when you're gonna give it a 5.
0:44:54You're never gonna.
0:44:55Like this is, you know, this is one of the best years there has ever been.
0:44:59You know, I would say, you know, you got the original, the 4, and this.
0:45:05Yeah, and I did have some complaints, for the record, only integer ratings are allowed.
0:45:12Dan Frakes from the Wirecutter, who I used to work with at Macworld, kept writing in
0:45:16his comments. I was going through editing the comments and there was a lot of, "I would
0:45:19have given this three and a half if I could have." Like, you can't, Dan. You're not allowed
0:45:23to pick.
0:45:24He just wants you to know. He really wants you to know. There were some great comments
0:45:27in the iPhone. One of my favorites was from Joe Kissel. He says, "iPhone 10, baby, is
0:45:32everything I could possibly have asked for in a 2017 smartphone."
0:45:36I could have put in like 20 of those. There were a lot of people who were like, "Come
0:45:38on, iPhone 10."
0:45:40Stephen Hackett, the iPhone X simply put feels like a new generation of phones from Apple.
0:45:45And Carolina Milanese says, "I really think no other company would have been able to implement
0:45:51a core UI change like Face ID and make it feel like the most natural thing you've ever
0:45:55used."
0:45:56Which is a beautiful way of putting it because that is so true.
0:45:59It is wonderful.
0:46:01I am very intrigued to see how this category scores next year.
0:46:05Yeah, now what?
0:46:07we're all very excited about the wonder of the iPhone X, but next year is vital, right?
0:46:11We were talking about this last time, like how do they keep the momentum going? What
0:46:14does the line look like? And I would say, I mean, I don't know if you saw this, but
0:46:18we got some criticism, which is completely correct from last week's episode, from people
0:46:23that like smaller phones, right? So like people in the SE category or people that like currently
0:46:28like the iPhone 6 size, it's looking like phones for people that like those sizes are
0:46:33kind of going to get left in the dust a little bit and that the most that they might get
0:46:38is like here's a new processor for you. Like what happens to those phones and I'm interested
0:46:44to see how that changes over time. Like if all phones are trending larger and larger
0:46:48and larger and then there's kind of old phones or phones of older technology kept around
0:46:54at the small level it seems you know it's like why if you like a small phone you have
0:46:59have to have an old phone. So I'm interested to see how that kind of thinking goes over
0:47:06the next couple of years if Apple continues to course that they currently aren't. People
0:47:10that like small phones either get a bigger phone or get an old phone. So I'm interested
0:47:16to see what happens there. But yeah, the iPhone graded in A was not very surprising. Not very
0:47:22surprising.
0:47:23No, it's just you make a good point. What comes next? What's the next act for the iPhone?
0:47:28But yeah, but they did, the fact that they had this ambitious plan and that they executed
0:47:33it and we'll see what happens.
0:47:36I mean, there could be some sort of, you know, security problem or hardware problem or, I
0:47:41mean, there's lots of different things that could go wrong where they could have a kind
0:47:43of underwhelming refresh in the fall, who knows?
0:47:47But for 2017, like, it was a good iPhone year, all things considered, it was a really good
0:47:52iPhone.
0:47:53- I love my iPhone X so much.
0:47:54I still do.
0:47:55I absolutely love that phone.
0:47:56I love it.
0:47:57- Me too.
0:47:58asked me, a friend of mine asked me last night, we went out to dinner and Lauren's got her
0:48:03iPhone 8 and I've got my iPhone 10 and he has a 6 I think and he was saying, "Well,
0:48:07so why, you know, why would you get the 10 instead of the 8?" And I said, "Look, it's
0:48:12really nice. It's the most expensive one. You probably don't need it, but it's really
0:48:17nice." And Lauren said, "I really like the iPhone 8." And I said, "The iPhone 8 is great."
0:48:23Like, it's one of those funny things where I really like the iPhone 10, the iPhone 8
0:48:28is also great and the iPhone 10, you know,
0:48:30is you're paying extra to get this thing
0:48:33that's from the future a little bit.
0:48:34And you know, it's not for everybody, but it's really good.
0:48:38I mean, that's the thing about it is it's really good.
0:48:41So good year for the iPhone.
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0:50:47So we move on to the iPad. The iPad was graded in A- with an average score of 4.1. Last year
0:50:53was a B+, so another increase.
0:50:56Yeah, and I think not too surprising, right? We get the 10.5 iPad Pro, we get the new,
0:51:02cheaper iPad, and we get an update to the 12.9 model too. We also got iOS 11 features
0:51:09that were focused on the iPad. So again, like, oh, and sales turned around, right? iPad sales
0:51:15turned around. So I would argue again that this was a really good year for the iPad.
0:51:22The only reason I think you don't give it a five out of five here is because you want
0:51:27to see it continue to grow. You want even more growth in the iPad category, but given
0:51:34what the last few years have been for the iPad, this was a really good year.
0:51:38So what are those scores? Scores on the doors?
0:51:43You gave it a five.
0:51:44And what would you give it?
0:51:46- I mean, yeah, I think it's a four or a five,
0:51:49something like that.
0:51:50It was a really good year.
0:51:52I was very happy that the 12.9 got updated.
0:51:54And yeah, I mean, yeah, it's just a question,
0:51:57like I said, about whether you're holding the five back
0:52:00for the year that the iPad conquers the world or not,
0:52:04because it was a very good year for this product.
0:52:06- This is why I did it.
0:52:08It's like, what am I holding for?
0:52:10Like, I couldn't have asked for more from the iPad
0:52:13than what I got this year.
0:52:14- I think this is the best year
0:52:16we could realistically have hoped
0:52:18at the end of last year for the iPad.
0:52:21- Yeah, that is exactly how I think about this grading,
0:52:24is to grade it within the context, right?
0:52:27Like within the context of 2017,
0:52:30what could I have realistically asked for from the iPad?
0:52:33Well, I got all of those things.
0:52:35Like everything that I could have realistically wanted,
0:52:38I got.
0:52:39Like I can't imagine getting a better year than we got,
0:52:42especially in the last six months,
0:52:44than what they gave us.
0:52:46I feel like it would just be holding back the points
0:52:48for the sake of it.
0:52:50So some of the quotes, one comes from you, Jason.
0:52:52This was a bounce back year for the iPad,
0:52:54as new hardware and improved sales
0:52:56gave Apple's larger iOS device a shot in the arm,
0:52:58which is very nicely put.
0:53:01Federico Vittucci, of course, I had to read Federico.
0:53:04Apple didn't disappoint with the 2017 iPad Pros.
0:53:06Quite frankly, after the lack of updates in 2016,
0:53:09they absolutely delivered with a refreshed
0:53:1112.9 inch model and the new 10.5.
0:53:13The combination of iOS 11 and the new iPad Pro is a great year for the iPad.
0:53:18Now let's hope we won't have to wait another two years for updates on hardware
0:53:22and software. Uh,
0:53:23James T. Green said this is the year that the iPad has become my new general
0:53:27purpose computer. Um, and to kind of back that up a little bit, Marco Arment said,
0:53:31the 10.5 inch iPad Pro is the best all-around iPad ever made.
0:53:34I completely agree with Marco.
0:53:35And I think that that 10.5 is really what's pushing people like James.
0:53:40and I see this more and more every day to consider the iPad as much more serious in
0:53:44their computing life, which is exactly what this product is being aimed to do.
0:53:49And I think that this was the year that they really made some significant jumps and advancements
0:53:56in making the iPad a more general purpose computer for more and more people.
0:54:02So we move on to the Apple Watch, graded A- of an average score of 4.0 last year at a
0:54:08be what's your score Jason? Well you know what I think I have to say again
0:54:16this is a four or a five I think I'd go more four here because while this was a
0:54:24very good year for the Apple Watch getting LTE having the new version
0:54:29having a watch OS update that was fine although not not enormous but it was
0:54:36fine. I think we're aware of some of the limitations of Apple Watch that didn't
0:54:41get addressed in watchOS like podcast support for example that is frustrating
0:54:49that the now that the LTE stuff is there there's this feeling that apps need to
0:54:57be rethought that the old approach to apps that sort of stems from the
0:55:01original conception of apps that they need to be rethought again and be more
0:55:05independent and that the OS is not entirely up to the task right now. So there's still
0:55:12some issues there, but still I think it was a good year. So I would say a four. And you
0:55:16gave it a four.
0:55:18To back up what you were saying from James Thompson, the software is still holding things
0:55:22back. I don't get the impression that third-party apps are gaining traction, even though the
0:55:27devices are a lot faster, which makes them more feasible to use. I completely agree with
0:55:33what you said and what James says, the hardware is becoming better and better at an increasing
0:55:38rate, but there doesn't really seem to be a lot going on in the software department.
0:55:42And I think that this is one of the problems with that, right? The software isn't good
0:55:46enough, the apps aren't good enough, what is this product meant to do? From Jessica
0:55:50Dennis, "The new hardware plus the incremental watch OS improvements have made the Apple
0:55:54Watch a truly good piece of kit," which I agree with, right? And the scores show it.
0:55:59This is the only platform in your survey so far that has improved year on year because
0:56:03the watch continues to improve year on year, but this is way more focused in the hardware
0:56:08and Apple's software is where it's getting better. There hasn't really been a lot of
0:56:14significant change in third-party apps and what's going on there. So that is obviously
0:56:18something that Apple will be trying to address as time goes on. It may be time to allow people
0:56:23to pay for customization stuff like watch faces. That would sound really well.
0:56:29It feels it's funny where we are.
0:56:31I feel like the.
0:56:33The Apple watch for a product that was so constrained from a hardware perspective.
0:56:38Right.
0:56:39Like the idea of like, how are they going to get a whole computer with
0:56:43networking on, on your wrist?
0:56:45Like, boy, that's really hard.
0:56:46Well, here it is.
0:56:47They've got it now.
0:56:48Cellular networking.
0:56:50It's all there.
0:56:50Um, this, this pretty huge hardware challenge.
0:56:56And if you had told me that in 2017, this would be the hardware on the Apple
0:57:03watch platform, I would say, well, they got it made, like that's it.
0:57:07And it turns out that this is one of those areas, and this is a trend a little
0:57:12bit where you look at it and you say, wow, Apple's hardware designers are doing a
0:57:18better job than their software people are like the, the, the software, and it's
0:57:24not a bad experience. I love my Apple Watch, but the software is letting down the Apple
0:57:28Watch hardware. Bottom line, you can't overlook it. This hardware is amazing, and the software
0:57:38for third-party developers and even the stuff that's on it and what it's capable of and
0:57:41what it's not capable of, its limitations, it's not good enough. It's not good enough
0:57:47to take advantage of the amazing work the hardware side has done. So that's what we
0:57:50have to like hope for in future watchOS updates is that for them to get up to speed because
0:57:57if I was doing watchOS software I don't think I could point my finger at the hardware people
0:58:01and say it's not us it's them it's like nope that's you know the fingers are pointing the
0:58:05other way right now.
0:58:08Apple TV graded C+ average score 3.2 last year C-
0:58:13Yeah I went up to a C+ yay!
0:58:16Does this match your thinking kind of around the three,
0:58:19four level?
0:58:20- Yeah, you know, I get, so there's two ways
0:58:24to think of this one.
0:58:25One is to say, look, Apple TV 4K was late,
0:58:30it's too expensive.
0:58:31Apple TV in general is too expensive.
0:58:34There are other incredibly capable products
0:58:36in this category that are way cheaper
0:58:38that do everything the Apple TV does and maybe more
0:58:41other than Apple's exclusive content.
0:58:45you know, AirPlay and iTunes content. Other than that, like, they're the more expensive
0:58:54option that's like behind and less functional. The other way to look at it is to say they finally
0:59:01shipped the 4K and they are making progress, but, you know, so I could go either way with that.
0:59:13So in my mind that's like it's a two or three and I think I would probably say three because you got
0:59:19to give them a little bit of a clap on the back for actually finally shipping a 4k HDR product
0:59:24and getting 4k HDR content to go with it not just from Amazon and Netflix but in their store and
0:59:30doing the kind of free upgrade of a lot of that stuff if you bought it in HD. Really saved some
0:59:35of the scoring for me here because that was unexpected and a really nice bonus if you if you
0:59:41put down what is too much money for the Apple TV 4K to actually be like, "Oh, if you have
0:59:47a movie that's now going to be in HDR 4K, we'll give it to you." That was a real bonus.
0:59:54Yeah, you still gave it two out of five.
0:59:57Because I think that there's... Okay, so again, in the context...
1:00:00Well, it's all the reasons that I just said, right? The remote, I didn't even put in...
1:00:05There were so many things about how bad the remote is in the text that people typed in.
1:00:09so it's like the remote is still bad, they didn't, they put a ring around it,
1:00:13uh, that's, that's, that's not it. It is still like
1:00:16so much more expensive than its, than its competitors, and its competitors are
1:00:20cheap and really good, and so it feels like one of these
1:00:23Apple products that Apple's not really putting as much effort
1:00:26into it as they should, and that they really just want to kind of
1:00:29skim money from people who are, uh, so close into their ecosystem that they
1:00:35can't, uh, that they're not willing to give up
1:00:39the stuff that they bought on iTunes and that like they're going to just leverage that to
1:00:42get more money out of them. That is one legitimate way to view where the Apple TV is right now.
1:00:50So one of the reasons that I gave it the score that it was within the context is looking
1:00:56at the Apple TV as more than just the box, it's also everything that goes around it and
1:01:01I think that Apple is falling significantly behind in many areas because they have not
1:01:07put out any compelling programming, even though they tried. They should have had some kind
1:01:13of solution before now, whatever it was, right? They should have either been further along
1:01:17than they are with their current television efforts, or they should have been able to
1:01:21somehow convince companies to allow them to start streaming and pay for the TV and movies
1:01:27that they currently have. Like, whatever it was Apple was going to do, it's taken them
1:01:31too long to get to the point that they're at right now, when all of their competitors
1:01:36have different offerings, right? Like all of the Amazon stuff is super cheap and they have a great
1:01:41streaming service with their own original content. Netflix doesn't care about having a box, they just
1:01:46get this stuff everywhere and they have the like incredible content, right? Like I just feel like
1:01:50Apple has not gotten far along enough and that what they have got is underwhelming and disappointing
1:01:58in ways that are frustrating. Like how long it took them to get the TV app outside of the US?
1:02:03Like we just got the TV app.
1:02:05Like why? It doesn't make any sense. Like I haven't got anything different. The TV app is just
1:02:10the iTunes app and
1:02:13my videos app pushed into one for me. That's kind of all I've got.
1:02:17So like, you know, I feel like that they're really kind of dragging their feet with the product and the overall service.
1:02:23And I hope that with all the news and focus, I mean we put into this show now on what they're doing here,
1:02:29I expect that score to start to increase.
1:02:32but that comes with good content.
1:02:34So that's kind of my overall feeling on it.
1:02:37Like I use it every day, but I don't really think fondly of it.
1:02:40To be honest, it's mostly okay.
1:02:42Because even then, right, the apps that I use on it suck and that's not
1:02:47necessarily Apple's fault, but they still suck.
1:02:49The YouTube app is so bad.
1:02:51Oh yeah.
1:02:52I'm really happy to be using it instead of the apps that came on my TV.
1:02:57Because it's a better experience than the YouTube app built into my TV is bet.
1:03:02than the YouTube app on the Apple TV.
1:03:04Yeah, that's not the case for me.
1:03:07Plus, the only way I could watch 4K stuff on Amazon or Netflix was through the TV app,
1:03:12and now that I've attached a 4K box to my TV, I can do that, which is nice, but again,
1:03:18you could also have done that.
1:03:19I could have also done that with an Amazon box or a Roku box for cheaper.
1:03:25So yeah.
1:03:27again, right? I can't watch 4K on YouTube on the Apple TV. Right. Also a
1:03:33frustration, right? So like I feel like that the product whilst I use it every
1:03:37day it's because it's the box that I have and there are things that are
1:03:43better and it's where all my iTunes purchases are so that's the library I've
1:03:46built up over the last 10 years so yeah I'm interested to see where it goes I
1:03:50think C+ is mostly fair considering the way to think about it. Like for example
1:03:54example, like Glenn Fleischman, he was raving about it, like the TV app evolving and starting
1:03:59to incorporate more streaming services has made it my increasing, increasingly my go-to
1:04:03location. I'm sure there are many people that feel that way.
1:04:06Cloud services are graded at a B- of an average score of 3.4 out of 5. This is up from a C
1:04:14last year. Jason?
1:04:15Yeah, it's funny. People, it's a long road for people to trust Apple's cloud services.
1:04:21I think that's the short version of what I wrote,
1:04:23which is it keeps going up.
1:04:25Apple keeps getting better.
1:04:26The perception is that Apple's cloud services stuff
1:04:29is better than it was.
1:04:30A lot of the verbatim replies that I got from people
1:04:36were basically saying, well, I don't trust Apple,
1:04:40so I don't use them.
1:04:41Or I've been using them and they've gotten a lot better.
1:04:44Or I've been using them and these got a lot better
1:04:46and these are still not great.
1:04:48But I didn't get a lot of,
1:04:50I tried to use Apple cloud services in 2017
1:04:52and it was a disaster.
1:04:54I didn't get that.
1:04:55I feel like there are the people who have sworn off them.
1:04:58There are the people who have used them begrudgingly
1:05:03and sparingly, and there are the people
1:05:05who've kind of just embraced them and gone with it.
1:05:08Like David Sparks, I think does all of his stuff
1:05:10with iCloud now he moved off of Dropbox
1:05:11for a lot of his stuff.
1:05:13And I think that's about right.
1:05:17I use some, but not all of Apple's cloud services stuff.
1:05:20I feel like they've come a long way
1:05:22and that it's pretty reliable.
1:05:24And a lot of my complaints about like iCloud drive
1:05:27are that there are features that iCloud drive lacks
1:05:30that are in Dropbox that, you know, over time,
1:05:33if they continue to iterate the software stuff
1:05:36attached to iCloud drive,
1:05:38I might even stop using Dropbox
1:05:41if it does everything Dropbox does.
1:05:43It doesn't, but it continues to get closer.
1:05:46And the photo library syncing works great.
1:05:50Like I've got issues with like the lack of family sharing.
1:05:53And I've talked about that a lot,
1:05:54but like the actual like trust and reliability
1:05:58for me is pretty high.
1:06:00Like it all works pretty well.
1:06:02I have issues with their pricing structure.
1:06:04The fact that they had that stupid free tier
1:06:06and then the 99 cent a month tier,
1:06:08which they should get rid of
1:06:10and replace with a more generous free tier
1:06:13because I truly believe it's a better user experience
1:06:16and the more people rely on the free tier,
1:06:17the more likely they're gonna be willing to spend money
1:06:20on more storage and that they're doing it wrong right now.
1:06:24That calculation is off.
1:06:25But in terms of like how the cloud stuff work,
1:06:27when I put this question in two years ago,
1:06:29it was very much a like, oh boy, Apple cloud,
1:06:33get out your knives, right?
1:06:35And now it doesn't feel like that.
1:06:37I feel like a lot of the people who don't score it well
1:06:40are people who have sworn off of it
1:06:42because of previous bad experience.
1:06:44- Yeah, to echo some of the negative points
1:06:48you were saying, Aline Simms says,
1:06:50"I think that they still have a lot of catching up to do,
1:06:52especially where photos are concerned,"
1:06:54which is an interesting point
1:06:55to put in the cloud services area.
1:06:57She says, "I wish they'd at least let people
1:07:00back up their iOS devices as well
1:07:01without paying for extra storage."
1:07:03- Yeah. - I agree with those points.
1:07:04I think that they're things that a lot of people feel.
1:07:08But I like Stephen Aquino,
1:07:10he had some really good comments saying,
1:07:12I use Apple Music every day and love it.
1:07:14That is a cloud service, completely.
1:07:16That makes perfect sense.
1:07:17Apple Pay continues to be magical.
1:07:19And the editorial changes on the App Store
1:07:21have made browsing and learning about new apps
1:07:23a much more enriching experience.
1:07:25And I also, like Steven, I consider all of those things
1:07:28a part of the cloud services.
1:07:29And when you pull those things in as well,
1:07:32that is a much better thought than just like,
1:07:35oh, my backups aren't good, which is true, right?
1:07:37They should have more there,
1:07:38But everything that is now encapsulated in that cloud services bucket, a lot of it's
1:07:45really good.
1:07:46Um, so, so yeah, there are definite, I agree with you completely, right?
1:07:51A few years ago, this was just like the easy one to get the bad score in.
1:07:55Uh, but it, but it's getting, it's getting a lot better now.
1:07:59It's getting a lot better.
1:08:00So credit, and this is the constant question, which is, do you give them credit for getting
1:08:04better because they were bad before?
1:08:07do you score them because there are still things that they need to do because
1:08:10they're in the middle there, right? They're in the middle. This has been,
1:08:13they have shown a lot of progress. I feel like Apple is getting better at cloud
1:08:18stuff all the time. In fact, most of the issues I have with Apple's cloud stuff
1:08:23is features that they haven't implemented in software, which I'm not
1:08:28sure is the fault of the cloud reliability, right? And their
1:08:33pricing policies, which again, not the fault of the service itself, it's sort of Apple's
1:08:38approach to it. So those are all fixable if Apple wants to fix them. But, so yeah, I think
1:08:46the cloud stuff has gone well. This is a better than expected for me. I feel like the Apple
1:08:50cloud services stuff has gone a lot better than I would have thought.
1:08:54Let's talk about HomeKit. Graded at a C-, average score of 2.7. Last year was a D+.
1:09:02that's great up from D+ to C-. No.
1:09:04Did anything drop? So I think software quality dropped, right?
1:09:08Oh, lots of stuff. Yeah, yeah, software quality dropped.
1:09:11Okay. So what about HomeKit then? Where are you kind of feeling on that?
1:09:17I feel like I may be more positive about HomeKit than the panel, only because I finally used
1:09:24HomeKit in 2017 after being in kind of parallel home automation, Internet of
1:09:32Things universes before that with, you know, Amazon Echos and non-HomeKit
1:09:38compatible devices in my house. I bought some HomeKit compatible devices, I
1:09:42installed HomeBridge to get my incompatible devices in HomeKit. I'm
1:09:46using the Home Control Center widget all the time now, which actually is why I
1:09:52complain about the control center pull down in iPhone 10 a lot is that I use it
1:09:58a lot and that's my primary interface for turning stuff on and off in my home
1:10:03that's a smart device is that is just the home widget in control center so I
1:10:08think they've I think they made a lot of progress I think the policy changes to
1:10:11make not require hardware encryption and to open it up to essentially have more
1:10:18third parties be able to support home kit
1:10:20I think HomeKit is getting momentum.
1:10:22I think HomeKit's gonna be okay.
1:10:23I think everybody's gonna wanna support HomeKit
1:10:26and that HomeKit's got those additional security features,
1:10:29which makes people happy.
1:10:30So I think that's all fine.
1:10:34I think Internet of Things stuff is in general a mess
1:10:41and HomeKit is a subset of that mess.
1:10:44So, you know, it's one of those things that I think,
1:10:47I think Apple is making progress
1:10:50and they've made some changes to open up HomeKit
1:10:54that they needed to make and that are good
1:10:56and will overall be good.
1:10:58So yeah, I'm kind of embracing HomeKit
1:11:02and I think Apple has turned it around,
1:11:05but it's still a weird category
1:11:06that I don't think I would recommend to most civilians.
1:11:10It's still really messy, it's early days for sure.
1:11:13- Merlin Mann echoes your sentiments.
1:11:18"It still feels like the wild west,
1:11:20how it feels like the early days of the wild west.
1:11:23Everyone's moving around, new categories and products
1:11:26are popping up all the time,
1:11:27nothing's working with each other.
1:11:29There's a lot of real strangeness going on
1:11:32in the home automation world.
1:11:34And Carolina Milanese says,
1:11:36I think Apple has a lot of work to do
1:11:38to make HomeKit broader and hopes that HomePod will help.
1:11:41I'm hoping that some of the software authentication stuff
1:11:44that they're doing and certification, I think it's called,
1:11:47That stuff I think is still underway
1:11:51and I'm hoping to see some changes,
1:11:53some more products popping up when it becomes easier
1:11:57to make your product HomeKit certified.
1:11:59So I still have my fingers crossed for that.
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1:13:51Moving on in the report card, we now get to Hardware Reliability. This is one of the really
1:14:00interesting ones because the majority of comments were negative. Then there were some good ones.
1:14:07So Dan Provost says that Apple is still best in class. Andy Anatko says still the gold
1:14:11standard for initial build quality and overall endurance. Completely correct.
1:14:15And getting a positive statement from Andy Anatko about Apple. Not an easy thing these
1:14:20days. He's definitely very critical of Apple and I thought it was interesting the places
1:14:24where he said, "No, they've got this. This is their, this is why they're great."
1:14:29But this one is was a tricky one. Now, this is an average score for last year, A minus
1:14:34still in A minus stuck where it was. Does that feel right to you that it would stick
1:14:39where it was? Is hardware reliability not changed too significantly on the last year
1:14:43in your opinion?
1:14:44I think it depends on the acts that you're grinding. Like the, the keyboards on the Mac
1:14:50books have been an issue and people are frustrated by them. And if you've been bitten by that,
1:14:56especially like Stephen Hackett, like Marco, like, you know, other people we know, that
1:15:04is going to show up. But there's also kind of the bigger picture of, you know, in general,
1:15:11is Apple's hardware pretty reliable? Yes, it is. I should say that the battery stuff
1:15:17about the iPhone, like, 6 and all of that, the battery throttling and all of those things
1:15:23going on happened mid-fielding of this survey, so it's possible that people might have changed
1:15:30their mind. You always have to roll with it if there's a big story that happens during
1:15:36the survey. It can affect the results and that's just something you just got to deal
1:15:40with it. But I think the panel gave voice to the issues about things like the keyboards
1:15:47while also wanting to give Apple credit for making good hardware that generally is solid
1:15:53and trustworthy.
1:15:54From Jessica Dennis, "The thing with the new MacBook Pro keyboards breaking due to
1:15:59dust and that condition requiring an extensive repair is really, really bad."
1:16:05David Sparks says, "This year it became clear that the new laptop keyboards, regardless
1:16:10of how you feel about their travel, have been a reliability problem."
1:16:14Which is true.
1:16:15And this is the thing I think I saw, I think Marco may have talked about it a little bit, but the fact is,
1:16:22if it's truly a reliability problem, Apple's going to change that keyboard.
1:16:26They can't keep, because if you've got keyboards that break easily and are expensive to replace,
1:16:33it's going to have huge impacts on, as they age, on warranty repairs and product liability,
1:16:43like people start to do class action suits saying you've got to you know you
1:16:47got to repair this for free or whatever it's like if if a bad design that
1:16:52increases the cost for Apple is like the gonna be the number one motivator to
1:16:57change the design it's not going to be well we like the style we think this is
1:17:01a good fit for our product line if that's all true and it's still like way
1:17:06more breakable than they thought they'll change it because they have to because
1:17:13it's going to cost them a whole lot of money and and also make people feel less
1:17:17good about their products that they do so we'll see I guess we'll get a sense
1:17:20this year right about whether they are going to rush out a new keyboard design
1:17:26that is better that would be the third iteration of this modern keyboard or a
1:17:31first of a new one and and we'll see there's some rumors out there that they
1:17:36may be working on something there are some competitors I think there's a
1:17:39a laptop from, I don't remember the PC laptop manufacturer,
1:17:43but it uses like magnetic switches.
1:17:45So it's like a totally different switch approach
1:17:48where it's using magnetic repulsion.
1:17:50Like would that work for Apple?
1:17:51Who knows what they're gonna do.
1:17:53But I do think it's worth pointing out
1:17:55that like I've been very happy
1:17:56and most of the people who were reporting the survey,
1:17:58like very happy with the reliability
1:18:00of their Apple hardware in general.
1:18:01So there's a sore point amid a lot of positivity.
1:18:06- It might be Dell.
1:18:08The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 has a magnetic levitation keyboard, whatever that means.
1:18:18It sounds very interesting.
1:18:21I think it's attached at the corners, but the repulsion that you feel in the middle is actually a magnetic repulsion, not a physical pushback.
1:18:29I think it's something like that.
1:18:31People are trying that stuff, and maybe Apple is trying that too.
1:18:37But again, Apple could be completely--because there's the "I don't like it" aspect of this,
1:18:41and there's the "it breaks" aspect. And Apple knows the numbers for people bringing their laptops
1:18:48back to Apple stores. Apple knows that. They've got figures. They can tell whether it is truly
1:18:53an epidemic or whether we are overblowing this, right? They know. They know what that is.
1:18:59They may also have an opinion about how great the new MacBook keyboard is. Somebody obviously does,
1:19:06because they've rolled it out to the entire laptop line. But what I'm saying is, like, if that,
1:19:13if the reliability issue is there, doesn't matter, right? That's going to override people thinking,
1:19:20"No, but we like this keyboard." It's like, but it's unreliable. That will be enough for them to
1:19:25change, even if they're sad about it. >> Software quality. So we went from hardware
1:19:32Public quality to software quality.
1:19:34Last year it was a B minus, this year it's a C minus,
1:19:38with an average score of 2.7.
1:19:40Now you were mentioning a moment ago
1:19:43about things in the news affecting the scores,
1:19:47and I would say towards the end of the year,
1:19:50for a bunch of varying reasons,
1:19:53there has been a lot of upset about software quality.
1:19:58Now Serenity Caldwell does a good job of summing this up.
1:20:01Apple, get your security house in order ASAP.
1:20:04Some of the bugs in iOS and Mac OS year were outrageously bad.
1:20:08Talking about stuff like the root bug, right?
1:20:10Like there was a bug a couple of weeks ago
1:20:12about the app store and all this kind of stuff.
1:20:14- This survey fielded as the enter in no password
1:20:19and get root access bug was hitting.
1:20:21So I think that came up a lot in the comments,
1:20:24but in general, like this is the place
1:20:27that everybody took the hammer to Apple and said,
1:20:30this score went way down and there's just this feeling like it's buggy. It's really buggy.
1:20:36And there was an expectation that this year's software releases, especially High Sierra,
1:20:42would smooth things out. And yet people really feel frustrated about High Sierra and iOS 11.
1:20:47This is the one that stands out as this is where people are grumpy this year. It's about Apple's,
1:20:56the quality of Apple software. And some people were very specific to say they thought the OS
1:21:00OS work was doing okay and that some security issues are understandable and they reacted
1:21:05to them quickly. And so some people were willing to give Apple a pass on the OS and singled
1:21:12out something that's very common over the past few years, which is all the apps that
1:21:17Apple releases that are often not updated or kind of like just halfway addressed. And
1:21:24so some people were specific about that. But I think there's generally this feeling among
1:21:28these observers that there is a little bit of a malaise at Apple in terms of the
1:21:33quality of the software they're putting out.
1:21:34One of my problems is like,
1:21:37I expect there to be bugs in new things, right?
1:21:41Like I spoke about files being buggy.
1:21:43I expected it to be buggy because it's a new thing and I expect it will get
1:21:47better over time.
1:21:48My big problem with Apple software quality this year
1:21:54has been where specific stands that Apple makes,
1:21:59makes things worse, like the autocorrect issues
1:22:03that we've had this year,
1:22:05where Apple is deciding to use their privacy methods
1:22:10to create autocorrect suggestions.
1:22:14It's pulling in incorrect things
1:22:16and pushing them out on a large basis to people.
1:22:20But then my biggest frustration with this
1:22:22is that the only way they can fix this
1:22:24is via a software update.
1:22:26Like you have to update the software on people's phones
1:22:30to stop a question mark showing
1:22:31where the letter I should be.
1:22:33Like that feels like the wrong approach.
1:22:36I feel like something's gone wrong here
1:22:39in that now you have to issue a point release
1:22:42of the operating system to fix an autocorrect bug.
1:22:46Like that's the sort of stuff
1:22:48that has frustrated me the most this year.
1:22:50I like what Dr. Drang says, this is not an illusion.
1:22:55Apple software quality is dropping
1:22:57and they don't seem to recognize it.
1:22:59I understand that there's much more to keep track of now
1:23:02than there ever has been.
1:23:04But being sympathetic to Apple's difficulties
1:23:06doesn't make me blind to them.
1:23:08I like that.
1:23:09Trust Dr. Drang to say something succinct.
1:23:12Where would, did I ask you,
1:23:13where would you score the software quality?
1:23:16- You didn't?
1:23:17I don't know.
1:23:18I would put it down.
1:23:20I would put it down.
1:23:21I'd put it at like two or three, yeah.
1:23:23- And we move on to developer relations.
1:23:26Graded a B, average score of 3.6, last year C+.
1:23:31Got a couple of quotes from some developers, Marco Womant.
1:23:33The App Store and iTunes Connect keep getting better
1:23:35since Phil Schiller took over, James Thompson.
1:23:37Review times are really quick on the whole.
1:23:40If I did have a complaint,
1:23:41it would be that the TestFlight app review process
1:23:43is now slower than full app review,
1:23:44which is kind of funny to think about.
1:23:46and that test light for the Mac has just never happened.
1:23:50And then Casey, Casey really goes for it here,
1:23:53is the Casey list.
1:23:54I really think that Apple is already having a bit
1:23:57of a reckoning when it comes to their obsession
1:23:58with secrecy sooner rather than later.
1:24:01Apple can't be reliant upon third-party developers
1:24:03whilst also petulantly refusing to scratch our backs.
1:24:06The community puts up with it
1:24:08because we have little choice.
1:24:10So like, whilst they, you know, you can see Marco and James
1:24:13saying things are getting better,
1:24:15Casey is saying that whilst they're getting better,
1:24:17the way that Apple keeps so many things close to their chest
1:24:21is still not very helpful to people.
1:24:23And that developers kind of just put up with a lot
1:24:26that they maybe wouldn't if there was somewhere else to go.
1:24:29- I have to say that this is a fun category
1:24:31because I had a lot of people who said,
1:24:32"Well, I'm not a developer, I don't really know."
1:24:34And even some sort of like,
1:24:35"Well, why are you even asking this question?"
1:24:37And the truth is, I just decided because I wanted continuity
1:24:40that I would keep asking the same questions every year.
1:24:42And three years ago, you know, at the very end of 2015,
1:24:47so I guess two plus years ago,
1:24:51when I did the first one of these surveys,
1:24:53Apple's, there was a lot of friction
1:24:57about Apple's relationship with developers, right?
1:25:00About App Store delays and App Store rejections
1:25:03and all of these things that frustrated developers.
1:25:05It was a hot issue, so I put it in the survey.
1:25:08And the next question is also sort of in that context
1:25:12of like, it was seemed like a bigger deal two years ago than it is now, but I want to keep it around just to see, to monitor it. Um, and Marco said it all, which is what really is funny is Phil Schiller took over the app store and developer stuff.
1:25:25And has made a lot of improvements and things have gotten a lot better.
1:25:29So now I think it's gotten so much better that people look at this category and they're like, why are you even asking about the relationship between Apple and its developers?
1:25:37And that's funny that it has come that far,
1:25:39but it was much more controversial than it has been lately.
1:25:43This is trending in the right direction.
1:25:46- And the final category is environmental and social impact.
1:25:52It's graded a B plus with an average score of 3.8
1:25:56down from an A minus last year.
1:25:59- Yeah, it's funny.
1:26:01This is, so this is, the reason this got in there,
1:26:04there are a few reasons.
1:26:05When I started doing this,
1:26:06It was right at the height of lots of stories about essentially human rights abuses in the supply chain, in China especially.
1:26:15And at the same time, Apple also has environmental initiatives and they bought all this solar power for their headquarters.
1:26:24And they worked with Greenpeace on improving their recyclability of their products.
1:26:32and there's a lot of issues like that and Apple talks about making changes in the world and
1:26:38they've got health initiatives and there's a lot of stuff that rolls into this, but that was the
1:26:42genesis of it was especially around that time when they were talking about the supply chain in Asia
1:26:49and a bunch of other stuff that they were doing. So I thought, why don't we just stick a monitor on
1:26:53this and say, "How do you feel about this?" And again, there's no rule about what this means to
1:26:58to you environmental and social impact but it's really just like apples
1:27:02programs and behavior in terms of things that are larger than a particular
1:27:06product but how Apple behaves as a company and the scores are are down a
1:27:13little from last year but pretty positive this is where this is where
1:27:18apple last year got credit for refusing I think from a lot of the panel for
1:27:22refusing to hand over encrypted data from an iPhone used by a person who did
1:27:30a mass shooting and that was, I think people gave them credit for
1:27:36standing up for consumer privacy but you know the issues change year on year and
1:27:41so I'm not sure whether the trend means as much as it does to sort of like see
1:27:45what people call out. Yeah I think also, I'll read some quotes, I think a lot of
1:27:49people are hoping that they would have done more in some areas than they have.
1:27:52Yeah and there seems to be some stalling. So Stephen Hackett says Apple continues
1:27:58to lead the way in environmental and social issues but diversity within the
1:28:01company especially at the top continues to be a problem. I understand this stuff
1:28:05takes time but I'd like more visibility into what's going on throughout the
1:28:09company when it comes to hiring and promoting women and people of color. And
1:28:14then Stephen Aquino says Apple continues to lead the industry in providing
1:28:19comprehensive assistive tools for its disabled users.
1:28:23Carolina Milanese says, "I think Tim Cook has become a great ambassador and has given
1:28:27Apple a very human side."
1:28:29This is something that I have felt for a long time.
1:28:32I've said it before, I'll say it again.
1:28:33I think that Tim Cook is a better CEO for Apple than Steve Jobs could be at this point
1:28:39because the biggest company in the world needs someone more like Tim who can stand and speak
1:28:46on social issues and stuff like that. He has come under criticism. There were a few comments
1:28:52in the article mentioning that some people believe that Tim has not shown his hand enough
1:28:58in political issues this year or in the past year. But there are a lot of things that he
1:29:03does stand up for and there are a lot of things he has spoken very openly about. He can be
1:29:09good for that kind of stuff. Serenity Caldwell says, "I'm incredibly pleased to see Apple's
1:29:13work in healthcare and accessibility. Not so thrilled with continuing diversity issues
1:29:19inside the company. And Jessica Dennis points out how there is a lot of interesting work
1:29:24going on at Apple campus, the Apple Park, for environmental issues and they're thinking
1:29:29about lots of open spaces and stuff like that. But Apple could continue to go further. We
1:29:35were talking about this at the time, public transport expansion in these areas could be
1:29:39something that Apple could push on to continue to go further and further.
1:29:43I think that this is one of those areas that people will always want more in and it's not
1:29:49wrong but I think it's always going to be difficult for this one to go up significantly
1:29:56because every time they get close to something it will uncover something more and this is
1:30:01the peril of being the biggest company in the world.
1:30:05want you to do a lot of stuff and you kind of have to because you should. So this is
1:30:11a tricky one.
1:30:12We talked about this last week when we talked about taxes and things like that too is that
1:30:16you know Apple is it's a complex issue because Apple is complex because Apple is enormous.
1:30:23It is enormous an enormous corporation that has huge amounts of money and needs to lobby
1:30:30the government for tax changes and needs to lobby the government for policy on things
1:30:36like encryption that affect their customers and their products. They also want to say
1:30:42that they're making a difference and committed to change in various social areas and in improving
1:30:48people's lives through medical initiatives and as Stephen Aquino pointed out, assisted
1:30:54tools for disabled users and there's like there's a lot there's a lot and so
1:30:59it's that's it's it's never gonna be a simple thing to say oh they're good or
1:31:03they're bad they're there it's way more complicated than that but it's worth at
1:31:07least checking the pulse on this every year so I do so having completed the
1:31:12survey did it go as you expected were there any surprises in the grading I
1:31:18don't know I mean anything where you take an average you're going to push
1:31:23everything toward the middle, like, because that's just what's going to happen. So you're
1:31:28trying to pick things out. I think the trend of the downward trend for software quality
1:31:34is really telling that like in a year where everybody seemed to be griping about keyboards,
1:31:40people were really concerned about the software quality like that is. And again, is it real
1:31:43or not? We can argue about it every now and then I post, I post one of these and somebody
1:31:47says, that's not true or I don't agree. And it's like, okay, it's just a, I mean, like
1:31:51It's an opinion survey.
1:31:52It's it's you can disagree.
1:31:54It's fine.
1:31:55This is, I'm just trying to get a sense of it.
1:31:57And clearly there is a sense among people who carefully watch Apple
1:32:01that Apple has a software problem.
1:32:03And there's also a sense that, uh, Apple's most important platforms.
1:32:08Had a good year, like the core platforms, uh, uh, the iPhone and the iPad,
1:32:15especially like they had a good year.
1:32:17The Apple watch had a good year.
1:32:20The Mac, not so much, but I feel like there's a lot of anxiety about the Mac
1:32:27out there and it shows that. And that's why I keep saying, in some ways,
1:32:32what you do is you look at a server like this and you nod because it's sort of a
1:32:35formalization of the stuff you've been hearing on podcasts and reading on blogs
1:32:39and talking to people about Apple because it sort of feeds into that.
1:32:44that this is the summation of it. So not surprising in that sense. And I think,
1:32:51yeah, would you be surprised if I walked up to you and said, "So in
1:32:552017 people really worried about Apple software quality and not quite sure
1:32:59what's going on with the Mac." You'd probably say, "Sounds about right." So
1:33:03that's where we are. But the good thing and the interesting thing about doing
1:33:07something like this is the trends. So being able to see how things change year on year
1:33:12is one of the things that I find so interesting about this.
1:33:17- Yeah, now that I have a little bit of a track record,
1:33:19and the question next year is,
1:33:20will I add some things to the survey?
1:33:22But one of the reasons you keep things on a survey
1:33:26is that you get to start comparing.
1:33:28And there's a lot of interesting trends,
1:33:32like hardware reliability,
1:33:34although it's still got a pretty good score,
1:33:36is trending down.
1:33:37It did, there has been an impact
1:33:41with all of this discussion of especially like the keyboards and the, um, the, you know,
1:33:46the environmental social is actually trending down. Um, but developer relations, like I said,
1:33:53is trending up. And, uh, so, you know, it's, it's just a, and a home kit is actually for as
1:34:00low a score as it's, it's got, it's trending up, which I think makes sense. Like it's a low score,
1:34:06but the perception keeps going up so you can see where they're getting momentum. They're
1:34:12changing minds even though it's a slow process. So that yeah it is fascinating to have that
1:34:18trend now which I didn't used to have because I've only done the survey for three years now.
1:34:23- Where I'm asking you to crack out a crystal ball right now but is there anything that you're
1:34:29currently watching for for 2018 scorecard? Is there anything you're expecting to change
1:34:34or anything that you think that you will add or that you will want to add as a change of
1:34:39Apple?
1:34:40I don't know. I want to see where the Mac goes, but don't we all? I feel like we've
1:34:46really set the Mac up for the – expectations are high for Apple to change how it does the
1:34:53Mac.
1:34:54I would say they did it. They brought a bunch of journalists into a room. They set themselves
1:34:59up pretty high.
1:35:00Yeah, no, expectations, they set the expectations, right?
1:35:03But expectations are high.
1:35:04People are going into this year thinking,
1:35:07all right, Apple's gonna do a new Mac Pro,
1:35:09let's see if they're gonna fix the keyboard thing,
1:35:11do they know, you know,
1:35:12and it just takes them time to turn the ship,
1:35:14but this is the year, they're gonna get it together,
1:35:17we're gonna see more of a recommitment to the Mac,
1:35:20you know, maybe some of that will be true.
1:35:22I believe that Apple is going to change
1:35:27and is already changing its approach to the Mac hardware
1:35:29and we'll continue to do that. I think the big question mark is going to be, is the Mac
1:35:34as a platform something that Apple is going to really invest a lot of effort into? Or
1:35:39are they going to keep it going, but it's kind of in maintenance mode? And some people
1:35:46will react very differently than other people to that. My gut feeling is that a lot of Mac
1:35:54people could use a year of maintenance mode. But there is also a frustration
1:36:00like why isn't this on the Mac? Why isn't this on the Mac? Why are they not doing
1:36:03new things on the Mac? Because they're all all the new stuff is happening on
1:36:05other platforms and there's there's a lot of truth to that. So I think the Mac
1:36:10just there's still question marks there there's more expectation and and we'll
1:36:15see where it goes. I'm curious about the watch now that the watch hardware they've
1:36:19kind of achieved their first major milestone of like the watch as a product
1:36:25by getting to LTE. What happens next with the watch? Do they change the design?
1:36:29Do they keep it static and work on the software side? That remains to be
1:36:35seen. And then, you know, generally software quality and hardware
1:36:39reliability. Like, people are grumpy and they're giving them credit on hardware
1:36:43and not on software and is that going to change this year? In terms of new
1:36:46categories? I don't know. I'm thinking about it. We'll see what sticks in my
1:36:51mind by the end of the year. I don't want to make the survey too long. A lot of
1:36:53people were very nice. I think I had about 25,000 words in total written in
1:36:57the survey boxes, which is just-- it was a lot and that's why it took me until the
1:37:02middle of January to get the story out. But I appreciate that. I don't want to
1:37:07make the survey longer, nor do I want to mandate, because I don't, that people
1:37:11actually fill in all the boxes, but some of them do. So I don't want to do
1:37:16too much but we'll see.
1:37:19So we have run out of time for Ask Upgrade today but I'm going to save those great Ask
1:37:25Upgrade questions that we have for next week.
1:37:26So you can always send those in with the hashtag #AskUpgrade if you have any questions you'd
1:37:30like us to answer at the end of the show.
1:37:32We collect them up and I've got a lovely set already set for next week's episode.
1:37:37If you want to find our show notes for today, relay.fm/upgrade/178.
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1:37:54You should go and check it out.
1:37:55I think you'd enjoy it."
1:37:56I think people would be happy because we like this show and we think that more people would
1:38:00like it too.
1:38:01If you want to find Jason online, he's over at SixColors.com, TheIncomparable.com.
1:38:06He is @JSnell on Twitter.
1:38:08I am @imike, I-M-Y-K-E.
1:38:10We both host a slew of shows at Relay FM and you can find those at relay.fm/shows.
1:38:17I want to say thanks again to our sponsors this week, the great people at Pingdom, Smile
1:38:21with PDF Pen and Simple Contacts.
1:38:24And we'll be back next time.
1:38:26Until then, say goodbye, Chasersnow.
1:38:28Goodbye, everybody.
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