0:00:00(upbeat music)
0:00:02- From Relay FM, this is Upgrade
0:00:11and the third annual upgrade-ies.
0:00:15My name is Myke Hurley.
0:00:16Today's show, today's special episode is brought to you
0:00:20by our fine sponsors Encapsula, Casper and Squarespace.
0:00:24Mr. Jason Snell, we did it.
0:00:26This is the third upgrade-ies.
0:00:28Can you believe that?
0:00:29It's crazy.
0:00:29You you sound so happy. I'm so excited by the way. Happy new year. Happy new year to everybody out there in
0:00:35Upgrading land. I'm so excited like I know this is just one of those little things
0:00:41It was a silly idea that one of us had
0:00:44to fill up something at the end of the year and
0:00:48Now it's become what I consider to be a landmark in the podcast calendar is when will the upgrade ease happen and the other
0:00:56- Annual traditional. - It is a great annual tradition,
0:00:59yes, I agree.
0:01:00So here we are, we have all of our categories
0:01:04are returning from last year,
0:01:06and we have some great nominees,
0:01:08and as we mentioned on the show,
0:01:10this is the first time that we have allowed the Upgradians
0:01:13to have their literal say in how the Upgradies will go.
0:01:18So the way that we're gonna do this,
0:01:19we're gonna go through every category,
0:01:21list all of the nominees,
0:01:22maybe talk about them a little bit if they're interesting,
0:01:25some of the nominations, there are some interesting
0:01:27nominations in here.
0:01:29And then we're gonna go through who the upgrade ends picked.
0:01:34So what they wanted to win the upgrade.
0:01:36And then me and you are gonna then talk about
0:01:38what our personal votes for the winner are.
0:01:41And then between the two of us,
0:01:43we will decide who takes home the trophy.
0:01:46So we'll start the proceedings today
0:01:49with the best overall iOS application.
0:01:53The nominees for this app are Tweetbot
0:01:55Airmail, Narwhal, Workflow, 1Password, Overcast, Fantastical, Scrivener, Transmit, Castro,
0:02:02Ferrite. They are the top nominees. Now the Upgradients, Mr. Snell, they voted with a
0:02:1038% for Overcast, with 1Password coming in second place and Workflow coming in third
0:02:20place.
0:02:21Did you know that one, this is a little fact you may not be aware of, 100% of podcast listeners
0:02:29listen to podcasts.
0:02:30That is true.
0:02:31But you know, I will say that we have two podcast applications in our nomination list
0:02:36and only one of them went away with such a big lead.
0:02:39Castro got unfortunately only 2% of the vote, which I feel kind of sad about.
0:02:45So what is your pick for the best overall iOS app of the year?
0:02:52I am going to pick something that is not on the list because there were some late breaking
0:02:59changes.
0:03:05I'm going to give a shout out to an app that I didn't put on the list because I felt it
0:03:10was a little esoteric but that I do love which is Ferrite.
0:03:14I've talked about it before, audio editor for iOS.
0:03:17It's fantastic. - Ferrite is in there.
0:03:18Very, very low down, yeah.
0:03:20Ferrite with 0.7% of the votes.
0:03:25- Ah, so you did mention Ferrite.
0:03:26I didn't hear you mention Ferrite.
0:03:28- Well, there was such a long list, I'm not surprised.
0:03:30But yeah, Ferrite had 0.7% of the upgraded vote.
0:03:35And that's what you're gonna pick
0:03:37'cause you're iOS app of the year.
0:03:39- I'm gonna pick, I'm gonna, for now,
0:03:42I'm gonna say it's a tie.
0:03:44Can I do ties?
0:03:46- You sure, why not?
0:03:47We make the rules here.
0:03:49- Okay, so for now, if I have to break this tie later,
0:03:51I will, but it's a tie between Fair Write,
0:03:54audio editor that's great, and Scrivener.
0:03:56- Ooh, okay.
0:03:57- The fantastic long form writing tool,
0:04:00which after many, many years of hope
0:04:03that it would come to iOS, came to iOS,
0:04:05and is not halfway done.
0:04:08It is a full completed, fully functional writing app.
0:04:13And it's great.
0:04:15And I'm impressed and it syncs
0:04:17and it syncs with the desktop version
0:04:19and all the important features are there.
0:04:21And it's very impressive.
0:04:23- So into category one, we're only at category one
0:04:26and we're already gonna have a problem.
0:04:29- Yeah, almost certainly, but that's fine.
0:04:31- This is how the upgrade is going.
0:04:32- Think about what I do, Myke, right?
0:04:34I do podcasts and I write.
0:04:36And so I picked a podcast app and a writing app.
0:04:38it was going to happen, it's inevitable. So what do you have?
0:04:40- Workflow.
0:04:41Now the reason that I've picked Workflow
0:04:44as the best overall iOS application,
0:04:46because I think throughout this entire list of apps,
0:04:50Workflow is the one that has just gotten better and better
0:04:53over time, more consistently.
0:04:55Like all of these applications that we've listed,
0:04:57they're in this list year after year,
0:04:59because they continue to get better.
0:05:01But the rate at which Workflow is improving
0:05:04is kind of astounding to me.
0:05:06like their recent addition of the ability to hook into web APIs.
0:05:10You know, for people that really heavily use workflow,
0:05:14this is such a huge advancement.
0:05:17Like, I think that this application is a must have application
0:05:21for anybody that wants to do anything other than just consumption on their iPad.
0:05:26Like some of the basic functions that it unlocks for you,
0:05:30once you really kind of understand how to use it is incredible.
0:05:34You know, I've spoken many times about my frustration with rich text on iOS.
0:05:39Now, but Workflow allows me to get around some of these things by allowing me to
0:05:44convert. So say, for example, when I send an email to somebody, I can use Workflow
0:05:49to convert Markdown to rich text and open up in an email.
0:05:51There's just no other way I can do that on iOS.
0:05:54Or like taking a Web page and turning it into a PDF.
0:05:57Like there are so many things that Workflow can do that mean that you don't have to
0:06:02buy other applications. Like there are standalone applications that you can buy
0:06:05in the App Store to take a web page and turn it into a PDF or you can just play
0:06:09around with workflow and build it yourself. And I don't think that there
0:06:13are many applications that are in the club that workflow is in of just like
0:06:19complete top tier for iOS apps and they just continue to make it better and
0:06:25better over time. I will also highly recommend the the Canvas podcast series
0:06:31about workflow that Fraser and Federico have done.
0:06:35That is really great, an in-depth multi-part series about how it works.
0:06:39And my only criticism about workflow is that I wish that they had more documentation.
0:06:43Like sometimes I look at some of the blocks that they've got and I wonder exactly how
0:06:48they work and there's kind of no way to look that up and that can be frustrating and I
0:06:53end up going to Federico and Fraser and saying, "What does this do?" and they tell me.
0:06:57That part I wish that they were better at documenting what everything does.
0:07:03Yeah, I agree.
0:07:04But luckily there are resources.
0:07:05You know, go to relay.fm/canvas and they have a whole series that they've been working on
0:07:09for the last three or four months, like building up from basics all the way up to the web API
0:07:15stuff that you can do with Workflow.
0:07:16So go check that out.
0:07:18So we have now, for our consideration, right at the top tier, kind of I guess the second
0:07:23stage, workflow, ferrite, scrivener, and overcast to pick from.
0:07:30In grand upgradey's tradition though, oftentimes we will reach a compromise where one of us
0:07:35will agree, right?
0:07:38We do our initial picks, this is how this—just to set it out there for people who don't
0:07:41remember—we will often come to a compromise agreement about what the upgradey choice is.
0:07:49Well there can be only one winner, so a compromise must be found.
0:07:53Yes, I agree.
0:07:54So my initial argument would be, Scrivener is very new.
0:07:58So giving it the overall iOS app pick
0:08:03over the newcomer pick is interesting.
0:08:06However, I don't want Scrivener to be the newcomer
0:08:09either 'cause I have my own thoughts there.
0:08:12Sometimes being mentioned, being nominated as an honor,
0:08:15being mentioned as a finalist is an honor,
0:08:17and then winning is yet another honor.
0:08:18And you don't have to have all the honors.
0:08:20You don't.
0:08:20I am happy to support your choice of workflow for the upgrade for best iOS app because I
0:08:26think you made a strong case and I agree with you.
0:08:28I think it's a fantastic app.
0:08:30So congratulations to workflow you are the best overall iOS app upgrade winner.
0:08:36Which takes us to our next category which I just teased which is the best newcomer iOS
0:08:40application.
0:08:41So this is the iOS app released in 2016 that is considered to be the best and on that list
0:08:47of nominees we have Airmail, Bear, Truecaller, Castro, Scrivener, Swift Playgrounds, Xfinity
0:08:55TV. Now there are two applications on here that most people probably have no idea what
0:09:00they are and they're both mine and Jason's potentially esoteric picks. So I will explain
0:09:05Truecaller. Do you remember when iOS 10 it brought around this new API that people can
0:09:10hook into the phone? Like you can do things like maybe voice over IP but you also had
0:09:16access to the call list. Truecaller is an application I found that I absolutely love,
0:09:21which is a spam caller notification system. So I can get a phone call from a known spam
0:09:28call like Robocall and it just shows up when someone's calling me to tell me that they're
0:09:32spam or if I go to a missed call on my phone I can open it like via the share sheet so
0:09:40you just like share contact and put it into Truecaller and it will tell me who it is and
0:09:45if it's been reported as spam. I love it because I get so many of these robo calls and because
0:09:49I have my phone on do not disturb most of the time these calls never come to me so I
0:09:53can just check them in my missed calls and know that there's no point dealing with it
0:09:56because it's like a scam caller or whatever. It's fantastic. So that's my picture. What
0:10:02is Xfinity TV?
0:10:04So I am a Comcast cable subscriber and after many months of complaining about how their
0:10:09app for iOS was terrible. They released this new app. And I mean, I put it on the list
0:10:15because again, Honor just to be mentioned in the list, right? I'm not going to pick
0:10:19it. But it's a pretty amazing piece of work because it provides when I'm out of the house,
0:10:25it provides access to any TV show that I'm allowed access outside of the house and there's
0:10:30some licensing restrictions there. When I'm in my house, it makes my iPhone or iPad essentially
0:10:36no different than a TV attached to a cable box. I can watch live TV from any channel,
0:10:43anywhere in my house on that device, and it supports picture in picture. That's pretty
0:10:49great. That's pretty good. That was like for me, that was like the moment where I thought,
0:10:53yes, finally, this is working exactly as I had hoped it always would. If I want to be
0:10:58out in the backyard in the hammock on a summer day and have some channel on while I'm reading
0:11:04something or whatever it is, like picture-in-picture, live TV, on-demand stuff, whatever, it's all
0:11:10there. And that's, for me, that's what the TV experience on an iOS device should be like.
0:11:17So full credit to Xfinity, they actually made it happen. And, you know, people can complain
0:11:22about some of the restrictions, like when you leave your home, you don't get to see
0:11:25all that stuff. And yeah, that's dumb, but that all comes down to deals with the content
0:11:31and they're inconsistent and as Apple has found that's a tough thing to do.
0:11:35But I have to say, in the home and from a pure technology standpoint,
0:11:39they did a really great job. It's a good app, so that's why I mentioned it.
0:11:42That sounds good. I wish I had something like that, right?
0:11:45I mean, I don't have cable, but like I can see that if I...
0:11:48I would like something like that, right? Like I've always lusted after a sling or something.
0:11:52Yeah, yeah. If you subscribe to a TV service, it should be like this,
0:11:55where you can see the channels and you can see what you can get on demand
0:11:59and you can start playing anything at any time
0:12:01and put it in picture in picture if you want on your iPad
0:12:04and this does that.
0:12:06So, but that's not my choice.
0:12:07- So the Upgradients, they voted with 34% of the vote
0:12:13for Swift Playgrounds.
0:12:14- Yeah.
0:12:15- I've never really used it. - It's pretty impressive.
0:12:17- So I can't comment on it, but that,
0:12:19I mean, I'm happy that it exists, right?
0:12:22Like I'm happy with the idea of this application existing
0:12:25because of hopefully what I consider to be the groundwork
0:12:29more developer tools coming to iOS in the future, which I think is an important step.
0:12:33But I will go with my pick first, and my pick for the best newcomer is AirMail.
0:12:38I think AirMail has its faults. It is not a perfect application. And I think part of the
0:12:46reason that it has some weird parts, some bugs and some stuff that doesn't work as reliably as
0:12:51you would like, is because it came out of the gate so powerful for an email application on iOS.
0:12:59I haven't found any app that comes close to what Airmail can do.
0:13:03And like Workflow, they have updated this application very consistently.
0:13:09I am on the beta now and they have some amazing things coming soon.
0:13:13Like this application just gets stronger and stronger.
0:13:16And this is an app that has a million settings.
0:13:20But for me, as somebody who is so reliant on email,
0:13:27I'm kind of okay with that because I get to make my email app be the way that I want it to be.
0:13:35One of the things that I really love in powerful email applications is one setting, and no other
0:13:43email app on iOS has this except for Airmail, which is to not mark a message as unread until
0:13:49it is acted upon. If I read a message, it doesn't do anything with it, it still remains unread.
0:13:53and I really like that, that works on my system and I've always wanted an
0:13:58iOS email app that would do this, there are a bunch of Mac apps that will do this
0:14:01I think even Apple's Mail app will do this on the Mac
0:14:04but nothing does it on iOS except Airmail but this is an example
0:14:08of the like super niche case stuff that you can find in Airmail but I think
0:14:13that kind of thing, that kind of level of
0:14:17of strange control you can have is kind of okay in an email application
0:14:22because everybody does it differently.
0:14:25And it has all of the features that you'd want,
0:14:27and it has a clear business model as well.
0:14:29You pay for the application.
0:14:31And I like that because there are not a lot
0:14:33of email applications that people use
0:14:36that are built that way.
0:14:37So it's gonna be airmail for me, Jason.
0:14:40- It's a good pick.
0:14:42I like it a lot.
0:14:43My choice in this category,
0:14:48it's the year of Swift Playgrounds.
0:14:49- Okay.
0:14:50pick Swift Playgrounds as well.
0:14:52Yeah, I think we're going to have to give it Swift Playgrounds. If you pick it along
0:14:56with the vast majority I got from our listeners, it's got to be that. Again, I really appreciate
0:15:03Swift Playgrounds, but I couldn't cast my vote for it because I haven't really spent
0:15:07any time with it.
0:15:09And I have. I'm very impressed with it. The lessons... I can't comment on it from the
0:15:18perspective of like an Apple app developer trying to use the playground features of it
0:15:25to work on kind of like app ideas or things like that. But from the Pure, it's an educational
0:15:31tool. They built all of these different lessons to show people how to program and how to program
0:15:35in Swift. They did a great job. The lessons are impressive and it's a great... It's an
0:15:45an iPad-only app. It's a great use of the iPad, and we're champions of the iPad, you
0:15:49and I. And this is an example. I mean, this is one of the major things that Apple did
0:15:53for the iPad in 2016 as well was release Swift Playgrounds. But I think it's a great app,
0:16:00a great educational resource. And, you know, if there was a big, you know, a big story,
0:16:08especially on the iPad in terms of new apps this year, I mean, I think it's the year of
0:16:13Swift Playgrounds.
0:16:14I think with Playgrounds it's going to be, without a shadow of a doubt.
0:16:17There you go.
0:16:18There you go. Our best newcomer iOS application of 2016.
0:16:21We move on to the best overall Mac app. Unfortunately the two Mac app categories
0:16:30we have have a lot less nominees than iOS. It's funny how that happens.
0:16:34Yeah.
0:16:35We have 1Password, Final Cut Pro X, FantasticOwl, BB Edit, Keyboard Maestro, and Audio Hijack.
0:16:43up there. The Upgradients voted were 48% for one password. You have Final Cut Pro and then
0:16:56Other coming at 11.8%. I don't think that our listeners were happy with the nominees
0:17:03that we put in here.
0:17:04Well, it says something that the one that got the most votes is Universal, in a way.
0:17:12to the idea of like everybody uses their Mac for these different purposes that are very
0:17:15specific I feel like this isn't surprising that 1Password cuts across it's a utility that
0:17:22cuts across sort of everybody's use cases and so that makes it different.
0:17:25Well she'll vote.
0:17:27I am going to vote for Audio Hijack and I know again I'm a podcast person so I have
0:17:33reason to do it but Audio Hijack which was the new version was released version 3 was
0:17:38was released last year, or sorry, two years ago now.
0:17:41Wow, I'm still writing 2016 on all my checks.
0:17:45The release in 2015, completely redesigned.
0:17:49And this year I've just come to appreciate it even more.
0:17:51I use it for anything involving, not even just recording,
0:17:55but routing audio around my Mac.
0:17:59I'm running it right now.
0:18:01You're hearing me, everybody,
0:18:04through a recording done via Audio Hijack.
0:18:06Just the whole design of it
0:18:08and functionality, it can do almost anything.
0:18:11I use it for my transcripts for analyst calls
0:18:14because it's got a basically like a DVR mode
0:18:16where it'll record the live audio
0:18:17and then let me pause it and back up and go forward again,
0:18:22which is pretty great with a system-wide keystroke.
0:18:25I know it's esoteric utility, but for me,
0:18:28it is my favorite, I have to say,
0:18:31in terms of being new and flashy and fun.
0:18:34And I use all of the apps on this list and they're all great, but I decided that I would
0:18:40give my extra shout out to Audio Hijack.
0:18:43I'm going with Final Cut Pro X.
0:18:46Now I have used Final Cut for a while for some basic stuff, but having got into the
0:18:52vlogging stuff, I have come to understand what a pro application can be.
0:18:59Final Cut Pro X, I know that a lot of people didn't like it when it came about because
0:19:04it was new, but everything that is new about it I'm sure is what I love about it.
0:19:09It is a good looking application with clear, understandable user interface that doesn't
0:19:14hide everything.
0:19:16And everything that I use with it, I love it.
0:19:19And one of the things that I find so interesting about Final Cut is if I have an idea for something
0:19:25that I want to do, I can find a way to do it in that app.
0:19:30as well as everything being nice and clear, Apple's documentation is incredible for Final
0:19:36Cut. You Google anything, I have not found this with any other level of Pro application,
0:19:42especially that Apple makes. No matter what I Google or how I Google it, like how do I
0:19:46do X in Final Cut, I will find an Apple support document that tells me how to do it, let alone
0:19:51the tutorials on YouTube that you find. So I have found Final Cut Pro X to be fantastic
0:19:58to work with over the last few months. And I have no consideration to try and use anything
0:20:04else, which isn't the same for Logic, right? So we use Logic for audio production, and
0:20:08every now and then I think to myself, "Shall I learn Audition like Adobe's?" I don't feel
0:20:13that way about Final Cut, because Final Cut is solid. It's a great app.
0:20:19I agree. A lot of the knock on Final Cut Pro X was that the professionals who were used
0:20:25to the old method of using Final Cut, didn't like it, and I totally get that, right? And
0:20:29I'm not a--
0:20:30Yeah, 'cause it's what you know.
0:20:31And I'm not a professional video editor, right? But like you, I'm somebody who--I mean, I've
0:20:36been editing video since I was a teenager in various forms. I was editing video back
0:20:40when you attached two VCRs together, and then we finally got a controller that let you control
0:20:45the two VCRs, but--right? I mean, I've been editing video in different forms for a very
0:20:48long time, but I'm not a professional, you know, film or TV video editor, anything like
0:20:54that. Final Cut Pro, anything I can think of that I want to do, it basically will do,
0:21:00and I can put something together very quickly and get it to look more or less exactly like
0:21:08I want, just in a staggeringly short amount of time. Like, drag this in, drop it there,
0:21:14resize it, slide it up there, have it animate and move from here to here and all that. I
0:21:18can do that really fast in Final Cut Pro. And generally I can figure out, I mean, some
0:21:23of it is esoteric, but I can figure out a lot of it just by kind of clicking around,
0:21:27just being a Mac user, I can figure out where everything is and how to use it. That's pretty
0:21:31amazing. So, I mean, for that, I do the total party kill videos with it, where I've often
0:21:36got like multiple cropped versions of different parts of the video stream and they pop on
0:21:41and off and stuff like that, and it's not a problem. I did that, the cars and trucks
0:21:46video that I did a couple weeks ago, that was all Final Cut. Final Cut was not the problem,
0:21:55right? Final Cut was the easy part because it made everything that I was doing easy.
0:21:59Yeah, I agree with you.
0:22:01So where are we going to go for winter? Now I would say that I would happily put a vote
0:22:06in for Audio Hijack as well. I use it every day and I use it for some basic things, but
0:22:13it's a great app. There's some stuff that I wished it could do that it doesn't do.
0:22:17Like I really wish that I could just live stream directly from Audio Hijack.
0:22:21I know, I've talked to Paul Kapasas at Rogue Amoeba about that and because they've got
0:22:25a separate product right, Nicecast, I wish that they would just, you know, yeah.
0:22:30They would just sell a way to integrate that.
0:22:32Sell Nicecast and let it be a plug-in or something like that. I think there's a business model
0:22:36problem there honestly which is that that's a separate product that's got a separate price
0:22:41and they don't want to...
0:22:42- Paying in that purchase, I would give them
0:22:44whatever they need, you know?
0:22:45- I think the challenge is, I don't think they wanna force
0:22:48people who only use NiceCast to also buy AudioHijack.
0:22:52But I know they've got three amazing utilities
0:22:57and I wish they all kind of worked out of the same interface
0:23:00instead of sort of in separate places.
0:23:03But I do love that and I'll agree with the listeners too.
0:23:06OnePassword, I use it every day.
0:23:08I can't imagine using my Mac without it
0:23:12And on the new Touch Bar MacBook Pro, let me tell you,
0:23:15once you've unlocked your one password lock
0:23:20on a Mac with your fingerprint,
0:23:22well, you do that on iOS, right?
0:23:24Once you do that on your Mac with a fingerprint
0:23:25and then you go back to a,
0:23:26like an iMac or something like that,
0:23:28it feels wrong.
0:23:30I'm like, oh, I've gotta enter my password again, right?
0:23:32I was like, you get used to it really quickly.
0:23:34They did a great job of integrating, right, you know,
0:23:37day one, basically,
0:23:38with a Touch ID sensor on the MacBook Pro.
0:23:41So my feeling like, I mean, I could also go for 1Password, right?
0:23:45Because the same thing, it's like it's one of my favorite applications, but it's
0:23:49everywhere. And I really want to give this award to a Mac app.
0:23:54Yeah, right. Like 1Password does and can exist on every platform, which is why it
0:24:00makes it so useful. But there's just something about like with the discourse of
0:24:04last year, which is obviously going to continue about the Mac and where is the Mac
0:24:08going. Like, I feel like I want to give the upgradeee to a shining star of Mac development.
0:24:16Like an application that can only exist on the Mac and does a great job using everything
0:24:21that the Mac is good for.
0:24:23Yeah, well, and this is my conflict here is that I think this is the year where you started
0:24:28doing lots of video and I'm doing more video and so on that level this is the year where
0:24:33would be perfect for us to pick Final Cut. At the same time, picking an Apple product,
0:24:40you know, we can do it.
0:24:42>> No, I'm happy for Audio Hijack. Seriously.
0:24:44>> But this is what I'm saying is, but Audio Hijack from a Mac developer and it's, let's
0:24:51not forget, it's doing things that, I gotta say, like half of what Audio Hijack does at
0:24:57least, the system should do.
0:25:00fixing problems that Apple have in the system of audio.
0:25:03Because Apple doesn't care about audio stuff in its operating systems, apparently. It is
0:25:11mind-boggling to me that you can't route application audio in Mac OS as a basic thing, but you've
0:25:18never been able to do it. It's just never been a thing, and AudioHijack does it with
0:25:21a few clicks. So, alright, let's do it.
0:25:24Hi Jack, you are the winner of the upgradey for best Mac application in 2016. I feel good
0:25:32about that one. I feel good about that one. Best newcomer Mac app is sponsored by our
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0:26:11Sites that take multiple seconds to load can turn people away and if your site is down or
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0:26:27load quickly and Encapsula solves and prevents these problems for you. They employ a powerful
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0:26:40customers unaffected. As a listener of this show you can get a whole month of service
0:26:44at Encapsula for free. You just need to go to incapsula.com/upgrade. That is encapsula.com/upgrade.
0:26:54This is where you'll find out more and claim your free month. Thank you so much to Encapsula
0:26:57for their support of this show and Relay FM.
0:27:01So the nominees for best newcomer Mac application are Bear Notes, Siri, Loopback, Air Sonos,
0:27:12And I don't even know if we can count this one, but you put it in a closed beta of an
0:27:17application called Forecast. Now, give me your pick and then we can go into somebody's
0:27:23in a bit more detail.
0:27:25Well my pick is Forecast. Figuring it probably won't win, and it's totally unfair because
0:27:32this is not a product anybody can get yet. But I checked with the developer, and even
0:27:37though it's a private beta, the developer has talked about it enough publicly that I
0:27:41I can at least mention it. So forecast is Marco Arment's Mac app.
0:27:46- (laughs)
0:27:47- Yep.
0:27:48- That like, I'm gonna learn how to be a Mac developer.
0:27:51And as a podcast person, again, you know,
0:27:54I'm not trying to represent everybody here.
0:27:56I'm trying to--
0:27:57- We're bias in our picks based on our work.
0:27:59- Totally, totally.
0:28:00And that's just, these are the upgrade-ies, right?
0:28:02These are not, you know, from a staff of 20.
0:28:05These are two podcasters. - It's not the 80s.
0:28:06- Exactly right, exactly right.
0:28:08I got my Eddy award behind me.
0:28:10which everybody asked me what did I win it for?
0:28:13And the answer is I won it for running the Eddy Awards
0:28:15for like 15 years.
0:28:16That's how I won it.
0:28:17- Best Eddy Award Coordinator.
0:28:19- Yeah, exactly right.
0:28:20So what Forecast is, and I hope Marco finishes it
0:28:24and releases it, 'cause I think it's very good
0:28:25and I think it's releasable soon.
0:28:27I think he maybe just doesn't wanna do the,
0:28:30he's working on other projects
0:28:32and I think that he doesn't wanna be distracted
0:28:35by support, honestly.
0:28:37And that's the challenge with a lot of apps
0:28:39that scratch the developer's itch
0:28:41is when they get them working to their satisfaction.
0:28:43There is this moment of like,
0:28:44I could just keep this myself
0:28:46and not have to answer to other people
0:28:48and fix the bugs that they find that are weird
0:28:51if it always works for me.
0:28:52But it's an app for tagging
0:28:55and encoding podcast files, basically.
0:28:58So you can either drag on an MP3 and update the tags,
0:29:02or you can drag on a WAV or an AIFF,
0:29:04the output that comes out, in my case, from Logic,
0:29:06the edited version, and you drag it in,
0:29:09and you can set the encoding quality
0:29:13and it actually encodes in the background.
0:29:15So if you've got it set to a sort of the one you always use
0:29:18and when you drag it in,
0:29:19it starts encoding it in the background.
0:29:20And then meanwhile, while it's doing that,
0:29:22you can put in the name.
0:29:23It tries to guess based on the file name,
0:29:25like here's the art you wanna use
0:29:26and here's probably the name
0:29:27and here's probably the number
0:29:28and you fill in the title and you write in the description.
0:29:31And if you've got chapter markers in logic,
0:29:35it puts those down or you can add them or edit them.
0:29:38So you edit chapter marks as a part of this too.
0:29:40And then you basically press Command + S
0:29:42and you get your podcast MP3 out.
0:29:45And it's pretty good.
0:29:47There's some bugs 'cause it's a beta.
0:29:48The chapter editing support is weird.
0:29:51And I mentioned it to Mark Owen.
0:29:52He said, "Oh yes, I should use that feature."
0:29:55But because he's using it direct from Logic
0:29:58and occasionally I have to add chapter markers
0:29:59after the fact.
0:30:00But it's pretty great.
0:30:02It will be a great utility for any Mac podcast creator
0:30:06out there when it is released to the public and I hope that is in 2017.
0:30:12If you noticed the shows that I produce, if you noticed the metadata get better, like
0:30:18episode artwork and all of the metadata being put in the ID3 tags and all that stuff, it's
0:30:23because I use forecast to encode every single show that I'm a part of.
0:30:29I think I am the, maybe me and you will tie for this, the biggest stress tester of forecast
0:30:38and I have broken it in many interesting ways.
0:30:41I have too.
0:30:42A three hour podcast will kill it.
0:30:43Well, it used to.
0:30:45But I think I helped Michael fix that.
0:30:46So will a two minute long podcast, it turns out.
0:30:50And you know what, again, whilst I will underscore that it is unfair to put this in here because
0:30:55people can't get it.
0:30:56It totally is.
0:30:57It's not going to win.
0:30:58I vote for it, but I won't based on the grounds that it's not publicly available.
0:31:02I agree.
0:31:03And also any chapters that you ever see put into a show because of forecast.
0:31:08It's the easiest way that I've found to do it because you tag the chapters in the logic
0:31:12project and then it reads them, which I think is fantastic.
0:31:16Again, and I would just once, whilst we're talking about chapters, just mention I put
0:31:21chapters in when I think chapters are needed.
0:31:24I don't think chapters are needed in every episode of every show ever made.
0:31:28Anyhow, don't email me.
0:31:33Don't email anybody because you can give me your argument but it's not going to change
0:31:36my opinion.
0:31:37It's just my opinion.
0:31:39I understand why they're there but I really don't think that chapters for every topic
0:31:45in every tech show is worth the time with the producer for the amount of people that
0:31:49use them.
0:31:50That's my personal opinion on this.
0:31:51Anyway, I'm going to pick bare notes.
0:31:57because it's great on the Mac and on iOS.
0:32:00It's my new markdown text editor.
0:32:02I don't use it as a notes application.
0:32:04There are some things that it doesn't do very well,
0:32:06like conflicts, which Apple Notes does perfectly,
0:32:09deals with conflicts without even shaking,
0:32:11but Bear will add new notes in as conflicts,
0:32:14which is the worst way to deal with conflicts.
0:32:16But for what I use it for,
0:32:18which is to write the scripts for our podcast ads,
0:32:22it's perfect because I'm able to tag things really easily
0:32:25so that I'm able to find them.
0:32:27I can tag them by sponsor, I can tag them by month and year.
0:32:30So it's all sorted nicely, like into these little buckets
0:32:33which I can pull from.
0:32:34And it's just, it's really great.
0:32:35I'm able to, one of my favorite features,
0:32:38let's say I write some content,
0:32:40but I need to put it into the system later.
0:32:42I will make a new task in OmniFocus to add it to the system
0:32:45and I can grab a URL of the bare note.
0:32:48So I can just click URL in OmniFocus,
0:32:50it takes me right to the note.
0:32:51Just simple things like that.
0:32:52It's a really nicely built app.
0:32:54Those are great themes.
0:32:55You can use some great fonts.
0:32:56It's very, very nice.
0:32:57So, actually, did I mention that Bear
0:33:03was the Upgrading winner as well?
0:33:06- No, you didn't.
0:33:07- It won with 32% of the votes,
0:33:09with Siri winning at 29%,
0:33:11although I don't actually think Siri counts as an app,
0:33:13but I know why I put it in there.
0:33:14- I don't think so.
0:33:15- What is Airsonos?
0:33:17- So Airsonos is not an app, sort of.
0:33:21It's a bunch of scripts that you install.
0:33:24I wrote about it at Six Colors, that you install,
0:33:26and it allows you to airplay to some of the speakers.
0:33:29- That's very useful actually.
0:33:30- And I wish somebody would bundle it together
0:33:33as like a Mac app that you could run,
0:33:35but it's one of these open source projects
0:33:37where there's a script running
0:33:39and so you basically have to run it from the terminal
0:33:41and it's not very friendly.
0:33:42(laughing)
0:33:43But it totally works and it's great.
0:33:46And I just, I have it, you know, what you have to do,
0:33:49you say no bueno, but what basically you do
0:33:51is you create a terminal command document
0:33:53that like, and put it in your startup items.
0:33:55- I don't even know what a terminal command is.
0:33:57- Okay, well, bless your heart.
0:34:01- I know, I'm from a different age.
0:34:03- The other app that's in here is Loopback,
0:34:06which I just wanted to mention, which is also rogue Amoeba.
0:34:08This is another piece of their puzzle of audio apps.
0:34:12- 10% of the votes for Loopback.
0:34:15- Yeah, that's pretty wild.
0:34:16That's all of our friends who make podcasts, I guess.
0:34:19But it's, again, the system should support this,
0:34:23which is being able to have virtual inputs and outputs
0:34:26so that you can arbitrarily say,
0:34:28I wanna put my output over there and route it in here
0:34:31and loopback adds a piece of the puzzle
0:34:33that is not provided by AudioHijack
0:34:36that adds to the just, it's yet another thing
0:34:40that adds to your audio flexibility.
0:34:42If you ever do anything involving audio on the Mac,
0:34:44it's another option that gives you even more power
0:34:47and it was needed.
0:34:49There have been some other utilities that do this.
0:34:51Some of them broke when we went to,
0:34:54I wanna say Lion broke, like all the audio utilities.
0:34:57And it's been a long claw back to getting stuff available.
0:35:02And then there's some that are out there now that do this.
0:35:04- Not very gracefully.
0:35:06- Yeah, I've had interface-
0:35:07- Sound flower, we're off and on.
0:35:09- There's interface confusion problems
0:35:11that Loopback doesn't offer.
0:35:12Loopback's interface is much clearer.
0:35:14And also there's some performance issues
0:35:16where some of those utilities
0:35:17that I won't mention by name,
0:35:19when they're running my whole Mac is slow.
0:35:21And that is-- - That's not good.
0:35:24- And I can keep loop back on and it is fine all the time.
0:35:27So it's a good one.
0:35:31- For some somehow 7% of the vote was cast for forecast.
0:35:35- Yeah, isn't that nice?
0:35:36- And I'm not sure how that many people--
0:35:40- It's just Marco voted again and again and again.
0:35:42Casey voted again and again and again.
0:35:45I think well, I think you chose Bear
0:35:47and the people chose Bear, so Bear's the winner.
0:35:49- I think so, I think it's a good winner,
0:35:51'cause there is some, this is super niche,
0:35:53they're just, look, this is the problem,
0:35:55there just aren't a lot of new Mac apps.
0:35:57- It's true. - There really isn't.
0:35:59- It's true. - There are lots of updates.
0:35:59- I picked an unreleased beta, Myke,
0:36:02I picked an unreleased beta.
0:36:03- And a pile of scripts.
0:36:06- And a pile of scripts. - And an Apple feature.
0:36:08(laughing)
0:36:09- And loopback, yeah.
0:36:10- An OS feature, a pile of scripts,
0:36:12and an unreleased application made it
0:36:13into the category there.
0:36:16Yeah.
0:36:17Oh wow.
0:36:18Thank you to Encapsular for supporting the newcomer Mac app.
0:36:22Game of the Year.
0:36:23Now this is always an interesting one because Game of the Year on upgrade is not Game of
0:36:30the Year on remaster or destruction.
0:36:34Game of the Year here is very different because me and you play very different games.
0:36:40I tend to play the games that you play but you don't always play the games that I play.
0:36:45I'm more of a gamer than you. However, this is the list of Game of the Year. No Man's
0:36:50Sky. Now, a lot of people would say, "How dare you?" but I love No Man's Sky.
0:36:54Yeah.
0:36:55But it's in there. Uncharted 4, Pokemon Sun and Moon, Firewatch, and Job Simulator. They
0:37:04were the picks.
0:37:05Yeah, and I added one late that didn't get added. Job Simulator I didn't see on my list
0:37:11either. I think you added that late.
0:37:12I added that. I added that. What did you add?
0:37:15Inside.
0:37:16Inside, yep, that's a good one.
0:37:18The game of the year is the highest percentage of other votes ticked with 21% of votes for
0:37:26other.
0:37:27But there was nothing that really came out in there which was bigger in voting than any
0:37:30of the other categories so I didn't break them out.
0:37:33It doesn't surprise me because we have an esoteric list.
0:37:37We have a game that was widely panned, No Man's Sky, but I loved it.
0:37:42Pokemon game which is you know, it's not even a main console game, but I think very important.
0:37:48Firewatch which is a short storytelling game. Job Simulator which is a VR only game.
0:37:53And then we have Uncharted 4 as kind of our only big what would be considered in the game of the year
0:37:59categories of like polygon or something.
0:38:02Now I'm gonna say, now I actually added Job Simulator late and it's actually gonna be my vote for game of the year.
0:38:122016 was the year of virtual reality, right?
0:38:16It's one of the big technology themes of the year.
0:38:18This was the year where it first started to be a thing that people could have in their
0:38:21homes.
0:38:22And of all of the games I've played on all VR platforms, I haven't had as much fun as
0:38:27I've had in Job Simulator.
0:38:29It is a game set in 2050 where you are going to a human museum because the world is run
0:38:37by robots.
0:38:39And the Human Museum is a set of interactive exhibits where you get to play the part of
0:38:45the human in human jobs. You can play in an office, in a car mechanic, in a store.
0:38:53Yeah I played in the convenience store.
0:38:54Oh you played Job Simulator?
0:38:56On Twit or on the screensavers. We did a whole VR segment and I was getting the hot dog out
0:39:03of the bin and stuff.
0:39:04How much fun is Job Simulator?
0:39:06It's pretty fun.
0:39:07Because my favourite thing about this game is if you think you can do something, you
0:39:12can do it.
0:39:13There is an office game and there's a photocopier in it.
0:39:17And if you put your hand in the photocopier, it doesn't make a photocopy, it actually
0:39:21reproduces any item that goes into it.
0:39:24Because it's funny, a lot of it is how would robots have interpreted us?
0:39:28And it's like they see it as a copy machine in that it will copy anything.
0:39:33It's hilariously funny.
0:39:35are all these little jokes, there's tons of like little quips in there and things you
0:39:41can find out. It's hilarious to play and it's a ton of fun. And everyone that I've had try
0:39:47Job Simulator has got as much of a kick out of it as I have. So I'm gonna go with Job
0:39:53Simulator even though I will also cast a vote for what I think will end up being our game
0:39:59of the year. What is your pick?
0:40:01My pick is going to be my late addition as well, which is Inside.
0:40:06We ruined this one, didn't we?
0:40:08We totally blew it.
0:40:10Inside, which we did an incomparable episode about, is...
0:40:18I don't even want to say too much about it.
0:40:20It is a side-scrolling game that...
0:40:27So you're just going from left to right.
0:40:30you can't, you know, there's no depth to it. It is amazing though. It is, it is from play
0:40:37dead. It's got lots of surprises. I don't even want to talk about what the surprises
0:40:42are. You start out in your running and somebody is chasing you and the story progresses from
0:40:47there in increasingly surprising ways. And I don't want to say that there's a plot twist
0:40:52because there isn't a plot twist. The story just keeps changing and progressing as you
0:40:57go. The play mechanics are fun. I played it in like five hours, four hours. I think John
0:41:02Sarecusa calls these the artsy-fartsy games. You know, it's not a triple-A console title
0:41:07with 40 hours of playtime or something like that, and that's fine with me because I kind
0:41:12of don't like those games. These are the developers of Limbo, which is available on iOS. This
0:41:21a console and steam game and I thought it was great. So, uh, Incomparable 3.18 is the
0:41:30episode where we talked about it. Yeah. Limbo 2 or is it Limbo Zero? But it's very good.
0:41:36Very good game. The Upgradients voted with a 34% majority for Firewatch with Other coming
0:41:44in at 21% and then Uncharted 4 coming in at 14%. Now I would happily give Firewatch our
0:41:52game of the year.
0:41:53Yeah, me too.
0:41:54Because it's a game that we have both played and both really enjoyed.
0:41:58Absolutely.
0:41:59I have not yet played Inside and I'm not going to play it for a long time because I had a
0:42:05spoiler. I know the end. So I want to try and forget it before I play it. It's the same
0:42:10a journey. I did the same with Journey. I got spoiled and then waited for many years
0:42:15before I played it so I would be a bit more fresh to it.
0:42:18So Firewatch, it's got to be, I mean, it's a fantastic game. I've really, really enjoyed
0:42:24it. It's another of these artsy fartsy games. But also we have the tie to, you know, the
0:42:30Mac community and the Apple community through Panic who kind of funded and I guess helped
0:42:35to the development of the game. It's made by a game studio called Campo Santo, which
0:42:40Panic are heavily involved in. It's like a symbiotic relationship. I don't know the complete
0:42:46details, I don't really think they talk about them, but I know that there's financial backing
0:42:50there from Panic. Absolutely fantastic game with a really great story. One of the games
0:42:55that really made me think a lot this year and actually feel something. So Firewatch
0:43:01has got to be our upgradey winner for Game of the Year.
0:43:04Next up, if you were wondering, where are all the iOS games?
0:43:09Well, they're in their own category with iOS game of the year.
0:43:11This list here, PewDiePie's Tuba Simulator,
0:43:15Mini Metro, Super Stickman Golf 3, Inks,
0:43:20Pokemon Go, Really Bad Chess and Super Mario Run.
0:43:24Super Mario Run added late in the category
0:43:27because we've had this voting up for longer than that game has been out.
0:43:29There's a couple of games in there that I want to just give a shout out to,
0:43:33in case you've not heard of them. PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator is just a silly free-to-play
0:43:39game in the usual style of waiting for timers to complete, but it's made really well. It's
0:43:45the best of these types of games I've ever played, and it's made with a lot of humour.
0:43:49If you enjoy PewDiePie's work, which I know that maybe for listeners of this show there
0:43:53might not be that many people, I am one of the people that does, and I think this game
0:43:59is an example of what is good about Felix, who is PewDiePie. This is where he shows his
0:44:06smarts rather than his stupidness. And I prefer the smart guy as opposed to the crazy guy.
0:44:13Inks is another game. It is an absolutely beautiful pinball game in which you have to
0:44:20shoot a pinball into colours and then when the pinball hits the colours it draws the
0:44:27color or wherever it goes around the pinball table. It's absolutely beautiful. Can you
0:44:32explain Really Bad Chess?
0:44:34- Really Bad Chess, I wrote about this at Six Colors, it is a chess game and, you know,
0:44:40I'm one of those people who thinks chess is kind of boring. I learned how to play it and
0:44:43I was really interested in it for a short period of time and then I realized like, I
0:44:48just I don't have the focus for it. I don't like I just I'm not I'm bad at it. But Really
0:44:55Bad Chess is a great spin on it because it's a chess game where you get a different sort
0:45:01of a random assortment of pieces, and the way that you level up basically is that you
0:45:09start with a huge power disparity between you and your opponent and then over time as
0:45:13you win, the disparity gets less and less. There are also daily and weekly challenges
0:45:18where everybody plays the same board. So you can have one where you've got two queens and
0:45:23four nights or something like that and and a bunch of ponds and you know and
0:45:29three castles and you know or rooks no matter how you say it I was simplifying
0:45:34there because people don't know what the rook is the castle the night it's a horse
0:45:39anyway I learned about so if you know how to play chess but you find chess
0:45:44kind of boring really bad chess is actually really good so I it's a lot of
0:45:48fun, really fun game.
0:45:50- Jason, cast your vote for iOS game of the year.
0:45:52- I think the iOS game of the year came late to iOS.
0:45:57It was on other platforms before, but you know what?
0:45:59It's mini Metro.
0:45:59I really love mini Metro.
0:46:01That is my, that is my game of the year.
0:46:03I still go back to it.
0:46:05It is a, it is a, you know, transit simulator sort of,
0:46:09but you it's got this pleasing kind of background sound
0:46:12that changes as you play.
0:46:13And the iOS interface is perfect for it
0:46:15because you're drawing connections
0:46:17between the different Metro stations as your city grows.
0:46:21It brings back all the things that I loved
0:46:23about something like SimCity, but it's simple
0:46:26and it never gets too complicated
0:46:28beyond what the basics are.
0:46:31The city gets bigger and there's more traffic,
0:46:33but it never gets to the point where you realize
0:46:35that you've got to learn all these other things
0:46:38that are a whole extra level of complication.
0:46:41They keep it simple, which means it's kind of Zen-like
0:46:43and I really like that about it.
0:46:45My only complaint about it is that they have not yet done
0:46:47what they've said that they would do on iOS,
0:46:49which they've done on other platforms,
0:46:50which is provide an endless mode,
0:46:52which is basically after you die in the game
0:46:55that you just get to keep playing and building your city.
0:46:57Because as we found with Alto's Adventure, actually,
0:47:00which has gotten an update to do this this year,
0:47:02sometimes you don't actually want to play the game
0:47:06from the beginning, you just want to keep playing it.
0:47:08And the point is not to rack up the high score.
0:47:11The point is to sort of reach that kind of enjoyable state
0:47:14where you're playing.
0:47:15It's what the some city developers used to call
0:47:17a software toy where it's like you're not really playing
0:47:20a game anymore, it's just like a toy you're playing with
0:47:22and having a good time and feeling good.
0:47:24- What a great term.
0:47:25- And yeah, software toys, yeah, that was Max's always said
0:47:28that SimCity was more of a software toy than a game.
0:47:31And I think that's accurate, right?
0:47:32There's kind of no way to win really.
0:47:34And I think Mini Metro would do well to have that on iOS
0:47:38like it has on other platforms where you just keep,
0:47:39you know, when it's done, you built the city
0:47:41and it's sort of like, it's sad 'cause it's over.
0:47:43And it's like, no, no, I wanna see what happens next.
0:47:45I don't care if it doesn't count for my total points or whatever, I just want to keep building
0:47:49this city and I would like to see that.
0:47:52But it's a great game.
0:47:53I made a video about it on Six Colors, it's great, I love it, and that is by far my favorite
0:47:58iOS game this year.
0:47:59I'm not picking my favorite game.
0:48:01I'm picking a game that I think should win.
0:48:05And it shouldn't win because it's a good game.
0:48:07Pokemon Go.
0:48:11Pokemon Go is not a good iOS game.
0:48:14No it's not. It's not even really a good game.
0:48:18Neither is Mario Run. Oh, Mario Run is maybe a good game, it's not a good iOS game.
0:48:22Well, it's a good Nintendo game on iOS, that's what it is.
0:48:25Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah.
0:48:27Well that's what it is, right? But like, you know.
0:48:29For the values of good Nintendo game which include that the part that's good is the game part and everything around it is junk, just like on Nintendo, yes.
0:48:36That's actually, it is a perfect simulation of Nintendo. It's everything I like and dislike about Nintendo on iOS.
0:48:43But that's all they could ever do. They could never do it differently.
0:48:46I know.
0:48:47Pokemon Go is a phenomenon. Was a phenomenon.
0:48:51You know, maybe isn't so much now, but there has never been
0:48:54an iOS game that was able to do what Pokemon Go did.
0:48:58And I don't think there will ever be another one.
0:49:00I think it's a shame that they squandered it, right? Because they had some aspects of it they
0:49:05got exactly right to make it become a success, but they couldn't do whatever was required to keep it.
0:49:13I would say squandering is not the right word. I would maybe say that they just couldn't
0:49:19capitalize on it.
0:49:20Okay, that works too. Yeah, that there should have been more, the world should have opened
0:49:25up after a month or so, so people would keep playing it and they seemed to not have any
0:49:29capable-- it took them by surprise to the point where they were just trying to keep
0:49:32their heads above water rather than doing what they needed to do.
0:49:35I don't think they were able to do anything more.
0:49:37Yeah, I agree.
0:49:38The things that would have been needed and the things that will still come to that game
0:49:41could never have been done in the timeframe that was required
0:49:45whilst also trying to put out the fires
0:49:47in their service and infrastructure.
0:49:48- Well, that's exactly it.
0:49:50Its success sort of killed it before they could do things
0:49:52like add player versus player and a little bit of leveling
0:49:56so that if you weren't the hardcore grinder at Pokemon GO,
0:50:00but were more of a casual player, you couldn't battle
0:50:04because you were too low level.
0:50:07And it was very apparent from the beginning
0:50:10that it was going to hit a wall if they didn't make changes.
0:50:13And I think the server demand meant
0:50:16that they didn't have the ability to make changes fast enough.
0:50:18It's too bad.
0:50:19But I do think it's the future of gaming.
0:50:21I think that there will be more games that do Pokemon Go
0:50:24and do it better and that will change mobile gaming
0:50:27by doing stuff like this.
0:50:29I do think we'll see more of this.
0:50:31- Yeah, the idea of the streets in big cities
0:50:34all around the world being flooded
0:50:35with people catching Pokemon,
0:50:37that was always going to be a flash in the pan thing.
0:50:40just maybe the flash was a little bit shorter than it could have been if the game was actually
0:50:44designed better to begin with. Like it was never going to be that in a year's time everyone
0:50:50was still doing this. To people that always would be, you know that people will continue
0:50:53to play this game for a long time, I have friends that still play it. I just got bored
0:50:57of it as I do many, many games really. Like I'm somebody who will play a game for a long
0:51:01time and then just stop. And they may not have ever finished it, I just get bored of
0:51:06it and move on. But like the thing in Pokemon Go is there's just never been anything like
0:51:10it and it cannot be ignored. I feel like it had to be spoken about because you know I
0:51:16would go to a park and everyone was playing. Everybody. You know it really really was an
0:51:22absolute phenomenon. Now I really love Mini Metro. I really love Mini Metro. I'm very
0:51:32set on Pokemon though. Well that's fine because the listeners are with me. Yep we're gonna
0:51:39go with it. I mean I don't want to bend so I'm happy that the listeners are with you
0:51:43because I don't want to bend on this one. Here's what I would say is best, you know
0:51:51I view this as a best of the year category and I can't endorse Pokemon Go as a best.
0:51:57I can agree with that. I can agree with that which is why I'm not gonna try and convince
0:52:01you to go with Pokemon because I think Mini Metro is probably the highest quality or one
0:52:08of the highest quality games released this year. So I am very happy for it to win the
0:52:13upgradey but I just think you know and as we haven't you just can't overlook the phenomenon
0:52:18that has Pokemon Go. So Mini Metro is the winner of the 2016 upgradey award for the
0:52:24iOS game of the year. Now we move into one of the two categories that I have very little
0:52:29to say in and that is the favorite movie category. The nominees for favorite movie this year
0:52:35are Star Wars Rogue One, Arrival, Marvel Civil War, Captain America Civil War, Doctor Strange,
0:52:46and for some reason Batman vs Superman.
0:52:49Hahaha!
0:52:50L.O.L. in brackets.
0:52:52Just kidding.
0:52:53JK. Now the reason that I can't help with this is I've only seen one movie on this
0:52:58list because I just I don't know what happened to me but in the last couple
0:53:03of years I just don't really see movies anymore. I don't know why that is but
0:53:07that's just something that changed. So I will pick Star Wars Rogue One. I really
0:53:12liked this movie but it's the only one that I've seen. I'm disappointed that
0:53:17myself for having not seen Civil War and Doctor Strange because I love the Marvel
0:53:22superhero movies. Maybe I have to make that a New Year's resolution to try and
0:53:26see more movies this year. Yeah that's a good one. That's a that's the easy kind
0:53:29of New Year's resolution. See more movies. Enjoy something. Yeah entertainment. The
0:53:35listeners, the upgrade-ians, they also went with 44% for Star Wars Rogue One.
0:53:40However, Star Wars Rogue One was winning this category in the week before
0:53:46before the movie came out.
0:53:49- It was suspicious, wasn't it?
0:53:50- So I think, I mean, I don't know how this is gonna make
0:53:55the Upgradians feel, that their vote should not count
0:53:58in this because I feel like there were people
0:54:02that were voting for that movie out of just love
0:54:05for the franchise.
0:54:06And frankly, I think I liked the movie,
0:54:09but I think it under delivered on what I expected
0:54:12it was gonna be, which was like,
0:54:14this is gonna be as great as Force Awakens, which it wasn't. It was a really good movie,
0:54:21but it wasn't a really good Star Wars movie, in my opinion. I really liked the movie a
0:54:27lot, I really did, but it didn't live up to the expectations that I had for it based on
0:54:32how good Force Awakens was.
0:54:34Yep, so my pick is not gonna help here either, because I picked Arrival. I think Arrival
0:54:42was my favourite movie of the year.
0:54:43I'm happy for Arrival to win because I know that people really really like it. Plus it
0:54:47was the second place winner for the Upgradians and I wonder if people were voting 100% honestly
0:54:54how it would have gone. But I've seen a lot of buzz about Arrival from people that I know
0:54:58that really like movies and whose opinion I trust on it. So I'm happy for Arrival to
0:55:03win the Upgrady.
0:55:05That's fine. I would be happy for Force Awakens again for Rogue One to be the first one to
0:55:13get it because I did like that movie but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't my favorite movie
0:55:18of the year. So I'm curious about the Star Wars votes. I'm analyzing the spreadsheet
0:55:26right now and finding out who voted. Oh yeah, wow. Well, no.
0:55:32- That was quite a lot. - So when did it come out? It came out on
0:55:38the 16th mm-hmm no they're there I would say Myke there are there are a lot of
0:55:42votes in here from okay from after then I just said yeah I'm sure that's the
0:55:47case but I'm not sure how many there were before but we put the vote in up I
0:55:52think about four or five days before and it was winning by a landslide at that
0:55:56point yeah that's true there are definitely some votes in there that
0:55:59would have to be thrown out but again I'm happy for Star Wars Rogue One to win
0:56:03it because I really did like the movie you know like that say it may if I saw
0:56:08all of these movies, I may think it was the best movie I saw this year, but like, it wasn't
0:56:12the best Star Wars movie that I've seen in the last two years, you know?
0:56:15- Right.
0:56:16- But yeah, if you want to go with Rogue One, we can go with it.
0:56:20- Well, it was the listener choice.
0:56:25And it was the...
0:56:26- It's my choice.
0:56:28- The mic choice by default, which is the least exciting way to win anything.
0:56:35Let's, okay, I'm doing some key data analysis here.
0:56:38Rogue One came out on the 16th of December.
0:56:42Yep, we're discounting all the votes prior.
0:56:45Yeah, so that's 103 votes that we received before it was released.
0:56:50That's a lot. It's like a quarter of all votes cast.
0:56:53So if I remove those votes, it only has 105 votes, which is still more than the second place number.
0:57:01Okay, but do you see what I mean? That's like half of the votes that it received were cast before it was released.
0:57:07before it was released. And not all of them were at the red carpet premiere. Not everybody,
0:57:10some I'm sure, a large percentage. Or are from Todd Vaziri at ILM who has seen the movie
0:57:14a few times. So Upgradians, we gave you a big opportunity this year. Don't make us take
0:57:21it away from you next year. You disappointed dad. Mm-hmm. Star Wars Rogue One wins the
0:57:30Todd you did a great job if you're out there.
0:57:34Yeah.
0:57:35Now, we move on to our favourite mic at the movies of the year from Upgrade.
0:57:42I only took the voting from Upgrade.
0:57:44Now my intention for this category was for people to vote for their favourite segment,
0:57:52not the favourite movie.
0:57:54And I don't think I made this clear enough.
0:57:58So we had three votes here because we only did three Myke at the Movies this year, we're
0:58:01going to have to change that for next year.
0:58:04Gremlins, Home Alone, Wrath of Khan.
0:58:10I chose Gremlins because it was the most fun that I had out of the three of these because
0:58:14the two of us just got to be up on a movie together which is very different to the way
0:58:18that Myke at the Movies tends to go.
0:58:20So I enjoyed Gremlins a lot.
0:58:21Now I believe, my inclination here, because the Upgradients voted 46% Home Alone, 36%
0:58:30Wrath of Khan and 14% of Gremlins.
0:58:34My belief here is that people voted for their favourite movie out of that selection.
0:58:40That's my feeling.
0:58:41Just because, like, the Home Alone one was fun, but I feel like the Gremlins segment,
0:58:47Gremlins episode was better than the Wrath of Khan episode because we had a lot of laughs.
0:58:53I liked the Wrath of Khan episode a lot because it was... I was really under the gun with
0:59:00that one because that is one of my very favorite movies of all time.
0:59:03You were flying close to the sun there.
0:59:05Yeah, and you went into it like Star Trek movies? What? And with nothing to...
0:59:14dread is how I went into that movie. Yeah and you and and you ended up liking it which was like
0:59:20that was that gets like I get extra multiplier points for having survived that. I agree.
0:59:27Graze of the sun and so that for me I felt such great relief and also seeing that movie through
0:59:32the eyes of someone who has never seen it before was fascinating. I you know I yeah I don't know
0:59:39Gremlins, it's hard to mix the feeling about that we had a fun time sharing our dislike
0:59:46for it by the fact that I had to watch it.
0:59:48That's true.
0:59:49I mean, I would happily go with Rafa Khan because I agree with everything that you said.
0:59:54Because for me, it was a great thing because I was really dreading a movie and then I actually
1:00:00went in and enjoyed it on its merits of being a good movie.
1:00:05Yeah, how about that?
1:00:06Not this was a good Star Wars, Star Trek story.
1:00:08Uh oh.
1:00:09In the early 80s, yeah, you've just turned off the entire audience.
1:00:12But yeah, John Seracu says, "Thrown down his iPhone right there."
1:00:15Just, no!
1:00:16Everybody's--it's so many broken devices.
1:00:18Because I don't really have a lot of Star Trek knowledge.
1:00:22I know.
1:00:23Hence why I get the names mixed up.
1:00:24So yeah, I've got--should we go Wrath of Khan?
1:00:26Yeah.
1:00:27Wrath of Khan segment in Myke at the Movies is the upgrade-y of the year.
1:00:32We now go into the category where I have literally no vote.
1:00:37Yeah, that's fine.
1:00:39as every year. The favourite book. Every year. Yep. Favourite book category is brought to
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1:02:15books. All right, so favorite book. We can go quickly through this. The
1:02:21the Upgradients votes were kind of all over the place. No clear. Other led
1:02:29the category. Other includes blank, by the way, I think. That's how that works.
1:02:33So I'm just gonna mention some books. We'll put a link in the show
1:02:38notes I wrote at the end of December, a piece on six colors about my favorite
1:02:42books and Dan Morin wrote for his favorite books of the year. All of these
1:02:45are listed in there so you can check them out. I will very quickly say my
1:02:49three favorite novels of the year were Uprooted by Naomi Novik, which is a
1:02:56fantasy novel. It's very good. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin, which is a
1:03:01really great sort of told in three different perspectives story about this
1:03:07kind of apocalyptic world with these, they're kind of like mutants. They have the power
1:03:13to like stop or cause earthquakes and they're treated badly by the people who don't have
1:03:20powers and it's way more complicated than that, but it's so good. It's the first part
1:03:24of a trilogy. The third book is coming out in August. The second book is very good too.
1:03:28So that's the fifth season and, you know, well, I have a lot to choose from for my third
1:03:33favorite of the year. So let's just leave it at those two. There are three other books
1:03:36that I'd tie for third. And then on the nonfiction side, I will mention three books that I really
1:03:41liked in nonfiction this year. A book called "The Etymologicon," which is about weird words
1:03:47and where they came from. A book—thank you to Dan Morin for that recommendation—a book
1:03:52called "History of the World in Six Glasses," which is from an editor at The Economist,
1:03:55which is a kind of story that I really enjoy, which is find a frame in which to tell sort
1:04:02of the story of human civilization or scientific development or things like that, going back
1:04:08to like James Burke's Connection TV series, which I really loved, Connections. History
1:04:13of the World in Six Glasses, the idea is you can tell the history of human society and
1:04:16development through six different drinks, starting with beer and wine and spirits and
1:04:25tea and coffee and Coca-Cola and it's very good. And for baseball fans out there, Ahead
1:04:32of the Curve by Brian Kenny, which is a great, I think, clear description of what modern
1:04:40views of baseball and statistics and what they tell us that you could give that to a
1:04:47friend who likes baseball but doesn't understand about like fancy sabermetrics kind of stuff
1:04:53and I think you would find it engaging and a good explanation of it. So those are my
1:04:59choices. My favourite book of the year was The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin.
1:05:02So The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin wins the upgraded book of the year.
1:05:09Which is just basically my book of the year.
1:05:11Yep, that's how it works.
1:05:12It's fine. That's how it works.
1:05:14Aloha!
1:05:15Hello.
1:05:16Best Apple-related gadget. So this includes Apple's products and products that were created
1:05:22just to work with Apple products. And we have in our list here the iPad Pro 9.7 inch which
1:05:28was released in March, the Logitech Create keyboard case for the iPad Pro 9.7 inch, the
1:05:34iPhone 7, the MacBook, known as the MacBook One or the MacBook Adorable, the Apple Watch
1:05:41Series 2, the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and a late entry, the AirPods. I want to know
1:05:48what you think. What is your best Apple-related gadget of the year?
1:05:53First off, I want to dispute this category a little bit because it's all Apple products
1:05:57except for the Logitech Create, and I think maybe that's not fair for Logitech in the
1:06:01way that this was done when we have a non-Apple gadget category next. Maybe it should be in
1:06:05that category instead of this one? Maybe we need to change the parameters of
1:06:10this category. In years past, this category has had more non-Apple accessories in it.
1:06:15- Yeah, but that didn't happen this year.
1:06:17So that seems tough 'cause I really like that keyboard.
1:06:21My choice is the AirPods.
1:06:23They were a late entry.
1:06:24I think it's the best Apple product of the year.
1:06:26I think it's a great gadget.
1:06:28I think it's everything that is good
1:06:30about when Apple builds, designs products,
1:06:33envisions how they're gonna be used,
1:06:35uses technology that's not quite possible,
1:06:37takes a category that existed before
1:06:39but outdoes it with the details.
1:06:42And yeah, I've only had them for about two weeks now,
1:06:45but I think it was the best product
1:06:49that Apple released this year.
1:06:50- In a year where Apple products have been disappointing,
1:06:53the AirPods show that they still have the ability
1:06:57to make magic.
1:06:58- Yeah.
1:06:58- Like the stuff that we love them for,
1:07:01you know, like doing all those little things.
1:07:03- This is the stuff they call magic
1:07:05and everybody makes fun of them for saying our magic,
1:07:08but they do feel like magic.
1:07:09When you nail it, this is what it feels like.
1:07:11- Yep.
1:07:12- And they did it, and I agree with you completely.
1:07:14However, you say about Logitech Create, it's my pick.
1:07:17Because, I mean, we're probably gonna give
1:07:22AirPods the upgradey, but I haven't,
1:07:27you know, I've had like nearly a year
1:07:29with the Logitech Create now, and I love this thing
1:07:33because I really love my 9.7 inch iPad Pro.
1:07:36It is probably my favorite thing that Apple released
1:07:40in the year because I really didn't have enough time
1:07:43with the AirPods in 2016, like a week, right?
1:07:47But I think that the 9.7 inch iPad Pro
1:07:49is a fantastic device.
1:07:51- I agree.
1:07:52- The Logitech Create elevates it
1:07:54because it is a real keyboard.
1:07:58It's not like the thing that Apple makes.
1:08:00And it's not like this huge mechanical thing.
1:08:04Right, it is a case which yes, adds bulk and weight,
1:08:07but not too much.
1:08:08It's not crazy, right?
1:08:10Like it's not what the Logitech create does to the 12.9.
1:08:13It doesn't make it heavier than a regular laptop.
1:08:16But I have amazing real keys, you know, keys that feel like real
1:08:21keyboard keys with a media function row and like home button on the
1:08:25keyboard and backlighting with no battery, no Bluetooth.
1:08:29And it also has a pen integrated pencil holder.
1:08:32It's fantastic.
1:08:33Absolutely fantastic.
1:08:35Yep.
1:08:35I agree.
1:08:36So that's my vote.
1:08:38- The listeners, they voted for the iPad Pro 9.7 inch
1:08:42at 27%. - Very tight race
1:08:44over the iPhone 7.
1:08:45- With the iPhone 7 at 24%.
1:08:48- I have a proposal for you.
1:08:51This is shenanigans are happening now.
1:08:53I, if the Logitech Create was in the next category,
1:08:59I would vote for it.
1:09:01- I agree with what, yes,
1:09:06I understand where you're going with this.
1:09:07Because I feel like it doesn't belong in this category this year because these are all Apple products except for it and
1:09:14The other category is all other tech products. I don't think it's gonna win the next category
1:09:19So we could do it, but it still wouldn't be my vote in that category
1:09:23What is wrong with you I know I know we're going with this however, yeah, it does appear in a later category
1:09:31All right. Well, it appears in most life-changing hardware. I think it's the AirPods
1:09:37I think it's got to be the AirPods. As much as I agree with you about that Logitech Create keyboard,
1:09:41one of the things about being a user of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is, as much as I love that product,
1:09:47its surface area makes it a bad match, and its weight makes it a bad match for keyboards,
1:09:54and it's been very hard to find a single keyboard, Federico and I talk about this a lot,
1:10:01a single keyboard that can solve all of the use cases for the big iPad Pro.
1:10:08And I feel like the Logitech Create for the 9.7 nails it.
1:10:12Like, that is the keyboard for that product.
1:10:15- So again, whilst this is my personal winner, I also think AirPods should win this.
1:10:23- All right.
1:10:24- Because AirPods are more general. They're for everyone. This isn't for everyone. This is like
1:10:30a small slice of a niche product.
1:10:34Well, yeah, but so is Audio Hijack. It is our words. We can do whatever we want.
1:10:39And I know where you're going with me. And we'll see. We'll talk about the next category.
1:10:43We'll see if we'll maybe shift it in and do something unprecedented in the upgrade-ies.
1:10:47But I do want the AirPods to win this category, right? Like, I want that to happen. It's just
1:10:52not what I put at the top, just because of the length of time I've had them. But I'm more than
1:10:58than happy for AirPods to win it because they're brilliant. So the upgrade for best Apple related
1:11:04gadget which will probably be renamed next year to best Apple gadget of the year is AirPods.
1:11:12Now we come to best non-Apple gadget so this is just technology at large and the nominees
1:11:17are Canary, the PlayStation VR, the Amazon Echo which is eligible for this list because
1:11:25it was not released outside of the US until 2016.
1:11:30The Kindle Oasis.
1:11:32The Ananova Sous Vide Cooker.
1:11:35The Amazon Echo Dot, which was a 2016 product.
1:11:38The Sonos Play One and the Google Pixel.
1:11:42The Upgradients voted for the Amazon Echo with 31% with the Google Pixel coming in at
1:11:4816% and the Playstation VR of 14%.
1:11:53Where does your vote go?
1:11:55Now you go first this time. I've been going first too much. You go first.
1:11:59PlayStation VR. The PlayStation VR is great hardware with some weirdness. I think version
1:12:052 is going to be even better. But the reason I go for this is, again, I mention it again
1:12:10like I did with Job Simulator. One of the big trends this year, 2016, is virtual reality.
1:12:15And PlayStation VR brings a great VR experience with convenience at a price which is not unobtainable.
1:12:24because I mean yes you need a PlayStation which you know it takes the price of the PlayStation
1:12:29VR and doubles it right so you probably about a thousand dollars in for the whole thing
1:12:35but if you want to get your hands on an Oculus or a Vive there are about seven to eight hundred
1:12:42dollars for the hardware then you need a PC capable of powering it which will run you
1:12:49probably around fifteen hundred and then you have to have a PC in your house which you
1:12:53might not necessarily want. A PlayStation is a lot smaller, can fit in the living room
1:12:59and also unlocks PlayStation games. And the thing is, if you don't have a gaming PC, you
1:13:06probably don't want to play PC games. You're probably good with console games. That's kind
1:13:11of my feeling on this. If I wanted to play PC games, I would already have a PC capable
1:13:16playing them. I want to play console and now I have my PlayStation 4 which I play lots
1:13:20of regular games on and I also have a great VR experience for it as well and I think that
1:13:25PlayStation VR is the most comfortable, I've tried all the headsets, I think it's the most
1:13:29comfortable. I think you know if you're gonna say what is the best one, the Oculus is the
1:13:33best one especially with touch controllers but the PSVR is unlocked with virtual reality
1:13:39in homes where I think there's something like 50, 60 maybe million PlayStation 4s in people's
1:13:45homes already and the current PlayStation 4 will run the PSVR. So it's an investment
1:13:51which people will be willing to make in the holiday season for example. It's expensive
1:13:56but it's not unheard of because it's the cost of a console. It costs how much a games console
1:14:04costs. It doesn't cost four games consoles which is what you'd need for PCVR. So that's
1:14:09where I'm going to go.
1:14:11Myke, Myke, Myke, Myke. Well, this is, you heard my enthusiasm for this category. I've
1:14:17been lobbying to get the Logitech Create keyboard in this category because I would vote for
1:14:21it here.
1:14:22You want to move it?
1:14:23Honestly. Well, it's not going to, if you're not going to go for it then I'm not sure it's
1:14:28worth it. There are some other fine products in this category. My experience with PlayStation
1:14:33VR, I've tried that in the Oculus. My experience is brief, like I said, I used it at Twit.
1:14:39I don't have a PlayStation 4, so for me, I have to buy the console and the VR stuff to
1:14:45do it.
1:14:46So it's, you know.
1:14:47I tell you, if we weren't bringing the Logitech Create keyboard into this category, where
1:14:50would your vote go?
1:14:53I would probably, you know, I would consider the Ananova Sous Vide cooker because that
1:14:59is probably my favorite gadget of the year.
1:15:02It is so like an Apple product.
1:15:03The box is like an Apple product.
1:15:05It's this metal and black plastic and it's got Bluetooth and the new one has Wi-Fi as
1:15:11well and then you cook things with it.
1:15:14But I would probably agitate for the Echo and Echo Dot together because the Echo was
1:15:19new in the UK and the Echo Dot, which lets you attach it to any sort of speaker, was
1:15:24new this year, I believe.
1:15:27And those are both, I'm a fan of the Echo ecosystem and I think Amazon's done some very
1:15:35clever work there that has left Google and Apple and others catching up to them and I
1:15:42like those products a lot. So that would probably, because it's more techy than the sous vide
1:15:47cooker, I would probably be my choice would be to lump those together. I think lumped
1:15:51together those two products end up with like 42% of the upgradians votes too.
1:15:56So, there is no addition of the upgradies without bargaining.
1:16:03true no that's part of the process here most award shows the bargaining happens
1:16:07behind the scenes the eddie awards we had meetings there was bargaining
1:16:10happening there was you're trying to get a majority to come to one thing or
1:16:14another right this the proverbial smoke filled room right well this is it we we
1:16:18do it for you right on the show so here's the bargaining okay I really like
1:16:23my echo but I don't have as much affinity for my echo as I do my
1:16:28Logitech Create keyboard case. I like that more than the Echo because I still have ways
1:16:35to go with the Echo because I've not yet currently got it set up for any home automation stuff.
1:16:40I think if I had my home automation stuff set up, I would probably go with the Echo.
1:16:45Yeah, you will.
1:16:46Should we bring the Create case in?
1:16:48It's fine with me.
1:16:49Let's do it.
1:16:50I think it's a great product.
1:16:51So the Logitech Create keyboard case has its Kanye moment. It's burst into this category
1:16:56and has won in a category it was never even nominated in.
1:17:00Not even nominated, no.
1:17:01Congratulations to the Logitech Create Keyboard Case for the iPad Pro 9.7.
1:17:07You have just won Best None Apple Gadget, and Upgradients Around the World, Shrieking Horror,
1:17:13at what we have just done.
1:17:14Yep.
1:17:15But the Echo is in another category later on.
1:17:19So it can still come away with a win.
1:17:24Now we have a category here which is really interesting and I want to go into it.
1:17:30Which is the worst gadget or most disappointing technology.
1:17:37These are our nominees.
1:17:38The Galaxy Note 7, which you can imagine would be in here, but also the MacBook Pro with
1:17:43Touch Bar, the iPhone 7, the iPad Pro 9.7 and the Apple Watch Series 2.
1:17:48Let's talk about this.
1:17:50Why are all those products in this category?
1:17:52- Well, they came out this year and people,
1:17:55the Apple products, they came out this year
1:17:57and people complain about stuff.
1:18:00So I put those, I mean, you can make an argument
1:18:03about the MacBook Pro.
1:18:04People were clearly disappointed with that.
1:18:07Everybody's always disappointed with the iPhone.
1:18:09I don't even know why.
1:18:11I don't know why people would be disappointed
1:18:12with the iPad Pro 9.7.
1:18:14That's a pretty great product.
1:18:15But again, it was an Apple product
1:18:16that was released this year.
1:18:17And the Apple Watch series too,
1:18:19maybe they wanted something different,
1:18:20shape different features, cellular connections, things like that that it didn't offer. Or
1:18:25they just don't like the Apple Watch because everybody who doesn't like the Apple Watch
1:18:28feels they need to write a column saying, "Yep, I still don't like the Apple Watch."
1:18:31So I thought I would put those in there. Personally, I think that there is only one selection here
1:18:37because of what happened this year.
1:18:39- Yeah, there's only one winner. The Galaxy Note 7 is without a shadow of a doubt the
1:18:44worst gadget release this year because because and I actually watched a great
1:18:49MKBHD video today where he did his smartphone review of the year he said this was
1:18:53probably the best phone release this year yeah but it blew up yeah and this
1:18:59is this is why it's so this is why I like I consider it both the worst gadget
1:19:03and the most disappointing because it went from being the best phone in the
1:19:07year to being a phone you could be put in prison for owning if you happen to
1:19:13have it with you on an airplane. There has never been a a Pekin Valley like that before.
1:19:19What yeah what what a what a story and you know and and and it's got some classic elements
1:19:25too of like the reason it was so cutting edge in so many different ways is because apparently
1:19:31they pushed it faster and further than they than they should have right so it's not like
1:19:37it was oh you know act it's an act of nature caused it to fail what a bad luck for Samsung
1:19:44it's like the the stuff that they did to author this great success were in fact the seeds of its
1:19:50failure but there are a lot of Apple products in here and there's only one of these that I have
1:19:58used that I can see disappointment in and I want to talk about it just a little bit all right I've
1:20:04I've said it in a few places recently, but just while we're on this subject, I just want
1:20:09to touch on the iPhone 7.
1:20:11Okay.
1:20:12I really like my 7 Plus a lot.
1:20:16I like it as much as I like any S revision phone.
1:20:21This wasn't one of those.
1:20:23This is a full-on number change revision.
1:20:26Yeah, except it's really like a double S, it turns out, right?
1:20:29It's like a double S.
1:20:30Which is, I think, from a disappointing perspective, I can understand that.
1:20:34And the reason that I expected more is because Apple set the precedent.
1:20:40They set the precedent, right, of the TikTok model, you know, and they set the precedent
1:20:45of every full numbered phone gets a new design.
1:20:48I was expecting a new design and we didn't get that.
1:20:51And to be honest, we got some stuff, right, we got a better camera.
1:20:56If you're using a Plus, you got an even better camera, right?
1:21:00And we got, it's faster.
1:21:02else did we get? I don't know. There aren't really any other tent pole features. And what
1:21:09happened...
1:21:10Jet black.
1:21:11That doesn't count for me. What happened is we had things taken away, which has never
1:21:18happened before. The headphone jack is gone.
1:21:21Headphone jack, sure.
1:21:23And you know, people say, "Oh, but we got AirPods." But we could have had those anyway.
1:21:26We didn't need the headphone jack to go away to get AirPods.
1:21:31My home button, I really, do you know what, I will say now, I prefer the feel of the four
1:21:36touch home button to the other home buttons that I have in my life.
1:21:39I do too.
1:21:40As I've gotten used to it, I prefer the feeling.
1:21:42But do you know what I lost?
1:21:44I lost a button that was 100% reliable because this one isn't.
1:21:49Sometimes it just doesn't work.
1:21:51And this isn't, you know, I have two things with this.
1:21:53I have one where if you don't make a full contact with it, the capacitive ring doesn't
1:21:57activate.
1:21:58The other is sometimes you press it and the phone just locks up and that didn't happen
1:22:05before and I don't know if this is an iOS 10 thing but I'm going to blame it on the
1:22:08home button.
1:22:10And also, you know, saying how great the camera is, it didn't ship with portrait mode.
1:22:16I think the iPhone 7 was disappointing this year.
1:22:19It is a really good S revision, it is not a really good 4 revision.
1:22:26So I think it was worth mentioning because I mean I don't personally and obviously it's
1:22:33my opinion so I think it's I don't know how you could argue with that.
1:22:35Like I don't really know what it gave us.
1:22:38Well it's Apple's biggest product and they took it from a two-year cycle to a three-year
1:22:42cycle and rather than just never holding an iPhone event in the fall leaving us all to
1:22:47wonder what was happening like they did with many Mac products this year, they had an event
1:22:53and announced a new phone and even called it the new number when in fact what they were
1:22:58really doing was the third year of an existing product cycle rather than doing a new phone
1:23:05design on, you know, every other year.
1:23:07It doesn't make sense to me why they called it the 7. They should have given it a different
1:23:11name. If they wanted to move to the 3 year cycle, which I understand, I think they should
1:23:15have also broken the naming. But I know why they didn't do that because they probably
1:23:19thought that it would harm sales, but I don't know.
1:23:22I just want to say, I really like it. I really like it as much as I love an S-phone. But
1:23:29the thing is about it, the thing that makes it weird for me is that no iPhone has taken
1:23:33things away from me before. But this one really liked doing that this year.
1:23:37And I will only...
1:23:38It got waterproofing. That's the one other thing it got. I will say that it got waterproofing.
1:23:42That's the other feature.
1:23:43I will cite the 20% of our voters who voted for the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I don't
1:23:50think we need to revisit it here, but that it was very interesting that everybody was
1:23:54really unhappy about Apple not talking about the Mac at all. And finally, Apple did a Mac
1:23:59focused event and released new Mac hardware. And the result was controversy and frustration.
1:24:07And I think that there we've covered it in depth. There are many routes to the, uh, the
1:24:13frustration that people have felt in certain parts of the Mac using community about what
1:24:18Apple has done and not done with the Mac before and after releasing this product. There are
1:24:24lots of reasons. It's a complicated situation, but I think you don't have to go very far
1:24:29to say that a lot of people were disappointed in the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. We can
1:24:36argue about rightly or wrongly and who those people are and lots of other things, but you
1:24:41can't argue that it was to some people clearly a big disappointment. And we saw it in our
1:24:47our voting results. But as far as I'm concerned, the rags to riches to rags, whatever, the
1:24:54legendary story of the product with so much name recognition, people are saying it several
1:25:00times on every flight that goes anywhere in the world now, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7,
1:25:07both disappointing as you pointed out, and the worst gadget of 2016.
1:25:12There's never been anything like this before.
1:25:15No, let's hope there never is again.
1:25:17I hope so too, and I hope so for Samsung's sake, that they're able to pull back from
1:25:21this because Apple needs that competition, I think.
1:25:24Oh yeah.
1:25:25Favourite tech story of the year.
1:25:27These are our rundown phenomena of our favourite tech story.
1:25:30Snapchat Spectacles, the Exploding Galaxy Note 7, Apple vs the FBI, Twitter's tumultuous
1:25:372016, the Rise of VR, the Pokemon Go craze, and the elections/Wiki League/Russian Spy
1:25:45Ops.
1:25:46"Debacle"?
1:25:47I don't even know how to group those things together in a phrase, but that's what we have.
1:25:52Listeners voted for Apple vs the FBI as their favorite tech story, and I'm assuming, in
1:25:57the way that I do, this is the thing that you found the most compelling throughout the
1:26:02year.
1:26:04I went first last time, so I'll go first again.
1:26:08Snapshot Spectacles is the thing that really
1:26:12wrapped me up this year.
1:26:14I think it's one of the most interesting introductions
1:26:17of a product that there's been in modern times,
1:26:20in recent times.
1:26:22The way that they dealt with their limited supply problems
1:26:25by putting them in vending machines
1:26:27that appear in random locations
1:26:29has been really interesting to watch unfold.
1:26:32And Snap have created a scarcity thing,
1:26:36which I haven't seen in this way
1:26:38since the Wii was introduced.
1:26:41You know, the idea of like, people just wanting to buy it
1:26:44because there isn't a lot of them.
1:26:46And everything that they've done around it,
1:26:48all of the graphic design,
1:26:51all of the videos that they've made,
1:26:52the way that they're dealing with social media,
1:26:55you know, the way that they announced
1:26:57the positions of the vending machines
1:27:00is random, like, you know, they show like a zoomed out map to show you kind of what
1:27:06city it's going to be in and then just tweet a picture of it in its location and then people
1:27:10have to go find it. Technology products don't do this, but this is a technology product.
1:27:15I think it's been really, really interesting to watch unfold and it's just been something
1:27:19that I've been kind of fascinated in. So that's kind of my vote just because I, this has been
1:27:24a topic that's interested in me enough, I wanted to bring it up here, but I think that
1:27:31I will probably end up siding with you and the Upgradians, because I expect you're going
1:27:36to go the Upgradians route, which would have, which is my second in all honesty.
1:27:40I, I, all right, I, I, I will, I will say without getting into it, maybe we can get
1:27:45into this some other time, but I, I, I, I think the Snapchat Spectacles is one of my
1:27:50least favorite stories. I think it represents in some ways all that is wrong and bad and
1:27:54stupid about the technology industry. I think it's a dumb stunt that we've seen the likes
1:28:01of before. I think the product's not that interesting, so good for them on getting PR
1:28:06out of a product that's not that interesting. I think the company is problematic in a bunch
1:28:10of ways, but you know, maybe I'm just a cranky old man, but I hated that story.
1:28:14So here's the thing, people on my side that hear that say that you're a cranky old man
1:28:21and people on your side that hear my story just think I'm a silly millennial.
1:28:25That's like the, and this is, this is why I think it's a good story because it's so
1:28:28polarizing.
1:28:29Anyhow, Apple versus the FBI?
1:28:32Yeah.
1:28:33What a story, right?
1:28:35Like as far as technology stories go, it's had it all, you know, and it's not over yet.
1:28:42Well, that's that's I think what makes it even more important is that this is this is maybe not the first shot
1:28:48But this is a very notable
1:28:50interaction between technology companies and
1:28:54governments about what information is private to people and what information can be accessed
1:29:02Because the government has decided it wants to read, you know read through your stuff essentially and in the olden days
1:29:09There were laws against unlawful search and seizure.
1:29:14And then on top of that, you had this idea
1:29:16that you couldn't be compelled to give information
1:29:20that was in your own mind, basically.
1:29:23And in a modern context, it's difficult to parse out
1:29:28where we are with those things now.
1:29:31When is access to our cloud data okay?
1:29:36When is, you know, is that an extension of ourselves?
1:29:40Is that an extension of our homes?
1:29:42It threatens the tech industry
1:29:45because so much tech is based on cloud stuff.
1:29:48And if cloud stuff is eventually considered
1:29:52to essentially be entirely public
1:29:55and viewable by governments
1:29:58and potentially bad actors as well,
1:30:00or governments can be bad actors too,
1:30:02but like bad independent actors, criminals and the like,
1:30:05then you've eroded the confidence in the machine
1:30:09that drives so much of technology.
1:30:10So that's in the mix here.
1:30:12Apple's commitment,
1:30:13Apple has a lot of money and a lot of prestige
1:30:17and unlike some of its competitors has a commitment
1:30:20to keeping its customer data private.
1:30:24That's interesting because they end up as a proxy,
1:30:27as a really good proxy for the entire concept
1:30:30of technology being used to ensure people's privacy
1:30:33and how that pushes against the desire of governments and other organizations and actors
1:30:39to want to get access to information, no matter, you know, basically break any lock. And if
1:30:47you create a lock that's impenetrable, what happens next? Do they make the locks illegal?
1:30:52Do they create lock picking equipment that they don't make the public aware of? There's
1:30:57There's so much here and, you know, I gotta say it's not—this is just the beginning
1:31:04of these issues. It will continue and it will continue to be ugly and it could potentially
1:31:11have severe harm for our society and severe harm for our technology.
1:31:16- Let me be clear. I consider this the most interesting tech story of the year. I just
1:31:23really wanted to mention the Snapchat thing.
1:31:25Well, you know what I didn't say there is, "And you, Myke, with your vending machine
1:31:31of sunglasses."
1:31:33I get it.
1:31:35We're representing both sides here, and that's what I was looking for.
1:31:38Absolutely.
1:31:39We have the fun stuff about technology, product releases, and then we have the how it affects
1:31:44all of our lives so deeply now, which I think both me and you—and we're starting from
1:31:50different times, right? But when both me and you became interested in technology,
1:31:54it didn't matter so much. Yeah. Right? Like even me, you know, 15 years ago or
1:32:00whatever was when I really started to get into this stuff, it didn't matter as
1:32:04much. It wasn't so intrinsic to our lives. And now, the Apple versus FBI thing is a
1:32:11is a clear example of how getting access to the technology that I own tells
1:32:16somebody everything about me. Things that I couldn't even tell you, right? Because of how,
1:32:25like, algorithms work. You know, the data on my phone can tell you more about me than I could
1:32:33possibly tell you. And that's super interesting. So, yeah, that's what I'm gonna say on that one.
1:32:42- No, I think that's exactly right.
1:32:45I was thinking the other day that, you know,
1:32:47there was a time where we would be on the internet
1:32:51and we would be like, yeah, you know,
1:32:53trolls on the internet, commenters on the internet,
1:32:55people say dumb stuff on the internet, whatever,
1:32:57it's just something you deal with.
1:32:58But once everybody has the internet,
1:33:00that stuff that you used to be like,
1:33:03ah, you know, it happens, people, what you're gonna do?
1:33:05Things I learned like on Usenet in the like late 80s
1:33:09and early 90s suddenly are enough to affect like the direction of countries because now
1:33:17it's magnified because it's everybody when before it was just a few people in the basement
1:33:21of a college campus somewhere and yeah that's what a world we live in.
1:33:25So we're now on to favorite tech screw-up of the year which is a great category name
1:33:31I know and these are our nominees. Apple tweets all of the iPhone 7 announcements early.
1:33:38Samsung Galaxy Note 7, just that's it.
1:33:43I mean, what do you want?
1:33:45Twitter releases experimental features early to iOS clients.
1:33:49Facebook fake news and Apple disbands the AppleScript airport teams and gets out of
1:33:54the display business.
1:33:55So let's talk about these.
1:33:56If you remember for the September event, you didn't see this because you were in the room.
1:34:00Apple had kind of clearly done a deal with Twitter, clearly done a deal with them because
1:34:05they set up this account which had these ads and then it had that thing which will remind
1:34:09you when the event was coming but none of the tweets were showing and then what some
1:34:13of the tweets that were clearly meant to be ads for the iPhone 7 just started being tweeted
1:34:19from the @Apple account as the event was beginning before anything was announced. So if you were
1:34:25watching at home you knew every single feature of the iPhone 7 before Apple showed it.
1:34:31Yep.
1:34:32Categorical disaster for both companies.
1:34:36Which if we see, I mean as you can see, didn't happen in October.
1:34:41I don't think that's ever going to happen again because Twitter totally ruined this.
1:34:46I assume that it was on Twitter's side.
1:34:48Somebody was scheduling this and doing it for them and just absolutely destroyed it.
1:34:53All their tools weren't good enough or whatever.
1:34:55Galaxy Note 7 is obvious.
1:34:57I mean and again like 59% of the upgrading vote.
1:35:00If you put this in any of these types of categories, it's going to walk with it.
1:35:03But going back to Twitter again, they've done this a few times this year where they think
1:35:07they class...
1:35:08This is why I think it's so terrible.
1:35:10Things come out to the Twitter app.
1:35:12People think that it's an abomination and shouldn't be done this way, like removing
1:35:16the names from @mentions so it just looks like a random tweet when it's actually to
1:35:20somebody.
1:35:21And then Twitter say, "Oh, it was an experimental feature we weren't supposed to release."
1:35:25So it's terrible on both sides.
1:35:26they did do that which is ridiculous or they're using such a terrible excuse to
1:35:30try and cover up a product decision that everybody hated which shows that they
1:35:34have fundamental misunderstanding of how their product should be working.
1:35:37Facebook fake news there are a lot of political stuff I don't want to get into
1:35:42but Facebook seems to have a fake news problem which they are struggling to get
1:35:48under control either from a policy perspective or from a technology
1:35:51perspective and then Apple got out of a lot of businesses this year or looks
1:35:56like they're going to. Right. This is my pointed way of putting this in the
1:36:00screw-up category. Yeah. Right? Apple getting rid of the AppleScript team and
1:36:05airport teams and saying they're not gonna make any more displays on their
1:36:08own. I think people could argue that those are our bad moves for Apple. I
1:36:12don't know if I would necessarily across the board but you know I think it's
1:36:15worth being a nominee here. Whether you think that's a bad move or a good move
1:36:20there isn't anything to say that good has come out of this. That could be the
1:36:26screw up, right? Like, in a year where we've been upset, there isn't anything to say like,
1:36:32"Oh, it was a good reason to get those people in other teams." You know, maybe next year
1:36:37we'll see the fruits of that, but this year we haven't. It's like, "Okay, you got out
1:36:40of all these businesses, but what have you given us in return?" You know, nothing. Galaxy
1:36:46Note 7, right?
1:36:47I think it has to be, although I was going to throw in a late, a late edition here, a
1:36:51late nominee. I was thinking about this and I thought you could argue that one
1:36:56that potentially the biggest tech screw-up of the year was the bad email
1:37:01practices and clicking on phishing links that led to all of the hacks of the
1:37:11Democratic National Committee that got leaked by WikiLeaks and that the
1:37:16screw-up was all of the bad security practices that led to it. I was thinking
1:37:24about that. I'm not sure I want to vote for that one either but that was a huge
1:37:27tech screw-up that had a major effect on the election. Yeah, I just talked about
1:37:33your tech screw-ups. It's like literally, you know, IT people everywhere just
1:37:37facepalming, right? When the whole story came out about how this
1:37:40all happened. It was like a lot of this was not super high-tech.
1:37:44No, just real super simple phishing stuff.
1:37:47Yeah, some social engineering, some really dumb things that people weren't supposed to
1:37:53click on. And this is a case where again, you have, I mean, there's so much of the intersection
1:37:58with tech and politics, what you realize is the people involved in politics don't understand
1:38:02tech. Also the people who understand tech don't understand politics a lot of the time.
1:38:07And you see it here where they're not speaking the same language and you've got people who
1:38:11or tech knowledgeable people who look at this and go,
1:38:13I can't believe that these people did this,
1:38:16but they didn't, you know, they did.
1:38:18They didn't have the support to do it.
1:38:19I think it's gotta be a Galaxy Note, right?
1:38:21I mean, it just across the board.
1:38:23What a year, what a story.
1:38:25- It's, yeah, it's just cleaning up this year,
1:38:28the Galaxy Note 7.
1:38:29This was where my 100% vote was going.
1:38:31Like I wanted to throw the iPhone in there
1:38:33and see where the votes went.
1:38:35But for me, the Galaxy Note was always getting this.
1:38:38I guess 60% of our of our upgrading in votes.
1:38:42Yeah, because look at it.
1:38:45Favourite tech podcast is sponsored by Casper, the company focused on sleep that has created
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1:39:42The mattress combines springy latex and supportive memory foam to create the mattress that has
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1:39:48Plus its breathable design helps you regulate your temperature throughout the night.
1:39:52Casper deliver their mattresses in a box.
1:39:55This is a box that you can actually get upstairs.
1:39:58Mattresses are difficult to maneuver around staircases.
1:40:01Casper mattresses can be done.
1:40:02I mean it's still as heavy as a mattress in the box, but it basically means that two people
1:40:07can easily do it without trying to re-enact that scene from the Friends episode with the
1:40:12pivot thing.
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1:40:14You don't have to be it.
1:40:15You don't have to shout pivot over and over again with a Casper mattress.
1:40:19And their delivery is free, but it's also risk-free as well because with Casper you
1:40:25will get a 100 night home trial.
1:40:27If you don't love it, you can return it for free, in so much as they will come and pick
1:40:31it up from you and then refund it. They want you to truly sleep and live with this mattress
1:40:36before you truly commit to keeping it for the next 10, 20, 30 years even. So you get
1:40:43that 100 night home trial with Casper. You can get $50 towards any mattress purchase
1:40:48by visiting casper.com/upgrade and using the code upgrade at checkout. Terms and conditions
1:40:53apply. Thank you so much to Casper for their support of the third annual Upgrady Awards.
1:41:00The nominations for favorite tech podcast are The Talk Show, The Accidental Tech Podcast,
1:41:08Cortex, Connected, Control Vault Delete, Clockwise, Rocket, Six Colors Secret Subscriber Podcast,
1:41:19We didn't put upgrade in here because obviously upgrade would win.
1:41:24That's why upgrade's not in the list.
1:41:25Because if upgrade was in the list, it would always win.
1:41:29Always win.
1:41:30unfair. A little bit yeah a little bit tiny bit. So I'm gonna throw mine in now.
1:41:36Now. Okay. The accidental tech podcast has won the upgrade II two years in a row. I
1:41:44love ATP. I love all of the hosts of ATP. But I wanted to throw a spanner in the
1:41:51works this year. Okay. It received 48% of the upgrade in vote. Yep. It's probably
1:41:57probably gonna win again. But I wanted to take a moment to talk about what is probably
1:42:04my favourite tech podcast at the moment, which is the Six Colors Secret Subscriber podcast.
1:42:10I am being truly honest here, it is the only tech podcast that I subscribe to that when
1:42:16I see the push notification from overcast, I go "ooh" and bump it to the top of my
1:42:20you. Obviously I like listening to Jason Snell talk about technology because I wanted to
1:42:28do a show with you, right? And you and Dan Morin together obviously have a really great
1:42:33chemistry and the thing about the Secret Subscriber podcast, which by the way you have to be a
1:42:40Six Colors member to be a part of and in the show notes when you click the link for the
1:42:45Six Colors Secret Subscriber podcast it will take you to the
1:42:48Member page for Six Colors where if you sign up, which you should you will get a link for the RSS feed
1:42:54So you can listen to the to the Six Colors show
1:42:56It's the relaxed nature that I like a lot of technology podcasts
1:43:02I listen to including the ones that I am on they tend to be
1:43:05Very
1:43:10high in
1:43:13I'm trying to think of a way to say it but it's like
1:43:15It's just not as relaxed. Yeah, they're just no
1:43:19They know they're doing a show and they're formatted and they've got a schedule and they've got they've got segments and a theme
1:43:25Different because it's like it's not I mean, you know, you can tell me from but doesn't feel tightly edited
1:43:31It feels a little bit more like the shows that I used to listen to and just as the industry has matured
1:43:38The things that come out on top tend to be the stuff that is really thought out, really considered, really edited for good reason, right?
1:43:46Because it tends to be stuff of a higher quality. But now the secret subscriber podcast is like a breath of fresh air from what I'm used to.
1:43:53And so whilst I will say that ATP is probably the best technology focused podcast around.
1:44:01Other than upgrade and yes connected and cortex and clockwise, of course and rocket, you know
1:44:09But whatever I can't cast my votes for any show that I'm a part of and/or is on my network
1:44:15I feel like I can't do that because that's clear bias
1:44:18But I love the secret colors secrets subscriber podcast the secret colors as well. It's a long name. It's a very an extra color
1:44:26Yeah, I can't tell you what it is. It's secret. What's your vote?
1:44:29Well, you just made it impossible for me to vote for myself
1:44:32Which is too bad because I could totally just pick the six color secret subscriber podcast and it would be the winner
1:44:37Right good, and it would win
1:44:38I mean you can still do that, but I can't vote from I feel like I can't vote for myself
1:44:42But you just recused yourself. So that makes me look bad if I do that
1:44:45So I thought about this and I I'm gonna go with ATP
1:44:49there are only a couple of podcasts that I listen to every episode of and I listen to them when they come out and
1:44:56ATP is one of them. That is my go-to technology podcast even now. It is a great bit of chemistry between those guys
1:45:02I will admit that this fall has been a little bit rough because
1:45:07Marco is unhappy with things and it comes across and he and John's unhappy with things too
1:45:15and I and they have every right to be unhappy and what I don't want to say is
1:45:19That I only want shiny happy podcasts, right because it's like no I
1:45:25I am listening for all of that, but I also will admit that every now and then they get
1:45:31stuck on something, and I love it because usually you can hear Casey sighing in the
1:45:34background. It's hilarious. Every now and then they get stuck on something that they
1:45:40can't let go, that bugs them, and for me as a listener I'm like, "Okay, I get it. Okay,
1:45:48I get it." And you know what? Chapter markers, that marker wrote a tool with chapter markers
1:45:53in it, I can just move past those things. But I didn t used to do that, and this fall
1:45:57there have been occasions where I m like, Yeah, okay, I ve heard enough about this,
1:46:00and I will go ahead. But still, you know, it doesn t change the fact that that s the
1:46:04one I listen to every episode of, and it s always a high priority of all of them. And
1:46:11I pick and choose through all of the other tech podcasts here and there. As a non-commuter,
1:46:16I don t have the luxury of having a lot of podcast time, and ATP is the one I make time
1:46:20for. So yeah. So I agree right? I subscribe to mostly technology podcasts. ATP is the
1:46:26only show that I will listen to every... except for the Secret Subscriber podcast as well
1:46:30actually but ATP is the only show that I will listen to always even when it's like two and
1:46:35a half hours right? Like I'll push everything else aside. Absolutely. ATP is the show that
1:46:40I want to listen to the most. The reason I chose the Secret podcast this year is I didn't
1:46:46want every vote for the last three years for me and you to be for ATP.
1:46:51It's a little Soviet isn't it? Yeah and and it's gonna win again and so for the third year in a row
1:46:57ATP takes the upgradey for the best technology podcast. So I will just say to the hosts of that
1:47:06show it's about darn time that the upgradey appeared on your website. That's all I'm gonna say.
1:47:12I have great artwork files. You're a three-time winner now. It's time to recognize the award,
1:47:20is all I'm gonna say. Just a little follow-up in the next episode. I will give you the artwork.
1:47:25You can put it in as a chapter. It's got to appear somewhere now. You've won it three years in a row,
1:47:29that's what I'm gonna say. All right, well done. Favorite non-tech podcast. This is the category
1:47:35with the most nominees. It's as follows. The Flophouse. The Incomparable. Reconcilable
1:47:42differences, Hello Internet, Presidents are People 2, Hello from the Magic Tavern,
1:47:47the Pausecast, Audio Guide to Babylon 5 and Serial Season 2. Where is your vote?
1:47:55Well I put in a lot of ones that I wanted to show some love to especially
1:47:59the Pausecast which is a podcast where they draft things which you know you
1:48:04know me and drafting things. Hello from the Magic Tavern has really risen up
1:48:10this year. It's not quite at the top level. I'm sort of digging through the back catalog,
1:48:18but I really do love that podcast a whole lot. Definitely recommend it to people. But
1:48:23I have to say I'm boring. The Flop House, like ATP, those are the two podcasts that
1:48:28I listen to immediately upon receipt. And every episode all the way through, The Flop
1:48:33House for sure is still my favorite podcast of all time.
1:48:37Hello Internet took the popular vote at 40.6%.
1:48:41- Unsurprising.
1:48:42- Did Hello Internet win one year?
1:48:44- I think it didn't because in the first year
1:48:48I think you and I were at odds over the flop house.
1:48:52- And I think I gave it to you, didn't I?
1:48:53- And I think you gave it to me.
1:48:54- And then in year two, I then started listening.
1:48:57- I converted you.
1:48:59- Right, so Hello Internet takes the popular vote.
1:49:00- That's how it works.
1:49:01- With, aloha, Flop House coming in at second,
1:49:04reconcilable differences coming in at third it's gonna be a three time.
1:49:10Yeah you're going with a flop house? I'm going with a flop house. The flop house
1:49:12was my pick. No podcast makes me happier. I know it just makes me laugh and smile
1:49:18I love those guys. I listen to old episodes of the flop house every time I
1:49:23get on the airplane for some reason it's only it's the only podcast I can listen
1:49:27to one airplane. I don't know why but I I just again so there are the secret
1:49:35subscriber podcast and the flophouse are the only two shows that I will stop
1:49:40whatever show I'm listening to and listen to that one. Interesting. So they
1:49:45will cut in over anything. The flophouse is just a delight and I would say to our
1:49:51listeners if you haven't yet tried it try it just try it just my advice to you
1:49:58is go through and find some movies that you've seen and listen to those ones
1:50:05that's how I started interesting it worked I mean because there are people
1:50:09that listen to specific episodes because they're going to the head but they're
1:50:14funniest if you already know the flop house I think no that's how I started I
1:50:18I started with like Cowboys and Aliens and Limitless.
1:50:25They are the two that I started with as well actually.
1:50:27Oh yeah?
1:50:28Cowboys and Aliens and Limitless.
1:50:29Go through, find some movies, I got a big catalog, find some that you've seen.
1:50:33Because then you already come to the show knowing something, which is the movie.
1:50:37And I think that helps a lot.
1:50:39Yeah.
1:50:40Favorite podcast newcomer.
1:50:42Ah, that's a good one.
1:50:43This is a new show in 2016 and we have Dubai Friday.
1:50:47Mixed Feelings, Emoji Rap, Ungeniust, Presentable, Six Colors Secret Subscriber Podcast, Buffering
1:50:55the Vampire Slayer, and Jonah Carey, the Jonah Carey Podcast.
1:50:59So Dubai Friday is a great show with Merlin Mann, Max Temkin, and Alex Cox, which kind
1:51:06of grew out of their show, which was not about Top Chef, but was supposed to be about Top
1:51:10Chef.
1:51:11And Dubai Friday is, they call it a weekly challenge podcast.
1:51:13They have a thing they have to do every week, and then they talk about the way that they
1:51:18deal with that.
1:51:19Mixed Feelings is a new show to relay FM that I really love and we're really proud of, and
1:51:23it's kind of our biggest topic diversion that we've been on.
1:51:25It is a show mostly about news and politics, and it is hosted by two new podcast hosts
1:51:33as well, which we're really happy about that we got to bring a couple of maybe unheard
1:51:37voices in, and they are Quinn Rose and Gillian Parker.
1:51:40And they are a great team.
1:51:42And the show is really entertaining.
1:51:44And it is the way that I learn about the outside world.
1:51:48Emoji wrap, friend of the show, Jeremy Burge started a podcast about emoji.
1:51:53And it is surprisingly good, right?
1:51:57Because a podcast about emoji, can that be good?
1:52:02But yes, Jeremy is very talented.
1:52:04And he makes it good.
1:52:06"Ungeniused", which is a show that I am on, which got the popular vote with 32%.
1:52:12Now I will say "Upgradients", thank you for that.
1:52:15I honestly didn't expect that.
1:52:18And that means a lot to me and I'm sure it will mean a lot to Steven because that is
1:52:22a big chunk of the vote.
1:52:25And "Ungeniused" is what I call a podcast snack.
1:52:27The episodes are typically never longer than 15 minutes.
1:52:32And the one that we put out for Festivus, which was a lot of fun.
1:52:34you should go and listen to that, Jason makes a cameo.
1:52:38It is a show that me and Steven are trying to push outside
1:52:41of our regular boundaries with,
1:52:42which is why we do fun things with it.
1:52:45- It's a good show.
1:52:46- Presentable is Jeff Veen's show.
1:52:47I sometimes can't get my head around the fact
1:52:50that Jeff Veen is a host on Relay FM.
1:52:52Kind of makes my mind melt a little bit.
1:52:56It's a great show about design.
1:52:57We've been over the Secret subscriber podcast.
1:53:00I don't know the next two.
1:53:02- Buffering the Vampire Slayer is a new podcast
1:53:04where two women, one who is really deep down into it
1:53:09and one of whom is sort of coming at it fairly fresh,
1:53:11rewatch "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" from the beginning.
1:53:15And it is my favorite.
1:53:16- It may be one of the best podcast titles
1:53:18I've seen in a long time.
1:53:20- It's a great title, they got great art.
1:53:22It's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
1:53:24is my favorite TV show of all time.
1:53:26And, and one of the two hosts is a music artist
1:53:33and she composes a song about the contents
1:53:37of every episode at the end.
1:53:40And in fact, if you search on iTunes or Apple Music,
1:53:43you can find they finished the first season
1:53:46and released an album of all the songs
1:53:48from the first season,
1:53:49but they're also at the end of the podcast episodes.
1:53:51- I kind of wish now that I'd watched "Buffy"
1:53:54just so I can listen to this show.
1:53:56- Well, if you ever wanna give it a try,
1:53:59the beauty of it is you can watch
1:54:01and listen to a podcast about the episode you just saw.
1:54:04- It's a big commitment though, man.
1:54:05- It's true.
1:54:07- What's Jonah Carey?
1:54:09- Jonah Carey is a sports writer.
1:54:10He used to be a business writer.
1:54:12He actually worked with my friend, Philip Michaels.
1:54:15And I think maybe with Lisa Schmeiser too
1:54:16at Investors Business Daily.
1:54:19But he's a baseball writer.
1:54:20He's from Montreal.
1:54:22He wrote a great book about the Montreal Expos
1:54:23and a really good book about the Tampa Bay Rays.
1:54:25And it's sort of like almost a sequel to Moneyball
1:54:28in some ways.
1:54:29And he has a podcast now on the Bill Simmons Podcast Network.
1:54:34So that's his new home.
1:54:37And it's good.
1:54:38He interviews a lot of people, a lot of sports people.
1:54:40There's some entertainment stuff in there too.
1:54:42And Joan is just a really smart, good guy.
1:54:44And I like everything he does.
1:54:45And that's a good podcast for like a sampling
1:54:48of baseball stuff, which I like and some other stuff too.
1:54:52And he did a great podcast with one of the announced
1:54:55for the Giants where they basically,
1:54:57after a game was over,
1:54:58They just sat down in the booth for like an hour
1:55:00and talked about sports stuff.
1:55:02And it was great because Jonah knows people
1:55:04and has great access and is a smart guy.
1:55:06So I wanted to nominate that.
1:55:07That's a new one that I really have loved this year.
1:55:10- And what's your vote?
1:55:11- Favorite podcast, I gotta say my vote
1:55:16goes to buffering the vampire Slayer.
1:55:17I really love that.
1:55:18That is a fun entertainment.
1:55:20That's a good TV watch podcast.
1:55:22And there are ways to do that well
1:55:24and ways to do that badly.
1:55:25And they do it well.
1:55:28Then we're back in this realm. I'm going with Dubai Friday. I love Dubai Friday. I love
1:55:36the premise and I love that most of the show tends to not be about the premise.
1:55:40Yeah.
1:55:41Because I was a Top Scallops listener. I'd never seen an episode of Top Chef.
1:55:44Yeah. And I think it's great that they've got this premise now because I didn't listen
1:55:48to Top Scallops because even though I wanted like a podcast with Marlon Mann and Max Temkin,
1:55:53sounds great, but it was about Top Chef and I aggressively do not care about Top Chef.
1:55:59So I just blew past it, even when people said, "Oh, it's not really about that." It's like,
1:56:03"Yeah, whatever." And I never got to it. So when they changed it to do by Friday, basically,
1:56:08that's a great idea. And Alex Cox is great. I had...
1:56:11- She's fantastic.
1:56:12- I met her briefly at XOXO, but I got to spend a little more time with her at UHL,
1:56:18And then we had her on Clockwise and she is fantastic.
1:56:21And so that is an extra little bonus.
1:56:24And I like the idea of you have to do something, you have to perform a task.
1:56:28It's a great thing.
1:56:29It's a great name.
1:56:30Great premise.
1:56:31So I don't know where we go with this.
1:56:33Well, let's give it to Dubai Friday.
1:56:35That's a great one.
1:56:36Awesome.
1:56:37I was kind of hoping you'd say we'd go with the audience vote so I would win an upgrade.
1:56:40But nevertheless, Dubai Friday is where we will go.
1:56:44So at least I get my pick as the winner.
1:56:45So Dubai Friday is our favorite podcast newcomer.
1:56:49I'm really happy about this because it's a show that if you haven't listened to you should
1:56:54and start from the start because there aren't that many episodes.
1:56:57It's really, really brilliant.
1:56:59And I love it a lot because I have great respect for the three people that host that show.
1:57:04And as a trio, they work really, really well together.
1:57:06So you should go and check it out.
1:57:08I'm not bitter at all.
1:57:11Life-changing hardware is our final category for the upgrades of this year and the nominees
1:57:18are as follows.
1:57:19The Canary home security system, the Logitech create keyboard case for the iPad Pro, the
1:57:25PlayStation VR, the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot and the soundbot Bluetooth Shower Speaker.
1:57:36The soundbot Bluetooth Shower Speaker, Jason knew was so obscure that when he put it in
1:57:41our original nominations document, he included a link to Amazon so I could go and see.
1:57:46Yes. Uh-huh.
1:57:47I want to know about this because I want a Bluetooth shower speaker, so I'm hoping you
1:57:50can tell me this thing's so amazing, I'll just go buy it.
1:57:52Well, we mentioned him several times, I'm going to mention him again, and we've said
1:57:55on past shows that, you know, you talk to Marco and you buy things. This is a Marco
1:58:00Arment recommendation.
1:58:01Oh, if it's a Marco recommendation and you're recommending it, then I'm buying it right
1:58:06now.
1:58:07this dumb, cheap Bluetooth speaker that's waterproof
1:58:10or water resistant, it's got a suction cup on it,
1:58:12you charge it via this dumb, you know,
1:58:15it's like a mini jack thing,
1:58:17but then it's got a little gasket over it.
1:58:19And it, but the battery lasts quite a while.
1:58:21And the best part about it is, you know,
1:58:24when you take a shower, you just stick it to the inside
1:58:27of the, you know, the glass or on tile
1:58:29or wherever in the shower.
1:58:31And instead of, I used to listen to podcasts in the shower
1:58:34and I had a speaker, actually a play one on the outside.
1:58:39And I would crank it up so that I could hear the voices
1:58:42clearly on the inside.
1:58:43And my house isn't that big, the walls are kind of thin.
1:58:46You basically could hear the podcast in the entire house
1:58:48while I was taking a shower.
1:58:50And now I have this little speaker
1:58:52and the way it works is actually it fires downward.
1:58:55So you stick it on the glass or the tile or whatever,
1:58:59and it plays and it bounces it off that surface
1:59:04'cause it bounces it down and then it comes back out.
1:59:06And it's got little waterproof buttons on the front
1:59:08so you can make it louder, you can skip, you can pause,
1:59:11you can do all of those things and it's great.
1:59:14It really is, it is a life-changing bit of hardware
1:59:18because now I can listen to my podcast
1:59:20at a more reasonable volume and they're clearer
1:59:23because the speaker is right by my ear
1:59:25instead of through a pane of glass
1:59:28in an echoing through, sitting above the toilet,
1:59:31echoing through the bathroom.
1:59:33So it's, I know it's silly,
1:59:35but I think it counts as life-changing hardware.
1:59:37- So my vote in this is the Canary home security system,
1:59:41because it's the piece of technology
1:59:43that's made the biggest impact to my life this year,
1:59:46because it gives me peace of mind
1:59:47about the state of my home.
1:59:49And it really does.
1:59:52You know, I've kind of, I don't know why,
1:59:53but I've just gotten into a little bit of a phase
1:59:56where whenever I was leaving the house,
1:59:58I was concerned about the house.
2:00:00Maybe this is part of adulthood, I don't know.
2:00:04Just as I started to own more things in the world,
2:00:06I started to get more thoughts about those things,
2:00:10something happening to them.
2:00:12And the Canary will not only alert me
2:00:15when it finds something weird going on,
2:00:18I can also just check in on the house whenever I want
2:00:20for live video feed.
2:00:22Honestly, it's basically a flawless technology product
2:00:26for what I needed to do.
2:00:27I've never had a problem with it, not once.
2:00:29I've just moved home and it was fine
2:00:32and it just understood everything.
2:00:33All I needed to do was just change the address
2:00:35so the Canary knew where it was
2:00:36and it was like nothing had ever happened.
2:00:38It's just fantastic.
2:00:40- I like a lot of things about it.
2:00:41I used a drop cam for a long time
2:00:43and the advantage of the Canary is I think actually
2:00:46that it has this sort of cylinder,
2:00:49you can plop it somewhere.
2:00:51It's field of view isn't as good
2:00:52as some of the other products are, but it's not bad.
2:00:55It's got some other sensors in it.
2:00:58I wish it was more integrated
2:01:00with other like third-party smart home stuff.
2:01:02And they seem to be opening that up now,
2:01:04but for a while it was kind of only kind of on its own.
2:01:07But it's a good product.
2:01:09I use that now.
2:01:10That's my, instead of the drop cam,
2:01:12that's the one that I use.
2:01:13Like when we go on vacation, I turn it on.
2:01:15I leave it plugged in, but in privacy mode.
2:01:17And then when we go on vacation, I flip the switch
2:01:19and I've got their video of events
2:01:23when there's movement in the house and stuff like that.
2:01:25- Big, big fan of it.
2:01:27So the upgradians went with the Echo at 45% of the vote.
2:01:32- I know, right?
2:01:34- And I'm happy to go that way.
2:01:37- I am too.
2:01:38I think that that's a great choice.
2:01:40We talked about it earlier
2:01:41when we were talking about the Amazon Echo and the Echo Dot,
2:01:43which adds some more flexibility
2:01:45and the good job that Amazon has done with that ecosystem.
2:01:49I, you know, the things I wish it did that it doesn't do yet, but Amazon has been rolling
2:01:53on new features all the time, which is impressed, which impresses me. I wish it was easier to
2:01:57make a simple web service for the Amazon Echo at basic. Basically, if there's something
2:02:02that you a web, a data source somewhere that you want to point at the Echo so that you
2:02:07can ask it a question, it'll read the data. You kind of can't do that. You have to build
2:02:10a whole web app using Amazon's app platform and all of that. And that needs to change.
2:02:16They need to provide some sort of easier system than that.
2:02:21But it's early days yet,
2:02:22and I'm sure that they'll get there.
2:02:24- Yeah, I like my Echo for the things that I use it for,
2:02:27but I know that I've not unlocked its full potential yet,
2:02:29and it's something that I'm planning on doing,
2:02:31so I know it's only gonna make a bigger impact on my life
2:02:33as things go forward.
2:02:34Like, IFTTT just launched in the UK for Echo.
2:02:38- Ah-hah.
2:02:39- So I've already done something now
2:02:40where I can give an audible cue to arm my Canary.
2:02:45- Oh yeah, I have that for my, you know,
2:02:48the lights outside the house,
2:02:49and for the lights in the garage,
2:02:51and I've got that for my dehumidifier, like Merlin,
2:02:55I now have a Alexa controlled dehumidifier.
2:02:59- What I also really like about the IFTTT stuff
2:03:03is you don't have to say,
2:03:04like it doesn't have to be on the Canary,
2:03:06you can give it a name.
2:03:08So like at the end it lets the name technology,
2:03:10so we call our Canary Buster,
2:03:12because you can bust any crimes.
2:03:14So I just say like, I say, "Hey Cylinder,
2:03:19"Arm trigger."
2:03:21So you have to say, "Trigger Arm Buster."
2:03:23And it would do it.
2:03:24- It's awesome. - Yeah, I love it.
2:03:26I really like it.
2:03:26So that is the end of the upgrade-ies for this year.
2:03:30It has been a blockbuster year.
2:03:32The third annual upgrade-ies are over.
2:03:35I'm hoping this year somebody will display the artwork.
2:03:38We did get it last year.
2:03:39I think Ferrite. - We did.
2:03:41Ferrite put the upgradeees artwork on their site.
2:03:46If you are the winner of an upgradeee,
2:03:48we have artwork for you.
2:03:50And we've got many treatments of the artwork
2:03:55and it's, you know.
2:03:57- Yeah, it's available.
2:03:59Call us, contact us. - It's there, it's there.
2:04:00It's available, call us and we'll help you out.
2:04:02- Yeah.
2:04:03- But I have gotta say that allowing the upgradeees in
2:04:07as the voting, I think it's been a big success, actually.
2:04:10I agree. I think they did a good job. I will overlook the Rogue One thing because
2:04:15we stuck something in there by changing a category. I feel like everyone's at level
2:04:21now. We all did something wrong today and we can all think about it again for next time.
2:04:26We can think about the things we might want to change. Thank you so much for listening
2:04:30to this episode of Upgrade, the third annual Upgradey Awards. If you want to find all of
2:04:37the links that we've spoken about.
2:04:38All of the, every single thing today has been put in the show notes for you.
2:04:42Every nominee.
2:04:43So you can go and check them all out for yourself and you can go and find that
2:04:47at relay.fm/upgrade/122.
2:04:53That is where you will find the links for the upgrades.
2:04:57Oh, and by the way, happy new year to you.
2:04:59Yeah.
2:04:59Happy new year, everyone.
2:05:00We'll be back next time.
2:05:02Until then, say goodbye, Jason Snell.
2:05:04Goodbye, Jason Snell.
2:05:06It felt special enough, right? The upgrade is?
2:05:08It did, yeah it did.
2:05:09I did hope this was going to be the one.
2:05:11[LAUGHTER]
2:05:13[MUSIC PLAYING]
2:05:16[ Music ]