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Upgrade

111: I Keep Moving the Goalposts

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:08   From Relay FM, this is Upgrade, episode 111.

00:00:13   Today's show is brought to you by Freshbooks and the Nuisance Committee.

00:00:17   Please stay tuned after the show for a special message about the 2016 presidential election.

00:00:22   My name is Myke Hurley, I am joined by Mr Jason Snell.

00:00:25   Hi Myke, how's it going?

00:00:27   Very well, Mr. Snow, I'm ready to upgrade my week.

00:00:30   Good. Well, that's how we start here. We go early in the week so that your week is nice

00:00:37   and upgraded for... I don't know how that works. Yes.

00:00:41   And dear listeners, dear Upgradians, you only have a matter of a few days left to upgrade

00:00:46   your wardrobe. There will once again be links in the show notes to the Cotton Bureau t-shirts

00:00:51   and Teespring t-shirts and merchandise. These are ending between, we have different ending

00:00:58   dates unfortunately for different campaigns, basically make sure that your order is in

00:01:01   before Friday the 21st of October to ensure that you get either one of the amazing upgrade

00:01:08   logo t-shirts, the Brain Ball t-shirts or the upgrade hoodie. We have US and EU shipping

00:01:16   for certain items, all the links will be in the show notes. This is your warning if you

00:01:21   do not get them in before the next episode you will miss out on this amazing merchandise.

00:01:27   Exactly. Everybody out there in iMessage land can rejoice

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00:02:27   be a link in the show notes so you can go and get the Relay FM app on the App Store.

00:02:31   Jason, a little bit of Twitter follow-up. So we've been following Twitter's potential

00:02:36   buyout or sale and there is an article on The Verge this week basically stating that

00:02:42   It seems that everybody who was rumored to potentially be interested in buying Twitter

00:02:48   has effectively pulled themselves out, including the Salesforce CEO, who is Mark Benioff, who

00:02:56   told the Financial Times that the company has walked away.

00:03:00   So they explicitly said that they're not interested, and The Verge's sources at various companies

00:03:06   that seem to be interested like Google or Disney or Apple, Twitter could buy themselves.

00:03:14   They've basically said that everyone is seeming to say, "No, we are not interested in this."

00:03:18   So as it stands right now, nobody wants to buy Twitter.

00:03:21   The Salesforce thing is interesting too because that's a case where it sounds like major investors

00:03:25   in Salesforce basically went to Marc Benioff and were like, "No, don't do that." And he

00:03:30   was like, "Well, we were just investigating." And they're like, "Well, stop." And he's like,

00:03:34   okay we'll stop. The only, it's interesting because then you know what happens if a company

00:03:40   wants to be bought out and nobody wants to buy them and I found a post that I think somebody

00:03:48   linked to me on Twitter that is from somebody writing on his own blog but it's an investor

00:03:57   essentially suggesting that what most likely will happen is that a strategic buyer will

00:04:07   come in, like private equity might come in and buy out Twitter, and his argument is that

00:04:15   what he calls a "Wall Street bastard" will come in and improve the product and cut the

00:04:22   the expenses and this guy, John Hempton, who wrote this, basically says there's a business

00:04:28   here, somebody who's an investor will see that there's a good business to be had here

00:04:32   by changing what it is and cutting a lot of people and making changes and that's the most

00:04:39   likely scenario is that especially as Twitter's stock falls in a moment of like people stopping

00:04:46   the anticipation of a buyout that somebody could come in with private money and buy it

00:04:51   and take it over and make some huge changes to it. This guy who wrote this blog post also

00:04:57   hates Jack Dorsey and thinks that he is a fashion plate who doesn't actually care about

00:05:04   it. I don't know how realistic this is but I think as the stock gets depressed because

00:05:10   everybody realizes that there's nobody out there who actually wants to buy Twitter, then

00:05:14   that's when somebody will buy Twitter because the Twitter stock price has been one of the

00:05:17   big impediments to the purchase. So that may happen now that the Twitter's going to get

00:05:24   bought rumors have sort of fallen on hard times.

00:05:27   Because it's basically with everybody pulling out, it's getting to the point now where the

00:05:31   stock price is so low, it's maybe becoming attractive for these people, I guess, right?

00:05:36   Right. And the stock price was high in anticipation that some big pocketed buyer was going to

00:05:40   come in and have to make an offer that was going to buy at the higher price, even though

00:05:44   was a piece a while ago that I think we might have referenced on the podcast that was very

00:05:48   much that, that Twitter's problem was that anticipation of a sale had driven its price

00:05:54   up above what its actual value is, and therefore there couldn't really be a sale because you'd

00:05:59   be overpaying for Twitter. But all signs point to no buyer now, which means that the stock

00:06:07   price might start to drain away and then open it up for somebody else to come in and buy

00:06:13   it. So over the weekend the Apple store in Regent Street was reopened. I saw that, I

00:06:22   saw your video. Yep so I went down to take a look. I've been super excited about this

00:06:26   thing for quite a while to reopen. I love the Regent Street store, I've always loved

00:06:30   it and I love the new stores like the one that we saw in Union Square in San Francisco.

00:06:36   So Apple have reopened it, I went down there, I took some video which I put on my vlog.

00:06:40   uh... i recommend go watching it because this place is absolutely stunning it is

00:06:46   unbelievable it's

00:06:48   by far away the best uh... of these applesauce i've seen i've seen the one in

00:06:52   memphis which is one of two one of the first ones if not the first one that had

00:06:55   some of these elements

00:06:56   and i've seen the one in in san francisco announcing this one in london

00:07:01   day absolutely nailed it this is absolutely fantastic didn't cover my

00:07:06   favorite uh... features in the store

00:07:09   are the uh... that on the stairs like the handrails are carved into stone

00:07:14   and i read in a tech crunch article that

00:07:16   that is italian limestone

00:07:19   and the angles of the the handrails are

00:07:22   and like that they cut an angle as such that matches the angles and apples

00:07:26   products

00:07:28   so like that the curve in the handrail

00:07:31   i love little things like that

00:07:32   and this is something that i noticed when i was in the store but it seemed a

00:07:35   bit strange to me at the time

00:07:37   none of the devices are tethered to the desks

00:07:40   so like you can just pick up the iPhone

00:07:41   there's like no cable on it at all

00:07:43   and in this TechCrunch article it says that

00:07:46   basically Apple are not gonna be doing this now

00:07:49   in their stores, they're not gonna be tethering

00:07:51   to the desks anymore 'cause they want you to be able

00:07:53   to pick up and walk around with them

00:07:54   so you can kind of feel what they're like

00:07:56   but if you try and leave the store

00:07:57   they're immediately bricked.

00:07:59   - Huh.

00:08:00   - So you can just pick up the iPhones now

00:08:02   and you see it in the video I pick up

00:08:03   one of the Jet Black iPhone pluses

00:08:06   the 7 Plus and I'm kinda just handling it and there's absolutely no cable in it, no

00:08:11   tether on it at all. And I wondered if that was something that they were just doing for

00:08:14   day one, but that's how it's gonna be done going forward now, which is very interesting.

00:08:21   **Ezra Klein-Lamport-Gilligan** Have you been to the new one in San Francisco?

00:08:24   **Matt Stauffer** Yeah, I was there during the WWDC week.

00:08:26   **Ezra Klein-Lamport-Gilligan** Right, okay, so you have been to that one. I missed that.

00:08:32   Because that's what the video that you took, that's what it reminded me of, right? It's

00:08:36   It's the trees and the grove and all of that.

00:08:38   It's like this is the new Apple Store model.

00:08:42   - Yeah, but I've gotta say this one to me

00:08:45   is the most impressive.

00:08:47   I just thought it was absolutely stunning.

00:08:49   Everything about it, like how open the store is

00:08:53   and how it all kind of leads to the back

00:08:54   and then up these beautiful stairs where they have

00:08:56   the screen and then there's more product stuff at the back

00:08:58   and the trees lying this walkway down to the back

00:09:01   of the store, it is absolutely stunning.

00:09:05   If you are in London or visiting London at any point,

00:09:08   I thoroughly recommend this.

00:09:09   I mean, the Covent Garden Store is beautiful.

00:09:11   It's the biggest in the world

00:09:12   because it's sprawling across these floors.

00:09:16   I cannot wait to see what they do to that store now.

00:09:19   But this Regent Street store is,

00:09:22   I think it's a real landmark now.

00:09:23   It's always been one of Apple's flagship stores,

00:09:25   but they put a big effort into this one, I think.

00:09:31   And there's an executive briefing room in the back, according to TechCrunch, that's

00:09:36   like the secret boardroom. That's cool. I can imagine Apple doing product briefings

00:09:44   with journalists in that area. Just come on back.

00:09:48   So I know that there are offices above the store that Apple uses. It's actually some

00:09:54   of the headquarters for a lot of Apple's London stuff. And they do briefings there,

00:09:59   So they may now relocate those briefings to this new room in the actual store.

00:10:04   Tim Cynova Although apparently they're, I mean, because

00:10:06   they're going to take up many portions of the Battersea power station, right, eventually.

00:10:12   So I wonder if eventually everything will be there because that was another big story.

00:10:18   Apple made a bunch of international facilities announcements and one of them was unifying

00:10:24   their London operations at the old Battersea power station.

00:10:27   as a part of it. Which is going to be amazing.

00:10:30   It's going to be amazing. So maybe that'll be...

00:10:32   I think they're taking something like six floors of the new building, which is...

00:10:35   So the building's being renovated, and it seems like Apple's going to be taking a significant

00:10:40   chunk to unify a lot of their European effort, I think. This is what happens when a company

00:10:45   can't move its money back. It starts buying real estate, right?

00:10:50   Yeah, and that's exactly what's happening, is that it's... It also is a change in Apple's

00:10:54   culture that Apple is now, much more than it was when Steve Jobs came back. Now it's

00:11:01   embraced its international nature and has people all over the world working for Apple

00:11:07   and groups in many countries.

00:11:10   It's like this weird thing where they've always been there, but now they're kind

00:11:13   of acknowledging it in a weird way by making bold statements and bold groups.

00:11:17   Right, and creating, yeah, campuses and all of that. And if people don't know, outside

00:11:20   of the UK don't know what Battersea Power Station is. It's right on the Thames, it's

00:11:24   got these four huge smokestacks. You've probably seen it if you've watched any British TV shows

00:11:29   because either as itself or doubling as some, you know, unnamed industrial complex in a

00:11:35   James Bond movie or a Doctor Who episode, it's been used in a lot of different TV shows.

00:11:39   It's iconic and that's why they can't tear it down, but it's not being used as a power

00:11:45   station anymore, so what do you do when Apple's taking over?

00:11:48   Oh, you may know it from the Pink Floyd Animals album.

00:11:51   It's the building that they flew the inflatable pink pig

00:11:54   over the top of that Spazzy power station.

00:11:57   That's the one.

00:11:58   Because I know when I was tweeting about this

00:11:59   on the beta, Apple announced a sale.

00:12:01   Every reply I had featured Pink Floyd in some manner.

00:12:04   Talking about Apple scaling up,

00:12:08   we've seen some news today from our good friend,

00:12:10   Mr. Mark Gurman, of Apple scaling back on the Titan plan.

00:12:17   Project Titan is the code name of Apple's car initiative.

00:12:22   So the new German news is that there have been hundreds

00:12:25   of job cuts inside of that team because the project,

00:12:29   the team is now on a new direction.

00:12:31   They are confirmed via German sources

00:12:35   to no longer be building a car.

00:12:36   This is something that was rumored that there was a change,

00:12:39   but apparently now he's found out

00:12:41   that they are no longer focusing on building a car,

00:12:43   but leadership has put focus

00:12:45   on building an autonomous driving system

00:12:48   that will allow Apple to have the flexibility

00:12:51   of either partnering with an existing car maker

00:12:53   or to give them kind of the brains

00:12:56   to return to designing their own car in the future.

00:12:59   And Apple have been hiring more people

00:13:01   that have a focus on this.

00:13:02   So whilst they haven't cut the size of the team down,

00:13:05   they've just cut the people out,

00:13:06   I think that we're focusing on hard car hardware design

00:13:09   and they're re-staffing with people

00:13:10   that can help in the autonomous effort.

00:13:12   Apple executives have given the Titan team

00:13:15   until the end of next year to prove feasibility

00:13:17   of the project.

00:13:18   When I look at this, I kind of see a couple of things.

00:13:22   I think this is probably the right move

00:13:23   because I think just deciding you're gonna design a car

00:13:26   when you're a computer company is a bold

00:13:28   and I think kind of stupid move.

00:13:30   - It's a big leap, big leap.

00:13:32   - And I think if they can build something like this,

00:13:35   if they can build the brains, they can either decide

00:13:37   to work with a car company later,

00:13:39   it gives them the road to buy a car company later

00:13:42   knowing that they have something they can actually do

00:13:44   with that company or they can return to making their own car later on once they've actually

00:13:49   worked out if they can do something interesting. And clearly, if Apple are going to get into

00:13:53   the car game, they need to get in the future of the car game. And for a company like Apple,

00:13:58   the electronic stuff and the battery powered stuff, that's doable. There are enough companies

00:14:04   doing it now, it's technology that's known, it can be done. But the autonomous stuff,

00:14:09   still in the infancy, right, in the automotive industry. So if Apple feel like they can do

00:14:14   something there, and by the end of next year feel like they have something worthwhile,

00:14:18   I think that's when they might go back to working on a car again. And I think this is

00:14:22   probably the right solution. Make sure you actually have something to give to the world

00:14:26   before you start trying to build a product, which is leaps and bounds outside of what

00:14:31   you're currently doing.

00:14:33   I mean we talk about this from time to time and when we talked about the Apple car project

00:14:39   there's often been this kind of head scratching aspect of it which is how does this work?

00:14:45   Like we generally agree like it makes sense for Apple to investigate things like this.

00:14:51   This is an area where they've got a lot of expertise in certain areas. Maybe this is

00:14:55   something that they can do. They've got the money to do this. Why not them? If we look

00:15:00   out at an industry that's ripe for change, it's the car industry, it's not going to be

00:15:03   the same in 10 or 15 years as it is today. All of those things are true, and yet when

00:15:08   we tried to imagine the product, it started to get weird. Like, imagining a line of Apple

00:15:16   cars and Apple dealerships, Apple sales, it all started to feel a little bit weird. And

00:15:24   we all kind of try to force our way through it and all that. I think it's interesting

00:15:28   to see that this has apparently gone on inside of Apple, where the initial thing was "Let's

00:15:33   see about making a car." Right? And also, I should say, this is the kind of thing that

00:15:38   for many companies with many products, this happens behind closed doors and you don't

00:15:42   hear anything about it. And unfortunately for Apple, everything it does is under so

00:15:47   much scrutiny that an exploration of a direction, which, you know, companies should be able

00:15:54   to do and they should be able to decide against making certain products. And I'm sure there

00:15:59   are many small products that we don't ever hear about that Apple goes through with the

00:16:03   same thing where they investigate them and they're like, "No, we're not going to do that."

00:16:07   But this one was so huge and Apple so big that we heard about it. So they said, "Let's

00:16:12   make a car. Let's see about making a car." And they worked on that for a couple of years.

00:16:16   And then at some point somebody said, "This is not working." Like this is either... the

00:16:20   Gherman's story cites sort of some leadership issues. It sounds like, too, maybe the fundamental

00:16:26   question of why are we doing all of these things, does this all make sense? And so when

00:16:32   they re-orged, it seems like they said, "Let's go back to basics. Let's stop planning on

00:16:36   building an entire car and start with the stuff that we're best at and that will give

00:16:44   us a foundation of technologies that we can then use in a car in the future, or we can

00:16:50   license it out, or we can have a partnership, which I always thought was the most likely

00:16:54   scenario with some sort of strategic partnership and investment with a car maker that would

00:16:59   have cars that were powered by Apple, but that Apple wouldn't buy a whole car maker

00:17:04   or make a car by itself. I still don't know if Apple really wants to be in the business

00:17:09   of being an OEM for car software, right? That seems unlikely to me. So, but still, there

00:17:16   are lots of possibilities here. This could amount to nothing. This could be, Apple could

00:17:21   go down the road with this, road metaphor, Apple could go down the road with this and

00:17:26   decide that it's a good product, but it's sort of outside of what Apple usually does

00:17:30   and spin it off or sell it. Or Apple could decide to build their own car, they could

00:17:36   decide to make that partnership or they could decide to license this technology to multiple

00:17:40   automakers. Those are all possibilities. I feel like the Apple brand is so powerful that

00:17:46   if you put this stuff in a car you'd almost want to co-brand it or brand it. Even if GM

00:17:51   made it, you'd almost want to have it be like Saturn was or something as an Apple side brand

00:17:58   rather than it being the automaker. There's a lot of options out there. I don't know.

00:18:02   I like the idea that they're going back to basics, which is what are we best at, because

00:18:06   building the car is completely outside of Apple's expertise, but the hardware, the technology

00:18:13   stuff is, and the software, is in their wheelhouse. Not for car specific, but in the fact that

00:18:21   that's a thing that Apple generally, everybody would agree, does well.

00:18:25   So we'll see on that one.

00:18:27   Yeah, I like the idea that they've also got a little bit of a deadline. That was part

00:18:30   of the report, right? That you get until the end of next year to prove this is feasible.

00:18:35   And again, this is a blue sky project. There is every possibility that they will spend

00:18:42   all this time and money on it and say, "You know what? We don't need to do this." And

00:18:47   people will say, "Well, that was a waste of time and money." Well, yeah, you know, that's

00:18:50   R&D investment. You've got to investigate this stuff. If you think there's an opportunity

00:18:54   there in your Apple and you've got all this money, you're trying to find the next big

00:18:57   thing. It's just like what Google does. You're trying to find the next big thing so that

00:19:00   you're always moving forward and sometimes it doesn't work out and I think it's a sign

00:19:04   of a mature organization for them to put a lot of money into something and then say,

00:19:09   you know what, it didn't work, like, and we're not going to throw more money at this because

00:19:13   this is, turns out this is not where we want to go and we're not going to keep chasing

00:19:17   after the sunk cost of our investment into the, into the car business. So, you know,

00:19:23   I, I hope, I still believe that the car industry is going to be transformed in the next 10

00:19:28   15 years and I would love for Apple to have a seat at the table but you know I

00:19:33   like I actually really like the fact that they're trying to it seems like

00:19:38   they're keeping a skeptical eye on this and that they're not believing like

00:19:41   we're gonna we're gonna march in and completely transform with our brand new

00:19:45   car that we drop in 2020 or whatever and instead are or maybe thinking a little

00:19:49   more realistically. There are many seats at this table that Apple can take car

00:19:54   maker doesn't have to be one of those seats.

00:19:57   Tim Cynova Yeah, I agree. And certainly not now, right?

00:20:00   I think that's the big thing. Like, leaving your options open for later is fine, but do

00:20:05   you need to do all of it right now? And I think they bit off maybe more than they could

00:20:11   chew and then part of this reorg is that, of saying, "Why don't we go back to the focus

00:20:16   on the stuff that we're best at and pursue that for a while and see where it leads us."

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00:23:25   customer, this will be coming to you.

00:23:27   They're kind of staging out slowly.

00:23:29   So to make sure they've got all the

00:23:30   features in place, which I think is

00:23:31   also another cool thing.

00:23:32   You wrote a great little article.

00:23:36   I heard about this article on one

00:23:39   of my favorite podcasts, which is

00:23:40   the Six Colors Secret

00:23:43   Subscriber podcast which you do with Dan Morin. That's where I find out about all of your

00:23:49   articles by listening to you from this podcast.

00:23:53   Yes, and if people would like to listen to that, they just need to become a Six Colors

00:23:56   subscriber and then they get the access to the secret feed.

00:23:59   It's a very easy thing to do.

00:24:00   We talk for half an hour every week. It's just a conversation. It's nice. It's different

00:24:04   from other podcasts I do.

00:24:05   It's like a meeting. It's like you're just sitting in on the meeting.

00:24:08   Yeah, I don't close my door, the dog walks in, there's noise and stuff.

00:24:12   The washing machine comes on sometimes.

00:24:15   Sometimes. It's different.

00:24:17   Go become a Six Colors member and you'll get the show.

00:24:19   This was my piece at Macworld last week because I write a piece at Macworld every week. Because

00:24:24   I went to Arizona, so last week I was in Arizona, I was in the desert getting all the moisture

00:24:29   sucked out of my body by the desert like it does. And I traveled with, actually I brought

00:24:35   my MacBook Air with me and my iPad. And that was the first time I had done that in a little

00:24:41   while where I really was, uh, had both of them there and that was, uh, it was instructive

00:24:47   to me.

00:24:48   So, the reason I wanted to touch on this today is for a couple of things. I want to kind

00:24:53   of do a check in with us both, like how we are using our devices still and if and how

00:24:57   that's changing. But also because in listening to you talk about this and in reading the

00:25:02   Even though I talk to you every week on the show, I was given a much kind of refreshed

00:25:07   and greater insight into the fact of just how important the iPad has become for you

00:25:12   in a way that I don't think me or you would have expected before the iPad Pro.

00:25:17   Yeah, sometimes writing makes you realize things about yourself that I found.

00:25:23   I wrote the article and it was a bit of a journey for me as I by the time I got to the

00:25:28   end.

00:25:29   Basically this piece is kind of going into detail about the way that the iPad and the

00:25:33   Mac are occupying roles in your life, especially focusing on when traveling.

00:25:38   But I thought maybe check into this in a bit more detail.

00:25:40   So I guess one of the things that is a constant thread, it's been something we've spoken about

00:25:44   for so long, is podcasting, right?

00:25:48   And there's kind of been some advancements in this.

00:25:51   know I know that you use and and love Ferrite which is a great

00:25:58   application for podcast editing and there's kind of another thing that I've

00:26:02   been thinking about which I wanted to touch on so it's not so much for me

00:26:08   anymore the edit because I know that there are tools that can do this it's

00:26:13   not even so much for me anymore like the Skype thing because it doesn't work very

00:26:18   very well but you can kind of make it happen right by using multiple devices

00:26:22   but the other thing that I found these days is when I'm traveling I'm usually

00:26:26   traveling to places where I'm going to be recording shows that's one of the

00:26:30   main reasons that I would take a laptop with me for that reason now and I have

00:26:35   recognized that a key hole which I can't perceive being fixed anytime soon is

00:26:42   backup recordings and this is something that's very important to me whenever I

00:26:47   our recorders show I have three recordings running. I have core recorder, I have audio

00:26:53   hijack and I have the backup that's coming from the streaming system. And this is because

00:26:58   I have lost calls, I have had bugs, I have had crashes and when I am recording these

00:27:05   shows to provide for my living, right, it becomes very important that backups are essential

00:27:13   for this because if this was just me and you and we had our show that we just did together

00:27:19   and you know maybe we had sponsors or maybe we didn't and it crashed and you know we'd

00:27:23   lost the show and we couldn't rerecord because of our schedules okay like we'll just move

00:27:27   it to the next time but we need to put these shows out every week because it's a business

00:27:31   right this is part of a business we do this because we love this but it is an important

00:27:35   part of the way that me and you make money so losing a show is like the worst possible

00:27:40   thing that could happen. So I now, like I think my key thing now, and I know I keep

00:27:46   moving the goalposts on this, but this is kind of just the way it's going to have to

00:27:49   be, there has to be the ability to not only record, not only be able to hear someone,

00:27:54   not only be able to have the interface for these devices, but also to have backups.

00:27:58   Yeah, it's true that this is still, what I said to Dan in the secret podcast was, you

00:28:09   do a lot of things like 90% of the things I want to do I can do on my iPad

00:28:13   and then that other 10% some of them you can work around them and some of you

00:28:17   can't but the some of the work arounds put you on the razor's edge and and

00:28:21   that's exactly what you're saying which is you can do it but you have no

00:28:26   latitude no chance of recovering from a failure if you do that and I I don't

00:28:34   love that and I think we'll get there on iOS. I think one of my realizations that came out

00:28:42   while I was writing that article is "Have I bought my last Mac laptop ever?" I don't

00:28:50   know that this MacBook Air that I have is my last Mac laptop ever, but it's an i7 from

00:28:56   2013. It's powerful. Yeah, it's an 11-inch screen in non-retina, which means that it's

00:29:01   dwarfed by my iPad screen, but it's very powerful, I can edit podcasts on it, I can

00:29:07   do all of my-- I can generate charts for six colors, I can do all that stuff on it.

00:29:11   And then I think, okay, so I can use that for another couple years easy. And then I

00:29:17   think, okay, what's the iPad going to be like in a couple years? Because if the

00:29:20   iPad in the next two or three years closes the gap on all the other features

00:29:24   that it currently can't do and the Mac can do, then in a couple of years

00:29:30   years, again, I'll be in this position of why do I need to buy a laptop? Because now

00:29:36   my iPad can do all those things. So I find it funny, and it may very well be that I buy

00:29:40   another Mac laptop, but I find it funny that I actually wonder now if I will ever do that

00:29:46   or if I don't need one. By the time I need to buy a new Mac laptop, will I need to buy

00:29:52   a Mac laptop anymore? And I don't know. It sort of depends on how Apple does with the

00:29:57   with the iPad, there's some key things that it needs to add, but it's just a funny thing.

00:30:02   And the other realization I had was about essential hardware, and I know you've felt

00:30:10   this way too. My iPad's coming with me, right? My iPad is not ever going to be left at home.

00:30:17   That's never going to happen. That is an essential part of my travel kit. The MacBook is optional.

00:30:25   MacBook I have to think about, do I need to bring it? And I thought that was a really

00:30:28   funny turn too. And again, I'm not the average user, everybody's going to be different, I've

00:30:32   heard from people who said I feel exactly the opposite, and that's fine. But I had a

00:30:36   strange realization about myself that for me, that MacBook is like optional tech that

00:30:41   I might not, I might eventually not ever need again. And that's weird, because that used

00:30:46   to be the computer I used, that used to be the device I used for 100% of my work. That

00:30:51   very laptop.

00:30:52   - And I guess the key thing to just mention,

00:30:55   this isn't the Mac, it is Mac laptops.

00:30:58   - Yeah, yeah, we should talk about that

00:31:00   because I am sitting at a Mac right now, you are too.

00:31:03   My work day is at a Mac.

00:31:06   I don't use, I mean, I use an iPad to get work done,

00:31:08   but when I am at work at home here sitting at my desk,

00:31:12   my 5K iMac is my device of choice.

00:31:17   This is where I do almost all of my work all day long.

00:31:22   So it's not that, but in the context of travel or of going out in the other room, going out

00:31:27   to the living room of the house, things like that, the Mac is rarely involved now. It's

00:31:32   sort of sit down at my desk, do my work, use my professional tools, write articles, things

00:31:38   like that.

00:31:39   So do you only sit at the Mac when you're writing or recording?

00:31:45   No, I mean I do other stuff. I'm moving files around and I'm doing email and

00:31:53   things like that. I mean this is my, this is home base. I will take

00:31:56   breaks from this and go in the other room and maybe do some stuff on the iPad,

00:32:00   but when I'm working I'm at the Mac and so Slack and Twitter and all that

00:32:06   other stuff is happening here. What I try not to do is read a lot on the

00:32:12   Mac because I know that I could just read those articles on the iPad and that would

00:32:16   be better. I should basically stand up, stretch my legs if I want to read an article, like

00:32:21   use iCloud tabs or whatever to just open that article on my iPad in Safari and read it there.

00:32:31   But when I'm at my desk, I'm using my Mac. I'm very focused on it. It's 27 inches

00:32:36   diagonal. There's a lot of room to put Windows. Lots of stuff is going on.

00:32:40   Yeah, I, um, I, I purely consider my Mac as a focused tool. Uh, it is something that I

00:32:47   use to produce podcasts and videos like that. That's what I'm doing with it now. Like I'm,

00:32:53   I've been spending more professional time. I've been spending more time at the Mac recently

00:32:57   than usual because I've also been using Final Cut, right? So that is a large, large, large

00:33:04   amounts of time spent editing and Final Cut. And it's funny, I've, I've noticed, um, in

00:33:09   in the last few weeks, that my computing life

00:33:12   has lacked some delight.

00:33:14   And I think it's because I've been spending

00:33:17   more time at the Mac.

00:33:18   And for me, I enjoy computing on my iPad.

00:33:22   But the Mac, it's like, this is work stuff.

00:33:25   This is projects to be done, work to be completed.

00:33:29   But when I'm on my iPad, I find it

00:33:31   a more pleasurable experience.

00:33:33   Reading Twitter, checking Slack at the Mac,

00:33:35   it's just not fun for me.

00:33:38   So that was the moment that actually prompted this entire article for me was I'm in Arizona

00:33:42   and I had the MacBook Air out because I needed to do something that was on the MacBook Air.

00:33:48   And then I found that I was not, I found that then I was looking at Slack or something,

00:33:56   I sort of completed my task and I had like Slack and Twitter going, and I thought, I

00:34:00   need to put this away.

00:34:01   Like I, now I'm in the Slack and Twitter zone where I'm just reading things and interacting

00:34:07   with people and the reason, and I would have a better experience on my iPad and that was

00:34:13   when I closed the laptop. And that was just a funny moment of there are things that the

00:34:17   Mac can do but I greatly prefer them on the iPad. And it's not like I think, like I have

00:34:23   pains when I use Slack on my Mac here in my office, but if all I'm doing is looking at

00:34:29   Slack and Twitter and reading articles on the web, the Mac is not, is the worst tool

00:34:35   for that compared to the iPad. It's a worse tool for that. It just is. For me, it's less

00:34:42   ergonomic. It's less comfortable. I would much rather have a little thing I can carry

00:34:47   around with me than to sit at a desk or sit in like typing pose on a laptop with a small

00:34:54   non-retina screen tilted, you know, and some of that could be you buy a bigger laptop and

00:34:58   all those things and solve some of that. But it's just it was that moment of realization

00:35:02   that there are certain modes that I would prefer to do on my iPad and not my laptop.

00:35:08   So it's funny that we've got to here.

00:35:10   >> Talking about ergonomics, though, you mentioned in the article about some of the issues of

00:35:15   using the iPad when writing when traveling with the top line because you don't have a

00:35:21   way to kind of comfortably rest this on your lap.

00:35:23   >> Yeah, 12.9 is big and I love it and I think it's actually a great sort of disembodied

00:35:30   screen and I think with an external keyboard at a table or a desk it's fantastic, but it's

00:35:35   not something you can really put in your lap without a case that adds so much bulk that

00:35:40   I've tried all those cases or many of those cases and I don't like them at all because

00:35:45   it makes it huge. And so I end up compromising and not writing. When I'm at my mom's house

00:35:52   with just the iPad, I go to her table and I put down my Bluetooth keyboard and my iPad

00:35:57   and I sit there and write. It's not great ergonomically, but I can do a lot of writing.

00:36:02   And with the MacBook Air, I actually wrote a couple of articles sitting on one of her

00:36:07   couches with the MacBook Air in my lap, and I realized, well, this is nice. I don't have

00:36:12   to be at the table like I do with the iPad, which is not to say that the 9.7--I keep coming

00:36:21   back to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro with that Logitech keyboard--is an amazing portable writing tool.

00:36:26   but I prefer the 12.9 and you know that's the one that I bought is the 12.9

00:36:31   12.9 inch iPad Pro and so I prefer I prefer that one and that one is a

00:36:37   harder sell as a as a right on your lap kind of device you can balance some

00:36:42   things on your lap like the smart cover but it's not it's not great it's really

00:36:48   so I was writing the show notes this morning on the couch with my 12.9 inch iPad in my

00:36:55   lap using the smart keyboard. So like, I think, the way I was thinking about this is it can

00:37:00   be done, like I do it all the time, however, we're doing very different things. And I imagine

00:37:06   sitting and writing for an hour, I don't know if I would want to do that, but like I have

00:37:10   it in my lap and I'm like typing out an email and then I just carry on, but it's not a great

00:37:16   experience I imagine to sit and do focus writing.

00:37:18   It's not, it's not great, I mean, I can write an email just in the software keyboard too,

00:37:22   I can write an article on the software keyboard too, but you're trading off. Every little

00:37:26   bit has some trade-off about it. The laptop is really great. It's designed to sit in your

00:37:33   lap and let you type, and you don't need to. It's a laptop, right? You don't have to have

00:37:37   a table. You can just put it in your lap, and the iPads are not as great for that, especially

00:37:42   if you don't have an accessory. It's a challenge there. The iPad, as capable as it is, it just

00:37:52   it reminded me of all of the things that it can't do, that, as I was saying to Dan, because

00:37:57   Dan's going to be making an international trip pretty soon for an extended period of

00:38:01   time, and one of the things that I said to him was, the iPad is not flexible in the same

00:38:09   way that the Mac is. Like, you know what the iPad can do, but the Mac can do anything.

00:38:15   Like the Mac can do anything you need. If any eventuality while you're traveling that

00:38:20   need to do something, you know you can find a way to get the Mac to do it. And the iPad,

00:38:24   there are lots of things that are like on the edges, and you realize, "Oh, I can't use

00:38:29   the iPad for this. I need a Mac now." And so that's just where we are. And there's software.

00:38:37   You've got a bit here in the show notes. I mean, there's so many things that the Mac

00:38:41   can do that there are sometimes workarounds for on an iPad, but sometimes not. Like having

00:38:47   the terminal, having command line stuff in the terminal, having scripts and

00:38:50   automater stuff, which again there are workflows but they aren't necessarily as

00:38:54   powerful and can't do everything. The file management stuff is

00:38:58   problematic for, ding, hi Merlin, right? Because file management like

00:39:03   you put in an SD card and it thinks that it's for photos and videos but what if

00:39:07   you've got a word file on there or an audio file on there? You should be able

00:39:11   to open those in an app on your iPad because your iPad has an SD card

00:39:17   connected to it for Pete's sake, and yet you can't because as far as the iPad is concerned,

00:39:22   SD cards only contain photos and movies. That's it. So that's another limitation. We do a

00:39:28   lot of audio work, right? There are all these audio plugins. There are a few audio plugins

00:39:32   that are available on iOS, but it's a brand new kind of interface on iOS, and most of

00:39:39   the stuff that I use is not available in an iOS version. And so if I want to line up my

00:39:45   files and denoise them before I start editing them and I want to edit them on my iPad, guess

00:39:51   what? I prep all the files on my Mac and then I edit them on my iPad. It's not a full on

00:39:57   iPad experience. So, you know, the list goes on depending on what you're doing. Like, six

00:40:03   colors charts at an Apple event, right? The six colors charts. I have a whole thing where

00:40:08   I'm actually just taking screenshots on my Mac but they're of retinal size and then I

00:40:13   I run a script and it uploads them and all that. Well, I can do that on my iPad, but

00:40:17   it is very much a more painful process because I have to take an iPad screenshot and then

00:40:23   I have to crop it using a different app and then I have to upload it using a workflow.

00:40:28   And it's, and so when, the last time I took a trip with my Mac, it was because there were

00:40:34   going to be Apple results while we were on the trip and I didn't want to commit to doing

00:40:39   charting on my iPad where time is of the essence and building those charts on the iPad is just

00:40:46   going to take three times as long as on the Mac.

00:40:49   So I think it's like it's the legacy of this platform that enables these things. It's the

00:40:55   legacy of the Mac platform because you know we know how we use computers and this thing

00:41:01   can just be used as a computer but the iPad is a different computer, it's a new thing.

00:41:07   So it can't do all of that stuff, but just different stuff.

00:41:09   Like for example, like I was just,

00:41:11   I mean, people will have their ways of doing this,

00:41:13   but I needed to download a YouTube video.

00:41:16   I don't even know, I don't know how to do it on the Mac.

00:41:19   There isn't a way to do that.

00:41:20   You'd have to get an app.

00:41:21   I don't know what app to get.

00:41:22   - Yeah, I have a Safari plugin that does that.

00:41:25   - Sure, I mean, I have no doubt

00:41:26   that there are things that do it,

00:41:28   but for me, the easiest way to do it

00:41:30   was to open the workflow app

00:41:32   and run a download YouTube workflow, which I have,

00:41:36   and then just airdrop it back to the Mac again

00:41:38   to put into Final Cut.

00:41:39   (laughing)

00:41:40   And it's because I think I am of a different,

00:41:42   I am of a different mindset, I'm of a different,

00:41:47   age isn't the right phrase because there are people

00:41:51   that are younger than me and that know how to do

00:41:53   all of this stuff easily on the Mac,

00:41:55   but I'm of a different mindset of the way

00:41:57   that I've been brought up in computing.

00:41:59   Not as somebody who has ever really bothered

00:42:02   to be very focused on code and all the rigmarole.

00:42:07   You know, like, I'm talking about things like terminal

00:42:11   and I'm talking about command line utility

00:42:13   as an Apple script and all that sort of stuff.

00:42:14   This stuff just doesn't make any sense to me, right?

00:42:18   But what I am able to do is to understand something

00:42:21   like workflow, which just makes a ton more sense

00:42:24   to the way that I work.

00:42:26   - Yeah, and workflow, I find workflow doesn't make

00:42:28   lot of sense that there it's it's even more like automator you have to you have

00:42:33   these blocks that do very strange things and you're you're because your

00:42:36   vocabulary is so limited you have to do like five steps in order to get it to do

00:42:41   something that should probably only take one or two and I understand you know I

00:42:45   end up going to Federico Fattici and saying what am I or Fraser Spears what

00:42:51   am I doing wrong here like what why how and and sometimes their answer is that

00:42:55   should work and then they'll think about it and they'll figure out that even for

00:42:59   somebody who's very well versed in workflow stuff that it's more complicated

00:43:04   than they really thought and then they'll send me something I'll be like

00:43:07   oh I would never have guessed that you had to go through those steps and and

00:43:10   but you're right it is sometimes it's generational or it's at least it's

00:43:14   really contextual like command line I don't love the command line but like

00:43:19   I've got some command line utilities that do incredible things for me like

00:43:22   like, you know, Marcos talked about on ATP, he has this app called Sidetrack, which is

00:43:25   still a private data, but it lines up all the audio files of a podcast, and it's a command-line

00:43:30   utility. And I wrote a very short automator action with some AppleScript in it that basically,

00:43:36   in the end, what it does is it lets me click on a file and say, "Sidetrack this," in the

00:43:41   Finder. And I don't have to go into the terminal. I do it all using the user interface, and

00:43:45   great and the Mac lets me do that. If I was on iOS and even if I had that binary,

00:43:51   which I don't know what that would be, but even if I did, how would I enable

00:43:56   that? And I think that's... it will all... I think it will all come, right?

00:44:00   But it's right now it's just... we have a complete platform and we have a

00:44:05   still building platform. And that's the difference. It's like, if you want to be

00:44:09   able to do everything, use the complete platform. If you want to... the building

00:44:14   platform has a lot of value, but it's just not all there yet.

00:44:20   No, I don't think that I'm out of the woods of buying Macs. I think I will be buying a

00:44:27   new Mac laptop this year, because my needs are different.

00:44:34   You travel a lot. I travel a lot, and I want something that's

00:44:38   thinner and lighter than my current MacBook Pro for the times where I do want to take

00:44:43   the laptop which are becoming less and less but it still exists as a thing when I travel

00:44:48   and I want to be able to record and there isn't any other solution I want to have my

00:44:51   Mac with me to do that especially now if like also I expect that every time that I leave

00:44:58   I'll be working on videos as well so I will I definitely need for Final Cut so I want

00:45:06   something that's thinner and lighter than what I currently have which means that it

00:45:09   is likely that I will be purchasing a new laptop this year, but it remains to be seen

00:45:14   which one.

00:45:15   I've thought about it because I hear, you know, the temptation of a, like a MacBook

00:45:20   that's much thinner and lighter and also has retina. If I felt confident that that would

00:45:27   be a tool that I would need for the next five years, I would be more interested in that,

00:45:31   but mine is in a pretty good place. You also travel a lot, and you have tools that have

00:45:37   to be run, you know, right? You have work that has to be done on the Mac and that there

00:45:41   aren't really any good solutions for that now. So that all pushes it in the other direction.

00:45:47   But for me, I've been able to get away in most cases without the Mac and occasionally

00:45:53   I will bring it. So we're going to Ireland in a couple of weeks and I am bringing a Mac

00:45:58   there. And there are a couple reasons for that. One is Lauren needs a Mac because she's

00:46:01   got some stuff that she has to do for this organization that she's a part of

00:46:05   that requires basically Excel macros that I wrote for her to simplify her

00:46:12   workflow for that. So she needs that. She needs a computer that's got Excel on it

00:46:17   with macros. And then I've got enough podcast editing and stuff to do

00:46:22   that I really need to to bring that to and to read off of a memory card.

00:46:26   So, you know, what are you going to do? You gotta read off a memory card. You gotta

00:46:30   bring your card reader and my card reader is apparently a Mac book so you know I'm still

00:46:36   going to bring that a Mac is still going to come with us because it has to. I will not

00:46:40   be bringing a Mac to Ireland. Monster. Well actually I don't think I will be maybe I will

00:46:47   be. Oh yeah no upgrade there. I will be no the reason the only reason I will be is when

00:46:53   I'm away I'll need to publish Cortex. Oh see. That requires a Mac unfortunately. That's

00:47:00   a shame. If I wasn't doing that, then I wouldn't be bringing one. Because when me and you record,

00:47:07   I would just use your laptop. Which is how, this is like the thing that I've been doing

00:47:11   recently. Like, so when we were in Portland, I just kept like stealing Steven's computer

00:47:16   to do anything.

00:47:17   So you need a Mac, it just doesn't have to be your Mac.

00:47:20   That's all that I care about, to be honest. Let's put it in that bag. Talking of bags,

00:47:24   Yeah, I wanted to mention the bags that I use.

00:47:27   So for carry on, I have a bag called

00:47:30   the Topo Mountain Briefcase that I love very much.

00:47:33   It is a briefcase/backpack/messenger bag.

00:47:38   It has like three different ways you can carry it.

00:47:41   I've used it for a long time.

00:47:42   It is my like airplane travel bag now.

00:47:45   And I get a surprising amount of stuff inside this bag.

00:47:50   It served me very, very well.

00:47:53   But then I also, when I'm out and about in London,

00:47:57   or I usually take this with me on trips in case,

00:47:59   you know, when I'm out and about walking around,

00:48:02   is the Tom Binn Ristretto, which is a shoulder bag.

00:48:06   And it's kind of made for smallish devices,

00:48:09   but like laptops and stuff.

00:48:11   So I've been very happy with that.

00:48:13   And also I will give a shout out to Nock Co,

00:48:17   Brad Dowdy, my co-host of The Pen Addict.

00:48:20   He has a Kickstarter running for a bag right now

00:48:23   called the Laniya, which I have been using more and more.

00:48:25   It's kind of like, it is not meant to be like your daily bag

00:48:29   it is a briefcase, but it's a bag that you would take

00:48:32   to a conference, I'll be bringing mine to all.

00:48:34   And it will be the thing that I would carry my iPad

00:48:38   downstairs to the conference room with,

00:48:40   that kind, it's that kind of bag, you know?

00:48:42   So I'll put a link in there.

00:48:43   You can still back to Kickstarter

00:48:44   for the next couple of days and then it will be,

00:48:47   he'll be making it later on.

00:48:49   But if you want it, you should get one, I have one.

00:48:51   I got sent a prototype one and I love it.

00:48:54   - And I've been using the Timbuk2 laptop messenger bag.

00:48:59   Some, we got one, we got those back at IDG

00:49:03   and I still use that a lot.

00:49:04   And it fits my, I can actually put my iPad

00:49:08   and my MacBook Air together.

00:49:10   They can snuggle in the--

00:49:12   - Is that your bag that has the TechHive logo on it?

00:49:14   - Yeah, that's the one.

00:49:16   Yeah, that's a Timbuk2.

00:49:18   And, but I have lots of other,

00:49:19   I have lots of other bags too.

00:49:20   a Bren Haven backpack that I've had for like 15 years that is still kicking that I love

00:49:26   that they don't make anymore. I actually found one on eBay the other day and I couldn't believe

00:49:31   it because they haven't made it in 10 years and I really love that backpack and I'm worried

00:49:35   that it's going to die. So I spent 20 bucks and I bought the eBay on eBay the same one

00:49:43   just to have another one because I love that backpack.

00:49:47   What is the name of the Timbuk2 bag that you have?

00:49:50   They have many laptop messenger bags.

00:49:53   Well I think it's called Laptop Messenger Bag.

00:49:59   I think that's actually what it's called.

00:50:02   Is a laptop or custom laptop.

00:50:07   It's probably custom.

00:50:08   Because they have custom laptop, they have classic laptop, they have commute laptop.

00:50:13   We're gonna go with custom.

00:50:15   I think it's custom classic messenger bag, but I'm not 100% on that one.

00:50:21   We'll go with that.

00:50:22   We'll just assume that's the one, right?

00:50:24   People can look it up from there.

00:50:25   That's basically what it looks like.

00:50:26   I want to round this topic out with a thought experiment, right?

00:50:30   With you.

00:50:31   You're going on a trip, and you can only take one device.

00:50:37   And this is a trip where you will need to be working on.

00:50:40   What device do you take?

00:50:42   I would say it depends on what I'm working on during the trip.

00:50:46   Like, am I editing podcasts?

00:50:50   Am I recording podcasts on Skype?

00:50:52   Am I recording things locally?

00:50:54   Am I doing Apple quarterly report charts?

00:50:59   All of those things.

00:51:01   If I could only choose one, it would depend on those

00:51:04   because often I will only bring the iPad Pro.

00:51:07   But if I was in a case where I was doing things

00:51:10   where I literally couldn't do it without a Mac, then I would have to choose a Mac because

00:51:15   I would otherwise be unable to do them.

00:51:17   So, my feeling would be I would take the iPad and just work it out.

00:51:21   Yeah, well, I can see that. In fact, if I knew I've had that happen when I visited my

00:51:27   mom because she used to have a MacBook Pro and she doesn't anymore. She just uses the

00:51:31   iPad. And when she had the MacBook Pro there, it gave me this other level of confidence

00:51:35   of like, "Well, if I need to do something, I could just use her MacBook Pro." But now

00:51:40   that she doesn't like--so visiting my in-laws in Orange County, they have an iMac, and my--actually,

00:51:46   my mother-in-law has a MacBook Air, too, so it's like, I don't have to bring a Mac with

00:51:50   me, and I can work it out. But if I'm going somewhere--so if I was going to OOL, and--which

00:51:55   I am, and I'm fairly confident that there will be Macs there, right? I could probably

00:52:02   work it out, but I'm not going to. So if you said you're going someplace where there's

00:52:09   no other technology and you need to do things that require a Mac, then I would--at that

00:52:13   point I would start to think, "Do I really want to get a retina Mac laptop so that I

00:52:19   can have the retina with me and take retina screenshots and things like that?" Then I

00:52:24   would start to think about that. But, you know, generally they let you take a laptop

00:52:29   and an iPad with you when you travel. So that's good.

00:52:34   Ladies and gentlemen, open your iMessage applications, find the correct sticker, hold down on the

00:52:41   up arrow, select lasers, because it is time for #AskUpgrade.

00:52:48   Set with lasers. Steve wants to know, for a new iMac purchase,

00:52:51   would you recommend a fusion drive or SSD plus external hard drive? I have lots of photos.

00:52:57   I have not even considered or thought about Fusion Drive for a long time.

00:53:03   It just fell out of my memory.

00:53:05   That's what Fusion Drive is for, right?

00:53:06   If you need a lot of space, it gives you the speed of the SSD, but the storage capacity

00:53:12   of a spinning hard drive.

00:53:15   And so I think either of those is probably fine to Steve.

00:53:20   The external hard drive will give you a little more flexibility, but you're also going to

00:53:23   have a thing that you have to plug in.

00:53:26   advantage, you know, you can get a different one. You can take it to a

00:53:30   different computer. All of those things are not true with the Fusion Drive. It's

00:53:34   inside your iMac at that point. I opted for SSD, but I have a, you know, I have an

00:53:41   external hard drive, essentially. I have a server with a giant storage area on it.

00:53:46   You've got an external hard drive for yours, right? Yeah, I have a couple that I use. I keep,

00:53:53   actually two plugged in at all times for different things because one of them

00:53:56   needs to be taken out and moved around more than the other. The other is

00:53:59   basically just what I refer to as just it's actually just called cold storage

00:54:02   like it's just where I put stuff and it stays forever like large things I have

00:54:08   some just weird files and etc on there and one of the things that will be built

00:54:15   into mega office will be some kind of network attack storage when I when I get

00:54:19   around to that. I personally would say go SSD and external hard drives just

00:54:24   because it gives you more flexibility and if you have the ability to do it and it's

00:54:27   easy enough like just get a thunderbolt something or other or you know

00:54:32   depending on the computer that you end up buying whenever you buy it there

00:54:35   might be other options like USB 3 or whatever I just think that that's just

00:54:40   way better I don't I just have an inherent distrust for Fusion Drive it

00:54:44   It just seems super strange to me and like, I feel like there's just more likelihood of

00:54:50   something getting broken somewhere along the way.

00:54:52   I don't know, I think Fusion Drive is fine, but yeah, I would say if you can afford to

00:54:56   not and have an SSD and an external hard drive, the exceptions there are if you can't afford

00:55:01   to do that, or if you really don't like desk clutter, if you really don't like the sound

00:55:07   of spinning hard drive enclosures, because that can be an issue where you've got a noisy

00:55:13   you know, ticking thing on your desk that is the spinning hard drive. Then again, if

00:55:19   you only need that in certain circumstances and you can have it off other circumstances,

00:55:24   then that's fine too. So it really sort of depends on those kind of specific things.

00:55:29   But all things being equal, yeah, I agree, SSD, and then have an external, big external

00:55:35   hard drive for you to use when you need the huge storage of your whole photo library.

00:55:39   talking about things that I'd kind of forgot existed Brent asked is there any

00:55:44   benefit to running more than one content blocker on iOS I mean my feeling is I

00:55:49   guess it depends what they do like I don't know if it's worth running to just

00:55:52   pure ad blockers if that's what you're looking to do I feel like you at a

00:55:57   certain point you're just gonna be blocking blocking and blocking blocking

00:55:59   like I don't really know how far it will take you but there are content blockers

00:56:04   that do different things like there is a content blocker that I actually do run

00:56:09   called, I always forget is on, I think it's called like cookie jar or something

00:56:14   like that and all it does is it stops the European Union cookie notifications

00:56:21   appearing on sites. It's called cookie something. I'll see if I can find it. I

00:56:29   can't even remember the name of it but I'll find it somewhere. Cookie box. Is that

00:56:33   what it's called? Cookie box. So I use that. That's the only one that I've ever

00:56:38   ever used because it just helps get rid of some of those when I'm going to

00:56:43   websites from Twitter links and stuff like that. I don't run any other kind of

00:56:48   content blockers. Do you run any? I don't. It just is the thing to me where it's

00:56:54   like alright whatever like it's I'm not even really taking a moral stand on it I

00:56:59   just know how frustrating it is and how sometimes things don't work. We get

00:57:03   people write to us every couple of days for the stuff to do with the

00:57:07   membership where they're like I can't log in and the first answer is

00:57:12   do you run any content blockers because for whatever reason it just breaks stuff

00:57:17   right so you know I just can't be dealing with that. The ads aren't that bad.

00:57:24   Yeah I've decided in general that I would rather see the ads than have weird

00:57:32   incompatible experiences that I have to troubleshoot.

00:57:35   Yeah it's just not, it's just not worth it for me.

00:57:40   I don't get enough frustration out of it to feel like I need to turn them on.

00:57:43   Steve wrote in, "So now the US Department of Transport says you cannot take the

00:57:48   Galaxy Note 7 onto aircraft, will this be something Samsung can bounce back from?

00:57:53   I think it's going to be tough considering right now it is a federal crime to take a Note 7 onto a plane,

00:58:00   This is a quote that I found from the Verge which is quoting the Department of Transport

00:58:04   passengers who bring a note 7 onto a plane are subject to civil penalties of up to

00:58:10   179,933

00:58:12   where did I come up with these numbers? dollars for each violation for

00:58:16   Doing this and could be prosecuted which could result in imprisonment of up to 10 years as well as the fine

00:58:22   So I think that's pretty bad marketing for Samsung right now

00:58:27   especially because like

00:58:30   if I'm an air like if I'm an air steward and I'm walking down the line and I see a Samsung device

00:58:37   Do I know what a note 7 is or do I know I need to look at the Samsung devices

00:58:44   Right. I am assuming that if you have any kind of Samsung device you are being told to turn it off

00:58:51   But the unit or at least you're being given the you know, the eyeball so being honest

00:58:57   Is that a Samsung device?

00:58:58   I mean, like this is like, at first,

00:59:00   it was you couldn't have them powered on,

00:59:01   but now if you have a Note 7,

00:59:03   I don't know how they're checking what a Note 7 is or isn't,

00:59:05   like I wonder what they're doing there,

00:59:07   but they are saying that you literally cannot

00:59:09   board an airplane with it.

00:59:11   I mean, frankly, if you still have one of these devices,

00:59:15   you need to return it.

00:59:17   Like, they are effectively taking time bombs at this point.

00:59:20   Any of them could set off in flame, right?

00:59:23   Like, it is clear right now,

00:59:25   it doesn't matter what the battery is,

00:59:26   doesn't matter where it's come from, Samsung have stopped making this device. I think they

00:59:32   said they are killing the Note brand, like it's over. Like you just need to return it

00:59:37   now I think. Like I'm afraid the dream has to die.

00:59:40   Well what if you have a Note 5, right? It doesn't look that different. Maybe you've

00:59:44   got it in a case. The Edge? The Edge is about the same size,

00:59:48   the 7 Edge, it just doesn't have the pen. I mean it is a, if you're a Samsung phone

00:59:53   owner right now. This is a tricky situation to have to deal with every time you board

00:59:57   public transport. This is not good for them. This is really not good for them.

01:00:02   I think to answer Steve's question, I think Samsung will bounce back from it, but it's

01:00:07   going to cost them a lot and it's going to take time and they're going to have to do

01:00:12   some perhaps unintended product redesign, like not just the external, but like, or not

01:00:17   just the internal, but the external, and they're going to have new branding and they're really

01:00:20   gonna have to relaunch their product line in order to get out of this and there will

01:00:25   be a hangover and it will be a few years before I think they will get back. I don't think

01:00:30   they're gonna exit the phone business. I would be shocked if something like that happened

01:00:33   but I think it's gonna be, they're gonna be in jail for a little while.

01:00:36   David Tompa If Samsung is good at one thing, it is product

01:00:39   marketing like in the sense of whether it's good or it's bad, they make sure everybody

01:00:44   knows their products. And sometimes that's all it takes though, right? Just blasting

01:00:50   and they are good at that. They are good at endorsement deals, they're good at getting

01:00:54   their phones in rap videos, like they're good at this stuff, like they understand how to

01:00:59   do that.

01:01:00   Well that's why Samsung is the most successful Android phone manufacturer, honestly, is because

01:01:06   they saw the potential of this market and made an investment up front in huge marketing.

01:01:13   Huge marketing. And there was a time when the Samsung phones were really not notably

01:01:16   different or better than any other Android phones out there, I would argue, but they

01:01:22   were the ones spending more than Apple on marketing, and they established themselves

01:01:28   as the brand to be, and they beat out, you know, Motorola and the Verizon Droid marketing

01:01:34   and all that. They really owned it, and they're going to have to use, you know, that investment

01:01:39   is kind of blown now to a certain extent, and they're going to have to spend more time,

01:01:44   but I have no doubt that they'll bounce back.

01:01:46   It's just gonna cost them time and money.

01:01:47   - Like at this point, it is argued

01:01:49   that they do make the best Android phones as well.

01:01:51   But I agree that like initially,

01:01:53   when it was like earlier on,

01:01:55   whether they made the best phones or not,

01:01:56   they were getting ahead because of their marketing.

01:01:58   And now it's kind of like an inertia thing, right?

01:02:00   The marketing's continuing,

01:02:02   but they're also considered to be making great devices.

01:02:04   Now they've kind of lost the latter of those two points,

01:02:08   because whether the devices are great or not,

01:02:09   if they're catching on fire,

01:02:11   or if they're known to catch on fire,

01:02:12   It kind of undermines your product innovation.

01:02:15   So I think they're gonna struggle.

01:02:17   I think that there is a possibility,

01:02:21   there is of course a possibility this ends

01:02:23   their phone division, but it won't be a decision

01:02:27   they make now.

01:02:28   I think it will be depending on how the next couple

01:02:30   of revisions phones do.

01:02:32   Like if people decide not to buy their phones

01:02:34   because they're scared they're gonna catch on fire,

01:02:37   that's only a couple of revisions away,

01:02:39   like a couple of like product cycles away

01:02:40   from ending up not doing that anymore.

01:02:43   - I suppose.

01:02:43   - My money would be on the fact that they are able

01:02:45   to revive the division and push ahead again,

01:02:49   but the possibility is definitely there.

01:02:51   - Yeah, I can't see it happening.

01:02:54   It would require a complete rejection by the market,

01:02:59   and I don't think that'll happen also

01:03:00   because there are so many other Samsung phones

01:03:03   that are fine, that are not covered in this.

01:03:06   It's really just the Note.

01:03:08   And I feel like they will,

01:03:10   The only thing I would say is I think that the pride of the Samsung brand is going to

01:03:13   be a factor here too, where they're not going to...

01:03:17   Like one thing to do would be to just create a new brand for phones made by Samsung and

01:03:22   do that, but they're not going to do that because Samsung is all about putting its own

01:03:25   name on everything it makes, whether it's a washing machine or a phone.

01:03:29   And so they're not going to go away from that.

01:03:32   So maybe the Galaxy brand goes away or maybe the Note brand goes away and the Galaxy brand

01:03:36   stays and it gets called something different. We'll see, but I don't think they're

01:03:42   going anywhere. They're just going to have to take the hit for two or three years.

01:03:46   No, I find it very unlikely, but I think, my point is, I think the likelihood of them

01:03:52   going away is higher than other phone makers at this point. They have a thing that's

01:03:58   happening to them which isn't happening to anybody else, which is the phones are

01:04:01   considered dangerous. Like that is a thing not working in their favor. But I want to

01:04:08   underscore I think they will rebrand and they will bounce back, but I don't think the next

01:04:12   firm will bring them to the point where they want to be. I think it will be in a couple

01:04:15   of years time for them to really establish themselves back on top of the pile.

01:04:18   There'll be a dip and then it'll slowly come back. I think that's what will happen.

01:04:22   And I do think the Galaxy brand is gone. I think the Note brand is gone. I think it's

01:04:26   brand new branding.

01:04:28   That's my yes change as much as possible.

01:04:32   Dave has asked is there a way to see my purchased or slash downloaded iMessage apps on a second

01:04:37   device without just searching the store.

01:04:41   So my assumption of what Dave is asking is is it how can I find out which apps I've downloaded

01:04:47   another devices.

01:04:48   So the way that I do this is to look at the purchase tab in the main app store.

01:04:53   All of the apps that you've purchased or downloaded are in there and if there's just sticker packs

01:04:57   or just iMessage apps, they're identifiable by the oval icon.

01:05:01   Well, I'm looking at, on my iPhone, at the purchase list, and the message apps all still

01:05:08   just have round-rack icons, just like every other app.

01:05:11   Uh, no, you're right, Jason. I was wrong with that one. So, you're out of luck, Dave.

01:05:18   Yeah, there's no special way to filter just things that have stamp packs. I am baffled

01:05:25   by many things in the iMessage app store, but one of the things that I'm baffled by

01:05:31   is that there's no like purchased link to just filter your purchased sticker packs or

01:05:39   apps that contain sticker packs.

01:05:41   Especially because they don't sync.

01:05:43   Yeah.

01:05:44   Right?

01:05:45   Because they don't sync from device to device, so the only way you can do it is by going

01:05:49   in and downloading them again.

01:05:50   Well they do.

01:05:51   you have auto download apps on they'll auto download right but yeah but I don't

01:05:58   yeah I mean who really has that on for everything I don't know I don't know

01:06:03   about that it's not great Jason asked is there gonna be any chance that the air

01:06:09   pod pairing process will come to the Apple watch I don't think that's needed

01:06:13   the Apple already have a unique pairing and process for the Apple watch using

01:06:18   the camera and then the little thing it displays.

01:06:21   Oh, you read that way. No, I think this means to pair your AirPods with your Apple Watch.

01:06:27   That's how I read it. And my guess is that if you pair your AirPods with your iPhone,

01:06:32   that perhaps they will direct, they will automatically pair with the Apple Watch as well. But it's

01:06:36   a, I think, yes, if, I would be shocked if you can't fairly easily pair your AirPods

01:06:43   with your Apple Watch.

01:06:44   It would just be paired via your account, like you would do it via the phone as you

01:06:48   say.

01:06:49   I would think so.

01:06:50   For either of those, so whether it's pairing the Apple Watch and the phone or pairing the

01:06:54   AirPods to the watch, I think no for either of them.

01:06:57   I don't think there's going to be any change.

01:06:59   Yeah, I don't know if you try to pair the Apple Watch with AirPods if it will pop up

01:07:06   a little thing that says, you know, "Let's do this," or whether you need to do a standard

01:07:11   Bluetooth pairing with those.

01:07:13   I don't know whether they've added that into

01:07:15   watchOS yet or not but

01:07:17   I would think that they would make it as easy as possible

01:07:19   to connect it if it isn't automatically connected when you're connected to

01:07:24   the iPhone if it doesn't also pair with your Apple Watch. I don't know.

01:07:28   And finally today Landon asked how tall I am.

01:07:32   [laughter]

01:07:35   Because after watching my vlogs, he was curious, Landon, I am

01:07:40   about six foot tall on the money

01:07:42   And if you are in Europe, let me find out what that is

01:07:45   six feet in

01:07:48   meters

01:07:49   It's one point eight meters tall. Hmm. How tall are you Jason? I am

01:07:54   Somewhere between five foot ten and five foot eleven on a good day. I'm five foot eleven on a bad day

01:07:59   I'm five foot ten. This is one of those funny things where I was almost positive that you were taller than me

01:08:04   Absolutely not. I everybody that I know I think is taller than me

01:08:09   I don't know what that says about me, but I'm sure a psychologist would have a field

01:08:12   day with that.

01:08:13   We are all much shorter than Anjey Tomić.

01:08:16   That's the important thing to note.

01:08:18   By a country mile.

01:08:19   He is, yes, he is a, and that country is Slovenia.

01:08:23   By a Slovenian mile.

01:08:25   Yep.

01:08:26   Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Upgrade.

01:08:30   You want to go to our show notes today at relay.fm/upgrade/111 or look in your app of

01:08:34   of

01:08:50   is closed. So if you want to get this stuff, you have to go now. I will not accept people

01:08:55   saying to me, "Oh, you didn't give me enough notice." This is your notice. Right, this

01:08:59   is your final warning. Would you agree, Jason? Final warning right now.

01:09:03   Final warning. Final warning.

01:09:05   If you want to find Jason online, you can go to sixcolors.com and he is @jasonel on

01:09:11   Twitter, J-S-N-E-L-L-L. I am @imike, I-M-Y-K-E. I host many podcasts here at Relay.fm, as

01:09:19   This does, Jason.

01:09:20   That is our URL, relay.fm.

01:09:22   The company's name is relay.fm.

01:09:23   There is no dot in the company name, but there is a dot in the URL.

01:09:27   So I feel like I must say it both ways.

01:09:28   I also publish YouTube videos over at youtube.com/mikehurley.

01:09:32   Thank you so much for listening.

01:09:33   Thank you so much again to our sponsors this week, FreshBooks and the Nuisance Committee.

01:09:37   We'll be back next time.

01:09:39   Until then, say goodbye, Mr. Snell.

01:09:41   Goodbye, Mr. Hurley.

01:09:47   What's going on inside Donald Trump's head?

01:09:51   Do you think he's ever scared or wonders if he's wrong?

01:09:56   In public he calls people names.

01:09:59   He's a germaphobe and he doesn't like to be touched.

01:10:03   Trump spreads conspiracy theories and makes wild accusations.

01:10:08   He says that Ted Cruz's father helped assassinate JFK.

01:10:14   He says that Obama is a traitor who wants Muslims to attack the United States and that

01:10:20   Hillary Clinton might have committed murder.

01:10:24   He thinks climate change is a conspiracy created by the Chinese government.

01:10:30   Do you think he believes those things?

01:10:34   He used money from his charity to buy a six-foot painting of himself.

01:10:39   He lied to the press about helping to clear rubble after 9/11.

01:10:45   In interviews, Trump has said he's too busy to read books.

01:10:51   He seems to not know how to use a computer or type on a keyboard.

01:10:57   Donald Trump doesn't know what's in the United States Constitution.

01:11:02   When a member of Congress asked him about Article I, which defines congressional powers,

01:11:08   He said, "I'm going to abide by the Constitution, whether it's number one, number two, number

01:11:15   twelve, number nine."

01:11:18   The Constitution has seven articles.

01:11:24   This November, the American people will elect a sane and reasonable president who understands

01:11:30   the basic facts about our democracy.

01:11:34   And that won't be Donald Trump.

01:11:46   [BLANK_AUDIO]