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0:00:08From Relay FM, this is Upgrade episode number 81.
0:00:12Today's show is brought to you by Ministry of Supply, Squarespace, ITProTV and FreshBooks.
0:00:19My name is Myke Hurley. Of course today we have an episode all about the Apple event
0:00:26that has occurred the March 21st Apple event, but we're doing something a little bit different.
0:00:31Of course we're going to talk about the event and everything that went down,
0:00:34but before we do, I want to hand over to our reporter in the field, Mr. Jason Snell.
0:00:40Good morning Myke, good morning listeners. You are listening to me coming from inside my car.
0:00:54I am Jason Snell and this is the weirdest episode ever of Upgrade.
0:01:01So it's 7-11 and I am making my way from my home in Marin County,
0:01:12Northern California, just north of San Francisco. I'm going to go across the Golden Gate Bridge
0:01:17And then I'm going to end up going through the city of San Francisco and down US 101.
0:01:27Well, let's see, through the city of San Francisco. Well, okay, so here's the Sturbest, San Francisco.
0:01:33They don't have a lot of freeways where you might expect there to be freeways like through the city.
0:01:38So after I get off the Golden Gate Bridge, I have to go on the streets of San Francisco
0:01:44through the city on Park Presidio Avenue and 19th Avenue.
0:01:54And then on to Interstate 280.
0:01:56And then that'll take me the rest
0:01:57of the way to Infinite Loop and Cupertino for the Apple event,
0:02:00which this episode is actually about.
0:02:04I'm on the freeway now.
0:02:05It's very exciting.
0:02:08So before we get to the post-event part of the car cast, which is what I'm calling this,
0:02:16I thought I would talk a little bit about the event atmosphere, because I know Myke
0:02:21likes to do that.
0:02:23Myke likes me to talk about it, because he's never been to one of these Apple Media events.
0:02:28So this town hall, this is going to take place in the Town Hall Conference Center, which
0:02:32is in R&D4 at Infinite Loop.
0:02:37And Stephen Hackett and I over the weekend
0:02:40compiled a list of kind of the notable town hall events
0:02:43that have happened since the iPod introduction in 2001,
0:02:49which I went to.
0:02:50And there are a few before then, but we
0:02:52decided that the history of that place--
0:02:56internet history gets really vague before 2001,
0:02:59so we didn't want to make any claims.
0:03:01We feel like we're pretty confident that our list is everything that's been since 2001.
0:03:05And it's really like one a year there have been these events at the town hall.
0:03:10Town hall was designed almost certainly for internal communications, right?
0:03:17Team meetings.
0:03:18When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, there were probably team meetings in there.
0:03:22You can have up to 300 people talking about what the vision for the group is or the company
0:03:26or whatever.
0:03:28As a media event area, it used to be fine.
0:03:32The iPod event was just fine.
0:03:34But over the years, as interest in Apple has grown, a 300-seat venue is ridiculously small
0:03:40for any event.
0:03:41At the end there, they did a couple Mac-related events there.
0:03:47But in general, it's a tough ticket, and I'm fortunate to even be getting in there.
0:03:52Also, the way that they handled this over the years has really changed.
0:03:54It used to be you would show up in front of R&D 4, you'd just park in the parking lot
0:03:58behind number 4, and go up and there would be a couple of fold out tables and PR people
0:04:05with little printed out lists of people and they'd check you in and they'd give you a
0:04:09badge and you'd go inside.
0:04:14Actually you'd wait outside and they might have some bagels on a table over in the corner
0:04:18but everybody would mill around outside and eventually they would let us in to this teeny
0:04:22tiny lobby on the inside but that was super claustrophobic and then eventually they let
0:04:28you in.
0:04:29They have changed it now.
0:04:31That was the way it was for a long time.
0:04:33There was this interim step where what they did was, I don't know what usually is upstairs
0:04:38from there but I think they changed it at some point into a briefing center or certainly
0:04:43it's convertible into that.
0:04:45So there's an upstairs right off of the lobby for R&D 4, which is the super narrow lobby.
0:04:55And there's an upstairs with a large room, like a common room, that I think was meant
0:04:59to be sort of like the hangout meeting place area for the employees who worked there.
0:05:04And so then they started outfitting that with like, it has chairs, but they'd also like
0:05:08put some breakfast out up there.
0:05:10The first time we saw that, we're like, "What is happening with Apple?"
0:05:13They're like giving us, like there were like egg stations
0:05:18and stuff, it was bizarre.
0:05:19We're like, what is happening?
0:05:21But I think they decided that it was a little embarrassing
0:05:24for them to have the folding tables and bagels
0:05:27in the corner and they wanted to kind of do it up.
0:05:30And also there were so many people that it was unruly.
0:05:33So they put in that extra effort.
0:05:35And for the last event,
0:05:37and what I believe they're doing today
0:05:38is they're actually having us come to R&D One.
0:05:40There's a special parking lot at the front
0:05:42that is usually like visitor parking that they're going to limit for this, which is good because
0:05:48another unreported story about Apple is that parking at the Apple campus is ridiculous these days.
0:05:52Like ridiculous. They actually have hired a valet service and they now double park cars in
0:06:01the Apple parking lot because there's not enough room because the campus is packed.
0:06:05So, but they for this event they've made this space available over by one infinite loop which
0:06:12is where it's the main entrance, that's where the new company store is, it's all over right
0:06:17as you get in and that's like what people think of as Apple headquarters is opening
0:06:23the door to one infinite loop.
0:06:25So just like last time I assumed today we're going to go in through one infinite loop through
0:06:29the main entrance which is very impressive, it's much more impressive, you're led in by
0:06:33PR people and then they take you out into the center of the loop which is where they've
0:06:38got a waiting area and last time there was a waiting area with some tents and again they're
0:06:46serving food because nothing gets journalists on your good side better than serving food
0:06:53and that's where we kind of waited out. They told us to be there by nine. The event is
0:06:58at ten. That's to shame all of the late people into getting there on time. And so we just
0:07:06hang out there and that's where you see the people. There are people I only see at Apple
0:07:10events these days which is pretty funny and I like to see them and I admire their work
0:07:14and we interact on Twitter but a lot of times I only ever see them at Apple events because
0:07:21and not for very long. I see them before the Apple event because afterward although I see
0:07:25them we're all working on our stories. So what happens is they'll usher us in, you'll
0:07:31get a seat, it's super tight and uncomfortable, we'll all sit there, cover the event and then
0:07:36afterward we're usually let into a hands-on area now with it maybe outside
0:07:43this time now that they're sort of like setting up this area outside it's
0:07:47possible it'll be outside if it's not outside it may be there's a piano bar
0:07:51with the famous piano that was has been a part of Apple for decades now that
0:07:56piano bar space is right across from from Town Hall so it may be there and
0:08:03And it may be outside, it might be upstairs, but usually there's a big hands-on area where everybody in the press can go and get their paws on the latest stuff.
0:08:12And it needs to be capacity for 300 people because there are 300 people that fit in the venue.
0:08:17So it's always a challenge for them. A lot of times the size of the venue is controlled by the size of the hands-on area.
0:08:24area because even if you had an auditorium that's seated 1,000, that's not enough.
0:08:30Like the new one will do at the new Apple campus, that'll seat 1,000.
0:08:33That's not enough.
0:08:34You also need an area large enough that you can take roughly 1,000 journalists and give
0:08:38them a reasonable amount of access to a hands-on area because that's just part of the deal
0:08:43as far as Apple is concerned.
0:08:45So it'll be interesting to see how that's executed, but I have no doubt that the new
0:08:50Apple Campus Auditorium will have been designed with that need in mind.
0:08:56And that'll be interesting to see, hopefully next year.
0:09:01So anyway, I'll see all those people in the hands-on area afterward and we won't be talking
0:09:06because everybody's shooting video and taking pictures.
0:09:09That area has become more and more intense over time because now people are committed,
0:09:13a lot of them, to shooting a bunch of photos and instantly posting a gallery or shooting
0:09:18a lot of video.
0:09:20And that's actually a new trend that kind of bugs me as somebody who's not that invested
0:09:24in it.
0:09:25And I totally understand why people do it, but there's nothing worse than waiting around
0:09:29a hands-on area trying to look at a product, only to discover that the person who's got
0:09:32it is there with a cameraman and they're going to shoot, "Hey guys, I'm here at the Apple
0:09:38event and let me walk you through everything about this new iPhone."
0:09:42And it's going to take forever.
0:09:44So you just move on, move on to another place.
0:09:47One of these days they should probably have a special area for people doing hands-on videos.
0:09:52I bet you that would be a better thing.
0:09:55Anyway, when all that is said and done, my plan right now is to hop back in the car and
0:10:00drive back home and along the way do this experimental car cast.
0:10:07The reason for that is largely because when they have these events in Cupertino, it takes
0:10:11me an hour and a half to get home.
0:10:14is prime time I should really be working on something involving the event. But I haven't
0:10:19been able to do that because I've been just sitting there driving and there's sort of
0:10:25like nothing else I can do with that time. It's just kind of a waste of my time. And
0:10:28I said to Myke, "Hey Myke, what if we did a podcast during my drive home from the event?"
0:10:33So I will do a Skype call with Myke and then record my end using this microphone that I'm
0:10:37talking to you on now. And Myke will put it together and it will have all of the magic
0:10:42and majesty of a podcast where somebody's in a car. So now we're going to go into the
0:10:49upgrade time machine. I'm going to throw it back to Myke and Myke is going to tell you
0:10:54about something really cool and then we're going to move ahead past the Apple event to
0:11:01the aftermath. Take it away Myke.
0:11:05Thank you to our man in the field, our man on the way to the field at that point, Mr.
0:11:10Now as Jason said when we come back from this break we will be together talking about everything
0:11:16that happened in the Apple event from our very special show in which we're recording
0:11:22on way back from location. This week's episode is brought to you by Ministry of Supply.
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0:13:18you so much to ministry of supply for their support of this show and relay FM. Okay, so
0:13:23dialling in from a road somewhere in Cupertino is our intrepid man in the field, Mr Jason
0:13:31Hello Mr. Jason Snell, welcome to Upgrade.
0:13:35Hi Myke, welcome to Upgrade indeed.
0:13:39I am coming to you live from the Interstate 280.
0:13:43You might know it from the maps icon.
0:13:47And I just have left the Apple Campus where I just finished
0:13:51working on the Apple Media event.
0:13:55Interstate 280 is my favorite of all the Interstates.
0:13:59the best number of all of them 280. So we are trying something a little bit
0:14:03different today you are we wanted to get the show out as quick as possible of all
0:14:08of the information and you are now taking this drive and so many people
0:14:11listen to podcasts while they drive we figured why not do a driving podcast
0:14:17so here we are. That's right, double the cars. Double the cars. So you're on your way back now back to
0:14:24Six Colors HQ and yes so I want to do our usual I want to talk about the event
0:14:32obviously you were there it was a small small audience right this this is a much
0:14:36smaller event when they do them at Town Hall yeah it's a 300 capacity I think
0:14:44it's very small and it used to be sufficient for Little Apple events here
0:14:49and there back in the day but Apple is so popular and successful now that it's
0:14:53not really sufficient for anything but the kind of smallest of events.
0:14:58And this was one of those smaller events, but still it was a tough ticket.
0:15:02A lot of people who usually go weren't there. Um,
0:15:06and it's probably as Stephen Hackett and I wrote about on six colors this
0:15:11week. And as Tim Cook mentioned at the end of the presentation,
0:15:15so that was a pretty good bit of timing. Uh,
0:15:18probably the last event in that venue. So,
0:15:21So did you see everybody? Like was there a good crowd there today?
0:15:24Yeah I mean it's a lot of the same people that I usually see.
0:15:28Jim Dalrymple, John Gruber, Matt Panzareno,
0:15:31Rene Ritchie, you know Clayton Morris,
0:15:35I saw Steven Levy, you know
0:15:39the people that I see at Apple events a lot of them were there but it's a smaller crowd
0:15:42so
0:15:43obviously there are a lot of people who I often see at these events who
0:15:46couldn't fit in the room so weren't there. Yeah of course.
0:15:49So I have my notes, I was watching at home, I was watching on my iMac with my iPad Pro in front of me that I was taking notes on and reading Twitter, so I had a whole multi-screen setup going on.
0:16:02So I figured we would go through the event chronologically and kind of talk about each of them.
0:16:09So we started off with a video which was kind of a reminder that in a couple of weeks time, on April 1st, Apple is 40 years old.
0:16:17old. So they did kind of a 40 second intro where they showed a lot of kind of the history
0:16:22and the buzzwords and the colors and the product names of the company's history. I guess you
0:16:27probably recognized quite a few things from that list including the crossed out Newton.
0:16:32Haha that's the, that's how you deleted things on the Newton list writing with that way.
0:16:38Yeah I recognized a lot of that stuff and I'm looking forward to going back through
0:16:43the video and watching it because obviously it just shot by and there's probably I did
0:16:49have an idea for a few stories based on that because I want to write about the 40th anniversary
0:16:53too. I'm sure Mr. Stephen Hackett is already writing the complete annotated version of
0:16:59that video and if he isn't he should probably get on that.
0:17:03Yeah most definitely. I think he sent me a message I believe he said I should have made
0:17:09this and it's like yeah that feels feels like this is right up your alley and
0:17:14then Tim it was Tim time Tim came out and he said a couple of words about how
0:17:20many Apple devices that there are and we kind of heard about this on the last
0:17:24financial analyst called that there's 1 billion Apple devices in use right now
0:17:28and he used this as a springboard to jump right into the FBI thing and me and
0:17:35you spoke about this last week and I think we both came to the conclusion that it was
0:17:40likely that this would come up in some way and Tim went at it head on and he started
0:17:46talking about the way that our devices are personal to us and he was saying things like
0:17:53how much power should we give the government over our data and privacy and he carried on
0:17:58by saying like we did as Apple we did not expect to be at odds with our government but
0:18:03We believe we have a responsibility to our customers.
0:18:05We owe it to them and will not shrink
0:18:07from this responsibility.
0:18:09This was performed very well.
0:18:11It was considered and impassioned.
0:18:14How did it feel being in the room?
0:18:15This got quite an ovation afterwards
0:18:18to hear Tim so strongly talk about this FBI scenario.
0:18:23- Well, you know, we've heard him talk about this before,
0:18:27so it wasn't surprising, I guess.
0:18:29And the people in the room get it.
0:18:31It's the people in the room, it's the first five rows
0:18:34are Apple employees or special guests,
0:18:35and then the rest of the room is reporters covering Apple.
0:18:38But anybody who's writing about this
0:18:40and understands the technology industry knows,
0:18:43knows what Apple's doing here
0:18:45and knows what the FBI is trying to pull.
0:18:47And I'm pretty sure that almost everybody in that room
0:18:51believes that Apple is in the right.
0:18:53And I was surprised, and we talked about it,
0:18:55like you said last week, I was a little surprised
0:18:58that this is, that it was in as depth as it was.
0:19:03I sort of anticipated a nod to it, you know,
0:19:06like a, you know, of course we're,
0:19:08we take your privacy seriously,
0:19:10you may have heard something about that,
0:19:11but instead he, you know, to Tim Cook's credit,
0:19:15he tackled it head on.
0:19:16I feel like he is an incredibly,
0:19:20I think one of his superpowers actually is that
0:19:22he's a very, he seems like a very honest
0:19:25and straightforward guy.
0:19:26I just, I don't get any artifice from Tim Cook.
0:19:30He feels like a genuine person.
0:19:35And so when he says we care about this stuff
0:19:38and it matters to us and we wanna,
0:19:40when they say that they want to leave the world
0:19:42a better place and when they say that they care
0:19:45about the privacy and security of their customers,
0:19:48I believe him, I don't think this is,
0:19:50I mean, it is, the challenge is it is also PR, right?
0:19:52This is a press event, it's a media event.
0:19:55It's meant to be company PR.
0:19:56It is company PR, it does make them look good,
0:19:59but I also think they believe it.
0:20:02And Tim Cook certainly, I think, believes it.
0:20:04- Yeah, I definitely stand with you on the believing part.
0:20:08You can tell he does.
0:20:10This did feel to me like the reason of bringing this up now
0:20:12is because there has been some public pushback,
0:20:16maybe from the media spinning this,
0:20:18or people that just don't believe
0:20:20that this should be Apple's view.
0:20:21So I definitely saw this as a time where they can say,
0:20:23"This is why we're doing it.
0:20:25There are customers of ours that think this is the right thing to do.
0:20:28We wanted to give you a little bit of like background as to why we believe this
0:20:31is important, you know, for the people watching that maybe didn't agree.
0:20:35Having seen that like and having seen this from Apple today,
0:20:40I can definitely see why they did this.
0:20:43I think that it was the right thing for them to come out and say something on
0:20:47this stage because if they didn't, you know,
0:20:49they would have basically just been called cowards in the press.
0:20:53Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you.
0:20:55actually, and looking at it like that, I think you're right.
0:20:58How could you not talk about it?
0:21:00Like, how could you not?
0:21:01How could you, you know, Apple today tried to release
0:21:03a bunch of products while ignoring the huge,
0:21:06you know, the elephant in the room, essentially.
0:21:08So, you know, I'm glad Cook took the time.
0:21:11I'm glad they took the time to talk about the other stuff
0:21:13that we're gonna get to.
0:21:14I think it needed to be said in some form.
0:21:17We know that we've seen for the last few weeks,
0:21:20it's a back and forth dialogue between Apple and the FBI,
0:21:24in terms of who says what to whom
0:21:27and what Ovid runs and what newspaper or on what website.
0:21:31This was Apple's serve.
0:21:33Apple got a chance in its own event to make its pitch.
0:21:38And tomorrow, you know, tomorrow we're gonna get it
0:21:40on a neutral court theoretically
0:21:42in the case between the Apple FBI case.
0:21:47And we'll see then.
0:21:49But this was their, how do you pass up an opportunity
0:21:51to have your swing today?
0:21:54And so they took it.
0:21:56- Yeah, and I think it was the right thing to do.
0:21:57And then they took an interesting move on from here.
0:22:01And I wanna get some thoughts from you in a moment
0:22:05as to why they may have done this,
0:22:08but they went into two different areas,
0:22:10environment and health.
0:22:11So first up, they brought Lisa Jackson onto stage.
0:22:14I believe this is her first outing on the stage for Apple.
0:22:19- I think so.
0:22:20- And basically this was all about Apple's renewable energy
0:22:24and they're recycling.
0:22:25They're kind of the two big things they're focusing on.
0:22:2893% of Apple's facilities currently run on renewable energy.
0:22:32They're targeting 100.
0:22:34And they were given some examples of facilities
0:22:36where they're building their own renewable energy sources
0:22:40where they can't get eco-power from the grid.
0:22:43So that was really cool to see some of those.
0:22:46And also they were showing about their efforts in packaging.
0:22:5199% of their packaging now comes from recycled paper or sustainably managed forests.
0:22:58But the really cool thing that they showed off was an R&D project called Liam.
0:23:03And they even created a little video about this.
0:23:05Liam is a robot that is disassembling...
0:23:08Or not.
0:23:09Yeah, or not.
0:23:10He's disassembling Apple's products.
0:23:13So they showed this little system of it detecting parts with a camera which it can remove and
0:23:20And then it filters them so they can harvest the materials basically for use in later products.
0:23:27This thing is crazy.
0:23:28Yeah, I like the idea that what Apple is saying is that they're not just using their technical
0:23:35acumen to build products, they're actually using some of their technical acumen to build
0:23:42products that disassemble tools, that disassemble their products.
0:23:46So that they're in a better, because that's one of the problems with electronics recycling
0:23:51is that it's this mixed up set of waste of different kinds of metals and glass and all
0:23:59these different things that go into this.
0:24:01And so I think it's really interesting that Apple is now highlighting that they built
0:24:05a tool, and she said it was built in California, they built a robot or not, that it's designed
0:24:13to pick apart Apple products so that Apple's recycling efforts of its own products could
0:24:18be more efficient.
0:24:19The video is really great.
0:24:20People should definitely check out the video.
0:24:22It is a really impressive, cool little bit of machinery.
0:24:27Yeah, I don't know where that video lives.
0:24:31So I'll see if I can find that.
0:24:34I assume it's in the presentation stream.
0:24:36Presumably they will post all of those videos on their own at some point to Apple.com, but
0:24:42uh... you know we're we're recording this like an hour after the event so it
0:24:47may not be up yet
0:24:48yeah but they will be able to be at least in the presentation for sure it's
0:24:52not on their environment page right now but but it might be there
0:24:55of kyle's the gray has uh... said just sent to me in the chat room
0:24:58uh... the recycling page and the liam video is at the bottom of the recycling
0:25:03page this is also a thing that apple viva revamped or they're pushing more
0:25:07which is that uh... recycling
0:25:09efforts bringing in stuff you can
0:25:12send products to them now you can print off
0:25:15uh... your
0:25:16but the shipping labels for free
0:25:18uh... i'd say something i like on the recycling page as you can see this
0:25:21all of the images of the products they're all dinged up every single one
0:25:25uh... they've all the scratches on them and nix taken out of them and it's
0:25:28really fun to see apples products on their own website
0:25:32uh... all dinged up like this so
0:25:34that's that's really cool i like that
0:25:37so you can get their really promoting this heavily
0:25:40which is good stuff you know to really highlight these types of things
0:25:44a little bit more
0:25:47also they went into health and Jeff Williams came on stage again for this
0:25:51if you remember Jeff he introduced research kit
0:25:55and they had an update about research kit today they were talking about how
0:25:58some of the
0:26:00things that come from research kit as some of the studies have become some of
0:26:03the largest medical studies in history and this had happened basically overnight
0:26:07because of the amount of people they were able to get
0:26:10onto these programs by offering these apps through the phone.
0:26:12They showed some really great videos of some of the apps and tools that are helping discover
0:26:18children with autism, highlighting data collection for Parkinson's and epilepsy.
0:26:22They're really heartwarming videos, but they're a good thing to show because this is stuff
0:26:28that Apple is helping create and they're helping provide the tools for people to go out and
0:26:32make these apps and experiences.
0:26:35They also showed off CareKit today, which is a new framework to build apps specifically
0:26:39to help people take an active role in their care. So they started with a Parkinson's app
0:26:45to try and help people understand how to take better care of themselves by logging activity
0:26:50and logging their feelings. They also showed how you can share this information with a
0:26:54doctor and they can update what medications you should be taking and stuff like that.
0:26:59So again this is just another really nice thing that Apple is doing and I saw quite
0:27:06a few people mention the "dent in the universe" line.
0:27:10And this stuff does highlight that.
0:27:12It can be easy when you're talking about these things as an Apple fan to sound sycophantic,
0:27:17right?
0:27:18That you're saying that Apple is amazing because they changed the world by making it better
0:27:21for everyone.
0:27:22But if this stuff really does make a difference in medical care, this is great because, do
0:27:27you know what, they don't have to do this.
0:27:31Yeah I think Apple, we're talking again, we talked about it last year too about their
0:27:35core values. This is an interesting place where some Apple could just stop at selling
0:27:44a phone right or a watch but it's got a strategy and the strategy involves making money but
0:27:51it also involves sort of like how do we take advantage of this technology that's in all
0:27:58of our pockets and on our many of our wrists right and some of that is health like health
0:28:03and fitness stuff, but definitely they, and I think the reason Jeff Williams is doing
0:28:08a lot of this is because he's so involved with the Apple Watch stuff, that this is part
0:28:12of Apple's belief that if we've all got supercomputers in our pockets and we can start to have sensors
0:28:19on our bodies that are all connected, that somebody needs to put all of that together
0:28:26and all that data and be able to again make the world a better place, right?
0:28:32And I think this is one of those areas where Apple's business motives and maybe its altruistic
0:28:40motives are in alignment.
0:28:43That this shows off and provides a use for this technology that they're building and
0:28:49selling.
0:28:50But at the same time, I think that there's the question of like, well, who else would
0:28:54do this?
0:28:56It's sort of up to the platform vendors to push forward on this.
0:29:00And I don't know what Google's initiatives are in this area for using Android, and if
0:29:05they work with hardware partners on it, they may, and they may have that too.
0:29:09But certainly from Apple's perspective, as the platform owner, as the designer of the
0:29:13hardware and the software for so many of these devices, for certainly the iPhone and the
0:29:17Apple Watch, that it fits.
0:29:20It fits with what they're doing.
0:29:22And to me, that's what that whole first part of this presentation was about, is never forget,
0:29:28It's a PR event, Apple wants you to know how great they are about doing those things, but
0:29:33it doesn't change the fact that they're doing them.
0:29:36Yeah, definitely.
0:29:38But why do you think Apple chose to open the event in this style?
0:29:44Why not the usual retail updates?
0:29:46Why this kind of messaging, do you think?
0:29:51I think this is...
0:29:52I don't know.
0:29:53I mean, it feels a little bit like an example of Apple rethinking its sort of standard playbook.
0:29:58"Yes, tell us about how many retail stores you opened. Yes, tell us again how many activations you've got."
0:30:06They did say there are a billion Apple devices currently active.
0:30:09But, I don't know, do you have to do that every time? When do you get a chance to talk about ResearchKit?
0:30:15Is it at WWDC? Maybe.
0:30:18So, I think, I don't know. I think they don't need to remind us how great their numbers are.
0:30:25Also, not to be cynical, but the iPhone sales aren't exactly shooting through the stratosphere
0:30:31right now.
0:30:32They've kind of plateaued.
0:30:33So maybe they've decided this is a perfectly good time to get the focus a little bit off
0:30:36of raw numbers.
0:30:39And then I'll throw in there too, when Apple is trying to portray itself in this battle
0:30:43with the FBI, especially as caring about its customers, coming out, is it maybe a liability
0:30:50that they're one of the most profitable companies in history?
0:30:54Does that make it problematic for them to say that they have altruistic motives and
0:30:59they care about their customers when they're incredibly profitable?
0:31:02And could it be seen as boasting about their success if they do that versus seeming a little
0:31:07more humble and giving back and taking that approach?
0:31:11Maybe that's a better approach tone-wise while they're locked in a battle with the US government
0:31:16over these privacy issues.
0:31:18Yeah, it definitely doesn't hurt to take this kind of stance from a PR perspective.
0:31:26And I agree, I think as maybe some of the sales numbers get just a little bit less crazier
0:31:35and crazier every time and they become more flat maybe, it becomes less of an exciting
0:31:40story to show them off, I think.
0:31:42Right, well then it becomes, yep, we made more money, we made more billions of dollars
0:31:46on the iPhone, yep, which is less exciting than look at the iPhone growth. It's amazing.
0:31:52We're in these new countries and look at all of our retail sales expansion. Maybe that's
0:31:58not as big a deal now. And people are going to be much more inclined to listen to a company
0:32:05that is talking about how it wants to make the world a better place than if it's like
0:32:11Scrooge McDuck diving in a giant pool of gold coins, right?
0:32:15Which is being seen as boastful and rich and all of that.
0:32:18Those are not good things to put yourself out as being, especially when you're really
0:32:23relying on the public to get behind you.
0:32:26Yep.
0:32:27All right, after this break, we're going to talk about some of the product updates and
0:32:31announcements.
0:32:32But first, let me take a moment to thank our friends over at ITProTV for making this episode
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0:35:19This special episode of Upgrade.
0:35:22So we move on to the Apple Watch now. Just a very quick update on the Apple Watch. Basically
0:35:32some statistics which are not very useful. Top selling smart watch number one in customer
0:35:37satisfaction. Market's not huge right now. Yeah take a drink on the customer set numbers.
0:35:45I guess the biggest news is the new bands. The watch does now start at $299 so there's
0:35:51been a price drop which is great but you know the product is getting a bit old now so a
0:35:56price drop is not crazy. This will probably help shift some of the stock that they've
0:36:02got in advance of new hardware later in the year. So we have a few new bands. We have
0:36:07a woven nylon band. It's kind of like the NATO bands that people were talking about.
0:36:12The images that Apple showed on stage, they didn't look too great to me. The images on
0:36:17Apple's website and from Verge hands-on look nicer so I'm assuming you've seen
0:36:21these these bands Jason what's your opinion?
0:36:26They're not I mean they're not for me but they're nice they're there I like
0:36:31you know we had those rumors about that they were gonna do the NATO watch strap
0:36:35style sort of thing and instead it's more like Apple's take on that with the
0:36:40with the woven nylon. So if you want a woven fabric band, they look nice. That's not my,
0:36:48you know, preference in terms of style, but they look nice. And then they also did... and Tim Cook
0:36:57actually said, I believe, "Spring colors." These are our spring colors. So it's fascinating to see
0:37:03the fashion angle here where they refresh the colors so there are like, I don't know, I have
0:37:10a picture of it, like 20 new bands if you count all the different colors of all the different
0:37:16styles. There's even like the sport band, the orange that I've got, that's out. There's a new
0:37:21orange. So see, this is what I'm saying, it's fascinating because it's all about
0:37:27personalization and style and fashion and I think that's fun. I wish Apple would get beyond the four
0:37:34colors of the iPhone and MacBook. I wish we would have some more fun colors in the other products
0:37:45they make. Well all of the colors, the new spring colors, are reflected in the in new cases for the
0:37:51iPhone. Yeah you can put a case on that. That's fine. I just, you know, I would love the iPhone
0:37:56to get colorful again. Or colorful like the Nanos got colorful at some point. I know we've
0:38:03talked about that before. But yeah, it's more styles and there was a statistic too. I forget
0:38:10what it was that what a third of Apple Watch users wear more than one band. I didn't catch that,
0:38:16but that doesn't surprise me. Yeah, and I'm one of those people. I have three different bands.
0:38:21I switch them around. I like wearing them all and it's just kind of fun. It makes my watch feel more
0:38:27fun to wear because it's not the same old same old all the time. I wear the orange for a while.
0:38:33I've got the orange on now, the orange sport, and then I'll think, "Oh, I'm going to switch to the
0:38:38black leather now," and I'll wear that for a little while and then I'll switch to the black sport.
0:38:41It's fun to have that. I am not a fashionable person, so I'm not really doing it so much to
0:38:49to be seen as I am to to just have kind of fun and enjoy what I'm wearing.
0:38:55And yeah, and just have it not seem like, you know, it's like you bought a new thing
0:39:00except you didn't.
0:39:00You just walked in a new band for a while.
0:39:03So the new sport bands that I'm personally interested in,
0:39:07there is a yellow, a royal blue and the product red.
0:39:10So I want to go to a store and look at those.
0:39:13They have the woven nylon bands, which I want to take a look at.
0:39:18I'm hoping that maybe they'll be in the Apple stores tomorrow.
0:39:21I'll take a look and see if I can reserve one and go take a look at one.
0:39:24They have a new black Milanese loop and they for the first time
0:39:28have colors in the classic buckle.
0:39:31So they have a bunch of colored leather and colors in the modern buckle as well.
0:39:35So they're branching out of just the standard ones there.
0:39:38Yeah, there was a there was like a purpley purpley or bluey kind of.
0:39:43I'm bad with colors of classic buckle that I really I thought looked really great.
0:39:47Yeah. And I know, I thought of you, the moment I saw this, I thought of you and I thought,
0:39:52"Oh, Myke's going to be going to the Apple store and stare at the pretty new colors and
0:39:56come home with a new Apple Watch band or two." I love them. I really, as you say, it's about
0:40:01the customization thing and I like changing them up. I think it's fun. They're not massively
0:40:06expensive. I mean, look, if you add up how much money I will have ended up spending,
0:40:10you know, I could end up getting close to buying another Apple Watch. But my hope would
0:40:14be that these will work on my next one too. So I think this is just a fun little thing,
0:40:20I like to do it in the same way that people would buy clothes. So that's all that we have
0:40:24on the Apple Watch which is not surprising, I think that was all that we expected. I think
0:40:28maybe we got more band customisation than we thought we were going to get. Some of those
0:40:33modern buckle and leather, the modern buckle and the clasp one and the classic buckle that
0:40:40I think that we weren't really expecting to get all of those so you know there's more
0:40:43there.
0:40:44Then we move on to the Apple TV, not really much mentioned here, just tvOS 9.2 is now
0:40:50available, it has folders and dictation, they mentioned on stage.
0:40:55Was this Jaws giving this part of the presentation?
0:40:59Yeah Greg Jawsiak who has been at Apple forever and occasionally appears in keynotes and other
0:41:08media events and it was Jaws doing the... he did the iPhone, did he do the Apple TV?
0:41:14Or was that... that would have been Tim Cook.
0:41:17Yeah it was either Tim or Craig I think.
0:41:22Basically the usual suspects weren't on stage today.
0:41:26It was Tim I think.
0:41:27Craig Federighi wasn't on stage today.
0:41:29And neither was Eddie.
0:41:30No, instead that was Craig Jaws.
0:41:32So the Apple TV stuff, I mean, it's the stuff that was in the beta.
0:41:37So people who've been following the beta know about it.
0:41:39But you know, I think for me,
0:41:40most notable is support for iCloud photo library.
0:41:43The fact, and for every Apple TV update,
0:41:45we're gonna say the same thing,
0:41:46which is why was that not in there when it launched?
0:41:49But it's in there now.
0:41:51That was one of the great mysteries to me.
0:41:54And yeah, support for dictation,
0:41:56support for more data sources,
0:41:57with even more on the way.
0:41:59Tim Cook said, that was Tim Cook,
0:42:01'cause I remember him, he got to say,
0:42:03"Great HBO, like Game of Thrones and Veep,
0:42:05And then of course Silicon Valley.
0:42:09So yeah, that's all good.
0:42:11It's just, it's funny.
0:42:13I don't want to complain about it
0:42:14because I think it's great that they keep iterating
0:42:16on Apple TV and they should keep iterating on it.
0:42:19It's a little bit funny that a lot of this stuff
0:42:22has taken six months to get on the device.
0:42:24But it's great that they're doing it.
0:42:26I'm very happy to see after, you know,
0:42:29what, a couple of years of stasis with the old Apple TV
0:42:32that the shipping of the Apple TV last fall
0:42:36was not the end of the conversation,
0:42:38that they're actively adding new stuff to it to this day.
0:42:42That's actually great to see.
0:42:44- You know, when I hear this, and we look at this,
0:42:48it's like, I think it would have maybe just been easier
0:42:50for them if this just wasn't called the Apple TV,
0:42:52it was called something else.
0:42:54Because this was a product that already existed,
0:42:57we're on the fourth generation of it,
0:42:58and we took major steps back,
0:42:59and eventually it will be better and much better
0:43:02it already is better in some instances, but we lost some features that we were kind of clawing back over time and say well
0:43:09It's kind of is a different product really, but it unfortunately shares the same name
0:43:14but it would be
0:43:17Your comparison would be to the MacBook right where the new MacBook is not the MacBook Air
0:43:22Which means that we can complain about it being slower than the MacBook Air, but it's not the MacBook Air
0:43:29We can't say the MacBook Air just got slower because it's a different product with different attributes. Yeah, and then with the Apple TV
0:43:35It's just the Apple TV. So it it looks like a you know, it's progress on some fronts and regression on others and
0:43:42You know, but it's good like like I said, it's good to see this stuff
0:43:47I can say that maybe some of it should have been there sooner, but you know, it's there now and
0:43:51That's good. That's raining
0:43:55It comes the rain. Yeah, this is the one thing we were hoping wouldn't happen
0:43:59It is coming down hard. Don't you live in California?
0:44:04Yeah, I guess we get all of our rain in a very short burst it's right now which is right it's funny leaving
0:44:11Leaving Apple. I it started to rain and I people were scurrying and Apple PR people were like
0:44:18Engage rain protocol. Hey
0:44:22because
0:44:25The event was, as I mentioned at the beginning when I was driving down here, the event was,
0:44:31this is like a downpour, people were like stopped on the freeway. This is amazing.
0:44:35The event was held in town hall, but we entered through R&D1. So they had to station people
0:44:45throughout the entire center of the Apple campus to show us where to go and more specifically to
0:44:51have us stay away from places the public is not supposed to go. And so those people all got very
0:45:01wet. And some of them had umbrellas, but I think when they engaged the rain protocol, that's what
0:45:07they were doing. It was basically trying to figure out, like, can we hand out the raincoats to the
0:45:14people or do they have everybody exit some other direction or something? I don't know.
0:45:19In California we don't expect the rain and so it's always a surprise when it comes.
0:45:23So moving on we have the iPhone. So iPhone is up next and basically this is all about the iPhone SE
0:45:33which is the product name. Apple kind of did a good job here which is something I think they've
0:45:40been criticized that lately and actually they do a good job with the iPad as well and which we'll
0:45:45which we'll talk about in a bit,
0:45:46of explaining why this product exists.
0:45:49This has been a criticism of previous keynotes, I think,
0:45:53in the tech press and on other podcasts,
0:45:57is they weren't doing a good job
0:45:58of explaining why the product exists,
0:46:00but they make this very clear.
0:46:01- Well, you're going against
0:46:02conventional wisdom here, too, right?
0:46:03The conventional wisdom is the future is bigger phones,
0:46:08so why would you do something that was not a bigger phone?
0:46:12Why in the world would you go backward?
0:46:14And so they have to say-
0:46:15- I'll tell you why.
0:46:16It's because they sold 30 million four inch phones in 2015.
0:46:20- Yep.
0:46:22And again, this comes back to perspective.
0:46:24We tech savvy people, we're buying the more expensive phone.
0:46:31We are on the cutting edge.
0:46:32We want the giant screen.
0:46:34Our priorities are not the priorities of everybody.
0:46:38And that's what they said is like
0:46:41in certain parts of the world
0:46:43and in people buying their first smartphone,
0:46:48there are lots of scenarios where this is the phone
0:46:54that they want, is the four inch phone.
0:46:56And they sold a lot of them.
0:46:58And so it may be boring to us.
0:47:01It may be a small part of the market
0:47:04compared to the whole smartphone market,
0:47:06but it's still important.
0:47:08And I think the larger story is Apple needed
0:47:11modern product to replace the 5S, right? Because they still want a product in that slot, they
0:47:16want a product of that size, they want a product of that price, but the 5S is just too old.
0:47:21It's too slow, it doesn't do touch ID, it's just like, or I mean not touch ID, it doesn't
0:47:25do Apple Pay, it's like all of these things that it can't do, the camera isn't very good,
0:47:31you gotta do something there. And so this is, we kind of called it a couple years ago,
0:47:36I think we talked about this a year plus ago, that at some point they were going to have
0:47:41to decide, does the four inch phone fall off the bottom of the price list or not, and if
0:47:45not, what do you do?
0:47:47And this is the answer, which is, you know, we need to update the insides and make it
0:47:52a 6S, essentially, on the inside, even though it looks like a 5S on the outside.
0:47:58Yeah.
0:47:59So, which is essentially what they did.
0:48:01From a cosmetic perspective, basically all they seemed to mention on stage was Matt Chamford
0:48:07Edges and it has all the colours and they have the reflective Apple logo.
0:48:13There was rumours of curved glass on the edges, did you find this?
0:48:17I'm sure you've seen and handled the SE.
0:48:22Yes I held it in my hand.
0:48:25It is a 5S.
0:48:28It is a 5S through and through.
0:48:30You would not, other than some very subtle things,
0:48:35I'd say most notably, very subtly,
0:48:38that the Apple on the back is different,
0:48:40and the fact that the chamfers are matte and not shiny,
0:48:44it is a 5S.
0:48:46It looks no different.
0:48:51It's that style.
0:48:52If you're hoping for a four-inch phone
0:48:56that looked like an iPhone 6, you're not gonna get it,
0:48:58because it is a dead ringer for the iPhone 5S.
0:49:03- So I guess this was one of the things
0:49:06from the Gorman rumors that didn't really pan out that way,
0:49:10right?
0:49:11- Yeah, I wonder.
0:49:12We were also talking at the event about,
0:49:15one of the challenges about not having any leaks
0:49:17for this product is how would you know?
0:49:20If it looks exactly like the 5S,
0:49:26how would you even know that it was not the 5S, right?
0:49:31That no part leak would do it justice
0:49:34because all the chassis at least is exactly the same,
0:49:37or almost exactly the same.
0:49:39So that's a way for Apple to do things in secret,
0:49:43is not change the case.
0:49:45- I don't know how far that's gonna work.
0:49:48- No, probably has limited usefulness,
0:49:51but it worked in this case.
0:49:53- So talking about the insides of this thing,
0:49:55It's a 6S in a small body.
0:49:57It has the A9 and the M9, significantly improved battery,
0:50:01has a 12 megapixel camera, focus pixels,
0:50:05true tone flash, live photos, retina flash on the front,
0:50:09because the phone's thicker, there's no camera bump.
0:50:13It has Apple Pay in it as well.
0:50:14This is, you know, for all intents and purposes,
0:50:17this is an iPhone 6S Mini.
0:50:19- It really is, it really is.
0:50:22And I think some people will be surprised
0:50:25that it's so powerful.
0:50:28My gut feeling is that it's this powerful
0:50:33because they probably don't expect
0:50:34to update this product every year.
0:50:36- Yeah, like what happened with the Mini.
0:50:39- Exactly, right?
0:50:40You make it, you make it with the iPad Air 2, right?
0:50:43- Yeah.
0:50:44- Where you make it really powerful
0:50:45and then you don't need to update it for a couple of years.
0:50:50And that's, I think that's what they're doing here
0:50:52I don't think in a year we're going to see a new bumped iPhone SE.
0:50:56I think the iPhone SE will be like this for a couple of years.
0:50:59And then at some point, maybe, they will bump it to the iPhone 7 or 7S spec.
0:51:05But right now, it's a 6S to all intents and purposes.
0:51:11The processor may be clocked down, I don't know.
0:51:14And I don't know about the RAM in it.
0:51:16it. But yeah, I asked about the camera and they said, well, the body is different because
0:51:24the phone body is different, but that the camera itself is 12 megapixel camera. I mean,
0:51:29it's basically a success camera, does live photos, does big panoramas. It does all the
0:51:34stuff that the iPhone 6s does, just in a smaller size. I think for people who really like that
0:51:42size and are not enamored with the bigger phone other than the fact that it's the way you get the
0:51:48latest greatest, you're essentially not going to get any compromise if you get the four-inch
0:51:54phone right now. You're getting last year's phone, right? That is something to think about.
0:52:00It's the current phone, but it's last year's phone. It's the 2015 specs in the 2016 product
0:52:07and maybe the 2017 product, but right now it's on class with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
0:52:16So do you think that there's going to be a significant amount of people that
0:52:23go back down to the smaller size now that the performance is there?
0:52:29Oh it's a good question. I feel like
0:52:34I feel like it's a lot of us are going to just be used to the size and not go back,
0:52:44just because it's like once you get the bigger screen size it's awfully hard to give it up.
0:52:50But I do think there's a class of user who never upgraded because they wanted the small
0:52:58size and I believe there's a class of user who upgraded to the bigger phone because they
0:53:03wanted the latest, greatest hot phone and doesn't love the size, but it's put up with
0:53:08it.
0:53:09So I do think that there are people in both of those camps, I think most people aren't.
0:53:13I think most people are going to be happy with the 6 or the 6 Plus, or 6S and 6S Plus
0:53:18size.
0:53:19But there will definitely be some people who go back and some people who never left and
0:53:26now don't have to.
0:53:29Do you have any other thoughts of your own?
0:53:31I assume looking at this device outside of the fact
0:53:34that you've already used a 5S before
0:53:36and you know what iOS 9.3 looks like,
0:53:40there probably isn't much exciting going on to talk about?
0:53:43- I think the excitement is if you're using a 5S,
0:53:47you're using a phone that's two years old,
0:53:49two and a half years old now.
0:53:51And if you update to this, the excitement is,
0:53:53if you draw the line from the 5S,
0:53:57It's like twice as fast and has better battery life
0:54:01and has this much better camera and does Apple Pay
0:54:03and all these features, every feature that has come
0:54:06in the last two and a half years to iPhones,
0:54:08you haven't gotten 'cause you're still on the 5S.
0:54:11So from that perspective is where it's especially impressive
0:54:14for the rest of us, yeah, it is.
0:54:16If you can picture all the functionality of an iPhone 6S
0:54:20in an iPhone 5S, that's it.
0:54:23That's what it is.
0:54:24Like, literally, that's what it is.
0:54:27It has almost nothing else about it is different.
0:54:30It's this year's model in, you know,
0:54:33the last two years ago model's body.
0:54:37- So this phone is starting at 399 for 16 gigabytes.
0:54:43Do you have any feeling about the 16 gigabyte?
0:54:45- I saw people complaining about it on the internet
0:54:50'cause that's what people do.
0:54:53I don't know, I feel like for the essentially free phone,
0:54:56the free with contract rock bottom prices phone,
0:54:59I'm kinda okay with the 16.
0:55:01- Same.
0:55:02- There is a 64 option for $100 more.
0:55:06You know, when they make the case that this is a phone
0:55:10that sells well to people who are looking
0:55:12for a cheaper phone or getting their first phone,
0:55:17I think this goes to that, which is,
0:55:21this is the low phone on their price list.
0:55:24They gotta have places where they cut back.
0:55:27And this is not where I would complain
0:55:30about it being base 16.
0:55:32I'm gonna complain more about 16 as a base in an iPhone 7.
0:55:36But the iPhone SE, I think it's understandable
0:55:40that that would start at the rock bottom,
0:55:41like just as low as we can possibly make it
0:55:45and still sell it.
0:55:46So it doesn't bother me.
0:55:48Does it bother you?
0:55:49In this phone, no it doesn't. Because it is cheaper and this is the phone that for many
0:56:00people they want to be as cheap as possible so if this keeps the price down any then it's
0:56:07every you know every penny is well saved. We did just have somebody else go over Twitter.
0:56:13Does this have 3D touch this phone? I don't think it does right?
0:56:18does not know. So that's the one thing that it is missing from the 6s then? Yes.
0:56:22Okay. Yes. Yeah so as you said there's a 64 gigabyte which is $499 pre-orders on
0:56:28March 24th available on March 31st and it'll be in 100 countries by the end of
0:56:33May. Yep yeah and I think I think I think it'll do well for them because as they
0:56:38put up the stats the 5s has been doing well for them and this is a way better
0:56:42phone. So I think it's going to do well for them. All of us, again, tech nerds, are going
0:56:49to be bored by it, but it's not for us.
0:56:52This was, again, another strange thing today. In talking about the justification of this
0:56:56product and then the justification of the smaller iPad Pro, they gave numbers away.
0:57:01So they gave numbers away of how many 4-inch phones are sold, and they gave numbers away
0:57:06about how many 9.7-inch iPads have been sold.
0:57:12- I know, they're teasing us.
0:57:14They love bringing out those numbers.
0:57:16They know all the details, right?
0:57:18And they don't have to release those in the financials.
0:57:22And every now and then they do,
0:57:23and this is where you see the chart from Horace Deju,
0:57:25where he's gotten like three times
0:57:29they've mentioned this figure,
0:57:30and I can make a chart from that, right?
0:57:32But it's not something we get every quarter,
0:57:34so you have to do some intuiting of the numbers
0:57:37and what they all mean.
0:57:38So I love it when they do that.
0:57:40They dropped just enough data to help their case,
0:57:43but it's not data we've heard before
0:57:44and we may never hear it again.
0:57:46It's hilarious, but they did.
0:57:47They talked about how many of those small phones
0:57:50they've sold and how many of those
0:57:52normal sized iPads they've sold.
0:57:54- The last thing on iPhone, I guess,
0:57:58it was in this segment.
0:57:59iOS 9, sorry, iOS 9.3 is available today.
0:58:04- Yes.
0:58:08Yes, I've been running that--
0:58:10- Not really anything to say there
0:58:11that we don't already know.
0:58:12- I've been running that beta for a while.
0:58:14Have you?
0:58:15I know that there was a funny moment on,
0:58:17for people who aren't listening to Canvas,
0:58:18which is a great show about iOS productivity
0:58:21with Fraser and Federico.
0:58:23They were making statements about what the iPad can do
0:58:26based on the 9.3 beta, and somebody wrote in to say,
0:58:29why can't my device do that?
0:58:30And it turned out, oh, that's because you're not
0:58:32on the beta.
0:58:35I have nothing but my highest recommendations for 9.3.
0:58:39I've been running the beta on that iPad Pro for a while.
0:58:41It fixes a lot of iPad Pro problems with 9.2
0:58:45and has been very stable for me.
0:58:47- Yeah, outside of the issue that I had with the Pencil,
0:58:51which has now been resolved,
0:58:53also nothing but good things to say about 9.3.
0:58:57Night Shift really is a fantastic feature
0:59:00and is worth upgrading alone just for that.
0:59:02it really will change the way that you think about
0:59:05using your device, it's lovely, I really like it.
0:59:08You know, it's made me go and install Flux on my Mac
0:59:12because I was enjoying it so much.
0:59:15I wish that they could have done it
0:59:17or could do it with the Apple Watch
0:59:19'cause now I have this bright blue light on my wrist
0:59:21in the evenings.
0:59:22- Ah.
0:59:23- But it seems that I would assume they would have done that
0:59:25if they could have done that.
0:59:26Maybe the display technology is not good enough to do that.
0:59:30Alright, let's take our next break and then we'll start talking about the iPad.
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1:02:00Freshbooks for their support of upgrade and Relay FM. All right so I would say that this is probably
1:02:08the main event, the iPad.
1:02:12Oh yeah.
1:02:13So basically the kind of the spiel for this is Phil on stage doing this.
1:02:19He said many people are telling us that the iPad Pro is becoming their primary computing
1:02:24device.
1:02:25They had lots of quotes from people about how the iPad Pro and the pencil is really
1:02:28helping those who work in design.
1:02:30They had John Lasseter up there.
1:02:32They had a couple of other people whose names I can't remember but I just read Creativity
1:02:36So John Lesnar's name is emblazoned in my brain.
1:02:39Right. They had Christopher Finn, who used to be the editor at Mac format, I want to say.
1:02:47And they quoted him, which was fun to see somebody I know quoted as praising the pencil.
1:02:54Basically, they have introduced what Apple is referring to as the second member of the iPad Pro family.
1:03:01It is 9.7 inches and weighs less than a pound.
1:03:07And Apple, again, they address why are we making this, right?
1:03:12They are saying that the display, the 9.7 inch display, is the display that they started
1:03:18with because it's large but easy enough to carry.
1:03:21It's portable.
1:03:23It's the most popular iPad size.
1:03:25They said they sold 200 million iPads in that size since they first started selling iPads.
1:03:31So again, you can kind of work out how many, with that number, you can now go back and
1:03:36work out how many iPad minis have been sold, you know, up to a certain point.
1:03:39You know, there's, Horace Dedue can run around with his hair on fire with that number now.
1:03:44He will.
1:03:46He was there today too, so I'm sure he was writing all those numbers down.
1:03:49He probably already had the chart going.
1:03:52Also, this is something really interesting, but he spent quite a bit of time talking about
1:03:57Windows here.
1:04:00And they basically said that the majority of people that come to Apple products from
1:04:04Windows go to the iPad, not the Mac.
1:04:08And then they gave a statistic that there are 600 million PCs in use that are over five
1:04:13years old and Apple want these people.
1:04:16So I think I've seen some people saying, "Oh, that's good.
1:04:20They're still running."
1:04:21I don't think the point was that Apple was saying, "Look how old all these PCs are."
1:04:25I think their point was these people are due for an upgrade soon and they want to make
1:04:29sure that they can be that upgrade with the iPad. And they referred to the iPad as the
1:04:35ultimate PC replacement in more than one instance here. This is a repositioning of the iPad,
1:04:41and I am thrilled to see this marketing message.
1:04:45Yeah, it's funny. They talk about it in terms of Windows PCs, because they don't want to
1:04:51trample on the Mac, which didn't get mentioned at all.
1:04:54We'll get to that.
1:04:55I think that's good. I was talking to John Gruber afterward, and he pointed out quite
1:04:58rightly that it's sort of a hard sell to say this makes laptops obsolete also we
1:05:05here are some new laptops. How do you do that? That's my feeling on this as well.
1:05:10So you kind of leave those as separate but yeah this is seeing it as an
1:05:18opportunity I know they feel that people use PCs for you think about a five-year
1:05:26older PC. These are people who bought a PC, a lot of them, because they needed something to get on the internet, right?
1:05:32Again, we have to have the perspective here of not like a super tech enthusiast, but just as a regular person.
1:05:39There was a time, not too long ago, where there were a whole class of things that we do that we considered computer things, right?
1:05:47And we don't anymore, because we have iPads and smartphones. We don't consider those, the computer, the personal computer is not the only way to do those things.
1:05:54But the people who bought these PCs, some percentage of them bought them for like email or to see the web.
1:06:03And I'm sure Apple's done a lot of research on this front. Those people are ripe to replace those things with iPads.
1:06:11Because they don't need anything more than an iPad to do those things. My mom is like that.
1:06:19My mom had a computer, had a MacBook Pro, to do email and the web and some photos.
1:06:26And it was overkill, but that was sort of like the best way to get it.
1:06:30But she replaced her MacBook with an iPad Air.
1:06:35And it's fine, because she didn't need a computer, she didn't need a PC to do what she did.
1:06:40And so I think that's what Apple is looking at when they're thinking of that opportunity.
1:06:43You could also argue, we've talked about a little bit,
1:06:47I know I've said that I think Microsoft Office is really great on iOS.
1:06:51There are people for whom the iPad is probably fine because their idea of why they have a computer is Microsoft Office, like is Excel or Word.
1:07:01And even for those people, there's a story for the iPad.
1:07:05So, you know, I think it's interesting that they're going straight at old PCs, but I think it also makes sense.
1:07:13It goes back to the initial argument about the iPad, which is for a lot of people, it's
1:07:19that car truck argument in a way.
1:07:21For a lot of people, you really don't need to buy another PC.
1:07:24If you're in the market for a new device to replace your Windows PC, why would you buy
1:07:29another PC?
1:07:30You don't need to use it for any of those things.
1:07:33The iPad will do it all and be lighter and better.
1:07:38So then they go on to talk about this product in a little bit more detail.
1:07:42So well they throw in 1 million iPad apps, you know, fine.
1:07:48Basically we have the same display materials here, they said as the iPad Pro 12.9, but
1:07:56they have something new called True Tone, which appears to just be in the 9.7 iPad Pro
1:08:02for now.
1:08:03Yeah, there are a couple features that are only in the 9.7 iPad Pro, and we're really
1:08:07have to come up with some shorthand for these things because 9.7 inch iPad Pro is a mouthful.
1:08:16Yeah, let's see where this ends up settling down. Maybe Marco can give it a name like he did MacBook
1:08:21One. Yeah, I saw Michael Gartenberg and Serenity Caldwell both were calling it the baby pro.
1:08:27So we'll see. But at least for now let's continue with 9.7 and 12.9.
1:08:34So there's True Tone, and then really quickly, the other feature that's slightly interesting is a wider color gamut.
1:08:42So, you know, when the 5K iMac got revved and the 4K iMac came out, they had the support for this better color gamut.
1:08:57They show more colors than the old 5K iMac that I've got.
1:09:03That's the color gamut on the new iPad Pro, the 9.7 inch.
1:09:06It's got, and not on the big iPad Pro.
1:09:09So they're putting that wider color gamut
1:09:12into mobile devices now,
1:09:14and this is the first one to get it.
1:09:18- So as well as the wide color gamut was this True Tone,
1:09:22which is basically some additional sensors
1:09:24that measure ambient light
1:09:25and adjust the color temperature of the display
1:09:28to make the display look more natural looking.
1:09:31This sounds really great.
1:09:32I've got to say, I'm a little bit miffed that this is in just this version.
1:09:37It's interesting to me that just after a couple of months as the iPad Pro existing, that the
1:09:44line has not only been duplicated but bifurcated.
1:09:48That is an interesting decision to make on Apple's part here.
1:09:52Yeah, I guess gone are the days of everything moving in lockstep, right?
1:09:57Now things are just sort of like new features keep coming into the product line and then
1:10:02keep moving out of the product line.
1:10:05I wonder, there's a whole thing to be considered about what this means for the iPad Pro, the
1:10:11big one.
1:10:14Now that there's pencil support in the smaller device and all these other things that are
1:10:18great in the smaller device, the iPad Pro is now a different choice, right?
1:10:26choice based on wanting the size more than it is wanting the features, right?
1:10:31Because the smaller iPad now has...so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.
1:10:35I too am kind of bummed out that my iPad Pro doesn't have this sensor.
1:10:41So you know, all these devices have ambient light sensors so you can have it auto-adjust
1:10:44the brightness, and I always hated that and generally I've turned that off in most of
1:10:48my devices because I always hate sitting somewhere and the lighting slightly changes in the room
1:10:52and suddenly my iPhone gets dimmer.
1:10:55bugs me. But this is really interesting in that now it's detecting color, the color temperature
1:11:00of the light in the room that you're in and adjusting the white point on the display,
1:11:08which is really cool. That's a cool idea that if you're in a room with really yellow light,
1:11:15what happens is your eyes adapt and your eyes do what photographers would call a white balance
1:11:20in a camera because a camera is not eyes, your eyes adapt and say that this yellow light
1:11:27on this white piece of paper is white.
1:11:30But your iPad doesn't change color and their demo was really smart.
1:11:35The iPad is always just like whatever color temperature it's set to.
1:11:40So in a yellowish light, it's still going to have this really bluish white.
1:11:46So with this sensor, if you're in yellowish light, it's going to reset its white point
1:11:50to that and everything on the screen is going to be yellowish.
1:11:54Which on one level you'd be like, "Well wait, hold on a second, I don't want that."
1:11:57But in a lot of cases you probably do want that.
1:12:01It probably feels a lot more natural to use the device.
1:12:05And if you've ever flipped open your iPad or your iPhone in a dim and sort of yellowy
1:12:11lit room and then shocked at how bright and blue the light seems. This is the feature
1:12:18that prevents that. And you can turn it on and off, so if you don't like it, it's system
1:12:23wide, you just turn it off and it doesn't do it anymore, just like the night shift setting.
1:12:31Then we have four stereo speakers, the A9X and the M9, like the larger iPad Pro. Then
1:12:37accessories. This is where it starts to get a little bit interesting. So we have
1:12:41a new smart keyboard to fit the size. Did you get to try this?
1:12:44I did. You know they shrunk down the keys. They shrunk down the keys. The only way
1:12:52to get a keyboard on that smaller iPad is to make all the keys smaller. So while
1:12:59the smart keyboard, the keyboard cover on the iPad Pro, big iPad Pro, is a
1:13:06a full-size keyboard. This isn't. This is a shrunken down keyboard. And otherwise it feels exactly the same as the other one.
1:13:13And they tried to make the modifier keys a little bit smaller so that they could, I'm sure, maximize the amount of keycap size for all the keys.
1:13:24But if you're used to typing on a standard-sized keyboard, this one is not going to do it for you because it's not that size. It's scaled down.
1:13:32For some people it won't matter. It's going to really depend on your personal typing preferences,
1:13:37but it does not have going for it what the regular, you know, the big iPad Pro keyboard
1:13:44cover has going for it, which is it's a standard keyboard layout. This is a shrunken down keyboard layout.
1:13:50They then say that the greatest accessory Apple has ever made, the Apple Pencil, is also
1:13:57enabled for this hyper pro. I agree with that. They're not making a smaller version of the pencils so that's good news
1:14:04There's like the little pencil mini is not happening. It's just a regular old pencil. That would be bad though
1:14:10There is a new SD card reader and a new powered USB camera adapter
1:14:18But this is only half the story
1:14:20Because this thing has a USB cable on and Schiller specifically called out on stage
1:14:25you can do your podcasts right from an iPad Pro.
1:14:28- Yeah, so he mentioned podcasts on stage
1:14:31from the iPad Pro, that blew me away.
1:14:33That was very interesting to even mention that.
1:14:35I know, well, podcasters want to attach microphones to it.
1:14:38And then I looked,
1:14:39I thought about whether I should applaud then,
1:14:42but I didn't want to be the only one applauding.
1:14:45And then Rene Ritchie started applauding
1:14:47and I immediately started applauding with him.
1:14:49And we got a round of applause for podcasters
1:14:53using microphones on the iPad Pro.
1:14:54Let's get real here for a moment, shall we?
1:14:57I mean, congratulations, we have a piece of hardware.
1:15:01- Were we not real before?
1:15:02- Where is the software that we need to go along it?
1:15:06Now this is an Apple's thing, but like you can, you know,
1:15:08it's fantastic that you can use a good microphone.
1:15:13I don't know if it's gonna power the setup
1:15:15that I would need, who knows, we can find out,
1:15:17maybe it would.
1:15:18But you know, what I would want to know
1:15:22is that I have the software to use alongside it.
1:15:25And what I want to be able to do is to have a call,
1:15:27doesn't have, you know, in the background
1:15:29and also record that call.
1:15:31Now, until that happens, nobody's doing.
1:15:34Well, there are people, but I can't,
1:15:36just because you've given me the ability
1:15:38to have a better microphone,
1:15:39that actually doesn't really help too much.
1:15:41I mean, it's great that you can do it, but it's one step.
1:15:43The next step is being able to record the call.
1:15:48- Right, right.
1:15:50And you know, when you announce a product like this,
1:15:54you're trying to come up with an example
1:15:56of how you'd use this.
1:15:58It's funny that they still call it the camera connector
1:16:00and yet everybody knows and it's even recognized
1:16:02on stage when it's announced.
1:16:03They're like, yeah, it's called the camera connector
1:16:05and you can connect your camera,
1:16:06but you can connect other USB devices too,
1:16:09like podcasters with microphones.
1:16:10So my question is-
1:16:11- Why don't you call it the USB connector?
1:16:14- Well, one, why not call it the USB connector?
1:16:17Two, why did you bring up the podcast?
1:16:19Did you just feel you wanted another example?
1:16:21Why did you bring it up on stage?
1:16:22And three, if you care enough to use that as an example,
1:16:27will you care enough to add better support
1:16:31for audio recording into iOS 10?
1:16:35I guess we'll have to wait and see for that one.
1:16:37But if they do, then we'll all point back
1:16:40to this announcement and be like,
1:16:41"Aha, see, that's where they were going."
1:16:44And if they don't, we'll be like,
1:16:46you know, sad trombone, oh well.
1:16:48'Cause I'll say it, right, that people have been asking me
1:16:50about it, as you can imagine.
1:16:53I mean, the fact that you can power, this is step one,
1:16:56this was the first thing that I wanted,
1:16:57was the ability to use, hopefully, any microphone I want,
1:17:01or better microphones than what's, you know,
1:17:03the ones that currently don't work.
1:17:05That is step one, step two is the software part,
1:17:07and if that comes to bear, yeah, I would do it.
1:17:10I mean, I don't think I would change
1:17:12my everyday podcast recording, but on location
1:17:16and stuff like that, 100% I would just use the iPad then.
1:17:20And if Apple puts support for this sort of stuff into iOS,
1:17:25would I have a problem with Federico doing it then?
1:17:27No, I wouldn't.
1:17:28My issue right now with, say, someone like him doing this
1:17:32is purely because it just can't work elegantly.
1:17:36There are people that do it,
1:17:37but they have to do it in really weird ways.
1:17:39What we're doing today is similar.
1:17:41- That's exactly it. - I'm speaking to you
1:17:44over your iPhone headset,
1:17:45and then we have a recording at the end,
1:17:47but I can't hear you as clearly,
1:17:49that affects the way that I can interpret what you're saying
1:17:52and I wanna hear you as clearly as I can.
1:17:55- My better microphone is not attached to my iPhone,
1:17:58it's attached to a recorder that is sitting here
1:18:01on my passenger seat recording me
1:18:04with this clip on microphone on my shirt,
1:18:08but you can't hear that right as we record this live,
1:18:11but in the final recording,
1:18:13people will be able to hear that one.
1:18:14And this is a case where if you can unify that
1:18:17so that I can attach a good microphone
1:18:19and record it on my end and you can hear it live
1:18:23and then I can send you my recording when I'm done,
1:18:25then we will have solved it.
1:18:26But it's not, that requires some software help
1:18:30from Apple really in order to get it to work right.
1:18:32So maybe we'll get there.
1:18:35And there are a few ways Apple could do it too.
1:18:38Apple could do it, I don't wanna spend too much time
1:18:40podcasters talking about podcasting,
1:18:41but Apple could do it by changing things in the system.
1:18:45Apple could also do it by supporting some of the audio
1:18:48controls in the web browser that Chrome supports.
1:18:53And then you could actually potentially use web apps
1:18:55to do it, which would be a pretty sweet solution.
1:18:58Huh?
1:18:59But I would really rather Apple made it possible
1:19:04to just sort of record arbitrarily from an input device
1:19:08while other apps are running and using the same input devices.
1:19:13That's what I really want is I want
1:19:15Rogue Amoeba to be able to make audio hijack for iOS
1:19:19and let me say, OK, here's my microphone
1:19:21that I'm going to use on this Skype call.
1:19:23Start recording it.
1:19:24And then switch to Skype and make a call.
1:19:27And right now you can't do that.
1:19:28You can't have them both function simultaneously.
1:19:31No.
1:19:31And it would be lovely--
1:19:32Anyway, the other piece of the puzzle was always how do you--
1:19:36I in fact bought a USB hub the other week on Amazon,
1:19:41specifically so that I could power a microphone
1:19:43attached to an iPad.
1:19:45And this will probably make that unnecessary,
1:19:49which is pretty cool.
1:19:51- So in the usual, what happens after these events,
1:19:53little bits come out that you might not know about.
1:19:56So it's an interesting thing.
1:19:58The 12.9 inch iPad Pro transfers data
1:20:01over that adapter at USB three speeds.
1:20:05The 9.7 is at USB 2 speeds.
1:20:08- Ah, ah-ha, take that, baby iPad Pro.
1:20:12- You keep your display warmth.
1:20:14- We got you there.
1:20:15- There's also a new 29-watt USB-C power adapter
1:20:19that enables faster charging on these devices.
1:20:21- Huh, that makes sense, right?
1:20:24Because this one's USB-C to Lightning.
1:20:28- Yeah, yeah.
1:20:29- Huh, preparing us for the USB-C future.
1:20:32- Yep, yep.
1:20:35Then also we have the camera.
1:20:38So the camera on the new iPad,
1:20:40it's as good a camera as I believe in the iPhone,
1:20:45the current iPhones, but it's got a bump.
1:20:49- Yeah, the camera bump has moved from the iPhone 6
1:20:55to the iPad Pro.
1:20:57It's got a bump, it's got the same bump.
1:21:01- Yep, yeah.
1:21:02So did you get, I'm sure you got to handle this device,
1:21:06did you get to see if that affected anything?
1:21:09- I didn't put it flat down on the table
1:21:11and try to write on it.
1:21:12My guess is that it would probably not be a very serious,
1:21:15little, you know, it would rock a little bit.
1:21:18But I didn't get a chance to try that out.
1:21:19I did some sketching in my hand, which is fun,
1:21:23because you know, on the iPad Pro,
1:21:24you kind of need to hand put it down to do that.
1:21:26And I was able to just hold the iPad,
1:21:29the small iPad Pro in my hand
1:21:31and sketch with the other hand.
1:21:34That was pretty cool.
1:21:36That was pretty cool.
1:21:36But I didn't lay it down and check what the,
1:21:39kind of like, whether it rocks too much on a flat surface.
1:21:42I imagine somebody will complain about it
1:21:45and somebody else will say, "It's fine."
1:21:47And that's where it'll probably end up.
1:21:51But it definitely has the same bump.
1:21:53- Hmm.
1:21:55Don't know about that.
1:21:56It's, that's upsetting.
1:21:58Yeah, the camera bump is such an upsetting thing.
1:22:01for it to go onto another device, you know.
1:22:04If you use a case, it's fine,
1:22:06but I wouldn't use a case on an iPad, like on the back.
1:22:09I use a case on my iPhone, so I never notice the bump,
1:22:12but I don't think I would like it so much on a device
1:22:14that I very frequently have flat on a desk
1:22:17and interact with it, and if there is a rock on that,
1:22:21I would notice that way more than an iPhone,
1:22:24because I don't think you have an iPhone down on a desk
1:22:27interacting with it as much as you do an iPad.
1:22:29Maybe with the smart cover flipped around to the back,
1:22:34it would be fine if you use it like that.
1:22:36So it could be okay that way.
1:22:40I don't know if it would rock on the smart cover,
1:22:42probably not.
1:22:43So it might still be okay, but I know a lot of people
1:22:47like to use their devices completely clean,
1:22:49especially the iPad, so it's a shame, it's a shame.
1:22:52But they gotta put the camera in there,
1:22:54but then on the other side, for most people,
1:22:56they don't really care about the camera.
1:22:58Do you want to know something exciting?
1:23:00- I do.
1:23:01- I'm home.
1:23:02- So the car cast was a success,
1:23:05but you're now back in your office.
1:23:07- Well, the car cast was such a rousing success
1:23:09that the listeners of this podcast just accompanied me
1:23:13on a drive from Cupertino to Mill Valley.
1:23:15You can do the math.
1:23:16You can see how it works.
1:23:17I went through a rainstorm,
1:23:18but I'm home now.
1:23:21As you can tell, because there are no more car sounds.
1:23:27So just going back a second then so we can pick back up.
1:23:32I mean, I assume that Apple are aware of how many people use cameras on these devices.
1:23:39So whilst we complain that, you know, now this thing might rock on the table, depending
1:23:45on how you use it, they wouldn't put this camera in there unless they needed to, right?
1:23:51They didn't do it on the Pro because maybe they assumed people would take photos less
1:23:55on that because it's so big. I assume that they know that people use this camera and
1:24:00that's why they've gone the length to upgrading it.
1:24:04I assume so. I think this comes back to Apple knowing things that we don't, we may scoff
1:24:12at, but that everybody else knows. And we saw this, we've seen this the last couple
1:24:16of times that they've updated the iPad. It feels like they are embracing the fact that
1:24:20people use the iPad to take pictures and so they might as well put a good camera back
1:24:25there.
1:24:26And it took some time for them to kind of come around from the idea that it wasn't necessary,
1:24:31but they've come around now.
1:24:33Yeah, so we'll see.
1:24:36I don't know about that one.
1:24:37There are colors like cases and there are also colors of the device.
1:24:44So you can get the device in gold and rose gold, which you can't get with the 12.9.
1:24:50And the colored cases, like the smart covers and stuff, they have colored versions.
1:24:53You also still can't get those for the 12.9.
1:24:56They're really, you know, that whilst this is a pro device, 12.9 is for serious business
1:25:02and 9.7 is for fun.
1:25:04Monochrome.
1:25:05Very peculiar.
1:25:06Yeah, I don't get it.
1:25:07It may just be that it's not worth it, that they're not enough, the sales are not big
1:25:11enough that it's worth having that many variations.
1:25:14- Yeah, I guess so, right? I guess so. It's just strange because they're making them now, but...
1:25:20- Yeah, we haven't talked about the price. I mean, this is the aspect of it that's interesting too,
1:25:24is the Air 2 was cheaper. - Yeah, so this starts at $599.32, right?
1:25:34yep so that's that's an interesting wrinkle is that it's it's it's $599.32
1:25:40that's where it that's where it begins and it's calling it pro all of these
1:25:43things there are plenty of good reasons for it but it is interesting that that's
1:25:47the case and it goes up to a massive 256 gigabytes which is now on the 12.9
1:25:55which will take your purchase price over $1,000 if you go for the big iPad Pro I
1:26:01I think with LTE, oh yeah, with and without LTE,
1:26:06the 256 will take you over $1,000.
1:26:10- Sure.
1:26:11- $1,300 for the 256 with LTE.
1:26:16- 256 though, that's pretty cool, huh?
1:26:18- What would you do with that amount of space on an iPad?
1:26:21I don't even know.
1:26:22- I don't even know either photos.
1:26:25- How many photos is that?
1:26:27- That's a lot of photos.
1:26:27- That's a lot of photos.
1:26:29Movies but like do you really need I don't know. I guess you could fill it but
1:26:34I'd be surprised if many people would fill it right now. All right, but we have the product line. We had the naming
1:26:40So we have iPad mini iPad air 2 iPad Pro 9.7 inch iPad Pro 12.9 inch. That's what the slide said
1:26:48Yeah
1:26:54Yep, I don't really you know, it seems like Apple are referring to them as the 9.7 and the 12.9
1:27:00I guess fine if that's how you want to do it and not something massively complicated
1:27:05They they dropped the numbers on the iPad mini
1:27:08I don't know why they still call it iPad air 2 when it doesn't seem like they're selling any other iPad is
1:27:15Well, I mean that's the it's the version number right there. They're iPhone
1:27:21Six yeah, but they don't know they oh, yeah, it's still iPad mini for it's still called the iPad mini
1:27:26Well, I just said iPad mini on the slide, but okay. So there you go
1:27:29They used the line at the end which they used a bunch. They called the iPad Pro the future of personal computing
1:27:36Mm-hmm. So yeah, I think that really wraps into why we didn't see max
1:27:41Today, I think so. I think it's a it's a different
1:27:46different conversation different audience
1:27:49Mac is the Mac is I would be surprised if they even I mean
1:27:53I think the Mac is gonna get some people are gonna get the invites and get briefings and then there's gonna be a press release and
1:27:59Some embargoes will drop and that's how we'll find out about new Macs between now and WWDC. Do you think yeah, probably
1:28:06The rumors are that that stuff is ready to go. So that'll probably have maybe next month sense
1:28:11I really do think that this was a this was a decision
1:28:15to make a statement
1:28:18about the iPad?
1:28:22Yeah, yeah, I think so, and calling it pro is interesting because they're saying this is a
1:28:26you know, this is a professional thing, and maybe that's also saying that
1:28:30if you aren't thinking of this as a professional thing, then
1:28:34um, then buy the Air 2 instead.
1:28:38For less than it used to cost.
1:28:42Any other thoughts on the iPad from handling it?
1:28:46it? You know, it's an iPad Air, essentially. It is not that different. It doesn't seem
1:28:54that different. This is something that could have been released as an iPad Air 3 and we
1:28:57wouldn't have blinked, I think. Other than to say—and here's the argument that I think
1:29:01somebody at Apple probably made—other than to say, "How is the iPad Pro a Pro if the
1:29:06only thing differentiating it from this is the size?" I think that was the right decision.
1:29:12so at that point why would you call that
1:29:14"Pro" if there was another one that was
1:29:17just as good but smaller. So I can see,
1:29:22you know, you could argue that they need
1:29:26to give the iPad Pro some kind of name,
1:29:28the big one, and then what do you do with
1:29:31this one then? Because now you kind of
1:29:32either walled it off from those features
1:29:35or you're going to have those features
1:29:36and then why is this not Pro? So alright,
1:29:38here it is, now it's Pro. And then it gets
1:29:41back to what we were talking about about
1:29:42about product lines that at that point the non-pro ones are the kind of not as
1:29:47advanced but they're cheaper and that's what the iPad Air 2 is. And the question
1:29:54is you know what happens to the iPad Air? Do we end up with an iPad Air SE?
1:29:58iPad SE at some point that is essentially kind of a two-year-old tech
1:30:04but cheaper instead of just selling the old model? It'll be interesting to see
1:30:10what happens. What's the next step in this strategy beyond this year?
1:30:15I'm interested to see how that plays out. So, overall, how do you feel about this event?
1:30:25You know, it's a minor event in a lot of ways. It's a small event at Town Hall. These
1:30:34are not other than like a couple new features these are not like huge
1:30:40groundbreaking new products there's already a you know there's already an
1:30:43iPad Air size and there's already iPad Pro features this is just sort of
1:30:46bringing them together and likewise there's already iPhone 6s features and
1:30:51there's already already the iPhone 5s design and the iPhone SE just brings
1:30:56them together and so it's it's important for Apple's business. Apple wants to set
1:31:02the stage for these products. These are products that actually, what's
1:31:06interesting about them is they are more interesting as part of an ensemble than
1:31:12they are on their own. I think, you know, what's interesting about the new iPad
1:31:16Pro is that it's an iPad Pro with a big brother and that's how it's
1:31:21being pitched. What's interesting about the iPhone SE is that it's the
1:31:24four-inch iPhone in a family with two larger phones that are similarly specced.
1:31:29I think those are both interesting, but they're both sort of supporting players.
1:31:32Now, I think that the 9.7-inch iPad Pro will be the best-selling iPad of the
1:31:38next year, right? I mean, I think that's the sweet spot. It's the new iPad and the
1:31:42size that people are comfortable with. I think it'll sell really well. I think
1:31:45that'll be the winner of the iPad line. So it's not like it's a minor iPad. It's
1:31:49probably the best of the iPads and the biggest selling of the iPads. But what's
1:31:53interesting about it is where it fits in the family, because it's stuff we've seen
1:31:57before with a couple exceptions just not together in the same product.
1:32:05So shall we move on to some Ask Upgrade questions?
1:32:09Sure! We have Ask Upgrade, do I need to get back in the car?
1:32:13No, you can stay where you are. Okay, okay, I will do that then.
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1:33:45and Relay FM.
1:33:47So we have some event-themed Ask Upgrade questions. The first comes from Rob. Who does all the
1:33:53clapping at the Apple events?
1:33:56The first five rows or so are reserved for Apple employees. You get Tim Cook and Phil
1:34:00Schiller and Greg Joswiak and people like that in the first couple of rows, but there
1:34:05are also a bunch of Apple people there. They do. And then there are also Apple-like invited
1:34:10guests who are not press and those people will clap. Some press will clap
1:34:16occasionally, maybe perfunctorily, but then the Apple employees will clap
1:34:21loudly and they start a lot of applause and then once you've got an applause
1:34:23going everybody sort of you know might politely applause. Sometimes you do,
1:34:27sometimes you don't. I did a polite silent clap a couple of times, but
1:34:32mostly it's the Apple employees and that's true of any Apple event. They put
1:34:37VIPs and employees in the crowd and they're whooping it up and that helps make it seem
1:34:42like less like a dead press conference because journalists wouldn't do it, generally.
1:34:51This comes in from Jan.
1:34:54About the 9.7 inch iPad price point.
1:34:57So before it was $4.99 for 16GB, now it's $5.99 for 32GB instead of what was $64 before.
1:35:05Why are they priced it this way?
1:35:06Now my thinking would be that Apple feels that the additional features like the ability
1:35:11to use the pencil, the screen stuff, and the ability to take this device, I mean, albeit
1:35:17with more hundreds of dollars in accessories bolted on to another level, I think is what
1:35:22they feel gives it that higher entry level price.
1:35:25Why do you think it has the higher entry level price though?
1:35:29I think it's that.
1:35:30I think they're, you know, they've got the 32 and they have the Pro features and I think
1:35:39they've just decided to embrace that.
1:35:42It's a more expensive product, it's got a better screen, it's got the pencil support,
1:35:47it's got the smart connector, it's got all those features that were in the more expensive
1:35:50iPad Pro already and so this is an opportunity for them to just sort of go in on it and say
1:35:54the people who are buying this product are people who want the Pro features and the Pro
1:35:59features cost more. So I'm sure there's some buying psychology involved too, but I'm sure
1:36:04some of it is the margins. This is almost certainly a more expensive product to make.
1:36:07This comes in from Myke. For reading comics and magazines,
1:36:13would you recommend the new 9.7 inch iPad Pro or the iPad mini 4?
1:36:17Oh, for reading comics and magazines, I would always recommend the bigger screen.
1:36:24Especially now with the increased color and all that sort of stuff, I guess it's even better,
1:36:28right? Yeah, yeah. I had an iPad Mini for many years and you know it's small.
1:36:35It was always small. Even though it's got the same number of pixels,
1:36:40they're all so small. Unless you've got very good vision, you know you're
1:36:46gonna end up zooming and panning and stuff. And so I think for reading comics
1:36:50and magazines a bigger display is better. Mikkel's wrote in to ask, "Are we planning
1:36:57on selling our 12 inch iPad Pros than a 9 inch. What about you?
1:37:00No. No, I have no plans to do that. I, uh, we'll see how much, you know, I'll try it
1:37:07out and I'll see. But I like the big size now. I look at my wife's iPad here too and
1:37:12it looks like a toy. And split view and stuff like that is just so much better. And then
1:37:18you drop in a picture in picture and it's just like, yeah, I mean, I've kind of embraced
1:37:22that. I don't think I want to ever give that up.
1:37:23Yeah, I'm all in on the size. It's not just the fact that it's the Pro, like what the
1:37:27iPad Pro gets you. It really is the size for me.
1:37:30Yeah. Yeah, plus I like the keyboard. I mean, I've got issues with the keyboard, but I was
1:37:36using, for complicated reasons, I briefly was using an iPad Air 2 this weekend, and
1:37:43it brought its keyboard up and I had a moment of recoil. I was like, "Ew." Like, "Ew, no.
1:37:48Give me back my full-sized, lots-of-keys iPad Pro keyboard."
1:37:53Yeah, so is that that keyboard is like the original iPad keyboard then? Yeah, I think so. I I
1:37:59Didn't actually look but I don't see how it could couldn't be it's a 9.7 inch iPad
1:38:04So it's gonna have the standard iPad keyboard. I'll take a quick sidebar about the
1:38:08smart keyboard
1:38:10cover
1:38:11Still no international layout. Yeah, and I heard from somebody that that was gonna come eventually
1:38:16But instead they made a smaller version of it Apple told Federico that it would come
1:38:21They gave him that on the record.
1:38:24Maybe it will come someday, but they had to build this one first?
1:38:27I don't know.
1:38:28It's too bad.
1:38:29Or did they tell him the software keyboard would be changed?
1:38:32Either or, the layouts.
1:38:34Neither of them is true today.
1:38:37And our final Ask upgrade question this week is, "How noticeable is the new display on
1:38:44the 9.7" iPad Pro vs the 1290?"
1:38:47Did you really see much of a difference from the minimal time you had with it?
1:38:51you're asking the wrong guy,
1:38:52'cause it's about color gamut,
1:38:53and I can't see those colors.
1:38:55- Could you see the temperature change stuff though?
1:38:57Like if you were to use it, yeah, you'd see that.
1:39:00- Oh yeah, definitely.
1:39:01Similar in fact to the night mode,
1:39:07it's the same thing,
1:39:10it's changing the color temperature of the display,
1:39:11essentially.
1:39:12And yeah, you can tell, it's pretty dramatic.
1:39:15Even just in what you think of as a normally
1:39:19neutrally lit room and then you press the button
1:39:22and you go, "Oh!"
1:39:23And everything gets a little, in this case,
1:39:25a little more yellow, a little less blue.
1:39:27- Something that I'd forgotten to mention until now,
1:39:33which is kind of weird, I think,
1:39:36that the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 4
1:39:40are the same price now.
1:39:42- Yes.
1:39:44- That's weird, right?
1:39:46- I guess.
1:39:47I guess it's a they both do the same thing so they're the same price and you
1:39:51just pick your poison
1:39:52yeah maybe the mini will go down in price at a later time who knows it may
1:39:55just be that the mini must be cheaper to produce surely
1:39:58I don't know I mean it's got a smaller doesn't mean cheaper right some some of
1:40:05that means many components are miniaturized and more expensive and it's
1:40:08a relatively recent update and that means the margins are probably higher
1:40:12right now but we'll get lower over time so probably it'll get its price cut in
1:40:16six months or a year. Good point, good point. I have a couple of follow-up items
1:40:21before we finish today. Yeah let's do it. Pepperoni pizza, pineapple pepperoni
1:40:25pizza. Sweep in the world. Jason was right. You had some. I made some
1:40:31this weekend. And then like ten other people tweeted pictures of pepperoni
1:40:34pineapple pizza. Yeah we started a trend over the weekend. Some people were on
1:40:39on board some people were being convinced some people really hated me
1:40:45but I did it and I loved it Jason oh my word it was so good so good I really
1:40:52loved it it is pizza it maybe is not the pizza that comes from places like New
1:40:59York or Italy but I definitely made a pizza I put those toppings on it and I
1:41:05enjoyed it very much. That's all I can ask. Everybody should just enjoy
1:41:10what they want to enjoy and and if they don't want to enjoy it that's fine but
1:41:14it was definitely it's one of my favorites. I don't even
1:41:20remember how I discovered it but there there was. Yeah that is easily a
1:41:24favorite flavor pairing because I have always liked ham and pineapple quite a lot
1:41:28it was like one of my go-to's but pepperoni is my as of like maybe the
1:41:34last couple of years has been my favourite. I think this might be edging it. The mix of
1:41:38the sweet and savoury. Yeah. I'm a fan of that. And we mentioned about the upgrade merchandise,
1:41:44all of my stuff came in. I'm so happy with it. The hoodies came out fantastically. In
1:41:49so much now is that our faithful designer Frank has created an iPhone and Mac wallpaper
1:41:59with the special design that was inside of the hoodie.
1:42:04So there's two things here.
1:42:06If you want to see what that design looked like, you can go and take a look at the wallpaper.
1:42:10There'll be a link in the show notes.
1:42:12And if you have seen it and you love it and you want to put on your devices with it, you
1:42:16now can.
1:42:17The Upgrading wallpaper exists and that design is what is printed on the inside of the upgrade
1:42:23hoodies.
1:42:24So if you didn't get one, now you can be jealous of all the people that did get one and you
1:42:28should have listened to us when we told you to get one because we told you you'd want
1:42:32it because it's also I've been wearing mine all week it's so toasty and warm I love it
1:42:38and we've been getting pictures from people showing off their upgrade hoodies and they're
1:42:43all members of the secret society now and those pictures have been great so thanks to
1:42:47all the people tweeting at us those have been those have been great a lot less love for
1:42:52the brain ball shirts but I love I think it's my favorite shirt that I've had made from
1:42:57a podcast now. I wore the brain ball, I got the Raglan and I wore it this weekend for
1:43:03the first time and I love it. In fact at one point I had the upgrade hoodie over the brain
1:43:07ball Raglan and I felt like I was flying the flag. That was me over the weekend too. The
1:43:13Raglan came out really well, I'm really happy with it. I'm pleased that we did all of that.
1:43:18So again, I'm really pleased that we did that and I hope that everybody that has them enjoys
1:43:23them.
1:43:24So I think that wraps up our Apple event coverage.
1:43:27Thank you so much for tuning in.
1:43:29I hope that you enjoyed the car cast as it were.
1:43:34We have a bunch of links in our show notes as always.
1:43:36You can head on over to relay.fm/upgrades/81 to get all of those.
1:43:42I want to take a moment to thank all of our sponsors for this week's episode, Ministry
1:43:46of Supply, Squarespace, ITProTV and FreshBooks.
1:43:49Jason, thank you for being on the scene and for reporting in for upgrade.
1:43:54We obviously all really appreciate that.
1:43:58Thank you for keeping me company, everyone, while I was driving back from the Apple event.
1:44:04You will find a lot more of Jason's thoughts and opinions and feelings about the products
1:44:08from today's announcement over at SixColors.com.
1:44:11And I believe you'll be doing some stuff for other places, but you'll link to them there.
1:44:15You should always go to Six Colors first and then go to other websites from there.
1:44:19That's how I do all of my web browsing.
1:44:20It's the definitive location for all of my things.
1:44:23I begin at Six Colors and then hopefully find a link out to Google.
1:44:28That's how I work.
1:44:29If you want to find Jason on Twitter, he's @jsnell, J-S-N-E-L-L-L. I am @imike, I-M-Y-K-E.
1:44:36Thank you so much for listening.
1:44:37We'll be back next week.
1:44:38Until then...
1:44:39Oh, I won't be actually.
1:44:40You have another special guest next week.
1:44:42You blew it.
1:44:43I'll get the week off.
1:44:44Yep.
1:44:45Yes, I will be back with a special guest.
1:44:49Hopefully it will be Serenity Caldwell to talk about perhaps her thoughts about this
1:44:54and what it means for pencil lovers to have a new iPad Pro in the family.
1:44:59But we will hopefully Serenity will be here next week to fill in for you, Mr. Hurley.
1:45:04Goodbye, everybody.
1:45:05Goodbye.
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