PodSearch

Connected

2021 Year in Review: We Are Your Family

 

00:00:00   (upbeat music)

00:00:02   Hello and welcome to Connected episode 378,

00:00:12   our 2021 year end review.

00:00:17   It is made possible by our sponsors,

00:00:19   Amazon Music, TextExpander, Pingdom and SetApp.

00:00:23   My name is Steven Hackett

00:00:24   and I'm joined by Mr. Federico Vittucci.

00:00:26   - Hello, hi.

00:00:27   Hello, happy end of the year, my friend.

00:00:31   - Happy end of another year that feels like last year.

00:00:35   Yes, thank you.

00:00:36   - Also joined from someplace over, you know,

00:00:40   not in America, someplace else, Myke Hurley.

00:00:44   - That is such a weird way to introduce someone.

00:00:45   - Well, you were here and now you're not.

00:00:48   - No, I'm not.

00:00:49   - And you didn't see me when you were here.

00:00:51   - That's correct.

00:00:51   - Wow, that's harsh.

00:00:53   - And now there's a pandemic again.

00:00:55   (laughs)

00:00:56   you're never gonna see each other again.

00:00:58   - It doesn't seem like it.

00:00:59   - That's the way that cookie crumbles, my friend.

00:01:02   - Got your Omikron all over the place and ran away.

00:01:07   So this is our 2021 year-end review.

00:01:11   If you're not familiar with this episode,

00:01:12   we do it at the end of the year every year.

00:01:14   We walk through the months of the year

00:01:18   and talk about some of the news that we covered

00:01:20   and kind of see how it feels now.

00:01:23   We should say there's a bit of a disclaimer on this

00:01:25   that we're recording this episode early and out of order.

00:01:29   So it's gonna be published after Christmas,

00:01:32   but we're recording it on December 21st.

00:01:35   So if Tim Cook announces the Apple car in four days,

00:01:39   may not be in this episode.

00:01:40   That probably would be.

00:01:41   I think we would record something for that.

00:01:43   But there may be some last minute news that we've missed,

00:01:47   but we had to record this early for a bunch of reasons.

00:01:49   So here we are, an episode, a little bit out of order.

00:01:51   It's very strange.

00:01:52   I had to be very careful with the episode number

00:01:54   when I announced it.

00:01:55   that it was actually correct, 'cause--

00:01:57   - I mean, it wouldn't be the first time

00:01:59   you've gotten the episode number wrong, so.

00:02:01   - Well-- - You know,

00:02:02   there's precedent for it.

00:02:04   - Don't think we had to bring it up like that.

00:02:06   (laughing)

00:02:08   - Never let you forget it.

00:02:09   - It's all right. - Yeah.

00:02:11   Holiday scheduling's difficult,

00:02:12   but the 2021 in review is an important episode,

00:02:15   so we're just making the best of it.

00:02:17   - That's right.

00:02:18   And we're gonna do this typical round robin style.

00:02:22   So we each were assigned four months out of the year

00:02:25   to kind of pick what we thought.

00:02:27   We also have some listener suggestions,

00:02:29   so thank you for those.

00:02:30   I'm up first with January.

00:02:32   So, should we just dive in?

00:02:34   - Yes, please.

00:02:35   - Let's do it.

00:02:36   - All right, so January 2021, big news at Apple

00:02:41   with some executive team changes.

00:02:45   So Dan Riccio is now on the roof with Phil Schiller,

00:02:49   Apple Fellow stuff, I guess?

00:02:51   - Roof stuff.

00:02:52   roof stuff and he's actually, I stand corrected,

00:02:57   Dan is not a fellow and he didn't work hard enough.

00:03:00   He is a new project, working on a new project,

00:03:05   is what Apple said.

00:03:07   Don't know what that means.

00:03:09   - So you don't wanna know.

00:03:10   - He's working on the new mail app.

00:03:12   And John Turnus, who we know, we were first introduced

00:03:17   to him several years ago in context of announcing

00:03:20   Mac hardware, he was named the Apple hardware engineering lead. So he's a

00:03:29   member of the executive team, he oversees Apple's hardware engineering

00:03:31   organization, Mac and I guess everything else. And so a little bit of a change.

00:03:37   Dan has been with Apple for almost 25 years. And if you go back and watch

00:03:43   old keynotes, like I do sometimes, he's all over the place. And now he is

00:03:48   supposedly working on something...

00:03:52   It's weird because like Riccio was removed from the executive profiles page.

00:03:57   Like, so he's off doing who knows what but still reporting to Tim Cook.

00:04:02   Yes. And then Turnus got added. I like to think of John Turnus as John

00:04:06   will one day be the CEO Turnus. That's how I think of him in my mind.

00:04:10   I think he will be the CEO one day. That's

00:04:14   where I think he's gonna sit. I think that is a

00:04:17   strong possibility. I really like what we've seen of him. You know, he's been at Apple since 2001.

00:04:22   It was like totally in the shadows until I guess we've always started seeing him in like 2016,

00:04:27   2017 on stage. I think the first eyesore of him was on Mac Power Users.

00:04:33   Right, you had him on Mac Power Users, didn't you? I don't think he's been on MPU.

00:04:39   Hmm, he was on a podcast. I thought it was Mac Power Users.

00:04:44   Finally searching my own archives. I know he introduced like the I Mac Pro

00:04:49   And then the Mac Pro the year later and he's done a bunch of

00:04:53   In one stuff, I don't think he's been on MPU we had

00:04:58   We had the program manager for the Mac Pro a guy named Doug on but I think we've had John on okay for us

00:05:06   All right, so

00:05:10   Elsewhere in January

00:05:13   rumors begin for hardware we would see later in the year.

00:05:18   Smaller notches on the iPhone 13,

00:05:21   which did pan out.

00:05:23   They're not drastically smaller,

00:05:26   but they're a teeny tiny bit smaller.

00:05:28   - Yeah, they are smaller. - Kind of smaller.

00:05:30   - Yeah, it's not the super tiny notch

00:05:34   that people were hoping for,

00:05:35   and that we still may see,

00:05:37   but smaller notches on the iPhone 13

00:05:39   and one that we all immediately gravitated towards,

00:05:43   an 8.4 inch iPad mini with smaller bezels.

00:05:48   That sounds like a good iPad to me.

00:05:51   - Oh man, I can't wait.

00:05:52   - I'm really excited to see if they released it,

00:05:54   and I fell in love with it.

00:05:55   - I can't wait to see what we'll do with it.

00:05:57   - Can't wait to get that one.

00:05:58   - Yeah.

00:05:59   - It's been so long.

00:06:00   - Mm-hmm.

00:06:01   Also in January, those of us who observe

00:06:05   marked the 20th anniversary of the "Titanium Power Book."

00:06:10   And I only bring that up because it was such a big year

00:06:13   for Apple notebooks later in the year.

00:06:15   And so it's always fun when anniversaries kind of line up.

00:06:18   I did this thing- - I think this is kind of fun.

00:06:19   That's the one that everyone said looked like the new one.

00:06:21   - Yes, yeah.

00:06:22   - And then it celebrated its 20th year that,

00:06:25   yeah, I actually didn't know that.

00:06:26   That's really cool.

00:06:27   - Yeah, and the article in the show notes for it

00:06:29   is part of a series I did all year,

00:06:33   looking back at the announcements from 2001,

00:06:36   because Apple, that was a very busy year for Apple,

00:06:39   and it was really when they were like,

00:06:41   I think for the first time,

00:06:42   really firing on all cylinders after Jobs returned.

00:06:45   And so a lot of stuff in that 2001 time period,

00:06:50   but I wanted to mention the TiBook because it's my favorite,

00:06:53   and it has been in the conversation a lot more

00:06:57   because of that new design that we have now.

00:07:00   It's still a good looking computer.

00:07:06   It is.

00:07:07   I got at least two of them.

00:07:10   Oh boy.

00:07:11   At least two of them.

00:07:12   You got a problem man.

00:07:14   Wow this is...

00:07:15   You don't even know.

00:07:16   Do you know?

00:07:17   Do you actually know how many are you saying you have to...

00:07:18   Well so you all know this.

00:07:20   I am in the middle of trying to organize my collection a little bit better and part of

00:07:27   that is this new like giant shelving system I got to put laptops in and so my

00:07:34   laptops are now just scattered in piles around the studio as I try to like

00:07:37   organize that shelf and catalog things I know I have two. My laptops are scattered in

00:07:43   piles. Do you ever hear yourself like do you ever listen to the things that you

00:07:49   say I have many piles of laptops just everywhere you got to walk around them

00:07:57   in here all right should we move to February yes please

00:08:04   January wasn't that exciting I'm just gonna say if we're giving a rating I

00:08:08   don't know if you ever done that before January wait are we ranking my way are

00:08:13   we wait wait wait is there gonna be a month that wins this episode

00:08:19   I think we should now do this.

00:08:21   Yeah, so January...

00:08:23   January...

00:08:25   Bad one.

00:08:26   Yeah, not great.

00:08:27   How do we rank them?

00:08:28   Well, I could just... I think we could just...

00:08:30   It'd be difficult to do a number system until the end.

00:08:33   I think we can maybe just do like higher and lower as we go through,

00:08:37   like February better than January or whatever, and then we just...

00:08:40   Okay, let's do... Okay, no, let's do bad, meh, and good.

00:08:45   -Okay, but we want to pick... -Wait, we have a scale, y'all.

00:08:48   Yeah, we could put it on the tichy scale, but we have to pick the best one at the end.

00:08:52   Okay.

00:08:52   But see, the thing is, the thing is that the worst part on the tichi scale was Nightmare, right?

00:08:58   But January wasn't a nightmare, it was just boring.

00:09:01   Yeah.

00:09:02   Yeah, so maybe the tichi scale needs to be, like, we need to start at like a higher threshold,

00:09:09   not from Nightmare. Nothing is a Nightmare here, I think.

00:09:12   Yeah.

00:09:13   I need a full image of the tichi scale.

00:09:14   Because a nightmare month would probably be a good one, if that makes sense, for like

00:09:21   its excitement levels.

00:09:23   So we are judging them on excitement levels.

00:09:25   Okay, so I got the tichi scale here.

00:09:28   Okay, so nightmare inferior.

00:09:29   I think we start at decent.

00:09:31   Yeah, that works for me.

00:09:34   Okay.

00:09:35   Because we have nightmare inferior minus inferior, decent, normal, good, good, plus, best, I

00:09:39   love you.

00:09:40   I think we could start at inferior.

00:09:41   January was an inferior month.

00:09:43   Inferior month? Okay, so we skip the first two, we start at inferior.

00:09:48   Well, I mean, we could do inferior. I forgot inferior minus was worse than inferior.

00:09:53   Yes, inferior, well, it's minus, so... Yeah, but, see, yeah, okay. Let's say January was

00:09:59   an inferior minus month, because I don't think there's going to be a worse month than that,

00:10:03   like, they're just kind of... One of the things we spoke about was an anniversary of a 20-year-old

00:10:08   products. I know it's important to you, but like, you know. Let's keep in track of

00:10:15   these. I'm gonna write it in the document. Okay, perfect, thank you.

00:10:18   Alright, February things start to pick up here. So in the software area,

00:10:26   the big news is the introduction of the iOS 14.5 beta, which is a surprisingly

00:10:32   packed one. As we're gonna see, there's a bunch of features that we discussed over

00:10:37   the following months that were actually introduced in February with 14.5 beta. The most important one,

00:10:44   Face ID unlocking powered by the Apple Watch. I forgot that this thing came out with 14.5

00:10:53   like way after the original release of iOS 14 last year. Like I totally forgot about this.

00:10:59   Do you guys still use it? I do. I mean it's not perfect but... Well we have to.

00:11:07   Well, you can keep it disabled if you don't want to use it for whatever reason.

00:11:11   Sure, I do use it because, you know, one of the good things for me is like, as of September

00:11:17   I started wearing an Apple Watch all the time, right?

00:11:19   So it's definitely one of the things that's held me on to the Apple Watch.

00:11:24   I think it was a little bit earlier than September, but anyway, it's one of the things that's

00:11:26   held me on to the Apple Watch, it was because I can easily unlock my iPhone.

00:11:32   Now I haven't seen this myself, but also in 14.5 maps, received new hazard, accident,

00:11:40   and speed check reporting features.

00:11:43   I believe these are maybe US only.

00:11:46   They were enabled in the Maps app, in Siri, in CarPlay.

00:11:51   I don't have CarPlay.

00:11:52   Steven has just put out a video about one, in fact, about a CarPlay unit.

00:11:57   Fun video, Steven.

00:11:58   Thank you.

00:11:59   Yeah.

00:12:00   So I haven't seen these features myself, but they launched with 14.5 last year.

00:12:05   The other big feature that we talked about a bunch on the show a few months ago,

00:12:11   the ability to pick a default music streaming service in Siri.

00:12:16   - Ah, yes. - There was a whole conversation about this.

00:12:21   So in 14.5, soon after installing the beta, people started noticing that when they asked

00:12:27   Siri to play a song or an album, Siri would ask them to pick a music streaming service.

00:12:32   The list provided by Siri included Apple Music, services like Tidal, and even podcast clients

00:12:39   like Castro and Overcast, Apple Podcasts of course. Apple later clarified that, and this was

00:12:45   very confusing, we had to revisit this topic multiple times on the show. Basically, Siri does

00:12:53   have a system to associate a third-party music streaming service with your music playback

00:12:59   requests. It also works for podcasts and for audiobooks. However, the process is completely

00:13:05   invisible. We complained about this on the show. There's no settings page where you can

00:13:10   see these associations being made. Siri would randomly ask you to pick a third-party compatible

00:13:18   service that is installed on your device. There was a whole conversation about this.

00:13:23   In February, Apple PR had to clarify to TechCrunch, I believe, what was going on. It was very

00:13:29   confusing and we talked about it for a while.

00:13:32   New Emoji. They were also released in 14.5 and it seems like we're gonna get a similar

00:13:38   release of New Emoji, like a delayed schedule compared to a few years ago, pre-pandemic,

00:13:44   with the 15 release cycle as well. So 217 I believe new emoji were added in total, you

00:13:54   know, with the skin tone variations and all the different combinations.

00:13:58   Yeah, I think if I remember rightly, this was a small amount of emoji, right? Like there

00:14:04   was 217, but really there was only like 20 actual new things or something like that.

00:14:11   And I believe that next year's release should be more of a full release.

00:14:17   So I look forward to the Jeremy's.

00:14:20   Also in 14.5, something that Steven was really happy about, specifically 14.5 Beta 2 introduced

00:14:28   a green tint fix.

00:14:31   Yay!

00:14:32   I was pretty sure that we had agreed that we would not talk about this anymore.

00:14:37   I have to because it's the year in review.

00:14:39   Yeah.

00:14:40   we don't have to review everything that happened in the year. It's the biggest news in iOS since iOS.

00:14:47   Moving on, we're done with 14.5. I only mentioned this one because it's one of those things that a

00:14:55   company announces and 10 months later it's still not here. In February Spotify announced Spotify

00:15:04   HiFi, a HiFi tier for Spotify. Still nowhere to be found, Spotify. They finally released

00:15:12   Realtime Lyrics last month, but the HiFi tier nowhere to be found. Basically, at this point...

00:15:19   They purely announced it because they knew Apple was going to, right?

00:15:24   Yeah. As we'll see later.

00:15:25   They wanted to get out first. Yeah, it must have been.

00:15:29   Lastly, we saw the, you know, some first rumors of a foldable iPhone with pencil support scheduled

00:15:38   for 2023. This is a rumor from an analyst, I don't remember the name of the firm, but

00:15:45   yeah, talk of a seven inch foldable iPhone for 2023. I don't know. It seems kind of early

00:15:51   to me still. That feels super aggressive. It feels early. What I will say, I recommend

00:15:58   people go and watch some videos about the Oppo Find N, an MKBHD video in the show notes.

00:16:04   I think it's getting closer to these devices being more realistic.

00:16:11   This device is like when it's closed, the dimensions are pretty similar to a regular

00:16:15   phone rather than the Z Fold, which is like this weird, thin and tall device.

00:16:22   It looks pretty cool, the Oppo Find N. And it's just like an example of like, "Hmm,

00:16:26   stuff is getting better at a fast rate and I'm pleased that it's not just Samsung that's

00:16:32   doing decent looking devices now.

00:16:35   I don't think 2023 either but I don't know.

00:16:40   But feels like things are getting a bit more realistic.

00:16:45   Maybe that's what Dan's working on, you know?

00:16:48   Dan Riccio?

00:16:49   Yeah, they couldn't have had him on the executive page because they folded him up, you know?

00:16:53   I mean, you might not be wrong.

00:16:56   I guess so to go back to that we know it's not the car because many other people have

00:17:02   been working on the car.

00:17:03   Is it isn't uh what's his name the watch guy in charge of the?

00:17:07   Kevin Lynch is working on the car now.

00:17:09   Yeah and so I would expect it's either an AR or VR product or a folding phone.

00:17:18   Mm-hmm it's probably one of those two.

00:17:21   Yeah I don't know what else it would be because we haven't really heard about any other sort

00:17:25   of like interesting far-off future projects unless he's just like literally

00:17:31   deep underground with it you think they keep Dan underground I bet they do well

00:17:35   he's secretly been fired his new project is uh you know springtime with his

00:17:40   family anyway the last thing I want to mention is this six colors link from

00:17:45   February about Apple launching a companion podcast for for all mankind

00:17:50   And I believe this was the first version of these companion shows for Apple TV Plus original

00:17:57   content, as we'll see later in the year, they did this a bunch of times.

00:18:03   Specifically the one that I think is really, the one that I recommend is the Foundation

00:18:09   podcast, the companion podcast for the Foundation TV show, that I think is really well done

00:18:14   and really adds context to the experience.

00:18:16   But yeah, for all mankind, which by the way, I cannot wait for season three.

00:18:22   Do we know when season three is coming out?

00:18:24   I don't think we do.

00:18:25   I don't even recall any news of a filming date beginning.

00:18:31   Oh no, oh no.

00:18:33   They are doing it.

00:18:35   Yeah, COVID on the moon.

00:18:36   But it could be a 2023 thing. It might not be next year.

00:18:42   And just to do a little plug here, Jason and I got to interview Ron Moore, the co-creator

00:18:49   and writer on Liftoff.

00:18:51   Oh my god, I forgot about that.

00:18:53   Which was wild.

00:18:54   That was a real get.

00:18:57   That was such a good episode too.

00:18:59   Thank you.

00:19:00   I really loved it.

00:19:01   You could tell how much he cared about it.

00:19:02   Oh, he was fantastic.

00:19:04   And that was really a fun interview.

00:19:07   And so I got to watch a bunch of them in advance, but I couldn't tell anybody.

00:19:11   It was very fun.

00:19:12   Oh yeah, I forgot that.

00:19:14   The two of you got to see the episodes early.

00:19:18   Yeah, us and Dan Morin, we all got screeners.

00:19:21   And I had my name floating around in space so I couldn't link screenshots.

00:19:27   It was pretty cool.

00:19:28   That was cool.

00:19:30   Alright, so I would say, good?

00:19:34   Yeah.

00:19:35   Yeah. I mean honestly I would say best I love you because they fixed the green

00:19:40   tent. No. See I'm only saying good because then we didn't need to talk about it

00:19:44   anymore. Well at least that was my thought. Oh no it is good because green is the good color on there.

00:19:48   Yeah all right. I'll go with good. Yeah I think it's a good month.

00:19:54   Yeah good. Not good plus but it's a good month yeah. Good okay. Good plus. Yeah you

00:20:01   - You gotta pay more for Good Plus.

00:20:02   - Yeah, it's like, comes with a fee.

00:20:05   - Oh, you know it when it's a Good Plus month.

00:20:07   It's like, this is good,

00:20:08   but it's got that extra kick to it.

00:20:10   You know, it's Good Plus.

00:20:12   - It's good, but it's ad-free.

00:20:13   - Getgoodplus.com.

00:20:16   I don't know where that goes.

00:20:17   - Don't go there.

00:20:17   - I don't know where that goes.

00:20:18   - Getgood, getgood.plus.

00:20:21   It's the fancy domain.

00:20:23   - You have to pay a lot of money for those dot pluses.

00:20:26   - Getgood, hold on, getgood.plus.

00:20:30   while it's available.

00:20:32   Alright, let's move on to March.

00:20:34   In March we said goodbye to music memos.

00:20:37   Apple recommended...

00:20:39   Wait, what? Was it 2021?

00:20:41   [laughter]

00:20:43   Apple recommended that people used voice memos to record their music instead.

00:20:48   I had forgot music memos existed.

00:20:51   Music memos... There's a support document.

00:20:54   Yep.

00:20:55   Transition from music memos to voice memos.

00:20:58   Yep.

00:20:59   There's a whole thing.

00:21:00   Music memos, don't know why that app existed, but it did and they got rid of it because

00:21:07   it is ultimately superfluous.

00:21:11   March saw lots of iPhone rumors, there were lots and lots of iPhone rumors including ProMotion,

00:21:16   bigger batteries, smaller notches and better ultra-wide cameras.

00:21:20   These basically all came true.

00:21:23   There were even more rumors that were good from Ming-Chi Kuo.

00:21:27   MacBook Pro to feature a HDMI port and SD card.

00:21:31   We all lost our collective minds at that point.

00:21:33   This is the, I believe the first time this was mentioned.

00:21:37   And we were all very excited for what the year may hold.

00:21:40   - I don't keep tabs on this year to year.

00:21:42   I'm sure somebody does,

00:21:44   but it really seems like the hardware rumor game

00:21:47   was pretty on point this year.

00:21:49   Like we knew about these MacBook Pros and iPhones.

00:21:51   - Yeah, there's, I have some stuff later on,

00:21:54   which is funny to look back on, but by and large.

00:21:57   There was John Prosser's Square Apple Watch, but other than that, I feel like Ming-Chi Kuo,

00:22:03   Mark Gurman, sort of that crowd, the serious ones, really, honestly, had a pretty good

00:22:08   year.

00:22:09   I think so.

00:22:10   As well, in a year when there was a lot of stuff which seemed like there's no way, first

00:22:14   time we heard it, right?

00:22:16   Like the HDMI and SD card.

00:22:18   In March, we said...

00:22:20   Do you think they are friends?

00:22:23   Like Mark and Ming-Chi Kuo?

00:22:24   Ming-Chi Kuo and Mark Gurman?

00:22:26   I don't know.

00:22:27   I mean, if they combine forces.

00:22:31   Do you think they're frenemies?

00:22:33   I think it's like us and ATP, you know, like we like those guys, but colleagues, they're,

00:22:38   you know, you got to keep them at arm's length.

00:22:41   Arm's length at all times.

00:22:42   It made me think of like, oh, you guys are never going to get this reference.

00:22:45   Yeah.

00:22:46   Someone, anyone in the discord, if you're familiar with Captain Tsubasa, the anime,

00:22:52   the soccer anime, what's the name of the rival of Tsubasa?

00:22:57   Seems like you're not very familiar with it either Federico.

00:22:59   Well, I read the manga when I was like 12, so forgive me.

00:23:04   Oh, I read the manga before I played it.

00:23:05   Oh, I'm in Italy, on the beach.

00:23:07   Oh, wait, you've just seen the anime?

00:23:10   I read the manga, so, you know, I had to translate it all from Japanese.

00:23:13   I saw the anime first and then I read the manga and then there's the remake.

00:23:17   Anyway, yes, I believe Mark and Mingshiko are like Tsubasa and the other guy.

00:23:26   What I like is nobody's given you this answer.

00:23:29   No one's given you the answer in the Discord.

00:23:31   Nobody has it for you.

00:23:33   Someone will, on Twitter, once it reaches a wider audience, someone will know Captain

00:23:40   Tsubasa and what I'm talking about.

00:23:42   And someone will tell me, well, there's someone out there!

00:23:46   I have heard of this, but I don't know anything about it other than it's a soccer-focused

00:23:51   anime.

00:23:52   Oh come on, you're trying to be too precious about it.

00:23:55   You guys have seen this. Everybody knows captain subasa. Come on. No, I really don't. I really

00:24:01   know who cardi B is. Matt says Hugo Google says so can I get back to March? Hold on.

00:24:10   You got captain subasa. Yes, it's Hugo. Thank you, Matt. Uh, cause you're a, you got, thank

00:24:14   you. I forgot about how many things were killed in March. Look at this. Could you, could you

00:24:19   not spoil it? Let me do it. So in March, the people already lived through March. Yeah,

00:24:24   but everyone forg- I forgot this both happened in March.

00:24:27   Not in the context of entertainment, they haven't.

00:24:30   That's true.

00:24:32   Alright, so the iMac Pro comes to an end in March.

00:24:35   What?

00:24:36   At first it was like, "Yeah, I know, can you imagine?"

00:24:38   I think they did like limited supplies and then it was goodbye.

00:24:41   Yeah.

00:24:42   The same happened to the HomePod.

00:24:43   The original HomePod in March was also put to bed.

00:24:46   I got the HomePod with Silver Cell for like four months.

00:24:49   Like, kind of get rid of them.

00:24:50   Do y'all think the iMac Pro name will come back?

00:24:53   The further we go, I kind of think it will.

00:24:56   I think this is what they're going to call the Big iMac.

00:24:58   Yeah, iMac and iMac Pro.

00:25:00   Yeah, I think they're going to do it.

00:25:01   Follow became the word that we use to subscribe to podcasts and Apple podcasts.

00:25:08   Do we do it? Like, is that a thing that we do now?

00:25:10   Like, do we say this, like, follow my podcasts?

00:25:13   I don't.

00:25:14   I don't. Okay, cool.

00:25:16   I'm pretty sure that you use the word follow on the App Stories website, though.

00:25:20   Yes, I do. But like, out of spite...

00:25:22   I chuckled at the time.

00:25:24   Yeah, yeah, I do it because it's like the technically correct thing, but also I don't

00:25:30   think it's, I don't like it.

00:25:32   But doesn't it bother you that you have to say, "Follow on Apple Podcasts, subscribe

00:25:37   everywhere else"?

00:25:38   Yeah, that's what they, that's why they're doing it.

00:25:42   So you put them in a different clause as everybody else.

00:25:44   Well, no, they did it because they will get to this later on.

00:25:48   It's because they got the subscription.

00:25:50   Stop spoiling my month!

00:25:52   Right, but you said something that needed to be corrected.

00:25:56   So I've had to do it, I'm afraid.

00:25:58   You spoiled my month first.

00:26:01   They changed the wording, didn't they, because they needed to use the word subscribe for

00:26:06   subscriptions.

00:26:07   Apple's worldwide developers conference will return in its all online format was announced

00:26:11   in March.

00:26:12   Let's get ready for this March for it to be announced exactly the same.

00:26:18   Apple's independent repair provider program expanded. So this was like a trend throughout

00:26:24   the year that like Apple was doing more and more. And this was like the first part of

00:26:27   that where they were making it easier for more companies to get more parts and to be

00:26:33   accepted into the, um, into the AASP program. Is that it? Yeah. Apple authorized service

00:26:39   provider. I didn't put this in here. I'm assuming Steven did. It was the 20th anniversary of

00:26:45   the Mac OS X release.

00:26:46   That's a big deal.

00:26:47   - Is it a deal?

00:26:48   - Oh no, it is.

00:26:49   I'm just saying I didn't put it in there.

00:26:51   - Yeah, 20 years, pretty wild, isn't it?

00:26:53   - Yep.

00:26:54   - What's really, really wild is we're not that far off

00:26:57   from that with iOS.

00:26:59   - No.

00:26:59   - 2007, I mean it's what?

00:27:01   - Oh my God.

00:27:02   - Five years?

00:27:02   - Wow.

00:27:03   - What?

00:27:04   No, oh God.

00:27:06   This summer is the 15th anniversary of the iPhone.

00:27:09   - Ooh, really?

00:27:11   - Is that right?

00:27:12   2022 minus, yeah, this summer is 15 years.

00:27:15   I feel like we just did the 10 years of App Store.

00:27:18   Well, that's the pandemic for you, right?

00:27:21   Because...

00:27:21   Yeah, exactly.

00:27:22   Well, see now Federico will open a text message to Jon

00:27:27   and say, "Jon, you need to prepare a 15 year

00:27:31   at the iPhone story."

00:27:32   I don't need to do that because Jon is already listening.

00:27:35   One true son.

00:27:36   I don't know, but I can feel when Jon is listening live

00:27:40   and I can feel that he is right now.

00:27:42   I feel Jon's presence in this podcast tonight.

00:27:45   Let's see if we are wrong, but I can feel Jon at the moment.

00:27:51   Well, he has yet to say a word in any of our various channels.

00:27:57   Jon, I am disappointed. I am disappointed.

00:28:01   Jason's here, though.

00:28:02   Oh, no.

00:28:03   It's one of the three.

00:28:05   One of the three.

00:28:06   All right, so we need to now rank March on the tchiscale.

00:28:12   I feel like March had more than February.

00:28:14   Yeah, I would go a good plus.

00:28:16   No, no.

00:28:18   I was feeling like a decent to normal, maybe.

00:28:23   I guess my rating was sort of based on

00:28:25   these rumors came true,

00:28:26   but I'm not sure that's how we actually should rate them.

00:28:29   Well, but like, see, this is a month of goodbyes.

00:28:32   So goodbye, Music Memos.

00:28:33   Goodbye, iMac Pro.

00:28:34   Yeah, but I think of it as like,

00:28:37   maybe I think of it as

00:28:39   How much content did I get out of that month?

00:28:42   We got a lot of good content out of March from like

00:28:46   all of the iMac Pro speculation and what are they gonna do with the HomePod

00:28:50   and wow what if the MacBook Pro has all these ports and look at these iPhone rumors

00:28:54   and WWDC is virtual again like there's a lot of content

00:28:58   Okay but it's not it's not a good plus though I can I can go with good

00:29:02   Good

00:29:03   Let's just say good let's just say good I feel like maybe February and March were pretty

00:29:08   I see what you mean, because we also got good content in February, so...

00:29:11   I mean, there are like busier months ahead, and I don't want to use a good plus already.

00:29:18   I agree with you. I would say March better than February, but not enough to get a good plus.

00:29:23   Yeah, but also we can decide later, when it's like February against March,

00:29:27   at the end when we gotta pick one, then we can do that kind of comparison.

00:29:32   Yeah, and we can really duke it out.

00:29:34   Breaking news!

00:29:34   Breaking news!

00:29:37   Sent with Siri from the One True John, I am listening and driving.

00:29:41   Wow. I knew it. I can feel it. I can feel, you know, John behind the wheel, you know,

00:29:48   driving around Illinois, John's got his hands on the wheel during this show.

00:29:52   Hands on the wheel. Someone that's in the car probably right now listening to this.

00:29:57   I don't know. Hi. Hello, One True family.

00:30:00   We appreciate you. And John, if you're alone, we are your family.

00:30:05   (laughing)

00:30:07   - Don't, Erika, you've got to stop talking

00:30:11   about Jon's family.

00:30:12   - It's really upsetting.

00:30:13   - I got a thing from Jon's family, right?

00:30:16   I don't know why, I don't know why.

00:30:17   Maybe it's the holiday spirit, maybe, I don't know.

00:30:20   (laughing)

00:30:22   - This episode of Connected is made possible

00:30:25   by Amazon Music.

00:30:27   I bet that you like listening to podcasts.

00:30:31   And with Amazon Music, you can find tons

00:30:33   binge-worthy shows, including this one. Amazon Music has more than 10 million

00:30:38   free podcast episodes to listen to. So you can listen to hilarious podcasts

00:30:44   like Smartless one week before everyone else and ad-free and the true crime

00:30:50   podcast Dr. Death Miracle Man. It's available two weeks early on Amazon

00:30:54   Music. But it's not just for listening to podcasts, of course. Amazon Music has

00:30:58   thousands of music stations and top playlists to stream for free. No matter

00:31:04   what you're listening to you can go hands-free with Alexa and if you want

00:31:08   your music on demand and ad free you got to try Amazon Music Unlimited. It gives

00:31:13   you unlimited access to over 75 million songs as well as podcasts, music videos

00:31:19   and more. And with Amazon Music Unlimited you can listen to any song anywhere

00:31:24   offline with unlimited skips. I really don't want my music service supported by

00:31:31   ads. I've been down that road before and I find it really distracting. I like the

00:31:34   full control that things like Amazon music give and you can listen anywhere.

00:31:39   You take it in the car, the gym, at home. If you're like me when you're raking an

00:31:43   endless mountain of leaves in your yard it's a great time to check it out. For a

00:31:48   limited time new customers can try Amazon Music Unlimited free for three

00:31:54   months. There's no credit card required. Just go to Amazon.com/connectedfm

00:32:01   That's Amazon.com/connectedfm to try Amazon Music Unlimited for free for

00:32:08   three months. This renews automatically but you can cancel anytime terms apply.

00:32:13   go to Amazon.com/ConnectedFM to learn more.

00:32:17   Our thanks to Amazon Music for their support of the show

00:32:20   and Relay FM.

00:32:21   We are now in April.

00:32:25   And in looking back over these announcements,

00:32:28   for me, April holds one of the,

00:32:30   actually one of the most surprising announcements from Apple

00:32:34   and that is this Apple Arcade expansion

00:32:37   where they brought in a bunch of games

00:32:41   that were sort of known as like classics on the app store.

00:32:45   And they have them sort of updated and remade,

00:32:48   they're ad-free, all the monetization is pulled out.

00:32:51   And we've gotten this like great library of games

00:32:54   that we've loved over the last, you know,

00:32:56   12 or 13 years resurfaced in Apple Arcade.

00:33:00   And I think it's super cool.

00:33:02   I mean, Federico, you and I both like have this shared love

00:33:06   of software preservation,

00:33:08   and this is like a cool twist on it.

00:33:10   something that I really was not expecting.

00:33:13   And Apple is doing it right.

00:33:14   Like, they are picking select titles.

00:33:17   They are working with developers to update them

00:33:20   for modern CPUs, modern displays, multi-platform,

00:33:25   iCloud save support, like making sure

00:33:29   that this game can be played with quality of life features

00:33:32   and graphical updates in 2021.

00:33:35   Really surprising.

00:33:36   I'm super happy about this.

00:33:37   And it's also a clever business move

00:33:39   because it allowed Apple to keep the momentum going

00:33:41   for Apple Arcade releases by injecting older titles

00:33:46   into the release timeline on Apple Arcade,

00:33:50   which, as far as the originals go,

00:33:52   has slowed down a bunch over the past year

00:33:56   for obvious reasons.

00:33:57   So bringing back classics and App Store greats

00:34:00   are a great idea, yeah.

00:34:03   - This is the best thing they've done with Arcade, I think.

00:34:08   I think it's a smart business move.

00:34:09   There's been a, you know, there are a bunch of games

00:34:14   that I have replayed that I haven't played in a long time.

00:34:17   And I also think it's good for people

00:34:19   to get some of those games

00:34:20   that they maybe otherwise hadn't checked out before.

00:34:22   So yeah, really great.

00:34:24   - All right, elsewhere in April,

00:34:27   once we were all settled down from the app arcade,

00:34:31   Apple Arcade stuff, of course we got an Apple event.

00:34:34   We got the Spring event.

00:34:35   This came with a couple of smaller things at the beginning.

00:34:39   I really, in hindsight,

00:34:41   this is such like a hodgepodge of things,

00:34:43   but we got the Apple Podcast subscriptions.

00:34:47   So you can pay--

00:34:48   - Oh, this was the weird event.

00:34:49   I totally forgot about this.

00:34:51   - This was the jacked Tim Cook tight shirt event, remember?

00:34:56   Remember? - Yes.

00:34:57   - Was he standing outside?

00:34:58   - Yes.

00:34:59   - Yeah.

00:35:00   - And like he's at the gym all winter.

00:35:02   You can pay for extra content just within Apple podcasts.

00:35:06   Apple of course takes their percentage

00:35:09   and stands between podcasters and their listeners.

00:35:11   So some people have opted into that, some haven't.

00:35:14   We have not.

00:35:20   Air tags.

00:35:21   - I resent that implication.

00:35:22   Like why is that, you know?

00:35:24   Well, it's a--

00:35:27   - It's just not for everybody.

00:35:28   It just doesn't work for us.

00:35:29   That's fine.

00:35:30   - That's okay for some people as you see.

00:35:32   - Air tags.

00:35:33   (laughing)

00:35:35   Air tags.

00:35:36   After many, many, many months of rumor delay,

00:35:41   air tags finally showed up.

00:35:43   That came, remember there was that weird announcement

00:35:45   about, "Hey, other stuff can talk to find my..."

00:35:48   And then like three days later, Apple was like,

00:35:50   "Yeah."

00:35:51   - Hey, look at this really expensive electric bicycle.

00:35:54   - Yeah, which I still want.

00:35:56   - Oh, the van move?

00:35:57   - Yes.

00:35:58   - I remember that.

00:35:59   has like a dog cow reference it's perfect that is a reference like I think

00:36:03   that's accidental I don't think the accident the biggest thing honestly out

00:36:08   of this event was the purple iPhone 12 and 12 mini that's I did that's not what

00:36:13   I thought you were gonna say was for sale for like what six months and then

00:36:17   went away I've only seen one of these in person in real life like somebody bought

00:36:21   it updated Apple TV 4k with the revamped Siri remote or Apple remote I think

00:36:28   whatever they're calling it now.

00:36:30   - It's called the Siri Remote.

00:36:32   - Still called the Siri Remote?

00:36:33   - Yes.

00:36:33   - It's a hundred times better, pretty close to perfect,

00:36:36   especially after coming from the old terrible one.

00:36:40   - It's not an exaggeration to say that a remote

00:36:43   has made my life better.

00:36:45   I think if anything, it's like a symbol of the pandemic

00:36:49   and lockdowns to have this much affection

00:36:52   for a remote redesign.

00:36:54   I really love the new Siri Remote.

00:36:57   It's like it has removed all that frustration.

00:37:00   Like, it was like a small dose of frustration every single time I had to use the Siri remote.

00:37:08   Like, it wasn't like I wouldn't get angry at it or really upset.

00:37:12   It's like, you know, this is so frustrating.

00:37:14   Like, it was like a tiny droplet of frustration dripping down inside my brain every single time.

00:37:21   - Wow.

00:37:21   - And now it's gone.

00:37:23   And it's beautiful.

00:37:24   It's like, I love this.

00:37:26   I love this remote so much. I bought four of them and I've placed them in like two in Rome

00:37:32   and two at the beach house. I really love this the new Siri remote. The best compliment I can give the

00:37:38   Siri remote is I never think about it. Also I would like to jog your memory here guys.

00:37:44   With the Apple TV remember when we all started calibrating our TVs with the tool that Apple

00:37:51   released on the iPhone to place your iPhone against your television to calibrate. Yeah,

00:37:56   that was April also. I didn't do that. I did, it was fun. No, I couldn't do it because my

00:38:04   TV was good. Set to metric. No, it's like, you should only do it... I think if you use

00:38:12   Dolby Vision you shouldn't do it or you can't do it. Yeah, you gotta disable Dolby Vision

00:38:18   if you want to try it.

00:38:19   Yeah.

00:38:20   - Yeah, and I have no, do you know what I mean?

00:38:22   It's like Dolby did it for me.

00:38:23   I'll let Dolby do it.

00:38:24   So, you know.

00:38:26   - Okay.

00:38:27   - 'Cause I update my TV.

00:38:29   - This event, we also got the M1 iPad Pros.

00:38:33   The 12 inch or 12.9 inch also got a ProMotion

00:38:38   Mini LED display.

00:38:40   It's pretty fancy.

00:38:41   Not on the 11, but it's shown up on the laptop.

00:38:43   So my assumption is Mini LED will be on the smaller iPad Pro

00:38:47   maybe next time they get updated.

00:38:50   But really amazing hardware.

00:38:51   - I don't wanna think about that iPad Pro

00:38:54   because that iPad Pro could tempt me away from the Mini

00:38:58   and I love the Mini too much.

00:39:00   - And then the 24 inch M1 iMac

00:39:04   in a bunch of colors.

00:39:05   Really the highlight of the event, at least for me.

00:39:09   And yeah, we got fun colorful iMacs.

00:39:12   Myke has one in his office.

00:39:14   - I love it, love my iMac.

00:39:15   - So that was the event.

00:39:16   So, Apple podcast subscriptions, third tags, Apple TV stuff,

00:39:21   purple iPhones, because reasons, new iPad Pro, new iMac.

00:39:25   Okay, it's kind of a strange event, but also...

00:39:29   - It was a bunch of good stuff,

00:39:32   but like all thrown together.

00:39:34   So here you go, take that. - It was a bunch of good stuff,

00:39:36   some padding around them, pretty good event.

00:39:39   Okay, what else was in April, Steven?

00:39:41   - iOS 14.5.

00:39:44   - Oh, okay, got released.

00:39:45   Finally shipped with Mask Unlock, new Siri voices.

00:39:49   Remember when people said, "Oh, Apple missed it.

00:39:50   "We don't need Mask Unlock anymore."

00:39:53   - Yeah.

00:39:54   - Oh yeah.

00:39:55   - At that time, we did say that on this show.

00:39:58   - Probably.

00:39:59   - I don't remember which one of us,

00:40:00   but I know one of us said it, or a couple of us,

00:40:02   where it was like,

00:40:02   "Doesn't feel like we're gonna need them.

00:40:05   "We need them so much longer.

00:40:06   "It took them so long to do this."

00:40:08   - Kinda regret that.

00:40:09   - Joke's on us, I guess.

00:40:10   - A couple sort of non-Apple things I just wanted to mention.

00:40:15   April was when Lauren Goode over at Wired

00:40:19   published her piece.

00:40:20   I called off my wedding, The Internet Will Never Forget,

00:40:22   talking a lot about how platforms

00:40:25   and even like the photo widget bring up memories of people

00:40:27   and relationships.

00:40:28   And I think it was probably the best thing I read

00:40:31   on the internet this year.

00:40:33   It was fantastic.

00:40:34   - Yeah, I think you might be right.

00:40:36   - Really, really excellent.

00:40:38   And we've talked to some about that on the show,

00:40:41   but she really goes into it in a way that we didn't.

00:40:43   And if you haven't read it,

00:40:44   you need to make the time to do so.

00:40:47   And last but not least, April 27th,

00:40:51   Casey Newton at The Verge wrote a piece

00:40:54   outlining the controversy at Basecamp.

00:40:59   So this is--

00:41:00   - I remember that.

00:41:02   - This is when Basecamp management

00:41:06   effectively told their employees

00:41:08   that they could not use official company

00:41:11   methods of communication to talk about anything

00:41:13   but work, so no politics, no social issues, et cetera.

00:41:18   Like half the company quit.

00:41:20   We know people who left and just what,

00:41:24   I mean, if we're gonna hand out trophies

00:41:25   for like the biggest self-own of the year,

00:41:28   Basecamp would get it.

00:41:29   It's even now what, nine, eight months later or whatever,

00:41:34   still totally ridiculous and pretty disgusting.

00:41:38   So, go Basecamp.

00:41:42   Yeah, good job.

00:41:44   Okay, where does this rank?

00:41:46   On the Teachy Scale?

00:41:48   So, there's an Apple event, which of course,

00:41:52   you know, that helps in terms of like giving us content, giving us enjoyment.

00:41:57   Apple Arcade news is good, 14.5 release is also pretty good.

00:42:03   Again, I don't think I want to give out a good plus for this.

00:42:11   for this. This would be close to good plus for me. I mean like... Me too. That was a

00:42:18   good event. We said it was weird but like you just spoke about your love for the remote.

00:42:24   The love for the remote? Yeah, you're right. I think iPad Pro. Yeah, this is a good plus.

00:42:28   Okay, this is a good plus. Yeah, remote iPad Pro, new iMac, AirTags. I'm honestly like,

00:42:33   I'm low-key loving their tags also.

00:42:36   Oh, I love them. I have 12 of them.

00:42:40   Twelve? Did you say twelve?

00:42:42   Yeah, I've bought three four-packs.

00:42:44   Three four-packs, okay.

00:42:46   I realised the other day I need more.

00:42:49   Once you're really into it, you just want to put them on everything.

00:42:53   Put them on your kids. Don't do that.

00:42:57   April, congrats, you're now in the lead for

00:43:00   Good. Best month of 2021.

00:43:03   Just don't talk about it at work if you work for Basecamp.

00:43:06   Yep, don't ever talk about April.

00:43:08   All right, moving on to May.

00:43:10   So we have the beginning of the Epic Games

00:43:13   versus Apple trial.

00:43:15   It began in early May.

00:43:18   So wide-eyed and full of hope

00:43:20   that it was gonna do something.

00:43:22   (laughs)

00:43:23   That it was gonna, you know,

00:43:27   that this trial was going to lead to a practical conclusion that had a net effect for consumers,

00:43:34   but nope. A big pile of nothing so far. So, yeah, we, John, the one through John, did

00:43:42   an excellent overview on Mac's stories. I'm biased, but also it's a really excellent overview.

00:43:47   If you don't understand legal, complex legal things, it's a good read still. And turns

00:43:55   out John was right about basically all of it, you know, months before the verdict.

00:44:02   Apple, in May, announced what was my risky pick from the annual Rickeys 2020. I got this

00:44:11   right about five months ahead of time, because in May, Apple announced a new head of PR.

00:44:20   And the new head of PR at Apple comes from Cisco. It's Stella Lowe. It's new head of

00:44:26   PR at Apple. Former Cisco executive. Apple has been, you know, have been operating without

00:44:34   a head of PR following the, you know, what's the name? Steve Dowling resigned a couple

00:44:42   of years ago. I think it was before the pandemic.

00:44:44   Yeah, this was Venkat for quite a while.

00:44:47   Yeah, so, "Cello" announced in May.

00:44:52   So May was an interesting month for music news,

00:44:55   because we start seeing in early May

00:44:57   the first rumors of a hi-fi tier for Apple Music.

00:45:03   Remember, we talked about this on the show,

00:45:05   how in the music industry, there were some early indications

00:45:11   of the fact that Apple was going to do a higher resolution

00:45:14   here for Apple Music, but also something with spatial audio, because spatial audio was already

00:45:19   a feature for video content, but not for music content. At the same time, Deezer, a music

00:45:27   streaming service, launched one of the few native HomePod integrations for a third-party

00:45:34   music streaming provider on the HomePod, and Deezer also had high-resolution playback support.

00:45:42   Was that rumor about Apple Music, was that the one that came from that website that also

00:45:50   said the iPod was coming or something?

00:45:52   Twenty years ago, yes, it was that website that we also talked about and linked in the

00:45:57   show notes, yes, it was that website.

00:45:59   And sure enough, a week later, I believe, Apple officially announced high-resolution

00:46:06   playback in Apple Music and spatial audio, but they said it would be coming in June.

00:46:11   So they sort of pre-announced the release.

00:46:15   This was not an iOS 15 feature, it was an iOS 14.6 or 7 feature I believe, but they

00:46:22   pre-announced it in May.

00:46:25   The iMac embargo is up, we got the iMac reviews, very positive reviews and one really important

00:46:33   comparison from Steven on YouTube comparing the iMac 2021 to the iMac G3.

00:46:40   how many years ago Steven is the G3? That model is from 99 or 2000 sometime in there.

00:46:46   All right. That was my first pre-release embargo hardware. The iMac. Nicely done.

00:46:54   The iMac. You had a yellow one right? Yellow one. And I bought a yellow one.

00:46:59   Yeah. This is a computer that I wish I had room for in my life because I love everything about

00:47:05   the design you know maybe the 27 will follow in its footsteps but I think it's

00:47:10   so friendly and fun I just don't need a small iMac that 27 is not gonna be

00:47:16   colorful like this it's pros would be boring yeah it would be like space gray

00:47:22   starlight graphite starlight midnight what they should do is a clear one then

00:47:29   I'll be into it like a teenage engineering their earbuds oh yeah I just

00:47:35   want it completely crystal clear. That would be sweet. Although, yeah, they look good inside.

00:47:41   Apple designs them good inside.

00:47:42   Oh yeah, man.

00:47:45   Yeah.

00:47:46   iPad Pro review embargoes are also up. I did one. It was fun. Basically, we all loved the

00:47:51   display and we all pointed out how the performance was not, you know, this incredible performance

00:47:57   with the M1 chip and 16 gigs of RAM, was really not justified by IPad OS 14, and spoiler,

00:48:06   IPad OS 15 did not really tell a different narrative around that either.

00:48:12   So really powerful and beautiful hardware, still somewhat limited by IPad OS.

00:48:18   Now we see how Apple is starting to, again, continuing to pre-announce things before WWDC,

00:48:27   of clearing the decks before WWDC.

00:48:29   And one of the things they've done here

00:48:31   is they preannounced all of the accessibility features that

00:48:35   would come with iOS 15 and watchOS 8,

00:48:39   including all these new memoji for more accessibility use

00:48:45   cases, as well as this major new feature,

00:48:48   Assistive Touch on the Watch.

00:48:51   Assistive Touch in watchOS 8 with this entirely new set

00:48:55   of gestures like clenching your fist and using your wrist to scroll up and down in lists

00:49:03   on the Apple Watch. Really incredible demo. There's an official support document now on

00:49:09   using Assistive Touch on the Apple Watch in WatchOS 8 and how that works, sort of all

00:49:14   the different gestures that you can use including pinching, clenching, pinch to move, pinch

00:49:20   wants to scroll down really incredible stuff when it comes to combining gestures and accessibility

00:49:27   with assistive touch for a small screen like the Apple Watch. We also have a major announcement

00:49:33   that honestly I can say with confidence changed our lives and it's why we are now so wealthy.

00:49:44   because Apple released, officially launched an affiliate program for Apple

00:49:50   podcast subscriptions. I don't know about you guys but we really, you know, we

00:49:55   really hit the goldmine with this, you know, making all the great

00:50:01   dollars with this affiliate program. Do you remember when it was like, it was like

00:50:07   really good money that the App Store affiliate? It was really good money. I

00:50:13   I used to work on Thanksgiving and Black Friday because it was really good money.

00:50:17   Yeah.

00:50:18   I got stories to tell about that.

00:50:20   Some days.

00:50:21   Some days.

00:50:22   In the Federico Petiti memoirs.

00:50:25   Yes.

00:50:26   I kind of want to have like an official biography done at some point.

00:50:35   That could be fun.

00:50:36   Anyway, iOS 14.6 is out.

00:50:38   Hang on.

00:50:39   Hang on.

00:50:40   Hang on.

00:50:41   What would you call your biography?

00:50:45   Oh.

00:50:46   Oh.

00:50:47   That's good.

00:50:48   That's a good question.

00:50:51   You know, I think it's got to be something about like food or life in Italy, but also

00:50:55   technology.

00:50:56   Yeah.

00:50:57   Pasta and podcasts.

00:50:59   No, something like something like...

00:51:02   Like an Italian bite, but bite with a Y.

00:51:05   Wow.

00:51:06   Oh my God.

00:51:07   That's good.

00:51:08   Take a bite.

00:51:09   a bite out of Italy. Nailed it. Well, some people run with that. Um, iOS 14.6 is out

00:51:23   and it brings apple cart family and podcasts subscriptions. Apple cart family. Does anyone

00:51:30   here use apple cart family? I haven't even got an apple card. Yeah, me neither. I don't

00:51:35   it. Okay, all right, so 14.6 is not really that exciting. And honestly, the end of me

00:51:41   was really fun for me because I was invited early, before the grand opening, of the beautiful

00:51:47   new Apple Store in Rome via the Corso. At Palazzo Marignoli I was able to go there with

00:51:54   Silvia. Silvia took some incredible pictures and I did a story featuring Silvia's photographs

00:52:00   and sort of like this background story on this building, what it means for Rome, and

00:52:06   what Apple did in terms of renovating this incredible place right in the heart of Rome,

00:52:12   in the center of Rome.

00:52:14   That was a really fun day.

00:52:15   It was a fun day because I was able to do it all in one day.

00:52:20   Like, we went to the center of Rome, we took the pictures, we came back, and I wrote at

00:52:23   night, and I published in the morning.

00:52:26   It's like, yeah, I was pretty happy with myself there.

00:52:29   So yeah, this place is incredible.

00:52:32   If you're an Apple fan and you're ever in the center of Rome, make sure to stop there

00:52:36   because it's like...

00:52:37   Like normally I would have advice against including an Apple store in your vacation

00:52:45   plans because it's not that exciting for most people, but this one, honestly, it feels like

00:52:51   a museum and it's absolutely stunning in person.

00:52:54   So if you're that kind of person, make sure to stop there.

00:52:58   And that about wraps up the month of May.

00:53:01   I had forgotten how amazing this place is.

00:53:03   I mean, I'm scrolling through these pictures now and it's like legitimately a breathtaking

00:53:08   building.

00:53:09   Very beautiful.

00:53:10   It's really cool.

00:53:11   Okay, how do we rank May?

00:53:15   I would say normal.

00:53:17   Because like, yeah, most of like the, even the hardware reviews were reviews for like

00:53:24   prior announcements.

00:53:26   And they were pretty much as expected. There was nothing surprising in those.

00:53:33   The only, like, the thing that I really like is the Apple Music announcement with high

00:53:41   resolution playback and special audio. But I don't think it's enough to, and of course

00:53:46   the Apple Store, but the Apple Store is very localized to Italy, obviously. I don't think

00:53:51   Apple Music alone is able to pull May out of a normal month.

00:53:56   - Looks to me.

00:53:58   - Yeah, okay.

00:54:00   - This episode of Connected is made possible

00:54:02   by TextExpander from our friends over at Smile.

00:54:06   Do you ever type the same things over and over

00:54:09   and over again?

00:54:10   Whether it's customer support answers, sales emails,

00:54:13   document edits, typing things repetitively

00:54:16   or using copy and paste can be a burden.

00:54:19   It can lead to mistakes.

00:54:20   That's where TextExpander comes in.

00:54:21   With TextExpander, you and your team

00:54:24   can keep your messaging consistent,

00:54:26   save time and be more productive,

00:54:28   and be accurate every time.

00:54:31   The way we're working is changing.

00:54:33   So make sure that work can happen wherever you are

00:54:36   by saying more in less time,

00:54:39   and with less effort using TextExpander.

00:54:41   A computer without TextExpander, to me,

00:54:43   is practically useless.

00:54:44   I have so, so many things in there.

00:54:47   I use it for links that I need to send people

00:54:50   if I'm doing like membership support,

00:54:52   of course, contact information, emails,

00:54:55   also things you may not think about.

00:54:56   So like under my YouTube videos,

00:54:58   I have like a little collection of links.

00:55:00   That's all in TextExpander.

00:55:01   Why would I copy and paste that for an old video?

00:55:03   I can just have it in TextExpander

00:55:05   and that means it works on all my computers, all my devices.

00:55:09   As a listener of Connected,

00:55:11   you can get 20% off your first year

00:55:13   by visiting textexpander.com/podcast to learn more.

00:55:19   That's text expander.com/podcast.

00:55:22   Our thanks to text expander from smile for the support of the show and relay FM.

00:55:27   All right.

00:55:28   We're back with June.

00:55:29   Now we know what June means is WWDC 2021.

00:55:33   I didn't really want to dig into this too much.

00:55:36   I've picked out a few of the things that were announced and kind

00:55:39   of grouped them a little bit.

00:55:40   I was 15 sore among other things, share play everyone's favorite.

00:55:44   Some updates to FaceTime, which included like the audio and video

00:55:49   stuff you could do and links for FaceTime calls, focus modes, live text and some of

00:55:56   the new notification stuff like notification summaries and time sensitive notifications.

00:56:03   As well as these, iPadOS 15 got a new multitasking method? What would you say?

00:56:11   Paradigm?

00:56:12   Paradigm, that's a good one.

00:56:14   No, no, I mean.

00:56:15   No, that's a bad one.

00:56:17   like a new activation method. It has a new buttons. It got lots of keyboard shortcuts

00:56:26   too, which is really good, especially for multitasking stuff. We've got widgets on the

00:56:30   home screen and app library and quick note, which is the only place that this is actually

00:56:36   useful. It's on the iPad, but yeah, it's everywhere. And macOS Monterey got shortcuts and I've

00:56:44   Caught it continuity, but I think that's wrong. What is it called that you can universal universal control? That's what I was looking for

00:56:51   Universal control I was announced. It's coming to Monterey watch OS 8 got I

00:56:58   Knew I had to write something so I went to Apple's newsroom page and kind of was just like oh, yeah

00:57:09   I didn't remember any of this

00:57:11   WatchOS 8 Max stories.

00:57:13   new workout types, which it always gets,

00:57:16   and a mindfulness app on the watchOS 8.

00:57:20   That's what watchOS 8.

00:57:22   Also in June, the saga of Safari begins.

00:57:25   This is where the next three months of conversation began,

00:57:31   was New Safari.

00:57:33   It had promise when it was showing off,

00:57:35   and then we all realized.

00:57:37   I was saying about this earlier on with something else,

00:57:39   but I always feel this way with WWDC,

00:57:42   where you see something on stage and you're like,

00:57:45   "Oh my god, this is going to be amazing."

00:57:48   And then you very quickly start to realize,

00:57:51   once you play around with things,

00:57:54   how it's not exactly what you thought it was going to be.

00:57:58   Shortcuts is like this a lot.

00:58:00   They show off some stuff in shortcuts

00:58:02   and then you actually use it and like,

00:58:03   "Oh yeah, but it doesn't work for this, this, this, this, and this,

00:58:06   so therefore it's not at all what I thought it was going to be like."

00:58:09   Yeah.

00:58:10   So that was WWDC.

00:58:12   Also in June, Apple employees begin pushing back against the return to office that Apple put out in

00:58:18   an internal letter that they wrote to the company. Like a group of employees came together for that.

00:58:24   And Apple published a 16-page report on why sideloading would be bad news for the security

00:58:31   of their devices. Imagine. Imagine the horrors. This has really kind of been an undertone for the

00:58:37   the last half of the year, Apple speaking out about what I guess they were afraid or

00:58:42   what they expect courts and world governments to look at.

00:58:46   At Craig Fitter, he gave a talk later in the year about this and I don't know, it comes

00:58:51   across as so kind of pathetic and I still don't buy it.

00:58:57   Like personally, I don't buy it because like if it's this, if this is so bad, does it mean

00:59:03   that my Mac is not secure?

00:59:06   Like if this is so bad, if this is so scary, why do you allow it on your computer?

00:59:12   That's the flaw and they've tried to explain, I mean and they've said like, oh the Mac is

00:59:15   secure just not as secure.

00:59:18   Well like just, that's fine then right?

00:59:20   It's fine.

00:59:21   Do you always say, and Stephen, the other, one of the other trend for the last six months

00:59:25   of the year is Apple employees talking back to the company.

00:59:28   Yes.

00:59:29   That's been a thing that's been coming up a lot.

00:59:31   Most of it reported by Zoe Schiffer, which I believe that this original Verge article

00:59:35   was also reported by Zoe Schiffer.

00:59:38   So what did we give June?

00:59:41   So there's WWDC and it shapes our, you know, basically it shapes the second half of our

00:59:47   year in terms of coverage.

00:59:50   I don't think it can be less than good.

00:59:53   I actually think you're right.

00:59:54   Whilst this wasn't like a blockbuster, there was some stuff in here that we just spoke

01:00:00   like Safari that we got months out of.

01:00:05   Yeah. Yeah. And shortcuts for Mac, which is like a new stream of content for us, at least.

01:00:15   And like, normally I would say, oh, by default, you know, WWDC, we start a good plus. I don't

01:00:22   think this was a good plus, WWDC. Kind of the smaller, on the lighter side of things.

01:00:30   you know, even things that I thought would make a bigger impact, like Focus,

01:00:37   for example, in iOS 15, I don't think it really is really resonating with

01:00:42   consumers as much as I thought, but things like LiveText are. That's the kind

01:00:46   of thing that I keep seeing, like, my, you know, non-techie friends mention.

01:00:51   Because Focus is too complicated to set up. It's too complicated. That's one of my big wishes for iOS 16,

01:00:56   that they, I don't think they'll do it, but that they'll make that a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a

01:01:26   a good because there were things that you know when it's like all new multitasking

01:01:30   and iPad I was 15 we had all these ideas for what this could be they delivered the bare

01:01:35   minimum you know so I would say good yeah it's a good yes it's a good month yeah so

01:01:41   that brings us to July I know I know what this is gonna be kind of a quiet time for

01:01:49   tech news generally especially in the Apple world but on July 13th Apple published a press

01:01:55   release outlining the 35 Emmy nominations including 20 for Ted Lasso

01:02:02   that which apparently is a record for a new comedy series but Apple TV+ content

01:02:11   very good and very well rewarded Myke you can probably speak better to this

01:02:15   because I know you guys follow this on upgrade a good bit but this seems like a

01:02:20   really impressive deal it was and it will come up later on in the show but

01:02:24   that this was a very very big deal, the amount of nominations that they got in general, especially

01:02:31   for Ted Lasso, but was not unexpected going into the Emmys because Ted Lasso had already

01:02:36   started picking up awards before the Emmy nominations were announced, so it did look

01:02:40   like it was gonna get pretty well nominated and awarded.

01:02:46   We have Obsidian, this little iOS note-taking app that some people use, available on iOS

01:02:56   and Android.

01:02:57   It had been in beta for a while, and yes, you could, as a supporter or a subscriber,

01:03:04   you could get access to it through their Discord, but free on the App Store.

01:03:09   And if you are interested in Obsidian, definitely check out what Federico and Jon are doing

01:03:13   on App Stories.

01:03:14   y'all, I'm not, I don't use Obsidian, I don't particularly like it, but I'm fascinated by

01:03:18   what it can do and how y'all are customizing it. So people can go check that out. July

01:03:26   also marked the pretty annual arrival of iPhone dummy models. So MKBHD, amongst others, got

01:03:35   his hands on these. These phones, for the most part, look and feel like the new iPhone

01:03:42   is going to look and feel. Sometimes the weights off on these, I think some of the camera details

01:03:45   were a little bit wrong, but it gives you an idea of what's coming and, you know, there's

01:03:49   YouTube videos and articles about them, so I just always find that interesting that these things

01:03:53   trickle out somewhere. Peak Safari 15 Angsten Sorrow. That's what I'm calling July.

01:04:02   Yeah, interesting. At this point, people had been using it, and it was before Apple really started

01:04:10   revising it. That was more in August if I remember correctly, but lots of... See this

01:04:16   is what I would like to pose this to the group. I think this was, I don't know if this was

01:04:23   the peak, I think the peak was when they did start revising it and people weren't happy

01:04:28   with what was happening. No, I think July, I think though in July it's where they started

01:04:32   doing the back and forth, because I believe it's starting with Beta 3 that they started

01:04:39   So in July was really bad because it was changing like every other week basically.

01:04:45   I withdraw my challenge.

01:04:47   Yeah July was the peak Safari 15 sorrow.

01:04:51   Okay so that was when that was happening.

01:04:53   I lost track of when that was occurring.

01:04:55   Then yes you were completely right.

01:04:57   Yeah it was like basically every two weeks we would have like the segment what's new

01:05:02   with Safari, what's different with Safari this time.

01:05:05   Yeah.

01:05:06   It got worse before it got better is what we're saying.

01:05:09   Yes, very much so.

01:05:11   And then I launched my first Kickstarter in July.

01:05:15   So obviously a private, you know, not like news news, but it was a big deal and went

01:05:21   amazing and was exhausting all at the same time, but launched that in early July.

01:05:28   Big success.

01:05:29   Yes, yes.

01:05:30   Thank you all.

01:05:31   I hope you greatly enjoy your calendars over the next year.

01:05:34   Hopefully mine is coming tomorrow.

01:05:37   Finally, hopefully.

01:05:39   I really hope so.

01:05:40   We had to, I mailed Federico a lot of things that I owed him.

01:05:44   I just put them on a box and paid UPS a lot of money to take it.

01:05:48   Oh, the big box is on the way, huh?

01:05:50   Yes.

01:05:51   Yes, it is.

01:05:52   It's got your Ricky plush character.

01:05:55   It's got, I put, I threw our Christmas card in there because Mary was doing those and she's

01:05:59   like, what's Federico's address?

01:06:00   Like, I'll just give it to me.

01:06:01   I'll just, so there's like a, there's a Christmas card inside the box.

01:06:03   Yeah.

01:06:04   that for you. Yeah, it clear customs. So it should be pretty soon. Yes. Uh, okay.

01:06:10   So Steven, uh, I know there's your Kickstarter and it's the only, I mean,

01:06:15   Obsidian on iOS, like launching publicly publicly good news, but you know, folks

01:06:20   who were interested in Obsidian had the beta months before. Uh, I think this is

01:06:26   a decent month. I agree. Uh, July is just a tough month and our world, July is

01:06:34   Maybe the worst month.

01:06:36   Like, even going up against December.

01:06:40   Because by the time July rolls around, there's not really any, there's no hardware then.

01:06:48   And we've basically got everything we can get out of talking about the betas.

01:06:53   Yes, so you have the calm down from WWDC.

01:06:57   you've covered all the highlights and it's that transitional period where nothing new is happening,

01:07:04   betas are coming out and I personally start feeling the pressure of like, okay,

01:07:09   it's time to get to writing and see how quickly I can get it done.

01:07:14   But at the same time you kind of want to go to the beach and you kind of, you know,

01:07:18   you start thinking about September. What am I gonna do? It's a weird month. Nothing is happening. It's yeah, it's

01:07:25   Not a good time. The only thing sort of making this month better are in this case Steven's Kickstarter and Sylvia's birthday

01:07:32   So July, I'm sorry, but decent. Steven you didn't put Sylvia's birthday in the countdown.

01:07:37   I didn't know it was in July. That is terrible. That's terrible. Now I do.

01:07:41   Sylvia's birthday also in July, but unfortunately... Let her open the box when it shows up tomorrow

01:07:48   Okay, so these two things do not save July from a decent

01:07:55   Great agreed

01:07:56   We now get to August which is the most important month of the year because my birthday is in August but beyond that

01:08:03   This is surprising news that I don't know

01:08:07   Maybe we should have expected but it still was you know made us raise our in a collective eyebrow

01:08:15   if you will Apple acquired prime phonic a

01:08:18   service dedicated to classical music and

01:08:24   And not only that, but Apple also announced that they would make a dedicated app version

01:08:31   of Apple Music just for classical music, based on the Prime Phonic...

01:08:35   It has been crickets on that since.

01:08:38   I saw a couple of weeks ago someone, maybe Joe Rossiniel from MacRumors, say that they

01:08:44   saw something that Apple was still working on this?

01:08:48   Well, they must be, right?

01:08:49   Because they haven't announced it, so...

01:08:52   is the kind of news that the moment I saw it, it's like I didn't predict this, but it

01:08:59   made perfect sense right away. It's kind of funny because just a few weeks before we had

01:09:04   done like this music series, not a few weeks, a couple of months before, it was in mid-April,

01:09:09   we had done this music series on App Stories, and I talked for like 15 minutes about Primephonic

01:09:15   and how amazing it was for classical music fans. They did a lot of really good work with

01:09:20   curation, interviews, podcast integration. So it makes perfect sense to have Primephonic

01:09:27   as an Apple acquisition, but it still was surprising at the time.

01:09:32   Then Apple and developers sort of reached an agreement in the US. I don't really recall.

01:09:40   That may be overstating it.

01:09:42   Yes. So Apple, so let me rephrase this. Apple put out a press release saying that Apple

01:09:48   and US developers agreed to App Store updates that will support businesses and maintain

01:09:55   a great experience for users."

01:09:58   Now I took out this quote from the press release.

01:10:01   The agreement clarifies that developers can share purchase options with users outside

01:10:07   of their iOS app, expands the price points developers can offer for subscriptions, in-app

01:10:13   purchases blah blah blah and establishes a new fund to assist qualifying US developers.

01:10:20   Has this really brought any change?

01:10:22   No, because it didn't.

01:10:24   This wasn't really any change.

01:10:27   This was BS, this one.

01:10:29   It was useless.

01:10:30   Still a press release on the newsroom.

01:10:32   Emojipedia was acquired.

01:10:34   I totally forgot about this.

01:10:35   Emojipedia was acquired by Zedge.

01:10:41   smartphone company. And the connected podcast confirmed that the Jeremy's will remain the Jeremy's.

01:10:47   Yes, they will. We were not gonna call them the Zeges, although I also do kind of want to do that.

01:10:54   But we won't, but I still kind of want to. Zeg, give me a call. YouTube announced picture-in-picture

01:11:05   would be coming to the iOS app. This is the best thing that happened in August, again, besides my

01:11:11   birthday, Apple reverted the Safari design changes in iOS 15. They abandoned the single

01:11:20   toolbar design at the bottom of the screen on iPhone, and they essentially implemented

01:11:26   a concept that we had mentioned on the show before by Vidit Bhargava, the developer of

01:11:32   Lookup. Vidit had done this concept in late July, showing this dual toolbar approach on

01:11:40   the iPhone with the sort of toolbar with the buttons for navigation and share at the bottom

01:11:45   of the screen and an address bar tucked above it. So two separate UI elements at the bottom

01:11:51   of the screen instead of a single compact toolbar. And Apple did it. That's exactly

01:11:58   the design that we got in iOS 15. And Apple also added back an option to put the address

01:12:05   bar at the top, if you don't want to use it at the bottom. But honestly, this design refinement

01:12:11   with understanding that a single address bar and toolbar at the same time was not gonna work,

01:12:18   that did it for me. And I've been a huge fan of the new Safari design ever since, and I never

01:12:24   switched back to the address bar at the top UI, because the new one totally works. So that was a

01:12:32   fun time that sort of, you know, we had peak sorrow in July and the, you know, the new

01:12:38   beginning. I was about to say new dawn, but that's a thing from Cortex. I cannot do that.

01:12:44   New decades dawn again. I can't believe how ridiculous that thing is. New beginning for

01:12:52   Safari in August. At Max Stories, we launched the new club Max Stories. That was the culmination

01:13:00   of two years of work. Really, really happy with how that went and the response that we

01:13:06   got and the really the foundation that we laid for Max Stories 5, which is going to

01:13:11   be our next big project for 2022. Tim Cook also celebrated on a birthday.

01:13:16   Became a Club Max Stories member. Tim Cook, long time Club Max Stories member,

01:13:22   likes to read his newsletter every Friday. I can tell you that.

01:13:27   Loves it. That's where he finds out what's going on.

01:13:30   Yes, and so, oh, I see, I see. We have apps on the App Store. How interesting.

01:13:35   Shortcuts is on the Mac.

01:13:37   Maybe we should make money off of those apps from other developers.

01:13:41   You're to blame.

01:13:43   Tim Cook has been a CEO of Apple for 10 years.

01:13:47   In August 2021, Steve Jobs resigned.

01:13:51   In August 24, 2011, and so August 24, 2021,

01:13:59   Tim Cook's 10 year anniversary at Apple,

01:14:02   diverged a good story about sort of looking back

01:14:05   at Tim Cook's Apple over the past decade

01:14:08   and how the company's finances have skyrocketed basically.

01:14:12   And lastly, most important news of the month,

01:14:16   even more important than my birthday,

01:14:18   you can now set up a custom domain for iCloud email.

01:14:22   - Yeah, how long did you use that for, like four days?

01:14:24   - Three hours.

01:14:28   You know, I give it a try.

01:14:30   So that's August.

01:14:32   Obviously, not a lot better than July.

01:14:36   - Decent.

01:14:39   Yeah, I think decent.

01:14:40   - Decent, right?

01:14:41   - Decent.

01:14:42   - This is a decent month.

01:14:43   Again, we go through this every year

01:14:47   and this year was no different.

01:14:48   Like July and August, it's the big calm before the storm,

01:14:52   even too much calm, so.

01:14:55   This episode of Connected is made possible by Pingdom from SolarWinds.

01:15:01   While you've been listening to this podcast, how would you know if your website had gone

01:15:04   down?

01:15:05   Would you know if customers couldn't click that buy now button or fail out of trial form?

01:15:09   You could stumble across the problem by luck, but that means you've already lost out on

01:15:13   new customers.

01:15:15   You need something to tell you when everything is running smoothly on your site, but more

01:15:19   importantly when it's not.

01:15:21   You need Pingdom.

01:15:23   Pingdom detects around 13 million outages every month.

01:15:27   That's more than 400,000 outages every day.

01:15:30   And for as low as $10 a month,

01:15:33   Pingdom helps keep your sites online.

01:15:35   It doesn't matter if you're a startup

01:15:37   or a Fortune 500 company or anywhere in between.

01:15:40   You need real-time alerts about critical website issues

01:15:43   and customization of how you're alerted,

01:15:46   whether it's via SMS, email, or a collaboration app.

01:15:51   whatever you want, you can set up with Pingdom.

01:15:53   It tracks and analyzes your website's load times as well

01:15:56   so you can see what's affecting the user experience.

01:15:59   It's really simple.

01:15:59   If you have a website, you need Pingdom.

01:16:02   So take charge of monitoring your site in just minutes.

01:16:06   Go to pingdom.com/relayfm right now

01:16:10   for a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.

01:16:13   And when you sign up, use the code connected at checkout

01:16:16   to get a huge 30% off your first invoice.

01:16:20   Our thanks to Pingdom from SolarWinds

01:16:22   for their support of the show and Relay FM.

01:16:25   - Okay, we move into September.

01:16:28   We actually forgot to mention in August

01:16:30   that Apple unveiled their CSAM detection

01:16:34   and child safety features.

01:16:36   - It went very smoothly.

01:16:37   - In September, they delayed that

01:16:39   because it did not go smoothly at all.

01:16:45   It was modeled and not very well laid out

01:16:49   and then there was just a cascade of bad news.

01:16:52   So then in September, they were like,

01:16:54   "LOL, we're not gonna do that.

01:16:57   Goodbye."

01:16:58   So then, this is my favorite rumor of the year.

01:17:01   There was a rumor in September that the iPhone 13

01:17:05   would support satellite communication,

01:17:07   allowing users to make phone calls and send texts

01:17:10   without a cell signal.

01:17:12   - Yeah.

01:17:12   Your phones don't have that?

01:17:15   (laughing)

01:17:17   - It's just yours that has that?

01:17:18   I don't know, I'm getting calls from somewhere.

01:17:21   I don't know why, but when I read the word "satellite phone," I think of these movies

01:17:30   from the late 80s or mid-90s with people having these satellite phones, usually criminals,

01:17:36   like drug kingpins, having these satellite phones allow them to make phone calls anywhere

01:17:42   at any time.

01:17:43   Is that what a satellite phone does?

01:17:45   Underscore has a satellite phone?

01:17:47   Yeah, my brother does too.

01:17:48   Oh.

01:17:50   They're not criminals.

01:17:51   Oh.

01:17:52   (laughing)

01:17:53   Oh.

01:17:54   (laughing)

01:17:54   Uh oh.

01:17:55   Did they talk to each other on the satellite?

01:17:58   They could, yeah.

01:17:58   Your brother and underscore?

01:18:00   Just say, "I'll see you on the satellite."

01:18:03   Is that what they do?

01:18:04   That's what they say, yeah.

01:18:05   Yeah, let's take this conversation to space.

01:18:07   South Korea writes law that requires Apple and Google

01:18:13   will have to enable third-party payment processing

01:18:16   for their app stores.

01:18:19   Google has since kind of complied with this.

01:18:22   Apple's like, "Nah, we're good."

01:18:24   - I mean, what Google has done is said,

01:18:25   "Developers, you can do this, but we're gonna take--"

01:18:28   - Yeah, but it doesn't matter.

01:18:29   - You owe us a fee if you do it.

01:18:32   - I know, they did it in a smart way,

01:18:35   but that makes them compliant with the law.

01:18:37   Apple's like, "We're already compliant."

01:18:39   (laughing)

01:18:40   - So what, I don't see what the problem is.

01:18:43   We're compliant. - This has been their response.

01:18:44   Apple's response is, "We're already compliant."

01:18:46   And I'm not really...

01:18:47   It's like...

01:18:48   That doesn't mean what you think it means.

01:18:50   It's like, "Hey, you should change this.

01:18:53   I have changed this.

01:18:54   That's not true.

01:18:55   I have changed this."

01:18:56   No, you haven't.

01:18:58   No, we are complying.

01:18:59   Look, you can't just keep saying we are complying.

01:19:02   It doesn't make it true.

01:19:03   We're complying.

01:19:04   We're complying.

01:19:05   Totes comply.

01:19:07   Apple comes to an agreement with the Japan Fair Trade Commission that will allow reader

01:19:11   apps to link to external websites.

01:19:13   I don't think this has been implemented yet either.

01:19:16   Of course, nothing has.

01:19:18   Honestly, I think this is a WWDC thing with some changes to the App Store.

01:19:25   I do think that that, just because I feel like I have to retain some hope that they're

01:19:30   not just going to be so pigheaded about this forever.

01:19:34   September Apple event included the iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 pro and 13 pro max, the Apple

01:19:40   Watch Series 7, a new iPad and iPad mini.

01:19:44   Yes.

01:19:45   Yes.

01:19:46   Apple wins a ton of Emmys for Ted Lasso. They won loads and loads of Emmys

01:19:51   iOS 15 and iPad OS 15 launch. Federico has a review

01:19:56   Johnny Ive announces that he will be designing expensive things for Ferrari. It's just I love to

01:20:04   Man, Johnny Ive's living his best life

01:20:07   I know right?

01:20:08   He is living his best life and I'm happy for him and the relay FM community raised seven hundred and one thousand dollars

01:20:16   dollars for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

01:20:18   -Woo! -September.

01:20:20   -What a month. -This is a good month.

01:20:22   I would say a good plus month. -This is a...

01:20:24   This is a good plus for sure.

01:20:27   -It's a good plus for sure.

01:20:29   -I kind of think it could be Best I Love You.

01:20:31   -Leaning toward the upper edge of the good plus.

01:20:34   -Yeah, see, I...

01:20:36   Best I Love You is that's...

01:20:38   I don't want to just give something that, but, like, I would say...

01:20:41   -Yeah, but we have 701,000 reasons to do it.

01:20:45   Yeah, but this is the best good plus.

01:20:47   And there's the iPhone 13 Pro.

01:20:49   Which is very good.

01:20:50   And there's the iPad mini.

01:20:51   I think it's, I think,

01:20:53   I think this goes all the way to the top.

01:20:54   Plus we have the funny thing

01:20:56   when we talk about satellite phones, so.

01:20:58   I mean, look at all these things, right?

01:20:59   I mean, besides the CSAM rollout.

01:21:03   You put your review out on time?

01:21:05   I put my review out on day one.

01:21:08   Tony, man, it's best I love you.

01:21:10   And I also did a review of the iPad mini.

01:21:12   Let's do best I love you.

01:21:14   (bell ringing)

01:21:15   Yeah, there we go.

01:21:17   Like, this is the best, personally speaking,

01:21:20   it's the best September I've had in a while,

01:21:22   and I think the same is true for the relay community.

01:21:24   - Yeah.

01:21:26   - Of which you are a part.

01:21:27   - Yeah.

01:21:28   - But like, no, I was saying like personally for my review

01:21:30   and like hitting day one, you know, that kind of stuff.

01:21:33   And then there's a whole other aspect of, you know,

01:21:36   the relay community pulling together for St. Jude's

01:21:38   and the Apple event.

01:21:40   We also did, it was $701,000 and $1.5 million

01:21:45   raised in three years.

01:21:48   Thank you, September.

01:21:49   - October, the Apple Watch Series 7 orders open.

01:21:54   They still haven't redesigned it between the event and this,

01:21:56   so Prosser was still wrong.

01:21:58   We got another Apple event.

01:22:01   This, you know, I didn't really think about it

01:22:03   until we lay it all out like this.

01:22:04   This was very much the bookend to that weird April event.

01:22:07   So we got the Apple Music voice plan, which just launched like last week.

01:22:13   These two events are the Spider-Man meme pointing at each other.

01:22:16   It's the April event and the October event.

01:22:19   No, you're the weirdest of it.

01:22:20   It's like they both have it.

01:22:21   Like half of it is like, "Here's a bunch of random stuff we've done."

01:22:25   And then the other half is like, "Here's all the stuff you want."

01:22:27   "Here are some really good computers."

01:22:30   Colorful HomePod minis.

01:22:32   The orange ones are very good.

01:22:33   AirPods 3, which, you know, we talked about on the show,

01:22:36   none of us were particularly enthusiastic about it.

01:22:39   I had the same problem Sylvia had

01:22:41   where they don't really fit as well as the AirPods 2 do,

01:22:44   but the AirPods 2 are still for sale, so that's good.

01:22:47   But the big news of this event, of course,

01:22:52   are the new M1 Pro and M1 Max 14 to 16-inch MacBook Pros.

01:22:57   It's spectacular.

01:23:03   I think all three of us have them in our working lives.

01:23:06   And the 14 inch in particular, I got the M1 Pro.

01:23:11   I've been so, so happy with this laptop.

01:23:14   It's impressive in every way.

01:23:16   They fixed and added things

01:23:17   I never thought they would fix or add.

01:23:20   And just seriously like all around great job

01:23:22   on these laptops.

01:23:24   - I think 66% of this episode is being recorded

01:23:28   on that laptop.

01:23:30   - I am.

01:23:31   - Yeah, I am, and Federico is.

01:23:33   So like 66% of this episode is coming to you

01:23:36   from a 14 inch Mac.

01:23:37   - I use this old Intel Mac, you know.

01:23:39   - That's why that 33% sounds worse, yeah.

01:23:42   - Yeah, well, also like, Stephen's on like a different,

01:23:46   like he's gonna be a little bit slower than the rest of us

01:23:48   because his computer is slower than ours.

01:23:51   - Only in some things.

01:23:52   - But all the things that matter.

01:23:54   - Episode 366 of this show will go down

01:23:59   in the all time greatest connected episodes.

01:24:02   - It is the most infamous, I think, episode of "Kanaboon."

01:24:06   - Look, it is the one where we let Peacock-

01:24:09   - Oh my God, yep.

01:24:11   - Dice by Peacock.

01:24:12   - Dice by Peacock.

01:24:13   I wrote it backwards in the document.

01:24:14   I wrote Peacock by Dice, but that's not right.

01:24:17   Peacock by Dice.

01:24:18   We let Dice by Peacock pick the order of all the topics-

01:24:23   - And the ads.

01:24:24   - Follow up and the ads, and it picked the ads last,

01:24:27   and Myke freaked out, and it was hilarious.

01:24:29   Just one of my favorite episodes we've done in a long time. Really enjoyed it.

01:24:34   Good Easter egg for that episode is on the web the show website page.

01:24:40   Dives by Peacock is listed as guest star. Yes. That and a couple others. Anytime

01:24:45   that we've relied on it heavily I mark it as a guest star now. Mm-hmm. Four appearances.

01:24:50   A couple others. Federico was in the New York Times about the polishing cloth of

01:24:56   all things. The return of Mr. Vitici. That's right, your second time in the New York Times.

01:25:01   Glorious return about a cloth. Yes. Mm-hmm. Lastly, but not leastly, leastly? Leastly?

01:25:10   Leastly is the Mac OS Monterey. Now Monterey has been, I think, a really solid release.

01:25:17   They've had one big update to it already, which fixed a lot of things for those new notebooks.

01:25:22   I know Myke you had the Wi-Fi issue

01:25:24   Other people were having SD card issues and some other things

01:25:27   so I think Monterey's in in pretty good shape going into the new year and

01:25:31   It made its way out the door in

01:25:34   October oh

01:25:36   My god Matt just linked in the chat. No Christian Selig

01:25:40   the creator of

01:25:43   Apollo bought

01:25:45   26 polishing cloths with the

01:25:49   Yeah, he used the DTK coupon.

01:25:53   The DTK coupon.

01:25:55   So good.

01:25:57   That is incredible.

01:26:02   That is top level.

01:26:05   That is so good.

01:26:06   Wow.

01:26:07   Bravo.

01:26:08   So for context, the DTK is the, what was it?

01:26:12   A Mac.

01:26:13   Developer transition kit.

01:26:14   Developer transition kit that Apple provided to developers last year and developers had

01:26:18   to give it back to Apple, but Apple gave them a coupon that they could use.

01:26:23   Do you remember the coupon? Initially it was like $200 you have to use it within the next

01:26:27   like two months and it can't be used on this, this or this.

01:26:30   There was a whole controversy around the coupon as well.

01:26:33   It was so stupid. It was just so stupid. Like here's $250, which is less money than you

01:26:38   paid. You have to give us the computer back in an indeterminate amount of time starting

01:26:43   from now and you can only use this money within like the next two months, which is before

01:26:48   any good machines are being released. It was just like every possible way they could have made it

01:26:52   bad they did and then they were like "uh sorry it's 500 dollars use it on whatever you want whenever

01:26:56   you want please never talk to us again." And so Christian has a lot of cleaning cloths coming to

01:27:02   his house. So um I think I look I think without the MacBook Pros October would be normal.

01:27:12   I think with the MacBook Pros, it's good plus.

01:27:16   - I would say good plus.

01:27:17   - Yeah, good plus.

01:27:19   - Federico.

01:27:20   - Yeah, I can go with that, yeah.

01:27:21   - It's the computers, the MacBook Pros really do it.

01:27:24   - The MacBook Pro does all the work here.

01:27:26   - Yeah, it does all the work.

01:27:28   - This episode of Connected is brought to you by Setapp.

01:27:32   Getting things done is a challenge

01:27:33   that everyone struggles with.

01:27:35   One way to tackle it is to make sure

01:27:36   you have the right tools for your computer.

01:27:39   And that means having the right apps.

01:27:42   Setapp is on a mission to help their users get more done.

01:27:45   With Setapp, there's no more worrying

01:27:46   about having to search for apps to solve a problem.

01:27:49   Because Setapp packs over 200 apps

01:27:51   for your Mac and iPhone into one.

01:27:54   There's an app for almost any task

01:27:56   and you can stay in your flow and finish what you started.

01:28:00   So you can think about your tasks, what you're doing,

01:28:02   not the apps, not the tools you're using to get it done.

01:28:06   One thing I love about Setapp is that it's a great way

01:28:08   to try out different applications.

01:28:11   If you're not sure if if app A or at B is going to really fit the bill, you can try them with setup.

01:28:16   You can download them, try them out.

01:28:17   If they don't work, it's no big deal.

01:28:19   It's convenient.

01:28:20   It's also a great value because instead of paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars for separate licenses with setup, there's one flat monthly fee and new apps are added on a regular basis.

01:28:31   Updates are free and all the apps are full featured pro versions.

01:28:36   head on over to setapp.com/connected

01:28:39   to try SetApp free for a week.

01:28:42   If you like it, you'll pay just 9.99 per month.

01:28:45   That's setapp, S-E-T-A-P-P.com/connected.

01:28:50   Our thanks to SetApp for their support of the show

01:28:52   and Relay FM.

01:28:54   - All right, we get to November.

01:28:55   Bunch of different news here.

01:28:57   So the HomePod Mini with different colors

01:29:00   is available for sale.

01:29:01   Steven, you have how many?

01:29:02   Three, four, two?

01:29:04   - Well, I had three orange ones.

01:29:05   now I just have two I gave one away. Two, okay. Orange. Orange. Orange you're glad I don't have four. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that.

01:29:16   Apple unveils the much beloved Beats Beat Pro. We talked about the Beats Beat Pro.

01:29:23   There's a, you know, there's a major surprise. Major surprise. Major surprise

01:29:31   involved in the BitSuite Pro in the Pro Show for Connected Pro members.

01:29:35   Myke, where can people get Connected Pro?

01:29:39   GetConnectedPro.co

01:29:41   See? That was easy. And it's also easy to go there and sign up.

01:29:45   BitSuite Pro, so they are kind of a surprise release. They have a new design.

01:29:50   We talked about this. We had a special episode with Mary Hackett about the

01:29:57   the Beats with Pro as well, so go listen to that, it's linked in the show notes.

01:30:01   Twitter officially launches after months of rumors, Twitter Blue, the subscription service

01:30:08   that gives you access not to add free timeline, that is not a feature, but you get a bunch

01:30:14   of stuff, really. You get additional icons for the app, you get a reader mode for Twitter

01:30:21   threads, you get the ability to customize the tap bar of the Twitter app, and you get

01:30:28   ad-free access to articles from select publishers. Anything else I'm missing?

01:30:35   And that's through, what is it, Scroll that they bought? They bought a company that basically

01:30:39   already had that feature.

01:30:40   Yeah, I believe it's through Scroll.

01:30:42   And they also bought Nozzle.

01:30:43   Oh, you get the article.

01:30:45   Yes.

01:30:46   And you get the article summaries, you know, powered by Nozzle, basically.

01:30:51   So that's TwitterBlue. You can sign up on iOS and then you also get access to the web

01:30:57   because you're logged into the same account. I tried it for a month and then I went back

01:31:01   to Tweetbot and that was it. Apple launch is hooked, which is another original podcast,

01:31:07   but what makes this different and the reason why we're linking it is that it doesn't have

01:31:12   any ties to other properties. Like, Apple had done original podcasts before, but they

01:31:18   were always related to something else, like they were the companion podcast for something

01:31:25   else, like we mentioned for Allman Cand.

01:31:27   They did something called The Line, which there is a TV+ thing coming, and then there

01:31:34   is a podcast, but it's not a companion, it's two different ways of telling the same story.

01:31:41   But then Hooked is like, it's just a podcast and it's just like a content thing.

01:31:48   I mean, they have Apple news today, but we kind of put that to the side.

01:31:51   I don't even know if that's still happening.

01:31:54   But Hooked is like, here is a thing that we made that is detached from anything.

01:31:58   It's been winning some awards I saw too.

01:32:01   So it seems to be pretty well regarded.

01:32:02   Wait, there's podcast awards?

01:32:04   Why don't we have any?

01:32:06   Because all of the tech podcasts in the, all of the various podcast awards are none of

01:32:11   tech podcasts that anybody who enjoys tech podcasts listen to.

01:32:15   So here's the big news. We are pivoting connected to talk about true crime.

01:32:21   Well, let me tell you, I mean, well, yes, we could do that. Let me tell you my issue.

01:32:26   Unfortunately, Steven, you have pressed on a sore point for me.

01:32:30   I know you won a trophy. I know you want to be awarded for your work.

01:32:34   I do. One of the biggest issues of awards is you have to pay to be included.

01:32:39   Oh yeah, like the stream is that way. We just got a bunch of emails about that.

01:32:42   The stream is the webbies. Every year the webbies, emails, every single podcast on Relay FM's

01:32:47   email address and it's like, "Hey, you could win one of these, just give us some money and then you

01:32:54   can be nominated." Isn't that a Ponzi scheme? Yes, straight up. Anyway, if we ever pivot to a crime,

01:33:03   true crime show season one could be about the heart rate monitor that might

01:33:07   so

01:33:11   i'm just saying we could do it we could have a we could have a connected

01:33:16   crime spin-off why is it called true crime what if the version was innocent is it false crime

01:33:21   no it's because these are real stories of crime because people here don't ruin my dad joke stop it

01:33:29   You've had a... we've let you away of a lot of dad jokes today to be honest.

01:33:32   Yeah. Like especially in 2021, like we let you run free with the dad jokes,

01:33:37   that's changing, my friend, in 2022.

01:33:40   Yep. Good comedy only.

01:33:43   Now is your chance to let out your system now if you have any more dad jokes in you for 2021.

01:33:49   Anyway, okay. The self-serve... honestly this is the biggest surprise of November.

01:33:56   The self-service repair program is official.

01:33:59   Very surprising.

01:34:00   We talked about this a couple of times on the show.

01:34:03   Soon, you will be able to repair iPhones and iPads yourself

01:34:08   by buying tools and a kit from Apple.

01:34:13   - And Macs.

01:34:14   - And Macs.

01:34:15   There's gonna be a store dedicated to like,

01:34:17   like a section of a store to, you know, to get the parts.

01:34:20   And in iOS, Apple is adding support

01:34:23   for this in iOS 15.2 beta as well,

01:34:26   because the beta will show you which parts you have replaced.

01:34:31   Yeah, like you will have that info in settings.

01:34:35   You will see--

01:34:35   - It's like merit badges.

01:34:38   - Yes, kinda like, hey, this iPhone survived a broken display.

01:34:42   (laughing)

01:34:43   - I put a new chip in this thing.

01:34:46   - Yeah. - Go me.

01:34:48   - Let's see what else do we have here.

01:34:50   Apple, Suze, the Anisoc Group.

01:34:53   So the Anisotope group is this company that they made the Pegasus hacking tool to basically

01:35:02   spy on activists, journalists, politicians in multiple countries based on a series of

01:35:09   really advanced techniques.

01:35:11   I've seen some technical breakdowns of what Pegasus was doing behind the scenes, really

01:35:15   wild stuff.

01:35:18   But Apple has decided to sue the Anisotope group.

01:35:20   So we'll see what happens there.

01:35:22   Speaking of iOS 15.2 beta, which is still ongoing, I believe we are waiting for...

01:35:29   No, we are now on 15.3, I'm sorry.

01:35:32   15.2 launched, and 15.2 launched with a macro button.

01:35:38   So iOS 15.2 beta 2 came out in November, and it added the long-anticipated macro button

01:35:47   for macro photography on the iPhone 13 Pro.

01:35:49   Love it.

01:35:50   Yeah.

01:35:51   button. Yes, it's a good button. It does what it's meant to do. And yes, we are now on 15.3

01:35:59   beta. 15.2 was last month. So you're so 15.2 beta. Macro button, you are just so 15.2.

01:36:09   Beta 2. What's it all about now? What's in 15.3? 15.3? What's in 15.3? Fixes. Cool.

01:36:18   Cool. No, no. Hold on.

01:36:20   "Fixes for shortcuts."

01:36:22   It is the new TV app, right?

01:36:25   No, that's 50.2.

01:36:28   No, but honestly, like, more shortcuts fixes.

01:36:32   Those are good for me, both on iOS and Monterey.

01:36:35   On iOS, they finally fixed --

01:36:38   used to be that you couldn't reschedule a reminder.

01:36:42   Like, you would say, "Reschedule this tomorrow,"

01:36:46   and it would say, "Done."

01:36:48   but then you went looking and it was still due today.

01:36:51   It's like, no, you haven't done anything here.

01:36:53   So that's, you know, these things happen.

01:36:56   - No you didn't.

01:36:59   - No, you really didn't.

01:37:01   This is like Apple, we're complying, no.

01:37:03   - Please reschedule, reply to that.

01:37:08   - I rescheduled it, no, I rescheduled it.

01:37:10   - I've rescheduled compliant.

01:37:13   Yup, compliant rescheduling.

01:37:17   But that's fixed now.

01:37:19   So maybe Apple in South Korea also needs a bug fix, maybe.

01:37:23   Tidal announced a free tier

01:37:28   and a new payment model for artists,

01:37:31   which I know that we have poked fun at Tidal before.

01:37:34   I mean, everybody has, but what, yes.

01:37:38   - Sorry.

01:37:39   - Tidal, the music streaming service.

01:37:40   - The jokes are just, they're just, you know.

01:37:44   - You gotta get them out.

01:37:45   - Coming in like the waves.

01:37:46   Look, we told you now is your time.

01:37:48   - Yes, not now, it's never.

01:37:50   I imagine if it wasn't Federico doing the month of November,

01:37:55   this piece of news would have not made it back in.

01:37:57   - No, no way.

01:37:58   - I wanna mention this because I think it's a cool thing

01:38:00   that they are doing and that they will also do,

01:38:03   like there's another, like there's a second part to this

01:38:06   that they will launch in January.

01:38:08   So for now they are showing you where $2,

01:38:12   so basically the aggregate money from your subscription

01:38:15   where it's going, but starting January they will show you an exact breakdown of, based

01:38:22   on what you listen to, which artist is getting paid and how much for how many streams from

01:38:29   your account. And I think that sort of transparency is good for the industry and it's something

01:38:34   that I wish that other companies would do.

01:38:36   However...

01:38:37   So that's why I mentioned that.

01:38:38   I think there is a weird part to it. You sent me a screenshot of like, I don't know, you

01:38:43   give like $2 to Adele or something like that.

01:38:45   Right? There is a part of her, it's like, Adele doesn't need my $2.

01:38:50   I know.

01:38:50   That's this other part to it, where it's like, this only really works in the feel-good part of indie bands.

01:38:59   Which is why I don't think anyone else would do this, because Tidal has that feeling to it of like,

01:39:05   the music lovers music service.

01:39:07   You know, like Spotify, Spotify do it, or Apple Music do it, it's just like,

01:39:11   "Oh, my four dollars went to..."

01:39:14   Like, everyone's four dollars goes to the same people.

01:39:17   You know what I mean?

01:39:18   Like, it works way better for people who experience lots of music.

01:39:22   I don't know.

01:39:24   Federica, do you think I'm off-base?

01:39:25   No, I think, you know, the title definitely has that sort of feel to it.

01:39:32   That it's like, this is the service you go to for, like, these lesser-known artists

01:39:36   and therefore it makes sense to see where your money is going

01:39:39   because you're directly supporting those artists. I get that. But at the same time, I know that

01:39:47   Adele is like, you know, wildly rich, but still, she deserves the money for her art.

01:39:56   I agree with you. I'm not saying she doesn't. I know that I could come across that way of

01:40:01   what I said, but yeah, I guess like there are worse millionaires in the world than,

01:40:08   Of course. But if there is a weirdness to it, I do think there's a weirdness to it.

01:40:13   But yeah, I don't know, it's complicated. Speaking of music, Spotify finally gets real-time lyrics,

01:40:19   also a feature that was announced way back, I believe it was like 2020 maybe. It was a long

01:40:24   time. It was a long time ago now. That means that Spotify HiFi will come in like February of next

01:40:32   year and then they will be within their usual time frame of announcement to release.

01:40:37   I think so, that could be. And lastly a judge orders Apple to allow in-app payments, like

01:40:50   external payments on the App Store. But does anything change here?

01:40:56   No, there was more news in December that Apple basically doesn't have to do it yet.

01:41:01   So there's an announcement.

01:41:02   Yeah. So judge Gonzalez Rogers is part of the epic case said, no,

01:41:07   you have to comply by my ruling and you must allow external payments in the app

01:41:12   store. And then Apple appealed it.

01:41:15   And I'm going to get to that in a moment. All right.

01:41:20   So how do we rank November?

01:41:21   Normal.

01:41:24   I'm not super enthusiastic about any of it. It's not all right.

01:41:28   It's normal. It's not bad.

01:41:30   self-service repair was a nice surprise, macro button is cool

01:41:35   we had hardware to talk about even

01:41:38   normal, yeah normal

01:41:40   alright so we get to the worst month for recap

01:41:43   which is December because all this stuff literally just happened

01:41:48   air power rumors come back from the dead

01:41:51   it never dies, you know

01:41:55   nope, universal control

01:41:58   officially delayed because the year's about to end so it's even now or never

01:42:04   the max story selects awards for 2021 announced yes we're not delayed right on

01:42:13   time right on time well I don't know this could be one of those things where

01:42:16   it's like we were never told when it was gonna happen no it was literally not

01:42:21   delayed like it was if I can tell you that it was not delayed by the time

01:42:26   people hear this but not as a time of recording the upgrade is will have been

01:42:29   announced to not not familiar with those they're good they're a really good one

01:42:33   they've been going for eight years so that's good that is god man a couple of

01:42:38   years it's a decade of the upgrade ease that's a horrible thing to think about

01:42:42   pretty pretty wild that means wait it means what you think it means that in

01:42:47   two years your company will be ten years old.

01:42:50   Yep.

01:42:50   Ooh.

01:42:51   Yeah.

01:42:52   Don't...

01:42:52   Ooh.

01:42:54   Yeah.

01:42:55   Yeah, that's the point.

01:42:56   That hit me in a quite significant way.

01:42:59   So, okay, fair enough.

01:43:02   Apple wins a stay in the Epic case

01:43:05   and won't have to implement App Store changes.

01:43:07   So Apple took it to the Court of Appeal,

01:43:09   to like the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.

01:43:11   The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal said,

01:43:13   you don't have to do anything until this whole trial

01:43:15   was wrapped up, basically,

01:43:17   which means nothing's going to happen because Apple will win their appeals probably.

01:43:22   The information reported that Tim Cook secretly signed a deal worth $275 billion for China

01:43:30   back in 2016. So very good report. Not a great look. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's very mixed

01:43:36   and varied and weird. I think the fact that Apple, what I don't like about this whole

01:43:40   thing is that Apple never said it. That's, that's really my main problem. Yeah. What?

01:43:45   Yeah, that's that's like maybe there's a legitimate reason, but why haven't you said it there isn't a legitimate reason

01:43:51   Yeah, the reason is they don't want the bad press right they think it will cause because I said this an upgrade I say here to

01:43:58   Apple would 100% not stop talking about this if it did it with the American government

01:44:03   Oh, yeah, well, I mean and they did they did a lot of that under the previous administration

01:44:08   Which is all about like go America go like oh, we're building Mac

01:44:14   Allowing allowing the idea that that Donald Trump was responsible for the Mac Pro to exist

01:44:20   I don't love that. They were totally fine with that. They were fine with that. They'd never questioned it all do you think he touched mine?

01:44:26   It's probably mean it's not impossible

01:44:29   You definitely got to sell it now and finally Apple delays corporate return to offices

01:44:36   indefinitely

01:44:38   Yeah, they've been kicking the can down the road and there's like a whole bigger theme of

01:44:44   choose with employees at Apple and I don't think they've handled them all particularly

01:44:49   well but the work from home I think is the biggest and the most prominent because it

01:44:53   affects the most people and they have said we don't know what we're doing and here's

01:44:59   a thousand dollars to buy a chair.

01:45:01   Hopefully they gave people money for work from home offices well before now.

01:45:06   I don't think they did.

01:45:07   I don't think they did either.

01:45:08   No I think this was the first time that they've given money because now they kind of like

01:45:13   for whatever reason, they have accepted it.

01:45:15   How do we rank December?

01:45:17   Inferior.

01:45:21   Inferior.

01:45:22   Inferior.

01:45:23   I wish you mentioned that Swift Playgrounds 4 also came out.

01:45:26   Yeah, with a bunch of core abilities missing.

01:45:31   In that purchase, can't do it in there.

01:45:34   So the best month of the year, September.

01:45:37   Yeah, that feels good.

01:45:38   Could've guessed that.

01:45:39   Could've guessed it, right?

01:45:40   Like if we would've all made the guess.

01:45:42   Congratulations September, you won the best month of the year.

01:45:46   Now I do want to pick a few other ones here.

01:45:48   Worst month of the year.

01:45:51   January.

01:45:53   No, January. Let's see. Hold on.

01:45:55   January got inferior minus.

01:45:57   Oh my God. Nothing else was.

01:45:59   Wow. I feel like we were harsher on January than we should have been.

01:46:02   Well, because no, cause January was a trash month when nothing happened.

01:46:06   I mean, look at this.

01:46:07   Look at this. There's nothing here.

01:46:09   Nothing happened in January.

01:46:11   Like, whilst December was like, I don't know, it's been quiet.

01:46:15   It's like you, it's like you writing about the PowerBook and Dan Riccio doing things

01:46:21   at Apple.

01:46:22   And you couldn't even remember what Dan Riccio was doing!

01:46:25   So, like, you know.

01:46:27   Okay, so, congratulations to January, you're the worst month of 2021.

01:46:33   That's the month my birthday's in.

01:46:35   And mine, but nevertheless.

01:46:37   What I think is interesting is picking a runner up.

01:46:41   So think about it this way.

01:46:44   If for whatever reason we as a society decide that we need to change our calendars and so

01:46:49   we're cutting a month out of the year and we're cutting September out of the calendar

01:46:54   year.

01:46:55   So like September doesn't exist anymore.

01:46:57   It's late August and suddenly it's October 1st.

01:47:01   So if we wouldn't pick September, what would we pick?

01:47:03   It's between April and October.

01:47:06   They both got good plus. So April and wait, are we trying to kick the worst? The second

01:47:12   worst one now? No, no, no. Federico was quite confusing in the way imagine September doesn't

01:47:18   exist. Okay. What is the best month that is left? Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah, I think,

01:47:25   I think October. So April was the grab bag apple event. Yeah. I guess between the two

01:47:34   grab bags the best product of all of them was the the max the macro pros

01:47:40   yeah yeah yeah and and the and the apple polishing cloth memes in October yeah

01:47:48   and that connect yeah so okay okay if September is not around October is the

01:47:56   second in command I can basically okay man you used a lot of different

01:48:02   metaphors for this. I know. He's a poet. I am. I'm a writer. I'm Mr. Vittucci. I wear

01:48:11   many hats, so to speak. They're all jaunty. Mr. Vittucci's hat. Mr. Vittucci's hat. I'm

01:48:18   not a hat person, honestly, myself. I don't think I can pull off a hat. Mostly because

01:48:22   I think I got a big head. So I don't think... Hats don't fit me well. They just... No hats

01:48:28   look good on me. It's very upsetting. Yeah. Yeah. Steven, you could pull off a hat, right?

01:48:34   Yeah. Oh, Steven does. Steven, Steven like is a multi hat person. I just got like one

01:48:42   hat from Steven's got that. Like Steven has that hat head. Like you see Steven said, like

01:48:48   this is a hat. This is a head for a hat energy over there. You got, you got that. You got

01:48:55   the flexible, like, you have a versatile head, you know?

01:48:59   Please stop.

01:49:00   All right, let's actually stop. How about that?

01:49:04   Yes. If you want to find links to about a thousand things we talked about, longest show

01:49:09   notes of the year.

01:49:10   Hey, look, if you want to find links to what we've spoken about, do your own work and go

01:49:14   through the year like we did. It's all in there.

01:49:16   No, I'll put him in the show notes.

01:49:19   All right. You're just too good to these listeners, you know that. People don't know what they

01:49:23   got with you around.

01:49:24   I love them all individually.

01:49:25   I know all their names.

01:49:28   Federico knows where they live.

01:49:29   It's great.

01:49:30   Those are at relay.fm/connected/

01:49:34   Actually you know where a lot of them live.

01:49:38   That's true.

01:49:39   You sent them Mac trickies.

01:49:40   I know.

01:49:41   And calendars.

01:49:42   Wait, what about GDPR?

01:49:44   I'm not sharing it with anybody.

01:49:46   Can people now email you?

01:49:48   But you're supposed to delete the info.

01:49:50   No.

01:49:51   Only if they ask.

01:49:54   you can hold it. Only if they ask. Yeah. Interesting. If you want to ask for your

01:50:00   info to be deleted, email kc@kclist.com. That's right. He'll answer immediately. He's outside your home now.

01:50:09   Please delete. That's it. So you got a time to do any and he'll do it for you.

01:50:12   So the show notes are relay.fm/connected/378. While you're there, you

01:50:19   can get in touch via email. You can sign up to become a member of Connected Pro

01:50:23   Connected Pro is a longer ad-free version of the show that we publish each and every

01:50:29   week.

01:50:30   Thank you so much to our members this year.

01:50:31   You all have really made this year a lot more stable and less scary financially for all

01:50:36   of us.

01:50:37   So thank you for your ongoing support of the show.

01:50:39   And if you're not a member, go join.

01:50:42   Go join Connected Pro.

01:50:44   You can find us…

01:50:45   I was going to say there's never been a better time, but there was a better time.

01:50:48   Yeah, it is like…

01:50:49   Last week.

01:50:50   But, oh well, if you missed it, you know, you missed it.

01:50:53   like we didn't tell you about it. You can find us all online. You can find Federico

01:50:57   on Twitter as Vitici, V I T I C C I. He's the editor and chief of maxstories.net. You

01:51:04   can find Myke online as I M Y K E. Myke hosts a bunch of shows here on Relay FM. I'm like

01:51:10   halfway through the Cortex yearly theme episode and it is fantastic. So go check that out.

01:51:15   You can find me on Twitter as ISMH and I write over at 512 pixels.net. I'd like to thank

01:51:21   our sponsors Amazon music, TexExpander, Pingdom, and Setapp. Until next time guys, say goodbye.

01:51:28   Adios e chu. Happy new year. Bye y'all.