0:00:00(upbeat music)
0:00:02Hello and welcome to Connected, episode 349.
0:00:13It's made possible this week by our sponsors,
0:00:15Fitbod, CleanMyMac X, Mac Weldon, and Hover.
0:00:20My name is Steven Hackett and I'm joined
0:00:21by Mr. Federico Vittucci.
0:00:23- Hello. - That's not right.
0:00:25It's Myke. - What did you call him?
0:00:27I like, I tried changing to Myke mid-word,
0:00:30but then I couldn't.
0:00:31Very peculiar.
0:00:32So actually, Myke, you're first.
0:00:34Myke, hello.
0:00:35What up, what up, deck daddy?
0:00:36That's right.
0:00:38Back with the deck attack.
0:00:39(laughing)
0:00:41Federico, how are you?
0:00:44Federico.
0:00:46Feder-a-Myke-ico.
0:00:48Yes, it's me, Federico, yes.
0:00:52That's me.
0:00:54This is a good start for you today.
0:00:56- Hey, it's only gonna get better.
0:00:58- Yeah, it only can, right?
0:01:01- Yes, today we are judging our WWDC 21 picks.
0:01:07We call this the Ricky's, it's a whole game we play.
0:01:12If this is your first episode of Connected,
0:01:14they're not usually like this.
0:01:15That's not true, they're usually--
0:01:18- Honestly, over the last year,
0:01:19they've been like this a lot, honestly.
0:01:21They just keep, you know.
0:01:23If this is your first episode of Connected, I guess go back two episodes and then catch up and you'll probably get your head around it. Maybe.
0:01:31You've got some follow-up is what we do at the beginning of the show.
0:01:34And we have a couple more listener projects. Let's call them that.
0:01:41The first comes from Ellen in the Relay FM members Discord.
0:01:46They have made a
0:01:48Crocheted I think that's the right term
0:01:51crocheted Ricky
0:01:54weird fish oh
0:01:55My god, it's it's a mascot. We now have a mascot
0:02:00Oh, I thought this is like a photo that you shared with us from Etsy or something. Do you know?
0:02:06Nope, Ellen in the discord made this incredible. She has confirmed. It is crocheted. I'm glad I got that right
0:02:12I'll just say this, Ellen, if you're open to commission, I think we would all want one.
0:02:18We all want one. Yeah, so if you could just make one for each of us and we'll pay you, that would be amazing.
0:02:24Yep, so send me a direct message in Discord, Ellen, and we'll make that happen.
0:02:28We all want one. I want to put it on my desk. I want to look at it all the time.
0:02:34So thank you very much, Ellen, for that. We also have a listener project.
0:02:39If you go to apple.com/iPadOS/iPadOSreview
0:02:44and you scroll down to the all new widgets section,
0:02:49it says find my contacts, Game Center, App Store, and Mail
0:02:52all have new widgets.
0:02:54And many widgets now come in the new larger size.
0:02:57And if you look at the Game Center widget
0:03:00in the bottom right, tell me that's not Federica Vittucci.
0:03:03- It looks a lot like Federica.
0:03:07There's a, there's also like a, like a, like a Rome reference in there because it says
0:03:14like that person is playing Dead Cells, which I mean, obviously it's a fantastic game that
0:03:20I love, but it also says as the username Ines of March and it's the way that it's spelled,
0:03:28like it, it's a pun on the Ides of March, obviously when Julius Caesar was murdered.
0:03:35So I don't know, somebody showed us this photo on Twitter, I don't think it's, I think that's
0:03:43just like the stereotypical Italian guy, if I were to guess.
0:03:48It's a me!
0:03:49You know, with the mustache and the long hair and...
0:03:53Fred the Rico!
0:03:56You know, but fun reference for sure, like the the Ides of March, that is pretty fun.
0:04:03What was the other thing that you showed up in? It was a CarPlay thing.
0:04:07It was in a car. But we know that was him because the person who made it contacted us
0:04:12and said that.
0:04:13Yes, and it was his name. The CarPlay notification came down and said...
0:04:18Oh, on the BMW website? No, it was not BMW.
0:04:21It was Cadillac or something.
0:04:22I think it was Cadillac.
0:04:23Cadillac, yes, yes. And the person who made it was a connected listener, I believe. That
0:04:28was years ago.
0:04:29Because it was like a text message from you in CarPlay.
0:04:32So like your name, your name came up.
0:04:35So two very good listener projects this week, thank you all.
0:04:39Also we're just saying that it's a listener project, okay, sure.
0:04:43There's no other alternative in my mind.
0:04:45Myke, tell us about this feature in photos and this topic we spoke about several weeks
0:04:50ago.
0:04:51Yeah, I think it was episode 340 something, where we had like a...
0:04:59It was the last time that we did the Jeremy's episode.
0:05:03It was 340, right?
0:05:07Where we had a long conversation focused around Lauren Goode's article about memories in photos
0:05:15and the way that our devices love to remind us of things now.
0:05:18And we wanted more control over what our devices and the Photos app and widgets and stuff would
0:05:25show.
0:05:26And it seems like I thought that Apple were going to talk about this in the keynote, but
0:05:29they didn't and then I was disappointed because I thought that they hadn't added it.
0:05:33But this is one of those many, many things that came out afterwards, which is that now
0:05:38you're able to tell photos if you want to see less of a specified date, place, holiday
0:05:43or person in featured photos, the widget or memories.
0:05:47And the way you do this is just, you know, you when you see something you don't like,
0:05:52long press on it in the photos app and you can say see less and it will then give you
0:05:56some options.
0:05:57Like so you can tap it and it will say like see less of this person, see less of this
0:06:02date, etc etc.
0:06:04I've only personally came across this with people.
0:06:10I haven't come across this myself with date and place and stuff like that.
0:06:16But it looks like it is in or will be in iOS 15.
0:06:20I just think is really great. As we said, I think it is a responsibility thing from
0:06:24these platforms. If they're going to use our information, our data, our memories,
0:06:30like weaponize our memories to try and make us feel better about the devices,
0:06:35then we should also have some control over the stuff that we don't want to see.
0:06:39When the news first broke that it was in there, what was initially reported is you
0:06:43could just tell it to do it less. I was like, well that's halfway there. But yeah,
0:06:47I'm glad they listened. I mean, yeah, it's weird
0:06:49It starts with less and then you got once you do that you then get a bunch of options
0:06:54Okay, it's worded strangely because it's like see this person less but then when you tap it brings you to another page
0:07:01Okay, where it gives you more options, which I think is a kind of strange way to
0:07:06Word it. Maybe it will change. I don't know but I think I tried it out by sending
0:07:12I think I sent you a picture where I chose Stephen,
0:07:15Celeste Stephen, and then changed my mind,
0:07:18because who wouldn't want to see Stephen Hackett?
0:07:20- So I tried this for a group photo
0:07:23that I also pasted into Discord,
0:07:24and when I go into the people selection screen,
0:07:27I see Myke's face, I see John's face,
0:07:30I see my face even though I'm, okay, I'm in the photo,
0:07:33but for Stephen, it's just a gray box with no face.
0:07:38- Sounds about right.
0:07:40Well, did you delete him after he confessed to not having any album of you?
0:07:46No, never. Never.
0:07:47So, when I just added again, I go on to Steven, I say I don't want to see him. It says, "feature
0:07:52this person less or never feature this person." And you can choose and confirm. This is after
0:07:57you go into the see this person less. So, there's stuff there. I'm pleased that they're
0:08:01adding features like this. I think this is really great.
0:08:04Apple Music with lossless and spatial audio. I still have yet come up with... I think I wrote this down.
0:08:10I don't know what to call this feature completely.
0:08:14Oh, it's easy. No, it's easy.
0:08:16Lassa. Lossless and spatial audio.
0:08:19Okay. But also... I hate that.
0:08:22Lassa?
0:08:23Lassa? Like NASA?
0:08:24I don't want to give it a nickname, right? Nicknames are bad.
0:08:27Okay, Mykey.
0:08:28Because it's also... the spatial audio thing is also Dolby Atmos.
0:08:32Right, so it's like these things are so... all the words are complicated.
0:08:37It's a lot of words.
0:08:38But it started rolling out, it's now available.
0:08:41We have a limited, more limited than I was expecting, library of stuff.
0:08:47But I have noticed in the last couple of days, new things are being added,
0:08:52new songs, new albums, that kind of stuff.
0:08:55I had today found Abbey Road mixed in Dolby Atmos, which was really good.
0:09:02Come Together by The Beatles, right?
0:09:03It's everywhere by The Beatles.
0:09:04It was just, that's a really, really great
0:09:06special audio mix.
0:09:09I absolutely adore this feature.
0:09:12I love it.
0:09:13I think it's fantastic.
0:09:14I've been listening on my AirPods Pro
0:09:16and I have been listening on my AirPods Max.
0:09:19The first song that I tried out was
0:09:21Blinding Lights by The Weeknd,
0:09:22which was, I expected would be a song
0:09:25that would be a good candidate,
0:09:27and it was for me.
0:09:28And it gave me that thing that we were talking about before
0:09:30that was what I was looking for out of this is I could hear little parts of the music
0:09:34that I didn't really hear before and that was what I was looking for because to me that
0:09:38kind of denotes a special experience when it comes to listening to music this way. And
0:09:43there's just more kind of separation like it feels like the instruments and the elements
0:09:48of the music are kind of all around me they move around a little bit but not in a way
0:09:52that I felt was really distracting. It's kind of like it feels like you know when we have
0:09:59a very good stereo mix you can hear some separation and some of the stuff that's going on you
0:10:04know like sometimes you're doing some music and something just happens in your left ear
0:10:08right it's kind of like that on steroids like i don't find it distracting but what i notice
0:10:14is that i feel like they should say on stereo stereo that's what i should you know what
0:10:19i should say that i'm sorry i'm turning into steven and i hate it i'm sorry i heard i heard
0:10:24what you said on App Stories. Oh no you did? Yeah about the Mac being a catalyst for change
0:10:31and shortcuts. So proud of you. So sorry. I think it makes a lot of sense now that I've
0:10:41listened to this why Apple's just enabling this because I don't think that it is this
0:10:46why like so this it's not as as distracting I think as when with video where it sounds
0:10:53like it's happening in a certain place, right?
0:10:56Because with spatial audio, when you're watching something
0:10:59on your iPad, like a video on your iPad,
0:11:01it feels like the audio is just coming from wherever
0:11:04the iPad's located.
0:11:05And this isn't like that.
0:11:07It still feels like it's just music
0:11:09you're listening to as normal.
0:11:11Now, with iOS 15, if you are looking at a device,
0:11:14it does actually do a little bit of this.
0:11:16I was playing around with my iPad.
0:11:18If you have the iPad open on the Music app,
0:11:20it does have a little bit more panning,
0:11:22where you move your head left or right and it seems like the music is still coming from
0:11:25a central place. But if you lock the iPad that actually fades away which I thought was
0:11:29quite interesting. So they're kind of mixing that around. I don't know what it's going
0:11:34to be like in 15. Some songs sound better than others. It feels like more modern stuff
0:11:39is better and I guess that that might be the difference between recording with this in
0:11:43mind rather than just mixing something after the fact. I really love it. The vocals are
0:11:50interesting in some songs like I found like vocals to be quieter but then the
0:11:55song overall feels like it has a lot more depth something that I recommend
0:11:59people try doing you know you can be listening to one of these songs with
0:12:04with spatial audio and if you go into control center and hold down on the
0:12:08volume you can turn off spatial audio and then you can hear the difference
0:12:14right and how the song is presented and it really does sound very different so I
0:12:18I really love this feature. I want all of the music that I love to be available to me in Dolby Atmos now.
0:12:25I think it's absolutely fantastic. I'm super excited about it.
0:12:28I genuinely like it. It gave me everything I wanted and more.
0:12:31I think this is an absolutely fantastic feature and they nailed it with this.
0:12:35I'm a little more torn on it. So I'm gonna say I think it's a fun feature.
0:12:42And I think if done well, it definitely makes for a good demo for all kinds of people going
0:12:50beyond audio files.
0:12:52It's the kind of thing that a lot of people can easily understand, which is great.
0:12:58And I think surround sound for music, if done well, can be amazing.
0:13:04So some first impressions that I have on spatial audio, I think when it's applied judiciously,
0:13:13I guess, to songs, it can be a great effect.
0:13:19And it's fun, and you get this bigger soundstage, you get this instrument separation that you
0:13:26mentioned, and you can hear these details, not just left and right, but sort of like
0:13:34more a 360 type deal, which is like it can be back and to the left, or you know, you can feel it,
0:13:42you know, forward and, you know, up and to the right. Like, you can... This precise positioning
0:13:49that you can get, definitely fun sometimes. Other times, the mixes are built all over the place.
0:13:57There's a couple of stories that were published today, one on the verge by Chris Welch and another
0:14:03by Matt Burchler on Birch Tree that I would like to link in the show notes. I think I feel like some
0:14:13tracks, I don't know if it's because like those were old songs that were not recorded with Dolby
0:14:19Atmos in mind, but just mixed in Atmos. Maybe that's the issue, but I feel like I'm listening
0:14:29into those songs and I remembered the originals well, and I'm like, "What happened here?"
0:14:34Right? So you listen to "What's My Age Again" by Blink-182, and the vocals are completely
0:14:40muffled. And the instruments are super loud, and just the vocals, they sound like they're
0:14:47coming from a doorbell microphone or something. And I'm like, "Have you recorded this with
0:14:53voice memos on your iPhone, or like, it sounds totally different. You listen to "Gotta Have
0:15:00It" by Kanye West and Jay-Z, and the instruments are super loud and the vocals basically disappear.
0:15:09But then you listen to "Black Skinhead" also by Kanye West.
0:15:13Oh my god, it's so good.
0:15:15So that's where I think it's polarizing, right? Because some people, like, you remember the
0:15:19original and you listen to the utmost mix and you're like okay this is very
0:15:23different in places but it's fun like if you're not a purists of that I'm happy
0:15:31you said that because I was gonna say this I think I think it's very clear
0:15:34interested in our previous conversations you are much more of a music purist than
0:15:38me right and I think I'm way more forgiving of like this doesn't seem like
0:15:45the original, right? Right. And in Black Skinhead, there's some very specific background screams
0:15:53in the songs, like the "ahh" the thing that you hear in the background. And in the original
0:15:58song, yes, "ahh!" Like that.
0:16:03[Music]
0:16:05I mean, you put on Black Skin and it's totally like that. But in the Atmos mix, you can...
0:16:17like they were very specifically panned to the left and to the right and then to the
0:16:21back, right? And you can totally hear what they've done with the Atmos version. In the
0:16:27original version, they are in a stereo mix, obviously, and you can hear where the... in
0:16:34the stereo mix they are, it's just not that strong, not that obvious, right? Which brings
0:16:41me to sort of my bigger point here. I feel like if you are the kind of person who can
0:16:49listen to music with, you know, with good equipment, this bigger soundstage and this,
0:16:55know, polished separation between different instruments. Like, I can hear the guitar,
0:17:00and I can hear the drums, and I can hear, you know, maybe there's a sax line somewhere.
0:17:06Like that you can already get with good headphones, right? And so for these tests, I just sat
0:17:14down and I listened to the utmost mix of the same song, and, you know, the song on my Walkman
0:17:20that I own in lossless format with my Sony headphones.
0:17:24With my Sony headphones, unlike listening with AirPods Pro
0:17:28or regular AirPods, I can hear the bigger soundstage.
0:17:32I can hear that the song is more open,
0:17:37for lack of a better word,
0:17:38and I can hear the instruments more clearly.
0:17:40Like that I already get by default with my headphones.
0:17:44With the Atmos as a software feature,
0:17:48as a software enhancement on top of a song,
0:17:53it accentuates some aspects.
0:17:56And sometimes it's really fun,
0:17:58and it's really easy to understand.
0:18:00And if you have an utmost setup,
0:18:01whether it's AirPods Max or good Bluetooth headphones,
0:18:05or maybe you have a surround system at home,
0:18:07it's very easy to demo, it's very easy to explain.
0:18:10And if done well,
0:18:11I think it can be the future of streaming.
0:18:14It can be a differentiating factor
0:18:17for a service like Apple Music.
0:18:19The problem is when it's not done well.
0:18:22And there's a lot of examples in Apple Music of,
0:18:25you know, you listen to the utmost mixing,
0:18:27like what happened here?
0:18:29Like, what's my age again?
0:18:30Buddy Holly by the Weezer.
0:18:33Gotta Have It by Jizzy and Connie.
0:18:34It was like, what's going on here?
0:18:37It sounds weird if you know the original.
0:18:40And even if you don't know the original,
0:18:42I don't know, the volume levels
0:18:44are a bit all over the place.
0:18:45I actually think what they've done with this whole suite of stuff, and you know, again,
0:18:51which makes it so difficult to name, is they gave lossless to you, they gave spatial audio
0:18:56to me.
0:18:57The type of person who is more inclined to notice the things that you are noticing, you
0:19:02have lossless now in Apple Music.
0:19:06And then me, I don't notice those things so much, so I get Dolby Atmos, right?
0:19:11And so like that's, it's like this is actually a great twofer because the other thing is
0:19:16like you know what like as you're saying it's way better if you have all the stuff that
0:19:21you have.
0:19:22I don't have all of that stuff nor do I want it.
0:19:24So but my $250 earbuds does a great job with Dolby Atmos and it sounds to me fantastic.
0:19:32Right.
0:19:33So and I agree with you right there are some that are better than others.
0:19:37Like I didn't have the experience that you had of like this sounds bad but I had some
0:19:40where I was like I actually couldn't even tell like for this one you know like
0:19:44I don't remember which songs they were but like I'll play them and be like that
0:19:48didn't feel like anything like it didn't feel any different to what I would
0:19:51consider just a good stereo mix to be right so it's gonna be a learning curve
0:19:55and new music is going to be better I am I think this sounds fantastic and I'm
0:20:02excited to see where it goes but then as you have you tried the lossless stuff by
0:20:06the way? Yeah, I did last night. I sat down with my new external DAC and it works
0:20:13beautifully in Hi-ROS Los Angeles. I can see the bitrate on my
0:20:18DAC's display and it totally works and it sounds great. How were the mids?
0:20:23Were they crunchy? The mids were crunchy and the bass was
0:20:28thick and warm. Treble? Treble was crisp, I can tell you that. Oh, that's
0:20:34That's good, I mean, if it's not Chris, what's the point?
0:20:37What is the point? It's a whole recipe over here.
0:20:38(laughing)
0:20:40And here's my final point.
0:20:41I think I'm gonna, I am going to keep this enabled,
0:20:44and I think I'm going to, I want to believe
0:20:47that this is not gonna be like a gimmick
0:20:49that lasts for three months,
0:20:51and then we all forget about it.
0:20:53Apple seems to be pretty much behind this initiative, right?
0:20:57In terms of, you know, convincing producers and studios
0:21:01to release mixes in Atmos.
0:21:04And I think it can be an important exclusive feature
0:21:09for Apple Music.
0:21:10That is, unless Spotify comes in and strikes a deal with Dolby,
0:21:14and they're like, OK, now we also have Dolby Atmos.
0:21:17But I wonder if this convincing that Apple
0:21:22is doing with record labels and studios,
0:21:25will there be some exclusivity involved in that?
0:21:29Like if Apple helps you set up a studio with Dolby Atmos support.
0:21:34Oh, of course. I mean, yeah. If they're kind of throwing some weight in it.
0:21:38Right.
0:21:38And I think that this is important for them because they don't really have,
0:21:43Apple doesn't have a feature of Apple Music that makes it compelling over Spotify.
0:21:50Exactly. Exactly.
0:21:51Right? So where Spotify has loads, like just that new campaign they're doing.
0:21:55What is it? It's like Only You? Is that what it's called?
0:21:57Only You. Yeah.
0:21:58And it's just fantastic.
0:21:59They have a great ad for it that I saw on TV.
0:22:02And then Adina uses Spotify, and we went through hers
0:22:06last night, and we thought it was hilarious,
0:22:08like the things that they're surfacing.
0:22:10They just really understand.
0:22:11They are a data company.
0:22:13As much as they are a music company,
0:22:14they understand how to take information
0:22:16and present it to you in interesting ways, right?
0:22:18Apple has failed to do this tragically so far.
0:22:22- Right.
0:22:23- With their pre-wanted.
0:22:24- They're not really--
0:22:25- They're not doing it.
0:22:26And they're not really changing anything in iOS 15, like they're not really doing anything,
0:22:30at least right now with the intelligence-based stuff or mixes or...
0:22:35But this could be something, right? Like Dolby Atmos stuff could be something, and also,
0:22:41well, the lossless stuff is great because it's just included for free where everybody
0:22:44else is going to make you pay a little bit more.
0:22:47Yeah.
0:22:48So, we'll see.
0:22:49And to sum up, I think, like, I don't... Maybe I give you the impression that I'm totally,
0:22:54know, saying "Atmos sucks." I think when it's done well, it's incredible. It's really well
0:23:00done. It's fun, and I love it when it's done well. I heard a few examples of Atmos Mix
0:23:08is not done well, but I want to listen more. Like, I really, I listen for like an hour
0:23:14to a bunch of songs. Like, I want to actually sit down when this week is over and listen
0:23:18into more tracks, but this could be... I could see myself switching back to Apple Music eventually,
0:23:26if the Atmos experience lives up to the hype, and because of the things that I, like I said
0:23:32months ago, that I'm continuing to miss from Apple Music, like seeing what my friends are
0:23:37listening to, and real-time lyrics, which Spotify said, "Oh, those are coming eventually,
0:23:42but they're not really coming." So I don't know. I think for me specifically, if this
0:23:47this Atmos thing grows well, there are now a group of features that I find compelling
0:23:54compared to Spotify, right? Hi, Roslosa, my friends social networking there, real-time
0:24:01lyrics, and Dolby Atmos. So maybe it's, you know, I could see in a couple of months maybe
0:24:09saying "You know what? I'm actually going back to Apple Music." But I feel like I have
0:24:14a much more complete picture of what Apple Music is compared to Spotify, so I'm still
0:24:22going to call the experiment a success if I decide to switch back. I don't know. I want
0:24:26to see what happens with this special audio thing.
0:24:29Alright, we're going to get to WWDC. We have scored ourselves. We're going to see if there's
0:24:37a new winner, a new keynote chairman named. But first, we're going to take our first break.
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0:27:02of connected and relay FM. Stephen, our listeners, the passionate ones, I know what they want
0:27:09more than anything. It's for you to read the rules. That's what we're going to do. It's
0:27:15time to read those bill of rickies, my friend. Come on, let's do it. Everybody, please stand
0:27:19if you're able. Oh, yeah, we're going. I'm too tired. Please don't stand. I'm standing
0:27:24in spirit. The bill of rickies last amended on January 13, 2021. Past results can be seen
0:27:32at rickys.co and rickys.net.
0:27:35There are two types of Rickys, annual Rickys
0:27:37and keynote Rickys.
0:27:39The winner of the annual Rickys is named annual chairman
0:27:42and retains the rights to the corresponding Twitter account
0:27:45for the full year.
0:27:46This position is awarded every January.
0:27:49The keynote Rickys winner is named the keynote chairman
0:27:52and retains the rights to the corresponding Twitter account
0:27:54until the next keynote is held.
0:27:56Annual winners roll over to preserve the order of picks.
0:27:59For example, the 2019 annual winner got to go first for the next annual picks.
0:28:05Order for the keynote rookies is based on the previous Apple event.
0:28:09The loser, well they go last.
0:28:12Turn any points everything written down in the prediction document must come true.
0:28:21No half points may be awarded in any round and picks cannot be reused.
0:28:26One point is awarded for any pick deemed correct in the first two rounds.
0:28:30Two points will be awarded for correct picks in the risky pick round.
0:28:34If your risky pick is wrong, you lose a point.
0:28:38And the two other hosts must agree that your pick is risky.
0:28:42For keynote rookies, the scoring window starts when the event begins
0:28:46and closes when the picks are scored.
0:28:48Now!
0:28:49Right now.
0:28:50The winner of the regular and risky picks must be granted access
0:28:55to the annual or event chairman twitter account and will retain access until another winner
0:29:01is named.
0:29:03The Flexis.
0:29:06Loser of the flexis must compensate the winner of the flexis by donating to the charity of
0:29:11the winner's choice.
0:29:12The amount of the donation is $25 per wrong flexi made by the loser.
0:29:18In case of a tie, the ratio of the correct to incorrect flexis will be taken into account.
0:29:24Each host must make a minimum of five FlexiPics.
0:29:28Flexis may be reused as future Flexis or regular Pics,
0:29:33and the money must be donated on air.
0:29:36As a reminder, Myke is the current annual chairman
0:29:38and Federico is the current keynote chairman.
0:29:41That second Twitter account is on the line.
0:29:44- Okay, so there may be an amendment needed
0:29:49to the bill of re-keys.
0:29:51- Oh.
0:29:53So Jason, not that Jason, another one, who makes the
0:29:58Wikipedia, rikis.net, wrote a very good article called
0:30:02"Thoughts on Flexis," which is a riff on "Thoughts on Flash."
0:30:07Wait, really?
0:30:08Yeah, it's fantastic.
0:30:10It will be in the show notes.
0:30:11Everyone should go and read it.
0:30:12It's hilarious and wonderfully detailed.
0:30:14But the crux of it is basically coming down
0:30:18to this idea of percentages, ratios of right to wrong, and the number of picks. Because
0:30:26we have it in the flexies. In the case of a tie, the ratio of correct to incorrect flexies
0:30:31will be taken into account, right? This makes the most sense if we're all picking the same
0:30:35amount. Now that Federico's decided he wants to pick a thousand flexies every time, the
0:30:41- I didn't say every time, but it's possible.
0:30:43But you see, if we now have opened the door to this, basically, one of us could just pick
0:30:5250 and you've only got to get six correct to win.
0:30:56So I would like to propose an amendment to the Bill of Rickeys in regards to the flexis
0:31:03that just removes the case of a tie and say the way that we score the flexis is the ratio
0:31:10of correct to incorrect flexes and that's just the way it's scored so you have to be right.
0:31:17Oh you lost me a while back. Okay so instead of like because the way we would score it right now
0:31:24is you have 10, I have six, Steven has five or whatever right? Right. I think now we should be
0:31:31scored on our percentages of right to wrong rather than who has the most correct. Isn't that already
0:31:40Isn't that already in the rules? Well, so this is the thing. In our minds, we already we all think
0:31:45this. This is this is where this has come from. This is why this came up because we have all just
0:31:50been talking about the fact that that's just how it scored. But the flexi, the bill of rikki states
0:31:55that that only comes into contention in case of a tie. Ah, I see. Matt, who is a mod in the discord,
0:32:03gave the same feedback and I do think it's a problem that Federico has shown
0:32:09in the system and yeah I second the amendment I think it should be a
0:32:13percentage and I guess if the person so it's possible that say that Federico
0:32:22picks 10 mm-hmm and gets eight correct that's 80% but then I pick 20 but I also
0:32:31get 80% correctly we can still in a tie and then I think at that point it's
0:32:36just a coin flip like the regular picks are. We love a coin flip. Okay. Oh oh by
0:32:41the way, hey everyone can sit down sorry we finished reading the rules you can
0:32:44sit down for this. A long time ago. So I just want to state for the record
0:32:48because Jason who created Wikipedia is in the discord and is unhappy because
0:32:52this isn't what he wanted. He wanted it to be a different way but this is what I
0:32:57think makes the most sense because in our minds this is how we've been
0:33:00thinking about this for a little while anyway that it's actually your ratio is
0:33:04the important part yeah yeah so really it's so Jason Snell the bad person says
0:33:09minimum five picks the percentage wins yes yeah I think so okay so let's look
0:33:15at the language here and in case of a tie in case of a tie in case of a
0:33:19percentage tie right right and actually we don't have the coin flip anywhere in
0:33:24the bill of Ricky's that has just been something we've been doing so we need to
0:33:28address that too but let's fix this we're doing a big amendment big amendment
0:33:33big amendment be this is a thick amendment I'm going to strike the
0:33:41languages says in the case of a tie the ratio of incorrect incorrect flexes
0:33:45taking to account so get rid of that yeah for now get rid of each host was
0:33:49like a minimum of five flexes mm-hmm flexes may be used as future flexes or
0:33:55regular picks the winner is determined by ratio of correct to
0:34:07incorrect picks. Correct to incorrect. Okay so the winner is determined by the
0:34:14ratio of correct to incorrect flexes. Mm-hmm. Then I'm gonna have at the bottom
0:34:21outside of the flexi section a new paragraph that says a tie in either the
0:34:27regular picks or the flexis is to be broken by a coin toss can we make a
0:34:36second amendment or the flexis is never have Jason flip the coin by by coin toss
0:34:43Jason Snell has a lifetime ban on flipping the coin.
0:34:51You should also say digital assistants may be used to flip a coin.
0:34:59Okay, so Jason Snell has a lifetime ban on flipping the coin, but digital voice assistants
0:35:05– if robots happen, we'll need to readdress this – digital voice assistants may be used.
0:35:12used in brackets even by Jason Jason Jason's capable of asking Siri he's not
0:35:21capable of flipping a physical claim by Jason okay all right okay I know that
0:35:27people want us not to like that people in the discord already are asking about
0:35:32like the the way that the tiebreaker should be broken is by how many you got
0:35:36correct we just like coin flips I like a coin flip it's additional drama it's
0:35:41always and it's simple coin flips are simple but we're already having to do a
0:35:44lot more math than we needed to I didn't think we're gonna be making such huge
0:35:48changes to the bullet rookies today I didn't either so let me read it all
0:35:53again loser of the flexes must compensate the winner of the flexes by
0:35:56donating to the charity of the winners choice okay the amount of the donation
0:36:00is 25 per one flexing made by the loser each host must make a minimum of five
0:36:04flexi picks flexes may be reused as future flexes or regular picks the
0:36:08winner is determined by the ratio of correct to incorrect flexes. The money
0:36:13must be donated on air. A tie in either the regular picks or the flexes is to be
0:36:17broken by coin toss. Jason Snell has a lifetime ban on flipping the coin, but
0:36:23digital voices instance may be used even by Jason. This is lovely. I will just say
0:36:30none of this applies for today. Right, today we're playing under the old rules.
0:36:33So this is for the next one.
0:36:35Okay.
0:36:36Okay.
0:36:37Living document.
0:36:38What are we calling this? How do we label amendments?
0:36:43Oh, I hadn't thought of that.
0:36:45Well, we just changed the text. And so I would say that if you run one of those websites,
0:36:49it's kind of up to you how you display it.
0:36:50But for guidance for third-party publishers, right? What's our guidelines?
0:36:56The Bill of Rickeys, parenthetical, June 2021. Just like Apple does.
0:37:01Yeah. Okay. Perfect.
0:37:03OK. But we're playing in the old January 2021 rules today.
0:37:07So, round one.
0:37:10The order this time was Federico and then Myke and then me.
0:37:14So Federico, you're up first.
0:37:16Let's do it. In the next version of iPadOS,
0:37:20you can put widgets in more places out of the left column.
0:37:24That's a point. We got it. Widgets on the home screen.
0:37:28It's good too.
0:37:29Yeah, it's...
0:37:31You can place them anywhere and you can mix in app icons.
0:37:35There's a new extra large widget.
0:37:38It's nice.
0:37:39And I'm rethinking my home screen now.
0:37:41- No names underneath the widgets on the iPad.
0:37:43- No labels on iPad.
0:37:45Why?
0:37:48Like I have to believe that the label,
0:37:50I think the label on iPhone is like a leftover
0:37:53from a previous build.
0:37:54I think they're gonna get rid of it.
0:37:56So it's either a bug on iPad or it's a bug on iPhone.
0:37:59- Yeah, it's gonna change somewhere, right?
0:38:01- It's gonna change somewhere.
0:38:02And I hope it changes on the iPhone
0:38:04because I very much prefer the iPad look.
0:38:07- I have the Bay Area on my 12.9 inch iPad Pro
0:38:10and my iPad mini.
0:38:11I just wanted to put it on the iPad mini.
0:38:14Widgets look hilarious on the iPad mini.
0:38:16They do, they're so small and they collide of each other
0:38:19in like weird and wonderful ways.
0:38:21The UI, especially on the shortcuts widget
0:38:24on the iPad mini is hilarious.
0:38:27It's really funny.
0:38:29I really like it, though.
0:38:31I don't like what happens when you go from portrait
0:38:33to landscape.
0:38:35They move.
0:38:37They swap around.
0:38:38And I really hoped that we were outside of that world, right?
0:38:41When app icons used to swap around,
0:38:43used to move place in portrait and landscape.
0:38:45And we're back to that again.
0:38:46And I really don't like that.
0:38:49Yeah, that's the trade-off for bringing widgets
0:38:52to the iPad home screen, right?
0:38:55You've got to deal with rotation.
0:38:56And in the process of doing this, Apple also got rid of an entire row of icons on the 12.9-inch
0:39:02iPad Pro.
0:39:03So it used to be a 6x5 grid, now it's a 6x4.
0:39:06I guess because it's more easily divisible by the slots, the different slots of the widgets,
0:39:14which I get it, the technicality of it, it makes sense.
0:39:18It still kind of sucks that I'm losing a row of icons.
0:39:21Yeah, I think they've added enough stuff that it doesn't matter so much for me now, right?
0:39:26you can put more apps in the dock and you have App Library and so I'm kind of like I
0:39:31don't care about losing the space because as well I was losing space for icons anyway
0:39:36because I've put in widgets all over the place.
0:39:40Are you going to use the App Library on iPad?
0:39:42Oh I am and I think it's fantastic.
0:39:46I don't like the swipe.
0:39:49I like it in the dock.
0:39:51The animation, currently the animation for the App Library when you swipe to the right
0:39:56is...
0:39:57Oh it's very nice.
0:39:58I don't know it's too much for me.
0:39:59It's a lot of animation.
0:40:00Too much?
0:40:01It's a lot of animation.
0:40:03Remember if you remember I am an App Library user on the iPhone so using an a happy one
0:40:08so using the App Library and the iPad is great for me.
0:40:12I'm pleased about that.
0:40:16What's your problem?
0:40:17Well we have something to talk about my pick.
0:40:20it was 15. Whoa hang on a minute, we haven't even done mine! Chill, chill Stephen. Sorry you were talking and I got
0:40:27distracted. You weren't listening were you? You checked out, Stephen was doing
0:40:30something else. Unbelievable. I was editing the beginning of the show. These already come back to the beginning.
0:40:36That's some real multitasking. Live in the left ear, logic in the right ear, incredible.
0:40:43My pick was no preview of AR, VR or mixed reality focused hardware. I mean this was
0:40:51obvious to me. I had a cash bet with James Thompson about this very thing and
0:40:57he now owes me cash money. I don't know why people thought this was gonna happen.
0:41:02Like it was too early and as well like I just saw a report I think from Ming-Chi
0:41:07quote saying Q2 2022 for this hardware like yeah of course it was like oh it's
0:41:15a developer conference they're obviously gonna show it off now like no it wasn't
0:41:18gonna happen and we did nothing to be honest I was actually kind of surprised
0:41:23how little AR stuff they had in the bdbs in the keynote yeah is them is there
0:41:29more that I've missed I haven't looked into any of the AR sessions there's some
0:41:33ARKit sessions, but I don't even think they revised the ARKit version number.
0:41:38I don't think.
0:41:39I mean, there's stuff in Maps, and there's the thing where you can capture...
0:41:44They have that object scanning thing.
0:41:45Didn't they do ARKit 5?
0:41:46I think they did ARKit 5.
0:41:47Oh, yeah, because ARKit 5.
0:41:48I'm sorry, chat room.
0:41:51And there's a new RealityKit, but yeah, it doesn't seem like it got a lot of attention.
0:41:55I'm sure James Thompson will take advantage of whatever they've done, though.
0:41:58No, it was more of a...
0:41:59I don't know, the entire theme of the conference.
0:42:02Like in previous years, we got the big focus on AR
0:42:05and all these different technologies.
0:42:07This year, it was really like the pandemic update,
0:42:11even more so than last year,
0:42:13which I mentioned this on App Stories,
0:42:16and I know that I think Jason wrote about it.
0:42:18I don't know, I feel kind of,
0:42:21some features, they feel kind of late at this point, right?
0:42:26because just now that we're getting, thankfully, vaccinated and we can start hanging out again,
0:42:33now Apple is saying, "But look, come September, you can watch movies and TV shows with your friends."
0:42:38And I mean, that is a fantastic FaceTime feature, but I also hope I'm not gonna be in a position to
0:42:45having to do that ever again, you know?
0:42:49Wait, you don't want to watch a movie with me?
0:42:50Have we ever watched a movie before the pandemic, Steven, on FaceTime?
0:42:55During did you watch a movie together during the pandemic? No, no, I want to watch Star Wars with you
0:43:01I feel this too. There's a bunch of stuff all the share play stuff
0:43:04So much of the FaceTime stuff it has all been made with the pandemic in mind
0:43:11Yeah, all of these features can be used post-pandemic, right? Sure. It'll be nice to have
0:43:16We're not going to need them as much
0:43:19Yeah, but you know, I mean we all have friends and family who you know, don't live near us
0:43:25Right, like literally the three of us
0:43:28Exactly. Like I am fully aware that
0:43:31All my friends are here
0:43:33like in isolation
0:43:35I have no friends elsewhere, no problem for me
0:43:38In isolation these features are like these features are terrific and the way they are done
0:43:45Technically speaking, I think it's really clever.
0:43:47They're really well done.
0:43:49But it's the feature after feature at WWDC.
0:43:53There was like, now that we cannot spend time--
0:43:57yeah, I get it.
0:43:59But we're all--
0:43:59Yeah, yeah.
0:44:00By September, we're now on the news here in Italy.
0:44:05We're talking about reopening everything.
0:44:06And we're going to be done with the vaccines, hopefully.
0:44:10It's just the timing seems a little odd.
0:44:12That's all.
0:44:13Yeah.
0:44:14some stuff is going to stick around, right?
0:44:16Like some things people will have made new traditions
0:44:20over the last year and a half
0:44:21that will stick around for a while.
0:44:23But like the desperation for these features,
0:44:27that time has passed, right?
0:44:29So much of this stuff,
0:44:30like if FaceTime would have had all of these features,
0:44:33Zoom probably wouldn't be as dominant as it is, right?
0:44:38Because anyone that owns Apple devices
0:44:41would have used these features
0:44:42and it would have maybe spread a bit more.
0:44:43Zoom I'm sure would have had a great time, but not been so dominant to the point that
0:44:47we're now recording this show on Zoom.
0:44:50Right?
0:44:51Like, I don't think that would have happened.
0:44:53I'm intrigued to see if we will actually move to FaceTime because we're only on Zoom because
0:44:58Skype doesn't work on M1 Max so maybe we could try FaceTime again, who knows?
0:45:03Well Skype Core Recorder doesn't work on M1 Max.
0:45:06And so yeah, it was interesting to see all of that stuff and realize that we don't have
0:45:12any of these features today really and it's still another three months maybe more for
0:45:17some of them right because a lot of this stuff is in areas that Apple have struggled to make
0:45:23the September date like a lot of FaceTime stuff. Some of these are going to get delayed.
0:45:27Yeah. No way all this stuff is going to be done right. I think especially the FaceTime
0:45:33features because there's so many there's so much more going on here like Apple has to
0:45:38build out a reliable web-based solution for this, which seems, you know, isn't the typical
0:45:44stuff that they do. It's a very new area for them, so we'll see.
0:45:49There's a bigger question here that I just want to leave out there, like what does it
0:45:53say about Apple as a company that this kind of feature needed to, you know, depend on
0:46:00the monolithic software update to come out the next year?
0:46:04Like, is there a timeline in which Apple
0:46:09as a slightly different company
0:46:11could have been able to say, you know what,
0:46:12we're gonna prioritize all these major changes
0:46:15to FaceTime in 14.5 or 14.3, you know,
0:46:19instead of waiting for September 2021.
0:46:22But it's a fun argument to think about.
0:46:25Steven, now it's your turn.
0:46:29iPadOS 15 brings organization changes to the home screen that don't exist on the iPhone,
0:46:34including iOS 15.
0:46:36What a surprise you didn't get this one.
0:46:38But here's the thing.
0:46:40I need to read the rest of it.
0:46:43Note comma not in pic.
0:46:46Widgets on home screen and app library don't count as they are on the iPhone already.
0:46:52I really want to find any way to give you this point.
0:46:56Yeah, there is a way.
0:46:57library is different on the iPad it's in the dock and it's like the dock is not
0:47:03the home screen no it's not an organization change yeah yeah it because
0:47:08on the iPhone you swipe over and the app libraries all the way on the right and
0:47:13on the iPad that is not there it is in or it is if you swipe over is is there
0:47:18oh damn it yeah whatever an extremely thin case of if you were to argue about
0:47:26about the widget labels and how they affect like custom home screens.
0:47:31Yeah.
0:47:32But...
0:47:33Oh!
0:47:34Also the new widget size.
0:47:36Hmm?
0:47:37Hmm?
0:47:38But...
0:47:39That's something that doesn't exist on the iPhone.
0:47:41We don't have...
0:47:42It's not an organization change.
0:47:44Not in peak.
0:47:45Widgets on home screen.
0:47:47Don't count.
0:47:48But we don't say anything about sizes or widgets?
0:47:50But you don't say not...
0:47:53You don't not say that.
0:47:55I really appreciate you trying.
0:47:56- It's almost like you're taking out on me
0:47:59for something that somebody else did to you
0:48:00on a different podcast.
0:48:01- Well, you're involved in it.
0:48:02Everyone's involved, this is a conspiracy.
0:48:05- Hey, I was not, I was not.
0:48:07- That's fair.
0:48:08I appreciate, Steven, you're trying to get your point here.
0:48:12Like you got to fight for your point.
0:48:14Did you didn't get it?
0:48:15- No, this is not--
0:48:16- Sorry.
0:48:17- It's okay.
0:48:18- It's okay.
0:48:19- That's okay.
0:48:19- And if you remember, we tried to warn you
0:48:20against this pick.
0:48:21You can go back and listen.
0:48:23- Oh yeah.
0:48:24We really tried to warn you against the spec, but you know, you soldiered on.
0:48:31So at the end of round one, Federico has one point, Myke has one point, and I have no points.
0:48:37No points.
0:48:39Round two, Federico.
0:48:41Round two, WidgetKit, gains new interactivity features that allow you to perform actions
0:48:47inside widgets without launching the associated app.
0:48:52No, it did not happen.
0:48:54And this was the--
0:48:55Big surprise.
0:48:56So I'm really-- beyond the fact that I'm
0:48:59bummed for not getting the point,
0:49:00but more broadly speaking, I'm really
0:49:03surprised that we did not see a response from Apple
0:49:08to all the widget enthusiasm from last year.
0:49:13They literally did nothing on this front.
0:49:17And again, I don't know what that says.
0:49:19Is it because these features are planned a year in advance
0:49:23and Apple cannot switch gears quickly?
0:49:27But then again, I don't think it's true
0:49:28when they wanted to with the,
0:49:31I think of the exposure notifications, right?
0:49:32- Oh, yeah, that can't be the case
0:49:33because they weren't working on all these pandemic really,
0:49:36it features two years ago
0:49:38because you just would never have made
0:49:39all of the things that they've made.
0:49:40- So they just, maybe it's that SwiftUI or whatever
0:49:45is not ready for that kind of feature yet.
0:49:48It's really strange to me that, you know, beyond interactions, we didn't see anything for custom icons,
0:49:56we didn't see anything for wallpapers, just nothing. And we were sure, oh, Apple is aware,
0:50:04and they're gonna do a bunch of features all for customization because of widgets. No, completely ignored.
0:50:10Yeah, I'm really surprised about this. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that they would do something,
0:50:16right, to capitalize on the absolute incredible trend they found themselves on.
0:50:23A trend so large that it forced Google to do something, right?
0:50:27Right.
0:50:28The next version of Android is based on this aesthetic theming stuff, right?
0:50:34And Apple didn't do any of that and I am surprised about it.
0:50:37And this is a lesson for future me.
0:50:42never put all of your Ricky eggs in one basket,
0:50:46in that case widgets, right?
0:50:48And you guys try to warn me about this.
0:50:50Like, you're gonna have all pigs be inspired by widgets,
0:50:55right, be based on widgets.
0:50:57And you sure you wanna do that?
0:50:58And for the future, that's good advice.
0:51:02Don't do that.
0:51:04Try to spread out and have more diverse pigs.
0:51:07So, yeah, I'm really surprised.
0:51:09I don't know.
0:51:10Could it be that... I mean I'm sure that some design purists at Apple, they must fundamentally
0:51:19despise what people have been doing with their home screens, right?
0:51:22Possibly. My feeling on this is SwiftUI is a big project. It isn't just widgets, right?
0:51:33There's so much going on. They have a roadmap for what they will and won't allow us with
0:51:40would be my expectation and they just didn't want to break from that because
0:51:44it's it's too big of a thing to mess around with that would be my guess.
0:51:50Shortcuts for the Mac. Felt good about this one and it's awesome. I'm so
0:51:58excited for this it looks fantastic. I know Steven you wrote a thing on
0:52:02Six Colors about this and Federico you just published an app stories about it
0:52:06as well. I watched the session, the introducing shortcuts for Mac session, which is a really
0:52:14good one. I can't believe how deep they're going with this.
0:52:20Yeah, it's deep and open framework.
0:52:23It really is.
0:52:24Talked very clearly.
0:52:25Yeah, it's really cool. And so apps that are just iOS apps, iPadOS apps running on M1 Macs,
0:52:33if they've gone through the Mac catalyst chain and run on Intel Macs as well.
0:52:39It's the same intense framework and so they can just plug into shortcuts.
0:52:44And then on the Mac side you have two things happening.
0:52:47They can import automator actions and Apple has rewritten all of their common automator
0:52:52actions to deal with things like files and folders and servers, you know Mac like things,
0:52:57some window management stuff from automators and added it to shortcuts.
0:53:03And I'm sure Federico can chime in in a minute about how that has shown up on the iPad side
0:53:07as well.
0:53:08You also have the ability for regular AppKit apps.
0:53:13So like Mail, or Tweetbot or Transmit, you know, regular Mac apps, traditional Mac apps,
0:53:21they can adopt the same Intense API, even though they're not an iOS app, even though
0:53:27they're not a Catalyst app.
0:53:29And so your traditional Mac apps can also plug into shortcuts in the future, you know,
0:53:34if developers adopt that and move over to it.
0:53:36So they've really done a good job at embracing the different types of apps that run on the
0:53:41Mac.
0:53:42And you can run JavaScript for automation, or Apple script, or shell scripts within a
0:53:50shortcut.
0:53:52And so if you have a shortcut that is part regular, you know, sort of workflow, intense
0:53:58but you need to bail out to AppleScript for something, you can do that.
0:54:02And they have, seemingly from the sessions and the documentation, you know, Automator
0:54:09will be slowly fading away, but I don't think there are any rush to do that.
0:54:16Multi-year transition, they said, right?
0:54:18So yeah, it is super cool.
0:54:21And being able to have those legacy Mac automation tools within shortcuts is really cool.
0:54:29I think a lot of people were afraid that shortcuts coming in would kill off those other things
0:54:34or at least remove them from this new automation, these new automation tools, but that's not
0:54:40the case.
0:54:41Apple has embraced Mac automation in a new way and that is super exciting.
0:54:46They really did like the best possible job I think.
0:54:48I couldn't be more impressed.
0:54:51I think you can access it from the menu bar and you can put them in the dock and stuff.
0:54:56You can put them in Finder.
0:54:58Remember Quick Action showed up in Mojave where you could have an Automator workflow
0:55:02like show up anytime you had a JPEG in Finder, they drop in there.
0:55:08It's really cool.
0:55:09They've really done the work it seems to integrate this with what Mac users already expected
0:55:16from automation.
0:55:18And it's also benefited iPad in a big way too, right Federico?
0:55:24And doing this has added a bunch of stuff, which has made the overall Shortcuts experience
0:55:30better.
0:55:31That really is my favorite part of this story.
0:55:36And how in having to support Automator for that migration tool on the Mac, some of those
0:55:43actions that Apple needed to recreate on the Mac for automator support, those are now available
0:55:48on iOS and iPadOS as well. And so, thanks to the Mac, you could say that now we have
0:55:55much better integration with the file system, with shortcuts on iOS and iPadOS. Now, in
0:56:01shortcuts you can point the files actions to any folder, and you can pick any file and
0:56:08And you can create automations for any location in either iCloud or local storage or compatible
0:56:13file providers, right?
0:56:15And so many of those actions, like dealing with PDF documents, one of the advantages
0:56:19of Automator, it had real good support for PDF documents and images.
0:56:25Well now those actions are also available on iOS and iPadOS.
0:56:29So it's a new kind of halo effect, if you will, that all the work that Apple has done
0:56:34for shortcuts on the Mac, now, you know, iOS and iPadOS users can take advantage of that
0:56:40work as well. And so I'm really happy, like, if this is the consequence of Apple focusing
0:56:47on the Mac for shortcuts this year, then great, because it also made the iOS and iPadOS app
0:56:54much more powerful in the process. So yeah, it's...
0:56:57And it's got a redesign too. Yeah, there's a new design for the editor.
0:57:02So there's a new look for browsing actions in the Action Library, and all the actions
0:57:07are now more compact.
0:57:11The app icons have been integrated with the Action cell, and Apple got rid of the name
0:57:16of the app inside the Action, so all the actions are a little shorter, and you can fit more
0:57:21on screen at the same time.
0:57:24And you can do things like folding, for example.
0:57:26You can fold an entire block of actions, like a menu, or like an "if" block.
0:57:31And so if you have something like MusicBot, which is like a thousand actions, and many
0:57:35of them are contained inside blocks, you can fold them, and now scrolling along Shortcut
0:57:40is much more convenient than before.
0:57:42So all these, you know, these are power user additions, but it's exactly the kind of stuff
0:57:48that Shortcut's power users wanted.
0:57:51And so I'm just going to say that the Shortcuts team never disappoints, or very rarely disappoints,
0:57:57I'm going to say.
0:57:58And they've also added a bunch of things.
0:58:00I don't know if this is part of needing to do the automated actions, but now being able
0:58:05to open apps and control them in split views and slide over, it's amazing.
0:58:10I've wanted this for so long and it opens up so many things that we've wanted.
0:58:14Like we're always talking about, oh, we should have these fixed app pairs where you can do
0:58:17that yourself now, right?
0:58:20And I've been able to make some changes to some of my shortcuts already and it's doing
0:58:26the exact thing that I've always wanted it to do.
0:58:28Like I have one of the shortcuts that I use the most on my iPad is when I'm preparing
0:58:33for one of my shows and I will say like show prep, it will give me a list, I tap it and
0:58:39what it's always done in the past is sets a time-ary toggle timer and then opens Google
0:58:48Docs to the correct Google Doc.
0:58:51But what I always wanted to do and what I now have it do is it opens Google Docs on
0:58:55the left it opens Safari on the right and then brings in notes from a slide
0:59:00over and that's everything I need and I'm just so happy that they've done this
0:59:05those little features are just they they're super awesome super awesome
0:59:09no word on an Apple silicon Mac Pro fact no word on any hardware as we'll get to
0:59:17you yeah I mean I felt it was too early for the Mac Pro and at this point you
0:59:22know they could have a hardware a Mac hardware event in the fall you know
0:59:27they'll have iPhone event assumingly in September and very often they have an
0:59:32October event maybe we see Pro Max there or maybe before then who knows you know
0:59:39depending on what rumor you read on what day it's good it's all over the place
0:59:43but no Mac Pro news at WBC which made part of me breathe a little easier as a
0:59:50Mac Pro user. So at the end of round two Federico has one point, Myke has two
0:59:59points, I have one point. So Myke is in the lead going into our risky picks.
1:00:07Before we get to them though let's take a break. This episode of Connected is
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1:01:43Our thanks to CleanMyMac X for their support of the show and Relay FM. All right, it is time
1:01:49for the Ricky's
1:01:52Federico you're up
1:01:53All right
1:01:54So I said legacy widgets are completely removed from the system and there is no longer a place to put widgets
1:02:01To the left of the main home screen about that
1:02:04So in the keynote, it looked like they were gone
1:02:09But once you got hold of the beta you learned that that's still there
1:02:14Does it still work the same as it did in 14? Well, yeah, and in my mind this pick will
1:02:20Come true eventually and it was really dependent on widget kit
1:02:24Gaining some interactivity features right and because I did not get that one
1:02:30I also it's very likely that that's the reason why I don't get this point. You pull your picks in the widget basket
1:02:36- Exactly, so without interactions,
1:02:40some legacy widgets wouldn't have any alternative,
1:02:45some like the Pcalc widget, for example.
1:02:47And so if WidgetKit does not have any support
1:02:51for interactions, then maybe it's best
1:02:54to keep those widgets around another year.
1:02:57And because of that, there continues to be the Today page
1:03:01on the left side of the home screen.
1:03:04It's still an overlay on iPad, even though you can put widgets on the home screen, you
1:03:09can still put them in the column, and in the column is also where you can keep those old
1:03:13legacy widgets from iOS 13.
1:03:18So I'm sad because I'm losing a point, and I'm sad because it's very likely that we need
1:03:26to wait another year for this discontinued or, should I say, deprecated widgets to finally
1:03:35go away. But yeah, no point.
1:03:38And again, it's not that there's a problem with them, it's that they will only go away
1:03:44you would expect when interactivity is added. And that's what we're really looking for here.
1:03:50It's not like Federico hates old widgets. Or do you? I don't know.
1:03:56Well, you know, some of them maybe, but no. Overall, no.
1:04:00Overall.
1:04:01I think we spoke about this maybe a few weeks ago even, but are y'all using any legacy widgets?
1:04:07I'm not. I've finally replaced all of them.
1:04:10No, I'm not. I had to check. I know I wasn't using any, but I wasn't sure if I had any still enabled.
1:04:21Yeah, like just hanging around.
1:04:23Yeah, and I don't. And the reason was I left a few of them there for a while,
1:04:27but it takes so long to get down to them that they became
1:04:31mostly pointless. And also a lot of the apps that I use
1:04:35with widgets, they replaced it and so it removed it, you know.
1:04:39So no, I don't use any legacy widgets now.
1:04:44What about you Federico? No, I don't use any. No.
1:04:47I don't use any. No, no. All right, my pick was Apple makes changes to rules and
1:04:52on in-app purchases, removing restrictions on linking to external websites for account
1:04:56creation. Obviously I knew this as an outside, right? The only reason I could get it in here
1:05:03is because it was unlikely, right? I still think they're going to do it, but I don't
1:05:09know when. They did make some changes to the review guidelines. It mostly is just clarifying
1:05:17some stuff and saying certain types of apps are not allowed and that they will ban you
1:05:22for doing bad things outside of the app store.
1:05:26And they also added a new way to appeal if you think that you've been treated unfairly,
1:05:30which is interesting.
1:05:34Because they already had the appeal thing if you disagreed with a decision, but now
1:05:38you can make a second type of appeal where if you think you're being treated badly by
1:05:43the review team on other grounds. So that's all they did. I still think it's going to
1:05:50come as we spoke about it before. It is in Apple's best interest to do it before they
1:05:55are forced to do it. Yeah. But there is no changes to the parts of the review guidelines
1:06:02that we would want. Yeah, and I think that just comes down to the Epic trial is not finished.
1:06:10And I don't know, there may actually be something not allowing them to, but even if there isn't,
1:06:18probably not the best time to change something while you're waiting on the judge to tell
1:06:23you if you have to change anything.
1:06:24Because either you're going to go too far or it could influence their decision.
1:06:29So I agree with you, it was an outside chance.
1:06:32I think there was some chance, but I think the case being still unfinished is probably
1:06:40what held any possible change off.
1:06:44Okay, so neither of you got your risky pick.
1:06:50I think we could probably just wrap up here.
1:06:53No, no, please tell us what you pick.
1:06:55Apple unveils a new high-end audio product
1:06:58as defined by a price of or over $399
1:07:03or it's a standalone DAC.
1:07:06I didn't get it.
1:07:09Oh, didn't you?
1:07:09No, I was surprised.
1:07:11I didn't get it.
1:07:12Ah, that's too bad.
1:07:14I texted this to y'all, so a little behind the scenes.
1:07:16Last week when we made these pics, we recorded on Monday.
1:07:19I got almost the whole show edited.
1:07:21I couldn't put it out until Tuesday
1:07:24because it was like the beginning of the month.
1:07:26And so I just woke up Tuesday morning and finished it.
1:07:29And I basically was edited up to the point of the Ricky's.
1:07:33And so I came out here after breakfast and was finishing it.
1:07:35I told y'all, it was like when I got to my pick,
1:07:38it was like, you know, after you've made like a really bad
1:07:41set of decisions one evening and you wake up
1:07:43the next morning and you realize what you've done.
1:07:46It's kind of how it felt.
1:07:47- You had the edit of "Shame", that's what you had.
1:07:49- The edit of "Shame".
1:07:50- Yep, that's what you had.
1:07:51Yeah, no new high-end audio product. Did they do the Apple Music keynote that they had announced?
1:07:58Or like the video event or whatever it was?
1:08:00It doesn't seem like it. No, I don't think they did.
1:08:02No, I think that was just the stuff that they put out after the keynote.
1:08:05Which is like the little videos inside of Apple Music that Zane Lowe did.
1:08:11They're not videos, it's like some introduction to Apple Music,
1:08:15special audio stuff that Zane Lowe is hosting.
1:08:19I think the Apple Music team, I don't know what they're doing over there.
1:08:22They're like sliding things into the application like,
1:08:26"Hey, we're doing something special."
1:08:28And then everyone goes wild.
1:08:29Like, I don't know what's happening,
1:08:31but they've got some different kind of marketing rules over there, I think.
1:08:34Kind of like they live somewhere in between Apple and Beats, right?
1:08:38Because Beats just does, as we're talking about, whatever it wants.
1:08:41And maybe Apple Music is still kind of a little bit in that organization.
1:08:44So they seem to have slightly different rules around what they can and can't tease and promote.
1:08:51But yeah, no, there was no standalone deck.
1:08:55There was none.
1:08:57Okay.
1:09:00So...
1:09:01Final point.
1:09:02Yeah. Final point.
1:09:04We'll start with Federico. Federico got one regular pick right, but he missed his Ricky.
1:09:12So that point goes away, so Federico has zero points.
1:09:16Myke got both regular rounds correct,
1:09:21but missed his Ricky, so he has one total point.
1:09:26And I tied Federico. I got one round correct,
1:09:32and I missed my Ricky, so Federico and I both have zero points,
1:09:36and technically we're supposed to coin toss for second and third place,
1:09:41place but Myke congratulations you are the keynote chairman hold on I'm
1:09:48bringing in an external adjudicator
1:09:52now I've won I am the winner congratulations to me congratulations
1:10:01consolidation you have both accounts now so yep so we need to get that assigned
1:10:08over to you. Oh I'm signing in as we speak. I am signing in. There we go. Okay, so
1:10:16Federico, you and I are coin tossing it, so I'll let you pick what side of the
1:10:23coin and Myke if you want to toss a coin. Yeah. We can decide who is second or
1:10:29third mm-hmm someone's got a yes say Federico pick a side I'm feeding a
1:10:42strong tails all right you're gonna go with tails all right you ready yeah yeah
1:10:50flip a coin
1:10:54okay so it didn't say it out loud which is not particularly exciting but I do
1:11:01have the answer okay it's tails okay I cannot win a coin toss yes yes so it's
1:11:11Myke Federico then Steven once again in parentheses at the bottom of our
1:11:16document lost by coin toss but we're not done yet we have our flexes we need to
1:11:24into those. Can I just take one moment to just bask in the fact that I currently
1:11:29have both. I am both annual and keynote chairman. I have been threatened in the
1:11:33consolidation and it's happening. My plan is to, if you want to get the tweets from
1:11:39this account, I will be splitting my tweets in half. So one half of the tweet
1:11:45will come from one account and the other half of the tweet will come from another
1:11:48account so you both at annual chairman and that keynote chairman it's going to
1:11:54be the only way to understand what I'm doing double chairman all the way mm-hmm
1:11:59congratulations thank you congratulations congratulations are are
1:12:04you a king an emperor what call I am the I haven't decided yet but there's gonna
1:12:10be some kind of like his Royal Highness to consolidate a champion right right
1:12:16Right, right. Well, I'm pleased you won here, Myke.
1:12:23Gotta win somewhere.
1:12:25You won fair and square here on this show. This is why we have the Bila Rickeys.
1:12:34You need them. You need the really, really particular rules.
1:12:38Well, I look forward to your ruling of the kingdom. This episode of Connected is also
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1:15:00and Relay FM.
1:15:01- Flexi's time.
1:15:02- Flexi's time.
1:15:04Well, you have to appreciate my boldness here.
1:15:08In fact, I do believe that I'm the moral winner of the Riki's.
1:15:12Oh, jeez, here we go.
1:15:13Because of my-- because of the boldness
1:15:16that I demonstrated in my 10 flexes.
1:15:19And your future donation.
1:15:21Well, that's-- that's arguable.
1:15:23We'll see about that.
1:15:25But I do believe--
1:15:26I consider myself the moral winner.
1:15:29I consider myself an example because of what I've done.
1:15:32I've inspired a new amendment to the Bill of Rickeys.
1:15:36How many of you can say you've inspired a new law
1:15:39to go into effect? - All of us.
1:15:40Yeah, I'm pretty sure all of us have been.
1:15:42- Well, I don't think so.
1:15:45- No? Okay.
1:15:47- I am declaring myself the moral winner of this episode
1:15:52because of what I've done in the Flexis.
1:15:54Anyway, I had 10 of them.
1:15:56I'm gonna go through a list of them quickly.
1:16:00Number one, the weather app comes to iPad.
1:16:03Nope.
1:16:04- How? - Number two.
1:16:05- How do they not do that?
1:16:05They've redesigned it on the phone.
1:16:08Just didn't do it on the iPad.
1:16:10- Number two, the files app gets new features.
1:16:14(bell dings)
1:16:14Yeah, some of them are new.
1:16:17You can drag to select.
1:16:18There's a progress bar when copying files.
1:16:21- What a concept.
1:16:22- The big stuff, you know?
1:16:24Big features coming to files this year.
1:16:29Number three, shortcuts gets new files actions.
1:16:32(bell dings)
1:16:33That's correct, we talked about them before.
1:16:36Number four, better external display support on iPad.
1:16:40Nah, they didn't do anything with just sad times.
1:16:44I wanna talk about iPad multitasking
1:16:46and iPadOS 15 eventually, not right now.
1:16:49I don't know how I feel about it yet.
1:16:52I'm sure, nah, look, I don't wanna be one of those people
1:16:56like, oh no, they ruined it,
1:16:58Let's go back to the days of iOS 9.
1:17:00No, I just think that,
1:17:03there's still some people like that out there.
1:17:05I just think that there's some confusing aspects.
1:17:08Maybe I just need to live with it some more.
1:17:09We'll see, we'll talk about it soon.
1:17:12Number five, iOS and iPadOS 15 get native HomeKit widgets.
1:17:17No interactions, so likely because of that
1:17:21also no HomeKit widgets either.
1:17:23- That feels like the sidebar thing on the iPad
1:17:26that once widgets are interactive, HomeKit will be like a,
1:17:29I mean, it'd be awesome just to have a widget
1:17:30and just like turn off a light by touching the widget.
1:17:33That'd be cool.
1:17:34- Yeah, there's kind of no point to have a HomeKit widget
1:17:38if you can't do anything with it.
1:17:40- Number six, the passwords feature of settings
1:17:44becomes a standalone application.
1:17:47No, but it did, it continues to gain
1:17:50some really nice features.
1:17:52And it's a system preference pane on macOS.
1:17:56- Yep.
1:17:57- But it's not, it's not a standalone app.
1:17:59- It's now a preference pane.
1:18:01You can now scan QR codes
1:18:03for two-factor authentication codes.
1:18:05Apple has a bunch of sessions
1:18:07on how they're taking advantage of passwords
1:18:10and the keychain to actually go beyond passwords.
1:18:12And they're telling developers,
1:18:14"Look, there's all these new APIs and technologies
1:18:16that you can use to more easily sign users into your app,
1:18:20whether you're using iOS, iPadOS, or tvOS.
1:18:23They have a brand new system for signing users
1:18:26into an Apple TV app just by using your Apple device
1:18:29in the iCloud kitchen, but still in settings,
1:18:32no standalone app.
1:18:34Number seven, Apple updates the Listen Now page of music.
1:18:38Now, this is a point, Steven, please ring the thing,
1:18:41because they did update it.
1:18:46There's the new--
1:18:48- Okay, good.
1:18:49There's the new "Shared with you" section.
1:18:53It's literally the only--
1:18:54Oh, yeah.
1:18:55It is literally the only change in that page.
1:18:58What do you think of this, by the way, the two of you?
1:19:00I'm intrigued.
1:19:01What do you think about this new "Shared with you" thing?
1:19:04Gimmicky.
1:19:05That's what I'm going to say.
1:19:06It's one of those things that, yes, it's cool in theory,
1:19:09but why--
1:19:11like, I don't want to visit Apple News.
1:19:13Like, I don't want to use Apple News.
1:19:15I don't care about opening links in Apple News.
1:19:18"Share with you for music" is probably how I'm going to be using this feature the most,
1:19:24because we do have a group chat with Myke and One True John, where we exchange a lot of music links,
1:19:31and I could see that being useful. But I don't know, it's one of those features that Apple shows off.
1:19:38Yeah, I'll say that's true for me too. The music one is the only one that I could imagine ever
1:19:44never find it useful. The two of you share a lot of music, mostly with each other, but
1:19:48I'm there. That's the way it tends to go. Every now and then I give something. And I
1:19:55don't really always add the stuff to the library, but if I'm looking for something new to listen
1:19:59to it could be there. But my kind of feeling on this is I do things with stuff that people
1:20:03send me or I don't. It's not like I need to be reminded later on.
1:20:08Look all these links that Stephen sent, that all these people sent you.
1:20:13Like, what do you... It feels like another inbox that I need to worry about, and I really don't want to worry about it.
1:20:19And it's really like 15 new inboxes because it's in music, and it's in Safari, and like...
1:20:27News, podcasts, photos. It's like a system-wide layer that...
1:20:33Yeah, I almost think it'd make more sense if it was in a single place.
1:20:38maybe along with things you say in Safari Reading List.
1:20:41I'm gonna give you... Yeah, there continues to be this weird separation between,
1:20:46"Oh, you can save stuff in Apple News, but you can also save stuff in Reading List."
1:20:50Let's not even talk about how hard it is now to access your bookmarks and Reading List
1:20:57in the new Safari on iPhone. This is another conversation that we gotta have at some point
1:21:01soon. I know that Steven wants to talk about the new Safari as well, so we're gonna talk
1:21:08about that soon. But I'm gonna give you a one million dollar idea. Okay. Let me out.
1:21:19Reminders shared with you. When you don't want to do something, you just share it with
1:21:23somebody else and they land on their inbox. Here's another one, here's another one,
1:21:32mail shared with you. That's good, that's good. What about phone calls? Like, you know,
1:21:37if like someone calls you and you don't talk to them? Here's another one, here's another
1:21:40one, workouts shared with you. That's my favorite one. That's it, that's the one I want to do
1:21:49the list. You do it.
1:21:51Hey, let me share this 20-mile run with you. Can you do it for me? No, but yeah, so we
1:21:59were saying number seven. Number eight, iOS 15 drops support for the iPhone 6S. Nope,
1:22:05same devices that were supported by iOS 14 will run 15. The iPhone 6S lives on alongside
1:22:13the Apple Watch Series 3, which can be upgraded to WatchOS 8.
1:22:17You know, you gotta admire you gotta admire Apple supporting all devices at which point does it become a problem?
1:22:24I think it already is a problem for the
1:22:26Honestly, the biggest surprise for me though more than the success is the series 3 watch
1:22:31Yeah, that that's a bigger surprise for me like you gotta get rid of it at some point
1:22:37Like you can't keep dragging that thing along. Well, and now the update
1:22:41Basically, like hey, we're gonna restore your watch is gonna take a couple hours
1:22:45Like I've got a friend who has a series 3 and he's like, what is this?
1:22:48I was like well a bunch of people had failed updates and so they're playing it safe with the new process
1:22:53Not only is it old technology to support but it's they also represent
1:22:58older screens right because the series 3 is the last small original watch design and
1:23:05the guts of the 6s were also in the original
1:23:10iPhone SE and
1:23:13And so that, I guess that thing's still hanging around too.
1:23:16Keep these things around forever, why not?
1:23:17I know.
1:23:19Number nine.
1:23:20Number nine, the next version of iOS
1:23:23lets you change icons for apps natively
1:23:26without using shortcuts or custom profiles.
1:23:30Nope.
1:23:31They didn't do that.
1:23:33And finally, number 10.
1:23:36And also, by the way, I should mention,
1:23:37you cannot turn off the confirmation banners
1:23:40for shortcuts either,
1:23:42so that when you launch one of those custom icons on the home screen, you still see that checkmark
1:23:48that pops down from the top and blocks interactions on screen for a second? Why?
1:23:54I mean, you literally brought shortcuts to the Mac and added support for a command line tool,
1:24:01an AppleScript, and shell scripting, but you don't trust your users enough to turn off a
1:24:07confirmation banner. Sure. Number 10. Is that? There's a new way to turn off confirmation
1:24:14banners for shortcuts. So number 10 was that. I liked that. It was kind of funny to me.
1:24:20It's like you got so mad you hadn't even read ahead and I'm like, yep, that you're about
1:24:25to come across this again. I'm very good at preambles. So yeah, I got three out of ten,
1:24:34and seven... it's a whole bag of sadness over here. How are you feeling about ten?
1:24:41Oh I feel great! I feel like I'm losing with honor and my boldness will be
1:24:50remembered because it inspired an amendment to the Bill of Rickeys. I mean
1:24:54if you lose you're gonna be losing more than just honor you will be
1:24:58losing a cool $175. It is for a good cause. Well you don't know what the cause is yet.
1:25:05Well it must be a charity and all charities supposed to be good. No that's not true.
1:25:11Oh come on you're not gonna pick a terrible charity. Who knows who knows who's picking.
1:25:17Okay I propose an amendment to the bill of riches. Must be a good good charity.
1:25:25Uh, is that going to be an official amendment? I mean, I can change the document.
1:25:28No, it's not. No, we're not going to make that.
1:25:30Okay, well now with people tracking these things, we need to be careful. Okay, so you got three
1:25:35right and a whopping seven wrong. Myke, you had six flexies. Let's see how you did.
1:25:42Flexy number one, new MacBook Pro.
1:25:44Nope.
1:25:45That did not happen.
1:25:46Nope.
1:25:46Flexy number two, preview of the Apple Silicon Mac Pro.
1:25:49Nope.
1:25:51That did not happen. Number three, the Home app gets redesigned.
1:25:54So, it did on the watch, but nowhere else.
1:26:00And I didn't say which one.
1:26:04So technically...
1:26:05No!
1:26:06It isn't what I meant.
1:26:07It isn't what I meant.
1:26:08I'll tell you that.
1:26:09But technically...
1:26:10The pic is what it's written in the document.
1:26:14That's true.
1:26:15The pic says the whole map gets redesigned.
1:26:18This is a point.
1:26:20I didn't mean it, but it's...
1:26:23New features for FaceTime, number four.
1:26:26Killed it.
1:26:27I was very right on that one.
1:26:28All the features.
1:26:29Way more.
1:26:30Yeah.
1:26:31The bell, Steven, the bell.
1:26:32Ring the bell, please.
1:26:34Yes.
1:26:35You are the Nostradamus.
1:26:36Is Nostradamus the hunchback of Nostradamus?
1:26:40No, it's a different name.
1:26:42No, Nostradamus is the guy with the prophecies, I think.
1:26:45What's the character's name?
1:26:48Five, new notification, Quasimodo.
1:26:51Thank you.
1:26:52Thank you, everyone in the Discord.
1:26:53- Some confusion you got. - My brain is like "Notre Dame, Nostradamus must be the same!"
1:27:02No, not the same. Five new notification management options. What do we think about these?
1:27:10- Potentially great. I think it's one of the things where I'm feeling optimistic about that.
1:27:20A good way to gauge the reaction from common people, for me at least, is to show the stuff
1:27:27to Sylvia.
1:27:28And when I see that Sylvia approves of something new, it's usually a good sign.
1:27:33She's got a good pulse on what people are going to like in an update on the iPhone.
1:27:38And the idea of setting, like I described it as, you can make your own custom Do Not
1:27:44Disturb, and you can combine that with notifications.
1:27:48I think it's something really compelling for a lot of people.
1:27:50Yep, similarly, I was watching the keynote with Vadino and that point was like, "Oh,
1:27:55that seems good."
1:27:56It's like, I know I like the sound of it, I know Gray's gonna love it.
1:28:00Well, I assume Gray's gonna love it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that this stuff is
1:28:03enjoyed by anybody else.
1:28:05I've been poking around with that, the focus stuff, and it's really interesting.
1:28:10I'm not so personally that interested in that notification summary thing.
1:28:14I enabled it.
1:28:17I have two schedules, one at 10am, another at 8pm.
1:28:20In fact, mine was delivered just a couple of hours ago.
1:28:24It's still here, by the way.
1:28:25Oh, ok, here it is.
1:28:28It's nice, but the interactions are a little bit weird.
1:28:32Like I thought that you could open the... tap on the notification summary card to get
1:28:39like a bigger preview, but instead, there's no bigger preview.
1:28:45All you can do is tap on the badge number to collapse the summary into individual notifications.
1:28:53That's all you can do.
1:28:55So in theory, I like the idea.
1:28:56I wish there was like a...
1:28:58I actually used to roll a similar system years ago using Zapier.
1:29:03I would have a Notification Digest.
1:29:04Oh, I remember that.
1:29:05You put it into Slack, right?
1:29:06Yeah.
1:29:07I had a Notification Digest collecting updates from different places that was delivered to
1:29:14me in the morning and in the evening. Literally the same concept.
1:29:19This was part of that time where everybody wanted to set up their morning brief. That
1:29:24was like a thing we all wanted to do for a while, right?
1:29:26Yes, it was a thing. And this is what it is. I don't know. We'll see about that. But everything
1:29:32else, they have a new system for notifications where they can be time sensitive, they can
1:29:37be critical, important or passive. Like that stuff, I don't think developers were really
1:29:43adopted. I wish there, like, I would prefer if I could, I as a user, if I could set notifications
1:29:52and I could decide, oh, this is not important, this is time sensitive, like, I'm not sure
1:29:57if I can do that or if it's only up to developers to support that in the API. But the focus
1:30:04stuff and the controls, those are really good. And I like how you can define people, for
1:30:10example, and so if you say, "I want to be notified by Myke," if developers add support
1:30:16for that API, the same person will apply, regardless of whether Myke is using iMessage
1:30:23or WhatsApp or Telegram, right? It'll just see the person, Myke, getting in touch with
1:30:29me, and it will allow that person to break through the focus status.
1:30:33Yeah, I like the thought of this. I like the sound of this. I'm intrigued to see how I
1:30:38will be able to tell the system, you know, like how can I tell Slack that this is
1:30:44Federico? I mean and especially when like I was setting this up yesterday and for
1:30:48some reason I have two contact cards for Adina. Why? Why is that? Why do I have
1:30:53that? You know I have so many problems with my contacts. My contacts are a
1:30:58disaster and so which is a bit of a shame for me but that's just how it is.
1:31:02Ah, the last one. Smoother or faster animations in iOS tools for developers.
1:31:09This one came out right. This was very intriguing to me.
1:31:15So they have a session on Friday called "Optimize for Variable Refresh Rate Displays" which
1:31:21I think is enough to just like, "Yep, cool. That was what I was talking about."
1:31:24Yeah, I think so.
1:31:26Alright, so you have four flexes correct mm-hmm and two incorrect mm-hmm good job
1:31:34Mac OS skips ahead to version 15 to match iOS and iPad OS
1:31:41That didn't happen. What were you thinking? Yeah?
1:31:45I was bold of you all the same number new
1:31:48No, not new no new Mac notebooks are announced
1:31:55People thought I was gonna lose this one, but I had faith that Apple was not ready
1:31:59You had faith in no faith. The next version of Mac OS comes with a redesign to debut
1:32:04It's exactly the same
1:32:07No, no, they didn't do anything about the notifications. Nothing. It's exactly the same real shame. That's a real real shame
1:32:13Yeah, hope this is something that could change during the beta process. I
1:32:19Would hope so, but I'm not I'm not holding my breath. That's a real shame
1:32:24We get some happy messaging from Apple about how much they value developers.
1:32:30Well money too apparently. And money. 200 and something billion. Mm-hmm.
1:32:3650 billion went to Epic probably. Apple unveils a new external display. I don't
1:32:45know if I brought this up last time but it was intriguing to me that you picked
1:32:50no new Mac notebooks. Yes. They will do an external display. Yeah. Do you want me to go through this?
1:32:55Look, I'm a complicated man. It's probably exactly what I said last week.
1:32:59So Federico, you owe $175 to the charity of Myke's Choice.
1:33:05Myke, do you want to hook Federico up with that? Yeah, Federico, I would like
1:33:10you to donate to Stonewall. So considering that it's Pride Month, I
1:33:16wanted the donation to go towards a charity that supports the rights of
1:33:19people in the LGBTQ+ community and Stonewall felt like a good choice for
1:33:24this. This is a charity that I've been aware of here in the UK for a long time.
1:33:27Is it stonewall.org.uk? Yep I sent a donation link in iMessage. So their
1:33:35message is pretty clear. They say we imagine a world where all LGBTQ+ people
1:33:40are free to be ourselves and can live our lives to the full and they do a lot
1:33:44of work in helping institutions better support their people like workplaces and
1:33:48schools so I'd like to help people understand and do like training and
1:33:52support and they also do a lot of work in legislation especially here in the UK
1:33:57so Stonewall is who I would like you to donate a hundred and seventy five dollars
1:34:02to please beautiful okay so how can I do this some other amount okay specify the
1:34:12Oh it says in pounds. Okay so I will... 170 let's ask Siri. What is 175 dollars in pounds? 124 pounds.
1:34:25So 125 we'll round it up. Oh look at you big spender. Yeah I know. Okay
1:34:35Yes, please add gift aid to...
1:34:38So yeah, whatever.
1:34:40Add, yes, add gift aids.
1:34:42Yeah, you wanna do gift aid.
1:34:44Gift aid's good.
1:34:45Thanks for donating.
1:34:47First, we need your counter details.
1:34:49Title, what's my title?
1:34:50The loser.
1:34:53Loser.
1:34:54(laughing)
1:34:54Loser of the flexes.
1:34:58Yep, I'm sure this is gonna go through.
1:35:00First name. No problem.
1:35:01Further, it did.
1:35:03Last name will be teaching.
1:35:04And the street address, oh, the one my address.
1:35:09- You don't have to read that out loud.
1:35:11- We maybe could take a break while Federico's
1:35:13filming this in. - Yes, please, thank you.
1:35:16- And then we'll see how that's gone.
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1:36:37How's it going Federico? I'm still... Still working on it? I mean it's a fantastic initiative but their mobile form is really slow to use.
1:36:46Okay, 76% completed. Excellent! Congratulations! 82%! Oh my god, we love to keep... email, email for sure.
1:36:57Are they asking you questions?
1:36:59Yeah, a lot of them.
1:37:00Okay, we're now...
1:37:01I'm paying now.
1:37:03Don't you want to wait for that?
1:37:04You know, it's a dramatic moment.
1:37:06Submit and pay.
1:37:07All right?
1:37:08It's spinning the wheel.
1:37:10And it is done.
1:37:13Very dramatic, donating to Stonewall.
1:37:15Is it done now?
1:37:16I think so.
1:37:18Excellent.
1:37:19I got an email from...
1:37:20Wonderful.
1:37:21Thank you for the donation.
1:37:22Absolutely.
1:37:24Stephen, are you playing around with any of the betas?
1:37:25Yep.
1:37:26I have Mac OS Monterey on a laptop and it is remarkably like Big Sur. I think a lot of the
1:37:34features are so dependent on other people having the beta and I haven't tried any of that stuff yet
1:37:39with anybody. I think over the next couple weeks we'll start you know trying to watch movies
1:37:43together and stuff but Monterey's fine you know don't run it on your primary device. Shortcuts is
1:37:51definitely buggy but very present and that's really cool. I have not played
1:37:56with 15 yet anywhere though I'm gonna put it on my iPad Pro probably this
1:38:02evening or sometime tomorrow. Yeah shortcuts is a bit a bit janktastic on
1:38:07the iPad as well too. It kind of always is during during beta season. It's a
1:38:12complicated piece of software and I think is more so this time. I've noticed
1:38:18that it's pretty tricky to move things around inside of a shortcut at the moment.
1:38:23I found that to be a little bit tricky. But overall, iPadOS 15 is very
1:38:31smooth, it's feeling very good to me. Federico, I know you've probably
1:38:35installed everything, right?
1:38:37I have iOS, iPadOS, and WatchOS going at the moment.
1:38:43I'm really happy overall with iPadOS. As I said, some questions about
1:38:50multitasking, what it means, the changes to multi-window. I finally
1:38:58got a shelf, and it is called the "Shelf", but it's not a...
1:39:02Oh, we didn't even talk about that.
1:39:04I want to talk about all of these things next week, maybe, after having used all these
1:39:09things for a while. It's not the shelf that I was expecting, which makes me sad, but there's
1:39:15some, I guess my only concern right now, couple of days into using it on my iPad, is there's
1:39:22a, I can see why some people will say, are they just putting a Band-Aid on top of something
1:39:29that is inherently broken, right, as a multitasking system? And I don't fully agree with that,
1:39:36I sort of understand the argument in certain places of the OS, so I want to talk about
1:39:41all of this more in-depth next week. I'm really happy with shortcuts, and I think I'm going
1:39:46to be able to do some real fancy things with file system access, and I'm really happy that
1:39:51I chose to go all-in with Obsidian, because all of these actions, they work out of the
1:39:56box with my new Not Taking Setup. Again, because it's just a folder of markdown files in the
1:40:02system. So I think I'm going to be able to do some great things with automation and the
1:40:06new shortcut actions. And lastly, it's going to be fun to set up multiple home screens,
1:40:13and especially the home screen and iPad, by combining widgets and focus modes. So that
1:40:20I think is something that I'm going to be spending a lot of time tinkering with this
1:40:24summer, coming up with different systems for--I can automate a focus mode for recording podcasts
1:40:31podcasts and showing specific timers and opening specific apps, like all kinds of
1:40:36things that I can do. Also when it comes to editing the review or writing the
1:40:40review, right, having these different workspaces, all things that I can do with
1:40:44widgets and focus modes and shortcuts. So these three things coming together, I
1:40:50have a pretty good sense of where the review will go in terms of core ideas
1:40:56and examples. Just a few things I want to talk about regarding multitasking next.
1:41:01week. Yeah it is something that while it's similar there it is new and I'm
1:41:08still getting used to the best way to use it. Like I think it's one of those
1:41:13things that's gonna take a few days more to really settle opinions on it because
1:41:20there is definitely some changes there. Yeah but aside from that I found the
1:41:25iPadOS beta to be really solid. Who knows how long that will last for if it
1:41:31will right? Like I don't know and there's a bunch of stuff that we just don't have
1:41:36access to and neither have we tried. Like if any of you tried any of the
1:41:40share play features or anything? No not yet, not yet. I don't even know if you can.
1:41:44Well I need to have somebody else on iOS 15 I guess. You can call me
1:41:50watch a movie together. This beta process is just gonna be everyone hanging out
1:41:54with Viti a lot. Yeah I think so. Just gonna watch movies of everyone, playing games with everyone, it's gonna be awesome.
1:41:58Oh, yeah, you gotta prepare for that big time. Yes. I can't wait. Yeah
1:42:02We're gonna watch some movies together. It'd be nice. You can watch Star Wars before we wrap up
1:42:08Obviously there's a lot of stuff still going on
1:42:10Is there anything the two of you feel like has been a big miss that we haven't touched on?
1:42:15like stuff that you're kind of really disappointed about or
1:42:19Things that didn't go the way that you wanted them to is there anything that jumps out at you?
1:42:25I mean obviously that we didn't get anything external display focused.
1:42:30I was about to say that, yeah.
1:42:32I would have liked to see more like a clearer message from Apple on why is the M1 iPad Pro
1:42:41necessary.
1:42:42I think there's still a missing story there and the new stuff in iPadOS doesn't really
1:42:45explain it because there's still the old memory cap on third-party apps.
1:42:51So there really still is a missing story for the M1 iPad Pro.
1:42:56And I think there's a big miss in having the second...
1:43:02Having a follow-up to home screen customization in iOS 14.
1:43:07That is a real disappointment for me.
1:43:09I really thought Apple was going to recognize just how much people loved personalization
1:43:15last year and instead they decided to focus on things like SharePlay and these FaceTime
1:43:23features and I really think that come September those functionalities will feel to an extent
1:43:30instantly old and it would have been so much nicer to see like a big upgrade for home screen
1:43:37customization that didn't grow old but I think a lot of folks will be disappointed by
1:43:44"Oh, this update doesn't really change anything for me," which was a big driver for updates
1:43:51last year, right? All the excitement surrounding widgets and home screens. And those same people
1:43:58are going to be disappointed this year because nothing is changing there. So that's too bad.
1:44:02Yeah. I will say from developers that I've spoken to and also listening to Under the
1:44:06Radar, I think developers are pleased, though, that there isn't anything huge that they need
1:44:11to work on this summer.
1:44:12Oh yeah, if you're a developer, what are you gonna be working on?
1:44:16There's some changes to iPad navigation, right?
1:44:19And there's the new focus engine, the new iPad keyboard navigation,
1:44:23changes to keyboard shortcuts, but that's pretty much it.
1:44:26Like, what else?
1:44:29There's lots of little things you can integrate.
1:44:30Some people have more work to do than others.
1:44:32Maybe you can implement some stuff that you haven't already done before.
1:44:36But there isn't like that feature this year that everyone's gonna do.
1:44:41So take that for what you will.
1:44:42If you want to find the links to the stuff we spoke about, head on over to our
1:44:47website at relay.fm/connected/349.
1:44:51There you can send us an email with feedback or follow up, or you can join
1:44:57connected pro and get a longer ad-free version of the show each and every week.
1:45:01You can find us all online.
1:45:04Myke is on Twitter as I M Y K E.
1:45:07He hosts a bunch of shows here on relay FM.
1:45:09does awesome live streams about fancy keyboards.
1:45:12So go check those out at Myke.live.
1:45:15You can find Federico on Twitter at Vitici, V I T I C C I.
1:45:19He's the editor in chief of Mac stories.net where y'all are just killing it this week
1:45:23with the WWDC stuff.
1:45:25You can find me on Twitter as ISMH.
1:45:27I host a bunch of shows here on Relay FM.
1:45:29Look for Mac power users episode 592 this week.
1:45:32I think you will really enjoy that.
1:45:34I'd like to thank our sponsors.
1:45:35They are Fitbaud, CleanMyMacX, Mac Weldon and Hover.
1:45:39And until next week gentlemen, say goodbye.
1:45:41Adios, that's you.
1:45:42I am the winner.
1:45:43Goodbye.
1:45:44Cheerio.
1:45:45Bye, y'all.