2020 Year in Review: Not an Ideal Situation

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0:00:03Hello, and welcome to Connected, episode 326, our 2020

0:00:14year in review.

0:00:16It's made possible by our sponsors, Smile, Pingdom,

0:00:19and Wondery.

0:00:20My name is Stephen Hackett, and I am joined by Mr. Myke Hurley.

0:00:24Hi.

0:00:25Hello.

0:00:26How are you?

0:00:27I'm good.

0:00:27Happy New Year, nearly.

0:00:28Happy nearly year.

0:00:29Yes, nearly nearly nearly. Happy. We're also joined by Mr Federico Vittucci.

0:00:38Sup. Hey. Hi. That's a new year new year new attitude for Federico. New year new me.

0:00:45Federico just turned his hat backwards and that's how he's gonna be doing 2021 of a backwards

0:00:51baseball cap. Fun fact, I am not wearing a hat. Fun fact, you know what Federico that is a fun

0:00:57fact. It is a fun fact. Fun fact. Whenever you listen to a podcast, imagine if all the

0:01:03people talking are wearing hats and that will make it instantly more fun. Do you own many

0:01:08hats? No. I'm not a hat person. I'm not a hat person. I think I have an odd shaped head

0:01:19for a hat. I don't look good in hats. Yeah. I think I must be similar to you in that regard.

0:01:26I put a hat on and my face looks wrong.

0:01:28Steven, you look good in hats.

0:01:30Steven does.

0:01:31Steven has a hat optimized.

0:01:36I think it's partly because he can change his hair just by thinking.

0:01:40Yeah, it's very transformational from that point of view.

0:01:45But if I put on a hat, I look like...

0:01:48What's the character's name?

0:01:49Inspector Gadget?

0:01:50Is that the character's name?

0:01:51Yes, you would look like Inspector Gadget!

0:01:54it. Yeah! Inspector T.T.! I'm looking at pictures of Inspector Gadget now! Now that I'm thinking

0:02:16of cartoons on TV, I was shocked to realize a few years ago that I was having this conversation

0:02:23real friend of mine. It turns out that in Italy, like one cartoon theme song was used,

0:02:33like the same music was used for another cartoon in Spain. And I did some research and I realized

0:02:39that basically Italy and Spain had been exchanging theme music for different cartoons over the

0:02:44years. And it's so weird because for example, in Italy, like we grew up with a certain tune

0:02:50was used for like Captain Tsubasa, for example, which was called Holly and Benji here. But

0:02:55like in Spain, the same music is associated with different memories for different cartoons,

0:03:01because these companies have been exchanging rights for theme music. It's so weird.

0:03:06That's incredible.

0:03:07Yeah. So, I don't know, just a fun fact that may help you ease into 2021.

0:03:14Steven, what are we doing on today's episode?

0:03:17Today we are going to be going through the tech news of 2020 month by month round robin

0:03:23style, and we're just going to hit on the big stories and see what is still important,

0:03:30what's not important, etc.

0:03:33And so I'm going to start with January.

0:03:35Does that seem like a good place to start?

0:03:38If you if that's how you if you can if you conform to that Canada show.

0:03:41I mean it all went downhill in January but if you really want to do it, just do it.

0:03:46I guess.

0:03:47- January was mostly a holdout though, right?

0:03:49Like I think we got through January pretty good.

0:03:52- Yeah.

0:03:53- We'll see I suppose.

0:03:54- You and I both have January birthdays, so we had those.

0:03:57And Apple started the year by touting

0:04:03a new era of services.

0:04:06So this was a press release with a bunch of artwork.

0:04:10Eddy Cue saying that 2019 was the biggest year

0:04:14for services in Apple's history.

0:04:16They introduced several new exciting experiences for their customers.

0:04:20So in 2019, we saw Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+, and Apple Card.

0:04:26So those were all new in 2019.

0:04:30And they're talking about that and how the App Store makes all this money for all

0:04:35these people and just tooting their own services horn.

0:04:40Yeah. And then of course, you know, one of the interesting stories of the year when

0:04:44it comes to earnings, we're not going to talk about Apple earnings other than right now,

0:04:48is that quarter after quarter they just continue to grow. So 2020 was bigger than 2019 was,

0:04:55for example. Yeah, that...

0:04:56Yeah, boy. 20... Yeah, you know what I'm saying. 2020 was bigger than 2019.

0:05:01The services chart just keeps getting bigger and better as time goes on.

0:05:05Yeah.

0:05:06Speaking of services, in January, Apple also announced that the redesigned maps data...

0:05:13So remember the story from, I guess, maybe 2017 or 2018

0:05:17that Apple was undertaking this giant process

0:05:20of updating all the data in Apple Maps

0:05:24with much more detail, showing buildings

0:05:26and a lot of upgrades of vegetation and so parks and stuff.

0:05:31You know, you could see walking trails

0:05:32and water and all this stuff.

0:05:35It had been solely rolling out, but in January,

0:05:39again, Eddy Cue is quoted by saying that,

0:05:42all users in the US could now experience this.

0:05:45And that major cities had the look around feature,

0:05:50which is kind of like their street view,

0:05:53but it's a little bit different in the street view

0:05:55the way they actually do it technically.

0:05:57I can say, at least for me, here where I live,

0:06:02Apple Maps is way better now after this update.

0:06:07I've still had it give me kind of bonkers directions.

0:06:11At one point this summer,

0:06:12we were visiting some state parks and we used Apple Maps and it took us to someone's house and the

0:06:18The state park entrance was like two blocks down this little country road

0:06:22And so with Apple Maps you can file a correction and I got an email back within like three days saying they had fixed it

0:06:28and sure enough they had

0:06:29But I think they've done a really good job rolling this out and at least here in the US where my experience is

0:06:35I still use Google Maps when I'm

0:06:40Going someplace. I'm not familiar with because I do think Google Maps data is still better

0:06:44But Apple Maps has really closed that gap in a meaningful way. I think they added the maps here in October

0:06:51Mm-hmm, so I haven't really been able to use them. Yeah

0:06:55It's fair, but you know

0:06:57but this is kind of how I felt always though is like I don't

0:07:02Think that they particularly have a feature set that would take me away from Google Maps, which already works

0:07:07So but I'm happy that they're at least trying to do more with it. We'll see how it goes in the future

0:07:12I know when I was in the UK for your wedding

0:07:15We used Google Maps on the surface

0:07:18But I liked the way Apple Maps

0:07:20Laid out stuff on the tube as someone who was completely unfamiliar with it

0:07:24I found Apple Maps was it is good easier to understand what I needed to do

0:07:28So we kind of went back and forth when we were in London

0:07:31But yeah, they've said that this is going to continue to roll out. It is super good for that

0:07:34It's super good for that, but I don't need that

0:07:37because I know how to use it. You know what I mean? Like, I know how to use the tube.

0:07:40But they did a good job with the entrance and exits type thing.

0:07:43Yes. Which is really important for me.

0:07:45I've never been there before.

0:07:47January 21st, there was a report that Apple had abandoned plans to release an

0:07:54end-to-end encrypted version of iCloud backups after facing complaints from the

0:07:59US federal government, in particular the FBI.

0:08:02This was particularly focused on iMessage?

0:08:05Yes.

0:08:05So I don't know if you guys remembered this story.

0:08:08I didn't remember it until I looked it up.

0:08:10This was like a big thing, which is like resurfaced from previous about

0:08:14the fact that even though iMessage is end to end encrypted,

0:08:18it's not end to end encrypted in the iCloud backups.

0:08:24So in theory, law enforcement,

0:08:27if they could get your information, could get into the backup.

0:08:31It's like this whole thing that people never remember until they're reminded.

0:08:35about the fact that like iMessage is only end-to-end, fully end-to-end encrypted if you do not use iCloud backup. If you do, it isn't.

0:08:43There is a way to get the information.

0:08:45Big news from Twitter in January as well. They announced the feature to limit replies to tweets. So if you use the

0:08:53official Twitter client you'll see this. It's rolled out to everybody now, I think, where you can say

0:08:59"Anyone can reply to this. Only people I

0:09:04mention can reply to this.

0:09:07So if I if I said something to Federico publicly, I didn't want other people to chime in I could I could set that.

0:09:14And the trick is if you mentioned nobody then no one can reply to it.

0:09:18This is a feature that actually got me to switch to the official Twitter app on

0:09:24the iPhone because

0:09:27I kind of gotten weary of tweeting like political things and

0:09:33getting a bunch of replies that you know sometimes these tweets make the rounds and you just have a lot of horrible things

0:09:38in your mentions, so I think this has been a good change to Twitter.

0:09:42I think that it can really be used to at least cut down on things in your replies

0:09:49in terms of harassment and things like that. Now, it's not perfect. People can still quote tweet you.

0:09:55You can still of course get DMs if you leave those open, but it is at least a step towards

0:10:02Controlling what happens to your tweets once you send them never use this feature

0:10:06The trick is to never tweet actually if you never tweet you never have to change the setting

0:10:11I'm gonna say it's deleted for to recap

0:10:16Permanent saying mm-hmm

0:10:20Myke as one of the co-host of upgrade you guys cover streaming and that sort of stuff like can you tell me about this?

0:10:28HBO guy being at Apple

0:10:31This is what there's a couple of stories I've dotted through the year that I think were important

0:10:36And this is one of them Apple signed a five-year first look deal with the then

0:10:42Had recently just been ex HBO boss Richard plepler

0:10:46plepler was head of HBO forever and

0:10:49was responsible for lots and lots and lots of great programming and

0:10:54has an Apple side of first look deal with him which basically means any project that

0:11:01Plepler is working on, Apple gets first dibs on it. There was something that he brought to

0:11:08Apple, or he's the executive producer or something, and I now do not remember what that is,

0:11:15but this is going to end up being over time a helpful thing for Apple. There's a few of these

0:11:24first look deals. This was one of the first big ones in 2020. Apple's really getting serious

0:11:31about this right it's it's really been amazing to see how far Apple TV+ has

0:11:36come in its first year or so. Lastly to round out January a big historical

0:11:43moment the end of January marked 10 years since the iPad was originally

0:11:51introduced back in January 2010 Steve Jobs came out and introduced the iPad as

0:11:56something better than a netbook because those were cruddy but something more

0:12:02capable than a phone and more personal than a laptop and here we are now ten

0:12:07years later and the iPads a whole family and there are people doing work on it full

0:12:10time it was neat to see how far it's come and our friend John Voorhees put

0:12:16together a really great article I love in this article he he went through and

0:12:19found like all of the you know rumors and like mock-ups of what it could look

0:12:25like. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. There's one here that it looks like an iPhone but it has a

0:12:29magsafe and a USB-A port on the side of it. Man, they should have shipped that one.

0:12:33That sounds great. That didn't happen. So it's fun to look back and think, you know,

0:12:38what things could could have been but yeah, iPad. Ten years. It's amazing, isn't

0:12:45it? Yeah, I think Federico, you did a bunch of stuff in, what was it, March or April?

0:12:49I think so. I think it was this year. Because that was when it actually came out.

0:12:53Yeah, it came, it was announced pretty early.

0:12:56It was in April. I think we did a thing in April and I did my story. It doesn't feel like 2020, it feels like a couple of years ago to me, but I think that's when I did my modular computer story.

0:13:09I think. It was this year. And it was for the 10th anniversary of the actual public

0:13:16release on April 3rd in the US, 2010. Yeah, I did the story about my modular setup with

0:13:24the external monitor and the keyboards and the stands and all of that. And also we had

0:13:29a bunch of stories about the iPad, you know, the first decade of the iPad and all the changes

0:13:35in software and hardware and all of that. It was fun. It doesn't feel like 2020, but

0:13:39yeah it was a few months ago I guess.

0:13:41So now we move on to February. Apple announced that there would be a special Apple News section

0:13:47for the US presidential election, which I know I used over the election weeknight that

0:13:55existed this year for the American president. I liked that I could actually get it in the

0:14:02UK, but I know I saw a lot of people complaining, which I understood is that it took up a lot

0:14:06of real estate in the Apple News app for the US presidential election in the UK, which

0:14:12is kind of funny, but like it was basically the entire thing for like three days. And

0:14:16there was a lot going on in the world at that time.

0:14:22I wanted to mention, I was looking through our old show notes and I found Ming-Chi Kuo's

0:14:26first rumor report of the year.

0:14:28And I wanted to just reference this for one reason,

0:14:32which I'll get to in a bit.

0:14:33So these were the things that Ming-Chi Kuo said

0:14:34were going to come in 2020.

0:14:36A 4.7 inch iPhone with touch ID.

0:14:38That was the iPhone SE 2.

0:14:40Triple lens iPad Pro.

0:14:43This was like the first serious rumors.

0:14:46There was lots of rumors of the iPad Pro before it came out.

0:14:48And that was the 2021.

0:14:50A MacBook Pro, an air refresh, which did happen.

0:14:53but he wasn't talking about M1 at that point.

0:14:57Air tags, high-end headphones, and a small wireless charging mat.

0:15:02That was MagSafe.

0:15:04He had a good year.

0:15:08Yeah, but that small wireless charging mat,

0:15:10didn't know what that meant at the time, right?

0:15:12We were like, "Are they doing another AirPower?

0:15:14Are they doing just their own Qi charger?"

0:15:16No, that was MagSafe.

0:15:17What he knew about or what he'd seen or gotten information on,

0:15:21was that was just a MagSafe puck.

0:15:23Yeah, it's impressive.

0:15:25Kuo has a very good year every year.

0:15:27He is the most reliable in this space, I think, of this type of thing.

0:15:33Like I think what Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo do are different,

0:15:36especially from the sources that they have.

0:15:38And Kuo talks about things very early and is often very, very correct.

0:15:44Spotify made a lot of acquisitions in 2020 to continue boosting their podcast business.

0:15:50And one of the first ones that they made was acquiring the ringer from Bill Simmons, which

0:15:56is like a sports and entertainment podcast network and website and Spotify kept the website

0:16:01going as well as acquiring the content.

0:16:04This one for me, when I read it, I kind of couldn't believe that it was this year because

0:16:10it felt like such a long time ago when the director and actor Taika Waititi complained

0:16:16about Apple's laptops at a press conference in the Oscars.

0:16:19Oh yeah!

0:16:20[laughs]

0:16:21When people, I think he was asked, "What makes things difficult?"

0:16:26There was this whole unionizing and striking thing at the time, I believe, with agencies,

0:16:34like acting agencies and stuff like that.

0:16:37And he was kind of asked a question about what makes things difficult at the moment,

0:16:40and then he just started talking about how uncomfortable Apple's laptop keyboards are.

0:16:44Not great.

0:16:45Not a great moment for…

0:16:47No, it was funny though.

0:16:48It is funny. I mean, what was it was especially funny because he had just signed a deal to

0:16:53produce a TP+ show. That brings us to the final month in 2020, March. The beginning

0:17:01of the second year in 2020. The beginning of the end of 2020 and this is when lockdowns

0:17:09started around the world when we started it in Italy in early March and when basically

0:17:15we all started wondering what was going to happen to Apple and, you know, their plans

0:17:21for 2020. So first stop is the, the Apple's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And they

0:17:30had a press release where they announced that they were going to help with donations and

0:17:36with, you know, providing supplies, closing Apple stores, you know, the usual response

0:17:40that we're all expecting basically from Apple at that point. And in addition to that, so

0:17:45So closing Apple stores, retail locations and providing equipment, building their own

0:17:52face masks as well.

0:17:54Yes they did and donated a load of them.

0:17:57They did so much stuff then.

0:17:58They had blueprints.

0:17:59They still have them I believe that you can download them, print out the PDF with instructions

0:18:03on.

0:18:04Have any of you seen the Apple masks?

0:18:06No I haven't.

0:18:07I saw when I went to pick up an iPhone, I saw them.

0:18:11They look really nice, honestly.

0:18:13- In addition to that press release and those announcements,

0:18:19they also put out a COVID-19 website and application

0:18:24that you can download from the App Store.

0:18:28Basically, this is a screening tool and a set of resources

0:18:31and frequently asked questions to check for symptoms,

0:18:35to check to guide you through the process

0:18:38of whether you should go see a doctor,

0:18:40whether you should go get tested, information on social distancing, on wearing masks, on

0:18:46you know proper hand sanitization, you know all that kind of stuff.

0:18:51I forgot they did this.

0:18:53Me too and now that I was checking out the press release and the app again, it feels

0:18:58like forever ago where we had to be, you know, where other people had to explain social distancing.

0:19:07is very much like, you know, it feels like last year material to me. You know, what is

0:19:13social distancing? What does it mean? And now we all know, obviously, what it is.

0:19:17Wait, I have to wash my hands for 20 seconds? That's a long time.

0:19:21Back then all of this was new and there were video tutorials on how to properly wash your

0:19:27hands and... Happy birthday twice? No, surely not.

0:19:31So yeah, there's still the app on the Apple Store and on the App Store and there's still

0:19:36the COVID-19 website, which is covid19.apple.com, where you can go. If you're in the US, you

0:19:43can check your… you can select your state and you can check with your local health department

0:19:47for additional instructions. And there's also a link to a COVID-19 hub on Apple News,

0:19:53if you want to get all the stories about COVID-19. I don't know if you still want, but it's

0:19:59an option, in case you're looking for more news.

0:20:02Anyway, the big announcement, which at the time when things started getting progressively

0:20:08worse, we all knew this was coming, Apple confirmed that WWDC 2020 was not going to

0:20:15happen in San Jose, but it was going to be a virtual...

0:20:18This was announced on March 13th, which looking back, I cannot believe it was that early,

0:20:25because I feel like we were asking the question for ages, but I guess not.

0:20:31Like it felt like such a long time where it was like, oh, what are they going to

0:20:35do? Surely they got to do it. Everyone else is canceling.

0:20:38Like it took a long time.

0:20:40Yeah. At the time, I guess we had no idea just how bad the pandemic was going to

0:20:45be. And I think I remembered clearly a point where

0:20:49us folks in Europe were saying this is going to get bad.

0:20:53Unfortunately, WWDC is not going to happen.

0:20:58and folks in America were saying "It's fine, we can do a conference in June, this will

0:21:03be over by the summer." And obviously it didn't go that way. So Apple announced that the WWDC

0:21:08was going to go online only with a set of sessions and a new system for developers to

0:21:16chat and ask questions to Apple engineers. We didn't have a lot of details at the time,

0:21:22Apple shared more in the weeks following the announcement. But yeah, this was a good move

0:21:28in hindsight. Obviously, it was not going to happen anyway. It was going to get canceled.

0:21:33Like if Apple had announced, "No, we're going to do this anyway," like it just wasn't going

0:21:37to happen because the pandemic got real bad by that time. So good move. We all knew it

0:21:44was coming. So it was the sort of the hot topic for a few weeks on podcasts and on Apple

0:21:52websites. Following that we got an update to the MacBook Air. I guess this is the

0:21:57update that people were waiting for because it came with a new Magic Keyboard,

0:22:02so dropping the butterfly keyboard that everybody hated, and it was also a

0:22:07performance bump with the new storage option as well, if I remember correctly.

0:22:14So this is a faster MacBook Air with a new keyboard with twice the storage at

0:22:21$999. Is that correct, Steven? Yeah, yeah, that's it. So this was the final

0:22:28Intel MacBook Air. My favorite part about this press release, though, is at the bottom

0:22:33it says "Mac Mini, also updated today!" which they just doubled the storage capacity

0:22:39for the prices, which kind of made me laugh. Up next is the insanely popular 2020 iPad

0:22:46Pro. So this is the 2020 iPad Pro is the one with the LiDAR scanner. And it was quite an

0:22:55intriguing announcement because Apple announced the 2020 iPad Pro and everybody, after an

0:23:01initial few minutes of excitement of "Oh my god, there's a new iPad Pro!" we all quickly

0:23:08realized that it was basically the 2018 iPad Pro with the spec bump in the system on a

0:23:12a chip going from the A12X to the A12Z, and a new camera system featuring LiDAR, which

0:23:20however was only used for augmented reality on iPad, and I don't think any of us were

0:23:25excited about AR on iPad. And so it was sort of a letdown, I guess, but in combination

0:23:34with that announcement, Apple also announced the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, and we all

0:23:40freaked out, because obviously this is the accessory that we were waiting for. Like an

0:23:45actual keyboard from Apple, a backlit keyboard with a built-in trackpad, and a new system

0:23:55pointer, a new feature for controlling the iPad OS UI directly with a trackpad, or in

0:24:03the case of a Magic Keyboard, or any other connected mouse or trackpad via Bluetooth.

0:24:09This was the, I would say, this is the single most important iPad announcement of 2020,

0:24:17the Magic Keyboard and iPadOS 13.4.

0:24:20Yeah, it was bigger than iPadOS 14.

0:24:24It was bigger than iPadOS 14.

0:24:26It set the stage for iPadOS 14 because in hindsight, I would argue that the most important

0:24:33features of iPadOS 14, which we're going to talk about later, you know, multi column and

0:24:37sidebars and all that kind of stuff. Those features were enabled by the pointer because

0:24:42they are so much easier to use and interact with if you have a Magic Keyboard with the

0:24:47trackpad and the pointer. So this is a turning point for the iPad's evolution, I would say,

0:24:53the Magic Keyboard and iPadOS 13.4. We should also remember that the Magic Keyboard was

0:24:57not immediately available. It would only come out in early May. Apple announced it in March.

0:25:04They announced iPod S 13.4, but the actual accessory it will launch in May.

0:25:11March 2020, this is a big month, Apple announced that Universal apps were coming to the Mac.

0:25:18This was another big change for the App Store ecosystem this year, or last year, I should

0:25:22say.

0:25:23The idea being that now you can use, if you're a developer, you can release a single application

0:25:28that runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

0:25:30Obviously, there are going to be three separate apps,

0:25:33but you can bundle them up in a universal binary

0:25:35that you can put out on the App Store

0:25:37so that customers can buy it once

0:25:39and they can run it everywhere.

0:25:40This, to me, has been a big change this year

0:25:45because an increasing number of apps that I know and use,

0:25:49I've seen them switch to universal purchases

0:25:53for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

0:25:55And actually, you can even do, I believe,

0:25:58you can do the whole thing.

0:25:59You can do iPhone, iPad, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS, all in a single listing on the App Store,

0:26:07which is kind of incredible.

0:26:08And I guess I should add iMessage as well, because that is also an App Store.

0:26:13For some reason it's still available.

0:26:14Glad that one got in there.

0:26:16Sure, really happy about that.

0:26:18So Universal Apps coming to the Mac.

0:26:20Big news for developers.

0:26:21Seems to have been pretty well received.

0:26:24I guess the only asterisk would be that the early adopters of Mac Catalyst were left out

0:26:32from this, because if you're one of the brave developers who started using Catalyst last

0:26:38year before the good catalyst of 2020, you're out of luck because you can no longer merge

0:26:47the catalyst app that you did in 2019 with universal purchases that Apple launched in

0:26:542020. So it was kind of ridiculous. So not only were you forced to use the bad version

0:27:00of catalyst, but now you can, you cannot take advantage of universal apps either, unless

0:27:05you want to release a new binary. But if you do a new, like a new skew on the app store,

0:27:10but if you do that, you lose all of your reviews and your customers. So not an ideal situation,

0:27:16"Hey, you know, hey, hey, we're gonna talk about that later too." In March 2020, somehow 9to5Mac

0:27:26obtained code strings, some code snippets related to iOS 14, and while we didn't have any screenshots

0:27:35of new features coming in the next OS, we started hearing about certain functionalities, certain

0:27:43options that were going to become available at some point in the future. One of them I

0:27:50want to point out today, how spot on it was, codenamed CIMUR, an Apple TV workouts app.

0:27:58Obviously, this turned out to be Apple Fitness Plus on Apple TV.

0:28:02I think you're right, this was their best, I think this was the best one that they got,

0:28:06that we hadn't really heard of, I don't think anywhere else at that point. I think Mark

0:28:09and then reported on it later, but I think this was the first that we'd heard

0:28:14about the Apple doing some kind of fitness program.

0:28:17It was also in March that Apple acquired Dark Sky, the popular weather app.

0:28:24Now, the Android app is no more. Dark Sky is still available on the iPhone, on the

0:28:29App Store. The data from Dark Sky is being incorporated into the main

0:28:35weather app for iPhone, which for some reason is still not available on iPad. The weather

0:28:40app is only an iPhone exclusive, you can use the weather widget on iPad, but there's no

0:28:45weather app. And the Dark Sky API, I believe, is going to stick around for another year,

0:28:53but at the end of 2021 the Dark Sky API is going to get shut down. So the Android app

0:29:00was discontinued a few months later, the API is sticking around, Apple has started leveraging

0:29:05Dark Sky data in the weather app for iOS 14. And if you're a developer who built a weather

0:29:11service or a weather application on top of the Dark Sky API, you better start finding

0:29:17an alternative because by the end of next year, or should I say this year, the end of

0:29:222021, this thing is going to get shut down and you've got to find something else.

0:29:26The only hope is that at WWDC Apple announces their own weather API, right? That's the hopeful

0:29:31thing, but you can't rely on that if you're a weather developer.

0:29:34is also an option. In March, Steven, you did something. You did, I would say, let me phrase

0:29:42it this way, you did something for the first time, and you did something for the last time.

0:29:48Ooh, nice. That's nice. Yes, I hosted Mac Madness, in which thousands of people voted

0:29:56through a bracket system for their favorite Mac, and some people were upset that the

0:30:04Brackett was randomly seeded.

0:30:08I won't say who, but Myke was one of those people.

0:30:10Yeah, it was a bad idea.

0:30:13It was a bad idea, right?

0:30:15Like, I think we all agreed on that by the end.

0:30:16Yep.

0:30:17And we were voting for our favorite Mac, not the best,

0:30:20you know, not what Jason would do with 2020 Macs,

0:30:22but favorite.

0:30:23And ran that through the month of March,

0:30:26had a winner the beginning of April.

0:30:29Let's just say stay tuned.

0:30:30Maybe 2021 will bring something.

0:30:33I would like you to do it again with proper seeding.

0:30:36This is the same whatever it is.

0:30:38Yeah.

0:30:3824 machines, seed them properly.

0:30:41Yes.

0:30:42If I do it again, I will not randomly seed them.

0:30:45Good.

0:30:47March is also the last time I had a haircut.

0:30:49There you go.

0:30:50I'm starting to look like Federico a little bit.

0:30:51Is it really?

0:30:52Uh-huh.

0:30:52Like you-- OK.

0:30:55Wait, wait, wait.

0:30:56Professional haircut or any hair taken off your head?

0:30:59Any hair taken off my head at all.

0:31:01Really?

0:31:01March.

0:31:02Is your wife okay with it?

0:31:03Yeah, she likes it long.

0:31:05Okay.

0:31:06I didn't know that.

0:31:06That is surprising to me.

0:31:10Yeah.

0:31:10Like no hair cutting whatsoever.

0:31:14Mm-mm, it's out of control.

0:31:16But I feel like your hair is not as long

0:31:18as I've seen it before.

0:31:19So how is that the case?

0:31:20I've grown it for longer times than this.

0:31:23You have?

0:31:24Yeah, my children want me to grow it out

0:31:25into the next podcast-a-thon.

0:31:27So we'll see if it lasts that long.

0:31:29Yes, I think that's a great idea.

0:31:31Well, at this point, you just got to go for it, right?

0:31:34At this point, no, I will go one step further.

0:31:38And I will say, assuming that we're

0:31:40going to see each other again at WWDC 2022,

0:31:45you should cut your hair on stage at WWDC 2022.

0:31:50I assume the reason that the podcast

0:31:52is mentioned is because that's the hair Stephen will remove.

0:31:55Yeah.

0:31:56For fun raising.

0:31:57That is also a good idea.

0:31:58We'll see, though.

0:31:59You never know.

0:32:00Maybe people will choose to save it.

0:32:03They'll pay money to save it.

0:32:04In any case, you should do it live with some kind of audience.

0:32:09Definitely.

0:32:10Yeah, okay.

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0:33:31So coming now to March 2, also known as April, Apple and Amazon have some sort of deal, meaning

0:33:39you can buy content in the Prime Video app directly in certain circumstances for some

0:33:46content.

0:33:48This was something that you had to do outside, like the Kindle app where you got to go to

0:33:51the web and do it because of Apple's cut.

0:33:54This was an Apple and Amazon, you know, they've had their relationship that's been hot and

0:33:59cold over the years.

0:34:00You remember for a while, Amazon wasn't selling Apple products in the store?

0:34:04That was fun.

0:34:05But they've made up.

0:34:06Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook had a handshake.

0:34:08Well, not really.

0:34:09They just agreed on a bunch of stuff that would come out in court later on, but we'll

0:34:12get to that.

0:34:13We'll get to that later!

0:34:17In April, Apple and Google announced they were partnering on COVID-19 contact tracing

0:34:22technologies or how this works is your phone is anonymously talking with other phones that

0:34:29you're nearby and if someone reports that they have tested positive for COVID, the phone

0:34:34knows and then you get an alert saying, "Hey, you've been in contact with somebody who tested

0:34:40positive. You need to go get tested or hide out at home or whatever." This started as

0:34:47APIs that local health officials, either like federal or in the US's case, unfortunately,

0:34:56state health officials, you could have apps built that would affect these.

0:35:009to5Mac has a tracker on their website showing what states in the US have this and it's not

0:35:06very many because a lot of state leadership in our country still thinks it's a hoax.

0:35:12But that aside, this was a big deal because of A) how fast they moved.

0:35:18So they announced this on April 10th and they said in May the APIs will be out there and

0:35:24then in coming months it would be baked more into the operating system with what they quote

0:35:33is a more robust solution.

0:35:35So this is a big deal.

0:35:38I wish it had been used more widely here.

0:35:41I know it's up and running and not other places around the world.

0:35:45But definitely a notable story of again of these tech companies tackling COVID head on.

0:35:50The iPhone SE 2 also shipped in April.

0:35:54This is a phone that looks like the iPhone 8.

0:35:57So single camera touch ID, forehead and chin, but it features the A13 bionic from the iPhone

0:36:0511 series.

0:36:08Fantastic phone.

0:36:09moved a lot of my family members to these over the past year.

0:36:12I think everyone else had a lot of family members

0:36:14on the 6S or maybe a 7, and they didn't want face ID,

0:36:18especially in the time of COVID.

0:36:20Like, yeah, you should get face ID.

0:36:21And if you have to go out and about,

0:36:23obviously with the mask, it's difficult.

0:36:26- Oh, boys, my phone started recognizing me

0:36:29of a mask on.

0:36:30- Consistently? - Oh, wow.

0:36:32- Yes, it's only when I wear one type of mask.

0:36:35- Is it flesh colored? - Is it the type of mask?

0:36:36No, yeah, it's a picture of my face.

0:36:39It's the mask type that I wear the most.

0:36:41It's just this like black mask.

0:36:43I think it's by a company called NeQI.

0:36:45If I wear any other mask, it doesn't work.

0:36:47If I wear this one, works.

0:36:49- Wow, that's cool.

0:36:50- It's very nice.

0:36:51I'm very happy about it.

0:36:52It's funny 'cause it took me a while to realize

0:36:54that it was happening.

0:36:55- Yeah.

0:36:56- Because my phone was just working, right?

0:36:58Like I wasn't really thinking about it.

0:36:59- So anyways, the SE also,

0:37:01in addition to keeping Touch ID around,

0:37:03it is the cheapest phone in the lineup,

0:37:07starting at $399.

0:37:09So this is a great phone to recommend

0:37:11if someone's looking at a lower cost option

0:37:14or they have an older phone

0:37:15and they like what Touch ID offers,

0:37:18especially this day and age.

0:37:20The SE I think is a really good value.

0:37:22I expect it to be around for a few years,

0:37:24so its value proposition will get worse over time.

0:37:27But I still don't think even now,

0:37:29if you want an affordable new phone,

0:37:32the SE is a great place to look.

0:37:34And lastly in April,

0:37:36Well, next to lastly, there's one more,

0:37:39we had the Hackett number.

0:37:41This is episode 291 of Connected,

0:37:46where I had counted up all of the computers

0:37:51in my collection, and then we divided them

0:37:56into the number of people in my household.

0:37:59- Yeah, that was the calculation.

0:38:00I forgot the calculation.

0:38:01- Yes. - That was it.

0:38:03There is a link in the show notes.

0:38:07JW Hamilton built a lovely website

0:38:11where you can figure your own Hackett number,

0:38:14which is pretty cool.

0:38:16Mine was 20.6, and it is now a constant

0:38:20in the PCALC application.

0:38:22The Hackett number is a constant.

0:38:23- Yeah, 'cause it's more now.

0:38:24It's more, you know it's more now.

0:38:26- Oh, yes.

0:38:27A lot more, a lot more.

0:38:32I would like you to figure out your new Hack It number.

0:38:34- Okay, the 2020 Hack It number.

0:38:36- With the constant, no, like with the constant,

0:38:38'cause now you would be like, say like 1.5 or whatever.

0:38:41- Oh, 1.5 Hack It numbers?

0:38:43Oh, that's good.

0:38:45- Right, 'cause that's what you would be now, right?

0:38:47'Cause the Hack It numbers are constant, so.

0:38:49- Yeah.

0:38:50- You would now be more than one, I would assume.

0:38:54- I had a listener of the show donate his collection to me.

0:38:58- Yeah.

0:38:59- I'm gonna be unboxing it on Twitch tomorrow,

0:39:01but it was three pickup truck beds full of stuff.

0:39:06- At some point, you need to be that burden

0:39:08on somebody else.

0:39:09Donate your collection to someone.

0:39:12- Back up a tractor trailer to someone's house.

0:39:13- Yep, it's yours now.

0:39:16- Myke, I know you were hesitant to make a big deal

0:39:20of it at the time, but I want to make a big deal of it here.

0:39:22In April, you celebrated 10 years of podcasting.

0:39:25- I did.

0:39:26- Woo!

0:39:28- Thank you.

0:39:30I like that it's always tied into the iPad for me because that was when I started.

0:39:36The iPad had just been announced and I was really excited about it, so I started a tech

0:39:40podcast and spent many weeks talking with my friend Terry about the fact that it was

0:39:47going to be delayed in the UK.

0:39:49I was very upset about it.

0:39:50And it was.

0:39:51It came out multiple months later in the UK compared to the US.

0:39:55But yeah, so it's a decade.

0:39:57A nice decade.

0:39:58I'm always very happy that I started this at a round number, like 2010, so it'll be

0:40:03easy for me to remember it and for me to count it.

0:40:07And yeah, mine will be in March.

0:40:11It looks like the first time I was on your first show was March 2011, according to my

0:40:15records.

0:40:16Oh really?

0:40:17Yeah.

0:40:18According to your records that are not shareable records.

0:40:20Well no, there's a post on 512 pixels.

0:40:23Ah, good, good, good, good.

0:40:25No audio exists, and that's the way I like it.

0:40:28Anyways, congratulations.

0:40:30So we move into May, which was March 3.

0:40:33Are we saying that the 3rd?

0:40:36It doesn't make sense, right?

0:40:37It's going to be March 3.

0:40:40So one of the biggest stories in May, which has continued throughout the year, was the

0:40:47Black Lives Matter movement kind of seeing a...

0:40:52I don't want to say a resurgence, because it was obviously something that had existed

0:40:56prior, but I think it was something that a lot of people started to pay much more attention

0:41:01to quite rightly after the killing of George Floyd, which sparked demonstrations across

0:41:06the US, which then spread out across the globe. And I know from a political standpoint, engaged

0:41:17me a lot more. I know like many of the people that I work with and in many industries across

0:41:23the globe. It was definitely one of the big themes of this year of which there were many

0:41:32big themes and hopefully is going to continue to be something into the future which brings

0:41:39about much much needed and long overdue change in racial and social justice equality.

0:41:46Going back into more tech focused stuff, Apple launched the Zane Lowe interview podcast in

0:41:54May, which was Apple's first honest to goodness podcast effort. They had Apple News today,

0:42:01later on in the year and some other stuff but this was kind of like, hey here's a thing,

0:42:06it's a podcast. The 13" MacBook Pro got the good keyboard, it got the revised to get the

0:42:13Magic Keyboard. I don't remember if it got anything else of note. I think it was just

0:42:18mostly the Magic Keyboard. Did they get rid of one of the models at this point, Steven?

0:42:24Or like they didn't update the function key version?

0:42:28Yeah, this may have been when the escape went away and they all got touch bars. It may have

0:42:34been before this. I'm not positive off the top of my head.

0:42:38In May, even though we knew WWDC would be virtual, we were told about the schedule and

0:42:44that it would be happening on June 22nd. I remember that was also a thing that felt like

0:42:49it went on way too long and did go on really too long because we were all trying to prepare

0:42:53for the rest of the year. And it wasn't until May that we found out that June 22nd is when

0:42:59WWDC would start. Craig Federighi was on this podcast called App Stories.

0:43:04Yeah, terrible show, don't listen to it.

0:43:07good episode it had the whole year it was that way. That interview as well. Amateur

0:43:12hour. That was nice. I was happy. What is he? Is he the only repeat guest? Maybe? Only

0:43:21repeat guest on App Stories. Right? I think so, maybe. No, he is. He really is. But I

0:43:29know you've done like developer interviews. I figured if maybe somebody had overlapped

0:43:33in that. Nah. Nah, we only allow for one person to be a repeat guest. Wait, if I'd been on

0:43:40it more than once, I think I've filled in for you more than once. Well, it's you and

0:43:43Craig Federighi. Excellent. Excellent. Spotify hired Joe Rogan and made the Joe Rogan...

0:43:52is it called the Joe Rogan Experience? Yeah, the Joe Rogan Experience. What an annoying

0:43:56A... a Spotify...

0:44:00The show is not that much better, anyway.

0:44:03Exclusive podcast.

0:44:04Yikes!

0:44:05And that has gone really well with Spotify so far that nobody could have predicted.

0:44:12And Microsoft previewed the Fluid Office framework, which I'm still very intrigued about, but

0:44:20have seen nothing more about it since.

0:44:22June 2020. So before we talk about the online first online only first, but not last very

0:44:29likely that online only WWDC June 10th, Apple announced the very much expected demise of

0:44:39iBooks author. You may remember iBooks author as this Mac application that allowed you to

0:44:44author digital and interactive books that you could sell on the iBooks store. While

0:44:51is no more. iBooks Author had been languishing for the past few years, it never came to iPad,

0:44:57it never received a lot of features that Pages eventually received, and it was just left

0:45:02there, sort of like abandoned ware, you know, just there for some people. And now, of course,

0:45:10Apple put out a support document and an email to book publishers saying, you know, "Thank

0:45:17you for trying iBooks Author, but we're not gonna make this thing anymore", basically.

0:45:20If you want to author your digital books on Apple platforms, use pages.

0:45:25I'm sad about this.

0:45:26I really liked iBooks Author.

0:45:28I did my one and only interactive iBook editorial in 2013 in iBooks Author, and I loved it.

0:45:41It actually had an intuitive UI in a way that I hadn't seen in any other ebook authoring

0:45:47application for Mac.

0:45:50And I know that there's a lot of features from iBooks Author that Pages still does not

0:45:54offer, such as the way that you could animate inline objects and, you know, have all of

0:46:00these different pop-ups for changing styles and formats.

0:46:04It was really nicely done.

0:46:06They should have done an iPad version, and they never did.

0:46:08So in any case, iBooks Author is dead.

0:46:11Yep.

0:46:12I used it for iBook a few years ago, too, and I wouldn't say I loved the experience.

0:46:17bugs in iBookAuthor really became frustrating, but you're right that Pages didn't get all

0:46:25the stuff that iBookAuthor could do, and like, it was really cool to make a book where you

0:46:29could have all this interactivity, and a lot of that's just gone away.

0:46:34In June we also saw the fight between Apple and Hey.

0:46:39Hey.

0:46:40Hey.

0:46:41The new email client, an email service that launched in June,

0:46:46and it was this whole fight, basically boiling down

0:46:49to the fact that Hey did not want to use Apple's own in-app

0:46:53purchase system.

0:46:54They wanted to direct people to their own website

0:46:57to subscribe and pay for Hey.

0:46:59And Apple was not OK with it.

0:47:03And they-- did they remove or threaten

0:47:06to remove Hey from the app store?

0:47:08I think they didn't approve it for the Mac.

0:47:11They didn't approve for the Mac and they threatened to remove the iOS version and they, I believe,

0:47:18they stopped.

0:47:19Like, they said, "We're not going to approve your updates either unless you comply with

0:47:24our requests."

0:47:25Yeah, because if you remember then Apple announced, I think during WWDC, that thing about like,

0:47:32"We're not going to hold up your updates anymore if there's a problem."

0:47:35So there was this very public fight between Hay and Apple, Apple responding to Hay and

0:47:41Hay going public with the emails and the letters that they received from Apple and the App

0:47:47Review team. It eventually got resolved in a way that we all expected. We did a show

0:47:53about this at the time saying this is bad publicity for Apple, especially going into

0:47:58WWDC, especially into 2020. They need all the goodwill that they can get from developers

0:48:04and this is not the best story to have ahead of WWDC.

0:48:07And eventually they made up and they found the solution.

0:48:11And now you can download Hey from the App Store,

0:48:14and you can subscribe, like I did, to the Hey service on the web,

0:48:21outside of the app. There's no link to sign up for a Hey plan from the iOS or iPadOS version.

0:48:29You need to go to Safari, create your account, and you pay from there.

0:48:33you cannot do so from the mobile app. But that's fine, and once you have an account, you just log in

0:48:39and you can use "Hey!" on your device. So it was this public dispute that could have been easily avoided,

0:48:45I guess, but it was also necessary, I think. It fit this much bigger storyline, I think, and this is

0:48:52why this story should be remembered, and we should talk about it, because it became part of this

0:48:57bigger storyline about Apple and anti-competitive practices, basically the reason why they are

0:49:03under scrutiny, both in the US and in Europe, for antitrust law, basically. And different companies,

0:49:11we're going to talk about those later, sort of banding together and saying, Apple is treating us

0:49:15unfairly and we want to do something about it. This is the first piece of this much bigger puzzle

0:49:20that became one of the key storylines, I think, of 2020, besides the pandemic. Is Apple treating

0:49:29companies and developers unfairly on the App Store. So this is one of the first

0:49:33one of the first scenarios that we're going to talk about this year.

0:49:37WWDC, online only, all of the operating systems were covered. WatchOS 7

0:49:46featuring new complication features on the watch face, the new hand washing

0:49:51timer, support for, well, Fitness+ was not announced yet, but it would get

0:49:58obviously, Fitness+ integration. iOS 14, widgets on the home screen. This will

0:50:04turn out to be the feature of the year, really. All new home screen on iPhone,

0:50:08widgets, folders in the shortcuts app, you know, big updates to Safari for native

0:50:18translations and blocking third-party trackers. iPadOS 14, of course, building on

0:50:23top of IPAT OS 13.4, with multi-columns, sidebars, all new designs for built-in applications

0:50:31like shortcuts, like music, like calendar, and MacOS Big Sur, of course, with all new

0:50:38design, new system icons for built-in MacOS applications. Very polarizing update, I would

0:50:47say. Big Sur with the new design. As soon as Apple showed it off, everybody started

0:50:53talking about how it looked like an OS that was designed for touch with the more spaced

0:50:58out elements and the more iOS-like, you know, minimalistic UI and the new control center

0:51:05and the new support for widgets. So really interesting update. It's part of the reason

0:51:11why I am interested in the Mac again. So, very divisive update, I would say. And obviously,

0:51:19yeah. And obviously, alongside Big Sur, Apple also took the wraps off Apple Silicon, which

0:51:28would eventually turn out to be the M1 chip in the new generation of Macs that would come

0:51:34out later in the year. But at WWC, Apple started sharing some of the details behind what they

0:51:39had been doing. They confirmed, yes, we have been busy building our own chip architecture

0:51:46for macOS devices, and they shared all the details which I don't want to repeat, not

0:51:54because I don't want to, but because I can't, because I don't know them, as well as Steven,

0:51:58but basically Rosetta 2, for example, the new technology for ensuring compatibility

0:52:04with older Mac software, and the all-new system for running iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac.

0:52:13What it all means for developers who have applications built for Intel devices, bringing

0:52:19them over to Apple Silicon.

0:52:22It was the right time to start sharing these details with developers, and in addition to

0:52:27the details, Apple also started sharing the DTK machines, the Developer Transition Kit,

0:52:34in the form of a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini, which in the future would turn out to be the reason

0:52:39why Steven won one of the annual RIKIs.

0:52:42Well, the DTK was like a Mac Mini with the A12Z in it. I won because they released an

0:52:49M1 Mac Mini in the fall.

0:52:50You won because but but you saw it coming and neither Myke nor I did so

0:52:55You you I'm better than you both of us. Yes, you are you are a better person than both of us, honestly

0:53:01Wwc finally

0:53:04We were lucky enough to have some Apple guests on our show Myke. Who did you have an upgrade?

0:53:09We had Bob Borchers and Ronak Shaw

0:53:14on upgrade and then on connected we had Jenny Chen and Steven Toner and this kind of started a trend

0:53:21which I've been really pleased to see of

0:53:24Individuals from Apple appearing on podcasts and YouTube channels and all that kind of stuff throughout the year

0:53:30This was the beginning of that and it's been something that for me

0:53:34I've been has been like a real past professional highlight this year is that I've been able to do a bunch of these interviews now

0:53:41And it's really great. Yeah, MPU's been lucky to be there as well. Of course app stories

0:53:46We talked about Craig Federighi coming on. Yeah, it's been really cool to see Apple bringing podcasts

0:53:52Into like the media fold a little bit more. Yeah, it's not that they didn't happen, right?

0:53:57Like I know that you dumb on the year prior both of you at WWDC

0:54:02But this was the start of like every time

0:54:06There was an announcement like a with which there were many this year

0:54:10There you would see a bunch of podcasts and a bunch of YouTube videos with with people in them

0:54:15So I thought it was really good. It was a good kind of like opening

0:54:19Of the the gates as it were so yeah, I think it's very great

0:54:22But the real big update in June

0:54:27Was the rebooted membership program here in relay FM. I think that's the feature that we should talk about. Yeah, I mean

0:54:34Myke and I worked

0:54:36We've said this before the hardest

0:54:38I feel like the hardest we've worked since starting the company and figuring out what the membership program should look like moving forward and

0:54:44We've settled on the system we have now where you can

0:54:47sponsor individual shows for instance you could join connected by going to relay.fm/connected/join and

0:54:55You get an ad-free longer version of connected plus a bunch of benefits that all members get including

0:55:02the Discord, which has been a real bright spot for me in 2020.

0:55:06Getting to know our members better and engaging like really fun, meaningful conversations with a bunch of people all around the world.

0:55:14It's been great. And so, and the membership has been really successful so far.

0:55:18So a big thank you to everybody out there who has joined, either Connected or any of our other shows.

0:55:23It really means a lot to us and it's given us stability in a year that hasn't promised it.

0:55:30This episode of Connected is brought to you by Pingdom from SolarWinds.

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0:56:34When you sign up use the code "Connected" at checkout to get an awesome 30% off your first invoice.

0:56:39Our thanks to Pingdom from SolarWinds for the support of the show and RelayFM. Are we ready for July March 5?

0:56:47Mm-hmm. Apple canceled some Apple Arcade

0:56:51The report said that this was part of a strategy shift to create content with stronger engagement.

0:57:03You know, kind of the pitch of Apple Arcade is you can play any of these apps just as

0:57:09part of your subscription.

0:57:10None of them have in-app purchase, so you've got to buy coins to beat the boss or whatever.

0:57:15And I guess Apple feels like some of these games have gone too far the other direction.

0:57:20I know for me at least like I only have Apple Arcade because it comes with the Apple One

0:57:25membership that we pay for. It's not something I would seek out on my own.

0:57:28I think we've also seen a slowing down of releases. You know Apple at the beginning was really putting

0:57:35out a bunch of games all the time and clearly that was a push to you know populate the store.

0:57:39But it has slowed down and I think y'all have talked about this on App Stories. I don't know

0:57:44if there's been like a real breakout hit from Apple Arcade. There were some good games that

0:57:49that we all talked about in the beginning,

0:57:50but when's the last time an Apple Arcade title

0:57:53really made big waves?

0:57:56And I think that's a bit of a problem.

0:57:57I think Apple needs to look at that.

0:57:59And so in July, they reportedly canceled some contracts

0:58:04with game developers and shifted things around.

0:58:07And I don't know if we've seen the changes out of this yet,

0:58:11but I think I would imagine the Apple Arcade

0:58:15is not performing the way that the company would have hoped.

0:58:18Is that fair?

0:58:19Yeah.

0:58:20I also, this is a report that I wasn't sure about when it came out and I'm still

0:58:24not sure about it now.

0:58:25There have been a lot of still like very experiential games to come to Apple

0:58:31arcade, um, that clearly weren't canceled.

0:58:34I don't know if there was like a parameter of cancellation.

0:58:38Uh, I still feel like, as I said at the time, it feels like Apple was maybe going

0:58:43for more of a balance than maybe length too far in one direction.

0:58:48That they will now try and find a balance if those games is kind of what I think is going to be the case

0:58:53Another big story this year

0:58:56Really throughout the the whole year this popped up in June some and then later in the fall is Apple's ongoing

0:59:03commitment to fighting the effects of

0:59:06Climate change and the announcement in July is that they were committing by the end of the decade so by 2030

0:59:15to be 100% carbon neutral for its supply chain and

0:59:19products. You may think, "Steven, they're already carbon neutral." They have been that I think for a while in their facilities. So like the

0:59:27Spaceship and Infinite Loop and then they have offsets for their retail stores

0:59:33but they want to continue to push that down the line to their suppliers and

0:59:37their manufacturing. So this is

0:59:40This is a big deal.

0:59:42I mean, this is a huge undertaking

0:59:44because now they're partnering with companies

0:59:46that they don't necessarily control.

0:59:48When you build your own spaceship donut ring headquarters,

0:59:53you can design this in.

0:59:55So now they've got to go in and retrofit parts

0:59:57of their manufacturing supply chain

1:00:00and the rest of their business.

1:00:01Very ambitious, but I totally believe

1:00:05they'll be able to do it.

1:00:06I think Apple's work in this area has really been,

1:00:11really awe-inspiring, honestly.

1:00:14They've really done some amazing work led by Lisa Jackson.

1:00:18I think she's a phenomenal leader.

1:00:20And it's pretty great that they wanna say,

1:00:23not just what we do, but for the product life cycle,

1:00:27we want this to be carbon neutral.

1:00:28It's very exciting.

1:00:29Also in here is their robot Dave,

1:00:34replacing the robot Daisy and we're still very concerned about what happened to Daisy.

1:00:39We know what happened to Daisy. Dave murdered her.

1:00:41They killed Daisy. Recycled Daisy. Wait, didn't they actually respond to this at one point?

1:00:46I think somebody emailed Lisa Jackson, right? Maybe.

1:00:50I think somebody emailed them and I think Lisa replied and was like, "Daisy's fine."

1:00:56But clearly not. Obviously she's not, like, you know, Daisy.

1:01:02We don't like this story.

1:01:03We don't like to talk about it.

1:01:05Daisy, rest in peace our friend.

1:01:08Tom Hanks movie Greyhound, which my Apple TV really wants me to watch.

1:01:13Like it just, it's at the top of the screen every time I turn on my TV.

1:01:16All the time.

1:01:17That's the movie.

1:01:19This is starred in and written by Tom Hanks and it opened on Apple TV Plus.

1:01:25It's largest opening weekend release ever for Apple TV Plus.

1:01:29That's not a huge list of things that had to beat, but you know, way to go Tom Hanks.

1:01:36Of course, this is just one story in many, we're not talking about them all, of movies

1:01:41that have come out on streaming services because movie theaters are either closed or have greatly

1:01:49reduced capacity because of COVID.

1:01:52And I think all of this, and again, you guys talk about this one, upgrade a lot, but I

1:01:56I think this whole industry is probably far from the end of its being affected by this.

1:02:03But Greyhound, there you go.

1:02:06Have you seen anybody seen it?

1:02:07No, I haven't watched it.

1:02:08I probably will at some point.

1:02:10Yeah, it's like on my list, but there's a bunch of stuff I want to watch before it.

1:02:15And lastly, for me here in July, we talked about Amazon and Apple cutting deals.

1:02:23This year another big theme has been antitrust hearings in the US, in the EU, other places.

1:02:30Not just Apple, but really the big companies.

1:02:33Facebook and Amazon in particular, but then Apple and...

1:02:38Google.

1:02:39...Microsoft.

1:02:40No, no, Google, no Microsoft.

1:02:41Microsoft stayed out of it.

1:02:43Yes, Microsoft is not a monopoly anymore.

1:02:47I don't know.

1:02:50had their time and it was in the 90s. So anyways, part of this, you always get details of inner

1:02:58company workings. Like, do you remember when Samsung and Apple were in court over Samsung

1:03:04ripping off the look and feel of the iPhone and we saw all these pictures of prototypes

1:03:08of like weird iPhones that never made it out? Well, this time it was some emails with Steve

1:03:13Jobs and talking about this issue of digital goods in apps and where Apple

1:03:23settled is like the Kindle app again it's always sort of the go-to like you

1:03:27can't buy digital books and Amazon apps you've got to go to the web it's really

1:03:31goofy that's still the case today and some of the decision-making that went

1:03:37into this from these internal emails.

1:03:41And none of these companies look good in some of this stuff.

1:03:45I think some companies like Facebook and Amazon,

1:03:52there's clearer cases for antitrust,

1:03:55but this thing of locking things away

1:03:58to their own payment gateway continues to be an issue.

1:04:01So we got to see 2010, some of these emails,

1:04:05how this started out.

1:04:06Alright, so we move on to August. The 27 inch iMac was updated. It got an SSD T2 chip. It

1:04:15also got the nano texture display option from the Pro Display XDR. This was the last big

1:04:21Intel update, I think. I think? I think Apple did some smaller updates afterwards, but this

1:04:28was I think the last update that had any kind of like...

1:04:31I'm trying to think. I don't think...

1:04:34No, there was something because you remember they said when they...

1:04:38Oh no, this was... Was this the last one? I think this might have been the last one.

1:04:41I think it is.

1:04:42But yeah, this was actually a pretty chunky update and put that 27-inch iMac in a position

1:04:50where it was more powerful than the iMac Pro in some instances, for example. So really kind of

1:04:55like beef that machine up and is hopefully setting the stage for what should be a pretty incredible

1:05:002021 for the iMac, I think.

1:05:03This machine is why I think the iMac Pro is not going to survive this transition.

1:05:08Oh definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is one of the many reasons.

1:05:11Yeah, I think we're just going to have really fast iMacs and then if you want it, a Mac Pro.

1:05:14There's no need for the iMac Pro anymore, especially after it gets some Apple Silicon

1:05:19variant. Phil Schiller advanced to Apple Fellow, giving away the reins of the marketing department

1:05:28to Greg Joswiak. Sheila, even as a fellow, remained to Apple running events and parts of the app store

1:05:36still, I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, but it's clearly in a transitionary phase towards

1:05:43retirement at this point. Good for him. Good for Phil. This is where my favorite story of the year

1:05:49again this was the whole epic Fortnite Apple thing where Fortnite was updated

1:05:58they added in their own payment option for in-app purchases was immediately

1:06:02pulled from the store then court case court case court case court case and at

1:06:08this point nothing's changed but will continue to change I think there was a

1:06:12court date announced coming up soon for when they're going to be going back into

1:06:16court again but this is a story that isn't a 2020 story as such it started in 2020 but

1:06:23is going to continue for a long time and this is just the beginning of that but I really

1:06:29personally really liked that story a lot just because there was just a lot of discussion to

1:06:35be had about it and people fall on different sides of it there's a lot of interest in debate on all

1:06:40sides. Yeah, it was one of my favorite stories of the year, honestly, just from

1:06:44an intrigue perspective, because I think it also helped solidify some points of my

1:06:50own that had been bubbling up for a while since like the "hey" stuff started

1:06:55about kind of like, hey, being a little bit unhappy with Apple's kind of

1:06:59positioning as where they are as a company and how they run the App Store

1:07:04and what they do and don't provide. I don't agree with everything. I don't

1:07:09agree with a lot necessarily of what Epic is throwing at Apple, but I do agree with

1:07:14some of it and I think that some stuff needs to change and will continue to.

1:07:19Then straight after Apple said that cloud gaming services cannot have their own apps

1:07:23in the app store and this is something that they have confirmed over time, but now just

1:07:28all of these companies are launching PWA versions of these services so Apple's losing out on

1:07:34everything now.

1:07:35They could have maybe got some money now they're not going to get any money.

1:07:39Martin Scorsese signed a first look deal with Apple. This is another big individual and

1:07:44there's a movie, Martin Scorsese has a movie coming to Apple TV and then they signed a

1:07:49first look deal as well. And this is also when the US government attempted to start

1:07:54to ban TikTok, but that's kind of, will they, won't they still at this point, but that was

1:08:00when that whole thing, that whole drama began as well. All the way back in August, which

1:08:05It feels like it was just happened and was a really long time ago.

1:08:08Well, we have reached September or March 7.

1:08:14But then, but September again, like then started the three month long Apple event.

1:08:19I was getting ready to say, oh, Federico got both Apple events.

1:08:23Then I remembered, oh, wait, there's one in October and in November.

1:08:26And then there was product releases in December.

1:08:27Yes. So September, the first Apple event, this is the one about the Apple Watch.

1:08:35Apple One, Fitness Plus, and the new iPad Air. So, new Apple Watch, the Series 6, and the Apple Watch SE,

1:08:43the cheaper one. The Series 6 Apple Watch, same design as the previous generation, but of course

1:08:48it can now measure your blood oxygen levels, which seems to be pretty fitting, given how a lot of

1:08:54people are interested in this data in 2020. There's also the new Apple Watch for Families setup,

1:09:00where you can set up an Apple Watch for your kids, and you can restrict access to certain features,

1:09:04and you can check on your kids' locations if they're wearing an Apple Watch with GPS.

1:09:12I don't think that any of us is using this feature. I mean, Steven, you're one with kids.

1:09:17Are you using this?

1:09:18Uh, no, we're not. But it does look interesting, and I think if our kids were older, we may

1:09:23consider it. They also don't go anywhere, so they're just here.

1:09:27Sure. I mean, fair enough. Good point. Apple also introduced a new Fitness+ service. This

1:09:33is the premium workout service that Mark Gurman originally reported on months before.

1:09:38It actually came out a few weeks ago. This is a workout service where you watch videos of

1:09:46trainers explaining a workout and you work out with them. The peculiarity, of course,

1:09:52there's hundreds of similar services on the App Store. The unique feature here, obviously,

1:09:57is the integration between different Apple devices, the Apple Watch and Apple Music.

1:10:01If you're an Apple Music subscriber, you can get all of those playlists and you can bring your own music into the workout as well.

1:10:08If you wear your Apple Watch, you kinda have to. I mean, you can work out without an Apple Watch for Fitness+ workouts, but you're highly encouraged to do so.

1:10:18And the peculiar thing is that you're gonna see your live metrics from your Apple Watch on the screen as you're following the workout.

1:10:25And you can follow those workouts on your iPhone on the small screen if you're okay with it, or on an iPad, or

1:10:30ideally, if you have a big enough living room, I suppose, on an Apple TV.

1:10:34You can follow those workouts there, and you will see your Apple Watch data displayed on the screen.

1:10:39Really fascinating service. I haven't signed up for it yet.

1:10:43Part of the reason why is I need to figure out another thing that Apple announced in September,

1:10:48and I still haven't had the time for it. Apple One, which is the new bundle

1:10:54Option that we've been waiting for for a couple of years essentially it comes in two flavors Apple one and Apple one premiere

1:11:01I think it's called I think and there's a family one. I think

1:11:04Three because one of them is premiere for family. I think

1:11:09Yeah, it's individual which is $15 a month family which is $20 a month

1:11:15And it's it's all the same stuff

1:11:18But you share it with five people and you get 200 gigs iCloud and then there's premiere

1:11:22which is 30, where they add on 2 terabytes of iCloud space, News+ and Fitness+.

1:11:28And it has the family sharing built in, like the sharing of mobile people's built into that plan.

1:11:33Right. So Fitness+ is included in Apple One Premiere alongside Apple News and of course

1:11:39Apple Music and Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. I haven't signed up for it yet because I have a

1:11:44weird setup with multiple Apple IDs, one based in the US and another in Italy and I'm afraid.

1:11:51It's one of those things where you touch it and it explodes, and I really don't want anything

1:11:56to explode at this point in my life, so I'm just going to leave it there.

1:12:00Eventually I will check out Fitness+ because it looks really interesting.

1:12:05But I'm also lucky enough to live with a Pilates instructor, so I kind of have my own private

1:12:10lessons going on at the moment.

1:12:12I like it a lot, I suppose.

1:12:14Yeah, I mean, I got my own Fitness+ built in at home, essentially.

1:12:18Does she show you your metrics? No, but I can glance at my Apple Watch, and

1:12:24also she gets upset when I do. It's like, "Don't look at it. Don't be distracted."

1:12:28So yeah, it's kind of nice, actually, to do some... Yeah, anyway.

1:12:34New iPad Air with the A14 Bionic and Touch ID. So this is a first on Apple devices, I

1:12:41guess on iOS and iPadOS devices. Touch ID is coming back, and it doesn't leave in a

1:12:46home button it's in it's in the sleep/wake button it's in the I guess it's

1:12:51called the top button on the iPad Air. Yeah that's on the side if it's on the

1:12:55keyboard. Right it can be on any side because the iPad can be rotated but

1:13:01what's interesting about the iPad Air besides the so-called colors which are

1:13:07not really I mean technically you can buy one in blue or in green but they

1:13:12don't really look blue or green. Just buy one in silver, trust me, it's by the car.

1:13:18The iPad Air is interesting because it's essentially the 11-inch iPad Pro without

1:13:23some Pro features. It's a 10.9-inch display, it doesn't have the 6GB of RAM

1:13:31from the Pro line, it doesn't have a lighter, it doesn't have a... what doesn't

1:13:38have actually besides slider and 6 gigs of RAM. Promotion. And promotion. And it

1:13:45only has two speakers instead of four. Right. But anything else you support it

1:13:50here you can use the second generation Apple Pencil, you can snap on the Magic

1:13:54Keyboard, and you have Touch ID instead of Face ID, which for some people may be

1:13:59a plus given the times. This is a really good iPad. I was lucky enough to be able

1:14:04to review one when it came out. I think this should be treated as the new default iPad

1:14:12for most people. If you're looking at a powerful iPad with support for the Magic Keyboard and

1:14:17the Apple Pencil, this is where you should start, not the iPad Pro. Then of course if

1:14:21you want to go bigger, if you want to have more options, go with the iPad Pro. But this

1:14:25is a really, really, really good iPad. Apple also introduced the 8th generation iPad. So

1:14:32this is the base model one. This one comes with an 812 bionic and the old

1:14:36design, so you still have the "OMP" button and slightly worse performance. Obviously

1:14:41this is the cheap iPad if you really want to get into the iPad ecosystem

1:14:45without spending a ton of money. Lastly, in terms of Apple announcements in

1:14:50September. This is what made me so happy. A few months ago, iOS and iPadOS 14, the

1:15:06release dates, the release date of both OSes was announced in September with a

1:15:1224-hour notice. Usually Apple historically has released golden

1:15:23master versions of those OSes with a one week or eight day, sometimes ten day

1:15:29notice, but this time they did an event and they said iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, they

1:15:36come with all these great features and they're coming out tomorrow. And yeah, so

1:15:42So, developers were not happy. I was not happy. My review came out a month later.

1:15:47In the end, it was fine, and it went really well. But at the time, I was annoyed, and

1:15:52I was upset. So, it took me by surprise, and it took everybody by surprise, I think.

1:15:57One of the best stories of the year, I would say, one of the most heartwarming stories

1:16:03of 2020, also, I guess, started happening in September, and it only grew from there.

1:16:11Underscore David Smith became the most important indie developer in the world.

1:16:17I think it's fair enough to say Widget Smith, his new app for making custom widgets for

1:16:22the iOS 14 home screen, took the world by storm and it became the most popular app on

1:16:28the App Store.

1:16:29This is an incredible story.

1:16:32Years of artwork and an experience paying off in a way that none of us, I think, would

1:16:40have expected.

1:16:41No, no.

1:16:42We just meet sort of a... becoming so popular outside of our usual circle of Apple blogs

1:16:49and podcasts and...

1:16:50An app being wildly popular and an app being number one in the app store for two weeks

1:16:56or whatever are two very, very different things.

1:16:58Right.

1:16:59Like, I could have imagined any of them...

1:17:01I can imagine any of Underscore's apps being wildly popular because they're very good,

1:17:05but this is a different... this is a different thing.

1:17:08This is a completely different level.

1:17:10You say that about one of the most...

1:17:14what became the most important indie developer in the world at that point.

1:17:17I guess you could maybe even argue of all time?

1:17:20Of all time, probably.

1:17:22I can't imagine... I can't think of many, if any, modern app development companies

1:17:29with a hit like that being one person.

1:17:32I don't think that happens.

1:17:34I think that's correct.

1:17:36Yeah.

1:17:37Yeah, so made me so happy to see. Wonderful story. Go check out Widgetsmith, really good

1:17:42app. The Jeremy's happened, Jeremy's of course being our game where I fidelity go.

1:17:49It's not a game, it's very serious stuff.

1:17:51It's a very, look, a game can be serious, and I, being a slightly competitive person,

1:17:58I take this very seriously. It's, you know, my obligation to guess the names of the little

1:18:03figurines that we can input on our devices. And the sometimes questionable choices of

1:18:09the Unicode Consortium. And also I would say this is all Jeremy Burge's fault.

1:18:15The creator of Emoji. The present president and CEO of Emoji, Jeremy

1:18:21Burge, a friend of the show, sometimes my worst enemy at this time of year. But also

1:18:28I love Jeremy very much. It's a complicated relationship, complex feelings that I have

1:18:32toward Jeremy, but this game is one of my favorite moments of the show during the year. So this is

1:18:39the third year, I think, that we've gone through this guessing and it never lets me down. And lastly,

1:18:46in September, I'm gonna leave it up to you guys to talk about it, the podcast-a-thon. Despite

1:18:52all of this, it happened and it went extremely well.

1:19:01Yeah, I can talk a little bit about this. So last year was the first one in 2019. We've been raising

1:19:08money for St. Jude for years. In 2018, the relay FM audience raised $70,000. In 2019, we raised

1:19:16$315,000. But this year just even exceeded that. The final number for the 2020 campaign is $481,000

1:19:29for St. Jude. Which is actually the first time we've revealed that number, right? That's right,

1:19:33the first time we've shared it. We had some donations come in after the Podcastathon.

1:19:38We ended September at 456, but then after some final donations and stuff like that, it ended up

1:19:45at $481,000. Yeah, which is just unbelievable. We hit the original goal of 315 during the Podcastathon.

1:19:54and that day alone raised over $100,000,

1:19:58donations from 50 countries.

1:19:59I mean, it was so amazing to take part of this

1:20:04and to watch those numbers continue to grow,

1:20:07especially this year when there are so many things

1:20:11in the world that need support,

1:20:13a lot of people are hurting financially,

1:20:16but the Relay FM community really stood up

1:20:18and backed St. Jude in a way that we just are so humbled by.

1:20:23And we're really excited to do it again in the fall.

1:20:25So hopefully together.

1:20:28- I want to say something.

1:20:30I've been pretty lucky in my life to get to know

1:20:33plenty of folks who do wonderful things and amazing things.

1:20:37I was able to meet astronauts and doctors

1:20:44who treat the worst diseases imaginable.

1:20:47Folks who make apps that millions of people use.

1:20:52I've been able because of what I do and because, you know,

1:20:54circumstances in my life to get to know tons of different people,

1:20:58but what you two were able to do with this event,

1:21:02and I say this honestly, coming from my heart,

1:21:05is generally incredible and important

1:21:09in a way that it's one of those stories that I

1:21:14tell to my friends. Like, Hey, you know that, you know,

1:21:19Two of my friends, they do this thing and it's, it's like,

1:21:23it's wild to think about it. And it's, you know,

1:21:26the cause right behind it is so important and it's

1:21:31so like the cause behind it is so despicable,

1:21:36right? You know, children getting cancer. I mean,

1:21:40it's,

1:21:41it's possibly the worst thing that could ever happen much,

1:21:44much worse than a pandemic,

1:21:45but to be able to act on it and to build a community around it and to

1:21:49do something positive about it. It's so beautiful. It's a beautiful thing you two

1:21:53should be proud of. Well, I'm very proud of it and I'm very thankful for you to say

1:21:57that, but I have to circle back because you said you know an astronaut and I

1:22:00don't think I knew this about you. Well, not only do I know him, this is a story

1:22:05from when I was a kid, this is a person who, let me double check, I also have his

1:22:11picture and an autograph and a personal letter from him. Who is this person? An Italian guy.

1:22:18Okay.

1:22:19Named Roberto Vittori.

1:22:21He was an ESA astronaut.

1:22:24Right.

1:22:25He was, let's see, Italian Air Force in 1990.

1:22:29He flew the Soyuz and he, yeah, he went to the ISS.

1:22:37He was born in Viterbo.

1:22:41Yes, that's why I know him.

1:22:42Wow.

1:22:43Because my dad interviewed this guy a bunch of times

1:22:46and one time we were able to meet and I have his photo.

1:22:51It's actually a beautiful photo

1:22:52of the space shuttle taking off.

1:22:55And I believe that the personal dedication says,

1:23:00"To Federico, with the hope that one day you'll join me

1:23:03in space," or something like that.

1:23:04- That's nice.

1:23:05- It's very nice, it was very nice.

1:23:07- Do you secretly hate this guy though?

1:23:08'Cause like, he's potentially a more famous person

1:23:12than you from Viterbo?

1:23:13- Well, I don't like to think of myself

1:23:15as a person from Vietnam. Easy. I don't think of myself from that place. I'm Rome, baby!

1:23:25I'm big city boy! Big city Federico, they call me. Well, look, look, it's famous in

1:23:30space, alright? I'm famous on Earth. So it's fine. Oh, nice. I like that. Here's a Wikipedia

1:23:35page, do you? I do not. Myke does. But also he's got that fancy NASA picture that I don't

1:23:41He's a handsome man, too. Look, you don't need to… We got it. You like

1:23:47this guy from Viterbo better than me. It's fine.

1:23:49Yeah, he's now my favorite Viterbo native. Whatever.

1:23:52Roberto Viterbo. I'll just say some pretty amazing things

1:23:56about you two, and this is how you pay me back. All you want is the more famous guy

1:24:00from Viterbo. Thanks. Really good friends I have on the show.

1:24:04No, your words are very kind. I was struggling not to…

1:24:09from Roberto, they would have been kinder. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah. I mean, he's into space.

1:24:14Like, yeah, no, I mean, I mean, we said it in the 2019 podcast-a-thon that it was like

1:24:19the peak of our career. Like it felt like so much had built up to that. And I felt that

1:24:23way again this year. And I agree with Myke. Hopefully we can be in person in Memphis to

1:24:28do it this fall. This episode of Connected is brought to you by Wondery's Business Wars

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1:25:59All right, October March version 8 guys there's an Apple press event in October no way

1:26:06We got the adorable and tiny home pod mini a $99

1:26:12Siri speaker ball that makes the regular home pod look like a joke in terms of cost

1:26:17We've got one sounds pretty good. We're happy with it. It's very small very adorable

1:26:23clips

1:26:253.0

1:26:26big news there

1:26:28Apple just keeps chugging away on the clips train. They did get rid of... what after they get rid of at the end of the year?

1:26:33Music Memos.

1:26:36Yeah, rest in peace.

1:26:38But of course the highlight of the press event was four new iPhones.

1:26:42The iPhone 12 mini returned to a small flagship phone. The iPhone 12...

1:26:49iPhone 12 Pro is the same size, but has the third camera and nicer materials.

1:26:55And then the phone that the two of you use, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the big boy.

1:27:00The best one.

1:27:01Hmm, I agree.

1:27:02Maybe.

1:27:03No, it is the best one.

1:27:04It is, it's the biggest, the best.

1:27:06It's the most iPhone.

1:27:08It is the most iPhone.

1:27:10It's the iPhone nest of all iPhones.

1:27:14Exactly.

1:27:15This event will be remembered, not for any of that, but for a Verizon guy being on stage saying 5G 400 times.

1:27:24And then Apple saying 5g

1:27:26400 times today, we're bringing 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g

1:27:345g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g 5g

1:27:355G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G, 5G,

1:28:05and I disabled one of the new features right away.

1:28:09I've kept 5G disabled for the past three months,

1:28:14and I haven't noticed at all.

1:28:16-I just haven't upgraded my cell plan.

1:28:19-It was so useless that I was paying for it.

1:28:23It was included in my plan, and I didn't even know.

1:28:27So, yeah, I turned it off. It's fine.

1:28:304G gives me plenty of data,

1:28:33but also there's a pandemic going on and I'm at home most of the time.

1:28:385G will be great one day. It'll be. It's just not now and it's fine. Yeah. But it's just not now.

1:28:44Apple also announced Apple Music TV which is a 24-hour music video channel. I tried to open it

1:28:52in the TV app on my Mac and it's just I can't find it. I don't know where it is.

1:28:57No one's ever actually seen it but apparently it exists.

1:29:00This was one of those stories that I added in and knew that all the listeners would go, "Oh yeah."

1:29:05Oh yeah.

1:29:05And then we move on.

1:29:08I feel like so much of the Apple Music content is like that.

1:29:11The shows they do, I don't know if any of it's really taken off.

1:29:16No. Well, the service itself is doing well and that's the most important thing.

1:29:19But all of the ancillary stuff doesn't really seem to have done what they want.

1:29:27And we were blessed by the official Mac Stories review of iOS and iPadOS 14.

1:29:34Federico's greatest work to date. Yeah, it's fantastic. I'm loading it now and I'm just

1:29:39mesmerized by all the animations y'all did. It's excellent as always. Very good animations.

1:29:45Great job. Ah yeah, that happened this year. A monumental achievement.

1:29:54Yeah, that launch day was weird for me, for a bunch of reasons, but it went really well in the end.

1:30:04No astronauts ever written something like that, I tell you that.

1:30:08Yeah, go to space and try and write 70,000 words in space if you can.

1:30:12Good luck.

1:30:13Good luck with that, with zero G.

1:30:15Good luck typing with no gravity.

1:30:18Go on with that butterfly. You should bring a butterfly keyboard in space and see if it works.

1:30:22Yeah, you got five more Gs than he does.

1:30:245G.

1:30:29All right, Myke, take us to November.

1:30:31Jon Stewart signed a deal with Apple TV to produce some kind of news-related content.

1:30:37We don't know what it's going to be yet, but it's going to be something probably in 2021.

1:30:42Ted Lasso took the world by storm and got renewed for three seasons, having

1:30:48only shown one of them, but it's very clearly Apple's crowning achievement with Apple TV

1:30:53Plus to this point. It was their breakout success. It's the breakout success that they needed and

1:30:58it's one that they were able to get. Hopefully they will have more in the can and with the

1:31:04amount of content that Apple have been signing seems like at least something's going to be good.

1:31:08Apple had another press event where they showed off the M1 along with a selection of new Macs,

1:31:15which everybody loves and is probably Apple's best achievement of the year.

1:31:19Just how fantastic these computers are. And they also introduced macOS Big Sur to the world,

1:31:28which I really like. They announced the App Store Small Business Program, which is the 15%

1:31:39cut that Apple will take if you earn less than a million dollars a year and Instagram changed their

1:31:47app layout and everyone hates it. It's very confusing. I've gotten used to it at this point

1:31:53but I have I've run a couple of Instagram accounts right and one of my Instagram accounts has the old

1:32:00layout. And it's nice. It's nice in there. I like it there.

1:32:05I don't know why, but I gained two thousand followers on Instagram over the past week

1:32:11without doing nothing. And I honestly believe that somebody pulled a prank on me and bought

1:32:16me some fake followers without me knowing.

1:32:18I had that happen with Twitter once. And I blocked them all.

1:32:22I honestly have no idea. The thing is, this looks like real people.

1:32:27Well okay, I might be able to help you with this actually. I've been trying to think about this for you.

1:32:32Because I know you asked me if I had any ideas. Have any of your posts seen increased engagement?

1:32:37Yes.

1:32:38Right. Okay.

1:32:39Well no, wait. Posts, you mean the max stories?

1:32:42No.

1:32:44On Instagram?

1:32:45Your Instagram posts. You get lots of likes on at least one photo or something.

1:32:48No.

1:32:48Oh then I don't know then.

1:32:49No.

1:32:50No.

1:32:51My theory is that they're not actually fake followers. They are real people.

1:32:56Like I went in and started checking out their profiles.

1:32:59They seem to be like actual human beings, like sharing stories and...

1:33:03Fake followers are real people.

1:33:05This is like a whole thing.

1:33:07Like the fake follower things are, they are still real people.

1:33:11It's kind of weird, but it's...

1:33:14They're not bots.

1:33:15They are actual people.

1:33:16Well, the thing is, it's very weird because they, like, they all seem to have

1:33:23something in common where most of these people, they seem to be into the fitness and health

1:33:32segments of Instagram. But I don't know why they started following me. I basically only

1:33:39post photos of my dogs and my tattoos and sometimes stories about my articles. Yeah,

1:33:46it's a whole thing. There isn't a, um, a post of yours that's like exploding because that

1:33:52would suggest that maybe that you know you got put in like the explore tab or

1:33:56something the fact that that hasn't happened suggests that if they are like

1:34:01real people your Instagram account has been linked somewhere and that you're

1:34:05never gonna write that one else no never never anyway yeah I don't like the new

1:34:10Instagram layout by the way but at least they took reels out of the search tab

1:34:15Yeah, yeah. Well, folks, we have reached December, the real end of 2020, so I'm gonna take us

1:34:25home with the final month of the year. It's not a very good year. Tim Cook says that Apple

1:34:31employees will not be back at Apple Park in large numbers until, at the very least, June

1:34:38of 2021. It makes sense, right? We were all expecting this. This is not gonna be over

1:34:44anytime soon. Just yesterday, here in Italy, we started doing vaccinations on Sunday, and

1:34:52the current timeline, unless things change, I suppose, is to have the vast majority of

1:35:00Italian adults vaccinated by the end of October 2021. So, at this point, and Italy is a small

1:35:08country. And at this point, it seems pretty much impossible to have an in-person WWDC.

1:35:15So very likely the WWDC 2021 will be an online event again, and it should be, right? Because in

1:35:23June, this will not be over. So, same for Apple employees, they will not be back at their office

1:35:30until, you know, I guess the first half of the year they'll be working from home and then maybe

1:35:36Apple will reconsider depending on how things go in the US in what is going to

1:35:41be hopefully a better year for the US and a better year for everybody else as well.

1:35:45I have another theory for you about your Instagram. This is way out there but

1:35:51your "My Must Have Apps of 2019" article has a link to your Instagram profile in

1:35:58it and this was also an article where it references home screen customization.

1:36:04You're an influencer. That's all I have for you.

1:36:07Could be. Could be. I wish you could see referrals on Instagram with the business account, which I have.

1:36:14But all you can see is like the total counts of like, yeah, you gained 2,000 followers. Yeah, I get it.

1:36:19They only show you stuff that happens inside of Instagram.

1:36:23Inside of Instagram. Yeah. In December, Apple announced their Best of 2020 awards.

1:36:29This year Apple was very original in that they also produced physical awards for this

1:36:38winners.

1:36:40Really interesting idea that we've never seen done before.

1:36:44They had a bunch of picks.

1:36:46Yeah, I'm all did it right back in the day.

1:36:49Sure.

1:36:50Yes.

1:36:51Absolutely.

1:36:52You sound sure.

1:36:57They had some fascinating picks for their best apps, including...

1:37:04I just want to say how probably the best one in my opinion is the Mac Game of the Year,

1:37:10Disco Elysium.

1:37:11If you haven't played Disco Elysium yet, go play Disco Elysium.

1:37:14It's a really, really good game that is also coming out over the next few months on Nintendo

1:37:19Switch and consoles.

1:37:21Moving on to better things.

1:37:23The AirPods Max were announced, and this is, I would say, my favorite surprise of this

1:37:29final part of 2020.

1:37:32We were all convinced that the over-ear headphones that were now coming out, we were all convinced

1:37:39that the project had been shelved, that Apple had faced multiple delays and issues with

1:37:45the production of the earcups and the sensors and the headband, but no.

1:37:49The AirPods Max were announced.

1:37:52One day they just put out a press release and you can buy them and they will come to

1:37:56your house on the following Tuesday.

1:37:59It was a Thursday for me, I remember, because it was just a few weeks ago.

1:38:03And these are really good headphones.

1:38:05They are also...

1:38:06I love them.

1:38:07I really love them.

1:38:08They are really good headphones.

1:38:10They are not cheap headphones, because these are $550.

1:38:14It's even more if you live in Europe.

1:38:17But these are really good headphones.

1:38:19They were reviewed, I would say, pretty well. Sound quality was praised, build quality was

1:38:25praised. Still somewhat skeptical of the headband design that Apple chose, and obviously, you

1:38:33know, we talked about it, the case, right? The so-called smart case, not so smart and

1:38:39not so useful. But thankfully third parties are showing us a bunch of options. So Steven,

1:38:44you for sharing that link to the Water Field Design Case for AirPods Max.

1:38:49Did you buy it?

1:38:50I bought it.

1:38:51Nice.

1:38:52Like I didn't... sometimes, you know, you guys share stuff in our iMessage group and I don't

1:38:56react, you know, to it.

1:38:59Yeah.

1:39:00But I actually take action upon it.

1:39:01You are a man of action, that's why.

1:39:03I am a man of action.

1:39:04Even when I don't communicate, I'm always ready to go.

1:39:08And in that case, I click the buy button as soon as I saw the link.

1:39:11I'm looking forward to the Federico Vittucci review of this.

1:39:16I don't want... I don't need this right now, so like maybe I'll get it in the future.

1:39:21But I want to... I'm looking forward to you getting it, because I want to know...

1:39:24What color did you get?

1:39:26- Ah, the black one. - Yeah, I don't like the blue and the red one.

1:39:29In December, Fitness+ launched publicly.

1:39:33People seem to be pretty into it. It seems pretty fun.

1:39:36The videos are well produced.

1:39:38When you follow the workouts, you can follow the main trainer, but there's also one of

1:39:43the trainers who does a more... an easier, I think, version of the same workout, if you're

1:39:49not experienced in that type of physical activity, which I think is a very good idea.

1:39:56Seems to be a pretty well-designed service.

1:39:58We'll see how it evolves over the next few months.

1:40:00I will say, go check out the Fitness+ account on Instagram, where Apple has officially presented

1:40:07all of the trainers that they have for the program and you can follow the individual

1:40:11trainers on Instagram as well. And it's a pretty diverse set of trainers, which I like,

1:40:16I appreciate. You know, it's not just a bunch of white guys and white ladies doing workouts.

1:40:21I like the diversity in the Fitness+ service. The iPhone 12 line was confirmed as the most

1:40:30popular 5G phone in the world.

1:40:335G!

1:40:35Big accomplishment! Go 5G!

1:40:37Yes, 5G phone, we all love it when the iPhone is popular.

1:40:42Why are we talking about this?

1:40:45Does it take much to become the most popular 5G phone

1:40:48in the world?

1:40:49Is it like an actual accomplishment?

1:40:50They're not first, but, you know,

1:40:52Apple sells a lot of models, so there you go.

1:40:55This is like when you get third place

1:40:57in a race of like four people.

1:40:59It's like, but I arrived third.

1:41:02Nice job.

1:41:04Lastly, to end this year,

1:41:07let's talk about the Apple Car.

1:41:09The Apple Car project, it seems

1:41:13to still be in the works

1:41:15at Apple with a

1:41:18suggested timeline of

1:41:212025 or 2027.

1:41:24Now, can we in good conscience

1:41:27talk about stuff launching in 2025 or 2027 at this point in the history of human society and the

1:41:35world. It feels pretty disingenuous to talk about these stories right now. Surely it's all plain

1:41:43saying from here, right? Okay, so, friend of the show and award-winning analyst Min-Chi Kuo,

1:41:51you gotta believe that he won an award at some point, believes that the long rumored electric

1:41:59vehicle that Apple is making will be launching at some point over the next five to seven years

1:42:06and that Apple has developed this innovative battery technology that will be one of the key

1:42:16features of this EV from Apple. I honestly don't know what to think here. I'm very skeptical

1:42:21of everything about the Apple car. I'm very skeptical of... I don't know. Like, it's one of

1:42:28those things that, yeah, okay, they're working on a car. I don't know if I believe it. I don't know

1:42:34how important it is. I am very skeptical because I don't have any trust in the Italian government

1:42:44having the proper infrastructure in place within five to seven years to support a nationwide

1:42:50system for electric vehicles. Just get Jon to send you a charger.

1:42:55Jon sends me plenty of things. He was recently assigned the very important task of shipping me

1:43:03a headphone cable that I purchased. And he's now taking care of my headphone cable. We can talk

1:43:11about chargers next. But no, like, we don't even have the new Apple maps in Italy. I've

1:43:19been living in Rome for seven years at this point, coming into my eighth year in Rome.

1:43:26And in these past eight years, we still have that single charging station in my area. Like,

1:43:34never grew, it was never expanded, it was still that single station in an area of

1:43:40Rome where 60,000 people, 60,000 people live. There's two chargers. How am I

1:43:48supposed to be optimistic about electric cars over the next five years? Now, it's

1:43:53totally possible that the timeline will accelerate and the things will get

1:43:57better here, but it feels to me like whenever I see news about electric

1:44:02vehicles. It feels to me like most of those people and most of those websites

1:44:06are based in California and then I get it, right? This is obviously where these

1:44:12companies are based and I guess the streets of California are easier to

1:44:17explore, I don't know, but to think that I will within the next five years be

1:44:22able to travel to southern Italy with an electric vehicle alone without being, you

1:44:29know, ended up, you know, stranded in the middle of nowhere without any charge. I

1:44:36don't know, it feels pretty optimistic to me. Well, but we'll see, I guess, the Apple

1:44:41car 2025. Will we still be here in 2025? Who knows? Maybe it'll be like the iPhone

1:44:46and it'll be US only at first, and if you get it into another country it won't turn

1:44:50on. You know, like how the original iPhone wouldn't unlock in other countries at first. I can't wait to

1:44:55jailbreak my car. Jailbreak your car. Yeah, I mean, Fedor Chrome with you, like, these

1:44:59These rumors have been around for so long and I just, it seems like such a leap for

1:45:03Apple to do this.

1:45:04I just, I'm very weary to put much stock in any of this until we see more.

1:45:12Do you remember when the Apple Watch reviews came out and everyone started shaving their

1:45:16wrists for their Apple Watch photos?

1:45:18It was a very troubling time in tech journalism.

1:45:22Did people shave their wrists?

1:45:24Yeah, and like their hands.

1:45:26Some did.

1:45:27Yeah.

1:45:28distinctly the Verge of you, Neil Iptail shaved his wrist in hand for his Apple watch photos.

1:45:32Yeah, well, well a lot of them were very hair conscious. Yes. You know, I don't know why honestly. It was very, it's very upsetting.

1:45:39What will that be for the Apple car? Will it be people

1:45:42pretending they know

1:45:44like how to drive around a track? Or like, oh, I've always had this racing helmet here in my closet. Wearing gloves. Yeah, driving gloves.

1:45:53I think some people do that like unironically, I discovered.

1:45:58Like some people have like racing gloves and they actually use them even if they're not like actual racers

1:46:05And I don't get it, but hey, if it makes you happy. If it makes your hands feel more protected than good for you.

1:46:12So is that it for the year? That is 2020. All right. Yes.

1:46:18Good riddance 2020 if you want to find just a whole big mess of links

1:46:24We have them on our website at relay.fm

1:46:2884 84 links. That's the count. Yeah, that's a lot

1:46:32You can find all of them at relay.fm

1:46:35/connected

1:46:38/326 while you are there

1:46:41You can do a bunch of things. You can send us an email with feedback or follow up you can

1:46:47can join and get connected pro which is an ad free longer version of the show

1:46:52each and every week and you also get lots of extra goodies that all relay

1:46:57FM members enjoy. If you haven't joined it's a great time to do it here at the

1:47:01the beginning of a new year. You can find us all online Myke is on Twitter as

1:47:07@IMYKE. Myke do you have anything fun coming up the next couple weeks? Any

1:47:12Any streams, any adventures?

1:47:15I don't know, man.

1:47:16I don't know.

1:47:17I don't know.

1:47:18I don't know if I'm leaving the house.

1:47:21I haven't decided that yet.

1:47:24So, stay tuned for that.

1:47:26Yeah.

1:47:27Maybe just do a Twitch stream of you approaching your door.

1:47:31Like, "Eh, not gonna do it."

1:47:34Yeah, maybe.

1:47:35You can find Federico on Twitter @vitici.

1:47:39He is the editor-in-chief of MaxStories.net.

1:47:43Federico, I have a question for you.

1:47:45- Of course you do.

1:47:47- What is your general feeling about New Year's resolutions?

1:47:50- Interesting question.

1:47:53I feel like most of things in our society,

1:47:59they are a construct to make us feel better about ourselves.

1:48:03They're like a, sort of like an,

1:48:08what do you call it? Let me check. There was a saying that I'm thinking of. Yeah,

1:48:16they're like some kind of opium for society, in a way. I believe that it was

1:48:22Marx who said that religion is an opium for society, and it's sort of like

1:48:27that in the sense that it's something that you do, something that you say

1:48:30because it makes you feel better, because it makes you feel safer. There is a

1:48:33a quality to New Year's resolutions in that it gives you, at the very least, it gives

1:48:39you a sense of purpose, it gives you a sense of structure, it gives you a platform to get

1:48:43started on something, on anything, right? The problem with it is, and the reason why

1:48:49I find, for example, Myke and Gray's theme-based approach so fascinating is the fact that it's

1:48:58a more pragmatic way to think about it. The problem with New Year's resolutions is that

1:49:03they're often too vague, right?

1:49:04I wanna work out more or I wanna go to the gym or--

1:49:08- One of the issues is that they're either vague

1:49:10or they're too specific and then you have a fail state.

1:49:12- They're either vague or they're too specific

1:49:14and you don't find that middle ground.

1:49:16So here's what I think.

1:49:19I think that most people do them

1:49:21because it's a thing that other people do

1:49:26and so they share them and they think that they have

1:49:30New Year's resolutions when they actually do not, and they just say them publicly, usually

1:49:36in social networks because it's like a thing. What I think is that it is useful in the context

1:49:42of the concept of a year in human life, it is useful to think of in this time period

1:49:50between January 1st and December 31st, here's what I want to accomplish, and that is useful.

1:49:56My problem is that I like the gist of the idea behind it.

1:50:03I don't like, I very much dislike the sort of amateurish way that people go about them

1:50:11most of the time.

1:50:12I think either you should follow the advice of Myke and Gray and go for a theme, or you

1:50:19should think about them long and hard and be realistic about, like, don't set like

1:50:25a list of 20 resolutions that you want to follow, because then, when it's like May or

1:50:31June and you're five or six months into your resolutions and you haven't followed them,

1:50:36you're just going to feel bad about yourself. You shouldn't feel bad about yourself. Life

1:50:40is already complicated as it is. So be realistic, think about them long and hard, start planning

1:50:46your resolutions ahead of time, and maybe consider sort of like a spin-off on the idea

1:50:52of New Year's resolutions like a theme. So go listen to Cortex, I think it's a useful

1:50:56exercise in the context of think about the things you want to accomplish. Don't be too

1:51:03specific but also don't be too vague. I don't know if that's the answer you were looking

1:51:08for, Steven, but yeah, I think it's... I would also say that I think it's okay to give yourself

1:51:16a pass right now. Like obviously you should take care of yourself, but don't feel obligated

1:51:24to come up with a list of 20 things that you must accomplish, because everything is a mess

1:51:29right now and it's fine. Look after yourself. And the best resolutions that you can keep

1:51:34right now is drink lots of water, get enough sleep, and don't think about work all the

1:51:41the time and go watch Soul by Pixar. It'll make you feel better. That would be my advice.

1:51:47That's about where I thought you would end up.

1:51:49Man, I give good answers. I think I give good answers. I think it's a quality about myself

1:51:54that I recently discovered. Like, I can, I, if we were to go on a date, Steve, and me

1:52:00and you eventually, I think I would, you would be impressed by this quality of mine.

1:52:06I'm impressed. I'm impressed.

1:52:09Thank you.

1:52:10You can find me on Twitter as ismh.

1:52:15I'm also ismh on Twitch and write 512pixels.net.

1:52:19I'd like to thank our sponsors for this week's episode,

1:52:23Smile, Pingdom, and Wondery.

1:52:26And until next year, guys, say goodbye.

1:52:30Arrivederci and buon anno.

1:52:31- Cheerio. - Bye, y'all.