0:00:00[Music]
0:00:08From, really, if I'm... No, I'm not doing that.
0:00:10You should do it.
0:00:11I don't have the energy.
0:00:12I don't have the energy.
0:00:14The way that you do it or the way the mic does it.
0:00:16It's not the way I do it.
0:00:17Steven doesn't do it.
0:00:18He just says hello and welcome.
0:00:20It's the way that you start with the from
0:00:22and I really don't have that kind of energy in the summer.
0:00:25It's too hot.
0:00:26But this is one of those things where...
0:00:29where you do a thing and people remember you for that thing even after you stop doing it.
0:00:34TJ says "make it weird, Federico"
0:00:37Because I don't do the loud "from" anymore, I haven't done that in a long time
0:00:42because everyone made fun of me, but people still think that I do it even though I don't do it.
0:00:47I still say "from relay FM" but like I don't do the "from" which is what I do for a while.
0:00:51I don't do that anymore.
0:00:52Maybe you could do "from relay FM"
0:00:54Well what I have been doing recently is like, well, what I started doing was
0:00:59I just modulate it all over the place from relay FM is what stuff like that
0:01:03I do now so like you put put the emphasis and the difference of label
0:01:06interesting
0:01:09Come here. She started the show now anyway. Yes, yes
0:01:11from relay FM this is connected episode
0:01:17304 you feel the energy guys we ready no this is very very unusual
0:01:24usually you have a coke today sound like like a NASCAR announcer and corner 3
0:01:32we have our sponsors pay express VPN do you really have any idea what NASCAR's
0:01:38announcer would sound like wait which one of us federal you're him well I've
0:01:43seen movies where NASCAR is mentioned and I have a general idea of what an
0:01:47asker announcer should sound like like the kind of person that it also would be
0:01:53yeah tell me more about that kind of person nope don't do that well I imagine
0:01:59like a fat white guy with like like you know like holding a hamburger in one
0:02:07hand and a microphone in the other so basically like please stop me here no no
0:02:14I'm sorry so coming around corner number two it is mr. Federico Viticci hello
0:02:22I hate this so much.
0:02:24Wait, just to make sure this is a regular episode, right?
0:02:27This is actually going up on the internet.
0:02:29Okay, hi! Thanks for having me after all these years, despite the things I say.
0:02:35And recovering from his crash coming out of Pit Row, we have Myke Hurley.
0:02:42You know a lot of terminology over there, don't you?
0:02:45Pit Row?
0:02:46Are you secretly an ASCA?
0:02:47You are utterly at ease doing this, Steven.
0:02:51Yeah, I know right like immediately like just pulling all this language out. It is just very serious
0:02:57Felt like you really knew what he was doing. Are you a secret NASCAR fan? I
0:03:01Wouldn't keep that secret, but no, I'm not okay
0:03:04Really a NASCAR fan it is interesting that everyone including you Myke or f1 fans all of a sudden because it's the only thing on
0:03:10TV no, no, my f1 fandom came before because of the
0:03:14Documentary. Oh, so you're an f1 hipster that long
0:03:17This was going to be my first season that I was gonna watch because I really liked the Netflix documentary drive to survive
0:03:24Wait, what are we talking about here? Formula one
0:03:27Are you a formula one person now? Yeah, I am. Yeah
0:03:31Since when since the beginning of the season which was now like a month or two ago. Is there a season?
0:03:37Happening. Yeah. Yeah, there is. Yeah. Yeah, they started they started it like three or four weeks ago
0:03:43You know the seasons called?
0:03:47the summer of f1
0:03:49Like the summer fun but f1 kind of smashed together
0:03:58They start usually in March formula one was one of the first sports to close down because they actually had a confirmed
0:04:05Coronavirus case the day before the like the first season so they shut down and one of the cars get sick
0:04:11Nope, it's one of the many many people that work on f1
0:04:14So yeah, I've been starting to watch that and I really enjoy it. Interesting. I really I really struggle with sports
0:04:19Like with following sport, I really me too. But is it this one this one works for me?
0:04:25The reason it works is that the documentary kind of enlighten me to the fact that there's a ton of drama around it, which is fun
0:04:31There's only 20 drivers. So like it's not a million people you have to keep up with. It's 10 teams
0:04:37Every team has two drivers. That's it and the sport itself like the races themselves
0:04:43They're done in like an hour and a half. That's it. There's no halftime.
0:04:47I'm familiar with how an F1 thing works.
0:04:51It's just I struggle with sports in general because
0:04:54like I struggle watching watching something that I
0:04:59Will not be able to compete in in the future
0:05:03Like I watch competitive Pokemon because then I can also compete and win or lose
0:05:08So it's the it's the opposite of why I like the Winter Olympics
0:05:12No, but television you don't have a problem with television shows. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no
0:05:16That's not such a he watches stuff that he can partake in
0:05:19I watch stuff that I specifically cannot partake in or opposites, but you could play basketball
0:05:24That's what but I can't ski down a mountain at 100 miles an hour. So I prefer the winner you watch basketball sure
0:05:31What's not a universal role and I have like a football season tickets and you can play both of those sports
0:05:35So it's not the same. You just have a weird thing about the Olympics. I do like the Winter Olympics
0:05:41Olympics. Congratulations. But I'm intrigued about this Federico. Does it extend to all
0:05:48types of media? Or is it just sports?
0:05:50No, because media, like TV shows or movies, they have a story to tell. So you need to
0:05:56know about the story. It's a form of entertainment. Whereas sports, my problem with it is that
0:06:01it's presented as entertainment to you, but you are not, like there's no story. It's just
0:06:07something happening out of your control. And also the thing that I really dislike is that
0:06:11those people make a lot of money and you don't as an audience member. And it's always kind
0:06:18of funny when I hear people say, soccer obviously is the big thing here in Italy, and when people
0:06:25when they root for a specific team and they say something like "oh we won" or "we lost"
0:06:30or "you didn't lose" I don't like that. Those people are making millions of money every
0:06:35single day and you're like, you know, you're still broke. I know that this is a very normal
0:06:40thing in all sports and like that people refer to their team as we I'm sure
0:06:44Steven does it about the teams that he follows in competitive sports too but I
0:06:47don't I've never liked that it doesn't make sense to me like the we-ness of it
0:06:52I don't know and just especially again with soccer so the example that I have
0:06:56here in Italy. I wish you called it football. I wish you football. Yeah okay I would call it
0:07:02football but then Americans say oh American football no it's not American football.
0:07:05That's American football.
0:07:06Okay, so football.
0:07:07And then the actual football game is called football.
0:07:09No, it's football and European football.
0:07:12It's American football and football.
0:07:15The general animosity surrounding that, like people getting upset when they talk about
0:07:20it, you don't hear people, well, except maybe for Star Wars fans, but you didn't hear people
0:07:25getting upset about movies or TV shows.
0:07:28Like this is another reason why Formula One works for me, because I agree with all of
0:07:33these things that you're saying, right? But like...
0:07:35So Formula One is different? Maybe?
0:07:37Because like...
0:07:38Why don't you check it out?
0:07:39There's like teams and individuals and the individuals move around so much to different
0:07:44teams that it, to me at least, feels a little bit difficult to be like, "Oh, I love this
0:07:49team." Well, there are teams because there's... I kind of like want multiple people to do
0:07:55well. So typically, no matter who wins, there's always someone that I really like who did
0:08:00really well in that race because I have like four different drivers out of the 20 that
0:08:05I want to see succeed. And plus there is a lot of drama in the sport as well like that
0:08:11goes on which is interesting to follow. And there's yeah I like it. It works for me. It
0:08:17really works for me as a sport because it doesn't have a lot of the trappings that I
0:08:21typically do not enjoy about sports.
0:08:24Interesting. So the yeah.
0:08:27If you have any interest at all, even like a sliver, you should watch the Netflix documentary
0:08:32Drive to Survive because it is also just a very, very good documentary and I was hooked,
0:08:37like absolutely hooked, so I recommend it.
0:08:40Interesting.
0:08:41Start there.
0:08:42It's a classy sport too Federico, so I feel like you'd enjoy that.
0:08:45Yeah, really, the main thing I dislike is the team-based culture surrounding all kinds
0:08:50of sports and I do appreciate, like I do appreciate a good athlete in isolation, like seeing somebody
0:08:56do something incredible on the field like I don't know Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan
0:09:01yeah I can appreciate that but then when when when you reach the you know the entertainment
0:09:07territory and and the culture about you know fans and teams and yeah I really dislike that
0:09:13it doesn't really I mean like of course there are people that follow teams right in Formula
0:09:17One but it doesn't feel as diehard as other team-based sports where there's like large
0:09:25teams or whatever you know and also just that don't don't don't be a fan of
0:09:29Ferrari right now would be my recommendation to you federal economy
0:09:31it's gonna be upsetting but they're doing really bad so honestly I don't
0:09:34really care okay but like you know you say about like it's it's fun to watch
0:09:39when there's a single person who's very good so you know who Lewis Hamilton is
0:09:42right you must be familiar with him he's in the musical is the is the driver
0:09:47right is the dry yeah the driver he is like he is about to equal the records
0:09:54and it's starting to equal many, but like this year will probably equal the
0:09:57record for being the best ever. So like he's about to cross over to becoming the
0:10:03best ever. So like if that kind of thing interests you, that is happening right
0:10:07now in Formula One, right? That there is someone who is about to become the best
0:10:11ever at the sport. So you know like that idea of like they're being standout
0:10:16individuals like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lewis Hamilton is another one of
0:10:20them. You wanna do some follow-up? Yeah. Have you done the intro by the way? Yeah,
0:10:27introduced you. Yeah, it was in the NASCAR voice. So Steven, so what I'll say is if
0:10:32you did not enjoy any of the last ten minutes of the show, you have Steven to blame.
0:10:36Hmm. That's a bold statement. You started with the
0:10:41NASCAR voice. No, you said NASCAR first. I never said anything about NASCAR. Maybe
0:10:46Maybe Federico said it, but I had nothing to do with it.
0:10:48Federico did.
0:10:49Federico's fault.
0:10:50Always is.
0:10:51So, uh, follow up.
0:10:53More about my photo situation.
0:10:56I've conducted a Twitter poll, and it's, um, it's something.
0:11:01So alright, I have, this is the thing, I have written this in a document that Steven attempts
0:11:05to try and prove why his system of albums is good.
0:11:08I think Steven, so Steven posted the following poll on Twitter.
0:11:12What is the primary way you organize your photo library?
0:11:15And he gave the following four answers.
0:11:17Albums, tags, faces, or I let an app do it for me.
0:11:21Now I believe that when Stephen posted this, he was hoping that he was going to win and
0:11:26albums were going to be prevalent.
0:11:29So not only is it in 34% of the vote with I let an app do it for me at 52% of the vote,
0:11:35I actually have a problem with I let an app do it for me.
0:11:39Because I don't use an app, I just use the photos thing on my device.
0:11:42What would you call that?
0:11:43What would you call that icon you tap that has content in it?
0:11:46No, because what most people are doing, which is what I do and what Federico does, is I
0:11:51don't care about sorting.
0:11:53Yeah.
0:11:54Yeah, so you let the app do it for you.
0:11:57No, because it's not about sorting.
0:11:58The fourth option should it just be either I don't or none of the above.
0:12:05Like, or maybe just I don't.
0:12:08Like I don't organize my photo library.
0:12:10And even with your poor questioning where you're trying to lead the witness, you are
0:12:14being proved as though you're…
0:12:15Yeah, it was very odd phrasing with the second, with an ulterior motive, Steven.
0:12:22Well, maybe I'll win in the Electoral College.
0:12:25This is exactly the kind of thing that an S. Car announcer would do.
0:12:29The kind of shitty guy that holds an hamburger and a microphone with the other hand and drips
0:12:34burger sauce on his shirt. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. He dripped it in the microphone. Yeah, there's burger sauce in the
0:12:40microphone. Stop saying burger sauce. So, basically, are you gonna concede that
0:12:50albums is not as popular as you thought it was? Look, just because something is
0:12:56popular doesn't mean that it's right. Why have you done a poll then? If you're dealing with popular opinion. Because if it had worked in my favor... Then it would have been popular. It would have won. It would have been great. So I will say in the members episode of MacPowerUsers that comes out on Sunday, David Sparks really just took me to task about this. Good, good. I'm pleased that David allowed this to cross over into your serious podcast. Yeah, and so we'll see how
0:13:26how this goes. Hold on a second, I want to talk about those 29 people, the 1.8% of...
0:13:35The 1% of PhotoPitch. Those 29 people who organize their photos with tags. As their
0:13:43primary way. As their primary way. Like, there are 29 people who follow you, Steven, or may
0:13:50have come across this poll on Twitter, who chose to answer that their primary way to
0:13:56organize their photo library is via tags.
0:13:58I don't know what that means.
0:14:00I am genuinely curious to hear what this means.
0:14:04So if you are among that group of 29.03 people, please get in touch with Steven for the show.
0:14:13We have the poll creator right here with us now.
0:14:16What did you mean by tags?
0:14:18What's a tag in photo management?
0:14:20photos you can apply tags or keywords. Where? What? On the Mac version you can't do it on
0:14:25the stupid iOS version. Oh gee, see you just try and rig everything in your favor. Well
0:14:33do you go home and you plug in your digital camera? I have my photos by Exif data only.
0:14:40Oh look at my digital hub, I'm Steve Jobs. I use folders in Finder primarily. I did do
0:14:49that for a long time as did you Myke so shut your mouth no no no no that was a
0:14:55secondary backup solution it was not my signing so why don't you shut your mouth
0:15:00apparently where we go on this show now did I add descriptions in the photos dot
0:15:05app photo on my application is actually a thing I'm gonna have to write about
0:15:11this some look I've got a Mac Pro and I might as well apply thousands of
0:15:17keywords with it to make it earn its keep, you know? It's got to justify the
0:15:21expense somehow. Is that how you do it? I don't know. I ask my CPA at the end of the
0:15:26year. So anyway, tags you can add in photos for Mac and once you add a tag
0:15:31it can become like a filtering thing for... Okay. And it shows up in search as a
0:15:37token for search. So if, like say that there's a photo with no other data and
0:15:42there's a tag it would still show up. What do you search for that relevant term?
0:15:45Okay. What is captions in iOS 14? Captions, you can swipe up on a photo and
0:15:51you can add like a description for that photo and those will sync between devices. I'm not
0:15:59sure, I think I've seen somewhere but I still have to test it. It's in my mind map somewhere
0:16:04that you can also search for the contents of those captions. So like if you have a photo,
0:16:09I don't know, of a trip to Paris and you want to add a description and say, "Oh, this was
0:16:14like a good cappuccino that I had in Paris, then later you can search for those keywords
0:16:19in the caption and the caption will sync between devices. It's not something that I would...
0:16:24How do you access this functionality?
0:16:25You swipe up on a photo, so you open photos.
0:16:28Oh, that's really not... It's like... Okay, it appears underneath the image.
0:16:33Underneath the image and you can add a caption there. And so, I don't know, let's see. I'm
0:16:39I'm gonna add the caption ginger looking at the camera while sitting on the bed.
0:16:47So this is a caption.
0:16:50It's quite useless.
0:16:52But if I search then for sitting, it will not find the photo.
0:16:57Well, I mean, there's a possibility that it has to index those.
0:17:00Oh, yes, it says indexing.
0:17:02It's indexing.
0:17:03It won't be instant.
0:17:04It's a single photo.
0:17:06It's indexing.
0:17:07It's just five words.
0:17:08God, you've got to run the Siri intelligence on those first.
0:17:12You do your photos.
0:17:13Yeah.
0:17:14Yeah.
0:17:14It will.
0:17:15Very slowly.
0:17:16I have some exciting news I'd like to share with y'all.
0:17:20It's actually an announcement.
0:17:21Oh.
0:17:22Right here.
0:17:22Okay.
0:17:23Yeah.
0:17:23So today, like right now as I'm speaking, I am launching a new podcast with our friend, Quinn Rose.
0:17:30It's a NASCAR podcast.
0:17:32Yes, it's called Driving in Circles.
0:17:33No, no.
0:17:36It is called Bear Left, Right Frog.
0:17:39It's over on the incomparable.
0:17:41And what we're doing is once a month,
0:17:44Quinn and I are watching a Muppet film
0:17:47and talking about it.
0:17:48So we just started with 1979's The Muppet Movie.
0:17:51We'll be going in chronological order.
0:17:53So in August, we'll have an episode up
0:17:55about the next Muppet movie,
0:17:56and then the one after that,
0:17:57and the one after that until we're done.
0:17:59- I wonder if there'll be a new Muppet movie
0:18:01by the time you're done.
0:18:02- I don't think there's one currently in the works.
0:18:05I think they're making a TV show for HBO Max or something.
0:18:07- They are doing a TV show,
0:18:09which is outside of the scope of this.
0:18:11- Well, this is very fun.
0:18:12I'm a big fan of Quinn, the original Quinn.
0:18:14- Yes.
0:18:15- So I'm always pleased to hear more Quinn programs.
0:18:17I am not a Muppet person, though.
0:18:19I've seen a couple like Christmas Carol and stuff.
0:18:22So maybe there's, well, here's my question for you.
0:18:26Will I enjoy these movies if I've never seen them before?
0:18:30But if I've never seen them before,
0:18:31like if I didn't have them when I was a kid?
0:18:34I think so. I will say the older ones, like the ones we're watching now, they have a lot
0:18:39of references that are very 1979 that we had to look up. So maybe, I think what I would
0:18:45recommend...
0:18:46I have also seen the modern one, the modern Muppet movie, which I really enjoyed with
0:18:49Jason Segel.
0:18:50I would say watch both modern Muppet movies. So there's two. And then I would go from there,
0:18:56I would go with like the remake, so like Muppet Treasure Island and Muppet Christmas Carol
0:19:01look good. Muppet Treasure Island is one of my favorites.
0:19:03I've seen Christmas, Caro. I've seen the modern one with Jason Segel, the first one.
0:19:08Yeah, there's one after that that Tina Fey's in.
0:19:10I don't know if I've seen that one.
0:19:12It's good. Muppet Treasure Island is also very funny. That's one of my favorites.
0:19:16Muppets Most Wanted.
0:19:18Yes. That's the newest one.
0:19:20I've seen this too, I think. Ricky Jeface is in it. Yes, I've seen this one.
0:19:24Huh. Okay. Well, at least there's a few episodes that I'll listen to.
0:19:28I'm very happy for you, Steven, but this is one of those times that sometimes happen
0:19:32when I'm in California for WWDC when suddenly you guys start talking about
0:19:37something that is so culturally distant from me that I have no idea what you
0:19:42guys are talking about and that's when I usually grab my phone and text Sylvia or
0:19:46something. There was a funny thing earlier where, was this today,
0:19:50where Federico was trying to explain what Muppets he knew about and
0:19:55they were all Sesame Street characters I think. I just know Big
0:19:59bird. I'm a big fan of big bird as a character in general. As a concept, yes. I just think
0:20:05the concept of a big bird is really fascinating. A big yellow bird is really, really awesome.
0:20:10Do you know the name of his friend? Snuffleupagus. He's a mammoth. A big purple mammoth. No idea
0:20:18what you're talking about. I know, right? He's not purple. Isn't he purple? No, he's
0:20:23like a long-haired brown elephant type. I know Cookie Monster. Is Cookie Monster a muppet?
0:20:31Yes. Well, one of the Sesame Street characters, right? But they're all technically muppets.
0:20:37Sesame Street characters are like a subset of muppets.
0:20:39Oh, so it's not like all inhabitants of Sesame Street are muppets in the same way that all
0:20:48people who live on Earth are people.
0:20:51complicated because they're technically one on the same but they're also not
0:20:58like canonical Muppets. Interesting. Okay well the artwork looks really good
0:21:04Steven. It's really good. It really does look like you. Yeah I love the artwork
0:21:11and I'm super excited so this is now my second show on the incomparable I also
0:21:15do somehow I managed with Tiff Arment where we were re-watching The Office.
0:21:20- Ah, that one I know. - Which is a lot of fun.
0:21:22Yeah.
0:21:23There's not Muppets on that one.
0:21:25- Very nice.
0:21:26- Let's take a break, and then we're gonna talk about
0:21:29new iOS betas, how's that?
0:21:31This episode of Connected is brought to you by
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0:23:02All right, so iOS 14 beta 3/public beta 2 are here.
0:23:10And there's a lot of changes.
0:23:11I think more changes than I anticipated for a beta 3.
0:23:14Did public beta 2 come out as well?
0:23:17I think it came out just as we set down to record.
0:23:20And it's based on beta 3?
0:23:22Yes.
0:23:24Okay, cool.
0:23:25Yep, here it is on 9to5Mac.
0:23:27Nice.
0:23:28So what are some of these changes, Federica?
0:23:30I know you were really excited about the music stuff.
0:23:33Um, essentially, like most of the things in this beta I dislike.
0:23:39And also this beta is quite buggy, I should say, especially in notes.
0:23:42I'm having all kinds of issues with the keyboard not appearing in notes. So it's
0:23:48not surprising usually every other beta in the summer is problematic. So anyway
0:23:54music, there's a new icon for the music app and the widget color has changed as
0:24:00well to match the icon. So the icon has gone from a white background with a
0:24:04the multicolor gradient glyph to an, I'm gonna call it orange or, I don't know, is it really
0:24:13orange?
0:24:14Some kind of orange/pink/salmon?
0:24:15Salmon?
0:24:16Salmon maybe?
0:24:19It looks like the pinkish iPhone 5C.
0:24:23Kind of like that.
0:24:24It's like the same...
0:24:25Isn't that coral?
0:24:26Coral, yes, also that's a good...
0:24:29Coral.
0:24:30Yeah.
0:24:31Coral.
0:24:32Coral.
0:24:33Sure, we'll go with that. And there's a white glyph on top of it. Very simple white glyph.
0:24:39I strongly dislike it.
0:24:41I hate it. It's so boring.
0:24:45Isn't this just the Iowa 7 music icon?
0:24:48Well, it's even not as complex as that, because I believe that the Iowa 8, maybe, music icon
0:24:56had some kind of gradient going on. A more pronounced gradient that made it look like
0:25:01somebody actually cared and spent more than 20 minutes doing the icon. Instead
0:25:07this one is just, yeah, let's take a color and put a white glyph on top of it. It
0:25:11doesn't, like, I really dislike it because it doesn't have any personality, just a
0:25:15color and a white glyph. And the old icon, while being, yes, another white icon, at
0:25:20the very least the music glyph contained inside the icon had the Apple Music
0:25:26brand colors. That's exactly it, right? Like the previous version felt like a
0:25:32brand? Yeah. This just feels like the music stock app on the iPhone, which it
0:25:39was before. It's strange. I find it very peculiar. It's very strange and isn't the
0:25:45whole point to sell people on Apple Music, you know, and I'm sure that seeing
0:25:51those colors, and you see them on the Apple website, you see it in
0:25:54advertisements, you see it in a bunch of places, then you see them on your phone,
0:25:57and you think "yeah, that's Apple Music", and so maybe if you're not a subscriber, I don't
0:26:01know. Anyway, it's a very boring icon, but what's even worse, in my opinion, is what
0:26:07what happened to the widget. Now, the widget has the same color, the music
0:26:10widget in iOS 14, as the same background color of this icon, so it's a coral
0:26:16widget. The issue with that is that text, white text on top of a
0:26:26coral background is kind of tricky to read. So legibility has gone way down,
0:26:34especially for the caption. So in the compact layout, for example in the small
0:26:40widget, the name of the artist is in a lighter font, and I find that really hard
0:26:50to read against an orange background. Also, some music artworks are going to
0:26:58clash with this coral background, because before Apple had this relatively neutral
0:27:05white background for the widget, and you could, you know, you use a drop shadow
0:27:10around the artwork you can be sure that everything is gonna look good on top of
0:27:14it because it's just a basic white background. But with this orange stuff
0:27:20some music albums that have a cover that is like multicolor and that has
0:27:25multiple shades of orange or red or yellow they're gonna look kind of ugly
0:27:30on top of an orange widget. So two main problems I don't
0:27:35understand why it was necessary to move away from the brand colors and two well
0:27:40three main issues. Two, this is boring, and three, the widget is not problematic, because it's less
0:27:45readable than before, and certain music album artworks are gonna look ugly on top of
0:27:51the new widget. So, I don't get it. I don't understand why this was necessary. Maybe it's one of those
0:27:58tests. Sometimes Apple does it to sort of gauge people's reaction to a visual change, and then
0:28:05then they're gonna revert it in the next version. I really hope this is the case,
0:28:10but I'm feeling... I'm not feeling optimistic about this one, guys, because
0:28:15they also changed the icon on the Mac. So Big Sur also has the... or should I say
0:28:20Big Sur also has the new icon with the new Big Sur style.
0:28:27- A Grande Sur. - A Grande Sur.
0:28:30[Laughter]
0:28:32Yeah, so. Some people are surprised that Jiggle Mode is now officially mentioned by Apple
0:28:42in official copy in iOS 14. There's a new alert that pops up in iOS 14 Beta 3 when you
0:28:50first open the "Today" page for widgets. That basically explains if you want to add new
0:28:57you need to long press on the screen to enter jiggle mode. And jiggle mode as a
0:29:03joke on Twitter has sort of made a resurgence since the WWDC, since Craig
0:29:08Federighi uttered the word or the expression again. It's not really new,
0:29:13it's something that like a bunch of people have always called the jiggle
0:29:17mode, Steve Jobs called the jiggle mode like ten years ago. It's like I've
0:29:22always referred to that either as jiggle mode or wiggling mode, one of the two.
0:29:26I think the reason that people are bringing it up and even why I put it in a document is
0:29:32seeing it written in text on the iPhone.
0:29:34Sure, it's kind of funny.
0:29:36It's not only funny, but I think that's not happened before.
0:29:40Yeah, that's not happened before. So yes, it made its way to official copy inside iOS.
0:29:47Oh, so yeah, I'll give you that.
0:29:49Because it's like I don't know what else they've called it, but I know they've called it other things, right?
0:29:53I think it was called rearrange mode.
0:29:55Yeah, like oh what you know, but that you know that they've mentioned it in a bunch of ways
0:30:00I'm sure in the past but this this seems to be like this is what they're calling it
0:30:04Which I mean honestly it does make sense
0:30:05Like the reason people refer to it like Steve on stage or jiggle mode is because that's what's happening. It's jiggling
0:30:11Everything's jiggling get it getting jiggling honestly
0:30:14I still I I think jiggle jiggle mode shouldn't exist anymore anyway, like I think that it's a little played at this point
0:30:23But I don't know what you'd replace it with
0:30:25Yeah, just something like that like everything jiggling around seems so peculiar in an operating system
0:30:32Which is otherwise pretty devoid of things like this now
0:30:35Like these types of like playful animations don't really exist in other places
0:30:42like there are elegant animations there are
0:30:45Pleasant to look at animations
0:30:48But this is very much the company that created the genie minimization thing for the dock.
0:30:54And slow motion mode for it.
0:30:56Yeah, but Apple doesn't really do that stuff anymore, really.
0:31:01You can argue as to whether you want them to do it.
0:31:04But my point is that this kind of feels like a last bastion of an old ideal that they haven't
0:31:10changed.
0:31:11Do you think I'm talking off base here?
0:31:14Yeah, it could be one last concession to that ideal of having that sort of like whimsy in user interfaces.
0:31:22Maybe to an extent they have brought it back in other places.
0:31:27Like there are some playful transitions here and there.
0:31:32Like I do miss that kind of stuff, right? Like a lot of people because I am nostalgic for it.
0:31:39Sometimes it was a little too much like shredding shredding a pass in wallet like yeah
0:31:46That's why I'm mostly okay with the fact that that time is over because it does get like like you get out of
0:31:52overwhelming you feel like you're cutting through the operating system of a chainsaw at times or at like trying to get anything done because it's so like
0:31:59Everything's so thick
0:32:01But you know, it's just like a funny thing to say so we know that the hand washing reminders
0:32:09Not reminders, like the hand washing things come into watch over seven, where like it
0:32:13can like recognize if you're washing your hands and start doing a 20 second countdown.
0:32:17They've added a feature, I've seen it referenced in the settings on iOS, but it's obviously
0:32:23for watchOS, that I actually really like, which is a hand washing reminder based on
0:32:27location.
0:32:29So if you get home and your watch has not detected that you've washed your hands, it
0:32:33will say, "Hey, wash your hands."
0:32:35I think this is a really clever way of adding functionality to that feature because just
0:32:41detecting if I am washing my hands and then counting the 20 seconds is not really enough
0:32:46to do what you might want to be monitoring for, which is I want my devices to be able
0:32:54to maybe tell me, "Don't forget."
0:32:56And this is a great one, right?
0:32:57If I get home and it hasn't detected that I've washed my hands, then one of two things
0:33:01has happened.
0:33:02A) I haven't or B) I didn't do it well enough and so I think that's kind of cool.
0:33:07I have not put watchOS 7 on any of my watches. Federica have you done that on my one watch?
0:33:13I don't know why I said any of my watches. I haven't put it on at all. Have you tried it?
0:33:18Yeah it's on my watch right now.
0:33:19What do you think about this feature?
0:33:21Well it looked okay initially and I had to disable it after a few hours because it was picking up
0:33:28hand washing movements for all kinds of movements in my life.
0:33:32From grating cheese to just doing chores around the house.
0:33:36I was gonna say, you know, like we all know about Italians,
0:33:38you're very hand gesturey when you talk, you know, you're just having a conversation.
0:33:41It's like, hey, you're washing your hands. It's like, no, I'm just upset.
0:33:44It was like it was coming up constantly. And so I don't think,
0:33:48I don't think it's very good, honestly. Well, I think it's fair to say
0:33:52that this is a feature that is much newer from idea to implementation than probably
0:33:58other features in the operating system. So maybe it will get better over the beta period.
0:34:03Right, like you got to assume that nobody had this idea until maybe April?
0:34:08Like March, April?
0:34:12Even though Apple is on the record saying that "no, we actually thought of this before".
0:34:16I don't believe them personally.
0:34:18What, they thought of a 20 second hand washing monitor thing before Covid?
0:34:22Yeah, they have an interview on CNET, I believe, saying that all the hand washing stuff
0:34:28they actually thought about it for years.
0:34:30What did it take them so long for then?
0:34:33Well, a pandemic I guess. What a coincidence, right?
0:34:38Look, this might be something, again, you can make that point however you want. Someone
0:34:43might have suggested it years ago and they got told, "No, that's not important." Right?
0:34:48Because otherwise, why else did this take years? I haven't read this article even though
0:34:52it existed.
0:34:53It's really based on some fascinating tech.
0:34:56Like they're doing-- they're applying machine learning
0:34:59to sound analysis to pick up sounds
0:35:02like the soapy sound of like rinsing your hands.
0:35:07And they mention like in this interview the particular sound
0:35:11signature that soap has.
0:35:13And of course, the sound of running water
0:35:17and the sound of you rubbing your hands together.
0:35:21Like they're doing all this extra stuff.
0:35:23It's not just the accelerometer detecting a particular kind of hand motion.
0:35:27It's like there's all this entire like software based layer on top of it,
0:35:32which I think is really fascinating.
0:35:34It's just too it's just very bad right now.
0:35:36So I think that this is being misquoted.
0:35:40So let me give you what I'm talking about here, right?
0:35:43Unlike other rush - this is from a TechCrunch article -
0:35:45unlike other rush initiatives undertaken by the company once the virus hit,
0:35:49the forthcoming Apple Watch handwashing app wasn't built overnight.
0:35:52The feature was the result of years of work.
0:35:55Now, I think that that means in all of the underlying technology that allowed for this
0:36:00to occur, right?
0:36:02Because they had to make this technology for other things, right?
0:36:05For like, like the swim in or whatever.
0:36:07I don't, I genuinely do not believe that three years ago someone was like, we need to build
0:36:12a hand washing timer.
0:36:13I'm very skeptical too.
0:36:15I'm very skeptical too, which is, yeah, exactly.
0:36:18I completely agree with the fact that it has taken multiple years of work on Apple Watch
0:36:23sensors to enable this technology, but they're two different things.
0:36:30That's my thinking on this one.
0:36:32So anyway, it's not very good right now.
0:36:34Anyway, it's really not very good, despite all the machine learning and stuff.
0:36:39So I will try it again at some point.
0:36:40So if they have worked on it for years, maybe another year.
0:36:44I mean, why not add an extra couple years?
0:36:47Just for another one.
0:36:48Why not add it?
0:36:49Just whatever.
0:36:50Anyway.
0:36:51You gotta wash all the bugs out of there.
0:36:52Sure.
0:36:53That's what I'm saying.
0:36:54Back to iOS 14 Beta 3.
0:36:57That was a good joke.
0:36:59You won't appreciate it in your time.
0:37:00That's right.
0:37:01Yeah, just like Michael.
0:37:02There's another new widget.
0:37:05This is part of the widgets that were shown off at WWDC, but they were not actually included
0:37:12in Beta 1.
0:37:13first came files in Beta 2, and now it's the time for the clock widget.
0:37:18Now, there's a clock widget, it comes in three sizes, I believe it's three sizes, or is it
0:37:23two sizes?
0:37:24Well, you can have a small analog clock on your home screen, or you can have a larger
0:37:30widget showing you multiple analog clocks for the times of different cities around the
0:37:36world.
0:37:37like other widgets in iOS 14, you can configure the widget by entering the settings page for
0:37:44the widget and picking different cities. So it's all very nice and very useful. However,
0:37:50I also have issues with this one. And let me tell you a very quick story of Federico,
0:37:56which is me, tweeting about this issue and being called stupid more or less directly
0:38:02by a bunch of people on Twitter. I noted how while great and very useful to have this clock
0:38:10widget, a very good example of the kind of dynamic and glanceable things that widgets
0:38:17enable now, some people like me may have difficulties reading, and I use this expression because
0:38:28it was very important, at a glance time with an analog clock, you know, with the hands
0:38:36moving and stuff. And I said I would welcome a digital option where I can just, again,
0:38:43glance at the numbers, which I find easier to read. And a lot of people were really upset
0:38:49at me. And for example, some guy told me that the Italian education system failed me because
0:38:57I couldn't read analog clocks. And yeah, it was, you know, some very unfunny people on
0:39:06Twitter pointing out that, you know, if you cannot read an analog clock, you're essentially
0:39:11an uneducated person. So I stand by my statement that analog clocks are, by definition, slower
0:39:23to read at a glance because you need to do, you know, they come with this latency of looking
0:39:32at a shape and making sense of that shape. And I stand by my belief that a lot of people
0:39:40who didn't grow up wearing watches or looking at an analog clock on the wall would very
0:39:47much welcome a digital option, which is also why on your phone, on your lock screen, you
0:39:53don't have clock hands, you have the time spelled out with numbers.
0:39:58Yeah, I am a person who much prefers the visuals of an analog watch face, right? So like, I
0:40:08wear watches with hands and numbers on a dial, because I like the way that looks. But I agree
0:40:15with you that a digital readout is easier to understand and it has less ambiguity in
0:40:23certain circumstances depending on if you use the 24 hour clock or not. I am a proponent
0:40:29of the 24 hour clock but that's like a different thing for another time. If you're going to
0:40:33go digital, however, I agree with you, right? Whether you or anybody has a harder time of
0:40:43reading digital or analog. I don't really know that that's necessarily the, like, has
0:40:48to be argued. The point is, like, what you're getting at is true. Like, it should be a digital
0:40:54option because it is easier to read at a glance. You are using a computer, right? Like, showing
0:41:02a readout in numbers rather than trying to emulate hands of a face is, it makes more
0:41:09sense in a lot of circumstances. Like, I don't know why they've, you know, maybe, again,
0:41:15maybe it will come, it should, but like, just having a analog option for these clock widgets
0:41:20seems peculiar to me.
0:41:21Yeah. So, Steven, do you have any thought, as the resident old person here, do you have
0:41:27any thoughts?
0:41:28Steven would prefer a sundial.
0:41:30Man, sundials are cool! Sundials are really cool.
0:41:36Spoken like a true Roman.
0:41:38[LAUGHTER]
0:41:40It could use the compass and the phone.
0:41:41That'd be very exciting.
0:41:44My takeaway is here, don't be a jerk to someone on Twitter
0:41:47because they have a clock preference.
0:41:48Come on.
0:41:49The world is on fire.
0:41:50Of all things, and I've said some pretty questionable things
0:41:53in my time in public in terms of things I dislike
0:41:58and things I like.
0:41:59But of all things, this one, it just really surprised me.
0:42:03But this is a typical thing about the internet.
0:42:07it will always surprise you the things that upset people the most.
0:42:09Yeah, I guess. I guess.
0:42:12Like how many NASCAR fans we're gonna hear from, you know?
0:42:15Look, I don't have an issue with the NASCAR people.
0:42:19It's too late now.
0:42:20I just need to clarify.
0:42:22I only have this stereotypical image in my brain of the typical NASCAR announcer.
0:42:28And if we have any NASCAR announcers in the audience...
0:42:30Stereotypical view of the typical person.
0:42:35It's very, very, all kinds of typicals.
0:42:37If we have any NASCAR announcers in the audience
0:42:41and you feel mischaracterized here,
0:42:46I'm sorry and I apologize.
0:42:48- We'll give a personal apology to any NASCAR announcers
0:42:51listening to the show. - Any NASCAR announcers
0:42:53in chat right now, please let us know.
0:42:55- Give us an F in the chat.
0:42:57- Okay, also shortcuts.
0:43:01Got a--
0:43:03- Oh, before we move on from widgets,
0:43:04I don't know if you've got this too, I've seen people saying things on both sides.
0:43:08I have lost the weather widget from my iPad.
0:43:11Oh, reboot your phone.
0:43:13I've done that.
0:43:14Oh, really?
0:43:15Yeah, I've rebooted my iPad and the weather widget is still missing.
0:43:19Oh yeah, I think it's missing on the iPad.
0:43:21Oh, okay.
0:43:22It was also missing on the iPhone, but then on the iPhone, if you restart the iPhone,
0:43:25it comes back.
0:43:26It doesn't come back on the iPad.
0:43:28I know there's no weather app, but there was a weather widget, right?
0:43:31I bet there's not going to be one because there's not a weather app.
0:43:34It used to just go to weather.com when you tapped it.
0:43:38But now they've got the dark sky app.
0:43:43So where would they send people?
0:43:47To app.com/weather.
0:43:49But the data isn't coming from dark sky yet, is it?
0:43:53It is.
0:43:54Now?
0:43:55That widget has like the rain forecast, like micro forecast stuff in it, at least here
0:44:01in the US.
0:44:02an icon that says the weather channel in the bottom right left hand corner.
0:44:06They've merged it at least because it's doing stuff that Elwyn didn't do.
0:44:10Yeah maybe but again like this is one of those things like American exceptionalism.
0:44:14Yeah it's not the same everywhere.
0:44:17We get the... so we are... well it's tricky because in the in America and I believe in Canada too maybe
0:44:24also I'm not sure they're gonna get the precipitation alerts and stuff.
0:44:29Which is really annoying because Dark Sky was here.
0:44:34I could use Dark Sky data. In fact, I do.
0:44:36You know, this company, how they operate, "Oh, we're gonna do it first in America and then later, like years later."
0:44:43Like, is it the SpongeBob meme? Like, 75 years later.
0:44:47[Laughter]
0:44:50In Europe.
0:44:51Right now I see the Weather Channel as the data source in iOS 14 on my phone.
0:44:56Doesn't say anything about Dark Sky.
0:44:58I mean look, honestly I don't care because like as soon as the weather app that I want to use just puts a widget on
0:45:03I'm gonna switch over but I just don't have that option right now
0:45:06But it's still annoying
0:45:09I did get a couple of weeks ago a severe weather alert in weather for raw middle
0:45:15It was very scary like it was basically like strong winds are coming
0:45:19Was it one of the system ones where it like makes a noise on your phone and stuff?
0:45:26No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't one of those. But there was an exclamation point inside the weather app saying "severe alert".
0:45:33It was just, yeah.
0:45:35Did you have like some rain?
0:45:36Like it's just like...
0:45:37Some wind is coming. Like it's not like a tornado.
0:45:43It's not incredible outside.
0:45:45It's not a perfect day for a beach here at the exclamation point.
0:45:48Now my hair is not on point anymore. Thank you weather app for shortcuts.
0:45:54There's a new, they added like a starter pack to shortcuts,
0:45:59essentially. - Which is great.
0:46:02- But now, in my case, I got two of these.
0:46:05I'm pretty sure it's a bug.
0:46:07But in the shortcuts app in iOS 14, you will find,
0:46:11this accomplishes two things, I believe.
0:46:12One, it gives you some pre-installed shortcuts,
0:46:16and two, those shortcuts will be placed in a folder
0:46:18called Starter Shortcuts.
0:46:20So Apple will actually show you
0:46:23that it's possible now to have folders
0:46:25and that will give you some built-in pre-installed shortcuts
0:46:29in the app.
0:46:30- You know what I like about these?
0:46:32- What do you like?
0:46:34- They're complicated.
0:46:35- Yeah, these are like some of the Shazam shortcuts
0:46:39and the text last photo shortcut.
0:46:42These are already featured in the gallery.
0:46:44They were built by the workflow team years ago.
0:46:46They transitioned to the shortcuts gallery
0:46:49when the app was relaunched
0:46:51and they're now going to be the starter shortcuts, which is quite cool.
0:46:54Because I remember Ari and the guys building these workflows years ago,
0:47:00and they're still part of the onboarding process, if you will,
0:47:04which I think is really, really cool.
0:47:06They vary in complication between the four of them.
0:47:09And I just think that that's cool because maybe for people that aren't familiar with it,
0:47:14this will give them, like if they want to poke and look around,
0:47:17it's like they might realize that this is more powerful than they expected.
0:47:20Or what will probably happen is they'll be terrified of it and never want to use it.
0:47:25One point of feedback on this.
0:47:28Maybe, you know, if I have 250 shortcuts already,
0:47:33maybe I don't really need the starter shortcuts thing to be added by default.
0:47:38Just an idea.
0:47:39Because I'm guessing that, you know, if you see that a user has hundreds of shortcuts in the library already,
0:47:45maybe it doesn't need to happen by default.
0:47:48Maybe you'll learn one day, you know.
0:47:50Maybe you're just one of those people, you're a shortcuts holder, you just accumulate shortcuts in the app.
0:47:57You don't really use them, but you like to have them there.
0:48:00Did you also get a folder set up called "homescreen_widgets"?
0:48:04I think it's just called "widgets".
0:48:07I have a folder that got set up called "homescreen_widgets".
0:48:11No, I don't have homescreen widgets. Are you sure you didn't create that yourself?
0:48:15Who knows, man? Maybe I did make it myself.
0:48:18Anyway, the other thing I wanted to mention is I'm still having some pretty bad performance
0:48:27issues with shortcuts in iOS 14, to the point where any time I start working on a new shortcut,
0:48:35I need to wait like two minutes before I can search for any actions in the app.
0:48:42Like for two minutes the editor is just blank, and any action I search for doesn't come up.
0:48:48And if I tap on any of the categories, it's a completely blank page.
0:48:52And then eventually, like, I can open shortcuts, open the editor, go make a coffee, and then
0:48:57come back and start working on the shortcut.
0:48:59And I'm not kidding.
0:49:00It's just giving you a break.
0:49:01I'm honestly not kidding.
0:49:03So that's pretty bad.
0:49:05Hopefully it will get fixed.
0:49:07Don't make that a habit or you're gonna get yourself in trouble again.
0:49:11Every time you want to make a shortcut, you just go make a coffee and you end up, like,
0:49:14on 20 coffees a day.
0:49:15Yeah, exactly.
0:49:16I don't want to be that person anymore.
0:49:18I don't want to be that person anymore.
0:49:20So I think that's it in terms of what's new.
0:49:23Well, now there's this other thing,
0:49:24but Steven, can you actually talk about this one?
0:49:26- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
0:49:28one second before we do that.
0:49:29I had a bug that seems to have been fixed in shortcuts.
0:49:32- Oh yeah, you did.
0:49:33- Which is any of my shortcuts
0:49:36that had a choose from menu option,
0:49:38which lots of my shortcuts that I run frequently do,
0:49:42every now and then it would just run incredibly slowly.
0:49:46like I would tap it and would maybe wait like 30 seconds or sometimes I would get a notification
0:49:50after a while that just said this shortcut took too long to run.
0:49:53Oh, that's too bad.
0:49:54And they're now running, like they're being responsive now.
0:49:59Nice. I still believe I still have this issue, this other issue now that you mentioned this.
0:50:06Sometimes my shortcuts don't appear in the share sheet at all, like in Safari.
0:50:12I've had this, yeah.
0:50:13Yeah, and I think it's still happening, unfortunately.
0:50:16So it's not unusual.
0:50:19Shortcuts is one of those apps that is so complex.
0:50:21It's not really surprising that during the initial stage
0:50:26of the beta season, it's very buggy.
0:50:28It's very complex.
0:50:29It's possibly like, I mean, it's very complex,
0:50:32like hundreds of actions,
0:50:34all kinds of different integrations across the system.
0:50:36It comes with the territory, I guess.
0:50:38But still, we're gonna mention those
0:50:40just in case anyone is listening
0:50:42and can pay attention to this.
0:50:44So yeah, I'm glad the menu stuff is fixed, Myke.
0:50:47- There is a little bit of a treat in this beta.
0:50:50So the rumors have been that the iPhone 12 will be two models
0:50:55a smaller one and a larger one, perhaps around 5.4 inches.
0:51:01And the addition in this beta is the display zoom option.
0:51:07So this has been present on the XS and 11 Pro Max,
0:51:12because you could say, I want to zoom in
0:51:14and it basically switches from the regular 6.5 inch view
0:51:17to a 5.8 inch view, making everything bigger.
0:51:21That hasn't been on the 5.8 inch phones
0:51:23because there hasn't been anything smaller to zoom to.
0:51:26So on my 11 Pro, non-Max,
0:51:29I don't have an option to change this
0:51:31to something that would be from a smaller phone.
0:51:34And it seems like an iOS 14 beta three,
0:51:38the iPhone 10, 10S and 11 Pro all the same size,
0:51:41now have this option for a zoomed in interface.
0:51:46And 9to5Mac of course did the math
0:51:50and kind of figured it out.
0:51:51And it seems that this zoomed in resolution
0:51:55would fit perfectly on a 5.4 inch iPhone.
0:51:59So I think those rumors of a 5.4 inch,
0:52:02you know, smaller phone with the face ID,
0:52:04the smaller iPhone 12 seems to be accurate.
0:52:08- 960 by 2079, they were able to change it.
0:52:11It was kind of funny the way they worked it out
0:52:13is they kept forcing the iOS simulator
0:52:15to run at different resolutions
0:52:16and this is the only one it didn't crash on.
0:52:18(laughing)
0:52:20It's kind of like a great way
0:52:21to find the answer to something.
0:52:24So yeah, it would indicate that, as you say,
0:52:27like it makes the phone smaller, so they've made it,
0:52:30which means that the phones that would be larger than it
0:52:33would be able to run display zoom at that resolution
0:52:35because there is a step down.
0:52:37So this is, you know, because they've created iOS
0:52:42at that smaller level, then bigger phones
0:52:45can take advantage of the fact that iOS runs at that resolution
0:52:48and use display zoom.
0:52:50-This makes me think that compact UI must be happening
0:52:54also because of this, right?
0:52:56-Well, that's compact UI.
0:52:57-So compact UI would be the idea that in iOS 14,
0:53:01It's like more of like an initiative,
0:53:04more like a marketing term that Apple is using
0:53:07to describe a bunch of changes.
0:53:09But this idea that many UI elements in iOS 14 are smaller
0:53:14and occupy less space on screen than before.
0:53:17So things like shortcuts when they run,
0:53:20or Siri when it, you know,
0:53:23like it takes up less space on screen.
0:53:26- I thought that might have been something like
0:53:28size classes or something like that,
0:53:30but now I know what you mean.
0:53:31Just the idea of like--
0:53:32- It's the idea of--
0:53:33- The system taking less information away from you.
0:53:36- Phone calls obviously.
0:53:37So making sure that the UI can sort of recede a little
0:53:42and if it's not necessary, don't come up in full screen
0:53:47and maybe menus can be more compact.
0:53:50So you can see that also in the transition
0:53:51from action sheets to pull down menus in iOS 14,
0:53:55all that kind of stuff.
0:53:56I think it makes sense in the context of one of our phones
0:54:00and quite possibly the phone that most people are gonna buy
0:54:03is gonna be smaller.
0:54:04So I think it makes sense.
0:54:07And there's a bunch of other reasons,
0:54:08like we talked about this before,
0:54:10but I think also having the base model
0:54:12being slightly smaller than usual,
0:54:14I think it also helps dictate this kind of direction.
0:54:18- I think it's great that people have more options
0:54:21for Face ID phones.
0:54:22You know, right now there's three,
0:54:245.8 inches being the smallest is too big
0:54:27for a lot of people.
0:54:28and you have the SE kinda hanging out
0:54:30as the low cost option.
0:54:32So I think this is gonna be a pretty popular size.
0:54:35I think a lot of people are gonna like this 5.4 inch size.
0:54:39Now for me, using the iPhone 11 Pro 5.8 inches,
0:54:44I will buy the nicest phone
0:54:48because that's usually where the best camera stuff is
0:54:50and I really care about that.
0:54:52But it looks like I'm gonna have to give up this size
0:54:54and go a little bit bigger maybe.
0:54:56So we'll see how all that shakes out.
0:54:58but this is a really cool story and I'm with you Myke.
0:55:01I love the way they found this.
0:55:03I'm just killing the simulator over and over.
0:55:06I like the investigative work there by 9to5.
0:55:09- Yeah, it's nice when you come back up claims
0:55:12with actual facts and work.
0:55:14- Well, Big Sur also got a beta update.
0:55:20They fixed the terrible battery icon, the system preferences.
0:55:24Just like, thank goodness that's been,
0:55:28that's been fixed.
0:55:29And it fixed an issue that I'd actually
0:55:32provide a feedback on is that I cannot create
0:55:34a new touch ID record.
0:55:35So when I set up Big Sur,
0:55:38I didn't have any touch ID fingerprints on the system.
0:55:40I don't know why I had it in Catalina,
0:55:43but I couldn't add a fingerprint.
0:55:45I would hit the button and then it would just
0:55:46not do anything.
0:55:48And Beta 3 has fixed that for me.
0:55:49So I can use touch ID again on my laptop.
0:55:52And it's interesting that Big Sur
0:55:55does not have a public Beta yet,
0:55:57least as if we're recording. I don't really know why Apple hasn't said
0:56:02anything as far as I hope but at some point I guess the public beta will will
0:56:06show up. I kind of think that maybe it's related to the issue that if you upgrade
0:56:12from Catalina or if you have a like a APS APFS volume on the same drive that
0:56:18Catalina is in it Catalina will get software updates like there's a lot of
0:56:21gotchas with the install and maybe they're trying to iron that out before
0:56:24opening it up to a lot more people. Mac public beta always seems interesting to
0:56:29me anyway. Why? Because I feel like that there's the potential for more risk. Oh
0:56:35on like the user side? Yeah. Yeah oh I think there is because Macs can be
0:56:40configured in basically endless number of ways and you have like weird utilities
0:56:45and stuff where with iOS maybe you kind of know what to expect a little bit more.
0:56:49I feel like I would prefer or I think it would be better to have it as like an
0:56:54open developer beta so like you add a level in between maybe you know I don't
0:57:00know I don't know right so it's kind of like you don't have to be in the
0:57:03developer program to get the beta but you don't call it public beta.
0:57:09When you think about it who's the target who's the target audience for a Mac OS public beta?
0:57:15Like either you are...
0:57:16Enthusiasts.
0:57:18Are there really any?
0:57:19What Mac enthusiasts?
0:57:20If you are a Mac enthusiast, don't you have an Apple developer account?
0:57:25Don't you want developer beta?
0:57:28Not necessarily everybody has the money to put behind the beta program.
0:57:34You may not want to be, or you may not think the beta experience is worth the $99 a year
0:57:39or whatever.
0:57:40So yeah, I think there are a lot of people who wait for the public beta, and I think
0:57:44the people who look at the public beta as being marginally safer than the developer
0:57:49builds.
0:57:50we can debate that, I'm not sure that's actually true,
0:57:53but I think the people who feel more comfortable
0:57:55on the public beta release cycle than the dev beta
0:57:59where they feel like things may be broken more often.
0:58:02- Like me as a 17 year old, 16 year old or whatever,
0:58:07I would have been bought the computer
0:58:10but wouldn't have the money to buy the,
0:58:14you know, like the computer as a gift
0:58:15was like a gift for me or whatever.
0:58:19but I wouldn't have really wanted to put down the 100 pounds or whatever to get the...
0:58:23I didn't have a job, so...
0:58:25[laughs]
0:58:26So I didn't have the money to buy the developer account, so it would have been good for me
0:58:30that way, but it's niche cases.
0:58:32I'm going with the nicest cases here, but yeah.
0:58:37No watchOS public beta yet either.
0:58:39So the Mac and the watch are in the same boat.
0:58:42I wonder if the lack of open Apple stores in a lot of places in the world have factored
0:58:48into that because as far as I know they haven't changed the situation where like
0:58:51if your beta install fails you can't recover it yourself and I don't know
0:58:57that's one of those two things are tied together or if that's not an issue maybe
0:58:59they've fixed that this year I don't know I don't learn watch OS betas oh I
0:59:03wouldn't either mm-hmm not not hip to that I do but it's also because I like
0:59:10to live dangerously to an extent yeah yeah that is just how you live your life
0:59:15Want to take another break? Mm-hmm. This episode of Connected is also brought to
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1:00:35Yo, Tichi, how's the review going?
1:00:38Very strangely, I would say. So I started writing the review a few days ago.
1:00:49Because you did something you don't normally do, which is you wrote a long article.
1:00:56No, I usually do. See, everything is weird. I usually do, actually. But I do it when I'm
1:01:04coming back to Italy from the WWDC. So it doesn't really...
1:01:08I think it differs. Like one year you wrote a review of an actual iPad.
1:01:12Yes, yes. 2017.
1:01:15This felt very much like it would have been in the review, like a lot of what you wrote here.
1:01:20Which is why I'm gonna reuse it. Which is something that I do.
1:01:24I adapt things that I write early in the summer.
1:01:28No, it's different because when I write these articles in the summer,
1:01:33So I wrote something about the iPadOS 14 public beta.
1:01:38But when I do that, I do that when I'm coming back from the US to Italy.
1:01:42So it doesn't really eat into my time that I spent researching or taking notes or working
1:01:47on the mind map.
1:01:49And this time, it also didn't, but it happened at a very problematic time in that I had to
1:01:56make the decision to write something as I was on vacation.
1:02:01So I actually wrote this article at the beach in southern Italy while Silvia and I and our
1:02:07dogs were on vacation and Silvia was kind enough and patient enough to let me do it,
1:02:12but it was very, very much non-optimal, I would say.
1:02:16Anyway, the review, I feel like I'm slower than usual.
1:02:22I feel like it's taking me a while to be fully inspired to work on some chapters, but I also
1:02:31feel like this is perfectly normal this year, and I feel like my...
1:02:38This is happening because I know that it's going to be a shorter review.
1:02:42I know that it's going to be more compact.
1:02:44I mean, I already worked out, like, I have the mind map completed.
1:02:49I worked out the number of chapters that we're doing.
1:02:52We're already working on the design assets
1:02:54for these fewer chapters.
1:02:56I know it's going to be shorter.
1:02:58It's going to be less work.
1:02:59And so maybe that's why I feel like I
1:03:01can take it to be a bit easier.
1:03:03At the same time, there's the other half of my brain saying,
1:03:06no, you cannot take it easier.
1:03:07Because then you're going to be late,
1:03:09and you're going to meet your deadline.
1:03:10You're going to be screwed.
1:03:11It's going to be horrible.
1:03:12So I'm trying to balance these two voices in my head,
1:03:15telling me that, look, it's fine.
1:03:17You can get it done.
1:03:17It's going to be shorter.
1:03:18and the other saying, "No, you're gonna suck,
1:03:21and you're gonna wait until the last minute."
1:03:23You know, basically the usual struggle.
1:03:25But also, I feel like another factor to consider here
1:03:30is how the feature this year, which is widgets,
1:03:34is very much dependent on third-party adoption.
1:03:39Because, yeah, I can write about the Apple widgets,
1:03:42and I can do my comparisons with the older widgets
1:03:46from Apple in iOS 12, in iOS 13, and the widgets in iOS 14.
1:03:51But that's no fun.
1:03:52Like, I feel like people expect me to show off some examples
1:03:55of the cool stuff that's gonna be possible.
1:03:57- So I know from my own personal experience
1:04:00in reading your reviews, that through the beta period,
1:04:04when you're using Apple stuff,
1:04:07and one of the things that I,
1:04:08one of the ones that really I remember vividly about this
1:04:12was the new extensions in iOS 9.
1:04:15Yeah, eight.
1:04:16Eight, where I actually, funnily enough, read this review on a Kindle on a beach in Palermo
1:04:22in Sicily.
1:04:23Wow.
1:04:24So I have lots of good memories about this specific review.
1:04:28But it was more about like, I was on the beta and didn't really get to use many extensions,
1:04:34but then reading all of the extensions you would have from third-party developers in
1:04:39in beta really kind of helped drive home why this was important.
1:04:45Well, I feel like I could understand it in the abstract, but the actual specifics will
1:04:51be what really helped this make sense for me.
1:04:56So it is a key.
1:04:58And I wonder if this feature this year with the widgets is maybe...
1:05:03Do you feel more reliant on other years or is there always something like this where
1:05:07feel like you have to have third party apps to be able to write this section?
1:05:10There is always something like this but I feel like it's gonna be more
1:05:15prominent with widgets because it is such a relatable feature for so many
1:05:20people. And I think it's more design focused than other stuff too. It's very much design focused so it
1:05:26really lends itself well to a lots of screenshots and images in the review
1:05:31lots of like visually showing off what what developers can do and I had this
1:05:36realization a few days ago. I started writing the review earlier this week. I wrote the
1:05:41introduction in one session one day. I felt really good about it. And then I moved on.
1:05:45I looked at the map. So I can tell you right now there's going to be nine chapters in total.
1:05:50So very compact review. I mean, years ago there was like one review. There was like
1:05:5520 chapters, I believe. It was not my best time. So it's going to be nine chapters. And
1:06:02I was looking at it and I'm like, "Okay, chapter two, setup and performance. I'm not gonna
1:06:08make the same mistake as last year." Last year, I wrote it in July, like by this time
1:06:15last year.
1:06:16Like a fool.
1:06:17Like a fool. And then iOS 13 got worse during the summer.
1:06:23Well also the setup thing, I expect that they probably finalized that later in the period
1:06:28anyway.
1:06:29Exactly. So I learned from my mistakes and like, I'm not going to write this one until
1:06:35late August or like early September, because I want to make sure that the setup images
1:06:40and the performance discussion is as close to the final version as possible. So I moved
1:06:47on to the next chapter, which is of course the home screen. And in looking at it, like,
1:06:53As with last year, I am going to touch upon some technical aspects of widgets, but I don't
1:07:00want to, you know, again, one of the lessons that I learned with iOS 11, it's not really
1:07:07fun to talk about APIs and really technical stuff in depth in a review.
1:07:12Thank you.
1:07:13So, I'm going to have that sort of, I'm going to try and strike the same tone, at least
1:07:17I want you of last year and iOS 12, where I know the technical stuff and I will mention
1:07:24it but only when necessary.
1:07:25I want to try and see if I can make you feel better about something, a thought that I just
1:07:29have.
1:07:30Okay.
1:07:31I know that you are rightly so concerned about the timeline this year, right?
1:07:37Because you have to be ready for September because you have no idea when iOS comes out,
1:07:44right?
1:07:45Yep.
1:07:46it's probably fair to say that iOS will come out later than usual but we don't
1:07:52know that but I think you would probably be pretty like good to assume that you
1:07:56shouldn't but other people can right like we can naturally assume that it will
1:07:59come later so I bet that you get more third-party betas that you can run
1:08:07before iOS actually ships because developers will be working on the same
1:08:12timeline that you are right everyone's gonna be like if I want to be the
1:08:16their day one, I need to make sure I'm ready for like early September, even though I would
1:08:21bet that iOS doesn't come out until late September or early October, because the iPhone probably
1:08:25won't come out that time as well. So I bet you will be able to get more examples of stuff
1:08:30like widgets than you would in a typical review.
1:08:33So a couple of things. First of all, I really hope you're right. And if anyone at Apple
1:08:37even anonymously can at some point this summer confirm this, that would be really exceptional
1:08:42for my mental health, thank you. Second thing, I had this realization as I was looking at
1:08:49the map and I'm like, "Okay, now I'm gonna write about widgets." And then I looked at
1:08:53it and I was like, "This map is missing the really cool and interesting stuff, which is
1:08:59third-party examples." Like, it's—I can write about the Apple apps. Also, same discussion
1:09:06for sidebars on iPad, right? I can write about Apple's own sidebars, but really, where's
1:09:11the fun. I want to write about the third-party adoption. So I put out a call on Twitter saying,
1:09:18if you're a developer, if you're working on widgets, if you're working on sidebars or
1:09:21three column layouts on iPad, get in touch. Let me know. Send me an email. Send me a tweet.
1:09:28And if you have, send me a beta. And so I spent the past two days basically replying
1:09:34to like hundreds of emails. I have all kinds of examples now.
1:09:37Brilliant. I already have a couple betas on my phone
1:09:41right now, actually.
1:09:42I'm so jealous.
1:09:43We're third-party widgets, so that's really cool.
1:09:46And I have, in theory, lots more coming.
1:09:50All these kind developers get in touch with me and say, "Hey, I'm working on this," like
1:09:54people showing me screenshots and screen recordings of the simulator, which was very cool.
1:09:59So thank you if you got in touch.
1:10:01If you haven't gotten in touch but you're working on something, please get in touch,
1:10:04because I can always use more examples.
1:10:07And yeah, I think this is really exciting because I really think this is going to be
1:10:12like the consumer feature, right?
1:10:15And I think it really should make for a fun section of the review where like, here's what
1:10:20this widget can do, and here's what these other developers figured out how to do with
1:10:25the widget.
1:10:26Here's the design of it.
1:10:27Like, I really can play around with a bunch of different examples and it should be fun.
1:10:31And the rest of the review, obviously, is going to be an iPadOS section.
1:10:37And even there, as I mentioned, I'm going to show off a bunch of examples of sidebars
1:10:43and third-party developers doing things.
1:10:45And obviously, I'm going to talk about shortcuts.
1:10:47But I think it's pretty safe to assume that the changes in shortcuts this year are not
1:10:53as massive as last year.
1:10:55So there will be examples, but you shouldn't expect the kind of massive chapter for shortcuts
1:11:01that I've had for the past two years with iOS 12 and 13.
1:11:05Because yes, there are some changes,
1:11:06but I mean, once you mention folders
1:11:08and once you mention the other stuff,
1:11:10like, the new actions are not really groundbreaking.
1:11:14But even then, third parties can come in here and say,
1:11:19we're now using in-app intent handling,
1:11:22which is this new API that on the surface
1:11:25it doesn't really sound exciting,
1:11:27but once you try it, it is incredible.
1:11:30I'm already playing around with a bunch of shortcuts actions made by third-party developers
1:11:33that use this new technology, which basically means shortcuts actions can now do a lot more
1:11:42powerful things in the background because of this new API.
1:11:46And so the other day I did something just wild, which was I created a wallet pass, so
1:11:53So a custom pass for the Wallet app using a shortcuts action that had like dozen, I
1:11:59believe like over 30 fields for parameters. So I could put in like custom images and titles
1:12:05and subtitles and captions and multiple fields. And this is like a very memory intensive thing
1:12:10to do, but thanks to in-app intent handling, the shortcuts action did it in like five seconds
1:12:16and it spit out a Wallet pass inside shortcuts. So yeah, that's going to be fun.
1:12:22Can we go back to, wait just a second, because I had a thought that I wanted to share, right?
1:12:25Yes, yes.
1:12:26There has got to be no developer more happy right now than _DavidSmith.
1:12:31Oh yeah, oh yeah.
1:12:34Because I recommend, by the way, people listen to the most recent episode of Under the Radar,
1:12:38because it's very funny when _Flexes in a way that I never would have expected to hear
1:12:45from him, and it is absolutely fantastic.
1:12:48to scare off people. If someone else was like, "Huh, I wonder about making something like
1:12:54Watchsmith, but for widgets," I would hope that there would be less of an interest in
1:13:02doing that if they know that I'm going to do it too, because then you're like, "You're
1:13:07going to have a tough time out underscoring 'underscore.'" You're never going to have
1:13:12as many widgets, you're never going to have as many options. This is what I do. So I kind
1:13:18of want to stake my claim and say like, "This is what I'm working on. This is how I'm going
1:13:22to make it. Good luck trying to keep up." So that's sort of where I ended up on secrecy
1:13:27this summer.
1:13:28I think that's the most you've ever flexed in public.
1:13:32Because he is talking about the position that he has found himself in right now, where he
1:13:37just happened to do a lot of the hard work last year with Widgetsmith, and now can really
1:13:43It just works now, yeah.
1:13:45Yeah, we've watched Smith and now he's making Widget Smith, which that is something that
1:13:51he talks about on Under the Radar.
1:13:52But basically he can use a lot of the stuff that he put into his wonderful complications
1:13:59app, which like, you know, when we all saw the complications thing, it was like, "Oh,
1:14:02amazing, another score's going to be so happy."
1:14:05And I'm sure he is, right, about the fact that you can put multiple complications on
1:14:08it now.
1:14:09having done a lot of the brains to being able to create effectively a
1:14:13configurable widget application because I guarantee it is gonna be a lot of
1:14:17people that want to make that app right but no one's as far ahead as he is
1:14:23because he's done a lot of what's needed like knows how to make all these apps
1:14:27in SwiftUI because that's what I had to do on the watch and has created like the
1:14:30brains of this system to like you know I just think it's like a funny thing where
1:14:34like Underscore's found himself in like a a very lucky position because the
1:14:38things that he decided to turn his hand towards, Apple also agreed with things
1:14:42they wanted people to turn their hand towards, so you know, bravo to Dave.
1:14:48Yes, yes. So, widgets will be really exciting and right now I'm just trying to balance
1:14:55everything going on this summer. Basically we like my schedule and
1:14:59whether we want to go on another vacation or not, the fact that I have a
1:15:02a tattoo to finish at some point, and writing the review in the middle and also working
1:15:09on all the extra stuff for September or whenever that is going to be. So I really hope that
1:15:14at some point I will be able to get a sense of the timeline here, but I have to stick
1:15:19with my plan of "I need to be done in early September" or "I need to be in a very good
1:15:25place by early September" at least. But as I mentioned, this is going to be shorter than
1:15:32than previous years, just because of the nature of iOS and iPadOS 14. And I'm going to try
1:15:42and replicate the tone of the past couple of years, which is technical but not overwhelmingly
1:15:48so. And if anything, I think judging from the introduction that just came out of me
1:15:54a few days ago, it's going to -- I think the overall tone of it is going to be a lot more
1:16:01friendly, maybe is a good word to describe it, than previous years. I think it's very much,
1:16:07like judging from the intro, it is very much a 2020 inspired review, if you know what I mean.
1:16:13It's a review written in the current times, acknowledging the fact that 2020 is what it is.
1:16:21And also from the angle that iOS 14, to an extent, you can see the reflection of that
1:16:28in some of the features of a post-COVID world. So it is a product of the times, I guess,
1:16:35and I want it to be approachable and I want it to be more compact than previous years, but also I
1:16:41want to do a bunch of cool stuff in terms of extras and things surrounding the review.
1:16:47And also I'm trying to figure out ways to... Something that a lot of people...
1:16:54that I've been thinking about actually for a few years now is
1:16:59there's a lot of information in my reviews, right? There's a lot of details
1:17:03but sometimes people just want to have like a
1:17:06like a page, like a list where they can go in and discover all these little
1:17:10tidbits, all these like hidden features and like
1:17:13smaller details and so I'm thinking always of how can I
1:17:17make certain details from the review like these little things like if you long
1:17:21press this icon, something happens.
1:17:24Like, how can I make it more approachable to have those tidbits from the review also
1:17:32be available standalone?
1:17:33It's also something that I'm considering this year.
1:17:38I have no idea what you would do, but I would like that.
1:17:43Because those little tidbits, they're like...
1:17:45They get lost in the story.
1:17:46They get lost, but sometimes they are some of the things that you would encounter on
1:17:51on a daily basis that are better for you to use than like, I don't know, something random.
1:17:58You know what I mean? Like these deep stuff, right? Like these little things that make
1:18:03the experience of the operating system.
1:18:05For example, I don't think nobody knows about this. Very few people know about this. Did
1:18:09you know that in iOS 14 you can hide contact suggestions from the share sheet? Like, you
1:18:17You know the share sheet and the sharing suggestions for iMessage and stuff?
1:18:22If you long press 1, you can now suggest less for that person.
1:18:27Oh, that's good.
1:18:29Yeah, that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.
1:18:32Like I never need to send my mom things from there.
1:18:35Yeah, same.
1:18:36Like I never text my mom a link, right?
1:18:40So she doesn't need to be in this list.
1:18:44That's good.
1:18:45Check out this thing I found on Hacker News, mom.
1:18:46Not needed. That's good.
1:18:49Yeah, so trying to think of better ways to extract these little things and make them accessible in, you know, outside of the review, maybe.
1:18:59Maybe just as simple as a separate article saying here's like the 50 more most interesting little facts from the review.
1:19:09Maybe it's just as simple as that, but it's something that I want to do.
1:19:12They're also pretty good for sharing on social media, I reckon.
1:19:14Yeah, exactly.
1:19:15That's the thing that you want to do.
1:19:16Yeah, yeah for sure.
1:19:18We didn't even talk about the tools we should keep that because I'm sure things change over
1:19:21time but I want to hear more about the tools that you're using.
1:19:24All right, we could talk about that later.
1:19:26Yeah, we could talk about that later.
1:19:28I think that's probably it.
1:19:30Sounds good.
1:19:31If you want to find links to the stuff that we spoke about head on over to relay.fm/connected/304.
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1:19:49find us all on Twitter Myke is there as I M Y K E Myke name another podcast
1:19:55you're on a remaster with Federico it's a video game podcast like once a month
1:20:01cool so go check out remaster if you want to hear these guys talk about
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1:20:12the editor-in-chief of Mac stories dot net you can find me on Twitter as ismh
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1:20:30you cheerio bye y'all