Connected

00:00:00 ◼   ► [Music]

00:00:06 ◼   ► From Relay FM, this is Connected, episode 283.

00:00:10 ◼   ► Today's show is brought to you by CleanMyMac X Pingdom.

00:00:14 ◼   ► And indeed, my name is Myke Hurley.

00:00:16 ◼   ► I have introduced myself as it is an odd episode,

00:00:19 ◼   ► and I am joined by my friend, Mr Federico Vittucci.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Hello, Michael. How are you?

00:00:26 ◼   ► I'm very well. How are you?

00:00:27 ◼   ► I am surviving so far in Italy.

00:00:30 ◼   ► Oh boy, yeah.

00:00:32 ◼   ► Fingers crossed and all that, but I'm fine.

00:00:36 ◼   ► It's real rough over there right now, huh?

00:00:37 ◼   ► Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Coronavirus.

00:00:42 ◼   ► I was just reading a few minutes ago, the confirmed cases are now at 400.

00:00:48 ◼   ► Thankfully, mostly in the...

00:00:50 ◼   ► Well, thankfully for me, but of course it's terrible for those people in the northern part of Italy.

00:00:56 ◼   ► I mean, it's kind of spread for sure, but so far we're fine and the government is actually doing a pretty good job.

00:01:02 ◼   ► So, you know, we're holding up as a people, we're holding up, I think.

00:01:07 ◼   ► Yeah, it really spread fast. I'm reading about it.

00:01:10 ◼   ► It was like, oh, there's no one in Italy and now there's 100 people and now there's 200 and now there's 400.

00:01:15 ◼   ► Like in the last week, it's been wild. You Italians need to stop touching each other.

00:01:19 ◼   ► Yeah, that's the problem.

00:01:21 ◼   ► The problem was also that I was reading that the virus was present for like two weeks.

00:01:26 ◼   ► There's like two specific areas that have been marked as like no access zones.

00:01:33 ◼   ► And the virus was kind of cooking in there for two weeks, and then it started spreading.

00:01:39 ◼   ► But truth be told, and I don't usually say this, but the Italian government is doing a good job this time.

00:01:45 ◼   ► Lots of pre-emptive measures and I mean, it's a sacrifice for those people up north.

00:01:52 ◼   ► up north, you know, they cannot leave their house for two weeks. We're asking them a lot

00:01:59 ◼   ► right now, but the government response seems to have been fast and quite severe but necessary,

00:02:06 ◼   ► I think. So fingers crossed we'll live through this and we're gonna be fine.

00:02:10 ◼   ► The same goes for everyone everywhere who's dealing with the situation right now. But anyway,

00:02:15 ◼   ► that's not, let's not spend too much time on that right now. Stephen's not here this week.

00:02:20 ◼   ► He has not been affected by coronavirus.

00:02:23 ◼   ► He is just dealing with a family matter this week.

00:02:25 ◼   ► So send him weird fish, I guess will be my request.

00:02:30 ◼   ► Yes. Yes. We have some follow up.

00:02:33 ◼   ► I've decided to do follow up this week purely because

00:02:37 ◼   ► there's in memoriam on Stephen.

00:02:40 ◼   ► Yeah. Well, no, no.

00:02:42 ◼   ► Just because there's some Warren Buffett news

00:02:45 ◼   ► that I want to talk about, but we'll get to that in a minute.

00:02:47 ◼   ► I mean, we have to then. Exactly.

00:02:49 ◼   ► Eric reminded us that the IKEA and Sonos speakers that we were talking about last week are Airplay

00:02:55 ◼   ► 2 speakers, so they would actually integrate with any existing HomePod setup.

00:02:59 ◼   ► Didn't we say that on the show?

00:03:01 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:03:02 ◼   ► I probably not because multiple people wrote in to say that.

00:03:06 ◼   ► If you are an all-in on the HomePod, this is a nice and cheaper way to expand your home

00:03:11 ◼   ► to have multi-room audio, which is nice, right?

00:03:14 ◼   ► Because they're cheap.

00:03:16 ◼   ► However, in this situation, you'd probably need to use your phone as a controller a lot

00:03:22 ◼   ► for the music, because if the HomePod was like downstairs in the living room and you

00:03:27 ◼   ► have these in the bedroom, you can't change the music via audio.

00:03:32 ◼   ► You can talk to them.

00:03:33 ◼   ► Yeah, exactly.

00:03:34 ◼   ► But it is a nice way, as Airplay 2 speakers, these are actually, they do have more function

00:03:39 ◼   ► than that.

00:03:40 ◼   ► Like it's not just Sonos, right?

00:03:42 ◼   ► which we were talking about is like a problem in the sense that it's like, well, you are

00:03:46 ◼   ► all in in the Sonos system or not.

00:03:50 ◼   ► There's some follow-up that I forgot to put in the note and now that we're talking about

00:03:54 ◼   ► it I just remembered. A bunch of people wrote to me on Twitter to say that on the show I

00:04:01 ◼   ► said it's not possible in shortcuts to control multiple AirPlay 2 speakers at the same time.

00:04:07 ◼   ► bunch of people told me that in fact you kinda can control multiple speakers at the same time

00:04:15 ◼   ► using the "Control Home" action. So using the HomeKit action in shortcuts, you can select

00:04:22 ◼   ► multiple speakers at once and then toggle playback. However, I knew that and I didn't mention that

00:04:29 ◼   ► because it doesn't do what I actually want shortcuts to be able to do, which is to actually

00:04:34 ◼   ► pass any arbitrary music as a parameter to multiple speakers at the same time.

00:04:40 ◼   ► With the Control+Home action all you can do is toggle playback, like pause or play,

00:04:46 ◼   ► or change the volume maybe, but you cannot actually integrate that with the

00:04:51 ◼   ► parameter for some music coming from, for example, a Find Music action or a Get

00:04:57 ◼   ► Playlist action. So yes, you can do limited control of multiple speakers at

00:05:04 ◼   ► same time, but it's not what I was talking about. What I'm referring to is

00:05:09 ◼   ► the ability to actually control music playback and the music that you pass to

00:05:15 ◼   ► multiple speakers at the same time. And that is not possible because right now,

00:05:18 ◼   ► in shortcuts, once again, the set playback destination only accepts one speaker at

00:05:24 ◼   ► a time. We will talk about why I have done what I'm about to say I've done

00:05:30 ◼   ► soon but I just bought the echo subwoofer.

00:05:34 ◼   ► Ah, that's the one that they do the... in America I believe they do the commercial and

00:05:40 ◼   ► there's Lizo playing the cello or the violin.

00:05:44 ◼   ► Is it that one or is it the one with the hole in the middle?

00:05:47 ◼   ► Because I wouldn't buy the one with the hole in the middle.

00:05:51 ◼   ► You know they have like...

00:05:52 ◼   ► Is this the echo studio?

00:05:53 ◼   ► Is it called the echo studio?

00:05:54 ◼   ► The echo studio I think is the like home pod competitor that has the hole in the middle.

00:05:59 ◼   ► And you don't have the Echo Studio?

00:06:01 ◼   ► I refuse to buy that because I can't stand looking at the hole in the middle of the Echo

00:06:05 ◼   ► It makes you feel uncomfortable

00:06:07 ◼   ► They have a product called the Echo Sub

00:06:11 ◼   ► Which is a subwoofer that you pair with the Echo Plus

00:06:18 ◼   ► And can create like home, like whole room audio

00:06:24 ◼   ► Right, so they sell like a set that you can buy of two Echo pluses and one sub for like

00:06:33 ◼   ► it's like less than a home pod.

00:06:37 ◼   ► Okay so I bought that I will report back on that soon.

00:06:41 ◼   ► Interesting okay please do.

00:06:43 ◼   ► This is the testing I'm doing with the Amazon Echo.

00:06:47 ◼   ► But yeah no I wouldn't buy the studio because I really can't stand the way it looks it makes

00:06:52 ◼   ► to be filthy uncomfortable.

00:06:54 ◼   ► Mac Pro wheels and feet are going to be coming

00:06:59 ◼   ► as user serviceable parts.

00:07:01 ◼   ► So Apple released a white paper for both the Mac Pro

00:07:06 ◼   ► and the Pro Display XDR.

00:07:10 ◼   ► So like just these documents which have tons of information

00:07:13 ◼   ► that are publicly available.

00:07:15 ◼   ► And Steven noticed that in the Mac Pro white paper

00:07:19 ◼   ► they said that there is going to be a kit

00:07:21 ◼   ► Apple will be selling to change over to wheels or feet

00:07:25 ◼   ► this is something that previously that said but you'd have to go to a user service like to a

00:07:29 ◼   ► To us to an Apple Store or a service provider and have it changed over but they are changing their

00:07:37 ◼   ► Minds on this one, I guess which is good because now if you bought the feet and you want the wheels

00:07:41 ◼   ► Then you can then you can get some wheels

00:07:44 ◼   ► However, I don't know how useful the wheels are. Did you see MKBHD's tweet today of

00:07:50 ◼   ► The the weird these I am a Mac Pro rolling away. I'm looking at it right now

00:07:55 ◼   ► It's the wheels funny. Don't lock you can't lock the wheels

00:07:59 ◼   ► So if you have the Mac Pro on an uneven surface, it will just roll away, which is kind of hilarious

00:08:04 ◼   ► It's just going it will just go which is not not great really because

00:08:12 ◼   ► You don't want it rolling away

00:08:15 ◼   ► You don't want your computer to run away from you usually you do not

00:08:20 ◼   ► MKBHD also published his Mac Pro review

00:08:23 ◼   ► He he spent forty three thousand dollars on his Mac Pro. That's

00:08:28 ◼   ► That that's that that is money that that is a lot of money. Yeah for a computer

00:08:33 ◼   ► It's funny because I remember people telling him when he got the review unit from Apple

00:08:39 ◼   ► It's like oh, yeah

00:08:40 ◼   ► good job getting an expensive computer for free and you're never gonna pay for

00:08:45 ◼   ► a computer yourself and now you got a 43,000 Mac Pro.

00:08:49 ◼   ► I mean I get it right like in the situation he's in like having a machine as powerful as that

00:08:54 ◼   ► that can rip through his footage like I totally get it I'm just happy he owned it

00:08:59 ◼   ► right like I think that's cool like if you if you have done that just say what

00:09:03 ◼   ► you spent rather than just making people guess you know but yeah so the Mac Pro

00:09:08 ◼   ► you can put wheels on it but don't put those wheels on an even surface or it will roll away forever.

00:09:13 ◼   ► Right, got it. I will keep this in mind.

00:09:16 ◼   ► If I had one I would want the wheels on it because I just think it looks cool and would be useful but

00:09:21 ◼   ► it's weird that you can't have a little with us a little lock to go on it.

00:09:24 ◼   ► There you go some third party Belkin can make a wheel lock someone's gonna do it.

00:09:30 ◼   ► For sure the for sure the wheel. Baskin or what company's wheel I'm sure.

00:09:34 ◼   ► As some I'm I tease this already, but I have some news about friend of the show Warren Buffett. Oh Warren

00:09:39 ◼   ► What do you do this time? He's finally switched to the iPhone. Oh

00:09:42 ◼   ► Okay, okay. Why buff it owns five point six percent of Apple like all of it

00:09:49 ◼   ► He owns like five percent of the entire company

00:09:52 ◼   ► And until recently he did not own an iPhone. In fact, he had been using a $29

00:09:58 ◼   ► Samsung Haven flip phone

00:10:02 ◼   ► as his phone. That's what he's been doing.

00:10:04 ◼   ► I'm happy that now, as an iPhone 11 owner,

00:10:08 ◼   ► he can finally play the greatest game of all time,

00:10:11 ◼   ► Warren Buffett Paper Wizard.

00:10:12 ◼   ► His own game.

00:10:14 ◼   ► So he may have never even played his own game.

00:10:16 ◼   ► Apparently he does use an iPad to quote from this Virgo article,

00:10:20 ◼   ► "Research and check stock prices."

00:10:23 ◼   ► Of course, as we all do.

00:10:26 ◼   ► But apparently Tim Cook has been trying to get Buffett to switch

00:10:29 ◼   ► to the iPhone for years and has gifted him

00:10:32 ◼   ► quote, several iPhones.

00:10:34 ◼   ► - Several.

00:10:35 ◼   ► - Yep, Cook even told Bloomberg TV in 2018

00:10:38 ◼   ► that he would personally fly out to Omaha

00:10:41 ◼   ► and perform tech support for Buffett,

00:10:42 ◼   ► should he ever need it?

00:10:44 ◼   ► - I kind of would like this to be like an Apple TV+

00:10:49 ◼   ► short documentary, like Tim Cook does tech support.

00:10:54 ◼   ► - Tim's tech support.

00:10:55 ◼   ► - Tim's tech support, it would be an amazing show

00:10:58 ◼   ► to have Tim Cook go to a bunch of random people and fix their Apple problems.

00:11:04 ◼   ► Just old Apple investors.

00:11:06 ◼   ► No, but even just random people, you know, like, I don't know, your mom. It's like

00:11:11 ◼   ► Tim Cook knocks at your door and fixes your Wi-Fi or something like that. That would be

00:11:16 ◼   ► incredible.

00:11:17 ◼   ► Well, I don't know if he could fix the Wi-Fi. We'll talk about that later on. I'm starting

00:11:25 ◼   ► think that the Warren Buffett paper was that only existed so Tim could try and convince

00:11:30 ◼   ► Warren to get an iPhone. That's leverage. Yeah. I think it was leverage. Well it's just

00:11:34 ◼   ► like I've made this game about you. Do you not want to play it? Yeah. And we all know

00:11:41 ◼   ► you know that the best way to get Warren Buffett's attention is to stroke his enormous ego. So

00:11:48 ◼   ► you know I mean we're talking about the man who had a flavor of Coca-Cola. I was gonna

00:11:52 ◼   ► I was gonna say, they should have made a Coca-Cola iPhone. That would have brought him over.

00:11:56 ◼   ► He loves it. What's it? diet cherry coke or something?

00:11:59 ◼   ► Yes.

00:12:00 ◼   ► Was his favorite?

00:12:02 ◼   ► It is worth noting that Buffett has said that he will strictly use his iPhone to make phone

00:12:06 ◼   ► calls only.

00:12:07 ◼   ► Sure. We don't believe you, Warren.

00:12:10 ◼   ► What a power move.

00:12:11 ◼   ► Nah.

00:12:12 ◼   ► Like, I'm gonna use this flip phone and now you've given me an iPhone and I'm just gonna

00:12:16 ◼   ► use it to make phone calls because I'm Warren Buffett.

00:12:19 ◼   ► until he discovers shortcuts. Warren strikes me as a shortcuts person.

00:12:24 ◼   ► He's going to be a Club Max Stories member in no time.

00:12:27 ◼   ► He's going to own 5% of Max Stories. I would sell 5% of my company to Warren Buffett.

00:12:33 ◼   ► Yes, I will too. Yes. For a lot of money. Call me, Warren. I mean, you've got a phone.

00:12:40 ◼   ► You don't even have to text me. You can call me. Also, because Steven isn't here this week,

00:12:46 ◼   ► I guess we should mention, if you want to hear more about Federico's Pokémon exploits

00:12:50 ◼   ► that we were talking about over the last couple of weeks, we're going to be doing an episode

00:12:54 ◼   ► of remaster this week where we're going to talk in depth about how Federico is catching

00:13:00 ◼   ► all the Pokémon and then battling with them competitively.

00:13:02 ◼   ► So that is of interest to you.

00:13:04 ◼   ► If you want to listen to this just merely to strike revenge against Steven for his actions,

00:13:10 ◼   ► you can go and subscribe to the show and there'll be an episode later on this week all about

00:13:13 ◼   ► it.

00:13:14 ◼   ► Yes. This has ceased follow-up. Follow-up is done. It's done. We're done.

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00:13:56 ◼   ► up a bunch of space and then you know I've then in the past like okay let me

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00:15:05 ◼   ► Let's talk about iPad multitasking.

00:15:07 ◼   ► Hmm, okay.

00:15:08 ◼   ► So this has been coming up a lot recently, right?

00:15:12 ◼   ► And there was some...

00:15:14 ◼   ► There was an interesting concept that came out over the last week.

00:15:18 ◼   ► There is like a weirdness to this story that since...

00:15:22 ◼   ► There was a tweet posted by a Twitter user by the name of Tommy.

00:15:29 ◼   ► They were...

00:15:31 ◼   ► Oh, they are Ruthaling on Twitter.

00:15:34 ◼   ► They posted this concept video of a potential way to do iPad multitasking.

00:15:41 ◼   ► Then this person seemed to delete their entire Twitter account after it got linked in a bunch of places.

00:15:48 ◼   ► And now there is a video on Vimeo which is showing the concept.

00:15:55 ◼   ► I don't really understand what happened here. I don't think it's important in regards to talking about it.

00:16:02 ◼   ► But in case you haven't seen it, it will be in the show notes, but in case you haven't seen it, this concept effectively

00:16:07 ◼   ► treats the iPad like

00:16:10 ◼   ► Splits it in half and puts basically two home screens on either side

00:16:15 ◼   ► So you can swipe in from the right and you see your basically a small version of your home screen and you can pick whatever

00:16:21 ◼   ► App you want or you can swipe in from the left and you'll see the same it takes you back to a small home screen

00:16:26 ◼   ► Without actually going home and you can select it

00:16:28 ◼   ► Basically, this was the idea for iPad multitasking

00:16:32 ◼   ► that Federico and many people had

00:16:33 ◼   ► back in like the iOS 10 days.

00:16:35 ◼   ► - Yes, yeah.

00:16:36 ◼   ► - And so, you know, lots of people are saying,

00:16:40 ◼   ► this looks great, I don't know how this is any more

00:16:41 ◼   ► discoverable than the current system that we have,

00:16:44 ◼   ► but this is something that people,

00:16:46 ◼   ► I get the thinking at least,

00:16:49 ◼   ► and I think that there is something to be said

00:16:52 ◼   ► about showing an app picker.

00:16:54 ◼   ► I think that that idea is not necessarily flawed.

00:16:59 ◼   ► It is a different way of doing things.

00:17:03 ◼   ► But yeah, what do you think?

00:17:04 ◼   ► - So we've come back around to this conversation

00:17:09 ◼   ► that we were having, as you said,

00:17:12 ◼   ► back in 2016, before the days of iOS 11,

00:17:16 ◼   ► about the fact that Split View multitasking on iPad

00:17:20 ◼   ► needed some kind of better app picker.

00:17:24 ◼   ► Because if you remember, back in the day, you know, people might not remember, what

00:17:28 ◼   ► happened was when you wanted to ever switch an application, you just had this like Rolodex

00:17:34 ◼   ► scrolling view of previous applications you'd had open.

00:17:37 ◼   ► It really sucked because that was the only way you could do it.

00:17:40 ◼   ► You'd swipe in from the side and you'd be able to pick an application you'd recently

00:17:44 ◼   ► used.

00:17:45 ◼   ► It was not a good system.

00:17:46 ◼   ► Yeah, and that was available in iOS 9 and iOS 10, and it was weird because it showed

00:17:51 ◼   ► you the most recent apps but the first three of that list were not actually the

00:17:57 ◼   ► most recent it was very strange and very confusing so Apple got rid of that when

00:18:02 ◼   ► they launched iOS 11 with the current system that we have a drag-and-drop

00:18:07 ◼   ► multitasking and of course last year with iPad OS we got multiple apps in

00:18:11 ◼   ► slide over and essentially a modernized version of the same foundation of iOS

00:18:18 ◼   ► of iOS 11. Now we've come the conversation and you know for example

00:18:23 ◼   ► John Gruber has been writing about this and they're in Fireball, has come back

00:18:27 ◼   ► around to this idea of no drag-and-drop is confusing, it requires a lot of fine

00:18:33 ◼   ► precision to operate all these different gestures, we need a simpler system to act

00:18:38 ◼   ► as a picker for the apps that you want to put in split viewer

00:18:42 ◼   ► slide over. And of course a lot of people think that the best way to go about

00:18:47 ◼   ► this is to actually use a single launcher for apps, which would be the

00:18:53 ◼   ► home screen. The home screen is what you see when you unlock your iPad, is how you

00:18:57 ◼   ► launch apps by tapping on their icons, and it should also be the launcher for

00:19:02 ◼   ► apps in Split View. Now, this concept I think it pleases the audience in the

00:19:08 ◼   ► sense of it goes right to the core of this conversation among people who

00:19:14 ◼   ► believe that the home screen should be the single launcher.

00:19:17 ◼   ► And it actually does, as a concept, of course,

00:19:20 ◼   ► this is not an actual piece of software.

00:19:22 ◼   ► It's not a jailbreak tweak either.

00:19:24 ◼   ► It's a motion concept.

00:19:26 ◼   ► It does a good job at showing how the home screen

00:19:30 ◼   ► could be accessed.

00:19:31 ◼   ► However, what I think is that it doesn't account

00:19:34 ◼   ► for all the different ways that people who use the iPad

00:19:38 ◼   ► today have actually learned the system

00:19:43 ◼   ► and take advantage of multiple features of the iPad.

00:19:46 ◼   ► Because the iPad Pro, and the iPad in general really,

00:19:50 ◼   ► it's not just about Split View, it's about using the dock,

00:19:53 ◼   ► it's about using Slide Over,

00:19:54 ◼   ► it's about having multiple apps in Slide Over.

00:19:57 ◼   ► It's about navigating back and forth

00:19:59 ◼   ► between multiple pages of an app,

00:20:02 ◼   ► like Safari, you can go back and forth

00:20:04 ◼   ► by swiping from the edge of the screen.

00:20:06 ◼   ► And this concept does not address any of these features.

00:20:12 ◼   ► It doesn't show you how, for example, you may operate SlideOver, which I know that for me and for other people is an essential feature,

00:20:21 ◼   ► especially since iPadOS brought the ability to have multiple apps in SlideOver and cycle through them.

00:20:27 ◼   ► The dock, this concept, if Apple were to follow this idea, the dock would lose all of its importance.

00:20:35 ◼   ► Because right now the dock, yes, it can hold a lot of icons on your home screen,

00:20:40 ◼   ► but it's also the single element that you can summon anywhere in the iPad UI,

00:20:45 ◼   ► and you can use drag and drop to place your apps anywhere you want.

00:20:50 ◼   ► It's a system-wide launcher that allows you to choose from 15

00:20:55 ◼   ► different apps, and this concept does not address the importance of the dock at all.

00:21:00 ◼   ► Now, what I think is that right now that we're having this conversation again,

00:21:05 ◼   ► it does feel like a repeat of 2016 all over again.

00:21:09 ◼   ► But we're bumping against a single and really fundamental question at the moment.

00:21:15 ◼   ► Do we believe, as iPad users, that we should preserve the freedom of placing windows anywhere on screen

00:21:26 ◼   ► using drag and drop or using some other system?

00:21:29 ◼   ► Now, Ryan, for example, when he did his concept on Mac stories a few weeks ago,

00:21:35 ◼   ► the concept that we talked about, the concept that was using context menus,

00:21:39 ◼   ► Ryan thought we should get rid of drag and drop, but we should preserve at least some way

00:21:45 ◼   ► to decide where you want to put up windows.

00:21:48 ◼   ► So you want to put a window on the left, you want to put a window on the right,

00:21:51 ◼   ► you should have a context menu that has multiple options for that.

00:21:54 ◼   ► But some, and this is really the key issue in this conversation,

00:22:00 ◼   ► I think a lot of people who don't use the iPad as a multitasking machine regularly,

00:22:06 ◼   ► don't necessarily know that iPad users like us, we depend on these features,

00:22:14 ◼   ► on the freedom to manage your windows, to place your windows anywhere,

00:22:18 ◼   ► to have multiple apps in SlideOver to invoke the dock anywhere you are.

00:22:24 ◼   ► And so I think it becomes this kind of strange one-way conversation

00:22:31 ◼   ► because a lot of people are asking for a simplified launcher,

00:22:34 ◼   ► but there's also other people who maybe are not as vocal about these problems right now

00:22:40 ◼   ► that are actually saying, "Yes, the system is not perfect,

00:22:43 ◼   ► but we don't want Apple to get rid of all these pro features

00:22:46 ◼   ► that have been made available ever since iOS 11.

00:22:51 ◼   ► And so I really don't know what the solution is

00:22:53 ◼   ► because we have a group of people asking

00:22:56 ◼   ► for a simplified system and another group of people saying,

00:22:58 ◼   ► but we love the things that are possible right now.

00:23:02 ◼   ► And so some way to reconcile all of these needs,

00:23:06 ◼   ► that's why I believe Apple's challenge is trickier

00:23:10 ◼   ► than just saying, yeah, whatever,

00:23:11 ◼   ► let's just use the home screen and be done with it

00:23:14 ◼   ► because you gotta balance, right?

00:23:16 ◼   ► the need for a more intuitive system that some people want,

00:23:20 ◼   ► with the fact that there's an existing user base of other people

00:23:24 ◼   ► who don't want to lose these functionalities.

00:23:27 ◼   ► And so that is why I think it'll be interesting to see if at all Apple addresses these concerns this year,

00:23:33 ◼   ► or if maybe we're looking at a 2021 redesign of iPadOS.

00:23:39 ◼   ► I don't know. Where do you fall on this spectrum, Myke?

00:23:43 ◼   ► So if we're looking at the two concepts that we're talking about today,

00:23:47 ◼   ► one is this concept with using the home screen,

00:23:52 ◼   ► and then one is Ryan's with context menus.

00:23:56 ◼   ► If I was making the decision at Apple,

00:23:59 ◼   ► I would lean more towards the home screens than the context menus.

00:24:03 ◼   ► Because whilst I like Ryan's concept, I think it's still complex.

00:24:10 ◼   ► Because in this situation, you are taking applications and long pressing them

00:24:16 ◼   ► and then saying whether you want to pair them left or pair them right.

00:24:19 ◼   ► But there are a lot of variables that I think could make this quite complicated over time,

00:24:24 ◼   ► depending on what if I want to open it left,

00:24:27 ◼   ► but then I want to have a different application on the right,

00:24:29 ◼   ► then I have to open another context menu and then open that application on the right.

00:24:34 ◼   ► In a way that drag and drop makes it really easy right now

00:24:37 ◼   ► because you just like, you know, you kind of feel like a conductor in an orchestra at

00:24:43 ◼   ► times, right? You just like throw the sap over here, throw the sap over here. So I like

00:24:48 ◼   ► Ryan's concept, but I feel like it wouldn't, it would be a different way to do it and could

00:24:54 ◼   ► be better, but I don't think would help the crowd who find it complex, right? Because

00:25:01 ◼   ► it is a different level of complexity that solves some problems but still it is complex.

00:25:07 ◼   ► I mean honestly I don't think that there is an easy solution to this problem, but I do

00:25:14 ◼   ► see the logic in presenting people with a home screen to choose from because people

00:25:24 ◼   ► know how that works. We know how home screens work for picking apps. So I can see there

00:25:30 ◼   ► being some merit in trying to provide a way to give people a home screen. Like, for example,

00:25:39 ◼   ► if they had like two home indicators at the bottom of each half, right, and if you just

00:25:43 ◼   ► swipe up to go home, it only goes home on that one side, you know, could be a way to

00:25:50 ◼   ► do that rather than this swiping in from the left or the right thing. I think you're adding

00:25:54 ◼   ► another level of complexity in this con in this concept that people still wouldn't understand.

00:25:59 ◼   ► I think Apple has to try and find a way to bring more of the iPhone's navigation system

00:26:07 ◼   ► into the iPad to create a base level and then build upon it with more complexity.

00:26:14 ◼   ► So if Apple believes that the iPad OS should be used very frequently in split views, try

00:26:23 ◼   ► and find a way to make managing split views easier.

00:26:28 ◼   ► then build back on top of that the more complex features that we have used.

00:26:33 ◼   ► Because for example, let's imagine they found a way to make it that effectively

00:26:37 ◼   ► you were dealing with two sides of a screen at all times unless you dragged

00:26:43 ◼   ► that middle part away, right, and then you were in one. I don't really know how

00:26:48 ◼   ► they deal with like if you've got one screen open and then you want to open a

00:26:51 ◼   ► second side like whatever, you know, like you can find a way to do it. But it seems

00:26:56 ◼   ► like a very you know what it's comp this is really hard Federico yeah I know

00:27:00 ◼   ► because this is okay so this is the problem like what I'm doing to myself

00:27:04 ◼   ► now is the issue that I have of all of these concepts including like the one

00:27:08 ◼   ► that Ryan did which is like this makes sense but then I hit a wall that I can't

00:27:14 ◼   ► solve for anymore you know like so like I said like if you look at the the again

00:27:19 ◼   ► links in the show notes for Ryan's comp set like one of the things is like you

00:27:22 ◼   ► You would press and hold an icon and you'd be able to pair left of Safari or right of

00:27:27 ◼   ► Safari.

00:27:28 ◼   ► But then it's like, well, what if I actually don't want to pair that app with either of

00:27:31 ◼   ► those?

00:27:33 ◼   ► I actually want to pair this application left of OmniFocus.

00:27:36 ◼   ► I just haven't opened OmniFocus yet.

00:27:39 ◼   ► Right?

00:27:40 ◼   ► Where it's like, because that breaks it then.

00:27:41 ◼   ► It's like, well, yes, I know that I could pair left of Safari and then do that.

00:27:46 ◼   ► But like, do you see how that can, but this is what I'm saying, like you hit that wall

00:27:49 ◼   ► of confusion again. Where it's like, well, will people then just assume that you can

00:27:55 ◼   ► only pair with the app that's currently open? Like, honestly, I think that the simplest

00:28:04 ◼   ► way is the way that Apple's currently doing it.

00:28:06 ◼   ► I keep also coming back to this conclusion.

00:28:09 ◼   ► Which is like, oh, you know what, they're really smart people over there and they tried

00:28:12 ◼   ► it all out. And whilst it isn't necessarily the most understandable thing, it is easier

00:28:19 ◼   ► than the other ways of doing things. I don't know. This is the problem. It's like, "Oh,

00:28:24 ◼   ► I have an idea." And then I start talking about it and then I tie myself in knots and

00:28:28 ◼   ► then I can't get myself back out again.

00:28:30 ◼   ► Because if you think about it, it's not like Apple solved these problems on the Mac in

00:28:35 ◼   ► regards to multitasking and pairing multiple apps together.

00:28:38 ◼   ► It sucks. The split screen thing sucks on the Mac.

00:28:41 ◼   ► - Yes, so it is still a problem on the Mac as well.

00:28:44 ◼   ► And I guess the argument on the Mac is that

00:28:47 ◼   ► with the desktop system, it is really,

00:28:51 ◼   ► the fact that you tap on an icon

00:28:54 ◼   ► and you see all the windows, that is the main advantage.

00:28:57 ◼   ► Like there's a single way to see all the windows

00:29:00 ◼   ► that are currently open.

00:29:01 ◼   ► And that maybe could be improved

00:29:04 ◼   ► because I do believe that iPadOS,

00:29:07 ◼   ► in fact, there's a whole section of my review

00:29:09 ◼   ► these problems, these inconsistencies.

00:29:11 ◼   ► - I love that.

00:29:12 ◼   ► I feel for you so bad, 'cause I listen to your shows

00:29:16 ◼   ► as well as this one, and I've heard you say that line

00:29:18 ◼   ► so many times, and I understand it, 'cause people think

00:29:21 ◼   ► you're not complaining, 'cause they didn't read

00:29:24 ◼   ► that part of the review. - No, I am, but it's in there,

00:29:26 ◼   ► so I gotta remind people that there's a section

00:29:28 ◼   ► about this in there.

00:29:29 ◼   ► I do think that the current expose system,

00:29:34 ◼   ► to see all the windows, that leaves a lot to be desired.

00:29:38 ◼   ► It's slow and it's clunky and it's really hidden from most people.

00:29:43 ◼   ► And also, I think one area where I think we can all agree that the iPad is lacking

00:29:50 ◼   ► in terms of managing multitasking, as you said, managing split view.

00:29:54 ◼   ► When you open the app switcher and you see the grid of open windows,

00:29:59 ◼   ► there's nothing else that you can do in there.

00:30:01 ◼   ► You cannot manage your split views from there.

00:30:03 ◼   ► You cannot say, "Oh, let me take this window and combine it with some other window."

00:30:07 ◼   ► It is not like a system that lets you mix and match Windows.

00:30:11 ◼   ► And that is why a lot of people think that all of this is clunky,

00:30:14 ◼   ► because you've got to open an existing split view and then you've got to change the app.

00:30:17 ◼   ► It would be so much easier if you could manipulate all your split views from that app switcher.

00:30:24 ◼   ► Imagine shuffling cards around and combining them to obtain a different space.

00:30:30 ◼   ► So that, I think, is one of the areas that is problematic because it doesn't follow

00:30:36 ◼   ► one of the main principles of the iPad, which is direct manipulation.

00:30:41 ◼   ► And the app switcher right now does not follow that idea because you cannot manipulate it

00:30:46 ◼   ► at all.

00:30:47 ◼   ► You can only display it and then tap on a window to open it, and that's it.

00:30:51 ◼   ► Let me ask you a question.

00:30:53 ◼   ► What do you think about actually bringing Macintosh-style window management to iOS?

00:30:59 ◼   ► No, no, I disagree that...

00:31:05 ◼   ► So when you say Macintosh style, do you mean like fully resizable windows?

00:31:09 ◼   ► Fully resizable freeform windows.

00:31:12 ◼   ► No, I don't think it's a good idea.

00:31:14 ◼   ► I don't think it's a good idea because it doesn't lend itself well to the kind of like

00:31:18 ◼   ► sloppy interaction that one may have on an iPad.

00:31:22 ◼   ► I think it's possible.

00:31:23 ◼   ► I think it's technically possible.

00:31:24 ◼   ► I don't think it would be nice to use.

00:31:28 ◼   ► I think of all the things that should be coming to iPadOS, the ability to freely resize a

00:31:36 ◼   ► window is not a priority.

00:31:38 ◼   ► I agree that the problem is the precision of your finger as opposed to a mouse.

00:31:46 ◼   ► That's the main problem.

00:31:47 ◼   ► If you could easily resize windows, I think it wouldn't be that difficult to do.

00:31:52 ◼   ► Because really at this point, the screens are big enough.

00:31:56 ◼   ► There was an 11 inch MacBook Air. The iPad is 11 inch, right? The iPad Pro is just like,

00:32:01 ◼   ► it's basically 11 inches. The screens are big enough to work with that system, but the

00:32:07 ◼   ► interaction model is too difficult of how you would resize things to the point that

00:32:14 ◼   ► I feel like that style wouldn't work. But I do, my feeling right now is like, if there

00:32:23 ◼   ► is a widespread problem of people not understanding the current system, Apple needs to address

00:32:30 ◼   ► it. They can't just lean into me and you and be like, "We're just going to stick with that."

00:32:38 ◼   ► If they want the iPad to be more widely accepted. So I do think that there has to be a middle

00:32:45 ◼   ► ground and I think if they want to make it make sense to people, then they should look

00:32:51 ◼   ► again at old school window management, which people understand, and/or the iPhone.

00:33:01 ◼   ► One or the other of those and try and tweak or rebuild the multitasking system to start

00:33:08 ◼   ► with those starting points.

00:33:10 ◼   ► Because the current system has been developed on itself for too long when it started in

00:33:19 ◼   ► in not a great place, right?

00:33:21 ◼   ► Like the iOS 9 split view system,

00:33:25 ◼   ► whilst great for the iPad,

00:33:27 ◼   ► we have both said was not great, right?

00:33:30 ◼   ► Oh, in the long term.

00:33:31 ◼   ► And then in iOS 11, and then again in 13,

00:33:37 ◼   ► Apple have just built on that old system

00:33:39 ◼   ► kind of making it better and worse in certain places.

00:33:42 ◼   ► Like what I loved about iOS 11

00:33:45 ◼   ► was you could take an application icon

00:33:47 ◼   ► and you could drag it anywhere,

00:33:48 ◼   ► but they stopped, they broke that in 13.

00:33:50 ◼   ► Right, because now every time you try

00:33:53 ◼   ► and drag an application and you tap on another app

00:33:57 ◼   ► to open, so you used to be able to like press

00:34:00 ◼   ► and hold on Safari, tap on Twitter, Twitter would open,

00:34:02 ◼   ► you drag Safari to the side, now it just tries

00:34:04 ◼   ► to collect them into a bundle of apps

00:34:07 ◼   ► to save on the home screen, right?

00:34:09 ◼   ► So like it feels like every time Apple has iterated,

00:34:12 ◼   ► they have in fact just done that, which is iterated.

00:34:16 ◼   ► but every version of iPad multitasking has had problems,

00:34:21 ◼   ► which if you are a devoted iPad user,

00:34:27 ◼   ► you just like with any computing system or any UI thing,

00:34:30 ◼   ► you learn your way around it

00:34:32 ◼   ► to get back to being productive again, right?

00:34:35 ◼   ► So like for me, well, I've just,

00:34:37 ◼   ► I rely on the dock way more now

00:34:40 ◼   ► to launch apps than I did before,

00:34:42 ◼   ► and I've just changed my system

00:34:44 ◼   ► in regards to not being able to open applications in Split View from the home screen as easy

00:34:50 ◼   ► as I used to before. But I would still like that functionality to come back. I do think,

00:34:58 ◼   ► cards on the table, I think the way that you should be able to open apps is with a mini

00:35:04 ◼   ► version of the home screen as well as a dock. I think it makes sense to people, I think

00:35:10 ◼   ► people can get that. It's the same reason we did ask for it so many years ago of

00:35:14 ◼   ► like you know where your apps are it's easy right like you find a way you do

00:35:19 ◼   ► some kind of gesture you see all your applications you choose one and it's

00:35:22 ◼   ► open because me and you would be so much faster that way right even because I

00:35:27 ◼   ► would prefer that to drag and drop but I then still once I have those

00:35:31 ◼   ► applications open I want to be able to move them around right like I want to be

00:35:35 ◼   ► able to get that pro level back on top again I still want to be able to use

00:35:40 ◼   ► slide over I still want to use the dock I still want the option for dragging and

00:35:44 ◼   ► dropping but I think a mode in which you can see the home screen living

00:35:50 ◼   ► underneath the living underneath the desktop is probably the way to go or

00:35:57 ◼   ► they just ditch it all together and try and bring some kind of like application

00:36:02 ◼   ► launcher which is different I don't know right but I feel like they have to go

00:36:06 ◼   ► back to basics a little bit to allow themselves to build forward to the future because currently

00:36:12 ◼   ► trying to tweak the already confusing system has ended up in a situation where we just,

00:36:18 ◼   ► as you say, we keep going round and around and around year over year.

00:36:22 ◼   ► Yeah, I think I agree. Like the current features should be like, I really don't think they

00:36:28 ◼   ► should discard them. They should remain available as a pro layer on top of a...

00:36:33 ◼   ► Tweak them again, right where it's like you can still access all that stuff

00:36:36 ◼   ► But maybe there's a slightly different way of doing it

00:36:38 ◼   ► Like, you know, I don't know what that would be even but I think it would be great, you know, I

00:36:44 ◼   ► Have some real-time follow-up Myke. Oh my

00:36:47 ◼   ► Apple software had Craig Federighi after Tim Cook is asked at the shareholder meeting about

00:36:54 ◼   ► iPad software

00:36:56 ◼   ► lagging behind hardware and

00:36:58 ◼   ► And I quote, "If you like what you've seen us do with iPadOS, stay tuned. We're going to keep working on it."

00:37:05 ◼   ► So that's something that Craig said.

00:37:09 ◼   ► Alright, I mean that's great because that's all we want really is like, okay, if you want to keep making tweaks, do it every year rather than every two to three years.

00:37:18 ◼   ► And so, you know, I do think we're gonna see some changes to this system this year

00:37:24 ◼   ► Whenever if ever WWDC is but I

00:37:29 ◼   ► Don't think it's going to be a widespread overhaul

00:37:34 ◼   ► But I think it will be some interesting and all welcome additions or tweaks to the system

00:37:40 ◼   ► That's that's kind of where I'm lying on it

00:37:43 ◼   ► But I do think that there needs to be some some rethinking

00:37:48 ◼   ► to try and simplify things for new people and for people like me and you, right?

00:37:52 ◼   ► Simplification, making a system easier to use is great as long as you don't take away all of the things that makes it powerful.

00:38:01 ◼   ► Yeah, if anything because like people like you and me, we like...

00:38:05 ◼   ► The fact that we are used to a system that we have learned doesn't necessarily mean that the system is good.

00:38:12 ◼   ► It just means that we know how to use it.

00:38:15 ◼   ► And this is like my argument in the inverse about how like the Macintosh is quote unquote

00:38:20 ◼   ► intuitive.

00:38:21 ◼   ► It isn't.

00:38:22 ◼   ► People just have learned it.

00:38:24 ◼   ► Right?

00:38:25 ◼   ► Like because it was kind of funny, I was talking about it on upgrade and was saying about the

00:38:28 ◼   ► Mac was an intuitive and like split view, getting into split view sucked and then a

00:38:32 ◼   ► bunch of people were like, well, if you press and hold the green indicator in the, like

00:38:37 ◼   ► it's just like, oh, okay.

00:38:38 ◼   ► So that very intuitive feature.

00:38:39 ◼   ► How is that different from the iPad?

00:38:41 ◼   ► And people weren't trying to say I was wrong, but it proved the point of like the iPad,

00:38:45 ◼   ► there are many features in Macintosh OS, Mac OS, which are also unintuitive. But the thing

00:38:52 ◼   ► is like most computer users have learned this system over decades. And I bet that if you

00:38:59 ◼   ► sat a 10 year old down in front of a Mac, they would have a much harder time than if

00:39:03 ◼   ► they use an iPad because they used iPads first. All computer systems are difficult.

00:39:11 ◼   ► But newer ones, maybe they should try and like make them more easy if they want people to adopt them

00:39:18 ◼   ► I will add to that that all

00:39:20 ◼   ► multi-window systems are

00:39:23 ◼   ► Complicated. Yes, the moment that the iPad gained split view. I

00:39:27 ◼   ► Actually think this was like a line in my review the more Apple basically

00:39:37 ◼   ► accepted the fact that they were gonna have to embark on a decade-long journey to try

00:39:43 ◼   ► and fix it because it's always been a problem. Like, it's always been a problem and possibly

00:39:48 ◼   ► always will be a problem because like the idea of managing windows of like something

00:39:53 ◼   ► that doesn't really exist in the physical world, that has always been impossible. Maybe

00:39:58 ◼   ► it's impossible to fix. You just gotta find the least terrible solution for it, maybe.

00:40:06 ◼   ► Yep, and maybe there is a better terrible solution than the one we currently have.

00:40:11 ◼   ► But I do really like the one we currently have, so we'll see.

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00:41:22 ◼   ► All right Federico, should we talk about the wonder that is HomeKit Router support?

00:41:30 ◼   ► No, yes.

00:41:32 ◼   ► Let us talk about that.

00:41:34 ◼   ► All right.

00:41:34 ◼   ► So this is a feature announced at WWDC, which was homekit support for routers,

00:41:39 ◼   ► which basically would allow existing

00:41:42 ◼   ► router companies to adopt homekit support.

00:41:46 ◼   ► Honestly, until I did some research for today's episode, I had no idea

00:41:51 ◼   ► why someone might want this in their lives.

00:41:55 ◼   ► My thinking was just like, oh, maybe you can turn it on and off again.

00:41:58 ◼   ► Like I don't really know why you would want a router in HomeKit.

00:42:03 ◼   ► So, uh, we'll start with why, because I would expect there are many people that

00:42:06 ◼   ► don't know why, because honestly, Apple didn't even explain it at WWDC.

00:42:10 ◼   ► They just said it was happening, right?

00:42:11 ◼   ► So from Apple's documentation, you may add more protection to your home

00:42:16 ◼   ► accessories by controlling which services and devices they communicate with on your

00:42:21 ◼   ► home wifi network and over the internet.

00:42:23 ◼   ► So basically once you enable this feature, you then see a selection of options that

00:42:28 ◼   ► you can set for each HomeKit-enabled accessory on your network.

00:42:32 ◼   ► So having a HomeKit router basically just means that you can have more control

00:42:37 ◼   ► over your HomeKit devices on your network.

00:42:41 ◼   ► So for example, your cameras or whatever, right, or your light bulbs.

00:42:46 ◼   ► And you get for every, once you've enabled a HomeKit router in your home setup,

00:42:52 ◼   ► you for every single device get an option to change its network settings

00:42:56 ◼   ► to one of the following three options.

00:42:59 ◼   ► Restrict to home, which is quote, the most secure.

00:43:02 ◼   ► Apple says your accessory can interact only with HomeKit

00:43:05 ◼   ► through your Apple devices.

00:43:06 ◼   ► The accessory won't connect to the internet

00:43:08 ◼   ► or any local devices.

00:43:10 ◼   ► So any third party services

00:43:12 ◼   ► like firmware updates might be blocked.

00:43:14 ◼   ► So basically this does not let your HomeKit device,

00:43:17 ◼   ► whatever it is, access the internet at all.

00:43:19 ◼   ► It just talks within your local network.

00:43:22 ◼   ► They have the automatic function,

00:43:24 ◼   ► which is default security.

00:43:26 ◼   ► Your accessory can communicate with HomeKit

00:43:28 ◼   ► and connections recommended by its manufacturer only.

00:43:31 ◼   ► And so then you would be able to receive firmware updates

00:43:34 ◼   ► or you could connect it from outside of the home, right?

00:43:37 ◼   ► 'Cause it's coming through like the hub

00:43:39 ◼   ► or whatever that's connected to the network.

00:43:41 ◼   ► And then no restriction, which is the least secure.

00:43:43 ◼   ► This setting bypasses the secure router

00:43:45 ◼   ► and allows your accessory to interact with any device

00:43:48 ◼   ► in your network or internet-based service.

00:43:51 ◼   ► So in essence, you may wanna have a HomeKit enabled router

00:43:54 ◼   ► if you want to increase security for your HomeKit devices at home,

00:43:57 ◼   ► but you would have to really have a lot of them for this to make sense to you.

00:44:01 ◼   ► You would have to have a lot of devices that all worked with HomeKit.

00:44:05 ◼   ► But if you are, for example, using other smart devices at home,

00:44:11 ◼   ► this would not be good for you.

00:44:12 ◼   ► So if you are like I am, using an Echo and a HomePod at home,

00:44:18 ◼   ► I think it would probably-- if you set it on restrict to home,

00:44:22 ◼   ► maybe even automatic, you wouldn't be able to use the echo anymore to tie into that device.

00:44:27 ◼   ► It's going to lock it down. Right? That's kind of what I take away from this.

00:44:32 ◼   ► So really you have to be like an all-in on the home kit world before jumping into this.

00:44:40 ◼   ► And jumping into it is very difficult. So this is not an easy process to set up.

00:44:47 ◼   ► Let me read a quote to you from Apple's documentation on setting this stuff up.

00:44:50 ◼   ► After setup, add your HomeKit accessories to the Home app.

00:44:56 ◼   ► If you already have WiFi HomeKit accessories added to the Home app, remove and reset them,

00:45:01 ◼   ► then add them back to the Home app for a more secure connection.

00:45:05 ◼   ► So basically if you enable a HomeKit router and want to be able to control the HomeKit

00:45:10 ◼   ► devices, you have to rebuild your entire Smart Home setup to do this.

00:45:15 ◼   ► No, thanks.

00:45:18 ◼   ► I don't really understand that part, to be honest.

00:45:21 ◼   ► If it's all HomeKit, there must be something that it's doing that I don't understand, but

00:45:28 ◼   ► that seems really peculiar to me, just how complicated this process is.

00:45:35 ◼   ► You'd have to delete everything and start all over again.

00:45:39 ◼   ► I don't understand why.

00:45:41 ◼   ► If you just add a writer, what's the issue with having to delete?

00:45:45 ◼   ► Let's say there's something that gets cached in the system.

00:45:49 ◼   ► - I'm thinking that it must be establishing

00:45:53 ◼   ► this specific link between the two devices, right?

00:45:58 ◼   ► Is what I assume is occurring here.

00:46:00 ◼   ► Like it's letting your router sit in between the device

00:46:05 ◼   ► and the internet connection in a different way.

00:46:09 ◼   ► Because like other companies will allow you

00:46:12 ◼   ► to turn off something's access to the internet.

00:46:15 ◼   ► But, I mean, I don't really know.

00:46:20 ◼   ► Like, Eero does this, right?

00:46:23 ◼   ► You can turn off a device's access to the internet.

00:46:26 ◼   ► But what I don't know, honestly, in that scenario

00:46:29 ◼   ► is if it then still has access to the network

00:46:31 ◼   ► or if it's completely gone from the network.

00:46:33 ◼   ► But this is like, it must need some kind of,

00:46:38 ◼   ► to establish this connection between the two devices

00:46:43 ◼   ► to allow you to do it.

00:46:44 ◼   ► But this feels like a very niche

00:46:48 ◼   ► and backwards implemented system.

00:46:51 ◼   ► Can you imagine if you...

00:46:57 ◼   ► 'Cause, all right, so Eero added support for this today

00:47:00 ◼   ► and a software update.

00:47:01 ◼   ► They're the only company that's done it so far.

00:47:03 ◼   ► There are other companies, I think Linksys was one of them

00:47:06 ◼   ► that said they're going to be adding this

00:47:08 ◼   ► some of their products. But there is only one now. I mean this is probably why this

00:47:12 ◼   ► documentation came out because Eero was ready, right? And Apple wanted to publish their documentation.

00:47:17 ◼   ► But like I think at the moment you have to like go into some settings and enable it.

00:47:22 ◼   ► But can you imagine if like someone like if you set up a new router in your home and it

00:47:27 ◼   ► recommended this to you? It would like destroy your day if you wanted to get it to work correctly.

00:47:33 ◼   ► Because you know it's not going to be easy as well, right?

00:47:38 ◼   ► Like this whole thing is not going to go for you as easily as you would hope it would.

00:47:44 ◼   ► Just because like all smart home device connections are a problem.

00:47:49 ◼   ► It always takes forever to establish these things with like firmware updates and different

00:47:54 ◼   ► connections and scanning things and you know it never is easy.

00:47:58 ◼   ► I honestly don't know why I would want... I don't think I would even want the features they're offering me.

00:48:07 ◼   ► Is it really worth it? I mean, like, do you really want to destroy your HomeKit setup?

00:48:11 ◼   ► So, I mean, it's nice that you get more privacy controls, but is it really worth it all the time?

00:48:17 ◼   ► I think you have to be a very, very privacy conscious person to want to use this.

00:48:22 ◼   ► Like, you have to be pretty deep into that, and more power to you, right?

00:48:27 ◼   ► like if that's your thing, that's your thing, like no judgment here, but the functionality you are getting

00:48:33 ◼   ► feels like a lot of work for not a lot and for what will guaranteed cause you other problems.

00:48:41 ◼   ► I can imagine people using this system and using these features,

00:48:47 ◼   ► finding themselves running into issues that take diagnosis a bunch of the time, right?

00:48:53 ◼   ► that like, "Oh, so I used the Philips Hue, but Philips is saying they've got these new

00:48:57 ◼   ► features but it's not working. Why? I can't work. Oh, because I set it onto automatic

00:49:03 ◼   ► and therefore it can't run the software update." And like, you know this is going to cause

00:49:06 ◼   ► problems for you. Like, ultimately, I don't, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to do

00:49:12 ◼   ► this. But at least we have the answer to the question now of one, two questions. One, what

00:49:18 ◼   ► on earth does this stuff, does this actually do for you? And two, where is all the support

00:49:22 ◼   ► for this. We have that. What it does for you is provides you additional security if you

00:49:29 ◼   ► really want that and two, there is now at least one company that's offering support

00:49:35 ◼   ► for it.

00:49:36 ◼   ► Yeah. I can tell you Michael that from personal experience having to remove all of your accessories

00:49:41 ◼   ► from HomeKit is not fun because I just did this three days ago myself. So it's a very

00:49:50 ◼   ► Very long story, of course, as all my stories it all started because I wanted to play Pokemon

00:49:54 ◼   ► online and I couldn't anymore.

00:49:57 ◼   ► My Nintendo Switch was giving me, in the Wi-Fi settings, the Switch was saying NAT D. So

00:50:05 ◼   ► I was getting, so the NAT thing is like network access transfer, I don't know, it's a Wi-Fi

00:50:11 ◼   ► thing, it's a router thing.

00:50:13 ◼   ► And I was getting a grading of D instead of A, and so I wanted to fix that.

00:50:17 ◼   ► And it turns out that I was getting that because my ISP provided modem/router did not support

00:50:25 ◼   ► a bunch of settings to get that sort of connection to the internet and I was using an Orbi, Netgear

00:50:33 ◼   ► Orbi system on top of that as an access point.

00:50:37 ◼   ► So my Nintendo Switch was connecting to the Orbi system and I was effectively ending up

00:50:41 ◼   ► with Double Net.

00:50:43 ◼   ► That's the way that it's, you know,

00:50:45 ◼   ► people who are experts about this stuff call it.

00:50:47 ◼   ► So I needed to fix that.

00:50:49 ◼   ► And in order to fix that,

00:50:50 ◼   ► I had to redo completely my wifi system at home

00:50:53 ◼   ► so that now my ISP provided modem is only a modem

00:50:58 ◼   ► and the Netgear Orbi is actually a router.

00:51:01 ◼   ► So it takes care of assigning IP addresses

00:51:05 ◼   ► and takes care of the NAT and all that kind of stuff.

00:51:08 ◼   ► So it is actually a router now.

00:51:10 ◼   ► - That's super difficult to do with some providers.

00:51:13 ◼   ► like my internet provider is just like no you can't do it.

00:51:17 ◼   ► So I have a router attached to a router

00:51:20 ◼   ► that attaches to a cable that comes out of the wall.

00:51:23 ◼   ► For me, like it's just no way to do it.

00:51:25 ◼   ► - Yeah, I had to take care of like manually authenticating

00:51:31 ◼   ► with the connection coming via the telephone cable

00:51:35 ◼   ► from my ISP, like having a username and password

00:51:38 ◼   ► and all of that.

00:51:39 ◼   ► Anyway, now it works and I get NAT A on my Nintendo Switch

00:51:42 ◼   ► I can play online again and it's awesome.

00:51:44 ◼   ► But in order to do this, I had to create a new Wi-Fi network from scratch.

00:51:49 ◼   ► And this has been a nightmare for HomeKit because I will go now through the list of things that I had to do.

00:51:55 ◼   ► So I have two Apple TV devices at home that act as HomeKit hubs.

00:52:02 ◼   ► And they did not pick up my new Wi-Fi network automatically. I thought that somehow maybe

00:52:09 ◼   ► They could just get the Wi-Fi information via proximity from the iPhone,

00:52:14 ◼   ► but it turns out that it's not like that. As soon as the older Wi-Fi network was gone,

00:52:18 ◼   ► the Apple TVs were saying "I don't know how to connect to the internet anymore,

00:52:22 ◼   ► therefore we're not acting as HomeKit hubs anymore and all of your devices are now inoperable."

00:52:28 ◼   ► So I needed to go in and fix the Wi-Fi on my Apple TV.

00:52:33 ◼   ► Thankfully the HomePods, which are also HomeKit hubs,

00:52:37 ◼   ► automatically picked up the Wi-Fi. I'm guessing from my iPhone, so I'm guessing that my iPhone was able to transfer the Wi-Fi information to the HomePod.

00:52:45 ◼   ► I don't know how this stuff works, but the HomePods

00:52:48 ◼   ► didn't have any errors in the Home app, so that was nice. The real nightmare, Myke, was that all

00:52:55 ◼   ► my HomeKit cameras stopped working, all of them. I have four cameras in my house.

00:53:02 ◼   ► One of them is an old-school HomeKit camera. It's a

00:53:07 ◼   ► D-Link OMNA camera and the other three cameras are Logi Circle 2 wired cameras that support

00:53:16 ◼   ► HomeKit Secure Video.

00:53:17 ◼   ► And this is when you did that whole like flash in the firmware, this will never work again,

00:53:22 ◼   ► type Delio.

00:53:23 ◼   ► Yes, exactly.

00:53:24 ◼   ► So, the Circle 2 cameras, they can never go back to the older firmware.

00:53:31 ◼   ► And that means that now you cannot use them with the Logi Circle app from the App Store.

00:53:38 ◼   ► They can only be configured inside of the Home app.

00:53:41 ◼   ► But if the Home app can't find them...

00:53:43 ◼   ► But if the Home app can find them, what do you do?

00:53:45 ◼   ► Well, here's what you do.

00:53:47 ◼   ► You reset them.

00:53:49 ◼   ► So you go back to the factory default settings.

00:53:54 ◼   ► You completely wipe the camera and you set it up again.

00:53:57 ◼   ► Then you may say, "Well, that's easy."

00:53:59 ◼   ► just press a button and you scan a code and whatever and you're done. But no, it's

00:54:04 ◼   ► not that easy. First of all, the cameras don't have a code. They have a pairing

00:54:09 ◼   ► code. Well, they don't have a QR code, they have a pairing code that is like a

00:54:14 ◼   ► bunch of numbers and you gotta look at them and write them down somewhere.

00:54:20 ◼   ► However, physically speaking, to get to the reset button and to actually

00:54:26 ◼   ► physically reach this code you need to unplug the cameras, remove the base of

00:54:32 ◼   ► the camera by twisting it and then you got to remove the plastic cover on top

00:54:37 ◼   ► of the camera and then you need to squint like very closely to the back of

00:54:42 ◼   ► the camera to see this tiny code that is printed just on the outer edge on the

00:54:50 ◼   ► inner edge of the camera. And I couldn't even see all the numbers. I was only seeing like half of them.

00:54:58 ◼   ► They were cut off vertically by the camera. And so I just needed to guess the shape of the number

00:55:05 ◼   ► and guess what the number was. So I needed to save that code in a text note. And also pressing

00:55:13 ◼   ► the reset button, physically speaking, was kind of hard because it's not a real button.

00:55:18 ◼   ► It's like a recessed type of thing that you need to really press with your finger.

00:55:23 ◼   ► So you need to press that for like 20 seconds and then the camera resets and then you set it up again.

00:55:28 ◼   ► And when you set it up again, of course, it defaults to HomeKit Secure Video,

00:55:32 ◼   ► because now the firmware has been flashed. So it's like it goes to HomeKit,

00:55:37 ◼   ► it goes straight to HomeKit. But all of your previous settings, of course, are gone.

00:55:44 ◼   ► So I had to do the whole thing of like, when you're home,

00:55:48 ◼   ► do you wanna stream video or do you wanna record video?

00:55:51 ◼   ► Like, who are the people who have access to this camera?

00:55:54 ◼   ► Like, all the settings were gone.

00:55:56 ◼   ► And I did it for three cameras.

00:55:59 ◼   ► It took me like half an hour to just do the cameras.

00:56:02 ◼   ► And once I was done, I noticed that the status light was on,

00:56:07 ◼   ► even though I disabled the setting in the Home app

00:56:10 ◼   ► to always leave the status light on.

00:56:13 ◼   ► All my cameras had a blue LED light and I tried to toggle the setting on and off and on again.

00:56:20 ◼   ► Didn't work. So I needed to do a power cycle to actually unplug them from the wall and turn them on again.

00:56:27 ◼   ► And then the status light setting kicked in and now the cameras are working.

00:56:30 ◼   ► So that was that 30 minutes just for the cameras.

00:56:34 ◼   ► The Apple TV's I already mentioned.

00:56:36 ◼   ► My alarm system, so not the custom do-it-yourself system

00:56:41 ◼   ► that I actually did myself, that worked perfectly.

00:56:46 ◼   ► Like it switched to the new Wi-Fi and everything is fine.

00:56:49 ◼   ► The secondary system that is based on a device

00:56:53 ◼   ► called the Acara Hub, which is, it's like a secondary hub

00:56:58 ◼   ► that comes with a built-in siren.

00:57:02 ◼   ► It's not as loud as my primary siren,

00:57:05 ◼   ► but it's another option and it connects to a Zigbee motion sensor

00:57:10 ◼   ► that I have in another window in the house.

00:57:13 ◼   ► That also did not move to the new Wi-Fi

00:57:18 ◼   ► and it stopped working.

00:57:19 ◼   ► And honestly, after wasting like an hour

00:57:21 ◼   ► trying to fix all of this stuff,

00:57:23 ◼   ► I was just like, you know what, I'm not gonna,

00:57:25 ◼   ► I don't have time for this right now.

00:57:27 ◼   ► So the Acara Hub is still sitting on my desk right now,

00:57:31 ◼   ► not configured with the new Wi-Fi at all.

00:57:33 ◼   ► And finally, and of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but it's another factor that I need to mention

00:57:39 ◼   ► because I'm a completionist when it comes to this stuff,

00:57:43 ◼   ► well, not all, most of my Homebridge stuff stopped working because it was like trying to access local IP addresses

00:57:52 ◼   ► that have since changed because of the new Wi-Fi network.

00:57:56 ◼   ► So all of my Homebridge plugins, and again, not all, most of them, they need to be reconfigured,

00:58:01 ◼   ► like the plugin for my TV and the plugin for my Dyson fan.

00:58:05 ◼   ► The Dyson fan is also not talking to Wi-Fi anymore.

00:58:09 ◼   ► Yeah, so I guess at the end of the day,

00:58:12 ◼   ► I do not recommend changing the Wi-Fi network

00:58:15 ◼   ► if you have a HomeKit setup,

00:58:16 ◼   ► but also I do not recommend creating

00:58:18 ◼   ► a new Wi-Fi network, period.

00:58:20 ◼   ► - 'Cause I expect this is a spectacularly bad situation

00:58:24 ◼   ► because it's, I guess the devices think

00:58:27 ◼   ► that they're connected to the thing

00:58:28 ◼   ► that they were connected to before,

00:58:29 ◼   ► the settings on the thing before have changed. That's the problem, right? So like if you had

00:58:35 ◼   ► maybe created a completely new network it may have been easier like if you were to have moved home

00:58:43 ◼   ► right and you had new hardware or if you had new hardware maybe it would have been easier for you

00:58:49 ◼   ► than this. Maybe? I don't know because this seems spectacularly bad right to a level that would it

00:58:58 ◼   ► It wasn't as bad maybe when you bought the Orbi hardware that you have.

00:59:06 ◼   ► I mean I'm happy with the result at the end because the new Wi-Fi is working so much better

00:59:11 ◼   ► than before.

00:59:12 ◼   ► But I do wish that there was like, at least for HomeKit, a better way.

00:59:18 ◼   ► Don't force me to reset the camera.

00:59:20 ◼   ► There must be a way that the HomeKit system can say, "Look, camera, there's a new Wi-Fi

00:59:25 ◼   ► network in town and you've got to connect to that."

00:59:27 ◼   ► I wonder if having a HomeKit secure route would solve this problem for you in the future.

00:59:34 ◼   ► Now I can change my Wi-Fi every week, because why not?

00:59:37 ◼   ► I'd go wild.

00:59:39 ◼   ► Alright, we have one last thing to talk about today, which is everyone's friend the Files app.

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01:01:06 ◼   ► So did your new wifi network break the files app?

01:01:10 ◼   ► Really?

01:01:11 ◼   ► I'm just wondering.

01:01:13 ◼   ► Like you've come to the show today with a list of issues and I wonder if the...

01:01:19 ◼   ► Well, now that you mention it, I do have,

01:01:22 ◼   ► and you just made me think of this,

01:01:25 ◼   ► Secure Shellfish, which is a files provider extension

01:01:30 ◼   ► that lets me connect to FTP servers and local servers.

01:01:35 ◼   ► Now it needs to be reconfigured

01:01:37 ◼   ► because my Mac mini server has a new IP address.

01:01:40 ◼   ► So yeah, that broke.

01:01:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:01:43 ◼   ► But yeah, I mean, so there's been a conversation

01:01:46 ◼   ► on Twitter this week between Steve Charles Smith

01:01:50 ◼   ► and John Gruber and I and Jason as well,

01:01:52 ◼   ► like talking about some of the more advanced features

01:01:57 ◼   ► of the Files app in iOS and iPadOS 13,

01:02:00 ◼   ► one of them being Column View,

01:02:02 ◼   ► which you can now use on iPad.

01:02:04 ◼   ► And we were talking about like the fact that it is possible

01:02:08 ◼   ► to open a specific file type in a specific app.

01:02:12 ◼   ► And so that got me thinking about all the different

01:02:15 ◼   ► limitations and issues that I have with files and I wanted to go through the list with you, Michael.

01:02:20 ◼   ► So let's start from that. So default file associations. By that I mean if you have a document in a specific file format,

01:02:28 ◼   ► let's say that you have a .js file for a JavaScript file that you have or maybe it's like

01:02:34 ◼   ► some other weird file format that you always want to open in a specific app.

01:02:39 ◼   ► But really even if you just want to open your TXT or

01:02:43 ◼   ► MD Markdown documents in a specific text editor.

01:02:46 ◼   ► There's a way to do this in iOS and iOS 13.

01:02:50 ◼   ► You do this by creating the association first, which is

01:02:54 ◼   ► essentially the main problem is that most people don't know that this is

01:02:59 ◼   ► possible.

01:03:00 ◼   ► Me and Jason spoke about this on upgrade last week and I was talking about the

01:03:04 ◼   ► fact that Apple should build this into the system.

01:03:06 ◼   ► I had no idea you could do this.

01:03:08 ◼   ► It is built into the system. It's just not visible.

01:03:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's what I mean.

01:03:13 ◼   ► - And when you do it, it's not like it creates a record

01:03:16 ◼   ► of the associations that you've done.

01:03:18 ◼   ► It just leaves on in the background invisible,

01:03:21 ◼   ► forever set to that option

01:03:24 ◼   ► without you ever actually seeing it in a list

01:03:28 ◼   ► or in a menu or in a setting screen.

01:03:30 ◼   ► It just happens.

01:03:32 ◼   ► So to do this, you long press on a file

01:03:36 ◼   ► and you select share and that opens the share sheet.

01:03:39 ◼   ► Now in the share sheet, in the share extension row,

01:03:43 ◼   ► so that is the horizontal row of app icons,

01:03:48 ◼   ► you should be able to find extensions that say,

01:03:52 ◼   ► open in, and then the name of the app,

01:03:54 ◼   ► like opening Textastic or opening IARider, stuff like that.

01:03:58 ◼   ► - Yeah, sometimes you should scroll all the way to the end

01:04:01 ◼   ► and then you can get a list of them.

01:04:03 ◼   ► - And you can, yeah, you can tap the ellipsis

01:04:05 ◼   ► and then you get a full list of all the possible options.

01:04:09 ◼   ► Now, those are apps that support opening that file type.

01:04:14 ◼   ► And not only that, but they can also be apps

01:04:18 ◼   ► that support the Open in Place technology.

01:04:22 ◼   ► Open in Place means that it's not like you create a copy

01:04:26 ◼   ► of the document, you actually open the document in the app

01:04:30 ◼   ► without creating a duplicate.

01:04:31 ◼   ► The app opens the document, you can apply some edits

01:04:35 ◼   ► to the document and then when you close it, it gets saved back to its original location in files.

01:04:41 ◼   ► Now, once you select a destination app the first time, it creates an association between that file type and that app.

01:04:49 ◼   ► So if you want to open a Markdown file in iA Writer, you just long press on the Markdown file,

01:04:57 ◼   ► you select Share, and then you select Open in iA Writer, the file will open in the app,

01:05:02 ◼   ► and the next time you tap it on similar documents in the Files app,

01:05:07 ◼   ► they will automatically open in iA Writer.

01:05:11 ◼   ► No need to do the share, opening, dance again.

01:05:14 ◼   ► So the first time you do it, you create this association between a specific file type

01:05:18 ◼   ► and a specific application on your system.

01:05:20 ◼   ► Now, this happens because Files remembers the last used app

01:05:26 ◼   ► that you used to open a specific document.

01:05:28 ◼   ► It doesn't show this anywhere in the UI.

01:05:31 ◼   ► Again, as I mentioned, it doesn't create a record for you to go in and actually see.

01:05:35 ◼   ► It just lives on in the background.

01:05:38 ◼   ► Again, you can change this by doing the dance again, by doing share, opening, and then we'll override the existing association.

01:05:49 ◼   ► Now, this doesn't work for all file types.

01:05:55 ◼   ► to my knowledge, PDF documents, and I believe audio and video files

01:06:01 ◼   ► will always open with a Quick Look preview system instead.

01:06:05 ◼   ► For some reason, Quick Look is locked in to those file types.

01:06:10 ◼   ► And so even if you try to do this later, you will not be able to open.

01:06:14 ◼   ► The file will not automatically open even though in the app.

01:06:19 ◼   ► It is possible for applications to use open in place PDFs.

01:06:24 ◼   ► I do this all the time with PDF pen.

01:06:26 ◼   ► I open PDF pen and I see the files app viewer, right?

01:06:29 ◼   ► Like they built the files app in.

01:06:30 ◼   ► So I can navigate something in Dropbox, open it, sign it,

01:06:35 ◼   ► and it's saved in place.

01:06:37 ◼   ► Like it doesn't create a copy.

01:06:38 ◼   ► So like even though that system exists,

01:06:40 ◼   ► it's not observed for PDFs.

01:06:44 ◼   ► - Yes. - 'Cause they open

01:06:45 ◼   ► in Quick View only.

01:06:46 ◼   ► - Now, there are some hidden gestures.

01:06:50 ◼   ► - Of course there are. - And things that you can do

01:06:51 ◼   ► once you have this association.

01:06:53 ◼   ► So in ListView and in GridView, which are the,

01:06:57 ◼   ► you could say the default views of the Files app,

01:07:00 ◼   ► you can open a document in a specific application

01:07:02 ◼   ► by just tapping on it.

01:07:03 ◼   ► So you tap on it once and it opens in the associated app.

01:07:08 ◼   ► - And that's instead of opening it in a QuickView.

01:07:11 ◼   ► - Instead of opening in QuickLook, it opens in the app.

01:07:14 ◼   ► If you use ColumnView, which is available on iPad,

01:07:17 ◼   ► and to get to ColumnView,

01:07:18 ◼   ► this is also a bunch of people were confused.

01:07:21 ◼   ► To get to Column View, you can do Command + 3 on your iPad,

01:07:26 ◼   ► or you can swipe down anywhere in the Files app

01:07:32 ◼   ► to reveal a toolbar.

01:07:34 ◼   ► This toolbar contains sorting options and view options,

01:07:38 ◼   ► and one of the view options is the Column View.

01:07:41 ◼   ► In Column View, you can, I mean, at a basic level,

01:07:44 ◼   ► you can select the file, and because it's a Column View,

01:07:47 ◼   ► when you tap it once, it doesn't open.

01:07:50 ◼   ► it shows you the Inspector panel.

01:07:52 ◼   ► And in the Inspector panel, there's an Open button.

01:07:55 ◼   ► And if you tap Open, the document opens.

01:07:58 ◼   ► There's a quicker way to go about this,

01:08:00 ◼   ► and that is instead of tapping once,

01:08:02 ◼   ► double tap the document.

01:08:04 ◼   ► And by double tapping, you will have a shortcut

01:08:07 ◼   ► that essentially says Select and Open.

01:08:09 ◼   ► That's what you're doing by double tapping.

01:08:11 ◼   ► And it's a faster way to open a document in a specific app

01:08:14 ◼   ► when you use Column View.

01:08:16 ◼   ► Finally, Split View is part of this entire dance.

01:08:21 ◼   ► If you have a file association made on your system,

01:08:25 ◼   ► you can tap and hold the document on your iPad,

01:08:29 ◼   ► drag it to one side of the screen,

01:08:31 ◼   ► and the destination app will open in Split View

01:08:35 ◼   ► with that document open in the foreground.

01:08:38 ◼   ► Now, again, as this is part of the things

01:08:43 ◼   ► we were talking about before,

01:08:43 ◼   ► this is nice once you know about it,

01:08:45 ◼   ► but there really must be a more intuitive way to actually know about it for most people,

01:08:51 ◼   ► because it's completely invisible otherwise.

01:08:53 ◼   ► I want to go quickly through my other complaints.

01:08:59 ◼   ► It's still not possible to change file extensions in the Files app.

01:09:03 ◼   ► You can rename files, you cannot change their extension,

01:09:06 ◼   ► which I think is absurd whenever I need to change the extension of a document for some reason.

01:09:11 ◼   ► I need to copy the item into a third-party file manager,

01:09:14 ◼   ► change the extension and then copy it back to files.

01:09:18 ◼   ► Which, if it's a heavy file, it can take several minutes, it's just absurd.

01:09:22 ◼   ► It should just be able to change the extension as well.

01:09:26 ◼   ► We've talked about this before, Jason has written about it.

01:09:31 ◼   ► Airdrop and the modal dialog that you get when you receive a file on your iPad.

01:09:37 ◼   ► It's the worst thing in the world.

01:09:38 ◼   ► You get a huge list.

01:09:39 ◼   ► There's a list of every single application and none of them are the one you want.

01:09:44 ◼   ► Just default to saving the file in a folder of the Files app,

01:09:49 ◼   ► like it works on the Mac, and then let me decide what I want to do with it.

01:09:53 ◼   ► Just don't interrupt me with that huge list of apps,

01:09:56 ◼   ► and none of them is the right one.

01:09:58 ◼   ► I also mentioned this a few weeks ago, I believe, here on Connected.

01:10:04 ◼   ► So once a week, Myke, I need to reboot my iPad and my iPhone, at least once a week,

01:10:10 ◼   ► because at some point during the week, whenever I try to copy a folder,

01:10:14 ◼   ► from one place to another, or I try to unzip an archive,

01:10:19 ◼   ► I get an error that says something like,

01:10:21 ◼   ► "Operation could not be completed."

01:10:23 ◼   ► Like, what is that? Why?

01:10:25 ◼   ► So if I reboot my iPhone or iPad, it fixes that.

01:10:28 ◼   ► So this shouldn't be the case.

01:10:32 ◼   ► I brought this up in my iOS 13 review.

01:10:35 ◼   ► I would like to see more sorting options.

01:10:38 ◼   ► I want Apple to bring over some of the sorting features

01:10:42 ◼   ► from the Mac to the Files app for iPhone and iPad.

01:10:46 ◼   ► For example, sorting by date added,

01:10:49 ◼   ► which is not available on iOS,

01:10:52 ◼   ► and it should really be a thing.

01:10:54 ◼   ► And of course, I mean, take a look at the Mac in the Finder.

01:10:57 ◼   ► You have application, you have date added,

01:10:59 ◼   ► you have date last opened.

01:11:01 ◼   ► All of these options would be nice to have

01:11:04 ◼   ► in Files as well.

01:11:06 ◼   ► It is still not possible in Files to create saved searches

01:11:09 ◼   ► or call them smart folders, if you will.

01:11:12 ◼   ► - I mean, the favorites still don't even work for me.

01:11:15 ◼   ► - Yes, yeah, yeah, that is true.

01:11:17 ◼   ► - They just disappear.

01:11:18 ◼   ► - They disappear, they disappear after a while.

01:11:20 ◼   ► They disappear for me as well.

01:11:21 ◼   ► - This isn't after a while or sometimes.

01:11:23 ◼   ► Like, it has never ever worked for me.

01:11:26 ◼   ► Like, I dragged them in and then a couple of hours later,

01:11:29 ◼   ► they're gone forever.

01:11:30 ◼   ► Like, I dragged them in and it's so frustrating.

01:11:32 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:11:33 ◼   ► And yeah, I mean, of course,

01:11:36 ◼   ► the crowning achievement of these complaints,

01:11:39 ◼   ► technical issues with the third-party file providers. Sometimes I try to download something

01:11:47 ◼   ► from the Dropbox file provider and it never works, and some other time I try to upload the document

01:11:53 ◼   ► using the file provider in files, it gets stuck. So I open the Dropbox app and I do it from there,

01:11:59 ◼   ► and then a couple of days later the upload actually completes from the files app.

01:12:05 ◼   ► It's like, do you really need two days to do this upload?

01:12:10 ◼   ► Like two days after I have a duplicate copy

01:12:12 ◼   ► in my Dropbox account.

01:12:13 ◼   ► Like, wow, that is not a good system.

01:12:16 ◼   ► I don't know if it's Dropbox's fault,

01:12:18 ◼   ► but given all the issues that I've been seeing,

01:12:21 ◼   ► I mean, do we think that all developers in the world

01:12:26 ◼   ► are stupid and cannot work with the file provider API,

01:12:29 ◼   ► or maybe the problem is the file provider API?

01:12:32 ◼   ► It's not all these different developers.

01:12:35 ◼   ► So it should be more reliable, it should be faster.

01:12:38 ◼   ► I don't know what it is,

01:12:39 ◼   ► but it should be easier to work with for developers

01:12:41 ◼   ► and it should be more reliable.

01:12:42 ◼   ► - So I wanted to just note,

01:12:46 ◼   ► a problem that I'd had forever was with Dropbox especially,

01:12:50 ◼   ► and even with iCloud,

01:12:51 ◼   ► that I would get these spinning, spinning spinners

01:12:55 ◼   ► on like 20 kilobyte files, right?

01:12:58 ◼   ► That would just never load.

01:12:59 ◼   ► Recently, this has gotten way better.

01:13:01 ◼   ► happening way less for me. So something in the iOS 13 development chain, this has

01:13:07 ◼   ► gotten better over time so I'm happy with that. I would say like these things

01:13:11 ◼   ► all frustrate me and the reason they're frustrating this because files is so

01:13:15 ◼   ► important to the iPad right like it is a very important application and it being

01:13:20 ◼   ► there is fantastic and it does allow for a much easier navigation of the system

01:13:24 ◼   ► overall dealing with documents and moving them around like it is a flawed

01:13:29 ◼   ► but great addition to iPad OS,

01:13:32 ◼   ► and it's just worth noting that yes, we have problems with it,

01:13:35 ◼   ► but that's because it's so important to the system.

01:13:38 ◼   ► But the world of using iPad for productivity

01:13:43 ◼   ► has been made so much better

01:13:45 ◼   ► because of the introduction of the Files app.

01:13:48 ◼   ► So we all just hope that it will just continue

01:13:51 ◼   ► to get the problems taken care of.

01:13:56 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, it is I agree with you

01:13:59 ◼   ► It is essential to the way that I that I work on the iPad

01:14:02 ◼   ► Especially now that I got a manager a bunch of business documents. It's tax season

01:14:06 ◼   ► And yeah, every day here and every time I like, you know

01:14:10 ◼   ► This is so much faster to do in the finder like and it shouldn't be that way

01:14:14 ◼   ► Shouldn't be that way because it no this is a professional computers. It's I use an iPad Pro that cost like 2,000 euros

01:14:20 ◼   ► I shouldn't have it like a like a like a pocket size like a companion file manager

01:14:25 ◼   ► I wanted to be a real file manager and I wanted to be stable if anything like I would be okay with fewer features

01:14:31 ◼   ► If only the thing was rock-solid, but it's not and so it's it's a it's a compounding problem of like it's not rock-solid

01:14:37 ◼   ► It's actually full of bugs and it's missing features and that annoys me

01:14:42 ◼   ► Alright, if you want to catch our show notes for this week head on over to relay.fm/connected/283

01:14:49 ◼   ► If you want to find Federico online, you can go to maxstories.net and he is @Vittucci

01:14:55 ◼   ► I am @imike, I am YKE, Steven will be back next time and he is @ismh and writes at 512pixels.net

01:15:02 ◼   ► if you want to check out what he is up to right now.

01:15:05 ◼   ► I think he just posted something about some wheels on a computer, probably.

01:15:10 ◼   ► If you would like to support the show, support our sponsors.

01:15:13 ◼   ► Thanks so much to CleanMyMac, X, Indeed and Pingdom for their support of this show.

01:15:19 ◼   ► And thank you so much for listening.

01:15:20 ◼   ► We'll be back next time.

01:15:21 ◼   ► Until then, say goodbye Federico.

01:15:23 ◼   ► Arrivederci!